Last set of pics

Just popping in real quick to give you all a look at my last set of progress pics. I don't like to put up anything closer than 3 weeks out. Too many people out there to mess with your head (not any of you, of course:) ). I'm feeling pretty good, just getting tired. I think most people get the run down feeling as the show date gets closer.

I will say this has, by far, been the busiest prep I have ever done. I usually start dieting in the colder months and end as it's getting warmer. This time has been the opposite, and I realized how busy my summer/fall time is! I apparently don't do much in the spring because I don't ever remember having so many different things to go to. I have made it known that I am not doing anything else but focusing on prep for the next 2 weeks though:)

Well, here they are....

They're not my best, but a class was getting ready to start, so I had to hurry. Plus, I realized afterwards that my suit was not positioned right and it looks like the font of the bottoms almost disappears. At least these are progress pics, not the real thing:)

I'm feeling good about my conditioning...not so much about that weird camera face I got going on! Like I said...I was in a hurry. The next set you all will see will hopefully be me holding a trophy!

I'll be posting still, just no pics of me. Next time, competing on a budget.....hair extensions!

Bye!~

Wed, Thurs...what's the diff?

Well, it's Thursday so I'm a day late on those progress pics (more like a couple months, but we'll ignore that). I can tell that I've been holding some water the past day or two, but I'm pretty sure it's hormonal:) Weight has still been going down. A little slower than I'd like, but still moving. And measurements are going down too. So, without further delay.......

I went back and looked at some pics I took last year for a photo shoot, and it made me feel a little better seeing how not far off I am from here. Here's to 4 more weeks!

Competing on a Budget

Okay, so I'm not going to even get into the what's and why's on my absence from blogging. I'm pre-contest.....that's my excuse:)

I just wanted to pop in and give another tip on how to save a bit of cash when prepping for a show.

Get sponsors! It doesn't have to be a full sponsorship, even partial is okay! And it doesn't have to be in dollars and cents either. Ask your gym to sponsor your membership for the weeks/months that you are prepping. Ask your tanning salon (if you tan) to sponsor you a month's unlimited, or half off 2 months unlimited. In return, offer to sport their swag when you're out and about. Mention them on your Facebook, Twitter, or blog. I'll bet you get a least something. And every little bit counts, right?

Comment back if you decide to give it a shot and get a sponsor! Or, if you have any extra tips to add on getting sponsors.

*I know last time I posted I was only 1 week in and now I'm less than 5 weeks out. Sorry! I promise to post some pics by Wed. I'm having a fat day today, so it's not happening yet:)

I'll post more about my prep then.

Happy Monday!

XOXO

Monday check in

Happy Monday! I'm 1 week down and now in my 2nd week of dieting! I know it's early, but I'm still so pumped about dieting:) I've been getting quite a bit of food, so that's always good! I'm down about 3lb's, but I know it's going to start slowing down. And that's ok:) I'm going to try and get some progress pics up tonight or tomorrow and I'll have some measurements to share! I think my bf% went up a bit from my last chance syndrome the 2 weeks prior to starting prep, but I think it's at least back down to where I was before. I guess we'll see. Ok, this is a quicky, just wanted to check in and give ya'll a quick breakdown.

Time to go to work!

Competing on a budget

A friend of mine was telling me that I should really write about how thrifty I am with my contest prep. So I figured I sprinkle some budget friendly tips in here and there. I look at it like this, if I can do something myself or find a way to save a bit, then I have more to put towards the things that I can't save on or maybe upgrade on something.

-Get a credit card with Rewards Points.

Just use it for things you would already be buying or paying for (like groceries, supplements, bills, etc.). As your points add up you could use them for hotel, car, or flight to your contest venue.

Every little bit counts!

Well, looks like progress pics might be another week. I tried taking some, but this week I'm going to be holding a little bit more water;) And it's showing:( It doesn't help that it's been sweltering out and I hold water like a camel when it gets hot and humid out. So mother nature is hitting me from two angles right now.

I helped out at the NPC Natural Michigan this past weekend with AirBronze. The next best thing to competing is helping out backstage! You're still just as tired, and of course you leave with no trophy, but it's still a lot of fun! It makes me really excited to compete again!

Today was leg day, and the gym I trained at has no air conditioning! Yikes! It was still a good workout, but I felt like I could have slid all the way to my car from all the sweat! Gross! It's supposed to get up to 100 this week too. Not a good week for training. But, what are ya gonna do?

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Oh, I had a couple questions in my formspring. **These are just MY opinions. You don't like'em? That's fine......get your own formspring;)

What is a good post workout meal after cardio. (Cardio is done at night, then bed about 1.5 hrs later)? (I just condensed it to this)

If you're going to sleep soon afterwards I would just recommend a protein meal. You really don't need the carbs if you're not going to be using them. Try a slower digesting protein like casein.

