Mini Meals… Follow Up.

I need to be more careful of typos when I post – my last post was chalk FULL of typos! I didn’t sleep much last night and I guess wasn’t paying as close attention as I normally do… 

Anyway – I wanted to follow up on my post about trying the 5-8 mini meals a day vs. 3 squares. I have to say, it’s almost a no-brainer. I feel so much better when I eat more frequently. I tend to eat just enough – I hardly ever overeat anymore, because I know I’m eating in another 2-3 hours. The only real problem I was having was transporting 4 mini-meals to work each day. My lunch bag wasn’t big enough, so I finally found one that I absolutely LOVE and is perfect when you use those square ziplock plastic storage containers:

Quiksilver Beach Trip Bag

$51 is more than I expected to pay, but it’s so well made that I know it’ll last me for years, and it makes my life a lot easier, so it’s definitely worth it. It has a nice, thick plastic inner liner that’s easily wipeable, and there’s no PVC in any part of the bag. It’s also tall and relatively thin for a large insulated bag, so it’s a lot easier to transport along with a purse and laptop bag to haul around – that was important, too. It has an inner zippered mess pocket under the lid for cuttlery, etc. and a padded, rubberized shoulder pad on the strap to prevent slipping. I highly recommend it. It can easily fit 4 of the 4-cup sized square ziplock containers or 8 of the 2-cup square containers AND still have room for a water bottle and fresh fruit on top of the containers without crushing them. It’s also great for trips to the beach, travel, picnics, etc. 

So back to mini-meals. Here’s a sampling of how I eat in a day:

1) Wakeup/pre-workout: pineapple-banana smoothie made with unsweetened vanilla almond milk
2) Post workout: Veggie & Egg scramble in 1/2 slice whole grain lavash wrap
3) Greek yogurt with lemon zest, vanilla & agave nectar and fresh berries
4) Chicken salad made with Greek Yogurt, fresh herbs & dijon mustard dressing, grapes, celery, onion & walnuts on a bed of spring greens
5) Apple with all-natural peanut butter
6) Veggie sticks with garlic bean dip
7) Pan seared salmon filet with broccoli and rosemary roasted baby potatoes 
8) Handful of nuts if I get hungry before bed [optional]

On my rest days, my appetite may not be as strong and I may just eat 5 or 6 meals in a day – I go with the flow… What’s funny is, on the days I work from home, I tend to eat less because I don’t pre-package my meals in the morning, and then I eat too much at main meals because I didn’t have enough throughout the day. The solution to that is packing up my meals in the morning like it’s a regular drive-75-miles-to-work day, which is something I’m going to do this week.

So, this way of eating works well for me and I’m sticking to it!  

Photo credit: Zappos.com

Inspiration? =)

I went out with a friend last week. She just had a baby girl in April and has decided she’s ready to start working out and eating healthier. She was somewhat overweight before she got pregnant, and she said she really felt how out of shape she was through her pregnancy and wanted to make sure she never felt that way again – pregnant or otherwise! Her husband paid for a personal trainer 2x/week for 6 weeks to help her get started and she told me when we were at dinner, that I was a big part of her inspiration! Nobody has EVER told me I was their inspiration  - at least not for fitness. I still have a ways to go myself, but I’ve also come a long way in how I look and feel and apparently it’s more obvious than I had thought. I’ve lost 32 lbs and 2 dress sizes since January, and I have another 48 lbs to go and maybe 2 or 3 more dress sizes [I'm a 14/16 now, I'd like to get to a 10/12] to reach my goal – and if I need to lose more, sobeit, but gotta start somewhere! lol… 

One surprising thing about being told you’re someone’s inspiration is it turned out to be the ultimate motivation to keep going and start being more vigilant about eating healthy. I’m not a die-hard dieter anymore. I eat healthy 80% of the time, but I do still have bad habits that need breaking – like eating in front of the TV, craving not-so-good for me snacks while watching TV after dinner. I know if I could just kick that habit and get MORE sleep [the never ending battle for me], the pounds would start flying off instead of crawling. Each week I learn more, find new tricks and get better organized. It’s definitely been a journey and now I’m excited to share all the things I’ve learned with a dear friend who has similar goals, which is really satisfying. 

