Day 20: Can You Meet Me Halfway

You guys..... the 30 day challenge is more than halfway over!

I can't believe how fast this has gone. Granted there are some days that I am going to have to "do-over" thus extending the challenge by a few days but that is totally fine with me! I love having a plan.

Have I ever told you how much of a planner I am? Seriously, I think it's like a disease (or something hereditary passed down by my mother, more likely. Thanks mom). But I love having a schedule and knowing exactly what to expect (in this case, for meals and work-out routines). It make my life so much easier and allows me to worry less about the unexpected. At least with a bone structure of what I expect of myself everyday, I know how to plan around accordingly to squeeze in time for friends, nights out or special treats. Which I all too much enjoy.

And this weeks gold medal goes too..... the lemon bar!

So remember last week, when I said I was  going to highlight my schedule with every workout and food meal that I accomplished slashed ate? Well I did it! You can see below it was more successful than I thought. Probably part of my "planner ocd," seeing the checked off meals motivated me to do it the next day. I highly recommend doing something like this, if you struggle with meal planning or fitting in your work-out routines. Map it out. Set specific time frames for things and try to stick with it. Obviously everybody's situation and schedule is different and maybe you have way less free time than I do, so do whatever works best for you. But seeing this laid out for me, really worked. (You can even see my cheats and where I didn't highlight the challenge menu or workouts. The scribbles will also show you that on weekends especially, I have to be flexible. I just try to do the best I can, for as LONG as I can and so should you!)

The weekend was great once we finally decided what we were going to do. We were suppose to go to Star Valley for a family wedding but were literally called off at the mouth of Provo Canyon when the wedding suddenly became... tentative? Not really sure what happened but we ended up staying home which was nice since we had just traveled a bunch the weekend before. You can check out our previous travels here.

Here's a little of what our weekend consisted of.

Friday night movie. It was, ok.

Skinny Chicken Taco smothered enchiladas. 210 cals for 1 serving of the meat alone. Delish!

Sunburst Lemon Bars. 150 cal per bar. Sweet treat Sunday night.

Meal planning for this week. I do all my prep Sunday night, making everything grab-n-go easy. 

So want to know my proudest moment for the weekend? I finally broke through the weight plateau I swear I was on! I lost the few extra pounds gained over Memorial Day weekend and then some! It FELT AWESOME! Literally bliss. My goal is getting closer and closer each week!

Saturday morning I woke up early and went straight the gym. I've heard that if you work-out first thing, on an empty stomach you burn 20% more fat of what you already have, rather than making your body work harder to burn what you've already eaten. This train of thought has always made me nervous though because I was afraid of feeling weak or tried during my workout since I train pretty hard (for me). But Saturday morning's workout was the complete opposite. I felt energized and ready to lift a cow! (Probably had something to do with that Veggie Burger, sweet potato fries and dulce de leche waffle cone (what?) that I ate the night before at Wasatch Brewery, but whatevs, felt good :)

I think I'm going to try that more. Workout in the morning. I actually did it again this morning for the first time ever before work and loved it! I thought waking up at 5AM would kill my stamina but it actually motivated me to keep going and make the most of my work-out since I sacrificed my precious sleep to be there. So you better believe I kicked that stair masters BUTT by the time I got off it!

And just for the record, today's meals so far have consisted of:

Breakfast

Special K Protein Cereal (3/4 cup)

Milk (1%, 3/4 cup)

Half banana

Morning Snack

Dannon Light and Fit Vanilla Yogurt

Lunch

Subway Turkey on Wheat (NO DRESSINGS OR SAUCES! 

Stick with Red Wine Vinegar for 0 cals and still great taste)

Apple Slices

The 30 day challenge menu also has a great sandwich lunch option if you can't 

make it to Subway everyday like me. Their option:

Whole Wheat Bread

 1 1/2 oz. turkey

Spinach or 1 leaf Romaine Lettuce

Tomato Slice

1 tsp. mustard

Pair with 1 cup fruit or veggies

Afternoon Snack

16 whole wheat reduced fat wheat thins

 Laughing Cow Light Swiss Cheese 

 (Mozzeralla and Sun-Dried Tomato with Basil- only 35 cals! Makes me so happy!)

And dinner tonight will be 

Whole Wheat Spaghetti Noodles

Red Sauce- 1 serving

Low Fat Parm Cheese

1 cup steamed veggies

If you've got questions about the challenge you can check it out here and just shoot me a comment and I'd be happy to respond. Happy Bachelorette watching tonight, you know that's where I'll be! :) 

/// xoxox