Green Smoothies!

I have been a skeptic that anything, especially something as terrible sounding as a green smoothie, could actually help to reduce sugar and general food cravings. I thought I'd test them out, as at this point I've plateaued and am looking to kick start some weight loss. I think they may be the key to pushing me through this 129-133lb land I've been living in for so many weeks. I want to get to 120-125 land!

Last week I started drinking them just for breakfast. Now I'm on Day 3 of drinking them for both breakfast and lunch. I drink half a jar every 2 hours starting at 8am. Then I eat a healthy and veggie packed dinner. So far I'm down to 131 from 133 on Tuesday.

Here is my recipe:
1 cup plain kefir (packed with probiotics and lean, lactose free protein)
2 cups water
1 small steamed beet (I used the pre steamed from Trader Joes)
1/4 cup frozen pineapple (my fav) but any fruit will do
1/2-1 scoop green powder, I like ProGreens or GreensSuperfood
As much spinach, kale and romaine I can cram into my blender
Juice from 1-2 lemons
Blend on high for 30 seconds
I do this twice to make about 8 cups, 2 quarts. I divide this between 3 mason jars. I also add 1 tsp of chia seeds to each jar. I give each jar a good stir and a shake. Make sure to chill them in the fridge.

Plain Kefir, love this stuff!

Powdered Greens and Chia Seeds

This green smoothie has settled and needs to be shaken up before drinking

So far I feel great drinking them all day! My cravings are much more under control and my digestion is superb. (TMI) I also think my skin is looking pretty fab! I will do one more day tomorrow of all day smoothies and then most likely go back to only mornings on the weekend and eat a simple lunch.

Tracy says to save your calories for one meal a day and eat super low calorie for the rest of the day. This actually seems to work for me as I love to relax at the end of the day and have a nice meal with wine to unwind. I'm hoping that green smoothies will continue to help me achieve my goal!

Cheers!

Greek Pita Club

 Who doesn't love a sandwich?! I found this great recipe in the May 2011 edition of Better Homes and Gardens. I adapted it to make the sandwich a bit healthier and around 400 calories. It's packed with colorful veggies, has tons of flavor and is cheap and quick!

1. Take 2 whole wheat pita pockets and slice in half, length wise.

2. Spread the insides of each layer with a thin layer of hummus

3. On on layer add 2 leaves of hearts of romaine, bell pepper slices (1/3-1/2 a pepper) and 1 small tomato.

4. Top with another pita half and place on top, hummus side up.
5. Top with english cucumber slices (1/4 cucumber), 1/2 ounce fat free feta, and 4 chopped kalamata olives
6. Drizzle a bit of red wine vinegar, olive oil and sprinkle dried oregano on top.

 7. Finish up with the final pita half, cut and enjoy!

Last Weekend, is it already Saturday!?

I feel really bad for not blogging last week. Our apartment was under construction, again. Which means all the clothes in my closet are strewn in the guest room and our bedroom is covered up with plastic tarps sort of like Dexter's kill room. Yup. This means couch city for me and no morning workouts as hubby is really nearby and can't be waking him at 5:15.  I did do my Meta at work Wednesday and Thursday as well as Friday and Saturday at home. I added in mat arms and standing abs each day too, as not getting in enough cardio.

Yesterday, I did Beginning Dance Cardio as I feel my shins are mostly healed. I want to take it slow and do every other day. Today I went for a hilly walk and one round of the Lyon Street Stairs as I can't get too sweaty. My hair dresser, who is awesome, told me no hair washing for 48 hours. So no dancing or running for me!

So that's a quick update on my week, now on to the fun I had this past weekend! We took a 3 day trip to wine country as we had a bunch of wine club shipments to collect. We have so much wine right now!! I am totally on restriction from buying any more.

We were lucky enough to get invited to the Seghesio Family Vineyards Wine Club Event last Saturday. We got to make our own pizzas and drink lots of yummy Zinfandel. I ate about 2 pizzas to myself and while they were delicious it took me several days to recover!

