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!

Energizing for the Day

Hello all!  I knew I was going to need energy this morning for my fave class, BodyAttack.  This is a very demanding, very hard, but really fun class that I take 1-3 times per week.  (Gonna get back into it, for sure, now that my Wednesdays are freed up from the “long runs”).  If you want to increase your fitness, take that class.

Knowing that I was going to need to fuel before class, I started my day with this:

Oats!

chocolate covered raisins protein oatmeal.  Did you get all of that? LOL.  In this bowl:  1 serving of oats, 1 scoop of Sun Warrior Chocolate Protein Powder, 1Tb. Hershey’s unsweetened chocolate powder, stevia, and raisins.  Guess what? It carried me through Attack!  The perfect breakfast for a high intensity cardio class!  I would also like to mention that I burned 484 calories @ 24% fat.  It’s not as high as I normally do (around 500-550) but I’ll take it!

I actually had some running around to do today and didn’t get home until noon.  I really wanted to be home an hour earlier than that.  I had to go to the marina, and to Publix…to get the cottage cheese that I wanted yesterday, along with some extras (uh, beer , a yellow pepper, chick peas to make homemade hummus with, yellow rice, and baby bella mushrooms).  HAHA!!!

I was mainly happy about the cottage cheese.  Let me tell you why.  I fell in love with the Friendship low-fat, low sodium cottage cheese.  I like to watch my sodium, and it only has 50 mg.  The regular has 450-500!  WOW!

My fave

I came home and made a quick and yummy lunch:

Marinaded salmon in Wegmans Santa Fe Marinade.  (I sent it home from NY!)  Cottage cheese (of course!) and half a yellow pepper.  I actually put some of Annie’s Goddess Dressing on the cottage cheese and mixed the peppers in, and that really hit the spot.

Side note: I plan on making some homemade hummus tomorrow.  I also plan on making some peanut sauce to eat with stuff.

I got really hungry again about 3pm.  I also craved salt. To stop my craving, I had a plate of broccoli with Braggs Amino’s and real parmesan:

Broccoli. Braggs. Cheese. Foodgasm!

That is honestly a rockin’ snack!

So I worked some and blogged some and facebooked some haha.  Jeremy grilled up some chicken and I roasted about 2 pounds of carrots, resulting in my dinner looking like this:

The rice is Rice-A-Roni, but it is the Nature’s Way, and doesn’t have any yucky stuff in it (and actually tastes really good…my kids love it!)

Jeremy and the kids actually had a pasta version (a la Pasta Roni):

and of course a close-up of the chicken…nothing beats marinaded grilled chicken (subsequently marinated in the same marinade as the salmon, )

Hope y’all have a great hump day!  I know I am!  Things to do today: gym (duh, LOL!) and meeting a friend for coffee.  Oh, and we’re cooking a 22 pound turkey!  Jeremy agreed to put it in if I made homemade mashed potatoes.  I think I’m going to need to get some canning jars, because I plan on lots of soup…and turkey tetrazzini, turkey pot pie, turkey stock, turkey gravy, turkey legs, turkey breast (sliced for sandwiches)….

Question of the day:  Any suggestions for what we can do with the turkey leftovers?  They have to be clean recipes!

2 Days

Can you tell I’m homesick? I miss the hubby and the kiddos!

First Day of School, 8/2009

Pensacola Beach, summer 2009

me and Jeremy Pensacola 2009

Ok, so enough of the family!   I did some eating today (what else is new?)  Breakfast was bright and early:

Cinnamon raisin bagel from Wegmans with SunButter and some of these:

Peaches!

Peaches remind me of Georgia (uhh, I live in the peach state)!  They also remind me of summer, which can’t get here soon enough!  I’m so tired of being cold all of the time!

I took Mom to her appointment at the cancer center where she did really, really well.  I haven’t been hungry, so I had a salad with balsamic vinaigrette:

and there was some turkey noodle soup (but I wasn’t feeling it, I bit into a bone and that was kind of it for me!)

