Muscle Building Program - FOOD!!!!

If you havent heard by now, I am a Jessie's Girl!!! Basically it just means I have purchased one of her plans and I am currently doing her Muscle Building program. There is a Facebook group page, you get access to Jessie herself, the program comes with TONS (and I do mean TONS) of information on eating and lifting weights and so much more on her fitness page.

The weight lifting doesnt really make me nervous, I am use to lifting and I actually love it. The one thing that did change for me was the sets and reps. I have been doing 3 sets of 10 and now I am changing it up. This week I am doing 4 sets of 15, next week is 4 sets of 12. I have to admit, 4 sets of 15 is brutal but I am getting through it. The cardio kind of makes me nervous because I can't run due to my knee and so doing HIIT workouts are a little different for me... but cardio really doesnt scare me that much either. What scares me about all of this, THE FOOD!!!

Food is 80% of losing weight and building muscle. You have to eat right in order to achieve your goals. Well I have been doing just that since last August and it has been going nicely. Now after doing my calculations with this program, I am UPPING my calories and macros. Let me just tell ya, that scares the HELL out of me!!! Adding food to lose weight?! I know it works, obviously... Jessie has thousands of women doing her programs!

I am so scared to gain weight. I have asked Casey to hide my scale (I am usually a daily weigher) and not give it back to me until the last week of April. I do plan on taking weekly photos on Sunday to have for comparison. This is going to be tough but it is something I have always wanted to do so I am going to TRUST JESSIE!!!

I am going to repeat to myself "TRUST THE PROCESS" so many times the next few weeks.

Here is a look into what I am eating. My calories went from around 1700-1800 to almost 2,500!!! My macros went from 170p/170c/45f ... to.... 237p/196c/85f!!!

Cake for Breakfast... Yum Yes Please!!!!

Check out Skinnymeg's blog HERE to read more about this amazing creation!!!

I cant wait to play around with flavors but for now, I am sticking with chocolate covered cherry!

This was my morning snack - Protein Puppy Chow.

To be honest, I am not a fan and I am having to change it. I bought enough to last all week long. Oh well, looks like Casey will be eating Chex mix for breakfast this week.

Basically you mix Chex cereal, protein powder, peanut butter and some coconut oil together. In theory it sounds amazing... I just couldn't eat more than 5 or 6 bites without being done!

Lunch & Dinner were the same, minus the avocado at dinner time. When I went shopping I couldn't find the Basmati rice and they were sold out of the Boil Bag Brown Rice boxes so I bought these little cups that already had the serving size dished out and you just microwave for 1 minute. It wasn't the best choice sodium wise but it was better than white rice. I mixed it with 6 ounces of ground turkey, steamed onions and bell peppers, 1/2 an avocado and 1/2 a serving of shredded cheese.

For afternoon snack, I was going to have a quest bar but I haven't made it to GNC lately so I decided to just boil up some eggs and have some bread. Its not very pretty but it is great fuel for my body for sure. Dax kept trying to steal my bread, that boy LOVES carbs!

Dinner was the same as lunch, minus the avocado... I was out of Fats by then.

Oh and I started my day with one of these and I also ended the day with one too. I buy these at Costco (and I believe Wal-Mart sells them too). They taste very good and they are easy when you are on the go!!!

Phase 2 I think I will be adjusting my calories and macros (haven't read that far ahead just yet but have seen people in the Facebook group talking about adjusting their calories) so I am really ready for that. I have seen so many transformation pictures of girls who just finished the program I am doing and WOW... they are inspiring me! I am going to trust the program, trust Jessie and trust the process. This girl wants more defined muscle!!!

Tom+Chee Review

Tomorrow on the blog I will be posting what I am eating this week, my 1st week of being a Jessie's Girl, and I will also post photos of everything.... but today... we are going to talk about this past weekend and all of the food I ate.

I didn't set out to have a bad eating weekend, really I didn't... but that is exactly what happened. From my last blog y'all know I have been dealing with a lot of stress and I am just out of sorts I guess you can say. I am started a new hardcore program today and I have every intention on giving it 110% and having an amazing transformation. With all that being said... I needed a break from macros, from the gym, from my food scale, from it all. We are all human and can't be perfect all of the time.

Friday night Casey took me to see The Little Mermaid at Bass Hall and we went to a restaurant called "Tom+Chee" for dinner. Saturday we had Chick Fil A for breakfast and Mi Cocina (Tex-Mex) for dinner. Sunday we had Braums for breakfast and Whataburger (a Texas classic) for dinner. I don't feel miserable but I also don't feel that energetic at all. I have to be honest, it felt SO great not worrying about anything at all this weekend and now I am ready to get back on track and destroy the next 14 weeks!!!

