JCore Day 18

Again, I'm really late with this post.  Sorry!

Happy Valentine’s Day!  Valentine's Day is my third favorite holiday, although I didn't really do much for it this year.  I did wear purple and red, but that was about it.  I didn't even give out any cards!  I used to love that in middle/high school....especially all of the candy that usually comes with the cards.  It's probably not a coincidence that my top 3 holidays (Halloween and Christmas are 1 and 2) are highly associated with sweets.  This is actually the first Valentines Day in recent memory where my meals were not composed primarily of chocolate :p.

The Workout

Today’s JCore workout was Cardio Core 4x4.  I also had TRX in the afternoon.  It was our last class with our current instructor :(.  She was such a great teacher, and I am sad to see her go.  The workout itself was good.  I noticed myself instinctively tightening my abs on certain exercises, which I haven’t really noticed before.  I think that it’s good, though, I think it’s a sign that I’m improving.

The Food

Breakfast: Peanut butter protein shake and brown rice with pumpkin.

I left out the banana from my shake because I wanted to save my fruit portion for dessert so I could use it for chocolate-covered strawberries :).  

 I can't remember now why I left out the almond butter this time (I was probably trying to save my fat portions for dinner), but let me just say that just rice and pumpkin together is NOT as good.

Lunch: Salad with chicken and mixed veggies.

For this salad I used about 4 ounces of canned chicken and half a cup of frozen mixed vegetables.  I don’t really like salads that are completely cold, so I heat up the chicken and veggies in the microwaves before adding them to the lettuce.  For the dressing, I mixed together equal amounts of hummus and salsa (about ¼ cup each).  I got multiple comments about how it looked like vomit (don’t  you love it when people do that to your lunch?), but it was tasty so I didn't care!

Dinner: Special Valentine’s Day Whole Foods food!

Kevin and I had decided we didn’t really want to do anything major for Valentine’s Day this year (mainly because we're poor).  So, for dinner we headed out to Whole Foods to see what we could see.  It figured it would be cheaper than going to a fancy restaurant but still kind of special since we don't normally get prepared meals from Whole Foods.  I decided on this poached salmon brown rice sushi.  There were some pre-made packages waiting already, but the person at the counter was nice enough to make me a roll with no sesame seeds and with the sauce on the side.  I also scooped up some honey-glazed carrot slices and a few slices of grilled portabella mushroom.  

We took everything  home and ate while watching a movie on Netflix.  It was called Take Me Home, about a woman who hires a taxi driver to take her from New York to California.  It was pretty good, a lot better than you might expect given that the lead actor was also the writer, producer, and director, and that the lead actress was his wife.

Dessert: Chocolate-covered strawberries!

I was seriously waiting for these all day.  They were SO expensive – about $7 for 4 strawberries – and I almost didn’t get them.  But I really, really wanted them, so we decided we could swing it.  For your information, no, I did not share these with Kevin, he had his own set :p.  

And then I had gummy vitamins and went to bed!  I ended up going over my calorie budged a little, but not by much so I think it's okay :).

JCore Day 17

My car broke down!  I was on my way to work when the dashboard display started beeping and flashing a 'check charging system' message.  I pulled over onto a side street (thankfully I hadn't gotten onto the highway yet) and called Kevin so he could Google the message for me.  Based on what he found he determined that the car wasn't okay to drive, so I needed to call AAA and have them send me a tow truck.  This, as you can imagine, completely ruined my plans to get to work early so I could leave early and go to Boot Camp.  I called my dad to let him know what was going on (not that he could really do anything about it from all the way across the country), and the first thing he said was although it sounded like an alternator issues, he sincerely hoped that it wasn't because those tend to be pretty expensive to replace.  The tow truck brought me and my car to an AAA-approved repair place to be checked out.  I took the bus home, and after a couple of hours they called with their diagnosis: it was indeed the alternator.  Of course.  Parts and labor came out to just under $600, plus another $27 or so for the initial check-up.

My brother's car actually broke down last week due to engine troubles caused by the fact that he hadn't had an oil change in a while, so since my car was going to be out of commission for a bit anyway my dad wanted me to get an oil change as well.  I haven't even though about changing the oil in the 6 months that I've owned the car (and who knows the last time the previous owner had done it), so it was good idea.  It was also another $50.

Did you think that was it?  That wasn't it.  A few more hours go by and I receive another phone call: they've fixed the alternator, everything is all set with that - but.  But my battery is weak and could go at any time.  I was going to save replacing it for another day, but my dad convinced me that this was a bad idea.  I don't want to miss ANOTHER day of work because my car won't start one morning, or be stuck somewhere weird and not be able to get home.  So, I got a new battery.  Add $150 to the total bill.  I finally got my car back at about 5:30pm (aka the time Boot Camp should have been ending), and my lucky self got a $50 discount for being an AAA member, bringing my total to a mere $717.54!

