Carrots

I am not a huge carrot fan.  In fact, the only way I've liked them up until now is juiced and hidden by other fruits and veggies.  This week I discovered 2 ways I like carrots, shredded and roasted. 

I made another Oh She Glows awesome oatmeal recipe.  Her Carrot Cake oatmeal recipe is delicious and a great way to get in a few carrots in to start your day.  

It's really just quick cooking oats, shredded carrots, almond milk, ginger, allspice, & cinnamon with a little vanilla extract, maple syrup, walnuts, raisins and shredded coconut.  

The other way I made carrots this week that I liked, was roasting them.  I made this garlic infused olive oil  and drizzled it on the carrots before I roasted them with chicken.  

Closer to my goals than farther away...

It just dawned on me today that I'm closer to my lowest weight in High School than farther away from it 2 years ago.  In High School I got down to 145lbs.  The smallest I had ever been at that time.  I felt fantastic.  I'm going to have to dig a photo up to show you.

Like I said, during college and after, I gained a lot of weight.  240lbs was the highest.  That seems insane to me.

This week, I hit 189.5.  This means, I'm only 14.5lbs away from my 175 goal I set.

Like I said, it dawned on me that once I get to that goal, I would have 30 more lbs to get to High School me.

The odd thing is that High School me and 27yr old me have such different bodies.  The boot camp I do, has toned me in areas I never worked.

I thought 175 wasn't attainable 2 years ago, but now, I'm thinking of going all the way to 145! It's insane how motivation works.  I'm just happy I have it and I don't want to let it go.

-27yr old me

Sugar Strike

The Athletarian had a great post about approved sugars for the Eat Clean Diet sugar strike.  She made this little chart to give a quick explanation of what is allowed and what isn't.  So thanks Athletarian!

Read her post to get the entire scoop.  

Cutting sugars out is the biggest reason I've been succeeding in my diet.  I've invested in making sure that my pantry is stocked with these things.  I haven't tried rapadura or yacon yet, but all of the others I use.  My favorites are FRUIT, Honey, Maple Syrup and Sucanat.  

The only days I have felt run down and like shit on this diet are the days I cheat and eat something with sugar.  It really does have an effect on my energy levels because I crash HARD.  

Getting there!

I took Labor Day Weekend as a chance to rest when it comes to working out.  Therefore, I didn't workout on Friday, Saturday, Sunday OR Monday.  It was a good rest because from Friday-Sunday I was sore from Thursday's workout. While I say I didn't work out those days, I did go on walks and tried to have active days of rest.

I did take the weekend to clean out my pantry.  I organized everything, took it out of their packaging and put it into Tupperware.  The nerd in me really wanted to go to The Container Store and get really cute containers, but the budget didn't allow.  Instead, I went to Big Lots and bought a TON of containers.

To my surprise when I was at Big Lots, they had an entire shelf display of Bob's Red Mill. I stocked up on Steel Cut Oats, Ground Flaxseeds and pizza crust.  I have enough steel cut oats to last me until well into next year.  1 cup of the oats dry = 4 servings.  I make a batch at the beginning of the week and take it to work everyday.

I made the Berry Almond Bliss recipe from Oh She Glows.  I really love it.

Last week I made this recipe for Chipotle-Honey Glazed Pork Chops from Whole Foods website and served it with blanched green beans and quinoa/brown rice.  My husband actually liked it! Score 1 for me.

My husband is out of town from today (Wednesday) until next Tuesday. I set a goal for myself for weight loss while he's gone and this morning after I dropped him off at the airport, I weighed myself to see where I was and I WAS ALREADY THERE! Therefore, I am setting another goal for myself.  

Now, I have 14.5 lbs to go before I get to my goal.  I'm more confident than ever that I will get there. 

Awesome Grocery Deal!

I'm a coupon girl and when I see a decent deal on groceries related to my lifestyle, I have to jump on it.  

Vitacost is offering free shipping on all grocery orders over $25 through August 29th.  

Plus, if you are a new customer with Vitacost and you first sign up through this referral link, you will receive an email with a $10 credit code which you can use to make your purchase. 

Therefore, if you put $35 worth of groceries into your cart, then apply your $10 credit, with the free shipping, it's a great deal. 

I couldn't pass this up to stock up on healthy cooking and baking items for my pantry.  Since I started this eat clean lifestyle, I eat a lot "crunchier" than I used to. 

