Bikini Body Challenge Conclusion

So- ever have a week get away from you? Well it happens all the time to me! With so many things to do I often wish I had more hours in the day so I can achieve all my goals, projects, and fun! I love spending time in my garden which is so green and overflowing with potential friuts- it's amazing! I really hope I can spend a bit more time weeding this week! Thanks to my father-in-law, he has saved me so much time this year by tilling between the rows!!

This week I biked a total of 132 miles with my long ride being 90 miles! I have been so encouraged by my friends and family in achieving each longer distance as it comes around each week and each week I know that I can do it! Next Saturday I will be doing my 100 mile ride!! Whoo-hoo!!! I am so excited!!

Btw, I know I mentioned a couple posts ago that I was going to get a new bike, well, that got put on the back burner for a few more months, so I won't be riding the Hilly Hundred this year, but that's okay, there's always next year!

Anyhow, yesterday was the last day of my journey in the 14 Day Bikini Body Challenge, and while I didn't always follow strictly the diet- especially on my long ride days- I can only carry so much food with me! However, I have slimmed down and I am feeling confident! And I have a lot more energy and I am feeling far less stressed than I was while eating a less raw diet. Previously I was eating between 40-50% raw with far smaller meals and far fewer calories and I think that was my problem. In my efforts to lose weight I was consuming less calories but slowing down my metabolism by doing so instead of eating more raw food which has fewer calories and more nutrients, plus almost every fruit or vegetable out there helps to reduce inflammation- the main source of weight gain and chronic disease!

This morning to help aid in my recovery from yesterday's ride- inflammation wise (I am currently out of our curcumin supplement that Chris and I are on, so my knees have been aching more than usual-owey!) so I made the following anti-inflammatory smoothie to help my knees and the sunburn I got :(

V.I.Note!! If you have organic, all natural sunscreen, or any sunscreen really
I suppose, check the expiration date!!! It does go bad! I used mine yesterday and
while it worked okay, it didn't work as well as it used to- come to find out it
expired June of 2013! Yikes! So much for sunscreen never going bad! Haha!
Granted I probably should have re-applied more than I did- but who wants to stop for that!
Especially when you can still see the titanium dioxide! Common! It must still be working!
Right?-- So check your labels or you will end up with funny tan lines like me.

Go! Man-go!

1/2 Pineapple-chopped
1 mango
1 banana
1/2-1 tsp turmeric
1/8-1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 C coconut milk or water
Ice cubes!!! 7-8

Blend until smooth and enjoy! 

This smoothie is great for anyone who is on the go! The turmeric has an active compound called curcumin which has many health related benefits but one of the best is reducing joint inflammation. I have been taking this as a supplement because I don't eat a lot of Indian food and it has helped immensly. I am always recommending it to friends who are complaining of their joints hurting- it really helps! 

The cinnamon in this recipe helps fight inflammation but overall, it's best for balancing blood sugars and keeping you on an even keel. Pineapple and mango are full of beneficial fiber to keep you full and clear out toxins! The bromelain in pineapple is a huge inflammation fighter! 

So here are a few of the meals that I had this past week.
On day 10 I had sunshine juice for breakfast and half a watermelon for lunch. I was only able to eat a little more than half of the container! Oh it was soo much, but it was soo good!

I read some cool information in my magazine the other day about watermelon juice- which I made for breakfast on Saturday before my ride.

'People who sipped watermelon juice before exercise were less sore the next day. "It's the only food that contains large amounts of L-citrulline, an amino acid that can improve oxygen delivery to the muscles," says Leslie Bonci, R.D., the director of sports medicine at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center...'
Fitness magazine June 2014

Dinner that night was spirilized zucchini! Yum yum!!

1 spirilized zucchini

1 carrot shreds

broccoli

1 red bell pepper

black sesame seeds

dressing 

1/8 C tahini

1-2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp white miso

1-2 heads lettuce

1 yellow bell pepper

1 cucmber

2-3 mushrooms

dill and pepper seasoning

handful of blueberries

Dressing- it looks better than how it turned out, so I'll spare you the details.

Sesame Noodles

1 spirilized zucchini

broccoli

carrot peels

2-3 mushrooms diced- set aside

2 chopped tomatoes

pepper and garlic powder

1/4 chopped yellow bell pepper

While chopping veggies, place diced mushrooms in small dish and marinate in the following dressing.

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp raw soy sauce

2 tbsp orange juice

When mushrooms are soft (er), place them on top and pour remaining dressing on noodles. Mix and eat!!

Thanks for reading this rather lengthy post- I hope you enjoy the recipes as much as I did!

Have a great rest of your week!

Day 8 Bikini Body Challenge

Hey Everyone!! It is the end of Day 8 in my journey on the 80-10-10 Bikini Body Challenge by FullyRawKristina and I feel GREAT! I have soo much more energy in eating raw than I have in the past 6 months. 

My only issue thus far was on my really long weekly training ride (it gets longer every week- thus the training) and I was tired and my knees and back were really aching by mile 55 where as last week I did 69 miles no problem- yesterday's distance was 78 miles- which I overshot and did 81. I was able to finish but I was really feeling it. Today my knees still ache a bit but I think that eating raw REALLY helped with the inflammation caused by this ride- which was actually really flat- hardly any hills that were challenging.

My energy today was also impressive- granted I woke up really tired but I got going and (yeah, ok, I admit it- I had caffeine- from green coffee beans), with the raw food, I have had so much energy where as a few weeks ago I would have been so tired I would have come home after work and sat. Instead, this evening I made my dinner, juiced breakfast, made a smoothie for lunch, made raw cookies from leftover juicing pulp, made my hubbie some chocolate chip cookies, washed the dishes, and finished the laundry- oh yeah, and wrote this!! I have energy!! Hazaah!!

