Workout and Food Journal...Chobani Flips Review!

Hey fitfam! I hope you are having a wonderful start to your November. Mine has been a little hectic but it is going well. I got the code to weight in for my new Dietbet this morning. Since I didn't check my email until this evening I am going to have to weigh in tomorrow morning. I am excited to get another challenge underway. I am even more excited to have other people doing it with me this time around. I have been trying to stick to the Knockout November Workout Calendar on Fitnessista but I have been doing a lot of on the fly workouts too.

I told you the other day how I finally found some of the new Chobani Flips flavors that I have been trying to find for a while. I picked up three total and I have now tried all 3 of them! Here are my thoughts....

Tropical Escape- By far my favorite out of the three that I picked up. I loved the pineapple/coconut flavor. I am a coco-nut!! Get it...nvm...but I love coconut. I thought everything paired really well together and I felt like I was eating a dessert instead of a yogurt.

My next favorite was the Nutty For Nanna. I liked that it had a natural subtle banana flavor. It wasn't overwhelming and it didn't taste artificial like some banana flavored foods can be. I also thought the almonds and chocolate paired with it really well.

My least favorite was the Peachy Pistachio and it was the only one that I don't think I would repurchase. Now I love peach and I love pistachios but I didn't like them mixed together as much as I thought I would. I loved the peach yogurt and how it had little chunks of peach. I also liked that you get a fair amount of pistachios. I think it I left them separate and ate both on their own I would like it but I didn't like the taste they created together.

Workouts:

This week hasn't been too exciting as far as workouts go. On Monday I went to Planet Fitness with a friend. We did 30 minutes on the Arc Trainer and then did upper body on the machines. We just went to each upper body machine once and did sets of 12-10-8. We increased the weight as we decreased the reps. On Tuesday I decided to do a Jillian Michaels workout that was way tougher than I thought it would be. 

This is the workout I did. It was about an hour long and it is a tough one for where my endurance is right now. I had to do some modifications as times because I was too winded or my muscles hurt. My goal is to be able to do this without stopping or modifying at some point. I think I am going to make it a point to do this once a week and track my progress. 

Tonight I am going to Planet Fitness again and doing legs. I don't have set exercises yet but I usually do weighted squats, leg press, wall sits, the inner and outer thigh machines, walking lunches, and hamstring stuff. We will see!! 

New Chobani Flavors and Other Healthy Food Finds...New Monthly Challenges!

Hey hey there healthy people!! Happy November to everyone. I can't believe that the year is already coming to a close. It seems like this year flew by for me. I am sad to see Halloween come and go as well since it is one of my favorite holidays but alas that is how the world works. November and I have a love/hate relationship. I love November because it has Thanksgiving in it but I hate it because in Upstate New York Thanksgiving means that it is going to snow. I feel like I was just getting to the point where I really love working out outside and at some point this month that will all be taken away from me. I know there are plenty of people out there who will run in the bitter cold but I am not one of them.

Anyway, with a new month means new challenges and goals. If you have been reading my blog since it began then you know that I did a couple challenges last month and that one of them was through the website www.dietbet.com. Dietbet is a website where your goal is to lose 4% of your body weight in a month. When the bet begins you put a set wager amount in the pot and all those who make their goal split the pot at the end. Check the website out for more information on how it works. Last month I had many mixed feelings on the website and didn't know if I would do another challenge. I liked the financial incentive but it made me very scale conscious and a little anxious. Well I am doing another challenge. The girls at work all loved watching my success and really wanted to make changes themselves so we all decided to join one together. This month we are doing the Holiday Shape UP on Dietbet. Wager amount is $20 which is a decent amount. Come join us!!!

I also found a lovely little workout calendar that I am going to try and follow all month. www.fitnessista.com is where you can find it. She has a nice layout of workouts for the whole month of November with days assigned to different workouts that she has created. It looked like a fun way to keep yourself from falling into the gym boredom. I have been reading her blog for a while now and was excited to see her put up a challenge.

Monthly Goals:

1. Drink more water...always a goal for me. 
2. Plan more workouts with friends. 
3. Allow myself to have cheat meals without beating myself up over it.
4. Win my dietbet. 

