45 Strong Challenge, Day 10!

 

I think I needed to see that this morning. I just got myself into a little bit of a mental rut when I was thinking about how long my weight has been moving so slowly. Then I kept waking up last night to pee and so I thought that was going to be my "whoosh" moment where I got rid of the extra liquid my body was retaining and I'd be down a few pounds in the morning. Well, nope, I'm still about the same.

I know all the reasons why this makes sense. If you were sitting here telling me these facts, I would remind you that you've seen a physical increase in muscle in your body, and you can absolutely be gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time and the scale stays exactly the same. I would point out that such a big increase in exercise intensity means you might have some inflammation and be retaining fluid (bathroom breaks last night notwithstanding!). I'd remind you that womens' bodies in particular can be fickle and can gain and lose weight based on hormones and where you are in your cycle and sometimes it feels like for no reason at all. I'd tell you to keep doing what you're doing, maybe eat a little extra protein, and give your body some time and you'll push right past this!

So I'm sharing that cartoon in case anyone else needed to see it today. Little changes lead to big changes. We just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

I'm ten days into the 45 Strong challenge and I haven't missed a day yet! That's something to be proud of! And I've noticed that I might actually be finally starting to experience a bit of boosted energy levels after over a year's worth of exercising where it felt like it was costing me energy. I might finally be getting to the point where it actually makes me feel good, and that's exciting. It's taken so long I figured that it just wasn't something I'd feel- that exercise would always be the drag that I would have to force myself to do. It feels more like a mixed bag now. I still hate sweating and the feeling like I'm going to die when I'm pushing myself, but that feeling passes fairly quickly and then I have that lovely endorphin rush where I'm glad I did it, and I feel strong and powerful. One day at a time... and we'll see where this path leads. Sometimes I find that the most interesting and best parts in my life follow from choices that didn't fit in with my life plans, or where I just decided to give something a try. I always identified as someone who hated exercise (still kinda do, really), but when I saw that F45 trial I decided why not give it a try. I had already been doing Walk at Home so this just felt like a bit further down the rabbit hole. Who knows where it will lead?

I did:

• 54 minutes of walking, and 39 minutes at F45 for a total of 93 active minutes. Today was the Triple Threat workout which is another horrible, horrible cardio workout. 
• drank 3 litres of water!
• did my dental care!
• 15 minutes of Spanish on Duolingo. 

I found some new and interesting recipes, so I figure that I'll try and put a few more interesting things in my daily meal plans here if I can get out of my food jags!

Breakfast was a new one!

Turkish Scrambled Eggs:

2 large eggs, whisked

45g yellow onion, diced

30g red bell pepper, diced

50g cherry tomatoes, halved

6 kalamata olives, pitted

1/2 oz feta or goat cheese, crumbled

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp paprika

salt, pepper

1 slice whole wheat Weight Watchers' bread

Heat a frying pan over medium heat and spray with cooking spray when warm. Saute the onion, bell pepper, and tomato until soft, 2-3 minutes. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and add seasonings, continuing to stir the eggs as they cook. Toast your bread. When eggs are done to your liking, place the toast in the centre of your plate. Top with the scrambled eggs, and sprinkle with the cheese. Garnish with olives and enjoy! This is a nice variation on a basic egg recipe and hopefully you'll enjoy the twist! 316 calories, 18g fat, 19.5g carbs, 17.5g protein.

This lunch can be prepped in advance and assembled when you're ready to eat to save time. I find that I need to eat right after I come home from my workout, so having the components ready to make a quick lunch means I'm much more likely to stay on track rather than just grab something because I'm hungry.

