Clean Eating in Week 3 & Interval Workouts

Food:

This week has been great! I've been staying on top of meal prep & I'm putting in good workouts at the gym! I've enjoyed so many of the recipes this week.  Here's some quiche and oatmeal breakfast:

And some white fish plus veggie dishes:

The red stuff in that second fish picture is homemade Sun-dried Tomato Pesto.  I LOVE sun-dried tomatoes! The pesto is super flavorful and, unlike most stuff that comes in a jar, I know exactly what went into it.  The hubby approves and went back for more and we still have plenty left over:

Workouts:

I love lifting weights but I know that cardio exercises are beneficial too so I've brought interval training back into my workouts this week!  At first I was intimidated to get back to interval training.  When I think of HIIT I usually imagine myself looking totally crazy & flinging sweat at people from the elliptical while something like this goes down:

Warm up for 5 minutes.

Speed Burst	Easy-Pace Recovery
4 minutes	4 minutes
3 minutes	3 minutes
2 minutes	2 minutes
1 minute	1 minute

Blast off!
Speed Burst	Easy-Pace Recovery
30 seconds	1 minute
30 seconds	1 minute
30 seconds	1 minute
30 seconds	1 minute

Cool down for 4 minutes.

That particular HIIT workout is straight from May 9th of the beautiful Bella Falconi's website: http://vitaflexlifestyle.blog.com/category/cardio/  This is an effective workout, but...

I know there are other ways to get a good interval workout & the hubby is not comfortable with going full-speed (or any speed?) on an elliptical so I've been looking for new interval workouts to change things up. Here is another completely different interval workout that I like & that is almost guaranteed to leave you feeling sore the next day:

For each exercise, do 30 seconds of activity going all-out followed by one minute of rest (walking):

Split Jump Squat
High Knees
Jump Squat
Jump Rope
Squat Jacks

If you go through each of these activities twice you'll have a nice 15 minute sweat session.  Try it and let me know how you feel the next day.

All Mind

There is one thing I need to keep strong if I want to succeed in properly caring for my body and that is my MIND.

I mentally/emotionally crashed during week two & it negatively affected my ability to stay on track with my health and fitness goals.  Long story short: Although I've been searching for a job for months now and I've interviewed for a few positions, there was one position that I really wanted above all the others all along.  Last week I had my final round of interviews for the position and I mentally cracked under the stress. I BARELY slept two nights in a row and just completely lost my ability to focus & function properly.  Even people with great faith sometimes have moments of doubt.  Even people who have a great support system can crumble.  I got the job.  My dream that I worked & prayed for came true.  However, the process of interviewing, waiting to hear back, thinking through all the possibilities for too long just made me snap.  This isn't the end though - I'm not giving up on the meal plan.  I was down but now I've picked myself back up and I'm ready to move forward full force!  I am absolutely committed to giving my health and my body the care and attention they deserve to finish this meal plan with a bang!

My sweet love's diet has been on point and he made more progress in week two!  Here are his stats:


Ryan:
Day 1: Weight- 188.4 / Body Fat- 17.1
Day 7: Weight- 181.8 / Body Fat- 15.8
Day 14: Weight- 179.2 / Body Fat- 15.1

I am so impressed with how committed Ryan has been to the meal plan, as well as exercise, and how positive his attitude has been about the whole thing.  It's crazy to me how much his body has changed!  I'll put my arm around Ryan and his core just feels so solid and different from before.  He is definitely working hard and undergoing a major transformation.  It is most definitely worth the time & effort I put into the grocery shopping and meal prep to see him carry himself more confidently and to know that his health is improving.

I'll post some food pics & workouts soon but for now, I'm going to take good care of myself and Get To Bed!

Smoothie Prep!

Alright y'all, prepping smoothies takes time.  The meal plan I'm on provides for many home-cooked meals and as part of the meal plan I have to prep one green smoothie PER DAY. Last week my mornings went like this:

1) First get all your ingredients on hand,
2) Then wash everything,
3) Chop the choppables,
4) Peel the peelables,
5) Juice the juicables...

Prepping smoothies after prepping breakfast and before Ryan leaves at 8am each day has had me running around too much in the mornings so I've streamlined my smoothie prep.  I get everything out, ready, packaged up ready to blend for the next few days all in one evening.  Two evening smoothie preps are much less chaotic than five morning smoothie preps!  I'm looking forward to less-chaotic mornings this week!

