My new favorite breakfast!
I have to admit that breakfast is my all time favorite meal of the day, I wake up hungry and look forward to getting my metabolism revved up for the day. My typical breakfast is veggies (asparagus or spinach with some green onions) sauteed with some egg whites. I like to have a starch with my breakfast because I usually workout in the mornings so I need more energy during that time (carbs>>energy) so I will sometimes have a piece of gluten free toast by Udi's, or Ezekiel makes a hearty whole grain English muffin, or I will have a Van's gluten free waffle. You may be thinking am I gluten free? No, but I like how my body responds as well as the taste of some gluten free products, but it is not a necessity. Well, I came across a new company online called MyOatmeal.com.
This is a great company that allows you to customize your own oatmeal. It was so much fun to go on the website and pick everything from the type of oatmeal (I chose to make one with the quick rolled oats and another with the 5 Grain Oats and Flax which I will review both) the flavor (there are 22 Billion flavor combinations!) and add-ins such as dried fruit and mixed nuts. There is also the option for sweeteners such as honey or Splenda (this is what I chose, I would have chosen Stevia if that were an option) the company highly recommends a sweetener which complements their flavors, otherwise without any sweetener, the taste would be bitter, so keep that in mind when designing your oatmeal if you choose. So let me share what flavor concoctions I came up with, the one I really loved was what I named (Yes, you get to name your Oatmeal flavor) Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookie. Oh! One more thing, I think this is the coolest part of creating your oatmeal, on the right hand side of the screen they have the nutrition label and it updates the nutrition content as you make your selections so you know how much fat, protein, carbs are in each serving, I love that! Ok, back to what I was saying Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookie, so first you select your size of bag, this was my first time ordering so picked the small bag, next you select the type of oats which I selected quick rolled oats, then I selected the flavoring, wow, so many choices and they all sound so good, I thought I would play it safe and picked Oatmeal Cookie, sounds good right? I scrolled down the page and skipped over the nuts and fruits, I didn't want to add too many carbs (from the fruit) or fat (from the nuts) I just wanted a good starchy carb option for breakfast, but what excited me was in the nut options, they offered PB Lean (their version of PB2, which is powdered peanut butter, the great flavor without the fat). and for the sweetener sucralose (Splenda). And that's it! So I put the order in and the company shipped out my oatmeal from Arizona and I received it within 3 days via USPS. When it arrived, it was in this great paper packaging, the Seattle girl in me appreciated its eco-friendly packaging. When I opened the package and took a deep inhale through my nose, if this tastes as good as it smells, this is going to be yummy! Since I selected Quick Rolled Oats, this stuff cooks up quick, I made it on the stove and 2-3 minutes later (don't walk away from it, keep stirring, then shut down the heat as the package directs you.) I put it in my bowl, poured a little almond milk and after the first warm, sweet, flavorful, oatty bite, I was very happy :) This was a great flavor combination with the slight peanuty taste, not too sweet but sweet enough reminiscent of an oatmeal cookie. I would recommend this flavor for sure! I am happy to support this up and coming company, I think they have a great idea that really caters to a person's individuality and creativity, I know you are probably thinking, "C'mon, its just oatmeal!" But for me, I think it is fun to create my own food and have it arrive all packaged with my product name. So if you are looking for a new breakfast and you want to put your personal touch onto it, give MyOatmeal.com a try!
Monday, July 29, 2013
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Hi Everyone,
This is the first post to a new blog I have started where I will share my progress over the next several months as I build new muscle! I am really excited for you to be a part of this journey with me. As you may have seen in my previous blog http://kdcalabrese.blogspot.com/, I recently competed in my first Figure Bodybuilding Competition in Liberty, MO. I came away from this experience with a desire to further improve and build more muscle, I was very lean for this show but did not have the size that the judges were looking for.
