That.Fit.Life!

Need to eat more greens but don’t have time to thoroughly chew your salad? Try drinking it up instead!

Yep. Just throw your favorite leafy greens and toppings into your blender with about a cup of water or less (depending on how thick you want it to be). Add half of a fruit for a little sweet twist and hit blend.

I personallythrow in some ground flaxseed and nutritional yeast to get some extra essential vitamins & minerals. It serves as a great morning or midday smoothie! Go ahead and try it!

At least it beats chewing forever and ever…and ever…

What a weekend! In my last few posts I shared my not completely successful 2-week detox. 2-weeks turned into 3 days and I had to find a better solution to taking on a healthier eating habits. On Sunday, I sat down and wrote down what I want my diet to consist of. And after much thought, I’ve decided that I’m going to keep it simple and slowly but surely add better quality foods while dropping some of the less favorable foods along the way.

Of all the foods I love to indulge/emotionally munch on (we’re all guilty of that one),I have cut out candy/sweets (Omg, I can’t believe I’m saying this), junk food (Spicy Doritos, it’s been real) and will be adding more wholesome foods. Here’s how I plan on implementing these unprocessed foods:

• Fruits - Strictly for the morning/breakfast. If hunger pangs hit and I’m on the sales floor (at my retail job), munching on fruit will help pick up my energy level. 
• Vegetables - Greens, sprouts, etc. This will always be added to lunch and dinner. New rule. Hands down. No questions asked. 
• Legumes - Lentils, beans, etc. For more protein and iron. I’m a little iron deficient so I gotta add some other foods besides meat for my iron supply. This will mainly be a lunch staple.
• Complex Carbs / Starches - Brown rice, quinoa, sweet potatoes. Another item added to the lunch menu for that extra pick me up. I’ll also eat this prior to a workout & at breakfast time.  
• Meats - Lean meats like chicken, fish and turkey. I’m Nigerian so eating meat is very hard for me to let go of. At least for right now. In the mean time, I’ll reserve my meat eating time to dinner. Figured that would be my treat for eating healthily throughout the day.
• Nuts & Seeds - I’m not too keen on eating these. Never really had an interest. But they’re pretty good when it comes to getting your daily dose of health fats. I’ll make more of an effort to try it out though.  

My overall goal is to eat lighter more vitamin and mineral heavy foods throughout the day (80%) and heavier foods like meat, legumes later in the day (20%). This way it’s a little easier on my pockets (financially) and I can mix & match foods in each category to spice it up. Plus I’ll make my transition easier, even if I do find myself in the mood for mac & cheese or 2 Chipotle tacos (god, I love that place). 

With all this said, I started off planning 2 days in advance when it came to my meal plan for this week. Today and tomorrow, I started off my day with plain oatmeal (carb - check), topped off with slicked bananas and blueberries (fruits - check). For lunch, I made a colorful salad made with mixed greens, and chopped bell pepper, cucumber, tomato (veggies - check). I added two tablespoons of my homemade mustard vinaigrette dressing (from my detox) and  sprinkled some nutritional yeast to supplement my vitamin and mineral intake. 2-3 hours after that, I eat my steamed broccoli, snap peas and string beans with some lentils. All to hold me over til dinner, which will involve some type of meat and vegetables and whatever else I’m in the mood for. 

I know this healthy eating journey won’t be perfect, but I know it’s better than how I used to eat before. Besides, I have to start somewhere as opposed to not starting at all. 

Tomorrow I’ll talk more about my progress as well as a my fitness goals. Yeah mayne!

Till next time…

Today was very difficult. So difficult that I caved into crappy food. Well not entirely. I started the day off with a cool refreshing juice that I made out of carrots, spinach, a tomato, cilantro and an inch of ginger root. And MAN was it good! :) I found that I wasn’t too hungry afterwards and sort of felt like I needed to eat something before heading to my retail job.

Sadly, I didn’t get to eat anything until I got to work. I munched on my pre-made salad for 10 minutes until it was time to clock in. Two hours into my shift, I felt fine…until the fourth hour hit. I started getting a headache and felt weak. I also felt backed up for some reason. Yeah, backed up and not to mention worried about not having a bowel movement since the beginning of my detox reboot (I know, I know, TMI…). 

Anyway, once my half-hour break hit, I headed to Chipotle. Yes, Chipotle. I got something really light: 2 small corn tortillas with about 2 ounces of grilled chicken, black beans, tomatoes w/ cilantro, corn and romaine lettuce. It was light and filling. My headache went away and I felt relieved, but guilty at the same time. At the end of my shift, I felt so bad about it, that I ended up grabbing a bag of doritos, cheese and crackers and an ice cream cone. I felt depressed and a mess.

