Under the weather...

I have been hit with a virus or something and am under the weather. I am laying low for a couple of days and then will return with the rest of my meal and exercise plan!

Find day one HERE and day two HERE.

Day 2 Meal and Fitness plan with a peach and raspberry smoothie

As I mentioned yesterday, you should be aiming for a RAINBOW in your diet.Today we have a lot of red and green with hints of orange and purple, oh, and some hidden yellow! Did you get through all five rounds of the upper body workout yesterday? My arms are a little sore today, but not too noticeable. I bet tomorrow I'll be feeling those arm muscles a lot more! Today is a legs workout day.

Your grocery list for today - you should have already made your lunch yesterday. You should already have some of the items on today's list:

• 1 medium banana
• frozen, unsweetened raspberries
• frozen peach slices
• ground flax meal 
• eggs (you need two today)
• celery stalks
• sunflower seed butter, peanut butter, or your favorite nut butter
• whole wheat lavosh bread
• classic romaine salad mix or romaine hearts
• low-sodium chicken breast deli meat
• mayonnaise
• sriracha sauce
• sweet chili sauce

If you missed yesterday's post, you can find it HERE with a smoothie recipe and the recipes for the Israeli Salad and Pearl Couscous with Carrots and Onions that will be lunch every day this week.

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Your Day Two Meal Plan

According to the recipe calculator and nutrition tracker on SparkPeople.com, this meal plan is about 1800 calories. Like yesterday, it was super filling and satisfying!

Breakfast - Start your day with a smoothie. Today is a peach and raspberry smoothie. 

Ingredients:

• 1 medium banana
• 2/3 C frozen raspberries
• 4 slices frozen peaches
• 1 C water
• 2 Tbsp ground flax meal

Method:
Blend everything together in your blender. If it doesn't seem like enough, add a few ice cubes to the blender to bulk it up. Or, go crazy and add more peaches and raspberries!






Mid-morning snack - 2 hard boiled eggs

Lunch: Israeli Salad and Pearl Couscous with Carrots and Onions
If you made the recipes posted yesterday (recipes HERE), you should have your lunch already portioned out and ready to go. If not, make the recipes today and portion them out for the next four days.


Mid-afternoon snack - celery slices and sunflower seed butter
Wash and cut several stalks of celery into snack sized sticks. Dunk them in sunflower seed butter, peanut butter, or your favorite peanut butter alternative. Just be sure your peanut butter or alternative is all natural - no funky or weird ingredients - and limit your consumption to one serving. I usually do fine with just two tablespoons and munch on plain celery in between sunbutter dipped sticks.

Dinner - Chicken and romaine wrap in lavosh with bang bang sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 whole wheat lavosh bread wrapper
• 2 big handfuls of Classic Romaine salad mix (usually a blend of romaine, purple cabbage, and carrot shreds) or romaine hearts
• 3 slices low-sodium chicken breast deli meat (look for a variety with no additives or weird ingredients)
• 1 Tbsp mayonnaise (vegan or regular)
• 1 tsp sriracha sauce
• 1/2 tsp sweet chili pepper sauce

Method:

Mix the mayo, sriracha, and sweet chili pepper sauce thoroughly - someone told me this is called "bang bang sauce" but I'd never heard of it until a few days ago. Mayo can be high in calories and fat and non-vegan mayo also has cholesterol so use it sparingly! Spread along one half of the lavosh and lay your chicken breast slices over it. Evenly spread your salad mix or romaine hearts over the chicken. Now, roll up nice and tight. Personally, I like to cut my wrap in half so that it is easier to handle. Plus, seeing two pieces on my plate gives the illusion of more food (mind tricks!).

Evening snack - Frozen raspberries; Natural popcorn with nutritional yeast
See yesterday's post (HERE) for more about nutritional yeast. You can eat just about as many frozen raspberries as you want, but limit your popcorn to 1/2 of a microwave bag and the nutritional yeast to 1 Tbsp sprinkled over the top.

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Your Day Two Lazy Exercise Plan

You can see my lazy person fitness philosophy and details in yesterday's post HERE. As with yesterday, break up the rounds of exercise into several sessions over the course of the day to make it manageable. While some of these are super easy for me (calf raises, for example), others make my muscles BURN! As a result, I suggest 10 repetitions of each exercise per round.

Stationery ice skaters

Source: fitnessmagazine.com

Stand holding the back of a chair or the edge of your counter. Slightly bend your left knee and extend your R leg out to the side. Then, swing the leg behind you and to the left side. Repeat 10 times and then switch legs.

