Oats & Honey Granola Bars

I always love discovering new recipes and converting them to healthy, clean options.

Last week, I found this gem in Parents magazine, changed it up a bit, and created a batch of granola bars that my husband has been raving about for a week now! So, I figured I would share them with you!

Tip: Make them on a Sunday, so they will be fresh for breakfasts or snacks during the week. They will stay fresh for 5-7 days.

Yield: 16 bars or 32 squares

21-Day Fix Portions: 1 yellow substitute

Ingredients

• 4 cups old-fashioned oats
• ¼ cup whole wheat flour
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼- ½ cup of dried fruit of choice (raisins, cranberries, etc- look for the no sugar added varieties) OR nut of choice (chopped) OR mini semi-sweet chocolate chips OR a combination of any of those options (personalize them for what you like!
• ½ cup coconut oil (melted, but not hot)
• ½ cup honey
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. In a large bowl combine oats, flour, salt, and choice of toppings
3. In a separate bowl, combine coconut oil, honey, and vanilla (Tip: Measure and add the oil before the honey- the remaining oil on your measuring cup will prevent the honey from sticking, making sure you get all of it in your bowl)
4. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix well.
5. Press mixture into a 13x9 pan lined with wax/parchment paper
6. Bake for 30-40 minutes (or until golden brown)
7. Allow to cool completely before cutting into these (very important)

Whole Wheat Banana Muffins

Third time’s a charm right?

I've redone this recipe 3 times now in the past year as I've progressed in my journey to a healthier me. The original muffin recipe I shared on this blog back in 2013 included sour cream, cream cheese, white sugar, and white flour. I tried to get healthier around the start of the new year on my own, and made a few modifications to this recipe then. Now, after being involved in Beachbody programs and educating myself further on healthy, clean eating, I decided to revamp this recipe once again, and I think it turned out great.

Yield: 2 Dozen

Serving Size: 1 Muffin

21 Day Fix Portion (per muffin): 1 Yellow

Ingredients:

• ½ cup honey
• 1 stick organic, unsalted butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 3- 4 bananas
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3 tbsp plain, nonfat greek yogurt
• 1 cup white whole wheat flour (I found this at Walmart. Gold Medal brand)

Directions

1.      Preheat oven to 350

2.      Cream butter, honey, and eggs

3.      Mash bananas and beat into mixture

4.      In a separate bowl, stir baking soda and salt into greek yogurt (as you stir, it might fizz a little and turn into the consistency of mousse)

5.      Add greek yogurt mixture into muffin batter and mix well.

6.      Gradually add in flour. Stir until completely blended.

7.      Line 2 muffin trays with paper cupcake/muffin liners (to make 24 muffins total)

8.      Spoon in batter (about 2/3 full- I use an ice cream scooper for easy and even filling)

9.      Bake for 20-25 minutes

10.  Cool before enjoying

Clean Chocolate Chip Brownie Muffins

Clean Chocolate Chip Brownie Muffins

So last night I wanted to make cookies, like really really wanted some cookies. But, I had just finished my T25 workout, and didn’t want to undo all that hardwork by the choices I made in the kitchen.

So I did a quick pinterest search for a healthier alternative to satisfy my sweet craving. I stumbled across a recipe for chocolate mini muffins. I adapted the recipe to fit clean eating standards and also because I don’t have mini muffin tins. So, after some adjustments, they became what I’m calling Clean Chocolate Chip Brownie Muffins. We took them to a friends house and they were a hit! Enjoy!

