WCW, Me!

Like that self-validating title? Well, I'm trying to be more positive and less hard on myself.

This morning, I woke up starving. I was so famished when I went to bed last night and I thought the hours of sleep would make it pass, but I honestly woke up starving. I never, ever eat normal breakfast - mostly because I am always running late - but today was an exception. Near work there is a delicious little cafe with great coffee and a few breakfast items. I ordered for pick-up and grabbed it on my way into the office. I had a nice scramble of eggs, sundried tomatoes, spinach, and goat cheese, and a nice little side medley of berries. I enjoyed their delicious coffee on the side. It very much hit the spot!

For lunch, I was rushing on my way to physical therapy, so I made myself my signature green smoothie. The ingredients are vanilla protein powder this berry blend, this superfoods green blend, chia/flax seed blend, fresh berries (today, blueberries), and coconut water. All blended up and delicious. In total that smoothie is packed full of goodness and is 350 calories. 

I had to go to school again tonight, and I didn't have time to grab anything else to eat. Plus I figured I would eat afterward so it wouldn't be a big deal. I was wrong. Around 5:00 I was famished again and only 1/3 of the way through my class. By the time school was over and I trained back to my car, I was dying. I was fantasizing about giant Chipotle bowls, and even sneaking over the wing stop for some chicken and fries (this is what hunger does to my brain). Instead, I ran to sprouts and I got some Wholly guacamole, some honey roasted almond butter, and a couple Kind bars. Before I even got to my car I had ripped open a bar, and ate half of it before I could even snap a picture. 

When I got home I made 5, yes, 5 scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, smothered them in guacamole and salsa and ate the whole thing with the rest of my plantain chips. It was probably too much, but I was starving. Then for dessert I had an apple, and I actually measured out 2 tbs of HR almond butter. This is a huge deal for me, because I usually just go at the container and have no idea how much I actually consume. But, the 2 tbs was more than enough for the whole apple. 

 





The reason I haven't worked out the past two days is because of work, physical therapy, and school. But, tomorrow I have one planned, so that will be coming up soon!

Day 3 is done.

The Next Day

 On Tuesday morning I started out the day with a green smoothie (ingredients pictured), followed by a coffee (not pictured), and then a string cheese. The deal with the string cheese is that I currently work at a children's center and they have a ton of carb-heavy snacks like crackers, raisins, goldfish, rice cakes, etc. But the only protein they have is string cheese, so by default I eat a lot of it.



For lunch I came home and made 3 scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, and pace picante salsa. For a snack I had an apple and some Havarti cubed up.

I had to go to school, so I brought my leftover salads from yesterday. They were still delicious, but not that filling.

I left school around 10:00PM starving. But, I decided that I don't want to eat late at night anymore (I've had a lot of trouble with that in the past). So when I got home I had a cup of chamomile tea instead (not pictured). 

Done and done. 

So It Begins

On Monday, it was MLK day, but I still had to go into work. For breakfast I had a large coffee with a little half and half, and a string cheese:

Later, I got home for lunch and I had "Lemonade Cafe" style salads I made myself. One was roasted brussel sprouts and roasted butternut squash with goat cheese and golden raisins. The other was an arugula salad with bleu cheese, pecans, pear, and a homemade vinaigrette. I had leftovers that I packed up. I then had an apple and the rest of my honey roasted almond butter (from sprouts) for mid-day dessert. 

I didn't have to go to school on Monday because of the holiday, so instead I went and tried out a new Classpass class called "Sweat Pilates". It was definitely hard, but I liked the instructor a lot. 

For dinner I went home and made a delicious salad for myself and my husband. It was a tasty Italian style with romaine, arugula, sundried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, kalmata olives, pepperocinis, feta, and homemade delicious green goddess Italian dressing. We also tried out my new veggie spiralizer and made some homemade sweet potato curly fries! It was definitely not a low calorie food, but we didn't eat very many of them. They did turn out pretty well though. They kind of reminded me of The Counter. 

This one, is done! 

Classpass and Plants

This isn't my first rodeo.

