A day in my life

Today was a good day! I feel really positive about both my eating and exercise today, so thought I would share it with you... I've been a little bit run down this week, and added to the stress of my job interview last week, it has culminated in a cold sore, so have been trying to really focus on clean eating and staying really healthy. I must say though, these Compeed patches are the best treatment I've ever used for cold sores, so if you haven't discovered them yet, and you're an unfortunate sufferer of cold sores like me, you must try them out!
Here's my day...
I woke this morning and had my lemon & water drink with 2 lysine tablets (a must when you have a cold sore outbreak).
Breakfast consisted of 1 soft boiled egg and a smoothie (banana, strawberry, pecan, greek yoghurt & coconut milk). I also took my daily vitamins, Blue Ice Royal (Cod Liver Oil+Butter Oil) and Ferro-Grad (Iron+Vit C).
I had a handful of macadamias at about 11.30am... I find it so hard to just stop at a handful of macadamias, but practising self-control is a really important component of the Primal Blueprint! Because all of the food you eat is SO tasty, you really need to be conscious of how much you're eating, otherwise it's very easy to eat a whole packet of something (in my case, macadamias) in one sitting!
Today was a rare day that I didn't have a packed lunch, so I bought a 1/4 free range chicken, 1 avocado, and a pre-mixed greek salad to eat. Not the most amazing primal lunch, but definitely a reasonable compromise. I've really been focusing on increasing my fat intake lately, so have been adding avocado to many of my salads. I have to say, it's definitely a favourite of mine!
Due to a late lunch (2:00pm) and having personal training at 5:30pm, I didn't eat anything this afternoon. That meant I was really pumped for my personal training session.

And boy, did my trainer work me hard! A brief warm up walking on an incline on the treadmill and then into the weights room for a great, but full-on, workout. Here's a run down of what I did:-
3 sets of:-
15 x squat to press
15 x bent over rows
15 x bicycle crunches
*rest*
3 sets of:-
15 x upright rows
10 x burpees
15 x push ups
*rest*
3 sets of:-
15 x bicep curls
10 x jumping jacks
30 second plank
*rest*
3 sets of:-
10 x medicine ball squats
100 x skips
10 x O-leg crunches
Let me say I was completely buggered by the end of this! And my trainer let me cheat on the last set by only doing 50 skips... I think I earnt it but! Seriously, skipping is not one of my favourite exercises, simply because I always feel un-co doing it and generally can't do 100 skips straight through without at least one trip up. Can someone out there invent a machine that replicates the skipping action, without actually having to jump over a rope ;-p
Tonight's dinner consisted of lamb cutlets and garlic with mashed pumpkin, cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, and dutch carrots. And for dessert I treated myself to a cuppa and a fruit & nut bar (home made of course)!
So, today was definitely a great day! How was yours?

First Week of Primal Challenge

So one week down in the Primal Blueprint 30 Day Challenge and honestly, it really hasn't felt like a challenge at all! The food we eat on this eating plan is absoultely mouth watering and we never feel like we are missing out... We're also really enjoying our exercise, having increased our strength training and limiting ourselves to one high intensity sprint session per week.
Take at look at how our first week panned out:-
Monday
B'Fast = Walnut, Banana, Strawberry & Blackberry Smoothie with Full Fat Greek Yoghurt & Coconut Milk
M'Tea = Cup of tea with Full Fat Milk
Lunch = Roast Pork and waldorf salad with apples (no dressing)
A'Tea = 1 x corella pear
Dinner = Salmon Fillet in creamy dill sauce with mixed steamed vegies (Recipe coming)
AM Workout = 30min body weights & stretching
Lunch Workout = 30min walk around park
PM Workout = 30min Yoga on Wii Fit
Tuesday
B'Fast = 3 egg omelette with mushroom, tomato, & spinach and 2 chicken sausages
Lunch = Ham & Avocado BAS (Big Ass Salad)
Dinner = Grilled lamb steaks with baked pumpkin and mixed vegies
Lunch Workout = 30min walk down to the lake
PM Workout = 1hr PT session (sprints & abs)
Wednesday
A day of travelling for work still meant No Excuses!
AM = Fasting
Lunch = Mix of caeser (no croutons) and greek salad, filling from 1 mini quiche, assortment of sliced fruit
A'Tea = Handful of nuts and cup of tea
Dinner = Moussaka with greek salad (Recipe coming)
No Workout today :-(
Thursday
B'Fast = Hazelnut, Banana, Blueberry & Strawberry Smoothie with Greek Yoghurt & Coconut Milk
M'Tea = Cup of tea
Lunch = Left over moussaka
A'Tea = 1 x apple
Dinner = Chicken Parcels (Recipe coming) with sweet potato chips and mixed salad
AM Workout = 30min bodyweight & stretching
Lunch Workout = 30min walk around city
PM Workout = 1hr PT (circuit)
Friday
B'Fast = Scrambled eggs with bacon, tomato, spinach & feta
Lunch = Grilled barramundi with chips & vegies (eating out reasonable option)
Dinner = Zucchini base pizzas topped with proscuitto, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, bocconcini, rocket and basil
No Workout today
Saturday
B'Fast = Bacon, eggs, mushrooms & tomato
Lunch = Almond, Banana & Strawberry Smoothie
Dinner = Roast pork with apple and roast vegies
Dessert = Walnut self-saucing pudding & ice cream (a cheat meal as we had guests over!)
No Workout today but put in 2hrs of housework which I figured counted for something :-p
Sunday
B'Fast = 3 egg omelette with bacon, tomato, mushroom, & spinach
Lunch = Roast chicken with mixed vegies and tabouli
Dinner = Beef & pumpkin casserole
Dessert = Pear slices

