Back to Regular Scheduled Programming…

We won’t be discussing yesterday's eats as they were convenient and unhealthy.  I’m focusing on today instead!  Started off the morning right with a Veggie Egg Scramble.

The scramble was a mix of 1 egg, 1 egg white, shredded smoked gouda, yellow green bell peppers, onions, tomatoes & mushrooms.  Mmm was perfect with a chewy Ezekiel English Muffin.

The rest of my day is going to be clean and healthy.  Booty Camp tonight!! Yah excited to get some exercise as its been a few days.  I have to find some time to fit in Amy’s Challenge & Workout Wednesday too, most likely it will be Saturday evening or Sunday morning as I have camp tonight, Yuk Yuks tomorrow night and berry picking Saturday.  Going to be a busy few days!
Hope everyone is well, I have to catch up on your blogs later on today.

Amy’s 15 Week Challenge – I’m READY!!

So today is the first official day of Amy’s 15 Week Challenge and boy am I ever ready to rock it!


 
In a nutshell, here is my plan:

Start Weight:  194 lbs

Weigh In Day:  Saturday morning

Challenge Goal:  To lose 15 lbs, bringing my weight to 179 lbs.  A one pound per week lose is easily attainable as long as I eat within my 1500 calories/day and maintain my exercise routine.

Reward:  A challenge wouldn’t be very fun without a prize now would it?! I’m thinking an item or two from Lulu would be a fantastic reward!
I’m SO excited to kick butt and lose more weight.  This is a perfect way to stay focused on my health and work towards achieving my goals this Summer!! Thanks again Amy!

As part of the challenge I’m also looking forward to participating in the “Workout Wednesdays” session and the Weekly Challenge!  This week’s challenge is to recreate one of my favourite sinful recipes to make it figure friendly.   So, this coming Friday, I will be re-vamping a yummy Date Square recipe.  Mmm, I LOVE these babies and have a few ideas for making them healthier!

On to my eats:
I ramped up for the day with this yummy Green Monster!  I love to have these things when I’m not feeling anything heavy/carby.  They are perfect because they actually do hold you over for several hours.


This morning’s Monster Mix was a combo of Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze, 3 cup organic baby spinach, 5 strawberries, 1/2 tbsp organic peanut butter, 1 very small frozen organic banana and 1/4 scoop of chocolate whey protein powder.

I packed pineapple for our lunches and munched on the last few pieces straight from the bowl.  This was one of the best pineapples that I ever bought, so juicy and sweet!

 
I did have a coffee when I got to work but it’s so boring taking the same pic every day so I opted not to.  Mid-morning I snacked on the chocolatey On The Glo bar. Mmm delicious!


For lunch I had a piece of the left over quiche.  Note to self:  freezing & re-heating quiche leaves it feeling like rubber.  :(  Still good but the texture was ewwy.

 
A simple salad on the side – baby spinach, cucumber, radish, mushrooms & red peppers.  Drizzled with french dressing.

Pineapple & stewed rhubarb for dessert. Fun fact: Did you know that rhubarb is actually a vegetable?  I was goggling it’s health benefits and read several different articles stating that most people (myself included) assume rhubarb is a fruit when it’s actually a veggie. Weird huh?! :)

Later on this afternoon indulged in this yummy bite of dark chocolate compliments of the Farmers Market. 

I got home and was excited to finally be able to try a recipe from the new Clean Eating Magazine!  On the menu - Balsamic-Marinated Pork Chops & Grilled Peaches.  I only made a few tiny modifications to the recipe, 1) I halved it because I only took out 2 pieces of pork  2) I used a nectarine instead of a peach and 3) I added onions to the pan to caramelize.

Fancy Smancy!

  

Was really tasty, even J agreed!  He’s been getting some pretty awesome meals lately if I do say so myself. ;)

 
Served with a side of vegetable fusilli mixed with pesto & shredded cheese.