As a Junior in college, I went from 180 to 150 lbs following "Body for Life". I worked out like crazy at Gold's Gym. I would start by running hills on the treadmill wearing ankle weights, and then I'd do two back to back classes, cardio kickboxing and body sculpt. I did weight training on machines 3 days a week, and I went from drinking a soda a day and eating frequent taco bell, to cutting out pop all together and discovering Trader Joes. I gave myself achilles tendonitis, but I also was in the best shape of my life.

Fast forward a few years and I had all but gained back the weight. I was unhappy and constantly trying out new diets, any and every trend, I went raw for a month, became a vegetarian for 2 years, tried the lemonade diet, started running half marathons, and still I couldn't figure it out.

Then, in 2010 I joined a CrossFit gym. It was before it was cool to join a CrossFit gym, and I drank the kool-aid by the gallon. I became totally and completely enmeshed in it, and they convinced me to rejoin the meat train. For the first time in my life I actually felt strong. I went from having trouble doing girl push-ups, to being able to do real, serious, man push-ups, like 10 in a row. I could do pull-ups, I could climb a rope! I got better at snowboarding, I learned to rock-climb and was actually good at it, and I got FIT. Like, seriously fit. I also go strong. The day I hurt my shoulder I was going for a 150# PR overhead squat. I got the PR, but I tore my labrum in the process. What followed was surgery, and a year long recovery. In the midst of that, life happened. I moved away, I met my guy, we got married, we moved again, I went back to school. Needless to say, I never really got back to my full strength in CrossFit. But I did go back. I was back at my home gym for about 4 months, and that's when the second shoulder injury happened. This time, it was the other shoulder, and it wasn't my labrum, but it was my rotator cuff. What followed was 6 months of ignoring it. I ran a marathon. I tried to stay active at the local globo gym, and I finally gave in. Another surgery, a horrible recovery.

Fast forward 7 months, and we're here. I'm still in physical therapy 3 days a week. Now, my time is divided between work, school, volunteering, being a wife, and trying to find time to work out. My shoulder still sucks. Two shoulder surgeries before 30 is not something I would recommend to anyone, but it is what it is. Regardless, what the whole experience left me with was a body that is back to the one I hated in college. I just weighed myself the other day, and I am 185lbs. It's time for a change.

So, that's why I am here. I recently discovered ClassPass, the greatest invention to ever grace the fitness world! I can go to any and every class I want, and I do. I am still nursing my shoulder, but I am also kind of stubborn and I love a challenge, so I've been having fun balancing pilates with high intensity circuit work, boxing, and yoga. It's been great. We (my husband and I) also transitioned to a plant-based diet recently. I was admittedly a terrible vegetarian the first time around. I was like, chips and salsa - super vegetarian, great dinner! =/ ... So this time around, I am working on being a GOOD vegetarian, and actually being at least 80% plant-based. To be clear, I'm eating eggs, cheese/dairy, and fish too.

The point of this blog is really just an outlet for me, and also a space for accountability. For whatever reason, I do a lot better sticking to my resolutions when I know that there is some sort of accountability. I realize that probably no one out there actually cares if I go eat an entire cheesecake by myself, but the fact that I am committing to posting every single thing I eat, makes me say "hmm, I don't really want strangers on the internet to know what a fat gluttonous cheesecake eater I am. So, I'm gonna opt to not eat it". I know, some people would just eat it and not post it, but I'm not that type of person. This is like a confessional, what happens is the ugly truth, nothing sugar coated, except for the donuts.

Some statistics, as of today: January 20, 2016, I am 30 years old, I'm 5'7" and 181lbs (woohoo, dropped 4 since I last weighed). The pics are from 5 days ago. I'm contemplating signing up for "A Healthy Wage" too, as added motivation, but I haven't decided yet. My goal is to get down to 145. I want to slim my thighs, tighten up and tone everything else. I am going for muscular, toned, athletic, healthy - NOT SKINNY.

Here I am:

  

I will follow up with every single thing I eat, and every work out I do. I will also post updated body pics and weight every week to keep myself motivated.

All right ... Here we go!