For breakfast this morning, I whipped up two scrambled eggs, topped with a teensy bit of Italian-blend cheeses and Rasta sauce, accompanied by a 100-calorie bread topped with almond butter. It was delish. I also had some coffee with a splash of skim milk (I ran out of UVAB) because I knew it was going to be a busy day!
After my breakfast settled a bit, I hit the gym for 20 minutes of cardio on the crazy elliptical/stair-stepper machine (burning 240 calories) and then an hour-long yoga class. Prior to the ankle sprain from hell, I had been doing yoga at least once a week. This is the first time I've done it in 11 weeks - since the injury. I was really nervous, but once I got into the workout, I immediately remembered how much I love it. It's so relaxing - and really, really hard! The only poses that gave me any trouble were Warrior (especially Warrior Three) and Triangle. Tree, balancing on my right leg (the injured one) was also tricky, but I made it work as well as I could. I'm going to be sore tomorrow, but it was totally worth it and something I plan on doing every Sunday.
After yoga, I came home and made my favorite meal of the day: the Green Monster. I had a couple of requests for recipes, so I one-upped that and am providing you with a step-by-step. Bare with me. :)
Step One: gather ingredients:
This time the ingredients included spinach, blackberries, UVAB, a banana, agave nectar, and almond butter...
...and vanilla protein powder that was somehow forgotten in the first picture. As an afterthought, I also added a sprinkling of cinnamon and nutmeg, but those did not show up for their photograph either.
Step Two: add ingredients: this is the best part of a Green Monster because you can add whatever your little heart desires! Here's what mine looked like today:
One cup of UVAB. You could use skim milk, but the nutritional value of UVAB is much better (i.e. you get a lot more liquid for a lot fewer calories).
One-fourth cup of blackberries. This is a rough measurement, but I think it equals about seven or eight berries.
One tablespoon almond butter. My personal favorite is Barney Butter. I've used Blue Diamond but did not prefer that taste as much. Other popular blogger favorites (that I have yet to try) are Maranatha and Justin's.
One scoop vanilla protein powder. Generally, if I add almond butter to my Green Monsters, I only add half a scoop of protein because otherwise there are too many calories and protein grams for one meal. Today, though, I forgot. While I've bought the EAS protein the last two times, I'm dying to try the Jillian Michaels kind (but probably won't since they only sell it at Walmart and, well, I hate Walmart).
One to two handfuls of spinach. At this point, I usually have to blend a little so that I can add more ingredients. :)
It's a pretty green hue prior to the blackberries being chopped in there!
One drizzle of agave nectar (a natural sweetener with low glycemic impact) and today, a sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg. Those added a really nice overall flavor! Sometimes I also add ground flaxseed at this point, but I ran out. :(
Step Three: drink up! I'm pretty sure this one was devoured in approximately 60 seconds. :)
Finally, I started getting hungry and dug into a new treat I found at the store today:
Two of these bad boys are 100 calories, 2 grams of fat, 20 grams of carbs, and 1 gram of protein. What a deal! They aren't too shabby either, which is great since I bought two boxes (on sale) at the store today. For other "treats" I bought white cheddar rice cakes as well as some graham crackers. I know neither is nutritionally amazing, but I could do a lot worse for a salty and a sweet snack!
And I did do a lot worse for dinner. BFF and I ordered Thai Flavors, our favorite take-out place in Des Moines. As usual, I ordered Pad Thai with Tofu, and as usual, it was delicious. I'm pretty sure the amount of food was less than usual, or maybe I was just calorie- and carbohydrate-deficient from the last couple of days, because embarrassingly, I ate the entire thing. I can't believe it. Afterwards, I was pretty sure I was going to puke because even after only a week of eating very healthfully, that much "unhealthy" was not feeling too good! I also had two glasses of red wine...
Let's just say today was my "free" day. :) Tomorrow I'm back to the grind!
Today's grand total:
Calories: who knows?!
Fat: probably way too many grams!
Carbs: OMG
Protein: pretty decent, I'm sure
Exercise: 680 calories (approximately)
Water: not enough ounces
I have seen so many recipes for Green Monsters and I have yet to try one. I have pretty much all of the ingredients so maybe tomorrow I'll give it a whirl... :)
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