day 9&10: keeping up

Sorry everyone! I should be doing this everyday. By everyone, I mean my parents and maybe one friend that's noticed i'm posting again.

On Monday, I changed up breakfast! I made a one egg, one egg white, tomato omelette which was great and filling because the egg whites really puffed it out to size! I ate this with half an avocado.

During lunch time, I came home to work out. I was only supposed to work out for 25 minutes but I amped up the intensity so I ended up working out for 40! My friend Erin came and worked out with me. Afterwards, I ate a salad of romaine lettuce, tomatoes, beets, cucumber and red bell pepper. Afterwards I ate an orange! Oranges here are basically always in season so they're eaten a lot by Spaniards. Anywhere you go they have fresh squeezed orange juice!

I had class again after that until 9pm. I remember having a difficult time finding the motivation to cook dinner, but I did. I bought a giant head of cabbage that morning because it had dark leafy greens on the outside, but when I went to use them they seemed too dirty no matter how much I washed them. It kind of grossed me out so I decided to just use the actual cabbage instead. I sliced it thinly, used 1tbsp of olive oil, a half of a lemon, and about an inch or two of water to get it going. I didn't use garlic but I added a little bit of salt. I served this with one small white potato and tofu. I wanted to use a sweet potato but I couldn't find one yesterday so I settled! I am staying away from white potatoes but I don't feel guilty because I have been eating extremely well.

For dessert, I had half a banana with a table spoon of peanut butter and a little bit of dark chocolate. I am PMSing so it's really helpful to satisfy cravings!

As for yesterday, I ate oatmeal for breakfast again. I added a banana to it to change it up a little bit. I know I've been eating a lot of oatmeal but I think it is probably the best breakfast you can have. Right now I'm only eating quick oats because it was hard enough finding those. If I could, I'd be using steel cut. The great thing about oatmeal is that you can make a lot on Sunday night and keep it for the whole week! Once you reheat it, it tastes the same. It really maintains flavor and texture. Don't be turned off by the mushy blob you find in your container the next morning!

After class yesterday, Erin came home with me to work out again! So, I upped the intensity once more! We completed a 40 minute bootcamp. Afterwards, I had the same sort of salad that I had on Monday. As for dressing the salad, I use balsamic vinegar. I don't use any oils at all. I know some people can go with dressing, but i'm not one of those people. Luckily, vinegar has barely any calories! To change up my salad a little, I added some of my left over bean chili from sunday night. You can put anything on a salad.

For dinner, I kept it simple. Ever since a girl I go to school with told me about her host mom's combination of white beans, broccoli, and potatoes, I've been making renditions of that recipe. Last night I stayed away from potatoes since the white beans can act as both a starch and a protein. I put some mushrooms in a pan with a little bit of water and a tiny spray of olive oil, added the broccoli and sauteed them for a bit to get the broccoli to turn beautiful bright green and cook through the mushrooms. Towards the end, I added the white beans and garlic. The white beans when they are sauteed with the vegetables like this start to get mushy and create almost a thick, saucy texture. Kind of like hummus. I really enjoyed it and it's extremely filling. This dinner was under 400 calories if I ate the whole thing! And there was a lot of it.

For dessert, I had 3 frozen peanut butter and banana bites. I made these earlier in the day after my workout. I want to be safe this week and make sure I don't overeat because this is usually the time of the month I get those crazy cravings that I fear I can't control! So, I made these little frozen treats. You need 9 little nestle bites of chocolate, soymilk, a banana, and 2 tbsp of peanut butter. Cut the banana up into little circles and put them in two rows side by side. Then put a little dollop of peanut butter on each, and cover it with the other side. Melt the dark chocolate with a tiny bit of soymilk (if you don't have a double boiler) and once it is melted enough that it's liquid, but still thick, put a little on top of each banana/pb bite. Then, freeze! So simple and so delicious. I measured these to be about 50 calories per bite. It obviously will depend on how dark your chocolate is, how caloric your milk is, and how much peanut butter you put.

