Eating: Low Carb

I know, I know, it's the middle of the holiday season and I'm not being perfect right now with my low carb eating; but I've been getting a few emails asking about my eating habits. So, I thought I'd write a big long post about it. Just kidding- it's going to be pretty boring as I eat a lot of the same things over and over.

I'm not a nutritionist so don't think I know anything but I do know my body and what has worked for it. For me it's low carb as much as I hate to admit it because who wants to admit that living a life with less carbs in it works? Not me but it's true. I feel better, I lose weight, I have energy (after the dreaded first 3 weeks), and surprisingly I eat less calories naturally because carbohydrates usually have more calories in them than protein. I also get fuller quicker and I stay fuller longer - those yahoo articles are right about protein being more filling than carbs. Who knew?! Anyways, I've been eating like this for six months now with one cheat day each month. Okay, so it's more like the dinner the night before cheat day and cheat day it's like Christmas Eve and Christmas. You have to open one present the night before because you're so excited right?! Exactly, moving on here are some examples of my typical breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinners. #dontjudgeme

BREAKFAST

Eggs... so many eggs. They fill you up and are great for you. I don't care if you think the yolk is bad I eat at least 2 of them a few times a week.

Bacon... I go in waves of eggs and bacon for breakfast but I've been eating less bacon lately and more egg. Any kind of meat is good for breakfast so I sometimes switch it up with sausage, steak, and veggies. But most of the time it's just plain ole bacon and scrambled eggs for breakfast.


Protein shake... I've been drinking these a lot lately instead of eating a meal for breakfast. I make them at work with hot green tea, a scoop of PEScience, and a few cubes of ice. Shake it all together and I swear it tastes like a warm chai latte.

My favorite protein powder: SELECT Protein Chocolate 
Why: LESS THAN 1 CARB a scoop! Rich and creamy tasting! 110 Calories! 24 grams of Protein! It's the best I've tried yet. Oh and you can always get 50% off any purchase if you use code Melina50 (She's one of their Athletes)

Low Carb Pancakes...I'll post my personal recipe soon but you can google them as well. Basically just eggs and mashed bananas or cream cheese with disgusting "sugar free" syrup. I hate that syrup but it's decent enough to manipulate myself into thinking I'm eating real pancakes with syrup. I do like the after feeling with these pancakes vs real ones - I'm never bloated-gross full with them. The way I feel now after I eat a lot of bread is horrible compared to how I good I feel after eating a bunch of meat and veggies.

That's pretty much all I eat for breakfast but other options you might like are veggies in your eggs, cheese, meats, smoothies, etc. (Told you I'm boring) 







LUNCH 

Salad... I eat a few different salads but I'm sure someone not as picky as me would have even MORE options but this is what I do: taco chicken, taco beef, pepperoni, tuna, and steak loaded with cheese, and any other veggie I want usually on top of spinach. I don't like salad dressing so I always eat my salads dry. (Yes, I know I'm a freak but I think you're a freak for eating a slime like texture all over your food.) 

Breakfast... see above for example. If I end up drinking a protein shake for breakfast sometimes I will eat eggs and bacon for lunch. It's quick to make and yummy. Oh and I guess I should mention that I'm really lucky and work like five seconds away from my apartment so I come home every day for lunch. If I couldn't do this it would limit a bunch of my cooking options.

Meat/Cheese/Protein shake... I really like summer sausage and cheddar cheese. Both are low carb options and feel like I'm cheating my butt off but I'm not! Finish up that with a cold chocolate protein shake in my Vitamix and it makes me think I just had a full fat milkshake. It's my favorite guilty but innocent lunch.

Leftovers... Anything I cook for dinner fair game the next day.


DINNER

Beef Pasta (without the pasta)... So I used to really love Hamburger Helper and one day I tried making it from scratch instead of a box. Turns out it's super easy and all you need is a packet of Brown Gravy Mix / 1lb beef / pasta and some water and milk. Then when I started doing Low-Carb I thought - HEY, what if I replace the pasta with green beans. Cue life changing moment and my new favorite comfort food.

Lasagna... with pepperoni layers instead of noodles! It's so greasy and cheesy and good I might have squealed while typing this.

