Friday was another good day, planned my meals the day before. We had an egg omelet with cauliflower, broccoli and mushrooms with mashed sweet potatoes for lunch. It was very filling. For my 3pm meal, I had 3/4 cup of blueberries with a handful of almonds. The mid-day walk was again, AMAZING. I'm thinking of posting a photo each day from my mid-day walk. Little details that make me happy.
When I got home I was feeling really tired. Didn't want to go to the gym but we went anyway. I did a 5 min warm-up on the elliptical and was really dragging through it. Maybe because it was friday and my body was ready for rest....don't know. But we went through the seven strength training exercises and they were tough!! But as we went from one to the next, we felt stronger. It was a very good feeling of being in control, of stimulating your body, making yourself stronger. At the end of the workout we were feeling pretty good, much better than when we started!
Now is the weekend and it will present its challenges. But we're on our way to the farmers market to stock up on veggies and other necessities. I'll get my 20-min walk at noon and in the evening and tomorrow, Sunday; will try to prepare the menu for the week and at least three days worth of meals.
Thank you for reading and accompanying me on this journey. Knowing that someone is reading about this adventure, makes me feel supported and accountable in a really good way. It's like whatever I'm doing will succeed because someone else knows about it and might even get inspired to try it. That's pretty cool.
Have a happy and healthy weekend!
1/14/2012
1/13/2012
Body By Design Day #4
Had Hemp and Oat pancakes again. Just a smaller portion with a tablespoon of Trader Joe's Spicy Black Bean Dip. VERY satisfying. I snaked on blueberries (not part of the body by design program but I refuse to part with them...they're my favorite) and a handful of almonds and walnuts. Lunch was the Quinoa-Tilapia stir fry from last night.
The weather was really windy but sunny so I went and had lunch at the park and got my 20 minutes of cardio in! It was really invigorating and I found to be more productive and had a really great mood all afternoon. Mid-day walks should be mandatory at the workplace. Seriously!
Thursday night I had a sewing date with a friend and got home so late. But I was so proud to have prepared myself beforehand. "Plan ahead" is one of the sentences in my manifesto and yes, it does take time and work and a little bit of anxiety at first, but it is SO WORTH IT! At 6pm I had my Vega shake ready to drink and @ 8:30 I had my dinner at her house. I totally skipped the evening workout but hey, it's ok. I'd rather get a really good night's sleep which in fact I did!
Day #4 a total success! I will try to take more photos of my food and little details of my day to accompany my posts I promise! Happy Friday!!
The weather was really windy but sunny so I went and had lunch at the park and got my 20 minutes of cardio in! It was really invigorating and I found to be more productive and had a really great mood all afternoon. Mid-day walks should be mandatory at the workplace. Seriously!
Thursday night I had a sewing date with a friend and got home so late. But I was so proud to have prepared myself beforehand. "Plan ahead" is one of the sentences in my manifesto and yes, it does take time and work and a little bit of anxiety at first, but it is SO WORTH IT! At 6pm I had my Vega shake ready to drink and @ 8:30 I had my dinner at her house. I totally skipped the evening workout but hey, it's ok. I'd rather get a really good night's sleep which in fact I did!
Day #4 a total success! I will try to take more photos of my food and little details of my day to accompany my posts I promise! Happy Friday!!
1/12/2012
Body By Design Day #3
Yesterday started feeling a bit sleepy. I still have trouble getting into bed at 10. Need more sleep. For breakfast I had a new pancake recipe: hemp powder, whole meal pancake mix from Trader Joe's, oat milk (make by soaking oats overnight and then blending it. The result is a really yummy and creamy milk), and 1 egg. The pancakes are green but good! Better than eggs everyday, so I'll alternate the two recipes. I had another one for my snack at 10 am. Lunch was the same salad from last night.
Couldn't get that 20 min cardio session in due to torrential southern rain :-( Hubby's been getting out of work late and I really enjoy working out with him so I waited and did 30 mins on the treadmill before our strength training session. IT WAS REALLY TOUGH. But we went through it although I could only do one set of ONE rep on the bench dips. Those bench dips are HARD! Now I know that I am really getting stronger if I can go beyond one rep of those suckers.
Dinner was a "stir fry" of quinoa, mushrooms, onion, peppers, little bit of egg whites and tilapia... It was soo good!
