It can be a slippery slope

Tonight feels like it could go sideways. Not too sure why. Good workout this morning, got my cardio in and busy but productive day at work.

Finished dinner – Kale salad with tuna, tomatoes, cranberries, seeds and little bit of poppyseed dressing – and I still feel like something sweet. Pull out ketchup crispy minis, ok not sweet but carbs. Had a few handfuls. Still searching, raisins sure! Let’s “fill up” my sons 1/4 empty bin 😉 handful, few more, close the lid. But this is how it starts, little bits of things.

My husband is heading downstairs with my son leaving me in the kitchen alone. Dangerous. I have to do a little cooking tonight for the rest of the week. I made a coffee, almond milk latte actually with a bit of chocolate protein powder, ah this is satisfaction!

And I write about it, of my fingers are typing I certainly can’t be eating too 😉

My view

7w 1d – let the mind games begin!

It has been a weird week, I was explaining to a friend of mine this morning that I have been coming home after work and questioning if I cheated on my meal plan that day?!? I have to stop and really think about it. I know I didn’t but my mind is playing tricks on me. I have been taking a break from the office daily to grab a coffee, or go for a drive and every time I think – hmm I should get a treat. One cookie, doughnut or pack of Twizzlers is not going to kill me. I don’t act on these thoughts, I order my black coffee and go but for some reason my brain thinks maybe I did!

Each time I have these thoughts, I make a choice. My choice is not to give into my temptations. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that, I am not depriving myself of food – no one needs doughnuts. I choose to fill myself up with vegetables, protein and good carbs.

 

There is a lot going on in my life right now, between work and home. We have decided to sell our house in the middle of my prep, smart – probably not but it is time and needs to be done. Will it throw off my prep? Maybe! But I will try my best not to let it. I will keep focused on my prep and hopefully everything else will fall into place. This show gives me something to focus on, to take my mind away from all the realities of life. Because I know that what I am doing is not reality, it is a dream. A dream that will come true, but then fade away.

 

How do you weigh your food?

I discovered something interesting this past weekend that got me thinking!?! I use yams or sweet potatoes for one of my starchy carbs during my day and the amount changes weekly. This particular day I needed 108g of yams/sweet potato. I normally have been taking the easy (lazy) way to cook them and putting them into my slow cooker when I cook my meats. When I weigh them out I get about 2-3 1″x1″ cubes – hardly enough to even count! And trust me some days I think “what is the point!” but as the weeks go on I will take every gram I can get.

This time, I used my new fancy Spiral Vegetable Slicer to make sweet potato curly fries. I was super excited and I believe I used 2 small sweet potatoes to fill a baking tray. I popped them into the oven for about 10 mins, watching carefully because they cut very thin. When I took them out to weigh them, to my surprise the WHOLE tray weighed 107g. How could this be??

 

Yes, it was too good to be true – but luckily I found that out AFTER I ate them – LOL! I thought that maybe I had weighed them wrong before – out of the slow cooker with all the extra moisture. But no sadly, that is the correct way to weigh them and the way I had done it in the oven dehydrates them so the macros would be as if you are eating the whole sweet potato – obviously right?!!

Here is an article I came across that explains it as well – The Right Weigh and the Wrong Weigh: Should Food be Measured Before or After Cooking?

Oh gosh, I hope my Mom doesn’t read this! Hasn’t she taught me anything! And geez my husband too, I can see his head shaking already….oh well! Learn something new everyday I say!

Fast approaching 8 weeks

At night is when I question this process the most. I guess because I have time to think about it.

Normally, my day is so busy, I focus more on remembering to eat than think about the why? I don’t question so much the program, the workouts, food or supplements; after all I go to reputable people who have been in this industry for 20+ years and I trust them. I think it is “how is my body going to get there in that amount of time?”

I am approaching 8 weeks out from competition and to some that sounds like a long time; 8 weeks, 2 months, 60 days. A lot can happen in that time! I think what I have learned so far is that it goes in waves, highs, lows and plateaus. Your body either reacts or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t you change, modify and continue on.

I am so curious to see what the next 8 weeks brings and what my “package” will look like.

 

And its 8w 4d – Can’t miss a beat!

I feel like my world revolves around the gym and food right now, and really it kind of does. But there is more to life, and I know that. Monday was a prime example of how days go sideways and sometimes you just have to roll with it.

The morning routine at our house right now is gym for me first, alarm goes off at 4:10am and I get up to get ready and be at the gym (sometimes pounding at the door) at 5am. I have to be home by 7am for my husband to switch with me – 2 year olds can’t watch themselves – and then I try to shower and get ready before the rugrat gets up around 7:30am.

Monday morning I could only do my 1hr cardio because I needed to be at work early to leave early and pick up my car getting fixed. GET ON WITH IT ALREADY RIGHT!??! Well that left me to do my weights at night.

I got all my meals in during the day, had a shake when I got home, picked up my car, had supper and then headed to the gym around 8:00pm. This way the kid is down and hubby can relax. But holy cow I forgot that the gym turns into a night club after dark! I was supposed to do legs but heck no was I going to attempt that. I ended up securing a cable and went to work on back and biceps.