Pork Rhine Crusted Chicken Tenders... It's so good I don't even know where to start. Crush up some cracklings and put some Tony's in there - bread those chicken tenders and bake or fry them up. Top with cheese and bacon if you really feel like getting sassy.

Salads... Just like the lunch ones.

Spinach Crust Pizza... my Gluten Free friend turned me onto this one. Who knew they actually do have some tasty food and no Gluten sometimes means no Carb! In this case it you use spinach, eggs, and cheese in place of dough so it is Carb free!

Protein and Veggies... you name any combo and I have probably eaten it. Chicken/Steak/Fish every green vegetable under the sun any of those low carb options make GREAT dinners.














SNACKS

Questbars... Low Carb and dangerously delicious. I should probably cut back on these guys but they are just so yummy.

Fruit/Veggies/Meat/Cheese/Peanut Butter... I eat any of these for snack. It's all good.

Protein Shakes... see above. I love PEScience.


And that just about does it - pretty boring and very repetitive but I like it. I average 1700 or less calories a day / 35 or less Net Carbs /120+ of protein. This is what has been working for me - I think you just have to figure out what will work for you and until you do just keep trying everything. I always say give each new thing a month then move along if you aren't happy. Remember to love yourself along the way and know that no matter what it is in life just keep trying until you get it. Never give up and you won't ever fail.

I'm currently driving across the country with my husband and dog but trying to low-carb it the entire way. It's my birthday in a few days and those are automatic "cheat days"so no guilt here! I hope you got everything you wanted for Christmas!

XOXO

Low Carb Life

Lets talk about FOOD.

I filled you guys in on what I have been doing workout wise last week on the blog so this week I wanted to talk about my personal journey with eating. I don't like calling it a "diet" as I don't plan on ever stopping. I don't believe in diets... for me they have just NEVER worked. It is only when I fully change how I eat that I've had any success. I've had a life long battle with eating which I'll share one day but today I just want to focus on what has been working for me the last six months.

While we were on the cruise ship in May coming home from Alaska I was stuffing my face with french fries while thinking, "I've got to make a drastic change in my diet." Those fries were good but I just kept thinking I need to cut down on carbs and sugar. So, I decided that when we got back I was going to do a Low Carb diet in order to shock my body into something it wasn't used too. I started reading a bit about it online -- what exactly is considered "low carb"-- what isn't etc. etc. It was a lot of different information coming from tons of different sources and instead of picking a plan like Adkins I decided I was going to do this myself with my own rules. Low carb is generally considered 100 grams of Carbs or less a day. However, that seemed like too many for me and I REALLY wanted to remove most carbs from my diet - so I chose to try and stay under 30 grams a day. The only time I got any carbs was from fruits and veggies. Some people choose to remove those completely and not eat any carbs but I just didn't feel that was doable OR healthy for me. Just because fruit has sugar in it carbs are there but those aren't the same kind of carbs that come in white bread. It's different and I was okay with eating those kinds of carbs in moderation.

Another part of my plan was to have one cheat day a month until I lost all the weight that I wanted to and then if I liked this style of eating I would gradually transition to a cheat meal once every two weeks or maybe even once a week instead of full days. Cheat days seemed so exciting and guilt free and a nice reward to giving up french fries for an entire month. You work hard for 30 Days and then you get to celebrate what you've done - sounds good to me.  So, that's what I started doing on June 1st 2014 and I'm still doing it now, six months later. I realized it had been six months the other day when I was talking to Chad and I almost started crying because I have never been able to stick to something like this before for this amount of time. I am so proud of myself. I feel amazing and it all started with me aiming to make it just one month.

