Post-Easter Detox

I don’t know about anyone else, but I feel disgusting, bloated and lethargic after that easter break – I had a whole week off and went up to Sydney with my boyfriend to celebrate our one year anniversary. It was an amazing few days, full of expensive restaurants, luxurious foods, and delicious wines (as well as a trip to Taronga zoo and a close almost-encounter with One Direction) but in a way I’m glad to be back to get into routine and feel good about myself!

Uni starts back tomorrow, and its back in the hospital at 8am! I’m an early bird so I don’t mind the 8am start, however my gym doesn’t open until 6am, making it extremely difficult for me to squeeze in my hour and a half workout in the mornings 😦 I need an Anytime Fitness gym! I’m going to have to go after class, which will be around 6:30pm, which I do not like at all, but unfortunately it’s unavoidable. Any gym is better than no gym!

Just had a big cooking sesh in the communal kitchen here and this is my eating plan for the week:

 

Meal 1/Breakfast:

You guessed it – blueberry pancakes 🙂

 

Meal 2/4:

Healthy Chocolate Fudge Protein Brownies (see earlier post) – these brownies look a bit different than my last batch although I’m not sure why! They taste just as delicious, and this time I put almonds in them instead of walnuts, just because that’s what I had on hand.

I also baked Chocolate and Coconut Protein Bars (see earlier post).

Cooking snacks in bar form is a lot easier for me to carry around in my pocket in the hospital, so I think I’m going to cook more of these from now on (muffins etc for special occasions/weekends).

 

Meal 3/Lunch:

When I headed to the supermarket to do my grocery shopping this morning, there was no turkey mince on the shelves. So I’ve mustered up the courage to try kangaroo mince! My only experience with eating kangaroo was an unpleasant one (overcooked roo steak – yuck) but this is going to be really nice!! Kangaroo is a really good meat to have – it’s super lean, high in protein, and is a great source of dietary iron. I might have to try subbing in kangaroo meat more often 🙂

Kangaroo Chili

I just cooked the Turkey Chili recipe that I posted in one of my earliest entries but replaced the turkey mince with kangaroo! I also added some zucchini, green capsicum and mushroom.

 

Post-Workout:

I always used to just have protein powder with water, but I’ve recently tried mixing together a few things just to increase the vitamins etc, as well as taste! Here’s a protein shake that I love –

Vitamin-Rich Protein Shake

45mL almond milk

20g spinach (sounds strange, but you can’t taste spinach at all! A great way to easily add vitamins from green leafies into your diet)

1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder

2g chia seeds (these are the latest superfood craze and I add these to everything! They’re tasteless but are high in omega-3 as well as iron and other essential vitamins and minerals. I love to add them to baked good especially)

5g psyllium husks (really in high in dietary fibre)

1/2 banana (sugar helps the body to break down and absorb protein faster post-workout)

200mL cold water

1. Blend and enjoy! Yum 🙂

 

Meal 5:

Baked Basil Chicken

Serves 4

4 chicken breasts

1/3 cup Greek yoghurt

1/4 cup fresh basil – chopped

1 tsp cornstarch

1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I subbed in oat flour)

1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees

2. Arrange chicken in a single layer in a baking dish

3. Combine yoghurt, basil and cornstarch and mix well. Spread over chicken

4. Mix breadcrumbs (/oat flour) and parmesan cheese and sprinkle over chicken

5. Bake for 30 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in the middle

 

Meal 6:

Cottage cheese + cinnamon + Stevia + almonds

My boyfriend is spending the next 12 days over in Thailand with his family, the lucky thing, but it’s going to be interesting to see how I cope without being able to talk to him whenever I need to. Our skype sessions every night tend to get me through the day, so I think I’m going to struggle without those :S My boyfriend almost didn’t go on the trip because he was worried about leaving me on my own, but I didn’t want to hold him back from having an awesome experience with his family overseas – he deserves a bit of a break!

