21 Day Fix START

This Summer, and my LOVE AFFAIR with Dairy Queen, has left me with the memory and 10 extra pounds. 

As much as this isn't thrilling, I am still incredibly motivated and PROUD that I completed each workout, just about everyday. So yes, I have more weight, BUT I also have more muscle, and I have come out of the Summer stronger (and with a habit that must be broken!).

I am happy to say, I went to Dairy Queen last night with my girls, and got myself NOTHING! 

I may have had to sing to myself to drown out the voices telling me to just get one (doesn't anyone else hear these voices?!), but nevertheless, I did it!

That being said, I'm ready. I'm ready to achieve the goal I set out to one year ago. I have made STRONG headway, but I know I still have this hump to get over. This hump happens to be my love for food! :P

So now, what better program to get me back on track with nutrition, than my trustee 21 Day Fix. 

I have posted below, my meal plan and workout regime for the next 7 days!

There is my plan of action. I will STILL be filling out my daily tracker forms, just to be sure I don't miss anything, or add anything to my diet that shouldn't be there. I mean seriously, this is a LOT of food. When I am eating right, I realize just how much food I CAN and SHOULD eat. 

My problem this week will probably be eating it all! And water. Who else has been sucking at getting their water intake? (ME ME ME!!)

I am going to get stocked tonight on food, and getting myself a GINORMOUS water bottle that will be my mission to finish twice per day. It will be filled every night before bed, and then again mid afternoon. 

Before pictures to follow! 

Post-Vacation WEIGHT GAIN

It happens to the best of us!

Good intentions, but then temptation hits at your weakest moments (aka after driving for 20 hours and the lights of a Tim Hortons come into view…).

Needless to say, two weeks on the road, followed by a road trip with my dad (the man who loves pizza AND was pulling a trailer so couldn't drive into any healthy spots) led me to a weight gain of 7 lbs. 

I am pleased to tell you that after being home a mere 6 days, I have lost three of those pounds thanks to my girl Autumn Calabrese and the 21 Day Fix. I WILL be doing a challenge group for this program SOON if you find you're in the same boat btw! 

I am SO happy to have the container system back in my life! I gave it to my mom thinking I didn't need the structure anymore. MAN was I WRONG!

Today being Sunday, it's my day to read, clean, meal prep and just ENJOY. I typically don't workout too much on a Sunday, but today, I felt I needed something INTENSE, so I went with Insanity. If anybody has ever tried this, it is a HUMBLING experience even for the BEST of athletes. BUT, about half an hour after the "I'll never do that workout again" feeling, I just want to do it AGAIN, but do it BETTER! It re-motivates me every time I do it, to be stronger, more agile, and more DEDICATED to becoming BETTER.

SO, as always, I have included my meal plan, and this week, I plan on doing DOUBLES, every single day. (minus my rest day of course… Your body needs REST!)

Another thing I sucked at royally? WATER! Clearly this wasn't a good couple weeks for me! I will be caring around my trusty Contigo Cup, filling it on an hourly basis to keep me remaining hydrated. I was wondering why I was having MASSIVE headaches. 

Heres to eating CLEANER this week (with my couple indulgences being my Chocolate Cookie Dough Pop Tarts and Almonds dipped in Nutella, it's a lifestyle, NOT deprivation!) and CRUSHING my workouts not just for weight loss, but to feel ACCOMPLISHED after getting my butt HANDED to me by the one and only Shaun T, Autumn, and finishing out my PiYo with Chalene! 

PS. I just had a CRAZY reality check when I realized there was only FOUR months left of this year. How crazy is that?! Heres to being in the BEST shape of my life by 2015! I did it last year, and really DID get into the best shape of my life at THAT point by 2014, but now it's time to step it up! 

Love you all! 

xXx

PiYo Review and Follow Up

I started PiYo this week!

I am going to be VERY truthful in saying that I thought this workout was going to be a bore. I am so NOT a Yogi in any shape or form. 