Now, the good stuff. Let me just tell you about how CRAZY the first month was! I am 100% convinced now that SUGAR is a drug. I'd put the addiction level up there with heroin and I'm not joking. The only way I made it through the first three weeks was pure determination. I literally had dreams about food during the first three weeks almost nightly. I had mood swings, I was exhausted, and I had no energy in my workouts. It was so hard but I just knew that it HAD to get better. I was googling articles - searching for other people going through the same thing and I found what I was looking for. All of those symptoms I had were normal. That was my body detoxing from sugar and also switching from getting my energy from carbs (which I no longer ate) to using fat as energy. There's just a REALLY crappy 3-4 week time frame where this happens and everything sucks. I tell everyone that is thinking about doing low-carb this because it's important and it's not easy BUT the good news is that after 3 weeks I started to feel amazing. The dreams about my mom feeding me froyo with oreos and cookie dough stopped. I didn't wake up in a cold sweat because I was just dreaming about eating Cheetos and licking that orangey cheesy goodness off my fingers anymore; nor, did I dream about eating fluffy, buttery, soft, country biscuits again. I started to have energy in my workouts and the cravings WENT AWAY for the most part. Then I got on the scale. I didn't weigh for the first 2 1/2 weeks and I was DYING to see if this new way of life was going to work. I got on the scale and I had lost almost 10lbs. I was hooked - and NOT on sugar anymore!

Then it was time for Cheat day. I was so excited yet so nervous about this day because a big part of me worried I would just continue the cheat day and fall back into old habits. I didn't want to do that and I just made up my mind I wouldn't let myself. That hasn't always worked in the past but for some reason I'm at a point in my life where I have the dedication and motivation to stick to a plan. I think for me, if I acknowledge what could go wrong and then make a plan to AVOID that outcome happening I can then be successful. That pretty much goes for anything in life not just weight loss. Anyways, when cheat day came around I wanted a doughnut like crazy so Chad made plans to go get us some for breakfast. I was so excited to eat that doughnut but when I took my first bite I almost had a heart attack. Not really but WHOA sugar overload! I dare anyone to give up sugar completely for one month and then eat something entirely made up of sugar - it will be too much to handle. It tasted okay but after about three bites I was done. I didn't want it - it was too sweet and the sugar just wasn't something I was wanting anymore. I did however, want pizza, fries and chips so obviously my issue just lays with bread. Bread is still my favorite but after months of not eating it anytime I have a cheat day I really can't eat a lot of it because it makes me so full. It's so interesting the longer that I do this the more I can tell what works good in this body and what doesn't. Low-carb isn't for everyone and I strongly believe that you have to find what will work for YOUR body. Everyone is different but for me low-carb has changed my life and it is working. I faced my fear about not getting back on track but it was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be. It was still hard to resist carbs but I had so much determination that I got right back on track and so far I've had 5 Cheat days now with no issues. Just make sure you pack up any leftovers and send them to work with your husband or that you dump soap into the jar of frosting so you won't be tempted to dig it out of the trash and eat just a little bit more of it.

So, after six months of low-carbing it and kickboxing I am officially down 37 pounds. I weighed this weekend and I saw a number on the scale that I've never seen in my adult life. I'm smaller than I was when I met Chad and even smaller than I was when I walked down the aisle to marry him. I have never felt better in my entire life but I still have so much more work to do. The next goal for me is to lose 3 more pounds before we move. I want to be able to say I've lost 40+ pounds so badly... then the next goal will be 50 lost and so on and so forth. Baby steps... baby goals... with the knowledge that this is a LONG process and this isn't a diet - it's a change of life. I honestly have no desire to eat carbs regularly ever again. I do look forward to the days of a cheat meal once a week but I'm not there yet and that's okay. If you're looking for a way to jump start your weight loss or an entire lifestyle change I would strongly suggest going low-carb but then again it might not work for you. You just have to keep trying different things until you find something that works. Don't give up... I've tried so many things, given up so many times, and then tried some more. Give whatever you're doing a month of full commitment - focus in on what you want and let nothing get in your way. There was one point where I thought, "I guess I'm just always going to be fat" but I no longer accept that. I know that I can do whatever the hell I put my mind to and while it might take years - if you never stop trying you will never fail and you WILL eventually get to your goal. Make sure to love yourself along the way too. I was the meanest person to myself for so many years... not anymore. I LOVE myself.. I am proud of myself... and that love has fed my soul throughout this journey on those days when I wanted to call myself a failure.

There you have it - an overview of my low carb journey. While I could talk more and more I think I will wrap it up now and save the rest for later. I plan on blogging about my weight loss/workouts weekly on here and if you have any questions let me know!