Yield: 1 dozen muffins

Nutrition: Estimated 75 calories/muffin. Clean. No flour. No butter. No oils. No artificial sweeteners.
21-Day Fix Portion: 1 yellow substitute per muffin

Ingredients

• 2 small-medium bananas
• 1 egg
• ½ cup natural peanut butter
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 tbsp honey
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• ¼ cup dark chocolate chips, plus a few more to put on top

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients except the chocolate chips into a blender. Tip: put the egg in first so that the liquid can help it blend more easily. The batter will be thick.
2. Stir in chocolate chips by hand.
3. Scoop batter into paper-lined muffin tins- fill about ⅔ full
4. Press about 3-5 additional chocolate chips into the top of each muffin
5. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes or until toothpick inserted in muffin comes out clean
6. Allow to cool briefly before serving (best served warm so the chocolate chips are all melty and delicious, but don’t want you to burn your mouth here)

21 Day Fix, Day 9: Sick and Still Striving

Give everything you’ve got…and then a little bit more

And today I had nothing, literally nothing. I started getting a sore throat last night and I tried to nip it in the bud by going to bed earlier and taking some NyQuil. I was up all throughout the night with sore throat, ear and sinus pressure, fever, aches, chills, all that fun stuff, which unfortunately continued throughout the day. I spent the majority of today in bed or cuddled on the couch with Anniston watching the same episode of Bubble Guppies three times in a row. Being sick is miserable to begin with and I’m extra irritated because I’ve been working so hard on this program, I don’t need something like this to set me back.

I did my best to hang in there and follow my eating and exercise plan, although I honestly didn’t feel like eating or doing anything.

DAY 9 FOOD

I hate when you’re sick because nothing tastes good and my throat feels like a knife when I try to swallow. But, hey, I didn’t have to worry about food cravings today.  

I had some whole wheat toast with peanut butter and banana for breakfast. Then I took a 3-hour nap with Anniston, then got up and drank Shakeology. Just plain shakeology today because it’s not like I can taste anything anyway.

Later, I put Anniston to bed around 7pm, and then laid down myself, just to rest for a few seconds…and I ended up falling asleep for 2 hours. When I woke up, I was starving, Josh and I made dinner together. We made chicken bacon paninis, minus the bread. In other words, I cooked a chicken breast on the Foreman, brushed maple-mustard on it (grainy mustard mixed with maple syrup), then topped with turkey bacon, tomato, sautéed mushrooms and onions, and melted provolone cheese. Served with a side of zucchini. I could actually taste this tonight and it was very good- hit the spot. It was so filling, I couldn’t even finish all of it and it fueled me to do my late night workout.

WORKOUT: UPPER FIX

I finally found some strength to put in my DVD around 10pm. I approached the workout with the mindset that I was just going to give it a try- it would have been so easy just to skip today’s workout, and I have an extremely legit excuse. But, remember what I said last week about being better than my excuses? I was determined to try this workout today despite the odds stacked against me. A few minutes into the workout, I began to feel better. As the oxygen got to my muscles, it was the best I had felt in the past 24 hours. I was surprisingly able to finish the entire workout and not cheat anything- I even held an elbow plank for 30 seconds- new personal best! While it did help that the last 13 minutes was laying on my back doing lifts and crunches, I truly gave it everything I had and a little bit more!

OTHER THOUGHTS

Despite the fact that I’ve slept all day, I’m still sick and exhausted, so I’m off to bed. See y’all tomorrow!

21-Day Fix, Weel 1 Review: Muffins and Muffin Tops

One week down, and while its easy to be discouraged when you still have a muffin top, (and dang, a muffin sounds delicious), I am so glad I am doing this program! Let’s take a look at the good and bad of my first 7 days:

THE GOOD

1. ZERO Acid Reflux: I’ve struggled on and off with acid reflux. Before I started 21-Day Fix, I was taking Tums at least 3 times per week. No acid reflux at all in the past week! This has to be due to eating clean, real ingredients and eliminating processed, artificial foods
2. No Soda, No Problem: I’ve gone from drinking a 32oz fountain drink a day to no soda in over a week. And I surprisingly haven’t missed it. My water intake has gone from maybe 5 ounces a day to probably 100 or so (5 refills of my 20oz water bottle). I thought I would miss the caffeine from the coke, but the water has refreshed my body and given me more energy than any coke would.
3. Improved Relationship: The fact that my husband and I are doing this together has given us a new way to connect, support, and encourage each other. I feel like in one week, our lives have gone from parallel to intersecting- We have done a better job managing our time and have had some really great conversations. I’m so blessed to have such an amazing, dedicated husband and am so thankful we can share this journey together!

