Foods I am Loving Lately and an Excellent Smoothie Recipe

Vegan chocolate cake with peanut butter vegan icing

Creamy roasted tomato soup
Quesadillas with cashew cheez, black beans, zucchini, baby spinach and kale

              Green Power Smoothie: 

1.5 cups of frozen broccoli

1/2 large cucumber 

2 celery stalks with leaves

small peach 

small red pear

Blended in my Vitamix blender with 1/2 cup of coconut water and 1/2 cup of water.

(Optional add ins- vegan protein powder, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1 tbsp of coconut butter or oil, 1 tsp of maca powder)

Collard leaves burritos with quinoa, avocado, and black bean salad with cilantro, lime, and sweet potato

I have not been eating as many leafy green salads as I have been in the past, so that is something I am working on. Yet again I am also juicing and blending more leafy greens, so all in all I am getting a lot of macro and micro-nutrients. I usually have a post-workout juice that I juice in my Breville, today though I just had lunch, which was the quesadillas and soup. 

This is not everything that I eat in a day, just some of want I have eaten today :) I forgot to mention the bowl of frosted shredded wheat with soy milk. 

I also have drank 7 glasses of water, two cups of green and peppermint tea, and an hour before bed I will have a cup of chamomile tea. 

I have made a quinoa/bean salad that will tomorrows lunch with more of the roasted tomato soup.  

Finding Balance

Recently I completed a 21-day meditation challenge that was sponsored by Deepak Chopra and Oprah. I recommend anyone to try the next challenge, especially if you are interested in meditating and are not sure how to do it without losing focus. I especially loved repeating the mantras during the prescribed meditation period. That allowed me to focus on one thing, which in turns allows all the other dozens of things running through my head to not be prominent. 

It is rather easy for me to get caught up planing and then completely the little tasks that need to get done each day.  Exercising and especially practicing yoga  has helped correct my imbalances and also helps link my breath to the flow of my body. What I have been missing from my practice was meditating, which I now know helps me silence my mind from all the planning that I do. 

This picture was taken at Whatcom Falls in Bellingham, WA. During my meditation, I picture this and the ocean. Water flowing relaxes me. 

Now that I am no longer doing the challenge I have created my own meditation rituals. I find a mantra that resonates with me, I play music by Peter Davidison, from his cd titled Adiago: Music for Meditating. Once the music begins I lay in corpse pose in my bed, take several slow and deep breaths and then I begin to repeat my mantra in my head. After completed this I turn off the music and go to bed, falling into a deep sleep effortless. This is heavenly because I frequently find it difficult to fall asleep even when I am tired. The cause is that my mind is still busy, busy;from planning the next day. Meditating at night as helped that tremendously. I don't need to plan as much, just as long as I have a general idea of what needs to get done or made than I am good to go. 

Me in tree pose. Namaste! 

Training Plans- Getting Stronger and Running Farther

Overview of July/August Workout and Fitness Goals for the Future: 

For the past 6 weeks I have been doing using Bodybuilding.com's Jamie Eason's LiveFit program as a guide while working out. This has resulted in me growing stronger anabolically and faster anaerobically.  But now it is time for to switch my program around again.  The Livefit Trainer is awesome and I recommending that you do the whole program. My current training goals are to begin training for a half marathon. Therefore, I would like to still lift weights but just not everyday for an hour and that is what the rest of the program would have had me doing.  The half marathon that I have my sights on it not until the spring, so for the coming months I want to slowly increase my running mileage from about 2.5 miles per run to maximum 8 miles per run, so when the spring comes around I am not attempting to increase my mileage from 3 miles to 13 miles which I am pretty positive would result in an injury. 

Overview of September's Workout Plan

Weights: I am still going to lift 4 days a week, circuit-style for 25 minutes each session. Two days a week I hit my upper body and 2 days a week I am working my lower body out.  I have added three 10 minute abdominal workouts that will be done with one upper body and one lower body workouts and a non-lifting day.  

Yoga is still a must and will be done as needed which is nearly daily some times. Usually my yoga routines are between 15-25 minutes. 

Running: For the next 4 weeks, all I am concentrating on is running 3 times a week with a long walk/slow jog for 50+ minutes once a week. I would like one of my runs to be 3 miles by week two of September while the others can range from 2-2.5 miles. At the very least I will run one interval run, although two is ideal. 

I am doing two a day workouts, either in the AM or PM I will run or walk with the boys in the double jogging stroller. We bought the BabyTrend double jogger and I am a fan of it thus far. 

I will do my circuit training twice at week at a gym on post that has hourly daycare and the other two days I will use my dumbbells at home during the boys afternoon nap.  Below is the training plan I am using; the training plan is from Muscle and Fitness Hers September/October 2011 issue.

Next post will be about what I am eating to fuel me though all this exercise and breastfeeding my little one who is now almost 7 months old. 

Back to Blogging :-)

The Lewis family has moved from the East Coast to the West Coast and we are settling in very nicely. We decided to drive rather than fly and I am glad we did because we took it slowed  and had fun along the way.

If I was more awesome I would do a full recap  of our cross country trip but instead I will just bypass all of that and let pictures speak louder than words.

We have been in Washington state now for nearly 8 weeks and we are stationed at Joint Base Lewis McCord, which in case you were unaware of is sandwiched between Seattle/Tacoma and Olympia. 

On a clear day, I can see Mt. Rainer which always leaves me in awe. I want to climb/hike the majestic volcano. That trike will be something I aspire to do when my little guys are older. 

I am happy to report that I am still losing weight and now am 18lbs from mypre pregnancy  weight of 140lbs. A lot of my food issues; i.e. over-eating on sweets is becoming less and less as I harness the awesome power of nutrient dense vegetables in my smoothies, juices, soups, casseroles, and of course my mega salads. 

