I made chicken to take to work this week. I dunno but the taste of the chicken is a little off. I know its not spoiled but I think I need to start buying halal meat from now on. I ate the chicken but I really dont like how it tastes. Maybe I didnt clean it properly but I shouldnt have to clean the meat so harshly. If its gonna be all that then I just need to buy halal.

Im doing great on the no dairy thing. My almond milk tastes great and its good in my oatmeal. Yesterday I ate so much but I guess it wasnt really that much because by the time I left for work I was hungry. I had oatmeal with almond milk and creamed honey for breakfast, a handul of raw almonds and cranberries for a midmorning snack, stewed chicken with lentils and okra for lunch, lentils and flaxseed chips as a mid afternoon snack and hummus and flaxseed chips right before I left work. I was eatin good! When I got home I played Just Dance 2 and the Michael Jackson dance game for about an hour. Then I ate baked bbq chicken, lentils and broccoli for dinner. I did mess up a lil cause around 2am I found myself in the kitchen eating tortilla chips and cheese sauce but I'm not gonna beat myself up about it. I feel good today. My body is a little sore from the dancing but I feel really good.

this might be TMI but I think the beans are starting to do a number on me. Number 2. I went like 4 times yesterday. Its healthy to go right after your meals but I didnt think it would be that soon! I did take some psyllium husk on tuesday evening so that must be it. Plus I'm drinking 2 liters of water a day. The best part is nothing seems forced and I dont feel overwhelmed with changes. I feel confident in being able to stick to my guns. I'm not obsessing over food and I feel free to focus on other areas of my life guilt free.

Food for Thought

I went food shopping on monday night. After spending a week with my aunt I kinda had an idea of some things I wanted to make to start off my year of health in 2011. I went to Trader Joes and I went to my local supermarket. Here's what I purchased:

Trader Joes (14th Street Union Square)
Unsweetened Almond Milk
2 containers of Organic Oatmeal
Kashi Go Lean cereal
Condensed Cream of Mushroom soup
2 bags of Veggie & Flaxseed tortilla chips
Almond Butter
Raw Almonds
Dried Cranberries
Creamed Honey
Trader Joes Spring Salad mix

Total: $35.88

Food Dimensions (Myrtle Ave & Broadway)
Red Pepper Hummus
Whole Wheat Pita Bread
10 lbs Chicken Quarters
Onions
Garlic
Lemons
bag of Frozen Okra
2 boxes of Frozen Corn
1 can of Diced Tomatoes
1 bag of Dried Lentils

Total: $25.00

Cooking is not really my strong suit but I figure if I batch my cooking it wont be as bad. So on monday night I cooked brown stew chicken, lentils, okra corn and tomato succotash and a small pot of white rice. Next time I'll pictures, for now you'll have to use your imagination. I really wanted to make the brown rice I had but I didnt have 45 minutes that night. I'll probably make a small pot of brown rice to carry to work. I took caution not to use too much salt and relied on the fresh onion, garlic and herbal seasonings I had in the house. I packed a bag to take to work so I don't have to worry about breakfast, lunch and snacks. 3 tupperware containers with chicken, lentils and succotash (no white rice). I put the almonds, cranberries, cereal and creamed honey in smaller ziploc bags. The oatmeal, flaxseed chips and a few bags of frozen veggies were packed up and I poured half of the almond milk into a plastic container to take as well.

My desk and the office fridge are fully stocked. I have loose chinese green tea at my desk. Its cheaper than the tea bags and it tastes better. I buy mine from Pearl River Trading in Soho for like $2 or $3. They have different flavors - I like the peach one. Green tea is great for your metabolism and you can drink it without sugar. It's nice to have a cup before lunch and one in the midafternoon.

I'm registered with 111Days and the Fierce Fit Fab forums. A good support system is vital to staying on track with any goal - your fitness goals are the same. Its nice to be able to share information with other women who are like me and are striving towards a common goal.

I'm feeling great and you should be too :)

todays triumph

Last night I started getting sleepy around 9pm. Usually I'm up at till after midnight and dragging myself out of bed around 8am. Going to sleep early means I can get up earlier so I was excited to get to bed last night. I gave myself an 11pm bedtime and I think I'll be able to stick to it. I woke up at 5:30am and went to the gym.

I felt SO GOOD once I finished my workout. The trainer from Boot Camp fitness saw me and gave me the thumbs up. I was a sweaty mess but I felt great.

I was in a rush to pack my lunch today (yesterday I had a salad from mc donalds and I bought fruits from the fruit stand). Since I'm really trying to be budget conscious I packed some of the vegetarian chili I made last week, half a baked chicken breast, leftover scrambled eggs and a tortilla wrap. But I needed veggies to go with my meal and I remembered I had some frozen spinach in the freezer. I just heated up my lunch and I am amazed at how quick and painless my lunch was. I'm gonna be buying tons of frozen spinach!

Official

It's official. I am on the path to health and fitness! I had vacation days scheduled on monday and tuesday so all weekend I stayed home and relaxed, meditated and planned my strategy. Of course I ate like a pig too. I'm not gonna say how much I ate but it was too much for 1 person to be eating in 1 sitting. I think a part of me just wanted to get all of those urges out of my system before I got down to business. I know it's unhealthy (binging/restricting cycle) and I will be keeping this journal to stay conscious of this. It wont be the last time I have an urge to eat an insane amount of pizza or sushi or whatever I'm craving.