New Products:

I finally found the new Chobani flavors of the flips. I have been looking for months with no luck. I went to a different grocery store than normal the other day and finally found them. I didn't get all the flavors because not all of the flavors appealed to me but I picked up 3 different ones to try. 

 The first flavor I bought was Peachy Pistachio which is peach greek yogurt with pistachios and dark chocolate. Three of my favorite things in one place, you know I'm excited.

 The next flavor is Tropical Escape which is a pineapple coconut flavored greek yogurt with hazelnuts, coconut, and granola.

 The last flavor I bought was Nutty For Nana which is banana flavored greek yogurt with dark chocolate and  honey roasted salted almonds.

They all sound amazing. I haven't tried any of them yet but I will let you know what I think.

The next find is the new Newtons Fruit Thins in Toasted Coconut with Dark Fudge. I am a coconut junkie I swear. If it says coconut on it or has coconut in it than I need to have it. I actually was on a mission to find the banana fruit thins but went with these instead. They are amazing!!! They are a healthier version of the Samoa's that Girl Scout makes. You get a good coconut flavor with chocolate without feeling so guilty. Now I will not claim these to be healthy but they are a better option if you have a sweet tooth.

Last is this Full Circle All Natural Mutigrain Pizza. I bought this for my boyfriend because if I can't get him to stop eating pizza at least I can make it a bit better for him. He actually really like it. It was still fairly high in fat and sodium so it is by no means a healthy meal but it is better than the alternatives.

I Won My Dietbet and Trader Joe Cookie Butter Alternative!

Woooo I am happy to say that as of today I officially won my Dietbet. All those moments of stress and scale obsession payed off. As sad as that sounds I am excited that I won. I mean who wants to lose money? Not me!!  I am happy that I succeeded. For one, that means I lost 10 pounds this month which is a great thing and I am very proud of myself for that. For two, it means that I can put my scale up for a while and just focus on my changes elsewhere like my measurements, eating habits, how many reps of exercises I can do , and am not always just thinking “scale number, scale number, scale number.”  Like I said I don’t think I will do another one for a while but we will see. The concept intrigued a lot of my friends and if doing it with them will motivate then I may consider it but it was a bit mentally draining for me. With winning this Dietbet it also meant that for the first time in a long time I was under 200 pounds. That is crazy to me! 

Woohoo my body 20 pounds lighter! I am so happy to be able to look in the mirror and see the difference finally. It is so much more motivating when you can see the changes you are making!!

 

Also being that the end of the month is coming that also means my Tone It Up Frisky Fall Challenge is coming to a close as well as my Betty Rocker Rocktober Challenge. I honestly loved both. While integrating both challenges together I saw a huge change in my body both in endurance and strength. I loved the gradual difficulty increase of the Betty Rocker workouts and loved seeing my body get stronger and better at each of the workouts. It also gave me a lot of new body strength exercises that I can do anywhere. I loved that the Tone It Up workouts gave me a set schedule of what to do each week and allowed me to never get bored. There was a nice mix of cardio, strength training, stretching, etc… Videos each week included new ones you hadn’t seen before which made things exciting and it gave me a lot of great cardio options like interval training and stair workouts! I can’t wait for either of these ladies to do another challenge and most definatley will sign up for them in the future.

 

New Discovery That I Wish Had Gone Unfound….

