About a year and a half ago I met Kathy at Planet Fitness. 
She wanted some help staying active as she just could not find the motivation or time to do it herself. 
I met with her only once before we had to part ways due to some medical issues she had to take care of. 
About 5 months later I never thought I'd hear from her again, but I did! She called, and asked if we could still meet to get her active. 
I was more than happy to hear from her! 
We would do the common things; core stability, balance, some weight training... but the more I talked to Kathy the deeper into her athletic background I learned.

Kathy has always been a runner- I think she could even run laps around me at her peak. She doesn't just run because she loves to push herself- there has always been an even deeper, and even more humble reason for the three marathons and countless halves and triathlons she has done. 

Without giving away too much of her personal life, there has been some extremely devastating events happen while she was training- and one would think that she would just give up, do the next marathon to come around but no-it only pushed Kathy to train harder and do her absolute best.  

Knowing this I knew I couldn't just let Kathy do bicep curls and not run again. We built up slowly; from running for 30 seconds at a time all the way to almost an hour! She would plug her headphones in and just run, occasionally take them off to she how she was doing or to see what I wanted her to do next. 

July 4 was the first 5k she had done in almost a year and it only grew the fire more! We spent all summer running and training for a 10k. 
Now I told you something would always get in the way of Kathy training. On December 30 Kathy left the gym telling me she was going ice skating. Later that night I got a phone call from her husband to let me know Kathy had shattered her left wrist and was in emergency surgery. 

Flash forward 2 months. It is now February and she has been held up for 10 weeks without being able to use her left arm, or do anything more than walk. Kathy comes back to the gym for training, completely bummed out that the endurance she had built up was gone. 
I'm not exaggerating when I tell you I have never seen this much motivation in anyone. 
Now we're training again, and on a great path. 
One month in... Kathy learns her 11 year old dog and best friend has aggressive cancer. Anyone with a pet can relate; it's the end of the world when something bad happens to them. 
Again, you'd think that she would give up and be defeated by this news. She is not. She keeps pushing. Two days a week Kathy is here running better than the time before all while taking care of her (almost cancer free dog) and working her job.

She is a true inspiration to anyone who ever thought the saying "life gets in the way of life" is true. 
We all have things happen to us- but you need to pick yourself back up and not quit. Ever.  

I'm super excited to announce Kathy will be joining our team in the Run for Charlotte 5K on April 26 as her first of many runs of the summer. 

Well, eating this way isn't bad anymore :) The tough part.. seeing everyone eat delicious things around us! Man cake and pizza have never looked so good! 

Today is Saturday, I think I've told you guys how difficult Saturdays are. Here it is:





BREAKFAST:
2 egg whites
1 egg with yolk
1 organic apple with peanut butter

LUNCH: 
4 oz turkey
1/4 avocado
1/4 brown rice 
4 grape tomatoes

DINNER:
4 oz chicken 
1/4c oatmeal with 1/2 banana 
 (weird dinner right?)

My amazing aunt Sharon is running the Boston Marathon for her second year, and she's raising all kinds of crazy money for the HOYT foundation. She had a fundraiser this past Saturday at Hajjars in Weymouth. It was a great time! Annnnnnnd for the first time I cheated. (Don't tell Dave! :) )  

All around me were cookies, brownies, candy and chips. The tables where we played games had tootsie rolls all over the tables. If you've ever been to Planet Fitness.. you know they have buckets of those delicious little treats on the desk, I developed a sweet tooth for those little nuggets of chocolate.
But.. it wasn't any of this I cheated on organic apples with. I had a glass of wine. Grapes come from the ground right?
 Dave and I aren't big drinkers, but we did decide to not have any alcohol until after Ninja Warrior. But, I felt the occasion called for one little glass of wine. 

On the way home Dave and I indulged in our GFbars. 

Tomorrow Maria, Jay and I are running our first half marathon. Time for some stretching :)

Sometimes..life gets in the way of life. I don't have to tell all of you this.. everyone goes through it all the time.

That was this weekend for me, and I don't want anyone to think I'm complaining, I'm not at all, it was just very tough. So let me tell you about it..






Saturday:
woke up at 5, made breakfast and watched stupid news
3 mushrooms
3large egg whites
Tomato 
1/8c feta

From 8-11:15 I have classes and training, which I don't do all the exercises but I certainly burn through everything I ate. 
This is where it gets tough.. I have 15 minutes to eat as much as I can before the kids come in
.. I got 2 slices of cantaloup

Kid's classes end at 1. Then we have open gym, which i can chill behind the desk and eat alllll I want!
I started cooking chicken and steak for us.
Two kids came in, as well as an old friend with his friend who is competing on Ninja Warrior in a month. Well, I forgot all about the meat. 
So when I couldn't eat the meat this was my lunch:
LUNCH
1/2c brown rice
1/2c carrots
1 apple with 1 TBS PB
We closed at 4. Dave had left for the firehouse. I walked home, forgot my keys. Walked back to the gym, walked back home. At this point I'm extremely hungry and a little nauseous. 
DINNER
(don't make fun of me for this... ate the same thing twice today)
1 egg with yolk
2 egg whites
6 grape tomatos 
1/4c oatmeal with handful blueberries
cleaned, tried to get my run in but called it good after 1 mile. Too... weak... 
DAILY TOTALS 
Calories: 886 protein:57 Carbs 95  fat: 38 and 1 very weak girl

