Trying new foods

I woke up pretty sore this morning.  Doing the bike and then Zumba toning did a number on my legs and I was quite tired.  Of course Chloe getting up in the middle of the night from 2:30-4:00 could have had something to do with it. 

Today was quite busy, I made a breakfast of cottage cheese with applesauce, chia seeds, granola, and strawberries.  Chloe woke up much later than usual (at least she slept in after her midnight escapade).  This morning I made my meal plans for the week and I was really looking for something I could do for lunch as well as dinner.  I found this recipe on the Feel Great in 8 site.  I decided to make these whole grain chicken, cheddar and broccoli pockets as I thought they sounded good and I could make a whole bunch and keep them in the fridge for a while and keep some in the freezer for later.

Click here for Recipe

I made them tonight and they were really yummy.  It does take some time to assemble all of the pockets though.  Each one is 216 calories but it has your whole grain, protein, and vegetables in it!  Hopefully they will heat up nice and not be soggy coming out of the freezer.  So after my meal planning we were off to the grocery store, which wasn't too painful.  The kids kept running around but at least they were running in the same direction. 

After a rather hectic return from the store where I was trying to get everything put away, feed the kids lunch, set mouse traps, text my father in law, then send the kids outside, make lunch for me and for Matt, then get the kids gloves because their hands were cold (It's been raining and they wanted to play in the rain).... I sat down for about 5 minutes and then we went to the gym.  I needed to swim today since that was what was on my schedule but I also decided to run so I didn't have to exercise 6 days this week.  It's been cold and rainy all week and it isn't supposed to let up anytime soon.  In fact it's supposed to snow on Sunday.  Plus Matt is super busy with work and school with his exam coming up so I don't want to bother him to go run outside for 20 minutes, so to follow the program exactly I would have to go to the gym 6 days this week and that is rather hard to do with the kids.  They like the gym, but that is a little excessive.  I've already had to bribe Chloe twice this week not to throw a fit (even though she loves going to the gym, she gets pretty testy if we go too much).  I still need to go two more times, and Saturday is a new week so I guess three more times.  Tomorrow for sure because Lily has dance class.  I'm thinking of combining my swim and run again on Friday so I don't have to go Saturday too.  Once the weather clears up it should be easier to just go outside for a 30 minute run or bike.  (Especially if Matt isn't studying for exams). 

So today I ran first since getting my exercise clothes on after swimming can be a bit of a chore (mostly getting on a sports bra).  My triathlon schedule wanted me to run a total of 20 minutes which fit perfectly with the 10K trainer which was a 20 minute run as well.  5 minute warmup, 10 minute jog, 3 minute walk, 10 minute jog, 5 minute cool down.  I felt pretty good during the two 10 minute jogs.  My pace is at 6mph which is a 10 minute mile.  I would love to get faster but for now I am just focusing on surviving!  After my run I went down to the indoor lap pool for my swim.  I had 800 yards on the schedule which took me 20 minutes to do.  It was pretty easy, which is good because I set the swim workouts at the intermediate level so they get harder much faster.  I did a 200 warm up, then 2 sets of 50s with 15 second rests inbetween then 6 sets of 50s with 10 seconds inbetween and then a 200 cooldown for a total of 800 yards.  It was a bit more difficult with the shorter rest inbetween each lap.  Usually I wait 30 seconds to a minute depending on how fast I swim.  I averaged a 1 minute lap (50 yards) and that seems to be a pace that challenges me but I can keep up. 

I forgot to wear my HRM during the run so I just checked out what MFP had in the system and used that.  They have jogging at 6mph so I figured it would be pretty close.  I burned 166 calories during my swim which I thought was interesting because I burned 170 calories during 20 minutes of biking.  I just found it interesting that I burned almost the same amount of calories during both activities.  Granted I had already run before the swim so my HR was already up from that. 

Anyway.  I bought some new post workout snack bars to eat at the gym after my workouts.  I read a great article on some popular protein bars HERE called the healthiest protein bars and which ones to avoid.  Not all the bars are on that site (such as some very popular ones like Luna bars) but there is a lot of good info.  I picked up some Kind bars and some Larabars today at the store and I ate this one after my workout.

That says Maple Glazed Pecan and Sea Salt.  It was pretty good.  I liked how it was all real ingredients and I could taste the individual ingredients like the nuts and the maple flavor and the wonderful sea salt.  I just love sea salt on stuff like this.  There is 210 calories per bar which is the same as the Zone perfect bars.  There isn't as much protein, but the Zone bars I posted about yesterday have a TON more sugar in them.  They probably fit more into the realm of candy bars posing as healthy food. 

I really like the idea of getting off of all the "fake" food and eating more real foods.  Eating healthier protein bars is an easy improvement/switch to make.  I'm also going to make several of the snacks Tiffany has on her blog and see how I like them and how they make me feel. 

I earned 482 calories today from exercise and I ate 1,719 which left me with 243 calories remaining which I chose not to eat because I was full after dinner.  I did get hungry later in the evening but I chose to have some tea instead of snacking.  I really don't want to be running this triathlon at 155 pounds.  I would love to get down to 140 by then.  It's time to see what I am capable of and strive on making real changes.