Tag: diet

A Full Day of Healthy Eating

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It’s 2020! To celebrate the new decade, I’ve been doing what any amateur adult would do and I’ve been eating all the bad food. And by bad food I obviously mean the most delicious food that is the worst for your body. I’m talking pizza. I’m talking taquitos. I’m talking all the chicken nuggets. Add all the soda pop and alcohol I’ve been consuming to replace all the water I haven’t been consuming and it’s safe to say I need to replenish some nutrients here.

So…

…this is my full day of eating when I’m being extra good to myself while also eating in a deficit.

(Actually it’s a combination of what I ate Monday and what I ate yesterday, but don’t tell the food police. I eat basically the same thing every day so it’s fine.)

 

Breakfast

My easiest meal. Mostly because it’s the same thing every day of my life.

 

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Jimmy Dean Delights: Turkey Sausage, Egg White, & Cheese English Muffin with Coffee (elixir of life) and my First Liter of Water

They’re easy, they’re healthy, and they’re delicious. I eat the same thing for breakfast every day. Listen, breakfast was always hard for me because as much as I try to make myself be a morning person, I am not a morning person. So I found something that works for me and that’s what I’ve stuck to for the past couple years. And of course I add Tapatios hot sauce. Only Tapatios.

 

Lunch

Lunch is the hardest meal of the day, in my opinion. I work at my husband’s business and if you know anything about owning a business you understand me when I say sometimes we don’t get to take lunch. If the phones are ringing off the hook or we’re short-staffed in the warehouse, we all jump in and help keep everything running smoothly at the expense of our “break-time.”

So here are my typical lunch options for busy days vs normal days:

 

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Busy Days (Monday): Subway Steak & Cheese Salad with their Chipotle Southwest Sauce and Sweet Onion Sauce for dressing

According to my metabolic type and personal research, my body functions best on higher protein, lower carb foods. (I am not one of those people who can have a cup of white rice for every meal and lose weight. I will bloat until I look like Violet Beauregarde.) So when I can, I opt for no bread. Our subway also has a drive-thru so on busy days I swing by there and eat at my desk. This is what I had on Monday.

 

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Normal Days (Thursday): Bird’s Eye Veggie Made Rotini Alfredo with Broccoli

This is still a very easy meal… but hey, I do have to stick this one in the microwave. Honestly, I don’t have time to cook at lunch and I even if I did, I don’t want to. This pasta is great and I usually throw in some leftover veggies from the night before; today was broccoli.

 

Dinner

As a rule of thumb for my dinners I try to make them:

  • Little to no carbs
  • A good source of protein
  • A full serving of vegetables
  • As little processed ingredients as possible

I already showed you my turkey scramble recipe, but I also love to make fish:

 

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Marinated Salmon with Steamed Broccoli

That sounds very fancy, but it is not at all. I get individually frozen salmon filets and a 30 minute marinade. When I get home from work, I thaw my salmon in cold water, then stick it in the fridge with my marinade for half an hour, then saute it in a skillet. Literally that easy. Oh, and I get steam-in-the-bag frozen broccoli so that gets popped in the microwave while I cook the salmon. Ta-da! A well balanced dinner.

And that’s basically it. A couple things to note:

  1. I try not to snack on a daily basis because I can’t control myself around a good snack. I mean honestly, who can though?
  2. I don’t count calories or macros anymore simply because I know the nutrient breakdown of the foods I eat regularly because I have counted calories and macros for so long. It’s redundant and doesn’t give me anything by writing it down anymore. I highly recommend it, though, if you don’t already have a good idea of what you’re consuming calorie and nutrient wise.
  3. I drink 3 liters of water every day throughout my day, and a cup of decaf green tea before bed

 

Voila! A full day of eating. I’m slowly but surely putting together a blog about how I figured out how to eat healthy and how I make my “meal plans” so if all of this sounds like something you could get on board with but don’t know where to start, keep an eye out for that blog. It took me about six years to figure out how to eat healthy on my own so if you’re struggling, I feel you. The best advice I have is that the slower you start off the easier it will be to maintain changes. Give it time.

But okay, that all sounds very bloggy. I’m going to go now.

