In the Kitchen

Last night I decided I wanted to try a new recipe, I was getting tired of the usual for dinner.  I had taken out ground turkey meat before I left in the morning for work, so that was the only requirement, had to use ground turkey.  I follow a lot of blogs and health sites, so I knew I would be able to find something.  I went to Skinny Mom and typed in ground turkey, easy as pie.  What came up is one of our new favorite recipes.

 

Skinny Cheeseburger Pie

 Ingredients:

1. Ground turkey (I used one package of 93%/ 7% ground turkey since I buy that at Costco in bulk)

2. 1/2 onion chopped

3. 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce (you could leave this out and use some other seasoning, didn't make a difference to me)

4. 1 Clove Garlic (I didn't use this because I didn't have any)

5. 3/4 Cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese (I used 2% cheese)

6. 1 Egg

7. 1 cup nonfat cheese (I only had reduced fat)

8. 1 package reduced fat crescent rolls

9. Slice of tomato

 

Instructions

1. Brown Turkey Onion & Garlic in a pan. 
2. Drain meat of fat/grease. Mix Worcestershire sauce in with meat mixture.
3. Place rolls in pie pan (or 8x8 pan) to make crust (I used a pie pan, but I think I will use a square one next time you will want to go up the sides a bit)
4. Pour meat mixture into pan
5. In a separate bowl, mix cottage cheese with egg.
6. Pour cottage cheese mixture over meat in the pie pan.
7. Top with shredded cheddar cheese.
8. Place tomato slices on top. (I did 4 big slices and then filled in the holes with the more)
9. Bake at 350°F for 35-40 minutes – let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

 

The recipe says it makes 8 servings, but I served them as 4 larger servings.

 

My Stats: 508 Calories, 31 Carbs, 25 Fat, 43 protein

 

Next time I make this I will switch the cheese to make it have less fat, maybe switch the cottage cheese to fat free too.  Since I used the whole container of ground turkey, it was really meaty, which I liked!  We are having the leftovers for lunch today.  Higher calorie count than I usually do for lunch, but I will work my food around it.  At least I won't be tempted to eat at the office potluck.

 

Not the best picture, but it was good.

 

I have a lot of new recipes I will be working with soon, so stay tuned!!  I even have a few desserts to try out. I will be making Healthy Chicken Fried Rice tonight. 

 

Looking forward to handing out candy tonight, get it out of the house so I am not tempted.  Good thing it has been hidden in the house for the past 3 weeks!



Burpees and Booze

Oh boy, what a weekend that was.  I still can't believe it is Monday already.  It went by way too fast and I didn't sleep enough.  Too much going on in a short time and not enough rest.  I am feeling exhausted and bloated this morning. So what happened this weekend?

Friday was our typical dinner out and a movie.  We went to see Carrie and actually really liked it. We stayed up a little later than usual, but nothing too bad.

Saturday was where the Burpees and booze came in.  I went to Train Insane as usual.  Planned on doing extra mobility and some skills work.  I didn't want to get too sweaty since the beautiful Hannah was going to be doing my make-up for the Halloween party I was going to that evening.  Well that plan didn't happen.  One of my gym friends asked if I wanted to do a 50 Burpee Challenge with him for time.  I stupidly agreed without a second thought.  Then he said, well why not 100 Burpees.  I hesitated for a moment and then of course I stupidly agreed.  It didn't take as long as I thought it would, but it was as awful as I thought it would be.  So I was drenched in sweat and then it was time to get my eyebrows waxed and my makeup done. 

Tinkerbelle Makeup after 100 Burpees

 

I then had to run errands to get ready for our Halloween Party in the evening.  We decided we also wanted to get the CO2 tank for Lido's new toy, his kegerator.  What a pain that was! We had to drive all over just to get it filled and get a keg. Then it was time to get ready for our party. 

 

I was already exhausted and I had no idea how I was going to stay awake for the party, but Tinkerbelle put her wings on and partied with her Peter Pan.

 

We started off slow, nothing too crazy, just chatting with some new friends and old friends.  Had a few drinks and chatted for a while.  Then it happened... By it, I mean I made a very poor agreement.  I was asked (dared) to drink a 12 year old beer.  Since I am never one to say no to a challenge I went for it.

