More Than Cookies

The controversy of the day would be my binge eating of Girl Scout cookies. Who knew a few cookies could conjure up such a fuss. So let me start out by stating my purpose here:

I am not claiming to be a health guru. I am about as far from perfect as they come. I have fought my entire life with weight issues and finally found sanity in running and meal planning. I LOVE FOOD. There is no denying that. I once weighed 235 pounds. I started this blog because I love to write, run, and eat. 

 If you are looking to read a blog full of good healthy choices, you are in the wrong place. I make several good choices but there are bad ones that get mixed in. If you want to see someone who falls but picks themselves up over and over again, then please continue to read.

So this morning my 5 boxes of Girl Scouts cookies came in. I wait for this day all year. I opened each box and ate what I wanted. Awe who am I kidding, I ate my self sick! I am done now and it was FUN and Delicious! To me life is about making choice and taking chances. I make the choice to live a fun and delicious life. Yes some days I fill my body with junk and others I fuel it for my workouts. Today I chose to fuel with cookies, lots of cookies.

3 dreadmill miles and 10 minutes on this weird new machine called the Nustep and I am exhausted. Came home and made more delicious overnight oats and now I am headed to bed.

Holy legs this thing was tough!

So I'll leave you with image of some yummy overnight oats..............

Strawberry, blackberry and PB on the right and Apple Cinnamon on the left. I chopped the apples and microwaved them in some honey with cinnamon first to soften them. 

The War on Fat

Food battle #1 Our cafeteria has been making wheat rolls for the last several years so you can imagine my surprise when I walked into white roll heaven today! Not to worry, I was not defeated by that warm, gooey, baked goodness! I strolled right on by and enjoyed my zucchini lasagna. #winning

I did enjoy the most delish "proffee" for meal 4.  I have been hooked on cool brew coffee and unsweetened vanilla almond milk with a little Splenda. I make it in a shaker for easy travel so that got me thinking, why not add some protein to this! And voila, the proffee was born! 

Food battle #2 today, the in-laws are passing through in the RV last minute. First thought, oh no! I didn't pack a meal!! Panic sets in. I must stay on track! Just when I finally become okay with eating crap, Subway saves the day! I enjoyed this delish Double Chicken Chopped Salad. Oh my yum, a bowl of sandwich guts! I have recently been in love with the chopped salad, everything mixed together so there's a taste of each ingredient in every bite. 

Oh and that Diet Barq's was an added bonus courtesy of the in-laws 

I feel like my life is a series of battles against food. I am currently winning the war on fat! That said, I choose to live my life and be happy. I will not miss out on a party or the food because it's bad for me. I will indulge and enjoy myself then pick back up at the next meal. Stay tuned for Fridays blog, Louisiana themed food at school. Laissez les bon temp rouler.............

 So here I am.....

Blogging from my trainer. For those of you who are not familiar, this contraption holds my bike and allows me to ride indoors. Brilliant, right? WRONG. This is the worst form of torture, way worse than the "dreadmill". I really really really dislike this thing! I already did not want to get on it at 8pm but had no choice right? Well 8 minutes into my ride the bike falls off the trainer!!! Aghhhhh and this happens

Lovely, just lovely. So I cleaned the shit up and got back on.

Lesson learned today, do not rush to put the bike on the trainer, it will only fall off. 

                                                                              ~Swimbikerunfuel

More Recipes, Zucchini Lasagna and Egg Muffins

Today was a busy Monday! I got up this morning and decided I would not be defeated by a crazy Monday so I wore this super awesome shirt made by my girl @stellarcheri!

#findyourstrong......I am finding mine and I hope this blog will inspire others to find theirs.

I stayed focused and stuck to my 6 meals! #feelinggood. Being a teacher you eat when the kids eat so I have had to make some adjustments to my schedule but it looks like this:

6:30 am: meal 1- usually just coffee

8:00 am: meal 2- oatmeal and egg whites, egg muffins, or sometimes just a protein bar.

11:00 am: meal 3- LUNCH- fish or chicken, with some sort of green veggie and quinoa or brown rice.

2:00 pm: meal 4 (sometimes this one is earlier, its my hungry hour!) protein bar and cool brew coffee with almond milkß my fav!

5:00 pm: meal 5- DINNER- repeat lunch

8:00 pm: meal 6 ( this meal is often skipped, it should not be though because your body continues to burn calories as you sleep and it needs protein to do that.) So I have a protein shake or bar, tonight was different keep reading for that yumminess! 

