All Things Nutritarian

I'm not an expert. I think I've said that before. My health journey started after my first child was born, and I've just kind of picked things up along the way. My research has mainly consisted of articles and videos people share on facebook. But I have found my niche! I think that's important for all of us to do. There are so many different types of diets out there, and many contradict each other. I've found that I can't go 100% into any of them, because they exclude some of my favorite foods, or I don't agree with some of the things they profess. So what I encourage all of you to do, as I've done, is become an expert in YOURSELF. Get to know your body, and realize what it needs to be successful at whatever you want it to do.

The first eye-opener I had was when we went to dinner with some friends and I spied a list hanging on their fridge of 12 foods you should eat every day. I don't remember everything on the list, and a lot has changed in superfood research in the last 6 years, so I'm sure I won't be able to find a decent re-creation for you. The two foods I do remember, though, were blueberries and spinach. And I remember thinking that was weird. Spinach? Blueberries? Whatever. But those are what I remembered, so I started eating more of those. I ate spinach every day when I was pregnant with #2, and I've continued that trend. I don't always get to blueberries, but when I want ice cream, I grab blueberries instead and it works.

Food is amazing. That's what I've taken away from my journey here. Food gets its energy from the sun and from minerals and nutrients in the soil. And then we eat it, so we get our energy from the sun. Isn't that awesome? The sun does so much more for our earth than just keep it warm. It gives life. Literally.

I watched a documentary a few years back that promoted the paleo diet without actually coming out and saying so. I thought it was fascinating. I mentioned it on facebook and asked for some paleo recipes from anyone who lives that way, and got a recommendation for another book instead. Which I read, and it completely changed my life.

I hope you've all had a chance to read Eat To Live by Joel Fuhrman. It's been a few years now since I read it, so I'm not going to call myself overly qualified to give a good summary, but here are a few takeaways that have stuck with me.

1. The world population is malnourished. Sure, we get enough to eat. But we don't get enough NUTRIENTS. We're killing ourselves slowly by not giving our bodies what they need to survive and thrive. When I hear the word "malnourished", I think of kids in third world countries who live off of rice and water, and not enough of it. Although we may have more meat on our bones, our bodies are functioning as well as theirs. The number one cause of death in America is heart disease, which is completely preventable. All you have to do is eat things that are actually nutritious, and don't eat so much of the foods that contain no nutritional value.

2. Foods from the earth are the only foods we should be eating. Fruits. Vegetables. Lentils. Beans. Legumes. Seeds. Nuts. Everything we need to sustain our lives comes from the sun and from the earth.

3. Now, I honestly don't remember if this came from the book or from that paleo documentary I watched. But here's the thing - we don't need to eat starchy foods. We've been hardwired to think that every meal needs protein and starch, but it doesn't. The only reason we ever ate those foods to begin with was to make it through times of famine. We live in the complete opposite of that now. We can get fruits and vegetables year round, and at decent prices. There's really no reason to eat flour, rice, oats, barley, pastas, potatoes, any of it. We don't need it. It offers our bodies calories to get us through the day, but that's it. Try to get your calories somewhere else.

4. Your stomach can only hold so many calories in a given day. If you eat bad calories, there won't be room for good calories. But here's the crazy thing - if you eat good calories, they get digested properly and quickly BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT YOUR BODY NEEDS so you have more room more quickly for more good calories. This reminds me of that old argument about how broccoli or black beans have as much protein as a steak. You do have to eat more broccoli or beans to get as much protein in a steak, but you can. And that's good. Because you'll be getting more calcium and oodles of cancer-fighting nutrients along with it. So go ahead, eat as much broccoli as you can. Eat so much broccoli that there's not even room for french fries or bread sticks.

What this all boils down to for me is the way I eat now - nutrient dense. I try to only eat foods that are the most nutrient dense, and I avoid foods that are devoid of nutrients or have little to offer. Now, I'm not perfect. I'll still have treats here and there. But the way I see it, if I can fill my body with absolutely everything it needs each day, and then there's room for some ice cream, I'm doing pretty good.

At the very least I hope what you'll do with this challenge is just eat more good things. If you're eating one serving of veggies per day, up it to 3. The book recommends 1 lb of cooked veggies and 1 lb of raw veggies every day. So just eat a big huge salad for lunch instead of pb&j. It will require more work, but come on. This is your LIFE we're talking about. Can't you invest a little time in the rest of your life?

My nutritarian lifestyle consists of me trying to get all the things my body needs every day. I've had issues with stress fractures and arthritis over the past few years, so I got checked out and found out that I'm borderline at risk for osteoporosis. That freaked me out a little. I remembered from this video I watched this one time that if your body is short on one nutrient it needs, it will leech it from another source already within your body. There's iron and calcium in your bones, so I've been ultra focused on making sure I get enough of those nutrients every day. I take a calcium supplement daily to help, and I put clay in my smoothies for the iron as well as the anti-inflammatory properties. Beyond that, I make sure I eat romaine, broccoli, or brussels sprouts every day for the calcium. I eat spinach or carrots every day for the beta carotene. I eat beans as a very lean source of protein. I use a protein powder to get me what I need for the day, and it's plant based and filled with probiotics as well. I eat another form of probiotics each day to help with digestion. I eat pineapple every day for digestion and anti-inflammatories. I eat good fats from chia and flax seeds to balance my omega 3 and omega 6 ratio (I'm sure I've ranted about that before). And beyond that, I eat good snacks from the earth. Nuts, seeds, dried fruits, veggies. I get what I need, and I try to stay away from things I don't need.

