Solstice Tiger, heading upward

[Solstice Tiger]

I found a routine to give a try, so I'll test it out this weekend when I know for sure I have time in the mornings. Should be a good time!

 

April 30 Quest Log

2 sort of circuits. I only did squats, pull ups, lunges, and push ups (no dips or step-ups). Got hit out of nowhere with a giant demotivation wave and just wanted to sit and cry about it....so, coming soon, shark week! >.< but I've been reading my book at lunch at work, and I made another paleo meal last night (which puts my total at the week at 3 now, so that's cool). Weekly macro so far is looking pretty good.

 

Sweet Garlic Chicken

didn't take a picture again...so here's their image:

Mmmmmmmmmm. Just look at it.

Overall this one was like an A-. Excellent recipe, easy to prepare (I love my slow cooker SO MUCH). I served it atop steamed-just-a-little-too-much broccoli. Only gripe with it was the inside of the chicken was drier than we wanted. So next time, because there will be a next time, I'll probably poke holes in the chicken when I put it in the slow cooker in the morning. Let the sauce get in the cracks a little...Also, I wanted more sauce. So I might make like 1.5 the stated amount of sauce next time. Because saaaauce.

[miss america]

Using my slow cooker is always so exciting, because I'm surprised EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. that there is like... a meal in there?!?! Ready to eat?!?! For me?!!??! Or maybe it's just my short attention span

 

[Solstice Tiger]

It's definitely a magic machine. Praise the magic machine for it bears food!!

 

On another note:

...I wish. 

[miss america]

Ooh, I just found this two-week "Clean Eating" meal plan from Buzzfeed that I'm totally stealing (I'm a sucker for anything that makes a grocery list for me) but it seemed mostly Paleo-ish so I thought you might enjoy!! http://www.buzzfeed.com/christinebyrne/clean-eating-2015#.yxVnNE6jx

[Solstice Tiger]

I was just about to go looking for recipes for this next week.... Thanks!

[Space Monkey]

Ooh, I just found this two-week "Clean Eating" meal plan from Buzzfeed that I'm totally stealing (I'm a sucker for anything that makes a grocery list for me) but it seemed mostly Paleo-ish so I thought you might enjoy!! http://www.buzzfeed.com/christinebyrne/clean-eating-2015#.yxVnNE6jx

Ohhh thanks for sharing! This looks interesting, I'm not sure yet if I'll do the complete two weeks or just cherry pick a few recipes.

Usually I am very wary of meal plans, they often require you to buy a bunch of exotic ingredients that you will never use again. Also they sometimes make you use e.g. half an apple for one recipe. What are you supposed to do with the other half? Throw it away?

Sorry for the rant. [emoji16]

This one looks pretty bulletproof though. I love how they even include an action plan of when to prep what for which day.

Are you going to try the whole two weeks?

[miss america]

Are you going to try the whole two weeks?

 

I'm doing a modified version of the first week at least! So far I think they're pretty good about using what you actually get, though I did modify it a fair amount so my grocery bill wasn't insane. I'm fine eating the same breakfast or lunch two days in a row if it means not getting five extra ingredients, but I feel like posting a well-advertised meal plan they feel pressure to switch things up Anyway I put my first day's thoughts here so as not to completely hijack Solstice's thread

[Solstice Tiger]

Week 3 Recap
Finished my book for the week on Saturday. Made a total of 3 paleoish meals this week (did one on Sunday, will review later). Worked out 3x though almost skipped the weekend (but didn't, yay!). But an F for the week in macros, sadly. 9% off. And this, my friends, is why we do not eat peanut butter and coffee for breakfast on Saturday and then have chips and dips with cinnamon roll dessert at Chili's for dinner. (It was really yummy though and I don't really regret it.)

[Space Monkey]

Hey there, how is week 4 going so far?

[Solstice Tiger]

Right... week 4. That's a thing.

