WIAW (What I ate Wednesday) #2

Hello!

I'm happy to share another WIAW with you! I've been doing better with the sugar which is great but it's still a work in progress :)

Breakfast: Mocha Frappe Protein Shake (totally reused last week's picture) However this week I did add some chia seeds -high protein, low carb, low sugar 

• One Cup Unsweetened Almond milk
• One Scoop Chocolate Unjury 
• One tablespoon instant coffee
• One tablespoon unsweetened coco powder 
• Half tablespoon chia seeds soaked overnight in one tablespoon water 
• Three ice cubes 

Lunch: Leftover grilled chicken panini & homemade potato chips from last night's date & green beans from my garden! -high protein, fresh home-grown veggies, probably too many carbs

Dinner: Taco salad with lettuce from the garden & skinnytaste zucchini tots - I ate about 1/2 of what's pictured 

In the salad:

• 3 cups romaine lettuce
• one ounce shredded cheese
• one tablespoon salsa
• 1/4 cup ground beef with taco seasoning 

Dessert: Leftover fruit and yogurt smoothie turned into a popsicle (so tasty!)

Hope you all are having a great week! My 5-mile race went excellent :-) more details to come! 

Low(er) carb update

I mentioned earlier that I was going to try to experiment with lower carbs this month because my trend of higher carbs = higher cravings. So far things have been going ok at best on this front. I haven't been consistent enough to get a handle on what my body needs. I've had a few good days, but it seems like life always takes over by offering me a s'more or something else delicious soon after (no I can NOT say no to s'mores). However I have been able to successfully create some lower carb meals such as this portobello mushroom pizza seen below.

I also have a new obsession with kale chips! I honestly think I like them better than potato chips despite the disgusted looks Micah gives me when I make them. I was lucky enough to stumble upon some locally grown kale that was just out of this world!

I'm going to continue to work on having more low(er) carb options. At this point I want to avoid following a specific program (like Adkins) because I want to make sure my diet is balanced and sustainable. However if I continue to struggle with consistency I may start to follow something. Sugar is my biggest enemy right now, so we shall see.

In other news I have a 5-mile race coming up this Saturday!! I am SO excited for it and am really hoping to finish in under my current best time of 71 minutes. I've heard rumors that the last 2 miles are up hill so it will be a challenge for sure!

Leading up to the race here is my current workout plan! Hopefully I'll be rested enough

Tuesday (today): Elliptical weight loss program (30min) + C25K week one at 6mph (fast for me!)
Wednesday: 1,500 yrd swim
Thursday: Hike Isle Royale (2-6 miles depending) <----- This is part of my amazing summer job!
Friday: Lots of Stretching + 2 mile walk around the lake
Saturday: The Canal Run!!! 5 miles

With love,
Sarah

WIAW (What I ate Wednesday) #1

Hello All!

I've been asked by a few people to share my food logs, and while I think what you eat is a very personal thing I know that I benefited when other people have shared theirs with me. Not only did they give me some great healthy meal  ideas, but I was encouraged by their honesty and willingness to put that out there. Since one of my goals this month is track my food intake honestly and accurately, I figured I would start sharing my WIAW or 'What I ate Wednesday'. Heck, at least it will help motivate me to make better choices on Wednesday's right? :-)

I would like everybody to keep in mind that I am a bariatric surgery patient, and that my diet is under constant doctor supervision. Remember to talk to your doctor before making any major changes in your diet. Even among bariatric patients there is a ton of variance over the amount of food we are able to eat. Instead of including the calorie/macro information for my WIAW, I be making comments on why or why not it was a good food choice (Example: High protein, low sugar, etc...) If you are interested in my specific calorie or other diet restrictions please feel free to private message me over on my facebook page, or follow me on myfitnesspal

Breakfast: Mocha Frappe Protein Shake  - high protein, low carb, low sugar 

• One Cup Unsweetened Almond milk
• One Scoop Chocolate Unjury 
• One tablespoon instant coffee
• One tablespoon unsweetened coco powder 
• Three ice cubes 