*Sorry for taking so long to answer!

I think I deleted this one because I didn't see it when I went back in today. But here goes.

Is it better to eat dessert before your meal?

NO! You don't even need the dessert. But if you must, always have it after. You'll be fuller and less will satisfy you. If you have it first, you're more likely to over eat it.

Ok, that's it folks! Have a great night!

Quick check in

I just had my body fat measured yesterday, and if the pinches were accurate (well, as accurate as pinching goes) I'm sitting at 12.64% bf! Better than I thought! That means I have about 114.5lb's of lean mass! I'm pretty happy with that! My very first show in '07 I was on stage at 112lb's. It's a slower gain, but I'm okay with that. I'm no dummy, I know that many competitors use special 'supplementation' to help achieve their physique's I just choose not to. It's always been very important to me to be as natural as possible. I take over the counter stuff and that's it. I don't judge anyone who does, it's just a personal choice.

I'm hoping to get some off season progress pics up soon. I'm thinking Sunday, but it may be Monday. Weekends are typically busy and full of treats, so I may give myself a day to lose some extra water I may be holding.

Later!

xoxo

So, I actually got a head start on my day today! How nice is that? I'm glad too, Tuesdays are always busy days for me. On the go most of the day. I have all my meals planned out and just about packed up. I like to keep'em with me just in case I get held up somewhere. I don't want to be temped to hit a drive thru for anything other than my Diet Coke!

Speaking of Tuesdays, I joined my friends bookze club and we meet once a month on a Tuesday. Thank goodness it isn't today. We met last week at my house. We had read Water for Elephants. It was a pretty good book, I wonder how the movie will measure up? Next one on the list is Hunger Games. It's a young adult read, but I kinda like those sometimes. They're quick reads. I'm glad I joined the impromptu club, I wanted to start reading more and this keeps me accountable. See, accountability can do wonders for whatever it is you want to do!

I'm leaving in a little bit to go train legs. I usually train them on Mondays, but yesterday didn't work out the way I was planning. I have finally caught up on all the other blogs I follow. Wow! Was I behind! I love following along with people's prep. It makes me want to start getting ready for something. Sometimes it reminds me of some of the stresses that come along with it. And that part I don't miss!

Off to get my Tuesday going.....ready, set, go!

See ya!

You come here often?

Where is the time going!?! I've been so busy it's been rushing right by me! Well, with only a few more weeks left in July I have to seriously sit down and figure some things out. I have been contemplating doing Nationals in November. I have done some due diligence on figuring out what things are going to cost and how I can off-set them. But a few more numbers need to be crunched. I want to give it 16 weeks this time around. That's how long I dieted for Chicago last year and I did pretty well. By 19 weeks (Team U) I was a little over dieted. And I'm leaner right now than I was last year going into prep. We have a wedding to go to in August, but I figure with the early start I can have the evening as a treat meal.

It's all still a big maybe, but I'll keep ya'll posted.

I have still been doing pretty good on the eats. If we go to a bbq or something, I eat what's there. But there have been no mysterious disappearances of cereal, chips, or cookies in my house:) Sadly, I can't say the same for the wine. I'm getting better. Baby steps, right?

And training has been on! I have been training with my old trainer a couple days a week recently. He's helping me bring up my legs a bit. I wasn't given any bad feedback on them, but I just feel they're not balanced the way I'd like them to be. My PR on squat has gone up to 275lb! It's more than double my body weight, so I was pretty excited! My last PR was 225lb over a year ago.

Well, back to my chores! It's not always fun doing them, but it's so nice when they're finished!

Happy Monday everybody!!!

Music to Move to

Just wanted to share...

Corsten's Countdown

You can also subscribe for free on iTunes. (it's great for cardio!)

Happy Tuesday!

Good morning bloggerland! Well, almost afternoon:) I've been wanting to post some pics (of anything!) with my posts, but there hasn't been anything really photo worthy. I have been eating really good and getting some good workouts in lately. I am feeling pretty good! I hope that I may finally reach my happy off-season place this summer:) After about 4 years of competing and gaining too much weight afterwards (too much for me) I am almost at the place where I am keeping that weight gain under control. Yay! Wish I would've gotten with the program earlier, but woulda, coulda, shoulda....can't do anything about that now.

Just wanted to pop in and say HI! I hope everyone is enjoying the nice weather we've finally been getting! It was kinda cool here the past couple days but today looks really nice. We went from winter, to scorching, to cooling off. I wish it would just stay moderate. Like where you can either wear jeans or shorts. Not too hot, not too cold:)

I actually have quite a busy week, so I can't make any promises on when I'll be back. (like you haven't all heard that before!) At least next time I'm here I'll have some things to talk about though!

Have a great Monday everybody!!

