My Eating Clean Journey

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My Last Two Weeks and BBQ Turkey Sloppy Joes

Wow, the last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind.  The first week I was away on a business trip to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  My trip started out with the TSA confiscating my yogurt that I packed to snack on while traveling.  I guess I forgot that would be included in the liquid category.  Luckily I still had some low fat cheese slices with me and a few apples.  I also packed some oatmeal to eat for breakfast each morning so I wouldn’t be tempted to consume pastries and bacon.  The pastries I’m okay walking away from but the bacon…oh…bacon.  Need I say more?  ðŸ™‚
I feel like I did pretty good with my food choices while in Florida.  It’s always hard when all of your meals, except my oatmeal for breakfast, is eaten out.  As you know, even if you order grilled chicken, you never know if the chef/cook is really just grilling it plain or throwing on a load of fat laden butter or other condiment and  I’m not a big salad person.  If I’m going to indulge in a salad, I like fancy ones – like the Thai Chopped Chicken Salad from Panera or the Chopped BBQ Chicken Salad from The California Pizza Kitchen.  I don’t like garden salads with plain, boring dressings.  Here at my house I eat my veggies in my green smoothies, in stir-fries or by roasting them.  Occasionally I’ll eat them as a snack – like cucumbers or carrots with hummus.  Vegetables in those forms are hard to find at restaurants, especially when you don’t have a choice on where you’re eating.

Right after my work trip, I took a weekend cruise to Nassau, Bahamas.  I got sick on the cruise with a cold virus.  Body aches, fever, sore throat, runny nose, cough – all of it at once.  I slept all day Sunday in my cabin.  When I got home on Monday, I was in bed for the full week.  No energy to get up and cook or even make myself a meal.  I relied on frozen food I had in my freezer for my family to eat while I was gone and canned soup.  Clean eating went out the window.  I’m now putting a plan in place to start storing some healthy, homemade meals in my freezer.  If anyone has any good-for-the-freezer meals, I’d love it if you shared them.
Yesterday was my first day back to work.  I had enough energy today to actually hit the grocery store and tonight I made my first homemade meal in 2 1/2 weeks.  It felt so good.
We enjoyed BBQ Turkey Sloppy Joes.  It’s not a 100% clean recipe, as I used a bottled jar of BBQ sauce.  You could make your own to keep it clean.  I spotted a bottle of BBQ called Maine Apple from Charley Biggs.  I loved the apple flavor in my sloppy joe and after a discussion with my son, we decided next time I make these I’ll chop up an apple and put it in the mixture.

BBQ Turkey Sloppy Joes
Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey
2 assorted bell peppers, chopped (I used a yellow and orange)
1 onion, chopped
2T chili powder (I used Arizona Dreaming from Penzeys)
1 cup BBQ sauce (or more, if needed)
4 whole wheat hamburger buns
Cook the ground turkey in a large skillet over medium heat.  When cooked throughout, add in chopped peppers and onions.  Cook for another 3 minutes until the vegetables soften.  Stir in chili powder and bbq sauce.  Heat for 2 minutes on medium.  Toast the buns and serve the mixture on top.

It’s Friday and my Spartan Race Experience

I am so happy that Friday is here.  Finally.  It’s been an emotionally draining week, watching the news and dealing with my husband’s government furlough.  I understand this is just the beginning and the big whoop won’t come until his payday is here and there is no paycheck.  Then the October bills will start coming in and there won’t be funds in the bank to pay the bills.  I guess I should have paid attention more to Dave Ramsey and his Financial Peace University.  I guess that’s the story of my life.  People provide me with the necessary tools to make the right decisions – both with my financial status and with my health.  I need to learn to pay attention and learn.  I’m working on it and know that I’ll get there.

This morning started off great.  I enjoyed my usual one cup of coffee in the morning and then ate a nice breakfast – one of my favorites – Breakfast Scramble.  I measure out a serving of hash brown potatoes, a serving of crumbled turkey sausage and at least a cup of peppers and onions.  Warm it up in a pan and then crumble on top either a Weight Watchers Jalapeno cheese wedge or a Laughing Cow Chipotle cheese wedge.  It’s only 5 Weight Watchers PointsPlus.  I don’t use any oil or butter to cook it.  You could add in a scrambled egg to up your protein.  I don’t eat eggs but I’ll add it to my mixture on the weekends for the rest of my family (after I take out my serving first).

 
 
For lunch I had leftovers – same meal I ate last night for dinner – A Taco Salad.
 
I had a little free time this afternoon and spent some time reading some new blogs that I started following this week.  They focus on eating well, eating clean, fitness, exercise and the thoughts that motivate or hinder us.  I stumbled upon a post about a Spartan Race and thought I should share here my first experience with a Spartan Race.
 
A friend of mine lives in Colorado and a friend of his there loves Spartan Races.  He flew to Vermont to attend the World Championship – The Beast, in Killington.  Myself and another friend of mine decided to meet up with him and cheer him on.  It was my first time attending one of these “crossfit” type of competitions.  I’ve heard of the Tough Mudder and the Renegade Playground.  My sisters both actually ran the Renegade Playground last year and invited me.  I declined as I didn’t have enough time to actually get in shape for it.  I couldn’t even lift myself up and over a 4′ wall right now, heck with a 10′ one.
 
