May Trial

New month, new trial! From previous posts, you can see that I love counting macros. However, the point of this blog was for me to try out different things so for May I’m going to try out…the South Beach Diet! The only difference with this trial though is I’m just going to do the first phase which is two weeks long and then decide if I want to do phase two for the final two weeks, continue on with phase one, or go back to counting macros. Time will tell!

What I’m looking forward to with this trial is that I’m going to follow the exact meal plan as much as I can.  I’ve done South Beach before where I just eat any of the food that’s “allowed” but I thought it would be good to actually follow exactly what they recommend for the three meals and two snacks every day.

I’m also considering (emphasis on that word) doing a two week caffeine detox at the same time. I had previously decided to give up pop starting on May 1st but I was thinking about it at work last night and I think it might be beneficial to give up coffee for two weeks. We shall see, it’ll probably be determined on Friday morning when I wake up depending on how tired I am haha

Desk Eats

I have a couple different jobs, one being where I sit at a desk for 8 hours a day. I tend to use food to break up the day (sorta sad, sorta great) so I snack on various things throughout the work day! They vary from day to day depending on what sounds good/ fits my macros but here is an example of what I eat while at my desk during a day 🙂

First up is some oatmeal. Recently I’ve been having a tough time getting up early enough in the mornings so that I can cook my egg whites and turkey bacon. When that happens I grab one of these oatmeals (that conveniently have their own cup) and eat it at my desk as soon as I get to work. Macros are: 33 carb, 2 fat, 4 protein. A bit higher on carbs than I would normally like but definitely keeps me full.

Second is coffee. (What an artistic photo of my to-go mug). I always make a cup before I leave in the morning and then sip on it throughout the first couple hours of work. Sometimes I’ll grab another cup in the afternoon but a lot of times I have a cup of tea instead.

Quest products are ~amazing~. This is what I had today around 10. I usually bring one snack with me to have at either 10 am or 2 pm, and today I obviously couldn’t wait til the afternoon. Cookie dough is one of my top three. The other two flavors would probably be smore’s and chocolate brownie. (Let’s talk about how they just released mint chocolate chunk because I NEED TO HAVE IT). Macros: 21 carb, 8 fat, 21 protein

Other typical snacks for me would be almonds, a banana, “skinny” popcorn, or quest chips. Some days I’ll bring a diet coke and I have that at 11am (I will not let myself have it even a minute early). I made a deal with my sister to give up pop for the summer so starting on May 1st I’ll have to figure out a new 11 am drink 🙂

Your Turn:

– What are you favorite snacks to eat at work?

April Macros

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t feel like I’ve been quite as strict on my macros this month which is a shame. My birthday was the 9th so for a few days I just didn’t track at all/definitely had two donuts for breakfast on my birthday.

Yesterday I recommitted to macros though so I’m back on track! My main issue that I have to be very aware of is that working at Starbucks, it’s easy to take a bite of a pastry (free food markouts each shift) or have a little bit of frappuccino. I promised myself yesterday though that I would stop, and so last night at work I brought a QuestBar (Smores is da bomb) and that’s what I ate on break!

I am going to ~try~ to do a WIAT post on Thursday for what I eat tomorrow but we shall see if that actually happens! haha

March Macro Summary

My march trial was counting macros and I absolutely LOVED it! So much so, that I’ll be doing it for April (if not longer). I even invested in a better digital scale yesterday so you know it’s getting real for me. Even if in May I decide to try a different diet approach, I think I’ll still incorporate counting macros into it.

I lost about 2 pounds this month but the first two weeks of the month I took the entire weekend off counting macros so reaaaaally, it’s been about 2 pounds in the last two weeks 🙂

My favorite part of this is how you can fit in treats that other diets would restrict you on and not feel guilty! For me, I fit in plenty of Reeses Oreos and on several occasions an Arctic Ice (obsessed).

I think for April since I’m doing Macros again, I’ll focus more on doing “What I Ate In a Day” type of posts. I’ll start next Monday!

(also I am .3 pounds away from my first goal weight in my fit journey and then I can buy new tennis shoes!)

Macro Counting Update

^^ I’ve been eating a lot of protein waffles recently and I’m obsessed. I use 2 servings of Kodiak Protein Pancake Mix (76 g) and either 20g or 40 g of protein powder depending on my macros for the day. Mix with water, top with sprinkles and sugar-free syrup and you’re ready to go!

I think my favorite thing about counting macros is that you can actually fit in foods that on other diets would be restricted. For instance, last Thursday I had a decent amount of fat/carbs leftover so I was able to get a chocolate cookie and a skinny caramel macchiato at work:

For me, what works best is entering everything into MyFitnessPal the night before so that I have time to make adjustments. Then, I just follow that meal plan for the day! Super easy and I really do enjoy counting macros, it’s almost like solving a brainteaser or a puzzle every night to hit your perfect numbers.

On nights when I don’t have a ton of macros leftover but I’m still craving something sweet, I’ve been turning to Arctic Ice:

The macros on it are amazing! I usually spread out the pint between two nights. Usually.

Last update would be that for me, if you’ve been following my other trial, you know that I’m obsessed with coffee creamer. Therefore it’s been SUPER important that I absolutely measure that out every morning. I let myself have 2 tablespoons which is 3 g of fat and 10 g of carb and that’s all I can let myself have.

~Down 2 pounds this month from macro counting which gives me a grand total of 6 pounds lost since starting the health trials at the beginning of February!

First week of counting macros

After going to IIFYM.com and calculating my TDEE and using their macro calculator, I ended up changing it up a little which left me with macro goals of: 167 grams of carbs, 37 grams of fat, and 85 grams of protein.