Overall, eating this week was good! Our workout schedule could have improved, so that will be our goal this week. We do always get in 35-40mins walking daily by walking to and from work, so I know that if I miss my workout, it's not the end of the world!

The Primal Blueprint 30 Day Challenge Begins

The official PB Challenge starts tomorrow as they have lined it up with the American Labour Day Holiday. Hubby & I thought we’d get a head start though, so we’re prepped and ready to go today! The main reason for this is that it’s much easier to get into the right headspace on a Monday, when you are at the start of your week, and you can set up your habits for the remainder of the week.
Mondays are hard! I’ve always found this with our current work-out schedule. You go to bed on Sunday night with great intentions of dragging your ass out of bed before 6:00am to get in some exercise, but 9 times out of 10, the alarm gets snoozed til you MUST get up or be late for work! The winter just adds another deterring element to the situation... Now that it’s spring though, I’ve figured that time for excuses is over.
I think the Monday-itis has a lot to do with the weekend hangover. Think about it, you’re more relaxed with your sleep patterns over the weekend, which means when Monday hits, you have to reprogram your body for that earlier start. Going from an 8:30am wake up on Sunday to attempting a 5:30am wake up on Monday is near impossible! That could have been the equation facing me this morning...
Instead, last night, I thought about what I could reasonably manage. Going to the gym adds an extra 20 mins onto my time needed in the morning, so that was out. I could go for a walk through the park, but Canberra mornings are still quite chilly, so my motivation for that was not high. I settled on an easy 30 min body weight and stretching session to get my heart pumping and my muscles limber.
I’ll let you in on a little secret now... I still snoozed the alarm this morning! It was set for 6:00am, but I didn’t get out of bed til 6:30am. That’s the beauty of giving yourself plenty of time though. I knew I didn’t need to start getting ready for the day until 7:00am, so I had factored in some snooze time.

Here’s a breakdown of what I did for those first 30 minutes of my morning...

Start with a glass of water + lemon juice – it freshens your breath and provides a good kick start to the day (my mum also says it’s great for me too, so I usually listen!)
I did 3 sets of body weight exercises:-
10 x burpees (these are the bane of my existence, but I know they are good for me!)
10 x push ups (I did as many as I could on my toes (4) and then went to knees for the rest)
60 sec wall squat (a killer in the morning)
10 x tricep dips (I use the dining chair to do these as they are a good height)
60 sec plank (again, another killer, but overall the best core exercise you can do)
These took me approximately 20 minutes – I could usually do this in less time, but it’s still pretty hard to go flat strap first thing so I recommend easing yourself into it!
I finished with 10 minutes of stretching which is without doubt my favourite thing to do in the morning. You really work all those tight muscles and it can even help relieve tension from sleeping incorrectly the night before.

By 7:00am, I was ready to make a start on our breakfast smoothie (banana & strawberry with coconut milk) and prepare our lunch (roast pork & apple waldorf salad). A busy, but productive morning, and I’m going to be feeling good for the rest of the day.
Honestly, the biggest tip I can give anyone starting out their journey is to plan! That might sound a bit “teacher-like” but it is certainly the best way forward. Last night, I planned in my head what I was going to do, how much time I needed, and factored in extra time that I knew I would most likely need on a Monday morning. I plan daily and weekly as it helps me to have a process determined in my mind, which makes me less likely to falter. For example, today I’ve covered off my body weight session, I’ve planned a walk at lunch time (weather permitting), and will do yoga tonight (Wii Fit might have its faults, but I have come to rely on these bi-weekly sessions!).
An even greater level of planning goes into our weekly food plan (80% of body composition comes from what you eat!). I plan on a Friday, as we shop at the Farmers Markets on Saturday, and this allows me to get everything we need for the week. Buying the food according to a plan also raises my awareness of what food we have in the fridge. All too often, when you don’t have food in the house or an idea of what to cook, you can get caught in “I’ll just have take-away tonight” mode. There is also an awareness that fresh food has a used by date and therefore we don’t want to waste it! I’ll do some more in-depth food plan posts at a later date.
Let the 30 day challenge begin!