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!

Fun eats Friday

Hello!  I have new pictures today, but they were taken with my Iphone, so the quality is…questionable.  With that being said, I present to you…Friday’s eats and workout!

Oh, and I went to the gym today to do legs and abs.  I decided against cardio, because I was just completely exhausted.

The following was my workout, and I’m fairly pleased with it.  This would be my normal Friday workout if I was on my Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule for push/pull.  Please keep in mind I’ve used the last couple of days to find my maximum weight…that’s why the weights increased during my sets.

legs:

• hip abduction machine – 130 lbs, 1 set of 10, 140 lbs. 2 sets of 10
• hip adduction machine – 130 lbs, 3 sets of 10
• machine leg curl – 55 lbs. 1 set of 12, 60 lbs. 1 set of 12, 65 lbs. 1 set of 10
• machine leg press – 200 lbs, 3 sets of 12
• calf raise – body weight, 3 sets of 12

abs:

• ab crunch machine – 20 lbs, 3 sets of 8
• inclined reverse crunch – body weight, 40 reps
• kettlebell side bend – (not sure what the weight was, it was a small kettlebell…) 24 reps (12 each side)
• pulse ups – body weight, 40 reps
• v-ups – 12 reps

Overall, a great workout, I think!!!

I came home for lunch and I was staaarving.  I made this:

homemade bread, 1/2 oz. goat cheese, turkey.  (Yes, still eating the 22 lb. turkey! )

I put some natural hickory smoke on it:

Iphone pics. Not so much

I was busy making cupcakes this afternoon, and I was really tired, too.  The cake making was a complete mess, but at least they turned out.  Pictures to come tomorrow!  (I dropped eggs, almost didn’t put in the water, almost over-cooked them…good thing I’ve always said that I’m not a great cook, no matter what the kids think )

Dinner was leftovers for me again, while everyone else had spaghetti and meatballs:

baked chicken on a wrap, with 1 slice of mozzarella cheese, tomatoes and red hot.  All wrapped up:

and with my veggies:

I ate a lot of carrots

So I leave you tonight with pictures of my little Diva:

Diva.

and a Biscuit:

I have to go! Will check back in later   Have a great day!!!

Eating and Running Saturday!

Good Evening.  I think I missed a day again with the blogging, but last night I was just exhausted.  I hate being that tired, to where you feel sick.  So let’s start with yesterday’s eats, shall we?  Just as a reminder, I am still out of town.  The eats will change drastically when I get home, for sure!

So let’s get to it.

Breakfast was some protein and some carbs:

There’s that blackberry jelly again! I have no idea how it keeps getting on my food.

Today’s breakfast was my special Saturday pancakes.   I didn’t make them into shapes like I do for the kids, though:

Sorry about the old picture…this one didn’t turn out from this morning.  But it probably looked the same, anyway!  Dad and I also had eggs with our pancake…he had 2 whole eggs and I had 2 egg whites.

Yesterday’s lunch was a turkey sandwich at the cancer center where I’ve been taking Mom.  It was ok.  I guess I wasn’t very hungry, because that was all I felt like eating:

Mom was having some minor surgery later that day so while I was waiting for her I read my Oxygen Magazine (I’m a loser…I bring my own mags, LOL) and snacked on some chocolate covered almonds:

Excuse the nails. It's been a few weeks.

The nutritional value of the above almonds (which I got at Wegmans and are fantastic, by the way…they’re in the natural food section):

Dinner was a mish-mash of stuff that I felt like eating when Mom and I got home.  It was such an exhausting day, but all is well.

coconut shrimp, veggies, sushi, and blackberry jelly.

I had probably 3 more shrimp. Isn’t that a strange dinner?  I thought it was, but it tasted good!

Let’s look at the shrimp up close:

mmm-mmmm-mmmmm!!!

Today for lunch before my run (YAY! I finally got to run!!) there was a salad with Goddess Dressing and chicken:

Gosh, that is an awful picture, but you get the point.  VEGGIES! I miss eating more veggies!

Dinner was great and more indicative of  the kind of food  I would eat at home:

Roasted chicken (I don’t eat the skin anymore…I used to, but I stopped for caloric reasons and now I don’t like it!) veggies…green beans, peppers, yellow squash and zucchini, sweet potato with cinnamon, and sour dough bread with a bit of butter.  YUMMY!