Straight leg lifts

Source: http://www.rockwoodcomic.com

Perform 10 lifts on one leg, then switch to the other leg.

Knee extensions

Source: WebMD.com

Perform 10 knee extensions on one leg, then switch to the other leg.

Calf raises

Source: Popsugar.com

Knee up and outs

Source: prokinesis.co.uk

Bend one knee to about 90 degrees and rotate it out to the side. Lower your foot and come back to center. Repeat 10 times and then switch legs.

Standing glute kickback

Stand facing the wall with your arms extended, but avoid locking your elbows. Keep your stationery leg slightly bent. With the other leg, pull your knee up to your chest, or as high as you are able, in front of you. Kick your leg straight back behind you. Do 10 reps and then switch legs.

Seated toe taps

Source: onsugar.com

Plie squats three ways - No. 1

Source: mindfulbody.com

Plie squats three ways - No. 2

Source: movenourishbelieve.com

Only go down as far as you can while remaining stable.

Plie squats three ways - No. 3

Source: cemcatbas.wordpress.com

With one foot in front of the other as pictured, squat down as far as you comfortably can while still remaining stable. Do 10 squats and switch legs.

Tune in again tomorrow for another day of meal planning and lazy fitness!

Citrus Ginger Zinger Smoothie and Day 1 Meal Plan

 

I meant to have a meal and fitness plan for this week start on Sunday. Oops! I didn't exactly get my act together to do that! And, everyone has their own schedules to deal with and maybe Sunday isn't the ideal day for you to start. Maybe Monday or Tuesday would be better. Whatever day you start is just fine, so long as you actually do it - START! 

Each day this week, I will post a meal plan for the day as well as a lazy person's exercise routine. Make adjustments as you need to, but be sure to make a commitment to improving your health and well being and stick to it! Be sure that whatever you eat, whether it's on my plan or not, has vibrant colors from the entire spectrum of the RAINBOW! Throughout the day, be sure to drink plenty of water (plain, seltzer, or fruit infused) and limit caffeine or sugary drinks.

You don't have to be lazy to do the exercise routine, but I've found that if I break up the routine into very small chunks throughout the day rather than one exercise session I am much more likely to complete the entire routine. At the moment, I don't have the strength or endurance to get an entire routine done in one session. Instead, I find myself overly fatigued before I'm very far into the routine. I start to ache very early in the routine because my muscles and joints aren't used to exercising anymore. By breaking it up into tiny chunks, I get a lot more done!

Just a little warning, this post is super duper long! The rest of the week, posts should be shorter as every day will be based on this starting post. Your meal plan is in the upper portion of the post while the exercise routine is in the bottom portion.

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Your Day One Meal Plan

According to the recipe calculator and nutrition tracker on SparkPeople.com, this meal plan is almost exactly 1800 calories. I have to be honest with you - by the end of the day, this felt like a TON of food, but it was all super filling, super tasty, and everything I needed!

Your grocer list for today's meal plan (some ingredients will be used in future days):

• Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium banana
• 1 navel orange
• 1 lemon or lemon juice
• fresh ginger or Dorot frozen ginger cubes
• ground flaxmeal
• rice milk (or your favorite milk or milk alternative)
• raw, unsalted almonds (I like Trader Joe's Handful of Almonds for portion control)
• 1 lb cucumbers (I prefer Persian)
• 1 lb tomatoes (I prefer Roma or grape)
• 1 red onion
• 2 yellow or white onions
• 3 to 4 carrots
• 1 garlic clove or minced, jarred garlic
• 1 package whole wheat pearl couscous
• 1 16oz can of vegetable broth (or buy a larger carton for use later in the week too)
• 1 dozen large eggs
• 2 bunch celery
• fresh basil leaves or Dorot frozen basil cubes
• Bay leaf
• 28oz can of tomatoes or 2 smaller cans of tomatoes with garlic and/or onion, celery, and bell pepper
• salt and pepper
• garlic powder
• butter or your favorite butter-like alternative
• your favorite bread
• unsweetened, frozen raspberries
• natural microwave popcorn
• nutritional yeast with B-12

Breakfast - Start your day with a smoothie. Today we have Citrus Ginger Zinger

Ingredients:

• 1 medium banana, peeled
• 1/2 medium lemon, peeled and quartered or the equivalent amount of lemon juice (You can dig out the seeds, but it really isn't necessary if you have a decent blender. Remove as much peel and pith - the white layer under the skin and between the segments - as possible.)
• 1 navel orange, peeled and quartered (Again, no need to remove any seeds. Just remove all the peel and as much pith as possible.)
• 1/2 inch knob of ginger, peeled and grated or minced as finely as possible or 1 cube of Dorot frozen ginger
• 2 Tbsp ground flaxmeal
• 1 C rice milk (or your preferred milk or milk substitute)
• 3 to 4 ice cubes

 
Method:
Place everything in your blender and blend until smooth.

