WIAW 2/27/13

Yayyy for Wednesday!! I had lots of yummies today :)

For starters I had a piece of quiche for breakfast, nothing too crazy since you already heard about how I have been slicing pieces off day by day this week. Still delicious none the less.

For my mid morning snack I had a Blackberry Yumberry Greek yogurt. Just the Kroger brand but it was great. My ultimate favorite flavor would definitely have to be the Lemon Creme though. To die for.

 

So I might have been a tad bored at work whilst I was snacking.. oops.

Back on track. For lunch I had one of my prepped meals. This one consisted of chicken, sweet potatoes and mixed veggies. I honestly feel like sweet potatoes will never get old to me. I could be on a 24 hour sweet potato diet.

 

For my afternoon snack I had something a little different.. Not something I would normally have for a snack haha. I will start off by saying that I was in need of more protein so this fit the occasion. It was a sweet chicken sausage! I buy then from Trader Joe's. They are very lean and a good source of protein, obviously. Hence the chicken. They are somewhat apple and brown sugar flavored. I like to slice them up and throw them into pasta sometimes with some dried cranberries, balsamic dressing, sauteed red onion and feta cheese.

 

People think you're relatively normal until you pull out a baggy with something that looks like that^^ in it and just start eating it. It's an interesting sight.

For dinner mom and I went out for Indian food! I had never been before but it was really great. Flavorful and had many gluten free options. I played it a little safe though since I had never had Indian food though and I got a very common dish called Tandoori Chicken. It is basically cayenne spiced chicken cooked in the Tandoori oven. It came with basmati rice and onions and peppers. I also got a cup of spicy tomato soup. Everything was fantastic and very healthful. Needless to say I will be incorporating Indian food into my regular diet.

 

The portions were so large that I could take home enough to have for lunch the next day. :D I love when that happens!

Mom and I finished out the night seeing Safe Haven (AWESOME movie, highly recommend seeing it. More of a chick flick though..) with a couple teas from Starbucks. The cold rainy weather made the warm tea seem so extra appealing.

That sums up my Wednesday for you. Hope yours was great too! Now to tackle the rest of the week :)

Planning is Key

Without planning, where are we going? Nowhere. What are we doing? Nothing. Planning is key for any goal you have whether it is something as simple as which route you plan to take to work or something a little more time consuming like planning meals or workouts for the rest of the week. Or how you plan to divide your time to complete upcoming class assignments. You name the task and some sort of planning is necessary.

This past Sunday I made five prepackaged lunches to take to work with me for the week. It was the best thing I think I've ever done! I've been able to grab my Tupperware container as I walk out the door in the morning and not have to spend time the night before when I'm tired (and probably making irrational decisions ha) or time in the morning when I am already playing beat the clock to prepare something health conscious.

I made a quiche with spinach, pepper, tomatoes and onions topped with a Mexican cheese blend that I have been slicing for breakfast in the mornings. Excellent protein and a serving a veggies before 8 am? BAM. Yes. Then I mixed and matched chicken (protein) with either quinoa or sweet potatoes (as my complex carb) and some sort of vegetables or a piece of fruit in all different combinations and viola. There were my five lunches for the week. And breakfast too!

Pictured above are a couple chicken breasts I baked alongside sliced up sweet potatoes.



Here is the spinach veggie quiche. I added some crushed red pepper to it for a little extra kick and it made a world of difference :)

Next. In one of my recent previous posts I talked about making healthier substitutions/modifications. I thought I would share a couple more with you. Pictured below (to the untrained eye) looks like a pancake with whipped cream and slivered almonds on top. Really though, it is an "egg cake". Now don't knock it til you try it. Keep in mind that eggs are very diverse. With spices and flavorings almost anything is possible with eggs. In this particular case I beat one egg and two egg whites together, added some cinnamon and vanilla and a little raw sugar and then poured it into a small skillet. Cook over medium/low heat and once the top is set, flip it over. Afterwards just toss it onto a plate, top it with a dollop of cool whip, nuts, dried fruit and a splash of syrup and you're in business. Like I said, don't knock it until you try it. It tastes just like a pancake AND it's gluten free too. High protein, low carb, gluten free goodness.

 

 

 

The next order of business we owe a special thanks to Lauren for. I can't believe I didn't think of this! I've been eating a lot of Oasis hummus. It's 1/2 the calories and only about 1g of fat per two Tbsp. instead of regular hummus which is 70 calories per serving with about 7g of fat. The secret is less oil. It tastes just as good as regular hummus though! The roasted garlic is amazinggggggg. I normally eat mine with nut thins crackers. Lauren introduced me to these carrot chips. You can buy them right in your produce department. They are raw carrots, just sliced up differently. Genius. In Lauren's words she can "almost convince herself she is eating chips and dip". 

