A Walk in the Park

Ugh, it's Monday already.

We had a beautiful weekend in Houston, with temps finally beginning to feel like fall. For a few days anyway--they're forecasting mid-80's again by the end of this week. Blah.

Sundays are always busy for me, although they start out lazy. Ever since we finally gave in and started going to the 11:00 service at church (we had been getting to the 9:00 service...at 9:30), the mornings have gotten more relaxed. After church it's home for lunch and naps (for the kids), and laundry and cooking for daddy and me.

Every Sunday, I chop up a bunch of vegetables to roast for the week.  Lately, my veggies of choice have been brussel sprouts, zucchini, eggplant, and broccoli or cauliflower (broccoli this week). Sometimes I throw in some mushrooms too. I've also been cutting up and roasting a squash; this week it is acorn (might be my fave).  I toss the vegetables in coconut oil and Bragg's Seasonings and roast them at 400 for about 15 minutes (sometimes longer for the brussel sprouts and cauliflower).  I quartered the acorn squash, scooped out the goop, rubbed it with coconut oil, and roasted it for about 45 minutes at 425. I usually end up with 2 big cooking sheets of roasted vegetables, plus the squash. Since no one else in my family eats them, they last me all week. I'll take a quarter of a squash and about a cup of veggies to work, toopped with hemp seeds and pumpkin seeds, then heat it up and toss it in a tahini nooch sauce (tahini, nutritional yeast, apple cider vinegar, and water, courtesy of Powercakes ) or a curry hum-nooch sauce (hummus, nutritional yeast, curry powder, courtesy of fortheloveofkale).

Sometimes I'll eat the veggies and the squash as part of a HUGE salad, with spinach/kale, roasted red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, avocado, raw sauerkraut, and anything else I've got in my fridge!

Last night, I made this lovely plate:

Topped my veggies and squash with a fried egg (over easy so the yolk spilled out...YUMMM!), Sriacha, and hemp seeds.  The kids and the husband were enjoying a Papa John's pizza, but I'm pretty sure that my dinner tasted better. I did share some of my broccoli with the littlest one and my son had some sugar snap peas. I always insist that they have a veggie or a fruit with lunch and dinner!

It's crazy, but even a month ago, that pizza would have been incredibly hard for me to resist, despite the bloated feeling that would immediately follow.  And although I did sneak one bite last night, I really had no desire to join in the pizza-eating.  The way my body responds to plant-based foods is SOO much better...it's not worth the pain!

I was planning on cooking dinner last night, but the weather beckoned us outside so we went for a little hike

Our mile and a half walk took us about 45 minutes thanks to our psychotic dog (who freaks out at the sight of any other dog) and my lovely little girl, who had to pause about every 10 feet to draw an "X" in the dirt with a stick.  But it was worth it! Love these precious times with them!

Since Sundays are my day off from my workouts, the hike was my excercise for the day. This morning, I was back at the gym bright and early for a 20 minute HIIT workout on the treadmill followed by the 5 minute plank workout from PurelyTwins (it's a killer!!) and a quick back session comprised of 2 supersets:

Superset 1:  One-armed rows with dumbbell, 15x/side
                   Assisted pull-ups, 15x          repeat Superset 3x
 Superset 2:  Seated rows, 12x
                   Lat pull-downs, 15x             repeat Superset 3x

Today is Meatless Monday, which means the whole family eats vegetarian! Hooray! I'm planning on making a new soup recipe. I'll post it if it turns out well :)

In the mean time, please follow me on Instagram if you're interested in following my nutrition/fitness journey. I'm obsessed with IG!! My IG name is brookeeking.

Have a blessed day!

Time for Self

Ah, Saturday. It actually feels fall-ish in Houston today, my kids let me sleep until 7:45, I had a great workout and then got home and ran around the cul-de-sac with my kids and husband about 10 times (my son is "practicing" for his 1-mile Thanksgiving race!). And best of all, two days of no work and time with my favorite people!

When people get to know me, it's pretty easy to see what my loves are: God, my husband, my kids,  my family, and fitness/nutrition. In that order.  And I always get asked, "How do you stay so fit and healthy with a full time job and little kids at home?". My answer is always, How could I not? When my day is packed from sun-up until sundown, my workout is my alone time. Time to refuel, physically and emotionally, and take care of me. When I was in treatment for my anorexia, one of the big things that I learned was that I had to take care of myself, mentally and physically, before I could take care of anyone else. In order to avoid a relapse, this has to be a priority in my life. Some days it's hard...I'm tired, I want to just lounge with the family, I have a million errands to run, whatever. But it catches up with me pretty quick. When my husband says, "Babe, why don't you go work out?", I know it's bad!

