Exercise kills stress!

So I didn't blog yesterday because well it was a pretty busy and kind of crappy day. I ended up not working out. I was visiting a girlfriend and someone backed into my parked van, long story short it involved a lot of information getting and as a result I didn't get home till just after 5PM. I had planned to make fish that night but I had no time by that point so we were faced with eating out.

Now eating out doesn't always have to be greasy fries or burgers. My family had subway and I had a chicken sharwarma on a vegetable pita and loaded with vegetables and hummus and tahini sauce I think? It was one of the acceptable wraps to get when I was with "Simply For Life" nutritionists. So it was a healthy supper choice.

I was feeling too overwhelmed and I was very happy when J had texted me and told me she was not able to work out due to a hectic day on her part too. I really needed the night to gather my thoughts and deal with some other stuff on my plate at the time too.

So I woke up this morning quite exhausted, didn't sleep well even though I had less pain with my sciatic nerve it was just an overall uncomfortable sleep. I was still hurting pretty bad from the day before working out -- that workout was extreme! However I had no choice, so up I went and off to the RCMP to file an accident report and get on with my day.
As a result of taking my son to school and going to the RCMP right after I didn't get breakfast until around 9:30AM or so. My body was not happy about that. It's amazing how fast your body adjusts to an eating schedule, by that time my body would be used to breakfast and almost ready for a snack. Life stuff happens, all I could do was try harder to keep on my nutrition. I think I succeeded and I feel proud of it today despite the stressful day I had with life stuff and kids and all that encompasses being a stay at home mom.

For lunch I had cut into chunks and cooked up a chicken breast and seasoned it with various spices, and had that with the left over salad in my fridge, some vanilla greek yogurt, some strawberries and a tomato sliced up. When I looked at everything I wondered if it was too much but then I remembered my body was a bit off kilter from the morning and therefore was famished. I was able to finish it all and felt full until my afternoon snack time.

Orange Creamcicle Shake for snack! Yum!

For supper I tried out Quinoa. I've never made it before and was pretty nervous and made that with maple glazed salmon and I was very satisfied. It did taste good but the texture is definitely something I need to adjust to. Here is a picture of what it looked like, not really sure the picture does it justice:

Quinoa:
1 tablespoon butter
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 cup uncooked quinoa
Sliced carrots
Broccoli
Celery
Small onion
2 tablespoons of parsley
1 tsp thyme

Melt butter in pan and add quinoa, toast the quinoa for 5 minutes (stir often so it doesn't burn). Add to the mixture broth, carrots, broccoli, onion, celery, parsley and thyme and cook on medium heat stirring occasionally for about 25-30 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed in the quinoa.

Maple Glazed Salmon:
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 garlic clove

Add the above ingredients to a small bowl and mix, pour over salmon in a shallow baking dish and let marinade for 30 minutes. Bake salmon at 400F uncovered for 20 minutes or until salmon is cooked and flakey.

Shortly after dinner I had to go work out, it was very intense. We did workouts with medicine balls tonight, it was a different kind of intense though -- not like the other day where you are physically exhausted from the cardio, we didn't do any cardio tonight, we didn't have to because it was incorporated in with each exercise. I will do my best to describe each exercise but it may be somewhat confusing, I will try not to be though, everything was done and repeated twenty times.

My workout tonight: (using a 6lb medicine ball)
Lunge ball twist (x20/side) - Reverse lunge; step back, twist on the side of the leg that is bent forward
Ball Throw (x20) - Hold the ball over your head and slam it to the ground hard, squat and pick it up
Overhead squat press (x20) - Squat down holding ball in front of chest, stand up & raise over head
Wood chop (x20/side) - Squatting take ball to one side & opposite arm. (L) leg, (R) arm above head
Wall sit/squat holding ball out in front of you for 45sec
Russian twist (x20/side) - Side on the floor & plant your feet or lift them, twist w/ ball side to side

PLUS we did our AB challenge. Today was 30 crunches, 30 leg raises, 35 second plank

We did this above workout 3 times. It was so so so so soooooo hard because we tried not to rest and holding a 6lb medicine ball the entire time, I was out of breath. Tomorrow we plan to go lane swimming and we will see how many laps we can do and maybe try to see who can do the most, make a game out of it. I also am planning to do the same type thing with my other friend Maggie.

The AB challenge today was brutal especially after working our abs so much in our workout. Almost every exercise we did worked our abs in one way or another.

I want to share with you guys something J texted me yesterday which I so needed to read because I weighed myself and I was only down about a pound in the week and it was instantly defeating. My brain started rolling with it and I started thinking "what am I doing wrong? I've been eating so clean I don't get it!"

How awesome is that? It is so true too. It is so easy to obsess over the scale; J shared with me that she also felt frustrated at the scale when she showed a slight gain, but she didn't let it defeat her, she didn't let it break her down and you know what else she told me? She went to put on a pair of jeans and they were looser then before! Weight loss isn't always measured by pounds. My husband commented to me that my stomach is getting flatter and I am also noticing that too, I'm curious to see what my measurements will be like at the end of the month.

I needed to work out tonight, after all the stress I've had. I honestly didn't even want to work out tonight I just wanted to sit on the couch. I can't allow myself to do that though, you just need to stay motivated. It was amazing though, it was hard when I was in the moment but now it is done and I can enjoy my night and know I ate clean today and I exercised. I did my body a huge favor and I feel great. I feel like my exercising killed the stress.

I am so happy to hear that I am motivating so many people out there. I can't wait to show you all before and after pictures, I just want to wait a bit longer until I actually have a noticeable difference.

Try some of these exercises and recipes I'm posting & you will notice a difference in yourself too. Change isn't easy but it can only start with you!

Have a great night!