 

Hopefully these ideas help you out as much as they have me! It's difficult to find something healthy and satisfying sometimes. Happy Tuesday! :)

Tips & Tricks

Last night I got a text from my lovely Grandmother saying that she was going to try out being gluten free! Yayy! It's nice to know there will be someone else in the family that can eat special gluten free variations with me :)

When I got this text I really had to think long and hard about the most useful information and tips that I could give about being gluten free. It's a challenge putting four years of knowledge into a condensed list of the most important things. After I wrote the email to her I figured there are probably more people out there who curious also so I figured I would post the list here. :)

1. Stick to the outskirts or the grocery store (the perimeter). Produce, meat/seafood, dairy, etc.

2. ALWAYS check ingredient labels. Avoid anything with wheat, barley or rye. There will always be an allergen statement and there it will mention if it has wheat in it. It will not state in the allergen information if it has barley or rye.

3. Rice, quinoa, and oats are your best friends when it comes to whole grains.

4. The best gluten free bread is Udi's (my personal opinion). It is normally in the freezer section of the natural foods section or in the produce section oddly enough.

5. Be careful with the gluten free processed foods (boxed pastas, cereals, etc.) because they are higher calorie much of the time. Wheat is the protein that allows things to stretch and rise and have elasticity so when gluten free bread is made it requires more flour (usually rice flour) to fill more space to have an adequate sized piece of bread. It is also more dense.

6. Some items that you wouldn't expect to have gluten in them are soups (flour used as a thickener), gravy, soy sauce, lipstick, play dough, and sauces/condiments.

7. Whole foods has a good gluten free selection however it is very over priced. Go there when you are looking for specialty items that you don't want to have to make from scratch. (pie crusts, rolls, pizzas, etc)

8. Trader Joe's has good gluten free pastas for cheap. At Kroger it costs $4.19 for four 2 oz. servings of gluten free noodles and at Trader Joe's it costs $1.99 for eight 2 oz. servings.

 

Hopefully this is found helpful! If you have any other questions, you know where to find me :)

WIAW 2/20/13

Wednesday already eh? This week seems to be going pretty quick. The "holiday" on Monday is probably to blame. With the change up of my diet you may notice that I have really upped my protein intake. That being said, with all of the strength training I have been doing I feel like I need every last bit of it.

For breakfast today I had an egg white omelet with turkey and pepper jack cheese. And hot sauce of course. Unfortunately I was in such a rush this morning that I couldn't snap a picture. The spiciness was the perfect way to jump start my day. Word on the street is cayenne pepper (used in hot sauce and chili powder) can rev your metabolism too!

My mid morning snack consisted of a lite vanilla Greek yogurt with one tablespoon of old fashioned oats and pomegranate infused craisins each. It's so simple yet so delicious. I honestly feel like I'm eating some sort of dessert. Again, couldn't snap a pic.. fail.

I did manage to get a picture of my lunch. Hopefully this will help me redeem myself. I had a piece of baked chicken with rosemary, sage and Italian seasonings. That's been a popular spice combination for me recently. Along with the chicken I had Red Inca Quinoa and spaghetti squash. Quinoa is a true super food and action packed with protein and fiber.

For my afternoon snack I had a small bowl of old fashioned oats with a tablespoon of craisins. They give a nice bit of natural sweetness. I love craisins for that reason. They are perfect for adding to salads, oatmeal, pastas, or anything really. And as a bonus they have antioxidants :)

After I got off work I hit the gym. It was a leg day and it's safe to say that my legs will be screaming tomorrow after all of the squats, leg presses, leg extensions and oh let's not forget the lovely stair master. On my way home I downed a protein shake.

For dinner I had a spinach salad topped with apple chunks, craisins, feta, chicken, slivered almonds, edamame and turkey bacon. That wasn't quite enough to fill me up so I reheated some spaghetti squash and tomato sauce which hit the spot, the volume from the veggies really filled me up.

For my evening snack I had the ultimate treat. I've been on a bit of a dark chocolate kick. I had a cup of vanilla frozen yogurt topped with two chopped up squares of Lindt Intense Orange dark chocolate.

Amazing. Just amazing.

Here is an update of how the diet change has been going. It's definitely taken some adjusting. I am not used to needing this much protein but each day I get closer and closer to my goal. Today is by far the closest I have been to meeting my goals, even though I was a little over on my carbs. I feel great though and I feel like my body has been responding well. It seems like I'm constantly eating but I also feel like my body needs it. Every time I eat I can honestly say I am hungry. Must be that metabolism speeding up! Small meals throughout the day are key.

Now it's time to Gossip Girl with Miss Lauren :) Later gators!

