Plane time!

Hello y’all and happy holiday weekend. I hope you have a safe and fun holiday!

The entire family is on a plane to Rochester, NY. We are heading to my in-laws in Northern NY for a week, then I am going to leave the kids there and drive back down to Rochester for a few days to take care of some estate matters.

Technically speaking, I haven’t blogged from my iPhone in a while so I am re-learning. Please disregard any spelling errors and enjoy the pictures that will undoubtedly show up at the END instead of where I want then to go! Hopefully it will all look glorious, lol!

I started my day today with Sophia waking us up an hour early before the alarm went off. Isn’t that how it always is? I can never fall back asleep either, so I was awake for the duration.

We made the flight, got stuck in the back of the plane over the engine, got in a little early, then had rental car issues.

Apparently Enterprise thinks a Ford Fusion is a full-sized car! (Just a reminder, there’s 5 of us with 4 pieces of luggage, 3 backpacks, my gym bag, and a laptop bag. Jeremy finally managed to fit us all into some car that was bigger that had just been returned. Thank goodness!!

Ahhhh, that is how I keep my sanity on the plane. The kids were actually really good, they’re old pros at traveling now, but so am I! I do not go anywhere without my portable DVD player. Sophia watched it on the plane and they all watched movies in the car. I’ve been through a few…we wear them out! But it’s a lifesaver when you need to occupy the kids!!

So I have a plan and I brought my sneakers and workout clothes and I want to run 4-5 miles tomorrow morning. Actually EVERY day that I am gone! I also ordered INSANITY from the infomercial and am very excited about getting it this week – I had it shipped to NY!

I am a strong believer in changing things up and that is what I am going to do over the next few weeks. Insanity has a money back guarantee, so I will let you all know how it turns out and if I “get ripped in 60 days”. Hahaha!!

I actually brought some essentials with me on my trip:

I brought my blender cup and protein powder, my new *pink* gym bag that I picked up at the Nike Outlet in Destin, FL last week, and my water bottle. I plan on working out, and planning ahead is the key to consistency!!

I also plan on eating just like I do at home or on vacation:

Some staples: plain yogurt with protein powder for a snack, grilled chicken and veggies, (Jeremy did an ahhhmazing job with that chicken! The homemade marinade was tasty ) and of course, lots of egg creations!

I will do updates and before/after pictures regarding the Insanity DVD’s…you all can then judge for yourselves!

Have a wonderful holiday weekend…and don’t forget to tell your friends about Fit and Clean! Happy 4th of July!

Friday “date night” :)

Hello lovlies!  Sorry about the delay of the bloggy, but last night we dropped the kids off at the gym for “date night” (it’s 3 hours…rolled into my membership and cheap) and went out to dinner.  We hadn’t done that in a loooong time, so it was a wonderful treat.

I started my morning with Bob Marley Oatmeal because I knew I was in for a run, no matter how long.

Bob Marley Oats

Jillian Micheal’s vanilla protein powder, fresh pineapple, raw cashews, coconut and maple syrup.

So let’s get down to it and talk about the run.

I have issues sometimes going in to my gym to workout, because I have a lot of friends there.  And I start to chit-chat.  I was late as it was, and I had to bring Sophia with me, so I only had a certain length of time to finish 7 miles.  Well, suffice it to say, I only ran 4.5.  Approximately 20 minutes was spent chit-chatting.

Something this run did make me realize, though, is that I have not properly trained to run a half marathon at this point. There is less than a month of training left.  So, unfortunately, I am going to pass on the ING on the 21st of March and aim for a different one down the road.  This was a hard decision, but I think in the end it will be better.  As soon as I find a new one, I will let y’all know what the new date is!

OK, enough running talk.  When I got home from my run it was late and I knew we were going to date night, so I didn’t want to eat a heavy lunch and decided on my current staple:

Wheat Berry Salad

I love wheat berry salad, as I’ve said before, so I won’t bore you with any more salad talk.

