Queen of Food Prep

Happy Hump Day!

I've had a lot of requests through instagram, Facebook, and the blog, the past few days regarding food prep. Amanda and I are basically the Queens of Food Prep. I'm not trying to boost our egos, or sound like we're full of ourselves but food prep is something that we do really well. Every Sunday, we know that we need to go grocery shopping, in the morning and spend an hour or two: cutting, cooking, bbqing, baking, and prepping food.

I'm not going to lie, there are days where neither of us want to cook but we force each other to do it and crank it out as quickly as possible. We know our duties and we know what we each do well and we stick to it. We have a routine of sorts, and this helps us to move quickly and crank out meals for the entire week in the shortest amount of time as possible.


We are both firm believers that if you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail.

If I don't spend an hour of two getting everything ready on Sunday, I will eat like crap all week and my weight-loss and my bank account will suffer because of it. I know myself, and I know that if I don't have my lunches ready for the week, then I won't eat healthy. I'll buy lunch everyday and it won't be good.
Obviously everyone is different, and if you're able to make your lunch fresh every morning, I admire you. I simply cannot.

I never get sick of omelet's. They are hands-down my GO-TO meal.

We switch up our meals every week - but we have a few 'staple' items that we always have prepped and ready to go in the fridge:

• Lean ground turkey
This is a must have in our fridge. We go through about 2lbs of turkey per week in our house. Seriously. I can't get enough of this stuff.
Amanda and I use it for omelets, salads, stir-fry, or just eating it on it's own as delicious lean protein.
For prepping it, I keep it pretty basic. I cook it on the stove top, in a frying pan, with coconut oil. After the turkey is almost cooked all the way through - still a bit pink - I drain it in the sink (with a cullender), and get rid of any excess fat and liquid that's cooking with the turkey. I throw it back in the frying pan and finish cooking it. This is when I add all of my favorite spices. Add whatever you like and then store it in a sealed container. Should be good for up to 5 days - if it lasts that long in your house.


• Turkey Bacon
I think we buy Lilydale - I don't remember. It's low in sodium, and low in calories. Read the label before you buy turkey bacon - they're not all healthy. Always be aware of how many calories, grams of fat, and mg of sodium you're consuming in 1 or 2 pieces of turkey bacon.


• Sliced Bell Peppers
I could eat bell peppers everyday (literally) and never get sick of them. I always have a container or two of sliced bell peppers washed and ready to go at all times.

Apart from the 'regulars' listed above, we prep quite a bit of other foods. We wash, cut, and package fruits. Wash, cut, and prep any other raw veggies we're having that week. Amanda usually bakes squash, and we prepare salads for the first day or two of the week.

Most weeks we BBQ chicken breasts to have available in the fridge (for the same purpose as the ground turkey). We will use it in a stir-fry, eat it on it's own, put it in a salad, or eat it with veggies. This week I'm eating my chicken with spaghetti squash. Speaking of spaghetti squash, I'm pretty sure that deserves an entire post of it's own.. but I'll leave that for another day.

Here is a list of what we cooked/prepped this past Sunday and what is currently in our fridge for lunches and dinners this week:

Spaghetti Squash
Veggie Spaghetti Sauce
Lean Ground Beef Meatballs (baked with cilantro, green onion, and spices)
BBQ Chicken Breasts
Spicy Baked Cauliflower & Sweet Potato
Turkey Bacon
Sliced Peppers
Lean Ground Turkey
Kale, Broccoli, Walnut, and Apple Salad
Hard Boiled Eggs

As you can tell, we're big on protein...
Some other meat that we eat often: fish (tilapia, salmon), pork, and lamb.




Fish tacos from last week: tilapia, salsa, avocado, hummus, peppers, lettuce (instead of tortilla).

In addition to the food that requires food prep, here are the other foods in our fridge that don't require any prep work:

Eggs
Spinach
Goat Cheese
Almond Milk
Hummus
Salsa
Strawberries
Raspberries
Blueberries
Watermelon
Avocados
Bananas

This is basically all that I can think of. I will try and do some recipe posts for some of our favorite Go-To healthy meals.

Top (Left - Right)
one. typical breakfast - Ryvita crackers with natural peanut butter and some kind of fruit - blueberries, bananas, raspberries, or strawberries.
two. a huge bowl of spaghetti squash, chicken, sauce, and avocado on top - with a ryvita cracker on the side to dip in the sauce.
three. a whole bell pepper, ryvita crackers with goat chesse, and BBQ'd tilapia on top.

Bottom (Left - Right)
four. whole bell pepper, grilled lean pork, hummus, and banana for dessert.
five. bell pepper, onion, zucchini, spinach, and green onion stir fry - topped with avocado and a piece of BBQ'd tilapia.
six. omelet (spinach, goat cheese, turkey, and turkey bacon), topped with avocado, bell peppers, hummus, cracked pepper, and sriracha.

FYI - Everything that we cook is completely made up by us. We do not follow recipes, and we are often creating new dishes. I will do my best to answer questions about cooking or food prep but I am not a chef. With that being said, please feel free to ask me anything that you want to know about the types of food I'm eating every week, what my lunches look like, what my dinners look like, etc.



Finally...
A HUUUUGE Happy Birthday to the Princess of Shenanigans.
Sami, I'm so happy to be able to call you a friend! If i wasn't on this whole 'clean eating' kick, I'd have a drink (or five) and a big piece of cake for you... but since I can't have it for you, I really really hope that you will allow yourself to indulge today. I hope you have the most amazing birthday, and I hope that 24 is amazing to you - you deserve every bit of it. Love you!

