What did I REALLY eat?

Everyone wants to know, as a bikini competitor during prep, What do you really eat?

My typical day during most of my prep looked a little something like this(of course it changes when you get closer to the show….cutting out sugar & watching your sodium….little things like that.

Drink a gallon of water daily!

Pre workout snack – 1/4 cup oatmeal, 1 scoop whey protein

5am workout(weights & sometimes cardio)

Post workout- Whey Protein Shake w/PB2, Egg Whites & Almond Milk

Morning snack – Chicken, Brown rice & a veggie

Lunch – chicken, sweet potato & veggie

Afternoon snack–  Whey Protein shake & a rice cake

Dinner – Tilapia & a HUGE Salad

Late snack – berries & cream

Again, this is just to give you an idea of my typical day.  I did not eat this same menu every single day.

I prep my meals for the week every Sunday. That way it is done for the entire week and I didn’t have to think about it again.

The 2nd question I would get, that would follow up “What do you eat” is….”Are you going to eat normal when you are done”.  lol!  This is normal for me(us), this is how we have been eating for a few years now.  We eat clean, we eat a lot and we eat every 2 to 3 hours.  I believe I am more healthy today than I have ever been.

Thanks for stopping by 🙂

Hugs ~ Wendy

A little Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Chair Redo!

I picked up this little chair (actually it was a pair) at a yard sale for $5 each.  Although they were sturdy, they were in terrible condition, they had been sitting in a garage for what looked to be several years.  They had several layers of paint on them and the seats were a mess.

I removed the seats & stripped all of the paint off of the chairs with paint stripper, then sprayed them down with the garden hose to be sure all of the paint stripper rinsed was off.

Next, I sealed them with sealer & got to work painting them with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint I purchase from a local occasional shop called Liliana.

I found a curtain at a local department store that was the exact pattern and colors I had in mind to recover the seats so I snapped it up.

I loved how they turned out.  I would have kept the if I had a spot for them.  I brought the pair to the “Junk Hunt” and they found a new home with a woman who was so excited to purchase them!  I love when I can watch someone’s face light up with something I have redone….that is what it’s all about!

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What do you think?  I Love it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs~ Wendy

My 1st Bikini Competition – The decision was made…Now What?!

After a few months of battling the idea in my head and a little discussion with my “main squeeze”; In September 2015 it was decided, I wanted to train to compete in a bikini competition.  It’s something that has been in the back of my head for years, but never thought I would have the opportunity to do it.  With the encouragement of a few special people(my husband, my daughters, my friend Nicole & my friend Susan) the opportunity was handed to me and I grabbed it with both hands and embraced every second! Once I had made the decision I was so excited and terrified all at once.  I knew it was going to be a long tough road but I was willing to put in the work to get there.

It started with having a conversation with the trainer I chose.  I was lucky enough to have a girlfriend who is married to a trainer so I knew the integrity of my trainer personally and knew he was a good person.  Some people are not that lucky.  My advise to anyone looking got a trainer….do you research.  Ask around and read, read, read.  Knowledge is power…know what questions to ask before you meet with them…if something doesn’t seem “right” it usually isn’t.

Starting point – before my trainer could point me in the right direction, he needed pictures for reference (I did my training online, since my trainer lives several hours away from me), and to determine body fat percentage.  Let me tell you… this is a little very intimidating & discouraging, but very necessary.  I was mortified when I saw them and seriously wondered what the heck I was thinking and how I was ever going to be ready to step on that stage.  After “beginning” pictures and some caliper measurements we determined I was at 24% body fat. Ummm…totally discouraged AGAIN! My body fat needed to be at about 15% to step on stage…sigh…one step at a time, right?  and the “beginning pictures” & body fat percentage were step on of many, so without making you wait any longer ladies and gentleman….this is what 24% body fat looks like on my 5’2″, 112 pound, 42 year old body.

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October 2015

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October 2015

Next time – What do I do to get this mess stage ready!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs ~ Wendy

 

No Sew, Tee-Shirt Halter

Part of my Saturday morning routine is to sit on the couch with my coffee and my Mac and do one of my favorite things…PINTEREST! (don’t tell my husband…he thinks I am working on our candle website! 😀 …silly boy! who has time for that when there is PINTEREST!) I LOVE PINTEREST!  and could honestly waste an entire day lost in all the DIY projects!