I really really hope you will take this challenge as a way to change your life for the better. I hope you'll see that it's not about keeping score or doing better than anyone else. It's about doing better for yourself, and feeding yourself what you need. Just try each day to eat more veggies, and you'll win.

Workout Ideas

Guys, sometimes life just isn't fair.

I'm coming to accept that there are things wrong with my body that just won't let me be as active as I'd like to be. I've been on recovery hiatus since October from my 2nd stress fracture, and more recently I seem to have injured my hand from knitting too much. Yes, you read that right. We're working on figuring out what the problem is, but in the meantime I still want to do as much as I can, even with modified workouts. I want to be strong, and I feel like I can do that. It may mean that I won't be the half marathon runner that I want to be, but that could mean that I become a good swimmer (if my weird shoulder injury will let me...lol). At any rate, I'm going to do what I can. Sitting around and waiting for my body to heal only makes me depression eat, which has put me up 5 lbs over the past 3 months. I now have 10 lbs to lose before more than 2 pairs of pants will fit me, and I'm going to do it.

I started this record to inspire people, and I'm sorry that it probably hasn't done that. I'm quite sure that my inconsistencies are likely more annoying to myself than anyone following along, however. So much so that I am starting fresh right now. Or a week ago, actually.

For today's post, I wanted to share what I've been doing lately and what I'll continue to do for the foreseeable future in terms of working out. Hopefully this can give you some ideas, in case you're in a workout rut.

Running:
I'm religiously following the 10% rule. Last week I started running half a mile a day, doing 3/4 mile on Saturday. This week I'm doing half a mile a day with a full mile on Saturday, and I'll continue adding a 10% increase in weekly miles from here on out. I don't normally run every day, but I think doing these very small amounts will be okay, especially with all the cross training I'm also doing.

Strength - Knees:
I typically do 30 lunges per mile run, but I think I'd rather front load things this time around. I'm now doing 20 lunges and 20 rear lunges every day, regardless of distance. I'm adding in 10-20 side lunges every other day or so as well.
I'm also doing one-legged squats for knee strength. They're super hard, so I'm doing 2 reps of 5 per leg each day.

Core:
30 sit ups every day. Non-negotiable. I do straight-legged sit ups with my hands crossed to my shoulders, and I go very slowly.
Upping my rockets every day. I started at 10, and today I did 14. A one-a-day improvement is good enough for me :)
Half bridges - 20 or so
Plank - 30 seconds, upping each day. 
I'd love to be doing scorpions, and I did some last week, but my hand is not letting me know. I was at 6 per leg, and I'll up it one-a-day once my hand lets me.
Some other ideas of things I should be doing:
Metronomes
Leg drops
Cha-cha crunches
Supermans

So that's the last two weeks. Next week I'll start swimming again, doing half a mile twice a week. And once it warms up I'm going to start biking! When my hand stops hurting I'll get back into push ups, scorpions, maybe some burpees, and working on pull ups.

Running Tunes

Let me begin by saying that I know very well how odd my music collection is, and I recognize that this may not be helpful to anyone. But it may help someone! Alls I know is, when I was trying to put together this playlist I got zero help from the internet because of my music taste and collection. I'm putting this out here in the hopes that even the smallest part of it will help someone who has slightly similar music tastes to my own.

My music collection ranges from old obscure tidbits from my mom, to musicals, to a large collection of classic rock, to punk, to ska, to 90s alternative, to 80s butt rock, to instrumental tracks, to some selections of more modern pop music, to local bands that don't even exist anymore, to church music, and anything in between. To make this playlist, I clicked through every song in my iTunes and tapped out the beat. I'm now sharing the results of that effort (probably 2 hrs of work) with the rest of the world. I hope it helps even one person.

I run comfortably at 11:30/mile, taking kind of small steps, which puts me between 158-170 bpm. 165-180 is closer to 10:30/mile.

                                               My warm up list (158-162 bpm)

 

My steady jog list (160-170 bpm)

 

                                               My speedy jog list (175-185 bpm)

Eat Your Freaking Vegetables!

Alright. I have a lot to say today, so let's all cross our fingers that it comes out coherently.

I've been reading a great book lately called Eat to Live. I recommend it to everyone, no matter where you are in your weight-loss or health journey. I've learned a couple things that I find to be vital, and I thought I'd put them to practice and see what happens. I've been eating according to the precepts found in this book for the last week, and have exercised pretty moderately - 3 runs, and a tiny bit of strength training every day.