THE BAD

1. I’ve Got the Blues: So, the blue container is a daily battle. I get ONE blue container per day and it’s arguably the best container of them all- I have to choose between cheese, avocado, hummus, and nuts like almonds and pecans. And did I mention this was a pretty small container too? And one blue container is only ¼ an avocado anyway…and I only get that if I completely forgo cheese. Sad Mel :(
2. Burnt Pans: As I mentioned several times this past week, I think cooking in with less than 2 teaspoons of EVOO a day is not very practical (no butter or cooking spray either). I was so worried about going over the allocated EVOO amount that I burned my sautéed zucchini in my favorite $70 Rachael Ray pan. While I understand not drowning stuff in oil, you have to use enough not to burn your pans and food. I’m trying to research everything to get this burnt residue off my pan.

NEUTRAL

1. Yellow Container: Yellows are grains, of which I get 2 servings per day. This is manageable except beans (black, pinto, garbanzo, edamame) are in this category- I’ve always thought these were proteins? Also sweet potatoes are considered yellow. I’m super confused about this. I know regular potatoes are a starch, but aren’t sweet potatoes supposed to be a super food vegetable- why aren’t they green? Because of sugar? Sigh.
2. Coffee Drama: Obviously international delight or another non-dairy creamer is a major no-no. I can’t do black coffee. Coffee with skim milk tastes like watered down coffee. Fat free half and half isn’t milk or cream, its corn syrup and artificial crap with long words I can’t pronounce. And going without coffee altogether is just not an option. After having a near meltdown in front of the dairy case at Publix (just ask Josh about my panicked phone call to him), I decided to purchase organic half and half. This is not fix-approved according to the book. But, a main premise of the book is removing all artificial ingredients and eating only clean, real foods. With that line of thinking, the only coffee creamer option that doesn’t have strange ingredients is organic half-and-half. Its just organic milk and organic cream. Its only 40 calories in 2 tablespoons and I’m using about a teaspoon in my coffee, so I think the 10 calories of pure dairy a day to make my survival to life possible is justifiable.

OTHER THOUGHTS

I really would like the following items:

·         Buffalo Wings

·         Clemson Burger from BGR

·         Funfetti cupcake

·         Chipotle Burrito Bowl

·         Chips & Salsa

·         Butter & Jelly

But you know what I want more than that? I want to achieve my goals!

A friend asked me and Josh in Sunday what our first meal is going to be when this program ends, and to be honest, we haven’t even begun to consider that. We are so focused on what we are working towards. Yes, at some point I’m going to order a pepperoni pizza, but I don’t think we will ever fully go back to the way we used to eat and the way we used to live. We’ve worked too hard to undo everything we’ve already done to this point!

Finally, I got some great perspective last night. I was watching the Dancing with the Stars season premiere and this woman danced with prosthetic legs. She can snowboard too by the way. She was given a 2% chance to live when diagnosed at age 19 with bacterial meningitis. And now to see what she can do- wow! What an inspiration! Its evident that can’t is not in her vocabulary. She has every reason in the world to make excuses, but she doesn’t. She’s better than her excuses. If she can do that, I can get my butt up and bust it at this 21-Day Fix! Less than 2 weeks to go!

21 Day Fix, Day 8: Green Eggs and...

If you feel like quitting, think about why you started.

My beachbody coach said that today would be the hardest day. I can see why. I’ve pushed myself beyond my limits over the course of the past week, yet when I look in the mirror, the body that I want still isn’t looking back at me. While it’s easy to be discouraged, I have to remind myself that this is a 3 week program, not a 1 week program. And while the changes my not be completely visible yet, my body is improving. So when I feel like quitting, I have to remind myself of why I started this is the first place.

 DAY 8 WORKOUT: CARDIO FIX

Since I transposed Cardio Fix and Total Cardio Fix last week, I figured I would just continue with those being reversed since I didn’t want to interrupt the cycle of exercises. I totally forgot how hard this workout was. Although I was sweating and fighting to breathe, I did notice an improvement in my stamina, strength, and ability to do more reps of the exercises. And, no getting sick this week afterward!

