Piyo/T25 Week 3 Round Up

This week has been such an awesome one. I've had a great balance this week and I've also got some much needed sleep. We put the baby in her crib in her room for the first time this week. One night she slept for five hours ate for 30 minutes. Then slept for 5 hours. Another night she slept 4 hours and for 30 minutes. Then she slept for 4 hours. She ate for 30 minutes and then slept for another 3 hours. This was so awesome! Now if I could just get the toddlers to sleep through the night!

Monday was a great day. We were in Hershey, PA. I started the day out with my workout. I wanted to get it done before I got busy. The workout was T25 Core Cardio which is from Beta cycle. This workout was so challenging. I'm thinking that I may need to change up my schedule to include not Beta cycle workouts I'm just not strong enough and it discourages me.

We went to the pool this morning. It was so much fun swimming around and giving the girls rides. Then we went to Zoo America. It was so much fun but a lot of walking. It was 85 degrees and really warm. I made sure I kept drinking my water. Then we went back to Hershey Chocolate World one last time before we left as the girls wanted to ride the free ride one last time.

My eating was really good till dinner. We had pizza as we stopped at my mother in laws on the way home. I also got little sleep as we didn't get home until 10:30 pm.

Tuesday was time for Piyo Scuplt. It felt so good to workout at home. It felt so awesome to get moving. I love this workout as it is 30 minutes. One thing I've learned is that I love doing the 30 minute workouts and not any longer. If they are closer to 45 minutes I start to get bored. The four different series in this workout uses different muscles. My arms were sore by the end.

My nutrition was spot on today. I was so proud of myself.

Wednesday it was time for T25 Ab Intervals. I have a confession to make. I'm struggling. I don't want to do T25. I'm making excuses...IT is too hard! I am having a hard time as my knee is hurting from all the impact. I know it is because I'm 15 pounds heavier because of the pregnancy. I'm thinking that I may need to table my T25 Piyo hybrid schedule because of my knee until I lose some of this weight.

I loved Ab intervals and my abs were sore after I finished this workout. This one is easy as there isn't much jumping in it. But he rest have got me down as I have to modify so much of it to make it low impact and not hurt my knee. I know that this is just a stage and I will be able to do it soon! My nutrition was perfect again today. We even got to take a family walk this evening.

Thursday it was time for Piyo Buns. I love doing all the different types of squats in this workout. I love how it targets all my leg and butt muscles. My legs felt like jello at the end of this workout. My legs really hurt while walking down stairs! It was so awesome to fill my workout way after it was over.

My nutrition was spot on again today.

Friday it was time for T25 Total Body Cardio. I again made every excuse in the book to not do this workout. I hate myself for thinking that something is too hard. I think I am just going to go back and start Piyo by itself on Monday to get myself out of this funk. Being active is better than just sitting on my butt. I know I will get back to T25 once I lose some of this weight!

I didn't feel like cooking dinner so we ordered pizza. Not my best choice. But I am going to move one and forget about it.

Saturday was a beautiful day. We had a lot of Spring Cleaning to do. We put in a bathroom fan. Filled three bags of garbage. Made a huge pile of stuff for a garage sale. I have been doing laundry for three days. I'm up to 12 loads. I think I can finally see the end. It was a long but fun day. We even took a family walk as it was so beautiful out.

We did Piyo Strength Intervals in the midst of all our "work". I absolutely love the low impact nature of Piyo. Even the burpees being a little bouncy don't hurt my knee but help make me stronger. My nutrition was spot on today.

Sunday is my rest day. I love doing nothing on Sunday's but investing in us as a family and serving our Lord. It is a great way to start the week on the right foot. My nutrition should be spot on today again.

Here is my schedule for this next week:

I'm going to start with the week 2 Piyo schedule. I'm excited to see if I can get myself out of this funk and back to wanting to workout everyday. I want to look forward to my workout not loath it. Soemtimes we just need to be honest with ourselves and find something we like. That is why I love Beachbody and the variety of workouts they have.

I hope everyone has a great week.

Why Protein Matters

Protein plays a very important role in weight control. Lean protein helps you maintain your lean body mass when your calories are restricted. It also helps you suppress your appetite.

The USDA defines lean meat as having less than 10 grams of total fat, 4.5 grams or less of saturated fat and fewer than 95 milligrams of cholesterol in a 3.5-ounce portion.

Eating lean protein increases your metabolism due to the thermic effect of food, which is how much energy you burn to digest the food. Protein has a thermic effect of 30 %. This means that if you eat a lean protein food that has 100 calories, 30 of those calories are used to digest and process the food leaving only 70 calories of net energy available. Carbs have a thermic effect of 10-15 %, while dietary fat has the lowest thermic effect of only 3%.

One of the things I cannot stress to you enough is eating many times a day instead of eating three meals a day. You need to eat breakfast every day. Within 1 hour of waking up eat breakfast. Eating breakfast keeps the body nourished while providing energy.  The body does not run well on poor fuel!

Eating more frequently helps us stay lean and healthy and from becoming too hungry. Each one of these meals is essential to your health, NO SKIPPING, if you want success! Set the timer or alarm on your phone to remind yourself to eat, I honestly have to do this.

By eating protein with a complex carb you slow down the carb to fat conversion process. Choose high quality protein: nuts, seeds, legumes, quinoa, tofu, poultry, lean beef, eggs, fat free plain yogurt, or cottage cheese.

Complex carbs are high in fiber and aid digestion. Vegetables, fruits and whole grains are all complex carbs: brown rice, oatmeal, quinoa, whole grain pasta, bananas, carrots, sweet potatoes, asparagus, broccoli, apples, berries, and grapes.

Example: 1 apple with 2 Tbsp. natural nut butter or 1 small handful raw unsalted almonds or low fat cheddar cheese stick. Hummus with celery or carrots.

Remember cleaning eating is a lifestyle. It isn’t a diet!

One of the best Beachbody programs regarding portion control and spacing out your meals is the 21 Day Fix. It has taught me so much about clean eating and portion control. You will see a short video about the 21 Day Fix. Please let me know if you’d be interested in joining my next challenge group that starts April 27th by filling out my challenge group application. Hope you have a blessed day.

Cleaner Brownie Recipe

I always love to make brownies. It was something I sued to make for the girls about once a month as a special treat. My favorite recipe was from Hershey's. This recipe used a stick of butter and a cup of sugar. I decided that there had to be a better way to make these.

 So the first thing I wanted to replace was the butter. I recently bought some coconut oil from Sams Club. I decided that chocolate and coconut go well together. Instead of 1/2 cup of butter I swapped out 1/2 cup of coconut oil.

Then I wanted to substitute something for the sugar. I decided to use honey. I used 3/4 cup of honey instead of 1 cup of sugar.

Finally I substituted whole wheat flour for regular flour and omitted the baking powder and salt all together.

Here is the final recipe:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup coconut oil
3/4 cup honey
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1/3 cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey's special dark)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp water

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Place coconut oil in a small sauce pan and melt over low to medium heat until it is a liquid.
3. Mix oil, honey and vanilla
4. Cool a little and then add eggs. Mix until thoroughly incorporated.
5. Add cocoa powder and whole wheat flour and stir until well blended.
6. Spray an 8x8 glass baking dish
7. Pour batter into the baking dish
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

The kids absolutely loved these. I served them at a play date meeting yesterday morning and everyone loved them. I then made a second batch for A's preschool snack tomorrow.

If you are on the 21 Day Fix this would count for one of your treat yellows. You'd cut the pan into 9 pieces and one would be a yellow. They are so yummy and worth it to me as a treat.

I hope you enjoy these as much as my family did.