Tag Archives: weight loss

Pumpkin Protein Breakfast Muffins

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Oatmeal and egg whites is the traditional breakfast for a competitive bodybuilder but I am far from traditional. My breakfast is typically eaten at the gym between my morning clients so I don’t have much time and need something that travels well. These muffins topped with a thin layer of peanut butter hit the spot every time!

What you need:

  • 1 can all natural pumpkin
  • 6 egg whites
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tbsps. of walden farms pancake syrup (for taste)
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 – 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • Stevia to taste (I use at least 6 packets)
  • 48 g of PB Fit Powdered peanut butter
  • 2 scoops (66g) GNC Sustained Protein blend in Peanut Butter Puffs
  • 120 g quick oats
  • .5 – 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk (for consistency)
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 12 Parchment paper muffin cups

Pre-heat oven to 350, mix all wet ingredients first and then add the rest.

Fill 12 muffin cups evening and bake at 350 for 20-30 mins (check to see if cooked through. They will be dry if you overcook and too moist if undercooked)

Macros per muffin: 113 cals, 13g carbs, 11g protein, 2g fat

Peanut Butter and Banana Protein Bread

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Okay, this bread is too good not to share! I make it weekly with my overripe bananas and even my husband eats it.

First step is to mash your extra ripe bananas into a creamy consistency, beat in egg whites, vanilla, Greek yogurt and unsweetened almond milk. Add in dry ingredients and mix well. Pour into a greased bread pan, sprinkle on chocolate chips and bake at 350 for approximately 50 minutes or until center is done.

This is low fat and contains protein and quick carbs so I recommend pre and post workout.

What you need:

  • 3 extra rips bananas
  • 6 egg whites
  • 3/4 cup plain greek yogurt
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 6 tbsp. powdered peanut butter
  • 2 scoops GNC sustained protein blend in peanut butter
  • 120g rolled oats blended into oat flour (or use oat flour)
  • 6-12 packets of stevia (personal preference, taste test)
  • 1-2 tsp baking soda
  • 1-2 tsp salt
  • 2 tablespoons dark chocolate baking chips

Macros: 8 servings

198 Calories 4g fat, 26g carbs, 17g protein

Well, Week 1 was a total flop

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I woke up this morning pretty excited to see my results for my first week of trying to cut a little bit of weight only to be very discouraged. Physically I feel better and my abs look a little bit leaner; however the scale tells me I gained 3 pounds. 3 pounds?!?! WTF, F*ck you scale! So here I am back to the drawing board. I didn’t do the best job staying within my macros and I did have a total of 4 glasses of wine this week. I’m pretty confident I didn’t gain three pounds of fat and that most of my weight gain can be attributed to water retention but it still sucks. It really sucks. I’m not quitting though. Breakfast is on point and I’m heading to the gym now. #thestruggleisreal

Time to reveal my abs!

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So I’m officially going into a mini-cut to lose 5lbs. I have not purposefully tried losing weight since October. My metabolism and hormones were out of whack due to extreme dieting. In the span of 2 years I competed in 5 bodybuilding competitions. Losing fat for each competition became more and more difficult and the amount of cardio I was doing toward the end was ridiculous. The same drama happens a few months after each show where I start hating my body and can’t stand the way my clothes fit. Typically I go right back into a cut to shed some fat and then the cycle happens again. I’m no longer able to maintain a lean physique (this references my personal standards of “lean”) with just eating healthy and exercising daily. This kind of sucks and I’m ready to get my body and metabolism where I want it. First thing I did when I decided I wanted to shed some fat was not cut calories or add much cardio. Instead I kept calories up, continued to exercise regularly (~ 1 hour per day of strength and stability) and maintained my weight. This allowed my metabolism to adjust to the higher calories and gave my body a break. I try to track my macros each day using myfitnesspal and I’ve been consistently weighing myself and checking my percent body fat bi-weekly for the last few months. Things have been pretty stable and I’m ready to lose a little fat. I will be doing a mini cut that will be 3 to 5 weeks depending on the rate of my fat loss. Once I hit my goal of 5 pounds and maintain it for a couple weeks I will increase my calories up a little bit and come out of a calorie deficit. My ultimate goal is to have my abs back for summer (Vegas trip in early June to be more specific) without being on a crazy restrictive diet. I have zero plans of competing again in the next year and would like to get to a comfortable bodyweight that I can still enjoy red wine with. If it takes me 6 months to achieve I am okay with that.