 

The poison

 

First lesson learned: beer does not get better with age!! It tasted awful! Second lesson learned, just because people are chanting "Tink, Tink, Tink" , you don't have to drink the entire thing in two drinks!! I still can't believe I actually was able to drink it all. Yuck!! Lesson learned, don't do it!!

 

We continued on with our evening, having a great time!. Next thing I knew it was about 2 AM and we were walking to Sarah's house.  We had a great time, my feet were killing me (don't wear 5 inch heels the whole night) and I was exhausted.  I just can't party like I used to, even though I guess I thought it was a good idea to try.

 

Tinkerbelle and Peter Pan out!

 

Waking up Sunday was hard and I was not feeling like moving or doing anything.  I was hangover and remembered why I don't like to drink like that.  I am now going to have to take a break from alcohol for a while.  I think just the smell of it would get me sick again. Hey, it was fun, don't get me wrong, but I am too old for the aftermath of a night of drinking. Going shopping at Costco was torture!  I hardly drink anyways so I don't know why I thought it was a good idea to drink so much in one night.  I am pretty sure my liver is giving me the middle finger right now.

 

Today is a new day and I can't let one weekend of binge drinking keep me from my goals. So I got up at 5:15 this morning and put on my workout clothes like I always do.  What do I see on the board this morning?  BURPEES!!!! (and Wall Balls) What the heck!!! My arms are still sore from Saturday!! I guess it is my punishment for going over board on Saturday. 

 

Happy Monday!!! 





Oops! I did it again...

I signed up for another Half Marathon (my coach is not going to like this).  We are signed up for the Surf City Half Marathon in February.  This race takes place in Huntington Beach on Super Bowl Sunday.  We have ran this race before and we will be Legacy Runners this year, which means we have a special entrance to the beer garden after the race and we get a special shirt. All great reasons to sign up for another half marathon, right? HA!

So now what? I have finally gotten over the last horrific race and have thought about what went wrong and what I need to do in the future (maybe actually train a little bit). Now it is time to put a plan in place.  I already go to the gym 5 days a week and already do extra cardio, so do I need to do to fit in my running training? 

First Step, fill in a training calendar.  I printed some monthly calendars off the web and started to fill in all my Train Insane workouts. I usually workout Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  Second step was to download a training plan from Runners World. I used the race time I would like to get along with the amount of miles I plan on running each week.  Runners World has a great tool that plans out each run with how fast and how far they should me.  I then took that information and entered it onto my monthly calendars. 

 

 

Here it is!! (yellow is TI workouts and pink is running  workouts)

 

 

I am sure some of these days will change here and there depending on what comes up in every day normal life, but if I can follow this plan, I should be able to finish the race in the time that I am aiming for. 

 

I will have to do the running in the evening, which is going to be a little tough with the time change coming and it getting darker later.  But, we have a treadmill at the house, so I can always do my runs on there while watching my reality TV.  It is always easier to run when you are watching train wrecks (The Kardashians) on TV. 

 

I will need to meet with my coach/trainer to see what he thinks about this schedule.  I know he will tell me not to do the race, but the money is spent and I don't back out of things.  I will need him to analyze my food intake and let me know if it needs to change with the addition to the running.  I hope it won't have to change too much, I like the plan that I am currently on.  I know that I will need to spend extra time with mobility. I don't want to end up with any injuries that keep me from lifting and being at that finish line on race day.

 

I know that adding all this running is going to suck.  I am going to hate life some days.  I won't want to put in the time or the miles, but it will all be worth it when I cross the finish line with a Half Marathon time of 2:15 or better.  That might sound slow to some of you, but when I started these stupid things, I was running them in 3 hours and 8 minutes.  I have come a long way and I want to keep improving.

 



Here is a hilarious article about why training for marathons is the worst thing ever: 

Why Training for a Marathon is the Worst Thing Ever

Happy Wednesday!!!

Food Prep Sunday

No two weekends are ever the same for us, there is always something planned.  There are only a couple of things that happen every weekend.  One: I workout on Saturday mornings, which is one of my favorite workouts because it is more of a recovery workout for me and I get to catch up with all my gym friends that don't come to the 6 AM class during the week. Two: Weekly Food Prep. 