So since my wondrous discovery of the Trader Joe Cookie Butter which I wrote about (here) I have found myself longing for it. That rich, creamy, sweet gingerbread taste is missing from my life now and I do not know how to go on without it. I do not live anywhere close to Trader Joes and buying  Cookie Butter online is obnoxious. It is extremely overpriced and I just could not shell out $15-20 a jar for the stuff. In a desperation to find an alternative I googled recipes on how to make my own and found that was no easy task either. Buying the cookies to make it would cost almost as much as just buying it online so I decided to look at another route and see if I could find a brand that made something similar. Well I sure did and I feel complete again. Now I do not know that this discovery is a good thing because that means that I can get this stuff anytime I want and seeing as how it is my version of crack this could lead to bad bad things. I discovered that a brand called Biscoff Spread which is made by a company named Lotus is almost an exact dupe of Cookie Butter. Like Cookie Butter is comes in crunchy and creamy and is made with a similar biscuit. It is from Europe but you can buy it in many places in the US. I found mine in good ol’ Walmart in the peanut butter sections. It is fairly priced between $3.50- $3.75 at my Walmart which is about the same price point as Cookie Butter. The jar is a bit smaller in the crunchy style which is too bad since that is my favorite. I honestly didn't notice a difference between TJ’s and Biscoff. They both have a delicious gingerbread flavor which around the same amount of nutritional value. 

Hectic Halloween and Healthy Fall Snacks!

Woohoo it is Halloween week!! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love all the decorations and dressing up. I love carving pumpkins and handing out candy to trick or treaters. As I got older and reached the drinking age Halloween also enjoyed going out with my friends to the bars with our Halloween costumes on. With as much as I love Halloween it was also a time of year that really got me down. Costume shopping was always a dreaded experience. All of my friends would get these cute little skimpy outfits and I would be the one wearing a frock. Now I never wanted to prance around town in a bikini but I always wanted to look better in a costume. To at least be able to find something cute!

This year is the first Halloween in years where I put on my Halloween costume and felt great. Now I know I have a lot left to do and there is still a lot of work to be done but this was a small milestone for me. A milestone that made me go "woooo I can do this after all." I was going through my phone and looking at some pictures from a couple months ago and it finally hit me how far I have come already. Seeing the difference in my photo's was really rewarding. It makes me want to keep going and keep succeeding.

This weekend was full of Halloween fun. Friday night I worked a Halloween party for work. I am a bartender and we had bands play and there was a costume contest. It was a lot of fun! I had such a confidence boost that night! Saturday I went to a costume contest with my family. We had been constructing the costumes for a long time and had hours and hours of work put into them. We all made minions!!! We won the contest and had soooo much fun. I did have a couple beers but didn't go overboard. Plus with as hot as the heads were I think I sweated out most of them.

Workout:

Today was a pretty relaxing day around the house for the boyfriend and I! We rarely get time off together so we took advantage of it and spent the afternoon watching movies and relaxing. I told him though that he had a couple options 1)Go to the gym 2)Go for a trail run or 3) Do an at home workout with me. He chose option 3 and let me tell ya he worked his butt off but so did I. Since he is just getting back in to being active I picked something that would be challenging and fun for the two of us.

It was a really fun workout and we were covered in sweat by the end. I love when he joins me in a workout but it doesn't happen too often!

Food:

Breakfast: Yoplait Light Harvest Peach Yogurt and a banana.

Lunch: A good ol' PB&J with a twist. Bimbo Whole Grain White Bread with Fit and Active Strawberry Jelly and the Jif Whipped Peanut Butter. 

Dinner: I made a slimmed down version of our favorite meal...Chicken Broccoli Alfredo! I used Priano Light Alfredo sauce from Aldis. I also cooked some chicken breasts lightly in garlic infused olive oil. We used Organic Whole Wheat Shells and I added steamed broccoli to mine! It was soooo good.

Snacks: Zach had a craving for popcorn so we made some all natural popcorn. Literally we took it off a dried corn cob. It was delicious! For dessert I ate a Weight Watchers Ice Cream Candy Bar.

I also put together some Baked Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal for breakfast for the next couple days. I found the recipe here and it came out pretty awesome! I had home made applesauce that my mom made and apples from her trees and it made it even that much better. I also prepped some chicken for the week since the oven was already on.

I am looking forward to what this week has in store. It is the end of my Dietbet...eek!!! As of this morning my goal was met so I am confident when I weigh in on Wednesday I will be on point. Now to decide what challenge to do next. I like having a challenge and having something to look forward to. I am a competitive spirit and like trying to bet a goal. I was looking into a challenge via. GNC today so I may do that one.

Scale Obsession, Arctic Zero Review, and Other Thoughts!

