Should I Work Out When Sick?

Well it hit me, finally, after having colds, coughs, and slobber all over me since October the sickness has reached me. Unfortunately, it couldn't have come at a worse time. I am starting a new challenge group that promises to motivate and inspire and my head feels fuzzy. However, I am at points in my day where I feel like myself so I have been pushing play. My loving husband has told me I need to sit it out a rest, but what do the experts say? I decided to do what any self respecting fitness enthusiast would do and I googled it.
According to most sites: WEBMD and DailyBurn they say use caution. If you are battling the flu (I'm not) then you really should rest. However, if you are dealing with a cold it gets a little more tricky. The best thing to do if you have a cold is to keep your workouts strictly to your home. It goes without saying that spreading germs in a gym is a guarantee even when you aren't ill so no need to be contaminating all the equipment when you are in fact sick.
So after my thorough research (I only clicked on 2 sites) I determined that it was ok to do my workout. I didn't "sweat it out" but I lifted and it seems that because I didn't put too much on my body that it responded well. My best advice for anyone who is battling any illness is to check with your doctor if you are unsure, rest and get plenty of fluids. However, if you are like me and don't want to miss a day make sure you are doing more of an active recovery workout or keeping whatever cardio you are doing light and not too strenuous. Listen to your body and take care of it like you do every day.

Trust the Process

So here I am almost 1 year since i started my journey after having twins. Believe me I have been down the road of losing the baby weight and trying to find something that works with my schedule and keeps my motivated. I have found that with workouts like Insanity, Insanity Max30, T25, but I am stepping out of my cardio comfort zone and kicking it up a notch. I am only 3 days into Master's Hammer and Chisel and I can honestly say I feel stronger everyday. However, what I am noticing is that the scale is not moving. In fact it has gone up a little bit. Now the old me, the one who didn't learn so much in the past year about fitness and nutrition would immediately abandon the program and go to my cardio infused workouts to burn off the "extra weight", but this new me, the one who is educated, smart and ready to believe will NOT. I will NOT let a number on a scale define what I know this program will do for me in 60 days. When I started Max30 I could barely get through it and if I had given up because it was hard or because the scale didn't move then I never would have seen the changes. 

So this post is really about trusting the process. After countless affirmations from people who have done test groups and focus groups with this program I know it works. I am following the meal plan, i am drinking my Shakeology, I am making sure to lift to my "MAX" and I know that my body will transform itself. Trust the process and believe in yourself. 

What's For Dinner Week 3

So after all that meal prepping last week we still have enough left over to go into this week. It was such a crazy week with Back to School Night and Maille's birthday we certainly were appreciating the quick and easiness of the meals. We had pizza on Thursday because the Birthday Girl insisted and we celebrated mine and my sister's birthday yesterday so no need for a meal there either. So this week I am only planning for 3 days!!
Here is my review of what we did eat last week:


Taco Chili-amazing!! We actually found really good whole wheat burrito wraps and made that instead, but you could use this chili all by itself or even as a great nacho inspired dish. Either way this is definitely a keeper in our house.


Chicken Teriyaki-This was good, but not my favorite. I think that with the soy sauce and sweetness of the teriyaki it just didn't feel as healthy as I had hoped so I was more inclined to put this as in an emergency only case. The kids weren't huge fans either.


Sausage, onion and peppers-This was fantastic! Not only was the sausage really soft and we had whole wheat pasta with it. You could have sandwiches if you choose, but the small side of pasta was just enough and the flavors from the tomatoes and onions was really good. We are used to using a lot of sauce and this showed us that less is sometimes more. Will be making this again for sure.


Sesame chicken-This was a fail on our part not the recipe. We put it in the crockpot and it just cooked too long. Of course we tried it first to be certain and the flavors were so good, but because the chicken was like jerky we didn't get to have it. This resulted in Pizza for the night. I will be making this again, but will probably only have it on a Saturday or Sunday where I can check on it and make sure it isn't overcooking.


