Detoxification

Howdy!

As you can ascertain from the title of this blog post, I have finally arrived back in GA with my family.  For those of you that don’t know, we took a trip to Northern NY for the week of July 4th and then went down to Rochester, NY (just my husband and myself, we left the kids with my in-laws) to begin packing up my parents house and tie up loose ends there.

The second part of our trip was long and arduous.

This is where I like to have a blog, to show how a real person (myself, of course) deals with everyday frustrations that may or may not be common situations for others.  I would also like to share with you, that honestly, I fell off of the clean eating bandwagon.  The second week, I ate out ever meal except for breakfast.  Toward the end of the week, I gave up and ate breakfast out too.  I began to feel physically awful.  I blew up like a balloon (really – 10 pounds) which I am more then certain that it was from the sodium, fried, and preservative laden foods that I was ingesting in the restaurants.

The great thing about clean eating is that even if you stop, for any amount of time, you can start making wiser decisions at your very next meal. I came home with a plan.  It’s a detox plan, but not detox in the traditional sense (um, anyone heard of the water with lemon and cayenne cleanse??) I’ve never tried it and probably never will.  (It sounds disgusting!)

Detox clean eating style is cutting out the sugar, the unhealthy fats, and bad carbs, while drinking boat-loads of water to get rid of excess sodium, which causes bloat. I try to drink 80-100 ounces a day.

I shall get off my soap box now!   I tried to make better choices at times, and wanted to share the better (and worse choices) that I made with you.

TGIFriday’s (which was incidentally next to the hotel):

This meal was under the “Right Portion, Right Price” part of the menu.  The description:  Parmesan Crusted Chicken: “A sautéed chicken breast basted with Caesar dressing, then finished with a Parmesan-crust topping. Served with three cheese tortelloni tossed in spinach Alfredo sauce and a side of our fresh tomato Mozzarella salad.”

The other meal that I had was a salmon meal: (called Dragonfire Salmon)

The description:  “Norwegian salmon fillet fire-grilled and glazed with spicy Chinese Kung Pao sauce. Served over jasmine rice with pineapple pico de gallo, Mandarin oranges and broccoli.”

Those two meals weren’t terrible.  It was all of the rest of the yuck that I ate that put my body over the edge! Like these:

Buffalo Chicken Wings.

Let the detoxing begin:

Boars Head preservative free chicken and low sodium cottage cheese with Mrs. Dash on a whole grain preservative free thin-bun.

Tortilla Soup in the Vitamix.  So as some of you remember, I can sometimes cook and sometimes not so much and this was one of those recipes that needs some doctoring (so I guess it wasn’t my fault, lol…it’s not my recipe!).  It kind of tasted like veggie soup with taco seasoning.  Hopefully I can fix it tomorrow with the addition of more taco seasoning (organic) and boneless, skinless chicken breast!!

3 ounces of steak, boiled cauliflower and roasted sweet potato.  (Can you believe that the potato is just over 100 calories? All of that potato is only 1 cup!!)

Rotisserie chicken breast eaten sans skin with broiled broccoli with Mrs. Dash.  On the side I had leftover greek salad with Newman’s Own Lighten Up Sun Dried Tomato Vinaigrette Dressing.

I was disappointed today because the farmer down the road from my house was out of fresh eggs.  He told my husband that his chicken’s weren’t laying that many.  We’re supposing because it’s been so hot.   I only have one egg for tomorrow!  I guess I need to stop at the grocery store.  Jeremy did come home with a boat load of tomatoes, though!

So it’s been a couple of weeks of ups and downs.  I was sad when I came home, but then my girlfriends all decided to stop by the night I got back:

They made my night!

old picture Friday and TGIF!

Good morning bloggies!  I am so happy that it is Friday.  My 10 year old came down and had to wake me up this morning, and then informed me that I had turned my alarm off in my sleep, lol!

Today is going to be old pictures of the food I ate yesterday, because my camera battery died and that makes it impossible to post pictures.  So let’s get this party started!

Breakfast Friday am:

chocolate covered raisin oatmeal

oats, unsweetened dark chocolate cocoa powder, Sun Warrior Brown Rice Protein Powder, raisins. YUMMY!

Sun Warrior.

I love this protein powder because it is so clean.  Not 1 bad thing in it!  Highly recommended.

Coffee. Lots of coffee.

Did I mention lots of coffee this morning? LOL!

I went out last night for dinner to a local Chinese restaurant and had sushi that looked something like this:

Sushi.

I say it “looked something like this” because my sushi last night was a bit different.   I had a spicy tuna roll, and it didn’t have cream cheese or anything.  It also had white rice, because they don’t make it with brown.  Accompanying my sushi was miso soup and a house salad with the ginger dressing that I love.   There was some water to drink, also…no drinkies for me last night!

So sorry about the old photos!

