One More Swai

Yesterday I woke up early and couldn’t go back to sleep. I decided to start my workout early by perusing Pinterest for some inspiration. I found this workout that sounded interesting. It was a good full body workout. Here’s the image for easier viewing.

I did the Monday exercises. Then after that I went on a 2.5 mile run with Daniel! I felt great afterwards. It was my best workout day in a long time.

Here is yesterday’s meals:

Meal	Food	Calories
Breakfast	Cereal	80
	Almond milk	20
	Eggs	220
Snack	Smoothie	140
	Wheat Thins	160
Dinner	Almond Crusted Swai	424
	Rice and veggies	160
Total		1204

So we made that delicious Almond Crusted Swai again. This time instead of mixing in parmesan with the almonds I added Panko bread crumbs. It made it crispy without as many calories. For mine, I just sprinkled a little parmesan on top.

The rice was topped with a can of green beans, cucumber, yellow pepper, and I added a little soy sauce for flavor. The swai was my favorite part of the meal. I added a little lemon juice on top too. I could eat it every day and be happy. It’s sooooo good! Everyone should make it!

We actually finished the rest of our swai. Don’t worry, this won’t be the last of swai that you see on this blog. We plan to do some grocery shopping once we moved. Although we did end up buying some shrimp tonight for dinner. It was super tasty! Stay tuned for some delicious Alfredo & Shrimp Mostaccioli.

Abs of Steel

I’m actually doing better when it comes to staying under my calories! My weigh-in hasn’t been showing it too much though. I am at 133.6 lb now. Slowly but surely.  If I stayed under my calories every day and worked out I’d probably see faster results.

Meal	Food	Calories
Breakfast	Smoothie	180
Lunch	Planet Sub veggie grinder	455
Dinner	Rice & veggies	250
Snack	Tortilla w/ cheese wedge & chicken salad	240
Dessert	Dark Chocolate Toblerone (1 piece)	40
Total		1125

The smoothie was my usual with lots of blueberries and some orange juice added in. I was also out of greek yogurt so I added some protein powder. I took it to go. Tasty!

The smoothie didn’t really fill me so by lunch I was starving. I went to Planet Sub and got the Veggie Grinder. I rarely go to Planet Sub, but they always have something that sounds good on the menu. It was full of veggies with mozzarella and pizza sauce. It was like a pizza in sandwich form! Ingenious!

For dinner I had Daniel back to cook me something. Life is good again 🙂

He started with brown rice and added a can of green beans, a can of corn, some fresh spinach, yellow pepper, and pesto. We sprinkled a little parmesan on top. It may sound odd but it was good! We’re trying to clean out our cabinets now for the move. We have a surprising amount of corn and green beans. They will probably be apart of our meals for the rest of the week.

So here’s the last installment in the Five Day Workout:

It really targets the abdominals. You will feel a burn! So with these five workouts you will see some results within a couple weeks. Last summer I felt a lot stronger after doing these exercises on a regular basis. And I lost ten pounds! I also combined them with a 20-30 minute cardio workout (typically intervals on the treadmill between walking and running). I did them Monday-Friday but you can do them continuous with a one day break each week.

I took 3 days off from working out but I can assure you I did lots of working out today! It was a sweaty workout too. I’ll be back tomorrow with the details. What kind of workouts do you like to do to feel the burn? Cardio? Spinning? Water aerobics? I wanna hear it!

Brinner

I was abandoned yesterday by Daniel. He was spending time with friends in Topeka so I was left to fend for myself. I didn’t eat much yesterday but the calories added up fast!

Meal	Food	Calories
Breakfast	Cereal	140
	Almond milk	30
Lunch	Panera Pick 2 w/ corn chowder & chicken salad sandwich	560
Dinner	Waffle’s with strawberries and syrup	180
Snack	Tortilla w/ 1/2  almond butter and honey & 1/2 cheese wedge	330
Total		1240

I didn’t cook anything the whole day! My room mate left behind some frozen waffles that were pretty tasty (thanks April!) so I heated those up and added some strawberries on top and a little sugar free syrup (only 20 calories per 1/4 cup!).

It was fast and easy, just how I like it!

I failed to workout again. I get so lazy when Daniel isn’t around to make me. How do you get motivated to work out? Any tips and tricks? I’ve heard people say they wear their workout attire to bed so in the morning they’re already dressed for it and don’t have an excuse. That would be a good idea except wearing a sports bra to bed doesn’t sound that appealing.

I know I owe you all a weigh-in so I’ll be sure to get that tomorrow. My scale I’ve been using at home hasn’t been working very well lately though. It keeps saying error 1. I don’t think I have the manual anymore either.

Well for those of you who have been sticking to your workouts, here’s the next installment in the Five Day Workout Plan:

For an extra challenge use 15 lb weights for bench press, 15 lbs for bent row, 20 lbs for 1 arm row, and 10 lb weights for military press.