Here are the screen shots from my workout today…I did 5 miles on the treadmill and 1 mile on the eliptical just to try it out:

treadmill.

and:

elliptical.

I think I did ok.  Not much of a change in mileage time from my last long run.  I hope to finish the 1/2 marathon right around 2 hours (hopefully under!).  I’m not competitive with other people, but I am with myself! It’s what’s going to get me through!

Have a great Saturday night! And just a side note, happy birthday to Shaunna and Gisella!  Hope y’all had great days!

Jessica xoxo

Eating in the “Real World”

Good Evening, my friends   I have been super busy helping Mom and Dad, so sorry that the blog is up so late in the day.  I called today “Eating in the Real World” because, well, that’s what’s going on here.  I don’t have the comfort and security of my own home and the foods I carefully purchase at my Publix or Whole Foods.  I am in Rochester, NY and there is a fantastic grocery store called Wegmans…you can get anything your heart desires there including health foods. (But it’s still not the same as being home).

I have a lot of foods to show you from the last two days.  Please remember that I am not home and that there are going to be important choices made, and yes, I choose to eat dessert sometimes

Let’s start with breakfast this morning:

MMMmmm-MMMmmmm!!!

What you are looking at is 3 egg whites, 1 whole egg and rye bread that is free of preservatives. I’ve actually had that breakfast 2 days in a row now!

I also made my Dad some breakfast, also clean:

3 whole eggs with fresh mushrooms and herbs de Provence, rye bread.  He said he liked it a lot

I went to the Pluta Cancer Center with Mom for her treatments today and it was an all day event.  I brought a Luna Bar to snack on after breakfast and before lunch:

These bars have evaporated cane juice, so not completely clean.  However, the lemon zest bar has 9 grams of protein.  It also had a nice, lemony taste, and I was pleasantly surprised.  I am looking to add protein into my diet, so I’ll take it where I can get it while I am at my parents house!

Lunch was served at the Center, and I believe that it is catered and brought in.  It was actually fantastic, not bland at all and had tons of flavor! Again, pleasantly surprised!  I started with a Southwest Chicken Soup:

Fantastic!

It was so good.  Lot’s of chicken, some beans, corn, tomatoes, and flavor! Next I had a small salad with just a sprinkling of Italian dressing, as I didn’t want to eat it plain (uh, yuck!)

This salad was freshly made, you could tell. Crisp! Very good.  I want to mention, all of the food is clean, maybe with the exception of the Italian dressing.  The other option was ranch.

Next I ate a turkey on wheat bread sandwich.  I want to mention, also, that the turkey is real turkey breast, not deli meat.

That’s not a great picture…maybe I’ll get a better one later in the week, because Mom needs to go 3 times a week for Leukemia treatments.

Dinner was from Wegmans.  They have these wonderful, fresh, six-dollar meals.  I chose a chicken breast, butternut squash with spinach and dried cranberries, and roasted brussel sprouts.  All done up in olive oil, and completely healthy, cheap and easy:

I loved the squash and want to make that at home. Yummy!  Yesterday’s dinner was clean but I cooked (I didn’t want everyone to think I was only eating out:

Spareribs, sweet potato with cinnamon, and corn. Not a thing bad about that

Yesterday my Dad wanted me to share a small piece of cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory (I’ve never been!!) with him and he slathered real whipped cream all over it:

oh, yeah!!!

It was chocolate and vanilla (I think).  A very small treat for me.  They make all of their cheesecakes, so there’s not any preservatives.  Even though it’s not clean, I enjoyed having the treat with my Dad.

That is all I have for you, but I’ve been super busy, both here in Rochester with my parents and dealing with some things at home also.

Thank you all for visiting my blog!  I will probably be doing the blogging at night mostly, so expect there to be updates in the morning!  My care package that I sent myself came from home today so expect some great oatmeal recipes to come Also, I haven’t had time to work out, but am planning on a 5 miler tomorrow!

Have a great night and please keep my parents in your thoughts as they go through this rough time.

Jessica xoxo