I went to Yoga ONE TIME, and the entire time I was thinking how I wished I was doing Insanity or T25. When she told us to turn our minds off, I thought about how I have too many things to be doing to sit in a pose for 5 minutes.

That being said, I heard PiYo and thought while this will be great for those who love Yoga, I will definitely not be one of those people.

WOW. I am SO stunned at how AMAZING this workout actually is. 

Do you sit in poses for long periods of time? NO.

Are they fast paced? YES.

Are they suitable even for a beginner such as myself? YES.

Will they provide STRENGTH training for those who are athletic? YES.

I feel like I've been working parts of my body I didn't know existed. I feel SORE! The BEST pain, right?

Not only that, but I actually look forward to my workouts each morning, my ME TIME. Any moms out there TREASURE this time?!

I don't have VISIBLE results YET, it's only been a week. BUT, I can tell you I feel WAY more flexible, and strong like I haven't felt before.

I am doing T25 Speed 3.0 (my nemesis) tonight, so see if there is any difference in how difficult it is for me.

All in all I feel AMAZING after this week. My nutrition could have been better. As you saw from last week, there was NO meal plan posted. 

Because I didn't even make one. You know what means… EPIC FAILURE!

I am back on track with eating right now, as I'm doing the 3 Day Refresh to kickstart this and get my eating back to an level playing field. (Review to Follow!)

Here is my plan for next week!

Have a great day! Can't WAIT to review The 3 Day Refresh on Tuesday!

xXx

If you want to do PiYo WITH me in my next group, July 28th, email me ASAP so you can get yours to you in time!

mskfitness@yahoo.ca

Weekly Follow up & Meal Plan

It has been SUCH a busy month (I'm sorry for the lack of posting!).

With Summit, new trainings, enjoying the heat, it's been a lot of fun, but I need to get back on track!

I'm going to start off with my victory of the week! (LOL At least there is ONE!) This week I stuck to my workouts, doing a hybrid of Turbofire & T25! I swear, I can't function without a proper workout each day. Turbofire can be really long, so on days I just couldn't fit it in, I did T25 for a shorter one. Variety of different workouts can definitely come in handy. ;)

For nutrition, well, let's just say I was not prepared, at all. Preparation is KEY if you want to be successful, and I ate whatever was around and convenient through the busy-ness of the week. 

This has led me to CRAZY cravings, my blood sugar is all over the place, and my waistline, well, let's just say I refuse to step on a scale!

The good thing is, last week is water under the bridge. It's OVER, done with, and there is nothing I can do but look to today to do my absolute BEST. I feel completely motivated to get back up and do even BETTER than I ever have. NEVER let "failure" define you, it actually makes you BETTER. Through my failures, I have learned SO much, and this is no different. It has validated that I do need to plan, and I need to seriously gain control of my cravings.

But, how?

I have created a meal plan below, and am planning on eaten every 3 hours. When I eat every 3 hours, I feel in control of my cravings. Yes, of course, I still want pizza if it's in front of me, but I don't need it. See the difference? 

Now, WHAT do eat every 3 hours? It's not about your calorie intake over the entire day, but at each MEAL. I am shooting for 250-300 calories at each meal, and a balance of protein, fats, and carbs. My goal is for my body to be a fat burning machine! For my body to be able to continue building muscle, instead of depleting it from not eating for hours and hours at a time. The more you feed and work your muscle, the higher your metabolism, if and only if, you're feeding your muscles on a proper interval, with sufficient nutrition. By eating like this, and fuelling your body, you won't FEEL the need to give in to cravings, but you'll be able to control them. 

You will be in control.

THAT is what I've always struggled with. Below I am sharing my meal plan. Feel free to work off of it, or if you need help, email me at mskfitness@yahoo.ca and we'll get you going on YOUR goals!

This week I am also starting PiYo, so I want to make sure I MAXIMIZE my results. Eating fuels the fire, your exercise will burn off the fat and build muscle! PiYo is incorporating strength, flexibility AND cardio, I will be sharing this week how I am liking it! 