Bent Row – Bend knees slightly and bend forward with back straight. Arms hang down towards floor with palms facing towards torso grasping weights. Pull weights toward upper torso. Return to starting position.

Military Press – Standing straight, hold weights at shoulder level with palms facing outward. Extend arms, lifting weights above head. Return to starting position.

Front/Side Raises – Standing straight, hold weights next to body. Lift weights forward extending arms out up to should level with palms facing down. Lower to starting position, then lift weights again but this time directly out from sides. Return to starting position.

Have fun! =)

Blue Moose

Is there such a thing as a blue moose? So says the Blue Moose Bar & Grill I went to last night. We were celebrating Daniel’s mother’s birthday. I’ve never heard of it before but there are a few of them located in Kansas. Pretty much everything on the menu sounded good to me! I ended up splitting an order of the Mahi Fish Tacos and the Greek Pizza with Daniel. I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture of the tacos! They were beautiful and delicious but you’ll just have to trust me on that one. I did manage to snap a photo of the sides it came with: black beans and chipotle rice.

The fish tacos were in the “lighter menu” that included dishes under 600 calories. I can’t say the same for the pizza but it was worth every bite. It was topped with creamy artichoke sauce, fresh baby spinach, kalamata olives, red onions, artichokes, mushrooms, Roma tomatoes, mozzarella, provolone, and feta cheese. I love making pizzas at home and I think this one could be doable. The hardest thing would be finding creamy artichoke sauce but I bet there’s recipe out there for it!

After Blue Moose we went to Sheridan’s for some frozen custard. Daniel and I split the Brett’s Caramel Pecan concrete. Satisfying!

Good thing we share it because it was a lot!

Meal	Food	Calories
Breakfast	Cereal	140
	Almond milk	30
Lunch	Fresh Spinach salad	150
Snack	Planter’s Trail mix	150
Dinner	Mahi Fish Taco with rice and black beans	295
	Half Greek pizza 12”	444
	Frozen custard	300
Drink	Pucker & Sprite	100
Total		1609

Yikes. The pizza and frozen custard were probably not the best choices. I also didn’t work out yesterday. I was still staining those chairs! Sanding is taking forever because I keep seeing lighter spots where the stain isn’t absorbing so I sand it down more. The evil Poly Shade blend is so hard to sand off! I did accomplish something though. We finished reupholstering the stools!

Bar Stools Before

Bar Stools after

I was totally down with the light beige color but one of the stools had little black spots all over that would not come off (we bought the stools second hand for $30 together!). We tried using a stain remover but ended up making it worse (the stain remover left an outline where it was applied). We decided it’d be better to just change the fabric. While we were at it we also bought new foam padding for them. Now our tushies have another cushy place to sit!

Even though I didn’t workout yesterday I’m giving you the next installment of the Five Day Workout Plan.

To make it more challenging use the 30 lb bar resting on your shoulders for squats, 30 lb bar for deadlifts, 20 lb bar for high pulls, and 10 lb for lunges.

These exercises target a lot of the lower body. Definitely do a good stretch afterwards!

Almond Crusted Swai

We’re back at it again, using up our frozen fish!  This recipe calls for Tilapia but I think any white fish would be delicious with this recipe. Daniel found it at allrecipes.com. It makes enough for 8 fish fillets but we reduced the ingredients down for two.

What you need (for 2):

• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp lemon pepper
• 1/4 tsp garlic salt
• 1/4 cup ground almond
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 2 (6 oz) fish fillets
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• olive oil
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• lemon juice

Directions (modified from original):

1. Beat egg with lemon pepper and garlic salt until blended. In a separate dish, stir together ground almonds with 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. Dust the flour over the fish fillets and shake off excess. Dip fish in egg, then press into the almond mixture.
2. Pour olive oil in large skillet just enough to cover basin of pan completely. Place over medium-high heat. Cook fish in oil until golden brown on both sides, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Reduce heat to medium, and sprinkle fish with remaining parmesan cheese, cover and continue cooking until cheese has melted (5 minutes).
3. Place fish onto serving dish and squirt a little lemon juice on top.

These turned out great and were nice and crispy on the outside! We served them with a side of green beans.

With the original recipe, each fillet is 424 calories. But that’s cooking with butter! We cooked with olive oil so I’m assuming that makes it a little healthier.

Here’s the rest of what I consumed yesterday:

Meal	Food	Calories
Breakfast	Cereal	140
	Almond milk	30
Snack	Fruit smoothie	180
	Wheat thins	120
	Pistacios & cashews (small handful)	60
Lunch	Fresh Spinach salad	150
Dinner	Almond crusted Swai	424
	Green beans	50
Dessert	Dark chocolate Toblerone (1 piece)	40
Total		1194

Woohoo! I actually stayed under my calories! AND I worked out hard core yesterday. I did the second day of the Five Day Workout.