Morning Snack: 1/2 serving Fiber One Chocolate Cereal - low sugar, high fiber

Lunch: Mix the tasty things together: Fresh fruit, high protein, high fiber

• One serving Fiber One cereal
• One serving Fage 0% plain greek yogurt sweetened with one squirt liquid stevia
• 1/2 cup local strawberries 

Dinner: So yummy  - Low carb, high protein, fresh veggies 

• Salad with feta cheese, grape tomatoes, lettuce from my garden and low cal dressing
• Hillshire Farm - Rotisserie Seasoned Chicken Breast, 2 oz.
• One garlic herb Laughing Cow cheese wedge

Dessert: One serving Praline Pumpkin Seeds - Higher fat, higher sugar, difficult to only eat one serving

Evening Snack(s): Wasabi peas and Quest Bar
Peas - fulfilled crunchy snack craving, higher carb
Quest - fulfilled sweet tooth, high protein, high fiber, low carb, high calories for a snack

Well I hope you enjoyed my first WIAW :)

What are you thoughts? Would you prefer to see specific macro information or does putting this this way help to avoid the comparison game/over analyzing? I just want to encourage people to make food choices based on what is good for their bodies instead of pure calorie intake. I'm open for suggestions :)

with love,
Sarah

July food and fitness goals

Hello! It's so hard to believe that it's July already! I'm loving the 60 and 70 degree weather that we've been having lately :) This has to be the most comfortable summer I've ever experienced! July also marks the 1/2 way point for our 2014 New Years resolution goals. I recently updated mine here, and am proud to say I have completed about 37% of my goals. I consider this a victory because I don't think I've met ANY resolutions in the past.

Here are my food and fitness goals that I hope to accomplish this July

Food:

1. Track all my food intake honestly and accurately! This month I have started to slack with my food logs. Tracking is really important for me not only so I can see what is and isn't working, but so I can share the information with my nutritionist as well. No more 'accidentally' forgetting to track those late night treats or my grazing snacks during the day. Those calories add up! If anybody is interested in friending me on MyFitnessPal my username is skuiper317  

2. Continue to experiment with lower carb intake. So far I have been able to cut back on my carbs slightly, but they are still heavy in my diet. This month I am going to experiment a lot more with low carb options and continue to listen to my body. I plan on putting my new spiralizer to good use! 

3. Be mindful of portion sizes. For a gastric sleeve patient I have a much larger capacity than most. In some instances I find that I can eat almost double of other sleevers. (yes I'm guilty of the comparison game) I tend to get really stressed out about this and worried that I messed up my tiny tummy. This month instead of focusing on how much I CAN eat, I am going to focus on how much I NEED to eat. I don't need to leave every meal feeling super full. 

4. Find at least one healthy meal that my husband enjoys enough to eat regularly. I'm married to a super picky eater who is NOT a fan of salads or vegetables. He is no where near overweight and while he is supportive of me eating healthier, it has been difficult to find healthy meals we both can enjoy together. Traditionally, he does most of the cooking, but this month I hope to do a lot more in attempt to find healthy meals for the both of us! 

Fitness:

1. Run 3 days a week. I've been slacking on my running lately but I have a 5-mile race coming up! Time to continue with my Couch-to-10K program! 

2. Attend a bootcamp class. I purchased a punch-card for this class early this summer but have yet to attend one. Time to get my butt out of bed super early and get a great workout!

3. 10,000 steps a day! I track my steps on my Garmin Vivofit. 

4. Plan my workouts, put them in my calender, and do them! I love planning :-) time to treat my workouts as appointments and become more consistent! 

Also, I have made a Facebook page dedicated to this blog! Please feel free to stop by, check it out and give it a 'like'. On Facebook I'm a lot better at updating about my day-to-day journey and I also share a lot of great things from other sources such as recipes and motivation :)

https://www.facebook.com/projecthealthandfitnessblog 

What are your short term food and fitness goals? 