In case you couldn't tell, the moral of this story is I'm poor now.  At least my car works, I guess.  For now...


No workout today.  It was an off day for JCore, I missed Boot Camp, my gym bag was in the car so I couldn't really do anything during the day, and by the time I got the car back I was in a bad mood and didn't feel like doing anything.

The Food

Breakfast: I totally made this omelette all by myself!

Omelette made with egg whites, canned chicken, and broccoli. 

With all the car issues this morning, I didn't get a chance to eat breakfast until about 4 hours after I had originally planned to.  The upside was that I was eating at home (instead of at work like I normally do), so I had much more freedom in choosing what to eat.  My original plan was to have butternut squash soup with brown rice, but why eat soup when you can eat an omelette?!

Why indeed!

Normally, I'm a scrambled eggs kind of girl out of necessity; I tend to ruin omelettes.  Kevin usually makes my omelettes for me, but he was still asleep, and I could think of nothing lamer than waking him up just so he could cook for me :P.  But it was fine because I didn't even need any help!  And it only fell apart a little bit!  I  call this progress, folks.


Lunch: Chicken curry with chickpeas, broccoli, and green beans.

This is what I originally packed for lunch, which is why it's in a tupperware instead of on a plate.



Snack 1: Chic Naturals Hawaiian Sea Salt & Herb dry roasted chickpeas.

Snack 2: Justin's honey almond butter.

This was supposed to be my post-Boot Camp snack :(.



Dinner: Peanut butter protein shake.

I wasn't very hungry for dinner; I was bummed out about missing Boot Camp and my giant car repair bill and I was in a pretty bad mood.  I knew I needed to have something but I wanted something light.  I also wanted to see how the shake would be without using frozen banana like I did last time.  I want to have this for breakfast tomorrow, but I also want to save my fruit portion for after dinner.  My conclusion was that while the shake is certainly better with banana, it's pretty okay without it, especially after I mixed in some cinnamon and vanilla.

JCore Day 16

The Workout

Today I did Fire Fit again.  It went much better this time, no headaches at all.  I also had TRX in the afternoon.  Today's session was a lot more fast-paced and cardio-heavy than last Thursday's class had been. 

The Food

Breakfast: Brown rice with pumpkin and almond butter.

I made this up because I couldn’t think of anything better to have (I didn’t feel like having oatmeal again).  It was actually good!  No sugar, but I added some pumpkin pie spice to it, and my office-mate commented that it smelled like Thanksgiving when she came in the door.

Lunch: Pork chop with green beans and butternut squash.

There’s totally a pork chop in there, just underneath all the veggies.  I forgot to add salt, though!  So the veggies were just a little bit boring.  Also there are somehow no knives in the kitchen, so eating the pork chop was a bit more difficult than I may have liked.    

Snack 1: Greek yogurt with applesauce and Wheat Chex.

I had a different brand of yogurt than usual (I normally have Fage, this was 365 [Whole Foods brand]).  I think this brand tastes a little better, probably because it’s a little higher in calories.

Snack 2: Latte.

Dinner: Chicken curry with chickpeas, green beans, and cauliflower.  

The one thing I would change about this is that the sauce is thinner than I would like.  I might try to add some cornstarch to the leftover sauce to thicken it up a bit.

I also contacted the JCore people and found out that for this phase of the nutrition program, crackers count as bread, as I assume do tortilla chips.  Since I've had one of those two things pretty much every day since Phase 2 started, the only conclusion I can come to is that I've been doing this wrong.  I guess what I'll do is just carry the 'no bread' thing over into Phase 3, just so I'll have the number of bread-free days necessary to discover my secret bread allergy, should such a thing exist.  It totally doesn't.  But, I won't argue with Jay.  

JCore Day 15

Okay, everyone – this is serious business.  There were these chocolate oatmeal cookie thingos in the kitchen today (I think they were essentially these), and I super wanted them so much.  Every time I walked into the kitchen, I couldn’t help peeking into the box they were in (and also taking a little sniff if no one was looking; they smelled great), and I continued to think about them even when I went back to my desk.  I didn’t have one, but REALLY wanted to!  I think they might be the first thing I make after I’m done with JCore – although probably with almond butter instead of peanut butter so Kevin will eat them too. 