 

And of course, my latest obsession – Beet Greens!! These are the epitome of Summer in my mind.  Growing up we always used to have them with BBQ steak & corn on the cob.  I’m all out already, going to have to hit up the Farmers Market again soon.

Dessert was a lovely froyo waffle cone.


That’s all I got for ya tonight. Off to catch up on a few blogs and relax with J.

Half Marathon Training Starts Today!!!!!!!!

Weeeeeeeeeeee! So excited to officially start training for my first half marathon tonight!  It’s going to be a hilly 3K so I can work up a good sweat in the short time I’m out.

This post is going to be a little bit of this and that because I have a few things that I want to say!

[Edit]
Amy is thinking of running a 15 Week Challenge and she wants to know who’s in!  She’s got some incredible sponsors lined up, so head over to her blog today and let her know you’re interested!!  I’m definitely in!!

Also, take a moment to check out Angela’s video “Goodbye To The Obsession.”  It is really thought-provoking and gave me goosebumps.

- I’ve been mentally making a list of all the foods/recipes that I want to make over the next few weeks, this includes black bean burgers, french toast (haha thanks Vanessa) and some form of raw granola bar.   Making a list of the ingredients tonight and will pick them up when I’m at Planet Organic tomorrow night!  J even said he would try the black bean burgers so it got me all excited to make them!

- Sometimes I think about becoming a vegetarian.  There are days where I don’t have any meat and don’t miss it at all.  Then there are times that I think I could devour 20oz steak. But really, I don’t think it would be that much of an effort for me to not eat meat.  All you vegetarians out there, what has been your biggest struggle? Do you feel deprived?

- I went back through my older blog posts and I can’t believe how depressed/unmotivated I sounded in a lot of my writing this past year.  I want to thank all those who kept commenting, even through my rough times.  Your support means so much to me. ♥ I know that I stopped commenting on many blogs too and I’m going to make an effort to do better in this area.  Just seems right! Getting back into blogging/commenting really seems to be helping with the motivation too.

- Anyone else watch the show True Blood?  As I mentioned in my Video Blog last night, I’m totally addicted! I’ve got 2 episodes left of the first season.

- I’m feeling so freaking happy lately it’s almost sick!! :)

On to my eats.  Last night I left off trying to figure out what to have for Supper.  Decided to be lazy and got J to pick up a pizza.  We split a medium, thin crust – mine loaded with all veggies – green peppers, onions, tomatoes and olives. Mmm mmm!  I love the fact that this pizza has literally no grease and I don’t feel nasty after eating it.

 


This morning I woke up and knew immediately that I wanted oats.  Into the pot went organic oats, ground flax seed, vanilla almond breeze a chopped banana.


Topped my bowl with some more chopped banana, sliced almonds, a few craisins, mini chocolate chips & a spoonful of crunchy peanut butter.

 
For my morning snack seems that I’ve been rotating between those lovely cosmic cookies and larabars.  Well today was no different and I had a Coconut Cream Pie bar.


Fantastic!


Unfortunately, my lunches are usually always the same for one week because I make a pot of something on the weekend to eat all week.  It may seem boring but it saves SOOOO much time and I know that it’s healthy.  So again, chicken veggie alfredo with cucumber.

 
I munched some a few Kashi Honey Sesame crackers and an apple for my afternoon snack.

 

I got home from work and put the living room back together.  We’ve been sleeping out here all week while the paint dried/fumes left the bedroom.  I haven’t slept well at all and will be glad to be back where I belong!

So…Supper tonight was for three!  My Dad is away so my Mom stopped in for a quick visit and a bite to eat.  I was still in a pork kabob frame of mind so I took all the ingredients and made “kabob-less pork!” :)

Aren’t all the colors just gorgeous?!


This was a mixture of green, red & yellow peppers, red onion and diced pork with all kinds of seasonings.
 

Served with a side of olive oil garlic couscous.

  

I’m off to get ready for my run.

Night!!