The good thing is, with the change in my eating and workouts lately, my workout time is usually shorter and gets me back to the real loves of my life faster. The increased intensity gets my heart rate up fast, and I sweat out all that stress and frustration like none other!

Today was not a HIIT day, which is actually hard for me because I LOVE my HIIT workouts!

My gym time looked like this:

• 30 minutes Arc Trainer (started at 6% incline, 25 resistance and increased incline and resistance every minute until I got to 20%/40, then decreased every minute)
• 2 minute plank
• Superset:  Squats on Smith apparatuns 15x
•                  Calves on Leg press 20x                (repeat 3x)
• Superset:  Stepups with dumbbells 15x/each leg
•                  Deadlifts on box 15x                      (repeat 3x)
• Walking lunges holding a plate overhead    3 sets/20
• Single leg curls (machine-laying down)      3 sets/15
• Superset of abs with medicine ball (I don't know the names of the moves that I did! Gotta figure that out!!)

I ate an apple on the way home then had a smoothie with my new Sun Warrior Chocolate brown rice protein powder!

 

 

Got it from iherb.com (use code WSD193 for a discount off of your first order!).  Soooo good, with a little added greens, half a frozen banana, 1 T raw cocoa powder, 1 T chia seeds, a packet of Stevia, 1 cup unsweetened almond/coconut milk, and some ice cubes.

 

Now I'm ready to spend the rest of the day with these beautiful faces:

And their handsome daddy :)

 

 

Have an amazing and blessed weekend!

Stumbling Towards Vegetarian (-ism?)

So, yes, it has been forever again. And, yes, I promised that I was going to work harder on keeping this blog up to date. I think this counts as a FAIL.

But also, where the heck as my sister diappeared to in the blog world? Step it up, BB!

Anyway, a lot has changed in my nutrition and fitness perspective since we started this blog. I think that I mentioned in my first entry how I have struggled with IBS.  I had some slight issues with it during high school and college, but nothing major.  After college graduation, I was anorexic for a year until undergoing intense in-patient therapy.  That was 8 1/2 years ago, and though my body image issues have greatly improved, anorexia left me with severe IBS that has only worsened over the years.  It became so bad in the spring that I was sent for an emergency MRI (luckily the issue did not require emergency treatment).  I was put on a medication which helped, but I still had severe bloating...when you get asked three times in one week if you're pregnant, I'd say that falls under "bloating".  I gave up gluten which helped tremendously, and just started paying more attention to my body.  About a month ago, I happened upon two great blogs, powercakes and fortheloveofkale, who started a "plantPOWER" challenge for their readers with a different plant-based challenge each day of October.  I decided to see if I could do the vegetarian thing and happily jumped on board.

Guess what?? I CAN do the vegetarian thing! And not only that, but my body LOVES the vegetarian thing!! No more bloating, no more IBS issues, and I even stopped taking my medicine over the weekend without a problem!  It turns out that my body did not respond well to the Paleo Diet because that was the exact opposite of what it needed. This just goes to show that not every nutritional plan works for every person. You absolutely MUST listen to your own body.

I've also decreased the length of my workouts and increased the intensity.  I'm doing more HIIT training (which I absolutely love), more Tabata workouts (these are amazing to incorporate into your lifting), even some at-home sessions. I feel wonderful inside and out; I'm finally listening to my own body more.

I'm still working on building up my vegetarian/gluten free recipe repetoire, so if you have any you want to share, please do so! I am OBSESSED wth nutritional yeast right now. Its a great, easy way to get protein and lots of other nutrients, and I love the taste it adds to everything. I also roast tons of vegetables on the weekends to eat throughout the week, and I'm especially loving squash. It's so stinkin' good, why has nobody told me this before? Especially roasted with some coconut oil...heaven.

My bounty from this past week (minus a kabocha squash)

Now, I'm not calling myself a vegetarian, at least not yet. I figure that if I want some chicken some time, I'll have some. But right now, I have no desire for it. And I'm okay with that too :).

