Days 5, 6, & 7 of 90!

Day 5 was Saturday. I made sure to sneak in my workout before church but then we ended up running errands and packing all night so I didn't get to blog.

Day 6 was Sunday. We were driving all day and then proceeded to do family crafts, as such I was unable to blog again!

So here's what those days entailed. Day 5 was hard, I was tired, my triceps REALLY, REALLY hurt and on top of that my back pain set in late Friday night into Saturday. The workout really tired out my arms and I was shaking during it. I barely made it through the workout and the stretching at the end.

Sunday was my rest day (day 6) which consisted of doing stairs with heavy suitcases so that we could load the car and then driving with 40-50 mph side-winds. Needless to say even on my rest day I got a fairly good workout in :-D

Today was day 7! That's 1 whole week completed now!!!!!! Woot Woot!!!! Today there were no weights which was nice but at the end we were doing active stretching which required triceps and mine still hurt so that was a bit tough but otherwise the workout felt great. I did it barefoot and at altitude and still felt pretty good.

I also had my weigh in today :-) I'm down to 144.4 lbs which puts me at 16.4 lbs lost total! woot! And as a side note I have not been tracking my calories. I've been trying to be conscious of what I'm eating and when but I have not been logging a single calorie this week. I'm feeling good. My back pain isn't too bad considering I was stuck in the car for 9 hours yesterday. I got to see the Chiropractor today and tomorrow a massage, so I'll have to sneak in my workout before that!

I hope you're feeling sore and strong, and doing well!

Day 4 of 90

Yes I do mean Day 4. I decided that since I rested on day 2 I should continue through the workout and with our travelling I can rest again on Day 6.

Today consisted of a new weights workout but the cardio was the same as Day 1. I couldn't do it fully on Day 1 because I didn't want to jump all around and make our neighbors below us angry. I can tell you that it is challenging! I did my best to keep up with it but even the ability to do it fully didn't allow me to do it. It was REALLY hard! I have a hard time keeping up with crazy fast cardio workouts that include lots of burpee's and mountain climbers, etc.

I was really tired during the workout and after. I'm still very sore all over and feeling the effects of working out. Here are my stats:
Weight: 147 lbs (up 1 lb from my last weigh-in on Monday)
% Body Fat: 26.9%
% Total Body Water: 51.3%
Waist: 27.5 in
Hips: 39.5 in
Thighs: 23.5 in
So even though I went up in weight my actual measurements went down :-)

My plan for tomorrow is to do day 5 and rest on Sunday, day 6, when we're stuck in the car!

I hope you're enjoying this workout with me!

Day 2 of 90

Yes I realize that technically I should be on day 3. However, I didn't get home until after 6 yesterday because my final was so late and I was REALLY, REALLY sore. After doing day 2 today I kind of wish I had done it yesterday b/c there was a lot of moving and stretching and I think my hamstrings will feel a lot better tomorrow. FYI, if you do chose to do this, Day 3 is a rest day, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do since I rested yesterday. I think I'm going to try to do Day 4 and after that it will depend on when we're driving home for Christmas!

Today i'm feeling less sore than yesterday but a lot more stiff. I have a tendency to get really hungry when I work out this hard so I feel like I'm eating a lot (no I'm not being good about tracking my calories), but I know that when I'm the one making the food I don't consume as many calories as if I eat easy-prepared food. I'm really missing my dairy right now since I ran out of yogurt and they didn't have any more of the cheese that was on sale at Sprouts so I'm doing my best to get milk in my diet without negative side-effects.

I'm feeling mentally good, tired from trying to catch up with so many things and the stress of everything that has to be done over Christmas break, prior to spring classes starting. I know that my work-out time is important to me and for me so I will do my best to continue.

If you're doing this with me, today felt great and keep it up!

Day 1 of 90

I have decided to do the Be Fit in 90 challenge put on by the Lionsgate Befit people:
http://www.youtube.com/befitin90#

From what I can gather it's like P90X but FREE!!! I sure do love free things and different ways of working out so that I'm not just running on the elliptical/treadmill all the time. Saying that chances are I won't be doing this EVERY day for 90 days straight (especially with the travelling for Christmas, etc.) but I will do it as often as I can and try to post regularly about how I feel and my success.

Last January I started using My Fitness Pal to track calories consumed and started working out as well. At first it really helped with my back pain I have been experiencing from my car accident. I started at 160.8 lbs and worked very hard until May when I got down to 144.

