It Keeps On Getting Better!

Last night I had a stress breakdown. It was 7:30pm, an hour after I ate my fifth meal, I had a headache, I was hungry, I had an econ paper to research and write, and I just realized that I did not have enough time on Tuesday to do office work with Mom, get my hair done at 1pm, write and research the paper, and be done with all of this by 5:30pm when Jeff would come over. I was flipping out and was ready to clean out the pantry of freshly baked (and still warm!) Toll House Valentine's Day cookies Mom just made and eat the whole bag of baked Doritos.

I decided to eat an Amy's Tofu Scramble pocket to curb the hunger pains and help with the carb craving. Unfortunately, it didn't do the trick and I was still stressing out. I had two Toll House cookies and a Fiber One bar. I figured the Fiber One bar was sweet, carby, and still semi-healthy. I was ready to dive into my third cookie when I stopped in my tracks and asked myself, "Will you feel any better after you swallow that last bite of cookie? Will this third cookie or any other food make the stress go away?" Nope! I'll just be more stressed out and unhappy if I continue with eating my stress away.

Luckily by this time it was 9pm and I was heading to bed soon so I figured out what damage I had done and was shocked to find I only sucked down 1700 calories for the day. My carbs were much higher than the low carb number I was shooting for, but I didn't do that much damage. I then proceeded to figure out what Saturday would look like with going to Bread Co. I plugged in all my meals for the day, including Bread Co., and was happy to find that I'd be sitting around 1530 calories. Amazing! I could eat at Bread Co. and do less damage than I did eating two cookies, a Fiber One bar, and the tofu scramble! haha So then I figured out that even with my stress out fix on Monday plus Saturday's extra amount and if I stick to my lower carb plans for the rest of the week (like planned), I'll be averaging a very nice caloric amount for the whole week! Still in BF loss mode! Yay!

And speaking of BF loss...down another pound today! I'm not exactly on track with where I'd like to be in the 12 week plan, but I'm heading in the right direction and I have to work with where I am, not where I think I should be. If I sit here and worry about, "Omg, I should be at XXX weight this week and I'm not!", I'm just going to self sabotage myself and create a freaking out, may as well give up mindset. And I have done that far too many times before and I'm going to step out and prevent myself from doing it again.

And more good news, went to the spinal doc yesterday. I told her about my Siatica bothering me and she asked if I felt any numbness or tingling in my legs or feet. I said no (thank you baby Jesus!) and she was relieved to hear that. She said my options were: live with the pain (we both said no thank you to this!), take anti-inflamatories (which I've done and don't do a thing), go back to physical therapy (which has helped but not as much as the injections), or do another round of injections in a different spot. I opted for the injections again. I have an apt. set up for Feb. 23rd at 9:20am to get them.

Only problem is, I have an Econ exam that afternoon and per her orders, I cannot sit more than 30 minutes that day (plus I'm in too much pain from them to sit that long) and I have to ice it 15 min. on and 15 min. off the whole day. I have to talk to my Econ professor tomorrow to see if he'll let me take the exam prior to or after the scheduled date. He's a very nice guy so I'm thinking that he'll let me do that. Otherwise I can either (a) make sure I get done in 30 minutes (I usually cannot focus on any exam more than this amount of time anyways lol), walk around after 30 minutes, press through the 30 minutes of sitting, or reschedule my injection apt.

Rescheduling is going to be a pain if I have to resort to that because it's hard to get an injection apt. with my doc. She only does it certain days of the week at certain times and at the certain location I want to see her at. Plus, I have to have Mom go with me because I am not allowed to drive home. Why I can't, idk. I'm a little sore immediately after but worse as the day goes on.

I could also press through the 30 min. of sitting because last time I got the injections, Jeff and I had to drive back to Columbia, MO that same day. That's a 2 1/2 hour drive. We always stopped at a gas station (because I pee like every hour with the amount of water I consume lol) after an hour so I sat a full 60 minutes twice that day and I lived :o) But I'm still going to ask my prof. if I can take it a different day just so I don't have to worry about all that sitting.

Plans for today:
CARDIO: Tae Bo Core Express with the Amped bar--done!
TRAINING: OFF
MEALS: low carbing it

HOLY Carbs Batman!!!

