What I Will ALWAYS Order at Moe's

So, the other night shit got icy here. People went crazy. Stopped at stores and stocked up like it was the beginning of the next ice age or something. I, on the other hand, decided I wanted to order a pizza. Because nothing says I'm a bitch like being sent home from work early for icy conditions and then making some poor schmuck drive over with a large pepperoni and jalapeño pizza for just you.

But then Barbie started talking about cheese dip and I decided to brave the brutal drop in temperatures, fine mist and crazy, hidden ice patches for some Moe's. Not exactly fine Mexican but no way in hell was I driving with these batshit crazy ATLANTANS who shit themselves if it rains and suddenly "misremember" all rules of driving.

Ten minutes and two huge falls on patches of ice later (one of which almost resulted in me being run over after falling and sliding over the ice into the damn street) I came home with this bad boy:

Now compare that with the NORMAL version of the same thing:

Yeah, I got the Junior Size of the Joey Bag of Donuts (sans beans, I wasn't feeling them that night). Here's how it ranks nutritionally:

Calories: 365

Total Fat: 15 g

Saturated Fat: 6 g

Carbohydrates: 42 g

Protein: 17 g

Now, it's not the healthiest thing EVER but it is WAYYYYY better than most everything else on the menu. Plus, if you're like me, the full size is too big but you eat it all anyway because it tastes delicious. This way, once you're done....well, you are DONE.

Why Chocolate Milk?

"Why do they recommend chocolate milk after a workout but not regular milk? What's so special about choc. (besides the superior taste)?" - @carolynballard

She raises a good point. I have long been a proponent of chocolate milk post workout after taking a spin class and hearing the instructor tell us the protein-carb ratio is perfect for recovery. Since then, I've always purchased Horizon's Organic Chocolate (seriously the BEST. FUCKING. CHOCOLATE. MILK. EVER). But what exactly is the reasoning behind the chocolate milk choice? And what is the difference between regular milk and chocolate milk? Does it matter if it's Skim or 2%?

According to my favorite magazine, Fitness, chocolate milk provides a LOT of benefits post workout:

Before your stomach recoils, take a look at chocolate milk's ingredient list. For a high-endurance athlete, Stager's team sees it as a catch-all workout recovery drink. Compared to plain milk, water, or most sports drinks, it has double the carbohydrate and protein content, perfect for replenishing tired muscles. Its high water content replaces fluids lost as sweat, preventing dehydration. Plus it packs a nutritional bonus of calcium, and includes just a little sodium and sugar -- additives that help recovering athletes retain water and regain energy.

Drinking plain water after exercise replaces sweat losses -- and that's it. "Chocolate milk provides carbohydrate replenishment to your muscles -- something they can metabolize," said Jason Karp, MS, another researcher for this study. "There's nothing to metabolize in water."

Stager's assessment of chocolate milk is even simpler. "It's water plus a whole lot more," he said.

But, there's always a BUT, I wouldn't go downing chocolate milk after a stroll around the hood. Chocolate Milk, like most sports drinks, is beneficial to those who cycle, swim or run. And especially those who do these for an extended period of time (more than 20 minutes). Which is why it was recommended after my intense hour-long Spin class.

For more info on chocolate milk, head over to the official chocolate milk website!

What about you guys? Any recovery drinks you swear by?

ALSO: Please, please, please don't forget to sign up for the Virtual Race for Boobies. It's an easy 5k with lots of prizes :) Plus it benefits the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure!!!!

And, to read about the 100 day challenge Courtney convinced me to take, click here.

Me v. My Boss- Breakfast Edition

Meal: Yogurt with All Bran Cereal Bk Breakfast Bowl

and an apple

Calories: 335 540

Fat: 3g 42g

Sodium: 312mg 1020mg

Carbohydrates: 73g 17g

Protein: 10g 24g

Dude, her breakfast smells absolutely delicious. I might hate her in this moment in time. The fat and sodium are a wee bit high (okay a lot bit high) but her protein is on target for what I need and her carbs are less than mine. Obviously, I need to plan better. Maybe make a breakfast sandwich at home and reheat it here? Do eggs reheat well. Shit. And this is breakfast # 2 for me as I had a protein shake and banana before meeting my trainer. So lesson learned, I need to look for things with a better carb to protein ratio. Also, I fell short of my protein intake by 5 grams :(

Whatever, I FEEL like my breakfast is healthier and it is a STEP in the right direction.

