Lizzie - Day 1

I am coming into this challenge having just completed a goal over Lent – to give up sweets and lose 5 pounds, and I went from 125 to 120lb. I’m proud of myself for doing this, but I feel like I can keep going. My personal goal in the next 2 months is to lose the fat on my stomach and lose enough weight/gain enough muscle to be more toned overall, especially my abs and arms. I feel like I have a healthy sense of self so I know that I don't need to lose weight. However, I do have a BIG sweet tooth (hence giving up sweets for Lent) and I’m not the best at portion control either, especially with snacks/sweets and anything Bach cooks. I’ve been generally counting my calories for the last month or so, and I’ve been eating 1300-1700 cal per day, sometimes more, with an average of 12% protein, 28% fat, and 60% carbs. I love my carbs! My goal is to bring my ratio closer to 25% protein, 20% fat, and 55% carbs.

I plan on running at least 4 times a week and improving my 5k and 10k race times. At minimum I should always be able to take 20 min to run my smallest 2.5mi loop so there’s no excuse to not get in a run! I also have a bunch of exercise DVDS, including 6 Jillian Michaels DVDs and 2 Bob Harper kettlebell DVDs (which I have yet to try because the introductory DVD that came with the weights has been enough!). Once we decided to do the challenge I ordered Jillian Michaels’ book “Making the Cut”, which is a diet and exercise book for losing the last 10 pounds, and I’ll try to take as much from it as I can.

Oh, and I love reading the latest nutrition articles, trying new recipes, and of course eating, so I will definitely be talking about food a lot!

Today:

Morning: I had Kashi cinnamon harvest cereal with milk and a banana. During my break at work I did eat one chocolate Hostess donette, though it wasn’t too bad at 57 cal.

Lunch: I brought leftovers with me to work, which was curried chickpeas with rice, and an orange. When I got home from work Bach had just stir-fried chicken and eggs and was eating it in a pita, so I had a few bites.

Dinner: I had a deeeelicious burrito – it had red lentils, chicken, jack cheese, freshly made guacamole, and sour cream. The tortilla, cheese, and sour cream didn’t help the nutritional value but it was so good! First time having lentils in a burrito but it worked surprisingly well, they’re similar enough to beans.

 Calories: 1680 – higher than I’d like but overall a satisfying day for food. Protein: 21%, Fat: 23%, Carbs: 63%. (my ratios have a huge margin of error, but I’d like to think that I get the general idea)

Here's a photo of the original curried chickpeas. I cooked the chickpeas from scratch, but you could use a can and from there I just added tomato sauce, chopped onion, garlic, curry powder, and cilantro. I used Italian pasta sauce, so the dish was a little confused, but still good! I got this recipe here at the Budget Bytes blog - it's my new favorite place to look for recipes!

This is the burrito I had for dinner!