Basically...no one NO ONE eats enough vegetables. Here's the thing - we've been told our whole lives that we should be eating a certain amount of calories every day, and if we eat fewer, we'll lose weight. So the biggest thing most people do to try to lose weight is to control their portion sizes. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with this, but I can tell you that it's not going to be as effective as you'd hope.

Here's why: Your stomach can only hold a certain amount of food. If it doesn't have enough food, you feel that familiar pang that tells you you're hungry. If you eat 400 calories of low-nutrient food, which is basically anything other than vegetables, it's not going to fill your stomach very much. Not even halfway full. But if you eat 400 calories of vegetables - guys, that's a lot of vegetables - it will fill your stomach entirely. And vegetables take longer to digest, contain more fiber to tell your brain you're full, and are COMPLETELY MADE OF NUTRIENTS.

I don't understand why we all don't eat more vegetables. I feel like I eat a good amount, but after reading this book I realized that even 3 servings a day, which I usually strive for, is not nearly enough. We as a species are not consuming the amount of nutrients that we need to survive. It's why so many deaths are avoidable - caused by poor nutrition. We are a malnourished species.

Maybe this is just me, but I eat vegetables because I know I need to. Not because they're the tastiest things I could choose to eat, but because I KNOW that romaine lettuce is an amazing source of calcium. Because I know that broccoli prevents cancer. Because I know beta carotene is a necessary daily nutrient. So even if my smoothie doesn't taste more like bananas than grass, I still drink it. Because I know I need those vitamins and nutrients, and the best place to get them is from whole foods.

Why would I use up my precious stomach space eating foods that do absolutely nothing for my body? There's not much room in there, and my body only needs a certain amount of calories per day, so I think it's best if I only put good things in there. Don't you?

Here's a cool thing. This chart shows the nutrient density of many popular foods. THIS is what convinced me to start eating a huge salad twice a day - I need more of those 100-scoring greens!

This chart KILLS me. In order for our bodies to get the nutrients we need EVERY DAY, we HAVE to eat greens at least once a day! Look at the jump - we have some high rollers with the greens and the brussels sprouts and the spinach, and then it jumps all the way from 77 to 59! The next highest score is 59! I really think EVERYONE needs to eat something above 50 at least once a day. It just makes sense, doesn't it? Am I crazy?

I know there's lots of other things we could hash out about this chart, and I'm sure everyone has lots to say about protein and all that, but come on. Eat your greens. That's all I'm talking about here. I'm not saying anyone needs to convert to being a vegan or vegetarian or anything like that. I'm certainly not. I can't give up my sausage :) But...just eat more spinach than you do meat. That's what I'm saying.

Traditionally in our generation of Americans, we build our plates around the protein or the starch or both. I wrote a post a few years back about why it's better to build your plate around your veggie, and I'm holding to that. But I'm upping the ante now. Build your plate ENTIRELY of veggies.

But...what about protein? Don't we need protein to fill us up? Sure. But here's the thing - if you're going to eat nothing but veggies for an entire meal, how much do you think you'll have to eat to get full? By the time you've eaten that much, you'll have gotten the protein you need from the vegetables themselves. That tilapia filet isn't always necessary.

I know some of you have already tuned out. Why would you believe me? This is what all the rabbit food munchers have been saying for years, that broccoli has more protein than steak and all that. Well, here's the thing. I'm not going to go into the science or anything like that. I'm just here to tell you what I've been doing for the past week and the AMAZING transformation that has taken place in just that week, and how full I've been from just eating vegetables. It's been insane. And that's why I'm writing this, because I couldn't believe what happened. So I know you're skeptical. I wouldn't expect it to be any different. It makes no sense from our generation's view of eating. But it's true. And it works.

I've been very stagnant in my weight loss for the past...6 months or so. Baby weight came off pretty slowly, and I got to the point where I finally fit into a few pairs of jeans and felt pretty happy with how I was looking, so it slowed down. Plus the ankle injury and the ridiculous winter of sickness that's been going on...anyway my excuses are plentiful, but that's not the point. The entire time I've been trying to lose weight I've been eating very healthy. I did a clean eating challenge in November and again in January and lost some weight both times. I recently started running again, and that's helped a lot too, but not as much as I'd hoped. Basically...I've weighed the same since November. I started running in January, and I've been doing pilates and pushups as well. Not anything super extreme...I used to work out 5 days a week, and now I'm lucky and feel proud of myself if I do even 5 minutes three times a week. What I'm saying is, I eat healthy and I exercise moderately, and I would expect to be losing weight but I haven't been. I imagine many of you feel the same way or are in similar situations.

SO....here is how I ate during the past week. It was actually pretty easy to eat this way, because all I had to do was make a salad and eat it for a few meals until it was gone, then make another salad. If I had thought of doing this when I was in those clean eating challenges, I would have done way better without expending so much energy looking for recipes.