I’m not a huge fan of broth-y soups, although I do like some.

I was craving fish and veggies for dinner.  I never used to until I started clean eating!  I haven’t been eating my salmon!  For dinner I made a huge plate of leftover veggies with a piece of salmon (plain) and a slice of sourdough bread (also plain).

Now that’s the perfect dinner! It was great.

When I get home there’s going to be some updates, and possibly a new blog that will be mainly about exercising.  I was watching Fox News today and I swear that they made a comment stating that being thin and eating healthy are mutually exclusive. I didn’t think I heard that right, but I’m fairly certain that I did.

Really? What kind of message is that?? Of course the way that you eat will either cause you to be thin, or to gain weight. It’s as easy and simple as that.  I am a firm believer in the “calories in vs. calories out” mantra.  If you eat more calories then you burn, you will gain weight.  If you burn more calories then you eat, you will lose weight.  Of course, this is a generalization, and there are lots of factors that can play into the weight situation.  A person’s medical situation, how much they exercise (or not) are just 2 factors that could rock the boat.

I was very disappointed when I heard that said on national TV.  That’s a horrible message to be sending to the public!

(**I guess I will get off of my soap box now**)

Hope you all have a wonderful night! Big changes ahead, my friends! It’s going to be very exciting!

Jessica xoxo

When your body screams, tell it to SHUT UP! :) :)

In case you’re wondering, I am expressing my excitement for the LesMills BodyAttack launch at my gym this morning. Launch (not lunch, LOL) is where our wonderful, fantastic, motivating  instructors introduce the new material. We get new material about every 3 months. Classes are packed (think around 60 people) and full of motivation and momentum. I’ve been asked how I rock my workouts out the way I do and it’s because of my gym and the instructors there. I’m not afraid to give credit where credit is due!

Love this saying from LES MILLS!!!

Yesterday I had a request for my homemade bread recipe for the bread machine. I don’t make up my own recipes often, this one is from the recipe book that came with my machine, titled Sunbeam Hot and Fresh Bread Maker.  FYI, my bread machine is really old…around 10 years or more.  Just so you know.

Multigrain Bread

• 2/3 cup water
• 1 tablespoon margarine or butter, softened
• 1 cup Gold Medal Better for Bread flour
• 3/4 cup Gold Medal whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup 7 grain cereal (I used Bob’s Red Mill)
• 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt

2 1/4 teaspoons regular active dry yeast or

2 teaspoons bread machine yeast or quick acting active dry yeast

Directions

1. Remove bread pan, attach needing blade
2. Place all ingredients in bread pan in order listed
3. Insert bread pan, close lid and plug in
4. Select bread type—whole wheat
5. Select crust color—medium
6. Can be baked in rapid or regular cycle
7. Press start

My husband proofed the yeast first, which I think was my problem (either because I didn’t do that or I had a bad batch of yeast) which means he took a little bit of sugar, a couple of tablespoons of warm water, and put the required amount of yeast in. He stirred it around and we waited about 15 minutes, then added that for the yeast in the directions. Good luck! It should look something like this when all is said and done:

I know I’m going to need a lot of energy this morning, because I am doing the BodyAttack class and then weight lifting after, so I am sticking with my protein oatmeal this morning. Bob Marley Protein Oatmeal

Oatmeal, vanilla protein powder, coconut, pineapple, cashews, maple syrup.

There was some coffee in an appropriate coffee mug from a friend:

Since the kids were off for MLK day here in Georgia, I decided that we needed to take a trip to Whole Foods and get some things, and while we were there we could grab some *healthy* lunch from the hot bar and eat it at the store. It worked out fantastically…the kids were good in the store because they wanted lunch, I got my items without a fuss, and we all had a nice lunch.

We have a nice Whole Foods. The kids love the mac and cheese!

