My first competition!

I REALLY suck at blogging. Im good for like a week and then I fail. Sue you are my inspiration to blog my progress thus far. 

I have been quite restricted with my diet the last 11 weeks.  For the most part Ive had VERY minimal carbs. I don't measure my food in grams or anything but basically it has boiled down to an apple after my workout and I sneak in a quest bar.  Now that I am coachless I feel comfortable admitting that I cheat all the time when it comes to my "diet."  I had cake on my sons birthday..and on my friends birthday.  I also taste tested a cookie.  Aaron has made his yummy mint chocolate chip cookie numerous times and I have indulged.  I stay right around 1500 calories though.  Usually less.  I am missing out on pasta, I haven't had pasta in months.  Im also missing out on my mashed potatoes and such but in a few weeks Ill be adding them back in! Just in moderation this time. I plan on bringing my calorie intake up more when Im not in the final prep stage for a show.  Since we are moving to Italy next I am still going to compete! Ive heard there are a lot of shows there so hopefully I can get myself on a team of some sort. 

**8 days out breakfast

So this last week my diet consists of chicken, fish, and green veggies, and grits in the AM. Fun? NO! I went on a very carb restricted diet for about a month. I was so tired. All the time. I just wanted to come home and sleep.  I had 26% body fat and I needed to lower it.  I was at about 18% body fat last summer and then I went home to visit/stay and gained so much unhealthy weight.  Lots of cardio and like zero carbs is how my coach wanted to "fix" me.  It worked!  Since adding carbs back into my diet the last few days Ive been happier and not tired at all! Its amazing! I was basically relying on my pre workout for my energy source and that was sucky. Not to mention Aaron and I would be at each others throats because Im exhausted and he wants me to be super mom.  We were warned at the beginning that competitions can be very hard on couples because of how incredibly exhausted and moody you get from the "diet" you have to go on the last few weeks. 

Its important to understand that this may seem drastic and silly to everyone who doesn't understand but for me I am really enjoying this prep! I am so enjoying watching my body transform into what looks like a body off of a fitness magazine.  I enjoy people looking at me and saying "damn what are you doing for that bod" "what is your leg day like, your legs are killer" "wow youre arms are bigger than mine" I am SO PROUD of my muscles and strength.  Sometimes Ill be looking for my shoulder press weight, or my incline bench weight and some guy will have it doing his shoulder presses so I have to go to the next size up to do mine.  It makes me giggle.  The other day I was working out and this guy was like "hey are you still using those 25's" and I was like "well you can have them if you go and get me the the 30's" The guy next to me thought it was the funniest thing. I made his day he says lol

I like that now I am taken seriously in the gym.  When I first started "bodybuilding" on my own, the guys would come in and take my weights or move on a machine that I was working.  All it takes now is my look of death stare at them and they put the weight down and walk away.  One guy has actually warned his buddy to stay away from me and my stuff haha I totally miss Crossfit but I am definitely loving this bodybuilding lifestyle. 

I will be so honest when I say that I used to think that females with that much muscle were gross.  The thing is, you don't walk around flexing your muscles like that all day.  When I am not flexing or I don't have a gym pump I just look like an ordinary fit chick.  Pulling your muscles out, I have learned is not an easy task.  It takes a lot of practice to learn how to open your shoulder blades, pull out your lats, stand just right to make your leg look long and lean yet muscular.  These things do not come naturally! Girls don't walk around with their bat wings out..if they did they would look like a gorilla going for its mate. For real! That silly tan that's worn on stage serves a purpose as well. If I brought my super white booty on stage the stage lights would completely wash out the look of all my muscles. The tan helps show muscle definition. The tiny suit? Well you work out day in and day out, work on bringing your body fat down, and building muscle.  Obviously you want to be able to show as much of your hard work off as possible.  If the thing to wear was normal gym shorts, well you wouldn't see the hard work I put into my glutes and my upper quad.  Make sense?  The suit isn't to look like a hooker and sell your bod. Also the shoes. Oh those awful dreaded stripper heels.  They are clear and for us short girls high to elongate the leg.  You want your leg to look long and muscular. Ive got the muscular part down, I will never have long legs lol that's why I wear heels! Not to look like a stripper.

 

This is me learning how to pull my lats out with my arms to the side.  Not doing it well here I might add.  Its hard!!!

My awesome stripper heels.  I love them.