Little Hiatus

I'm not even going to begin to explain what I've been doing for the past 2 months. No, not solving world hunger, or disarming our nuclear missals, not even in peace talks with the Middle East. Sadly, just.being.lazy. I was in a sort of funk that I just couldn't get out of, there are some reason's behind this but it's too long to get into and just pointless at this point. But....I am feeling free of the funk now! I'm ready to get back into the swing of things! I don't really have a whole lot to say right now (even for being gone 2 months), but I wanted to get on here and let you all know that I did not die, was not abducted by aliens, and did not join the witness protection program.

Even though I haven't been posting, I've still been lurking around around here and keeping up with the blogs that I follow. So don't think I've forgotten about any of you;) I didn't post any comments, because then you would have known I was slackin' for sure! :)

Hope you're all having a fantabulous Wednesday!

Nobody likes being sick....

I was sick as a dog last week! I felt my throat was a bit irritated late Tuesday night, but didn't think too much of it. Thought maybe it was just because I was tired. Well, I woke up the next day and felt like crap! My throat was sore, my body ached, muscles were stiff, sweats, chills, and fevers upwards of 103! My first thought was that I caught a flu bug, I had a little queasiness the first day so chalked it up to that. So I was drinking my glutamine, taking my Emergen-C all day, resting and just trying to get/keep my immune system going as strong as I could. I started feeling better that night only to wake up again feeling terrible. By that afternoon I decided to call the Dr. and get an appt.

My appointment was for the next day, so of course in the meantime I had to go on WebMd.com to use the symptom checker and find out what my ailment was. It looked most likely (per the site) that I had strep throat. Well, what d'ya know, that's exactly what the doctor said I had! I asked him if they had any openings I'd be happy to help them out at the office diagnosing people:) (He and the nurse didn't originally think I had it) He asked if I wanted a shot of antibiotics to kinda help kick start my way to feeling better. I had the little steroid shots they gave me before to help medicine, so I figured why not? Of course I can't get this shot in my arm why would I even think that? So the nurse comes in and tells me he needs my left hip. So I'm waiting for this little poke and I actually didn't even feel it go in. But HOLY CRAP that medicine was so painful! It felt like a Charlie horse in my left upper glute! Wowza! And I had to hold still for that??? Then, to make it worse the nurse starting really rubbing it in! He said if he didn't it would ball up and really hurt. Ummmm.....it already really hurt! My hip felt like it was cramping for about a half hour after that, and it felt like the worst bruise for the rest of the day. (so at least it was only 1 day of real pain)

I had a tough time sleeping that night because of all the sweating I was doing (maybe it was the medicine? I dunno?) But I woke up on Saturday feeling so much better! My throat was still sore for another day, but I felt like me again! So, finally on the mend thank goodness! I can't believe how much it hit me, I was outta commission for days! Thankfully nobody else in the house got it. I quarantined myself to minimize any chances.

I really didn't eat too much food while I was sick (which of course didn't mean I even lost 1 pound!). I pretty much stuck to the B.R.A.T. diet. Banana's, rice, applesauce, toast. Mostly toast and bananas.

The doc told me that it has been really busy lately with people getting sinus infections, flu, and some strep cases. So take your vitamins people! Drink plenty of fluids (not alcohol! lol!), rest up, and just try to keep yourselves healthy!

So, let's see. I think I pretty much seem to always be saying that I fell off my wagon, had a slip up, made some bad choices, and just lost self control. Well, this post isn't gonna stray from the formula. I was good all week with the exception of some wine Thursday night while I caught up on my DVR'd Desperate Housewives. Friday was good, but had more wine (that I didn't plan on having). Saturday we went up to see my grandma in Houghton Lake. It's just over a 2hr drive from where we're at. Well, she wanted to go out to the 'Burger Bust' at the Eagles so of course we went. And I got a burger....and onion rings....and 2 beers! The only reason I ordered the beer is because my grandma was having one and I could tell she didn't want to be the only person having one. (She kept asking us if we wanted one) I didn't have to order the second though. Then we came home and played some Yahtzee (I'm so exciting I know!). Which I totally suck at by the way. Well, I had 1 more beer with her then too. The next morning she made us breakfast. Now, my grandma absolutely does not believe in anything 'diet'. If you open her fridge you'll find butter, vitamin D milk, full flavor beer, cheese, some kinda sweet rolls and other fattening (albeit tasty) foods. We had ham, potato bread toast (with butter), hash browns and I had 1 whole egg and 3 egg whites (like it even mattered at that point).