Sunday morning we went for a trail hike and run at a local state park, Annadel. It felt great to run again! I haven't in a long time and that morning I vowed to include some trail running into my weekly cardio.

Then we went to my favorite little boutique winery, Dutcher Crossing. They were having their wine release party as well. They had yummy sushi to pair. They have a little garden and I was excited to see the strawberries and artichokes coming along.

Next we were off to J Vineyards and Winery, one of our other favorites. We were able to enjoy the club party outside on their terrace. Nothing like the sound of corks popping and the wind rustling through the leaves. It's the simple things that really make me smile.

That night we had a yummy dinner at Zin. I had duck carnitas and Ed had the fried chicken with mash potatoes. Oh my lord. So yummy! We skipped wine and dessert as we had plenty of that already.

Monday we had a yummy breakfast at Downtown Bakery and Creamery. So great! They were sampling these huge fig newtons that were divine! I've got to come back and try their ice cream. Next time!

 

On our way home we hit up a few more wineries, including Gary Farrell, which has the most spectacular views and Pinot Noir. May have to have some tonight. :)

baby grapes!

Tuesday rolled around and I missed my workout because of tiredness and the whole construction situation. I felt super bloated and decided the avoid the scale for a few days. I also have taken up drinking green smoothies every morning and am loving how they make me feel! I'm planning a blog post about that topic soon.

When I weighed in yesterday, I'm at about the same place as last week so not too much harm done. I've got two events on the two coming weekends that I want to look good for, so time to crack down! I plan to continue with the green smoothies daily and really watch my food intake, which obviously I slack on, a lot on the weekends. I also have no rest days planned for my workouts. I can't wait to finish up Level 7, 2 more days! I am loving adding in the mat arms daily as well. I hope to increase my dancing little by little as I feel that is when my results are the best!

And now for the dorky bathroom pic of my new hair! You can't see the true awesomeness of my fushia streaks in this pic, but it's an idea...

Cheers!

New Breakfast and Turkey Salad Sandwiches

I've been in a bit of a food rut and have been trying to come up with some new meal ideas that are 

a.) easy 

b.) fast 

c.) cheap

d.) tasty

and most importantly

e.) healthy!

For breakfast I varied my normal ezekiel/kashi cereal, coconut milk and strawberries for oatmeal, almond milk, a scoop of protein powder, berries and cinnamon. 'Twas delicious and filling! So nice to have a warm breakfast too! Calories are at about 285.

 I roasted some turkey cutlets (about 22 ounces) to make turkey salad to take to work all week. I just seasoned with salt, pepper and thyme. Roasted for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Chopped it up and added 1/4 cup slivered almonds and 2 Tbs. low fat mayo.

 Served on a slice of sprouted multi grain bread with seeded Dijon and a side of spinach and tomato salad with fresh lemon juice. Voila! Only 305 calories.

I also would add in some sliced apple or celery or use walnuts or pecans in place or almonds. I'll be eating this all week as it makes 5 servings. I will mix it up with what other ingredients I can find at work. All in all it's a good base for a healthy lunch!
I've got more ideas coming! I'd love to hear yours as well!

Cheers!

Work hard, Play hard

I had a really fun weekend full of friends, fitness, family and food! Saturday I did my last day of hip meta sequence 6 and danced to '08 cardio for 40 minutes. I planned to do another 20 minutes of freestyle like I did on Friday, but my shins were really hurting like they haven't before. Instead I iced my legs for 40 minutes. 

My sister came over a bit later and we had big plans to take a really long "city hike" and do the lyon street stairs a few times. Here is the view from the top of the stairs:

And from the bottom:

You can't even see the top! I think there are 288 stairs. We ran it once pretty fast and walked it twice. Now, I think I'm in pretty good shape, but those stairs kicked my ass! I was so sore by the afternoon on Sunday that I couldn't even roll out my muscles on my foam roller without yelling in pain. Today I'm feeling a bit better but my I.T. bands are still pretty sore!

