Traveling ... will not throw off my diet!!!

Tomorrow night we are hitting the road and headed to South Carolina to see 3 of my very favorite people in the world!!!

But not gonna lie I am a little anxious about traveling on this diet! My Family is way healthy so it's not like I am going somewhere we are going to be surrounded by junk food, but I don't want to make anyone go out of their way for food choices I have personally made either...and the 7 hour car ride .... First major road trip without my Dirty Chai Latte. I am a creature of habit and I know everything in me will be itching for the things I normally had. But I am determined. I'll pack some snacks and make sure I pick exits where there isn't a Starbucks! 

Anyone have awesome travel tips they would like to share?

Our family is settling into this new eating routine. The turned up noses are becoming less and less which I am way thankful for! I am trying to get creative for Easter for my girls because let's be honest what kid doesn't want candy for Easter? Hopefully I can think of something much cooler then candy. When Malia was little and she didn't eat candy I gave her a beach bag filled with beach toys for Easter ( we lived 30 min from Top Sail Beach ). She loved it but it was before she knew about all the candy for Easter.... 

I can't believe that March is almost over! I am excited for April to come around. I have a dear friend who is going to start the WHOLE 30. There are a lot of similarities between the Whole 30 and what I am doing to it will be nice to have a food buddy! 

Have a great Night!

~A

Man I am awful at this blogging thing!

I have no idea how it is possible that it is Monday and I haven't gotten to this blog since last week.

How do these bloggers do it every day? .... Mal ?!?!

Alright so QUICK recap! 

I have been going strong on my food journey and not really missing any of the foods I removed from my diet. It may be due to the fact that, outside of some awful allergies, I have been feeling so much better then I have in years or it could simply be the fact that my husband says I have the ability to convince myself I like anything if I know it is good for me....

Either way it is working for me!!!!

I haven't been too adventurous with our food just some good healthy meals with chicken, fish, tons of veggies, ect. 

I did pick up some gluten free chocolate chip cookies that my children LOVED. But they were chocolate chip cookies kinda hard to not love them! 

The hardest thing I have run into so far is finding an alternative for Malia's milk!

 She LOVES milk and would drink it all day every day. But she literally scrunches her nose up when she tries coconut milk, coconut/almond milk, she said she kinda like Almond milk but it was the sweetened kind and I am so tired of all the sugar added. I suppose I should let her ease herself into Almond milk then slowly switch it half and half to sweetened/unsweetened. But really?!?! I hate how addicted to sugar we are! Anyone been through this have suggestions? 

I need to start getting creative but I am not creative honestly and if I screw it up I won't try it again ( not really a good trait but when it comes to recipes it's true! ) 

At this point however all I can think about is finishing this blog and getting some breakfast! So I am closing this up before I get HANGRY! ( If you don't know.... Hungry to the point of angry. Hungry+ Angry = A bad combination...RUN!!!! )

My Goal is to blog more this week at least 3 times.... Someone yell at me if I don't!

Have a great day and if you are in RIC enjoy this Snowy spring day! In a few months we will all be complaining bout how hot it is :)

~A

I was going to title this Monday wrap up...and then I realized it was Tuesday ...

So I'm losing track of days it seems :-)

Monday was a busy day Starting at 6am with my GRIT team. I LOVE GRIT! Even if my body is screaming at me today!

Since my day started with an intense workout and I had 2 more classes to go I had a big omelet for breakfast. Got the kids off to school then went back into work to teach Body Pump. My day went non-stop till after my BodyJam class Monday night at 7:30pm. I was thankful I had thrown some food in my bad because that was all I had time for yesterday. So by the time I got home and had dinner, Chili that had been slow cooking all day, I had the bowl I could find! Topped it with some fresh avocado and devoured the whole bowl! ( even before I thought to take a picture! ) 

I did remember to take a picture of my dessert... 

I called it my "Almond Joy Smoothie"

Coconut milk, coco powder, a little honey, frozen strawberries, topped with slivered almonds and coconut! YUMMY!!!

