Abs For April Challenge: Day 15

We are officially halfway through the Abs For April Challenge hosted by ilovekickboxing and in the third week of exercises. Each week a new set of ab workouts are sent to those of us that want to participate. You can view my Day 1 photos on this other post. Here are my photos from day 15. I have seen a bit more slimming in the tummy. I am pretty excited about the results halfway through.

The ab workouts each have gotten progressively harder in my opinion. Which is good of course, but it has also been less motivating for me to get them done. I think my technique is a bit off. I am sore in other parts of my body that is making it hard for me to complete this weeks circuit.

I have seen a major difference in my eating habits though and how food affects me. My 3 diet changes for the month included 2 extra serving of veggies, no soda, and no alcohol. I haven't had much difficulty with no alcohol, besides on days where the kids have been a little more difficult. Sometimes with the attitudes of children require a little libation to stay sane and we've had a few really rough days. So, then no alcohol was hard. I've been sauteeing the vegetables quite often for breakfast or lunch to get more servings or making salads. No soda has been the most difficult in the beginning. But, with the required amount of water to drink, I've just been replacing soda with water. Since then, I have also noticed in the drastic reduction of the amount of juice I used to drink. I really haven't any sugary juice either. That makes me proud, I suppose. 

So, with the increased water consumption, Fresh Meal Plan meals, more vegetables, and no soda I feel so much better. Working out is easier on my body. My energy is better. 

We have til the end of the month for this Abs challenge. I'm working through it and I hope that some of these changes turn into habits.

FMP: My Pros & Cons After Week 1

First to start with some more of the meals from my first week with Fresh Meal Plan...

Today I had my second meal of the Banana Hazelnut French Toast since I ordered 2. I learned from the first time and only heated the turkey bacon and french toast for 45 seconds so that I didn't burn the bacon.

I also scraped off all of the chocolate that was between the 2 pieces of toast before heating it. Guess what, I actually ate it all today. I drizzled a bit of syrup on top and it was quite good. Redemption for one of the breakfast meals.

Yesterday, I tried this Tenderloin & Egg breakfast... it was not my favorite. I didn't even take a picture of it since it didn't look that great either. I wanted to like it because it smelled good but I only ate half of the steak, the orange and english muffin. It was a disappointment overall.

This was a great lunch the other day though. The Southwest Chicken Salad had a bit of kick with the chipotle aioli dressing. The chicken was seasoned nicely and I liked this salad overall. There was no avocado like the label mentioned.

These Peanut Butter Chia Power Bites are so delicious. I had every intention of not liking them because of the way that they looked. I also figured that they would have way too much of a peanut butter taste. But, I was pleasantly surprised and ate the entire thing. It was a great alternative as a snack instead of the candy that I would normally grab. I love these little things. My son tried part of one, because I didn't really want to share. He said it tasted like candy and he loves them too. He's 8.

Okay... Now on to some other stuff.

Working out this past couple of days has still been hard with the type of class that ILKB is... BUT, I'm not exhausted and immediately want to take a nap after and tired the rest of the day. Fresh Meal Plan has definitely helped me eat more and eat more healthily. With that, my body is already using its energy differently. I can feel a change in myself before and after I workout. Before, and by before I mean last week, I was really tired all the time. I didn't get much done around the house and was just overall lazy I guess... there were more depression issues too. However, now that I've been eating more, I have gotten more done at home. For example, yesterday I washed, dried AND put away all the loads of laundry. That is a major accomplishment. Kickboxing at ILKB has been different too. I have more energy to push myself a little bit more and after I'm done, I feel like doing something else. Normally I just go home, take a shower and go to bed. But, the last 2 days, I have generally felt better with eating FMP and working out. It has also forced me to eat more daily than I normally would.

I always knew that food and fitness worked together. I learned the hard way. I listened to my body though and knew I needed a change in diet. I knew my body was shutting down because it wasn't getting the proper nutrition. I am definitely grateful for the Fresh Meal Plan meals, even the ones that I didn't like, and how it has helped me this week.

The basic breakdown of the CONS for FMP for me personally are:
*Price: it's a little disappointing to have meals that you don't really care for the price that it is
* Eggs: the eggs in the breakfasts were not my favorite. The texture and taste just weren't great for me and I only ate it to try it. I didn't eat it beyond a few bites.
*Labeling: the labels on the meals were sometimes wrong and didn't match what was in the meal itself. I think I did read somewhere that ingredients could change without notice, but getting turkey sausage with fennel instead of turkey bacon was a complete turn-off. So, I guess mislabeling may happen from time to time.

The basic breakdown of the PROs for FMP for me are:
* Ease: I love not having to think about deciding what I need to make for myself when I'm hungry. They're quick to prepare/make.
*Peanut Butter Power Bites: They're awesome.
*Lunch/Dinner meals: The ones that I have tried have all been great.
*Feel Better: I generally feel better now that I have eaten more, regularly, and have healthier choices.
*Workouts: Kickboxing at ILKB hasn't been so tiring. My energy has increased overall.
*Feeling Full: After eating a meal for lunch, I am pretty full until dinner time. I can make it most of the afternoon without much snacking, which is a huge accomplishment.