I even did the first section of legs and all the arms on the Tracy Anderson mat DVD with my sister when we got home. She wanted to see what I've been raving about these past few months. She loved it and went home and bought her own copy!

I figured I burned around 1,400 calories that day so didn't feel bad at all for eating almost an entire breakfast burrito and a drinking a large I.P.A. It had eggs, avocados, refried beans, hash browns and fresh pico de gallo. So yummy!

I had to work Saturday night until 10pm, then I met up with friends at a bar to say goodbye to my bestie who is leaving for Spain to study abroad at the end of this week. I ended up staying later than I planned and wound up crashing at her place.

Needless to say, no work out happened on Sunday. I was ridiculously sore and couldn't have managed anyways. I weighed in at my lowest in a long time Sunday morning, 126.6! But I'm sure I was dehydrated from my massive workout and from the drinks with my gals.

Sunday ended up being very fun and relaxing. My husband and I took his parents to brunch at Waterbar and we all really enjoyed ourselves. I ate a delicious crab benedict and we all shared some amazing "breakfast breads" that included a jelly donut, lemon poppy seed muffin, banana walnut bread and cinnamon roll, handmade by the pastry chef. I've got to come back just for drinks and dessert with my hubby!

I was feeling pretty confident and even rocked some shorts, which is super rare for me. Hopefully it will become more of a reoccurring option in my wardrobe!

We continued the fun at home by relaxing with some t.v. and champagne. It felt really good to have the late afternoon and evening to ourselves with no plans. I added some raspberries for fun! We ate bbq chicken and veggies from a place near out house and had pasta shells with turkey meatballs for dinner with more veggies. So not terrible but not my usual healthy diet that I eat during the week.

Today, Monday, I weighed in at 131.6. I somehow gained 5 pounds overnight! Not terribly surprising as  this is a trend I've noticed every Monday. I blame the pasta, salt and booze. (And it's TOM this week, so sure that's a factor as well.) Still, I'm .8 lbs down from last Monday and hoping that this pattern continues.

I started sequence 7 today. I'm not even sure what to say about it as it's really different. Lots of tricky balancing moves and the leg sequence ends with sit up like moves. ? I hope it makes more sense tomorrow! I did Dance Aerobics from 2007 for cardio and didn't do any freestyle to make an hour. I want to take it easy on my shins. I would be so crushed if I got injured to the point of being unable to do any dance cardio!

The rest of the week should hopefully be smooth. I have plans of Wednesday with my girlfriend who is leaving for Spain, but not sure what yet. Friday is a housewarming party that should be mellow. Saturday-Monday we are going to Healdsburg for some wine club events. I am trying to figure out how I am going to fit in some exercise up there! I know I will be having lots of wine and yummy food and don't want to blow my progress. hmmmm.

I'll be blogging later on with some new easy/cheap/healthy lunch and dinner recipes.

Cheers!

Rave it up!

This week has gone really well. I've stuck to my diet and fitness goals for the most part and I am down 1 pound (130.8) from where I was last week at this time (131.8). I'll take that as progress! I'm going to do my best not to blow it this weekend with my diet as it takes me several days to recover! I held steady at 132.4 for 3 days and finally the scale budged yesterday.

I was able to start getting up early again on the days I work to exercise, 5:45am. Tuesday and Thursday I did ms and even added in about 10 minutes of free style dancing Thursday. Wednesday I decided to spend my 45 minutes dancing to Tracy's '08 DVD. I know that cardio is what is going to help me get to my goal physique so will try and be consistent with the pattern. It's so tough to dance that early though! I'm just barely awake. I didn't get any walks in this week either as the weather was less than ideal and I was feeling a little lazy from waking up early.

Today is the start of my 4 days in a row of ms plus 60ish minutes of dancing. I put on Josh Wink Pandora and rocked out DC2 sequences 1-6. I'm really getting them down! Still struggle a bit with 5 but love 6! For the last 20 minutes I got in touch with my old raver days and really raved it up. I should have had a glow stick. haha!! So fun to have the apartment to myself and act like a goof ball.

