Tuesday, October 4, 2016

ZONEd In. Day 7.

Feeling good!

Breakfast: eggs, banana, coffee with MCT oil
Snack: Gluten free toast with butter, turkey
Lunch: chicken breast with avocado, kimchee, rice
Snack: apple, coffee with gelatin, pecans
Dinner: chicken wings, salad, rice

Exercise:
5:30 am: crossfit

Monday, October 3, 2016

ZONEd In. Day 6.

I could not be more excited for my upcoming race. My diet is spot on and doing wonders for my training. I'm strong, and I'm eating enough to support my strength. If you ever feel like you have to deprive yourself or eat less than 1800 calories per day to lose extra fat, get some help! And if you think you're in starvation mode and totally screwed up your metabolism.... you're probably wrong. Your metabolism can be wonky, but if you're training right and eating right, you'll reach your goals.


Breakfast: eggs with cheese in butter, mini blueberry muffin, apple
Snack: Arbonne protein shake with PB and banana
Lunch: rotisserie chicken with garden salad and balsamic
Snack: greek yogurt, baby carrots, pecans
Dinner: chicken thighs, mixed veggies

Exercise:
4:30 8 x 200m sprints, deadlifts and burpees


Saturday, October 1, 2016

ZONEd In. Day 5.

My goal for this 30 day challenge is to enhance my performance when it comes to running. I really want to beast this marathon and show my husband how working harder is better than 100 mile weeks when it comes to training. So far, I have really proven myself right. I did a 10 mile run last night that felt like butter. No cramps, no hard breathing... just easy, fun running. I'm really excited about the race next weekend. So, here's to a weekend of easing up on the diet and not paying attention to blocks, then back at it Monday!

Breakfast: eggs with cheese, strawberries, watermelon, coffee with MCT oil
Snack: turkey, apple, pecans
Lunch: chicken, cheesy potatoes, grilled romaine
Snack: coffee with almond milk and pecans, turkey
Dinner: rice noodle, sausage and veggie stir fry

Exercise:
10 mile run

Thursday, September 29, 2016

ZONEd In. Day 4.

So far, I've lost 3.5 pounds. My goal isn't to lose weight, but to enhance my performance, especially when it comes to my marathon next weekend. I'm not skin and bone not am I hungry, so I'm not too worried about the weight coming off.

Breakfast: eggs in butter with cheese, watermelon, coffee w/ MCT oil
Snack: Arbonne protein with banana, coffee, and PB
Lunch: Burger with cheese, watermelon, and walnuts
Dinner: Steak, red potatoes w/cheese, and grilled romaine with Caesar dressing

Exercise: 
Death. aka, 5:30 am crossfit


Wednesday, September 28, 2016

ZONEd In. Day 3.

I'm really feeling the benefits of the Zone beginning today. My running was back on unlike it has been for the past few weeks of just stuffing my face with 4000-5000 calories of whatever was in front of me at the moment. I'm still sticking with the medium-frame female block chart, and was not hungry today. So, I'll keep with it for a bit.

Breakfast: Eggs with cheese in butter, mini blueberry muffin, watermelon
Snack: Arbonne protein with MCT oil and peppermint oil and coffee
Lunch: Burger with cheese and mushrooms and peppers
Snack: coffee with MCT oil and apple and turkey
Dinner: Tuna tataki and salmon roll


Exercise:
7:30 PM 5 x 1K repeats at 6:40 pace

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

ZONEd In. Day 2.


More excuses I come across often for not losing the weight is that they either have PCOS, Hypothyroidism, Chronic Fatigue, IBS, Anxiety, and/or Joint Inflammation. First of all, I have PCOS and Hypothyroid.... key there is balanced nutrition and a healthy exercise regimen. For the others, exercise and good nutrition will treat (maybe not totally cure) those conditions!

If you want to look up the zone blocks for yourself, check out https://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/cfjissue21_May04.pdf

Basically, you can look at your t-shirt size, and figure out what you are. Small shirt size on a female? Small female block chart. However, I am marathon training and breastfeeding, so I am going with medium.... and will probably up it to large female (even though I'm a size 0/2 almost 5'3) because no matter how much fat I add it's not keeping my stomach from feeling like it's going to implode.

Also, for supplements, I'm taking a prenatal, Vitamin D/Calcium/Magnesium, probiotics, and DHA.

Breakfast: eggs, banana, strawberries, bacon
Snack: Arbonne chocolate protein, spinach, almond milk, peanut butter
Lunch: rotisserie chicken, watermelon, kimchee
Snack: coffee with gelatin and MCT oil, mini blueberry muffin
Dinner: burger salad, peppers and mushrooms, sweet potato fries

Exercise:
3:00 PM Family bike ride
4:30 PM crossfit

Monday, September 26, 2016

ZONEd In



I am constantly trying to think of ways to get through to people about nutrition and how big of a role it has in EVERYTHING. I often have clients who will work out, but won't stick to a clean diet. Why put in all that hard work only to totally negate it with a bad diet? Why continue with a bad diet if you get sick often, or aren't thriving?

A thought occurred to me this morning, as I was driving home from my 5:30 crossfit class. I don't know anyone who wouldn't wake up and show up every morning to their job, if the only job they could ever have was at 5:30 AM. Well, you only get one body. Why not show up to whatever it is you would commit every time? Why let your own body down?

I get it. I have 3 kids, and don't use daycare. My husband deploys for half the year. I teach spin classes and am a personal trainer. I am finishing up my M.S. I don't hire anyone to do anything for me. I'm busy! However, I know that if I slip up on my nutrition, I'm only surviving, not thriving. And, there's no way I can train effectively on a bad diet. I also want to set a good example for my friends, family, and most importantly, my kids.

