COUNTRY LIFE | ZOO ADVENTURES | RESET BUTTON

6.15-6.18/2017

This past weekend we went to visit family in Northern Mississippi. It was the trip to my husband's hometown we needed. We hadn't visited since Christmas. Well, we tried to visit before Mother's Day, but I was the driver and um... we might've had a little accident that would be the root of many dollars being spent on my little Jeep that we're still paying for. All because I ran over a large piece of tire from an 18 wheeler. *eye roll*

Anyway, my son loves being in the country. He got to see the horse his dad grew up with and just run around and be free on the property. He blends in quite well, lol. I'm from a different kind of country. 

In the 11 years I've been going to visit, I've always skipped my workouts. I made the excuse of not wanting to drive a country mile to go workout and I certainly don't want to run down the road his parents home is on. I'm not trying to be chased by who knows what. I had the bright idea (what took me so long, I have no idea), to take me to the nearby HBCU (historically Black college & university) so I could run around campus or on their track. I'm attempting to keep some type of training schedule for this upcoming 10k. I ended up run/walking 4 miles around the track. I ran the straight parts and walked the curved. Loop after loop after loop and 4 miles were finally complete.

Although I exercised 1 out of the 3 full days we were there, I didn't eat well AT. ALL. On the drive there and back I ate McDonald's (which I never really even eat at home).  For breakfast my MIL cooked biscuits, pork bacon, pork sausage, and eggs all three mornings. Friday night we joined other family who were also in town at the Cheesecake Factory in Memphis. I couldn't go to the Cheesecake Factory and not get a slice of cheesecake. Poor me. I ordered the Oreo Dream Extreme Cheesecake or something like that. It was 1500 calories or so alone! My entrée was the turkey burger and sweet potato fries. So yeah, that was an over 3000 calorie meal. Saturday we had Corky's BBQ and the family hosted a fish fry. It's all good, I didn't beat myself up. I had a good time.

While we were there, we got a chance to visit the Memphis Zoo. I LOVED this zoo! I mean I only have one other zoo to compare it to, Atlanta Zoo, but it really put "ours" to shame. I'm sorry. I hardly say something in another city is better than my own, but yeah. Visiting this zoo made me want to see others. Being me, I couldn't help but feel kind of bad about enjoying animals in captivity, but I found out all of the animals there were endangered species, so that made me feel little better, lol. I felt like the zoo was saving them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not an up close and personal nature girl, but I do think about these types of issues. I counted this zoo trip as an active rest day. We walked a lot.

6.19.2017

This morning (Monday) my stomach felt like it was paying the price for all of the garbage I ate. Per usual when I eat too much crap. It's like my body is trying to reject it because I've been eating a certain way (mostly clean) for so long. I knew it was time to hit the Reset button, for sure.

I didn't have much of an appetite today. I grazed on some sweet potato mash I ordered at O'Charley's. We went there to celebrate Father's Day when we got back in town. I also ate the rest of my breaded chicken and broccoli. That was my breakfast and lunch.

I wasn't feeling motivated to work out yet. My NTC app had today scheduled as a rest day, but I knew I needed to do SOMETHING. I looked at one of my old before and after pictures from last December when I successfully started and finished my journey to lose weight I'd put on in grad school. I put the same shirt on and didn't see what I liked. Oh yeah, that worked. I was downstairs on my treadmill in a flash!

I decided to just start off by walking on an incline to see if that would make me feel like running while I watched an Instagram live video from a lady I follow, Lakeitha Duncan. After about a mile, I switched to run/walk intervals for 2 miles, and finished by running the last mile. It's crazy how when I got to 3 miles, I was finally in the mood to run and felt my speed coming back to me. I had a good pace for that last mile. I have to play so many mind games with myself when I'm on the treadmill...crazy.

Dinner was a simple salad with cucumber from my in laws garden and a tomato from my first patio garden with balsamic vinaigrette dressing. I'm feeling much better at the end of the night.

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Frugal Clean Eating: Meal Planning

Hope you haven't had to wait too long, but here's the second post in my new Frugal Clean Eating series or the step-by-step on what I do when it's time to go grocery shopping. Here's the first.

1. I look in the fridge and see what basic items need to be replaced. I can't stand going to the grocery store guessing at what we're out of. I usually don't get it because I guessed wrong and have to go back to the store.

