Reaching Goals

I am so proud of myself – it has been over a week since I’ve had a bulimic episode!!! I usually ‘relapse’ on Mondays/Tuesday/Wednesday, because the start of the week is always hardest for me (I miss my boyfriend…) but I managed to break my pattern and lasted a whole week!! WOOO!! I’m trying a different tactic – I’m putting a sticker on my calendar for each day that I go bulimic-free 🙂 it’s very ‘primary school’ but it’s working! It might sound strange but you could try it for anything – give yourself a sticker if you go a whole day without chocolate, or give yourself a sticker each day you go to the gym – it’s amazing how rewarding a sticker on a calendar can feel 🙂

I decided to give myself a treat for reaching my week goal (start with small goals… my next aim is a month!) so I gave myself a fake tan and bought myself flowers haha. In medicine, we are taught about creating SMART goals:

S – specific

M – measurable

A – appealing

R – realistic

T – timely

So for me, this was last one week without having a bulimic episode and I will get a (non-food) reward!! Pat on the back for me 🙂

 

Motivation: (I’m not sure who this is, but I’m envious of her cuts!)

Weekly food prep:

 

Meal 1/Breakfast:

What’s this? NOT protein pancakes?? Hahah I decided to have omelettes this week (just to be outrageous :P). Here’s what I threw in a frying pan:

2/3 cup egg whites

1 egg

Tomato, mushroom, spinach, avocado

Tinsy pinch of low fat cheese

Pepper

Paprika

Parsley

YUM!

 

Meal 2:

I cooked Banana Bread Protein Muffins from dashingdish.com and they’re really nice! These would also be great for a pre-workout snack.

Serves 12

3/4 cup ripe banana (about 1 large banana)

3/4 cup egg whites

1/2 cup plain no fat Greek yoghurt

3/4 cup oats

2 scoops vanilla whey protein powder

1/4 cup Stevia (I used about 12 serves)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 170-175 degrees. Spray muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray

Place ingredients in a blender and blend until the mixture is smooth

Divide the mixture into the 12 muffin tins

Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean

Even though I overcooked these slightly, they were really nice! And tasted just like banana bread 🙂 I’m possibly going to add walnuts next time I make these :).

Nutritional info: (per 1/12 muffins)

Calories: 42

Total fat: 0.2g

Total carbs: 3.8g

Sugars: 2.0g

Protein: 6.5g

 

Meal 3/Lunch:

For lunch I’m just eating left over Clean Crockpot Thai Chicken from last week 🙂 yum.

Nutritional info: (per 1/8 servings)

Calories: 375

Total fat: 16.8g (all good fats!)

Total carbs: 6.3g

Sugars: 2.8g

Protein: 46.5g

 

Meal 4:

I cooked another batch of Macadamia Protein Cookies and this time I substituted 2 tbsp of coconut butter with unsweetened apple sauce. They were just as yummy (I think they were a bit better because they weren’t as butter-heavy) and had lower fat content 🙂

Nutritional info: (per 1/15 cookies)

Calories: 107

Total fat: 6.7g

Total carbs: 7.4g

Sugars: 0.7g

Protein: 3.7g

 

Meal 5/Dinner:

I tried another easy crockpot meal, this time from paleomg.com – Brazilian Curry Chicken! I haven’t tried it yet (I’m having it today) but it smelt pretty darn delicious!!

Serves 6

3 chicken breasts

3/4 cup lite coconut milk

2 tbsp reduce salt tomato paste

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tbsp ground ginger

4-6 tbsp curry powder

2 capsicums (I used red and green), diced

1 onion, sliced

1 cup reduced salt chicken stock

Salt and pepper

Throw everything into the crockpot (except capsicums, onion and chicken) and whisk together.

Add capsicums, onions and chicken.

Mix all ingredients together til the chicken is covered in the curry mixture.

Cook on low for 6-8 hours, or high for 4-5 hours.

May eat with rice/quinoa… whatever your current dietary needs are! I think I may just eat on its own.

Nutritional info: (per 1/6 serving)

Calories: 263

Total fat: 4.7g

Total carbs: 4.4g

Sugars: 2.7g

Protein: 47.4g (!!!)

 

Meal 6:

Cottage cheese + WW chocolate mousse + almonds 🙂

 

I hope everyone has a great week – don’t be afraid to make goals… even if you don’t reach them the first time, the important thing is to keep your chin up, get back on your feet, and keep trying 🙂

Happy Fat and Sweet Treats

I’m so excited.. I got my body fat calculated the other day and I’m absolutely stoked with the results!!! Here’s what the machine spat out:

11.5% bf!!! WOOO!! I’ve gained a little weight, but this is a good thing because I’ve been slightly underweight anyway. AND it was muscle gain 🙂 exactly what I wanted!!