You only live once.  If you want to look and be the best version of yourself then do whatever the heck you want.  If that looks like a 30 minute walk every day to you or an hour of running then do that! If you want to take steroids and build your body into a massive killing machine then do that.  If you want to lift weights and get strong, eat clean and get healthy then do that.  Everybody has a different idea of what beauty is. 

I am all about helping people.  I don't have the best form, Im still learning. Every day I try something new or learn something new in the gym.  Its what hopefully makes me a great trainer and mentor.  I thank all the ladies and guys that have put their trust in me and have let me join them on their fitness journey. 

Butternut squash steak fries

You read right! Steak fries! Ok so they don't really taste a whole lot like steak fries but they are an amazing replacement for them! Id say they taste a bit similar to sweet potato fries. Even my vegetable hating, never wants to try new things husband, said they were definitely a remake! Even when we are off whole30! Super wife win in the books here =] I hope anyone who tried them enjoys them as much as we did!

 

 

 

 

So I halved the squash and baked it in the oven for 45 minutes. (bake until cooked but a tiny bit under done).

Once out I cut into "steak fry" like pieces. I put them in a skillet with some EVOO (ok a generous amount of EVOO) and sprinkled with s&P. cook until a brown color on one side and then flip. Or until nice and tender. Then enjoy! Easy enough right?!

Whole30 dinner#2

 

Day 2 of whole 30 has already been so challenging. I realized I snack ALOT throughout the day. A handful of chocolate chips here, a Hawaiian sweet roll there, a homemade cookie over there. Really BAD eating habits. Its why I don't have abs. Its why my legs don't show how powerful they really are. They are covered by my bad eating habit flab. Im pretty dramatic I know. Id like to mention that today I back squatted 175# !!!! that's a 20# Personal Record from just a few weeks ago. Maybe this extra bulk I put on from eating so much (I did eat really healthy meals for the most part) has helped me with my gains. Now to see what my diet can do. (that little phrase will get repetitive I know)

 

 

 

So I love acorn squash. Its 100% my favorite. I usually half it and throw some pineapple and apple in the center and bake it for an hour. I didn't have time for that today so I cut it up and put it in my cast iron skillet with coconut oil and fresh pineapple and cinnamon. It was so good !! You can see I used my grill pan for the steak. I seasoned with sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. Honestly that's the best way to make steak ;] (besides using an actual grill) and I like to cook asparagus in EVOO, s&P. I really never use much salt on stuff. Just a tiny sprinkle. I like to put kosher salt on steak and let it sit all day if I remember and then get most of it off before I cook it. So yumm. I was short for time today though.

Fun Fact: Ive never washed my cast iron pans ;] My husband has..and boy I was mad. My Uncle Jim taught me that.

 

 

 

Breakfast casserole (Whole 30 compliant)

Firstly I made the sweet potatoes last night. We had them for dinner so rather tan wasting 45 minutes today I just made extra last night.

 I started by cooking two pieces of bacon in a skillet and then getting the grease off with a paper towel. (I usually bake it). While the bacon was cooking I diced 1/4 of an onion and 1/8 of a massive red pepper. I made the pieces super small. Once the bacon was out of the pan I drained the grease only leaving enough to cook the vegetables. I cut the Sweet potatoes out of their skin and mashed them in with the veggies. I transferred to a bowl and stirred an egg into the mixture. I moved the potatoes into my tiny casserole dish. and cracked another egg on top. Then sprinkled with s&p. I cooked at 350F for 20 minutes.

balsamic chicken w/ bacon

Day one of whole 30 Dinner.  WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER ;]

I read that you shouldn't eat a lot of bacon on whole30. It summed up to less than a piece on the plate =]

First off I put a bunch of sweet potatoes in the oven at 200c so they could bake for 45 minutes. I also put the bacon on a rack over a pan and baked that at the same time. I took it out when it was crispy. Just how I like it.
 I took out frozen chicken thighs. (we would buy fresh but they don't have much of a selection for fresh chicken at the commissary. Also the chicken they do have is almost as expensive as the premium steaks). So I put the frozen chicken thighs directly on my grill pan and cooked them about 10 minutes each side. I seasoned with s&P and balsamic vinegar. The great thing about the grill pan is you don't have to use anything to grease it. Once the chicken was a little more than halfway done I put some of the bacon grease in my cast iron pan and some coconut oil. Seems weird but the bacon grease wasn't enough to cook the vegetables. Red peppers, celery, and onions. I put the cooked bacon on top. Note: Don't stir it around. The bacon likes to stick to the bottom of the pan if you do that.  After the 20 minutes I put the chicken in with the peppers and onions for another 10 minutes. I cooked a frozen veggie blend for the vegetable. Also we eat A LOT of chicken in our house. Like every single day we have it for either lunch or dinner. I bought the chicken thighs for some meals because they were like $2 cheaper. We will save about $15 every two weeks by getting the thighs instead of tenderloins or breasts. Now that's only two days of chicken. We mainly eat tenderloins because they cook fast and are always juicy =]