So here are the recipes left over:
White Bean Chicken
Beef Stew
Cheeseburger Soup
Thai Chicken Wings

We are adding Pulled Pork with carmelized onions, Skinny Chicken Pot Pie, and Healthy Meatloaf.
I will be posting pictures below when prepping begins but here are the recipes if you are going to be following along!

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Sandwiches- This recipe I got off of the www.foodnetwork.com
but I modified it slightly to give it more of a healthy alternate such as using olive oil vs vegetable oil. I am using tenderloin versus the shoulder as well and there is little fat on the tenderloin. This will be a great dinner for tomorrow night when the EAGLES play :-)

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons light brown sugar

2 teaspoons hot paprika

1 teaspoon mustard powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1 3 -to-4-pound boneless pork tenderloin or pork shoulder, trimmed of excess fat

2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, plus more to taste

3 tablespoons tomato paste

6 whole wheat rolls/buns

Directions:

Combine 1 tablespoon brown sugar, the paprika, mustard powder, cumin, 2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a small bowl. Rub the spice mixture all over the pork.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet; add the pork and cook, turning, until browned on all sides, 5 minutes.

Remove the pork and transfer to a plate; whisk 3/4 cup water into the drippings in the skillet. Transfer the liquid to a 5-to-6-quart slow cooker.

Add the vinegar, tomato paste, the remaining 2 tablespoons brown sugar and 2 cups water to the slow cooker and whisk to combine. Add the pork, cover and cook on low, 8 hours.

Remove the pork and transfer to a cutting board. Strain the liquid into a saucepan, bring to a boil and cook until reduced by half, about 10 minutes. Season with salt. Roughly chop the pork and mix in a bowl with 1 cup of the reduced cooking liquid, and salt and vinegar to taste. Serve on buns with barbecue sauce and coleslaw.

      

Skinny Slow Cooker Chicken Pot Pie:

I got this recipe from the amazing blog www.skinnymom.com

I modified the vegetables to be fresh because that is my preference but you can use a mixed bag of frozen veggies too. If you do that change the amount of time from 45 minutes before serving to 30 minutes.
Ingredients:
1lb of chicken
1 small onion
3 1/2 celery stalks, diced
2 10.5 ounce cans of Organic Cream of Chicken Soup (we use Wegman's brand)
1 cup of skim milk
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
fresh assortment of veggies: carrots, green beans, corn
2 TBS fresh parsley chopped
12-oz can Pillsbury Grands Jr Flaky Bisquits

Instructions:

1. Place the chicken breasts in the bottom of the slow cooker.
2. Top the chicken with the diced onion and celery.
3. In a small bowl, combine the chicken soup, milk, water, garlic powder, thyme, salt and black pepper; whisk until mixed well. Pour the mixture into the slow cooker.
4. Cover and cook for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low.
5. About 45 minutes before serving, remove the chicken from the slow cooker with a slotted spoon and shred with two forks. Place the shredded chicken back in the slow cooker and add the vegetables and parsley. Stir to mix. Cook for an additional 45 minutes.
6. Preheat the oven to 400° F. Once preheated, bake the biscuits according to the package directions.
7. To serve, place a heaping 1-cup serving of the chicken mixture in each bowl and top with a biscuit.

What's For Dinner Week 2

So after a crazy back to school week and figuring out schedules we think we have our routine down. One of the things that made the transition easy was meal prepping. If you haven't had an opportunity to check out my first post I am finally putting all my pinterest pins to use. I am committing myself to reviewing each of the blogs that have put out easy crock pot meals in hopes that I myself may become a Betty Crocker and start concocting my own recipes, however, that has not happened yet so pin I must.
Last weeks meals were all amazing and if you haven't check out www.mynaturalfamily.com you definitely should. The recipe I enjoyed the least was the lasagna. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't awesome either. The recipes I highly recommend are the sun dried tomatoes recipe and the santa fe chicken. You can use tortillas or chips with the santa fe and we put the sun dried tomato recipe over a bed of pasta. These were big hits in my house.