For the past 5 weeks, I have been consistently making meals that are really delicious and nutritious. I have often during this time resisted being too 'perfect' while eating because I don't    

want to make less nutrient dense foods into bad foods, which may make me over-eat later on. Once in an attempt to stop eating bread, I cut out bread and by the 10th day all I wanted was bread and than for nearly half the week ate nothing but toast and beans and pbj. So I am learning what works for me and restriction does not work. 

Most importantly my weight loss journey and the food choices I make are not a means to an end, but rather just a leg on a longer journey of eating nutritiously for life. I am not eating this way to diet, I eat nutrient dense foods to fuel so that it can operate at its full capacity. Any treats I have along the way are part of that as well :-) 

Next post I will update you on my current training plan, which I am loving by the way.

Slow and Steady Weight Loss and I am Winning

Update on my two boys:

Baby Lex is going to be 4 months in two weeks and he is a cutie pie! He smiles all the time and his smiles are pure and beautiful just as all infant smiles are.

Rocket is still being amazing to Baby Lex, helping him by bringing him his baby toys and diapers. I love all the kisses and hugs Rocket gives Baby Lex.

Now for weight loss updates:

Since April 1st, I am down 16lbs. I am losing 1-2.5lbs each week and that is exactly the range I want to lose each week. My body fat percentage has dropped 6%, which is truly motivating. Also, I am out of all my maternity clothes because they are too big!

Preparing components of my meals before hand has been really instrumental for me to keep on top of eating nutrient dense salads and soups, and snacks.  For the past two weeks I have only made vegan desserts for the playgroup I am in so that I am not over eating them on my own.  This is a BIG help.

And now I am going to leave you with pictures of my two boys :)

Lex 14 weeks old taken by Shelly Pray Photography

 

Rocket at Easter

 

10lbs Down and Fitness Update

I am down a total of 10lbs since I began working out 5 weeks ago. I have had a couple of hiccups eating-wise but I am glad to still see progress.

Eating to satiety and getting all my nutrients in daily is becoming easy again. I have made some excellent meals these past days. A breakfast salad with a pears, grapefruit, hemp seeds, a drizzle of honey with a splash of coconut milk. This was so delicious that I will have it again very soon.
Tonight I made quinoa/brown rice/black bean/spinach stuffed red peppers. I made a thick cashew-nutritional yeast that had spread on top. This was a wonderful vegan dish I will be so happy to make again and again. I have done this dish before but tonight I perfected it.

My juice combinations have been fun too. Beet, kale, celery, apple, and carrot yesterday. Yum.

I bought a pound of chia seeds do I could begin making my chia seed puddings again. Tomorrow will be a banana-peach cinnamon chia pudding

Recipe:
1/2 cup of peaches, chopped
1/2 banana, mashed
3 tbsp of chia seeds
1 cup of almond milk
1/2 tsp of cinnamon

Stir ingredients together the night before and enjoy the next morning.

I will update again in two weeks with measurement differences. I took my arm, waist, hip, thigh measurements on April 1st and so I will do them again May 1st.

Happy Lifting and Eating Healthy.

What I ate today- Before Dinner

For the past three days I have started my day by cuddling with baby Lex and drinking water with freshly squeezed lemon. After I drink one to two glasses of water, I make fresh pressed juice.

I bought a Breville Juicer about a year in a half ago with the intention of doing a 3 day juice fast and then juice semi regularly after that. I have not completed any of the fasts I have tried and then I only used my juicer once or twice a month. How foolish I was because now I am in love with my morning juice.

This morning I juiced beet greens and kale, celery, cucumber, fresh pineapple cores, ginger, and an orange. I

Recipe:
12 leaves of kale, beet greens
2 celery stalks
2 inches of fresh ginger root
1/2 large cucumber
1 Cara orange
1 core of pineapple

This juice is slightly sweet despite the pineapple and orange I used. I am not overly fond of sweet juices so when juiced a lot of greens.

Starting my day with fresh juice I am finding has helped me continue making healthy food choices throughout the day. So far so good. I have also stopped eating foods containing wheat these past three days. I made muffins and pancakes and was able to eat one or two during the entire day as opposed to eating six, or seven during the day. The mouthfeel of gluten free and mostly grain free (still using oatmeal) is different and not so addicting for me. I will keep this two habits up after these three days. If i do eat wheat containing foods or not start my day with fresh press juice I notice differences if I feel differently or eat differently afterwards.

After my fresh juice I made 8 coconut-pumpkin pancakes using shredded coconut, pumpkin, almond milk, oatmeal. At this moment I am not going to give you the recipe because it is not my own but I will update the link soon.

For lunch I made a black bean soup that tasted like Paneras- google "panera black bean soup recipe" and you will find it! i made a corn, avocado, cilantro-lime, and tomato salsa. I didn't really measure it, but it turned out as a perfect compliment to the black bean soup. To add some crunch , I added gluten-free multigrain seed crackers.

Post workout- I guzzled down my plant protein powder with soy milk and water. Plant Fusion is the brand and chocolate is the flavor. Like chocolate milk but better!

Dinner will be broccoli, asparagus, and tofu sautéed in a little grapeseed oil and Braggs Amino Acids- like soy sauce, over a bed of lettuce. And two fresh spring rolls made with jicama, carrot, and red pepper. I will do another post with that recipe soon.

Okay that is about it. If I am hungry after dinner I will made a chia pudding and eat!

Eating like this feels much better than my previous over eating.

Next post will be a post-partum weight loss update and maybe a cute picture of Baby Lex and Rocket :-)