2. I ask the hubs what he wants for dinner and his lunches. Usually his answer is "it doesn't matter". If I can't figure out what I want. I go Pinterest and scroll down my Eat to Live board for ideas. I forgot to mention I really don't like to cook. I cook because we have to eat. So I try to find SIMPLE and quick recipes that don't take hours. I just don't have time.

3. I create a meal list and mark off what I already have. I try to choose recipes based on items I already have when I can.

4. I create my grocery list by day and by meal. It's the best way I've found to stay organized.

This week's menu (Thursday through next Thursday)...

5. #5 is important. I try NOT to forget my list at home. It's happened.

6. The main reason why I am able to shop and save, I shop at Aldi's. Aldi's sells majority off brands, but still has name brands. But it's still quality items. They are able to offer their items at cheaper prices because they've cut costs in other areas. Most of the time I find everything I need. But in the event I don't, then I'll go to a place like Kroger's or Walmart, if I have to. For example, they don't sell baby formula, but they do sell Pampers brand diapers.

Stay tuned for the next post...my grocery haul and total spent post.

Where do you food shop?

New Series: Frugal Clean Eating

*Let me start by saying I have not being paid by any of the stores or brands I may mention in this series.*

Photo credit: Myhomeless.wordpress.com

I have decided instead of posting an updated grocery haul like I said I would a couple of months ago, I have decided to start a new series called Frugal Clean/Healthy Eating. I, like everyone else wants the best for their family, but I rather do so as cheaply frugal as possible.

Through the course of this series I will share how I meal plan, what stores I shop at (although it's only one store majority of the time), and I will share some of the prices in comparison to other brands.

P.S. I don't think Walmart is the best on prices for food, especially meat most times.

I've had to find ways to save money on a consistent basis for my household and this series will show exactly that. I am an occasional Couponer. Meaning I coupon when I have time and when I hear about a really good deal. Lately I haven't had the time.

There will be a mixture of name and store brand items in my shopping haul(s). For some items I like the name brand quality better than the store, but I am definitely not afraid of the store brands when trying to save a little money. If you didn't know, some of them are made in the same factories, ijs.

All in all, I want to help bust the myth and actually show that eating healthy doesn't have to break the bank if you just keep it simple.

Oh, and this will be for my family of 2 adults and 1 infant.

WIAW: Pinterest Wins

I've had a pretty boring day eating-wise so far, so I decided to share a little of what I ate yesterday, too. Plus, I thought my eggs were pretty. :-)

Thanks to a pin on Pinterest this was my first time adding avocado to my eggs and first time choosing a ripe avocado. Avocado is a healthier way to add the same creamy texture as cheese. It tasted okay to me. I let the boy child taste some and he was not a fan.

Day 22 - Green Smoothie. My tried and true strawberry banana. That will always be my go to.

Simple spinach salad with hard boiled eggs, one yolk

After a very rough night, this next item is all I could think of. I didn't care if this was on my "plan" or not. If I was going to get through my workout and the day period, I needed caffeine. So I made this iced coffee with chocolate creamer and soy milk.

Time to paint my nails

Equipment used: resistance band, 10, & 15 lb weights

Today I worked my back and biceps and after I walked past the mirror and noticed my butt, I decided to add in a few sumo squats and dead lifts. Do you see the sweat?

Thank goodness I prepared my oats the night before. I ate this post workout. My schedule was off because I was up late, so by the time I had this, it was around 11 am.

Bad presentation, I know. :-)

This was a snack later... my tried and true strawberry banana, except this time I added a little Greek yogurt.

For dinner tonight, I tried a recipe for my rotisserie chicken I found on Pinterest that sucked. I won't be using Italian seasoning for this again. Or maybe there were other factors involved, because my chicken came out dry. I slow cooked it for 6-7 hours on low. Maybe I added too much water? I don't know. After adding a little BBQ sauce it was fine (a clean eating no-no).

The roasted zucchini was on point! A Pinterest win. I drizzled olive oil, sprinkled garlic powder, salt, and pepper on top and roasted for 15 minutes. Everyone liked it.

Later in the evening I snacked on granola and finished my half gallon jug of water.

Do you create your own recipes or do you heavily use Pinterest like me, lol?