I've always been a fan of the zone diet, but I'm so precise with my macros that I never actually tried the simplicity of the Zone. At my crossfit certification workshop, I was challenged to stick with the Zone diet for an entire month before I knock the blocks. Now that my nursling 8 month old is eating more solid foods, I feel comfortable drastically switching up my diet without counting my macros on myfitnesspal. To hold myself accountable and for you to see how the zone works, I'm going to update this daily with what I ate and my training for the day. I'm eating 11 daily blocks. If I'm hungrier, I'll add extra fats.

Day 1:

Breakfast: eggs in butter, strawberries, banana, coffee with coconut oil
Snack: Arbonne protein shake with spinach and almond milk and PB
Lunch: Ribs and brussel sprouts
Snack: Pastrami, banana with peanut butter
Dinner: Smoked chicken, sauteed veggies, and bacon wrapped pepper

Not pictured: turkey and banana with peanut butter snack... mad rush out the door!

Workouts: 5:30 am: crossfit   8:15 am: run with the kids   4:30 pm: spin class

Friday, March 4, 2016

Why did I have kids?

“Making the decision to have a child- it is momentous.  It is to decide to forever have your heart go walking around outside your body.” – Elizabeth Stone

I never wanted kids. I didn’t even want to get married… I didn’t want any kind of commitment to anyone other than myself.  Seriously, I couldn’t even commit myself to God, yet I considered myself Christian.. I didn’t consider myself selfish, and looking back, I don’t think that I was. It’s not selfish to not want commitment. But then I met a guy who I pretty much fell in love with the day I met him. He turned my life around. I call him my “coming-to-Jesus Person”. I feel like many of us have that one person in our life. He didn’t change me, and he never tried to. He was simply God’s way of changing my path to better myself and show me where my gifts truly lie. I’m a gifted person, and I know that. I can speak several languages, I’m fearless, I have held a job since I was 16. I’ve traveled the world alone, without any doubts. I am an athlete. I am incredibly physically strong.

I met my husband, built up an incredible faith I never knew possible, and I just had this overwhelming desire to have children. I wanted kids who could be just like the man I married. I wanted to raise awesome people. I know I’m not the only one, but I want to have kids most importantly as a chance to raise people to be better than myself. I have found that this is the gift with which God entrusted me. I’m not a wonderful mom, but I have endless love for my kids, and it turns out I do have some patience into which I’ve never before tapped. Raising kids is pure joy for me. Never before in my life have I ever laughed so much and so hard. They’ve taught me forgiveness, faith, grace, patience, understanding… they’ve taught me everything that has made me a better person.

Fast forward to 3 children later. People who have only one child always wonder aloud to me how you can possibly love more than one child as much as you love just one. I think that once you have several children, you learn what true love really is capable of. Love doesn’t divide, it only multiplies. I love each child so differently, but I adore each one more than I thought I could love anyone or anything. They are my heart and soul. I could lose everything in the world, but being able to hold them would keep a smile on my face and joy in my heart.

Lately, I’ve found myself crying on a daily basis. I think it’s hitting me that these babies grow up. Days go by so quickly and before you know it, April 2012 becomes March 2016. My oldest has always been so advanced and simply grew up too fast for me to be able to savor his baby-hood. Kai’s a genius, energetic beyond words, and can bring tears of laughter to your face in the same breath as eyes full of rage. Without thinking too much about it, I wanted another kids simply because I wasn’t going to have just one. That second baby…. Luca is so different from any child or person I’ve ever known other than my husband. He’s not overly advanced like his older sibling (but he definitely has his wits), and has the sweetest demeanor. He is by far the easiest most loveable child I could ever dream up. He’s been so baby-like for the past 19 months that I’ve really been able to cherish him. Then my baby Gaelan came along. Ever since Gaelan arrived, I’ve cried everyday looking at Luca. I keep wondering why the heck I’m suddenly so nostalgic when it comes to Luca. I don’t look at Kai and cry or Gaelan and cry. I look at Luca and am scared to death of his growing up. I want him to be a baby forever. That’s totally silly though, because I just had a baby, so it’s not like I’m not going to have a baby once Luca matures. It hit me, that I see Luca in all his loving nature, and now have Gaelan to compare to Kai, and see how crazy fast a newborn can become a 3 year old. Between that and having the feeling that Gaelan is going to grow up just as fast as Kai without stopping at toddlerhood, I can’t contain my…. I don’t even know what to call it.


Raising children is difficult. It’s so difficult when they are all 18 months apart. Besides their learning to play nicely with one another, which can be a wreck some days, I’m trying to work, train for events, and take classes. However, I’m squeezing all the joy out of every moment with these babies that I know far too well don’t stay babies. I’m saying this, and my oldest is only 3. Given, he’s 3 going on 16, but my point is that if I’m going through this now who knows how sad I’ll be when they’re all out of the house. How do moms do this? Why do we put ourselves through this? After all hard labors and births, losses, lack of sleep, and difficulty with breastfeeding, and all the fears that can come with having children…. It has to be some kind of addiction to love. Someone has told me having more than two kids is pointless. It certainly wasn’t a woman who told me that. Why did I want more than two? Because with each child you see different gifts, different characteristics, different wonders they add to life. It’s hard to just stop when you’re so curious as to what gifts the next child could bring that you could miss out on. A friend of mine who has three actually put that into words for me one day, and it’s exactly what I’d been thinking all along. Bright eyes filled with love and promise… I just can’t get enough.