Tasty Thursdays: Paleo Banana Bread

Original recipe found here.

My recipe was tweaked a little bit, only with the amount of butter and walnuts used.  Everything else stayed the same.  Oh, and I turned them into muffins instead of a loaf.

Nutrition facts:
Makes 12 muffins
1 muffin = 176 calories (recipe can easily be tweaked to lessen the calories, ie. egg whites instead of whole eggs, no walnuts, etc.)

Ingredients:
2 eggs
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 over ripe bananas
2 cups almond flour
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of sea salt
1/2 cup crushed walnuts

Directions:
1.) Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a muffin tin with paper wrappers.
2.) In a medium bowl, combine first four ingredients, mixing well.
3.) In a large bowl, combine last four ingredients and mix well.  Pour wet ingredients into dry and fold to combine.
4.) Pour mixture into muffin tin and bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick pierced into a muffin comes out clean.

Weigh-in Wednesday + weekend hike

Starting weight: 176.4 lbs.

Last week weight:  129.4

Current weight: 128.2

Current loss:  -1.2
TOTAL LOSS:  -48.2

PR hit in barbell bench press:  85 lbs. x 8 reps
Still have a WAYS to go with my bench press but hitting PR's (personal records) means improvement, right?   =)

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This past weekend I hit up a new-to-me hiking trail with my mom and some of her co-workers.  It was muddy... it was rainy... it was long... it was FUN!  For more details about the hike, see my post here.

Breakin' it down!

Week 1 mission: Smaller goals

"To start the challenge off, we want to encourage everyone to break your larger challenge goals down into bite-sized goals each week."

Mission accepted!  Lets take a look back at what my goals are for the challenge and I'll add in my smaller goals in red.

NSV Goal

• Success story.  The other week I was talking to Anthony and told him that one of my NSV goals is to be featured on the "Wall of Success" at our gym.  The catch is I don't wanna ask to be a feature, I wanna be asked... big difference.  This goal can't really be broken down smaller.  As long as I stick to my exercise/nutrition goals below, I'll hopefully hit this.
• Donation time!  This weekend, I'm spending the time to try on ALL my clothes and sort them into piles of too big, too small, and just right.  By the end of the RFSC, I want to fit into the "too small" pile and have to donate the other piles of clothes.  Same for this goal.  Being consistent with my goals below will let me hit this NSV.

Exercise Goal

• Keep on going.  Continue my current 12-week exercise program, which will take me into the middle of May.  Breaking down this goal by writing out exactly what I need to do each day.
• Sun:  back, biceps, and hamstrings weight training + 5-mile hike
• Mon:  high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on the stairmill
• Tues:  plyo + full-body weight training
• Wed:  shoulders and abs weight training
• Thur:  back weight training + 20 min HIIT
• Fri: chest and abs weight training + 20 min run
• Sat:  plyo + arms, back, and legs weight training
• Something new.  Based on where I am at the end of my current program, research and choose my next routine.  Can't break this one down.

Nutrition Goal

• Clean, clean, clean!  My #1 priority for the next 10 weeks is to really focus on and dial in my nutrition.  Clean, whole foods to support my body and intense workouts.  Meal planning for the week is done, just need to buy, prep, cook, and portion out my meals.
• Increase healthy fats.  Definitely need to add more "smart fats" to my diet: salmon, avocado, nuts, olive oil, flaxseeds, coconut oil, etc.  Stocked up on avocados, salmon, a new to me cooking oil (macadamia nut oil), almond butter, and coconut oil.  My meal-planning has me eating healthy fats at every meal this week!
• New eats = happy tummy.  Making it a goal to try one new recipe a week.  Nutrition can get pretty boring if you eat the same things over and over, so finding 10 new (hopefully yummy) recipes to add to my rotation will do me good.  Going to try this recipe as my "new eats" this week.

Summer Challenge Goals

 JOIN me!!! 

Sign up here.

The "Ready For Summer Challenge" - or RFSC - starts this Monday, the 26th, so it's time I thought about my goals for the next 10 weeks.  The challenge ends on June 3, exactly a week before my two-week long vacation to Oregon/Nevada/Cali!!  Perfect time?  I think so!

Getting back to the goals.  There are four categories to pick from:

1. Weight loss
2. NSV (Non-Scale Victory)
3. Exercise
4. Nutrition

You can choose a goal from one area or from all four.  I'm going with 3/4 areas: NSV, Exercise and Nutrition.