I knew the carb/calorie amount was vvv high in the sourdough soup bread bowl from Panera Bread, but I forgot they were this high!!!! I used to eat those with the chix noodle soup every day like 7 years ago. I had no idea about proper nurition and nutrition information then. So I haven't had one of these in about 6 years and Jeff and I thought, what a good place to go for Valentine's Day dinner! It won't be crowded, we won't have to dress up (thank goodness he thinks I still look hot--his words, not mine--in jeans and a white t-shirt), and it won't be expensive. I was going to cook something for us but how romantic is it to sit and eat at home with the whole family here?! Well, not like Bread Co. is that much more romantic but at least it'll be more quiet than my house haha

Okay, so here are the facts on that God awful, but SO good, bread bowl:

590 Calories
2.5g Fat (just lovely if you're going for the "fat free" diet haha)
117g Carbs
4g Fiber
22g Protein (in bread! who knew?!)

Now for the chix noodle soup:

100 Calories
2g Fat
16g Carbs
1g Fiber
6g Protein

Now how many poor people are out there sucking these down left and right like I was, when they have no idea they're eating so many calories and carbs!? At least there is a good amount of protein in it, I'll give Bread Co. that. But it's going to be my Valentine's Day/Carb Up/Treat Meal of the week so I'm going to enjoy the heck outta it! Now to stay on, on, on my macros the rest of this week :o) I can do it, no fear!

Another early Monday, but today I get to skip school...to go to the back doctor's. I don't know if that will be worth it. I'm kinda worried about what she's going to tell me. Either more injections (in a different spot) or who knows what? She said originally she never saw anything that needed surgery so that makes me hopeful that she won't suggest it now. The only issue with injections is that they make me hurt so bad afterward for a day or two. That and last time she put me on the steroid pack right after so I didn't hurt as bad after the injections (which did help I think), but they made me so sick to my stomach that just looking at food made me want to vomit. They also made me very tired/lethargic and uber bitchy! Talk about an extra week of PMS throughout the month! haha So we'll see what she says at 1:15pm.

Eats were GREAT yesterday. I started rotating carbs yesterday and I'll do 5 days of lower carbs then carb up two days a week (one of which will be Valentine's Day--which will be higher than the carb amount I'm aiming for but it's V-Day!). My fear was that I was going to be hungry and want more carbs yesterday but I was very content with all my meals and only got hungry after breakfast, before church. I think I'm going to start eating oatmeal with pp for breakfast on Sunday's because egg whites with a Thomas Light English muffin just is not sticking with me for 3-4 hours. By the time I eat, shower, get ready, go to church, and get home, it's been 4 hours. So next week we'll try oatmeal.

Today's eats are all planned and carbs are right where they should be. I need to get my protein levels up some because my calories are a tad too low. Today's plan is just cardio but I had to switch up this week with next week. I was going to do the whole Boot Camp Elite series this week but since both sets of my Tae Bo bands broke last week I have to do the Amped series this week with the Amped bar. I ordered a new set of bands last week on Friday so hopefully they'll be here by this Friday! I'm so sad that they don't make the original black bands that came with the original Boot Camp series :o( I like them better than the newer red swivel bands that have the included 1lb hand weights. The black one's seemed to last much longer. Oh well, at least I'll have a set!

Meals for the day:
Pre-Cardio: corn thins, cashew butter; BCAAs; Glut./tea
CARDIO
Post-Cardio: whey, WF choc syrup, stevia; 1 ser. HG’s Big Apple French Toast
M1: Oxygen’s PB Fudge bar
M2: Thomas Light Eng Muffin, EW, ff slice cheese; Blue Bunny NSA yogurt
M3: Atkins p-cake mix, EW, NSA applesauce, WF p-cake syrup
M4: EW, BSN LD, Splenda Granular

I whipped up the Hungry Girl's Big Apple French Toast yesterday and it is very good!!!! Here's the recipe. PS, I highly recommend her book of recipes but be sure to still check out the recipes on her site because not all of them are in the book and vise versa. Also, when I made it my macros came out a bit lower, which = yay! more food for less calories!:

The Big Apple French Toast Casserole

PER SERVING (one 4-inch square, about 1 cup): 204 calories, 4.25g fat, 577mg sodium, 30g carbs, 6g fiber, 8.5g sugars, 16.5g protein -- POINTS® value 4*

AHHHHHHHHHHH! Is it breakfast or dessert? This decadent morning-meal recipe is SO easy and ridiculously delicious. PLEASE make it ASAP. You'll FLIP!

