All in Preparation

Thank goodness for new beginnings. Last week was kind of rough. Getting back on track has only been successful as far as completing all of the workouts I had planned for the week. It was rough because I didn't plan my meals and I ended up eating horribly for about 3 days.  

 

It's usually the other way around. I would usually work out at minimum intensity, but eat well.  I'm just trying to get back the same "oomph" I had when I first started this journey.  to be clear, I want to lose my tummy and I realize that's way more about diet than it is exercise so to speak. Thankfully, I've already done my grocery shopping for the week and my workouts will be as followed:

Sunday - Rest
Monday - 4 mi run + upper body weight routine
Tuesday - Circuit Training
Wednesday - Circuit Training
Thursday - 3.5 mi run (with group)
Friday - Circuit Training
Saturday - 3.1 mi (Atlanta's Finest 5K Run/Walk)

As you can see I have a race at the end of the week.  This will be my 3rd race ever and I'm going for PR so I really want my diet to be on point!  There were hills I weren't prepared for in my first race and lots of logistical errors in my second race.  I've been running routes with excruciating (at least to me) hills the past two weeks and I know for sure this race will be organized a lot better than the second.

**More Pictures to Come**

Motivate Me & I'll Motivate You!

Penne Pasta Meal Ideas

The whole point of me displaying what I eat is to give others trying to lose weight an idea of "how" I ate and to show how you have to go back to the basics.  Remember that processed foods are created for our convenience, money-wise and time-wise.  I'm not saying I didn't eat processed food and that I don't now (because I do), but more clean eating versus the processed stuff has long term benefits. Everything in moderation.  What's clean eating?  Clean eating is eating foods that are as close to its natural state as possible.  Two good ways to tell if what you're eating is processed:

1. Did you get that item from the inside aisles of the grocery store? Yes? Chances are it's processed
2. Not trying to insult ones intelligence, but can you pronounce the ingredients on the back of that box? No? Chances are it's processed.

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I'm still in the progress of finding low calorie, clean recipes that can become staples in my lunch and dinner rotation. I found this recipe for penne pasta with spinach (I've been eating a lot of spinach lately) at DPrincess28's blog, Protecting Your Crown & Glory.  You can find exact directions and other details there cause I'm too lazy to do it.  

It turned out well and she was right, this is a fiber loaded dish so beware!  

Here's the ingredients and calorie breakdown

250 calories per serving

I cooked more pasta than the first recipe called for, but I remembered there was another recipe I wanted to try.  I found this one for broccoli & penne pasta salad at Clean Eating Chelsey's blog.  I didn't follow her recipe exactly.  I used the frozen broccoli stir-fry I had already.  Also, I ran out of Italian dressing, so I used what was leftover and a little raspberry vinaigrette.

The raspberry vinaigrette was okay, but I have a feeling the Italian dressing would of tasted better.  

165 calories per serving

Now I've found two EASY, meatless staples to add.  I liked that both meals were meatless because I've decided to incorporate at least one meatless night a week.  I enjoyed both, while my husband is being a fatty lately and didn't want to try either. Oh well, more for me!

Getting It Together...Back on Track!

I ended up having more fun in New Orleans than I thought I would! It was my second trip there, but my first actually being able to see and participate in a few things.  We saw sites, tasted beignets, shopped, partied on Bourbon Street, hung with friends, and best of all ATE!  But, all good things must come to an end :-(

On our way home, we decided to make a couple of store stops, including the pawn shop (we love a deal).  I accidentally (by accidentally I mean I was not actually in the market for this at the time) found a Garmin Forerunner 305.  The price was too good for me not to pass it up.  They sold it to us for $80. I Googled the item before buying it to make sure we were getting a fair price, because like I said, I wasn't in the market for this  so I hadn't done my research other than seeing other bloggers casually mention it.  For the same model, I saw prices for $129 and up, so I believe we weren't jipped lol.  This item was really on my 2012 wishlist.  So, I'm pretty happy with the price we paid for it.  I can't wait to take it out.  Oh, and I'm probably still going to use Nike+.  I want the Garmin to help me train for faster times and keep me on pace. I don't really care about recording my workouts with the Garmin as of yet.  I like the Nike+ user interface too much.

**7/26 update: I realized the cradle/charger wasn't in the bag. I went back to the shop and they didn't have it either. So basically they gave me $25 (eBay price) to get one. So really I ended up paying $55 for the thing. Niiiice ^_^


Weekly Workout Goals
Monday - rest
Tuesday - Circuit Training & 3+ mile P.M. group run
Wednesday - 3-4 A.M. group run & Strength Train (upper body)
Thursday - Circuit Training
Friday - Circuit Training
Saturday - rest
Sunday - Yoga or Stretching

My schedule seems a little jacked up to me because I forgot I'm babysitting this week so I had to plan my workouts on days I know working out won't be a problem.  I tweeted last week that I volunteered to watch my BFF's 4 kids! Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking.  Hopefully I can stick to the schedule I've planned for myself.  These aren't normally the days I spread my workouts on.  Anyhow, I need to put myself back on a schedule regardless.  Next week's post I'll include my planned meals for the week. The trip threw me off track as far as meal planning and I may have to go grocery shopping tomorrow.  Huh, so much to do and not enough time in the day! Story of everyone's lives!

Lastly, just as the title says, to really make sure I'm getting it together, I have decided to participate in two challenges of bloggers I have just started to follow.  The first is a 7-day "No Excuses" Challenge by RenewedFitness to basically finish a few goals (mostly non-fitness related) that I started, such as register to take the GRE.  Another goal, but not as important, update my running playlist, which I'm almost done already.  The other challenge is by YumYucky and hasn't started yet.  It's a "Finish What You Started" Challenge.  Now this is the fitness-related one that I plan to do starting in August to rededicate myself to my fitness and desired physique goals.  

That's it for tonight's post.  There'll be new recipe reviews I'm trying or have tried posted later in the week.

Motivate Me & I'll Motivate You!