After work I hit the pool for a 1000 meter swim. Short swim, but I am working on swimming without stopping in between laps. My son comes with me to the pool and of course he tries to talk to me between each lap, but I have to do what I can to get it done. #noexcuses

The cooking craze continued into the afternoon yesterday! Next up was a family favorite that is so simple to prepare ahead of time and makes our mornings easier throughout the week. My husband and my son love to eat these. I put 2 in a Ziploc bag and breakfast for the week is done. You can even freeze them.

Egg Muffins

1/2 cup of shredded Colby jack cheese

12 eggs

12 slices of turkey (or whatever you prefer)

Salt and pepper

Spray the muffin tin first with non stick spray. Then line the pan with turkey, ham, or bacon. (Bacon makes them a little greasy and takes longer to cook.) Then, crack an egg into each cup. Top with seasoning of your choice and cheese. There are endless combinations you can make for these, this is just our favorite.

The nutrition facts vary depending on what you use but these have about 100 calories per cup!

My husband’s favorite meal is lasagna. When we first met I cooked it for him for special occasions but a serving of regular lasagna can have up to 500 calories. We are both working on new lifestyles so that meal can no longer be made in our house! So I found a recipe for zucchini lasagna. The noodles are replaced with zucchini. YUM! I’m not one to follow recipes so I sort of make up my own with the things we like. Anyway here it is……..

Zucchini Lasagna

4 large zucchini

1 jar marinara sauce

1 can tomato sauce

1 lb ground turkey

Turkey pepperoni

Mushrooms

2 bags grated mozzarella

1 16 oz container or part skim ricotta

1 egg

First I brown the ground turkey then add marinara and tomato sauce. I peel the zucchini first and slice them thin long ways. (These are the noodles so make sure they aren't too thick.) Then I mix the ricotta, egg, and 1 bag of the mozzarella in a bowl. Now the layering begins! First sauce, then zucchini, then cheese mixture, last pepperoni and mushrooms and repeat. Once it’s all finished top with the other bag of cheese and cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 350 for about an hour.

Again depending on what ingredients you use and how big your serving the calories can vary but this one has about 230 calories per cup.

I log all of my meals using My Fitness Pal. It’s an awesome app to track food and exercise. You can create recipes and that’s how I get the nutrition facts on the meals I cook.

I have a new obsession and it is cold bananas with peanut butter! Of course my homemade peanut butter! Tonight I added cocoa powder to it and it was so good! 

                                                        ~swimbikerunfuel

First blog........Hope ya'll like it!

So this is my story- I met these 2 crazy ladies that loved to run, and I thought hmph, that'll never happen. Well, 2 half marathons, 2 triathlons, numerous 5K's, and training runs later here I am. Writing a blog about my journey. I only wish I had started this blog a year ago when my journey began. Once I got the hang of the exercise part I decided it was time to start fueling my body. So I started eating 6 meals per day that consisted of small portions of chicken and green beans. That got old FAST! I lost 10 lbs in 3 months then I just could not make my self continue. So I did some research and revised my meal plan. I still eat six small meals per day but I have added some variety. So that is what you will find here on my blog. Ideas for healthy meals that are fuel for your body and some snapshots of my training. My hopes are that this will keep me focused while inspiring  others to begin their journey to a new healthier stronger life. 

I am new to blogging and already making bad choices! I was supposed to run tonight but instead decided to stay in and blog.

Sundays are my meal prep days. I cooked all day today to prepare for the week. I decided to cook some of the 900 things that I pin on Pinterest and never get to.

The first thing I made was homemade peanut butter, this was not Pinterest inspired, the idea came from my dad.

Then I found a recipe for homemade protein bars and that peaked my interest! I experimented a little and threw these together.

So YUM they taste like the no bake chocolate peanut butter cookies!

Here’s the recipe:

2 cups oat flour ( I made mine just put oats in the food processor)

2 scoops chocolate protein powder

3 tbsp peanut butter (I used my homemade pb)

¼ cup almond milk

1 tbsp agave nectar

Mix it all together in a bowl then line a small brownie pan with wax paper and press it down with another layer of wax paper. Refrigerate overnight and voila! This will make 10 bars at 120 calories a piece! They each pack 8 grams of protein! 

All of that wasn't enough so I moved on to overnight oats. I have seen these all over and never tried them. I searched several recipes and asked a friend for tips.  I can’t wait to try them in the morning.

I made 2 kinds one with PB and one without for mom who’s not a big PB fan.  I however LOVE PB!

1/4 cup instant oats
1/4 cup almond milk

½ mashed banana

1 tbsp peanut butter (again I used my homemade)

2 strawberries (chopped)

1 tbsp Truvia Baking Blend- this stuff is the goods! Its Stevia mixed with sugar, delish! 

The cooking continued into the afternoon but I’ll have to post all of that later!

                                                                                       ~Swimbikerunfuel