The PLAN !!!!

 So today I took the time to plan my food for the next little while.I am going to stay very close to what the design is here. I do follow a plant based diet but, I do have the occasional eggs.I may bump up the eggs as I weight train more. This is trail and error for me I haven't done a ton of hard core workouts and followed my plant based diet. I will get more advice from my magazines, Tosca and various blogs.I can tweak along the way.

Okay so water, herb teas ( I have tons of David's Tea's) and green tea. I am going to try to get tons of lemons in the water for the liver. I have to recommend a new David's Tea Mulberry Magic. Yummy!!!



Food

Breakfast...protein smoothie or oatmeal

Snacks.... Almond or peanut butter w whole grain crackers or celery
                 Fruit
                 1 tbsp raw almonds
                 protein shake
                 Coconut or soy yogurt w fruit

Lunches....soups (lentil and bean) w salad
                  Salads w beans or tofu
                  Fruit 1 cup

Dinner ...tofu and bean main meals
Quinoa or brown or wild rice ( this is every two days)
2 veggies of some sort


 My plan is to eat 5 times a day and also cut out sugar. I have Tosca's new Veggie Cookbook and I plan to make meals from that as well. So it's simple and that should help.

 Workouts-  So this is the workout right now. I am working to get this hip flexor injury fixed.

Weight training 5or 6 times a week...chest, back, triceps, biceps and shoulders.I am working this on rotation. This is working fabulously I am finding myself more focused.
 
 Walking with running intervals. My physiotherapist...who is amazing. She is recommending running.I was shocked!! She wants me to warm up REALLY good then start shocking the muscles. Forcing them to work differently. 

 Right now no legs...but a wall squat Keri has me doing.Mama mia!!!. It not really a squat and super hard. It is forcing those buttocks to do some more work.And butt squeezes all day long.

 Abs right now it is ALL about the core. Keri has me thinking 24/7 about the pelvic wall. Pulling it in with EVERYTHING I do.Everything I do requires me thinking about my core. Kegels..  ladies I cannot tell you how important this is!!! And side planks I am getting better every day.

I am going to get rid of 40 pounds......... it's time.

Broccoli goodness

Yummy spices!!

Gorgeous green goodness!!

 So made the Broccoli " Cheddar" Soup from Tosca's The Eat Clean Diet Vegetarian Cookbook. It's on page 96. I loved it and it was remarkably easy to make. It got a "good" from both boys and an extra thumbs up from Josh. John said it was really filling. The big bonus I get it for lunch today.

   So how did Tosca take this classic and make it "Cheesy" 1/4 of a cup of nutritional yeast. I have had a bag in the cupboard for a while. It was a product I knew was great, but I was terrified of. So this was the perfect time to try it.So why should we include this product in out diet. I did some research and was blown away.

  It's nutty, cheese like flavor is LOADED with minerals and vitamins.It's a source of 18 amino acids, folic acid, biotin, iron, magnesium, phorphorus, zinc and chromium. If your vegan it is one of the only ways to get your B12 in a food.It contains 14 grams of protein and only 79 calories.It's low sodium.It is free of the notorious candida yeast.

  A couple of other interesting things i found:
    It maintains ideal intestinal ecology
    It improves blood production
    It helps maintain optimum cholesterol levels
    It improves liver health and function.

 Doesn't that just blow you away! Go pick up a bag and give it a try. Make sure it's Nutritional yeast NOT Brewers yeast. I made this mistake in the beginning at the health food store when I was to embarrassed to ask."Silly me" as josh would say!!

  I got my information from Livestrong.com and Buzzle.com if you want to check it out yourself. Enjoy!!!!

Look what came!!!

  Look what came my Eat Clean Diet Vegetarian Cookbook. I was so excited!!! John picked me up from work and the package was on the seat. I was so pumped. It's so gorgeous!!! The photos are beautiful... I love a cookbook with photos. This book is for everyone adding just a vegetarian meal or Vegan's. She includes fish and eggs, but all the recipes can be modified.

  From Tosca's introduction "Not all protein needs to come from animals.In fact, it's more healthful, beneficial and wallet friendly to limit your intake of meat and stick to a mainly plant based diet."