On the way home we decided to stop off at the Birch Run Outlet Mall to do some shopping (well, we were passing it why not?) I picked up some organic coconut oil from Vitamin World. It was on sale for $7.99! Score! It actually smells like coconuts. My other container (different brand) doesn't have a smell at all? I don't understand it, but I tried it in my protein pudding and holy crap was it good! We got a few other things and decided to leave so we could stop in at Bronner's. If you've never been there, or heard of them, it's a HUGE year round Christmas store! You can find an ornament for ANYTHING in that place! It's neat to walk around through. They even play Christmas music over the loud speakers so it definitely feels like Xmas there no matter what month it is!

Before we hit the road we made the terrible decision of eating at Tony's Restaurant. They pride themselves on ginormous portions. I got a Philly steak sub, Mike got some Italian sub thing, an order of onion rings (we were on an onion kick), a diet coke (coz calories count! lol!) and we got mister Gregman some spaghetti. It came to $34 bucks! Holy smokes! I don't think I've ever paid that much for some sandwiches and pasta! It wasn't even that great. That's the part that sucked the worst. Most of their dishes are too big to eat, so I guess it's like you're getting 2 meals out of it (although I totally killed my sub! I'm not proud of it, I was just HANGRY!)

All the sodium and carbs was killing me by time we got home. I could not get enough water! It was starting to hurt my stomach how much water I was drinking. Talk about feeling like crap. That was my weekend, a crapfest of food.

Today was 100% on track, so at least the guilt I'm feeling is doing good. Today was leg day and I don't know if it was the bad weekend, but I just didn't have the drive I usually do to get in there and push some weight around. Mike was feeling the same way so I think it must be because of the food (if you can call it that) we ate.

This is the second week I've used my 5 fingered shoes for leg day. I LOVE them! I used to do leg day in my socks, but my foot always slid around a little. With these I feel like I'm gripping the floor! I tried jumping rope in them = I like. Then I tried the elliptical = doesn't really make a difference. Last, I did inclined treadmill = not so good. My heel kept rubbing and I had to end the cardio session early to go change my shoes.

Now, it's time to pick up around the house a little, then relax with a book. Every once in a great while I like to try picking up a book, but usually never finish'em. I decided to get Breaking Dawn (I know, I know, don't judge me. A lot of people like it though). I figure if I get something that sparks my interest more maybe I'll actually finish! I'll keep ya posted. I already know what happens for the most part, but want to read it anyway:)

Oh, I had a question in my Formspring. I am way too tired to go into answering it right now, but I wanted to let that person know that I will definitely answer it soon! I'll try my best to be back tomorrow, but in all honesty it may be a bit longer. I promise not to wait too long! :)

Morning Glory!

Good morning bloggerland! It's not really that early, but I'm up and ready to get things going! I have only had 1 cup of coffee and no breakfast yet, so maybe after that I'll get going?? I had another night of awesome sleep! I have been getting really bad sleep lately (waking up a lot) and decided to start taking my ZMA again. I used to take it during prep, but it made my restless leg syndrome act up a lot. Maybe it was because of all the stress I was putting on my body, because now it's awesome!

I decided to step on the scale this morning, only to see it's gone up a pound! WTF!?!? I know my weekend was bad, but I figured by today I would have dropped any water I was holding from it. I know I didn't eat enough to gain the weight. Poo! :( My scale is pretty old (8 yrs is old isn't it?) so maybe it needs to be recalibrated? If you can even do that with a digital scale?

Today my plan is to go to the gym (make sure I do more cardio!), get some clean eats in, and clean up my house! It's takes no time whatsoever to turn it upside down. I hear we're supposed to get freezing rain and sleet today so I might try to do any running around I have to do early. I'd love to make it movie night tonight, but I have been having a really hard time staying up past 9:30-10:00. Here's hoping!

Hope you're all off to a great morning!

Haters Gonna Hate!

Wanna know what irritates me to death??? Haters. I just think that if they put all the energy and time into themselves they'd be to busy to care about what others are doing/not doing and just be focused on themselves! Why do I bring this up you ask? Well let me tell you....

I train a friend, at the gym she teaches classes at, once a week. I go just for her. Well, miss hater came in the trainers office while I was putting my things away and I asked if I was in her way. She said no, but she just didn't expect to see someone in HER office (it says "Trainers Office" on the door btw). So whatev, I decided to give her attitude the benefit of the doubt and introduced myself. She gave me a wet noodle handshake and then proceeded to start interrogating me about why I have been coming in there and what my intentions are. Excuse me, wha? I told her I am only on the floor for the one hour I train the one person and that's it. So she needn't worry about me trying to steal any clients (that's not my style anyway, but maybe it's hers??). It really irritated me because who is she that I have to answer to anyway? Oh, and it gets better. Apparently there's another trainer there (who also has the same attitude) and I heard he actually called somebody in one of his classes fat!?!?!?!? What kind of trainer does that? What kind of person does that? Well, word is that these two got are in cahoot's and now one of them is always there when I am. Srsly!? There is so much potential clientele at that place their dance cards should be too full to worry that I come in for one person. Come on people, grow up! There's a little bit more about them I heard, it's juicy, but it's also hearsay. I don't like to repeat things like that unless I know fo sho it's true.