Every day was basically the same. For breakfast, I have two fried eggs. For lunch, I make an ENORMOUS salad and eat it until I'm full. Another cool thing about this new way of eating is that my body adjusted to it VERY quickly. The first day, I ate more than half of the salad. Now I'm eating a little more than a fourth of it, and I'm already getting full. I'm not even halfway through it. Then for dinner I either have more salad, a green smoothie, or I cook some greens with kielbasa or ground sausage. Or a filet of tilapia.

Notice: NO GRAINS! I have found them to be unnecessary. When I was experimenting with my diet a few months ago, I really felt like I needed some carbs in the morning to give me energy. I don't feel that way anymore. I don't even feel hungry right away when I wake up - I usually don't eat breakfast until I've been up for 2 or 3 hours. Then I don't get hungry again for at least 4 hours.

While we're on the subject of hunger, let me just say this. What you consider to be hunger does not mean that you will die if you don't get food right away. If you are trying to detox your body, as many of us are, your stomach has to be empty for a while for that to happen. So when you feel that hunger, try ignoring it for a while. You'll find the discomfort fades quickly, and you'll be giving your body the chance to clear out your digestive track to make room for more good stuff later.

One more thought before the results and my salad recipe: I think the way we need to think about food is on a nutrient level, not on a category level. I was thinking about the My Plate thing, which used to be the Food Pyramid, and how many categories there are. There really only needs to be three: Vegetables, Fruits, and seeds/nuts/legumes. All these foods have very important vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that we need to have proper body functionality and health. Anything else you eat is just extra. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with extra! Food is delicious and we should enjoy it! But we NEED those nutrients. What I'm saying is this: If you are trying to lose weight, stick to these three categories, leaning heaviest on the vegetables. If you are NOT trying to lose weight, you STILL need tons of veggies every day. Go ahead and have those cookies and enjoy some steak, but eat that enormous salad for lunch as well. The book I mentioned suggests eating one pound of fresh veggies and one pound of cooked veggies every day. That's what I've been doing this week, and it's been great. I don't feel like I'm starving. I get to eat whenever I want, which really isn't very often anymore. And I'm only spending grocery money on vegetables, so I'm actually spending less. This is actually the easiest diet thing I've ever done. I have had a couple hard days, and I'll admit I snacked on Goldfish and girl scout cookies a couple times, but let's let the numbers do the talking, shall we?

I weighed in this morning at 3 pounds lighter than last Tuesday morning. I weighed myself before breakfast last week, and after breakfast today (it just worked out that way). I actually weighed myself every day just to see what was happening, and I could see the effects of what I was eating. I quickly lost the three pounds, and also quickly gained two of them back with those cookies. I got back on track the last two days with my salads and lost those two pounds again. So just think - if I had disciplined myself better, I could have lost 5 lbs! Next week.

Ok I think I've rambled just about long enough. TL;DR - eat more vegetables because they are far more nutritious than anything else you can eat. Health is not just about your weight, it's about putting the right things in your body.

Here's how I make my salad, with a little bit of why on each ingredient:
1 head of romaine lettuce, chopped into ~1 inch squares
1 bag of spinach
1 bunch of bok choy, chopped into ~1 inch squares (the bunches I buy come with 3 heads)
I try to eat spinach every day because it's one of the most nutrient-dense veggies. But look at that list up there - so are romaine and bok choy! So I've started adding them to my salads as well.
1/2 head cauliflower, chopped
I've always given cauliflower a bad rap. I don't know, I've just never been a fan. But after a discussion with my cauliflower-loving hubby led to some internet research, I found out that it's pretty high up there on the list as well.
1 crown broccoli, chopped
Broccoli is a cancer-fighting powerhouse. I try to eat some every day.
1 cucumber, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
2 carrots, shredded. Well, sort of. I actually peel them to death with the peeler, so they end up paper-thin and easier to chew. It takes a while, but I think it's worth it :)
Carrots are the orange version of spinach. I also think they're the most convenient vegetable to eat raw. I buy them by the 10 lb bag.
2 cans olives

This salad lasts me at least 4 meals. On each serving I add:
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
2 tbsp sunflower seed
These seeds do a LOT towards filling you up. I left them off the other day and my salad binge was not nearly as successful
1 tbsp chia seeds
For detox :)
1 tbsp flax seeds
Ok here's my omega 3 rant. We should consume an omega 6 to omega 3 ratio of 6:1. The average American diet is more like 20:1!! You don't need to try for omega 6s - they're in tons of stuff, most notably corn. And most meat you eat was raised on a corn-based diet, so most meat is richer in omega 6s than omega 3s. If you're eating fish, check to see if it was farm-raised. If it was, it was raised on corn. So while you are getting some omega 3s that way, you're getting omega 6s as well, and you're not getting the ratio you should be. Flax and chia seeds are both great sources of omega 3s. My book recommends eating 1 tbsp of flax seeds every day.

On 1/4 of this salad, I add less than 1/4 c salad dressing. I usually do a homemade blueberry vinaigrette, but when that runs out I use whatever ranch is in the fridge. You don't need as much dressing as you think. The book actually recommends only 1 tsp of oil for the entire day!