Hubbys promotion to CW2

Two years ago my hubby switched over from enlisted to Warrant officer in the US Army! The extra money was nice Ill just throw that out there at the beginning. lol Its also been challenging because he has more responsibility and can get a little grumpy. fast forward to a couple weeks ago and he got promoted to CW2! I didn't really know that having a reception with food after was a thing you do for when someone gets promoted. So with a  week to prepare I whipped some stuff together.

Aaron orderd 10 Pizzas from Anthonys and a massive meat platter. I made homemade sauce with home made meat balls. They were a hit. I made a crockpot full and they were the first thing gone. We had lots of sodas and beer too of course.

We also stayed up the whole night before making pretzel dogs. I made the pretzel dough home made of course and then we wrapped those little smokies. Guess what? I freaking forgot them at home! So he brought them into work the next day and they were a hit. I made a million chocolate chip cookies, and some sugar cookies. Im famous for my cookies here so that was a given.

We also ordered a MASSIVE cake. Like it fed 100 people lol We had so much left over that we brought it to the Shalom house here in Korea. We got the privilege of throwing a Christmas party for disabled Korean children. It was awesome and they really loved the cake!

Col Lawson took his W1 patch off and I put on the new CW2 patch. I punched him good too..not once but twice. Had to make sure it was good and on there ;]

Whole 30 journey week 1

Just getting started January 1, 2015 HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I am no photographer keep that in mind lol

SNACKS: I snack on hard boiled eggs, veggies in EVOO, & nuts throughout the day. If I took the time to note every time I did this blog would be way too long.
I also need to take in more protein to keep my muscles growing so I will be starting back up with my protein shakes in week 2.

We made it a whole week!!!! A whole week on WHole 30! Yay@!!!!

Day 7: Breakfast: peppers with almonds and cucumber with EVOO and balsamic, and hard boiled eggs.

Lunch: leftover chicken thighs with green pepper and spicy mustard wraps. (yummy!)

Dinner: Acorn squash with crushed pineapple cooked in the center. My fav way to eat it! Sweet potatoes and steak.

Ive never seen white sweet potatoes until I came to Korea.

 Weird right?

 I added some EVOO and crushed garlic to the potatoes and they were on point!

Day 6: My cravings are basically gone. Im not sitting around thinking about sweets! Its amazing

Breakfast was walnuts, fresh pineapple, peaches, a piece of bacon and two eggs.

 

 

 

Dinner was left over pork pot roast in my leftover home made sauce. Fabulous I might add! With carrots and sweet potato fries cooked in EVOO

 

Day 5: Aarons LtC is retiring so we had to pay $17 for our meal. I ate it. I did not post a pic, but it was mashed potatoes, chicken, and green beans. I did stay away from the keg (it was hard!) and the sweet tea and drank water.

 

 

Day 5: My cravings for sweets are basically gone! The only thing I was really cravin was Pizza.

For breakfast I had a strawberry banana smoothie with flax seed.

My lunch. (I wasn't feeling anything today. Eating "plain" food really started taking a toll on my taste buds. I just wanted to eat cheesy pasta or chicken with bbq sauce. I should have made myself eat but what evs. It is what it is. Im still learning. Its ok to make mistakes

Dinner was at the Warrior club for the promotion like I mentioned.

Day4:

Breakfast was ham and eggs with butternut squash hash browns. Super yummy

 

 

Lunch was grilled spicy mustard chicken with cucumber in EVOO and balsamic vinegar. (that's my lovely grill pan)

 

Dinner was a WINNER!!! We had Paleo meatballs and homemade sace on spaghetti squash. It was to die for honestly! Ill be making my sauce this way from now on as well as my meat balls. Ill make a recipe link for it.

Officially made it to day 3 with no screw ups. (ok once last night I popped a piece of gum in my mouth not thinking for a total of 5 minutes or less)

^^ spoke too soon. I ate a fun size butterfinger. I failed..I have no shame in my weakness because I killed it at the gym. Did a killer shoulder/back/ab workout and finished off with cardio. I know its so bad to give in to temptation, it goes against whole30 and all of what its about. Im human what can I say.  Plus side I did lose two inches on my waist. Probably losing all that sugar bloat lol

Dinner: Crockpot pork, green beans, and butternut steak fries <----(SOOO GOOD!) Seriously these "steak fries" are THE bomb!