This morning I took a boot camp fitness class at my gym. Class started at 6:30AM. OMG it was the most intense workout ever. I was huffing and puffing like nobodies business. Sweating all over the place. I didnt complete all of the exercises but I didnt beat myself up about it. My body REALLY got a workout and everyone has to start somewhere. The class meets on mondays and wednesdays. I'm going to make it my business to be at that class every week. When I got home I had enough time to shower and get ready for work so its perfect. I marked the workout down on my big calendar in my bedroom and I hope to fill that calendar up with workouts this month.

Before I went to the gym I drank a nutrament. I read online that you shouldn't workout in the morning on an empty stomach and that a decent pre workout meal is a protien shake or some combination of protien, complex carbs and fat. I need to buy some protien powder so I can make my own shakes in the morning. Nutrament is $2 a can. When I got to work I bought some strawberries, peaches and a banana. I had the banana with some peanut butter. I felt hungry a little later and had a couple strawberries. For lunch I had a caesar salad with grilled chicken from mc donalds. I'll have my fruits for the rest of the afternoon and when I get home I'll probably have another chicken salad. I'm going food shopping to pick up some chicken breasts. They'll be seasoned and some will be cooked while the rest will be frozen. I need to look up some new recipes as well. If you have any quick and tasty recipes let me know.

Guys please pray that I'm able to maintain this. I really want to be at 215 by my birthday in October. Thats 30 pounds away!

planning works!

My excitement has me posting like crazy. Hopefully I wont lose focus or momentum. I got the meal planning down for this week so I can start planning my workouts. I have a membership at my local YMCA and the facility is really, really nice. They have a full schedule of dance classes, yoga, pilates, water aerobics. There's a swimming pool, top notch equipment and weight room. The locker rooms are nice too - clean showers, steamroom and a sauna. I definitely don't take advantage of it like I should so I want to turn that around.

I've taken some dance classes there before. Caribbean dance was grueling but fun. African dance and belly dance were nice too. I've spent $15 on a african dance class before at a dance studio and the class at the Y was just as good. I'm interested in doing the boot camp fitness class too but I'm scared. I've always wanted to try boot camp fitness so I think I'm gonna go ahead and say eff it. There are two morning classes on mondays and wednesdays. 6:30AM-7:15AM. Thats super early but if my meals and gym bag is packed and my clothes are laid out the night before I really could do it. It's all in the planning. Tonight I'm going to caribbean dance then I'm going home to change and hang out with my friends. I seriously have to think about what drives me and what will get me to the gym when I dnnt feel like going.

Here's what my ideal workout schedule is looking like for next week

Mon - Boot Camp 6:30AM-7:15AM
Tue - rest
Wed - Boot Camp 6:30AM-7:15AM
Thu - Caribbean Dance 6:30PM-7:30PM
Fri - African Dance 6PM-7PM
Sat - rest
Sun - Belly Dance 2:30PM-3:30PM

I know half of my workouts are gonna be very demanding (boot camp, caribbean dance) but at least I know once I got the hard stuff out the way that I'll be able to have more fun with the other classes. The first week is always the hardest anyway so I'm glad I'll be home for most of the week. I'll have time to juice up something for my sore muscles. I need to find a recipe for that right now.

Planning is really giving me the edge I need. While food shopping last night it felt good to have a list to refer to. Even this morning it helped because while the food was prepared I was in a rush so I couldnt remember off top what was in the fridge. Having the meals stuck on the fridge made it simple to pack and get moving. I'll be planning all of my meals from now on.

Meal Plan

When I start working out I can always get the ball rolling and stay on task with going to the gym. I struggle with meal planning and making healthy food choices on the go. I also need to save money and cut back on spending so much on take out food. On average I can spend anywhere from $7-$15 a day on food. Times that by 5 and I spend anywhere between $35 to $75 for food during the work week. Thats not including dinner (~$7 a meal) or meals on the weekend. Thats too much damn money! Spending close to $400 a month on food for one person is irresponsible. I could be saving that extra money and using it towards paying down my debts, saving for a car or taking a nice vacation once I reach my weight loss goals.

I planned my meals for the next 7 days. I'm giving myself a budget of $30. From week to week I'll see what I can cut back on. Ultimately I want to plan my meals for the month and do bulk shopping for ingridients. Baby steps.

Meals

Fruit, peanuts and green tea
blueberry/blackberry/strawberry, soy milk and ice smoothie
whole wheat tortilla/english muffin, scrambled eggs and veggies
Fish, brown rice and steamed bok choy
Spinach and tomato salad
Vegetarian Chilli

Shopping list

Fish - I love red snapper but I need to stay within my budget
1 can of black beans
1 can of kidney beans
2 onions
6 large tomatoes
garlic
3 bell peppers
spinach
bok choy
strawberries
mangoes
soy milk
whole wheat tortillas or whole wheat english muffins

I'll be going to chinatown after work for the fish, fruits and vegetables. I'll pick up the canned beans, soy milk and whole wheat tortillas/english muffins at the supermarket near my house. When I get home I'll update and we'll see if I was able to stay within my budget.

UPDATE

I havent had this much fun food shopping in a long time. Here's what I got.

6 red snapper filets - $6.99
5 tomatoes on the vine - $2
5 bulbs of garlic - $1
2 green peppers - $1
2 lbs baby spinach - $1
1 lb strawberries - $1
2 lbs bok choy - $2.08
Silk Almond milk - $3.99
tomato tortilla wraps - $3.39
1 can crushed tomatoes - $1.89
1 can pinto beans - $0.89
1 can kidney beans - $0.79

TOTAL: $26.02

YAY! I stayed within the budget with $3.98 to spare :) Now I'm off to do all my cooking. I'll portion the meals out into plastic containers and stack them in the fridge. I'm even gonna make two smoothies and pour them into some empty vitamin water bottles.