I just re-weighed myself today and I am at 146 lbs, 26.5% body fat, and 51.6% total body water. I forgot to measure myself but I'll update that tomorrow. I chose to weigh myself 2 times a week (usually Mon. and Thurs.) just to keep an eye on how I'm doing. I have noticed that on days when I'm really sore, and the day following I tend to gain weight, but in the end I end up losing quite a bit.

At this point losing weight isn't as important, I've been 145 lbs of pure muscle before and I felt great so now it's time to tone up! So join me on this adventure to tone up!

Creamy Chicken Pasta

It's the Christmas season and Chris has not been traveling, so of course we've been cooking again. Yay for cooking together and eating yummy food :-) It turned out to be incredibly delicious so I've decided to share it with the world! I think the best meal's just come out of your head and not always from a recipe. I thought we should use up some of our frozen chicken and pasta (we have a lot in our stockpile) and a cream sauce sounded like the best way to combine the two! Chris thought we should add some veggies and onion which lead to me think that of course we needed to add garlic because what recipe doesn't need garlic?!

Here's what it looked like:

Here's the recipe:
1/4 c chopped onion (not finely chopped)
1.5 cloves of garlic, chopped
1-2 T Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
8 oz Chicken (we had some thighs but you can use any boneless chicken)
2 T butter (REAL butter no fake stuff, TRUST me on this)
3 T Flour (all purpose bleached makes for the whitest sauce but this didn't end up white so whatever could work)
1.5 c Milk
1 t white sugar
1 t Parsley
1 t Oregano
1 t Thyme
1 T Basil (I did use 1 Tablespoon b/c I really like basil)
1 t Rosemary
1 t Tarragon
2 t salt
Pepper (to taste)
1 t (ish) seasoned salt
1 green pepper (chopped into big chunks)
1 red pepper (chopped into big chunks)
5.75 oz Pasta (we had some whole wheat spaghetti lying around)

Put the EVOO into a skillet and warm up the oil (medium-high). Saute the garlic and onion until carmelized. Sear the chicken on both sides, sprinkling seasoned salt and black pepper on one side. Cover up and turn down to medium, let cook most of the way. Put the chicken, onions and garlic on a plate and in the microwave to rest and stay warm. In a pan melt the butter (medium-low), add the flour, add more or less as needed until it balls up. Add milk 1/2 c at a time and let thicken between additions, keep stirring to keep it from burning on the bottom of the pan. Add sugar and make sure it's mixed in well, then add parsley, oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary, tarragon, stir well. Throw in the red and green peppers to cook a little on medium-low heat, if it's a little thick it's ok, the chicken will thin it out. Cook your pasta according to the directions on the package. Throw the chicken into the cream sauce with the peppers to finish cooking. Drain your pasta once finished cooking and split up into bowls. Cover with the chicken and pepper cream sauce. Eat and Enjoy!

I hope you love this as much as we did!

Serves: 4
Nutritional Information (Per Serving):
** Side note: we used 2% milk, unsalted butter, and whole wheat spaghetti
Calories: 420
Total Fat (g): 18.1
Cholesterol (mg): 159.5
Sodium (mg): 828.2
Potassium (mg): 598.8
Total Carbs (g): 44
   Dietary Fiber (g): 3.6
   Sugars (g): 8.2
Protein (g): 19
Vitamin A: 31.8%
Vitamin C: 163.1%
Calcium: 14.2%
Iron: 13.1%

A Produce Adventure

A week ago someone gave me some Swiss Chard from their garden and I wanted to use up before it went bad. Chris left a couple days ago for work so I wanted to go check out some things around Lubbock. I was watching Rachel Ray yesterday and saw them make some pasta bakes, and I found some creamy swiss chard recipe's online and thought I could combine these recipes into one big one.

I decided to check out our Farmer's Market in the depot district. It was small but very cool, I walked away with a head of garlic, 3 lemons and a cafe americano!

My next stop on my adventure was to run out to the Idalou Apple Butter Festival. I didn't go last year and even though Chris was gone I thought I should go check it out. FYI, wearing my 5 fingers was a HORRIFIC  idea. Unfortunately I am the only person on the planet that can attract 100 stickers in the half mile walk from where I parked my car to the actual festival.

I walked around the orchard and picked plenty of apples. I got some Granny Smith Apples, some Golden Delicious Apples, and some various Red Apples of which I'm not sure if they are Gala, or Pink Lady's or what. Here is my collection of apples I got for $10, I'm pretty sure that they were charging $1/lb but i'm not entirely sure.


Then I ran to Sprouts because I wanted some cheese so I got some Parmesan, Romano, and Ricotta.

