What I Ate Wednesday # I need to figure that out ;)

Happy Hump Day Y'all! So, today is bound to be a BUSY one! We have so many appointments and things to get done. So this will be a quick one!

I had a very healthy week last week and this coupled with my workouts I am really starting to see some abs coming back ;) Can't wait to take some 30 day pictures!

Shakeology has been had each and everyday post workout. Apples, cinnamon, pb my favorite tastes like an apple pie snack. A treat from this organic place down the road. Bananas, pb, and dark chocolate because sometimes you just need that. Banana, string cheese, two dates, and pistachios. 

In the top left, frozen watermelon is amazeballs try it if you haven't, egg scramble, and raisin toast, blueberry coffee cake, and vegan coffee, sweet potato leftover breakfast bowl. Tuna salad, eggs and salad. Chicken and cheese crescents with fruit and veggies, steak bites with twice baked potatoes and zucchini, and some lo-mein after a movie on Sunday ;)

Workouts

I've been really good about following my workout schedule this month. I've really stuck to it and added in some things and I am sore in the most amazing way!

Last Tuesday I did a 30 minute run and saw this project called Cartas al Cielo read my post to learn more about it...it is awesome.

Last Wednesday: Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Thursday: 50 minute run and Insanity Cardio Abs

Friday: Insanity Cardio Recovery

Saturday: Cardio Power & Resistance...it was awesome:

Sunday: X-Stretch & a 20km bike ride...some in the rain ;)

Monday: 10km bike ride and Cardio Power and Resistance plus this:

Tuesday: 200 burpee's and a 20 minute run to calibrate my heart rate monitor (not easy) and stretching

Today: Will be a half hour run and Insanity cardio recovery and 200 burpees....on top of tons of walking due to meetings we have today and doing the last of the cleaning of our old apartment. It looks to be a very strenuous day so we shall see how all that goes.

I hope everyone has a healthy and fabulous Wednesday!

Glorious Summer What I Ate Wednesday +week in review of workouts!

I really have to get a better title for my What I Ate Wednesday posts...these are hard though because well, they are what they are! But, I had a *spam* commenter say the titles were "boring" and if a spammer thinks its boring...in my mind there is no doubt it is...so I need to get my creative brain flowing.....so this week I added "Glorious Summer" to the title since we kicked off summer vacation this past week finally....but, I still need to figure out what else to title these...for now though, I will continue to call a spade a spade ;)




I feel like I wasn't a very good journal-er for this week my food photos are really sort of random! ha!

Breakfast one morning: Oatmeal with almond milk, coconut oil, blueberries, chia seeds, blueberries, banana slices, cinnamon, and a tiny bit of vanilla sugar (I made, recipe coming soon it is amazing)

This was a quinoa scramble minus the eggs. We've been using up food because I am too lazy to transport it from one house to the other lol So this has a little bit of everything in it: peppers, onions, mushrooms, quinoa patties I made and had frozen topped with a bit of cheese. It was perfect after a nice 40 minute run & some insanity cardio recovery.

I confess: this is canned pineapple lol It was still delicious & I used the pineapple juice it was packed in to make a delicious drink with pineapple juice, pear juice, and some lemon...it was very yellow. :P

This is probably my most favorite salad ever! I will be posting the recipe soon...but it is so delish!

Hubby worked late one night and the kiddo and I didn't have to be creative so veggie nuggets and sweet potato pieces and onions it was. Easy, fast, and we had leftovers ;)

Finally...we had a great little treat day this past week on Friday. School let out Thursday so we partied hearty on Friday with a day at the beach & some delicious treats!

For me: Mojito...so tasty! For teenager: Coke

We split this tasty little concoction....nachos with salsa and guac and some chicken satay. Satay was a bit much for me I only had one skewer...the teenager devoured them though! 

Finally...some ice cream! No better way to kick off summer than some awesome ice cream and a walk on a bright sunny day along the canals of Amsterdam!

It was a great week and I really stuck to eating clean and healthy a majority of the time! This is good for me because I have been caught in a "cheating rut" for a while now...(btw, a "cheating rut" is where every meal is a cheat meal lol)

Now for my week in workouts! This has been a fantastic week for me. My legs are super sore, but I am more energized and feeling accomplished after my workouts even on days when I wasn't particularly looking forward to the workouts...

Last Wednesday: Ran 30 minutes and stretched...I did my C25K...it truly was an awful run. I was still lethargic after our Paris trip but, I got out there and did it and had a great time! 

Thursday: Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance

Friday: we were at the beach all day and our train coming home was late! We at dinner and I ALMOST didn't work out....but, I started getting mad at myself for not working out so I got up & did it! This is the end result of Insanity Pure Cardio! 

Sweaty & gross but feeling amazing!

Saturday: P90X Stretch and date night since it was raining all day I wasn't up for a run in the freezing rain ;)

Sunday: Got up at 7am and went for a run before everyone got up...did a 40 minute run then came home and did Insanity Cardio Recovery. 

Monday: 20 minute run with the teenager that included two sets of 20 second sprints, then some Insanity Cardio Abs...my abs still ache ;)

Tuesday: Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Starting today I may have to change my schedule around since it looks like it is supposed to be really rainy the rest of this week and I am not a fan of running in the rain in this colder European climate....but, hopefully it will be nice enough for me to get up and do my 40 minute scheduled run with my cardio recovery...but we will see...may wind up being pure cardio ;)

How about you...if you run do you run in the rain? If you don't run what is your favorite thing to do for exercise?