Oh, and I'm super excited that I finally got my VEGA Food Optimizer Whoo Hoo! I am so ready! I confess the berry flavor's not my favorite but after reading all the ingredients, I don't care. I WANT ALL THAT IN MY BODY! So I'll be having one of those at 6pm before my workouts. I had it last night and I really felt energized and even stronger.
I'm not tired of the food, I'm happy with the workouts, I'm sleeping much better, waking up much more energized and eating lots of veggies. I also stopped drinking coffee after reading it promotes cortisol production so I'm testing that to see how well I do without my morning caffeine fix.
Day #3 is done and I'm loving it!
Couldn't get that 20 min cardio session in due to torrential southern rain :-( Hubby's been getting out of work late and I really enjoy working out with him so I waited and did 30 mins on the treadmill before our strength training session. IT WAS REALLY TOUGH. But we went through it although I could only do one set of ONE rep on the bench dips. Those bench dips are HARD! Now I know that I am really getting stronger if I can go beyond one rep of those suckers.
Dinner was a "stir fry" of quinoa, mushrooms, onion, peppers, little bit of egg whites and tilapia... It was soo good!
Loooove Quinoa!
My favorite brand. I order it from Amazon
I'm not tired of the food, I'm happy with the workouts, I'm sleeping much better, waking up much more energized and eating lots of veggies. I also stopped drinking coffee after reading it promotes cortisol production so I'm testing that to see how well I do without my morning caffeine fix.
Day #3 is done and I'm loving it!
1/11/2012
Body By Design Day #2
I felt really AWESOME yesterday! Really great mood and had very restful night's sleep. Monday night I made dinner and had enough leftover to pack for today's lunch. I sauteed some kale with garlic and a little bit of apple cider vinegar, sauteed some tofu cubes with scallions, ginger and a bit of liquid aminos and it was delish! The hubby was still hungry afterwards so he ate more but I stuck to my portions and called it a night.
I'm discovering that the food part of this program will be much easier for me than the exercise part of it. We already were following a whole foods, mainly plant-based diet, it's just that my portions and abuse of coconut oil (yum) and bread were not helping me shed any weight. We don't buy any pre-made, frozen foods, except for an occasional treat from the Trader Joe's frozen isle. We don't eat meat, chicken or pork. Our diet consisted of grains like quinoa, brown rice, whole wheat bread, legumes...lots of them like beans, lentils and my favorite: chickpeas and all fruits and veggies. I can eat pretty much anything from our previous diet except for fruits and the legumes. It's really more manageable now that I've understood how to organize myself.
As I said, we prepare a meal at night which will serve as lunch for the next day. In the morning, we have our breakfast which yesterday was an egg white omelet with onions, peppers and mushrooms. At 10 am we had our improvised protein shake (hemp protein powder, chia seeds, strawberries and 1/2 a banana), then lunch and @ 3pm we had a slice of sprouted grain bread with a tbsp of peanut butter. So far I've felt very satisfied and my energy levels have been pretty stable. I did go out at lunch time and walked for about 45 mins. That was SO REFRESHING! I took some instagram pics during my walk and just breathed the nice winter air and enjoyed the sun. I will try to do that when possible form now on!
At night, I didn't have time to go to the gym so I put my favorite music on and busted some dance moves to get my heart rate up (which should be at 112-132 for fat burning) for 20 minutes. Dinner was a mixed lettuce salad with tomatoes, red onions, 1 can of tuna, 1/4 avocado and my favorite dressing: minced garlic with apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper, and a little olive oil. Simple. but. delicious.
I also took my "before" photographs today. I will post some of those in a couple of weeks when I have new ones to compare them to. So far, I'm sticking one of those on the fridge as a reminder of my goal.
Day#2 done. I'm ready for more!
I'm discovering that the food part of this program will be much easier for me than the exercise part of it. We already were following a whole foods, mainly plant-based diet, it's just that my portions and abuse of coconut oil (yum) and bread were not helping me shed any weight. We don't buy any pre-made, frozen foods, except for an occasional treat from the Trader Joe's frozen isle. We don't eat meat, chicken or pork. Our diet consisted of grains like quinoa, brown rice, whole wheat bread, legumes...lots of them like beans, lentils and my favorite: chickpeas and all fruits and veggies. I can eat pretty much anything from our previous diet except for fruits and the legumes. It's really more manageable now that I've understood how to organize myself.