Mostly Veggie Pasta Salad

I've been reading again...I've actually been doing quite a bit of research lately into my diet and how I can improve it. The most amazing thing I'm learning is that it really doesn't matter how many veggies you eat, you're still not eating enough. I'm not sure I'm advocating a vegetarian lifestyle, because man I love meat. But we all could use more vegetables. The nice thing is you can eat as many as you want without really affecting your daily caloric intake goals. I've always believed vegetables shouldn't count toward that. Last night for dinner I filled a 5 gallon bowl with salad and ate the whole thing.

At any rate, here's my complaint. A lot of recipes will claim to be healthy because they contain some vegetables. I've made and enjoyed pasta salad for years that has about 16 oz of pasta and a bag of frozen peas and carrots, and considered it healthy. But here's the thing: your body needs AT LEAST 3 servings of vegetables daily, and an entire bag of frozen peas and carrots is barely that. So you'd have to eat your entire pasta salad to get your 3 servings of vegetables. Unless you had an enormous salad for lunch and a green smoothie for breakfast.

My goal here was simple. I wanted to make a salad, and add pasta to it. Not the other way around, as it usually goes. My challenge is always the amount of pasta. I feel like I have the perfect amount of veggies, and then I add way too much pasta. Well. This time I had the perfect combination. And so I'm posting it here for all of you to enjoy :)

Let me also give a quick shameless plug for broccoli. Everyone should eat broccoli every day. It's one of the most potent anti-cancer vegetables out there.

Mostly Veggie Pasta Salad
3 crowns broccoli, chopped
1 bag frozen peas and carrots
1 can olives
1/2 kielbasa sausage
~8 oz pasta (I used farfalla)
~1/4 c Italian dressing (I made my own but don't have the recipe on hand)
~1/8 c parmesan cheese

Cook the pasta al dente. Slice the kielbasa thinly and fry on the stove. Then quarter each slice. Stir everything together. Easy peasy.

Weight-Loss Update - Clean Eating

And I'm back.

I'm so happy I participated in this challenge! It gave me so much encouragement, and showed me some very telling patterns I fall into that, once analyzed and reversed, should help me move forward a lot better. I'd like to share some of them here, in the hopes that they'll benefit someone else as well.

Recap: I participated in a clean eating challenge during November. It was 3 weeks of non-processed foods, and it was really challenging. We didn't have a rule about the number of ingredients a food had, instead we rated the quality of ingredients. For example, you could still eat certain tortilla chips and salsas, because even though they contained 10 or so ingredients, all the ingredients were clean. But I couldn't eat basically every cereal I love, even the ones with only 5 ingredients, because all contain maltodextrin or soy lecethin, both of which are heavily processed and yucky. So what happened is I ate a LOT of fruits and vegetables, good protein with every meal, and stayed away from the sugary stuff that's been keeping my baby weight on me (mostly cereal and graham crackers).

The first week I lost 4 lbs. 4 lbs! I used myfitnesspal to track my calories, and I was super strict about it. I stayed under 1300 calories every day that week, and I don't think I cheated on the clean diet at all. I also did exercise a little bit, a few sessions of Zumba, and pilates almost every day. Great week! Great start!

The second week I lost 2 lbs. I could chalk it up to a plateau, but I experienced it, so I know what actually happened. Which, honestly, is a really good excuse. My baby has been super small since the day she was born, and I've always been concerned about my supply. I thought that cutting calories may have been affecting my supply, so I stopped counting this week. I also got super busy with Christmas preparations (hey, all my shopping was done before December!) and family stuff, plus I think this was the week I caught the stomach bug, so I didn't exercise as much. So there you go.

The last week I lost 1 lb. Hannah got sick along with me, and if she's not happy, I'm holding her all day long, so no exercise. I also got addicted to a new TV show on Netflix (Gilmore Girls...), so that gave me a good excuse to knit at night instead of exercising, so I'm pretty sure I only did pilates once if at all this week. As far as eating...I was REALLY craving ice cream, so I kept eating really sugary fruits to keep me away from the stuff. Even though it's fruit, and it's got all the fiber in it, it's still sugar, and sugar goes to the hips if you don't do your Zumba.

What I learned:
Calorie counting is essential to staying on track with good eating habits. Even if you think you know what foods are good, unless sit back and look at what you ate all day at the end of it, you won't realize the amounts. It's easy to dish up that second helping when you don't have to note it. I had my phone out at every meal, deciding what and how much of everything to eat, budgeting my calories for the entire day so I'd always have extra at the end to make sure I didn't go over at dinner time. If you're not constantly doing this, you won't keep diligent track like that, and you'll notice in your (lack of) weight-loss.

I tend to eat really fatty proteins when I try to include it in every meal like I should. I noticed this after just 3 days on this diet, and so I decided to try out one of those protein powders to see if that would cut out some of the fat from my protein consumption. It totally did. Instead of eating cheese or almonds or peanut butter or sausage, I would have a protein shake with toast and it would keep me full for almost two meals.

Another thought on fatty proteins - we did some research after this was over (after Thanksgiving, actually) and determined that tilapia and turkey are the leanest meats you can eat.