Whew! Glad to get that out! Haters gonna hate I guess, but it's still annoying. My food has been on track and training on point too! I am super hungry right now, but I really don't want to eat anything right before I go to bed. The only thing that was kinda sucky was my back workout, and I only say that because I didn't have my straps. I thought Mike had lost them (he losses a lot of stuff!), but sadly I have to confess to being careless with them. I had used them with a client during a training session and must have just left them on the floor. Well, I went back and checked today and wouldn't ya know it.....somebody actually turned them in! I thought they were gone fo sho! Too bad I didn't check before my workout:(

Time for some ZMA and off to bed. I gotta start trying to post in the morning, my brain feels pretty shut down by now and I know I kinda go all over the place then. Oh well, that's how I roll I guess!

Bad Weekend, Back on Track!

I have been so tired lately that by time it's time to post I'm whipped and just wanna go to bed. Well, I'm still tired but still have motivation to keep going. My workouts have been going great! I am actually really starting to look forward to my leg days! I'm starting to really see them change. I am kinda bummed now cuz I feel like my upper body is lacking (I am never happy). My food has been pretty on track, but this past weekend was a complete dietary disaster. I didn't log anything (with hopes I'll block it out) or take pics, or keep any evidence around. I am still holding water from it! But, as they say, today is another day.

We stopped at Old Navy this weekend. They have all their clearance an additional 50% off! I am all about a good deal! Now, their stuff isn't the highest quality but hey what d'ya want for a $3 dollar tee? I really like their print tee's so I got a couple of those for a couple bucks each and some regular cute little tops. And in line for check out, I grabbed me this little keeper for my tea and coffee. I have a Hoops and Yoyo one now, but I lost the bottom (that sang a song) and it's nice to have a trade off when one is dirty, and for $5 bucks why not?

I srsly need to get myself away from my protein pancakes. I can't stop eating them! I need to find some other way to cook my oats and eggs to switch off so I don't get sick of these. For my next meal I tried some pasta, chicken, with creamy sauce (low fat of course) mixed with veggies. It was okay, but needed some salt and it hardened up when it got cold...like room temp. Don't know if I'll try that one again.

I decided to bust out some peppers I had frozen a while back. They were on sale so I stocked up and froze'em. I do that with berries too when they go on sale for like a buck. I just had this with some garlic olive oil and some more chicken. Speaking of my garlic olive oil, I tried making some more but it didn't turn out the way I wanted. It burned.

Here's what it looked like when I first got it going.

And here is what it looked like after I starting paying attention to something else.

This I had yesterday, but wanted to share anyway. I actually went to the store to buy more asparagus so I can make this again. Just chicken, roasted asparagus and onion, and oil It was yumolicious! Nom, nom, nom!

Post gym I had my usual.

I get the EAS shakes at Sam's Club. I wish they carried vanilla, but I'll take what I can get. I have found that this shake is the only one that masks the taste of my BCAA's. So I usually take one and a baggy with the BCAA's with me to the gym.

Din, din was some more cabbage soup thawed from the freezer with some sirloin patties I cooked up the other day.

And for dessert

I love the honey!

Well, that's my day. I feel kinda bad about half ass coming clean about my weekend, but I just can't bring myself to say out loud how bad I was. Bad food, bad drinks and too much! I think I'll wait until next week to weigh myself.....I'm still too scurred!

Too.tired.must.get.sleep....

Sorry if there's typo's or if things just don't make sense. Too sleepy. Will correct later.

Nighty nite!

So, totally falling off the resolution/goal train here. In one of my previous posts I mentioned a little something going on with me which was the main reason I was planning on competing at Nationals this year. Well, life has thrown yet another curve ball at me and I am officially not competing this year. Things didn't work out well, and as of 3 weeks ago things went downhill and it's all a no go now. That was a big part of why I wasn't on here. I didn't really feel like blogging about anything and pretty much didn't feel like doing anything at all. Don't think I really left the house but once the first week. But, like with everything else, life goes on. I am back in the swing of things. Back to the gym training, and training clients. The eats have actually been really good. I am not tracking calories or macros or anything. Just trying to eyeball the balance. I weigh my food enough during prep, I think I'll live if I just eyeball on the off season:)

Well, even though I'm back but I don't plan on making this a long entry. Just wanted to a least pop in and say HI! I'll leave you with some randomness on the food I've been eating. Sprinkle in a couple glasses of wine, a bowl of cereal once or twice, and some pizza yesterday (partied too hard on Sat, needed recovery food!) I also just got done with some Greek yogurt with stevia and cinnamon with some craisin's! Yum-o! (you must try the yogurt with protein powder! Yowza! Got the recipe off siouxcountry.com and it's AMAZING!!)