With love,

Sarah 

Recognizing a problem

To be honest for the last week or so I've been struggling. I've stayed pretty consistent with my exercise, but my eating had gotten out of control. I was CONSTANTLY craving more food and even though  I wasn't hungry my head told me to have more. My will power also seemed to be lacking. Another thing that got me really discouraged is that I had gotten really close to breaking out of the 200's only to climb back up again. In my mind 200 seemed like a huge barrier and I started seriously doubting my ability to break through it.
I reached out to my FB support group and got some wonderful advice. They told me to take a serious and honest look at my food logs. It didn't take me long to recognize the problem.

Carbs. Unlike most bariatric patents I have never really jumped on the low-carb bandwagon. Following the advice of my nutritionist, I just focused on having balanced meals and avoiding the processed and 'white' carbs. She told me that if I focused on my protein and veggies I shouldn't need to restrict that carbs that much. I completely agree with her balanced eating program, but when looking at my food diary I noticed that I had moved away from those 'good' carbs a lot more than I should, and the result was never good. When I ate these refined carbohydrates and sugar it was always more than one serving. In addition to that the trend for the day was even more carbs! I have come to realize that for me personally, eating carbs means craving carbs.

So now what? I have decided that it is time to start carb counting, at least for a few weeks. I haven't decided on a number yet besides 'considerably' lower. I'm going to try to do this by adjusting things slowly, paying attention to my energy levels and cravings, and hoping my body will tell me where I need to be. Many of my other friends who do eat lower carb report less cravings and better weight loss which sounds amazing to me right about now. I can tell you I am looking forward to KILLING that 200lb wall! I'll for sure be checking in and reporting how this diet change is going for me.

I leave you with this bit of motivation that has truly helped me get through the last few days.

God Bless!

Protein peanut butter cups

As most of you have probably figured out by now, I have a killer sweet tooth. I also have another small addiction... Pinterest. While browsing one day I happened to stumble across a few different pins for protein peanut butter cups. YUM! By looking at these I was able to come up with my own recipe that has no added sugar, and no more ingredients than I would put in my protein shakes. Though these weren't as sweet as the candy variety I thought that they still tasted very good and they are definitely something that I will be making again!

Protein Peanut Butter Cups

Ingredients 

4 tin foil cupcake cups 

1 scoop Unjury chocolate protein powder (or your preferred brand) 

1 tablespoon coco powder 

2 tablespoons plain Fage 0% greek yogurt

3 tablespoons of PB2 

1 packet Truvia or Honey 

water 

Directions

In one small bowl mix the greek yogurt, protein powder, coco powder, and truvia/honey. Slowly add in a little bit of water at a time while mixing until the chocolate mixture is liquid enough to pour. Set aside. 

In a second bowl add the PB2 and again just enough water for the peanut butter mixture to be easy to pour. 

Then prepare your cupcake tins by placing them in a Tupperware container. This container should be the size where the cupcake tins are all touching and can support each other, but are not crushed in. Then pour about 1/2 the chocolate mixture evenly into the cups, followed by the entire peanut butter mixture. Top with the remaining chocolate and put in the freezer for at least an hour. Enjoy! 

Nutrition facts for one peanut butter cup (using Truvia not honey)

 50 calories, 5 carbs, 1 gram fat, 8 grams protein, 2 grams sugar

P.S. It's ok to eat more than one! 

Recipe very slightly modified from   http://aleshahaley.com/2013/09/12/protein-peanut-butter-cups-clean-eating/ 

Transformation Tuesday

My transformation so far..

I'm feeling stronger, I'm feeling healthier, I'm feeling happier. I now know that my body is capable of so much more than I ever gave it credit for. I am learning to take care of myself properly, eat for fuel, and become more active in my everyday life. The gym is no longer a place of dread, and I am starting to call myself a runner.

Loving life and looking forward to what the future has to hold.

Love, 

Sarah