Foodie Friday: Rollin’

One of my favorite foods is sushi, but unfortunately it is not the cheapest fare. Thankfully, I live in Awesome, er Austin, TX and we own the franchise How Do You Roll?, and this place is just great because a) the food there is cheap, probably like Subway cheap, and b) the food is low calorie, and healthy, just look at what I constructed from their website:

You can make a sushi roll even with spicy mayo, and add a side of miso soup, and you will only be around 420 calories! If that isn’t bad ass, I don’t know what is. You will spend about $8 with a drink and soup, so yes, very reasonable for sushi. Also, the ingredients for the rolls are pretty healthy, if you want to opt for better carbs (and less calories) you can switch to brown rice in lieu of the white rice, and if you really wanted to get serious with your calorie cutting, you could opt out of the sauce entirely, ps the tempura crunch adds a lot of cals.

The inspiration for this post came from trying to construct a food choice that will have positive effects on stress, as outlined in this article. In the spirit of alliteration, I wanted to create a menu based on the items listed. Breakfast is easy: coffee, oatmeal, and berries. However, when I thought about lunch I remembered my newly created Saturday ritual which is getting HDYR from their Breaker/mopac location. Fortunately, we have two of the 7 items covered. I guess that means walnuts, dark chocolate and sunflower seeds for dindin. Strange, but I think it could work!

I have tried this roll and it is definitely delicious. Will have to report back with pictures.

Workout WINsday – how to workout after work !

Oof, just slammed three breakfast tacos from taco cabana down my throat. Had intended on going to the apartment gym this morning but instead watched the news and got breakfast, oops. Kinda scared of the nutritional information for them from MyFitnessPal, not such a pal today, more like buzzkill. No real worries, because I plan to burn all of the calories off after work, which leads me to my topic today. I would like to review ways I have found that I have been successful in going to the gym after work. Keep in mind, I don’t have children, so this may not work for everyone’s schedule, but it has helped me in getting myself sweaty.

1. Pack your stuff the night before

This is similar to those who say that you should do this for the morning workout. Around 9:30-10:30, I will get each outfit for work and for working out and at least put it near my gym bag so I have everything packed. Working out after work is just easier to me because you don’t have to end up packing all the extra stuff like towels, brushes, and/or makeup that you would if you were going straight from the gym to work. Some fancier places provide towels, but mine doesn’t, so I go the easy route and opt for the evening, but it makes it even easier when you have all of your stuff ready to go before your work day is even started.
http://instagram.com/p/REWqTqhZRF/

2. Put your gym bag on your desk as a reminder

This is one that I discovered serendipitously. I had planned on going after work once and I ended up grabbing both of my purse and my gym bag. I kinda just started doing it. My bag isn’t huge, but it stick out, and much to all of your surprise it isn’t hot pink. Anyway, some people use Google calendar, I use a big bag on my desk as a reminder. It reminds me of that expression, “out of sight, out of mind”. The gym bag on the desk is a constant visual cue to myself that this task needs to be done, so therefore I do it.

3. Don’t go home

Despite having mini-facility in my apartment, I have a gym membership. Having a destination makes the experience a little bit more enjoyable, plus there is a better variety of strength and cardio machines than a residential place can offer. One of the traps that I get into however, is coming home. I could easily walk to the gym, but laziness will take over, and lookie there I am in an X-Files Marathon now! Yes, I am unrepentant couch potato, and if you put me in that environment, I will do what comes naturally and vegetate for hours. The remedy, stay away, just avoid that environment. As humans, we get into habits, the cues will always be there, but you have to change the response. Well, if I am going to be a couch potato, it will be after I get my workout completed. You don’t want to reward sitting all day with more sitting, so at least break it up with some workout time!

4. Eat something to stave off thoughts of dinner

This one is difficult, but I have learned that I will usually eat too little for lunch, and be compelled like a zombie to go grab something to eat or come home, which breaks my resolve as indicated above. So, with my schedule, I will typically have something to eat right before work ends, just so that I am not tempted to come home or worse, go to a fast food place and undo my good intentions.


5. Have a plan.

Finally, I think this is the key to staying consistent. Right now, I haven’t been too heavy on weight lifting (yes, I am well aware of the pun), but I have been doing the c25k runnning/walking plan and this has been helpful in staying committed with the other items listed. I don’t have to workout 7 days a week, but why not, really? The recommended activity for adults is 150 minutes a week and that is at least 30 minutes a day. I try to get up and move around just at my office because of the new warnings about sitting, but exercise is so beneficial. Fitspo is one thing, but really the mental well being means more than any picture of six pack abs, but getting into the habit can be a challenge. I am telling you, though, once you do you will never quit!

