Who Needs a Door, Anyway?

Are you prepared for a little honesty?  Because I am about to drop a BOMB on you folks.

I am human.  I know, right? Pick your jaw up off that floor though and listen. Because here comes another bomb: I eat junk food, too.

There, it's out, I said it! I'm gonna be totally straight with you.  Those Hershey bars I bought so we could make s'mores?  Gone.  Every.  Last.  One.  Did we make s'mores?  No.  Which means between now and replenishing the supply, I must once again gain control over Midnight Miller, Raider of the Freezer and Pillager of the Snack Basket.  I have no true excuse.  Yes, my appetite is in overdrive with Insanity, but we have plenty of healthy options in the house.  Matter of fact, pretty much every other option in the house is healthy.  I just chose to zero in on the ONE thing I should not be chowing down on. 

Now, a friend recently asked me to blog about what I eat and where my recipes come from.  So there's my admission of chocolate above (damn you, Milton Hershey!).  But a typical day would look more like this:

Breakfast: Shakeology (today was Tropical Strawberry, almond milk, frozen blackberries and frozen mango) and black coffee.  (I really did attempt to leave coffee behind and replace it solely with green tea. I've accepted that I am just not gonna do that long term.)

Snack: Clif/Luna/P90X bars...My current favorites are Clif Peanut Butter Crunch and Luna Chocolate Peppermint Stick and Coconut Something-or-other.  They are easy, they pack a protein punch, and they taste good.  That's my kinda food, right there.  Also, I usually add in a piece of fruit for extra sweetness.

Lunch: leftovers or a hodgepodge salad comprised of various leftovers.  Typically, Hubby will grill all chicken and steak at the beginning of the week so that during the week, we have only to dump it onto a plate or into a salad and presto! Meals take five minutes to make.  That's my kinda cookin', right there.  My goal is to include as many colors as I can with the veggies on hand, plus eggs, meat, or feta for some protein.  Dressing is typically a balsamic vinaigrette or a classic italian.  We have done away with the "light" or "lowfat" dressings because they're just silly and full of stuff we don't want.

Snack: fresh fruits and either nuts, cottage cheese, or yogurt.  This is likely to change in the near future, as is much of the diet listed above.  For various reasons that I'll lay out in another blog, I am heading the vegetarian route and will go back to much less dairy (my body just felt better when I wasn't sucking down milk, yogurt, and cheese at every meal).  But the fruits will stay!  

Dinner: white meat (chicken, fish, or pork) most days; steak once a week or less.  Nearly always with fresh or frozen veggies and a bowl of fruit on the table to pick from. 

What do I drink besides Shakeology and coffee?  Water.  The occasional soda when we're out to eat, although this is less and less common.  We don't keep soda or sugary drinks in the fridge, and I'm not much of a beer drinker, though Hubby keeps that stocked for his own sanity.  In the past, I was a huge milk drinker, but I gradually lessened my intake and, as previously mentioned, feel better for it. 

As for my recipes, I get them everywhere.  Jillian Michaels' Making The Cut has incredible meals all laid out, every one of them tasty.  I am a Pinterest addict and an avid collector of any and all women's fitness magazines.  I pick and choose, but will every now and then follow a specific meal plan, as I just did for Insanity.  Turns out, I am sick of meat, and that plan calls for quite a bit of it.  So this Friday, my first errand is mapped out to Barnes&Noble to pick up a copy of The Eat Clean Diet Vegetarian Cookbook by Tosca Reno.  I see this as the next step in my fitness and food journey.  Stay posted to see how I do with this one...

Coincidentally, our refrigerator door FELL OFF this morning.  So we will be chowing down on all things fresh today.  It's rigged to hang in there, but we don't know for how long.  I joked on Facebook that we may as well remove the shelving and dive in face first...after my workout, I just may do that.  Insanity makes Mama one hungry bear.

If you really want to see what I eat and how I work out every single day, my profile on myfitnesspal.com is totally public.  Find me and friend me (Miller343).  Having more eyes gives me more motivation to practice what I yell, scream, and preach. 

For now, though, I must go.  It is time for pinning and coffee.

Hoppin' Down the Candy Trail

It happens every holiday, be they big or small.  Sacks, baskets, buckets o' sugar are heaped upon the children (and by proxy me, whose willpower shrinks in fear in the face of anything chocolate covered or filled) to "celebrate."  No sooner has the Halloween candy disappeared (some into the overjoyed bellies and more into the trash) than we have candy canes and Christmas cookies filling our countertops.  There are the itty bitty candied hearts on Valentine's day (along with the larger chocolates...*sigh* and *cringe*) and gold foil-covered chocolate coins on St. Patrick's Day.  And then Easter.  Baskets overflowing with Reese's, Skittles, and those frighteningly neon Peeps.  A basket at home from the Bunny himself.  And baskets at each house visited, plus candy in the pretty plastic eggs planted in bushes and drainpipes.  My stomach heaves a little just looking at the mountains of peanut butter-filled, chocolate-covered, candy-coated poison.  Of course, that doesn't prohibit my greedy little hands from reaching out to sneak my fair share.

And it's not just the candy.  Nor is the candy the worst of it.  At least for me, those holiday meals suck me in worse than any sweet nosh.  The juicy ham, lumpy mashed potatoes, and homemade gravy.  The buttered corn and buttered biscuits and buttered anything-else-my-butter-knife-can-find.  The pies, cakes, and desserts of the no-bake variety with whipped cream and pudding-like substances!  I cannot stop myself.  It is as though my body moves of its own accord, racing away from all that hard work and discipline to shovel in mounds of starches, salts, and bad fats.  I suppose it is like any addiction...You can kick the habit, but one slip up and you're barrelling down the mountain at full speed.  Luckily, I am better at putting on the brakes and getting back on track than I used to be.  It just tends to happen one to two days later, after the initial food hangover has left and the second one has been worked through.  That old saying about "the hair of the dog?"  That, my friends, is CRAP. 

Who wants to roll around in bed all day, clutching aching bellies and moaning when you could be jumping, moving, and enjoying the just-as-tasty and so-much-better-for-you fruits and veggies?  We tell ourselves that the candy/ham/potatoes are a reward and that we deserve them.  I don't know about you, but feeling nauseous and exhausted doesn't seem so rewarding to me.  And I firmly believe that I (and my body that has been treating me so well) deserve much better.  Of course, this realization hit me after I ate my weight in biscuits and cracker candy, only to follow it up the next day with peanut butter cups and Twizzlers.  Turns out, healthy living has ruined binge eating for me.  I may as well have willfully given myself the flu.  I felt that awful.

Then I thought, I'm giving this stuff to my kids.  Awful, awful Mommy!  I wouldn't hand my kids cartons of cigarettes or cases of beer.  So why do I load baskets full of other toxins as a celebratory gift?  Well, I won't be anymore.  I laid down the law and told Hubby that from here on out, that Bunny brings gifts, not candy.  And we bring healthy fruit and veggie trays to graze on when we go elsewhere for dinners.  No more binging.  No more days of recovery for falling off the wagon. 

...I just hope I retain this feeling of superiority over Hershey and Mars when I next stare down their progeny during a moment of craving...