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Did anyone else celebrate going into the ’20s by partying like Gatsby? First I took a drink, then my drink took a drink, then the drink took me. 

Day 28/90: How to Re-Set

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Hey, hi, hello, internet.

Being an adult is weird… One moment you’re achieving your goals, blogging every day, hitting the gym, then the next moment your grandmother dies…

My grandmother passed away last Friday so I’ve been on a life-hiatus for the last week. When we lived in Wisconsin, we would drive to Kentucky to visit my Mamaw and Papaw every Thanksgiving. I fully credit Mamaw with my love of nature. Me being the true born city girl that I am, I never really did anything outside… until Thanksgiving. Mamaw would take me four-wheeling into the mountains; we walked waded in the creek for miles collecting rocks (I still collect rocks and minerals btw); we would play in the barn with the newest animals she had or walking across the plank between the two lofts; and she would sing while I played my violin on the porch (very badly as a 5th grader, but she didn’t care). She was 84 but truly acted like she was 14, in the best way. I’ll never look at Kentucky mountain or valley again without seeing her there.

Pardon the crass transition

Without surprise, I’ve fallen off the wagon as far as fitness and health goes for the past week, so I thought this would be a good time to talk about how I re-set and kick my butt back into gear.

 

How to Re-Set Your Goals

 

#1   Re-evaluate your goals

People “mess up” on their goals for a multitude of different reasons, most of them not nearly as dramatic as death, but regardless of the reason you need to first determine if it is a you-problem or a goal-problem.

A lot of the time it’s a you-problem (that sounds harsh but stay with me) where you’ve either lost motivation, or been a little too lax on yourself, or maybe it’s the holiday’s and you let yourself indulge, or maybe heavy, adult things smacked you in the face like they did me. All of those scenarios can be summed up by saying:

life happens. And that’s okay!

However, sometimes it’s a goal-problem. Maybe you got injured because your workouts were too intense, or maybe you’re exhausted from too few calories, or maybe you’re truly burnt out from being TOO strict on yourself. You have to be honest with yourself and adjust if your goals are too much to handle all at once.

#2   Let yourself change your mind!

If you need to adjust your goals, allow yourself to do so. This was going to be lumped in with the “re-evaluate” part, but I thought it was worth it’s own bullet point!

People (me, I’m people) get so stuck in their ways sometimes and don’t allow themselves to change their mind. Don’t set yourself up for failure! Adjust your goals so that they are still challenging but attainable.

#3   Be very strict for the first few days, but don’t overcompensate.

Again with the setting yourself up for failure; don’t overcompensate! Do what you would normally do to chug along towards your goals.

Think about it this way, if you push yourself too hard during your re-set you’re more likely to fail again, and then you’ll have to re-set again, and if you overcompensate again then you’ll be more likely to fail again, and then you’ll have to re-set again… You see what I mean? So start fresh. Move on. You can’t change anything you’ve already done, so do better this time around.

#4   Stay positive.

This is probably the most important part of a re-set for any goals. Your mindset can make all the difference when it comes to starting over.

Keep in mind:

  • You’ll bounce back quicker than before
  • You’ve already done this part successfully once, you can do it again
  • Take it day by day.
  • Actually, take it decision by decision.
    • If someone offers you a Christmas cookie and you only get those cookies at Christmas and you really want that cookie… Eat the cookie. But then the very next decision make sure it’s a good decision. That will set you back on track.

 

No matter what your goals may be or why you need a goal re-set right now, I hope this blog hits the right notes for you.

Does anyone have any other tips and tricks? Motivation? I’ll take it all: Questions, suggestions, criticism, concerns, send them my way please and thank you. I will be starting my re-set tomorrow. The day before Christmas Eve. Because I am a masochistic idiot.

Wish me luck.

Okkkkaaayyyyy bye!

Mamaw

Winter Goals

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Good morning, happy winter!

I’ve never been good at new year’s resolutions, mainly because by July of whatever year I’ve made the goals I’ve already forgotten what they were. So I decided a while back that I was going to do seasonal goals. So here we go!

Winter Goals

Lose 15lbs and 7% body fat

No explanation required, we’re still doing a fitness thing here even if I have fallen behind. 175lbs & 29% are the numbers I’m aiming for.