Let’s get down to it with dinner.  We ate at a fantastic Italian restaurant by our house.   They brought out buttery garlic rolls:

Then salads (I had my dressing on the side…it was the House dressing, a balsamic vinaigrette):

Salad.

Sorry about the lighting…but I had to take the pictures with my phone, and it was dark in the restaurant!

Then for my main dish:

Lasagna!

I tried to eat only half:

But who was I kidding? I ate the rest when I got home!

I would like to point out, that all the things that I ate were freshly made.  I doubt any of it had preservatives or the like.  So even though none of my selections were not low-fat, that does not mean that they weren’t clean!

I did have some dessert, and dessert is not normally a clean food, on account of the sugar.  I could not pass up some tiramisu and cappuccino, which I did not eat all of (I promise)!

Oh, it was heavenly.  And I still have half  the slice in my fridge!

There was some wine...

Who can eat Italian food without having a nice cabernet to go along with the meal?  Unheard of, LOL!

I am going to let you go now, as I want to go out and run a couple of miles for fun.  I think I was putting too much pressure on myself to increase mileage, and I started losing my zest for running.  I got it back today though, on account that there is no more pressure for the time being!

Have a fantastic Saturday!  It’s supposed to be 60 degrees here in the ATL today…can’t wait to get outside!

Jessica xoxo

Crazy Monday

Monday’s are crazy busy at my parent’s house.  Doctor appointments, Mom had a treatment today, just craziness, all day long.

I made sure to eat a protein and a carb for breaky this morning:

One whole egg, 2 egg whites, provolone cheese (1/2 slice), blueberry bagel stick, and some blackberry jam.  It was all good, I have to admit that the jam wasn’t clean, it was mostly sugar.  It was only a tablespoon, though.

My 2 cents: One thing I have learned over the last few months is that if I want something that isn’t totally clean, I don’t feel as though I should deny myself.  In the over-all picture, a tablespoon of blackberry jam, or some chocolate, or any indulgence (including wine, which I love but don’t drink a lot of anymore) is not hurting my clean eating efforts or sabotaging my diet.  We are all human, and need to indulge occasionally. I do believe in “moderation”.  Everything in moderation! That’s my 2 cents for Monday.

I was so busy at the doctor’s office with my parents that I didn’t even eat my snack, and I had a new bar to try!  I guess we will have to wait for the review tomorrow.

Dad wanted to try Chipotle, a Mexican restaurant.  I knew a little bit about it before I went there, mostly from my husband, who likes to go there when he had a client in Denver, CO.  Mostly we discussed the calories, but I will get to that in a minute!  I really, really want to show you the burrito, and please bear with me through several pictures that I think you all will find entertaining:

size matters

This burrito is huge.  The following is another measurement:

WOW! A giant burrito!

This one is mine.  Wait until you see Dad’s, LOL!

INSIDE the HUGE burrito

Of course you need to see a close-up:

Oh, yeah! LOL

Let me tell you the contents of the gigantic burrito.  Please keep in mind that all of these ingredients were fresh.  My burrito had flour tortilla, grilled chicken, black beans, pico de gallo, cheese and guacamole.  Foodgasms!!

Let’s take a look at Dad’s, he ate his for lunch and dinner:

The MONSTER burrito

It had everything else on it!

So I caloried out the burrito, and it had approximately 860 calories in it.  I am not ashamed to say I ate the whole thing. There, I came “clean”!  Since I eat 300-400 calories for eat meal, this was almost 3 meals.  I did not have any other meals today.  I did eat some chocolate.  (sorry, no pictures, I am still in burrito heaven, LOL).

I also took the time to make Averie’s chocolate coconut snowballs.  I LOVE these!  You can check them out on her blog.  Let me tell you, if I don’t like the way something tastes, I’m going to tell you.  Averie’s creations are clean and good for you.  Trust me!!

Here are the ingredients:

Simple!

This is what it looks like a glopped into a container:

Is glopped a word? LOL

The finale, all stirred up:

YUMMY!