I’ll post regular updates of my progress via Facebook and Instagram.

15 Min Treadmill Workout

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Quick treadmill interval workout to torch calories and increase speed!

Okay, I have been seriously struggling with cardio and running. I’d like to increase my endurance and start running some races this spring so I decided to get back on the wagon. (Losing some belly fat would be nice too, just saying) Two years ago my intervals were 6.0 and 8.0. Well, that didn’t really work for this chick today (I almost died). I changed it to 5.5 and 7.5 so I could actually recover and finish. Here is the workout, it seriously had me breathing hard and dripping in sweat. Best part, it was only 15 minutes!

Where it all began

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For those of you that have only known me for a few years you may not know this, but I have not always been healthy and fit. I was actually the complete opposite. I ran my first mile (not a typo, my first 1 mile) when I was 30 years old. My weight has always been like a yo yo and I’ve only been thin when I was able to eat less. I never liked my body and had a unhealthy relationship with food.

So how did I change my life around?

Today’s blog is dedicated to my friend and coach Omar Henderson with NuGro Wellness. I met him six years ago when my cousin mentioned she almost puked at a boot camp class the night before but was planning on going back. The trainer was running a 21 day challenge for $50 that include attending unlimited classes and a 21 day meal plan. I dreamed of having a great body and being confident in a swim suit and was sick of being unhappy. I went to class the next night , almost died and signed up for the challenge. I will never forget my hands shaking from the workout while I wrote the check.

I was added to a Facebook team of women on the same journey, assigned a coach, given a 21 day clean eating meal plan and attacked the challenge. Holy shit! In just 1 week I saw changes and by the end of 3 weeks I was a new women. My jeans were large (even after my husband put them in the dryer), I had more energy and I was addicted to the results. 6 years later I am a personal trainer, Beachbody Coach and competitive bodybuilder. I love what I do and sharing my passion with others!

Omar’s gym has changed locations, I moved to the other side of town and I do most of my own training; however I always fall back to him for guidance. He was my coach for my very first competition and took me somewhere I thought only others could go. Three years later he guided me to the stage again and I couldn’t be more grateful. We worked together as a team on this prep and he gave sound recommendations when I was crazy and carb depleted. Although I hid it well on stage, I was scared and insecure. I stood backstage second guessing my physique and posing. He was there to build me up, provide me guidance and make the final tweaks to my posing. I hit the stage with confidence and sass and I crushed it.

Whatever your goal is, don’t go at it alone. Two is much stronger than one. Will I compete again? I’m not sure, but one thing I do know is that it won’t be on my own.

Be proud of your accomplishments

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As I look back at this competition and analyze what I could have done differently to have brought a better package I realized I’m being too hard on myself and need to tell these thoughts to shut the f*ck up. Do you have this problem? Like nothing you do is good enough? I’m my own worse critic.

