New meal prep recipe: Tuna Muffin Cups

Welp. Today has started my new BB program: The Master's Hammer & Chisel (I'll be referring to it as H&C quite a bit)! I mentioned my meal plan for this in my last post & as promised, here is the new recipe I said I was trying this week! I prepped tuna muffin cups for lunch this week, which I was super excited about.

These were actually very simple to make- not only ingredient-wise but throwing-together wise. It was quick except for the 30-minute baking part. And they pretty much turned out as yummy as they look, which is always good!

Serving size: 3 muffins
Recipe yield: 3 servings (9 muffins)

Ingredients:
2 cans drained tuna
3/4c diced green pepper
1/4c diced onion
1/4c diced carrots
1/4c chopped spinach (small pieces)
3/4c cheese
2 eggs
salt & pepper to taste (as well as any other spices you wanna throw in. I added garlic powder and used garlic sea salt instead of regular salt as usual)
*for the diced veggies, I bought shredded carrots and bagged spinach and used my pampered chef manual chopper to chop them smaller along with already diced onion/pepper to be sure all pieces were small enough*

Preparation:
1. Preheat Oven to 350.
2.Combine everything but the cheese into a bowl and mix well.
3. Use a muffin/cup cake pan and scoop mixture evenly into 9 cups.
4. Sprinkle cheese evenly over the muffin cups. To be precise, you can put the cheese into the blue container and spread evenly across 3 muffins to be sure you're sticking correctly to the plan- do this 3 times t accommodate for the 9 muffins.
5. Bake for about 30mins/until cheese is melted and crispy to your liking
6. Voila. Enjoy!

Hammer & chisel/21 day fix/fix extreme stats per serving (3 muffins):

1 Red, 1 Blue, 1/2 Green

Nutrition facts per serving:

Cals: 240 Total Fat: 14 g
Saturated Fat: 6 g
Monounsaturated Fat: 4 g
Polyunsaturated Fat: 1 g
Trans Fat: 0 g
Cholesterol: 182 mg
Sodium: 478 mg
Potassium: 335 mg
Carbs: 6 g
Dietary Fiber: 2 g
Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 25 g
Vitamin A	35 %
Vitamin C	5 %
Calcium	22 %
Iron	9 %

 

 

RESULTS ARE IN. Happy summer!

Welllpp. Here we are; the beginning of summer! You all know I've been doing the 21 Day Fix Extreme since April and I've decided to share my results with you! Excuse the bareness, but I feel it's important in my progress pics- at least personally- to see the changes being made.
Anyway, just like I thought- this program worked as well as it did for me the 1st time I did it last Spring 2015. My starting stats are as follows:

Weight: 155.6
Waist (around bellybutton): 32in
Hips (around butt): 39.5in
Right thigh: 23.5in
Left thigh: 23.5in

 

I like to measure these areas in the thickest part of them. For example: my bellybutton is the point where my tummy pokes out the most; lol. I also measure my thighs at the mid-top where they're the thickest. My progress pictures are below. If it helps for proportion/comparison purposes, I'm 5'6 tall.

 

Between my before & after, there's a subtracted difference of 7.6lbs & 5.25 inches (combined in the areas mentioned in my measurements above)! I probably lost more inches in total, but I only measured in my focus areas. I'm super-stoked but am also looking forward to keep pushing. I did break 2 milestones during this process- one of them being an anniversary goal (June 13th) which in fact was lower than my total ending weight shown in the pic above. I met my milestone but then had a full weekend of celebrating my 1yr wedding anniversary so of course added back on a couple pounds by the end of my 21dfx cycle but I have no regrets!

 

If you're interested in taking control of your health and would like amazing results as well (especially to get that bikini bod ready!), you can check out the 21dfx here. It's actually on sale this month along with the regular 21df and both of the programs' challenge packs. The challenge packs come with Shakeology that I have probably also talked about and is a daily regimen of mine which has helped with my results! The challenge packs also means saving on the items. I used this exact challenge pack, with the vegan chocolate shakeo flavor =)



Weekly meal prep

Not much to my meal prep this week but I said I'd do this weekly so here you go!

My meal prep for work is very similar- almost the same- as last week. My breakfast & lunch ARE the same and my snacks are just a tiny bit variation. Again, for me, simplicity (and budget friendly) are key. I spent less than $25 on my work meal prep groceries + the things I needed to grab for dinner that I didn't already have in my fridge/cabinet. And I stay full all day at work!