That's all for now but I'll be back tomorrow to write about today! I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up as well as I should be. But preview for tomorrow: I was up at 8:30am for morning cardio :)
xxSierra

day 7&8: still sick

Well, yesterday went fine. I unfortunately was sick all day and had to stay in bed for the most part. I don't really like staying in bed all day because then I feel like a slug, but I figured it would be the best thing for my body.

When I woke up I ate an orange. I decided to fill my day with romantic comedies and so I began watching Breakfast at Tiffany's. That movie is totally overrated other than how extremely classy Audrey Hepburn looks at all times.

For lunch I ate a little oatmeal topped with a fried egg. I had woken up late so I ate the orange around noon and the oatmeal around 2. Around 4:30 I tossed some chickpeas with curry powder, garlic powder, pepper and a tablespoon of olive oil. This was my afternoon snack. 

For dinner, I made whole wheat pasta with broccoli, mushrooms, onions and olives. I saved some of what I made to eat for today's lunch. After dinner I ate a piece of dark chocolate and another orange. 

I also watched Annie Hall and Moonstruck yesterday. Out of all of them, Moonstruck was obviously my favorite. 

I got myself together to work out yesterday. I don't want to slow down at all and I'm afraid that if I do I'll never start back up again.

Today went about the same. I'm still sick, still hydrating, and still hoping to get better! I started off with an orange again, and the same oatmeal and fried egg. For lunch, I had steamed broccoli and a tiny bit of leftover wholewheat pasta from yesterday.

I don't think I'm going to work out today. I've been drinking tons of water and tea hoping to flush it out of my system so I'm just going to keep pushing and hope that my body fixes itself by tomorrow. Just let it rest for the day. Unfortunately, laying in bed and watching TV just makes me want to eat. And eat more. 

So after lunch I ate a teaspoon of peanut butter and a cup of green grapes. For dinner I am going to make a bean and corn lime chili with lots of hot sauce to wake up my sinuses. I don't really like soup that much which is why I haven't really eaten any, but also because Barcelona apparently doesn't eat soup either. 

I have successfully completed my challenge of the week which was to only drink once. I'm not sure if I would have had I not gotten sick but regardless, I've won. I think the real challenge here is not to challenge my drinking or my fun-having, but to be sensible whilst still having fun. And not binge eating. That is going to get particularly hard considering I am going to get my period this week (sorry dad--and any other random boy readers). I think all that means for me is that I will have to get more creative with my recipes and make sure that they meet all of my cravings in healthy ways. 

I am going to try to make protein brownies this week, as I know I will want something chocolatey. Better 85 calorie brownies than 10 chocolate bars and some ice cream! Am I right?

So, I have successfully completed Monday-Sunday. And even with my little breakdown on Tuesday night, I still think I've been a success. I do believe I've lost 2 pounds.

Coming up for the month of March: A juice cleanse!!

day 5&6: sweat out the sickness

Well, I'm doing great.

Day 5 was a challenge of willpower. I have class on Thursdays from 11:30-1:00, 3:00-4:30, and 6:00-7:30. Before I started writing in my blog again, I was waking up early in the morning in order to walk to the panadería to buy bread. I'd make a sandwich with tomato, cucumber, avocado and cheese and bring that to class. Honestly, that sandwich would probably not make anyone gain weight except for me. My body cannot handle that much bread everyday, and I owe it to myself not to feed it that.

So, I started my day off with the usual oatmeal and went to class. For lunch I decided to go to this place with my BB called Al Jaima where we shared hummus. I also ate 4 falafel. Falafel are clearly fried in oil (unless you buy them in a package and heat them yourself) but they are fairly low in calories and 4 falafel can add up to only about 200 calories. Luckily, they are also quite filling! After that, we still had ample time so we headed over to Brunch&Cake. This is probably one of the best restaurants in Barcelona. It has vegetarian options like spinach and quinoa salads, as well as amazing cupcakes and cappuccinos. I was nervous about going in here because I didn't know if I would be able to fight the temptation and I didn't want to drink a coffee.

