T25 - Day 2

Barely Made It!

Wow. Ok so I completed Day 2 of my T25, and I think I posted last night that tonight should be easier? Yeah, I was so sadly mistaken. Last night on the form for the exercise I checked off "Nailed It!" because I was able to finish without being afraid that I would literally collapse on the floor.
Tonight when there was 5 min left I thought to myself "holy crap, I'm not going to make it" but I did. Just barely. I would definitely say tonight's workout was comparable to the P90X3: Extreme!

Tomorrow we do a total body workout and we took a peak at that and holy crap I am so scared. The professionals on the video are grunting and struggling to complete each move and there are puddles of sweat underneath them! Even the modification girl is sweating and struggling. Tomorrow is going to be a lot of brain work and mentally working myself through it, and that is only Day 3? It's going to be a long hard haul.

So I mentioned last night about being concerned with my nutrition and if I should be tweaking things. I sat down with Joelene today and we had some tea and discussed food, we worked out that my lovely "peanut butter banana" post workout shake is actually extremely high in calories. The recipe I posted a few days ago makes about 1000-1100 worth of calories, now granted I am not drinking the entire amount as I share it with my husband so I would half that, so my post workout shake is in and around the 400-500cal mark. Which is still a lot! I can make it way healthier by A) using less peanut butter B) using less bananas and C) using less milk (and actually I could probably omit the honey in there or even just reduce that to 1 tbsp)

So being disappointed at the realization my yummy shake is a no-go anymore, I went on pinterest and actually found a bunch of really yummy "post-workout" shakes that are right within the realm of calories that I am wanting. Now I am not calorie counting by any means but it is a good indication on if something you are eating is probably not the best. The shakes I found are around the 250-400cal mark which is much more appropriate. The T25 has a nutrition plan and you work it out by questions to figure out how many calories you would need.

There are 4 questions to figure out how many calories you should be eating per meal (which is cool that it breaks it out per meal and not just per day) which I will share with you so that you can try and figure out where you should be at, hopefully this helps you along your way for weight loss, because as I've said time and time again... weight loss is 80% nutrition (and yes my wonderful friend Joelene does need to remind me of that sometimes too!)

So here it is:

1. What's your gender?
   If you're a woman (+1) point
   If you're a man (+2) points
2. How much do you weigh?If its 130 pounds or less, (+1) point
   If its more than 130 pounds, (+2) points
3.  How active (outside of FOCUS T25) are you?If you're sedentary, (+1) point
   If you're moderately to highly active, (+2) points
4. Add up your pointsIf you scored 3 points eat at the 1,200 calorie level
   If you scored 4 or more, eat at the 1,600 calorie level

Before going forward I will add that this is not an exact science. For example, I still breastfeed so always make sure to add on 500cal extra for breastfeeding (because that is what you are burning JUST breastfeeding alone so you need to give that amount back to your body so you don't lose your milk and deprive your baby), so whatever score you got add on an extra 500 calories to that.
 Also on question number 3 where it asks how active are you "outside of FOCUS T25"? Obviously not all or more likely none of you are doing this program, so I would say compare the T25 to something like P90X or P90X3. They are pretty intense weigh loss programs. If you are just doing a Jillian Michaels workout I don't know if that is enough to put it in the class of the other two mentioned above but if you would like to that is fine too.

So based on the above information that you worked out, this is your "suggested calories per meal"

YOUR 1,200 CALORIE DAY
BREAKFAST- 300 calories
SNACK 01- 150 calories
LUNCH-  300 calories
SNACK 02 - 150 calories
DINNER -  300 calories

YOUR 1,600 CALORIE DAY
BREAKFAST - 400 calories
SNACK 01 - 150 calories
LUNCH - 450 calories
SNACK 02 - 150 calories
DINNER - 450 calories

Now one thing I have to say that I don't agree with on this is that they don't have a third snack time. I am eating six times a day not five and now my body is used to that so I couldn't omit that. I workout at night time (which is also when I blog) and I always have a post-workout shake. It is always important to give your body protein after a workout. Your body uses carbs for energy during exercise. If your cache of carbs is low, your body will use protein as an alternate fuel source, and your muscles won't grow as much as they would if you were feeding them a cocktail of protein and carbs. Post workout protein help to revitalize your muscles and health, as it is essential for your muscle growth and recovery. So it works out really that I have an extra 500 calories in my diet that I can put towards a SNACK 03.