CTC days: 3G, 6R, 1Y, 3tsp

Breakfast: Whole wheat English Muffin w/ almond butter= 1Y, 1tsp

Morning Snack: ½ scoop Vegan Choc Shakeo w/ 1/2c cashew milk & greens = ½ R

Lunch: Lean ground turkey with green beans=2R, 2G

Afternoon Snack: Choc shakeo “pudding”- ½ sc Vegan Choc Shakeo w/ Dannon Light & Fit greek vanilla yogurt cup (5.3oz cup)= 1.5R

Dinner: Refer to dinner menu= 2R, 1G

Reg Ext Days: 3G, 4R, 2Y, 2 tsp, 2P, 1B, 1O

Breakfast: English Muffin w/ almond butter & ½ sliced banana= 1Y, 1tsp, 1P

Morning Snack: ½ scoop Vegan Choc Shakeo w/ ½ c cashew milk, frozen berries & greens = ½ R, 1P

Lunch: Ground chicken or turkey stir fry =2R, 2G

Afternoon Snack: rice cake with almond butter= 1Y, 1tsp

Dinner: Refer to dinner menu= 2R, 1G

**Swapped blue for an extra ½ Red**

I'm debating on just doing CTC all week. See...my next milestone goal is close and the date I set for it is my wedding anniversary- June 13th. As of Friday (3 days ago) I was literally 1 pound away from this milestone number I'm aiming to reach- with a week to spare. Regardless of the fact that -as usual- the weekend got the better of me and I gained some back by this morning, I'm confident I can reach this milestone goal # before my goal date but if I'm lucky enough for that to be the case, the trick is to maintain it! So I'm thinking instead of carb cycling and doing the 2 days CTC interlaced with 1 day of the regular extreme plan (as given in the meal plan calendar for the CTC plan option of the 21dfx), I'll maybe do CTC everyday- cut out the regular extreme (higher carb) days in order to have more of a deficit and kick butt in reaching my goal by the 13th. I'll try it through Wednesday (since that's supposed to be my 1st regular ext. day this week) to see how it goes and let yall know if my theory seemed to work!

Anywho, DINNER. Here's my dinner menu for the week! My weekly "new recipe" for this week is healthy 21df approved general tso's chicken. I love Chinese food so I'm stoked to try it! I'll let yall know later in the week how it turned out, along with the recipe!

Dinner

Monday CTC: Fish [R] with steamed veggies [G]

Tuesday CTC: Taco [salad] Tuesday! Lean ground meat (R), Lettuce/Tomato (G), Optional Black beans/tortilla strips [Y]

Wednesday Ext: 21df general Tso chicken- 1 red, 1/2 orange, 1 tsp

Thursday CTC: Chicken [R] with veggies [G] or leftovers

Friday CTC: [turkey] bacon-wrapped asparagus (R & G)

 

Intro/Background!

HI! As you know, my name is Chelsea and I'm a health and fitness guru. Basic personal background: I come from an amazing family- great hard working parents and 3 siblings- 2 older sisters & one younger brother; I’m the middle child but the baby girl. I’m a blessed wife to a great husband I’ve known/been in love with for about 7 years. We’re still getting “our” life going as newlyweds as of June 2015! No kids yet but planning to start one day in the next couple years. Anything else you wanna know, feel free to ask! I’m an open book.

I'm new to this blogging thing so bear with me- but here's some background about why I'm doing this & what this is all about!

For starters, I've always been into fitness. I played softball my whole life including through college and was always in shape. Many people don't realize what all goes into being an athlete- or a competitive softball player specifically. Growing up I played ASA/AAU travel softball (you travel to compete in tournaments, most of them being showcases to get recruited by college teams once you hit the 16u/18u level); I started playing at this competitive level at the age of 8 and played little league previously. Anyway, I of course did this to get recruited and therefore continued my softball career into college. Everyone on the team regardless had field time 6 days a week- whether it be practice or games. This was in addition to assigned gym weight lifting workouts as well as conditioning twice a week. Oh and winter/summer/spring break? Forget about it. We got our big "breaks" like all other students for the summer but still had assigned workouts- most of the time they were crossfit workouts and same goes for winter break (which was shortened for spring-season athletes). Games were the easy part! Practices were anywhere from 3-6 hours long and sometimes twice a day. A 2-hour long practice was considered a lucky/short day. Welp..I was a pitcher (til Junior year) & outfielder which meant no breaks really during practice. BP (batting practice) was my “break” since it was the part of practice where I could actually have a sec to catch my breath. Pitching consisted of that- pitching which obviously involves compound and explosive movements. And as an outfielder…HA! Outfielders were running…CONSTANTLY. Whether it was sprinting across the grass during OF defense…or acting as baserunners during the infielders’ defense.