I managed to do;

Straight Arm Lat Pulldown

Lat Pulldown (wide grip)

Cable Double Bicep

Bicep Cable Curl

Seated Row

Barbell Curl

I was home by about 9pm and had my last meal of the day – protein and water, made into a cake. I don’t think I fell asleep until past 10pm which is super late for me! So, 4:10am Tuesday morning was SUPER early.

Sunday Funday!

I am officially 9 weeks out from my first competition and this is where it starts to get interesting. My week consists of workouts (5 days of weights and 7 days cardio), food prep, meeting with my coach, posing class and then all the normal things like being a wife, mom and employee.

This Sunday was no different, except that this is the only day that I don’t set an alarm! I had my breakfast before hitting the gym, egg white pancakes – YUM! Then it was off to the gym around 9:00am on the agenda was triceps and cardio, I have 1:20 of cardio to do on the weekends.

As soon as I get home, its a shake and then a Gatorade, this is part of my meal plan as per my coach. We had plans to go out that day so food prep was super important. I ate my 3rd meal in the car…

Ground Turkey Quinoa Salad

I spent the next 4 hours touring around Granville Island with my husband, son and friends. I managed to consume only a coffee in that time period and I had my next meal waiting for me in the car on ice! It was turkey, cabbage and mustard – a staple right now.

Dinner was up next almost as soon as we got home. My go to right now is stir-fry, it simple and tasty!

Now keep in mind, I have a two year old so in between all of this he would like my undivided attention. I don’t remember if he ate his dinner, probably not, but he most likely stole off my perfectly portioned plate of food! After bath, stories and cuddles he normally goes down around 8pm. Then I get to get creative with my select ingredients for my last meal of the day. Tonight, I wanted to try something a little different than my normal protein lava cake so I made FROSTED protein cake!

I think my head hit the pillow around 9:30pm, my alarm goes off at 4:10am…you can read all about that tomorrow!

 

Breakfast Protein Loaf

Further to my Egg White Pancake post, I also try to spice things up by making this recipe a couple of different ways.

Waffles – basically make up the same ingredients and put into your waffle maker! Warning though, because of the egg white they tend to puff up a bit and cause a bit of a fuss in the waffle maker. I don’t do them this way often.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The easiest one has been lately the loaf;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The one above is for 5 days – so I take my ingredients for one day;

1 cup egg whites (or a mixture of protein powder and egg whites)

15g oats

1 Banana

1tsp Nutracleanse

1tsp Flax

1tsp cinnamon

all x 5 for 5 days – mix it up, I blend it with a hand mixer. Then pour it in – bake at 350 for about an hour. I divide it up and then freeze it. Take it out the night before to thaw and then cut up into pieces and put under your broiler for a few minutes to brown up!

And sometimes, when I am a nice wife. I cut my husbands up and then make it into french toast – YUM!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sole for the Soul

You will find a lot of people in the fitness/bodybuilding industry eat Talapia. It is low fat and doesn’t have a fishy taste or smell. You can blend it in with almost anything. I have eaten my fair share in the past, but I have now switched to Sole or Cod or if I am feeling fancy, Halibut. What I am looking for really is wild white fish and Talapia is farmed.

Today I made up a sauce to coat my Sole with before it went into the oven. It consisted of Stone Ground Mustard, Frank’s Red Hot, Low Sodium Soy Sauce, Sea Salt and Flavor God’s Lemon & Garlic seasoning. I really just eyeballed it to see what worked, put my finger in it to taste and it was ready to go!

I buy my fish frozen from Walmart or Superstore. For me one pack equals about 3 meals.

I put my thawed fish onto a baking sheet, onto parchment paper and coated it with my sauce.

I baked it in the oven at 350 for about 12 mins and then I put it on high broil for another 8 mins (may have been a touch too long). It really depends if you are eating it right away or saving it for later to be re-heated. For me it is the latter so I normally try not to over cook it.

 

 

 

Apple Cider Mustard Salad Dressing (don’t knock it till you try it)

I had been craving a salad but couldn’t think of what to use for dressing, being in contest prep I can’t add any fats. So, I looked in my fridge door…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LOL who takes a picture of their fridge door – ME!! LOL Anyways, point is look what I found!

 

 

 

 

Mix all these guys up and you have yourself a pretty awesome salad dressing!!

It’s all about the mustard

July 5th, 2014 will be a day I will always remember, the first time I added mustard as a topping on my meal. I heard a rumor that mustard was a staple in contest prep! It is 0 cals and has no added sugar and gives your food a little bit of life!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The above meal wasn’t too bad on it’s own, it was beef and broccoli and cabbage. So, at least this one had a little fat for flavour. But this one act of squirting mustard on this dish changed my life, my prep and the coming weeks.

Now, as I go through my pictures (yes, I take a lot of pictures of my food!) I am seeing a common theme…

 

 

 

 

I normally just use French’s Classic Yellow Mustard but I have since found a new one, that doesn’t have added sugar! Watch out, not all mustards are created equal, most of them have added sugar so check your labels before buying!