This was my plate.  Thai noodles, yellow squash casserole, and red beans.  It was all wonderful.

I also had 2 pieces of sushi which was also fantastic.

My Kombucha tea, honestly, wasn’t that good.  I like the original flavor, and the peach flavor, but the green flavor just didn’t do it for me.  It’s super good for you, with seaweed and spirulina in it, so I intend on drinking it anyway, but…ick.  Sometimes health over taste, but not often, since there are so many great tasting and healthy options out there.

I came home and before class (I went to Cardio Core where I burned 395 calories in about 45 minutes) I had a Cliff Nectar Bar (which I love):

I bought some new bars at Whole Foods so be on the lookout for a review soon!

Then after class I decided I wanted salmon.  I made a huge salad with salmon and Goddess Dressing:

This is my kind of dinner!

So, lettuce mix, tons of mushrooms, carrots, onions, yellow pepper, Goddess Dressing, reduced fat feta and salmon.  Wonderful!  There was so much I didn’t think I would be able to eat all of it, but alas:

I can eat!

Hahaha.  It was mostly veggies, anyway.  So good! You may see another one of these soon!

I was snacky-snacky again at 10pm (my personal witching hour) so I had some homemade bread (the one pictured above) with some of that Cinnamon Vanilla Pecan “butter” I made last week.

Just a side note, I am slowly starting to add back into my diet foods on my sensitivities list.  Green beans, cinnamon, and a few others to see how my body reacts.  I will let you know how it goes!

Have a great Tuesday morning! I know I will!

Jessica xoxo

Manic Monday, Strawberry Fields, and Santa Letter

Strawberry Fields in Cream of Wheat for breaky this morning:

There were probably 8 strawberries in it, and a packet of Truvia. The strawberries were frozen so I heated them up in the microwave for 3 minutes Resulting in soft, sweet berries. Now I am guzzling lots of coffee, trying to wake up.

Dear Santa, I have one wish this Christmas.   Can I eat it my breakfast hot? Just once? Without having to reheat it 15 times because the kids and the puppy? Oh, and maybe sleep in one morning. Thank you!

Yesterday I was starving. This is sometimes where the clean eating gets me…I don’t eat when I should or get all of my meals in. Result = a cranky, starving Jessica.  SO, the resulting lunch was something I can throw together quick and is very satisfying:

Yes, yet another lovely salad

lettuce, mushrooms, Farmer Cheese, (new!) chicken and Goddess dressing. Oh so good! It was so good I even attempted to take a close up:

And the Farmer Cheese, which is totally clean (lowfat milk and salt)!

Then there was the previously mentioned cookie making, and a protein smoothie.

Yes, the smoothie is Purple:

This is a blackberry chocolate smoothie. Chocolate protein powder, LOTS of blackberries, maca root. Next time I would add agave nectar, and some Hershey’s unsweetened chocolate powder. One drawback of blackberries is the amount of seeds in the bottom of the glass TONS of seeds!

Can you see the seeds??

Yesterday’s dinner was good also. Salmon with maple flakes, peas and carrots, brown and wild rice Minute Rice, and more salad. Yum!

Then there was my nightly dessert! I was starving again. Honestly, it’s got to be something to do with my calories…meaning not enough.

And I have this thing for chocolate. AND peanut butter. I can’t help it. Oh, and did I mention that I have a severe sensitivity to cane sugar? Uuugghhh! So I made another banana hammock, thanks to Chocolate Covered Katie. 2 Tb. natural peanut butter warmed in the microwave, 2 Tb of unsweetend cocoa powder, 1 Tb agave nectar, a splash of non-fat milk, mixed all together and drizzled with a bit more agave. Sublime!!! I’m not sure what to call it…any suggestions? Then I can put the recipe up for it!

Well, that’s about it for now. More cookie pictures to come (round 2!). The hubby and I are going Christmas shopping for my present