I’m starting to realize that living in NYC and having a retail job makes it even harder to get on this healthier lifestyle. Unlike a typical 9-5, I don’t have the ability of getting out of my seat and grab my food and eat at my desk. I have to plan like crazy, to the extent of planning when I’m going to prepare my meals. Unfortunately I’m not in a stable financial position to continue my strict fruit & vegetable detox journey. As I mentioned on Day 1, everything I bought for the first day was expensive! I do NOT need to spend that much again.

So what am I going to do next? Re-introduce these healthy foods, but not all at once. Drastic diet changes do NOT work for me. Instead, I’m going to take my time adding more fruits and vegetables. Yes, one day at a time. I’ll also try the idea of eating lighter foods in the morning and afternoon, with heavier foods (meals w/ meat) at night. This was something I learned about from a book I purchased last year.

I’ll be back on Monday to give you all an update on my new detox/healthier lifestyle. Until then, I’m going to pick myself back up and try again. I’ll be working on my meal plan for next week as well.

That’s it! Game on!

So it’s officially Day 2 of my detox. I made it through 24 hours. I must admit that it has been a challenge and I have been tempted to go back to my old ways. But I know I owe this to myself. I’ve been abusing my body enough. Or at least taking advantage of my temple for too long.

This morning I woke up <big>super</big> tired! My body was throbbing and aching. My breath still had hints of red onion (Lol) and I did NOT want to get out of bed. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest and could feel my pulse throughout my body. It was crazy! I was a bit concerned. I couldn’t understand why my heart was pounding like that. It was too the point that I checked my pulse just to make sure my heart wasn’t beating too fast.

It was normal.

One thing I can say about this detox is that my appetite hasn’t been that big. It took me FOREVER to finish finish my Arugala-Spinach salad. But it was good! What was in it? 

• 1 cup of Arugala
• 1 cup of Spinach
• 1 Celery stalk (chopped)
• 1/2 medium-sized Heirloom tomato (diced)
• 1/3 of Avocado
• 1/3 thinly sliced White Onion
• 2 tbsp of homemade Mustard Vinaigrette
• 1/2 medium-sized Jicama (cubed)

And how did it taste? Pretty good! I chewed and chewed and chewed until I couldn’t chew anymore! Will I make it again? Oh yes! In fact, that’ll be my lunch for tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow. I’ve decided to discontinue the REBOOT program. Why? Well I realized that I don’t have much weight to loose. My overall goal is to tone up my body and burn as much fat as I can. I also realized that detoxing doesn’t need to be a drastic once in a blue moon thing. It can be a lifelong lifestyle. I call it “Clean As You Go.” The REBOOT program (which I now view as more of a fruit and vegetable fast) was a bit much for me. And oh yeah, expensive. With all this said, I’m still going to share my fitness journey. I’ll just be doing it from a more practical, easy on the pockets manner. So here’s to a future of more vegetables, fruits and juices!

Sidenote: Shoutout to Joe Cross for the documentary, ‘Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.’ He’s reignited my love of vegetables! If you haven’t already, watch the free documentary here. Thank me later. *smiles*

Sometimes in life you need to reset your body, spirit & mind. And yesterday was the day that I decided to do so….

After watching a documentary called Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead (check it out here), I became inspired to change my eating lifestyle. You see I live in a big city. In fact, it’s probably one of the most populated cities: The Big Apple aka New York City. 

During the past two years, I’ve battled the concrete jungle’s overpriced rent, crowded trains and sometimes overwhelming fast pace. It would be no surprise that my eating habits was not put at a higher priority. I would go through days of not cooking and rely on the convenience of fast food and takeout. As much as those foods tasted good, my thoughts got more negative, I wasn’t happy with my life situations and practically hit one of my all time lows.

So today, I decided to take my life by the horns and really restart my mind, body and spirit. The first thing on my agenda is my eating habits. I’m taking part in the free JOINREBOOT program, which basically provides meal plans for a length of 1 to 3 to even 15 days of detoxing your body with fresh fruits, vegetables and juices.

How has it been for me? As far as eating, it was difficult but filling for me at the same time. I got hungry but it would subside after drinking some juice or eating a salad. One thing I need to figure out is how to spend the least amount of money on my fruits and vegetables. I spent about $117 yesterday just for one day’s worth of food. Although I see this as an initial investment, hopefully as the days go on I end up spending less on food. I was thinking of perhaps hitting up a local green market. NYC’s Union Square is known for having some good, cheaper options. Maybe I’ll try it out tomorrow.