Also, an aside, I don’t think this particular workout is ever going to be a cakewalk no matter how much I improve (aaahhh why did I have to mention cake?!?). Consider the workout models/fix graduates in the video, who I assume were chosen based on their stellar stamina and program success- they were still grimacing in pain and completely out of breath. So, we can be encouraged by this. Cardio is supposed to get your blood pumping!

DAY 8 FOOD REVIEW

It’s St. Patrick’s Day folks. And since green beer is not Fix-approved, I had to make something celebratory of the day. So I made “green” eggs, well, sort of. Egg whites with spinach and feta and a side of cantaloupe. Yummy breakfast!

I needed my shakeology immediately after that cardio workout. I combined the shakeology with 1 cup of black tea and pumpkin pie spice, in an attempt to create a chocolate chai latte frappucino or something. The flavor wasn’t as pronounced as I anticipated, but I loved the texture the brewed tea added to the shake- it was very smooth and easy to drink.

I was really hungry this afternoon. Maybe it was the fact that I was prepping stuff for dinner or the fact that my net calories to this point was about 100. Thinking I had a red container remaining, Anniston and I shared some nonfat, plain greek yogurt with cinnamon. As most moms can relate, you never really get to eat your own food. Anniston had a solid grip on the spoon so I was lucky to get her to share a bite with me of my own snack. This actually worked out better though because I didn’t realize I had made a double portion of egg whites this morning (3/4 cup) which counts as 2 reds, not one! This is the first time in the program I’ve made a mistake with counting portions. I hope it will be ok- reds are lean proteins and like I said, Anniston ate most of it, so I’m trying to be positive that it won’t adversely affect my progress here.

Nothing says St. Patrick’s Day like fish tacos! But, I had been looking forward to these all day- I marinated tilapia in lime juice, cumin, and garlic, then cooked until flaky and portioned in 1 red container. For the toppings, I made a corn and black bean salsa and cilantro-lime cream. The corn and black bean salsa is a modified Guy Fieri recipe with tomatoes, Serrano pepper, cumin, garlic, red onion, corn, black beans, lime juice, and agave. Because corn and black beans are in the yellow category, I counted this as a yellow portion. The cilantro lime cream is another altered Guy Fieri recipe. His uses salt and sour cream. I made mine more in line with the Fix Dressings and Dips- greek yogurt, cilantro, lime juice, cumin, and garlic in a food processor. This was an orange container. I put it all together on corn tortillas (another yellow). I’ve never had corn tortillas, but according to the book you can have two 6-inch corn tortillas or one 6-inch whole wheat tortilla to count as 1 yellow serving. In my mind 2 is better than 1, so I went with the corn tortillas. I topped it all with Choula Mexican hot sauce (a free food!). Everything was great. Not used to the texture of the corn tortillas, but all of the flavors were phenomenal and the tacos were so stuffed, I had to get a fork to eat what fell out.

OTHER THOUGHTS

Both Josh's dress shirt and coat that he wore to work were TOO BIG on him today! Yay, so proud of him and I know he is encouraged by this!

Also, I'm still working on my Week 1 Recap… Hopefully I can get that up soon!

21 Day Fix, Day 7: Bird Dogs

If you’re tired of starting over, stop quitting.

We’ve made it a week! This is the longest I’ve succeeded at any diet/weight loss program in my lifetime- quitting is not an option!

DAY 7 WORKOUT: YOGA FIX

Today’s workout is what they call “active recovery” so you get to stretch all those muscles that you’ve been pushing all week long. As much as I thought it would be nice to have a day with no workout, a workout like today was critical to my restoring my body.

The first 10 minutes is an intense yoga series very similar to the routine on p90x yoga, but for 10 minutes versus 90, so much better.

The next 10 minutes is a balance series which I really liked. The “superman” pose is fun- and I bet all my money in the world that this will be Josh’s favorite pose. He’s a life-long Superman enthusiast, so I can only imagine him pretending he is flying through the air to rescue the world from General Zod.