Once we sat down, I ordered a tea. Erin ordered a tea and a cupcake. I didn't even think twice about if I would get one. They will still be here when I leave if I really need one. Or if I want to treat myself! I drank the tea and respectfully declined when Erin offered me a bite. I figured one bite would set me off and I might eat through the entire cupcake supply.

For dinner I kept to my plan of not adding olive oil (although this had been contradicted with the falafel and hummus), and steamed eggplant with onion, tomato, lentils, spinach and mushrooms. It was good but in order to meet my challenges, I couldn't add salt. It probably could have used some. I also ended up adding a little spreadable cheese because it was really lacking something.

I didn't work out yesterday because my new bootcamp program told me not to. I was going to but I was exhausted so I decided just to follow the program's advice.

Today was day 6. It was a disgusting day out. I had planned to wake up early to work out, go to the flea market, and get lunch at this vegetarian place called Teresa Carles with Erin. Instead I felt disgustingly sick and congested! So, I slept until 1pm, and then walked to get lunch.

Erin and I order our food to split so that we can taste different things. We ordered the mezze board which was a little bit of hummus, an eggplant dip, quorn nuggets (quorn is a soy meat), giant green olives, and beets marinated with garlic. It was served with pita and was delicious. We loved every single bite! Our next course was a ravioli with a gorgonzola and pear sauce. We had 2 raviolis each. Our conclusion to this dish was that it was lacking in a lot of areas and there wasn't enough pear to match up to the gorgonzola. A bit too creamy for my taste. The next course was a crepe filled with artichoke hearts. I love artichokes but the filling didn't have enough going on. Our final course, since we both have sweet tooths, was an apple crumble. I think that it was fairly healthy for an apple crumble as the crumble seemed to be a grape nut mixed with brown sugar or something along those lines. It was served with a tiny scoop of vanilla ice cream (less than 1/4 of a cup).

I also drank a cup of camomile tea. All of the food presentations at Teresa Carles were phenomenal. The mezze board was by far the best thing we had and Erin and I even decided they had the best hummus we'd had so far!! I will definitely be returning, but not until my BB and I discover some more vegetarian gems of Barcelona. I recommend it to anyone that comes over here!

I then came home and worked out. I don't know how I mustered up the energy to do it, but I did. I did it. I am so proud! It's so hard to fight laziness when it's raining and you feel more sick than you have in a while. I will now eat leftovers from last night as well as an avocado and tomato salad with balsamic.

A few things before I go:
--Friday will be the day of the week that I have a "cheat". The cheat will be what it has been: sharing a meal with Erin at a new restaurant.
--I was wrong about weighing 178lbs. This is exciting news. I only weigh 176 (80kg). I converted it wrong and I am embarrassed. Anyway, I have lost weight since weighing but my weigh day will be Monday!
--Also, the workouts I am doing is part of Lolo Bootcamp. I don't know if I have talked to you about it before, but it's wonderful. Today I completed Day 3.

Be good to yourselves!
Sierra

day 4: pick yourself up by the bootstraps

Yesterday went well. I think, anyway.

It began as it has been with 1/2 cup of oatmeal and a little bit of soy milk. I followed up later with an orange after class, which held me over while I worked out.

For my workout yesterday, I began lolo bootcamp which I had previously tried in Africa. It's a great bootcamp application for your iPhone/iPad/iPod that will customize the workout for you based on your fitness level and equipment availability. This was wonderful for me, as I have very limited space and absolutely no equipment (other than a chair). I completed both day 1 and 2. Day 1 was a physical assessment that only lasted six minutes, so don't give me too much credit for that.

The fitness test measures how many of each activity you can complete within 2 minutes.
My results were as follows:
Push-ups: 12
Sit-ups: 34
Squats: 62

Day 2 of the bootcamp brings you through a circuit workout where you begin by marching in place for two minutes and then jogging in place for two minutes. Each circuit consisted of one minute intervals of marching, jogging, high knees, iso-abs plank (on elbows), reverse plank (stomach facing ceiling), and side plank (per each side). You complete the circuit three times and then stretch. I'm not completely sore today, but I'm sore enough that I know it is doing its job. I was definitely struggling at some points and sweating throughout.