Okay.  Now that we’ve talked about that, back to our regularly scheduled programming:

The Workout: Rev Up

Even though I’m technically only on the second week of the program, it’s been about a month since I last did this workout.  I had completely forgotten about how many arm circles and lunges I’m expected to do.  'A lot' is the answer, I now recall.  Today also was the first day of Boot Camp – more on that later.

The Food

Breakfast: Oatmeal with pumpkin and chicken.

It took me soooo long to figure out what I was going to eat for breakfast today.  Normally if I can’t think of anything my go-to is a bagel thin or English muffin with almond butter, but that wasn’t an option this time.  I’ll be happier when this ban on bread is up (assuming I’m not actually secretly allergic to bread, which I seriously doubt).

Lunch: Chicken curry with green beans, chickpeas, and brown rice.

Leftovers from last night.  Apparently I forgot to take a picture, though.  Oops.

Snack 1:  Greek yogurt, applesauce, and pecans.

I swapped out my normal cereal for pecans so that I could use that carb portion for oatmeal in the morning instead.  I was a little worried about how it would be, but I actually really liked it.  The nuts gave enough crunch that I didn’t miss the cereal at all.  I’m sure I’ll use cereal again sometime, but it’s nice to know I have more than one option now.

Dinner: Pork chop with butternut squash and grilled red and yellow peppers.

Yes, there is half of a pork chop underneath that pile of veggies.  I somehow managed to eat almost all my protein portions in my breakfast, lunch, and snack, so by the time I got to dinner I only had one portion remaining.  One portion equals one ounce, or about a quarter of a porkchop.  However, I didn’t really think a quarter of a pork chop was going to cut it for dinner and I still had room in my calorie budget, so I decided to have half a pork chop instead, which was about 2.5 ounces.  The grilled peppers I bought frozen (I think from Whole Foods).  I started them in the microwave and then threw them in the skillet after the pork chops were done cooking to finish up.

Snack 2: Pecans and low-sodium Triscuits.

Again, no picture.  Right before bed I noticed that my calories for the day were lower than I would have liked, so I just grabbed them to eat quickly while Kevin and I read (we're reading The Night Circus together; it's so good!)

Alright, so, Boot Camp.  Since this was the first day, we didn’t actually do any working out.  Instead we spent most of our time filling out data sheets (mostly to make sure we’re healthy enough to do this class) and discussing what we can expect from the next 8 weeks.  Our instructor is named Simone, and the first thing she told us was that we should not expect this class to be easy.  “It’s not supposed to be easy, it’s supposed to be effective,” she said.  However, since our first workout is on Wednesday we should expect to be more sore than we have ever been in our lives by Friday. 

Simone also gave us a few ground rules to get us started.  We weighed in yesterday, and we’ll weigh in at the end of the 8 weeks, but other than that we’re supposed to put our scales in the back of the closet and forget about them (“Bury them, burn them, drown them,” she said).  She doesn’t want us to be worried or confused if/when our weight reflected our growing muscles more than our dropping body fat.  We need to keep a notebook to track our meals, exercise, and our moods, and in general, eat clean, eat often, and eat small portions.  Simone also wants us to watch Supersize Me and Fast Food Nation, just in case any of us don’t realize that fast food is bad for you, or something. 

On Wednesday, a nutritionist will come in to talk to us about what we should be eating.  This is the main thing I’m worried about – that the nutrition plan promoted by this class will clash with what I’m doing for JCore and I won’t know what to do.  I also think they might want us to eat food groups in the proportions suggested by My Plate (the thing that replaced the Food Pyramid), which is a lot higher in carbs than the JCore nutrition plan recommends.  Other than that, though, I’m pretty excited to get started.  I have been thinking about personal training recently, and it sounds like this class might be similar.  I think that Simone will really push me and make me see what I’m capable of, and that’s what I need.  I’m ready to work hard, I’m ready to be sore.  Bring it on!

JCore Day 14

Sorry everyone, I'm so late in getting this up.  This is from Sunday, Feb. 10.

Hi, friends!  I had a nice, relaxing Sunday.  This was an off day for JCore, so no workout today.  I spent the first half of the day in bed watching Twin Peeks, and then we switched gears a little bit and spend the second half in bed watching a Hindi-language movie - Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, for anyone who likes that sort of thing.  Imran Kahn, what a cutie :).


Breakfast: Peanut butter and banana protein smoothie.

In Brookline, MA, where I used to live, there is a little crepe place called Paris Creperie.  My pals and I would go there all the time, and on most of my visits, I would get a smoothie called the Jimmy Carter - peanut butter, banana, milk, and fro yo.  As far as I understand, Jimmy Carter was a peanut farmer (as well as being a president) which is why this drink deserves his name.  Let me just tell you that the Jimmy Carter was the BEST smoothie.  It's the only kind I ever ordered.  My version used vanilla protein powder and ice in place of the fro yo, but was still pretty delicious.      


