Amy’s 15 Week Challenge – I’m READY!!

So today is the first official day of Amy’s 15 Week Challenge and boy am I ever ready to rock it!


 
In a nutshell, here is my plan:

Start Weight:  194 lbs

Weigh In Day:  Saturday morning

Challenge Goal:  To lose 15 lbs, bringing my weight to 179 lbs.  A one pound per week lose is easily attainable as long as I eat within my 1500 calories/day and maintain my exercise routine.

Reward:  A challenge wouldn’t be very fun without a prize now would it?! I’m thinking an item or two from Lulu would be a fantastic reward!
I’m SO excited to kick butt and lose more weight.  This is a perfect way to stay focused on my health and work towards achieving my goals this Summer!! Thanks again Amy!

As part of the challenge I’m also looking forward to participating in the “Workout Wednesdays” session and the Weekly Challenge!  This week’s challenge is to recreate one of my favourite sinful recipes to make it figure friendly.   So, this coming Friday, I will be re-vamping a yummy Date Square recipe.  Mmm, I LOVE these babies and have a few ideas for making them healthier!

On to my eats:
I ramped up for the day with this yummy Green Monster!  I love to have these things when I’m not feeling anything heavy/carby.  They are perfect because they actually do hold you over for several hours.


This morning’s Monster Mix was a combo of Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze, 3 cup organic baby spinach, 5 strawberries, 1/2 tbsp organic peanut butter, 1 very small frozen organic banana and 1/4 scoop of chocolate whey protein powder.

I packed pineapple for our lunches and munched on the last few pieces straight from the bowl.  This was one of the best pineapples that I ever bought, so juicy and sweet!

 
I did have a coffee when I got to work but it’s so boring taking the same pic every day so I opted not to.  Mid-morning I snacked on the chocolatey On The Glo bar. Mmm delicious!


For lunch I had a piece of the left over quiche.  Note to self:  freezing & re-heating quiche leaves it feeling like rubber.  :(  Still good but the texture was ewwy.

 
A simple salad on the side – baby spinach, cucumber, radish, mushrooms & red peppers.  Drizzled with french dressing.

Pineapple & stewed rhubarb for dessert. Fun fact: Did you know that rhubarb is actually a vegetable?  I was goggling it’s health benefits and read several different articles stating that most people (myself included) assume rhubarb is a fruit when it’s actually a veggie. Weird huh?! :)

Later on this afternoon indulged in this yummy bite of dark chocolate compliments of the Farmers Market. 

I got home and was excited to finally be able to try a recipe from the new Clean Eating Magazine!  On the menu - Balsamic-Marinated Pork Chops & Grilled Peaches.  I only made a few tiny modifications to the recipe, 1) I halved it because I only took out 2 pieces of pork  2) I used a nectarine instead of a peach and 3) I added onions to the pan to caramelize.

Fancy Smancy!

  

Was really tasty, even J agreed!  He’s been getting some pretty awesome meals lately if I do say so myself. ;)

 
Served with a side of vegetable fusilli mixed with pesto & shredded cheese.

 

And of course, my latest obsession – Beet Greens!! These are the epitome of Summer in my mind.  Growing up we always used to have them with BBQ steak & corn on the cob.  I’m all out already, going to have to hit up the Farmers Market again soon.

Dessert was a lovely froyo waffle cone.


That’s all I got for ya tonight. Off to catch up on a few blogs and relax with J.

Week 1 Results – Amy’s Challenge

I will take it! The scale is going down and that’s all that matters.  The first week of Amy’s Challenge was really enjoyable, I LOVED the work out and enjoyed re-vamping my recipe!!  It’s pretty easy to stay on track when I’m having fun doing it. :)

My Homemade Cheese Sauce Recipe is here for those interested.

This morning I actually slept in until almost 8:45am! Well I got up around 5:30 am for a bit but then I feel back asleep. This NEVER happens to me, so I feel pretty rested!  Unfortunately I missed my early Saturday morning run, but will try and get it in later this afternoon.  We do have some errands to run with friends – involving one of my favourite activities – Shoe Shopping, specifically buying her wedding shoes!!!   And I’m also going to try and stop by Telus and see about getting a Black Berry. 

Quickly put a pot of oats on the stove this morning while we tided the house.  This turned out to be terrific batch!

My bowl had 1/2 c Unsweetened Almond Breeze, 1/2 chopped organic banana, 1/2 tbsp ground flax, 1 tbsp organic peanut butter, sliced almonds, mini chocolate chips & shredded unsweetened coconut.  Was very coconutty, Yummy!!

I didn’t get a chance to post last night’s Supper so…

We had the fresh sausages and homemade buns that we picked up at the Farmers Market last weekend.  The sausage we SO GOOD – spicy and flavourful.  They were like the Liberte Yogort, once you have them you can’t go back to others!  Plus they were organic and made from grass feed/hormone free pork AND low sodium.  It just can’t get any better. I’m going to pick up more tomorrow.

Topped the bun with fresh onions, baby spinach & a squeeze of mustard.

