Workout Song of the Week: The Bravery

Sometimes all you need to get you moving is the thought of some rough sex.  This week's song is the perfect example of that sort of motivation: "Hatefuck" by The Bravery.

Passion and intensity is sometimes all you need to go that last quarter of a mile or lift that last set of weights.  This song is perfect for that since it's quick, upbeat, and to the point.  Overall message: violence can be thrilling and sexy.  The Bravery perfectly captures that lusty, heat of the moment, rough-you-up kind of sexual attitude that we all need once in a while.  In addition to the song's overall sound being great for working out, the lyrics are pretty scandalous, and sometimes thinking about getting sexy can be just as big of a motivator.  It gets your blood pumping and your legs moving, just what you need kick some ass in the gym!

Weekly Tip: Portion Control

I'm a firm believer in the idea that it's not necessarily what you eat that impacts your weight, but how much.  Everything in moderation, right?  A lot of people struggle with portion control, including myself, and no matter how much working out you do, if you're still eating too much you won't be able to achieve your weight loss goals.  Understanding what 1 serving of something actually looks like can really help.  Learning how much food is appropriate to eat in one sitting can be a challenge, and one of my main goals for my weight loss journey was to adjust my concept of portion sizes and what's appropriate, so I've come up with a list of tips on how to train yourself to eat less.

•  Track your food!  I've said this once and I'll say it again: tracking my food has been the single most helpful change I've made since starting my challenge.  I had no idea how much food I was actually eating until I started recording every bite, and it really opened my eyes to the fact that I was eating way too much.  If you start keeping track of your food intake, you automatically start thinking about your food choices more, which can lead to better eating habits.
• If you're a visual person, use smaller plates.  You have to trick your brain into thinking that a full, albeit smaller, plate of food is the appropriate amount.  Especially if you feel the need to finish everything that's on your plate, this trick will allow you to do so without overeating.
• Put your fork down in between each bite.  We all need to slow things down a little when it comes to meal times.  We're always so rushed to shovel all our food into our mouths like it's going to disappear, but guess what: it's not going anywhere.  If you slow down your eating, you give your stomach time to send signals to your brain that you're full, so you end up eating less.
• Don't put more food in your mouth until you've swallowed your last bite.  Why must we constantly try to fit as much food into our mouths as possible?  Waiting until you've swallowed to take another bite of something works on the same principle as the last trick, it slows you down.
• Read nutrition labels.  Any food that comes with a label will give you a serving size, and this is what you need to be paying more attention to.  Not only does reading the nutritional information help you get a better idea of what you're putting in your body, but sticking to the serving size listed on the package means you're eating the proper amount.

In order to break bad habits, we have to create new ones to replace them.  These tips will help you retrain yourself into understanding how much food is the right amount to be eating.  Let me know if they work for you!

Corned Beef, Cabbage, and Potatoes

My first ever experience making St. Patrick's Day dinner was a complete success.  The corned beef was juicy and flavorful, and the vegetables were cooked to perfection.  There are only 7 ingredients, and it all went straight into the crock pot, which made for very easy prep.  The hardest part was chopping the veggies!  The original recipe I used is here.

You will need: 

4 large carrots, peeled and cut into matchstick pieces 

10 baby red potatoes, quartered  

1 onion, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces

4 cups water 

1 (4 pound) corned beef brisket with spice packet 
6 ounces beer (I didn't have any at the time so I omitted the beer and it still came out fine)
1/2 head cabbage, coarsely chopped 

Look at that beautiful hunk of meat!  And what a wonderful job of chopping veggies someone did...

Directions: 
-Place the carrots, potatoes, and onion into the bottom of a slow cooker, pour in the water.
-Place the brisket on top of the vegetables. Pour the beer over the brisket. Sprinkle on the spices from the packet, cover, and set the cooker on High. 
-Cook the brisket for about 8 hours. An hour before serving, stir in the cabbage and cook for 1 more hour. That means total cook time is 9 hours, so be prepared!

Nothing says Irish like corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes

Perfectly cooked corned beef

Delicious veggies

Ta-da!!!

Week 7 Update

Week 7 was my idea of the perfect week.  I stuck to my guns in terms of food and alcohol all week, kept up with my workouts, ate well, and saw awesome results.  Ideally, every week of this challenge would go that way, but we can't have everything.  Or can we? 

Physical Activity:
-3/16/13: ran on the treadmill for 45 minutes
-3/17/13: 30 Day Shred level 2
-3/18/13: ran on the treadmill for 30 minutes, then did 30 Day Shred level 2
-3/19/13: BODYATTACK
-3/20/13: 30 Day Shred level 2
-3/21/13: swam laps freestyle for 30 minutes, 800 meters total

I'm still sticking to the 30 Day Shred 3 times per week plan, which is working out really well.  Incorporating that DVD for the month of March has meant that I've been working out 6 days per week most weeks, which seems like a lot but since the DVD workouts are only 25 minutes it's completely manageable.  I also reached another running milestone; I can now run 2 miles on the treadmill without stopping!  Since I have more time and energy on Saturday mornings as opposed to week nights after working all day, that's the day when I spend a little more time on the treadmill, usually about 45 minutes.  When I first started I would tend to run for a few minutes, then walk for a few minutes, then run again etc.  Now that I've worked my way up to running longer distances at a time, I can run 2 miles on the treadmill, then walk for a few minutes, and then run another mile before cooling down.  I know my progress is somewhat slow, but it's still progress!