The organizers of the Spartan Race had viewing areas set up for spectators.  As we stood around waiting for our champion to cross the spectators area, I found myself watching thousands upon thousands of people run, climb, crawl, jump, swim and slither through the course.  Most had absolutely amazing bodies with muscle tone I could only dream of, while others weren’t that much different than me.  They had some fluff to their bodies.  I so wanted to stop them and ask them what their story was.  When, How and Why did they start this journey towards competing in a Spartan Race?  What was their motivation to keep going and what thoughts did they have to push them through these ultra challenging obstacles?  Then I spotted a woman with only one real leg, the other a prosthetic.  I then spotted a few with crutches and one even in a wheelchair.  I was so impressed with their commitment to their health and their fight within them that it brought tears to my eyes.  Not sad tears but celebration tears.  I didn’t know these people but I was so proud of them.  At the same time, sad for myself.  Sad that I feel like I live my life on the sidelines when it really comes to my fitness level.  
 
I know that I have a good handle on my eating.  I “Eat Clean” at least 80% of the time.  I rarely have anything with sugar, almost always have whole grains when I eat grains, don’t drink soda (even diet) and eat plenty fruits and vegetables.  So what’s holding me back in my fitness level?  I’m not really sure.  I’ve been thinking about this a lot.  A few things that come to mind are these:
 
1.  I hate sweating.  Absolutely hate the feeling of my hair sticking to my forehead.  Hate sweat dripping into my eyes.  Hate it going down the middle of my back.  Then I hate when I have to pull these wet or damp clothes off my body so I can shower and freshen up.  I’ve heard from so many people that say they love the feeling of sweating and love taking a shower after a great workout.  Not me.  Hate it.
 
2.  I find most exercises boring, and the ones I enjoy doing, require others to do it with me.  I don’t have very many people in my life that like to exercise.  I have joined a gym in the past but found that most people like to stick to themselves and aren’t very sociable.  Ask me any day to grab my sneakers or hiking shoes and go for a walk in the woods or a hike and I’m usually game.  Ask me to jump on a treadmill and walk for 30 minutes – it’s torture.  
 
3.  I’m an Introvert.  I attended a training a few years ago called “Four Lenses”.  In the class I learned that I was a green and yellow person and an introvert.  I’m not really lazy.  I can juggle 1000 things and get them all done but when it comes time to recharge my battery, I prefer to be laid back on the couch with the tv in the background (or a radio) and surf the web reading blogs, entering giveaways, checking facebook or even reading a book/magazine/newspaper.  Some people would rock climb or play a game of pick up basketball to recharge their battery – those types of things don’t recharge mine.  I’d love to hear from other introverts and how they have worked fitness into their life and still find the time to recharge their battery.
 
So, where do I go from here.  What does all of that mean anyways?  It is just me putting obstacles in my ways.  I tell myself it is.  That not everyone wakes up and just can’t wait to go work out.  I know there are some of you out there that do love that and can’t wait to get your sweat on…but not me and I’m guessing not a large portion of our population.  Sometimes exercising does suck.  I just need to suck it up and do it.  Like Nike says right, Just do it.  Well…that’s what I’m working on.
 
Here’s my friend Jim during his Spartan Race.
 

Stress Eating and a Step Forward

Do you ever have days like this?  Days where you are under so much stress that you can’t even think about choosing the right things to eat?  In order to soothe your frustrations and calm yourself down, you reach for a chocolate bar, a bowl of ice cream or a bag of potato chips.
Today, I was under so much stress.  As you know, the government shut down and my husband, who is a full time, military uniform wearing Airman of the National Guard, was one of the victims of the shut down.  Although we consider ourselves a military family, the US Government, who pays my husband, does not.  Him, and other full time Guardsmen, were not included in the bill that was passed last night to continue paying the military.  That bill, only included active duty.  My husband is not (anymore) active duty but he still puts on the uniform each day for work and has to follow all of the same rules, regulations and policies – except he doesn’t get the pay and entitlements that his active duty counterparts get.  He has served this country for 32 years.  Been deployed to Saudi Arabi, Qatar and Iraq.  But nope…he’s not military.  Ridiculous, if you ask me.
So…what does one do when they are under so much stress?  Normally I would have grabbed a large bowl of Schwans ice cream or maybe even a pint of Ben and Jerry’s.  Not this time.  Instead I was inspired to mix up an extra large glass of a green smoothie, eat a couple extra servings of fruity and cook myself a healthy meal for supper with a new recipe, Roasted Garlic and Red Pepper Pesto with Ravioli.
One thing I didn’t do though, was work out.  I did wake up, feeling sorry for myself and laid in bed watching Fox News and CNN instead of getting up to exercise.  After realizing this wasn’t very productive, I did climb out of bed and start my day.  From that point forward, I was on target.  Now that I reflect back, I should have worked out.  I think it would have helped with my stress level – especially if I went outside and was able to get some nice fresh air.  I’m proud of myself for not letting my food choices go – check one box off for doing good but next time I’m under stress (which will probably be tomorrow), will make sure I keep up with the exercise also.