So yes... I definitely like Fresh Meal Plan and recommend it to you.

Okay... confession... I did have some fast food yesterday after not having any for several weeks. I went through the drive-thru to appease my 2-year-old. I got something for myself. It was a mistake. My stomach hurt and it just made me feel terrible... and a little guilty. Actually paying attention to what I'm putting into my body and what the reactions are has been eye-opening. I fear that if I don't have something like Fresh Meal Plan to give me easy, healthy food options that I'll fall back into my old eating habits.
Discipline: I'm bad at it... but I guess I need more of it.

Breakfast 0-2 vs Lunch 2-2

Ok, I am on day 3 of eating at least one meal from Fresh Meal Plan. Today I actually had one for breakfast and the other for lunch. Here's how it went...

Breakfast was not great, for me. That makes my breakfast meals 0 for 2 since the 2 that I tried were not what I expected. The Kelly & Betty Omelet was different than I thought it was.

I did eat all of the grapes today and most of the sweet potatoes, but the omelet was a different story. On the label, it mentions turkey *bacon as an ingredient... but I think it was clearly turkey sausage. I get that substitutions may have to be made because of availability and things like that, but its completely different. This presented a problem for me only because it had fennel in it. I do not like fennel and it threw off the taste of the entire thing. It was all I could smell and taste.

The kale and the egg itself was fine. I just couldn't get past the taste of the fennel in the sausage. I was a bit sad that breakfast wasn't great for me again. So, if you are ok with fennel, then you'd probably like this.

PS, I don't want to discourage anyone from trying the breakfast meals. Remember that these not working out for me are personal opinions and preferences.

I had a win for lunch though. I ate the Bison Burger Club and it was really good.
The Aioli dressing was delicious on the burger. I don't even know what aioli is, but I like it.
I have noticed the sweet potatoes have been a bit on the mushy side with the reheating though. (sidenote: I also noticed that with my microwave, the heating time is actually much less than the instructions of 2-3 minutes so I have to watch it closely) I did take out the burger and bacon to only heat those up.

 I took off the tomato since I'm not a fan of those.
Also, I noticed that avocado is listed on the label, but there were none. I chalked that up to the recent avocado recall and maybe they were out of them.... ir it is in the aioli?... I have no idea, but I didn't have any.

Overall, I am satisfied with the Bison burger. I ate the whole thing and it was delicious. Lunch has proven to be better for me, in my opinion.

Besides not having luck with the breakfast meals, the other thing that bothers me a bit is the labeling issues with the ingredients that I have found today. There was no avocado for my burger and the bacon in the omelet was actually sausage. Mistakes happen, I get it... or it was an availability issue.

Now, since I've been eating these Fresh Plan Meals on the weekend and there are only Saturday morning classes available at ILKB on the weekend, I don't know how eating these types of meals are affecting my workouts yet. Hopefully, in the next few days when I get to class more often, I will be able to see. For now, I do actually feel better physically because I'm eating more in the morning and afternoon... because I normally don't eat much or just snack on junk. I have more energy by eating more healthy with these FMP meals, well the lunches.
The Abs for April challenge put on by ILKB this month has encouraged me to drink more water during the day too. I cut out soda and haven't had much juice either, so that cut back on sugar has helped quite a bit with the stomach issues I was having.

If you'd like to read about the other meals I tried click (here).
If you'd like to read my origin story of my fitness journey click (here).
If you'd like to check out ILKB or sign up for trial classes click (here).
If you'd like to check out Fresh Meal Plan click (here).

Abs for April: Day 1

Here's another piece to my fitness journey. I'm trying to document it so that I can keep myself a little bit more accountable. 

At ILKB this month, there is a nationwide challenge from corporate. All members are encouraged to participate. I have chosen to try to make it to the end. We'll see how this goes.

I have decided to make these three alterations: Add 2 servings of vegetables daily, no alcohol and no soda. Its only day 1 and I'm struggling with no soda. There's a case of root beer in the fridge and I want one so badly. We are also challenged to attend class 3 times per week and to do additional ab workouts at home (3x per week 2x a day). My abs will be on fire! Well, they're already sore.

Here are my beginning photos from today:

Relaxed belly. The true look.

 Semi-relaxed belly. This is normally how I hold my belly... because who doesn't walk around flexing their abs all the time to suck in the unwanted fat. Ha.

 Flexed belly.

So, I'm kind of proud of my flexed belly.
Before I started going to ILKB regularly, this was not even a possibility in my mind. I have gained quite a bit of muscle in the abdomen since January and I kind of love it.
If I can lose some of the 'fat' in the abs this month, that would be fantastic. I think I'll need a bit more altering of the diet to do that since I eat so much sugar and processed foods though. One thing at a time, one thing at a time! I'll start with no soda and see how that goes. I'm hoping that eating some Fresh Meal Plan meals, when those arrive, that it will help my snacking.
See my origin story post about ILKB here.
Happy Exercising and wish me luck on this month-long Abs for April challenge.