Then we moved onto a pose called the bird dog. Now, for those of us who have lived in South Carolina, you are familiar with a food item called the bird dog. I used to go to this place called JC’s in Anderson, SC (the town that neighbors Clemson), and they have probably the best bird dog in the world. What’s a bird dog you might ask? It’s a large fried chicken tender, bacon, and cheese, covered in honey mustard, and stuffed into a hot dog bun- like heaven on earth basically. So, the whole time I was doing the bird dog pose, I was wishfully reminiscing about the food that I used to eat- and the food that probably brought me to the point where I needed to do the 21-Day Fix in the first place. But, if you even have the opportunity to try a bird dog (the food not the pose), it will be amazing. Double a day’s amount of calories, but amazing nonetheless.

Moving on, the last 10 minutes were very familiar to me- all the stretches I did for 20 years in baton twirling. It’s been about 4 years since I’ve been able to sit in a straddle stretch and put my head flat on my knee and reach my toes on both my right and left leg- and I did it today! I contemplated attempting a split on my own, but I think I’ve done enough damage to my legs already this week, so decided not to push it, lol… but maybe next week ;)

One of the poses at the end is called the “corpse pose” where you lay flat on your back like your dead. In fact, my dog came to check on me to make sure I wasn’t ;)… but yeah, pretty much the best yoga pose ever.

 DAY 7 FOOD REVIEW

Well, today was a church day, and it was my Sunday morning to serve in the nursery. Sunday mornings are tough because not only to I have to wake up early and get myself ready, but I also have to get my child dressed and fed before we leave. I’m usually running late because of this *minor* problem I have with my snooze button, accompanied by my underestimation of how long it takes me and my kid to get ready in the morning. And so, I always skip breakfast on Sundays. Today, I was running late but figured I should grab something to eat. I quickly portioned out one yellow container of mini-wheats (you can have whole grain, low sugar cereal, dry) and was on my way. Now, I don’t know why in the world I thought 10 mini-wheats could sustain me for 4 hours when my body is used to me making a substantial breakfast for the past 6 mornings. I felt very motion-sick on the drive home (which happens to me in the car if I don’t have anything on my stomach), so as soon as I got home, I headed straight to the kitchen for food!

At this point, I probably should have opted for a meal that didn’t take so long to prepare. I made omelets because I was thinking this would be a great way for me to restore the substance my body needed and load up on proteins and green nutrients prior to my workout. But, the chopping and measuring, in addition to the cooking, took me about 30 more minutes- ugh. The omelets turned out great, but I can’t go through another morning like this again. I’m already making mental plans for what I need to do differently next Sunday morning to avoid a repeat of this.

I had my shakeology later today and only made half a scoop because I ate so much around 1pm and wasn’t hungry at all around 2:30 when I finished yoga… I just made half a shake around 4:00pm and stuck with plain chocolate this time.

For dinner, I made pecan crusted chicken strips. I took a chicken breast and cut it into 6 strips (3 for me, 3 for josh). Dipped each strip in homemade honey mustard (i.e. yellow mustard mixed with a teaspoon honey), then rolled in a breading mixture of 1 blue container crushed pecans and 1 slice of wheat bread (toasted then crumbled into breadcrumbs). Baked at 400 for 30 minutes and served with zucchini (1 green). Turned out really good. Still miss the flavor you get from salting the chicken before cooking- it just brings out its natural flavor more…and I really wanted to dip my chicken strips in a sauce. Not that they weren’t fine plain (the breading was actually really good), I’m just accustomed to dipping chicken strips. Normally I would find a leftover packet of sauce from Chickfila, but that’s not Fix-approved, so I had to make my own. I had 1 orange container/serving remaining, which was perfect because a dressing/dip is an orange container serving! First, thinking how much I would love some ranch dressing, I tried to remake the creamy herb dip I didn’t like earlier this week using different herbs this time… but didn’t like the way it came out either. So I scratched that and made the asian ginger dressing from the Fix book. Though thinner in consistency, it made a nice glaze over the zucchini and chicken, and especially complimented the flavor of the pecan crust.

