Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

Good evening all you turkies! I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving with your loved ones. Mine was great! Busy, busy day. Hosting was a lot of work, but it was so worth it. I was really happy with how everything turned out. My family really liked everything. I made healthier versions of chocolate pecan pie, pumpkin pie, lemon bars, and a chocolate birthday cake for my Dad's birthday! Everyone loved that a lot! I plan on making it for Christmas! I also made healthier versions of mashed potatoes, cauliflower mash, sweet potato casserole, mac and cheese, and gluten-free dinner rolls. I was so happy my brother liked the dinner. rolls. He can be picky and has not always liked the gluten free versions of bread I have made. I am definitely going to make him more and also make some from Christmas as well. Everyone also made healthier and gluten free (or gluten less) versions of dishes ofr green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and gravy. My mom said it was good because it just made them think about making healthier choices and being more aware of it. That was my goal. To show them that healthier versions of things can still taste just as good! My workouts this past week consisted of just cardio. No weights or running 😥.

Monday 11/18/19: Cardio and Barre

Elliptical

Tuesday 11/26/19: Cardio

Elliptical

Wednesday 11/27/19: Cardio

Elliptical

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Thursday 11/28/19: Cardio

Treadmill

Friday 11/29/19: OrangeTheory

OrangeTheory

Saturday 11/30/19: Cardio 

Elliptical

Sunday 12/01/19: OrangeTheory

OrangeTheory

Diet:

My diet was non-existent this past week 😅. Lots of turkey and treats. I also ate tons and tons. That's okay. I am not going to harp about it. I enjoyed myself and time with my family. I will get back on track this week (sort of) and definitely next week when I start my two weeks of no added sugar. Next Monday, I will put into details my plans and rules for it. I am going to be stricter than I have been in the past with it and am also making meal plans that will hopefully allow me to stick with it better!

I am still focusing on maintenance, but I need to put more attention into following the MIND diet better. I need to incorporate more on berries, whole grains, and leafy greens. I do pretty well on limiting butter, cheese, poultry, and beef (except for this past week and upcoming week. Gotta eat up that turkey)! I still need to work on the consistency of my calories intake to determine where I maintain. I keep having days of way over or way under, so I keep balancing out, but I still do not know that magic maintenance number. I have not been focused on intermittent fasting, and if it does happen it's for less hours. I think because I have been doing it for about a year now, it is still habit to stop eating earlier and waiting to eat until breakfast the next day. I am still trying to not eat anything after 8 pm so give 2-3 hours before going to bed (sometimes that time needs to be earlier 😂). I did not take pictures of everything I made (I fail I know), but here is what I did remember:

                  

                  Lemon "Bar"

Chocolate Pecan Pie

Pumpkin Pie

All three were made with a gluten free oatmeal crust. To reduce calories, I used light butter in them and stevia. For the lemon "bars" I used a pie pan because I did not have anything else available 😅They definitely needed more lemon. The chocolate pecan pie was delicious! I used keto chocolate baking chips for lower sugar as well as monk fruit syrup. I also had to shell the pecans! I have a new appreciation for the store bought shelled ones now! The pumpkin pie also used monk fruit syrup. For the mac and cheese I made, I used reduced fat cheese and almond milk. For the mashed potatoes, I used light butter and the water from boiling the potatoes to make them creamy. The cauliflower mash, I modified the recipe from Daniel Walker's and used light butter instead of ghee and oil to lower the calories, although I really should be using olive oil in place of butter for the MIND diet. That is one of the adjustments I need to make. The sweet potato casserole was sweetened with monk fruit syrup and had no marshmallows (I did buy some so people could add). I love sweet potato casserole and I loved this one a lot! The gluten free dinner rolls used gluten free flower. I did use sugar to help with activating the yeast.I don't have much experience with gluten-free flour and was not going to take any chances!

I am taking a couple weeks off from running and weightlifting. I realize, I did not give my body adequate recovery time after my marathon. My knee has still been hurting. I am going to make an appointment with my doctor since it has been going on for awhile. I can run 3-4 miles and anything more it hurts a lot during and after. It is an improvement from not being able to run on it at all, but I think I need to take a break from running, unfortunately. The next week and a half will be a lot of OrangeTheory for their 12 days of workouts! I need to get in 7 days between the 1st and 12th to get some socks! I love socks! Themed ones are even better!

"The master has failed more times than the beginner has tried."-unknown

I forgot where I heard that quote, but I love it. It emphasizes that failures are okay. They are how we learn and grow. They are how we master things. We just need to keep trying.

Until next time,
Ari 💖