I snacked on this before dinner, because we didn’t go out until 7pm:

Just 1 whole egg, no pancake.

and a lowfat cheese stick, which I don’t have a picture of. (Lucky you!).

Lunch was a Gardenburger with leftover roasted broccoli and brown rice:

Except the picture shows cottage cheese, not brown rice:

Brown rice.

Of course I had to have some chocolate:

Decadent raw orange chocolate brownie always tastes good!

As do these cookies:

Kashi

Overall, I feel that I did a fairly good job of eating clean yesterday and had a minimal amount of sugar.

I also got a fantastic workout session in.  (FINALLY!) BodyStep for 1 hour, and then weights.  I had to do the majority of my weights in one day, but I’m happy I finally got them in:

• Bar military press 30 lbs. 3 sets of 12
• Bar upright row 30 lbs. 3 sets of 10
• dumbell front raise 10 lb 2 sets of 12, 12 lb 1 set of 12
• barbell bent over row 30 lbs. 3 sets of 12
• cable seated low row 20 lbs. 3 sets of 12
• dumbbell bicep curl 12.5 lbs 1 set of 12, 15 lbs. 2 sets of 12
• 21′s 15 lbs, 3 sets of 12
• machine tricep extension 80 lbs 3 sets of 8
• seated tricep extension 15 lb 1 set of 12, 20 lbs 2 sets of 8

Today’s plan is to do legs, abs and a short 2-3 mile run @ 10 minute miles or under.

So what’s everyone’s plans for the weekend? I have a busy weekend ahead. Soccer, birthday party sleepover, girls movie and dinner night on Saturday….working out…and 20 loads of laundry!

Hope y’all have a great Friday!

Jessica xoxo

And then it snowed…

Good evening! Rochester is getting hit with a HUGE snow storm.  The schools here are all canceled tomorrow, so you know that it’s bad.  Of course I was out in it when it began, I had to go to the grocery store (the one that gives me anxiety attacks because it is so busy, LOL) and get a few things for the family.  Tomorrow I have more running around, and I may invest in some trail shoes for running outside in the snow. I don’t think my sneakers are going to cut it.  We shall see!

Today Mom was at the doctor for the majority of the day so it was more of a snacky-snacky kind of day.  Breakfast is my new favorite thanks to my Dad:

Mushroom omelet with herbs de Provence. They really add such fantastic flavor!  That is one whole egg, and one egg white, plus half of a blueberry bagel. (Not the pre-packaged kind, so clean).

And of course, my staple morning beverage:

Cooffeeeee! In an Atlanta coffee mug, where it’s been 63 degrees today, not 16. I’m just sayin’.

I was at the doctor with Mom, and we compeltely missed the lunch that they serve.  I came prepared, just in case, though!  It’s all about being prepared.  I had another Luna Lemon Zest bar:

I really like these bars. I really don’t like the amount of sugar (13 grams).  I have some others I am going to try that I can’t get at home, so if I love them, I’m shipping them home!

I also ate some of the clean beef jerky that Jeremy made me with Braggs Aminos:

That’s all that was left!

This is what it was to begin with..I ate one slice.  Braggs is lower in sodium then traditional soy sauce, so I don’t feel bad about eating it.

I guess that was “lunch”.  I needed to go to the store, and then all of the sudden, it hit me and I was starving so I grabbed some organic chocolate covered almonds, (and almost ate the whole thing!)

I kind of “tore into it”, LOL!

I finally got home in the snowstorm and had dinner with the parents…Italian style goulash with carrots and mushrooms as my veggie, because I didn’t have time to make anything else:

The right side is the veggies, the left is the goulash.  No I did not mix them together! Hit. The. Spot.

I was hungry again soon after, probably because my caloric intake was so low.  I took out some of these:

COCO POPS!!

Oh my goodness, these are fantastic.  They make them right in front of you, no preservatives, and 16 calories.  Lighter than a rice cake.  However, you need to put something on it…(tastes a little like pop corn).

Coco Pops nutrition

I started with SunButter:

I ate an entire one covered in SunButter, which I am normally not a fan of, but paired perfectly with the Coco Pop.

I was still hungry, so I grabbed my cinnamon vanilla pecan nut “butter” (remember it didn’t blend out smooth?) and covered another Coco Pop:

That concludes my eats today in snow covered Rochester, NY.  Hope all of your eats are happy, too!

Jessica, xoxo

YaY! It’s Friiiidddaaaaay!

Hello y’all from rainy, gloomy Atlanta, Georgia. Oh well, that’s ok. At least it’s not snow! Yesterday was horribly busy and hectic for me. Something went really wrong with my car, and I wound up having to have it towed and get a rental. It was after the gym, though, which was good (priorities, LOL!) I took BodyStep and had the most fantastic class since I’ve been back on my feet (literally!) I burned 589 calories @ 24% fat in 1:28. That is fantastic. Plus, I was on an endorphine high for the rest of the day so the car incident didn’t really bother me

I promised I would veer away from chicken and steamed veggies and switch things up. I did!

