Hi, sorry I haven’t been blogging this week.  My husband is on a trip to Cuba and so he took the camera.  My parents came to visit and were staying in the bedroom that has the computer.  So blogging was not going to work too well for this week.  I miss it though!  So I should be back tomorrow.

The book “Sleep away the pounds” is great!

I am also listening to “In Defense of Food: and eater’s manifesto” on audio right now.  I love that I discovered I can download audio books from the library and listen to them while I am at the computer.

Meal Plan for day

“Sleep Away the Pounds”

www.settingcaptivesfree.com

Protein Powder Cookie Dough

Meal Plan:

Meal 1: 8:00am (160cal/160 total)

• 3/4c Kashi
• 8g Natural PB
• Cinnamon, Salt, and water
• Mix everything except water, add water last and mix again!

Exercise: A new class at lifetime!! 9:30am (Hopefully Daniel will be up in time for this!

Meal 2: 11:00am (155cal/315total)

• Protein Powder Cookie Dough:
• Chocolate Protein Powder – 100cal
• 20g Kashi Cereal – 50cal
• Salad w/ FF dressing – 5 cal

Meal 3: 12:30pm

“Sleep Away the Pounds”

So I just picked up this book from the library and it is incredible!  Whether you have trouble sleeping, eating before bed, or not it is a great resource.  The whole first part is a good, thorough, quick read on hormones inclusing: Leptin, insulin, ghrelin, cortisol, & growth hormone.

I think part of my problem is that I eat a snack before bed that causes hyperglycemia early in the night.  My body produces a plethera of insulin to take care of all the sugar and I become hypoglycemia.  That is when I wake up because my body signals that it needs more food.  It may also be an adrenaline problem that my “flight or fight” response is going during the night. 

Anyways I definitely give this book 2 thumbs up!

Setting Captives Free

www.settingcaptivefree.com

So I joined this site yesterday.  It is a 60 day study to help a person learn about healthy nutrition, wanting to glorify the Lord with their body, wanting to lose weight for the right reasons.  I also now have a mentor and I think that is the most incredible part.  She will read my responses, share stories about herself, someone for me to ask anything about.  This is honestly the most amazing thing I have found.  If you are trying to become healthy or lose weight check it out.

Post includes: Daily plan, Tebow’s mom, my new fav breakfast, and update on brownie review

So I made all my meals this morning and they are all ready to go for the day.  It is such a stress relief. I made what I could for tomorrow too!!  Now there is no excuse for not sticking to plan

Meal 1: 9:00am 

• Coffee
• Bowl’O Peanut Butter & Jelly <– This is my new FAVORITE BREAKFAST
• 6 grams oatmeal microwaves for 1 minute
• 3oz Lite Tofu
• Salt and 4 drops of liquid stevia
• 18 g Kashi GoLean Cereal
• 60 g FROZEN BLACKBERRIES
• 8 grams Natural Peanut butter
• The blackberries will melt perfectly if added last bc of how hot the oatmeal is 

Meal 2: 12:30pm 

• 1/2 pkg shirataki noodles
• Turkey, onion, green pepper leftovers
• 1/2oz. Cheddar cheese

Tebow’s mom

So I just learned who Tim Tebow was and I thought if he is following the Lord while in the mist of all the this football fame his parents may also be following the Lord and really helped to shape the person he is…. and it is true.  She is a wonderful woman who is beautiful, smart, obedient to the Lord, kind, and has sacrificed for her family.  She homeschooled all their children and they are all passionate about God today.  Here is more info on her:

 The website is: http://www.gofbw.com/news.asp?ID=9758

Brownies:

So I ran out of cocoa powder but I ordered Capella “fudge brownie” to put in them, so the batter is sitting in my fridge as I eagarly wait for them.