I can't stress enough the importance of removing the pith from your lemon and orange. Too much pith will result in a bitter flavor and weird chunks or fibers in the smoothie (ick!). Also, get your ginger as finely grated or minced as possible or use Dorot frozen cubes. The frozen cubes are fantastic but my local stores don't carry them. Powered ginger from your spice cupboard won't cut it.

Mid-morning snack - 1 bag of Trader Joe's Handful of Almonds or an actual moderate handful of raw, unsalted almonds
If you don't buy pre-portioned almonds, be careful that your handful isn't too big! Although almonds are incredibly nutrient dense and a great source of protein, they also are fairly high in calories. Make sure your almonds are unsalted and raw too so you don't end up eating a ton of salt or other junk for your snack!

Lunch - Israeli Salad and Pearl Couscous with Carrots and Onions
Make a big batch of both Israeli Salad and Pearl Couscous with Carrots and Onions and portion it out into four servings. This will be your lunch for the next four days. On the fourth day, make another big batch to get you through the rest of the week. You could just make a double batch, but I find by the fifth day, the texture of the salad starts to break down a little bit and the couscous goes a little mushy. I'd rather just make a second batch!

Israeli Salad
Ingredients:
1 lb cucumber, chopped (I prefer Persian cucumbers, but any kind will work.)
1 lb tomatoes, chopped (I prefer Roma or grape tomatoes, but any kind will work.)
1/3 C chopped red onion
3 to 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 to 4 Tbsp lemon juice
1 to 2 dashes of salt

Method:
Chop your cucumber, tomatoes, and onion into evenly sized pieces. Mix them together in a large bowl. Add 3 Tbsp olive oil and lemon juice and a couple of dashes of salt. Stir and taste. Add more olive oil, lemon, or salt if necessary.



Pearl Couscous with Carrots and Onion

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 C yellow or white onion, chopped
3/4 C carrots, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 C whole wheat pearl couscous
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 C vegetable broth (or chicken broth or plain water)

Method:
In a medium pot, heat the olive oil over medium to medium-high heat. Add the carrots and onions and stir and cook until the onion becomes translucent. Add the garlic and stir for another minute or two - be careful not to let the garlic brown or burn. Add the couscous and salt and stir to coat with olive oil. Add your broth and bring to a boil. Stir then cover tightly and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, or until most of the liquid is absorbed. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Any extra liquid should be absorbed while cooling. Portion out into four equal servings and refrigerate for your next few lunches.


Afternoon snack - 1 hard boiled egg
A single hard boiled egg is just as nutrient dense as my little handful of almonds. Having a small package of protein mid-morning and again mid-afternoon is a fantastic way to keep your energy up throughout the day without feeling deprived.

Dinner - Tomato soup with garlic toast
While your lunches will be the same every day, your dinner will vary. Tonight, we are having a basic tomato basil soup with garlic toast. I like to find easier ways to do things and thus buy Dorot frozen basil cubes and canned tomatoes with different flavors. The canned tomatoes are a little high in sodium, but if you have been careful about your sodium intake the rest of the day, it shouldn't be an issue. 

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, washed and chopped
2 Dorot frozen basil cubes or 2 to 3 large leaves of fresh basil
1 Bay leaf
1 x 28 oz can of tomatoes or 2 smaller cans - I prefer to use 1 smaller can of tomatoes with fire roasted garlic and 1 smaller can of tomatoes with onion, celery, and green bell pepper.
salt and pepper to taste
2 slices of your favorite, crusty, whole grain bread
butter or butter-type spread of your choice
Garlic powder (make sure it is pure garlic with no additives)

Method:
Heat your olive oil in a soup pan over medium to medium-high heat. Saute your onion and celery until translucent. Be careful not to let them brown. Add your basil, bay, and tomatoes. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove your soup from the heat and allow to cool. When cool, pour into a blender or use an immersion blender and blend until smooth. Return your soup to the pot and heat again, adding salt and pepper to taste.

For the garlic toast, butter your bread and sprinkle with garlic powder. Put under the broiler of your oven until lightly browned, or just heat in a 325F oven for a few minutes.