Why not weight-loss when I'm a weight-loss blogger?  I'm within 10 lbs. of my goal weight and I'm at a point in my journey where fitness and nutrition take priority over what the scale says.  I want all my focus to be on these two areas, plus NSV's to let me know I'm still on the right track, even if the scale says otherwise.

NSV Goal

• Success story.  The other week I was talking to Anthony and told him that one of my NSV goals is to be featured on the "Wall of Success" at our gym.  The catch is I don't wanna ask to be a feature, I wanna be asked... big difference.
• Donation time!  This weekend, I'm spending the time to try on ALL my clothes and sort them into piles of too big, too small, and just right.  By the end of the RFSC, I want to fit into the "too small" pile and have to donate the other piles of clothes.

Exercise Goal

• Keep on going.  Continue my current 12-week exercise program, which will take me into the middle of May.
• Something new.  Based on where I am at the end of my current program, research and choose my next routine.

Nutrition Goal

• Clean, clean, clean!  My #1 priority for the next 10 weeks is to really focus on and dial in my nutrition.  Clean, whole foods to support my body and intense workouts.
• Increase healthy fats.  Definitely need to add more "smart fats" to my diet: salmon, avocado, nuts, olive oil, flaxseeds, coconut oil, etc.
• New eats = happy tummy.  Making it a goal to try one new recipe a week.  Nutrition can get pretty boring if you eat the same things over and over, so finding 10 new (hopefully yummy) recipes to add to my rotation will do me good.

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Speaking of goals, here's an update to my March goals.  Planning on making the last week and a half the best one yet!

Weigh-in Wednesday + Paleo recipe

Starting weight: 176.4 

Last week weight: 128.6
Current weight:  129.4

Current loss:  +0.8
TOTAL LOSS:  -47.0

Not disappointed at all.  Inches are still going down and since I'm in a muscle building workout program, the number on the scale will fluctuate.

Speaking of workouts...

PR hit in back squat:  155 lbs.  
That puts me between "intermediate" and "advance" according to these standards.  Not bad if my body weight keeps dropping and the barbel weight keeps increasing.

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Protein Cinnamon Swirl "Bread"

For this yumminess, I  followed this recipe by Jamie Eason but switched out the oat flour for almond flour and tweaked a little bit of the directions.  The end result was really good, but a little too sweet for me so next time I'm cutting the stevia in half.

Nutrition facts: Makes 16 squares

1 square = 55 calories, 1g fat, 8g carbs, 5g protein

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 cup stevia

1.5 cup almond flour

2 scoops vanilla protein powder

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 egg whites

1c unsweetened almond milk

1 4-oz jar baby food applesauce (or no sugar added applesauce)

Directions:

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray an 8x8 pan with olive oil.

2.) In a large bowl, combine stevia, almond flour, protein powder, baking powder, and salt and mix well.

3.) In a medium bowl, combine egg whites, almond milk, and applesauce.  Combine with dry ingredients and fold together until incorporated.

4.) In a small bowl, scoop out about 1/2c of batter and combine with cinnamon.  Set aside.

5.) Pour batter from large bowl into pan, then drizzle batter + cinnamon (from step 4) into pan.

6.) Bake 25 minutes.

Yummy!!

SUPER quick weekend recap:

• first Trainer E session was A.W.E.S.O.M.E.!
• sweet potato + baked chicken breast + salsa + awesome yogurt = YUMMY
• attended a CrossFit style warrior workout
• baked up a Paleo storm on Saturday (recipes coming soon)
• hit up yet another new gym
• grilled up a clean storm on Sunday

More details coming in this week's posts but enjoy the limited picts from this weekend.

Protein cinnamon "bread"

Almond banana "bread" muffins

Coconut banana butter balls cupcakes cookies yumminess.

 Veggies, fish-in-foil, chicken.

Thank you, parentals, for the awesome grilled dinner!

Weigh-in Wednesday: In a new decade?

Starting weight:  176.4 

Last week weight:  130.0

Current weight:  128.6

Current loss:  -1.4
TOTAL LOSS:  -47.8

I want to remind people that 128 lbs. for my height is still considered overweight.  I have a body fat percentage of 33% (per my last Trainer L visit) which is considered overweight for my age.  128 may seem low, but I have visible, squishy fat everywhere... and I'm not talking about a "need to lose the last 10 pounds" sort of vanity fat... it's fat fat!

For my height and with a muscular build (what I'm going for) I should be around 115 lbs. at MAX.  Without the muscular build, around 108 lbs.  My goal weight is 120.  


Still overweight for my height, but much healthier than 176 lbs. 3 years ago!  Hope I'm in this new decade for good!!