This was my fifth competition and 3rd year competing. In the past if I followed the plan the weight seemed to magically fall off. Well not this time. After 4 weeks of prep (8 weeks out from my competition) I found myself discouraged and blogged about it. Instead of changing my goal we just changed our approach. We got more aggressive with my diet and lowered both my carbs and protein. I also increased the amount of cardio I did. On show day I felt pretty confident with the package I brought to the stage but would have liked to have been about 5lbs less. I was still holding on to fat in my mid-section and thighs. Today I pulled up that 8 weeks out photo from my blog and said “damn, you killed this prep!” Yeah, I complimented myself and it felt good. Go ahead, try it! Look in the mirror and see how beautiful you are. Does your hair look good today? Go ahead, tell yourself that. How about your smile? Whatever it is,remember that you are beautiful and you should be proud of your accomplishments no matter the size. Stop cutting yourself down and build yourself up. When that crazy bitch in your head starts telling you that you shouldn’t have had that cookie or that you are fat just say “shut the f*ck up bitch” and move on. Unless you violated one of the 10 commandments you didn’t sin and you can give yourself a break, just move on and smile.

Only four weeks to go!

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If you would’ve asked me how I felt about my upcoming competition 4 weeks ago I would’ve had a negative response. I was feeling discouraged and I was not happy with my progress. Instead of quitting I decided to change the plan but not the goal. We made some pretty drastic changes to my macro nutrient intake and I brought the focus every day to my strength workouts and cardio. Four weeks later I couldn’t be happier with my progress pics and I am beyond excited to push myself even harder the next four weeks. I have three more full weeks of working out in the gym until peak week. There’s only one month between these photos. I cannot wait to see what one more month will do before I hit the stage. Happy Monday friends! Today I am feeling good and I am working one day at a time toward my goal.

Bikini competitor chocolate pumpkin breakfast bake

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Alright fellow competitors and friends looking for a quick and easy macro friendly breakfast bake, here you go! As my competition approaches my macros decrease and I need to be very strategic with each meal. If I don’t balance my macros between 5 meals I run out at about 2pm and that creates a hangry monster (just ask my kids).

I normally make protein muffins but last night I didn’t feel like creating a recipe in myfitnesspal or cleaning the damn muffin tins so I made a breakfast bake that spits evenly into 4 servings.

Here is what you need:

  • Round baking dish
  • 1 cup muscleegg in Chocolate Carmel (you can use liquid egg whites but I can’t guarantee it will taste as good)
  • 3 scoops GNC Amplified chocolate Whey
  • 1 can pure pumpkin
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1 tbsp cocoa
  • Stevia to taste
  • 1 tsp backing soda

Macros: I used myfitnesspal to enter the ingredients and put 1/4 as serving. 25g protein, 25g carbs and less than 2 g fat!!

Mix all ingredients together, pour in baking dish coated with non-stick cooking spray, bake at 350 until done in middle. (About 40 min)

https://www.facebook.com/Seemomlift/videos/1249617631815261/

Off Season Struggles

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Well, it is official, I am in the off season and it has been over a month since my last competition.  My abs disappeared, cellulite is creeping back on my ass and I have a love/hate relationship with my body.  On a positive note, I am not “hangry” all the time and I have been able kill my workouts because I am not in a calorie deficit.  For those of you that don’t compete or are not familiar with the world of competitive body building this may all sound crazy to you.  For my fellow competitors, I am probably speaking your language.  My plan for the off season is to focus on building muscle, specifically in my back and legs, while maintaining my weight at about 10 lbs over stage weight.  I would like to come in even leaner next year so I do not want to put on more than 10 lbs.  I have a difficult time dropping 1-2 lbs per week during prep and hate, hate, hate cardio.

This off season is different than my other ones.  Before I didn’t really know what I wanted and I chose to compete again because I started to put on too much weight and missed the structure and control that I felt during prep.  This year I have goals, big goals.  I want to win a first overall and not just first in Master’s Division (35 and over).  I also really would like to compete in a larger show and in my home town of Grand Rapids.  Memorial Day weekend of 2017 is my plan.  That is the Grand Rapids show and it is big.  That gives me 6 months to start building and shaping my body to bring my best package to the stage.

Anyone want to join me?

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This is my front pose at the 2016 Great Lakes Iron Man.  I took 1st in Master’s Division and 3rd in Open at this show.