Okay, on to Tom + Chee... ever since I was a small kid, I have LOVED a great grilled cheese sandwich. When this new restaurant popped up I just knew I had to try it out. I have had this date night planned for a few months and let me just say, it lived up to all of my expectations!!!

One of the 1st things I noticed was that they have coloring books and crayons by the drink station for the little kids, or for adults who want to color. As a mom, that is a nice touch and a huge plus in my book. There is nothing worse than trying to entertain a child who is hungry and having to wait for their food to cook and be delivered to the table. Kudos Tom+Chee, kudos!!

They are known for their grilled cheese donut and I guess they also have a challenge that if you eat 13 of them, you are a winner!! I told Casey I should do the challenge... not because I am confident that I can eat 13 grilled cheese donuts BUT that I am confident that I like to win and not give up until I have become a winner. He laughed and said "very true!" Don't worry, I didn't do this time... maybe one day in the future (but probably not).

 

Casey ordered the Italian - salt & vinegar chips, pepperoni, ham, mozzarella on hardy white bread. He said it was (and I quote) "Damn good!" 

 

I had the BBQ and Bacon Grilled Cheese with a soup dipper (creamy tomato basil). The sandwich was amazing and after reading the fun facts on the cup, I realized that this was the sandwich that started it all. The soup on the other hand, I wasn't a fan of it at all. I am glad I only paid $1.00 and it was a small amount. I would have been super bummed if I had ordered a bowl or cup of it.

I enjoyed the heck out of that sandwich for sure!!!

Now on for dessert... I had a S'More Grilled Donut!!! I love S'Mores so much so when I found this on the menu I just knew I had to have it. It was hands down the best thing I have eaten in a long time (right next to the frozen hot chocolate in Vegas). WOW! Casey and I always share 1 bite of our foods and when he tried this, he wanted to switch. Ha!

Casey ended up getting The King Grilled Donut (fresh banana, peanut butter, mascarpone, mozzarella on a grilled donut) and he said it was okay. I did have one bite and I agree, it was okay. Nothing to do backflips over... like the S'More!

All in all, I am very impressed with Tom+Chee and I cant wait until I can take my nieces and the boys... maybe one day this summer when I am done with my 14 week Muscle Building Jessie's Girl program!

If you have a Tom+Chee restaurant close by, I suggest you make a trip your next cheat meal!!!

Come back tomorrow for my meal plan with photos of everything I am eating!!!

Thank goodness it is APRIL!!!!

Oh My Cheese and Rice!!! I have to admit, I am SO happy March is FINALLY over. It wore me the crap out and I am feeling so run down. I am ready to get back to feeling good and having less stress on my plate.

As many of you know, we bought a house and fixed it up... well what you might not know is that we were also renting a house and our leases wasn't up until yesterday. Having 2 of every bill including our first mortgage payment and our last rent payment really exhausted our savings. Which in return caused a lot of stress on me. I know that is why we have savings, for times like this, but it still was stressful. Not to mention having to go back and forth between 2 houses getting them both ready. PLUS we had the property manager from HELL!!! He was so damn picky and RUDE, but that is for another blog. I will try and get around to writing it next week... you know, once I stop being so pissed off at him.

But today is April... all of that is behind me and tonight my love is taking me to Bass Hall to see The Little Mermaid (aka my favorite childhood movie)!!!

Good things did come out of March and I knew it was going to be a hard and rewarding month... but for some reason I let the stress of it steal my joy and mess with my head. I wont lie, I cried myself to sleep a few nights. I became more and more of a hermit crab with each passing day. I snapped at the boys more than I should. I fought with Casey more than I would like to admit. I was bitchy. Annoyed. Sad. Upset with myself. I felt bloated and ugly. I would stand in front of the mirror and just cry wish I could just be at my goal weight already. No matter how much the scale would go down, I just felt like I wasn't good enough. Chalk it up to the stress, hormones and the weight of the world I placed on my shoulders. Plain and simple, I felt like a failure in March.

Casey told me to take a picture of myself now and compare it to when I started last August... it helped a lot. What a great man I have.

This morning I looked over my goals and realized I completed them all and even demolished my goal of losing 4-6 pounds... I lost 11 pounds!!! I don't know how or why, but I did and I wasn't going to complain about that. Okay Jordan, pull it together and snap out of your funk right now!

Last night I downloaded my new program I won from placing 5th in SkinnyMeg's most recent challenge... Click HERE to check it out! It is a LOT of information but it is something I have wanted to do for a VERY long time and I am very excited. This is a dream come true to me... so I need to stop feeling sorry for myself and get back to work. Nothing worth having is ever just handed to you... you have to work.