After my workout it was around 6:00, so I took a shower and then decided to eat a salad since I hadn't had lunch yet. I ate a salad with 4 leaves of romaine, 1 small tomato, 1 small avocado, 1/2 cup of chickpeas and some balsamic. I did not add oil, as I was following my rule.

I know you are thinking to yourself, did she really eat lunch at 6:00pm? My answer is yes. Yes I did. I have class from 7:30-9:00 and so by the time I get out of class is when I usually eat dinner. Since I hadn't had lunch yet I knew I would be starving if I didn't eat something before I left for class but I also knew I didn't have enough time to eat dinner right then.

When I returned from class I made dinner. I had bought asparagus, a tiny butternut squash, an onion and some tofu so I decided to use all of those. I steamed the onion with some garlic and butternut squash for about five minutes and then I added the asparagus to the top of the pot so it would steam with them. Then, I put the tofu in a non-stick pan and let it heat up. This tofu was a little more processed and oily than I'd planned. But, I didn't want to waste it (and it was delicious!)

I successfully completed all of my challenges yesterday. I drank all of the water, did not use any olive oil, and did not drink a bottle of wine.

My challenge of the day is:
1) Drink 6 glasses of water
2) Do not eat olive oil, nor add salt to anything.

And continuing with my weekly challenge of only drinking once this week.

With love,
Sierra

day 3: i didn't think it was possible

Well, it happened. I didn't think it could happen so quickly... but it did. I failed. I failed literally every single challenge that I had for myself yesterday. I think it would actually be fair to say that I failed at yesterday.

It started off on a great path: I had oatmeal for breakfast. After that around 1pm I had a banana that my good friend Erin gave to me. She's my Barca Bestie and I bullied her into letting me eat her banana instead of her apple because it would be more filling. She is either really scared of me or loves me a lot. I think it's that she loves me.

 I had a salad for lunch with no olive oil, a little feta, a little hummous (i know this has oil but you have to have some substance and it wasn't the creamy kind!), tomatoes and cucumber. Later, I had a café con leche and fought all urges to eat anything from the café because it was all greasy.

This is where I went wrong: I divulged into past histories whilst sitting in the café drinking my coffee. Before I knew it-- my cup was empty. An empty cup combined with stories of your past broken hearts can only ever really turn into 2 things: a sad night crying at home alone or a fun night drinking wine with your BB(barcabestie). Naturally, I chose the second one. I love fun things. (Honestly, I'm sure there are other options for what that night could have turned into but in my completely illogical head at the time there really wasn't.)

We went to a place called Flautas where suddenly my only concern was that whatever we ordered was vegetarian and not deep fried. When we saw "alcachofas laminadas" and "alcachofas fritas" we assumed that one of them had to be not fried, so we chose the one that didn't mean "fried artichokes". Well, they were probably the same thing. Actually, I'm scared to see how much more fried the alcachofas fritas were. And that is when I hit glass number 3 and called it quits. I ate the stupid artichoke chips.

I didn't stop there, though. You better believe we moved our-drunk-selves up the block to a hummus place and ate some hummus, tsatziki, babaghanoush, and falafel. These were all, of course, served with pita and another bottle of wine. I didn't partake in the bottle of wine, as I don't think I would've made it home.

I was able to eat some gelato before heading all the way back home though. Also, did I mention I didn't exercise? Can you even believe this blog post is so long and filled with nothing but failure? It's shameful.

So, here I am eating my oatmeal, feeling like crap, looking pretty much the same as I feel, and thinking to myself: Will you ever stop? Seriously, will you ever stop doing that to yourself?

I am going to make a conscious decision today to not allow my lesser-self take over. And I will repeat my challenges from yesterday. Naturally, my challenge of the week (to only drink once) is still on as long as I don't drink this week. I am nervous though. I may not make it.