My new Fav Breakfast:

Bowl’O Peanut Butter & Jelly

Day 20 – February 10, 2010

Meal 1: 5am – 300 cal

• Chocolate Chips – 140 cal
• 4 slices on light 40 cal bread – 160 cal
• 2 cups of coffee

Meal 2: 8am – 160 cal/ 460 total

• 3/4 c Kashi
• 6g PB & little bit of dark choc.
• Cinnamon, salt, & water

Meal 3: 12pm – 280 cal/ 740 total

• Turkey – 60 cal
• Braggs – 0 cal
• 6g PB – 40 cal
• Green pepper, onion, lettece
• 2 bites of PB and jelly – 40 cal
• 1 oz chocolate – 70 cal
• 3 lora doone cookies (from 100 cal pack) – 30 cal
• 1 T. Black bean – 40 cal

Meal 4: 2 pm – 160 cal/ 900 total

• 3/4 c Kashi
• 6g PB & little bit of dark choc.
• Cinnamon, salt, & water

Meal 5: 4pm -225cal/ 1125 total

• Turkey
• All bran crackers – 120 cal
• Chicken

Exercise: 5:30pm – Total Conditioning (-800cal)/325 total

Meal 6: 8pm – 150 cal/1275 total/ 475 cal

• Honey Dew melon
• Spinach
• Stevia
• Protein Powder

Shirataki Noodles are wonderful!  I use in all recipes that call for noodles now and to add bulk to some sweet recipes.

Tips for using shirataki noodles:

• Rinse them in water before using and then microwave.  They do have a “fishy” smell to it.  The smell goes away if washed and microwaved though!!
• Drink a glass of water while eating them.  They really expand and soak up water in your stomach.  You will be STUFFED from these little noodles about 15 minutes after eating them. 
• They are not EXACTLY noodles, but hey, if it tasted exactly like a noodle and looked like a noodle… then it probably would be a noodle…. and contain 200 vs 20 calories.
• They need time to soak up the flavor of something.  So let it sit and marinate if you can.  Otherwise think about adding something else to it such as cereal or oatmeal (in a sweet dish), that easily absorbs liquid.
• Do not melt cheese on top of it in the microwave.  The noodles will not really absorb and incorporate the cheese, so the cheese just melts in a big blob and is hard to seperate after (it kind of stays in big icky chunks, think of how FF cheese melts and its just like that).  Melt the cheese over the other food, veggies or protein, or mix the cheese in first. 
• They are great to add to a skillet or in a stir fry.  The heat really helps the noodles to take on the other flavors.

What I use shirataki noodles in:

• For spaghetti
• Under chili
• Macaroni and cheese
• Tuna casserole – this is REALLY yummy
• Chinese dishes that I add some soy and frozen veggies to a skillet.
• Pureed and add to cookies for extra bulk (you can just cut them up but there will still small bit of noodle in the cookie when you are eating it.  Also it takes a long time for it to soak up flavor so you will taste the noodle)
• Last but not least my favorite!!!!!!
• Low-cal Peanut Butter De-Lite:

1.  1/2 pkg shirataki – Rinsed and microwaved, and cute into smaller pieces
2. 18 grams Kashi GoLean or 10 g Oatmeal
3. 4g PB
4. Cinnamon, sweetener, salt
5. Chocolate Protein powder (optional)
6. Cocoa powder (optional)
7. Dark chocolate bits (wait for noodles to cool then add so they just melt a little and are not fully incorporated)

I usually enjoy this ever night before bed for a 160cal dessert that is peanut butter and chocolatey!

TOMORROW: Low Cal Black Bean, Tofu brownies, pics and review

Plan:  Well I planned my meals for the today.  I was suppose to eat again at 11:30 having my usual Kashi and PB. 

Actual: But we were at church and then dropped my husband off at Panera.  We went into panera for a minute… but I wanted to wait to eat because I think Panera is really yummy-but very depective, everything looks healthy, but usually it isn’t.  If I do get soething it is always the black bean soup YUM! 