Ingredients:
8 slices light bread (40 - 45 calories each with around 2g fiber per slice), cut into cubes
4 oz. fat-free cream cheese, room temperature
1 medium apple (preferably Fuji), peeled and diced
1 1/4 cups light vanilla soymilk
1 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute (like Egg Beaters Original)
2 tbsp. sugar-free pancake syrup
2 tbsp. light whipped butter or light buttery spread (like Brummel & Brown), melted
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 no-calorie sweetener packet (like Splenda), or more to taste
Optional: additional sugar-free pancake syrup, for dipping

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray an 8-inch by 8-inch baking dish with nonstick spray. Place bread cubes evenly along the bottom of the dish.

Sprinkle diced apple evenly over the bread.

In a medium-large bowl, combine all other ingredients (cream cheese, soymilk, egg substitute, syrup, butter, cinnamon, and sweetener). If you like your French toast pretty sweet, add an extra packet of sweetener. Using a handheld electric mixer set to medium speed, mix until lump-free and smooth. Pour mixture over the bread and apple.

Make sure bread is soaked in the liquid mixture. If needed, toss lightly to coat.

Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes, until egg mixture is pretty firm and cooked through. (Be sure not to overcook, as bread may burn.) Let cool slightly and cut into quarters. If you like, serve with additional syrup for dipping. Dig in!

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

And here is the Oxygen Peanut Butter Bar recipe (sorry if I already posted, I don't remember):

Oxygen’s Peanut Butter Fudge Bars

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:
120g BSN Lean Dessert chocolate protein powder
1.3oz flax meal
42g peanut butter
1/4 cup water (add more if needed)
Stevia or Splenda to taste

DIRECTIONS:

• Mix all ingredients in large bowl and stir. Add 1TB of water at a time, if needed.
• Cut 4 pieces of saran wrap or snack size plastic baggies. Spoon ~74g onto/in each piece of wrapping. Shape them once they are sealed up.
• Store the bars in the fridge or freezer. You can eat them chilled, frozen, or even right out of the bowl.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:
(per 296g total weight; 74g each piece)

214 CALS
11.4g FAT
10.8g CARBS
22g PR

And I made some "Cutting" Bars that are amazing!!!! I've used BSN Lean Dessert chocolate flavor before and this time I used Beverly International Ultimate Muscle Protein Cookie & Creams flavor which was great as well:

"Cutting" Bars
Serves 12

Combine in large (Make sure it's very large! I had to change bowls and talk about a gooey mess!) bowl:

8 scoops whey
8oz dry (not instant) oats-can grind into a flour-like mixture if want
1 package (large box) Sugar Free Fat Free Instant Pudding mix (any flavor is good, I use the flavor that will go well with my pp)
18oz unsweetened soy or almond milk
2 cups water (this is optional. I found I had to add it because my batter wasn't wet enough)

Mix until a sticky batter is formed (may take a few minutes). Use a large spoon to spread out the mixture into the bottom of a PAM-sprayed glass or metal casserole dish. I like to use a 4 quart oblong one) and spread til even. Put in the fridge or freezer overnight and cut into 12 equal bars. I then took each bar out and wrapped it individually in saran wrap and put them all in a freezer bag--takes up much less space and they're ready to grab 'n go when needed.

MACROS per bar (will differ depending on the type of pp you use):
177 Calories
3.6g Fat
20g Carbs
16.5g Protein

TGIF!

TGIF! Not like I really had a lot on my plate this week anyways ;o) Although I do have a 3 page Econ paper to write this Sunday. That's bound to be super fun! Not much going on right now or this weekend. Things are going good, eating is good, clothes are fitting very nicely and looser :o) Even though two of my days were off this week because I ended up not being able to sleep and had an extra meal each night, I figured out what my macros should be for the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday so I can keep my total average for the week in "body fat loss" mode! Yay!

