Apple Pie Protein Shake

Technically, apples are not on my meal plan. I usually have berries with my shake. My breakfast at the moment is basically a protein shake with my oats thrown in. I am LOVING this right now. It's so easy to throw together at home or at the gym (since I work there, no one cares if I use the blender) after my morning cardio.

So normally my shake is frozen strawberries, oats, and chocolate protein powder. This is a great time to get your flaxseed/omega oils in too. This shake is really filling and really a complete breakfast with the oil. Fats, carbs, protein, nutrition.

Today, I got a little creative.

Apple Pie Protein Shake

• 1 small apple or 1/2 large apple (cut in smaller chunks to make it easier on your blender)
• 1/2 cup rolled or instant oats
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 scoop Vanilla Protein Powder

And that's it!

What's your favourite protein shake recipe?

xoxo,
Taren

Kale Chips

Kale chips.

Where have you been all my life?

I'm a chip girl. Always have been. I love chips and salsa, ketchup chips...pretty much any kind of chips. I've come to prefer the baked kind of but even those aren't health enough to have on a daily basis.
These kale chips are.
Take a bunch of dry kale, rip it up into small peices (it shrinks a lot though)
Spray pan (or 2. Make 2 pans, this stuff goes fast) with cooking spray or olive oil spray.
Side note: This tool is awesome.

Back to the kale chips.
Arrange the kale peices aka future delicious chips on the tray. Spray lightly with olive oil.

Now come your seasonings. Do you realise how UNLIMITED your options are?!

Sea Salt: sprinkle with sea salt.
Sea Salt and Pepper:  sprinkle with sea salt and pepper.
Parmesan Chips: sprinkle with sea salt.
Ranch:  sprinkle with 1/4  of a packet of ranch seasoning (the dry kind)
Sea Salt and Lemon Juice: Sprinkle with sea salt and squeeze lemon juice and/or lemon zest.
Taco: Sprinkle with homemade or from a packet (preferable low sodium) taco seasoning.

These little green guys are SO addicting. Make two trays. Trust me.

xoxo,
Taren

7 Weeks

As of Saturday, I am officially 7 weeks out. I'm thinking a lot of things right now. The first is, how the hell am I going to pull this off? The 2nd is, how the hell have I pulled this off so far?

Starting Weight was 151.5 (approx) December 31, 2011
Current Weight is 134.4

In 3 full months, I have lost 17 lbs. How have I actually come this far, and how will I keep going? I have no idea how I've managed this far. Let me give you a little bit of background on my life.

I have a husband.
I work at a gym part time, in a nutrition store part time (closer to full time, 30 hours a week), I am building up a personal training business, helping my husband build a DJ business while he works full time, and prepping for a fitness competition which means 1-2.5 hours a day in the gym 6 days a week and a VERY strict diet.

All while living in a bedroom in my in-laws home with all my stuff in laundry baskets. We've been here for about 5 weeks, we are waiting for our apartment to be ready to move into. I have not seen my blender in 5 or 6 weeks. I forget half the clothes I own.

If you would have told me that I have come this far with this much stuff going on in my life, I would have laughed. No, I'm the type of person that shuts everything else down to concentrate on this one thing. Except this time, I can't afford to do that. Everything that's going on is too important to be put aside. Yet I'm still going. I am actually shocking myself.

I wake up in the morning and tell myself I can do this, just get dressed and get in the car. Just drive to the gym. Just go home and get ready. Just make your food for the day. Just go to work. Just go to the gym. Just go home and have a nice bath. Just go home and snuggle with my hubby. Just fall asleep and do it all again tomorrow.

This is how I've pulled it off.

By putting ONE foot in front of the other.

Hmm. How about that.

xoxo,
Taren

My "Never Give Up" Song

When I get to the gym in the morning half asleep with no coffee (or anything actually) in my system, I put this song on and suddenly I am so determined to do this, to finish this. I'm doing this for me.

 

"Settlin'"

Fifteen minutes left to throw me together

For mister right now, not mister forever

Don't know why I even try when I know how it ends

Looking like another "maybe we could be friends"

I've been leaving it up to fate

It's my life so it's mine to make

I ain't settling for just getting by

I've had enough so so for the rest of my life

Tired of shooting too low, so raise the bar high

Just enough ain't enough this time

I ain't settling for anything less than everything, yeah

With some good red wine and my brand new shoes

Gonna dance a blue streak around my living room

Take a chance on love and try how it feels

With my heart wide open now you know I will

Find what it means to be the girl

Who changed her mind and changed her world

I ain't settling for just getting by

I've had enough so so for the rest of my life

Tired of shooting too low, so raise the bar high

Just enough ain't enough this time

I ain't settling for anything less than everything

I ain't settling for just getting by

I've had enough so so for the rest of my life

Tired of shooting too low, so raise the bar high

Just enough ain't enough this time

I ain't settling for just getting by

I've had enough so so for the rest of my life

Tired of shooting too low, so raise the bar high

I ain't settling no, no, no, no, no, no

So raise the bar high

What's your favourite motivational songs?

xoxo,
Taren

Competitor Friendly Recipe - Salsa Chicken

I had heard of cooking chicken in salsa in the crockpot before, and never tried it out until a few weeks ago. I am HOOKED! This is so amazingly delicious. My husband is asking for it every single day. I'm so excited about it I was showing random people at the gym my lunch and telling them they had to try it. Yeah. That excited! It's the easiest dinner ever.