 

Ran on Monday, 2 circuits on Wednesday. Made 1 paleo meal so far this week, Chicken Pad Sew Ew. Highly recommend. I added more garlic and ginger than the recipe called for. Mostly on accident. I highly recommend doing that too. However, 10 carrots like the recipe calls for is a lot of carrots. I will probably cut it down to 8 or something next time. Holy carrots, Batman.

It's a busy stupid week at work, it's also shark week, and I'm just tired, man. *sigh* I don't have another paleo meal planned for the week (the Beef Broccoli crockpot thing was supposed to be this week but got made Sunday due to needing food). So we'll see about going to get things this Sunday and making something... I think I have a pork roast in my freezer I could pop in the slow cooker...roast some veggies... easy peasy...

[Solstice Tiger]

Week 4 Wrap Up

 

Week 4 was a terror in real life, outside of challenges here. There's one week a month where my coworker is gone for 2 hours in the morning and 1 hour in the afternoon and 1 hour at lunch... It's a terrible week for both of us, generally. So that, plus shark week, plus the fiancé was sick for most of it too...it just didn't add up to anything super great.

 

Only started my book for the week on Thursday and did not get close to finishing it. Only made one paleo meal that week (my idea for the weekend didn't work out since I wasn't home at all over the weekend). On the bright side, I did my 3 workouts and crushed my macro. I'm within 2% which is an A for the first time ever. Kind of impressive, considering I was out to eat a couple times over the weekend for mother's day (I have 3, basically).

 

Here's hoping that week 5 will be better here on the other side of the internet...

[miss america]

Wow, nice work on the macros!! Hope you had a nice Mother's Day—eating out can always be a challenge, but you rocked it!

[Solstice Tiger]

Thanks! I was pleasantly surprised, though I did do my best to choose things that weren't completely devoid of nutritional value!

 

Week 5 so far...

 

Skipped Monday's scheduled workout in favor of a mental health day spent cleaning the apartment. So many dishes and things just sitting all over everywhere! Ran on Tuesday but I think I went way too far for my first time out in a few days because I had a major stitch in my side and had to stop and walk twice on my 5k route...I'm trying to train up for a 10k on the 25th so we'll see how this goes.

 

Made pulled pork on Tuesday which counts toward my 2 paleoish creations this week. Huzzah. Stuffed it into mini sweet peppers, wrapped in bacon... oh yes. It's delicious. Still gotta work on reading my book...I keep not reading on my lunch breaks in favor of other things.

[miss america]

Whenever I start thinking a paleo meal is gonna be a challenge or a sacrifice, I remember that bacon exists Mmmm bacon...

 

Cleaning the house seems like a good off-day activity for sure—as it can be pretty active itself, as long as you're not doing it like:

 

[Solstice Tiger]

Week 5 Wrap Up

 

All three workouts this week were running based, training for that 10k in a week (eep!).

Only made the one paleo meal. The only other meal that was made was pasta (the fiance's turn to cook) and it made a ton of leftovers.

Did not finish my book :/ I got close, but opted to spend time with the fiance over the weekend instead of ignoring him to read, so I'm kind of OK with it. Just means I need to finish this one and read another this week...If I manage to do that, I'll count both books toward my goal.

Macro is off by 4% this week, so B for the week on that. (Carb 46%, Fat 34%, Protein 20%)

 

Man, I've been dragging lately just in terms of life in general. Week 4 was a terror and this last week was better but still not quite great. And my coworker put in her six weeks' notice which is not okay because I don't want to get used to a new person (and also I was really hoping to get a new job myself). Pah.

 

It's just been hard to motivate myself to do pretty much anything and I've had more workouts these last two weeks where I wanted to start crying than I think I ever have ever (though I'm pretty sure I can blame hormones for at least a few of those...). I'm hoping this week will be better, but it's going to be a SUPERBUSY week:

1. gotta workout (read: run) MWF

2. Also on Friday is my cousin's graduation party in Denver (which is like 1ish hours south of me) so I need to try and figure how I'm going to run and drive down after work for that.

3. Saturday is Denver Comic Con. Gotta finish getting my costume ready. Gotta help the fiance with his (urk).

4. Sunday fiance's brother and brother's gf will be in town and crashing on our couch Saturday night with another friend.