Tuesday has been busy as well but it was a good day! I was super proud of my dinner

...........

 until my husband and children gagged on the Brussel Sprouts! :-(

I enjoyed them but they were not fans. Although in my defense my husbdan has told me that he has convinced his mind that if it is healthy it is nasty! RIDICULOUS!!!

I am determined to find a way that they will like Brussel sprouts! Anyone have any good recipes? 

What did you have for dinner?

Any ways, now that the day is winding down and homework and dinner is finally done. I am off to relax for a bit. I've got another busy day ahead of me tomorrow! 

~A

Coconut Pancakes and Wine ( Not at the same time! )

This weekend was a MUCH needed break from all responsibilities and just a time to enjoy my family and a really great friend!

We started this weekend right by sleeping in!!!! ( Words can not express how happy this made me! ) Once we were up we had a brunch of Coconut pancakes. It was my first attempt at Gluten free Pancakes and my first attempt cooking with coconut flour. My family was not overly enthusiastic that it would turn out well but willing to try cause they all really wanted pancakes!

I was rather nervous after mixing the ingredients the batter looked a little too thick to work but the directions said it should be brownie thick ( I can't remember the last time I had brownies so I just pretended my batter was exactly like brownies. ) 

Coking them up they were looking a little closer to pancakes so I crossed my fingers for a delicious breakfast ( because let's be honest I need to go grocery shopping and I really couldn't think of a good back up if these ended up in the trash ) 

The Final Product was delicious! The Pancakes were more dense then normal pancakes but my family was too busy stuffing their faces to complain! WINNING!!!! I topped mine with banana's and a little honey.Only thing missing was some macadamia nuts although slivered almonds would have been delicious as well!

Tried to get a picture of the girls but they had both eaten their entire breakfast before I got my camera out! 

( Ignore their room! that was our Sunday Project!! )

My Husband took the girls for the day and let me go out with a friend. We shopped and planned to get pedicures but ended up sipping sangria instead.

Well Once we started ....Who really wanted to stop!?!?

Since it is so much cheaper to drink at home we carried the party on there....

Watched VCU win 

and drank a bit more :)

SO it was a good Saturday!!!

Sunday was a recovery day to say the least ......

After enjoying the day just hanging around the house and  snacking ( so I had to do as little cooking as possible )  I went and taught a St. Patrick's Day Body Jam Class and danced so hard all my snacks came back up! ( after class thankfully no one was privileged to seeing it! ) We had a blast and the best part is we get to do it again tonight ( Hopefully minus the losing the lunch bit ) !!!!

So Today is the beginning of Week 3 and I am surprised it has only been two weeks. There have been very few times I have really missed the "other" food and I feel better then I have in a really long time. I didn't step on the scale at the beginning of this because it wasn't about weight it is about feeling good and getting healthy! Tonight however I will be having my body fat checked ( NOT excited to know this number!! Especially after my drinking weekend! ) But I am interested to see where I am at. Will I share this number.... I DON'T KNOW!!! But  perhaps I can share how it changes .... MAYBE... :-D

Happy Monday All!

~A

Allergy season in RIC.....UGH

Apparently I am losing days and am only getting on her every two days so her is a 2 for 1...

Wednesday was quite an off day for me as my allergies have decided to kick my ass. I can not ever remember my eyes itching like this and all the other nasty stuff that goes along with it.

So with allergy medicine comes me feeling like the world is in slow motion, and loss of appetite. Forcing myself to eat yesterday was no fun and I am sure I didn't do an awesome job but oh well whats done is done! Today is a fresh start. 

I swear I am turning into a grazer I ate handfuls of veggies fruits and nuts all day. Eggs were my dinner as I got home late from a wrap party. But the wrap party was great and some fabulous ladies had good results!


Top Pictures are before. Bottom Pictures are after 1 It Works! Body Wrap and 45min. I am so looking forward to seeing their results after 72 hours!

           

Dinner for me was eggs and veggies....It really is my go to food when I need/want something warm and quick!

I did snack on some of these 

They were ok, not too bad but nothing to really write home about ( but I guess enough to blog about ) I'm not sure if be all stuffed up helped or hindered the experience.