Had some wheat crackers in the pantry, so I busted'em out with some laughing cow cheese wedge's. Not a bad snack. The cheese is good, just wish the flavor was a tad stronger. Strong like bull.....not cow:)

They're flip flopped, but the other day after the gym I was S-T-A-R-V-I-N-G! I could not wait to prepare anything at home. So, a tasty little chicken sammich from Subway fixed me right up. And an apple for dessert. Btw, during Feb, ALL of their subs are $5 for a foot long. Try the Angus, it tastes so much like a whopper! Hopefully the stats are not the same......

For some reason I have been lovin' me some soft boiled eggs lately. I know I shouldn't be eating all the yolks, but it's just yumminess in my tumminess!

Okay, this is partly taken from Genie. She made up some cabbage soup and posted the pics....so of course it looked awesome! I had to make me some too! What a cheap soup to make, and in the winter I like me some soup! Some people I know are afraid of cabbage because of the gassiness. Well, never fear! A G.I. Dr. told me that you can drink Pepto to conceal gassiness. It won't make you less gassy, but it will stop you from clearing a room (i.e. it masks odor). We also make turkey patties often (Mike wants to make them a staple in the fridge). We mix 93% turkey with Emeril's Original Essence and some fennel seed and cook'em up. This time I broiled them and they came out really good. Maybe we don't have to grill out in the wintertime after all??? I chopped one up and tossed it in the soup. My own version of Thick and Chunky:)

Just wanted to share a great deal I got on some DD coffee! I had been looking everywhere for pumpkin flavored coffee during the holidays and was never able to find any! Maybe they were just always sold out? Cuz I found Mocha Mint AND Pumpkin flavored DD coffee on Manager's Special! Say wha?!?! It says 'was $6.99', but the tag said $8.69) either way score for me!

I decided to bake up some of those Krusteaz Apple Cinnamon fat free muffins, but I added a few scoops for protein powder to the mix to make them a little more worth eating. They were pretty good, I used a little Brummel & Brown on'em. Yum!

This doesn't look as good as it was. I am still on my Italian green bean kick and decided to mix in some lentils with them. I had the lentils in the pantry and decided to cook them before having to toss them. Crazy I know, I actually wanted to use up something before it made it's way to the trash can? I mixed them with some coconut oil and voila! I've eaten this a few times now.

There's a few other things too that I didn't get shots of. I made an English roast in the slow cooker with onion soup mix. It was good, but I used beefy onion soup mix and that just grosses me out for some reason. I mean, I'm cooking it with beef so I don't see the problem but it's hard for me to get it down. Maybe it's beefy overload? Idk, but going forward I'm just using the regular onion soup mix.

Well, that's my rap. There's more gaps to fill, but I can't think of them right now, and I said this wasn't gonna be long anyway. This is why I need to stay on top of this. I forget too much! I can be such a ding dong sometimes! (ooooh, ding dong's so good, don't they?) At least this time there was a justified reason for being away.

*edit* I had a question in my Formspring but it just said Hi.....so to you......Hello!

Gotta Get it Together Here

Ok, so I got pretty off track with keeping track of my food. I have found so far, that taking pics of my food as I go is helping me keep everything straight. I know logging the food down is good too, but then what would I share with all of you, right?

Anyway, this I'm gonna kinda go through these quickly. And, btw, I honestly can't remember what meals where eaten on what day and when, but here we go.

*No pic, but I had my protein pancakes for b-fast every morning. I figured you've all seen that pic before....

This was some leftover protein lasagna I made with a Greek salad (I hear in Greece they make their salads with only cheese, tomato, and cucumbers with vinegar and oil), and a side of green beans (I just love green beans!)

This I grabbed as I was on my way out the door to train a client. There was a last minute change of appointment time, so this was the way to go.

I have no name for this... It's just a packet of protein from ON, 1 Tbs almond butter, and 1 banana sliced. It was pretty good though. I may actually eat this again.

I'm trying to finish off the fat free hot dogs and 80 cal buns I have so I had me one with a cup of minestrone.

This was a mistake. I had a recipe for a crunchy protein cookie I wanted to try out. I don't know if my protein was the wrong kind or what coz this was just a big #FAIL!

This is a carrot protein loaf. I usually use zucchini, but I didn't have any in the house. I've made this before (even during prep), and it's pretty good but it always had a bit of an aftertaste. Well, I think I've figured out what it is.....the baking soda. I think it may be too much. Next time I make this I'm going to try only adding half of what it asks for. I'll report back and letcha know how it turns out.