SUNDAY.. what I thought would be a relaxing day
this goes by fast..
Woke up at 5. 
1/2c oatmeal with blueberries
6 mile run... felt amazing. My body feels lighter and I ran faster than normal
Waited for Dave to come home. 
BREAKFAST 
4 egg whites 
3 mushrooms
1/8c feta
1 apple with PB

Had at kid's party from 10-12 at the gym.   Had a shake prepared. Forgot it.
At 1030 had yet another apple with PB (1/2 really.. Dave needed some too)
Now after the party I can't tell you how I excited I was to go home and relax all day! But I forgot.. we planned on going to one of our friends gyms to be ninjas.   Went home, drank a shake:
1c milk
1c blueberries
1 banana
DELICOUS!! 

Went to store.. had 2 GF bars. Satisfied.
Ninja-ed around from 130-4. Was called "the power couple" which felt great. I'm not sure if I have more strength from training or my body really is reacting to being clean but for once I was teaching girls how to do the salmon ladder instead of being taught. I could do more with obstacles than I ever could. *HAPPY****!!

530-11pm consisted of hanging out with Dave, my sister and our good friend Matt. We had a lot of Walking Dead to catch up on. Our friends are great, and while I don't think they competely understand why we do this, they support us.
So they ate with us
DINNER
Whole bunch of strawberries and raspberries
4 oz chicken 
1 c baked sweet potato 
1/2c rice 
More strawberries, more almonds
 

I can't tell you the amounts of today because it flew by so quickly I didn't have any time to put it in my phone. 

And that't my weekend in a nutshell. 
Days 7+8 were not bad, it's so hard to plan, but by the end of this I hope to be able to create a meal plan for anyone who wants to try this insanity. 
If anyone wants any recipes or has any questions please please don't hesitate to ask!

It's day five of this whole clean eating movement Jen and I decided to tackle together. I would like to first start off my with each days feelings:
Day 1: This isn't bad. I can not each protein bars for awhile. Wait... No protein powered either? Um... ok
Day 1 (afternoon): OH GOD I'M GONNA DIE! HOW DO PEOPLE LIVE LIKE THIS?!?!
Day 2: Okay... stay calm... just eat more, not everything needs to be chocolate covered protein. The meals taste really good... You just need more....
Day 2 (afternoon): WHY LORD! WHY!?!? JUST ONE BAR MAN! JUST ONE WON'T KILL ME.... okay.... calm down... just eat a whole bag of almonds... that's kind of like chocolate covered protein...
Day 2 (late night): OH GOD MY STOMACH IS EATING ITSELF! 
Day 3: I can do this, 8:30 am big breakfast. Check. Snack 1, check, snack 2 check... it's 10:30am, damn. Snack 3. Check. Big Lunch. 8 oz of chicken/ cup of veggies/ cup of rice... not full yet. Banana, homemade trail mix. Better. Snack 4, snack 5, snack 6. (I'm not even lying). Dinner... BIG BIG DINNER! I still need my chocolate fill... wait... dark chocolate is okay?!?! THERE IS A GOD!
Day 4: Waking up hungry is not fun. BIGGER BREAKFAST DAVID! cup (+) of oatmeal with fruit and 3 large eggs. I'm full? I'm full! It finally happened! oh that was short lived.
Day 4 (afternoon): Wow, what the hell is guam gum? Can I eat that? Vanilla flavoring can come from Beaver butt fluid?! WTF?!?! Organic Phosopate Sodium Nitroxial.... That doesn't sounds organic at all... crossbreeding wheat is okay but mechanically cleaned meat isn't. WHO IS MAKING THESE RULES?!?! 
Day 4 (evening): I've made it. This is okay, I feel better, I feel better. Damn... I am hungry. 
Day 5: Big breakfast. Snack. Snack. Snack. Lunch. Snack. Snack. Snack. Dinner. Snack. Snack. Sleep. Repeat. This is no problem

So If you can't tell I am hungry. I am hungry as I type this. Ya know in that Simpson's episode where Homer couldn't eat donuts so everyone and everything turned into donuts, thats what I see. My favorite foods are literally everywhere. Do you realize how many commercials or just advertisement in general is for food? Food that has more genetically added ingredients then natural ones? It's mind boggling. And have you ever tried to walk against a crowd at Six Flags? That's the firehouse. I had plain bulgur wheat because its all I had. They had pork chops, spanish rice, white bread, and apple sauce (or at least thats what they called it). My planning has already improved. 