Thursday has been another whirlwind day starting at 5:30am. I don't know why but I have not been sleeping well all week just tossing and turning and generally uncomfortable. I have watched the clock change every hour of every night this week and I am getting rather tired. I am hoping I completely crash tonight....and soon! I had my heart set on a nap today and when I realized it wasn't happening I had to talk myself of the ledge of tears....Sleep is BADLY needed by this girl!

I was luck enough to have an hour to have Coffee/Tea with my dad today!

After that it was work and meetings. I did squeeze in a really short trip to Good Food's Grocery but it was cut short and I only got a couple things I wanted. 

Lunch was weird but good. I got home at 2pm with a list of things to accomplish and only about 2 hours to get it done. But I really wanted Avocado and and I really wanted chicken so....


Put some red pepper flakes on there and Yummy! Kinda odd but it did the trick! 

Then off to pick the kids up from school get a few more things accomplished at work and then a killer Body Pump class. I upped my weights on several of the tracks and my muscles are already screaming at me....It feels so good to know I worked hard though!



I did manage to pick up some Gluten free Spaghetti.
So that's what we had for dinner with some home made sauce I made with all the veggies that seemed like they would be good and some lean turkey meat. I think we ended up with onions, mushrooms and fresh tomatoes. ( It's Thursday my produce is starting to run thin ) We topped our spaghetti with spinach and broccoli . While my family enjoyed the Gluten Free Spaghetti I ate mine over Spaghetti Squash as it is my favorite way to have spaghetti. Steve likes the Spaghetti Squash but has Death Wind afterwards as we call it and then no one is happy so noodles it was for him!

This was mine
 

 And these are my lovely daughters enjoying their dinner! 

Dinner was a hit EVERY ONE liked it and I was so happy that I got these reactions from a dinner involving spinach!!!!! My husband said the noodles were good so I feel like I am winning today!

Now it's 9pm and my alarm is set for 5:30am so sweet dreams and all that grand stuff! 

~A

Where do the days go?

I really have no idea how it got to be 8:40pm on Tuesday night.....

Sunday was a crazy and busy day. We did get to go outside and enjoy Maymont which is apparently where every other person in Richmond went, but we still had a good time. I was sad I forgot my camera and I didn't have my phone ( I am trying REALLY hard to put my phone away when I am hanging out with my family. I never want my girls to think whatever I am doing is more important then them, family time ect. And let's face it. I'm not running the world nothing traumatic will occur if I don't have my phone all day every day.) So on through Maymont we went with no camera. I was even more upset I didn't have my camera when Ava, fell into the fish pond. Really it was funny and she was fine....and hopefully she learned a good lesson!

Sunday night was Burger night in the McNeil household but of course we put our own twist on it....

Turkey Burgers in lettuce wraps, but I ran out of lettuce wraps so mine was put over a giant pile of kale, topped with sauteed mushrooms and onions, avocado, and tomatoes, broccoli and home made sweet potato fries ( No frying involved ) rounded out our dinner. 

My husband was pleasantly surprised how full he was and that the healthy french fries were actually good!  

Monday was a massive blur that started a 5am and let's be honest it was daylight savings time this weekend so it felt like 4am! I didn't stop moving until 8pm and still needed dinner! I was way past the point of hunger but I needed to eat something because I hadn't had much time to eat the whole day.

1st Breakfast- Orange juice and ItWorks! Greens 

Breakfast-A zip lock bag full of tomatoes and sugar snap peas 

Lunch-Salad ( Mixed Greens, Spinach, Kale, Parsley, Cabbage, Chopped Broccoli, Tomatoes, Avocado, and Black Beans. So Delicious! ) 

5:30pm Snack before Class : Good n Natural Bar & Green Tea

Dinner: Omelet  ( 2 eggs, kale, peppers & onions, mushrooms,& salsa ) 

No Pictures today 

I did attempt grocery shopping again today, I was able to get a few things but I found myself wondering down so many isles I use to grab things from but turned each corner empty handed. It's going to take me a while to get use to this grocery shopping thing. I think I need a few free hours ( hahahah that is laughable what exactly is free time?!?!) and a good health food store to stroll through.