ANYWAY- sorry for the ramble but it’s essential to my story of how I got to where I am now! I quickly realized after graduating (May 2013) that I only had MYSELF to count on to whip me into shape & stay fit since I didn't have softball to force me into shape anymore! During the best shape of my life early-mid college, I was 135lbs which was all toned muscle. I’m 5’6 so some might think 135 sounds too skinny for my height but they’re wrong- I looked very well and healthy. I was in the 140-145 lb range during my senior year of college but was still very fit & looked so too. I ended up getting engaged soon after graduating- on June 29, 2013. I was still pretty fit/in shape by this time so didn’t think too much and I guess took advantage of my happiness and contentment with life.

SO. After gaining some [quite a bit of] weight through the 1st year after graduating (I ended up at about 170-175lbs- my heaviest- within a year…Jan-March 2014), I took it upon myself to start taking charge of myself- nutrition & workout wise. I was doing well in the gym & somewhat with eating and lost some weight but still wasn't exactly where I wanted to be. I gradually dropped- down to 160 then eventually in the 150 range.

HOWEVER, with my wedding coming up in June 2015, I needed some extra UMPH. I was introduced to It Works! in March 2015 and fell in love right away and ended up becoming a distributor. These products definitely helped to amp up my health/workout results but I'm stubborn and still wanted more- I was looking in the mirror for the girl I was in school when I was in the best shape of my life. In fact, I wanted to surpass it to look/feel the BEST I ever have for my wedding! It Works! Really does work but I had a certain # in mind to reach so decided it was time to add something new to my routine in order to shock my body and get more results.

 I was introduced to Beach Body- shortly after I was introduced to It Works- with the 21 Day Fix Extreme for some extra UMPH to change it up and amp up my "getting ready for the wedding." I started in May 2015 and the program worked REALLY well for me and pushed me past my current plateau at that point, and got me down to a number I hadn't seen since midway through college and I also loved how I looked/felt right in time for my wedding. It also worked amazingly well with my It Works regimen I was personally using!

 After the wedding, I sort of fell off the 21dfx train. Not only because I was content with life after my wedding, but I went back to my old gym routine. I loved what the 21dfx at-home workouts did for me, but I missed the gym and weightlifting. BUTTT…that, too, ended up becoming less frequent awhile after marriage; lol.

I also sort of dropped off the IW train a bit and I ended up getting back up to my pre-21dfx weight- yikes! Therefore, I kicked it back into high gear with the gym during this past winter (December 2015-March 2016) and even hit a squat PR for the first time in 2 years and made it in the top 10 for girls on squats at my gym (of course, not by squatted weight period but they go by a proportion called Wilkes points). I've been pretty fit and healthy and have dropped some #s since but I kept hitting plateaus..regardless of trying new/different things. I admit- I can be a “yo-yo” dieter sometimes with trying to find things that work- and get impatient when they don’t OR when they stop working/hit a wall. SO- in order to break those plateaus & start reaching my goals, I decided to go back to something safe. Something I KNEW worked well for me/my body in the past as well as made a great team with my usual It Works! products. I got back into following the 21 day fix extreme- I started my 1st current round this past April 2016 and combined with It Works, it's doing what I wanted/thought it would do.

As mentioned earlier, I’d already been running my It Works! business for about a year. I still love/use the It Works product line and very much believe in it!

 However, since I'm also very active, I wanted to combine my products with the actual activity aspect since I'm an avid user of both! So, here I am. Lol. Although I’m still a newbie to the Beachbody Coach world, I wanted to utilize both sides of the spectrum to help you reach your goals! I wanted to bring both of these programs I'm an avid user/believer of together to tackle both sides of the spectrum & forward my health and wellness passion to help others tackle their goals as well! It also helps that I already had some prior fitness/health knowledge in my background- not an expert or anything but as an athlete, we’d worked with quite a few personal trainers and nutritionists throughout my softball career =) I'm not one-dimensional in my personal life and therefore refuse to be one-dimensional with my passions as well 😊 Doing both of these not only gives me the ability to promote health in a fitness sense, but pretty much virtually any health/wellness goal!