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Click the above picture to join me in the Challenge.  

Starts March 26!

Who cares? Well, I do!

The other day I received an email from a friend asking me about the clean-eating challenge I'm doing because she really wants to clean up her diet.

After emailing back and forth for a while, she asked me if the boyfriend is doing the challenge also.  I said no.

"So no one holds you accountable?  Why can't you just eat a spoonful of ice cream then?  No one would know and you can just lie about it."

Ummm…. no!

What do you mean no one holds me accountable and no one would know about the ice cream?  I hold myself accountable and I would know about it.

It's funny how most people wouldn't think of cheating on their significant other or breaking a promise to their kids… so why is it so different when it comes to treating ourselves right?  I understand that sneaking a spoonful of ice cream isn't anywhere near cheating on someone, but it is cheating on me.  Broken promises - "I'll start tomorrow" - and putting myself last got me over 60 lbs. overweight.

So isn't it about time I started treating myself right?

And speaking of the clean eating challenge… it's tough! 

Look at all the red for days I didn't make it.  Granted, those days weren't cheat meals, but if I ate even one bite of something not clean, I crossed off the entire days as a 'not-clean-all-day-every-day' day.

Looking at last week, it looks like I didn't do well (I fell short on 3/4 goals) BUT I'm not worried about it.  My trainings have increased in intensity and duration, which can account for my extra calories, and my motivation is still going strong.  This week will be a challenge because my gym is closed for a week of renovations (boo! and yay! at the same time) but I still plan on getting in all my weight-training sessions at home.   Yay, for Trainer E, who I see for our first official personal training session this Friday.

Costco vs. Sam's

Happy Monday!  Hope you guys had a great weekend.  Mine was spent working out, hanging out, going shopping and cooking up a freakin storm on Sunday.  On the menu for this week:

• Jamie Eason's turkey muffins - SO YUMS!
• Jamie Eason's cinnamon swirl protein bread
• pork and squash soup
• hard boiled eggs
• shredded baked chicken breast
• enough lettuce to last three weeks - or in my case, several days

Working out
Remember I mentioned the boyfriend and I were checking out a new training facility and possibly a new trainer?  Well, we did on Saturday.

Anthony and I got to EC Fitness and my first thoughts:  I love the space!!  It's floor-to-ceiling windows, roomy, CLEAN, and since they limit the amount of people training to 3 max... it really is personal training.  Anthony and I had the entire facility to ourselves!

Basically, everything I hate about training with a trainer at the gym is gone - no waiting for machines/equipment, no feeling intimidated about who might be watching me - and everything I love about training with a trainer is still there - one-on-one attention, motivation, customized program, the wealth of knowledge.

Since Trainer E used to work with my current trainer, Trainer L, at the gym, E knows his style of training and can compliment the training or do something totally different... it's completely up to me.

Well, I'm sure I don't have to tell you guys, but I signed up... for an intro price of 5 sessions for $100,  you TOTALLY can't beat that.  And the best part... Anthony bought a trainer package as well!!!  YAY!

Shopping

Why do we - Anthony and I, a household of two people - need membership to Costco AND Sam's Club?

9 lbs. of chicken breast, egg whites, almond milk...

... 5 dozen eggs (!!!)...

... 5 lbs. of blueberries...

Tip: rinse them in a 1:10 ration white vinegar to water.  No mold!

... bananas, clementines...

... spinach, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, strawberries, Greek yogurt and even more blue berries.

That's why!

Progress measurements

Two month difference.

Can't complain about any of it... especially because I'm still losing in the right places - arms and waist - and not losing in the wrong places - chest!!

Hips and thighs didn't change but I'm okay with that.  The barbell squats/lunges and killer leg days I'm doing with the LiveFit program are already changing the physical appearance of my legs.  Definitely not complaining about that. 

My workouts always tend to give more attention to my lower body because that's the first place I see definition so I've decided to do higher reps (12 - 15 reps) instead of the standard 8 - 12 that I normally do.  Will keep the upper body workouts in the 8 - 12 rep range.

Weekend plans
Tomorrow I'm checking out a new training facility - sshhh... don't tell my trainer - and will be getting a free personal training session, get this, with a guy that used to be a trainer with my current trainer.  Although he doesn't work at a gym (which is why I said training facility), his prices would make it worth it to sign up with him AND keep my gym membership.

Picture from EC Fitness Oahu.

Very Cross Fit style training areas... I'm super excited about it!!

What are your weekend plans to stay on track?