A good diet and exercise go hand-in-hand. My favorite part about myfitnesspal is when you enter the exercise you did that day and it gives you more calories you can eat! And that doesn't mean you should not eat those calories - eat them! You earned them, and your body needs the fuel after all that burning. Plus, the one motivates the other. When I wake up early and do a workout, all I want for breakfast is good lean protein, and that determines the rest of my day. When I sleep in, all I want is a bowl of sugary cereal, which then makes me want to just watch TV all day, rather than motivating me to do a workout later. If you make exercise happen, you'll want to eat right. If you make eating right happen, you'll want to exercise.

To sum up, I love this clean eating concept, and I think it can be a great stepping stone in a weight-loss journey. Even if all you do is eliminate SOME things you eat daily that are processed, you'll see results. When you eat a processed food with those chemical ingredients you can't pronounce, you're putting toxins into your body. The minute you stop putting those toxins in your body, your body can start trying to flush them out. Now that this challenge is over, I obviously went back to eating some crap foods because Thanksgiving. I put on 2 lbs during the week of Thanksgiving, but to be fair I also celebrated my wedding anniversary that weekend, which involved a fair amount of eating out and treats. But one thing I've committed to do is eat 2 breakfasts a week that are NOT cereal (I'm a cold cereal junkie), and it makes a difference. I also don't feel like eating processed foods. When I'm feeling snackish, I grab some almonds or dates or carrots, rather than reaching for those addicting crackers. So it's making a difference in that way as well.

"All right, all right, enough already lady, where are the results?" Amirite? Here they are.

Starting
Weight: 147
Waist: 31.5"
Hips: 41"
Arms: 11"
Thighs: 21.5"

Ending
Weight: 140
Waist: 30"
Hips: 38"
Arms: 11"
Thighs: 20.5"

I'm attributing the inches lost to two things: my workouts, and the fact that I may or may not have been measuring in the same place both times. I tried to find the biggest part of each body part to measure, but I had a panic attack when I did the second set because I honestly couldn't remember. Anyway, I lost inches in my hips and thighs because I was doing a lot of squats and pilates. I didn't lose anything in my arms because I didn't do any arm workouts at all.

Now, I intended to post before/after pics, and you know I took the before pics. Well, my 5 yr old learned how to delete pics off of my phone between the time I took the after pics and the time I actually uploaded them to the computer, so...I only have the front view, and it doesn't show much change. I think the inches lost speak for themselves more than the pictures would, because it was only 7 lbs.

So that was my experience eating clean for 3 weeks, and I loved it. I still have a good 10 lbs of baby weight to lose, so I'm planning to do this jump start again after the new year. One thing that really helped me this time was the accountability of the group dynamic, as well as the support and help offered there. We reported everything we ate at the end of the day, which kept us both honest and motivated, and we posted clean recipes to give ideas to others. We also had a clean-eating expert who helped answer all our questions about clean ingredients. I'd really like to do the same thing this time around, which means I need friends! Please let me know if you'd like to join our group for this challenge.

Weight Loss Update

I know I said I wasn't going to do any updates until I'm finished, but I had to take pictures and measurements today anyway for a clean eating challenge I'm participating in for the rest of the month, so I figured I'd post them somewhere where they won't get lost.

Let me back up.

I started this journey in March, and was super excited to be getting ready for a half marathon before Christmas. A friend convinced me I could do it by the end of summer, so I started upping my mileage to get ready for that instead. Things went pretty well for about a week, before I sustained an injury that has crippled me since then. I've since been very depressed and unmotivated to do anything with exercise, because even walking up and down the stairs was too painful and frustrating. When I don't exercise, I lose motivation to eat properly. What I'm saying is, I've been stagnate for about 4 months on this whole weight loss thing. So I'm kind of restarting now.

I went to the Dr. on Halloween, and found out that my injury is NOT debilitating, and that I should go ahead and start strengthening exercises on it. I'm even feeling like I might get back to running by Christmas as I'd hoped to. I've been in a really good mood the past couple of days, and I'm so excited to start exercising again and eating right and lose some weight before Thanksgiving!

The challenge I'm doing is to avoid processed foods, and try to stick with foods that are close to their original state. I'm not feeling like this is going to be extremely difficult for me, since it's something I've been working on, but I know it's going to be very motivating, and I'm excited to share some recipes and help others along the way.

Ok, now that we're finished with the background, here is my new starting point.

I weigh 147 lbs. This has been true for many months.
I actually took measurements today, which I've never really done. So I'm not sure what kind of reference point this is, but I'm excited to see where I'll be in 3 weeks!
Waist - 31.5"
Hips - 41"
Arms - 11"
Thighs - 21.5"
I don't know what measurements people usually take, but these are the areas of my body that I'd like to see thinned down a bit.

