Happpppy Halloooweeeeennn!!

Happy Friday and Happy Halloween Clean Eaters!!

Who's taking a treat day today to indulge in some delicious chocolate? It won't be me this year... competition is a mere 3 weeks away.

Is anyone dressing up? We don't get too many trick or treaters up to our house because we live out in the country so I am not dressing up. I'd love to hear about your costumes.

Thank you for all of the comments. I just wanted to let you all know the blog is really motivational for me too. I don’t think I quite realized how much women (and the odd Clean Eating man) need each other and how much that need keeps me honest. I am trying to add bits and pieces to each entry that may help someone figure out how and why to do this crazy stuff!!

Here are my food intake and training logs for Wednesday and Thursday:

Wednesday:

EATING

Breakfast:
Most of you know how badly I felt after eating restaurant food on Tuesday. I basically suffered all day Wednesday. I think I must have eaten something that had wheat in it and it reacted in my tummy. I could manage my usual breakfast of ½ cup cooked oatmeal with 2 T flax and Salba and the accompanying 5 eggwhites + one yolk. But I could not even have coffee. I drank as much water as I could – the lemon juice in hot water did not help and neither did the wheat grass concoction.

Electrolyte-filled distilled water can be purchased from the store. It's called SmartWater. I am not affiliated with the company in any way, but since I don't know how to make this water at home I trust them!

When the pains got worse I realized I would have to take it easy with food and go light. So I decided to juice for two meals. I use whole, fresh veggies for juicing. Here is what I made for myself:

Mid AM:
2 cups spinach leaves + 2 stalks celery plus leaves + 1 bunch baby bok choy + 1 carrot + 1 baby cucumber + 3 small Brussels sprouts + 4 radishes = interesting looking green liquid.

The taste was a bit bitter but I did not mind it. I read in my fav book, Healing with Whole Foods by Paul Pritchard, that I would need to flush out the kidneys and liver. So I worked on that for the rest of the day.

I was still suffering from whatever I ate – gassy, bloated and very uncomfortable. I looked 4 months pregnant!

Lunch:
I forced myself to eat egg whites at noon along with some steamed asparagus.
Drank loads of herbal chamomile tea and water too!

Mid PM:
More of the juiced liquid I had in the morning.
3 egg whites

5:00 pm
Drank a cup of hot water with 2 tablespoons organic cider vinegar and 1 T honey.
Again this was to help the tummy. It did relieve some of the discomfort.

Dinner:
¼ cup brown rice
½ cup Steamed green beans, asparagus – this was less than I would normally eat but I was afraid to overload my tummy with fiber.

TRAINING

PRE-EXHAUST: chest which I did by doing cable cross-overs first (this is the single joint movement) followed by chest press (which is the multi-joint movement). I did 4 sets of both of these exercises fairly quickly one right after the other for a BIG BURN
Back: 5 sets lat pulldowns doing 12 t o15 reps per set and keeping the weight fairly heavy. The last two sets were behind the neck to further mobilize the scapula which helps increase the V-taper. I followed lat pulldowns with 2 sets of heavy seated row.
Ab isolation exercise and posing time.

Before Bed:
Another hot water and apple cider vinegar concoction with a shot of glutamine post workout.

Thursday

Before Breakfast:
I felt much better on Thursday. I think the worst had passed – literally!
So I drank my usual before breakfast 250 ml hot water with lemon juice and then waited to see how that felt.
Twenty minutes later I felt okay so I followed the hot lemon with 250 ml and 9 ounces wheat grass. So far so good.
I hesitated on coffee though.

Morning Training:
Pre-brekkie run on the treadmill for a fast paced 40 minutes. I pushed my way through some of the run with my trusty iPod and some steady heavy metal tunes. Yep! I like rock and metal bands as much as I like Madonna.

Breakfast:
½ cup cooked oatmeal with 2 T each wheat germ, flax
5 egg whites, 1 yolk
½ cup black coffee
5 fish oil supplements

Mid AM:
4 egg whites
Juiced veggies made with the following: 4 stalks celery plus leaves + 5 radishes + 2 bunches baby bok choy + 1 carrot + ½ cucumber. I drank half of this concoction.

Lunch:
I ate lunch with my pal Berns who has created my competition suits. Can’t wait for you to see my new costume for the Vegas show. She did a GREAT job on it!!! BUT you'll have to wait and see.

I made a yummy salad for each of us:
2 cups salad greens
1 hothouse tomato
1 mini cuke
1 small carrot
1 T flax seed
2 T pumpkin seed oil and 2 T apple cider vinegar
Topped with 5 ounces poached chicken sliced thin
Herbal tea

Mid PM:
Other half of juiced veggie drink – the bitter drink is really helping me feel leaner in my abdomen so I think it has done its’ job.
4 egg whites

Abdominal training:
Captains chair leg raises: 4 sets, 25, 35 , 25 and 15 reps
Roman Chair abs with plate: warm up set with no weight for 15 reps, 3 sets with 25 pound plate for 15, 20 and 20 reps
Posing practice and ab isolation work for 15 minutes
Light cardio – 20 minutes – I am pooped from filming all day!

Dinner:
¼ cup brown rice
4 ounces grilled chicken
1 cup steamed veggies

Before Bed:
250 ml water with 9 ounces wheat grass

Thursday was a progress day for me. My coach and I looked at my physique in the mirror and decided what needed work and what was coming along. My glutes are looking high and round. This is good. Everything else is coming in nicely and I appear to be developing cuts, size and so on right on schedule. I am happily surprised with my abs. This is a trouble spot for most women who are older as I am. But the work and contest eating is paying off. I need to shed about ¼ inch of chub off of my sides right on top of my obliques. This will be accomplished with tighter eating and more cardio sessions.

Stay tuned for more!