Here's how smoothie prep looked tonight:

Top left: all the dry ingredients: leafy greens, herbs, hemp hearts, edamame, etc.
Top right: foil layer to separate wet from dry.
Bottom left: wet (juicy) ingredients: apple slices, strawberries, blueberries, orange, etc.
Bottom right: the final product!! Now all I have to do is toss all that in the blender with some water/almond milk/or other liquid and my smoothie is ready to go!!  This container has enough for one smoothie for me and one smoothie for the hubbyman.  If you're not comfortable joining the wet and dry ingredients together, just skip the foil layer and put the wet and dry ingredients in separate containers!  Like so:

Top:

Bottom:

All together now:
In case you're wondering, I will use the juice from that lemon, I don't blend lemon peel into the smoothie.

Yum!  I could totally go for a green smoothie right now!

Week 1 Update!

Ryan & I survived the first week of our meal plan!!
Having completed the plan before, I went in knowing what to expect and handled the first week as well as can be expected. Ryan, however, is new to the system so he definitely went through an adjustment period during the first few days of following the meal plan.  First, he isn't used to eating so many meals a day. Prior to starting the plan, he was eating three larger meals a day and he is now eating five smaller meals a day.  He has figured out how to time them to his schedule and has done a good job of eating all his meals.  Second, it was the second day of the meal plan before I realized that different portion sizes are suggested for men & women so poor Ryan didn't eat enough food during the first day! As soon as I figured out the information about portion sizes I adjusted his serving sizes accordingly.  Even then, Ryan's body is used to fewer but larger meals so his body was adjusting for about three days before it was accepting that it would receive the smaller more frequent meals.

Although we have followed the plan for the vast majority of our meals, we have made some exceptions.  The meal plan Allows for "cheat meals" so we used one of those for a mother's day celebration but we had an additional sushi cheat (not bad for a cheat) for our other mother's day celebration (we can't just celebrate one mom!) and Ryan enjoyed a small cheat for his birthday celebration at work.  Overall we stuck to the plan & we're already seeing some results.  Without even stepping on the scale, we noticed that Ryan's body was changing because he went in a notch on his belt!  Our body fat stats are as follows:

Ryan:
Day 1: Weight- 188.4 / Body Fat- 17.1
Day 7: Weight- 181.8 / Body Fat- 15.8

Rocio:
Day 1: Weight- 130.0 / Body Fat- 23.2
Day 7: Weight- 126.2 / Body Fat- 22.3

Ryan tells me he hasn't weighed 180 since "highschool maybe freshman year in college" so we might be going back in time here.  WE WILL NOT SEE RESULTS LIKE THESE EVERY WEEK.  The results the first week are more dramatic than other weeks in part because of loss of water weight (due mostly to inflammation from eating processed food) & in part because your metabolism responds to the change in diet.  Of course, this isn't all diet either - Ryan & are back on track with workouts which include multiple cardio sessions and strength training sessions each week.  I suspect that some weeks we may even put on some weight because of increased muscle mass - this is one of the reasons I like having a scale that tracks body fat -  body fat can definitely go down while the number on the scale goes up!  It is difficult to lose weight without losing significant muscle mass but it can be done.  I don't have a target weight or target body fat that I am working towards, instead, I'm just focusing on my overall health.  I hadn't had abdominal pain in a long time but definitely started experiencing some after my two week binge.  Thankfully, that pain has faded away & I'm feeling great again!

Some of the food we ate:
Top left: Daily mid-morning snack- green smoothie- two new recipes per week.
Bottom left: Breakfast usually includes eggs with toast or french toast (wheat/gluten-free) plus bacon.
Top & bottom right: Dinners are always high protein- here we have salmon plus asparagus & some fire roasted tomato turkey soup.

I'm really excited to be taking on this meal plan with my Hubby.  I love that he consistently pushes himself harder.  Earlier this week he approached me with a serious face & for a moment I was worried about what he was about to say...but then he said he wants to increase the number of times we hit the gym each week.  What?!  He wants to go up beyond his usual three strength training sessions per week!  I love it!  I love that he's getting something positive out of having an active healthy lifestyle and that he wants to push himself even harder!  It definitely helps me stay on track when I can rely on him to eat well & work out consistently with me.

It begins!

So, Mr. Gosewehr & I have started the four week Betty Rocker meal plan! I'm so excited!  We took photos and wrote down our body composition stats and I'm super excited to post weekly updates on our progress.

Now the less exciting: I'm just going to go ahead and tell you that following a meal plan like this will inevitably lead to criticism from others.  I don't know if its that people feel uncomfortable knowing they couldn't be disciplined enough to follow the plan or they compare their body to yours and wonder why you aren't satisfied or...God only knows what the heck is going on but people will Criticize you, ask Questions, tell you about Fad diets that worked better, accuse you of eating All the time (5 small meals per day people), push Free food on you, and in various other ways try to divert you from your plan. It's going to happen. Stay strong. Suck it up. Deal with it. Your results will speak for themselves.

