Just call me Coach Cari… #teambeachbody

You guys. I have BIG news. (No, mom – I am not preggers).

So, as some of you may know – and if you’ve been reading, I’ve gone on a journey of fitness in 2015. It all started back in December when, after spending about a month and a half near full-time in Savannah for work (eating ALL of the mac n cheeses) and a fruitful honeymoon filled with loaded coney dogs, pizza and gourmet foods for four meals a day… I decided enough was enough. I had literally tried everything to lose weight and nothing was working. I mean, you’re talking to the girl who GAINED weight while training for her first half marathon (note to readers: DO NOT use a 10-mile run as an excuse to split a large pizza with Mr. Grumpy).

I logged onto Facebook to do my usual stalking around the holidays, and saw my friend Angela had posted before and after pictures from doing a 5-day eating clean challenge and boy, did she look good. AND she had just had a baby so I like literally… had no excuse. I joined her next challenge and then, on January 5, started Insanity Max 30 and Shakeology daily as a meal replacement. These are two programs offered by Team Beach Body. I’m two weeks away from finishing Insanity Max 30 – and can already see a major difference. I was such a believer – I decided to sign up to be a Beach Body Coach to help others like me who wanted to look better and feel empowered to meet their fitness goals.

Here are my “before” pics – before I started on Shakeology  (this makes me CRINGE … and I was really nervous to share this! But I wanted you to see it because you’re my dear, dear readers and I am a HUMAN, ok?!):

Weight: 129, Bust: 34 Waist: 30.5, Hips: 34

 

And here are my pics after 1 month on the program (and I am not going to lie – I cheated on a few meals and missed about 3 workouts):

Weight: 126.2, Bust 32, Hips: 35 (this is because I’m getting muscles!), Waist 28.5

With Shakeology as my lunch or breakfast each day, I actually feel energized to accomplish everything I want to. I have less headaches, less sleepy mornings, less struggle overall. Oscar always tries to eat it – it’s like actually drinking a milkshake for a meal (which I love) – very smooth and creamy.

 

And so, I will be hosting my VERY FIRST clean eating challenge the week of March 8 on Facebook. The theme? Look Good. Get Lucky. That’s right – we all want to have a lucky St. Patrick’s day, but looking and feeling good isn’t about LUCK. It’s about taking care of yourself by planning ahead and getting your shit together so you can let it work FOR you all week long. Being fit doesn’t happen on its own, so let’s take a week to prepare ourselves so we can enjoy St. Patty’s Day guilt-free! If you’re interested in joining my group, comment below with your Facebook name (if we’re not already friends) – and I’ll get you added!

Here’s how it works: On Saturday, I’ll send the PRIVATE Facebook group a list of ingredients to buy at the grocery store. Then, each day, I will share the menu for the day ahead so you have time to prep and plan, and pack your lunch. You can use Shakeology (which you’d get from me) if you’d like, but it’s not required. The point is just to teach you the right things to feed your bod. In addition, we will share our workouts for the week. What do you do? Just “check in” each day to the group by answering my questions. If you don’t check in, you’ll be removed from the group not because I don’t love you, but it’s really just to keep you accountable. After my first clean eating challenge, I lost three pounds (in just five days). So these things really work!

Anyway, we have been cooking up a clean eating storm around here and working out like cray-cray! All the snow has Mr. Grumpy and I feeling pretty damn antsy, so we’re using it in our favor to work it out sweat style. Last week’s long run for half-marathon training was a 4.5 miler. And GUESS WHAT GUYS! I ran it in 45:48. My fastest ever. 🙂 Before you know it, I’ll be beating Mr. G in races!

Here are a few of my fave recipes we’ve been trying (most of which are on my clean eating board on Pinterest). Here are the ones we made without changing the recipe too much:

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• Damn Delicious’ Quinoa Parmesan Chicken 
• Pesto Chicken Kabobs
• Creamy Avocado Sauce (we did ours with brown rice, not pasta – so I guess we changed this.)
• Jambalaya Foil Packets
• French Onion Soup (we used low-fat cheese)

I had to cleanify this two below – just say NO to half-n-half, mmmkay?

Copy Cat Panera Bread Tomato Soup Recipe:
Adapted from Blommi.com

What You’ll Need:

• 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
• A handful of baby carrots, chopped
• 2 celery ribs, diced
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup basil, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 tbsp whole wheat flour
• 1 can diced tomatoes, sodium-free
• 3 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
• 2 tbsp sugar-free ketchup
• 1/4 plus 1/8 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/8 cup greek yogurt (plain)
• Freshly cracked black pepper

Heat the oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add carrots, red pepper flakes, onion, garlic and celery, and cook roughly 8 minutes until soft. Add flour and stir to coat. Let that brown for about a minute. Add the chicken stock, then the tomatoes, bay leaves and ketchup. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover AND simmer for about 15-20 minutes. Pour about half the soup into a blender until the blender is about 3/4 full. Add the basil and blend until smooth. Add the rest back into the pot. Then add the milk and greek yogurt and stir. Pour in bowls and season with black pepper! This was delish.

Cinnamon Applesauce Pancakes
Annnndddd anything by the Pioneer Woman is NEVER going to be healthy – so I had to cleanify this (and not tell Mr. Grumpy it was “clean” because he gave up clean eating for Lent… …. insert heavy sigh here). But, these were delish!

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman

What You’ll Need:

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 2 cups organic, unsweetened cinnamon applesauce
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp egg whites
• Pam Coconut Oil Spray

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Set aside. In your mixer, combine milk, applesauce, honey, vanilla extract and egg whites. Slowly add in the dry ingredients. Heat coconut oil over a skillet on medium-low heat. Scoop out pancakes about 1/4 cup each. Let all the bubbles pop on the top before flipping!!!

We topped ours with baked apples (slice apples, drizzle w/honey and cinnamon and bake at 450 for 20 minutes) and 100% pure maple sryup. Peanut butter would be yummy, too!

What do YOU think would happen if you dedicated five full days to healthy eating and working out? FIND OUT!!! I hope you’ll join me! 🙂