All you have to do is this:

Take one large jar of salsa. Put two or three chicken breasts (can be frozen, mine I bought fresh and then froze individually) in the crock pot. Put the whole jar of salsa in the crockpot covering the chicken. If it's not covering the chicken, add some water. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours. When it's finished, take a fork and shred the chicken.

SO GOOD!

It may not be pretty, but I promise it tastes awesome!

You can add more chicken, just add more salsa and/or water so it doesn't try out.
I LOVE this served over a serving of brown rice. You can also add black beans if you like. Let me know if you try it!

xoxo,

Taren

On Cheat Meals

Last weekend, I hit up a local pub with some friends for a cheat meal. I was ready for something more decadent than protein shakes. I decided on a grilled cheese sandwich with yam fries. It was delicious, but not as good as I thought it would be.

I have mixed feelings about cheat meals. I eat super clean during the week and then sometime on the weekend I'll have one cheat meal with dessert. This is a huge change for me, prior to starting the contest prep, I was having a lot more things that would be considered cheats. It's so easy to justify eating what you want, isn't it? When you really want something, it's easy to make excuses on why you should have it. For me, I would think "I will work this off", "I never have this" (conveniently forgetting I may never have "this" but I do have "that, that, and that" ALL the time) or "It's a special occasion" (What, a Tuesday?)


How to keep a handle on cheats? This is something I really want to figure out for after the competition is over because although it is normal and a little necessary to put a bit of weight back on, I don't want to undo all my hard work. This is what I've learned so far:


1. Keep cheats to ONE meal. For me, I've had meals at the Keg with bread, and whatever I was eating with dessert after and as long as I got back on track first thing the next morning, my progress kept right on track.


2. Only eat what you REALLY love. Don't waste cheats on something that is so/so. Plan out a special meal ahead of time, whether you go to your favourite restaurant or make your fave mac and cheese, just make sure it's something that you really love and will satisfy you. People bug me about this, but I only get one cheat a week so you can bet your ass it's going to be something good!!


3. Always keep your cheat meal in the evening as your last meal. My diet has been so clean that when I have my cheat meal, I usually am SO TIRED after. One time, I'm not even joking, I fell asleep in the parking lot leaving Olive Garden. So this part is fairly easy for me.


4. Friday, Saturday, Sunday is best for cheat meals. If you have a hard time getting back on track after a cheat meal (which is normal, because your body might crave more carbs ect) save it until Sunday night, then have it in your mind that Monday is back to your regular routine.


5. Make your clean food taste GOOD! If you are competing, this does become a little limited. However, you will find certain things you really enjoy that are on your meal plan. When I feel like I need a cheat, I make extra lean ground turkey or beef with homemade taco seasoning (no sodium) and have it over a big bowl of lettuce with salsa! It makes me feel like I am having tacos even though it's keeping me on track. I will be posting recipes that help me stay on track.


I read once that if you did your cheat meal right, you should feel satisfied and ready to get back to healthy food after. Every one I've had has made me feel that way. Eat what you love, enjoy every bite, and move on! :-)


xoxo,
Taren

8 weeks till Bikini!

Today marks 8 weeks before the Western Canadians Fitness Competition (Bikini Division). It seems so far away but I know it's not. When I think I've already been doing this for 12 weeks (I started December 31, 2011), it makes it seem easier, although my works out and diet are getting more regimented.

I want to blog about this, but I don't know how to. It doesn't seem to belong on my regular Life of Taren blog, so I've made a new one. I think I want to keep my Life of Taren blog for fun stuff, and this one is the real how I'm feeling about this competition stuff blog.

8 weeks.

To be honest, I am totally happy. I am having so much more fun with this than I thought I would. Watching my body change has been so bizarre but very cool. It hasn't really hit me yet. I've been so busy I haven't quite had a chance to get dressed up and go out. The last time I did was about a month ago.

This is November 2011:

Let me just be honest for a second. From this time period in my life was probably one of the heaviest I'd ever been. I was doing weights and working out fairly often, but I was super stressed and just could not get my eating together. My starting point in January was something like 151.4. I told you, I was being honest. As much as I look at this picture and somewhat wince, I need to be honest with you guys. I know for a fact that so many people feel this way. I knew at this point that I was planning on doing the competition, so I wasn't that worried about my weight. I do wish I had gotten in better shape for my sister's wedding but I still had lots of fun. 

This is me on February 18, 2012.

 

The mere fact that I'm wearing this dress means that I already felt better about myself. My sister has been trying to talk me into wearing it for ages and I didn't feel comfortable. I felt great this night! I will be posting more recent photos soon, I honestly just haven't even had time to take any!

I've been preparing for this competition for almost a year. Mentally, I started thinking about it, learning about it, preparing myself for what I knew I would be doing. I think this is a huge factor in why I'm doing so well. I still have a long way to go, but from my starting point, I have lost 17 lbs.

I've said this before and I'll say it again. I am not doing this just for me. Yes, I want to feel great and accomplish something, but more than that I want to show whoever needs it that YOU can do whatever you set your mind to as well. In the past I have been lazy, crabby, depressed, unmotivated, overweight, not toned. I set out to do something and pulled this amazing disciplined dedicated person out of myself. It's like an out of body experience.

My hope in starting this little side blog is that maybe other newbie competitors will read or maybe someone will be inspired to start their own fitness journey. Or maybe it will just be therapeutic for me. Either way, I'm good with it.

xoxo,

Taren