OTHER THOUGHTS

I’m mad because I burned my favorite Rachael Ray sauté pan tonight trying to cook zucchini in 1 teaspoon of olive oil- ugh. I’m praying that soaking it in vinegar and baking soda overnight will bring me a miracle. I burnt rice once in another Rachael ray pot (I can cook nearly anything but apparently I can’t follow instructions on the bag of brown rice), and it left this same residue on the bottom and I was able to finally clean it with baking soda and vinegar. Fingers crossed!

On a more positive note, I’m happy because I finally caught up on prepping! Our meal plan and charts are mapped out for the week and I spent the entire night in the kitchen chopping and portioning fruits and vegetables into Ziplocs. I feel so much more relaxed heading into week 2 than I felt in week 1, knowing that I won’t be cutting and sorting produce til midnight every night!

Week 2 starts tomorrow- third of the way done! I’m planning to write a Week 1 Review of some thoughts I’ve collected throughout the first 7 days and update y’all on my progress so far. I expect to post that sometime within the next day or so, so stay tuned!

21 Day Fix, Day 6: On What Other Diet Can You Eat Pizza?

You can’t wish for it, you have to work for it.

It’s the weekend…time for some R & R. Nope, no rest for the weary- its 21 days straight people. You can’t wish for it, you have to work for it!

Really loved that quote from today’s workout. For years I have wished that I would wake up and my body would magically look the way I wanted it to. But that’s not real life- you have to work to see results. And when you want something bad enough, you will work for it- Another golden quote from Autumn…I’m thinking of writing all these down in different colors and making a motivation board. Project time!

DAY 6 WORKOUT: DIRTY 30

I love that this title rhymes. I also loved that the workout seemed to fly by quicker today for some reason. However, I don’t love my 3-story townhouse right now because my legs are in so much pain trying going up and down stairs after this workout. Good thing I picked up some IcyHot at Target yesterday!

DAY 6 FOOD REVIEW

Breakfast on the weekends are fun because I can experiment with different combinations and have more time to clean up the major messes I make in the kitchen. Today I made an open-face breakfast sandwich with 1 slice of whole wheat toast, turkey bacon, eggs, and a dash of Tabasco. I had strawberries along with it, so my breakfast portions were 1 yellow, 2 red, and 1 purple.  I think I will make this again and add some spinach and/or tomato to the sandwich to get a green serving in there as well.

Still continuing my shakeology recipe experimentation. Today I made a hybrid of the past 2 days and did a peanut butter & banana shakeology. Again delicious and filling. Really getting used to these as my lunches.

Dinner was awesome! My husband and I both love pizza. We’ve had a tradition of making homemade pizzas together ever since we started dating about 7½ years ago. And there’s no reason tradition had to stop just because of 21 Day Fix! We just had to modify our recipe a bit. Today, we used whole wheat pita flatbreads (1 yellow), 1 red container combination of lean ground turkey and chopped deli ham slices, 1 green container with mixed vegetables (mushrooms, peppers, onions, tomatoes), and 1 blue container of mozzarella cheese. We baked the pitas at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes in the oven before adding the toppings so that it would crisp into more of a crust than a pita- worked like a charm. Then added the toppings (which piled on to the pizza) and baked until the cheese melted and was bubbly. These turned out fabulous and were beyond filling with all the toppings. And on what other diet can you eat pizza? This was great.

OTHER THOUGHTS

A huge thanks to my Pinterest feed for this:

Also, proud of my hubby for turning down free pizza and beer after helping our friends move into their new apartment. That’s dedication right there! So glad he’s doing this 21 Day Fix with me so we can support and encourage each other to be strong, stay strong, and get stronger! Because you can't just wish for it, you have to work for it!