I hope everyone else is seeing results – I find it is so much more rewarding to keep away from the scale and keep track of progress via body diameter measurements and body fat percentages. A few years ago I went through a stage where I hardly ate anything (to be honest, I couldn’t afford food and saw this as a good thing because I was living at the beach on the gold coast… starving = hot bikini body, right??) and I was down to 45 kg BUT I didn’t look anywhere near as good as how I look now!! I was a ‘skinny fat kid’… and was treating my body very badly. The lifestyle I’m living now is definitely one that I want to, and will be able to, stick with.

Another exciting thing happened this week – my HR monitor arrived in the mail!! So far I love it, though I’m pretty sure I haven’t figured out all the things that it can do haha.

The past week I’ve spent in anaesthetics and I really enjoyed it! The consultants were really cool and willing to chat to me, and it all just seems to make sense to me. I’m definitely contemplating becoming an anaesthetist in the future.

 

Motivation for this week: to be honest I’m not sure who this is, but her body is great!!

This week’s food plan:

 

Meal 1/Breakfast:

Protein pancakes!!

They don’t look beautiful, but they sure taste amazing!! My boyfriend and I bought flax seed oil yesterday as well, and I tried it on my pancakes this morning (added omega 3) and it tastes pretty nice!! Also good with a dollop of almond butter or sugar free maple syrup… YUM!!

 

Meal 2:

High Protein Brownies from http://healthifulbalance.blogspot.com.au. These brownies were really yummy and soft, but a little bitter for my sweet tooth, so next time I think I’ll add some more sweetener.

Serves 12 (I decided to slice mine into only 8)

3 tbsp coconut flour

2&1/2 tbsp cocoa powder

5 egg whites

75mL water

1&1/2 tsp baking powder

7 packets of Stevia (but next time will possibly double this :P)

(I also added a tsp of hulled hemp seeds and a tsp of chia seeds, for added goodness. Walnuts would also be delicious!!)

Preheat oven to 170 degrees.

Put all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix. When combined, then add wet ingredients and mix well.

Cover a small baking tin with baking paper and put the mixture in (evenly spread out with a spatula).

Bake for 15 minutes. Let it cool a bit before cutting.

Nutritional info: per 1/8 slices

Calories: 74

Total fat: 4.1g

Total carbs: 5.3g

Sugar: 0.6g

Protein: 5.0g

 

Meal 3/Lunch:

Leftovers from last week 😀

 

Meal 4:

I have been on the hunt for amazing protein cookies for a while now, and so far these have excelled far beyond all of my other attempts!!! I got the recipe from http://dashingdish.com – Protein Packed Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. DELICIOUS!!! I swapped a few ingredients, and next time I think I will try subbing in some apple sauce instead of so much butter, but apart from that they’re pretty darn perfect!! 🙂 I’m calling my version Macadamia Protein Cookies… must give these a try:

Serves 20 (mine made 14 and I wouldn’t want them smaller than that…)

2 cups oats (1 cup blended into oat flour, the other cup left whole – can blend if prefer smoother batter but they tasted awesome half and half)

1/4 cup protein powder (I use Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey Vanilla Icecream)

1 tsp baking powder

6 tbsp butter, softened (I used coconut oil – yumm)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1 cup sugar substitute, or 12-15 packets of Stevia

1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I decided to stay away from chocolate, as it’s my weakness, and instead I put macadamia nuts in, and they’re really good!)

Preheat oven to 170 degrees and line a cooking tray (or 3) with baking paper.

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix wet ingredients.

Combine both wet and dry ingredients and mix well.

Roll the mixture into balls (be prepared to make a mess!) and place on the trays (these don’t spread much so they can be placed quite close together. Also, you might want to press on them a bit to flatten them slightly – as you can see mine turned out to be delicious little balls haha)

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until they are set and firm, and only lightly coloured. Try not to eat these all at once!! They feel beautifully naughty 😉

Nutritional info: per 1/14 cookies

Calories: 133

Total fat: 9.2g

Total carbs: 7.7g

Sugar: 0.6g

Protein: 4.0g

 

Meal 5/Dinner:

I cooked another lot of the Clean Crockpot Thai Chicken 😀 I cannot emphasise enough how delicious and easy this is!! Yummmm…

 

Last Friday I was feeling lazy but wanted a ‘fresh’ meal (i.e. not freshly unfrozen…) so ducked down to the supermarket and grabbed some veggies and a roast chicken – quick and healthy (and delicious) dinner :). I just lightly steamed the veggies and topped them with a splash of Bragg’s amino acids.

Meal 6:

Protein Chocolate Mousse 🙂

 

When I’m a doctor, this is what I’ll be saying to my patients when they say they don’t have time to exercise (especially if they are overweight with cardiovascular disease)… maybe not in these words, but there is so much truth behind this!!

You should always strive to fit some sort of exercise into your life – make it part of routine! Schedule it and make it a habit because it will benefit you in so many ways (not just physically but also mentally, emotionally, and – depending on the type of exercise – even socially). Instead of catching up with a friend over a coffee, go for a walk around the park together. And always remember to try to choose the healthy option with foods – your body will thank you for it :).

Have a great week everyone!! x