I’m a graphic designer by trade and I’m good at what I do, but lately I’ve been feeling unchallenged and unsatisfied with it. I could totally see myself switching gears and getting certified to be a personal trainer. I’m not there yet, and it might be something I tackle after having kids, but I definitely have the confidence to do it. And I think having that ‘before’ picture to show my someday clients will only help motivate them more, knowing their trainer has ‘been there’ and ‘done that’ and knows what they’re going through. The idea of helping people transform their health and their lives for the better gets me excited [I originally wanted to be a doctor, but couldn't afford the schooling]. It’s like what Mike Myers’ ‘Middle Aged Man’ used to say when asked ‘why he does it’: “I want to share my knowledge!” lol… 

I spent 6 hours yesterday going through all the boxes in the basement, dumping old stuff, moving furniture, heavy boxes and then walking it all up our bulkhead stairs [short and very steap] with my husband, and then single-handedly packing a 12′x8′x4′ dumpster – using my ‘mad layout skillz’ to utilize EVERY SQUARE INCH of space. My husband was astounded that I was able to fit EVERYTHING we wanted to get rid of in there [we had a lot of old stuff that we just don't use, including furniture and then all the crap the previous own was nice enough to leave for us like old, broken air conditioners, cinder blocks, old broken cast-iron water pumps, a giant water tank, etc.]. When the dumpster was delivered yesterday morning he was convinced we’d need to get a 2nd one after they hauled the first one away. Needless to say he’s very happy we can save the $300+ AND we got it all done in a day instead of a whole weekend. It was tough, and by the end of the day I was so tired, sore and RAVENOUS, but I was also giddy. Giddy from getting it all done, from feeling how powerful I felt for doing so much heavy labor for so long without injury, for packing that dumpster so tightly my dad would have been proud… I even used space inside an old microwave, inside an old dresser and all the drawers, filing cabinet drawers. Everything fit perfectly. And now it’s gone, along with all the baggage of having so much crap lingering in the basement. 

I’m a little banged up and bruised, but I’m hardly sore at all, which is shocking to me. I’m amazed at how fast and far my body has come in just 4-5 months of switching to lifting heavy weights 3x/week [vs lighter weights and more reps, which I always hated doing]. Working my core 2-3 x/week has also made a huge difference… but the best part about yesterday is, now we have so much more space open in the basement… that now it’s time to kick up the exercise routine another notch by getting a treadmill for uphill power walking and sprint work, as well as being able to jump around without shaking the house [like I would if I tried doing plyometrics in my little upstairs yoga room]. And I’ve always wanted a heavy bag – to beat the bag out of after a 2 hour commute home like I had on Friday. 

I found myself day dreaming last night about all the sports I’ve wanted to try – or go back to doing – but never felt I could because I was so overweight and out of shape. Things I used to tell myself I’d only do or try WHEN I lost ALL the weight. Now I realize that’s dumb. I’m in the best shape of my life right now and it’s only going to get better and easier as I lose the rest of the weight. There’s no reason to wait forever. I want to go kayaking this summer. I have a friend who has 2 kayaks and lives on a little Island on the North Shore, so I’m going to take her up on her offer to go with her sometime soon before the summer is over! I also think I’d LOVE rock-climbing. I’ll have to find a place that has a decent indoor wall to start with, but once I’m confident, I think I’d love to do the real thing outside even more. I already love hiking and now that I have the lower body power to do it at a much faster pace, I’m going to add sprints on the not so rocky parts of the trails. 

I never thought of myself as the ‘outdoorsy type’ but now I know that we’re all inherently ‘outdoorsy’, we just stop enjoying the outdoors and being active when life gets too busy and we get too tired… and we forget how great it can be!  =)  I also thought that feeling tired and old came with age and there was nothing you can do about it – boy am I GLAD I was so wrong about that! I feel younger and stronger now than I did at 18! Muscle is a miracle, especially combined with clean, whole fuel. I used to think it was hard and complicated to get healthy. It’s not. It requires a little work and planning but the rewards are so worth it!