Leftovers

The good thing about recording almost everything is that you will always have content, may not be the best, but hey, there are only so many ways to pontificate on how bad you want zebra cakes. Making progress on my goals, and trying to get back into the 120-125. 5 pounds increments really seem like appropriate milestones, if that hasn’t already been mentioned.

Friday’s meal was not a reflection of my effort, however. The company I work for hosted a party at Dave and Buster’s which included a $20 game card. Side-note, reminding myself that I should never ever gamble seriously. I can see how people become addicted, my “vice” was the tickets, but at the cost of not having a lot of game time. I did end up getting over 600 tickets, but the hello kitty prize I wanted was like 2400. That is an expensive stuffed animal, sheesh!  Ended up drinking a few brightly colored cocktails, but my meal was pretty good, steak and lobster Alfredo pasta, couldn’t find it on the menu of the website, but the sauce had shrimp and sun-dried tomatoes on it, too. Again, not a food snob, so it appealed to my not eaten anything substantial all day delicacies:

It is amazing I lose any weight with how terribly I eat some days, but there have been a number of tummy grumblings and fatigues to certainly make it up with nearly fasting. Normally, on Sunday night to recalibrate my sleeping, I will feast on a “Drank”, but it appeared that they were out at the store, so instead I chose one of the Neuro drinks called Trim. It is probably not anything that is scientifically backed, but it does contain Resveratrol. I am not going to stock up on a 36 count anytime soon, though, they taste awful!

In more self-esteem destroying news, I watched the dancer audition video for Ultra Music Festival. For those of you who don’t know, it is the Nutcracker of the EDM event performances, and if I wasn’t convinced already to become a skinny minnie, well just see for yourself:

http://vimeo.com/55100335

The thing about getting down to that weight is that I am not even sure that I would be able to maintain it for more than like a week. It feels “right” to be around 120-125 pounds, but my ego and desire want to be around 110 or less! I have never had such a cognitive dissonance about something (oh you fancy, huh?) I feel like if I am gonna go semi-starving to reach my goals, because let’s be real, that is what a diet is, amirite?, I may as well go whole-hog into the world of body modification through rib-removal and corsetry (Have you seen my Pinterest?). Just kidding, I would totally get a boob job before doing that, and those things don’t come cheap! Silliness aside, if I get down to my UGW, ugh I am one of them now, I will try to maintain it without driving myself totally mad. If not, well maybe it is time to chose another hobby.

Day Twenty

Mad at myself. Not really for slipping up on the program, but I don’t think I am really honoring the spirit of the plan. In “It Starts With Food”, the Hartwigs mention that one of the goals of this program is having a healthy relationship with food. What I have is a dangerous dance into disordered eating at times. I thought the routine of work would be my sanctuary for sticking to the plan, but it turns out one sweet potato for the whole day is not going to be enough food to last. Thankfully, my boyfriend came to the rescue with an avocado so that I could make it through the last couple of hours until I came home. I really just wanted to smoke a cigarette just so that it would suppress my appetite a little and not have to eat, but how the fuck is that healthy?

Spin class today would have been disastrous, I think. I already had a bad case of the “I don’t wanna”s this morning pre-yoga, and I wasn’t feeling so blissed out in my practice when I was seeing little stars appear in my vision while in triangle pose. Not cool, not cool at all. Having eaten dinner (broccoli, chicken, onions, cilantro and spices marinated with coconut oil) I am pretty content right now, and way under my caloric recommendation for the day, so again that theme of failing to make the right connections. For me though, it is about sticking to the plan no matter what. I could have broken down and eaten some of the almonds, but I knew they were cooked in peanut oil, so that made them incompatible, or worse I could have had my formerly daily spike in insulin with my afternoon diet coke, but that would be not honest to my body. These are not good things to consume, and admittedly there might be some righteousness in restricting myself so harshly to rather go hungry than feed myself with “unclean” food. I don’t know, where is the real virtue of fasting, if it has no religious purpose. Is dieting my religion now. Bow down to the gods of Paleo eating, you’re going to get what you deserve. Ha, I am stupid.