I like to figure out what we are going to be having for lunches each week and get them all cooked up and packaged so that we don't have to worry about it each morning. Not only does it save us money, but it makes it easier to know what our calories and other numbers look like each day.  I am better able to plan my dinners and snacks if I already know what my lunch consists of.  Plus, I like to open my fridge and see all the containers nicely organized.

I try to make lunch a higher protein choice, usually something with chicken or ground turkey.  I have an app on my phone that has tons of different recipes that I start with.  I don't usually stick to the recipe as I tend to use whatever I have in the kitchen.  I don't like to have to go grocery shopping just to do the food prep, especially since I already have tons of stuff in the cabinets already.  I want whatever it is I am going to make, to be simple so that I am not in the kitchen forever (I have shows to watch).  On top of making the lunches I try to package up some snacks for us, this makes it easier to just grab and go.

This week I decided to do something with chicken and the crockpot. (Oh how I love the crockpot, best invention ever!!)  So I looked on my recipe app and found something that I could  use as a base.  Here is what I came up with:

Crockpot Chicken Salsa

 

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1. 6 Frozen Boneless Skinless chicken breasts (I buy the individually wrapped ones at Costco)

2. 2 cups Trader Joe's Frozen Roasted Corn

3. 1 Can Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes

4. 1 Can diced green chilies

5. 1 diced red and yellow bell pepper

6. 1/2 diced onion

7. 1/2 pack Trader Joes Taco Seasoning

8. Salsa

 

Instructions:

1. Put the chicken at the bottom of the crockpot

2. Sprinkle taco seasoning on top of the chicken breasts

3. Pour corn, tomatoes, challis, bell peppers, onion and salsa on top.  I didn't measure the salsa, just kind of eyeballed it.

4. Turn crockpot on low for 6-8 hours.

 

When everything is done, I put one chicken breast in a container and then equally measure out all the other stuff that is in the crockpot.  I will eat the chicken in a couple different way.  Today I had it shredded with brown rice, tomorrow I will eat it with tortillas, then I will probably have it with Quinoa.

 

Stats (chicken and mixture): 204 calories, 16 carbs, 4 fat, 25 Protein, 4 fiber and 7 sugar

 

The original recipe called for carrots, celery and other items, but I didn't have that stuff on hand, so I just made do with what I had.  It makes it easy to clean out your pantry and fridge without making food prep take forever.

 

The snacks for this week will be Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein balls (addicting), Veggie bags, Fruit bowls and hard boiled eggs. 

 

The more that I can have done and in the fridge, the easier it is for me to stay on track.  It doesn't have to be a lot of work to have healthy food choices, but it does take some work and some planning.  I am lucky that Lido isn't a picky eater and will eat pretty much anything I give him, except Kale. I still can't get him to eat Kale.  I also can't sneak spinach into his smoothies.

 

Really, this food prep thing is just about being creative and using what you have.  Again, I usually find recipes online or through phone apps and then I just tweak them.  I love trying new things as long as they aren't too difficult. I am just looking to be able to stay on track and hit all my numbers without having to stress about it.  Plus, it makes it easy to say no to going out to lunch or anything not within my food plan because I have it all ready and it is already in my food journal before I leave for work each day.

 

I hope everyone had a great weekend and you are all ready for the week.

 

How do you prepare for your week?  (Failing to prepare only prepares you to fail)



Recovery

Boy has this been a week of recovery.  The Long Beach Half Marathon sure did a number on my body.  My knees feel like they are 80 year old and my hips feel like they are about 90 years old.  I am still mentally recovering from such a hard run too. 

My recovery plan changes each race, it just kind of depends on how the race went and how I am feeling.  For this race, I first rehydrated with 2 Beers at the end. I made sure to eat a banana and cheez-its while drinking my beer.  You know, the good carbs.  Then I walked around trying to figure out where to get my correct medal.  I also had a little bit of a melt down. Then we took a nice 1 mile walk back to the car. Darn right I GPSed that walk! No one wants to walk another mile after you just barely got through 13.1 miles. Stupid finish line not being right at my car.  We then stopped at Chipotle for some recovery food. However, we didn't eat our food for about 2 hours because our family stopped by.  I was fine with it because I got to play with my niece and nephew. Totally worth it! Oh yeah, I took a shower before they got there.  I then finished the day by laying on the couch until it was time for bed.

