Early Thursday Morning Motivation

While sometimes just the thought of coffee and food can get me out of bed in the mornings, other times I need a little bit more to keep me going, especially while I am banging out 30 deep walking lunges with 25 dumbbells across the gym floor at 6:00 am in the morning. Enter Britney Spears :) I pretty much have her new song Work B**ch! on loop for my entire workout... and I thought I'd spread the love this morning. If you haven't already, add this song to your playlist. Truer words have never never been spoken (yes, I did just say that). 

P.S. I did have to look up what a Bugatti is... you learn something everyday.

Beautiful fall mornings make it
much easier to get out of bed and go.
Loving this sunshine :)

Work B**ch!

You want a hot body? You want a Bugatti?

You want a Maserati? You better work bitch

You want a Lamborghini? Sip martinis?

Look hot in a bikini? You better work bitch

You wanna live fancy? Live in a big mansion?

Party in France?

You better work bitch, you better work bitch

You better work bitch, you better work bitch

Now get to work bitch!

Now get to work bitch!

Bring it on, ring the alarm

Don't stop now, just be the champion

Work it hard, like it's your profession

Watch out now

Cause here it comes

Here comes the smasher

Here comes the master

Here comes the big beat

Big beat to blast ya

No time to quit now

Just time to get it now

Pick up what I'm layin down

Pick up what I'm puttin down

Hold your head high, fingers to the sky

They gon' try and try ya', but they can't deny ya'

Keep it moving higher, and higher

Keep it moving higher, and higher

So hold your head high, fingers to the sky

Now they don't believe ya', but they gonna need ya'

Keep it moving higher and higher

Keep it moving higher and higher and higher

[Outro]

Work, work, work, work

Work, work, work, work

Work, work, work, work

Work, work, work, work

Work it out, work it out, work it out, work it out

Work it out, work it out, work it out, work it out

Work it out, work it out, work it out, work it out

Work it out, work it out

You better work bitch

You better work bitch

You're welcome :)

XOXO
Jen

WIAW and the Downward Spiral (in a good way!) to the Show

It’s Wednesday!! Here’s a peek at what I ate:

I worked from home today which gave me a little bit of flexibility in terms of my meals (I could actually make something fresh!) so I ate a little off my menu plan for the week (but still within my nutritional requirements). My meals were:

• Pre-work out: Chocolate protein muffins
• Post-weights/ pre-cardio (not shown): Yogurt with vanilla protein powder and yam
• Meal 3: Buckwheat and barley porridge with a side of scrambled egg (my new #favouritething! OMG so good together with a little coconut oil. A little sweet, a little savoury and super satisfying)
• Meal 4: Mixed veggie salad topped with a tilapia and balsamic dressing with a drizzle of Udo’s oil
• Meal 5: Half an apple and half a grapefruit with almond and coconut butter
• Meal 6: Mexican stir fry with chicken and a chili cilantro yogurt topping
• Meal 7: Yogurt with vanilla casein and berries

Everything has been so delicious! Since I am now 11 days out from the show, I know my diet will be tightening up over the next week and half and my beloved yogurt is going to be cut. Booooooo! But it’s only temporary. I know I can make it.

With things getting a bit crazier with my training and food plan over the past couple of weeks, other things in my life have started to slide and it’s beginning to show (I talked about the decline of my physical appearance in my last post). At work, I’m okay. I can keep up. Everything else, not so much. My awesome mother-in-law does my taxes (yes, I’m very lucky- not only do I have in-laws that I love, they also do my taxes :P). All I have to do is drop off all my slips- do you think I could manage that on time? No. Do you think that once I got her my things I actually got her everything she needed? No. Do you think I could find what was missing? Yes, actually, plus I found other things that had been missing, so bonus! House cleaning is another thing that has fallen completely off my radar. While I can (kinda) handle the must dos (like laundry), other things, like vacuuming, are not happening. At all. Recycling? Don’t even ask! Tonight, since it was literally spilling out of the storage room,I finally went through the recycling to organize things to take down to the blue bins. Guess how many yogurt containers were in there? 19. How many tuna cans? 13. How many strawberry baskets? 12. Plus, piles of paper, milk cartons and cans. Ai, yi, yi! How did it get like this?? Disorganization and messiness stress me out, so I have had to learn to just ignore and let it go. Priorities, right? Living in filth isn’t that bad, is it? All a part of the process. Just a day at a time.