My 1st WIAW

For about 75% of my 10k training I was on Mission: No bread, No white, No sugar, No processed foods except for cheat days. Plus, I did a 30-day green smoothie challenge for the month of May (see pics on my instagram). I saw a HUGE difference in my abdominal area and I lost the last 5 lbs of my baby weight and then some. Maybe one day I'll have the nerve to post the progress pictures. But, side note: my ab area looks better NOW than before I was even pregnant!!!!

I decided to jump on the bandwagon for WIAW or What I Ate Wednesday posts for a few weeks. Almost every time after I meet a goal, I relax a little too much for days afterwards. These past couple days of "relaxation" has involved too much bread. Or maybe my body craved the carb? I thought by posting pics of my food for a little bit may help keep myself accountable until my half marathon training starts in August. Once that starts, I'll be motivated by performing well on my long runs.

So here's what I ate today...

Breakfast - On July 1st I started the 30-day green smoothie challenge hosted by Simple Green Smoothies, so this is a strawberry & banana smoothie with frozen spinach cubes (to keep my spinach longer, I blend it with a little water and freeze it in ice cube trays). I'm on Day 9.

Lunch -  An open-faced chicken salad (store bought) sandwich

Dinner - You know how you have random ingredients in the fridge and you don't want them to go bad? This is how this little concoction was created. This could actually be a real recipe, but idk. This is boneless pork with sliced tomatoes and green bell peppers (EVOO, salt & pepper). Pork fajita, maybe? It taste good.

No need to lie. This temptation said, "drink me" everytime I opened the fridge. The hubs just looooves to bring tempting foods in the house, ahem. I hadn't had a Coke in a minute, so I gave in.

Snack 1

Snack 2

After dinner I did around 30 minutes of Jillian Michael's Hard Body DVD and ran/walked 3.5 miles. Snack 3 was 2 tbsp of Greek yogurt with a little all natural honey and a sprinkle of granola on top.

How do you stay motivated to eat healthy? Have you caught onto the green smoothie craze yet?

Strawberry Banana Protein Smoothie + Sweet Potato Chips

Since I started nursing my son, I've wanted to find a replacement for my usual protein powder. After researching, I found that I shouldn't take whey or soy protein because it may affect my milk supply. In order to still increase my protein intake, especially after a workout. I make a more conscience effort to get my protein from "real" foods instead.

Below is one of my favorite, a strawberry banana  smoothie. You'll see the recipe below, but typically in a weight loss smoothie, I would use water. I have to be sure I am eating enough calories to supply milk to my son, so I just used skim milk. I think it's a better combo with the Greek yogurt anyways. Mixing water and Greek yogurt? I don't know about that.

Makes 2 servings:
1 cup of skim milk
1/2 cup of plain Greek yogurt
1 cup of frozen strawberries
1 medium sized banana
1 tbsp of flax seed
*you can add a little oatmeal to make it even more of a meal, plus more filling

This is a new found snack that I must be careful of! These sweet potato chips are SO good. They were not greasy or salty. They taste refreshing, crispy. Coming from someone who didn't even like sweet potatoes growing up, I'm surprised! I could of literally eaten this whole bag in a day.

I just wanted to share my two new latest snacks, since I'm always on a prowl for something new when I grow bored. 

What are your latest healthy or semi-healthy snack finds?

-Tiffany

Homemade Black Bean Veggie Burger

A Facebook friend posted this and it looked good, so I decided to try it out. The recipe comes from Allrecipes.com.

I ate the burger in between whole wheat bread and HAD to add cheese. It tasted a little better. I probably won't make them anytime soon because the hubs didn't like them at all. I ended up throwing too many out. Though, it is a good meatless Monday idea.

It's Hot! Duh, It's Summer in the South.

Well, it's no secret it's hot outside. Yesterday's run, for a minuscule second, almost didn't happen. And even when I did get out there, I started running and said to myself, I'm stopping at 2 miles. Well, I had to push through what was a mental barrier and slowly got a 5k done. I couldn't give up on the FIRST workout day of the week.

I found this Summer Vegetable Pasta Salad recipe on Pinterest a few weeks ago. Instead of making my own vinaigrette, I used Italian dressing. Really, surprisingly good to me. Never would've thought I'd willingly eat raw squash OR zucchini! It was good though.