Hey hey there everyone. I hope everyone is doing well! It is a chilly day here in upstate NY. The temperature is finally reflecting fall like weather and we even got some of the dreaded S word yesterday....snow! It was brief but just seeing it made my heart sink a little. Just when I was beginning to love working out outside the cold begins to move in.

The last couple days have been kind of hectic and busy but they have been so much fun. Halloween is just around the corner and for my family it is a big deal. Saturday night we have a huge Halloween party to go to and have been slaving away making out costumes. I cannot tell you what they are yet but I will post pictures after the party is over.

Also one of my great friends is in town from Georgia so we had a get together at our house for him yesterday. Now while I didn't do horribly on my diet I didn't do the best either. I whipped up some chili yesterday morning for the crock pot! I made it based on the Cooking Light recipe for All American Chili and it came out amazing. To check out that recipe click here! The only changes I made were that I used the Jenny O Italian Seasoned Ground Turkey as my meat and I also added a can of chili beans in chili sauce. It came out amazing and got rave reviews. There wasn't a spoonful left by the end of the night. I should have taken more pictures of my spread. It was a nice mix of healthy snacks. I put out the Nature Box Teriyaki Twists and Caramel Pretzel Pops which everyone loved. I am also set out Dilly Beans and Salsa that my friend and I canned from scratch this year. We had a bonfire and a few drinks. It was a great time.

Unfortunatley my Dietbet is now in it's last week and I am still 2 pounds away from being in the winning so I really need to crack down on my diet and exercise this week. I am going to try and do no carb/low carb this week with a lot of water and focus mostly on cardio. I have talked before about why I do not think I will do a Dietbet again for a while and this morning solidified that decision. I feel like the Dietbet challenge has made me a bit too obsessed with scale. Since the challenge is based only on weight loss and no other gains I feel like I am constantly checking/panicking about the number on the scale. I think after this is over I will put the scale up for a bit and let the measurements tell me how I am doing.

Yum Or Not? Arctic Zero Ice Cream Review

If there is one thing that has been really hard to cut out of my diet it is ice cream. I am an ice cream hound! Before I started eating healthier it would not be uncommon for Zach and I to go through a half gallon of ice cream in a matter of days. Though I am craving sweets less and less as the days go by I still cannot stop thinking about ice cream late at night. Once 11pm hits I just want to be mowing down Ben N Jerrys but alas my butt, thighs, and stomach do not like that very much. Over the last couple months I have been seeing this brand of ice cream all over Instagram. With only 150 calories per pint and flavors like Vanilla Maple, I knew I had to find it. Tonight I finally did at Walmart. There are 7 flavors in the line but my Walmart only carried Vanilla Maple, Chocolate, and Chocolate Peanut Butter. I need to get my hands on the Coffee Flavor asap! 

I went with the Vanilla Maple flavor since that was the one that originally caught my eye when I found the brand. As you can see clearly it is 150 calories per pint or 35 calories per serving which is quite awesome. 

As you can see the nutritional information is not bad at all. 5g of sugar per serving for ice cream is exceptional and I like that you get some fiber in this as well which a lot of ice creams don't have. This will not be a good source of calcium but that is alright with me. 

PURIFIED WATER, WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE (MILK), ORGANIC CANE SUGAR, CHICORY ROOT, SUGARCANE FIBER,GUAR GUM, XANTHAN GUM, NATURAL FLAVORS, SEA SALT, MONK FRUIT CONCENTRATE.

Those are the ingredients which are not bad at all either. From looking at just the nutritional values and the ingredient list I was already a fan. Let's explore the rest of this....

Price: At $5 I will say that the price is a bit steep. Most ice creams are not even $5 for a whole half gallon so paying $5 for a pint made me cringe a bit. However, I would rather pay a bit more and save myself a lot of unnecessary calories! I do think that at the price this will be more of an indulgence item and not a staple in my freezer. 