As I said, we prepare a meal at night which will serve as lunch for the next day. In the morning, we have our breakfast which yesterday was an egg white omelet with onions, peppers and mushrooms. At 10 am we had our improvised protein shake (hemp protein powder, chia seeds, strawberries and 1/2 a banana), then lunch and @ 3pm we had a slice of sprouted grain bread with a tbsp of peanut butter. So far I've felt very satisfied and my energy levels have been pretty stable. I did go out at lunch time and walked for about 45 mins. That was SO REFRESHING! I took some instagram pics during my walk and just breathed the nice winter air and enjoyed the sun. I will try to do that when possible form now on!
At night, I didn't have time to go to the gym so I put my favorite music on and busted some dance moves to get my heart rate up (which should be at 112-132 for fat burning) for 20 minutes. Dinner was a mixed lettuce salad with tomatoes, red onions, 1 can of tuna, 1/4 avocado and my favorite dressing: minced garlic with apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper, and a little olive oil. Simple. but. delicious.
I also took my "before" photographs today. I will post some of those in a couple of weeks when I have new ones to compare them to. So far, I'm sticking one of those on the fridge as a reminder of my goal.
Day#2 done. I'm ready for more!
1/10/2012
Body By Design Day #1
I did it! I started the Body by Design program yesterday. Two of my coworkers did it last year and they lost a lot of weight and got a six-pack in the process. They started last week so we're doing it at the same time. My dear hubby's doing it as well to build up mass and get stronger.
I was a little unprepared and did feel hungry a couple of times during the day but then we went to the gym together. It was the first time we exercised at the same time and it was quite enjoyable! We left feeling really proud of taking control of our bodies and becoming stronger.
We're ready for tomorrow. Bring it on!
I was a little unprepared and did feel hungry a couple of times during the day but then we went to the gym together. It was the first time we exercised at the same time and it was quite enjoyable! We left feeling really proud of taking control of our bodies and becoming stronger.
We're ready for tomorrow. Bring it on!
1/02/2012
A New Year
It's been a whole year since I last posted on this blog. I actually created another blog to kind of start fresh... That was back in September and here I am, on the 2nd of January of 2012 wanting to blog and wondering if I should use the new blog or just continue on this one. Well, Paperspices was my first blog. I had a lot of fun posting and showcasing the things I was doing back in 2009 when I started getting crafty :-)
So, I decided to keep it! We will continue to grow together and when the time comes, (or a better name comes to mind) we'll part ways. But for now, here I am. To help me get into the creative zone again, I've signed up for Alisa Burke's "Create Daily" online class. I've admired Alisa's work for so long that I decided it was about time to take a class from her and this class is perfect! It's about finding time to do something inspiring/creative everyday. Be it a couple of minutes to take some photos or 30 minutes of art journaling, It can be done! Check out her webpage for more info on her classes!
Welcome 2012. I'm so ready for you! And to celebrate the new year and the promise of a better me, I created my own manifesto. I had always loved the Aardvark Manifesto and wanted to make my own. Yesterday I woke up bright and early and made it. I used photoshop (which is VERY time consuming for working with type but it's what I have) but InDesign would've been much better. Anyway, here it is. I hope you like it and maybe get inspired to make your own! I already made an order to have it made into a small poster to put in my studio!
Happy New Year and welcome to my blog!
So, I decided to keep it! We will continue to grow together and when the time comes, (or a better name comes to mind) we'll part ways. But for now, here I am. To help me get into the creative zone again, I've signed up for Alisa Burke's "Create Daily" online class. I've admired Alisa's work for so long that I decided it was about time to take a class from her and this class is perfect! It's about finding time to do something inspiring/creative everyday. Be it a couple of minutes to take some photos or 30 minutes of art journaling, It can be done! Check out her webpage for more info on her classes!
Welcome 2012. I'm so ready for you! And to celebrate the new year and the promise of a better me, I created my own manifesto. I had always loved the Aardvark Manifesto and wanted to make my own. Yesterday I woke up bright and early and made it. I used photoshop (which is VERY time consuming for working with type but it's what I have) but InDesign would've been much better. Anyway, here it is. I hope you like it and maybe get inspired to make your own! I already made an order to have it made into a small poster to put in my studio!
Happy New Year and welcome to my blog!
12/03/2010
On Creativity
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