You asked for it....Tuna Packets - holla!

Okay, so I just thought I would quickly post this. If you want a really quick easy way to get a good serving of protein, try these tuna packets. They have 21 g of protein in them. You can toss it in with a salad and 12 almonds. that is the perfect meal for lunch!

You can find them at Safeway or at Walmart. They are 99 cents at Walmart.

Happy munching!

Nic

"Man, you're easily amused...."

Today I got home from training to more, you guessed it, boxes! I love getting boxes. It’s like Christmas at my house every week. The first box was my shoes that I ordered for my competition! I was bouncing off the walls and my dad was standing there just staring at me totally rattled by my excitement over shoes and said with the straightest face, man you’re easily amused. Best line, ever. Followed by, you better be practicing you walk outside because those shoes will ruin the hardwood....oh Dad. I heart you!

The shoes weren’t even the best part! The other box was from Skechers and I opened it to find my new snazzy Shape-ups jackets! I will rocket them in K-loops this weekend and post pictures next week.

In addition to all the “presents” its super sunny today and I managed to get my butt out of bed for my morning cardio, went to the doctors to find out I don’t need to have nose surgery – dodged that bullet – pheff and had a great day of lifting weights. I did my heaviest lift to date, 135lbs! That’s more than I weight – oh yieeaaah baby!

I asked my trainer about my new cardio routine because I have been wiped lately and its only been two weeks and I was worried that I was losing muscle from doing such high level intervals. When you are doing intervals you are not just burning calories while you are working out, you continue to use energy and burn calories for hours and sometimes a few days after your workout. This means I might be burning all that muscle I’ve been working so hard to put on. This means I get to tone down my cardio intensity which might make it more enjoyable. With cross fit type workouts, which I will be doing a little more of in conjunction to my weights, you can end up burn energy for up to 3 days after the actually workout! Hence, that combined with too much cardio you body will need to use muscle to help heal the body = not good.

Today is my last day to get everything organized for Kamloops and I feel pretty good about everything. I am going to need to pack most of my food for the weekend which will be an easy task because I will only be gone for 3 days compared to 2 weeks. This means I will do food prep tonight. Yesterday I cooked twice because I didn’t have enough chicken and it isn’t good to be low on food because that is when you reach for something that’s handy and maybe not as healthy. I’m munching on a delicious lunch right now.....4 oz chicken (protein), 2 cups of veggies (carb) and 12 unsalted cashews (fat). Yummy! Oh and I can't forget my sweet water bottle that I heart! I drink 2 or 3 of them a day!

Food prep does take a lot of time and I’ll tell you all about that next time I do a big food prep!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thursday. One more day until the weekend!

Eat. Train. Sleep. Repeat!

Nicole OUT!

No more Cheat MEALS! What the $(%)##_@+#)$(%($)#_# WHAT?!

So today I was training with David and we were talking about my goals for the upcoming competitions. David is my new trainer, in case you were wondering. He's awesome and we have a really great dialogue and finding a trainer that you click with is sooooooo important. Holla.

My last trainer was really good and there was nothing was wrong with him. He is an incredible trainer/guy but we didn't have that click that you need to have because that relationship you have with your trainer is very personal. PS. writing that email to my old trainer was the more uncomfortable thing considering he owns the gym but it had to be done and he was very understanding.

Hmmmm so here’s a little about my new trainer David. He has a very bubbly personality, is very hands on and pushes me to lift more weight which is awesome. He is really encouraging and has tonnes of experience. We have great chemistry and I am super happy that we will be training together for the next few weeks.

(PS, this picture is of me day dreaming about my cheat meal....)

Anyhow, onto the crappiest news ever! I told him about my cheat meal Saturday and was about to tell him what I had planned next and he looked at me and said, cheat meal?! There won't be anymore of those. $(*#)_#@$%)$ WHAT?! Were the thoughts that went through my head! I am still 9 weeks out! Ballick! So that’s it for me. No more dreaming about hamburgers or pie, lattes or bottles...glasses of wine. I guess that 9 weeks isn't really that much time.

Its funny when I hear myself talk about being X number of weeks out. It's like the opposite for pregnant women. How far along are you....oh 16 weeks. They still have 5 more months of being sick, not being able to sleep comfortably...etc. Yes, one day I realize that I will be that lady at 16 weeks, but right now I am super happy to be 9 weeks out and counting down! The thing is when I get to my 2 weeks out from the BC Championships, once that is over, I will be 3 weeks out from Toronto and once that is over I will be 13 days out from the Alberta Championships in Calgary, which means.....I will be spending 8 weeks doing contest prep.