Instead of going out to dinner for our date night on Saturday I'm making Chix Parmesan for us and for the family. Mom raves over it and I haven't made it this week yet (yes, she likes it at least once a week--what kind of monster have I created?! haha) and Jeff has yet to try it. Also, when I asked for his request for Saturday he said chix and some kind of pasta, so Chix Paremesan it is! It's a very quick and easy recipe to fix.

Here's the recipe:

Chicken Parmesan

Serves 2

6oz chix
4oz No sugar added pasta sauce (Rague Light Tomato & Basil is great)
3oz Kraft Fat Free Shredded Mozzarella cheese
0.6oz Kraft Reduced Fat Parmesan Cheese topping
2oz pasta (weigh dry) (Annie Chun’s Soba Noodles are good)

Cook pasta according to directions.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Spray skillet with PAM and brown chix. When done take it out of the pan and place chix in baking dish.

Spoon pasta sauce over chix. Then top with mozzarella cheese.

Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.

Put into oven for about 25 min. It’s done when cheese is melted.

Spoon on top of the pasta and serve.

MACROS per serving:
Calories 296
PR 37.3
Carbs 28.6
F 3.1


Today's plan consists of Tae Bo early this AM then training this early afternoon so I'll be done with everything by 2pm for my massage. I have a massage with the lady who used to work at the chiropracters so hopefully she'll be able to give me somewhat of an adjustment and loosen me up like she did last time.


2/6/09: CARDIO, TRAINING; LOW
Pre-Cardio: corn thins, cashew macadamia pb, BCAAs, Glut
CARDIO
Post-Cardio/PreWO: wey, WF choc syrup, stevia, coffee, Glut; Genie’s Apple Loaf; BCAAs
TRAINING
PWO: whey, stevia, Glut.; sweet potato
M1: (HG’s Chix Lo Mein) 1 bag tofu noodles, chix, snow peas, carrots, cornstarch, soy sauce, Splenda pkt, chix broth
M2: Thomas Light Eng Muffin, EW, ff slice cheese, Bluebunny NSA yogurt
M3: EW, BSN LD, almonds, Splenda Granular

Is a Treat Meal Really a "Treat"?

I decided (yes, I actually thought before I acted) to let myself have a treat meal mid-week. I had a turkey sandwich with a slice of fat free cheese, some baked Doritos, and a pop-tart. My little brother has Strawberry Milkshake ones and they are to DIE for! Heck, any pop-tart, fresh or stale, is gold in my book! haha

I finished eating about 15 min. ago and my tummy is in the process of blowing up like balloon! I cannot believe how touchy I'm getting to processed foods. I also feel kinda sick to my stomach and I'm really regretting eating that before bed. I need to go lay down and get to sleep within the next hour and I feel awful! I hear TUMS calling my name.

The reason I let myself have this treat meal mid-week instead of on my usual Saturday night is that I was so happy and proud of the progress and fat loss I have made so far. I'm kinda shocked that I'm losing BF considering how off my eats were last week. I know what caloric range I need to eat at to drop BF and I was probably hovering right around that number last week but I'm still shocked I'm seeing changes--a good shock that is! ;o)

Off to bed to get rested for two classes tomorrow and training in between!

Another early day and early workout! Just finished my corn thins with cinnamon raisin peanut butter--yummy! I'm trying to figure out why I woke up bloated like a fish?? My belly looks like I sucked down a bag of candy with sugar alcohols! WTH is with that?? It feels all full of air and gas moving around too. I've come to realize that if anything weird could possibly happen to my body, it will haha

Today consists of nothing too exciting: Tae Bo workout, shower/get ready, go to Jeff's to pick up a book I'm taking to the post office for him, going to the post office, then home to do more office work with Mom. Jeff's coming over this evening and I'm making Caribbean Rum Chix with Asparagus Parmesan. I've made the chix reicpe before and it's quite good. The asparaugs is a new recipe but I always love me some asparaugs so I'm sure it'll be good. I'm also whipping up some peanut butter fudge protein bars this morning. I've noticed that since this pb recall has grown, I've been eating more pb haha