So after that run on sentence, here are a few of the meals that I have prepared the past few days! I haven't been strictly following Kristina's meal plan as I have been using what I have on hand by creating something comparable.

Oh-btw, thus far I have lost between 3-5 lbs! It's approximate because I didn't weigh myself at the beginning but I was around 131-132 and now I'm 127!! Yay!!!

Here is my dinner day 5- it's not what Kristina made but boy was it good!

Taco Salad

1-2 heads of your choice of greens- spinach and kale here
3/4 of one cucumber
half of 1 avocado
red onion diced
pepper- to taste
mushrooms- diced (optional)
olives- sliced (optional)

Taco Dressing
1/4 pkt taco seasoning
3 tomatoes-roma
garlic powder- large dash ( I put garlic and pepper on most savory dishes!)
small squirt of sirichi sauce

Place all dressing ingredients in blender and puree. Pour over salad and enjoy the heat!!

Above is my dinner (the salad) for Saturday, and I had the smoothie- which was made from left over juice- I used one of Kristina's recipes but I have discovered that orange juice by itself in large quantities contains too much acid for my stomach to handle. Upon drinking the original juice and starting my bike ride, I had to return and eat a piece of Ezekiel bread to balance out the acid :/So the above juice is the left over orange, pineapple and mango drink, plus 2 bananas and wheat grass powder that I had for breakfast on Sunday morning.

The salad dressing is composed of 2 tbsp cashew butter (I didn't have hemp seeds, 1/3 C water, 1 tbsp lemon juice, and 1 tsp beet powder (I just happened to have on hand as opposed to a raw beet- granted I have pickled raw beet that would have worked but this was faster. And shake-able.

This was dinner tonight. I got tired of the lettuce and went for one of my old favorites- 

Raw Spaghetti! 

1 1/2 spiralized zucchini

toppings of choice- red bell pepper, red onion, artichoke hearts, and black pepper are what I used tonight- I often love to use olives but I skipped them tonight since I used the artichoke hearts (no they weren't raw)

I also was a bit lazy and instead of making raw sauce I used organic pre-made spaghetti sauce.

The above jars contain tomorrow's breakfast and lunch. 

Sunshine Juice

4 oranges
5 apples (medium to smallish)
3 carrots

Juice and pour! Breakfast is served!! Lemon and ginger are excellent additions if you so desire.

Blue Moon Smoothie

Created by Penni of RawFoodRehab, it is one of my all time favorites! I made one and a half times the quantity of the recipe below to fulfill the 80-10-10 proportion requirements- or at least as much of it as I can eat!!

1 C frozen blueberries
1 C banana
1 1/2 C orange juice - I sub 3/4 C almond milk
1 tsp fresh ginger
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Blend and serve! Yummy!!!

I hope this helps encourage you to try going raw, or at least eating healthier by consuming more raw meals!! Have a wonderful day and stay balanced!!

Re- Starting a More Healthy Diet

Over the winter I wandered away from being as raw as I used to be with healthy options that were more processed. I wandered away from smoothies and shakes in favor of soups that I bought at the store- a few I made myself but it's time to get back into the swing of things as I have been feeling slower and more tired- and I've gained a bit :(  
Darn cookies!! Why do you have to be so tasty!?!

To jump back into my high raw food lifestyle, I am doing FullyRawKristina's Bikini Body Challenge. It's 14 days of eating fully raw in the 80-10-10 proportions. While I have been fully raw before and felt fabulous- and done weight loss raw plans before- none of them were the 80-10-10.
So this should be an interesting 14 days!

I am currently on Day 3 ( The program started June 1st but I started June 2nd.)  
Day 1 was pretty easy but I started to get a detox headache in the afternoon.
Day 2 was difficult and I do admit that I cheated a little-- sneaky cookies! Whaat! How did that happen?! I still had the detox headache and did my workout anyway- although I was much slower than usual as I felt like it was taking a lot more energy to get it all done. The headache dissipated around 4pm but it may come back- we'll see...
Day 3- there was plenty of food- too much really, which a couple of my friends at work were like "what are you drinking?", and "what is that?" so they got to taste my smoothie for lunch which they really liked too! 

The smoothie I made for my lunch was a little different than Kristina's recipe as I didn't have 5 oranges, only three, or any cilantro-- but it tasted great- and it is super thick! Packed full of FIBER!!! So much fiber... fiber fiber everywhere!

Every morning we drink 32 oz of lemon or fruit water to get the plumbing going, followed by a breakfast juice, a smoothie lunch, and a fruit appetizer with a salad dinner.

My Lunch Smoothie

3 Naval oranges
1/2 a pineapple
1 peeled and sliced mango
1 C de-stemmed kale
Pack into blender and blend until smooth and serve (or as smooth as your blender will allow you to get it).

I personally am having a hard time understanding how Kristina eats soooo much food!!!! It's super filling and I couldn't even finish the smoothie! I drank the glass for lunch on my way to work and had 3/4 of the jar for my snack. The salad was more than enough for dinner- it looks deceptively small in the picture.

Anyhow, another day down! I will post my progress periodically- weight loss has yet to occur but I really hope it happens! I admit I'm a tad bit concerned considering the quantities I'm eating... Guess I'll find out!!

For those of you interested in trying out the raw food lifestyle, this is a great opportunity! Check out Kristina's videos on youtube.com/fullyrawkristina!