Please let me know if you have any questions or advice for me. Another wonderful blog, besides the ones I mentioned above, is purelytwins. The cyberworld has been a great source for all of my recipes!!  Also, please follow me on Instagram for slightly more frequent updates ;). I'll include what I'm eating and also some of my workouts! My instagram tag is brookeeking.  And I'll work on the blog thing a little more...I hope!!

Guilt-free Ice Cream!

So, time to 'fess up. I have a serious weakness for sweets that seems to hit me primarily after dinner. Unfortunately, my kids and my husband share this weakness. I search for the "cleanest" sweets that I can find that will a) be acceptable to the whole family and b) actually satisfy the sweet tooth.  Might as well be searching for the Holy Grail!

I now have a board on Pinterest called "Clean Sweets" and I've tried a few things, but this one has been universally popular with the whole family, literally has NO sugar added, and is actually good for you!

This one is all over the healthy blogs, but I pulled my recipe from chocolatecoveredkatie.com.  She has the BEST healthy sweets, most of which are gluten and dairy free.

Check it out:

Would you believe this is frozen bananas?

Chocolate "Soft-Serve"

2 frozen bananas (or 1 per person)

2 T. unsweetened cocoa powder (or 1 T. per person)

1 packet Stevia (if, like my family, you like it a little sweeter; you could also use honey)

1/4 t. pure vanilla extract

1-2 T. milk or dairy alternative (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)

Put all of the above ingredients into a food processor and process until smooth and chunks of banana are gone.  This may take a few minutes, depending on your food processor.  Add a bit more milk if needed. When finished, it should literally look like soft-serve ice cream.

Serve immediately (my kids wanted sprinkles on theirs).  Be warned that this will not keep it's consistency if allowed to thaw; it just turns into a sticky mess. I haven't tried freezing it to serve later, not sure if that would work or not.

We tried to make vanilla soft serve by adding more vanilla and a bit of honey, but it just tasted like bananas. You can also make a peanut butter banana flavor by replacing the cocoa with PB2 or or peanut butter, or chocolate peanut butter by keeping the cocoa in there! You could also add other fruits into the mix, like strawberries. Enjoy!!

Pesto Chicken Salad...and a new plan

Ok, so obviously we are HORRIBLE at keeping this blog updated. But with all my "pinning" lately, I've become inspired to try and do better!

Speaking of pinning, my cooking lately has been composed entirely of dishes that I've found on or via Pinterest. There are some amazing healthy living blogs out there!  I'm not very good at developing my own recipes (despite being left-handed, I seem to lack the creativity gene), but I love to find other peoples' recipes and modify them to fit what I like or happen to have in my kitchen.

I also recently instituted a rule in my house that when I cook dinner (usually 3x/week), everybody eats it. I found that I was becoming a short-order cook -- I never got to sit down with my family for dinner and my kids were becoming increasingly picky! So they now have to at least try everything I make; if they don't like it, they eat PB&J sandwiches. No argument, end of discussion. I have also eliminated almost all processed foods from our house (there are some organic items that I let slide; I don't have the time to make homemade bread, tortilla chips, or crackers, and those Applegate Farms organic chicken tenders are just so darn convenient!). After church on Sundays, the rest of my day is spent chopping and cooking for the week ahead so that weeknights go more smoothly. My husband and I always bring our lunches to work, my son starts Kindergarten next week, and my daughter starts 2x/week pre-school the week after, so that's a lot of on-the-go meals to provide! Plus, if I don't get dinner on the table quickly once I get home from work, I have kids eating dinner in their pajamas. Ah, the challenges of a working mom ;)

In any case, I have a lot of recipes to share now! I need to remind myself to take pictures of everything I make so I can post the pictures along with the recipes. (Warning: my photography skills are nowhere near professional; my iPhone camera is the best one I have.)  And I will always give the blog where I got the recipe, or at least its inspiration. There are a lot of talented healthy recipe developers out there, so make sure you check them out.

Today's recipe is a replicate of one I found at pbfingers.com. Her recipes are healthy, yummy, and simple.  She also has some great workouts posted, so check her out! This is a pesto chicken salad; the only modification I made was using fresh baby spinach instead of the fresh basil she called for.  And I used a little less olive oil because I don't like the oily texture (yep, I'm weird. I've accepted it).

Pesto Chicken Salad

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 pound)
1 cup fresh baby spinach
1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/4 cup raw walnuts
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
2 stalks celery, diced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced

Boil the chicken breasts in water or chicken broth for about 30 minutes, or until fully cooked.  Remove from pan and shred with two forks. Set aside.