The next morning I rolled myself out of bed at 5:30 and went to the gym. I didn't workout, but I did roll out and stretch.  I was walking very slow and stiff that morning.  I made a good decision and didn't wear my usual heels to work.  I tried to get in as much water as possible.  I was trying to get out all those Lactic Acids everyone is always telling you about. I also made sure to hit all my calories and nutrient numbers.  I do understand that it is important to replenish your body after putting it through such horrible torture.

Tuesday was much of the same, but I did workout at the gym.  It was tough, but I am glad I did it. I believe it is important to get the blood flowing back into all the stiff muscles.  We had a massage Tuesday night, boy did it hurt.  We try to get deep tissue massages monthly to try and help with all the stiffness we get from working out.  When she got to my IT bands and calves, I wanted to jump off the table. I think this helped my recovery go faster.  I love a good and painful massage.  I don't have time for any of that relaxing crap.

Now what I should of done was taken an ice bath.  I have done this in the past and it really helps, but I was lazy and didn't want to buy ice, change into a bathing suit and get into a cold tub.  None of that sounds fun when you are sore and don't want to move.  I believe I will start buying the ice before the races so I have it at home and there will be no excuses.

Tuesday I received an email from the Long Beach Half reminding me to sign up for 2014 and giving us a discount code for being Beach Bums. I immediately had flash backs of the horrible experience and seriously almost started to cry.  A couple days later and this happened:

Seriously?  Why the heck do I torture myself?

 

 

 

If you didn't think I was crazy already, I also signed up for the Huntington Beach Half in February.  I even asked the hubby to help me train for it.  I NEVER train for races, I just show up and do them. But the crazy and competitive part of me wants a 2:15 race time.  We will see how this goes. 

 

 

I will leave you with a picture of my beautiful salads that I have been making for lunch all week:

 

And what I am planning on having tonight for dinner:

 





There is fish under all that yummy avocado!

 

Now I can't wait to eat lunch and dinner!!!!

Long Beach Half Marathon

Yesterday was the Long Beach Half Marathon yesterday.  Long Beach holds a special place in my heart, since it was the first half we ever did.  I always look forward to running this race as I love the course and I love all the support.  That is, until yesterday's race...

I went to the race not really ready, I don't do much running training, just my gym workouts and some extra cardio.  I just wanted to go out there and run it, well not really, I tried to back out a couple of times, but hubby wouldn't let me.  Well, his hip was bothering him so he said he was going to run it with me.  This was decided that morning as we were walking down to the race. He is a really good runner, it takes him little effort to run fast and he makes it look easy.  I got a PR back in June of 2:25, but wasn't really thinking I could do any better since that course had a lot of down hill.  Well, he suggested I aim for 2:15, yeah, that means I would have to take 10 minutes off my last race time, which I worked hard for. I told him if I got that time, I would retire from running because that would be a one time deal.  I used to run races in 3:10, so I am pretty happy with all my progress.

We arrived to the race early (like rally early).  The race didn't start until 7:30 and we were there at 5:45.  So, we hung out for a while, people watched and even walked back to the car to get some water.  When it was time to start the race, there was Lido, lined up with me.  I am not used to this, I am usually lined up by myself.  So this already threw me off my routine. 

Us hanging out waiting for the Full Marathon to start.

 

At the starting line, waiting to go.

Then it was time to start.  I was going pretty strong, keeping up with Lido, who was pacing me, not getting a side ache at Mile 1 was awesome, that is where I usually get them. I could tell I was working harder than I usually do,  but I wasn't dying. I later found out that I was staying at a 10 min mile pace.  Then we got to the hill, turns out I run up hills way faster than I run down them.  Lido was frustrated by this, but oh well, that's how I attack hills. Then I hit a wall! I was only at mile 3 and I was ready to be done.  I still had 10.1 miles left and I was ready to walk it or just drop out all together. I looked up and there was Lido in front of me running with little effort and looking back at me.  He kept reminding me to drink my water, but I didn't want to, I just wanted to feel sorry for myself and quit.