21 Day Fix, Day 4: Pilates and Fro-Yo

You have to change your mind to change your body

DAY 4 WORKOUT: PILATES FIX

I think I need to stop underestimating the difficulty of these workouts. Heading into Pilates, I wasn’t sure what exactly Pilates was, but I was expecting some sort of easy-peasy stretching routine. Haha, was I in for a surprise! This was a brutal, full-body workout and I was in pain 2 minutes into the warm-up. And it only got better from there :)… About halfway through the session, Autumn demonstrated the next exercise, and I loudly proclaimed (apparently to my dog because she was the only one around), “yeah right I can’t do that!”. But, as soon as those words left my mouth, I shook my head and said “No, I can do this!”… You’ve gotta change your mind to change your body. I felt so accomplished after this workout, and very proud I survived the round of elbow plank intervals at the end of the workout when my body was screaming. Ten-second planks seem like nothing until you get on the floor and actually do it.

Speaking of the floor, so glad I bought the yoga mat yesterday. I honestly don’t know how I would have done any of the workout today without it. I had just planned to “make it work” with my area rug and save myself the $15 expense of the yoga mat. But, lets be real, I spend more than $15 at Chickfila…and I’m busting my butt, going all in on this program, and making an investment in my future health, why skimp on the equipment I need to get the results I’m working so hard for? By the way, Target has yoga mats and weights 10% off through April using their Cartwheel coupon app.

DAY 4 FOOD REVIEW

I mixed up breakfast today. I made whole grain oatmeal and stirred in some cinnamon, raisins, and 100% pure maple syrup (you are allowed 1-2 teaspoons/day of an all-natural sweetener, like pure maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, raw sugar, or stevia). This was the sweetest thing I’ve eaten all week, so I felt like I was eating a cookie. It. was. great.  

The greatness continued with my shakeology. I added 1 teaspoon of peanut butter to my chocolate shakeology and it was delicious. Move over chocolate-strawberry, we have a new leader…

I feel like I’m on a roll today because my snack was Fro-Yo! Anniston had a birthday party at Sweet Frog and I’ve been secretly looking forward to today’s snack all week. I got their nonfat, no sugar added fro-yo with blueberries, strawberries, kiwi, mango, blackberries, walnuts, and almonds (totaling 1 red, 1 purple, and 1 blue). I loved this so much. Anniston had the same, but she got rainbow sprinkles too…However, she was more interested in the fruit than the fro-yo- I think I need to learn from my baby here :)

For dinner, I had originally planned to make this grilled honey-mustard chicken. However, I used up my sweetener allocation in my oatmeal, and I had to convert last’s night dinner into a mustard-based pulled pork. So, I didn’t want to use the same flavor profile and have mustard chicken tonight. Instead, I did a simple swap and made a greek yogurt marinade with garlic, parsley, and oregano. I grilled that on the foreman and made a giant side salad (1 green container of organic spinach leaves + 1 green of mixed vegetables: tomatoes, mushrooms, bell peppers, zucchini, and broccoli + 1 orange container of homemade balsamic). I ended up mixing the chicken with the salad and it was very satisfying.

OTHER THOUGHTS

I bought a new water bottle (Camelbak Eddy) to help me with hydration. I had to have my 1-year-old help me figure out how it works because its basically a glorified sippy cup, but now that I know how to use it, I really like it! I’ve always struggled to drink water, but I know it’s critical to me being successful with my goals here- my body needs it. According to the book, you need to drink half your body weight in ounces of water per day (so if you weigh 160, that’s 80 ounces of water per day). Before I bought the water bottle, I drank a little over 32 ounces a day (which was a vast improvement from my usual water habits, when I would easily drink 32 ounces of coke a day, but barely 32 ounces of water a week!)… Anyways, today, I had 6 refills of water, totally 121.2 ounces! Wow! I’m not used to needing so many bathroom breaks, even in the night…

Which brings me to sleeping. I have not been sleeping well since I started this. Between the bathroom breaks and leg cramps (3 last night, dang lower fix), I’m just not resting well. Granted, I have been up to almost 1am every night chopping vegetables and prepping for the next day, plus the time change, I think I could just be all off. I’m hoping to finally catch up (and maybe even get ahead) of the prepping this weekend, which can allow me to go to bed earlier and hopefully rest more peacefully during the night.

On a positive not, my leggings keep falling down. I don’t see any major changes in the mirror yet, but something must be different if my leggings aren’t fitting tight! Whoop whoop!