  I have already picked some of my meals to try. I can't wait to share. I am so excited to try to make the "Yogurt Cheese" with soy or coconut yogurt. I'll be honest~ I just have to pick some recipes. I want to try them all Smoothie on the Beach, Delightful Strawberry,Spinach and Broccoli Salad with Macadamia nuts and Greek Tempeh Stuffed peppers these are where I am going to start.

  If you are thinking about trying to eat more Vegetarian meals pick up this lovely book. You won't be disappointed.With well over 250 recipes and even some help with the holidays it is worth adding to my growing library.

  Thank You Tosca and the EatClean team for choosing me. I am honored to share tosca's new book!!!

  So this week I kicked it into high gear. Walking every day (some days I am going to try to go twice a day) and the weight training for the upper body until my hip is better.Back to tracking points and watching what I eat. I am switching to Stevia in my coffee. I am continuing my stretches and I am going to tweak my motivation board. I am going for a minimum of three new recipes a week. Moving forward!!! Do you have a motivation board? If so what's on yours?



 

Meet 50!

    So in this post I want to introduce you to a woman who has inspired me.Now her journey began at 40...yep 40.The picture you see below on the left hand side is Tosca before.The picture on the right is Tosca now...ladies take note she is now in her 50's !! I wanted to write this post so maybe you will check her out. I am doing a guest post on her blog May 14th.This post is personal and not connected to that post. I want you guys to know about this women because she is inspiring and I think that by knowing her story you might feel inspired to Eat Clean and lift some weights.

  So Tosca was unhappy, overweight and miserable.She wanted to make her life better so she entered...the gym. Now I know from reading her story she began running on the treadmill. Then when she introduced weights she found her body changing.She wanted to share the information she had learned and began the "Raise the Bar" column in Oxygen magazine.I loved her from the moment I read her first column. I still collect her columns in my binder.What I love about the column is Tosca continues to share struggles and challenges.She rants... some of my favorites. She also is passionate about making changes for women, kids and getting people to eat better. I think the columns I have really loved through the years is when she has been critiqued and  people have said negative things about her and she has handled it with grace. She stayed positive, stated the facts and didn't let it bring her down.Classy!!

   Tosca's journey led her into the Eat Clean Diet series.  They all have fantastic information.My favorite is Your Best Body Now. This one speaks to me as I am in my forties and has the information going into your fifties.

     I was reading Oxygen magazine and I was so excited to see that she was bringing out the new Vegetarian Cookbook. I seen last month on her blog she was looking for guest bloggers and you would get the cookbook early~ for free!!!!! I thought I am going to take a chance.Well to my shock I was picked .I had my moments of self doubt...my mind saying "your not good enough". Then I pulled back and thought I am going to enjoy the moment and damn Tosca's sending ME a cookbook. I can't wait to share what I think and share the new book with all of you.

   So I have decided to let Tosca be my inspiration to remove these pesky thirty pounds .I am going to  really clean up my diet this year. Eat smaller meals more often and really watch my beverages.

      I have more appointments for my hip flexor injury this week. My xrays came back great but hearing that this type of injury can plague me for years is kind of overwhelming. I am meeting a new physiotherapist this week and she sounds really great. We are going to work on things I can do. Hopefully work on things I want to do this summer.Like WALK...lol. I know there are things I could be doing. Yoga keep me flexible. More weight training for the upper body.

I love this photo look at those arms.

     There are a few ways Tosca can inspire your journey.  If you want to check Tosca out, I have The Eat Clean Badge on the right of this post. Click it and it will take you to the Eat Clean Diet website.

    The Oxygen magazine...I know the women can be intimidating on the front but it has great articles on eating, working out (at home and the gym)  Tosca's column and one of my favorite sections the success stories.

    Check out her books and cookbooks she had one for the family, men and workouts.

    I was not asked to do this post in order to do the guest post. As you know I like to share things I LOVE and Tosca is a women I think you should get to know. It is important to have wonderful role models who only get better with age. And Tosca is defying age!!!!

    I thought I would include Tosca doing her 7 Citrus Salad from the cookbook. All this month they are doing videos from the cookbook. She has other videos to check out too. So I will post here when my guest post goes up. Until then check out Tosca and her Eat Clean Diet website. The Kitchen table has some amazing recipes and real people sharing their results. Check her out for some great advise and inspiration.ENJOY!!!