healthandwellness

Can’t stop won’t stop over here. I literally have been non-stop the past couple of days. Friday, I headed back home to Chicago to attend my cousin’s wedding, which was amazing. Pre-wedding, I decided to test my speed a little and do a fartlek run on the treadmill. 4 miles of random speeds later and I felt good. Like really good. I feel like I’m making strides (literally) and it’s a good feeling.

Sunday was a rest day because, let’s be honest, you couldn’t pay me to workout after that wedding. But, thanks to the rise of the Pokemon Go app, I easily hit my 10,000 steps haha. My boyfriend and I went on multiple aimless walks. Gotta catch em all, obviously.

Today was a 5k. I still am taking little breaks every now and then to reassess and check my ankle, but I’m getting there. To be completely frank, it doesn’t always feel awesome. There are times when I get a little nervous, but I know I’m ready and I’ve got to keep pushing to get there. I have to say though my new supplement routine seems to helping with my progress.

I’m still on the hunt for the perfect protein powder. After talking about supplements and all those fun extras a couple of posts back, I’ve been working to try and incorporate them into my meals a little more regularly. I received a container of Amazing Grass Protein Superfood through my association with FitApproach. All opinions are my own.

Amazing Grass Protein is a blend of pea, hemp, chia, and quinoa, delivering 20g of protein per serving. But that’s not all. In each serving, you get 7 alkalizing organic greens and two-full servings of wholesome fruits and vegetables. No shame in getting a little extra goodness along with my protein. Definitely not complaining.

When I first opened the canister, I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t ready for the smell. It’s unlike regular protein powders. The initial shock of the smell didn’t dissuade me though and I decided to use it in some shakes and try baking with it. It’s a super convenient way to get the recommended daily servings of fruits and vegetables, that’s for sure.

So, I used some in a shake and I was shocked. I expected it to be an overwhelming flavor that I wasn’t going to enjoy, but this was not the case at ALL. I think the best part about the Amazing Grass Protein Superfood powder is that it’s more than just protein powder and that makes me want to use it as much as I can. I started putting a little bit in my morning oatmeal, sprinkling it into some of my baked goods, and putting it in shakes. I even gave it to my uber picky boyfriend and he loved it. Seriously, I’m not just saying that. It gave the shakes a green tea taste almost like matcha. If you like matcha, you will honestly love this stuff. It blends really well too because the powder is super fine. Amazing Grass knows what’s up.

Best part. Macros. It’s super hard to find a low carb, vegan protein powder but each serving of this stuff only has 4g of carbs. Yep. 4. Kthanksbye. 20g of protein too.

Overall, really glad I gave this stuff a try and will be incorporating it into my rotation for sure. It’s some of the most refreshing protein powder I’ve tried and tastes great in a simple shake of just bananas and almond milk. Count me in.

-sj

I’ve officially been tracking macros for over a month! Time flies, guys. Seriously, I am loving this new diet change. I’ll detail it a little further in a second, but first here’s a recap of life and such.

Injury update: Hi there, still injured. My ankle had been feeling good and I was 100% stoked that things were seemingly moving forward, but these past couple of days have been a complete 180. Womp womp. New pain has started appearing higher up in my calf, so I have no idea what’s going on, but if it could stop, that’d be great. That’s not stopping me from signing up for races though. I’m teaming up with CGI Racing for ThePerfect10 10 Miler and I’m stoked. I loved their Love Run and am excited to take on this more manageable challenge. If you want a discount on your entry use my code:

PERFECT10STEPHANIEJ

Life update: Things have been all kinds of go, go, go over here. With the weather picking up, I’ve been enjoying having some friends over and taking Boo on epically long walks around the preserve. It’s crazy how fast stuff is growing over here. At least the rain is good for something.

