Day Two and Three of Our “Get-Back-In-Shape Week”
Day Two and Day Three
OUCH!
It’s almost 10 pm on day three and we have just finished the leftovers from Sunday night, the Chicken and Ocra/Peas/Spinach over rice. And again, I forgot to put the spinach underneath in the first plate. But I remembered for my sweetheart’s plate, so his leftovers looked prettier (if that’s ever an adjective to describe leftovers of anything). I did get him to try the spicy pickled veggies this time and he said they were “edible”. But he may have just been a tiny bit hangry tonight, having had only 2 small meals plus an energy bar and having just completed a 55-minute kickboxing/sparring class. That was a nice change of pace from our typical running routine, although I think I sprained my right pinky finger pretty badly 🙁
Aside from that class, I did a little leg workout this morning to make up for yesterday’s lack of working out. We were so sore from that Shred415 class that James didn’t work out at all yesterday and I took an express barre class. I truly love barre classes; they are as relaxing like yoga with the added benefit of tightening your muscles just enough to make you feel like you worked out. Okay, granted that they won’t make you sweat and you will likely not be sore, but some of the moves are challenging while you’re doing them and you had to leave your couch to go there. It’s a European kind of workout for women, because essentially, it’s a ballet class for which you don’t need to have any kind of rhythm. As I said yesterday, European women don’t like to work up a sweat at the gym; we prefer to work up a sweat in other, more amorous, situations. But for that, we still need to look good naked, so we watch our diet just enough so we don’t get too fat, use the stairs instead of the elevator, and – if we feel that our clothes are too tight or our body feels too soft – we do the occasional exercise binge and eat super healthy for a few days to two/three weeks, just until our clothes feel comfortable again and then we go back to the golden rule of “FDH” (Friss die Hälfte). That’s my father’s way of warning us not to eat like a pig (manger comme un goinfre) and literally means “Eat the half”. The word eat is typically “Iss” in German; however, when you eat like a pig, you use the word “Friss” because fressen is what animals do and essen is what humans do. So, in general, we tend to eat differently from Americans by upbringing; I specifically avoid using the term “by nature” here, because we were all born to eat only when we’re hungry and only as much as our bodies need. How to feed your body by listening to what it truly needs and still lose weight doing it is a science that they teach us from “Kindheitsbeinen” (childhood legs) on because, as adults, it’s much harder to start new habits, any new habits, really. Changing your diet of processed food and incorporating movement into your day are just two of the hardest ones to start, unfortunately. And by the time we think to do so, it’s usually gone on for so long that it feels like an insurmountable challenge to us.
AND HERE I AM… TRYING TO LOSE A COUPLE OF POUNDS, BUT REALLY MOSTLY JUST MAKE MY BODY FIT INTO MY CLOTHES AGAIN
So, yesterday I made us an omelette for breakfast, with the last bit of ocra, a few spinach leaves, some shredded mexican cheese, and a tablespoon of salsa in it. On the side, I put some frozen potatoes that I browned in the skillet with a teaspoon of butter. Boom! A delicious and healthy breakfast. Very low in fat, due to the little bit of butter and cheese that I used and high in fiber and protein. And much cheaper than at First Watch or another breakfast place!
LUNCH
We ate lunch pretty late again, but it was only a salad. I used baby spinach, iceberg salad mix for crunch, baby tomatoes, cucumber slices, avocado, and then I topped each salad with 2 slices each of ham/turkey/swiss cheese. We used about 1 tablespoon of goddess dressing (no time to make dressing from scratch yesterday) and we were really full afterwards.
We then went to get a massage, hoping that the nice guy at Massage Envy might help our sore muscles. It worked a little, but he’s clearly no magician 😉
DINNER
For dinner, I made canned tuna, baby tomatoes, asparagus, and peas over whole wheat spaghetti. I used two cans of tuna; one packed in water, which I drained first, and one packed in olive oil which I just dumped right into the pan. Then I sautéed everything and spooned it over each portion of spaghetti. We will be having those leftovers tomorrow, I think. This was an amazing meal, as usual. But again, the key was not to make it less tasty by not using ANY oil or ANY parmesan cheese; the key was to make it LESS. Just LESS. One portion, not two or even three. See the picture for portion size.
BREAKFAST DAY THREE
To make up for the rather late dinner on day two, we only had a 190 kcal bar with our coffee this morning. It was good and filling and, most importantly, fast, since James had a work appointment early. But hey, this way we could have breakfast for —
LUNCH
One slice of toasted whole grain bread, 10 spears of green asparagus (I had blanched the entire package last night for the tuna pasta and taken 20 spears out before cutting up the rest for the pasta) and two sunny side ups cooked in 1 teaspoon of butter, split between two plates. That was our lunch at around 1 pm today. It was delicious! And more than enough, too.
SNACK
Due to the very limited calories between the light breakfast and our ‘eggcellent’ lunch, we decided to have a light snack before the kickboxing/sparring class at 6:30 pm. So, at 4 pm, I raided the refrigerator and I came up with a tub of cottage cheese, one low-fat vanilla yoplait yoghurt and some assorted strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. The blueberries looked like they had a few more days in the them, so I left those alone and washed the raspberries and half of the strawberries (see the half-pattern here? 😉 ). James and I had discussed a long time ago how much we both loathe the texture of cottage cheese, but I had bought it anyway and then let it go… uh, about a month and a half past its best before date. Upon opening it and not seeing anything green and fuzzy growing on it, I decided to use it, so I blended the odd texture away with the vanilla yoghurt, added a dash of cinnamon and served it over the berries. Awesome snack; no idea how many calories, but certainly a small portion and a perfect mix of carbohydrates and protein. What more could you want? 🙂
TILL TOMORROW!
Ashley@Shakenstirredandblended
Hi, I'm Ashley and I am a freelance writer and editor for one local and one national publication. In my spare time, I teach foreign languages and manage two households. Oh, and raise four children. It's a crazy life that I chose and I love every second of it :o)
Can I submit a request that we have this meal again tomorrow, please?
Weelllll…too bad I didn’t see your comment until it was ummm a little after tomorrow…sorry 😉