 

Made a huge side salad to go with the sausages.  The last of the fresh spinach strawberries, feta and sliced almonds.  Drizzled with Poppyseed dressing.

Canadians Rock!

Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians!! I am so proud and lucky to be a citizen of this wonderful country!

I actually ended up working today and have Friday off, so my day wasn’t too exciting.    In fact, the most thrilling part of my day was when I got home and did my first session of Amy’s Workout Wednesday series.  It was a great 12 minute mini work out for sure!!  Lots of the same moves from Booty Camp.  Damn bicycle crunches get me every time! ;)

It’s pretty grey and bleak out here; AKA great running weather.  Plans to head out in a few for a 4K.

Getting into the food… Breaky was cold cereal.  A mix of PC Organics 7 Reasons cereal and Barbara’s Peanut Butter Puffins.  Too bad the Puffins were a tad on the stale side. 

Topped with some delicious fresh strawberries.


I headed over to work and was pretty busy all morning. Luckily not many people knew we were in, so not a lot of phones ringing!! Gotta love that!  I took a break mid-morning to snack on a Cosmic Cookie.


For lunch I had the last of the crust less quiche.  Again, was tasty but the texture was just nasty – rubber-like.

 
Along with that I also had a salad – just a simple mix of baby spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, a sprinkle of feta and a few croutons.

 
I munched on last of the organic cherries while reading a few more chapters of My Sisters Keeper.  This book is awesome, I’m almost done and only got it yesterday.  I’m predicting the movie just won’t be as good.

 
I couldn’t keep away from my desk drawer for too long…Mmmm chocolate.


Decided to have some total comfort food for Supper.  Homemade Mac & Cheese with a huge side of broccoli!  Was fantastic and great pre-run fuel – lots of complex carbs, fibre and protein.

 
One serving of whole wheat elbow macaroni covered in home made cheese sauce. 


I’m also pleased to announce that even though we had a fridge full of fresh greens/veggies, none of them are going to waste.  We almost need to stock up again!

So going for a run and then hoping to finish my book.  Tomorrow will be a busy day because I have work and a car appointment.  Hopefully I make it in time for Booty Camp.

Blogging Live From The Patio!!

What an awesome evening; sun’s setting with a lovely warm breeze!  J is going to be late getting home tonight so I took my dinner outside and decided it was nice enough to blog out here too!

So, let see… I just finished listening to a podcast that Tara Costa (from last season’s Biggest Loser) did with Its Your Health Radio.  She touched on many things such as what her life was life before dropping the weight, the whole Biggest Loser Experience, how different people treated her once she was thin, and her plans for the future, which include a book deal – can’t wait for this!!  Tara was my fav contestant hands down and she really is such an inspiration.   Check it out for yourself here.

My day was pretty uneventful.  Work and home.  Can’t say that I don’t enjoy that routine though, because I’m still feeling pretty darn exhausted.

Going to change it up a bit and re-cap backwards today!  I wanted to make sure that I completed Amy’s 5th Challenge, which was to make a dish that featured whole grains.  Originally, I was going to make something with quinoa (in hopes that it might taste better the second time around) but then I realized that I had already used up a lot of the ingredients the recipe called for. Opps.  Instead, I made a Chicken Veggie Stir Fry over Brown Rice.  

 

This dish was pretty tasty if I do say so myself!  It featured – chicken breast,  red, green & orange bell peppers, regular & yellow zucchini, onions, carrots, green onions, a splash of OJ, some honey hoisin sauce and a sprinkle of sesame seeds on a bed of brown rice.

As you can see I had to use the BBQ as my table.  We threw out our old patio furniture a few weeks ago and are in desperate need of a new set.  I’m hoping (well waiting) there will be some majors sales on towards the end of the Summer.

There was no snack this afternoon as I wasn’t feeling to hot at all. 

Warning – my lunch pictures aren’t the greatest because I had to snap them in secret! ;)

Lunch was more of the left over homemade thin crust pizza.

Along with a big container of fresh farmers market veggies.  Mmm peas right out of the pod, so yummy!!  Apparently, I was paying close attention when I peeled the carrots at 530am. ;)

Dessert was a cup of defrosted strawberries.

 
The mid-morning snack was a Sticky Fruit Seed Granola square.  Mmm, these babies are so good!

 

Breaky this morning was so much fun! Why? Because I ate it on the patio as well!  There’s something so peaceful about sitting outside in the cool, beautiful morning.

I threw together an egg sammie to fill me up!    Wasn’t sure if cream cheese & egg exctly went together, but lucky for me they seemed to.  This was a toasted Ezekiel English Muffin with cream cheese, fresh chives, spinach and and egg. 

That was my day in a nutshell, I’ll be glad when I’m able to do some intense exercise again.  I’ve got a doctor’s appointment on Friday, so hopefully this will shed some light on the situation.

J just called, he’ll be home shortly (and with frozen yogourt!) so I’m off. Oh, and totally forgot to mention that tomorrow is my Friday! Yipppeee!!!  Extra extra long weekend due to the Holiday on Monday.