I am so excited!
I have to start off my post by telling you that my gym set a date for the nutrition workshop, that is going to focus on macros & meal prep (eeeek)!
If you are in the area and don’t have plans on August 11th, you should DEFINITELY, 100%, sign-up for this class. Whether you need a jump start on how to count macros, learn what macros are, tweak your current goal, fine tune your nutrition, or learn some tricks to make meal prepping faster, this class is for you! It is not just for beginners or the advanced macro counter. Do your future-self a favor and sign-up.
Now to brag on a couple of friends.
My friend & co-worker decided she was going to lose weight when I went on maternity leave. She told me that when I got back I wouldn’t be able to recognize her. She has done so great! To date she has lost 80 pounds and her BMI is down 11.5%! She has been counting macros and stepped up her exercise…still waiting for her to give CrossFit a shot. No fancy diet. No magic pill. She is eating healthy and tracking her food! The wonderful thing is she hasn’t plateaued yet, she is steadily dropping weight in a safe, healthy way!
She recently went on a family vacation to the beach and pre-planned her own meals to HER eating habits! I was so proud when she told me this. It is hard with a big group of people that might not share your same love/need for healthy foods. I know from personal experience it can be a headache to coordinate group meals with the whole family and everyone be satisfied. She told me that she was taking a vacation from the house, not a vacation from her typical meals. It is good to take a break every now and then, let your guard down and indulge a bit while on vacation. It is equally important to be able to come back to reality and get back to your goals.
I am so proud of you for sticking to your goals! Now, come to CrossFit with me.
Another friend of mine, used to work with me at Doerun Elementary. She moved away and contacted me recently about setting goals for herself, wanting to exercise, and get her life back on the right track. She truly wants to get on the path to being healthy, but always seems to hit one road block after another; unemployment, sickness, injuries, lack of support at home, etc.
She started watching her intake of food, but would constantly be tempted by snacks being brought into the home. She and her significant other were able to get on the same page and support one another. Having a good support system when you are trying to lose weight and go against the norms of eating habits can be a constant struggle. People will not hesitate to tell you that your food looks boring or probably tastes nasty if you are choosing to eat healthy (please stop this rude people, all you are doing is discouraging others from living a healthy life, while you slowly kill yourself with unhealthy foods).
I try to check in on her and see how she is progressing or if she has any questions. I know it can be difficult to seek out help, but I love when people ask me for advice. It is a privilege to help others and very flattering that people ask me questions.
When I checked on her this week, she told me that she hurt her knee during boot camp and has been unable to finish the course. Did that stop her from working out? No, she found a way around that! She started swimming! I was so excited that she did not give up and found a way to stay active. Then she told me that she has tracked EVERY bite of food for the past 4 weeks AND (proudest moment) she planned ahead and took her own, previously weighed food to a birthday party that was littered with all the baked goodies! So awesome!
I am beyond proud of how determined & dedicated these two ladies have been to reach their goals and create healthy lifestyles for themselves. It not only has had a positive impact on them, but their family/spouses as well. I hope they keep it up and continue to set new goals for themselves.
Just by tracking your food, you become so much more aware of what you are putting into your body and will naturally want to make smarter choices for yourself. That brisket sandwich might be tasty, but is it really worth the 100 grams of fat that comes along with it? (100 grams!)
It is so easy to make small changes to the timing of your food consumption and the types of food you are taking in, to help you reach your goals. There really is no good excuse for not wanting to be the best version of yourself and obtaining it.
We are headed to the beach for a few days to take Scarlett on her first beach trip and hunt for seashells with Anderson. I am going to make a few meals ahead of time and also cook while we are down there. Planning snacks and meals ahead of time will keep us on track and besides, who wants to be bloated in a bathing suit from eating like crap? I am going to take some raw vegetables, honeydew, and cantaloupe to snack on down at the beach. We stocked up on pork loin while it was on sale, so I will be making a bowl with thinly sliced pork and taking some fish we have in the freezer as well.
M • E • N • U
Grilled Amber Jack with Mango Avocado Salsa + Zucchini Noodle Salad
It has been a while since I made this chicken salad. Chicken salad is a staple for any family trip or family get together in my mom’s house. She always has a big tub of chicken salad for snacking on the beach or in between meals. Now, my chicken salad might not be just like hers, but all the same it tastes great.
There is no yogurt and no mayonnaise. Instead, you make your own “mayo” to hold the chicken and veggies together. This “mayo” consists of 1 egg, dijon mustard, lemon juice, and olive oil. I like to add spices to my “mayo” to give it some more flavor.