Meals for the day:
Pre-Cardio: corn thins, cinn raisin pb, BCAAs, coffee/almond milk/stevia, Glut.
CARDIO
Post-Cardio: Essen Nutri whey, WF choc syrup, stevia, Glut, BCAAs
M1: instant oats, EW, BSN LD, stevia
M2: Thomas Light English Muffin, EW, ff slice cheese, Blue Bunny yogurt
M3: Caribbean Rum Chix, Asparagus Parmesan, sf fudgesicle
M4: Peanut Butter Fudge bar
? M5: BSN LD, EW, Splenda Granular

CARDIO: ON- doing the original BootCamp series this week
TRAINING: OFF
MEALS: Low

The Early Bird Catches The Worm

I decided to try something new this week. I decided to get up at 6am so I could get a Tae Bo session in before Econ class at 12:30pm and then I can still get a training session in when I come home after class. I get up at 6am for church on Sunday's and I am a super morning person (especially early AM), so I thought, why not use that time? The only time I'm not a morning person is when I get little sleep. But I'm still taking the 5-HTP along with two Melatonin about an hour before bed and I'm sleeping like a baby!

The cardio session today was fabulous! I did Fat Blasting Cardio that uses the black bands (the first ever Tae Bo dvd I did!) and it was a kick butt workout! Super high energy and felt great! I think having a very light pre-cardio meal really helped out too. Instead of having something like oatmeal with pp or an English muffin with eggwhites and cheese, I had some corn thins and peanut butter. Yes, I'm still sucking down pb and pb prodcuts despite the recalls. All my products are (so far!) okay and I've been eating out of the same pb jar for about 6 months and I'm not sick yet haha But I am convinced a very light meal pre-cardio helps because I don't feel full or "weighed down" by a heavier gut feeling and I don't burp it up (I get heartburn very easily during cardio if I don't watch what I eat).

It's a good thing I did my cardio this AM because this afternoon my Planter Fasciitis is acting up again. I've been wearing my wrap for the past two days and worn my good New Balance's most of the day yesterday. I called my podiatrist this afternoon to get a new wrap because mine's getting gross from wearing it during workouts and the nurse said he may want to see me again since it's still bothering me--ugh. I feel like I spend so much time at all these doctor's! Watch him tell me that I need cortisone injections in my foot. Lord please no! Getting them in my spine is fine because she numbs me first, but for foot ones they don't numb you and I heard those suckers hurt! Although I think I'd take that pain before stopping Tae Bo for awhile while it heals. I'll take the pain of a shot before I'll quit Tae Bo! ;o)

I just finished my preWO meal of Genie's Apple Loaf (you can find the recipe on her blog: Third Wish) and some whey. I have to say, I was very reluctant to try her loaf because it has no pp in it, just EW. Every loaf I've ever made has had pp in it and I thought it was going to taste very eggy but it's quite good! Very filling! I'm making more of them tonight to keep on hand thoughout the week.

Let's see...I think that's it for now. Meals for yesterday and today have been ON. It really helps planning meals the day before. I'm so Type A anyways that I love schedules and plans so I don't mind it. I actually find it quite comforting to have my meals all planned out so I don't have to wing it throughout the day or come to realize at 7pm that I've used all my macros up for the day.

Wrap up for the day:
CARDIO: ON
TRAINING: ON- FB
MEALS: ON-MEDIUM

Pre-Cardio: corn thins, pb, BCAAs, coffee/almond milk/stevia/Glut.
CARDIO
Post-Cardio: (whey shake) Essen Nutri whey, Glut, WF choc syrup, stevia
M1: 1/2 Pure Protein Choc PB bar (didn't realize it had pb in it til right after I swallowed the last bite lol)
PreWO: Genie’s Apple Loaf, BCAAs, Essen Nutri whey, Glut
TRAINING
PWO: sweet potato, (whey shake) Essen Nutri whey, WF choc syrup
M2: (HG’s Chix Lo Mein) 1 bag tofu noodles, 3oz chix, 85g snow peas, 4.5oz carrots, 3/4 tsp cornstarch, 1TB soy sauce, Splenda pkt, 1/8c chix broth; sf fudgesicle
M3: (whey cake) BSN LD, EW, almonds, Splenda Granular