90-Day Challenge: Muscle Poppin', Weight Droppin'

Happy September, friends.
How the heck is it SEPTEMBER already? Didn't we just celebrate The New Year?

Today I'm teaming up with my best friend, Amanda, to bring you something new and exciting: a challenge.
A 90-Day Challenge to be specific.

As you all know, I have been working on losing weight and getting healthy for the past few months, and I have decided to take this to the next level. Amanda and I sat down and had a great chat with our friend, Ambrose, about our goals and where we'd like to see ourselves 'physically' in 3 months, 6 months, and a year from now. During our conversation, we decided that the 3 of us wanted to challenge each other and hold ourselves accountable to really try and and lose this weight. It works a lot better if you're doing it with other people, right? Right. Or so they say, I guess we'll see...



As of today, September 1st, I am starting a 90-day challenge.
I would LOVE for you to join me on this adventure and see what you can accomplish in the next three months. These goals don't have to be anything crazy, or they can be as crazy as you'd like - you're the one creating them afterall. Your goal could be to go on more walks, lose 10lbs, run 5k, or even just eat healthier. Whatever your goals are, I want you to spend the next 90 days working towards implementing them into your daily routines.

I feel as though I have hit a 'plateau' of sorts, and I need to break free from this. I currently do a lot of cardio, and I have been doing a lot of running. While this is great, and definitely better than sitting on the couch watching TV - it isn't really what I should be doing to lose weight. My brother, and my roommate have spent a lot of time lecturing me on the importance of strength training, and not solely doing cardio-based activities.

Cue the 90 day challenge.

I am cracking down on this fitness and weight-loss thing, and kicking it into high gear. For the past 3-4 months, I have been eating primarily clean. Typically, I'll eat well Sunday-Friday, and I will 'cheat' on Friday nights, and Saturdays. There are just so many reasons and excuses to cheat on weekends: going out with friends, failing to food prep, and just the pure convenience of not needing to cook. Essentially, I'm pulling the lazy-girl card on the regular (ie. most weekends), and it has to stop. My bank account and my waistline have had enough of my weekend laziness. I'm honestly making this sound 10x worse than it actually has been - my 'cheating' is not THAT bad, and it's not THAT often. However, it's still 'cheating' and I shouldn't be doing that at all.

Here are the changes that I'm making over the next 90 days:

• 100% Clean Eating

This one might be a bit of a struggle, but I am 100% dedicated to no cheating during the next 90 days, and eating only clean foods. Which means that at the end of this 90-Day challenge, Amanda and I will be going out for a huge cheat meal of beer and calamari.


• No Alcohol

This one isn't actually that hard for me. I've successfully done the whole 'no alcohol' thing a few times and it wasn't too bad. The only part that sucks is the whole social aspect of drinking. I'll probably be declining a lot of hangouts with friends - and I'm really just hoping that I still have friends at the end of this challenge. I'm kidding. But seriously - don't bail on me, friends.


• Strength Training Workouts

It's time to get over my fear of working out with weights and it's time for me to start doing strength training exercises. Gaining muscle is the most beneficial fat-burning tool, and I need to stop avoiding it. At the end of this post I'll show a quick glimpse of what my workouts will look like.


• ViSalus

ViSalus is a great tool to help ensure that you get the right nutrients in your meal, it keeps you full, and it tastes delicious too. I've done the ViSalus challenge in the past - and I can vouch for the fact that it WORKS. I stopped using it for about 2 years, but I've decided to give it a shot again. Instead of substituting two meals per day, I'll just be substituing one meal, and eating clean for the other two meals (and snacks). If you're new to the whole weight-loss thing, this is a great way to jumpstart your journey and get you going in the right direction. Plus, it seriously tastes amazing. Win-Win.


• Couch 2 5K

If you've seen my posts on Instagram, then you probably already know that I'm doing the Couch 2 5K program. I've decided to give it a shot since I have a newfound love for running. I've decided to step it up a notch, and pair it with strength training to really shock my system and turn my body into a lean-mean-fat-burning machine. Yeah, I said it.

I am officially down about 75lbs since my heaviest weight, but I'm only half way. I have another 75lbs to go, and I'm determined to kick butt for the next 90 days.

For my workout schedule, I will be following the 'Body for Life' workout guide, and pairing it with the Couch 2 5k program. This is what my schedule will look like:

WEEK ONE

Monday - Upper Body Strength Training (chest, shoulders, back, triceps, biceps).
Tuesday - Couch 2 5k.
Wednesday - Lower Body Strength Training (quads, hamstrings, calves, abs).
Thursday - Couch 2 5k.
Friday - Upper Body Strength Training (chest, shoulders, back, triceps, biceps).
Saturday - Couch 2 5k.
Sunday - die REST.

WEEK TWO

Monday - Lower Body Strength Training (quads, hamstrings, calves, abs).
Tuesday - Couch 2 5k.
Wednesday - Upper Body Strength Training (chest, shoulders, back, triceps, biceps).
Thursday - Couch 2 5k.
Friday - Lower Body Strength Training (quads, hamstrings, calves, abs).
Saturday - Couch 2 5k.
Sunday - REST.

These are what my two different weeks will look like, and I will just be alternating them back and forth for the entire 90 days.

Amanda and I would love to have everyone get involved in this 90-Day Challenge. Please join us. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or if you just want support - please don't hesitate to comment, tweet, or e-mail us to talk to us. We are both here to help motivate, support, and help in any way that we can.

I'll leave you with an inspirational quote from Amanda...

"Lets get these muscles poppin' and this weight droppin'."