The great thing about this chicken salad is you can really add in any extras that you want. I typically put matchstick carrots and finely chopped celery. Your options are limitless though; pecans, walnuts, grapes, etc. Josh doesn’t care for our chicken salad to be “extra” so I keep it basic.
It is a MUST to add a sauce to this. I love to add sriracha to our wrap. I boil our chicken for ease, so it really lacks flavor. If you roast your chicken and season it well, you will likely not have the same issue that I have. For meal prep purposes though, boiling my chicken is the easiest way.
Make sure you pick a low carb, high fiber tortilla so you aren’t wasting carbs on a tortilla shell!
Grilled Amber Jack with Mango Avocado Salsa + Zucchini Noodle Salad
We are using amber jack for this meal, but obviously you can use any fish you would like. If you are on a meal prep budget, grab a bag of tilapia and get to work. This dish was originally intended for marinated lime-chicken, but I am simply using the salsa to add to our fish.
You can definitely eat this as intended and skip the zucchini salad. I am going to eat our fish with the salsa and cook some jasmine rice to go with it. I will likely only use 1/2 cup of jasmine rice, since the salsa has a decent amount of carbs in it. If you are watching your carb in-take skip the rice or make sure to measure out very little of it.
A note on the salad: a little goes a long way. I always fix way too much of this and have leftovers even after our four servings. The last time I made this meal, I froze the leftovers, without the dressing. I will report back on how well it thawed out.
We racked up on pork loin when it went on sale this week. I am going to thinly slice some pork loin to add to this bowl. If you don’t have pork loin, you can add chicken or steak, or leave it vegetarian.
The thing I love about bowls is you can customize them to your macro needs and taste buds. If you are close to meeting your carbohydrate goal, then go easy on the quinoa. If you need 68 grams of protein, then you can add more protein. You can also leave out certain toppings or add in whatever suits your taste.
I try to think back to previous bowls and create a unique bowl that combines some previous favorites and old ones. Sometimes being told to just throw together whatever you like and top it with a sauce can be overwhelming for some. It is a lot of trial and error and knowing what kind of macros your food contains. If you are going to mix and match different bowls or just grab whatever you have on hand to make a bowl, make sure you know what is in the food you are mixing together. You don’t want to end up with a bowl that is loaded down with mostly fat or carbs. You want to make sure there is an adequate balance of macros and that it meets your goals.
This bowl calls for quinoa, spinach, kale, or cucumber, feta, olives, thinly sliced red onion, hummus, fresh basil or parsley, and/or olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper. They have a delicious roasted red pepper sauce, which is what makes this recipe so delicious to me. I will not be using some of these. I am going to use quinoa, kale, olives, feta, pork loin, and the roasted red pepper sauce.
This salad is going to be so easy to throw together at the beach! If you have more time on your hands and carbs to eat, I would opt for the nicoise toast that I made a few weeks ago, it was so delicious. For ease, I am going to make the salad version. This salad is so filling to me and tasty. And it doesn’t kill your macros, if you don’t go overboard on the potatoes.
I usually skip the green beans in this recipe because Josh doesn’t really care for them and they don’t make or break the salad. I am going to prepare every little thing before hand, right down to slicing the cherry tomatoes. I know slicing tomatoes may seem trivial, but in the end it will save you time and you already have the cutting board and knife out while you are meal prepping anyway. Save yourself the hassle of possibly forgetting the tomatoes or having to pull out the cutting board and knife, and cut the tomatoes. 🙂
This bowl is so colorful and tasty, why wouldn’t you want to make it! To me this bowl screams summer with the fresh dressing (link is in the ingredients list for the dressing), sweet corn, and tomatoes. It calls for shrimp, but I am going to use pork loin for several reasons. Shrimp are great, but I cannot eat them as my main source of protein. It takes way too many shrimp to meet my protein goal to justify solely eating them as my main source. As I stated before we stocked up on pork loin. Pork loin is so flavorful to me. It holds onto seasoning well and can easily meet my protein goal.
Since I will not be grilling shrimp, I am not going to grill the corn or the lettuce. You can easily put the corn in the oven and cook it while you prep other foods. As for the lettuce, you can briefly put it in the oven with the corn or sear it on a cast iron pan. If those two options make you nervous, just skip “grilling” the lettuce.
Don’t forget the list!
Remember that I create my grocery list to reflect 2 suppers and 2 lunches, per meal.
