Baby Steps

So yeah – I had grand plans to write this over the weekend… that didn’t happen. Then I thought I’d write it on Monday… obviously that didn’t happen either. But, I told y’all last week I’d post to keep myself accountable and so I shall.

Truly kicking off my “Let’s take care of Shelley” initiative last week and it wasn’t horrible…. it wasn’t perfect either especially when we consider ice cream cake is NOT on the plan, but hey – I never claimed to be perfect 🙂
easy
Mostly I was trying very hard to change bad habits I had lovingly picked back up again…

Like skipping breakfast. Or stopping at the Bux for coffee and calling that breakfast… neither of which are good for me in the grand scheme.

I KNOW Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  We’ve heard this FOREVER… and yet, hitting the snooze button a few more times is ALSO important isn’t it?  So lately I’ve been relying on protein “shakes” in the morning as a quick grab and go solution… and while you could just throw some protein powder and liquid together and come up with a passable breakfast, where’s the fun in that?!? Exactly.  So I’ve been playing with some concoctions that make for a delicious and quick breakfast.

Now, add to the mix that the guidance I received from someone training in the field of health and fitness whose opinion I have the utmost respect for recommends a macro breakdown for all meals of 50% protein, 30% carbs and 20% fats…. and now things get more complicated.  And Math is involved… and y’all know how I feel about the maths… they hurt my head most days… especially pre-coffee…

But – what it breaks down to is this… on a 1450 Calorie a day plan (what I’m on for starters) I should aim for 6 meals that all hover around 242 calories per meal.

Within those 242 calories per meal, ideally, in a perfect world, each meal should also include 30g protein, 18g carbs and 5 g of fats… and those fats should be the good fats, not the bad fats… we all know the difference, yes? cool. Moving on.

There’s good reason for all of this – all of which were explained to me in highly scientific terms but I shall break it down to my plain English understanding…while my emotions often are a roller coaster of ups and downs, ideally I don’t want my blood sugar to do that.  By strategically planning my meals so that they are even, that helps my blood sugar to also stay even.  Why is that important?  Glad you asked…

Stop-Blood-Sugar-Spikes

So, in short, every time your blood sugar spikes or drops, the body says “screw you” and hangs on to the fat…

Awesome.

Now, for the record, I also have a spreadsheet that maths for me… and yes, I have to plan a week in advance to stay on track… and for the most part last week, I did pretty good.

As for the fitness, because that’s part of the equation too, I started back to the gym/fitness routine again last week. Slowly… baby steps… but got in some significant workouts 3 days.  Which is 3 days more than the combined total of the last few months so yay me.

Most of all, I did something I dreaded… something I hadn’t done since my Mamavation days…

I broke out the measuring tape and recorded some measurements.

No I will NOT be sharing those here with y’all.  Not yet anyway.

Why are measurements important?  Because the scale is a fickle bitch, that’s why.  Plus, the scale only measures the effect gravity has on you in that given moment (or something scientificy like that) and not the actual composition of your body.

So, this past week, I lost 3.5 lbs.  Yay me.

But more than that, I lost INCHES and that is more of the big picture.  To be clear, I take measurements at many different points of the body and almost all showed a change.

9-1-2014

That is a grand total of 6 inches lost this week.  Which is enough to keep me moving forward.  Because it’s the little things that matter and knowing that there are 6 less inches of me is 50 shades of awesome.

So, baby steps.  Little by little I’m getting there.

What WON’T you see here?  While I’m still a fan of natural, whole foods… stuff that comes from the ground or stuff that eats stuff that comes from the ground, I’m also a realist and know that convenience helps.  So I’ll be far less militant about all natural.  Yes, I know this is a shift from previous attempts for those who have followed along in the past.  {Anyone commenting on how I’m doing it WRONG or what I should be doing instead, gets ignored. }

And because I want to share more than just my shrinkage, how about a quick and easy protein shake that I’m quite the fan of?

Recipe:

**One quick note – you could use real nut butter in this recipe as well as milk and it turns out quite tasty.  That’s how I make them for my boys.  But for me watching my macros, I’ve used PB2 instead**

PB&J Protein Shake

Ingredients:

  • 1 serving Vanilla Protein Powder – (I use Eas Complete Protein)
  • 100g Strawberries
  • 2 Tbsp PB2 with Chocolate
  • 8oz water
  • Ice as needed

Combine all in your blender and mix until you get the desired consistency.

Calories Protein Carbs Sugar Fat Fiber
Eas Complete Protein – Nutrition Shake Mix – Vanilla, 2 Scoops (45g) 150 25 14 7 1 3
Strawberries – Raw, 100 g 32 1 8 5 0 2
Bell Pb2 With Chocolate – Peanut Butter With Chocolate, 2 tbsp 45 4 6 3 1 1
Total 227 30 28 15 2 6

Best part is?  It tastes like a PB & J Sandwich.  Tried this with grapes over the weekend… Boys said it was less successful so I’ll stick with my strawberries for now.

As for this next week:

Goals:

  • Find my freakin fitbit… I know it’s somewhere
  • Track steps, aiming for 10K
  • 100oz water per day
  • Workout 4 times this week

How about y’all?  Any goals you want to share?

 

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Comments

  1. Very nicely done. 🙂 Keep kicking ass. 😉

  2. How much protein is in that one shake with both the protein powder and the PB2 in it? Do you ever just use the PB2?

    • I meant to add the breakdown btw… I have now. It works out to 30g of protein in the shake. You COULD use just the pb2 and maybe Greek yogurt for some added protein but I haven’t tried that yet. You could also use a combo of pb2 and actual nut butter to get the added good fats.

      **autocorrect thought I wanted to say but butter which is both hilarious and gross**

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