Evening snack - 1 large bowl of frozen, unsweetened raspberries and 1/2 bag of natural popcorn sprinkled with nutritional yeast
Eat your raspberries frozen and unsweetened. They are so delicious and refreshing that way! They are also available year round. When fresh raspberries are out of season, frozen ones are a great, affordable alternative. I buy at least six or seven bags per week! I eat them plain as a snack or use them in smoothies. On occasion, for a snack I will make a coconut yogurt and frozen raspberry parfait.

Make sure your popcorn is natural with only light salt. Too much salt, flavorings, and other additives only reduce the nutritional value of your popcorn. Natural popcorn is high in fiber and a great snack. Nutritional yeast is a fantastic substitute for Parmesan cheese, but make sure you buy a variety that is high in Vitamin B-12 for the ultimate nutritional value.

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Your Day One Lazy Exercise Plan

Today we will kick off your lazy exercise plan with upper body strength training exercises. Instead of doing everything in one go, you'll be breaking this up into five chunks throughout the day. Each exercise will be done 20 times with simply your body and a wall for equipment. If you are strong enough, add more repetitions to each round or use some weights. Since I'm totally out of shape compared to how I was just a few short years ago, I'm starting with 20 reps and no weights, but I am committed to improving over time!

Personally, I like to get my exercise done without prying eyes! These exercises can easily be done in your bathroom, and you already go to the bathroom several times per day, right? If you are work, you might be able to do these in a bathroom stall, although your coworkers may wonder why you are in there for so long! Heeheehee...

Make sure to keep breathing and hold your abdominal muscles tight. Also, work on practicing good posture throughout the moves - a straight, tall, long back with your shoulders back and down and chin up!

Five times per day do the following:

Standing wall pushups

Source: Womenshealthmag.com

Standing Russian twists (just skip the weights if you can't handle them! It's 20 twists per side!)

Source: Popsugar.com.au

Overhead reach (that's 20 reaches per side!)

Source: Lifefitness.com

Overhead tricep extensions (skip the weight unless you are ready for that challenge)

Source: Fantasiefitness.com

 Bicep curls (your biceps should be naturally stronger than your triceps 

so up this one to 30 reps each time, if you can!)

Source: marisaskitchentalk.com

 Flys

Source: ivillage.com

Overhead military press

 

Source: Popcorncoffee.com

Tune in again tomorrow for another day of meal planning and lazy fitness!

Working on a meal plan

 

I don't have a complete meal plan down for this coming week as I'm not sure if we will have company during the first half of the week, but I do have these parts nailed down:

• Daily breakfast smoothie
• "Isreali" salad (also called Arab salad, Turkish salad, or simply vegetable salad)
• Pearl couscous with vegetables
• Daily protein
• Goal of 25+ grams of fiber daily
• Limited sodium and cholesterol

(Like the rainbow effect? Work on eating fresh foods from all colors of the rainbow 

to make sure you get the maximum range of nutrients in your diet!)

Why do I only have two actual dishes listed? As mentioned, I don't know if we will have company or not, and last time our company was here, my meal plan kind of fell apart (my own fault, but also not planning well enough to have the right amount of food for everyone). I also have a growing 16 year old son who tends to eat everything in sight, often unintentionally throwing my plan off. I plan to make a HUGE batch of both the salad and couscous. They will be the base of my lunch every day this coming week. Both are packed with veggies, super yummy, and filling! The Israeli salad is also raw, if that is something that interests or concerns you.

I consider myself a flexitarian, and my diet is naturally very low in cholesterol, never contains dairy, and over the last few years has included less and less gluten (but without being gluten free). Although I really enjoy vegan meals, I still eat eggs, fish, and occasionally poultry or meat.

One of my daily snacks will include either almonds or hard boiled eggs. In the evenings I almost always have either frozen raspberries (plain - they are sweet enough to not need anything added!) or natural popcorn with a sprinkling of nutritional yeast (an awesome substitute for Parmesan cheese!).

Every smoothie will include ground flax meal - I have never been so regular in my life since I started using flax in my smoothies! Most of my smoothies are 100% fruit and water with no added sugar or sweeteners. On occasion, I may use some rice milk, coconut yogurt, or sunflower seed butter.

Check back every day this week to see what I really ate and get the recipes for my smoothies, the Israeli salad, and the pearl couscous with veggies. The smoothies will be a preview of my upcoming 100 Simple Smoothies e-book.

On Sunday I will post my starting measurements and on Saturday my follow-up measurements. And, in addition to posting my meals and smoothies for the week, I'll also let you know what I'm doing for exercise. My goal is to create simple, easy to follow nutrition and exercise plans for those of us that are maybe a bit less motivated or for some reason less able to really work out hard but still care about our health.