health

Packing for a Plan

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While traveling keeping up with a fitness/macro plan can be a challenge. I plan to enjoy some of my favorite foods and beverages on vacation, but not to go overboard on my indulgence. In order not to go overboard I need to be prepared with a plan and pack accordingly.

I love my Nike workout gear! I have my workout clothes, running shoes and Converse for leg day all packed. I have already determined days I have access to a gym and ready to do my workouts from my coach, Ally.  The bride, JoJo and I will be hitting up the gym for a strong workout prior to wedding prep fun! There are days that I do not know if I can make it to a gym and for those days I have packed my Sports Research bands and have HIIT workouts planned.

My goal is to get at least 30 minutes of cardio each day on vacation. Luckily Richmond and Virginia Beach are such walkable cities that this goal will be easy to meet! In VB I already have a plan to tackle Mount Trashmore stairs and fitness stations with my girl, Danielle.

Meeting macros will be my biggest challenge on vacation. In efforts to stay on track I have packed my food scale, blender bottle, quest protein powder packs, quest protein bars and drink mix for a low calorie cocktail. I have also packed my vitamins for each day. I will stop at a grocery store to get more items for some of my meals and will focus on making smart choices at restaurants. Typically I only do one cheat meal a week, but on vacation one cheat meal per day without being extreme is my plan.  I can’t miss out on some of my favorite restaurants and trying out some new spots!

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Will power, please don’t fail the plan! Time to stay strong and focused, bikini season is around the corner!

Also the dash to fit in the dress was a big success, as it is actually a little big on me now! Post to follow on fitness progress.

If you have any other travel tips for staying on track with macros during vacation please comment below.

XOXO,

Cecee

 

 

Intentional, Incredible, Inspired…

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This past weekend I attended the Arnold Sports Festival for the 2nd year in a row. This year just like last I gained more than just free products and samples. Being around all the athletes and fitness enthusiasts I am always inspired not only by their physique, but by their mental game and dedication.

Most people look at these athletes and only see their physique and physical strength, but do not understand how intentional they must make each day. These athletes have so much dedication to stay focused on strict meal and workout plans. The plans they follow are down to a science and very structured.

Life is hectic and one can easily fall off track without a strong mental game. As of late my head has not been in the game and motivation has been lacking. I have a decent understanding of what I need to do to get my fitness goals back on track, but need the push!

Last time I fell off track I needed to fit into a dress for a wedding… sadly enough I am in the same boat again a year and a half later. In 2016 I worked with my girl, Ally Vaeth  to fit in a dress for a NYE wedding. Following a meal plan through Thanksgiving and Christmas was tough, but necessary to hit my goal. With the help of Ally and dedication to the plan she created I was able to fit in my dress below!

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I have reached out to Ally again to help me get back on track and hopefully remain consistent in the future.  Ally is so detailed in her plan and genuinely cares about your success. When we met to go over how this program would be set up she made a comment about being intentional each day. This really stayed with me as the days I don’t have a plan are the days I easily skip the gym and have fast food. My schedule is different everyday and changes each week, so a set routine is hard to develop. I need to intentionally include my fitness and meal plans in my weekly to do list.

My before pictures this time around are so embarrassing for me and I am not ready to share until some progress is made. Stay tuned as Ally helps kick my butt back in shape!

Here is the goal dress I bought in September (pic is from September) and sadly have gained 10 lbs since. Operation fit in dress in process!

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XOXO,

Cecee

 

Meal Prep 

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IMG_0686With all the ups and downs this past year I have fallen far from my normal routine of meal prep and I am trying to get back into the swing of things. Above is a picture of my fridge when I am on my meal prep game. I reuse containers from a few of my favorite places to shop in addition to having a few other storage containers. I know there are meal prep containers out there to purchase, but it isn’t necessary.

I try to eat 5 meals a day every 3-4 hours and drink 1 gallon of water a day. To effectively lose weight I must do strength training 3 times a week and do cardio 2 times a week while I stay around 1500-1550 calories. I know this is what works for me and it is different for everyone.