Lunch: Im not sure if salami is whole 30 compliant Im guessing probably not. I just couldn't bring myself to eat anything else for lunch but I was starving. So salami, spicy mustard, and avocado wrapped in lettuce. It was heavenly =] Even Guias liked it.

 

 

Breakfast was yummy. Bacon so I could my eggs in the left over grease. (I dump most of it out but save a tiny bit) Blueberries and strawberries. It was filling and yummy.

Day2: I have already learned SO much about my eating habits after only a day. When my kids or husband for that matter test me I want chocolate. When I irritate myself I want some baked goody. We usually end the night watching a movie. We also snack. Ill usually make something! Baked goods made from scratch are my go to. It takes me 15 min to make cookies from ingredients to baked. I make them ALL the time. At LEAST once a week. Again after only one day of Whole30 Im already dying for something sweet. A cookie with vanilla ice cream sounds amazing =[


I also had to completely throw out a kitkat. I had half left and it was tempting me so I dropped it in the gym parking lot haha

 

It was taunting me so out it went out the door. I was so close to failing I could taste it in my mouth haha

Dinner was really good. We had a Tbone, acorn squash w/ fresh pineapple &cinnamon (it definitely helped curve my sweet tooth. I was suffering big time!), & asparagus. We split the steak and I also cooked up chicken so everyone had enough. I really need to get more protein in my diet. I started adding more a few months ago and Ive made serious gains in the gym! Now I want more!!! lol

Lunch: So boring..I had left over chicken and broccoli lol

So for breakfast I had a sweet potato casserole. Super yummy! It looks like a lot but its the smallest casserole pan ever! With a glass of lemon water.

Day 1: Its only half way through the day and Aaron is complaining hes hungry. I told him to go bake a sweet potato or eat some veggies or nuts. At no point should the man be hungry lol I accidently started to eat a bite of dry special K strawberry cereal (I was pouring the kids some) I spit it out don't worry! Little habits like that are going to be hard to break. I also noticed I didn't eat all my kitkat yesterday. In my head I was like "oh its not the first in the states yet" then I decided not to break the rules only 12 hours into the challenge lol

Dinner: Balsamic chicken with veggies and bacon, (intended on making this yummy sausage but looking at the ingredients it has brown sugar so had to pop it in the freezer and pulled out chicken thighs) mixed cauli flower, broccoli, and carrots, and tiny sweet potato.

I will do a separate post for the recipe

Lunch: red pepper, celery, cucumber. Veggies were seasoned with s&p EVOO, and balsamic vinegar. Grilled Chicken. (seasoned with turmeric, salt and pepper) I use my Emeril cast iron grill pan to cook my chicken and steaks! Then I finish off cooking in the oven. They get the grilled taste and are always juicy! However my apartment gets quite smokey.

I got home from the gym close to 1300 and was starving. SO I snacked on some walnuts and almond slivers

Breakfast: Avacado with two eggs and a banana. I planned on saving the little bit of avocado filling for a tuna taco at lunch but Aaron threw it out before I could save it. Shame on him! ;] I was really excited to give this a try that's why it was my day 1 breakfast. I was definitely impressed but I over cooked my egg. Ill probably cook it around 12 minutes next time. I scooped a small bit out of the avocado and cracked an egg in side each half. I added s&P and it was perfect and creamy. The egg was just a little over cooked like I mentioned. I cooked mine in a really small pan to keep the avocado from falling over. You could just put it on the rack but Im not very graceful so  Id probably spill egg all over the oven lol

I don't plan on weighing myself during the challenge. I did this morning for a starting point! 135 yikes! No not really. I have a lot of muscle. I am a little jiggly from all the carb loading I did preparing for whole 30. I took advantage of carbs, yes I did. My jeans aren't as flattering as Id like right now but that's from being dumb and eating too many sweets and massive dinners over the Holidays. I was in the best shape of my life about 4 months ago. I visited the states for two months and then has pneumonia and was out another almost two months. I fell behind some. I still went to the gym of course I just couldn't workout as hard as I usually do. Anyways, Im ready for Whole 30 to change me <333

Also lets just bring up the elephant in the room before there actually is one. Ill post a pic of my very TINY counter. I have barely any room to work. I have white cabinets and white floors. Don't be surprised if sometimes my pics look like a freaking cooking horror scene lol