Tuesday has been equally busy. It started with a spin class at 5:45am and I just walked in the door at 8pm. 

I did a lot of cooking today as it was my food pick up day for My Daily Fitness  food clients. 

Each week I prep lean protein, healthy carbs, and lots of veggies plus offer extra's like protein bars, nuts, and fruit.

Last weeks Food Looked like this....

 Dinners on Tuesdays are usually great though because I have prepped dinner for our family as well. I must say I am quite proud of myself as I had dinner ready by 5:15pm. We normally aren't eating till after 7pm and I have been wanting to break that cycle for quite sometime. I'll count today as a success! Especially with our dinner! 

Tilapia with pineapple salsa, asparagus and roasted sweet potatoes. I topped my sweet potatoes with crushed red peppers but the rest of my family opted for cinnamon and honey. 

After dinner I went and taught a killer boot camp class and now I need a shower and my bed. I have a PT client at 6am and the alarm clock is going to go off long before I want it to. 

-A

Friday & Saturday catch-up

The McNeil's had a busy Friday and Saturday and SO I am now just catching everything up. 

Friday

Started Rough....

These two crazy girls.....

Made their parents do this!

 .... and that's putting it nicely!

My Breakfast looked like this 

Eggs, peppers & onions (Sauteed in coconut oil), mushrooms, tomatoes, and kale! YUMMY!

Lunch was out with a friend and consisted of rice noodles, chicken, and some veggies mixed in.

Dinner was an INTERESTING event! 

Steve decided to make mashed potatoes-and hummus-which did not turn out well! He ate the potatoes but the hummus meet the trashcan!

This was my dinner 

Chicken with basil, tomatoes and mushrooms, spinach and mixed veggies ( corn, carrots, and asparagus ) 

Even though the day started rough we finished the evening with smoothies for dessert and thankfully we finished the day looking like this again.....

Saturday was LOVELY! 

Quiet morning started it out with this 

Have you never tried these bars? Good'n natural So delicious I feel like I am cheating! They also have a chocolate one that is perfect to get rid of a sweet tooth! 

Then met one of my favorite people in the world! 

For a cold run through the park ( If you have kids or like to laugh check out her blog When 3 Became 5 )

Followed by a killer body pump class.

 My total Rock star friend invited me to team teach with her and I couldn't turn down the opportunity! 

Lunch?!?! - I was bad and got busy and didn't eat again until dinner. 

I did grab a handful of raw almonds and an apple to eat on the way to wrap two beautiful ladies

(Wrap?!?! Check out this crazy wrap thing! ) 

Dinner was delicious! 

There is a salad in the bottom of the bowl, with spicy lime shrimp and peas. YUMMY

Finished the night watching SNL with my BFF hosted by this guy.... 

Did you see this?

Or this one?!?! 

Ok I am done...Heading out to enjoy this beautiful day!

~A

Ugh.....I really have NO idea what I am doing.....Let's be Honest!

So after a less then successful trip to the grocery store I have realized I have no F&#! idea what I am doing.

Have you read a label lately? There is crap added to EVERYTHING! 

Now don't get the wrong idea, I've been reading labels for years and had a pretty good grasp on things, but seriously I was in Kroger for over an hour and found very few items I was looking for. 

I need to find variety and creative ways to keep favorites in the rotation, without compromising our diet choices. Steve has resigned himself to thinking that nothing will taste good ( good to him is mostly junk food....eating a bag of chips followed by a box of cookies or half a container of ice cream is no big deal for him. He is also a fan of  foods like Pasta Alfredo, pizza, mashed potatoes, french fries, burgers, ect. ). Ava won't be an issue she is always willing to try new foods and LOVES vegetables. Malia will be a challenge. She would live on cereal, bread ( biscuits, pancakes, sliced, ect. )  pizza, pasta, chicken nuggets, chocolate milk and cookies if I let her. She doesn't like to try new things and will just go hungry rather then eat something she doesn't like. 