Stay tuned for the review!

Meal Prep Recipes!

I often like to post what I make for my meal prep to share what I make, but also to hold me accountable to actually doing it. (Let's be honest, sometimes we just don't WANT to, but it's so worth it once it's done!)

When I posted this picture, I had a lot of people asking for recipes, so I wanted to share the recipes for these four! These are SO easy to make. I know it may seem daunting to make all four of these in one evening, but it's not, at all. As one is cooking, so are the others, so you actually have time to just sit and relax while they cook (and make your house smell amazing!).

Here are the recipes below!

Quinoa Stir Fry 

Ingredients:

2 cups of Quinoa (rinsed in a sieve)

4 cups of water or low sodium chicken broth

Coconut Oil

Onions

Mushrooms

Spinach

Broccoli

(ANY vegetable, I use this recipe to empty my fridge of any and all vegetables before they go bad; I refuse to throw out food!)

4 cloves of garlic (minced)

Soy Sauce

Chicken (I add the chicken I cook during my meal prep once it's all done)

Feta cheese **optional

Green Onions **optional

1. Cook Quinoa as per package directions with 2 cups of quinoa to 4 cups of water/chicken broth. I add in 1 tbs of soy sauce and garlic/pepper.

2. Star the frying pan, and melt 1 tbs of coconut oil. Add in minced garlic and let cook for about 1 minute (be careful not to burn).

3. Add in all the vegetables, stir so they're all coated, and let cook.

4. Once the quinoa is done, mix it into the vegetables. If you have chicken on hand thats cooked already, put it in before you put the quinoa in. If not, you can easily add chicken later!

5. Garnish with feta cheese & green onions!

Shredded Chicken

**I make this several times a week!**

Ingredients

6 Chicken Breasts

3 TBS of Coconut Oil

1 Tbs of Chili Powder

1 tbs of Garlic Powder

1/2 Tbs of Pepper

1. Start the oven at 350.

2. Place your chicken in the casserole dish (use one with a lid, not necessary but tastes so much better!)

3. Put 1/2 tbs of coconut oil onto each chicken breast. You don't have to spread it, just dollop it on top of each.

4. Sprinkle the seasonings onto the chicken. (add which ones you'd like too!)

5. Put into the oven for 30 minutes. I check it at 25 minutes just in case, I don't want it to be dry. 

6. Let it cool for 5 minutes and cut it up into slices so you can easily put into a wrap or salad.

VOILA!

Sweet & Sour Chicken

Family Favorite! Put on top of Quinoa, Rice, in a bun, etc. 

Ingredients

1 Pack of Chicken Thighs

1/4 cup of Soy Sauce

1/4 cup of Ketchup

1/2 cup of honey (I use just a little bit less than 1/2 a cup)

1 Red Onion, minced

Crockpot

1. In a big bowl, combine all ingredients except the chicken and whisk.

2. Place your chicken thighs on the bottom of the crockpot.

3. Pour over the mixture.

4. Let sit on high for 2 hours.

Serve over rice or quinoa, and garnish with Sri Racha and Green onions!

Homemade Marinara

Make lots so you can freeze; you'll never have to buy sauce from the store again!

Ingredients

1 small carton of mushrooms (about 15), chopped

1 Red Onion

4-6 Cloves of Garlic, minced

1 Tbs Butter

1 tbs Olive Oil

1 tsp of Pepper

1 Can of Tomato Paste

2 Cans of Diced Tomatoes

1 can of Tomato Sauce (plain, just tomatoes)

1 tbs of Italian Seasoning

1. In a frying pan, put your butter, olive oil, and garlic on medium. Let sit for 1-2 minutes, but do not let burn.

2. Add in chopped onion and mushroom and stir. Sprinkle on pepper.

3. Let sit for about 5 minutes until onions are about clear.

4. While it's cooking, open all cans of tomatoes and pour into a big sauce pan. 

5. Now that onions and mushrooms are done, (how amazing does it smell by the way?!) place mixture into your magic bullet cup or blender and blend.