Life Before Death & Taxes

I've been dreading my taxes. I have made two attempts this year at doing them on my own online and both times failed. I keep getting a response saying that my SSN doesn't match my spouses... I'm not married. Ugh. I guess I had better just cave and take them somewhere to get them done.

Here are some highlights from the past week;

This would be the process of making the strawberry cupcakes in honor of Vday. Gluten free of course. 

And here we have the final product. Bliss. And yes, that is a zebra patterned cupcake liner :) They were so amazing! I ate one and gave one to Lauren. The rest I gave to the owner of this sweet little coffee shop that I've been going to so they could be given away. That's the only way to get my baking business' name back out there! I've decided I'm ready to start baking more again so I need to get back on my networking grind.

This past weekend I went to listen to a band with a friend at a little bar. It was great. I'd never heard of the band before but they really blew me away. My friend grew up with the drummer in the band. I would say that this drummer is almost as good as if not as good as Travis Barker (Blink-182's drummer). That's saying something.

In other news I've changed up my diet a bit trying to gain more lean muscle and burn more fat. I've reduced my carb intake to 150g per day (unless its the day before a running day) and my protein to 150g and my fat to 40g. Stay tuned for results.

One of my hobbies has always been taking unhealthy dishes and making them as healthy as possible and recently I've been able to do that a lot. I've been having a lot of meals with friends lately that we cook at home and they aren't used to using the healthiest ingredients. The other night we made pasta with light sauce, ground turkey instead of ground beef, and gluten free brown rice pasta. Then the next night I got them to use turkey pepperoni instead of regular with just a fraction of the fat and calories. It's so entertaining to see them take the first bite expecting some horrible change. They all say they like the healthier substitutions. More so than the regular ingredients! Sounds like a job well done to me. :)

 

Well hopefully these taxes won't be the death of me. So dreading them! Be back tomorrow with WIAW :)

& This Is How We Do Fat Tuesday

So this, this is how we do Fat Tuesday.  Well rewind. First, three other friends and I were lucky enough to all have the same day off yesterday! So we had to properly celebrate starting with brunch at Bob Evans. I got the farm fresh omelet made with egg lites and a side of turkey sausage links. It was so good! Filling too, I couldn’t even finish the omelet. Next we all went to the gym and worked on legs and shoulders. My buns are a bit sore to say the least. Ha ;) I sat in the sauna for a little after the workout which I don’t normally do but I think I might more often. It was a nice extra dose of sweat.

Once we finished at the gym we got cleaned up and ran a couple of errands to Finish Line and Fossil(two of my favoritest stores <3). The last stop on the way home to make dinner was at the grocery to exchange gluten free bread for gluten free hamburger buns. There was some confusion with the original grocery shopper.. hehe. I’ve got to say though, my friends have been SO accommodating to my dietary restrictions. Especially for being boys. Normally it's only girls who cater to needs like that and boys are the ones dumbfound. No offense boys. They go above and beyond to make sure that I can always have what they are having in gluten free form. It seems like a little gesture but I can’t even begin to explain how appreciative I am. It’s so very thoughtful J

We finally got home and fired up the grill to make burgers. The weather was fairly nice yesterday and the sun was shining to what better to do than grill? Exactly. With our burgers we had baked sweet potato fries and mac n’ cheese. Gluten free variations were and Udi’s GF hamburger bun instead of regular and Annie’s Rice and Cheese pasta instead of the Velveeta. The guys tried the macaroni and bun and said they weren’t so bad! The macaroni really does taste just like regular. The bun however wouldn’t have been their first pick but they said they wouldn’t mind eating it if they had to. I was a delicious way to end our day. That and a few episodes of Walking Dead.  That show.. Woah.

The only thing I hate about having Tuesday’s off is when I come back to work my work week isn’t even half over yet L Oh well, glass half full mentality. I will conquer this week. Done.

I’ll be back later with WIAW shenanigans. Happy hump day J

Sunday Run Day

I woke up today and lolly gagged around the house, typical Sunday business. I had some oatmeal with peanut butter and strawberry jelly and got my dose of carbs because guess what? It's Sunday run day! I try to make Sunday my "long" running day for the week and then squeeze in a few shorter runs throughout the week. After my breakfast I finished some laundry and grabbed a Mean Mocha with a friend at a cute little coffee shop called Mean Bean. I needed a little caffeine rush before I hit the gym.

This happened today. So far this is where I am in my training. 8 miles! Only 5.1 more to go! My gym has a cinema room where I can watch movies on a big screen while I run so it doesn't make the run quite as painful. Today The Dark Knight was playing. SCORE.

Previously I've been running around 6.0-6.8 mph and it's been somewhat torturous. It also makes me want to stop and take short walking breaks. Today I decided to cut down the speed to 5.7 mph and it felt great! I ran the entire 8 miles and felt great afterwards.