Pumpkin, Goat Cheese & Chicken Wrap:

1 Flatout protein wrap

3 oz cooked chicken breast, diced

80g raw pumpkin, skinned and diced (or other squash)

50g red onion, diced

50g tomato slices

40g baby spinach leaves

1/2 oz goat cheese, crumbled

1/4 tsp rosemary

1 garlic clove, minced

Preheat your oven to 400F. Put your pumpkin and onion in a bowl and either use 1 tsp olive oil or spritz with a little bit of cooking spray. Add the rosemary and minced garlic, and stir well to spread out the spices. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Allow veggies to cool. Open your wrap onto a plate, and fill with spinach, tomato, and goat cheese. Top with the chicken and roasted veggies and wrap tightly. If you like, cut in half, but you can enjoy the full portion! It's funny, I like squash but generally I eat pumpkin in sweets rather than savories. I was really impressed with how tasty this is. If you like, serve this with raw veggie sticks on the side and maybe a little of my Veggielicious Dip! The wrap clocks in at 305 calories, 8g fat, 32g carbs, and 36g protein.

For afternoon snack, I had one of my protein snack plates from earlier in the week- delicious! Feel free to use whatever cheese and meat and crackers you have at hand! Mine clocked in at 360 calories, 23g fat, 19.5g carbs, and 19g protein.

Dinner came from Hellofresh- if you haven't tried them yet, you can get a totally free box using my referral link! They have lots of low carb and low calorie recipes to choose from every week.

Apricot-Mustard Pork Chops:

340g boneless pork chops

113g spring mix

2 clementines

4 radishes

14g toasted pepitas

28g goat cheese

2 tbsp apricot jam

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tbsp whole grain mustard

1 tbsp chicken broth concentrate

2 tsp olive oil

Preheat your oven to 425F. Cut radishes into thin half moons. Add vinegar, half the apricot jam, and half the olive oil to a large bowl. Add salt and pepper, and whisk to combine. Add the radishes to marinate and set aside. Heat a large oven safe pan to medium heat on your stovetop. Add the remaining oil, and when it's hot, sear the pork chops for 2-3 min per side. Place the oven safe pan in the oven and roast the pork for 8-12 minutes or until cooked through. Put the pan back on the stovetop on medium-low and set the pork aside on a cutting board to rest. Add broth concentrate, 1/4 cup water, mustard, and remaining apricot jam. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens. While sauce is simmering, peel and segment clementines. Add clementines and spring mix to the bowl with the radishes and toss to combine. Thinly slice the pork chops, adding any meat juices to the pan sauce. Divide the salad and pork on two plates, and spoon the pan sauce over the pork. Sprinkle pepitas and goat cheese over the salad, and enjoy! This is a nice light and flavourful salad which is perfect for a warm evening when you don't want a heavy supper. 404 calories, 17.5g fat, 26.5g carbs, 37g protein.

Here's a make-ahead dessert with a ton of protein so you won't have to worry about making something in advance!

Frozen Cheesecake Squares:

450g cottage cheese

110g cashew butter (or your favourite nut butter)

26g plain or vanilla protein powder

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp of your favourite sweetener

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 cup water

Add all ingredients to a blender and pulse until it's entirely smooth. Pour mixture into a flat bottomed container with a lid and place in the freezer- mixture should be about 2 cm deep. After approximately 2 hours, take the container out and cut your cheesecake into 20 squares while it's still in the container, and return it to the freezer for a further 2 hours or until frozen entirely. One serving is four squares (recipe makes 5 servings). 

Cottage cheese, is there anything it can't do?? This was surprisingly good! I think it would be great with some fruit chunks added as well, maybe small diced fruit added after the blender stage. Strawberry was my first thought, but I think pina colada with pineapple chunks and coconut would be amazing too! This one would be a great base to play around with, and it has lots of protein! The base recipe is 270 calories, 16g fat, 8g carbs, and 23g protein! Your recipe may vary depending on protein powder.

That brings my daily total to 1375 calories, 82.5g fat, 105.5g carbs, and 132.5g protein! That is a little lower than I'd like to go when I've been so active lately, so I'll make sure to add a little something. Maybe I'll have a couple of squares of good chocolate before bed!