Bow tie pasta with fresh broccoli, yellow squash, zucchini, red onion, & roma tomato

Today's Workout

Tuesday is my cross training day, so I chose to do Insanity's Plyometric Cardio Circuit after a very loooong hiatus. I'm going to be honest and say that I half-assed it. Matter of fact, I did the first 20 minutes and cut the crap off. I'm switching back to my Jillian Michael's 30-day Shred for next week. Yup, #thatisall.

This Was Good...

I had a really disciplined week food-wise this particular week.

Egg whites with spinach and turkey bacon

Open-faced tuna salad with spinach

Chicken lettuce wrap

Chicken breasts, whole wheat tortilla, and salsa

Green smoothie
(strawberries, banana, vanilla soy protein powder, spinach, and water)

Turkey burger wrapped in lettuce instead of bun

Green smoothie concoction (w/OJ)

Alleged "Detox" Green Smoothie

I found this smoothie recipe from Pinterest. The original can be found here. This was pretty disgusting. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but is kale supposed to be spicy? The consistency was thick (guess I didn't blend long enough). And mine was not bright green like the original photo. Lastly, I wasn't "detoxed" either.

Banana, Pear, Kale, Spinach, Orange Juice

I hate to throw it out, but first I'm going to add some mixed frozen fruit, blend it more and see how it tastes afterwards.

Roasted Shrimp & Broccoli

I've been in a eating-the-same-things-week-after-week rut, so as soon as I found this recipe on Pinterest and noticed it only included 2 ingredients, I knew I had to try it (I prefer SIMPLE as possible). The only changes I made from the original recipe was omitting cumin and coriander seeds. I wanted to use what I already had on hand. I've purchased too many seasonings in the past for one-hit wonder recipes and now they're just sitting in the cabinet, waiting to expire I guess. Also, I topped this over BROWN rice instead of white.

I'm not into counting my food calories anymore, so I don't have a calorie count for ya. Off the subject, but if you've seen the latest Desperate Housewives episode (watch the part where Andrew brings his new "fiance" home. She's formally obese.), you will see a little of why not. Thinking about the calorie count of EVERYthing I ate was like how some people feel about the scale. It can become obsessive.

You can find the original recipe and instructions here and pictures of my version below.

Enjoy!

#RnRNOLA Half Mary Training Update...12 more days!

Last week I ran a distance PR of 10 miles on a treadmill. Why a treadmill? Because I was very unmotivated to go run outdoors alone in the cold weather, safety reasons, and I didn't feel like driving downtown where there are safe routes a plenty.
Yesterday (yes, Monday...another long run Sunday make-up day), I ran 10 miles for the first time outdoors, this time with company. Although I made sure to include inclines in my treadmill run and attempt to maintain the same pace as I would outside, I still don't think it was enough to prepare me for yesterday. Or maybe yesterday had nothing to do with that at all. IDK. The hills did not really get to me, and I made sure to hydrate properly beforehand, but I was still fatigued after mile-7.5. I'm also still experimenting with what to eat before my long runs.

Sunday's dinner: Jiffy (no, not clean eating), broccoli (seasoned with sea salt and  a little margarine), sweet potato (seasoned with a little margarine, Kosher salt, and pepper), drumsticks (pressure cooked w/chicken broth, seasoning salt, and ??)

This particular morning, I decided to go with a piece of toast, since Sunday's dinner was carb loaded. I just remembered I started to get tired on the treadmill around mile 8, but that's when I popped some sugar to get me through. Hmmm. I didn't bring anything with me on this run. I wanted to stop SO bad. My running buddy was THE ONLY reason I kept it moving. When I did get back to my car I scarfed down a protein shake, Gatorade, and water and felt good until I could get to some real food. My body was banging afterwards and not in a good way and I didn't have time to do an ice bath afterwards. I'm feeling good today, but I know next time to wear my geeky-looking fuel belt thingy with my jelly beans, instead of leaving it behind in the car.

We started out running part of the Publix 1/2 route, but ended up creating our own crazy route. Also, my time and pace are definitely off by maybe 5-10 min. I forgot to hit play after pausing at a traffic light. So that's why you can't see mile 9 or 10.  :-(

I didn't realize I was supposed to run 11 this week until I got home and looked at my training plan. I'm going to count the 1-mile walk back and forth to my car though and not worry about it. My goals for the next less than two weeks besides more running and strength training according to my training plan is to be as close to perfect as I can with clean eating and ignore the fact that I have 6 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies in the freezer, ha! But no, seriously.