Macro goals for me are: 155g Protein, 90g Carbs, 45g fat

I track my meals on my Fitness Pal, which is a free app.  This will tell you the macros for each food item.

One thing to note is I do not count the carbs in non-starch vegetables. This is just what I do from some guidance of a friend that is in the fitness world. I do not stay exact within the numbers above, but try to be close. Disclaimer, I am not a nutritionist by any means.

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Start my process with breakfast foods before moving to snacks.

My egg muffin recipe is different every time on the use of vegetables, but always same base with deli ham and the eggs and egg whites.

For 1 egg muffin it is 72 c, 12g P, 5g C, 3g F .  I will usually have 4. My first meal will be 288 calories , 48 g P, 20 g C, 12 g F.

Recipe for egg muffins:

  • 12 slices of deli ham
  • 3 egg whites
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 oz mushrooms
  • 4 medium green onions
  • 2 oz peppers
  • 1 small to medium tomato or use cherry tomatoes
  • 8 spears of asparagus
  • 1/4 c 4 cheese Mexican cheese
  • a few spinach leaves
  • salt and pepper to taste

I chop up all the veggies and put then in the ham base and add the eggs that have been seasoned to taste and top with cheese. When I serve I like to add a dash of hot sauce.

Onto snacks. I love vegetables and fruit so they are easy go to snacks for me. The morning I will usually have fruit in my 2nd meal and my 4th meal with be my vegetables and hummus.

Meal 2 : Fresh pineapple 1 Cup and half a cup of reduced fat cottage cheese. 150 cal, 11g P, 21g C , 2.5 g F.

Meal 3 : Lunch and taco bowls are my favorite! 432 Cal, 35 g P, 37g C, 15g F

Recipe for taco bowls:

  • 6 oz ground turkey
  • 1/2 brown rice- I buy frozen brown rice from Trader Joe’s that you heat in microwave
  • 4 Tbsp Salsa
  • 1/2 c sliced peppers
  • 1/4 c green onions
  • 2 tbsp of taco seasoning

I brown the ground turkey then add the taco seasoning. Once done I mix the rice that I microwaved with the ground turkey and add the other ingredients as toppings.

Meal 4: 8 oz Carrots, 1 celery stalk, 2 tbsp black bean hummus : 140 cal, 5g P, 27g C, 2g F

Peppers are chopped ahead for either snacks or use in salads and stirfrys for later in the week. I try to chop ahead any veggies I can use in other meals so it is easy to throw together a meal.

For meal 5 I try not to have any additional carbs. I will either do a veggie stir fry or a salad with protein.

Since I have so much protein left for the day with the above meals I will do a steak since it has the most protein, but it is higher in fat with roasted vegetables. 489 Cal, 50 g P, 23g C, 22 g F.

The above day totals to 1499 Calories, 149 g P, 128 g C (some are veggies I didn’t do the adjustment), 54 g F .

When life gets hectic I like having already prepped meals. My favorite meal prep company is a local company in Indy, Herculean. Their meals are affordable, provide the macros and taste fantastic! My absolute favorite meal is the pulled pork, but the BBQ salmon is a close second.  I highly recommend going into the store front as the staff is wonderful and they have a lot of great merchandise. I really like the protein donuts and ice cream!

What are some of your favorite meal prep dishes?

XOXO,

Cecee

 

Adulting is HARD

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This past week was beyond rough! They say bad things happen in 3’s and I really hope I’m good for a while on the bad. To some of you who have been adulting longer some of my lessons you probably know and are laughing at me, but for others you’re welcome.

The week started with of with getting my washer repaired after last week the guy at Home Depot giving me adjustments over the phone didn’t work. I kept thinking I am going to end up on a radio station as that crazy girl since the guy told me to turn the dial 6 times to the left, now 3 to the right, 2 to the left and now you have to slam the lid 6 times within 12 seconds… and GO! Well, that didn’t work so let’s try it again. When it still didn’t work they sent a technician out on Monday to take a look. Apparently all that silliness worked to reset the sensors, but what I wasn’t prepared for is when the technician asked me when is that last time you washed the washing machine? I laughed and said excuse me ? Is that really a thing and if so never? He informed me these newer washers should be washed once a month with an Aafresh pod and not to do another load until I washed it. Who knew?! I polled a few of my friends and they didn’t know either.  Lesson for those of you who don’t know, if you have a newer washer you must wash it to prevent clogs and tripping of sensors. 