My lunchtime meal this week was pretty tasty, quick and cheap so I thought I'd share. I took 1 whole hard boiled egg plus the white of another and made egg salad with a bit of honey mustard, paprika, cayenne, white pepper and salt plus 1 slice of chopped turkey bacon. Put it on a slice of sprouted multi grain toast and some type of fresh or roasted veggies on the side and you've got a healthy and filling meal for under 250 calories.

I realize I've been eating eggs, my high fiber/protein cereal, greek yogurt and berries and chicken/tuna with veggies pretty much every day. I have plans to mix things up next week and am excited to share some new food options!

Today I plan to keep my diet really clean as I am still holding out hope that the scale will drop again tomorrow, hopefully with the number 128 somewhere in there.

Tomorrow I will do my regular workout and then my sister will come and do a city hike with me that includes both the lyon street stairs and brunch. Hopefully the stairs will counter balance the brunch!

Sunday, my husband and I are taking my in-laws out to Waterbar for another brunch. Can you tell I really like brunch?! I love this place as it has fantastic views of the bay bridge, $20 for a whole bottle of Prosecco and OJ (I'll share!) and beautiful fish tanks. 

It will be tough to get my workout in Sunday as we will having a guest staying over and I am not going to workout in front of him. Fingers crossed he sleeps until 10am.

Tomorrow is my last day of Hip Sequence 6 and I am a little sad. I've enjoyed this sequence and am scared the next one is going to be too hard! I'll give an update on this as well. I hope to blog again tomorrow but if not, Monday for sure!

Cheers!!

Day 56 Complete!

Hi all! Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mom's out there! I hope everyone had a great weekend! Mine went pretty well and almost according to plan. Definitely splurged a bit on food and wine but I don't think I went too overboard.

I maintained my goal to do all 4 days of Hip Meta level 6 daily and about an hour of dance cardio as well. I'm so glad that I own all of Tracy's dance workouts, it really prevents boredom. If I stay on track I will be done with level 6 by Friday. Saturday, I may start level 7 or take a yoga class with my sister. I have no plans to take a full rest day unless it's unavoidable, which I'm sure will happen. Tue-Thur I will do my ms work but no dance cardio, just long walks with the two year old I take care of.

I got down to 128.8 on Sunday morning, down 3 pounds. However, I'm up to 132.4  overnight! Must have been the delicious curry veggie ramen I had last night or the onion rings I shared with my hubby or possibly the cupcake I had with my family for Mother's Day. I'm not worried about it because overall my calories weren't too out of control and I think it's healthy to splurge on the weekends to reset your metabolism. I hope to be be at 128 by Saturday.

I also met up with friends Saturday night for a birthday dinner. I was very proud of myself for just having a smallish serving of the Italian foods that were offered and just a bit of cake. I went home after dinner while my friends carried on at a club. I'm trying to find a balance and felt really good to be able to get up Sunday morning, exercise and put on my cute flowered dress for brunch with my mom, instead of being super hungover and tired.

My weekly diet is pretty much the same as last week.

This has been my standard post dance cardio protein meal, egg whites and turkey bacon, 1 slice sprouted grain toast and I added in sunflower sprouts today.

Dinner is some kind of protein (tuna, chicken) and lots of raw or steamed veggies. I'm loving cucumbers, celery and carrots with a little salt. I figure I need the salt with all the massive sweating I'm doing!

I haven't been feeling hungry but maybe a little weak in the afternoon because of the intensity of my workouts. I'm doing my best to take my multi vitamins as well. I want to be sure I'm getting enough calcium and B vitamins.

I also went into Lululemon for the first time and could not resist buying some new leggings! I also got a dance headband in yellow and grey to mach my shoes. Super pricy, but now I won't be embarrassed to go to yoga or the supermarket for that matter! Gotta get my monies worth! Not the best (or most flattering) pic but can you see the ties on the side at the bottom!!! so cute!

Feels great to get the week started off on the right foot! I'm sure those pesky pounds will be gone soon if I keep consistent with my plan. I'll check in again soon!

Cheers!