XOXOX

J

Weekend Wrap Up and Protein Pancake Recipes

After a crazy busy long weekend last weekend (including a friend’s birthday dinner downtown, a bikini appointment, a massage therapy session, two Easter dinners, posing practice and a full day of food prep- on top on my regular training schedule), I was really looking forward to this weekend full of no plans J No plans = dreamy. No plans means I can sleep in, take my time at the gym, make my food when I want, and spend some time with the hubby.

Saturday went like this: Sleep in, eat, gym time (interspersed with eating), eat, Homeland marathon (interspersed with eating), bed.

Sunday went like this: Sleep in, eat, gym time (interspersed with eating), eat, Homeland, food prep, eat, final Homeland, bed.  

See a theme?

My weekend in pictures:

Vanilla and chocolate protein pancakes

At the gym refueling between workouts

My adorable husband- isn't he cute?

 

All my #favouritethings in life!

Both mornings (as all weekend mornings do) started with protein pancakes. I love me some protein pancakes, and this weekend both recipes were both soooo delicious. Each started with the same base (oats, protein powder, and egg whites), but different flavours, add-ins and toppings were used. There are soooo many protein pancake recipes out there, but these are the ones I have created to fit my nutritional requirements.

Zucchini Protein Pancake with Vanilla Icing

Ingredients (for 1 large pancake):
Pancake:

• 1/3 cup oats
• 20g vanilla whey protein powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon (or to taste)
• ¼ cup egg whites
• 46g shredded zucchini
• 2 TBSP skim milk
• 5g walnut pieces

Icing:

• 2 TBSP fat free Greek yogurt
• 5g vanilla protein powder
• 1 tsp coconut oil

 

Directions:

1. Mix the oats, protein powder and cinnamon together.
2. Add in egg whites and milk. Mix well. Add in zucchini and walnuts.
3. Pour into a pre-heated, sprayed frying pan. Cook for about 5 minutes, flip, and cook other side for 3 minutes (or until done).
4. To make the icing, stir together yogurt, coconut oil and protein powder.
5. Ice the protein pancake with the icing and serve warm.

Per serving: 386 cals; 11g fat; 34g carb; 38g protein

Super simple, but utterly delicious! This was sooo good. The yogurt based vanilla icing was almost like cream cheese icing and it even started melting into the warm pancake. In addition to the icing, I also topped with a spoonful of homemade chia jam. It was like eating cake... without the guilt.

That was Saturday morning. Sunday morning, I made something similar, but chocolate-ed it up!

 

Chocolate Zucchini Protein Pancake with Chocolate Icing

Ingredients (for 1 large pancake):
Pancake:

• 1/3 cup oats
• 20g chocolate whey protein powder
• 2 tsp cocoa (or to taste)
• ¼ cup egg whites
• 46g shredded zucchini
• 2 TBSP skim milk
• 5g walnut pieces

Icing:

• 2 TBSP fat free Greek yogurt
• 5g chocolate protein powder
• 1 tsp coconut oil
• 1 tsp cocoa 

Directions:

1. Mix the oats, protein powder and cocoa together.
2. Add in egg whites and milk. Mix well. Add in zucchini and walnuts.
3. Pour into a pre-heated, sprayed frying pan. Cook for about 5 minutes, flip, and cook other side for 3 minutes (or until done).
4. To make the icing, stir together yogurt, protein powder, coconut oil and cocoa.
5. Ice the protein pancake with the icing and serve warm.

Per serving: 386 cals; 12g fat; 39.5g carb; 32.5 protein

Again, I ate this with chia jam on top (just to get in those chia seeds), but the icing mixes up so smooth and fudgy that it would be delicious without the jam.