For those of you who don’t know what exercises are associated with those names (I had no idea what they were at first) here’s a description for the less common:

Thrusts – Use a bar bell, medicine ball, or free weights. Rest them on your hips while laying on back, feet flat on the floor, knees bent. Lift hips as far as you can and then return to staring position.

Trumpy twists – Sit on the floor or bench, back straight, knees bent in front of you with feet lift off floor. Hold weight in front of your chest and twist torso to the side. Return to center and twist to opposite position.

1 Arm Row – Use a flat bench and place right leg on top of bench and right hand so the your upper body is parallel to the floor. Hold weight in left hand, palm facing torso. Pull weight straight up to the side of your chest keeping arm close to side. Contract back muscles to pull up the weight. Lower the weight straight down to starting position.

Reverse Fly – Stand in a squatting position, hold weights straight out in front of you with arms slight bend, palms facing each other. Move the weights out away from each other, squeezing shoulder blades together. Arms should be parallel to floor. Return to starting position.

Back Extensions – Lie on stomach with chin resting on floor, hand behind your head. Lift upper body as far off the floor as possible. Return to start.

For an extra challenge increase the weights. Try using a 20lb bar for the thrusts, 15 lbs for bench press, and 20 lbs for 1 arm row.

After doing those exercises I went on a 2.5 miles run in the heat with Daniel. I almost didn’t think I’d make it up the hills. But I did! Now I need to go continue this hard core workout trend!

Pass Your Plate

Yesterday started off pretty good with my usual cereal, almond milk, and smoothie. For lunch I had a MorningStar burger with 2 slices of whole wheat bread. I’m not vegetarian but I’m not much of a carnivore. These burgers taste better to me than hamburgers and they’re healthier! Winning.

I enjoyed it with a side of leftover rice and stir fry veggies.

Then dinner went down hill.  Daniel and I met up with our friends Robert and Amy. We went to this bar that has endless $5 pasta on wednesday nights. They only had two options: red or white pasta. I went with the red first because it’s typically healthier than cream sauces. Well, I don’t know how you can screw up red sauce, but they did. It was spicy (which I’m ok with usually) but it was more like spicy salsa than a red sauce. Not pleasing. I didn’t eat much of it.

Literally a few more bites after this photo and I was over it. I ordered the alfredo white sauce next. It was MUCH better. So much creamy buttery goodness. I knew it was bad, but it felt so good.

So here’s that calorie break down:

Meal	Food	Calories
Breakfast	Cereal	140
	Almond milk	30
Snack	Fruit smoothie	180
	Veggie burger w/ bread ketchup + mustard	270
Lunch	Rice stir fry	90
Dinner	Alredo & red sauce pasta	660
	2 6oz glasses of sangria	195
	2 pieces of toast w/ apricot preserves	230
Total		1795

Shameful! Definitely should not have eaten that much pasta. I also could have done without the sangria for sure. It wasn’t even good sangria, but it was $1. I also have a problem when it comes to stopping when I’m full. I’m fine at home where I can easily put the food away so I don’t eat more, but in a restaurant I have to wait for the server to come take it or bring a t0-go box, so I’m just sitting there with food staring at me. So I ended up eating most of the alfredo, especially since I kept nibbling on it after I was full. I finally passed my plate over to Daniel to finish it for me when there was a few bites left.

But don’t Amy and I look cute? Our bellies are full of delicious pasta. Time for a food coma.

Sure, I over ate a lot yesterday. But you can’t let one bad day get in the way of progress. I’m slowly learning that. I used to think “crap I just ate pizza, might as well have dessert and go all out.” And then the continuous infamous phrase “my diet starts tomorrow.” I was in this cycle, telling myself that I can have this one unhealthy thing now because tomorrow I’ll eat better. But of course that never happened. I kept filling my body with lots of sugars and carbs and less actual nutrients. Yeah, I was craving a donut after my pasta (who doesn’t?) but I knew I was over my calories by then. Indulging is fine, over indulging is not so fine. So today is a new start and a new chance to make better decisions!

Alright now on to my strength workout yesterday. I chose to use my 5 lb weights instead of the medicine ball to make movements easier. This workout I did a lot last summer when I joined a gym during my internship. They helped me formulate a 5 day/week strengthening plan. I did the first day of exercises yesterday. Each day had various exercises so that through the course of a week you target all the main muscles on your body (arms, backs, abs, legs, etc).

My arms and legs are sore today! If you want more of a challenge I recommend upping the weights. 5lbs is just all I have on hand. If you’re a gym goer, try using the 20 lb bar for the squat & press, 30 lb bar for the deadlift row, and 10 lbs for the lunges. You will definitely feel a burn! Enjoy =)