Food:
Week 7 kicked off with St. Patrick's Day last weekend, which I somehow managed to survive in a completely sober fashion.  I stuck to my 3 drink maximum at a St. Patrick's Day party with my friends.  I was able to have fun and enjoy myself while still respecting the guidelines I had set for myself ahead of time, so I was very proud of myself for that.  I also fell in love with a new snack last week: mixing greek yogurt, berries, and granola.  I know this is not a new concept for a lot of people, but I'm just getting on the parfait train now and I'm loving it.  Altogether it's under 300 calories, so it's a great way to satisfy my sweet tooth without putting my calorie count in danger.

Cooking:
Last weekend I cooked St. Patrick's Day dinner for the first time ever!  Growing up in a half Irish household, I was raised on corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes, but this was the first time I've ever made it.  I did it in the crock pot, and it came out amazing!  At a table of 7 people, the corned beef literally disappeared before our eyes.  I had made A LOT of veggies, so there were leftovers of those for me to have throughout the week.  Yum!

Weigh-In:
I'm always a happy girl when I can see positive results in number form on the scale at the end of every week.  I also get nervous the night before about not making my 1 pound per week goal, but week 7 was a very successful week in my eyes.  Thanks to my hard work, I lost not 1, but...

2 POUNDS!!!

This brings my total weight loss to 9 pounds in 7 weeks, and I still have 8 weeks to go to lose the remaining 6 pounds.  I was ecstatic about this progress and can only hope that it continues in the coming weeks.  With dedication and hard work, I'm confident that I can keep seeing results like this.

Workout Song of the Week: Icona Pop

What's not to love about an electro synth pop female anthem with a rebellious spirit and an upbeat tempo?  Nothing.  Icona Pop's "I Don't Care" is one of the best workout songs I've heard lately and that's why it's the workout song of the week!

The beat stays the same throughout pretty much the entire song, which makes it easy to listen to and helps you keep a steady pace.  It's the perfect example of some badass chicks singing about how tiny of a crap they give and that I don't care attitude can give you a huge push during a good cardio session.  For me, good workout songs are usually upbeat, with a powerful sound and motivational lyrics.  This song meets all of those requirements and then some.  Give it a listen and let me know what you think!

Weekly Tip: Have A Plan

Sticking to your fitness and weight loss goals means actually having to set specific goals for yourself to begin with.  Committing to something vague like "I want to lose weight" is almost like committing to nothing at all; it's way too vague and general.  If you don't have specific goals for yourself, you'll never achieve them.  That's why this week's tip is to HAVE A PLAN!

Initially, it's important to set your ultimate goal so you have something to shoot for.  This is what should keep your focused throughout your journey, because making major changes doesn't happen over night.  For example, my goal is to lose 15 pounds in 15 weeks.  I have a set number and a set time frame.  Once you've decided what your ultimate goal is, you need to make a plan to achieve that goal.  In my case, I decided that I wanted to start exercising at least 3-4 times per week and that I would track my food so I would know how many calories I was actually consuming throughout the week.  The blog also doesn't hurt when it comes to keeping me on track.

Once you've decided what specific action you need to take to achieve your goal, it really helps to make a schedule.  That way it's harder to keep pushing off that run to the next day or skipping your strength training session because "you'll do it later."  If you schedule those workouts in ahead of time, you're more likely to complete them.  Example:  "I will do cardio 3 days per week."  Or even more specifically: "I will do cardio on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday."  For me personally, I know that every week on Tuesday I'm going to go to my BODYATTACK class, and that every Saturday morning when I go to the gym for my weigh-in I'm also going to put in some time with the treadmill.  This is also helpful for time management in general since you can stay on track with your fitness commitment and you already know ahead of time when you're free for other activities.

Having a plan in terms of your meals is another huge factor.  I can't say enough how helpful it is to have your breakfasts, lunches, and snacks for the work week planned out ahead of time.  I make sure that I know in advance what I'm going to bring to work the next day so that I don't end up empty handed on my way to work in the morning and trying to decide which fast food chain to hit up for lunch.  Bringing only a certain amount of food with me to work each day also means I can only eat as much as I bring, therefore preventing me from snacking too much and overeating.  Generally I bring my lunch and 2 snacks for mid-morning and mid-afternoon.

Having a plan is useful in all facets of life, but especially when it comes to achieving your health and fitness goals.  Just having a goal is not enough, generating a plan of how exactly you're going to reach that goal is what makes it happen. 

Chicken Orzo Salad

As usual, this recipe came to me via Pinterest, you can find the original here.  I followed the original recipe and what I got was a refreshing, light salad that's perfect for the coming spring and summer months.  It was incredibly easy, meaning you literally throw everything into one bowl and stir.  Next time the only thing I might change would be to add slightly more dressing, since it did get a little dry when I ate it for leftovers throughout the week, but besides that, perfection!

You will need:
1 1/4 cups uncooked orzo

3 cups chopped cooked chicken (I used a rotisserie chicken and picked the meat off)

1 1/2 cups trimmed arugula

1 cup grape tomatoes, halved

1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper

1/4 cup chopped red onion

2 tbsp chopped fresh basil

1/2 tsp dried oregano

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

6 tbsp goat cheese crumbles

 

Salad prep!

Directions:

-Cook pasta according to package directions; drain well.

-Combine pasta, chicken, and the next 6 ingredients (through oregano) in a large bowl; toss well.

-Combine vinegar, oil, salt, and black pepper in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Drizzle vinegar mixture over pasta mixture; toss well to coat. Sprinkle with cheese.

 

Finished product

 I brought this over to my friend's house for a cookout and it was a big hit.  It's such a fresh, warm weather recipe that's perfect as a side or the main dish.  

Here are the ESTIMATED nutrition facts:  Serves 8, serving size: 1 cup.  Calories 347; fat 16g; saturated fat 5.6g; cholesterol 79.9g; sodium 396.9; carbs 30g; dietary fiber 1.8g; sugars 2.8g; protein 21.9g.