Juicy, Juicy!

So, it's officially been 1 week since I started "No Alcohol April" and so far so good. I've encountered a few "temptations" here and there, but nothing that made me crave alcohol or anything like that. The hardest part has been trying to explain to people why I'm doing it. It's tough because I really don't have a great explanation. I'm doing it for a couple reasons. To challenge myself, to see if I feel better physically, to lose weight, and that's about it. It's not a bet or a dare, and it's not religious for sure, and I didn't have some kind of terrible experience that made me say "whoa, maybe I should take it easy for a few..." I'm just doing it because!

My version of the "Mean Green" juice

As you can see above, March was a VERY good month for me! I was diligent about working out every day I was off work. There were only 2 days I didn't, and I think they were legit excuses... The day after my birthday (hungover!) and the 27th. I got off work that morning and was super tired. I had planned on working out before getting the tattoo because I knew afterwards I wouldn't feel up to it, but I also had to work overtime that night at 11:00PM so I decided to nap before the appointment instead. I just ate really light that day to make up for it.

Mean Green!

Regardless of the fact that I worked out like a mad woman, and ate pretty well, my weight still hasn't gone down. It's quite depressing, but the fact that I can see my muscles getting bigger and my tone improving, still gives me hope. I'm starting to focus more and more on just eating healthy and getting strong. Before I was more into running and going long distances, which I still do enjoy, but now my knee is interfering with that. Now, I really love the challenge of weights. I like to push myself and see how heavy I can go. It's really cool to see the progress happening in front of your own eyes. I've gone from squatting 180lbs to 230lbs. Bench pressing 85lbs to 115lbs. Doing no pull ups to 3 pull ups... yes, that is an accomplishment, trust me! lol:-)

My eating habits are definitely starting to get back to where they used to be. I'm starting to eat more whole foods again and trying my best to log everything on myfitnesspal. As usual, my only hold up is work. It's the hardest part for me; to deny delicious food at work! As if the meals aren't enough, then I have the temptation of dessert. Random ice cream in the freezer, Oreos at the hospital, Eddie buying me candy lol. It's really tough! But that's why I try to counter it by eating really well on my days off. Still, I don't know if it's enough:-/

My mom gave me a juicer that she didn't want anymore so I gave it a try and it works great. I've been using it a lot! I like that you can get all those fruits and vegetables all at once, in just a cup or two. Pretty much anything you make with fruits in it turns out good, but the original "Mean Green" juice recipe? Not so tasty. I made it the other day. The ingredients are:

• 1 cucumber
• 4 celery stalks
• 2 apples
• 6-8 leaves kale (Australian tuscan cabbage)
• 1/2 lemon
• 1 tbsp ginger

The ginger is what makes it gross. Yuck. Maybe without it, it would be ok. At first I didn't have any cucumber or ginger so I substituted the cucumber with grapes and just left out the ginger and that tasted really good! I also prefer spinach over kale. Walmart has these huge bags of spinach and another one that is spinach, red and green chard, and baby bok choy. It tastes great mixed with other stuff!

I like to replace a meal or so with juice, but after my workouts I definitely still prefer a protein shake. Depending on how much time I have I like to use the blender and mix in a bunch of stuff. The ingredients in the picture above are:

Two scoops of vanilla protein powder (100 cals)
1 cup of vanilla almond milk (30 cals)
2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed w/ walnuts, brazil nuts almonds, and Q10 (95 cals)
1 tablespoon of chia seeds (55 cals)
1 banana (110 cals)
1 cup of sliced peaches in 100% juice (100 cals)
6 large strawberries (35 cals)
Total= 525 calories

Kind of high in calories but it has so much good stuff in it! And it makes 2 huge servings so you could just eat half and refrigerate the rest for another workout. Sometimes I'll just do the protein powder mixed with almond milk and mix it in my shaker. Also, the nice thing about my gym is that they have a cafe and they sell all types of protein shakes and they're yummy!

 If you haven't noticed, the weather outside has been AMAZING these past few days! So naturally I've been running. My stupid knee is starting to bother me again. Yesterday I got a knee brace from Dick's Sporting Goods and it seemed to help a little. I also got KT Tape which is kinesiology tape and supposedly helps with injuries and pains. I'm gonna try that next!

Now, time to go out and enjoy this beautiful weather. I'll update later!:-)

Anna