Combine spinach, sunflower seeds, walnuts, garlic, olive oil, and salt and pepper in your food processor.  Process until mixture becomes a paste or sauce (depending on what you prefer and how much oil you add).

Put chicken in a large bowl and toss with pesto, celery, and carrot. Enjoy!

The first night we had this, I ate my chicken salad plain and my husband had his in a pita.  When I ate it for dinner last night, I warmed it on top of some steamed spinach and then topped it with feta cheese, a couple of grape tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, and hot chili sauce. Yummy!!



Protein Banana Bread

So my family seems to have a love/hate relationship with bananas.  Some weeks I have to replenish them once or twice during the week; others, the ones I buy on my big Saturday shopping trip are still sitting in the fruit bowl at the end of the week and our kitchen is beginning to smell very banana-y.  This week has been one of the latter weeks, and I needed to get rid of some bananas.  My very favorite banana bread recipe is a Cooking Light recipe that has chocolate chips in it; this time, I was looking for a recipe that was cleaner and guilt-free.  And I came upon this one for Protein Banana Bread! I was a little nervous about the husband and kids liking it, but it earned a unanimous thumbs-up, especially from my husband who asked me to make it more often!

This is super easy and I had almost all of the ingredients on hand.  Those I didn't I was able to make easy substitutions for (I've noted the substitutions below).  Let me know what you think!

• 1 1/3 cup whole wheat flour (I used oat flour, just because I like it better)
• 1/2 cup Stevia or other sweetener of your choice (I used 1/4 c. Stevia and 1/4 c. organic brown sugar, to make it more husband-friendly!)
• 3 scoops vanilla whey protein powder (I was low on vanilla, so I used 1 scoop vanilla and 2 scoops chocolate)
• 1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon (I never measure cinnamon--in my opinion you can never have too much!)
• 2 egg whites
• 1 cup mashed banana (2 large or 3 small bananas)
• 1/4 cup water (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
• snack size of unsweetened applesauce (I used 1/4 cup canned pumpkin)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix all ingredients together.  Pour into a 8"/4" loaf pan coated with cooking spray.  Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick can be stabbed into the middle and pulled out clean.

Enjoy!!

This week starts my "official" competition prep for my first figure show with Musclemania.
I have been using these past few weeks to put on more muscle and that is what I will continue to do for the next several weeks. My diet has been very clean whic is what I need to focus on right now. I've been eating a lot of eggs and egg whites. I have about 3 full eggs a day and then between 4-6 egg whites per day. I eat every 3-4 hours which is really important. My meals throughout the day consist of a lot of vegetables, lean meats and healthy fats. I am not eating any grains. I'm not doing the Paleo diet per say, I am actually eating more as an anti-yeast diet. Over the past couple of weeks I have had a very bad yeast infection and I am prone to get these. After much research online and talking to other health preofessionals, I found out that a diet that has any yeast or sugars in it will feed into a yeast infection. So, not yeast or fruit are included in my diet.
As for my workouts, I have been doing very little cardio, lower reps and higher sets. I'll focus on 2 or 3 body parts a day and do 3 or 4 circuits consisting of about 5 exercises hitting those body parts. Circuits keep you moving and work more muscle groups at a time which burns more calories. The reason I am doing low reps (8-10) is because the weights are heavier and I am doing at least 4 sets. I will start to do more actual steady-state cardio in a couple weeks in the morning on an empty stomach.
Lots and lots of water is very important! It keeps you hydrated, keeps your metabolism moving and makes you feel fuller longer.
I have posted a picture of the supplements that I am currently taking:

The whey protein is something I take either right after workout or as one of my meals. I don't take it every day as I am trying to stick with pure clean foods. I take the Amino energy before my workout along with a tsp. of glutamine. Right after the workout I take Cellmass (creatine) and another tsp. of glutamine. CLA pills are taken 3x a day and the Hyper Shred is taken 2x a day. Cellmass, CLA and glutamine are essential in muscle growth and recovery. Amino is for muscle repair before, during and after the workout, helps me lifts more, gives energy and supports Nitric Oxide Synthesis. The Hyper Shred is great for boosting metabolism and giving me a little extra energy.

So, that's what I have so far in my competition prep. My current weight is 142 and my body fat percentage is about 16-17%. That's an estimate as I don't have a way of getting my exact amount at the time. I'm happy with my progress so far and I'm feeling really motivated! I'll try to get picture up soon.