Now to Macro World:

It’s no secret that I haven’t always had the healthiest relationship with food. In high school and at the beginning of college, I ate whatever I wanted whenever I felt like it and exercised occasionally, but didn’t think twice about what was going into my mouth for the most part. By my sophomore year, I can’t say that mentality was the same. I forwent food in favor of getting stuff done. I can’t count the amount of times I grabbed something small for lunch in a cup and ran off to my room to practice or to work on school work. The same could be said for dinner, which I usually had to eat at odd times because of my grueling rehearsal and class schedules. There would even be times when I would have back to back classes that required me to eat a Velvetta instant mac and cheese while walking across campus at night. Things were awesome and I was the epitome of health and wellness.

College ended and I ended up on my own for the first time truly in charge of my own meals. No parents or servery to make me anything. Just me and some shopping bags full of ingredients that I had no idea what to do with. I lived on majority cereal for almost and entire year, I’d say. That probably contributed heavily to some of my health issues, but who cares when you’ve got the sugary goodness of Special K Vanilla Almond (which will forever and always be my favorite cereal of all time) to keep you satiated. I had a lot of eating disorder like tendencies at this time as well and went through some pretty extreme times at the end of college and the beginning of my adulting career. Things just weren’t going well and I was wasting away to more or less nothing. I started losing energy, hair, and friendships all over my lack of ability to maintain a healthy relationship with food.

Fast forward to moving up to New Jersey with my boyfriend. My relationship with food became a lot healthier because I was forced to actually cook real meals for me and a real other person. A person who didn’t feel like eating two bowls of cereal and calling it a meal. He may have been on to something. And he also starting teaching me about appropriately fueling following a workout. I took this to heart and ate pretty much anything anytime I wanted, but I wasn’t really happy with my choices. I felt very out of control and I never knew appropriate portions of food to eat. I would have massive dinners and tiny breakfasts and I could never figure out why I was always so hungry by the end of the day and eating the pantry bare.

When I started tracking macros with a coach, a lightbulb went off in me. There’s a happy balance between tracking too strictly and not fueling your workouts and going overboard. I honestly don’t think I would have been able to find this balance on my own. Here are the highlights I’ve experienced thus far:

Being able to go out to eat with friends and actually have fun. I have gone out for drinks and meals a handful of times over this past month and I’m really proud of myself. Going out to meals used to stress me out because I had no control. Now, I make sure to try and plan out what I’m going to have the day before and leave a lot of wiggle room. For instance, the other day I went out for my friend’s graduation dinner and I didn’t know what the plan was. So, I tracked my normal meals a little lighter and left a lot of protein and fats for dinner, so when the menu came and it had chicken on it, I was set and good to go. Plus, I even had macros for a couple of glasses of wine. Win/win.
I am waking up feeling awesome. I no longer feel over-stuffed or underfed when I wake up or go to sleep and it is an A+ feeling. I feel healthy.
My workouts are showing off. Finally. I’ve been working out for years, but I have never felt as defined as I do now. It’s nice to see your hard work paying off.
I no longer have “fear foods”. If I want something, I’ll eat it and work around it later. I used to not allow peanut butter in the house and now I eat 2+ servings on the daily.

I also want to be very clear, this is not a weight loss method for me. I am already a small girl, I just want two things: to be happy with the body that I work so hard for and to have a healthy relationship with food. So far, I am moving very nicely towards these goals and I couldn’t be happier.

I’m sure you’re wondering if there have been any downsides thus far? The answer: Of course. Starting out was really hard. I had a hard time grasping that balance. There were somedays when I didn’t space out my meals appropriately and I was starving by the time I went to bed. There were other times where I just snacked incessantly on top of my macros for no reason at all. And there have even been a couple days when I’ve just said, Nope, not today and declared a cheat meal. But I know that when I get back on track the next day, I’m solid. I’ve got a good foundation and I’m seeing progress that I’ve wanted for so long. I’ll continue to provide macro updates as this journey continues, but so far I’m pretty proud of myself and actually happy with my nutrition for the first time in a long time.

-sj

Love & Lunge

running here, there, and everywhere and an Amazing Grass Protein Review

Macro Tracking Month 1 Update and Discount for the NJ Perfect10Miler!