6. Pour into sauce, sprinkle italian seasoning, and stir.

7. Let simmer for 2-3 hours.

Perfect as a pizza sauce, with meatballs on pasta, or anything you'd use sauce for!

ENJOY! These are my favourite recipes and ones I consistently make. Each week I try to make something new so I can add a new favourite to the list.

TIP: Keep track of all the recipes you've tried, you are bound to forget which ones you liked and disliked. This will make meal prep easier for you! 

How to Eat Healthy on a Budget

I love to budget.

 Literally LOVE to budget. It gives me butterflies to know I get to make a new budget when something is paid off, or we get an increase in pay, or I’ve found a way to decrease a bill. #callmecrazy

I hear time and time again, people say that it’s too expensive to eat healthy, so they just eat JUNK. Okay, this is your LIFE we’re talking about. I find because you can’t SEE the inner workings of your body, we take it for granted. We think nothing is wrong. We don’t think the food we’re eating is really screwing up our insides.

Why do you think our bodies need to EAT? They need FUEL. Our cells and our BODIES are SO complex, and it needs fuel to RUN, for our organs to function, for our digestive tract to run smoothly. Did you know that by eating junk & processed foods, our digestive tract cannot function properly? Did you also know that disease can be cultivated IN your digestive tract? Your body doesn’t know HOW to process this food. Your cells are STARVING which is why after eating junk, you STILL want to eat.

Okay, so now I’ll get into what I want this blog to actually be about. J

I don’t pay substantially more for my health right now than I did before buying junk, eating out, and buying lots of processed foods.

Here’s how I do it.

1)   Take an inventory of what’s in your pantry, and what you have for fruit and vegetables. Make sure you figure out recipes you can make using THESE and incorporating the non perishables like soups, canned tomatoes, beans, etc into your meal plan.

2)   Look at your local grocery story flyers. See what’s on sale and what is in season that will cost LESS to buy than usual. I make recipes as per the sales that are going on that week. If turkey is on sale, you can bet I am going to buy a turkey and make Turkey stir fry, turkey soup, turkey dinner, sandwiches, etc. Chicken goes on sale about once or twice a month at my grocery store, so I buy 5 packages of chicken when it does go on sale. It was $3.99/lb this week!!! That’s $5 a lb LESS! When bread is on sale, I buy something like 5-8 loaves, or wraps, and freeze them!

3) Make a meal plan. This I know, is a pain in the butt sometimes and requires a lot of Pinterest action (I am hooked on this website). It DOES get easier. Plan to only grocery shop ONCE every two weeks. Keep a running list of your favourite recipes so you can easily incorporate them in on future meal plans. :) 

4) Make sure you EAT before you get your grocery shopping done. The WORST is being HUNGRY
when you’re shopping. I spend about 50-75% MORE when I’m hungry. Yep, the bakery gets me every time.

5) When you get home, figure out what will go bad FIRST, and make sure you have those things being made right away.

6) Do a MEAL PREP day. Throw some chicken into the oven, cook some veggies so they're already made, cut up fruit, boil some eggs, and I always like to try out 1-2 new recipes. (Slow cooker recipes are my FAVORITE, or casseroles, easy to freeze!)

Here's what one of my BASIC meal preps look like. It may look like it takes a lot of time, but really, I throw chicken in the oven, quinoa in a pot, veggies in steamer, and then sit and read or have ME time while it cooks! 

7) SO many meals can be FROZEN. If you have leftovers, freeze them! Made too much? FREEZE! Intentionally make too much so you CAN freeze! Makes life a heck of a lot easier. Your future self will thank you :)

Quick Tips:

Romaine can last up to two weeks if stored properly, if not longer. That way you can eat a salad right up until it’s time to grocery shop again.

Don’t buy ANY junk food or processed food. THIS is what adds so many dollars to my grocery bill when I go. Now I go alone, with my list, and with a time limit so I don’t impulse buy!

