Susie Home Maker

So I didn't post daily what I had to eat, but I did well anyway, so mind your own business :) Kidding. I did have a special moment with the peanut butter jar Saturday morning and was about at my fat quota by 1pm, so I had to hide the jar from eye sight. Pathetic, maybe, but I succeeded. I just really love peanut butter.

Saturday I went to Ram's and got my last workout of the week in -- shoulders and biceps. That was a sight. My right shoulder has been killing me so much that I can hardly hold a weight in it. But luckily Brandon was at the gym so I lifted my arm up and he put the weight in my hand for the overhead shoulder presses. Once the weight was there, I could do the lift on my own, so I still got a good workout in, and still increased weight on some things. The lateral cable raises were killer and so were the incline bicep curls. I couldn't hold a 20# DB in my right hand, let alone the 25# DB I had been using last week, so I dropped to 15# on my right and 20# on my left. My right side is stronger anyway and so I figured I could just work on my left catching up :) I don't know if it works like that, but it makes sense to me. Also, Brandon did a few of the shoulder special tests on me and we are guessing it's either impingement or labral injury. I'm going with impingement just because I don't have time for labrum probs. (Seriously, click on that link.. nothing to do with shoulders/labrum/whatever.. just click)

I also started my training at the Carolina Club Saturday. It is a very slow paced waitressing job, but the people (alum typically) are all very friendly and fun to talk to and I got to sample some food and bring a lot of leftovers home from a wedding reception. I only took a big portion of spinach salad, chicken, ham, and some white fish, but it's all very delicious and FREE hah. I love anything free. Well, not anything. I don't want like free bird poop on my head, or free plantar warts - lord knows I've had enough of those - but you get the idea. And no, I don't care that the world knows I had a lot of warts growing up, if anyone is to blame it is my parents/sisters for not reinforcing showers.

Today I think I have only spent about an hour outside of the kitchen and laundry room. Cleaning and ironing all my work clothes - I burnt my knuckle on the iron too, typical. I made 5 sweet potatoes, 2# baked chicken (simple "recipe" below), cut up a bunch of red pepper, onion, and broccoli, and then made a Raspberry Lemon Protein Bread (Jamie Eason's cinnamon swirl bread but altered) and some Raspberry Protein Muffins (Little B's blueberry muffins altered)

Too bad I don't have two muffin tins and too bad I don't have patience to make two batches :) Oh well! My house smells delicious right now from all these raspberries cookin!

I also made some protein pancakes this morning of Jamie Eason's. Delicious! I am going to post all these recipes and nutrient info on different posts starting as "Recipe: " so that if you ever want to go back you can just search "recipe" and find them all. And you can just take out the protein if you don't want it and they will still be delicious! (Remember to refrigerate.. no preservatives)

The rest of my day I'm going to spend finishing ironing, making my turkey burgers, and driving back to Greensboro for another week of "work". CJ and Jack's birthdays are this week so it will be a good test for me. Oh! I did want to mention, that last night I went out to the bars with some friends and just ordered water and put that Mio flavoring stuff in it. SO good! And I was always holding a "drink" so I didn't feel the need to drink alcohol or anything! I was super happy about it and about how easy it was.

One week until D-Day (clearly not the WWII invasion of Normandy, France) nervous but excited to see how much progress I've made in 5 weeks. Maybe I'll post pics.. most likely I won't haha. Alright well. Catch ya later. Hope you all stuck with your weekend goals. Monday is going to be here before you know it, so plan out your week and pick a goal to reach by the end of the week or a bad habit to break! One little thing, one day at a time, and eventually you'll get to where you want to be!



My chicken:
Preheat oven to 400. In a frying pan, spray some olive oil, salt and pepper the bottom of the pan. Lay down the raw chicken. Salt and pepper the top. Let it hang for about 3-5 minutes, flip it and let it hang out 3-5 minutes. Maybe flip it one more time if the outside isn't white. Then when your oven is ready, pop it in there (in the frying pan) for about 20-30 minutes and take it out when it's completely white and the juices are clear. Done. Easy clean up. It's the JUICIEST simplest chicken ever. And then just throw on some mushrooms or sriracha sauce or whatever. It's a good base chicken for recipes.