Menu Plan Monday-Fresh 20 Week 2 +workout Ideas

Well, hello! Last week my meal plan featured week one of the Fresh 20 cookbook. All my dinners were based around this and they did not disappoint! I've been sharing them on Instagram so if you aren't following me over there please do!

Here is what some of the meals from The Fresh 20 Cookbook:

This is the meal Parmasean Chicken Nuggets with Honey Glazed Herb Carrots and Orange Slices

This is the Coconut Curry Style Fish. If you aren't a fan of coconut this does have a very heavy coconut flavour so be warned...

This last one is the Pan Seared Chicken Panzanella. I just sprinkled a little balsamic vinegar on top & the kiddo ate hers with no dressing. It was really tasty, the flavors were amazing. I loved the homemade croutons I will be remembering that for the future!

I didn't make two of the recipes from this plan because we had two instances where we ate out and one instance where I made something different altogether. On Monday we had baked potatoes for Meatless Monday so I just took out the baked potato soup (I could tell my family just wouldn't like that one lol they aren't big soup fans) and we ate out a 2nd day because we were house hunting after a busy work day and the meal that  night was the korean style ribs & I couldn't find the short ribs anywhere in the city sadly. I may try this again but with some other type of beef.

But, overall all the recipes we made we loved and they are all family favorites now!

I think the best part of the book was the part where she tells you what to do to prep on Sunday night so you are set and ready for the week.

Now on to the meal plan....

This week my Breakfasts, lunches, and snacks are based off of Blogilates 12 Week New Body Makeover meal plans. I've been really suffering from eating poorly and need to get back on track. She is someone I can trust to give amazing advice so I figure I would follow her plans.

Breakfasts:
Oatmeal with banana coins and raisins, 3 egg whites
Yoghurt parfait and banana pancakes with almond butter/coconut oil drizzle
Brioche for the hubby and kiddo as grab and go for possible late days
Sunday: Banana Berry Crepes

**Prep: I will do over night oats for the oatmeal (1 cup almond milk with the oats & 1 T chia seeds & I will slice the bananas & divide up the raisins & let it set in the fridge. Morning of if I want I will heat it up & I will boil up a bunch of eggs & serve with hard boiled egg whites, I will also premake the parfaits & banana pancakes, crepes cooked fresh)

Lunches:
Hubby eats in the cafeteria at work each day and the teenager will take these items as well
Turkey, Spinach, Red Pepper Wrap and Pear
Ultra Clean Meatballs, sweet potato and roasted cauliflower
Sunday: Almond butter smoothie for me & the kiddo; hubby will snack

Snacks:
Apple slices with almond butter or pecans, fruit/veggies, edamame/pineapple, shakeology balls

Dinners:
Monday: Greek style lamb tacos with cucumber yoghurt sauce (I am unbelievably excited about these lol)
Tuesday: Orange Jalapeno Shrimp with broccoli and brown rice/For hubby: chicken wings with rice and corn (this will be my 2nd fave I think lol)
Wednesday: Chicken Satay with peanut noodles and cucumber salad
Thursday: Guacamole Tostadas with fried eggs/omelette, bacon, and toast for the hubby
Friday: Lamb pennewith a green salad/cucumber relish
Saturday: Cheeseburgers with potato wedges/sweet potato wedges
Sunday: Eat out, will try to do something fun like grab dinner and do bowling, we saw a place that looked like a decent restaurant with bowling so will see if we can stumble upon that again. As a side note this is a very busy day for us we catch a train (hour ride) to the teenager's cheer practice (it is 4 hours long +the 1 hour ride there & back for a total of 6 hours) and when I get home am pretty thoroughly exhausted so we will change "New Restaurant Friday" to "Sunday Funday Explorations"

Desserts:
We are giant dessert people. After dinner we love to have dessert together so I have put together some options that are picky hubby friendly, teenager friendly, and healthy for me.

Me: banana ice cream (I will season it with some cinnamon probably), shakeology "ice cream"
Hubby & Teenager: Milk & Cookies, and Coke Floats. I am doing this so they don't feel deprived. The milk & cookies hubby takes two cookies teenager one and milk is always allowed we use full fat. For the coke floats I use smaller glasses (honestly this isn't by choice glasses are just naturally smaller here lol)

So, that is what we are looking at this week. I can't wait to get to making it, everything sounds so delicious! I am really looking forward to those lamb tacos, I think they will be amazing!

Now, this week's workouts!

Last week I completed week one of C25K. Plus a week's worth of barre classes on YouTube. This week will be similar, just the workouts I'm doing after the run & on non-run days will be different.

Monday: C25K Day 4 and Standing Abs
Tuesday: 1000 Calorie Workout-HIIT Cardio, Strength, Kickboxing and Abs
Wednesday: (hopefully I am still alive after Tuesday lol) C25K Day 5 and Stretch
Thursday: Another 1000 Calorie Workout just because I am totally insane
Friday: C25K Day 6 and Thousand Burpee Burnout just because I want to be in pain
Saturday: Quiet apartment workout and a ton of walking because we will go do something touristy
Sunday: Yoga/Stretch/Walk (As mentioned above I will be spending 4 hours at the teenager's cheer stuff so I will use a corner of the gym to to do some stretching and recuperating from the week's workouts)

What are you most looking forward to cooking this week? Do you take a day off and eat out? What about workouts, are you working toward any goals?