So then we stopped by mcDonalds for a burger…jk….. we went there for a red box movie.  I was going to watch one while running on the treadmill during my son’s nap.  I relaized I forgot I left my card with my husband so he could get more food at panera    So…. after all this time I was starving!!!  I’m not sure if I was thankful for having food available in the car.  I had a thing of mint keebler cookies that my son use to enjoy.  So I nibbled the outside of about 7 of them.  I would equate that to two cookies. 

It is important to realize balance though.  I looked at what I had eaten– fat and carbs.  My next meal was going to be tuna, FF mayo, and all bran crackers.  So I skipped the all brans crackers for some shirataki noodles.  And ta-dah.  I am full and on plan!

WEIGHT TRAINING 101:

Facts:

• Muscles weighs 3x as much as fat (the scale may not be changing but your physique may be )
• It takes WAY MORE energy to maintain muscle than fat — how much you can eat basically equates to how much muscle you have.  (My husband, in the medical field, sees alot of women that are very large and sedentary.  Someone may think they could probably eat 1000 calories a day and lose weight.  The truth is that they are so sedentary that they have lost ALL their muscle.  Their caloric requirements may only be 300 calories, any more and they will gain weight!)

Ask yourself:

• What time of the day is best for you to work out?  That you will work out the hardest and be the likeliest to do it? I’m a morning person.  I better workout in the morning or I probably will consume my day with other things and never get to it.  If I am planning on a 5:30pm class I WILL make it to that though.
• What do you eat before and after?

Losing weight by Exercise

• How muscle is built:  
• You must be lifting hard enough that you are sore after.  The sorer the better.  Work to exhaustion.  If you are going to do it, then do it hard.  Why?  Because you must work out hard enough to make micro tears in your muscle.  Your body, with protein, will rebuild it stronger (bigger, more toned, etc.).  This is the ONLY WAY to gain muscle.  If you are not sore after you are not going to build more muscle.  Hopefully you are just exercising your muscle enough that it will stay the same.
• How to increase muscle breakdown more quickly? By not giving it oxygen.  How do you not give it oxygen?  By working out so you are out of breath.  i.e.  Do intervals- Sprints of cardio, then lift, cardio, then lift, etc., Polymetrics, less weight but higher reps.
• Sleep!  You need adequate sleep for your body to repair itself too.
• What to eat for workouts:
• Don’t eat too much you are stuffed before working out, but enough that you can get through it.  Ideally I eat a light meal 2 hours before.
• Eat PROTEIN after.  Your muscle gets bigger by tearing itself down and then building itself back up again.  You need protein to do this.

Where to go for help:

• Gym
• Take classes
• Look into good videos that will keep you motivated – P90X, Crossfit, Jari Love “get ripped”

What I ate today:

Breakfast (6:30am) :

• Kashi
• Dark chocolate

  

  85% Cacao from Aldi - 5 for $1.69

• Coffee

Meal 2(9:00am):

• Kashi – 110 cal
• PB – 50 cal

Meal 3 (11:30):

• Kashi –This is what I was talking about

Meal 3 (2:00):

• Cookies!
• 1 bite of bagel
• 4 licks of McDs ice cream cone

Meal 4 (3:00pm):

• 3oz tuna – 75 cal
• FF mayo – 10 cal
• Shirataki noodles – 20cal

This can squash out ANY carving for pizza!

1 serving. 100-200 cal depending on amt.

Ingredients:

• Spaghetti squash cooked (I cook mine in the microwave)
• 1/4-1/2 c. Pizza or pasta sauce
• 1/4-1/2 oz mozzarella cheese
• Spices:
• Garlic, salt, italian

Directions:

1. Place spaghetti squash on plate and add garlic and salt to taste.
2. Top with sauce
3. Spinkle cheese on
4. Add all spices on top
5. Microwave until cheese is melted
6. Enjoy!

The exact measurements don’t matter so this is great for one or make more to feed a crowd.