Lunch: Broccoli soup with leftover pork.

This was the very last of the pork, and I was sad to see it go.  I'm fairly certain we'll be making it again soon, though.


Snack 1: Pickles

Snack 2: Tortilla chips and hummus.

Dinner: Chicken curry with brown rice and chickpeas.

This is kind of like deconstructed curry, but I mixed everything together before I ate it.

I found the recipe in Health magazine, in an article about uses for bananas.  I left the bananas out when I made this (Kevin didn't want them) so I don't know what that would have tasted like, but I bet it would have been good.  It was good even without the bananas, though!  I had never really made curry before but it wasn't too hard, and I was really happy with the way it came out.


Tomorrow is the first day of Boot Camp class at the gym!  I'm kind of excited, I think it will be fun.  I'm also excited because yesterday I signed up for my second Warrior Dash!  It's seriously in like 2 weeks, so I need to start getting ready, but it's going to be great.  I had so much fun at the last one!

JCore Day 13: Fit Test 3

The Workout: Fit Test 3!

I'm happy with my results this week.  I improved on pretty much all of the exercises and used fewer of the modified forms.  I put all of my fit test data into a chart so I could more easily see my progress:

Not too bad, right?!

The Food

Breakfast: Almost omelette with egg whites, leftover ground beef, and green beans.

This was originally supposed to be an omelette, but I ended up having more filling than egg to surround it so it wouldn't fold properly.  But, by that time it was too late to turn it into scrambled eggs, so I just had a pile of stuff on my plate and that was fine.


Lunch: Pork with butternut squash and green beans.

Exactly the same as yesterday.  There's still pork in the fridge so maybe I'll have it tomorrow too!


Snack: Justin's honey almond butter.

I was about to head out to go to a party and I didn't want to be starving when I got there.


Dinner:  James Bond-themed extravaganza!

My supervisor at work and her husband threw a party celebrating the 50th anniversary of the James Bond series.  They kind of went all out, it was pretty cool.  Upon arrival, we were each given a water gun that had been spray painted black to appear more official - although some had been painted gold for a little extra fancy, I got one of those!  Placed around the lanai for people to look at were copies of James Bond magazine and a coffee table book about Bond Girls.  There were also various James Bond movies playing on different TVs around the house.  There was a martini bar complete with instructions on how to make a few variations, as well as another area to make mixed drinks.  The appetizers were all named after movies, like A View To A Kill Crab Mold, and The Man With The Golden Gun Cheese Board.  I had tried to eat a little lighter throughout the day to make room in my calorie budget for party food, and it's a good thing I did because there wasn't a ton there that I was okay to eat.  Here's what I had:

Granny Smith apple slices, 3 fried chicken drumsticks, 3 Triscuits, and some crab mold.

The fried chicken obviously wasn't the best thing in the world to eat, but it was pretty much the only source of protein considering I couldn't eat the cheese from the cheese board or any of the mini pizzas  There was some Octopussy sushi, but I was not inclined to eat any.  I couldn't figure out what was in them, and I haven't graduated from California rolls to actual raw fish sushi yet.  A little later I had a second plate with a few more apple slices, a little more crab mold, and 3 Town House crackers.

Then came dessert.  We all know how much I love dessert.  There was so much to choose from; Diamonds Are Forever Cupcakes, Moonraker Cookies, Die Another Day Skull Cake, In Her Majesty's Secret Service Cheesecakes, License to Kill(er) Brownies, From Russia With Love Cookies, Guava cake, and fruit skewers:

Is that James Bond back there?  Quite possibly!

Can you guess which plate is mine?  ;-)

I had a small bite of Kevin's cupcake and a teeny tiny bite of his brownie, but that was it.  Luckily I had saved my fruit portion for the party so I could eat fruit instead.  I also had 2 small cups of coffee with half and half from the Spy Who Loved Me Coffee Bar.  I logged everything I ate, and (assuming my calorie counts for things were accurate) I ended up only going over my calorie limit by about 55 calories, which isn't bad at all.

JCore Day 12

Omgyesit'stheweekend!

The Workout: Release

I actually don’t know if I can really categorize Release as a workout, exactly.  It was more of a stretching session; it was very slow-paced, and included a fair amount of yoga moves.  I didn’t really get sweaty at all.  My legs and arms were a little tired this morning, probably from TRX, so holding some of the poses was a little difficult, but nothing too bad.  My favorite part?  Jay saying (repeatedly), “Let go of that stress!  It’s just you and I, nobody else.”  A) You and me.  B) Clearly there are two other people in the video with you, so I’d say no, it’s not just you and me.