 

Write the first draft of my novel

It’s been in the works for a very very long time and I think I have everything I need to write a complete draft, everything except the will power that is.

 

Stop biting my nails

Surely 3 months is long enough to kick that habit, right?

 

Read at least three books

I don’t do this enough.

 

Do at least two charcoal drawings

I have an art degree, but you’d never know by the amount of art I make.

 

I think seasonal goals will be great not only for mindset but also for practicality! These are all things that I want to do, of course, but I tailored these goals to be winter specific. I also want to walk our husky more often and kayak and hike, but if I decide on those goals in January when it’s 16 degrees and we’re buried in Kentucky ice, how will I get excited about those goals again in May?

I need to do things immediately or I lose interest.

The fact that I won’t be writing on my novel as soon as I close this blog will undoubtedly make me think twice about that goal when I do sit down to write. But no matter, they’re written in the blog and so they shall be.

Alrighty, that’s all!

If you have any goals that you don’t want to put off until the ball drops, tell me about them! Let’s make seasonal goals a thing. Can we do that? Is that legal?

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I really do.

Welcome to my diary

It’s amazing how quickly you can fall into a bad habit. It’s day 19 of my daily blogging and I’ve already caught myself only writing blogs that give advice or have a clear defined point to them.

But the thing is,

this is my personal website and essentially my daily journal. I’m not selling anything, I’m not marketing myself as some sort of guru, I’m just out here living my life. My intention for this blog is to document my life so years from now I can go back and read about… myself… oh wow, how narcissistic, Emily.

That’s why I initially started by documenting “something I couldn’t stop thinking about from yesterday” on my first couple blogs. That didn’t really work because all of my days run together as one long existence. But nonetheless, I would still like to daily blog.

That all being said, sometimes my blogs will be short and sweet and uninteresting.

Future readers:

I wanted to inform all of you that when you come across a post like this it’s most likely because I’m half asleep sitting on my recliner at 6am writing my stream of (semi)conscience thoughts.

Future Emily:

You’re welcome girl, this is for you. Hang in there.

 

Hey future me, have you figured out what this contraption is yet?

I won’t take it back!

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Hello, internet.

So, I’ve been conflicted. A couple days ago when I posted that guide to building a workout I thought I was so smart. Well, about 3 hours after posting I already wanted to make an amendment.

I read an article shortly after posting that blog about the difference between weight loss and fat loss and realized that I hadn’t specified that my guide was geared towards losing fat and gaining small amounts of muscle. Losing fat is the only thing I personally have focused on so far so it slipped my mind to mention that my current workouts aren’t geared towards body building or long distance running or sport training.

But alas, no amendment was written. I decided that I had stated that my goal was to lose fat enough times in that post and my blog in general that readers should understand the point I was trying to make.

Then I found a new YouTube channel…

It was all about fitness and they were short informative videos, so like any rational millennial would do: I binged watched them for three hours.

And they started saying things like:

“Static stretching isn’t necessary and may even be harmful”

“You don’t need to do any cardio on your lifting days”

“Warm-ups are stupid”

“Picking a handful of random exercises isn’t the right way to plan a workout”

“Sets of 3×10 aren’t the best”

This YouTube channel single-handedly debunked my entire post.

Again I reiterate, I don’t blindly trust strangers on the internet. However, this person gave a plethora of accredited sources with each video and has uploaded informational fitness videos weekly since 2015. I’d say at least some of their videos are accurate.

All day yesterday and all morning at the gym I was thinking about taking the post down altogether.

But then I realized that this isn’t the first time I’ve heard blatant contradictions to fitness matters. The reason that I knew all of the stuff I put in that long blog was because I’d learned it from a reputable source. And the reason that YouTube channel knew all of their information is because they learned it from reputable sources.

So no, I won’t take it back.

This exact plan has worked for me and maybe it’ll work for you too, but decide that for yourself and your own body. That’s what I did. Listen to your own self, don’t trust the internet to know how you feel. (*cough cough* Web MD people I’m talking to you.)

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Went Christmas Tree picking with the in-laws yesterday! This has nothing to do with anything, but how cool is this picture?