I put it in the freezer, and tomorrow it will be ready to scoop out.  Can’t wait!!

Yesterday, I posted that I ran 6 miles.  I had forgotten that I took screen shots from the treadmill.

OK, just in my defense, I walked the first 5 minutes.  So my time would have been less had I busted out running.  I did the last mile after I reset the treadmill, because you can only do 60 minutes.  My final mile:

Better.

I plan on running tomorrow, but just a few miles outside.

Have a wonderful night with burrito dreams

Jessica xoxo

“3 Miler” Sunday and Quinoa pasta review

Good Morning Sunshines! How are y’all today?  Before I even get started, Averie told me that the link didn’t work to her blog for the yummy, clean, (vegan!) treats.  So I re-linked it, but in case ya’ll couldn’t find her, the web site is www.loveveggiesandyoga.com. 

The weather is gloomy out today. I was contemplating running my 3 miles outside, but ick. (Yes, that’s the technical term).  So I’m going to head to the gym, run my miles, work on my legs and try to get those leg muscles built back up.

This morning I didn’t feel like oatmeal, or eggs, and just didn’t know what I wanted. Yesterday I had made the kids pancakes, so I had a few for myself:

Clean, Healthy Pancake Mix!

That turned into these:

Topped with natural peanut butter and some of this:

Love my Honey Bear!

Yum!  So much for not using any natural sweeteners besides Stevia this week, although today is the start of the new week, anyway.

Yesterday I was plain ole’ tuckered out and took a 2.5 hour nap in the middle of the afternoon.  I never do that, because I always feel awful for the rest of the day so it was definitely called for.  I’m explaining all of this because there weren’t as many meals as there should have been.  (Clean eating requires 6/day).

I made myself a mishmash for lunch, because food is so dang expensive and I wanted to eat up all of the leftovers in the fridge:

It doesn’t look like much, but I finally got my veggies in!  Acorn squash, roasted carrots, chicken sausage, Quinoa pasta with homemade arugula pesto.

Let’s talk about the pasta.  I bought it at Publix (the local grocery store), and it was kind of pricey (I think around $5!!!) but wanted to try it.  The box looked like this:

The nutrition is phenomenal, because Quinoa is a complete grain, there was some protein listed (always a plus for clean eaters):

I ate 1 ounce and it was a good amount for a side dish.  I have to mention, it tastes like regular, nutrient deficient semolina pasta!  Fantastic tasting, good texture. gluten free.  I highly recommend it if you are looking for alternatives to whole wheat, whole grain and semolina.  A+

I was feeling kind of icky from being tired and coconut water always gives a good pick-me-up:

But that couldn’t even compete yesterday.  I like to drink it when I’m exercising…it gives lots of natural energy and it’s clean!

Like I mentioned before, I missed some meals so the next meal I ate was dinner.  Dinner consisted of pan fried (a little bit of olive oil) pork chops, green beans, and brown rice with real parmesan cheese:

Completely clean.

Yesterday I attempted to make bread again, and Jeremy helped (probably because he got tired of seeing the bricks loaves of bread that I was baking) actually, it probably had more to do about my complaining about the bricks loaves of bread.  So let’s do a picture comparison!  What I made a couple of days ago:

What Jeremy made yesterday:

Yep. Big difference.  So good, too. I dove right into it and had 2 gigantic slices that looked like this:

Sprinkled with some really awesome Vietnamese cinnamon that I got online.  I’m going to keep making my own bread.  I am totally disgusted with the chemicals that companies put in loaves of bread at the store.  They are awful and you can find them under the unsuspecting chemicals tab.

Have a great Sunday sunshines

Jessica xoxo

Workin’ for the Weekend

Good Morning! Today’s weather is supposed to be sunshine and 50. How great is that? I am a total sun worshiper. I love my sun!