So now the fun begins, I have been on a reverse diet for the last 8 weeks and have slowly added calories back into my eating plan each week under the guidance of my coach and so it begins, the muscle building process! During this process, I will share my eating, exercise plan and mental strategies that will bring me to the physique I am aiming for.You may be asking what does Figure Bodybuilding look like? Here is a link to the NANBF (North American Natural Bodybuilding Federation) which I am a member, in this link is a gallery of Professional level Figure competitors .http://nanbf.org/?gallery=ifpa-pro-figure.
My coach recently changed my eating plan so that my calories are evenly distributed throughout the week rather than having a high "refeed" day which I typically ate a significantly higher level of carbohydrates than the other days, on this day I would perform heavy sets of exercise for my legs. However, now the calories are the same each day, which I am enjoying more food each day, you will find out soon enough that I love to eat and I always look forward to when my coach increases my calories.
I am currently 7 lbs over my contest weight right now and would like to bring it down a few pounds if possible so that I can continue to build muscle but keep lean while doing it, and that is possible! There are so many people who feel that building muscle means getting "big and bulky" but that doesn't have to be the case. I will be performing my leg workout tomorrow for the first time without the refeed calories, I will keep you posted how that goes and if I notice any difference in my performance during the workout and my recovery following the workout. For the most part, I like to do leg workouts, but they are taxing and my left side in the SI joint tends to get out of place which causes some discomfort when doing squats, leg presses and lying leg curls. I have started doing bar front squats which places more emphasis on the quadricep muscle and that seems to work better for that issue.
Today is my active rest day so my cardio is a LISS (Low intensity steady state) workout, it will be a short workout but I want to get a good sweat out of this workout so I will do it on the Arc Trainer at my local YMCA. I like to switch my cardio up between the Arc Trainer, the step mill and spin bike. What is your favorite cardio equipment do you like to use?
This is the first post to a new blog I have started where I will share my progress over the next several months as I build new muscle! I am really excited for you to be a part of this journey with me. As you may have seen in my previous blog http://kdcalabrese.blogspot.com/, I recently competed in my first Figure Bodybuilding Competition in Liberty, MO. I came away from this experience with a desire to further improve and build more muscle, I was very lean for this show but did not have the size that the judges were looking for.
So now the fun begins, I have been on a reverse diet for the last 8 weeks and have slowly added calories back into my eating plan each week under the guidance of my coach and so it begins, the muscle building process! During this process, I will share my eating, exercise plan and mental strategies that will bring me to the physique I am aiming for.You may be asking what does Figure Bodybuilding look like? Here is a link to the NANBF (North American Natural Bodybuilding Federation) which I am a member, in this link is a gallery of Professional level Figure competitors .http://nanbf.org/?gallery=ifpa-pro-figure.
My coach recently changed my eating plan so that my calories are evenly distributed throughout the week rather than having a high "refeed" day which I typically ate a significantly higher level of carbohydrates than the other days, on this day I would perform heavy sets of exercise for my legs. However, now the calories are the same each day, which I am enjoying more food each day, you will find out soon enough that I love to eat and I always look forward to when my coach increases my calories.
I am currently 7 lbs over my contest weight right now and would like to bring it down a few pounds if possible so that I can continue to build muscle but keep lean while doing it, and that is possible! There are so many people who feel that building muscle means getting "big and bulky" but that doesn't have to be the case. I will be performing my leg workout tomorrow for the first time without the refeed calories, I will keep you posted how that goes and if I notice any difference in my performance during the workout and my recovery following the workout. For the most part, I like to do leg workouts, but they are taxing and my left side in the SI joint tends to get out of place which causes some discomfort when doing squats, leg presses and lying leg curls. I have started doing bar front squats which places more emphasis on the quadricep muscle and that seems to work better for that issue.
Today is my active rest day so my cardio is a LISS (Low intensity steady state) workout, it will be a short workout but I want to get a good sweat out of this workout so I will do it on the Arc Trainer at my local YMCA. I like to switch my cardio up between the Arc Trainer, the step mill and spin bike. What is your favorite cardio equipment do you like to use?
Labels:
bodybuilding,
calories,
cardio,
diet,
figure competition,
fit,
lean,
muscle,
refeed,
reverse diet,
workout
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