My goals, again, are to get down to pre-baby weight, which is 130, and we'll see what happens after that. I'd like to fit into that cute skirt I mentioned earlier, and since that post I've bought another super cute skirt that's about the same size if not smaller, and I'd like to wear that one as well. I have opened my box of "Jill's Smallest Clothes" and a few fit, but I'd like to get into my smallest shirts, and I want to wear my shorts and capris by next summer (they're all about size 4). By Thanksgiving it would be nice if I had more than 1 pair of jeans I can wear without sporting a muffin top.

And here are some pictures. I apologize again for the terrible lighting in my room and for the pitiful camera quality. It's all I've got right now, and it gives you the gist.

These pics are actually super encouraging, now that I've looked back at my starting point in March.

Football Workout!

It's football season! And I still have 15 lbs of baby weight to lose, and no impact allowed. I've been doing pilates lately, and I'm loving it. My abs and thighs will be toned!

I'm SO excited for the BYU game tonight, and with all the cleaning and cooking I'm hoping to do today (working around a needy baby) I'm not likely to get my workout in. So I'm putting together a football game workout to do while we watch the games after the kids are in bed, and thought maybe someone else could get some use out of it.

I'm still a beginner to pilates, so these are all relatively easy moves. Adjust the amounts as you'd like.

Football Game Pilates Workout
Every time this happens................................Do this
Touchdown                                                    Reverse Crunch (20)
False Start or Offsides                                   Helicopters (30)
Obscure Penalty (roughing kicker, ineligible receiver, etc)
                                                                       Cris Cross (20)
Field Goal                                                      Small & Big Circles (20 small, 10 big)
Safety                                                             See Saw Abs (10)
Challenge                                                       1 2 3 Crunch (10)
Delay of Game                                               Rocket (10)

Let's keep it simple(ish) and stop there :)

I got these moves, and the names I'm using, all from the same series of videos. I'll post the 3 main videos I've been doing here so you can reference them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMHgxyX_f7U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7u_sdYNS_k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6gf8r6e3Kc

TV Show Workouts

I have reached a decision. My baby weight is not coming off as quickly as I thought/hoped it would, and it's really been bugging me. But here's the thing: It's not a big deal. Of course it would be fantastic if I could fit into all my cute clothes again, instead of rotating through my race T-shirts and not feeling all that attractive, but listen. I'm healthy. I eat healthy, and I try to work out at least 3 days a week, and I have a 4 month old baby! So I'd say I'm doing pretty well.

I did have a few weeks where I lost 4 lbs, and that was awesome. I did cardio almost every day those weeks, and it led to a potential stress fracture in my ankle. Go me. So now my options are down to elliptical or swimming, both of which require working around Hannah's shaky sleep habits, so it's not always possible to get my cardio in.

Basically it comes down to this: I will not get in more than two days of cardio a week, and I'll be lucky if I can even get one. But I recently learned something cool -- 1 lb of muscle burns 100 calories a day! So I'm going to try to get in some strength training every day.

How am I going to do this? you may ask. The answer is simple: I'ma watch me some TV!

Have you seen these workouts that are tied to TV shows? I have a bunch pinned on Pinterest, but I haven't been able to find one for all the shows that I watch. A friend pointed out the other day that I can just make my own by looking for a drinking game for the show. I didn't realize drinking games were that popular, I guess, probably because I don't drink ;)

So I spent the afternoon looking up drinking games for some new shows I'm getting into. Hopefully these work out well, because I haven't watched enough of these shows to know the frequency of the triggers. I guess we'll find out :)

So here is the workout I came up with. Basically I'm just looking up drinking games for whatever show I want to watch and assigning this list of workouts to them, so if this is not a show you watch that's what I'd suggest doing :)Feel free to change out the workouts or increase/decrease the reps on any of them - the reps I've listed are about at the level I'm at, or a little lower to allow completion of the entire workout :) Again, these are purely strength based, there's no cardio, no jumping, no running, nothing that would aggravate a sore ankle. I'm kind of worried that the lunges might, but we'll give them a shot.

I've linked each workout to a video that shows what to do, in case you are unfamiliar with one. Also please note that I'm only doing side planks - that's a personal thing, feel free to do regular planks. They just hurt my chest right now so I'm laying off a bit :)

Chuck Workout

Every time...                                                     Do...
Anyone says "Chuck"                                      15 sit ups
Anyone says "Morgan"                                    5 metronomes to each side
Anyone says "Intersect"                                   15 hip raises
Chuck flashes                                                   60 bicycle crunches
You see the inside of Buy More                       30 side plank on each side
You see the outside of Buy More                     30 second wall sit
There's a slow-mo scene                           20 cross-body hammer dumbbell curl
There's an explosion                                        20 lunges
Chuck ignores orders                                        15 triceps dips
There's an awkward Chuck/Sarah moment     20 dumbbell bicep curls

Captain Awesome says "Awesome"                5 half bridges
Bryce Larkin is mentioned or shows up           50 squats                    

Weight Loss begins...well...2 days ago!

Ok so I'm slow at posting. I have 3 kids now, one is a newborn, and I'm working every day this month. Deal with it.