Wednesday's Weakness

I just want tomorrow morning to be over with! Let me explain. I have been doing SO great resisting cravings and not even being tempted with snacks, treats for people's birthdays, etc. There is a classmate's birthday this Saturday, but because class ends Friday, and we are taking our test that day, I am making a treat to bring tomorrow. So I made this new cookie/brownie/bar/whatever you want to call it. Caramel-toffee-peanut butter-brownie (I used this recipe and changed a few things to make it a bit healthier and better imo) is what it is. I made it, and CJ was here and graciously offered to lick the batter and rinse the bowl IMMEDIATELY so I wouldn't have to deal with the temptation. Phew. Well now she is gone and the bars are just sitting on my counter. I can't eat one anyway, because then there wouldn't be enough for tomorrow, but they are just sitting there, staring at me, and seriously making me want to eat some sort of sweets. I just need them out of my house. I am not wasting my cheat meal on a damn cookie/bar/concoction. I refuse.

Despite this little temptation, todays nutrition has been SPOT ON! I am so excited, and it was so easy, and honestly I enjoyed every one of my meals. My morning snack is a little bland, so I may have to see if I can spare a few grams of different macros here and there to add salsa/cheese/something, but all in all, they are good. This is what I had today:

Breakfast:
4 egg whites, 1 egg, mixed with cilantro, onion, tomato, mushroom and mozzarella, and a slice of ezekial garlic toast
Mid-morning Snack:
4 oz chicken, broccoli, 3/4 c brown basmati rice (see, a little boring)
Lunch:
Chicken wrap with spinach, cilantro, onion, tomato, and cottage cheese. Which is AH-MA-ZING!
Post Workout Smoothie:
Protein powder, plain greek yogurt, strawberry/banana/blueberry/mango/raspberry (some combination), flax seed, and unsweetened vanilla almond milk
Dinner:
Chicken with mozzarella, sweet potato, broccoli
Evening Snack:
Chicken, Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal, String Cheese

My dinner and evening snack changes regularly, but the other 4 meals are pretty set in stone. And I like it that way. It makes life simple and I know what to expect, and I'm always satisfied. Always. Except when I have to bake.

Workout today was interesting. I increased weight on EVERYTHING, yet for some reason I wasn't happy with it. And on the tricep dips, holy moly I thought my rib was going to pop right off my sternum. I did my first set of 12 with 105# on my lap. That was too easy, so next set of 10 I decided to throw a 25# plate on top of the stack and do 130#. Well I did 9 alright, went down for the 10th and couldn't get up. IT. HURT. Oh God I think I was bitching loud enough for the whole gym to hear. Lie, but you get the idea. Pissed me off. And that was towards the end of the workout, I was pissed off before. I don't know why because I did awesome, but it just didn't feel successful. I guess we all have those days where you are just too hard on yourself and nothing is going to be good enough. But here's the workout

Standing BB Press - 4 sets
Arnold Press - 4 sets and a drop set
Front Raise - 3 sets
Lateral Raise - 3 sets
Dips - 4 sets
Triceps Cable superset - 3 sets each
30 Pushups

Even though I increased weight on everything, and my chest was broken in half, I was so stoked about my pushups. I easily can do 30 in a row. The last 2 weeks I've been doing 15 with a narrow set base (hands right under my shoulders) and 15 with a wider set base (so that when I'm done, my hands are under my elbows) Today, I got 20 and 10. My goal for next week is to do all 30 with a narrow base. Doable. Or at least it will be!

Well, I'm exhausted, and I still have 6 slides of powerpoints to get through (I know, that really isn't that much, but I have to do it before bed. Stickin' to my schedule). I got to video chat with Bliz tonight (and my fam, obviously.. she's not that techy yet!) so that's why I'm up WAY past my bed time. Grandma might be cranky tomorrow if I don't wrap this up! Orientation for my new job at the Carolina Club tomorrow, so who knows when I'll finish studying for this final, but I think I'm good to go anyway. I'll just wing it :)

The week is half way over, y'all. If you've been slacking so far, put it behind you and kick it up a gear to finish the week off strong. Make it to the weekend while accomplishing your goals. Night!