Food Prep!

I've been getting more and more into the idea of doing most of my weekly cooking and food prep on Sunday afternoons so that I have less to do when I get up in the mornings and when I get home from the gym at night. 

The photo below shows everything I made two Sunday's ago. I'm just now coming to the end of this supply, as I ended up having clients around for three days of lunches and dinners and found myself eating out (on the company's dime, of course) way more than usual. I can't say I stuck to my nutritional goals during these restaurant meals, but at least it didn't set me back financially, which is another huge reason I try to cook at home as much as I can.

• One Dozen Hard Boiled Farm Fresh Organic Eggs: I eat 3-4 eggs a day, on average.
• Roasted Spaghetti Squash: To be eaten with leftover sauce w/ ground turkey that I'd had frozen
• Garlic Roasted Cauliflower
• Apple Cinnamon Quinoa Breakfast Cereal
• One LB of Chicken Breasts: I marinated 1/2 in Chipotle Pepper marinade and the other 1/2 in Mediterranean herbs for variety throughout the week
• One LB of Chicken Strips for Salads: Also divided these between the two marinate flavors
• Four Salads

Overall, the process didn't take all that long. It's all about how you time things! For example, the Apple Cinnamon Quinoa and Roasted Squash both needed about 45 minutes of cook time, so I prepped those first. While they cooked, I mixed up the two marinades for the chicken and let them soak up the flavor for about 30 minutes. 

Next, I got the cauliflower roasting in the oven. There was about a 25 degree discrepancy between oven temps for the two veggies, so I went with the lower temp and gave the squash extra time to roast. As the Quinoa and Roasted Veggies were finishing cooking, I heated up the George Foreman for my chicken. I started off with a batch, both breasts and strips, of the Mediterranean herb flavor, since it wasn't as strong. When those were cooked, I quickly wiped down the grill with a wet paper towel and repeated the process for my Chipotle Pepper chicken. 

Since the chicken cooks so quickly, it require my full attention. No multi-tasking whilst George Foreman-ing, or else your food will likely end up tough and overcooked. While the chicken cooled, I got my salads ready. I used a dark greens blend with kalamata olives, tomatoes, cukes, and bell peppers for the salads that would get Mediterranean chicken and a blend of iceberg and baby spinach with black beans, tomatoes, cukes, and bell peppers for the ones that would get Chipotle Pepper chicken.

And...DONE!

What A Difference A Year Can Make

One week ago today, I turned 26. Just a few days before that, I'd found the photo that was taken at my 25th birthday party. I hate the photo. Seeing myself when the server handed it over was truly embarrassing. It was one of those moments when you realize how much weight you've gained. I remember how I felt getting ready for that dinner, not even knowing that all of my friends were planning on surprising me. I'd practically been in tears. I felt like I had nothing nice to wear that fit my body. My confidence was close to an all time low.

Left: January 20, 2013
Right: January 20, 2014

Circle back, 365 days later and I am 100% healthier. I've been CrossFitting for almost 7 months and eat a much more clean and whole diet than any other time in my life. I've repaired friendships that I'd been damaging due to my own insecurity. I'm on the road to being financially free and my relationship with my significant other is built on love, trust, and respect. 

While I'm not looking forward to being another year closer to 30, I am excited for the progress I know I can make between now and my next birthday. 

The Holidays: Making Spirits and Scales Soar

It starts with Thanksgiving, sometimes several rounds of eating, depending on your group of family and friends. The Christmas parties come next: work, clients, gym, book club, to name a few. Christmas itself is usually multiple occurrences of cookies and comfort food, too. New Year's Eve is next, with surefire snacking until the wee hours of the New Year. Of course, between all of these celebrations, your schedule is probably so packed that the drive-through seems like a sensible solution to the state of "hangry" you find yourself in.

Come January 2nd, you look in the mirror and hardly recognize the person staring back at you who looks at least 20lbs heavier than you know you are. You become one of the thousands of people joining a gym to fight off the bulge for another 1-11 months, until the holidays come again.

Sound familiar? This year, I'm bound and determined to NOT have that as my story. My job is in it's second year of "The Holiday Weight Maintenance Challenge", from which you win a prize if you can maintain your weight from before Thanksgiving through the New Year within a 2 lb window. I admit that last year, I barely made it into the window, for shame.

To help avoid the danger zone this year, I'm participating in the gym's "Holiday Nutrition Challenge", which has laid out five nutritional stages that CrossFit encourages (Eating Clean, Gluten Free, Zone, Paleo, Eat to Perform), and challenges you to pick one that is one step above where you currently are and stick to it for 20 days in between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The idea is that you will be building good habits and encouraging good food choices at holiday events which will offset any weight gain brought on by holiday indulgences.

Nick and I picked the Eating Clean phase to try to stick to, with a smattering of the Gluten Free stage. We already ate pretty clean, but I knew that I definitely wanted to push myself to eliminate more processed foods and added sugar and salt from my diet. The Monday night after Thanksgiving, we went on a huge shopping trip and collected a serious stock of veggies, sweet potatoes, chicken and fish.

It makes sense, right? Sure, we have to get up a little earlier or take a little more time out of our evenings to prepare healthy dinners and brown bag lunches, but living a long and healthy life while getting a boost towards our fitness goals is certainly worth it.