See the contact tab above for my email or comment below.

#crazythoughsgetsfit

Thanksgiving Recap

I've enjoyed reading all of the weekend recaps from several of you lovely bloggers and I thought, "Hey, why not me?" Two snaps if you get that Russell Wilson joke. Speaking of.... GO HAWKS. In case you are wondering I am a Seattle fan as well as a New Orleans fan (Yes, they all hate on me and say I jumped bandwagons but I don't care because I think living in Seattle for over 3 years gives me a right to LOVE THEM TOO) and I recently started REALLY liking football in the last five-ish years. I just love the athleticism. It makes me want to go workout and I support anything that makes me want to go and do that. So, just so you know who I'm talking about in case you live under a rock here is the dreamy, chocolaty sweet, Russell Wilson.

 
Oh and he chills with Jay & B all the time ... no big.

 
He is basically a saint... he goes to visit sick children at the Children's hospital in Seattle every Tuesday (his off day) and he is just always doing nice things. Stand up guy that one! Anyways - he WAS a part of my Thanksgiving as he almost made Colin Kaepernick cry when he beat his ass in San Francisco Thanksgiving day. Man that was a GREAT game - hopefully this means Seattle is back to kicking ass... the start of the season wasn't that hot. I mean we LOST to the Cowboys... ugh.

Before the game though we did a whole bunch of stuff in prep to head to our friends house to spend Thanksgiving with them. Not sure how it happened but I ended up having one of the BEST Thanksgivings ever and I didn't even cook that much. I started my day off with a killer kickboxing class and then I promptly went home and made sausage balls and homemade pop tarts. Holy crap, it was all SO GOOD and I am obviously rusty on this blogger business... I forgot to take a picture of my pop tarts and chocolate pie. #FAIL

After that we loaded up our treats and headed to Carnation, WA which reminds me so much of MS I can't handle it. It's in the valley about 35 mins to the East of Kirkland, WA so you are surrounded by mountains, the most beautiful land and a tiny little town. We love it and all our friends out there. I'm pretty bummed that will probably be our last trip to see them but I'm definitely taking great memories back with me. Below are some pictures from the day...

Sausage balls! 

 Safety first!

 Jarred's 100% Organic

 The aftermath of cracking over 10lbs of Alaskan King Crab!

 Did I mention we had King Crab, Turkey, Ham, and DUCK... yea I totally felt like an adult and Chad was given the task of cutting all the meat! Butchers come in handy during carving season. There was also about 20 people there... of course I took pictures of no one... ugh.

 Acting like I eat like a bird... *Not pictured* PIE.

Thanksgiving was my cheat day and I think I did pretty good! I ate about 3 more rolls, hummus, cheese, pie, cake, mac n cheese, and some other things that I can't quite remember. I gained a little over 4lbs but I'm so not worried about it. My scale is actually not working right now as the battery has died and while a tad panicked, I feel it's for the best. Chad better fix it before this weekend though or I WILL GO INTO MELT DOWN "I'M GAINING ALL THE WEIGHT" MODE. I just have to know... it's such an unhealthy relationship.

The rest of the weekend was spent trying to work out, (I left all my crap in the wrong car so didn't make it to kickboxing on Saturday) painting, packing, cooking, and cleaning. I didn't know what day it was a couple of times and I read like 5 crap books because I like reading the free ones Kindle gives me. Although, I just started Gone Girl... should finish that this week if I don't get distracted by anything else... oh look glitter.

The day after Thanksgiving I made sure to pour soap into the leftover frosting and I sent Chad to work with all the leftovers. Other than a run in with some rogue semi-sweet chocolate chips Sunday night I have been back on track! A few doubles at kickboxing this week should have me back in action. (More on Kickboxing tomorrow!) My end of year goal is to lose only 4 more little pounds. I've been stuck in the same place for awhile so I'm hoping with the ramped up workouts and strict eating I can finally break through and start of 2015 40lbs LIGHTER than I did 2014. I just gotta hit that 40! ONLY FOUR MORE POUNDS.

It was a great weekend and now I only have 3 weeks left in the PAC NW... so bittersweet.