Day 2 of Cassandra the Devil

Bitch is ON me like white on rice. Texts, emails, running up to check on me when I'm on the treadmill. You name it, she's encouraged it. I have had two days of absolute soreness since meeting with her the first time. I curse her when I'm staggering down three flights of stairs clinging to the wall and handrail and praying I won't fall. When I struggle to sit my ass down on the toilet (hands outstretched propping me against the stall walls) I think how nice it would be to murder her. On the other hand, I just know all of this will be worth it...someday. Just not today!

Today, we took it easy on my legs using the fly machine to do side squats and pull the weight across my chest (12 on each side, 2 times). Then with 5 lb weights (big ups to the girl who jacked the 8 lb weights so Cassandra had to go down. I love you girl!) I got into pushup position, pulled one weight up to my shoulder and did a tricip kickback. 10 times on each side. Moving to the squat bar, Cassandra lowered it and had me lie down under it. Then pull my chest up. Ummmm, about that upper body strength. Zilch. Nada. Not a damn thing. Luckily, moving my chest up an inch and bending my arms seemed to make her happy. After a couple of rotations, we moved to doing resistance bands (arms out front, arms to the side) and then worked the kinks out of my back in the stretching area with something that felt like I was supermanning dat ho. All in all a good workout.

She also advised that before working out in the morning, I need to go ahead and have a protein shake and a banana. Then when I'm getting ready to leave the gym, eat a small meal. That way I've had two meals before heading into work. And she said I needed to get some potassium tablets. So we'll be doing some shopping today and I'll update you on that later!

CONTESTS!!!!
Barefoot Angie Bee is giving away a pack of Sweatybands which I've always wanted to try but never been willing to buy (seriously how much do I spend on hair shit?!?!).

Julie's Very Cool First Giveaway is INDEED very cool. So cool, I'm sharing it with you instead of keeping it to myself and the hundreds of others who entered. Yes, hundreds cause bitch has 100 followers. Sigh, one day my 19 followers. One day.

Run To The Finish is giving away a cool prize pack that includes tinted moisturizer, power balance bracelets and sweaty bands.

Run Courtney Run is giving away awesome Lift Your Sole jewelry! Check it out- so pretty and inspirational!

If I win one giveaway I want it to be Secrets of a Running Mom's Tanks and Tunes giveaway! LOOKS AMAZING. Easy to enter :)

Day 1: Oops

Weight: 164.2
Workout: Circuit training in a weight room 3 x 15 and 35 minutes on the stationary bike
Food Diary:
Breakfast- Multigrain Cheerios with Skim Milk
Snack: 1/2 a bag of Chocolate Quakes
Lunch: Digiorno's flatbread steak sandwich
Snack: Strawberries
Dinner: Chicken breast with spicy seasoning, tomatoes and cucumbers in olive oil and balsalmic vingar, 2 fluffy rolls and a glass of milk

Random Thoughts:

• So after inhaling 1/2 a bag of quakes like they were going out of style (which lets be honest I don't think they have seriously ever been IN style), you thought to yourself, 'Self, how many calories did you just inhale?' Shit. This is why nutritionists must tell you to plan your meals ahead of time. So you grabbed the bag and here is how it breaks down: 7 mini cakes equal one serving. Servings per container: 7. Already your mind is going shit, shit, shit. What will we have to cut out today? Each serving contains 60 calories of which only 10 are from fat. So if you figure you had 3 1/2 servings, you only ingested 210 calories. Still a solid 50-60 calories more than you want from a snack but not the end of the world. On top of that, these delicious rice cakes only have 1 g of fat, 45 mg of sodium and 13 g of carbs with 1 g of protein. Not the worst thing you could be putting in your body. HOWEVER, you will be breaking the bags into your own ziplock bags for the future. God, even snacking is a lot of effort.
• Now, you are panicking about the lunch you decided to bring. Frozen meals seem like a great idea when you purchase them. In fact, they are downright cheap when you have coupons which is how you ended up with the Digiorno's flatbread steak sandwich anyway. With 4 varieties to choose from, you decided to venture off your beaten path of CHICKEN and grab some red meat for the road. In the office, after 210 calories of chocolate covered rice cake, you are starting to wonder why you didn't make and effort to pack a better lunch last night. Luckily, the package contains only one serving so you can't eat more than one. Breath a sigh of relief for that one. Head over to http://brands.fraftfoods.com/digiorno and you can get some nutritional information before you shop. Gee, there's that brain when you need it! Anyway, quick breakdown of what you ingested today shows this lunch off your beaten path came in at 380 calories (yay you for keeping it under 400!) but with 45 g of carbs, 14 g of fat and 750 mg of sodium it was not your healthiest pick of the day. However, you did grab 19 g of protein which is why it isn't until 3pm that hunger strikes again.
• While sitting on the phone with Charter (30 minutes on hold to find out their server is down), you manage to eat 1/2 a basket of strawberries. Yummmmmmm. Ooops, ate more of that than you meant to there as well. At least you are putting some kind of fruit into your diet. Something about small steps. The problem with food like this is it doesn't have its nutrition stuff out there for someone like you. That and, often times, it goes bad before you use it- something about perishables in your apt does not work well. After some research on the internet, you appear to have ingested about 2 1/2 cups of strawberries. 125 calories, 2 1/2 g of protein, 28 g of carbs, and all kinds of nutrients that take away your guilt. For more information about strawberries head over to http://urbanext.illinois.edu/strawberries/nutrition.html (thanks, University of Illinois- we owe you one.)
• Gym time. You decide on weights. After a 5 minute warmup on the elliptical you get to it. God, why is that kid always in here watching TV. He doesn't actually work out, just sits on the damn machine you want to use and stares at the TV as if 15 people in your apt gym aren't trying to work out around him. When did kids stop showing anyone else any kind of respect? This is a fucking gym not a damn lounge. Go home ass-clown.
• The girl on the treadmill has some legs! But after a quick critique to make yourself feel better, she is pale to the point of being ghostly and it makes the tiny bit of cellulite on her thighs all the more noticeable. And she has no muscle tone in her upper body. Points to you for having the muscle tone of a 10 year old and the fat of a 40 year old. Still a winner! ( she will later return to do weights with her attractive but quiet boyfriend. Bitch.)
• There is a group of african american men in your gym. They kind of strut like peacocks and don't really do much.
• Some guy just came in- he was cute but he only worked on 4 machines and you think he was getting annoyed by you coming through on your circuit and changing the weights right before he used them. This is half the reason why if anyone else is in the gym, you refuse to do weights. You always feel as though someone is watching and judging you...probably because you do it to them so someone has to do it to you.
• Doing your laundry at the same time, has motivated you to stay in the gym for over an hour. Nice. Multitasking at its finest.
• For dinner, you have decided to make chicken. After your workout you are starving so there is no time to marinate. You crack out the extra spicy marinade courtesy of Mrs. Dash (and your bff who bought you spices for your apt as a house warming gift!) and spice up the bland chicken. Some people like bland. This is not a criticism. You prefer something with flavor and especially kick.
• To die for: Perdue is brilliant (Christ, you should be sponsored with all the name dropping you do...in fact, you will include their website as well: http://www.perdue.com/. Also, shouldn't that guy be dead by now? No way he is still kicking and looks that young. Does he have a kid?You digress). Anyway, you are probably wondering about the adoration for Perdue. You are lazy. There are no two ways about it, you're lazy. So you obviously, do not want to separate your chicken after going through the grocery store wishing you could have Ben & Jerry's but settling for Yoplait Whips (which coincidentally, you can freeze into sorbet? Who knew?). Perdue has solved this problem with PERFECT PORTIONS. Pre-separated so you just pop one boneless, skinless chicken breast out of the freezer and do with it what you please.
• Now you are curious so you head over to Perdue's website to check out the content of what you are eating. One filet (breast, friend) has 130 calories. Wow that is without my spicing. Hmmm. Something to consider. 29 g of protein. If you end up hungry before bedtime, then you have a problem.
• Fun thing you did with dinner: threw some diced cucumbers and tomatoes in some balsalmic vinegar and EEOV ( you hate Rachel Ray and seriously doubt she came up with this which she has registered but it is so convenient. Just like abbrevs.) into a container with a dash of salt and pepper. It sat in the fridge while you cooked your chicken and you ate half of it with dinner. Delicious and easy. You will do this more often since you hate veggies.
• Ooooh, next time add cheese.
• All in all, for day one you are proud. You had some hits and some misses but you stuck with it.