5. Gotta clean the apartment more before fiance's brother and gf get here...

5. Monday is the Bolder Boulder 10k I mentioned.

So that's all terrifying.

[Solstice Tiger]

Week 6 Wrap Up

 

So, didn't post anything for week 6... Here's what happened:

• Ran twice for fairly short distances
• Made one paleo meal (roasted chicken and vegetables)
• Finished my book from last week
• Macro at 47-34-19 carb-fat-protein. Off by 4%.
   
• finished both costumes in time for Saturday (did not attend grad party)
• stayed up late Friday doing so and cleaning, stayed up late Saturday due to Con and family time
• Con on Saturday
• Social time Sunday

Monday was the BolderBoulder (technically not part of week 6). And I'm now either sick or battling some outrageous allergies.

[Space Monkey]

Heyyyyy I was already worried, you hadnt updated in like foreeeveer

 

 

How did the 10k go? satisfied?

[Solstice Tiger]

10k went well. 1:15:40, which I believe smashes my time last year by 15 minutes or something crazy. I'll have to check for sure when I get home, but I was very pleased with that result. My legs, however, are now loudly voicing their complaints. So this is a rest week.

[miss america]

This last week clearly kinda dragged for me too But whoo hoo, another challenge down!

 

Awesome work on the 10k!!! 

 

I also was just about to say—wait, someone on my Tumblr was at Denver Comic-Con too! And she went with HER fiancee! I wonder if you saw them! They were dressed as... oh, right. Hahaha. Well you both looked great!

[Solstice Tiger]

I also was just about to say—wait, someone on my Tumblr was at Denver Comic-Con too! And she went with HER fiancee! I wonder if you saw them! They were dressed as... oh, right. Hahaha. Well you both looked great!

 

Hehehe, that is a wonderful story and thanks! We had a lot of fun

[Solstice Tiger]

Six Week Challenge Wrap Up

 

Quest 1: Stay within caloric goals

Week 1: 5% off (
Week 2: 6% off ©

Week 3: 9% off (F)

Week 4: 2% off (A)

Week 5: 4% off (

Week 6: 4% off (

Grade: On average, I'm off by 5% which puts me at a B

 

Quest 2: Workouts

Desired number of workouts: 18

Completed number of workouts: 17

Grade: 94% A

 

Quest 3: Paleo-ish

Desired number of recipes: 12

Completed number of recipes: 10

Grade: 83% B

 

Life Quest: Read books

Desired number of books: 6
Completed number of books: 4
Grade: 67% D+ 

 

OK, so overall I did well. There were several weeks in this challenge where work and life went a little haywire, so being able to keep up with most everything during then is a good feeling.

 

What went well:
I only skipped one workout this challenge, which is pretty great! Even on days when I felt seriously unmotivated to workout, I still managed to get my butt up and do something, which is always better than nothing.

Still learning how to get my macros right, but I think some of that, at least, is making sure I eat enough protein per day. There were definitely times I fell woefully short of the gram goal.

I remembered how much I really enjoy reading books when I actually took the time to read books. Strange how that works. It may not be feasible to read a book a week all the time, but I'm glad that I tried to do that for six weeks, at least.

Preparing paleo meals was a whole lot of fun! I know I'm not interested in making the jump all the way over, but focusing on meats and veggies was really helpful for meal planning (and most of the stuff on the recipes I usually had in my pantry, which was great) and pretty easy. I have a couple new recipes that I will be making occasionally from here on out, so I'd call that a success.

 

What didn't go so well:

Proteiiiiiin! These last couple weeks I picked up some greek yogurts at the store to have one a day and that's been helpful, but I'm definitely falling short of my gram goal a lot of the time. That's something I'd like to take a further look at next challenge, maybe create a gram goal instead of just focusing on the macro?
 

[Space Monkey]

Check you ouuuuut! You totally rocked this challenge! So proud of you. Now that you know that protein is you weak spot you can tackle it the next challenge.