Coconut Date Shake!!

When shopping at Whole Foods the other day I found a couple "young coconuts" and decided I was going to cook them the way I did in July.  As I was looking up some cooking tips and suggestions I found this amazing recipe.  This is so good and will definitely be a go-to for a low(er) carb and not too bad for you drink that makes you feel oh-so-good.  It will, as the recipe I read online said, 'knock your socks off'...

Ingredients:
one young coconut
5 dates (pitted!)
two tablespoons of almond butter
ice
1/4 cup water

How-to:
Put the coconut water and the coconut meat in the blender.  The young coconuts' meat is really easy to spoon out (vs. an older coconut that is literally impossible)
Spoon in 2 tablespoons of almond butter
add 5 dates to the blender
add ice (I personally grab my ice from Sonic Drive-Thru, weird...I know - but AMAZING and one of the best kept secrets ever.  It makes this shake frothy and SMOOOOTH!)
Blend blend blend. 
Serve in a cute mason jar and garnish with a date or almond because it's all about presentation

Make one and you'll be thanking me later.  One coconut (this recipe) will make three mason jars filled.  If you put 1 or 2 away for later it will still be frothy the next day - or at least with the Sonic ice it will.  Oh yeaaa!

Abs really are made in the kitchen.....and ruined in the living room :(

So the below photo shows 17 days of aggressive clean eating and paying attention to diet.  It's the difference of 10 lbs and a whole lot of belly jiggle gone.  If this doesn't make you realize that abs are made in the kitchen, I don't know what will.  It's sad, but true.....we are what we eat. 

LEFT: September 17th, RIGHT:  October 4th

Like Miley says: can't stop.  won't stop.

Cheers! to Sober October...

No this isn't a fundraising thing; just another silly challenge I bestow upon myself - because, well...that's my style. This month, all 31 days of it - will be alcohol free and will consist of mainly H2O intake.  I will; however, drink coffee because I love it.  31 days, no drinking...please - easy as pie.  If I can do 30 days of Bikram Yoga...I can do this.  Who's with me?! :)

Jen is SLIPPING dot blogspot dot com!!

So I've found that I'm looking in the darkest deepest hole of my getting fit journey right now - 2 months from my 30th birthday.  Is this why people say "boy oh boy....when you turn 30 - I tell ya, it gets tougher to lose it..." I call BULLSHIT to that and am deciding right now to not lose it.  I am deciding to go back FULL FORCE and nip this in the bud.  It was a fun summer no doubt - but I can't lose it here...not after I've come this far! 

I looked up how to get back into the mindset and came across a couple great tips:

1. Keep a written reminder of your goals. When you start wondering why you’re depriving yourself, pull it out and take a look. (I made a screen saver for my phone of my photos from June)
2. Select a diet that doesn’t leave you starving. Eating plenty of low-density vegetables and getting sufficient protein and even fat will keep you feeling sated longer while still supporting your physique and performance goals. (haha I'm always hungry but definitely getting my veggies in)
3. Drink plenty of water! (on my 65th ounce of water now!)
4. Write down everything you eat, every day, including quantities. Yes, the corner of the cookie from the break room counts. Yes, the leftover mac-and-cheese from your kid’s plate counts. Write down all your beverages, including any added sweetener. If you don’t track it, you don’t know. And you may be surprised. (I use a system creating an album in my phone called Food Tracker.  This is where I take photos so I can show portion size and put the time with the amount of carbs)
5. Whenever possible, choose naturally raised, pastured/free range/wild caught meat, fish, poultry, and eggs, as well as organic fruits and vegetables. (I do love me the farmers market as well as Bear Flag Fish Co!!)
6. Alcohol will not help you reach your goals, no matter how low-carb, light, or antioxidant-rich. (I know I know I know....no more alcohol until I'm 30!)
7. If it was handed through a drive-thru window (or could have been), think of it as dessert, not food. Soft drink (even diet)? Dessert. Burger and fries? Dessert. Deep-fried chunks of what was once chicken or fish? Dessert. Ice cream cone and apple pie? Duh. If you put fast food into the “treat” category instead of the “food” category, you’re less likely to grab it for lunch or dinner. The only car-consumable exceptions are unsweetened ice tea and bottles of water, which aren’t dessert - just overpriced. (eww...no drive through - I've had my moments but it's gross and not healthy!)
8. Nothing is “neutral”. If it’s not a step toward your goals, it’s a step away. If you take a step away, do it with your eyes open, enjoy it, and don’t try to convince yourself that low-fat cookies or low-carb artificially fruit-flavored spread are “less-bad”.  (This is important to realize...I keep thinking that a bad Saturday / Sunday isn't a big deal - it is...it throws me off track, it's time to get focused and stop with these over indulgent weekends)
9. Ordering nachos and margs is not a “slip”...it’s a choice. (very very true....it's always a choice)
10. Don’t put yourself in a situation where you have to decide what to eat when you’re already hungry. Have good healthy meals pre-planned - and when possible, pre-prepared. (I'm pre cooking and pre planning everyday!!)

I will hit my goals, I will be successful and I will make sure to do this for me - because I deserve it and have worked very hard.

What happens when you totally lose your mind?

So this past weekend a really interesting thing happened to me.  Aside from my boss starting out my Friday with Chinese food for the office (always tough to resist) - the rest of my weekend seemed to be a downhill blur of not very active days, trail mix, snacking and blurred drunken nights.  Also part of my weekend was an "all you can eat / all you can drink brunch for $35 a person".  Now anyone that has followed this blog knows exactly how I feel about all you can eat.  I 100% feel that this is completely unnecessary.  So good, but for every once in awhile.  My guess is after the Chinese food Friday day, the beers at the concert and late night eating on Friday night...the last thing I needed was all you can eat anything on Saturday.  Good news is I played a bit of tennis (of which I did really well at even though it's been awhile).   