I actually stuck to my meal plan yesterday, and I woke up in the middle of night, but did not head down stairs to get something to eat.  We watched a move “Ong Bak 2″ (we usually watch the usual romance, funny ones, but this one was foreign, and good, and there wasn’t any foul language or sex scenes.  My husband LOVED the fight scenes, we had to rewind and watch some of them in slow motion to see how they did it) and then I went to sleep after.  Yay!

Why it happened:

I think there was a little light that went off in my head yesterday.  I am putting all this effort in, I should be seeing results, I’m wasting precious time and money that could be spent else where if I’m not going to lose the weight, and its all because I, for some reason, wake up at night.  The food really doesn’t even taste good, and I barely remember it.  I think each person needs that trigger or light to go off to be the motivation to change (and God too, because I definitely pray when I am worried or have anxiety about what I am eating).

How God plays in:

I want to live my life for the Lord, to sacrifice my time and not be just focused on myself… easpecially overly focused with my diet and exercise. 

 I was listening to a message and two women in a household always prayed to lose 10 lbs.  The man of the house thought everyone in the household shoul help by going on a diet, until these 2 lost their 10 lbs, and then they could focus on other things.  This is so right! 

The Lord cares what we are going through, and I believe all strength and good things come from Him.  He also wants us to cast all our cares, worries, and anxieties on Him.  So whenever I have feelings like that I am trying to train myself to pray 1st in that situation.  The Lord also actually wants us to do something about it too!

Listen to a message:

You can hear a message by a great, godly women about eating here  and find “Developing a healthy relationship with food” by Neva Whitney.

This is my plan for the day incase you wonder how I do it:

I use a note card, I’ve tried using a notebook or calendar but neither of those worked for me.  I think a notebook is best because you can keep it from years to come.  I am trying to lose weight now and I try to think back about how I lost weight 6 years ago, but I don’t remember.  To be able to look back would be great.

Note cards are working for me!  And I usually stick to the plan, except I was at the mall with a friend for another play date and we were there longer than I had planned.  I therefore did not have my lunch, I let my son have a bag of cheetos for lunch (he usually eats more natural things.  He is VERY SKINNY though, so making sure he gets in enough calories is always important to me), and I ate 4 of them — Knowing I had a wonderful Peanut Thai lunch waiting for me at home, and that I had a plan, was my motivation to not eat the 75% that my son left untouched!

Workout:

• AM Cardio — I only got in 10 minutes due to procrastination and then absolutely not having any more time.  But hey, 10 minutes is better than none!
• On to buy new running shoes and then to run maybe 4 or 5 miles?

Breakfast:

I started experimenting with two “Protein Pancake” recipes.  One from a blog and then I tweaked it for another version, and I think a 3rd version will be in the makings soon.

From www.foodofapril.com

Review: They were very filling, my problem with protein though is that it always come out dry and not very moist.

 This is so quick and yummy.  I will definitely make a recipe for it, but basically use any protein and steamed/stir-fried broccoli. 

Then for simple sauce add:

• 8g Natural Peanut butter
• Soy sauce to taste (>1 T)
• Very SMALL amt of sweetener (I sprinkle for probably 1 sec. a bit of a packet of splenda)
• Red Pepper Flakes

This is delicious! and one of my “In a hurry, but want something gourmet tasting, dinners”

I am also only slightly addicted to Peanut Butter right now

I took my son to Whole Foods after mall walking for 40 minutes and then letting the kids play in the play area for about 1 1/2 hours.

Buys that night:

• Bragg’s Amino Acids (I’m excited to try this in the Peanut Thai recipe instead of soy)
• Stevia
• And I put an order in for Capella’s drops in the “Chocolate Brownie flavor” thanks to the mention of it at www.foodsofapril.com

Snack:

Kashi with 1/2 pkg of Shirataki noodles added for bulk.

This is SO yummy, huge, and good for you

Right before bed snack:

Small Slice of banana bread

I woke up in the middle of the night again!:

2 slices banana bread and one diet hot chocolate

What do you do if you wake up in the night?  Have you ever taken melatonin?  What did you think of it?