We just kept running. I tried to zone out and listen only to my music, but my body was already hurting and screaming to stop.  I was breathing a little harder than usual, but nothing I couldn't handle.  I had to pee this whole time, usually I can run through it and it goes away, but I was at mile 4 or 5 and I still had to pee.  We stopped real quick so I could pee and we were off again.  We got to the part of the race that is along the beach and that is where it go really bad.  We were running right into the sun (stupid late start) and it was feeling hot.  I wasn't doing my usual people watching, just watching Lido check is watch and tell me to drink water, grr.  Then I started feeling like I was over heating.  We went to one of the showers on the beach and sprayed me down, but that only helped for a little while.  One Lady fell on the path and I kind of wished it was me so I would have an excuse to walk.

We turned off the beach around mile 10 and Lido looked back and said it was just a straight shot now and only 3.1 miles left. Only 3.1 miles left, give me a f-ing break!! I am dying back here and don't even want to run .1 miles. I was over the whole freaking running thing and wanted to pay someone with a bike to take me to the end.  I was seriously thinking about how I had $20 in my water bottle and could I get someone to take me. But, I kept running, although I think it looked like walking.  Lido ran over to one of the spectators and got a donut, he tried to offer it to me, but I was working too hard not to throw up to eat a donut.  Stopped at a water station and dumped two cups of water on me. At this point I think Lido was pretty frustrated with me.  I had slowed down so much, but I just didn't feel like I had anything left.  Lido told me if I didn't stop at all and kept at this really slow pace I might tie my last time.  Really slow pace?  WTF, I was going as fast as I could.  We finally finished the race and I just wanted to collapse.

When we got to the beer garden and went to the Beach Bum section (special section for those who have ran the race 3 or more times in a row) I was so happy to be done, sitting and drinking my beer.  I had finished one of the most mentally challenging races ever.  I didn't die, I didn't kill Lido and I was barely slower than my best race.  I can't really complain too much about it.  I was admiring my medal when I realized they gave me a freaking 5K medal.  There was no way that I endured all that just to walk away with a 5K medal.  We quickly finished our beers and then went to 50 different people (ok only 5K to get the correct medal.

In the Beach Bum Beer Garden, celebrating!

Now it is the day after the race, I am hobbling around today, but happy I ran the race and went through all that I went through.  A part of me wanted to give up half marathons for good yesterday, but now I am in a better mind set and have already registered us for the next one.  I told Lido he could pace me for it and he just laughed.  If it wasn't for him yesterday, there is no way I would of finished in the time that I did.  As much as I wanted to kill him yesterday, he did a great job of supporting me and keeping me moving.

Working Hard

I have really tried to stay focused on my food and exercise all week.  My exercise is never really the problem, it is more my food.  It isn't that I cheat on my meal plan, but there are time I have a hard time eating all my calories or hitting all my carb, fat and protein numbers.  Hitting my fat it the hardest part actually. 

I met with my trainer on Monday to have a food meeting and goal setting.  These meetings tend to always be the same, my food is pretty good, I don't see much change lately, what can I do more.  Well, this time I told him that I wasn't always eating all my calories and when I told him there are days that I am about 400 calories short he was not happy.  I had told him my weight on the scale was up and I think we need to lower my calories.  He said how can he determine if that is an issue if I am not even eating what I am supposed to.  We then talked about how it is hard for me to hit my fat.  At the end of the meeting I said I would hit my numbers and we would talk again in a couple of weeks. 

I have been really focused on hitting my numbers since Monday and I am feeling pretty good.  I am trying hard to stay off the scale since that is my enemy. I am trying to listen to my body and see how it feels. After a few days of hitting all my numbers and cutting back on the extra cardio, I am feeling strong.  I had an awesome workout this morning.  It was hard and challenging, but I got it done and had a pretty good time too.  I guess yet again I have to declare that my trainer/coach knows what he is talking about.  I am interested to see what my measurements look like next time I do them.

This self doubt is a never ending cycle.  It amazes me that we can't see ourselves the way others see us.  I do get a lot of compliments, but I only see the things that I want to fix.  I work my butt off in the gym and I work hard to keep our food healthy, but nothing is ever fast enough for me.  I have lost lots of weight and I should be happy, but there is always more to be done. I sometimes wonder if there will ever be a time when I can look in the mirror and not just look at the things I want to fix.  When do you stop  being such teenage self conscious girls? 

I guess life is just a bunch of baby steps.  I do love the journey though. Below is a picture to give you a little idea of my journey so far.