Polar FT7 — Blog — Fit Foodie Le

the cardio horse is back in her saddle! after a week off from teaching my Lifetime classes, it's great to be BACK. burnout is a lose-lose for the instructor and the members... breaks always re-energize and re-fuel me to teach the best class i possibly can. especially at 530am.

after 1 hr of Total Conditioning, i jumped on my fav elliptical machine and did 45 minutes of fat-burning cardio and called it a day. no more gym for me until tomorrow...maybe even thursday!! no more two a days. for now! until i decide to compete again (i'm sure i will) i'm focusing on maintaining my current weight, give or take a few pounds.

all i could think about was breakfast on my way home as usual.

so i'm back on the clean eating train. as of yesterday. for the most part. i've been adding extra things (for example, the tomatoes and asparagus ) to my meals that i normally couldn't when i was preparing for my show. usually what i add doesn't really affect the total calorie count of the meal anyway. extra veggies is nothing compared to an extra egg or some meat or something, you know?!

second shot of meal 1,

and here's meal 2 so far. i'm sticking with 5-6 small meals a day. my body responds so well to this routine so i'm keeping it going. try it out and see how your body responds!

so, Houston has just become that much cooler.

Sonny and i made it back in time from Jamaica to attend the grand opening extravaganza of Trader Joe's this past Friday, Sept. 21st.

If you are familiar with H-town, then you know that this historic building was once a theater, then a book store for 25 years, and finally the home of our very 1st TJ's! we didn't even go home first- it was that important. to me.

taking pics to pass the time while Sonny finished his phone call.

8 days later and my 'show' hair is already in a pony tail.

walking up- i love that they kept and used the old school marquee.

getting started. the store is not as big as i anticipated, but it was still jam-packed with a ton of cool items. it was lunch time AND the grand opening so space got a little tight. i didn't mind.

Joe's O's for Chiso.

saying a prayer and thanking God for these low sodium rice cakes!!! i used to get the popular Lundberg brown rice cakes, but why have one of those when i can have TWO of Joe's for a 10 cal difference?!

sampling some kinda fresh squeezed juice. and yep, that's my tummy. i left my abs in Jamaica.

i definitely grabbed something off of every isle.

ok people are going absolutely nuts over this stuff and i completely understand. i passed a tower of it on the way to checkout and thought to myself 'man i wonder what that tastes like!!'. i literally looked up and walked right into a store associate shoving a sampling spoon of it right in my face!! of course i'll take some! our cashier told us it's their top-selling item right now and that they will be coming out with a crunchy version for the Christmas holidays. Lord have mercy.

turkey jerky!!!!!!! haven't had this stuff since my Cali trip back in 2010. great high protein, low-fat snack.

what i ended up with- roasted seaweed snacks, popping corn, unsalted pb filled pretzels, unsalted rice cakes, turkey jerky, lite coconut milk, unsweetened apple sauce, Joe's O's (whole grain cereal), lobster rolls, black mission figs, organic pizza sauce, lactose-free milk, fresh sugar snap peas, coconut oil, goat cheese, fat-free feta, egg-plant humus, egg whites, spicy mustard, fig butter, and some fresh fruit. no cookie butter yet!!!

i was expecting to go well over 100, maybe even 150. but i did NOT break the bank. gotta love those reasonable prices for organic, natural, fresh foods. i'm THRILLED that TJ's is finally here and will gladly make the drive to visit.

after buying all that delicious food, what does Sonny want for lunch? Mission Tortilla. because he was a great sport and even came grocery shopping with me i shut my trap right up :shock:

i waited til we got home to fix my lunch. here are some of the items up close for you to look for on your TJ's trip.

the fig butter is AWESOME- and no, there isn't a drop of butter in it. it even says that on the package. "To be a butter, a spread must contain more fruit than sugar.."

whole wheat pita pockets and eggplant humus - only 35 cals per 2 tbsp. serving!

there was no cooked meat (ok fresh cooked meat) in our house since we had been gone for a week, so i made some fig and feta tuna and grilled a whole wheat pita to go with it.

my seasonings for the tuna. i almost ALWAYS add boiled eggs to my tuna, but i was too hungry to wait!

i also spread some of the fig butter and eggplant humus on the pita bread-

DELICIOUS.

what else can you put fig butter on? it's great in wraps too- i made a grilled chicken, kale, tomato, avocado wrap on a whole wheat tortilla for my next meal. the spicy salty mustard and the sweet fig go great together. try it.

what are your favorite must have Trader Joe's items?? and have you tried the cookie butter :lol:

i put my grill pan to work today. this morning's breakfast was slow cooked oats over grilled bananas and dusted with cinnamon. putting heat to a banana always helps it release more of its natural sugars. i might not ever use brown sugar again! it was so good! course i had my eggs too with fresh cilantro and some dijon mustard.

i woke up feeling very loose in my mid-section...definitely not as tight all over as last week.

not being funny or insensitive at all. as you know, i started carb cycling monday and i'm going to bed tonight like a kid at Christmas cause tomorrow is my HIGH CARB DAAAAAY!!!!! this explains my bloated/loose feeling and why when i used to skip meals in order to fit in a dress (long, long time ago when i didn't know any better), it never really worked for me. ever. when your body doesn't know the next time it'll get some food after an extended period of time, it begins to store whatever is left in there as fat. thus, reversing the very thing you are trying to do! restricting meals creates slowed metabolism, cravings, and ultimately, weight gain. just a bad, bad domino effect. so, when i did finally eat, i was SO HUNGRY and always ended up eating way too much. well, by then my metabolism had crashed and it couldn't work fast enough to burn all the food i just straight stuffed my face with which just makes everything worse. again, sad situation. don't do that! OK?

i hit it hard with my trainer this morning with chest and back supersets, then i headed to the gym this evening for some cardio on the elliptical. this is another reason i love my Polar FT7 so much:

off by more than 100 cals! my hr watch never tells me such lies, hmph!

per my trainer, by tomorrow, (after adding a higher amount of carbs back into my diet and after my weight workout of course) my muscles should be popping out and waving HELLO, and i'll appear 'bigger' and more defined. well we'll just have to see then, won't we. will post my after pic then to see if we can spot the differences.

i hit up Sams on the way home for some sirloin and they only had the really thick cuts, so i went with that. got my grill pan out again for dinner tonight and put the burner on as high as it would go. meanwhile,

my steaks were marinating in more liquid aminos, green onion, fresh cilantro, and black pepper. i trimmed the fat beforehand.

sprayed my grill pan (found at Walmart for 17 bucks) with Pam first, and cooked it for 7 min on one side,

and 6 mins after flipping. far from dry!!! are you kidding me?? so much flavor and tenderness just after a few minutes. key things- HIGH heat, and marinate it for at least 30 min first and you won't go wrong.

Instagram sirloin collage:)

i did some mid-week prepping after dinner tonight and cooked up a vat of brown rice and mixed it with some fresh chopped cilantro and lime juice.

i also baked some chicken breasts with those McCormick seasonings (smokehouse maple, lemon pepper, garlic and herb, and montreal chicken), and some dried parsley.

in conclusion, i should really stop complaining cause my low-carb days could be NO-carb days :lol: about those- no-carb diets are often associated with lack of focus, low metabolism, uncontrollable cravings, and low energy levels. carbs are so NOT the enemy when it comes to weight-loss, so bump what you heard!!! ever wonder WHY you don't have the energy to workout and feel terrible when you try to cut carbs completely? cause you NEED them. so don't do that either!

heading to bed to dream about CARBS.