May 2009

Hey guys! Happy FRIIIIIIIDAY! Yes!!!!!! Oh weekend, I missed you so :D

Last night involved quite a bit of this:

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And the only party of the night was this fiesta salad:

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1/2 cup Amy’s frijoles with green chiles, mixed greens, a Quorn naked cutlet (my last one! Bummer), Whole Foods hot salsa and cilantro from the garden.

Also, a piece of Ezekiel with strawberry preserves:

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The pilot chilled with Viesa on the other couch

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(Hubba hubba, hottie pilot)

And while I snoozed off and on, we watched WALL-E. It was so cute!!! Even though I missed more than half of it ;)

I don’t know what happened last night, but the week (and lack of sleep since the pilot worked super late every night) hit me like a ton of bricks. Between training, teaching, working out, and running after the puppies, I’m so ready for the weekend! Any big plans??

This morning, I was very excited to see this breakfast beauty:

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A new combo! 1/2 cup oats, 1 tbs almond butter, 1 tbs vanilla brown rice protein powder, 1 tbs carob powder, 1/2 ts cinnamon, sprinkle of sea salt, vanilla extract and a small mashed banana. On a snowman plate, because that’s how I roll :D

Today’s going to be another long-y (5 training appointments and working out with Jeni) but then I’m having dinner with the girls since the guys are working late (again).

Hope you have a happy Friday!

Much love,

G$

Musings on Slim Fast: When I first decided I wanted to lose weight –you can read a little on my weight loss story here- I had no idea how to go about it. Thanks to media influence, I decided to start with Slim Fast shakes and Lean Cuisines. I wanted to lose the weight fast and the commercials told me I could do it, so I went to Target and bought the “supplies”- a few boxes of shakes and some Lean Cuisine meals. I wanted to lose the weight quickly and had no idea, as I do know, that it has to be a slow process if you want to lose the weight healthily and keep it off. I would have a Slim Fast shake for breakfast, a Lean Cuisine for lunch and whatever delicious feast the madre cooked up for dinner.

Yes, I dropped a few el bees. I also felt cranky, hungry and tired most of the day, which wasn’t a good thing since I worked at a dance studio. I had always had the assumption that in order to lose weight, one had to feel deprived of favorite food items (and didn’t know that you can have a perfectly healthy lifestyle and still enjoy the foods you love most!). I was so influenced by commercials and television—of women talking of being “on diets”, munching on rice cakes and sounding depressed.

I remember being on a philanthropy day trip for the business school and thinking about the Slim Fast shake that was waiting for me in the car when we got back. As soon as I got in the car, I slurped down the shake within a couple of minutes even though it was burning hot from the sun and then realized I couldn’t live the rest of my life like that. No one wants to subsist on shakes or frozen meals instead of fresh food. I wanted something that I could stick with in the long term and though I didn’t know very much about nutrition, I had a feeling that REAL FOOD was probably healthier for me than a shake pretending to be food and supposedly guarantee the nutrients that food provides.

So, even though I was losing weight, I decided to drop the shakes and seek out a healthier way to continue the process.

Have any of you tried the Slim Fast diet?? Are those shakes nasty or what?!? I have to admit, I did like the cookie dough optimum bars… but I have no idea what kind of chemicals are in there.

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Hey guys! TGIAF! This week went by sooooo quickly—gotta love those shorter weeks :D

For bfast this morning, I decided to have something I haven’t had in forever, but love:

HUEVOS!

I haven’t been eating them in the morning since I started to do raw until dinner, but since I’m changing up the eats this week I decided to have some eggs with bfast.

1 whole egg microwaved and split in half, atop an Ezekiel sprouted english muffin with hot sauce, sea salt, garlic powder:

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A nanner with a drizzle of AB:

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(it was a drizzle because I just opened the jar)

*Funny story: I’m not a huge fan of Whole Foods brand almond butter. It doesn’t taste great to me at all and I’d much rather have the Trader Joe’s brand. Whole Foods has been good to me in so many ways but I think their AB is kinda nasty. Anyhow, while packing the pilot’s lunch the other night I realized that we were almost out of peanut butter and decided to put some almond butter on there instead and see if he said anything. He called me from work and said, “Is it possible that the peanut butter has gone rancid? My sandwiches usually taste great and this one tasted… off. I couldn’t finish it”. I just started laughing and told him it was almond butter. Poor guy- guess he’s not a fan, either.

I also had some Joe:

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I added 1/2 tbs of carob powder to make it chocolaty and it was so good!!! That is, until I got to a layer of black carob sludge at the bottom!

I’ve spent the day at the gym doing intro training sessions and Emily and Jeni met me to do day 4 of this week’s Shape Up plan. Those leg lifts were killer!!!!!

I got a comment the following comment on my last post:

I think it would be fascinating if you did a post on all the different diets you followed and the changes you made to your eating/exercise routine over the years, then show the effects each one had on your body shape, fitness level and way you felt. This might even have to be a series of posts. Have a great day!

Is that something ya’ll would be interested in??

Enjoy the rest of your day!

xoxo,

Gina

It’s playlist time:

Beating My Heart    3:53    Jon McLaughlin   
O… Saya    3:34    A. R. Rahman & M.I.A.   
America’s Suitehearts    3:34    Fall Out Boy   
Waking Up In Vegas    3:19    Katy Perry           
Higher Ground    3:22    Red Hot Chili Peppers   
Fire Burning    4:03    Sean Kingston   
I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) [More English Extended Mix]    4:26    Pitbull   
Helena (So Long & Goodnight)    3:23    My Chemical Romance   
Faint    2:42    Linkin Park   
Whiskey In the Jar    5:05    Metallica   
Come On Get Higher    3:35    Matt Nathanson   

Total time: 40 minutes

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Hey everyone!!! I love New York. It’s the total opposite of Valdosta We got settled into the hotel and spent a couple of hours walking around. It’s perfect because our hotel is right in the middle of all the action and I love to walk around and look at all of the stores and people. [...]

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