I really enjoy counting macros! I find it fun, almost like a puzzle, to calculate what I’ll be eating each day so I hit those numbers. Depending on the day, I usually somehow end up with one category that I still need to hit but it gets hard to meet the goals because even though I might have 30 grams of carbs left, I can’t use any more grams of fat or protein which makes the food choice harder. Today though, I’m like right on it so GO ME.

For this past week, my typical breakfast looked like this:

Or I would put the egg whites and bacon on an english muffin.

I discovered the magic that is Kodiak Protein Pancake mix this week. Life changing. (Might be dramatic but IT’S SO EASY AND GOOD).

Picture of my life-changing waffles here:

Last picture I want to share is of this snack that I’ve been dying to try since they got released last year:

Verdict? Disappointed 😦 They were super crumbly and had a very…bland?…taste to them. If I was craving chips and was going to use this to try to replace them, I don’t think it would work. I’m still sort of curious to try the cheddar and sour cream ones but they’ll have to wait for a while because A. They’re 2.50 a bag B. They were sold out

I’m really enjoying this process so far and I’m excited to see if it yields some positive results for me. I’ve also started lifting as of last Monday which I already love!

First day of counting macros

^^^This is what I look like trying to figure out my macros for the day.

Let me just start out with saying that I failed yesterday. I actually did do really well all day but then at work last night (I work at Starbucks in the evening) I had a cookie. OH WELL. That’s life. I’ll just count that as a transition day.

For today though, I have everything planned out and I won’t be caving in to a cookie at work tonight. I barely go over fat for the day (just by 1g) and then I’m a little below on my protein/carbs but if I don’t get out of work early, I won’t be able to workout so I’m not to worried about it. If I do workout, I’ll drink a protein shake to up my carbs/protein.

Counting macros takes a lot of time and having to figure out the right combination of foods to hit your numbers is a little difficult. I’m counting on the fact that there is a learning curve and hopefully as this month goes on I’ll get faster and better at it.

Vegan Month is over!

Officially done with trial 1! While it was a good experience and I enjoyed the diet change I definitely don’t think I’m one who is meant to be vegan. I noticed that as the month went on I got less healthier with my choices because I’m fairly busy so I was continuing to get lazier. For instance, this past week I ate a lot ( and I mean A LOT) of bananas with peanut butter. Oops. Enjoyed every bite though haha Last week I also got chips and guacamole twice.

Here are my lists of pros and cons of being vegan-

Pros: ate way less processed food, tried some different recipes, ate more vegetables and fruit

Cons: if I didn’t have time to cook I grabbed unhealthy items, my food choices were repetitive (this is more my fault than anything), I learned fairly quickly that a lot of products have milk derivatives in it which was annoying

Now, to address my sleeping. As you know, I set out on this whole trial experience to figure out what would help me actually stay asleep at night and feel more rested during the day. Did being vegan help this? I did actually notice a difference. I more often slept through the night AND that afternoon slump that I was used to getting everyday I wasn’t getting which was AMAZING. Part of me thinks this has to do with just eating less processed food but it might have been because I cut out dairy and meat. Time will tell!

Measurements: I lost a half inch on my hips, inch on my waist, and half inch on my thigh! Wish I would have had more time to work out this month so that the difference could have been greater. Lost about 4.5 pounds as well.

So….what is my March trial? I’m counting Macros! #MacroMarch (so creative, I know). For those that don’t know what counting macros means, it means you track how many grams of protein, carbs, and fat you eat daily. If you go to IIFYM.com, you can use their calculator to figure out how many grams of each you should be eating to fit your diet/goals. I’m VERY excited for this flexible dieting approach.

P.S. First thing I did this morning was run (literally) down the stairs and make my coffee with dairy creamer. OH HOW I’VE MISSED YOU ❤

Week 3 of being vegan-recap

I unfortunately didn’t get any pictures this week…though it is probably a good thing because I didn’t eat as healthy as I wanted to.

My vegan eats this week included:

vegan waffles with sugar free syrup, chili, salads, veggies & hummus, protein smoothies, and wraps. THEN on Saturday night I decided to order a vegan pizza from papa john’s (aka just skip the cheese) and was very disappointed 😦 I think next time I would just go to the store and buy a frozen vegan pizza that actually has the cheese on it.

As with the past few weeks, it’s not that hard to eat vegan- just annoying at times if you go out to eat and you have a limited selection. I have continued to notice that I don’t get that afternoon slump anymore where I struggle to stay awake at work so that has probably been the most positive change I’ve noticed from switching up my diet this month.

At the end of this week, I’ll post if I lost any weight or inches from this diet change. For March, I’m deciding between being pescetarian (only allowing fish-no other meat) or counting macros. I’m also open to suggestions if anybody has any recommendations!

P.S. still VERY much miss my coffee creamer

The Week of Quinoa

Second week of being vegan is finished. Just like last week, it wasn’t difficult but I did get sick of the food I ate because I made the world’s largest quantity of quinoa (that wasn’t that great) and then forced to just eat that over and over again haha

Here is the batch of quinoa I made:

I threw in some black beans, peas, red peppers, mushroom and corn.

Now for the different ways I ate it during the week.

1. By itself (I also tried putting vegan chicken in it but it was disgusting so I didn’t eat it. Topped it with avocado and hot sauce)

2. Over a salad. I use olive oil/red wine vinegar as a dressing on top.

3. On pasta with sauce.

If I hadn’t ran out of wraps, I would have made some sort of burrito with it as well but alas I didn’t have any.

ANYWAYS, enough about the quinoa. Other things I ate included vegan waffles (didn’t have syrup though), vegan chili (Amy’s brand- pretty good), and a couple of salads that I picked up. I once again made those peanut butter protein balls but added cranberries and vegan dark chocolate pieces which made them even better.

This week my goal is to up my protein because I got a charley horse for the first time in over a year this week. 2 more weeks to go!