Tuesday at 2 AM Pippa woke me up to go out, which sadly she’s been doing a lot. Well, this time she started barking and of course my yelling for her didn’t stop her from going after whatever she was chasing so I had to go get a flash light. She was running really funny at an angle and chomping weird like she had something in her mouth and thought great she’s caught something again (she has caught and killed a squirrel in the yard). When I get to her to see what she has she collapsed and started having a seizure. I didn’t have my phone to time it so I just started counting and trying to let her know I was there and as soon as it stopped I saw blood in the snow with no idea where it was coming from so I wrapped her in a towel and off to the pet hospital. This is the 2nd seizure she has had and the first occurred in October 2017. The blood was coming from her paws as she cut and bruised herself while paddling in the rocks she collapsed in, which was easy to treat. At this point the only way to determine if it is epilepsy is to rule out if there is an infection or cancer in her brain and you do that with an MRI. The estimated cost is around $2,000 and all it would be doing is giving me information. Going forward I have to monitor the seizures and time them and if the frequency and severity increase then I will look at medication. My lesson pets are expensive and I love Pippa with all my heart, but knowing when to say no to the expenses and hope for the best is tough. 

Wednesday at 2:30 AM I wake up to sharp stomach pains and end up throwing up until 5:30 AM and sleeping on the bathroom floor. I have chills, body aches , nausea and a fever of 101.8. I spent most of the day in bed and thinking I would die. Thank goodness one of my best friends is a doctor and called me to let me know what I should do and when I should try to get into a doctor. I had been trying to sweat out my fever with a heated blanket on high and tons of layers, but that wasn’t working. Lesson learned always have Tylenol on hand as it is the best to reduce a fever and keep some Gatorade on hand for hydration and nausea. 

Not the most ideal way to drop weight, but hey I’ll take the 4lbs down!

Thursday my fever was finally broke, but I still had no energy and was so tired. I slept most of the day and around 8pm finally was feeling better and decided I needed to wash my bedding and get the germs out of the house. The Aafresh pods arrived from Amazon so I washed the washer and was ready to do a load of laundry so I did. While in the other room I suddenly hear a bubbling sound and run to the laundry room to find it flooded and water coming up out of the drain in the floor. At this point I am concerned of freezing temps to come and pipes freezing. I clean up the mess, then get under the crawl space to see if I see any leaks happening and I don’t. I then take a snake to the drain which didn’t seem to do anything so my last option is calling a plumber. I get added to list for a call back the next day. As you can imagine after being in bed for 2 days this was a lot of energy exhorted and I no longer felt good so it was back to bed. Lesson here I am glad that I had a snake to try to unclog the drain myself and that my dad had taught me these lessons already. 

Friday was waiting around for a plumber that I didn’t hear from until I got frustrated and called another service who responded and was to my house within an hour. For those of you not in Indy we had TERRIBLE weather of ice and snow on Friday so the fact of me calling at 4:15 and they arrived at my house at 5 was impressive beyond measure! If you need a plumber in the Indy area I would recommend Howald as they were fantastic.  I am grateful that Austin, the technician that came out tried other methods to check for the clog vs immediately using bigger equipment, which would have added $200 to the bill! All was good and no clog and thinks perhaps the fact my washer wasn’t used for a while or the suds from the aafresh pod could have created extra foam for the drain to bubble out more, but nothing was wrong. Lesson there is supposed to be some water in that drain and I really have no worry of the drain actually freezing. Also next time I wash my washer I am not going to immediately do a load of laundry.  I now have a preferred plumber to call. 

Adulting lesson that I feel like would make life easier is keeping a list of preferred contractors with their phone numbers handy as well as any warranty numbers and dates of warranty expiration.

This week was rough, but my weekend was very productive!

Time to finish meal prep for the week, which will be the topic of my next post.

Have a great week!

XOXO,

Cecee