David, whether you like it or not, I will need an itsy bitsy cheat meal in May, June and then go hard in July....how does that sound?! We can have steak and red wine, okay?

I know and understand you are just looking out for me considering I will be in a swimsuit-ish, if you can call it that, on stage in front of a lot of people, I appreciate you looking out for me. The thing that I have to remember is that Natalie won't be at my first competition because she will be in the first of three back to back shows she has. The cool thing is I will be able to watch her compete in Toronto because we will be at the same show. I can't wait to see her do her thing! She is amazing. Check out her web page, http://www.nataliewaplesfitness.com/.

Anyways, I guess I will have to accept the fact that I will be drinking plain water and not have any more soy lattes for.....at least 9 weeks. That’s only 63 days, right?!

So here's to the next 63 days of caffeine free green tea and plain water. Cheers!

Eat. Train. Sleep. Repeat!

Nicole

Yo, nuts aren't protein! Nuts are FAT!

Is it weird that I like to go to bed early so that I can wake up and eat my favorite meal of the day? Breakfast is officially my favorite meal because oatmeal is the only "carb" that I am allowed to eat and boy do I take my time eating it. Savoring, every, last, bite....Love my oatmeal. Have I mentioned that coffee was cut out of my diet?! OMG! I loved having my morning latte and now, no caffeine. Caffeine can sometimes affect your metabolism and therefore I have to cut it out. As the weeks progress I will slowly be cutting out other
foods and things like sodium. I don't use any salt right now, but chicken contains sodium so when I get closer to competition I will be poaching my chicken to get rid of any sodium in the chicken breast. How delicious does that sound. Poached chicken...
As of now, all my meals do contain a fat, a protein and a carb. Carbs are anything such as peppers, spinach, and fruit (with edible skin such as an apple or pear). The only time I am allowed something like oatmeal is in the morning because my body burns it off throughout the day. A lot of people have the perception that nuts are protein so they will eat hand full after hand full of them thinking they are being healthy when nuts are actually the fat part of the meal. Yes, they do contain protein, but you would have to eat 2 - 3 cups of almonds to get the amount of protein you need from them. So next time have 8-12 almonds, walnuts or cashews and make sure they are unsalted. So the ideal meal would be a piece of chicken or a half can of tuna, a cut of pepper and some almonds. Make sense?
Balancing each meal can be hard because protein isn't easily accessible compared to things like carbs (aka, muffins) and other things you can get in the vending machine. This is where learning to properly pack a lunch is important. A lot of the time we think we are being super healthy by buying bulk trail mix and munching away on it during the day. But if you are sitting at a desk all day eating what could be around a cup of trail mix at a time, you would be surprise by the amount of fat and sugar, never mind the calories you consumed.
It just goes to show that everything in moderation is a very true statement.
Whether you’re hitting the gym or not, including a shake into your regime could be a really great way to get some extra protein. Make sure when you are buying protein to really read the label. You want one that is low in calories, low or no sugar, low in fat and around 15 - 20 g of protein. If you ask someone at GNC or a health food store like Whole Foods, they are usually very helpful. I love my Greens+ Vegan protein. I go through one a week, but I am having 3 - 4 shakes a day.
If you start to incorporate a shake into your daily routine, remember that it’s your protein part of the meal and you should still have some fat and carbs. A really easy way to get both is by having 2 hardboiled eggs or 1 TBSP of nut butter. This will make your meal complete. And lots of people hate the smell of HB eggs at the office so who doesn’t love a spoon full of peanut butter?!
I also got to meet with Caitlin yesterday to see the rest of my photos from the shoot last week and they turned out so good! It was worth braving the cold. The next shoot I won’t look so much like a vampire because it will be in June after my May competition.

This weekend I am going up to Kamloops for a Femsport competition with Skechers. I will have lots of photos from the event. Skechers is sponsoring a bunch of athletes so it should be a blast. If you are up in Kamloops come swing by and say hi!  I’ll be under the giant Skechers tent. The event is a fitness competition for women that include tire flips, box jumps and much more! There are over 80 women competing and I am really excited because it will be great motivation to see other women training hard and competing. Good luck to Jessica and Maria who are on the Skechers team! You go girls!

I’ve got lots on the agenda today for work so I will be back tomorrow! If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.

Eat. Train. Sleep. REPEAT!

Nicole