If you want cookies, buy the ingredients for them. It is something FUN you can do with your kids, or on a rainy day. Make a bunch and FREEZE. Way better for you than processed ones anyway!

Leave things like potatoes, and sweet potatoes for the second week as they don’t go bad near as quickly. Mine last me about a month stored in a cool, dry place. (So I only have to buy them ONCE per month)

If you find you have ANY unused vegetables or fruit left, and they’re about to be expired, make something and FREEZE. Your next grocery shop & meal plan will be SO much easier with a bunch of stuff already frozen! Think banana bread, banana cookies (can you tell bananas often go bad in my house), casseroles, stir fry with every last vegetable you have, etc.

When you do your meal prep, cook DOUBLE batches of most or some of your meals. This will cost you less, as you already HAVE the ingredients, and you can freeze the one half. Again, this will flow into your next meal plan, and you’ll find you have so much frozen!

If you have ANY leftovers, adjust your meal plan. Take out something that you use non-perishables for, as those won’t go bad, and add that ALREADY into your NEXT meal plan, and substitute it with your leftovers.

NEVER WASTE ANYTHING!

This can easily take off HUNDREDS of dollars from your grocery bill! It doesn’t HAVE to cost a ton more to eat healthy!

**In order to eliminate having to purchase my greens, supplements, antioxidants and probiotics to cover deficiencies in our diets, I purchase Shakeology. This also replaces my lunch. I allot so much for my supplements and heart healthy vitamins, etc, and this covers that and BONUS, now I don’t have to cook lunch for myself.**

I hope this helps!

Krys
xXx

Week in HAWAII!

This past two weeks have been AMAZING!

My vacation was absolutely unreal! I went with my mom, so I basically got to live for a week, as a kid again. Riding around in the backseat, not having to figure out how to drive in a new place (PS, I'm one of those annoying tourists who "forgets" how to drive when I'm somewhere new LOL), and really just disconnected and relaxed.

I wanted to write this post to share that I was NOT perfect in my eating habits. Not in the least. BUT, I am a foodie on vacation. I literally travel so I can try new foods; I research restaurants before I go, and get excited to eat all sorts of new foods, whether they are healthy or not. Needless to say, I didn't follow any structure with my eating. If I wanted it, I ate it.

Came home, got on the scale just because I was curious. I gained a whopping 12 lbs. 12!

A year ago, I would have beat myself up, felt bad, guilty and a ton of other negative feelings. Then, I'd feel so bad about myself, I'd lie around and continue the cycle until the thought of going on a "diet" and working out, was daunting. This time,  I honestly did not even flinch. I was wowed that a number like that could happen in such a short amount of time, but it made me laugh!

So, what's the shift?

I live a healthy lifestyle. I AM healthy. I love nourishing my body with what it needs, and doing my workouts makes me feel good. It's not something I'd ever give up. To be completely honest, it's actually empowering! The BEST feeling is knowing that it'll be gone no problem. That I can go out and enjoy myself, and not have to worry about "falling off the wagon" so to speak. When I made this a lifestyle, there was no more falling off the wagon. If I wanted something sweet, or unhealthy, I made a conscious decision to indulge. It's no longer about finding the motivation to do it, or having the mentality of diets and restriction. I eat what I want. On the same token, I have learned SO much about nutrition, and about MY body and how I truly enjoy my life MORE when I feel GREAT. I started focusing on foods that make me feel GREAT instead of focusing on foods I can't eat. 

We all want what we can't have, right?

Make it about what you CAN have. 

Anyway, this week I have been SO excited to get back to my workouts that I've been doubling up. I've MISSED the feeling after a workout. I've missed the feeling of being HEALTHY, feeling light, invigorated, energetic. 

I've jumped RIGHT back in with P90X and T25, and back to tracking my macros and eating whole, clean foods. 

I'll post my meal plan for next week on Sunday! Vegas is only FOUR weeks away! Going to be surrounded by my Beachbody family, AND I even get a photo op with a celeb trainer… Need to get back to WORK so I can maybe even show off some guns in my pic ;)