One thing about me (I am not bolstering myself, I promise), I have a fast metabolism. I mean fast. I was practically raised on Burger King and I never gained a pound as a kid. Those protein bars were no lie holding me over between our already health meals that were very portion friendly. So we take the bars, the protein shakes, and what few unhealthy snacks (its not a myth, firefighters eat ice cream a lot) but I figure it won't be bad. Those statements on the top of the page are true! I am constantly hungry. I eat a troff of food and as I finish I can feel the pit already starting in my stomach. I am already wondering where the next thing i can digest is. The thing that you don't realize is all those added ingredients put a strain on your digestive system. It has to work overtime to get through all that. Dave's digestive system already works overtime, Dave's digestive system is eating through this all natural/ "close to the ground" food like a K12 saw through a phone book. (Its a really big, really sharp saw that cuts through cement, metal, and any kind of roofing). So the hunger is real.

There is some super positive things to say. Honestly, I feel better. Not that I didn't have energy before but I am full of it now. It seems a lot of my injuries are fixing themselves. It honestly like magic, nothing was working and suddenly its all solving itself. One of my favorite things, these muscles I have worked so hard on are popping out. I swear you put me next to a Calvin Klein model and I doubt you'd be able to tell the difference (I can tell you the different, my muscles can actually do something besides loosely hold up a pair of $90 underwear). 

It's easier then I've made it seem. I just need to eat more then a normal human even before I do my ANW workouts. Maybe I shouldn't wait 5 days to write another blog for everyone... this is a lot to take in... I need a snack......

I spent most of my day Sunday preparing meals. There's more dishes in my sink than a restaurant at dinner time and it was difficult to stuff all of Dave's portions into the container.. Buuut a few hours later and we had meals all prepared for two days. Yes.. two days worth... we eat a lot. So here it is.


I have a bootcamp at 6:15 so I was up at 5 to have some breakfast, get to the gym to clean and make the workout. 


Pre-bootcamp
2 hard boiled eggs, no yolk 
  (don't leave eggs outside to freeze and then cook them.. they don't taste good)
I do the workouts during classes, but I don't give it my all.. so I burned about 500 calories during bootcamp

After class I went home to eat my second breakfast with Dave
Second breakfast
1 egg with yolk 
3 medium mushroom cooked with my egg
1/2 banana 
Dave of course ate about 3x how much I ate

We made our way to Stop & Shop and read every label we could of some of our favorite foods to find something that could work with this way of eating. What we learned- THERE'S SO MUCH CRAP IN EVERYTHING!! We left the store feeling a little grossed out by some of the ingredients of our favorite foods but a little exited to do this together 

Pre-workout snack
1c almond milk
2 strawberries
1/4c blueberries
1c kale
1 protein bar.. it's clean yay! GfB peanut butter

Workout: 2 hours of upper body strength, bodyweight and core. I was shaking 40 minutes in.. so.. hungry..

A very much needed post-workout lunch
5oz chicken made yesterday
1/4c quinoa prepared yesterday
1/2c sweet potatoes prepared yesterday 
1c steamed veggies 

Bootcamp 6:10-7:10pm Burned about 500 calories 

More snacks!
1/2c bear naked granola 
1TBS natural PB
1 organic gala apple

Dinner
The most delicious dinner ever. See picture above 
Feta tomato basil chicken over rice
4 oz chicken
6 grape tomatoes cut in half 
2 leaves on basil (learned this on Bar Rescue.. slap the basil against your hand before adding it to bring out flavors)
1/2c brown rice
1 TBS feta cheese (to make this clean eating you must only get blocked feta cheese.. the crumbed cheese has a lot of additives) 

Totals: Calories 1717 Protein 130g  Fat: 53   Carbs: 200   Calories burnt: about 1,300


Dave and I are not going for weight loss, but as of today (3/3/15) I have lost 3 pounds and Dave is down 2.8. Our energy levels are about the same but we're hungry constantly. When your body doesn't have to process through all of the bad stuff food is digested a lot quicker, which we're definitely feeling.

So yesterday was the first official day of Dave and I's suuuuuper clean eating.
Working so many hours and not being able to leave the gym a lot we definitely got reliant on protein bars, shakes, and trail mix. Although eaten in moderation these foods aren't bad for you- but we were eating more than necessary. 
Here's the recap of day 1: Once I get a little time I'll have more in depth recipes for everyone to try for yourself (I promise we're not eating dirt)

Breakfast:
3 large eggs white
1 egg with yolk
1/4c black beans
1/2c oatmeal with 1/2 banana

Ate a lot since I had planned on going out for a 10miler..... which didn't happen :/

We had a kid's party today, which expels A LOT of energy and we would typically eat a whole bag of trail mix but today I was prepared- 
Lunch
5oz chicken
1c Whole beans and carrots
(we ate this while kids were scoffing down cake and pizza.. oh how different )

After party snack:
This is where Dave hates me..
1c almond milk
1/2c kale
1/4c blueberries 
Post shake Dave complains how I'm trying to kill him and all kinds of crap, so hopefully tomorrow we'll be more prepared 

Dinner
4 oz chicken made with black beans
1/8c quinoa (just plain.. didn't feel like cooking)

Post dinner snack:
And this is where I'll miss my hot chocolate 
Hummus with carrots
Organic gala apple
Totals for the day: Calories 1250 Carbs:150 Protein: 110 Fat 20

Not bad for Day 1. I miss my Zone bars :(