Now onto this week. I will be adding pictures tomorrow when I officially start prepping (its college football day so watch I must). I am making 8 of the 12 recipes and I went to the grocery store and spent $120! Now what is so amazing about this is that I am not only prepping for this week, but slightly into next week as well so this is truly amazing stuff. Please check out this site. She gives so many great ideas and there are other recipes she shares as well. I just wanted to make what I had room in my fridge for. I also want to add that some items I already had so my $120 bill may be more inclined to be higher if I didn't have the extra ground turkey (substituting ground beef) and chicken from prior purchases, but I think it all evens out. I hope this makes your meal planning easy this week. Pictures to follow tomorrow!!!
http://www.graciouslysaved.com/2013/08/12-easy-paleo-ish-crock-pot-meals.html

Here are the recipes: 

Taco Chili

Ingredients:

1 lb. cooked ground beef

1 medium onion chopped

1 can corn drained

1 can black beans drained

1 can navy beans drained

1 8 oz can tomato sauce

2 14 oz. cans diced tomatoes

1 small can diced green chiles

1 package taco seasoning

Directions: Place all ingredients in freezer bag and freeze until ready. 

Write on bag: 1 can diced green onions, shredded cheese

   1. Thaw slightly, place in crock pot and cook on low for 4-6 hours. 

   2. Serve with shredded cheese, chopped green onions and fritos.

Thai Chicken Wings with Peanut Sauce

Ingredients:

2 lbs. chicken drumsticks or wings

1/2 cup bottled salsa

1/4 cup Peanut Butter (almond butter for Paleo)

3 T lime juice

3 T soy sauce

3 T water

2 T freshed chopped ginger

1/4 cup sugar

2 cloves garlic chopped

Directions: Place all ingredients in bag and freeze until ready to cook. 

Write on bag:

   1. Thaw slightly and place in slow cooker. 

   2. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

What's For Dinner?

Each week I have tirelessly planned what we were going to have for dinner only to not follow through simply because I didn't feel like making it. Now that I am finding meals that I can make ahead of time I wanted to share what we will be making for dinner each week and the blogs that I use to find my meals.
Have you ever noticed really fit people answer the question so evasively? "What do you have for dinner?" Their responses are so vague with "chicken and steamed veggies" and I feel like screaming can you be more specific!! Needless to say the specifics will be here and I will be charting what we thought of our different meals for the week.
This week I found this amazing blog called www.mynaturalfamily.com
She posts a ton of recipes and I chose only 4 this week since it is a short work week and I made a ton of food so I figure I can do leftovers some of the days too.
1). Paleo Lasagna
2). Santa Fe Chicken
3). Sun Dried Tomato Chicken
4). Beef Stew

Here are some pictures of what I prepped and I wish you could come into my kitchen to smell how good all of this is. For the 2 hours it took me to prep all these meals it is well worth it for the time and energy it will save me during a busy back to school work week as well as allowing myself to make sure we are eating healthy as a family. Some of the recipes called for things I had never used before like Tapioca Starch. I was able to find it at Wegman's so if there are any ingredients you struggle with finding just let me know. I can give you a rundown of what I used, but I was able to find most of the items on the list. Cost to prep all 4 of these meals which I know will last us all week was $100. To feed a family of 6 on that cost alone is a shock for us because we have been close to $200 weekly so money savings was big and that just makes this even more exciting.
Share what you are making for dinner or post a recipe you would like me to include in our family menu. I am always looking for ideas!!

Meal Prepping and I can still get my healthy shake in while I work

Sun Dried Tomato Chicken-this was still hot so the bag was steamy which is why I opened it. Smells so good 

Santa Fe Chicken 

Paleo Beef Stew 

Paleo Lasagna