This week has become a lesson, unfortunately. A lesson that this is going to be a lot harder than I thought.

day 2: slow and steady wins the race

It's as if the minute you tell yourself you're on a diet, you suddenly crave everything you see. Even things you don't like. You think about food all day because that's your challenge of the day (of your life). So, believe me, I understand the "healthy lifestyle changes"concept rather than full on dieting.

But let's be serious, I have made "healthy lifestyle changes" like not eating a pint of ice cream in one night, yet the pounds still came back to haunt me. I was probably just having too much fun...Kidding. Sort of. Anyway, here I am dieting and craving foods I didn't even know I could crave. Getting hungry when I normally wouldn't get that hungry. Or... am I just noticing I'm hungry because I'm paying more attention to myself?

I finished my meals of the day off as follows:
For lunch I ate one piece of homemade pita served with 1/3 of a cup homemade hummus and one sliced tomato. Served with that, I ate a salad with 4 leaves of romaine lettuce, 1 tomato, 1 small avocado, and a few slices of cucumber. This was topped with a teaspoon of olive oil and a little bit of balsamic.

For dinner I ate another piece of pita served with one full package of spinach and a little bit of curry that had been left over from the other night. I should have cut this down in portion size and eaten it slower. I am working on getting to the point where I can look back and say, "wow I ate the perfect amount yesterday and will not feel like a slug today!" Soon enough, friends. Soon enough.

In between dinner and lunch, I ate the other half of my cucumber and some more of my hummus. I will be making this hummus again, however, I will try Bob Harper's oil-less hummus recipe. (That is where any excess calories come from.) After dinner, I ate 1 orange and 2 squares of 85% dark chocolate which to me is almost not even worth it.

As for my challenges, I conquered my daily challenge and have yet to break my weekly. I drank well over 5 glasses of water yesterday, however, I could not stop peeing and got pretty frustrated by that.

Today's challenges:
1) Find a lunch in between classes that does not include simple carbs.
2) Do not eat olive oil.
3) Drink 6 glasses of water.
Weekly challenge: Only drink one time per week.

I also think it's important that as well as walking 4 miles to school and back (all together) yesterday, I completed 40 minutes of Jillian Michael's Kickboxing series without weights. I will have to go find some weights. Although, I have to say, it's difficult to spend money buying weights when you already have so much on your stomach....

I'm starting my day off with 1/2 a cup of cooked oatmeal, 1/4 cup of soymilk, and a cup of tea. You better believe I am also drinking a glass of water. (Gotta start some where!)

What will you do to challenge yourself today?
xx Sierra

day 1: a new beginning

Well, I'm back. Day 1.

After losing 16 pounds at fitness ridge, and another 6 at home, I had myself down on the scale to 170. I maintained that weight for about 6 months until I got out of the monster of all relationships and lost another ten pounds. There I was: 160. The weight I had looked for my whole life. Except, I had to get happy again at some point or another and I'm not sure you can live off of a clementine a day for the rest of your life. (But if you're looking to lose weight fast-- i'm pretty sure that was all I could stomach for quite some time.)

It is now February 18, 2013. I am 3/4 of the way through my world tour and internal journey of sorts. It has been beautiful and real and wholesome. I have lived and experienced in ways I never imagined I would. But my body has taken a toll and I see my body weight edging a little too close to where it was before the creation of this blog in 2011. I have taken full advantage of this experience thus far and I am sure that I can continue to, but I must make a change. For the better.

The challenge here will be to find a healthy path that allows me to still experience foods and fun nights without completely destroying myself--and my waistline (or, what would be there if I had one).

It is February 18, 2013. I weigh 178lbs.

Challenges of this week:
1) Drink at least 5 glasses of water a day.
2) Drink one time a week.

I have started my day off by eating 1 cup of cooked oatmeal, 1/2 a banana, and a cup of tea.
It's also important to know that I walk 2.2 miles roundtrip to school everyday, sometimes twice a day.

I will now go throw away the magnum bars in my freezer because I really deserve better than that.