I was just hungry and lazy here. The Lean Pocket was actually pretty tasty, I can't say the same for the Brussel sprouts. I like Brussel sprouts, but these were the Green Giant frozen ones with butter and only 60cal per serving (they were on sale for $1 so why not?). They were too buttery for me, I like just a bit of sea salt and maybe a couple sprays of butter. If you see these at the grocery store, just save your money.

This was super yummy! I mixed up 1 cup of mixed berries, 1 scoop ON's supercharged strawberry protein, and 1 cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze milk. I topped it with some fat free reddi whip. So good!

This is more of the protein lasagna and the last of my 80 cal buns. I toasted it up, put a few sprays of butter on'em and some garlic powder. Good stuff!

I stand corrected (I told you I didn't keep track of when I ate the meals), THIS is the last of the buns:) I used some deli select lunch meat, and the other half of my can of minestrone.

That's pretty much it. Last night wasn't great. We had some friends over (we had a great time!), and I decided to break out the pizza rolls for everyone to munch on. I don't like to just have pub mix type things out for people to eat when they're drinking (no drinking for me though). I like to have something with a little substance to sponge up the alcohol before they drive home. And, who doesn't like pizza? Always a safe bet!

Today I had a coffee and egg white turkey bacon sandwich from Caribou. The sandwich actually had less calories than their oatmeal!?!? I had a gift card they sent me for my birthday. (by the way, sign up for their emails and they'll send you a coupon for a free drink on your birthday too! My spam filter musta got mine so they mailed me a gift card!) Then we ate at a Mexican restaurant Azteca for lunch. It's an authentic Mexican restaurant, they even spoke to most of the patrons in Spanish! So, it doesn't get better from here either. I came home had a banana and later some tea. I just got done polishing off some chicken pot stickers and hopefully I can keep my hands off anything else! So that was my pretty good end of week and down the tubes weekend.

Side note. I tweeted one day about my protein pancakes (which I use ON protein in) and they pm'd me back asking if I'd like a sample protein. I said sure, just give me whatever flavor you want. I'm always open to finding new favorites. Well, it took a couple weeks but the fine folks at Optimum Nutrition sent me a really nice goodie package! I got a mini tub of protein, a shaker, 2 sample packets of Nitro Core protein, 2 packets of Pro Complex protein, and a t-shirt! How awesome is that! They rock! I've been using the strawberry protein in my pancakes and it is soooo good!

Whew! Too much to type out!

Happy Sunday!

Protein Pancakes Recipe

Ok, since I had quite a few people ask me for my recipe I decided to just put it down here. Twitter just wouldn't have worked.

1/2 cup oats (ground)

1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese

1/2 scoop protein powder (I used ON's Supercharged Strawberry)

4 egg whites

A splash of vanilla extract

Stevia (or whatever sweetener you like) to taste

Mix all ingredients (just put it all in the blender and go) and cook in a pan sprayed with Pam just like you would an ordinary pancake.

Topping:

Heaping handful of frozen mixed berries

Stevia to taste

a splash of water

Put ingredients in a small sauce pan and cooked until sauce thickens. Poor over pancakes and enjoy!

*My 'sauce' didn't get super thick like syrup, but it didn't make the cakes soggy.

Let me know how you like it!

Planet Fitness Sales Pitch

This was posted on Siouxcountry.com, and I just had to share! Most people who know me know I have my issues with Planet Fitness. They're a judgement free zone.....that is, unless you're someone who's actually fit.

Anyway, enjoy!

Ok, so didn't post again yesterday. I kinda think I like the every other day thing anyway though, so I may just stick to it. I prepped a couple meals ahead of time yesterday because I was going to be out and about for a while. I had the protein pancake w/ sugar free syrup for breakfast with my coffee. I was in between errands and had 1 cup of cottage cheese with a green onion and some salt & pepper (most people only use fruit, I like both. It's a nice change) with 2 rice cakes and 1 Tbs peanut butter. When I was finally in the vicinity of a microwave, I had some more sausage and kraut with some more green beans and coconut oil and 2 rice cakes. I like variety, but I'm, too lazy to get creative and I can eat the same things every day with no problem. I also don't want to end up throwing the food out. Ok, now it's confession time. I did come home later that afternoon and have a huge bowl of cereal. It was Barbara's Bakery all natural Puffins. I couldn't help myself, it was just about half off at the grocery store! At least it was high in fiber....

I had it with some unsweetened Almond Breeze Vanilla milk. Yum-o! And a little micro b-fast thing later that night.

Oh, and I missed the gym because the weather got bad. The sad part is I went to the gym earlier to train a client, but couldn't stay to train myself.

