21-Day Fix, Day 3: Temptation at Target

Be better than your excuses

Autumn threw out this one-liner during the workout and I thought it fit today perfectly. Day 3 has the potential to be a day full of excuses- I’m very sore and its raining outside- a great excuse to trade my workout for a nap. In addition, we have community group at church tonight, which means we need a quick dinner. This would be a great excuse to grab fast food, but its time for me to be better than my excuses. I put a meal in the crockpot this morning that will be ready to eat before group.

DAY 3 WORKOUT: LOWER FIX

I think the word pain is an understatement. I could hardly walk up or down my staircase today before this, so the prognosis for walking the rest of the day looks dismal. But I felt really good about this workout. Nearly 10 years ago, I had a knee injury and subsequent surgery and my left knee/quad has never been the same since. To this day, my left quad is still a good 1-2 inches smaller than my right. Typically, I would have made an excuse to cheat some of the exercises in this workout for the sake of my weak knee- but its time to be better than my excuses. It’s been 10 freakin’ years for crying out loud. My knee can handle more than what I give it credit for. My body can handle more than I think. The exercises in this workout are exactly what I need to do to finally re-strengthen my knee/quad back to what it used to be. This workout was like knee physical therapy on crack. It hurt, but it was a good hurt.  I am very encouraged by this!

DAY 3: FOOD REVIEW

Same breakfast as yesterday, minus the fruit because I was saving that to make a chocolate-strawberry shakeology…which was sooo good, it was almost like drinking a milkshake.

For snack, I had raw broccoli and an orange container of creamy herb dip I whipped up yesterday using a recipe from the book. Honestly, I didn’t really like the dip, and I’m a big fan of dips. I think it could be better using a different herb: The recipe gives you a choice of fresh herbs to use, and I only had parsley, so that’s what I used. Maybe I will try it again with fresh dill and see if it tastes closer to ranch.

For dinner, I made apple-cayenne pork loin. I’ve made this before- so easy, so few ingredients: pork, cayenne pepper, and apple butter. However, I don’t think apple butter is an approved Fix Food, mainly because of the sugar and processed aspects of it, so I gave it a whirl substituting the apple butter with unsweetened applesauce. I also threw in some chopped onions and mushrooms for flavor and vegetable content. This didn’t turn out so well. Completely flavorless. But, it did have great texture, which I think I can attribute to the applesauce. So, I got creative in how to rescue the meal. Because I cooked the pork loin in the CrockPot all day, it easily shredded into pulled pork. So I added some more cayenne, garlic powder and onion powder, along with yellow mustard and red wine vinegar (mustard and vinegar are “free” foods”). So, I was able to create my own mustard-vinegar hybrid barbeque sauce without any added sugar or salt…and it tasted so good! Serve it on a whole wheat deli round with some unsweet tea and greens and there’s a (modified) southern dinner for ya! By the way, a lot of pulled pork fits into a red container- I was very full! Great way to maximize your red serving.

OTHER THOUGHTS

I feel like I’m starting to learn the difference between just wanting something to eat and actually being hungry. Like today, I had just finished my Shakeology when I was making Anniston lunch, and I really wanted to eat too- wasn’t hungry, just had food on my mind and literally in front of my face.

Later, I walked into Super Target to buy weights and a yoga mat and the first thing I see is a display full of St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes. I don’t really even like store-bought cupcakes, but it was a struggle to push the cart right past them. Oh, and then the women in front of me in the checkout lane spent $290 on all sorts of quality food like Cinnamon Toast Crunch and four 12-packs of Dr. Pepper, and she was skinny as a rail. So this made me *slightly* jealous and angry because I’m over here measuring teaspoons of olive oil. But whatever, I won’t hate on you Target lady, I’m doing this 21-Day Fix for me, because its time to change…and because its time for me to be better than my excuses.