Grilled zucchini (recipe)

Hi loves! In my previous post I shared some of my "healthier" meals I have been eating over the past weeks. One of them was a zucchini salad with chickpeas. Now I am not going to share my recipe for the salad, because I always switch my ingredients up, but I wanted to share a quick and delicious way of adding veggies to spruce it up a little!

All you need is half a zucchini, some olive oil, a clove of garlic, dried Italian herbs, and salt and pepper!

Pre-heat your oven at 180 ºC and prepare a baking tray with a piece of foil or baking paper. Slice your zucchini in circles of 5 mm, or thicker if you like. Be careful not to slice them too thin, otherwise these slices will burn :( Spread the slices over the baking tray evenly, and drizzle some olive oil over them. Season to liking and pop a crushed garlic clove on there for some extra flavour!  Bake in the oven for about 20-30 mins or until cooked. I prefer them to be a bit brown on the edges and with a little crunch to them. Toss through your salad, or enjoy as a snack by itself! Enjoy!

Lobi,

21 Day Fail (update + food diary)

Hi loves! In my previous post I updated you about my skinnyfat to healthy journey, and my experience with clean eating and working out so far. I was going to start meal prepping and shortly after I quit. See, what had happened was...  (↑ rice mix w/ legumes and spices, egg muffin w/ spinach and tomato)

I was actually trying out the new 21 Day Fix hype, which is a clean eating diet combined with portion controlled clean eating. And actually, I got really into it for a few days. I got up at morning to work out and meal prep for the day. I ate lots of veggies, protein, a teeny bit of carbs (only 1 cup a day; brown rice w/ quinoa and legumes), did not consume any sugar (aside from natural sugars found in fruit), and used very little salt to season. I prepared most of the food by steaming it in a dimsum steamer basket or boiling it. My snack for the day was always two tablespoons of peanutbutter (only form of sugar) topped with two tablespoons of unsweetened rasped coconut.

But then... I have to note that I have been through some turmoil regarding unfortunate personal circumstances. Especially for me, these experiences and down days are reasons to reach out for fatty foods and sweets to make me feel better. Yes, I am an emotional eater with a substance abuse problem (i.e. bad food). But knowing in the back of my mind that bad foods only provide short term comfort and will only make me feel worse in the end, I stayed strong and ate clean. Up to a point, that in an effort to prevent myself from feasting on my usual grub (lots of rice, veggies and protein soaked in sodium rich sauces) I ate myself sick.

I stubbornly ate food I prepared that day although it had been sitting in the car all day on a sunny day. In other words, my delicious omelette w/ veggies, veggie burger and pasta salad probably went bad a while before I consumed them. I tried to wash down the knot in my stomach and nausea with cups of black sugarfree coffee and painkillers, but to no avail. And then I was sick, meh. Needless to say I threw my clean eating habits out of the window and lived off soup and bread for the rest of the week.

But slowly, I have been regaining my apetite and cravings for healthy food. I actually try to incorporate at least one day of cheating in my week to prevent myself from crashing and binging. I have noticed that even on these days I cannot eat as much fatty stuff I was used to, and an immediate feeling of being sluggish and tired when I decide to skip my workout for the day. (↑ salad w/ veggie schnitzel, wholeweat bread w/ tuna salad)

I have been loving the 21 Day Fix workouts, even though I have not been consistent with them. I really enjoy the workouts being split into categories and focusing on one type of exercise or body part for the day (e.g. Pilates or upper body workout). Autumn's voice is very pleasant and looking at her gorgeous body is a motivation to keep on going by itself. Although I admittedly cuss at my laptop screen half of the time, I would definitely recommend them! (↑ grilled zucchini salad, wholeweat bread w/ rosebeef)

So, what now? How will I proceed? One part of me wants to get back into the 21 day challenge and be strong. But another part of me is not sure whether this is the best way to get used to a healthier lifestyle, seen as it is so extreme. Both starting to work out ánd focusing on clean eating might be a bit too much for my plate all at once. One of the reasons I have not been consistent with the workouts (although I have been getting more exercise done these past weeks than in the past year) , is because of the muscle aches afterwards! How in hell am I supposed to workout with a soar butt and stomach, when I can barely get through my warming up because of them?! (↑ feta cheese salad, wholeweat bread w/ avocado and smoked salmon)