The Food

Today starts the first day of Phase 2 of the nutrition plan, which means no cheese or bread, and only one serving of fruit.

Breakfast: Oatmeal applesauce pancakes with Justin’s honey almond butter.

This is the last of the batch I made last weekend.  I'm not sure yet if I'll make more this weekend or not; now that I've dropped down to 1500 calories a day, ~ 600 calories is a lot for breakfast (about 380 for 3 pancakes + another 190-200 for the almond butter, depending on the flavor).

Lunch: Slow-cooker pork with green beans and butternut squash.

I super love this pork, and it goes so well with butternut squash.

Same as yesterday, pretty much.

Snack:  Tortilla chips and guacamole.

This guac is kind of a weird color, I know.  While making it, Kevin declared that it was "too green" and added  salsa until he achieved the desired hue...which was pea soup color, apparently.

Someone from work brought me a giant avocado from a tree in his yard.  I’m sorry I didn’t take a picture, because it was seriously huge, about the size of a large mango.  I brought it home, and Kevin immediately wanted to make guacamole with it.  So we did!  I do have to say that it’s kind of fake guacamole – made by mashing the avocado and mixing it with store-brought salsa, onion powder, lemon juice, and salt.  But!  It still tastes delicious, and I’m happy to eat it. 

Dinner: Taco salad! 

We don't have any bowls that are an appropriate size for salad, so I had to use this giant mixing bowl instead.  Instead of ground beef I used ground pork, and the dressing was a combination of salsa and Greek yogurt.


This afternoon the Whole Foods in my neighborhood was hosting a Local Product Fair, so Kevin and I went to check it out.  There were booths for all sorts of local businesses, selling things like ice cream, raw honey, jewelry, produce, and bath products, to name a few.  I definitely like to support local businesses when I can, so I was happy to be able to pick up a few things.  One booth was selling different types of fruit, most of which I had never eaten or even seen before.  I grabbed a few that looked interesting to me:

I remember that the yellow fruit is called an egg fruit, but I don't remember what the brown and purple/green ones are, other than that they taste like a "brown sugar pear" and need to be cut open and eaten with a spoon, respectively.  The pineapple is a particular species called a Honey Cream pineapple, and was recommended to us by another customer at the booth.  It's supposed to be sweeter and lower in acidity, and the other customer told us that the tops had been removed because the species is patented (you can totally grow a new pineapple plant by cutting out the top and part of the core and planting it).

Allow me to geek out for a second, if you will.  The Hawaiian name for the Honey Cream pineapple is Meli Kalima.  The first thing I noticed about this is that the Hawaiian word for honey, 'meli,' is very similar to the Latin word for honey, 'mel mellis.'  This surprised me, because I didn't think that Hawaiian was a Latin-based language.  I did some Googling, and found a book excerpt that was very long and convoluted and confusing, but it may have said something about how Polynesian languages might maybe be able to be traced back to Sanscrit, as can Latin, possibly.  Maybe.  I really don't know.  If anyone has any ideas I would be interested.

Okay, now that we're done with that tangent, the other thing we found at the Local Product Fair was a booth for a company called Chic Naturals.  They make roasted chickpea snacks in a bunch of different flavors.  I've always been interested in trying roasted chickpeas, so I was happy to see that the booth had free samples of the different flavors that they sell.

The little sign on the table is letting us know that these products are gluten and nut free!

All of the flavors were really, really good.  They're also a good source of protein and fiber, as well as being relatively low in fat.  A serving size is an ounce, which is usually about a quarter of a cup.  After trying all the flavors, Kevin and I decided to get 4 bags:

The flavors we got were: Spicy Barbecue, Hawaiian Sea Salt & Herb, Maui Mocha, and Sweet Citrus.

We got two savory flavors and two sweet ones.  The only flavor we didn't get was the chocolate-covered ones.  Not to say they weren't good - they totally are.  But, as you may imagine, I don't really need to have chocolate-covered things in the house right now.  The sweet flavors are (obviously) much higher in sugar and consequently much higher in calories than the other flavors (about 130 calories per serving vs. around 100 calories for the savory flavors), and the Mocha flavor in particular is higher in fat than the others (about 4.6g compared to 2.3g).  I might wait until I'm done with JCore to have those two.  But, the savory flavors are fair game.  My personal favorite (besides the chocolate ones) is the Hawaii Sea Salt flavor, which according to the guy at the booth is their best selling flavor.  I seriously can't wait to snack on these guys!