This morning breaky is kind of benign. I ate dinner out last night with a girlfriend (very nice and relaxing) and this morning I woke up and was just plain ole’ tired, even though I went to bed at 10:30 pm! So I went with some oats and my Whole Foods Chocolate Protein Powder:

Protein Powder

On my oatmeal, about a whole scoop (1 serving)

and voila! Protein Powder Oatmeal There were also 5 drops of Stevia.

Yesterday, I finally ate some of that yummy Mexican shredded chicken that I made a couple days ago. I also froze about half of it, because I cooked up 2.5 pounds! I don’t know what I was thinking:

2.5 lbs. of chicken breast

Then I heated up about 3 ounces:

Just a side note, this chicken was actually cooked in homemade turkey stock that my husband made after Christmas. Phenomenal!

I made it into an easy wrap with CE tortillas:

included in my wrap was also feta cheese and mild green chilies. A slice of heaven!

The end result:

I wanted to point out, that my lunch was not eaten with these:

Just so you know.

Dinner was yet another Mexican restaurant, this one is called Pure Taqueria. High end Mexican and yummy margaritas!

Chips and guacamole!

Strawberry pomegranate margarita!

Fish taco, rice and beans with tomatillo sauce!

The dinner consisted of fish tacos, with coleslaw and chipotle sauce on top, rice, charro beans, chips with guacamole (trying to be healthy) and 2 strawberry pomegranate margaritas. So good!  And there were actually 3 tacos, and I ate them all

Now about my run yesterday! I ran 5.5 miles (it was only supposed to be 4) at 10 minute miles. I didn’t want to stop, but I had other errands to run. I missed running so much! Maybe I should start a running club in the neighborhood. If you are interested email me at fitclean@gmail.com!

Have a great day! The weekend is almost here

Jessica xoxo

School’s out early Thursday

Ugh. There’s a half day today because we “might” have a storm. Really? That’s craziness!

I was starving this morning. I’m pretty sure eating peanut butter out of the jar late at night does that to me! I’m pretty sure that I need to increase my protein intake, so I decided to have a huge protein breaky.

Salmon is not just for lunch and dinner, folks! It is a great source of protein as well as healthy fats!

That’s 4 oz. of smoked salmon, 2 slices of homemade wheat bread, garlic hummus, and blackberries. It was awesome. It was so great I ended up going back for 2 more slices of bread (they’re small, so don’t think I’m piggin out )

So let’s discuss yesterday. I never got to the gym in the morning like I had planned, because I had so many things to catch up on from the holidays…just stuff that didn’t get done like the banking, and bills, and blogging I headed to the gym at 5:30 with all of my kids in tow to run my 3 miler. By the grace of God, I will finish that 1/2 marathon under 2 hours. Because I haven’t run in a year, my cardio is just not “there”. Yet. Running cardio is so much different than interval cardio. I finished in 1/2 an hour and slid into the end of BodyCombat for a rockin’ ab workout and some chest and tri’s.

416 calories @ 28% fat in 50:43. Fantastic!

Yesterday’s eats were very interesting and yummy. Trust me!

I ate lunch at the local Mexican watering hole:

Fish taco’s, and several sides…I only ate the fish, with corn tortillas and avocados. Darn food sensitivities, no tomatoes

To find the energy to hit the gym at 5:30 for running and workouts I made a new protein shake.  (Recipe in the recipe section…it was that good.)

So instead of the “typical blender picture” I took a picture of what was inside. I am calling it Power Protein Latte Shake. Peanut butter, oatmeal, protein powder, milk, coffee, unsweetened cocoa, stevia. ahhhhh.

After the gym there was some more of the hungries happening:

Smoked muscles, purple sweet potato, broccoli with balsamic vinegar and my homemade bread.  The white “sauce” on the sweet potato is actually plain yogurt and garlic salt mixed together.  It just worked…one of those things

So as I worked all day yesterday morning, this morning I have to head out to get crickets for the lizards, bones for the dog, and beer and wine (in the event that we get snowed in, LOL!) My desk just keeps spreading out over the dining room table:

And I think I forgot to show y’all a picture of the brick bread I baked yesterday:

Have a wonderful, snowy day!