Here are some photos of a couple of things I've prepared so far!

I had poured the first breakfast into a loaf ban for baking in the oven but my oven BROKE!  I wasn't about to throw perfectly good food away so I tossed the contents from the loaf pan into a stove-top pan and made an omelette - a squiggly strange but delicious tomato, kale, chard, spinach & egg omelette.

I looked through the plan for the week and realized there was one meal that the Hubby can't eat because it contains shrimp...so I found a shrimp substitute and prepped the meal :-)  During my search for a shrimp substitute I learned that shrimp and scallops have about the same carb/fat/protein ratio, protein quality and a similar nutrient balance.  How bout that.  The scallops were super tasty too.  I used fitmencook's simple and clean scallop recipe from here: http://fitmencook.com/post/49214330851/giant-scallops-black-beans-brussels-sprouts and prepared the rest of the meal as per the Body Fuel System with quinoa, the kale/chard/spinach mix and some pesto.

I actually found a package of "Power Greens" at Market Street that contained a mix of kale, chard & spinach all mixed together.  Considering how often I'll be using a mix of greens in my smoothies and salads, this is ideal!!  Having one container with mixed greens takes up much less space in the fridge as compared with three separate containers. #fridgetoofull #firstworldproblems

That's just a tiny sampling of all the whole real unprocessed unrefined foods going down here at the Gosewehr residence y'all.  I hope y'all have a great weekend!

Fit Couple!!

First, the rant:

People, if you want to get healthy & fit you are going to have to work for it.  In order to become fit, you're going to have to make good choices about what you eat and you're going to need regular physical activity.  Now that I'm getting more and more into the fitness community I've really realized that the only key to a lean toned body that can perform well is a clean diet and consistent exercise.  Granted, different levels of strictness and different activities work better for different people but if want strength, a healthy heart and good health, you're going to have to earn it.

So many people will try to sell you a magic pill, powder, cleanse etc. to change your body but that stuff does not work.  You may see some short term effects in your energy levels or in weight loss but these things are not sustainable and they usually bring more health RISKS than BENEFITS.

Being part of a large fit community, I've now seen pictures of people I know being used without permission to sell products that these people have never used in their life.  Let's stop and think about that.  If someone needs to STEAL pictures of other people's progress, weight loss, chiseled abs to SELL you a product, what reason do you have to believe their product will BE EFFECTIVE.  If they can't get REAL before and after photos from people who actually USED their product, and they have to resort to TAKING photos from people who have WORKED their tush off and who are super DISCIPLINED and tout that as the results you can get from their magic pill, why in the world would their product actually work.  It's disgusting.  It undermines the hard work that these people who have their pictures stolen have actually put in to changing their bodies and it sells you a lie for profit.  You are lied to about what will happen if you use a product and you're lied to in order to make a buck.  Ugh.

Ok, now the excitement:

I strive to maintain an all-natural approach in accomplishing my goals.  Like I've said in previous posts, much of the appeal in going paleo is that it is a diet based on whole real foods.  With that in mind, health products that I think are worth buying are those that help me get on track in my activity levels and those that guide me through eating whole healthy foods.  

I bought a book from The Betty Rocker a few months back that contains lots of tips relating to diet - the book includes information regarding how to limit processed/added sugar, how to incorporate fats, carbs & proteins into all meals, pages upon pages of recipes, etc.  There are no gimmicks, there is no starving, there is no calorie counting - it is just a book to guide you through eating a variety of natural foods that fuel your body for exercise and help you lean out in the process.  I followed the instructions from this book for about 4 weeks earlier this year and saw great results.  I am super excited to go back to strictly following the guidelines set out in this book WITH MY HUBBY starting tomorrow!  Ryan consistently progresses and pushes himself in new ways to accomplish new goals.  He saw the results I achieved following Betty Rocker's fuel system and he is now going to dive in with me.  I am super excited to see his results!!  For the next few weeks, I'll be posting updates about some of the recipes we try, the progress we are making, and maybe (if he let's me!! hopefully!!) some progress shots.

Here is a link to Betty Rocker's website: http://thebettyrocker.com/

I'll be honest - I put on some weight being unemployed and put on more weight going to Spain for a long vacation.  I ate processed sugar, so many more processed white carbs and drank much more alcohol than usual during my long vacay but I am so ready to get back on track & push my body to new levels.  My body fat went from 21.3% immediately after being laid off to 22.9% today.  I'm ready to get back on track and lean out!  Let's do this!!