So hopefully this week goes smoothly, with limited lows, and I’m able to get through til the weekend, when I can at least visit my family. I think I’m going to pass a lot of time in the gym to get my mind off missing my boy 😛

 

Motivation for the week: Andreia Brazier

Mindblock

I’v had a hard past couple of days.. last week I was diagnosed with depression anxiety disorder (thanks to uni) and I’ve been put on antidepressants for the time being. Only thing is, they’v really flattened me out – I feel like my head is full of concrete and my body has slowed to almost stop. This has made exercise and study very very difficult, so I’ve tried to prioritise and do things when I feel most energetic. I’ve had to ditch class for this week – I’ve attempted to attend the past couple of days but just sat in tutorials looking, and feeling, like a zombie. I went to gym both yesterday and today but it was pretty terrible, my legs were moving so slow on the crosstrainer that the old lady next to me was going about 5 times my speed, yet I was sweating and exhausted 😦 yuck.

Also, sitting around makes me even more depressed so I’ve taken to eating for comfort 😦 big no no!! Argh at least most of my nibblies are reeeasonably healthy – apart from the naughty icecream I had today on the way back from the doctors.

I had a burst of energy Sunday night so did my cooking then – easy meals that will get me through the week.

 

Meal 1/Breakfast:

Berry Pancakes – still loving these but now slotting them in before my morning workout in attempt to give myself as much energy as possible

 

Meal 2:

Health Chocolate Fudge Protein Brownies

(Adapted from leanbodylifestyle.blogspot.com.au)

Serves 12

1 cup oat flour

2 scoops chocolate whey protein powder

3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup Stevia

4 egg whites

1/2 cup almond milk

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees

2. Mix all dry ingredients, then add wet

3. Spray a baking tray with non-stick cooking oil, then pour in mixture

4. Bake for 15 minutes

Nutritional info: per 1/12 bars

Calories: 87

Total fat: 3.4g

Total carbs: 5.8g

Sugar: 0.6g

Protein: 7.2g

 

Meal 3/Lunch:

Turkey Lettuce Wraps

1kg lean turkey mince

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp dried thyme

2 tsp dry yellow mustard

2 tsp black pepper

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp minced garlic

1/2 onion

1/2 cup mushroom

1/2 cup celery

Iceberg lettuce

1. Cook turkey in a frying pan until brown, then add the rest of the ingredients and cook until combined

2. Throw it in some lettuce leaves! I’ve been eating this with the mince cold, and topping the wraps with chopped tomato/salsa, and mixing in some brown rice in order to get some carbs – super yum!

 

Meal 4:

Berry Muffins of course! I used frozen mixed berries instead of blueberries just for something different, but I have to say that I prefer the simple blueberry version 🙂

 

Meal 5/Dinner:

I bought a slow cooker on the weekend and have absolutely no clue how to use one so I found a really basic recipe for my first attempt.

Clean Eating Slow Cooker Spinach and Chicken

(From thegraciouspantry.com)

(I know it’s not pretty but it tastes better than it looks!)

Serves 8

4 large chicken breasts

250g spinach

700g can diced tomatoes

500g jar of pasta sauce

– I added 1/2 green capsicum and 1/2 onion but you could add whatever vegies you want I suppose

1. Throw everything in the slow cooker

2. Cook for 6-8 hours

3. Easy!! The only thing was that I didn’t time this very well and had to set my alarm to wake up at 2am to check on it and turn the slow cooker off.. I think I’m going to buy one of those egg timers that automatically switch the power point off (I’d never heard of these but my boyfriend kindly told me about these AFTER I got up at 2am…)

Nutritional info: per 1/8 serves

Calories: 222

Total fat: 3.1g

Total carbs: 14.6g

Sugar: 8.2g

Protein: 31.3g

 

Meal 6:

Whatever I can be bothered throwing together!

 

So yeah I’m going to keep battling through this week – the doctor said I will become less drowsy and lethargic after a week or so.. fingers crossed he’s right! Wish me luck 🙂