So I am asking for your help! What are your favorite WHOLE foods? Seasons, oils, what do I need to fill my pantry and fridge with that will provide variety and flavor? What are your HEALTHY must haves? These are my restrictions.

~Gluten Free

~Dairy Free

~No added sugars or artificial sweeteners ( honey, black molasses, brown rice syrup ect are ok ). 

~I want the foods as whole as possible

Thanks for any and all suggestions....Now to go knock a run out before the bus gets here!

SNOW Day & Decaf Coffee?!?!

Loved the Snow Day yesterday...But all I wanted to do was eat! Anyone else?!?!

Thankfully I was Good...Well Ok I may have eaten an apple out of boredom but I'll own that!

Spent the morning playing with my girls and one of their friends in the snow. I have NO idea how much snow we officially got, but it was 3/4 of the way to my knees ( and let the short jokes begin... ) . My girls had the HARDEST time walking through it and after being outside for an hour they were exhausted, SO I stomped out a path for them home by gliding my feet the whole way. Talk About A Workout Out!!!! By the time we got home my abs and legs were on fire....Workout for the day DONE!!! 

The afternoon was full of playing and snuggling while watching Wreck it Ralph ( don't ask me how it was I napped...) 

Dinner was NOT Gluten Free for my Family and I do feel a little bad about that, but we are using up what we have and not wasting the food. SO they had Chicken Alfredo with peas and mushrooms, and a side of broccoli. I had chicken and broccoli. Wasn't in the mood for dinner so the simplest thing I could come up with was the winner. On a plus side almost all gluten foods are gone. I may do a pantry clean out this weekend....I already have a friend who offered to take all my gluten foods...I have such great friends ( +Seo Kelleher ) 

Ok So I am about to say something I thought would never happen....I can only drink decaf coffee....WTF?!?! ( A few people may need to take a moment to let this sink in!)

The regular stuff makes me feel like I am on crack and I will somehow literally jump out of my skin and if you happen to look at me the wrong way I may jump down your throat, the whole time the inner me without caffeine is saying WHAT ARE YOU DOING CRAZY WOMAN!!!!

Anyone else turn into the Hulk on caffeine? I wasn't this way before, in fact my day didn't start or continue without a steady stream of caffeine racing through me. Its a lovely feeling to not NEED something to wake up or get my day started. But thank god for decaf because no matter how the caffeine makes me feel, I still want coffee. For the safety of those around me I now have Decaf Coffee, don't be concerned if you see me with a coffee mug ( In all honesty it is probably Green Tea which has turned into my drink of choice since I caught that awful virus a couple weeks ago ) 

Off to get my girls ready for school, Have a happy Thursday and if you are in RIC be careful on those roads!

~A 

Chicken and Colorful Quinoa, it's whats for breakfast?!?!

That is what I started my day off with...Chicken and Colorful Quinoa....Well Foodwise...Not the typical breakfast, and much later then I normally eat ( (9;30am - ish ), but we are having a somewhat lazy snow morning and I just didn't feel like moving to make my breakfast any sooner...

Started the day, with ItWorks! Greens of course, and then training a client with some Aqua Personal Training... Until the Thunder Snow made us have to leave the pool area. Really what is this Thunder Snow it cracks me up!

I slid all over the road on the way home and decided to spend the morning snuggling with my girls and sipping hot tea.

I will say I feel like I won a small battle last night. Before starting this diet I did a lot of research and am truly doing this because of some serious health problems I was having. After showing my husband all the reasons he decided he wanted to try. Among many of the benefits of a gluten free diet is that it helps with gastrointestinal issues and depression. My husband has had, GI issues since he returned from Afghanistan, with no really way to solve the problem. He's be told it is Gulf War Syndrome which is fairly common in a lot of veterans who have been to Iraq and Afghanistan. He doesn't battle depression but has sever PTSD and so anything that MIGHT help him is truly worth trying! 