Today I found this little tutorial at wobisobi.blogspot.com for a DIY, no sew, tee-shirt halter….I have already gone in my husbands tee-shirt drawer and picked the perfect blue tee-shirt for my project(husband got wind of what Tee-shirt I was going to cut up and I had to find a different one, so instead of the perfect summery blue I had to go with a dark navy)and have my scissors ready!

This was a great project!  Simple and in the end I have a cute halter to wear with my white shorts this summer.  I will update with pictures once I talk my daughter into being my model.  Or once this Minnesota weather gets warm enough for me to put shorts and a halter on.

 

Jeff’s Favorite Protein Bars

Homemade Blueberry Protein Bars ~ These are Jeff’s favorite protein bars.  They are “clean” by our standards – (3 ingredients or less).   I also put a teaspoon of natural peanut butter on these and eat them while drinking a cup of hot coffee! YUMMMMMM!!  If you make them let me know how you like them!  Good Luck!

Blueberry Protein Bars

½ Cup Splenda Brown Sugar

1-4 oz jar baby food organic apple/blueberry sauce

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

2 tsp Vanilla extract(pure)

4 Large Egg Whites

2/3 cup Natural Unsweetened Applesauce

2 cups Oat Flour

3 Scoops Blueberry or Vanilla Protein Powder

½ Cup Unsweetened Original Almond Milk

½ Cup Water

2 Cups Frozen Blueberries

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease 9×13 Pan (I used Coconut Oil). Combine first 7 ingredients & mix well. Add the final ingredients except the blueberries; mix until all dry ingredients have been absorbed then fold in the blueberries. Pour into your 9×13 pan and bake for at least 30 Minutes. Mine usually take longer but my oven does not heat evenly. I usually check after 30 minutes and then keep a close eye on them. Makes 12 servings.

Calories: 152; Fat: 1.6g; Sodium: 285.1; Carb: 23.9; Fiber: 2.8; Sugars 12.6g; Protein: 8.5g

Love me some cuteness!

I Love white Christmas lights….and when I say love what I really mean is LOVE!  There are so many cute easy projects you can do and adding white lights makes it 100 times better!

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I picked up this old galvanized boot at an occasional shop several years ago. I am sure I was wasting hours away  looking for dinner recipes on Pinterest and stumbled upon something similar being immediately inspired to create something!

That weekend I drug my teenage daughter outside my youngest daughter and I hit the woods and sawed down several birch tree branches until I found the perfect two.

I put foam in the bottom of the boot to help keep the branches upright….I quickly found I needed to add rocks as well 🙂  It only tipped over a few times before I got it right. Then I strung some battery operated white lights around the branches and picked up an unfinished wooden birdhouse which I painted with some paint I had left over from another project.  I bought a little clip on bird from the dollar store and added that after the above photo was taken.  So happy with my results!  What do ya think?

Thanks for stopping by

Hugs ~ Wendy

My Transformation

I have never been an overweight person.  I think I was what you call “skinny-fat” or is it “fat-skinny” I am not sure, I just know I was “flabby” wanted to be better; to be tone, have defined muscle, slow the aging process just a little.