My cart included: 

• SunSpire Unsweetened Carob Baking Chips

• Arrowhead Mills Organic Flax Seeds

• Edward & Sons Let's Do... Organic Gluten Free Coconut Flour 

• Wholesome Sweeteners Fair Trade Organic Sucanat Brown Sugar

• Madhava Organic Agave Nectar Vanilla

• Vitacost Extra Virgin Certified Organic Coconut Oil 

• Bob's Red Mill Long Grain Brown Rice 

• Bob's Red Mill Gluten and Wheat Free Pizza Crust Mix 

My total after the $10 credit code and with free shipping came to $33.38! I can't wait to bake and cook with these items.  

Football drills

This morning in boot camp we did football drills.  Running in place as fast as we could, then down for a floppy burpee.  She wouldn't let us do one of each of those things for very long and just when you thought you knew how long you were going, she would switch it up. Plus a bunch of weight training and our run.  

It was very hard and I definitely had to use my mental strength to pull through.  I just kept thinking about the success I'd been seeing on the scale and how I want to keep seeing that number go down.

For lunch, I had a sandwich made with Ezekiel bread, half of an avocado and a tuna salad packet.  Delicious, I know.  I also spent my lunch break watching Extreme Makeover, Weight loss.  I like to watch things like this to keep me going.

Waist to Hip Ratio Update!

I just measured myself to update my hip to waist ratio and I'm stoked.
I've now hit the low-risk area!

.78!

Just a reminder, here's how you calculate*:

Calculating Your Waist-to-Hip Ratio

1. Use a measuring tape to measure your hips at the widest part of your buttocks. Then use the measuring tape to measure your waist at the smallest point, usually just above your belly button. Record the measurements in inches.

2. To determine your WHR divide your waist measurement in inches by your hip measurement in inches, eg. 30"/40" = 0.75

Male	Female	Health Risk Based on WHR
0.95 or less	0.80 or less	Low Risk
0.96-1.0	0.81-0.85	Moderate Risk
1.0 or more	0.85 or more	High Risk

*Via The Eat Clean Diet

Boot Camp, Bruises and Butter

We were outside this morning in boot camp and in order to keep the mist on my mat from making my hands slip, I did my workout on the concrete. This results in sore hands that look like this:

After boot camp, I went home and made a tasty breakfast as my reward.  Egg Whites, Turkey Bacon and Cinnamon Raisin Ezekiel toast. 

 I found this new butter last night at Fresh Market and used it to make my breakfast.  I picked it up because it's made with all good fats; coconut, flaxseed, palm fruit, canola and sunflower oils.

I do have to say that I've been dragging all day today and I'm soooo glad it's Friday! I'm sleeping in tomorrow and watching movies.

New Recipes!

I love when I find new healthy/semi-healthy recipes that I can get my husband to eat, so I thought I'd share my two new favorites....

The first one is Chipotle Chicken and Rice from Martha Stewart's daily e-newsletter.

Just a warning, it can be a little spicy if you aren't used to heat.  I added in fat free sour cream to cut the heat.  

The other recipe was from Clean Eating Magazine.  Their Chocolaty Cookie recipe was so tasty! I felt like I was being really bad, but it wasn't nearly as bad for you as you would think and it's all considered "clean".  

There are a few ingredients that I had never bought before.  Sucanat, which stands for Sugar Cane Natural, is something I had never had.  It's a healthier version of sugar because it hasn't been refined or processed taking out the nutrients.  There are still calories in it, but it's better for you than regular sugar.  You could also use Stevia or something else if you wanted to, but I liked the sweetness of this.  You can find Sucanat in the baking aisle or in the bulk foods area at Whole Foods.  

Also, there was Arrowroot Powder, which I found in the baking aisle at Whole Foods.  It was really expensive, but I can't see me needing to buy that for a really long time.  

I used egg whites from the box, but next time I think I'd use regular egg whites to see if they turn out fluffier.  

Childhood dreams realized...

Last Friday I got to meet one person I've been dying to meet since I was a young awkward, greasy-haired teenager, Rob Thomas.  I'm going on 16 years that I've loved Matchbox Twenty and have tried just about anything I could to meet him (before college that is).

Now, I have to act like a grown up and pretend that it wasn't one of the most exciting days of my life.   A good friend through work helped make my childhood dreams a reality and I will never forget it.

That's me in the white dress right next to Rob.  Kyle Cook is the tall blonde with the shades on the right.  

Here's one of the video's I took at the station event.  Unfortunately, because they had been rehearsing so much, Rob's voice was a little tired.  I'm not faulting him for this, because I really liked the song.  There are many reasons to love them and their sense of humor is definitely one.