So all that said to say, Last night he started bitching and moaning that there was no good snack food in the house ( which really means there is no cookies, candy, ect ). I looked at him and said, " You do not have to do this, I will buy whatever you want, but if you want to do this you can't bitch and moan every step of the way." His whole mood changed, and he is totally on board. Steve has NEVER lasted on a diet more then a couple days so that fact that he is actually wanting to do this, gave me hope that this will last! Time will tell and I could eat my words, but hopefully not!

Alright I must get off here, my girls are about to go nuts waiting to go out in the snow! 

Happy Wednesday!

~A    

Tuesday Thus Far....

Today has been yet another Crazy Busy day but I love my Busyness! So no complaints from me!

Food on the other hand has not been so fabulous, but each day is a new challenge!

1st Breakfast 5:30am   

Trained a PT client and ran 3 miles ( Outside..It was COLD!!! ) 

2nd Breakfast 8am

2 eggs with yellow, green, & red peppers, onions, mushrooms, & kale, then topped Salsa. HOT Green Tea to drink ( I was STILL COLD!!!)

AND then my day got busy and I didn't eat again till......

Lunch 3:45ish..... ( WAY Later Then I wanted!!! )

Half a sweet potato roasted with crush red pepper

 sugar snap peas ( raw ) 

 small chicken breast (cooked .... hahaha ) 

More Green Tea ( Thank you Melissa! ) 

Dinner 6:30pm

Talapia, Peas & Colorful Quinoa ( Included, cabbage, spinach carrots, onions and garlic)

Totally made up Colorful Quinoa but everyone at the McNeil house enjoyed it!!!! Which Seriously was amazing because Steve seems to dislike anything that MIGHT be healthy and Malia dislikes most foods.....

I'm feeling GREAT and not really missing anything as of yet! My husband is totally starting to wonder WHAT WILL I EVER EAT, yet is totally full at the end of the day....

Happy Tuesday!

~Amy

The end of day 1

So It's quarter to 9pm and I just heated up some left overs for my girls to eat and I am staring at the kitchen trying to find something for dinner for me and Steve.

Just got home from an AMAZING BodyJam class with LOTS of hot party people! I have been SO busy I haven't eaten nearly enough today and I just want to say F&%# But I won't I'll find something great!

Today So far I had a smoothie with LOTS of fabulous stuff in in but if I am being honest I had to chug it down cause it wasn't fabulous! I think I need some help from my friend Molly!!!! After getting some work done "at the office" ( I work at a fabulous gym so its not really an office but you get the idea.... ) and teaching a Body Pump class, I drank a Nuun electrolyte drink ( thank mom! ) and ate a Chia bar ( Thanks +Seo  ) while walking through the gym to train a PT client. When we were done, a little more work, a couple meetings and then running out of work around 2pm to grab some lunch and run some errands....

Lunch was salmon on a lettuce wrap with avocado, tomatoes, and mustard.

It was nothing special but it did the job!

And that's all I got to today! So now I must shower and find some food! And tomorrow will be better! 

A

I'm back and on a mission!

It's been quite some time since I have touched this blog, but after a much needed break and lots of craziness that life throws at you, I've come back around to this blog and I have a challenge for myself....

During my break from blogging I dealt with numerous health issues both big and small. After WAY too many doctors visits and no real answers I have been doing a lot of research on the way food affects our bodies and the links between certain foods and chronic illness. Do I think I have found the solution?!?! Nope but I am hopeful that I am on to something.

Starting today and ending on April 30th ( But Truly hopefully not ) I will be attempting to be 100% Gluten and Dairy free. It's not going to be easy ( especially because my family will slowly be transitioning to this with me and they don't know ;-) Shhhh don't tell!!!! ) But I have been doing several days on the above diet and have noticed significant differences in just that short time.

SO Here it is....I will post what I'm eating how I'm feeling about it, any health benefits or draw backs I notice, when I mess up and any great victories. I hope you comment along my journey, share things you know, learn or find, maybe try a couple recipes along the way.

The alarm clocks just went off in my house so time to get the kids up and get this day going, and time to start this journey....Today should be interesting SUPER busy day and didn't make it to the grocery store.....Not the best way to start but I am up for the challenge!

A