I started my epic weight-loss journey this past Monday. I have now lost all the initial baby/water weight I'm going to (22 lbs, for anyone interested) and now have a LOT of work to get back to where I want to be. I probably could have done better this pregnancy, but I just felt so crappy at the end that I gave up caring about eating rabbit food and ate whatever I wanted to, which was usually ice cream.

That being said, here's the initial breakdown.

I have 38 lbs to lose. I'm not bothering to count inches or anything; I'm just going to go off pant sizes.
My end goal is to fit into the tiniest skirt I own, and to break open the box I packed up in September labeled "Jill's Smallest Clothes". I also have a tiny dress I'd like to fit into, and I still have that pair of "incentive" jeans I bought at Savers just after Reuben was born. The tag is still on. They have never fit. I'm beginning to doubt they ever will.

I'm not making an end weight goal. I've decided that it's more important to me to continue to get stronger and healthier than it is to get down to 120. That's always been my goal weight, and I've gotten ridiculously close (121), but after my last running season, when I was at my strongest and healthiest at 128, I'm going to be happier reaching fitness goals than size goals.

All my clothing goals are based on what I was wearing before I got pregnant this time around, so I know it's doable and it's not going to drive me crazy to get there.

I was thinking of doing a week-by-week breakdown of what I'm doing to lose weight and get healthy and strong and all that, but I think that would end up being boring. So I'm just making this post as a "Before" analysis, and I'll do the "After" in like 8 months when the weight is gone and I can fit into that skirt :)

So here are some pics. I'm much happier today than I have been for the past month, because today I am wearing jeans and they are comfortably buttoned properly without the rubber-band cheat. I'm happy with how my body looks, and I'm happy with how sore my muscles are after the past few days of workouts. But most of all I'm happy to be starting this journey, so that I can meet my real goal, which is to be ready for (and hopefully find) a half marathon before Christmas. I can't say enough how excited I am to start running in LESS THAN TWO WEEKS!!!

And now the pics. Sorry the quality is so bad, I don't own a camera aside from my phone.

 This is my small skirt. I think it's a size 4. It's lying on top of a skirt that fits me now, which is probably a size 10.

Freezer Meals

Let me start by saying that I am in NO way any sort of expert on this subject. It's something I'm going to try to start doing, and I thought I'd share the recipes that I'm going to try.

These are things that my family already eats and enjoys and/or things I'm sure they'll like, and most I already have the ingredients for. My freezer is tiny and currently filled with zucchini and all the frozen food I just bought, so this is not going to be one of those "I made a month's worth of food in one day!" kind of experiments. More like, I'm going to cook 3 or 4 this week and maybe a few more next week as my freezer gets emptier. Luckily most of these will use ingredients already IN my freezer, so that will help.

Another qualifier for these meals is little to no preparation at the time of eating. I can just pull them out of the freezer and pop them in the oven or crock pot. So most are casseroles.

At any rate, I'm sharing my list of recipes so that anyone else who wants to try this idea can have a starting place. When I searched on Pinterest I didn't find a comprehensive list that I liked, which means this list probably won't be exactly what you're looking for, but hopefully it's helpful for someone :)

To start with, I'm going to do some of my tried and true personal favorites.
My Sweet Potato Casserole
Spinach Lasagne Rolls
Chicken Avocado Enchiladas
Marilyn's Enchiladas - Recipe here:

2 lbs chicken
1 packet taco seasoning
1-2 lbs cheese (I like cheddar or colby-jack)
...about 30 flour tortillas
2 cans cream of chicken
1 pint sour cream
1 small can of green chilies
Enchilada sauce

Cook chicken and shred or dice. I prefer to shred. Add taco seasoning to chicken. Shred cheese and divide in half.
In a large bowl mix sour cream, cream of chicken, green chilies, half of the cheese.
Mix together, then add chicken.
Pour enough enchilada sauce in the bottom of pan to coat the bottom of the pan.
Spoon about a half cup of enchilada filling into tortillas. Roll tortilla and set in pan. I like to really fill the pan by squeezing in as many as I can. Once full, cover enchiladas with sauce then sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 30 min at 350.

Now here are some I found on Pinterest the other day that look super yummy and easy.
These first two are from the same blog post, and there are lots of other meal ideas there as well. You have to scroll a bit to get to the recipes.
Brocolli Cheddar Chicken Pasta
Tex Mex Chicken
Pizza Casserole (I also got this from a blog with lots of other recipes. The post in its entirety can be found here.)
Hamburger Casserole (confession - this is only on here because I already have hamburger that I need to use up. I don't usually cook with hamburger.) The recipe on this blog makes 8 casseroles.

And last but not least, the crock pot experiments.
Chicken Taco Chili
Bean & Spinach Soup

I'm planning to make 3 of each of these, but not all at once. Hopefully by clearing out my freezer as I go I can make enough room for about 10 by the time the baby is born, but really I'm thinking this might be a new lifestyle for me. Making dinner at dinner time can get really stressful with a newborn. But if I can make 3 dinners while she's asleep, either at night or during the day sometime, then I won't have to be stressed at dinner time for the next 3 days :)