In February of 2014 my guy(bringing him into this story will make sense later in the post :-D) started working out on our Elliptical faithfully 3-5 times a week and struggled with loosing and gaining the same 5 to 10 pounds.  I joined him on the cardio-junky roller coaster with the same results(down a few pounds, up a few pounds).  But one decision in May of 2014 marked the beginning of the change in our progress and brought results beyond our expectations. With the help of my co-worker Nicole from hopepraysweat.com (because lets be honest, walking into the local gym for the first time all alone is insanely intimidating!) I joined the a local YMCA & started a weightlifting routine.  In the first two weeks of lifting I GAINED 6 pounds!  YUP! GAINED….WHAT THE HECK!  I joined the gym to get fit!  NOT to watch the scale go up! ok…ok…I slapped myself back to reality telling myself it takes time to loose the “flab”…. I knew I gained some muscle but I kept the weight on without losing a pound! After lifting & doing cardio faithfully every other day for over 3 months, combined with Jeff’s inability to lose the weight he wanted to, I knew something had to give.  Our struggle spurred me to google “clean eating”.  HOLY COW!!!!!  Can you say OVERWHELMED with information!! But I read for an entire weekend on clean-eating, what exactly was clean eating, how to convert, what we could and couldn’t eat and came to the conclusion “Clean Eating” has MANY different levels and you have to choose the level that is right for you and your family.  I won’t get into all of that today, but the following Monday I went to work & asked my friend Nicole her  opinion on clean eating.  She informed me she had recently started clean eating to achieve her goals and she suggested I go to bodybuilding.com – Jamie Eason “LiveFit” trainer,  I found Jamie Eason’s Live Fit Trainer breaks “getting fit” into three simple phases of lifestyle change….after reading all of Jamie Eason’s information and watching a few of her video’s I was ready to focus on getting healthy.  We made the jump to clean eating in September 2014 and have not looked back.  Within one month I had lost the 6 pounds I had gained when I started lifting and lost an additional 5 pounds as well as lost inches and gained solid muscle.  I have never been in this shape in all of my 41 years! Jeff has lost to date 50 pounds!!!  I am so proud of him for not giving up!  We now hit the gym Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings and are still faithful clean eaters.  It truly is a lifestyle change that has changed the way we look at food!

I am not a nutritionist and have no degree or training in fitness.  Everything on our journey has been learned by researching online(reading, watching tutorials, looking at blogs) and talking to people who have way more knowledge than we did.  Through our fitness journey I have learned so much and hope I can help inspire someone else to get heatlthy.  This is my/our personal fitness journey and what has worked for us.  Getting fit doesn’t come from a pill or a fad diet…it comes from determination, dedication and never giving up…..

One of the first steps is accountability….we downloaded the “Lose it” app on our iPhones, iPads & Macs and we logged everything we ate….YES EVERYTHING!  Even when we took the wrong turn for a day…log it and watch your progress.  This is a great way to learn what works for you & your body.

My “before” pictures below are after 4 weeks of lifting weights 3-5 times a week. (I am KICKING myself for not taking “before I started the fitness journey” photos.) But we can’t go back….I highly recommend taking before pictures.

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Left photo – Before Right photo – After

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After almost a year of hard work…Never give up! I have never regretted dragging my but out of bed at 4:30am and going to the gym.

 

This entry was posted in Fitness.

Wendy’s Favorite Protein Bars

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Homemade Chocolate Protein Bars ~ These are my favorite morning snack…OK….REALLY…. they are my favorite snack…. period …. Love! Love! LOVE!! THEM!  If you’re a peanut butter fan and want to make them even better, put a teaspoon of Peanut Butter (I buy the Natural Peanut Butter) on it and eat it while drinking a cup of hot coffee! YUMMMMMM!!  If you make them let me know how you like them!  Good Luck!

Chocolate Protein Bars

½ Cup Splenda Brown Sugar

1-4 oz jar baby food organic applesauce

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

2 tsp Vanilla extract(pure)

4 Large Egg Whites

2/3 cup Natural Unsweetened Applesauce

2 cups Oat Flour

3 Scoops Chocolate Protein Powder

3 TBSP Pure Cocoa

½ Cup Unsweetened Original Almond Milk

½ Cup Water

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease 9×13 Pan (I used Coconut Oil). Combine first 7 ingredients & mix well. Add the final ingredients; mix until all dry ingredients have been absorbed. Pour into your 9×13 pan and bake for at least 30 Minutes. Mine usually take longer but my oven does not heat evenly. I usually check after 30 minutes and then keep a close eye on them.

Calories: 143; Total Fat: 1.6g, Sat Fat: 0; Cholest:4.6mg; Sodium 276.6mg; Carbs: 21.5g; Fiber: 2g; Sugars; 10.8g; Protein: 8.4g

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs~Wendy