So what to do now?  get back on the horse.  It should take me about 3 days to drop the water weight that the weekend brought on.  First thing I did when I arrived home from LA on Sunday was hit the local Sprouts to get chicken, veggies, sliced deli meats and more.  I need to pre-cook like crazy if I'm going to get through this week the way I should - active and healthy.  I'll be at the gym multiple times a day this week and hitting the sauna hard.  There is nothing worse than the feeling of regret and dammit, I'm feeling it right now.

2 months exactly until my 30th birthday.  Time to get CRACKIN!

Bikram is my boyfriend: Part II

So 30 days has come to an end of my hot and steamy relationship with Bikram.  What an accomplishment.  I would say, overall, it wasn't the actual act of doing - cause it's a good work out, fun, much needed, felt good on my bones....etc.  It was the time management.  I mean, bikram is a 90 minute class in which you must shower after.  I would show up about 15 min prior, leave my house 30 min prior and with the post yoga rinse off, you're looking at a 2.5 hour ordeal...every. single. day.  This was easily the more challenging part of the challenge. 

I would say of the whole 30 days I had a handful where I really had to drag my ass to the studio.  One or two of those I HAD to go to the 8:30 PM class because I just couldn't even make it to 6:30 PM (I was so over it).  Around day 18, I was feeling like it would never end, day 24 I remember feeling like I was flying high and on night 30, with Judy as my teacher (which was so fitting because I definitely had her the majority of the 30 days) I completed the task I set out to do. 

I would say I'm most interested to see how my cravings change.  I feel like because you literally sweat SO MUCH I ended up craving salty things when I got home.  I wanted Gatorade, coconut water, juice...anything liquid and when would have the strangest cravings for dried cranberries, dark chocolate, cashews, almonds, peanut butter...etc.  In this journey I don't remember having those late night needs so unless my psyche has changed and I'm all of a sudden a late night eater (which I don't think is the case) I'm pretty sure my bitch of a boyfriend Bikram was causing me to have some random food cravings.  I would drink a TON of water, so I need to be conscious of this and not lose my water intake.  The amount of water I drank at bikram made my skin look so healthy - so I'm going to keep with a gallon a day - or at least attempt. 

Bikram was my boyfriend but as I told the ladies in the studio, we're going back to a 2-3 day a week relationship.  My body pushed it's limits for sure, is more flexible than it's ever been; however - it's ready for a break from prune'y hands and toes. 

August 5th - September  3rd

After the last and final class of the challenge...feeling accomplished. 

My peace from the crazy world of insane clients and intense phone calls...

EGGIES!!!

So, needless to say - and I'm sure you've heard the saying before - "breakfast is the most important meal of the day".  Many of you guys do not realize why and how important breakfast is.  Many people eat around noon as their FIRST meal which in the metabolism friendly world is a no bueno habit.  People who successfully maintain a significant weight loss eat breakfast just about every day. So what is best? AND more importantly - EASY?

We all work hard.  We brave traffic, commute, get to work early, jump on the train / bus and make keep grinding out Monday - Friday to get to where we need to be.  Usually breakfast has to be simple or you'll be picking up a doughnut or bagel and stuffing with carbs in the am.  This isn't terrible once in awhile, and probably better than nothing, but when you're trying to not have so much bread and carbs and sugar in the am - what can you go for to be an easy light jumpstart meal?  Maybe some EGGIES!!!

TOTAL TIME: about 5 minutes to make (note: my red peppers and onions were pre-prepped so my time was a bit shorter)

Cook spinach in a big pot to wilt up (only using cooking spray - I use the coconut oil spray from Trader Joe's)

In a muffin tin add SPINACH, RED PEPPER, ONION, sliced up SAUSAGE pieces (note - turkey and ham work well also) and pour liqued EGG WHITES to almost the brim of the muffin tin

MAKE SURE TO SPRAY YOUR MUFFIN TIN WITH PAM OR COCONUT OIL SPRAY AS WELL.  THIS HELPS THE EGGIES RELEASE FROM THE TRAY

I added a sprinkle of grated jalapeno cheese (but be aware - I'm on a low carb high fat diet, if you're not think about nixing the cheese and sausage and only having turkey or ham without cheese)

Cook in the over for 15-20 minutes, remove, let cool and add some Siracha sauce because it's amazing.

Wa-lah - eggies for the week! They're quick and simple for the 'on-the-go' individuals!

Other reasons why it's important to eat breakfast:

- After fasting all night, breakfast can kick-start your energy level
- Overeating throughout the day is less likely
- Studies show that people who skip breakfast tend to make up for the calories later in the day, often with unhealthy, high-fat and high-calorie convenience foods.
- Eating breakfast increases the metabolic - or calorie-burning - rate.
- You have more energy and weight control is easier.

Other breakfast options:

· A nonfat or lowfat yogurt parfait layered with fresh fruit and cereal, nuts or raisins
· Lowfat yogurt mixed with fresh fruit in a blender for a vitamin-rich smoothie
· Whole wheat toast with a little peanut butter and banana slices
· Instant or quick-cooking oatmeal or whole grain cold cereal with raisins or fresh fruit and lowfat dairy or soy milk
· Fish, such as leftover salmon, on a whole grain bagel with reduced or nonfat cream cheese
· Homemade bran or fruit and nut muffins, made on the weekend and frozen.