Weigh-in Wednesday and creatine

Starting weight: 176.4 

Last week weight: 129.6

Current weight:  130.0

Current loss:  +0.4
TOTAL LOSS:  -46.4

I'm not making excuses (cause my workouts and nutrition have been on point - see below), but there are a couple of things that contributed to this gain:

1. My cheat meal on Sunday night.
2. A new supplement I started taking: creatine. 

Sunday night, Anthony and I went out with my friend and her husband who we haven't seen in forever.  We met at a local bar, and before we got there, I already decided to make it my cheat meal.  Fire-baked pizza and burgers... so yummy!  Plus, I did a KILLER workout on Saturday, so it was well deserved.

And about that new supplement I'm taking... 

I get the feeling a lot of females get nervous about creatine because it's usually associated with guys who use it to get HUGE in the weight room, but that's not the case.  In my non-scientific, non-professional understanding, creatine helps boost your performance in high-intensity, short workouts (like HIIT, weight lifting, sprinting) by allowing your body to push more than it could without the supplement.  

Creatine does cause some water retention - anywhere from 1 - 5 lbs. - in your skeletal muscles (not like the joyous monthly bloating of TOM), so this is where part of the gain might be coming from, too.  No big deal to me because you lose that water weight when you stop taking creatine (which I'll do in about a month or two).

Other than that, exercise and clean eating are going AWESOME!!!  Measurements coming tomorrow.

Eating problem.

Hello, my name is Annie and I have an eating problem.

(Admitting it is the first step, right?)

That's right, I'll be the first to admit that I have a messed up relationship with food.  Like so messed up that I thought about going to therapy for it.

I sleep so i don't eat.
I can't wait till events/parties are over so there won't be food in my face.
I think about food 24/7. Shopping lists, recipes to try, what's in the refrig right now, etc.
I feel guilty if i don't eat something... then feel guilty if I do eat it.
I over-indulge once my day goes bad.
I over-indulge if I had an excellent day before.

No way to live life at all!

So I think it's perfect that March is "National Nutrition Month" AND one of my March goals is focusing on eating clean at every meal, 6 days a week (leaving one meal available as my cheat meal).

Follow me on Facebook to get more details and participate in the challenge.

Today is day 6 of the challenge and so far..

I'm rocking like a freakin ROCKSTAR!!!!

Between this challenge and my new workout program, I'm expecting some great results for March.  I know I'm talking big only one week into the month, but mindset is what sets us up for success. 

It's not too late to join in on my clean-eating challenge!  

What have you got to lose (besides unhealthy habits and weight)?

Weekend in picts.

Why do the weekends go by so quickly?!?!  It's not even several hours into Monday and I'm counting down the hours until next weekend.

Since I'm being lazy and it's Monday, here's my weekend recap in pictures.

Loving my salads!! I usually do salads 4 - 5 times a week, but for some reason, my "March Madness" is making me love them even more.

 Battle ropes are no joke.

I did back-to-back upper body workouts (Friday and Saturday) but I wasn't going to miss a chance to workout CrossFit style!

Saturday's "workout before going out" schedule for time:

50 shoulder presses

100 mountain climbers

50 bicep curls

100 mountain climbers

50 wide push-ups

100 mountain climbers

50 squats

100 mountain climbers

50 rows

 100 mountain climbers

50 narrow push-ups

200 mountain climbers

1 minute battle rope intervals x 5

full body = S.P.E.N.T.

Because of the above crazy workout, I took Sunday completely off and food prep took up most of my day...

... and food cooking.

 Sunday night was reserved for my first non-clean cheat meal for the month.  

Cheddar and bbq pulled pork sandwich, homemade chips...

... and garlic 4-cheese pizza.  

Super satisfying and totally made me look forward to my clean meals this week.

How was your weekend?

March Madness!

 Click picture to enlarge.

1. Weight-lift (full body split) 6x/week
• I'll be following a modified version of this.
2. Eat clean every meal 6 days/week
• So many definitions of "clean eating".  My definition (which I got from a quote somewhere but can't remember who said it) is pretty simple: eat things that are ingredients, not things that have ingredients.  
• Whole foods, no processed stuff (except for my protein supplements)
• Good source of info: 100 Days of Real Food
3. 1500 - 1700 average calories/week
• upping the calories to support my training
4. Plan my weekly meals every Sunday
• By sticking to this goal, it should take care of goal #2 and #3… which will then take care of goal #5.  We all know (or should know by now) that nutrition plays 80% of the role in weight-loss.
5. Lose 4 lbs. or 2% body fat by the end of the month

February Goals

At least I finished off the last four days of February strong, thanks to my F.A.I.L. post!