Now these suggestions are just a guide. Don't worry too much. Just don't starve all day is the main thing or eat a 1,200 calorie dinner. The idea is to strike a balance. Your daily calorie totals should include beverages too so be sure to account for that latte you drink between breakfast and your first snack, or if your a coffee person. I find now that I am drinking SO much water I honestly don't drink anything else at all. Just water and my shakes (one for breakfast and one post-workout).

Speaking on nutrition. I made THE BEST chicken parmesan tonight. I didn't have breadcrumbs so instead I put some "saltine" crackers in my blender and made it into a fine powder, put some oregano and Italian seasoning in there and wow! I was good.

Chicken Parmesana with Spaghetti

You will need:
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
3 cups (approx.) breadcrumbs (I used saltines) - seasoned how you like
4 chicken breasts (thawed)
Spaghetti or Marinara Sauce
2 Tbsp melted butter
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
box of whole wheat (or smart) spaghetti pasta

Make your sauce like normal. I used "Healthy Choice" Spaghetti Sauce  (the one w/ the chunks of carrots & zucchini in it)
Add parmesan cheese to breadcrumb mixture
Coat the chicken breasts with butter on each side and dip into bread crumbs, make sure they are coated nicely.
Put your chicken on a baking sheet that has been coated with oil.
When all 4 breasts are on sheet bake in oven at 425F for 20 minutes, meanwhile cook pasta and sauce
Turn chicken over and back another 5 minutes, pull out and put about 3 tablespoons of sauce on each breast and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Put it back in the oven and bake for an addition 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve!

I served on a small sandwich plate with 1 cup of measured cooked pasta. 

Seriously so good and this recipe is only roughly about 250 cal for the chicken and however much for the pasta (you'd have to check the nutritional information on the box of whatever pasta you use) but all in all a really low calorie meal. For an even healthier option you could serve this chicken alongside a garden salad. It has been so long since I had pasta though so I wanted it. I find if I indulge in small amounts of my cravings I can keep them at bay, however if I would have ignored my craving for pasta then I may not have had as much self control the next time I did cook it. I was actually really full after this.
I have managed to get my body trained to proper portion sizes, I specifically used a small sandwich plate to show you all that you don't need a large amount of food, especially if you are eating 6x a day.

For my post-workout shake tonight I made a shake I found on pinterest called:

"Tropical Protein Paradise"
1 scoop Whey French Vanilla protein powder
1 cup unsweetened almond breeze
1/2 cup frozen pineapple chunks
1/2 cup frozen berries (your choice)
stevia (optional)
4-6 ice cubes
Nutritional Information:
245cal, 12g fat, 30g carbs, 21g protein

Now I didn't make this exactly as shown because I didn't have everything so I modified to make it work. I didn't have "French Vanilla" protein powder but I do have "Vanilla Whey". I didn't have almond breeze (whatever that is?) so I used regular milk instead. I didn't have "frozen" pineapple chunks so I just used a can and measured 1/2 cup and reserved the juice in the can and the rest of the pineapple for another recipe later on. I had 1/2 cup (maybe more) of frozen strawberries which I used. I omitted the "stevia" as I find with pineapple and protein powder and strawberries that is WAY sweet enough for me.

It tastes delicious though, try it out!

Well I'm going to enjoy the rest of my night and try not to think about tomorrow's impending doom of a workout - ha!

~Ciao