Flavor/Texture: Since the main ingredient is water this frozen treat does have a bit of an icy texture. It is along the lines of a sorbet. It does not have a creamy texture that you are used to. It is not as icy as shaved ice or a slurpee. If you have eaten sorbet or one of those F'real shakes, that is what the texture most similarly resembles to me. Flavor wise it was not all that bad. Now it in no way compares to eating an actual bowl of Maple Nut ice cream but it could suffice as a substitute in times of sweet tooth need. It had a nice mapley flavor and was perfectly sweet. I will say however, that it had a similar after taste to sugar free ice cream. Since I am used to using stevia and other artificial sweeteners this didn't both me so much but it could bother others. I think this flavor would be awesome with apple pie!!

Overall, it was good but I wasn't overly wowed by it. I don't think it is the greatest ice cream innovation but it did curb my ice cream craving.  I really want to try some other flavors and see how they compare. 

Food and Fitness Today:

Breakfast: I made a delicious omelet for breakfast this morning. I got a huge bag of Kale Greens from Walmart the other day for $2.88 which I thought was a pretty decent price. Zach and I are new to using Kale but already love it. I sauteed up a handful of Kale in some olive oil and then added onions. I let those cook for a bit before adding Fit and Active Liquid Egg Whites and a splash of the Fit and Active Egg Substitute. I also added some smoked ham and light feta cheese. It was delicious!!! I licked the plate clean. I also ate a banana. 

Lunch: After the gym I was starving and knew it would be a while before I ate dinner so I stopped into the market to grab something quick for lunch. I decided on a Chef Salad without the croutons,egg, or bacon. I pretty much just kept the turkey, ham, and a small cup of shredded cheese. I bought a bottom of Light Ceasar and topped it with that. I also bought a fresh fruit mix that had cantaloupe, strawberries, honeydew, pineapple, and watermelon which I ate in the car. 

Dinner: I had to pick Zach up dinner at Taco Bell and for the sake of not driving all over in the pouring rain I caved and got Taco Bell for myself. I went with 2 Chicken Fresca Soft Tacos

Snack: Arctic Zone Vanilla Maple Ice Cream and a Cream Cheese Brownie. (I know I know but Zach made them haha)! 

Workout:

I did 50 minutes on the ABX trainer! 

Back To The Grind...Food and Fitness Journal October 21, 2013

Well as I posted this morning today was the start of a more determined and more controlled diet and fitness regiment. I let myself slack a lot last week and really needed to reel myself back in. I will make this post pretty short and sweet since it is 1am!

Breakfast- Better Oats Oat Fit Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal. I added extra cinnamon and had an apple from my parents apple trees. I love these oatmeal packets. They are so easy to make and are great for tossing in a lunchbox or work bag. I also like that the package is also a measuring cup! I think I have about 5 flavors in my cupboard right now.

Lunch- A Skinny Selections Spinach and Garlic Chicken Sausage! I love these and did a quick review on them here! I also had a side salad from Wendy's with Light Ranch dressing. 

Dinner- 2 more chicken sausages with mixed vegetables. 

Snacks- Nature Box Chia Seed Crackers, a golden delicious apple, and Yoplait Banana Cream Pie Light Yogurt. All delicious and nutritious.  

 

Workout:

I went to the gym with a friend tonight. I did 15 minutes on the personal trainer setting on the elliptical but it was bothering my hip a bit tonight so I switched to the ABX trainer and finished up another 25 minutes on there. I did a total of 4 miles towards my #100byhalloween challenge which puts me at 52. I did both of the arm workouts that were on my weekly schedule for the #FriskyFall challenge! Not sure what that is? (click here) and to check out the schedule this week (click here)

I also did a cardio workout from Café Mom’s YouTube channel. Though I am not a mom I still liked this workout. I need to focus a lot on cardio these next couple weeks and didn’t want to go to the gym so I opted for this instead. It was a pretty good little workout and I did some sweating. I did this before work. 

All and all a very successful day and well on my way to a better week....weeks!!!

Talking To Myself and Avoiding Temptations...Love With Food Box Review Cont'd...

Hey hey there everyone! It is another beautiful fall day in upstate NY and I am feeling energized. It is finally getting cold up here so that part I do not love. We got blessed with  a couple extra weeks of strangely warm weather…for NY anyway! However, now I think that it is officially starting to head towards winter. Womp womp!!!