After the gym I went to the grocery store to grab a a few necessities and then came home. I made an early dinner for Lauren and I which consisted of chicken with garlic, rosemary and sage and sweet potatoes. I tried a different type of sweet potato called a white fleshed sweet potato also known as a yellow sweet potato. It was good but not my absolute favorite. I've been hooked on red garnet sweet potatoes in the worst way recently.

Tonight was spa night at the Hanley-Hess household. We did our nails as we watched Friends with Benefits and did face masks. I did a chocolate strawberry face mask in light of the Valentines day season.

 It's the closest I'll be to celebrating Valentines day this year and I'm not mad about it :) Well aside from me baking GF strawberry cupcakes topped with chocolate covered strawberries that is.

Now to get ready for the upcoming week! Tootles

WIAW 1/6/13

I won't lie to you.. I slept in until 11 am today. I can't even tell you the last time I slept in that late. But hey, I was off work and I could.. So I did. Sue me. That being said, I waited a little bit to decide if I wanted breakfast or lunch. I came to the conclusion that I missed my shot at breakfast so I was going for lunch. One of my friends wanted to have lunch together so I took that as a sign that I had made the right decision. We had Applebees. I like their Unbelievably Great Tasting & Under 550 calories menu. It says it all in the name. Unbelievably Great Tasting & Under 550 calories. It's a win win. I had the Napa chicken. A grilled chicken breast with squash, zucchini, onions, portabella mushrooms and roasted red skin potatoes. YUM.

Later on for my afternoon pick me up I needed coffee. Hard. I stopped at Starbucks and grabbed a Skinny Carmel Vanilla latte.

 

I was originally supposed to make Mexican food when I met up with Bayli today but somehow that turned into a sweet potato dish? Oh well, it was so good that I'm not upset in the slightest. I sliced up sweet potato and red onion. Added dried cranberries, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, rosemary, thyme, and fresh cracked pepper. Then sauteed it up until the potatoes were beginning to brown and were just soft enough and the onions were cooked through. OMG. So good.

I decided this was basically dinner. After this I fit in my workout and a pedicure with my momma and then it was time to commence in a late night snack. That consisted of a bag of Kettle Corn Smart Pop and a handful of Wasabi Soy glazed almonds.



 

Needless to say, it was a satisfying day :)

Ze Cleanse

Last month I tried out a cleanse in efforts to clear up my skin a little bit. I stayed pretty hush about it at first just because I wanted to see if it would actually work or if it would just be a bogus cleanse like many others I have tried. To my delight this cleanse actually worked great! So great in fact that I am doing it once more this month. I am currently on day two actually. It is an Acai Berry cleanse. It's this one right here actually..

I noticed within the first three days of taking the recommended two capsules in the morning and two in the evening that my skin began to clear up. Let me rewind for a moment and explain why I thought turning to a cleanse would be a good way to clear up my skin. The skin is a direct reflection of our colon. If our colon isn't healthy (which no matter how much you poo, it still probably isn't as healthy as you think) it holds on to things for god only knows how long. Everything that is held in there isn't good for our bodies and our skin directly reflects it.

I highly recommend this cleanse. Not only is it effective but it is also cost friendly. I got mine for around $15 at Kroger. You can find it at just about any drugstore, health store or supermarket.

After this past weekend, I couldn't think of a better time to start a cleanse. It's safe to say that I was in the mindset that calories just must not count during your birthday weekend.. oops. Between the ice cream and chocolate wine..

 I decided my body needed a flush.

While doing the cleanse I do my best to eat a clean. Lots of fruits and veggies and lean protein and whole grains such as oats and brown rice. I have put a limit on how much sugar and dairy I can have because I don't want to completely deprive myself. I like ice cream too much for all that noise. So, instead of having a whole bowl I will limit myself to a couple bites. Same goes for other dairy. Yogurt is okay but cheese and other cow dairy I will steer clear from. I usually do anyways because cow dairy is actually horrible for us humans.

In other news, I am off today so I am mainly running errands and doing odd ball things. I made a pit stop at my aunts to pick up a gift that my grandparents sent me for my birthday. They got me an awesome necklace that is a Kanji (Japanese writing) for Generosity with my birthstone in it. It is right up my alley.

 

Next I'm off to experiment in the kitchen with my friend Bayli.. Stay tuned for how that goes. I think today we are tackling something Mexican :) Then Mom and I are meeting for pedi's! Woo hoo! With all this running I've been doing I can honestly say that I can never not use a pedicure.. but really what girl would say that anyways? After that, Lauren and I are going to workout as we catch up on our PLL. What an awesome day off :) Happy hump day y'all!