After downloading the program, I used Jessie's calculations she provided in my booklet and figured up my new macros for the next 14 weeks. I will admit, they are scary! I am upping all of my foods by a lot and on rest days I will be lowering my carbs. That is something I have never done. I have always just kept my macros the same regardless. BUT this is a program I have wanted to do forever and I want to be cut and lean like Jessie... so... I am going to follow her plan to a T and really try and stay focused on the next 14 weeks. I got this!!! Obviously she knows what she is doing, right?! TRUST THE PROCESS!!! I will keep you guys posted.

Also... since I am getting to up my macros, I think I am going to start eating CAKE for breakfast (see SkinnyMeg's recipe below).

A little of this... a little of that!

Before I get into my rant today, I want to talk about 2 of my favorite people in the world... Caleb Scott and Dax Marshall!!!

Caleb struggles with reading, writing and numbers. It has been a very hard road to teach him how to read, how to write and how to write his letters and numbers the correct way and in the correct order. I have shed MANY tears over this. I have called his teacher bawling my eyes out because I don't know what else to do (his teacher is heaven sent by the way, I love her). I have bought all the books that have been recommended. I have bought posters for the play room (you can kind of see it in the picture above). We talk about learning every chance we get. I have the apps for him to play on. I seriously didn't know what else to do. I remember one night after he started school I thought it would be easy for us to start with smaller words like "a" and "of" instead of doing the bigger words like "the" and "that". I sat down and asked him to spell the word "a" and write it three times. I figured it would be SO easy. I was wrong...We sat there for an hour and 15 minutes. I am not even kidding! He was struggling SO much on how to spell the word "A"... He didn't understand that it is just the letter a... I didn't understand how he didn't understand that. We both left the table in TEARS!!!!

Long story short... last night while I was cooking dinner he said "I am going to write a story can you tell me how to spell the words." He loves to write stories and draw pictures with them. I usually spell the words for him but last night I was going 90 to nothing and didn't have the time or patience to help him. I told him to sound out the word and write it like he thinks it sounds. He brought me the book when he was done and I about lost it... I picked him up and hugged him so tight. My first instinct was to ask him if he had copied the words from something but I looked around and there was nothing that said Batman or Joker on it. He sounded out each letter and wrote it down as he went. Yes, his J is backwards but he spelled 2 words without me helping him!!!!! I am SUCH a proud momma and look at that prideful smile he has on his face... LOVE!!!!!

 

I mean isn't he the cutest baby ever?! He has been obsessed with this dang baseball. Casey has been teaching him how to throw it and they sit on the floor and play catch. He wont play with me, only with Casey. Father son bonding time I guess! He is teething, actually his bottom left tooth came in while we were on vacation and Casey just text me and told me his top 2 front teeth broke through this morning!!! Oh sweet baby boy...

Now onto some fitness related stuff...

 

I took this picture May 4, 2014... A couple weeks before finding out I was pregnant with our angel baby. I had gained about 15-20 pounds back from our wedding and was sitting around 175-180 at this time. I maintained easily at that weight and I felt good about my body. I remember taking this picture and thinking... this is my goal body.  Sure, I loved being 160 on my wedding day but maintaining that weight was a lot of up keep and at that time in my life I didn't want to put in all that work. I wanted to maintain and live life... find a happy balance. I was doing great until I miscarried.

I kept looking back at this picture thinking "when I get back into this dress I will know I am skinny again..." It is like looking back at pictures of when you thought you were overweight only to think "man if I can be that size again I would be happy." I longed to be back into this dress and to be this size again. I have another dress (a green one shoulder dress) that is a bit smaller than this one and it is my ultimate big goal... but this is my "I know I can maintain" goal dress. Does that make sense?

 

Anyways... this dress has been starring me down from my closet and I have kept putting it off to try it on. I didn't want to get discouraged. This morning I decided to give it a try and just see where I was size wise. Oh my goodness, it fit!!! I did have to have Caleb help me zip it up in the back, but it wasn't snug and I was able to sit and still breathe. I was elated!!! I am still up about 15-20 pounds from where I was on May 4, 2014.. but it fits!!! My body is so different this time around with all the weight lifting, the macros and I guess from having a baby. Makes me wonder what this dress will look like on me when I am back down to 175-180 like I was when I first wore it 2 years ago. I cant wait to find out...

In the past 2 months, I have gone from a size 12 dress to a size 10 dress!! Here is to the next 2 months... If I can do this in just 2 months, imagine what you can do in the next 2 months!!!!