This morning’s breakfast was not very creative (but I have never claimed to be a cook). Wheatena with peaches and coffee. I was super hungry, the Wheatena has carbs and protein, and I just felt like my body needed carbs. So there you have it. At least I was drinking out of my Peanuts mug!

So lunch yesterday (because I had to deal with the car) came from Publix, the local grocery store. I had gone to one that I normally don’t go to, and found they have a little sushi station! (The other stores just make it in the back and package it). SO, I have a moderate sensitivity to cucumbers, which every single roll had, and was able to custom order my rolls and bring them home:

this is smoked salmon, avocado and brown rice. It was sooo good!

Dinner I made a pork butt with garlic powder, thyme and a pinch of sea salt (ummm, not that great, but edible:)

Salad mix with mushrooms, Goddess dressing, and a LOT of broccoli. I also had a Luna bar yesterday (I had a coupon, buy 2 get 1 free so they’re gone now) and another banana hammock (the same as yesterday as well). So if you missed my posts from yesterday, go check them out!

My plan for today:

1. Return rental car (my hubby came home last night, so I can use his car)

2.  Find out what is wrong with my car

3.  Take Biscuit for a bath at PetSmart (didn’t make it yesterday for obvious reasons)

4.  Christmas shopping

Friday Tip of the Day: If you experience pain while doing a particular exercise, don’t continue to do it. Try to modify it if possible or choose a different one. There are lots of exercises out there, you don’t have to do any that cause you pain!

It’s going to be a PEACH of a day…

This morning I felt like peaches, so I made groats with peaches and honey.  Groats are whole oats, in case you were wondering, and are much better for you and have more protein then regular oatmeal.

Groats, Peaches and Honey

Let’s get down to it, yesterday was a busy cooking day for me. I had NO IDEA what to make for myself with my new “restrictions” for food sensitivities. So, I took some chicken from yesterday, steamed every veggie I could find, and made a sort of sauce. The sauce was soy sauce, honey, rice wine vinegar, and a bit of brown rice flour. I threw all of that over some brown rice.

Steaming Every Veggie in the House

Making the Sauce

Voila! It's Some Kind of Stir-Fry!

After making lunch I found out that my 9 year old (Aidan) had volunteered me to make some muffins for the class Christmas Party on Tuesday. Well, always trying to be healthy (and clean!), I decided I had ingredients for chocolate chip. Whole wheat flour, buttermilk and skim milk, honey, egg, canola oil and semi-sweet chocolate chips:

Making Healthy Muffins

That’s Sean and Sophia, helping me make them. They turned out like this:

Healthy Muffins!

He has 26 kids in his class! So that was 3 batches of muffins. Somehow it didn’t make the amount it was supposed to, it was supposed to make 36, but only made 29, so the kids are getting extra big muffins! LOL.

Dinner was 3/4 clean. I had bought pork for carnitas, but didn’t realize that they are fried. In lard. Which my husband did, because he wanted them to be authentic. Well, not worth the effort, I would have rather simmered it all day and had adobo instead.  At any rate, I added a salad, yellow rice and green beans to round out the meal.

The next couple of days are going to be really busy. Kids Xmas parties at school, cleaning the house, and my folks come on Wednesday! Plus I need to finish the Xmas shopping, and grocery shop. Aaargh. And hit the gym. Hitting the gym tonight at 6:30 with the kids for a Cardio Core class to work out some of the stress,

See you later, my friends! Have a PEACH of a day!

Brrr! Welcome Old Man Winter!

Good Morning my fellow foodies! It is crazy cold here in the Atlanta, GA area! My puppy woke up at 7:30am, and I thought we were going to turn into popsicles outside! I am sooo not a winter person, even though I grew up in the north. I can say for certain that I’ve done my time. Vermont, anyone??? LOL!

So let’s get down to it. My eats are going to be fairly different from now on. I had a food sensitivity test done and found that while I’m not allergic, I have some pretty severe food sensitivities. So I am on a 4 day rotation with the foods that I can eat (it’s limiting, but not terrible, but a lot of foods that I ate every day I can’t eat for say, a minimum of 6 months. Then I try to add them back in. At risk of boring everyone, if you want to find out more, see my “Alcat” page.

SO, breaky was very unusual, but OMG, YUMMY!!! (Assume that everything I am eating is on the list) I made what I like to call chocolate banana split. AND, I managed to get my protein in too! Foodgasmic!!!

This is regular oatmeal, chocolate protein powder, banana, unsweetened cocoa. Oh, and my coffee, because I can’t live without my coffee

The rest of the day should be VERY interesting. Have a great morning, y’all!!!