I had to do some serious refocusing this morning because my diet and exercise regimen went off the tracks this weekend. Seriously, it derailed in a river and sank!  I am still trying to get a hold on how to be social without ruining my willpower. I went out with some friends on Friday night to watch another friends show. He plays guitar and is awesome. I did really well with avoiding food temptations but I couldn’t say no to a couple a couple beers. I didn’t drink in excess or anything but I should have said no and didn’t. Saturday I did pretty well but yesterday was HORRIBLE. I was like a junk food Pac-man. I couldn’t stop! Half the problem was that I was at my mother’s which tends to make any diet go downhill but I could have made healthier choices everywhere! I ate donuts from the cider mill-FAIL, Wendy’s for lunch-FAIL (granted I didn’t get my usual frosty and pile of nuggets. I went with the Grilled Chicken Sandwich and a side salad but it still isn’t good), dinner was spaghetti at my mom’s (we ate early and were doing a bunch of work so by the time we got home Zach and I were starving), dinner #2 Pizza Hut Thin N’Crispy Pepperoni Pizza with breadsticks-FAIL, and lastly dessert was this Hershey’s Cream Pie-FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL…. Yesterday just makes me hang my head in shame.

So this morning I woke up and said “Listen Staci, you are better than this. You want this and you will do better. Learn to say no and make these next two weeks amazing.” With my challenges coming to an end in the next 2 weeks I really can’t lose my focus. I not only want to be healthier and see my change but I want to win haha! It is time to put my Avoiding Temptation pants on and really get serious about this. I know it is going to be a tough one since Halloween is coming up and it is one of my favorite holiday’s but I am going to have to suck it up and do it. No turning back now!!!

Goals This Week:

·        Do not give in to temptations! Yes those pumpkin rolls and pastas look and smell delicious but they are what got you here in the first place.

·        Make time to workout and stick to my Challenge schedules.

·        Drink more water! This is always a goal because I am terrible at it.

·        Wake up and refocus on what you need to do. Do a little yoga and stretch and put your mind in the right place

I really need to make sure I read those goals every day! I also want to make a dream board! I have all the stuff to do it. I just need to find the time to sit down and make it happen!

Love With Food Review Con’t:

Did you guys check out my love with food box review? If you didn’t (click here) to check it out. It is a pretty awesome little box that I already realllly like. There were a bunch of things in the box that I had not tried yet when I wrote the post and I have now had a change to try more of the products with the exception of the apple vinegar pearls. Here are my thoughts on the rest of the things I got:

11)      Kind Fruit and Nut Mini Bar- Delicious!! I loved it just as much as all the others I tried. It was crunchy, chewy, sweet, and so delicious. I loved the big chunks of real fruit and whole nuts. You can just see how good it will be for you. I originally thought the size was small but it was actually perfect. I think these will be great for right before a workout or a little snack to tide you over till lunch in the morning.

22)      Pizzelle Crisps- I did not love these AT ALL! From previous run ins with similar products I knew that these would probably not be my favorite. I love pizzelles when they are homemade or the plain ones but I have yet to find a chocolate one that I like. These had the same problem as the Nature Box ones did for me and that is that they taste burnt. It is like eating burnt cardboard and I ate about 3 before tossing the bag right in the garbage.

33)      Happy Squeeze Apple, Blueberry, and Purple Carrot Pounch- LOVED!! Both my boyfriend and I really liked this product. We are already trying to figure out where we can buy more of them. We ate it on the way to run some errands Friday morning as a little snack until it was lunchtime. It was so good! The texture is like applesauce but a little more liquid like. The flavor was also great with hints of apples and blueberry but with a bit of a tart after taste which we liked. It wasn’t overly sweet!

44)      Glee Gum- Was also really good. I gave it to Zach since he is a candy monster. I did try one piece though and it was good. Fruity and sweet but the flavor didn’t last very long.

I will eventually try the apple cider pearls but I want to figure out a good recipe to put them in!! If you want to check out Love With Food or sign up for a subscription click here

Well here is to a wonderful week full of progress!