I'm always looking for new ideas. Have any tried and true #proteinpancake recipes? What do you top your pancakes with? Please share!

XOXO
J

New Month, New Week, New Food, New Blog!

Welcome to my blog! Since I intended to start posting months ago, let me catch you up…

I am currently just under 5 weeks (5!) out from my first fitness competition of the season. I competed for the first time in November 2012 at the BCABBA Sandra Wickham Fall Classic in BC in the Bikini division. It was an amazing experience. So amazing, that I wanted to do it again- and I am!

This time, I am aiming for Fitness Model. My training program has changed, my food plan has tightened up and body is getting stronger. I look forward to every opportunity, every day, to push it further and do my best. This blog to share this experience with you J (more on that later).

It’s the start of a new month and a new week (sorta, since Monday was a holiday). For me, that means a new meal plan. I spent the majority of my long weekend planning, prepping and piecing together my menu for the week, balancing my nutritional needs across the day to ensure my body gets what it needs when it needs it. Sunday (in this case Monday) food prep helps me stay on track and saves me so much time throughout the week. Once everything is made and put together, I don’t have to think about it again (until the following weekend at least). Everything is just grab and go. No excuses. #keytosuccess

Everything prepped, cooked, and portion for a week of clean meals.

While I usually stick to fairly simple and similar meal plans week to week, this week I started changing things up to accommodate some of my new food plan requirements (such as eating starchy carbs earlier in the day and pre- and post- workout) and to add more variety to my protein, carb and fat sources. This week, I’ll be sharing what my meal plan looks like and how all turns out. I have either tweaked existing recipes or just fully developed my own recipes to fit my nutritional requirements. And, since I am on a fairly specific everything-is-measured-and-weighed diet, little, if any, taste testing gets done while I cook. So, this week may be full of surprises- good and/or bad. Either way, I’ll be sticking to it though :)

A couple restrictions I have to work with while planning and preparing my meals:

1. I work full time and commute 2.5 hours to and from work. That is a lot of time away from home which means my meals must be mobile. Pretty much Meals 1-4 (1-5 on weight days) must be portable. I need to make food that can be stored in tupperware containers, last in the fridge (or freezer) at least 5 days and can be easily assembled and warmed up.

2. While I do eat chicken breast and some (limited) seafood, I do not eat any other meat (it’s not a moral/ ethical thing- I just don’t like it). I also don’t like ground chicken or the taste of chicken reheated. Sometimes, if the chicken is in a soup, I can tolerate it, but it is hit and miss. This forces me to be creative with varying the sources of my protein to ensure I get enough.

3. Everything must taste good. When preparing my meals, taste/ enjoyability always comes first. I am not going to eat something that I don’t like- no matter how good it is for me. There are soooo many delicious options out there, why eat something you don’t enjoy?? Makes no sense to me. I love food and I love finding ways to put things together so that they not only meet my nutritional needs, but also taste delicious.

So, considering all of the above, this is my #mealplan for the week:

Meal	On the Menu	Just So You Know...
M1: Breakfast	Barley and buckwheat porridge	Adapted from Tosca Reno’s Eat Clean Diet Crockpot Porridge
M2: Snack	Tuna baked with oats and flax on a salad of avocado, spinach and broccoli	Spiced up with a hit of siracha sauce and squeeze of lemon
M3: Lunch	Yam and chickpea chicken curry	Made this concoction up… should be interesting
M4: Snack	Egg whites with steamed veggies and hemp hearts	Too easy to be this good
M5: Pre-workout	Chocolate quinoa pudding	Found this on Chelle Stratford’s Recipe for Fitness blog (which I love by the way)
M6: Post-workout/ dinner	Turkey with rice and beets, served over a salad with Udo’s oil	Easter leftovers (thanks mom and mother-in-law!)
M7: Snack (optional)	Greek yogurt mixed with a half a scoop of vanilla casein and strawberries	My ultimate fav! #cleantreat #favouritething

Can you spot all the proteins, healthy fats and complex carbs? I think I did a good job of mixing things up and fitting it all together, but the week shall tell. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Jen