Here's the recipe (ish):
1 heaping pile of roughly chopped Swiss Chard (1-2 in chunks) with the main vein removed. About 2 cups but it could use more. You can use Spinach too instead of swiss chard, I just had swiss chard lying around.
1/2 a stick of butter (melted in the pot)
3 heaping Tablespoons of flour (or as much as needed to make it as thick as cookie dough)
Lots of milk
1 lb of rigatoni pasta (cook it 3 minutes shorter than the bag says)
0.2-0.25 lb of Parmesan and Romano each (set a little bit aside to sprinkle on top)
     I added Ricotta but it's really not necessary
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon Parsley (You could easily use up to 1 tablespoon)
1 teaspoon Oregano (You could easily use up to 1 tablespoon)
1 teaspoon Thyme (You could easily use up to 1 tablespoon)
a dash of cinnamon
a dash of salt
2 tablespoons Red Peppers (I used 2 packets of Papa John's red peppers)
zest from 2 lemons
GARLIC!!! I totally forgot to add 2 cloves of garlic but you should NOT forget, it would add the perfect touch!

I started with making a Roux, Melt the butter in the pan and add the flour so it's very thick. Drown it in milk then add all the seasonings, including lemon zest and Swiss Chard. Let it cook down on medium and add more milk if it gets to thick, think of it as a creamy sauce that is thicker than ranch dressing and less thick than molasses.

While the sauce is cooking down bake the pasta, remember to bake it 3 minutes less! Preheat your oven to 350.

Just before the pasta is done add the cheese to the creamy sauce and let it melt.

After you drain the pasta mix it in with the creamy sauce and pour it into a 9 X 13 baking dish. Sprinkle the top with the Romano and Parmesan that you set aside. Bake it for 8 minutes, let it rest 1 minute before serving then spoon into bowls.

Here's what the finished product looks like:


It made 6 servings for me. It would make about 4 for very hungry boys. If you wanted to add a little bit of a crunch you could put panko bread crumbs or toasted pine nuts on top just before putting in the oven. If you wanted to add some meaty protein in it a spicy italian sausage (cased and sliced) or some finely chopped bacon would be perfectly delicious!

This was a very fun Saturday and i'm grateful for years of helping my mom in the kitchen so that I can look at multiple recipes and combine them into one amazing one.

Run 2 Rescue & Llano Wine/Clay Festival

Today Chris and I participated in the 1st annual Run 2 Rescue. Their goal is to raise awareness about human trafficking and raise money to help stop it! This year they raised over $15,000 and there will be more donations coming in within the next week. It was a great experience, it was my first 5K and Chris' first 5K since high school (I was a sprinter in high school, only crazy people ran long distances!). Chris and I ran together for the first half mile then I needed to walk a bit. Chris continued running the whole 5K! GO CHRIS!!! I did run/walk intervals since that gave me time to catch my breath and I'm still getting into the whole running thing :-)
Here is our pre-race photo:

Chris' basic stats are:

Distance: 3.06 miles

Total Time: 30:45

Avg. Pace: 10:03min/mile (he was hoping for 10 flat as an average but I still say he did great!)

Here is the link to his full info:
https://motoactv.com/public/show?workoutActivityId=CnwyQX87SqCbsUUZw16DDg%3D%3D&activity=1

Mandy's basic stats are:

Distance: 3.07 miles

Total Time: 34:19

Avg. Pace: 11:11min/mile (I was happy to be lower than 11:30 as an average!)

Here is the link to my full info:
http://www.sports-tracker.com/#/workout/arpepper/1amnp5o92tegsucn

Here is our post-race photo:

After we made our very own peanut butter cup blenders and relaxed on the couch until our good friend Liz texted us and asked if we wanted to go check out the Llano Wine/Clay Festival. We decided to go check it out and there were some AMAZING works of art there. Clay, glass, beading, rocks, painting, and I'm sure more that I'm forgetting. The pottery work was amazing and we saw plenty of things that we wanted to take home! Afterwords we ended up running out to Pheasant Ridge winery and tasting wines out there. There wines overall really are drier than Llano but they're good and Chris liked them so that means that they can't be too dry ;-) They're decently priced and I'm sure that sometime we'll run out there and get a bottle or two!

Finishing a 5K and drinking wine with friends makes for a GREAT Saturday!