Today didn't start off much better. I had another (not as big) bowl of cereal again with almond milk. Then, I had some more sausage (I finished it off today, thank goodness! I couldn't do it another day) and more green beans with coconut oil (that I'm so NOT getting sick of. Yums!). Got to the gym, trained a client, then trained back. Had a repeat of meal 2 again (that was the last of it) and a 60cal pudding cup. Trained another client, did 20 min of cardio, and left. Hit McDonald's and got a small non-fat sugar-free vanilla latte. I should have went to Starbucks, they're prices are really not that much more.

Mike called on his way home and asked if I wanted a sandwich from this middle eastern restaurant called Cedar's. They have awesome sandwiches, so of course I said yes. Didn't get a pic of that.....I ate it too quick. I had the last rice cake in the bag, and I just finished off a cup of tea.

I still have cereal in the cupboard (I ended up buying 2 boxes. It was like a BOGO with that price!) I'm going to do my best to stay away from it at least until Sunday. Sunday's are always a good day to have some cheat food. Maybe I should make it Saturday? We're having some friends over so I'm sure we'll have some yummy (fattening) things to snack on. Yeah, Saturday is better.

Once again, very tired. So off to bed I go. See you all in a couple days!

Checking in

Well, how's that for resolution? I say I'm gonna hold myself accountable and post my food everyday and then right outta the gate I bail:( I don't remember too much of what I ate on Saturday. It was pretty good, but at night my husband wanted to have a treat or something so I had fat free devil's food cake cookies. I love those things. But I ate the entire box, all but 1 cookie. I didn't even bother checking the nutritionals because it would have just bummed me out. Yesterday was eh, so so. I met up with some girlfriends that I have known since childhood, and ended up making a couple bad decisions. I had 3 Tbs. Malto Meal and my eggs for breakfast with a glass of lite orange juice, then 2 fat free hotdogs (40cal per) with some ff turkey chili and one 80 wheat bun. Then we went to Olga's for lunch. I got the Mediterranean sandwich (which was better than the fried chicken I wanted) and fries w/ ranch (I know, I know). Then we went to the movies to see Little Fockers (which was hilarious btw!) and I got a diet Coke and a 3.5oz pack of raisinettes. Then, later we just hung out at one of their houses and I had a popcorn ball and 2 pieces of homemade chocolate candies. Not such a great day.

Today was okay I guess. I had a different breakfast than normal. I just didn't feel like eggs and oatmeal. I had sausage and sauerkraut, then a banana and a glass of lite orange juice. (I spared you all the pic of that)

Next, I had 3 rice cakes with 1 Tbs. peanut butter.

Then it was off to the gym for leg day. I got in only 20 min of cardio. 10 min SS on the elliptical 10 min HIIT on a spin bike.

Then later I had my own mock version of chicken enchilada's. I had been wanting them for a while, but didn't want to give in and get the full flavor version. So I made mine with some chicken I bought from Kroger, two 60 cal tortillas, and some ff shredded cheese. It doesn't really melt well, but whatev. With a side of green beans with coconut oil (I always read about Genie using hers and it was making me want some!). Topped both off with Garden Fresh Salsa artichoke & garlic. Yum!

A little while later I decided to make myself a My So-Called Latte which was really good! I used to drink my coffee black with sweetener, but for the past 6 months or so I have been loving some cream with it or latte type drinks. (I like to fancy it up a bit with the cinnamon)

And for dinner, more of the sausage and sauerkraut. I made my own little mock polish platter. No peirogi's (even though they're in the freezer), but that's okay. I'll save those for a cheat day or something. I used another 80 bun for my dinner roll and used Brummel & Brown spread on it. I know that kraut can be a bit gassy, but I haven't really had a problem with (thank goodness!) I added some apple juice and a cut up apple to the mix while it was in the crock to cut down on the sourness, so I don't know if that helped??? (the pic doesn't do it justice, it looked better in person)

And that's it up until now. I think I'm going to have a Titan bar when I'm done with this post. I'm wanting something sweet and don't want to hit the cereal cupboard.

Ok, on to some other news. You would've thunk I would have started with this, but the point of this post was really to just update my food intake. About 5 weeks ago, we found out that we're adding another one to our clan! We had been trying so we weren't surprised or anything. I haven't really said anything about it on any of the other places I hang online and probably won't. At least as of now that's what I've decided. I'm due in the beginning of Aug. So it's gonna be another fun filled summer pregnancy. Yay for me!

My husband and I haven't come to an agreement yet, but as of now I am still planning on hitting the stage in Nov for Nationals. I'm looking at these 4o weeks as prep time for the pre-contest time. Some people have told me that they think it will be too soon for me to get my body back in that condition, but I did it with my 1st. I didn't compete at that time, but was back in a zero within 7 weeks. So as long as I don't get too fat, it's completely doable. That's the plan as of now, but as we all know life doesn't always go as planned. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Okay, now I'm super tired. Want to eat my bar and go to bed!