Although these weeks have not gone like planned (oh you know, life), I must say that I have already made some progress in my books. I have been working out way more than usual (which was not difficult to do seen as I never worked out aside from my 'stripper but not really' antics on the pole) and been enjoying it. I wake up feeling more energized and pumped to start off the day with a workout. I have really limited my intake of bad food compared to my usual diet (which is to eat ANYTHING I feel like eating) and drinking lots of (lemon infused) water. And well, my cheatdays are there just to keep me on track! To prevent my body from going into starvation mode you know (excuses, excuses). (↑ corn waffles, my fav new snack)

Lobi,

p.s. I neglected to mention that I found out I also scored bad on a cholesterol test, and unfortunately it concerned the bad kind. I am only slightly over the maximum, so nothing that cannot be fixed with a healthy diet and active lifestyle :)

Test-run new lifestyle

Hi loves! Where to even begin? Last September I made a vow to start eating and living more healthy, after being sick my entire vacation because of some junkfood. Well, technically I do not think Mexican food should be considered junkfood unless you got it from Taco Mundo (yumm) or Taco Bell. But then again, burritos are not even authentic Mexican, but a rather American dish right? Anyways, there was something about the beans, spicy ass salsa, and quite possibly cream cheese, my stomach was just not A-okay with. And I puked my brains out in Spain, lol.

Onto the positive part, I decided to really take care of my body and take my IBS and lactose intolerance into considering when grubbing. I tried the Paleo diet and even shared recipes I tested out on my blog. And then, there was silence. What happened? Well, to put it simply: I stumbled and fell hard off the bandwagon. I did manage to start a tiny bit of exercise in between then and now (yoga and twirling around a pole YASS), but nothing that will really get me into shape. Well, obviously. Because I had been stuffing myself like a trash can again (e.g. Gumbo w/ cornbread and cannoli)! There is just something about food...

The best way to bring a smile to my face is with something delicious to eat. When I am not in a positive zone, I will eat something yummy to make me feel better. The only times I am not in the mood for food is when I feel REALLY sad. So, if you ever spot me skipping dinner you know it is on! Food is not only my (quick) comfort, but I have also gotten so used to eating whatever I feel like eating. So used that I think I might have witnessed some withdrawal symptoms the other day...

They say that the getting fit recipe is 30% working out and 70% eating healthy. Meh, so I cannot choose? I promised myself to start working out, so I could stay grubbing and not gain any weight. But when that did not work out, I decided to eat healthy and not work out so I would not gain any weight.

The problem is, I first need to lose weight, to even be in that "maintaining my weight" zone. Buying new clothes because old ones do not fit you anymore is just tiring. Ok, so I finally decided to start working out ánd eat healthy again! And of course, meal prepping is half of the work.

I started sweating in the kitchen again, and prepped one day worth of food (see above). Then I decided to do a test-run with clean eating to find out whether a 6 meals a day, or 3 meals a day worked better for me.

I mean I started off feeling great. I had some egg whites and veggies for breakfast, an apple two hours after, and some brown rice w/ quinoa, corn, salmon and veggies for lunch.

But then... I suddenly did not feel well. My head started pounding again like crazy, and I was bed-ridden. I am still not completely sure what happened, but I am guessing my body was looking for my daily high sugar and fat intake and started protesting after realizing it was not getting any! In a last attempt to feel better (so I could do something productive again) I ate a cookie and some potato chips. But to no avail.

So basically, I am a bit of a junkfood, sugar, high-sodium junkie. And getting used to a new way of living is NOT going be easy. Thank the Lord I did a test-run, so I could know beforehand what I am getting myself into. Also, I did a test-run of working out. Man, man, man. I nearly fell on the floor T^T But, I hardly got through my first class of poledancing too, and now I am able to hang upside down (hooray for thick legs)! It is a working progress, and we are just going to take it step by step!

Lobi,

p.s. I am starting to eat clean this week, I will write my first update soon!

Quotes from Google.com