Little Learning Moments

Chris and I we had just finished skyping with mom and dad and were talking about how i was feeling stressed (no the two are not related). It was the end/beginning of the month which meant bills, and my advisor was back in town which meant more work added to my to-do list. It was all feeling overwhelming and I felt like last year we had started making financial progress but this year I've felt like we were in a vice grip and couldn't quite figure out why, it was driving me nuts, making me feel like I've been wasting money. It was bothering me so much that I couldn't get comfortable and fall asleep. I was feeling like a profound failure and on top of that still trying to figure out what I want to do school/career wise later in life. I finally did the math of what we made last year and what we're looking at for this year and realized that we're down to 82% of what we made last year. I thought, ok... I'm not crazy! Yay!!!

But it did nothing to ease my feeling of stress and my anxiety. I still was having a hard time falling asleep and my next thought was to pray about it. I know people have been able to "pray away" asthma attacks, life-long dizzy spells, cancer, etc. So I prayed for clarity in my future and peace about our finances, a release of my sadness that Chris was going to be leaving again and for a sense of calm, knowing that I needed to get up early the next morning to take care of my mice. When I was done praying I felt the same, and actually a little more anxious, it angered me. I thought, "If someone can pray about and be released from any of these other ailments, why can't I?! I do my best to thank God every chance I get for all the things that he's blessed me with, why won't he answer my prayer for my needs?" Chris even said to me, "Mandy, I can't fall asleep." To which I answered, "I can't either." I finally fell asleep, feeling angry, useless, and still full of anxiety.

It wasn't until the next morning, when i got a call from dad, that I realized that my anxiousness wasn't for my needs, it was for my mother. Her blood pressure had skyrocketed and dad took her to the ER where they ended up giving her nitroglycerin and then admitted her to the hospital for testing and observation. I talked to dad, got the facts and then took care of my mice. It was while I was weighing out their feed that I realized that I was so focused on myself and decided to just be angry that I didn't say, "God, what are you trying to tell me?" I didn't feel like a failure then but thought of Samuel, "Then the LORD called Samuel. Samuel answered, 'Here I am.'" (1 Samuel 3:4, NIV).

Next time I feel my anxiety overwhelming, especially after praying about it I'll think to ask, "What Lord?"

Turns out her thyroid is messed up, so they put her on thyroid meds and that should help everything.

Workouts

I've been using Pinterest to look at online workouts and found some good ones for April (halfway through the month). I'm a little disappointed in what I found for May so I have decided to be proactive and throw something together for June.

I have been following the Self.com Drop 10 diet which has lots of great food suggestions.

They have it structured so you do 3 High Intensity Interval Training sessions a week and 2 sessions of 8 Easy Toning Moves per week.

I decided that I needed to add something extra, I like a better full body toning so I made a months workout with changing up the weights/toning moves. Three exercises per day with one day abs, one day legs, and one day arms, rotating through out the month with weekends as rest/cleaning days. Some might say this is a bad idea but I don't like having to do the same thing every day for the entire month.

Now... Here it is!

Enjoy!

Avocado Pasta

This year has been quite a change for the two of us. Chris' travel schedule changed from being gone on weekends to being gone for weeks at a time. We've both been logging our food and trying to eat healthier. Chris has had a lot of digestive problems and once he started logging what he was eating he realized that he was eating only 1000 calories a day and starving himself practically. Now that he eats enough he hasn't had as many tummy troubles. I dropped 10 pounds really quickly and then plateaued so I've been looking for ways to eat yummy, healthy food. Chris really doesn't like avocado so this is something I make when he's not around. I call it Avocado Pasta, and here's my recipe:
4oz (dry) Whole wheat spaghetti (cooked according to package directions)
1 cup Baby Spinach

For the Sauce:
1 small Avocado
1/4 cup Fat Free Milk
1 oz Greek Non-Fat Plain Yogurt (I like Chobani)
1 Tbsp Low Sodium Soy Sauce
4 Tbsp Lime Juice
3 Tbsp Garlic Powder

I used our magic bullet to blend the Sauce, it needs the milk to thin it out so it can blend properly but i wanted some good protein so that's why I added the Greek Yogurt. Truthfully you can probably up the amount of pasta and turn it into a 3 or 4 person meal b/c there is a lot of sauce!

Enjoy!

Serves: 2 (I like to save the other half for lunch the next day!)
Calories: 376 per serving
Total fat: 7.6 g
Saturated fat: 0 g
Monounsaturated fat: 2.2 g
Cholesterol: 0.1 mg
Potassium: 507.8 mg
Total Carbs: 58.4 g
Dietary Fiber: 8.5 g
Sugars: 5.1 g
Protein: 13.5 g
Vitamin A: 28.2% of your Daily Value
Vitamin C: 7.8% of your Daily Value
Calcium: 10.9% of your Daily Value
Iron: 19.9% of your Daily Value