StephanieShine’s BodyBlog

Didn’t make it to the farmers market in time, I walked by when the last stands were closing up and they were all flowers and hand woven baskets. I stopped in the natural food store across the street and bought honey wheat organic/local english muffins. And what good would those be without Almond Butter! Later I went to the chain grocery store to get Eden organic kidney beans, chickpeas, frozen broccoli, frozen mixed veggies, cucumbers, organic ranch dressing and some oikos organic (local for me) greek yogurt.

Boy do I love my veggies! Walking to the store every day is about a mile each way and walking back with as many veggies I can carry is a nice calorie burn. Not that its a hard walk but the burned 100 or so calories allows me an extra piece of fruit or cheese.

I’ve been reading alot about bodyweight exercises and how you can use every day things out side to get in a good workout. Im not talking about just squats while holding your gallon of water. Really cool sites that explain this are bodyweightculture.com and beastskills.com. I am going to be doing a few things every day. If I arrange some sort of program that would be equivalent to a typical push/pull/legs bodybuilding split and I want to do some form of cardio every day, even if it is easy and only 30 minutes.

So far tonight I have done the last day of week two of the 100 push up challege and I did 5 sets of squats with 25 lbs worth of books stuffed in a suitcase and some abs. I will save back, arms and more abs for tomorow.

This morning woke up feeling well rested and optimistic. I bought Vitamin Water Rescue Green Tea for $1.49 and sipped that while doing some urgent morning things at the registrar office and the library. Then I sat down for a proper breakfast of plain Chobani greek yogurt with a scoop of whey protein mixed in. I bought the greek yogurt yesterday for $1.39

For a free lunch in the dining commons, I had a cucumber salad overloaded with chickpeas and kidney beans with sunflower seeds and probably too much Light Ranch. I topped it off with 2 pieces of my grandma’s fudge as a treat. Instead of a traditional dinner, I snacked my way through 5 pm. I had a serving of Sara Lee Chicken Breast. Tasted great, not too watery, not too salty. I paid $3.49 for a half pound, so a little expensive. I was upset that Shaw’s has Wild Harvest Turkey at the deli, but not chicken. My consience got the best of me and I went searching for both the Wild Harvest and Sara Lee poultry suppliers and found nothing. If I am going to be eating expensive chicken then it better well have had a great life!

As I got hungry throughout the night I snacked on an Atkins bar, which tasted incredibly processed. I also had some fair trade, organic white tea. I usually like green tea, but this one was good. I will probably have another cup later. To end my dinner grazing I had an ounce of roasted peanuts. I’d rather have them raw, and roasted was all I had in the dorm. Only got to about half my protein intake so far. I need to pay more attention to having protien with each meal - Atleast 25 grams! Carbs are a little higher than I would like and fat is low-moderate. That single Atkins bar had 10 grams! Good thing that was the last one.

Non-Nutrition Related: I recycled the vitamin water bottle and the peanuts were bought in bulk. Unfortunately the Chobani containers aren’t recyclable and dont have a lid so they are harder to reuse. The Atkins bar came individually wrapped, but I recycled the box and the pamphlet that came with it. I couldn’t find out where my chicken dinner came from. I should have looked into the source and price before buying it. And not that $1.49 is alot, I could have spent exaclty that on some more high-protein chobani! The tea bags that I bought end up being only .16 cents per bag and I often use the bags twice.

1 Cup Broccoli
6 oz Pineapple
1/2 Kiwi
Ice and Water
2 Scoops Rice/Soy Protein Powder

4 g Fat, 40 something carbs, 40 something grams of protein. It makes a big breakfast or split it into 2 small snacks.

This is what I made myself for breakfast this morning. It was great. You can’t taste to broccoli because the pineapple is so sweet and strong. Cheap, easy, healthy. I have also made my own vegan granola cereal and vegan mocha walnut cookies. I have a feeling the rest of my spring break at home will be spent in the kitchen. I need to cook up batches of things to take back to my dorm and also cook up ideas on what ingredients I can easily store and put into a blender for quick breakfast once spring break is over.

Drank 2 Cups Coffee in my room

Water: Used Free Tap Water +1
Cup: Used Styrofoam -1, Re-used Cup 3 times +3
Coffee: Nearly all synthetic ingredients -2, Individual packaging -2
Stirrer: Used Same Plastic Knife 3 Times +3, Will recycle it +1
Ingredients: Used Free Milk +1, Used Free cinnamon +1
Money Spent: $0 +1

Impact Points: 6

Daily Goal: 20 Points

Lately people have been avoiding processed, unnatural ingredients as much as possible. High Fructose Corn Syrup is regarded by bodybuilding buffs, nutritionists and organic eaters as an ingredient to be avoided at all costs! However I was reading a label for a fiber bar and found High Maltose Corn Syrup (also called Maltodextrin) right next to High Fructose Corn Syrup. They are both 2-glucose corn syrups. While its not necessarily dangerous, because our bodies can break the two molecules apart, its unnatural and relatively new to humans. From a fitness perspective, staying away from it will force you to stick with more natural foods, you don’t want that goopy extra sugar in your system anyways

Protein Shaker Cup - $2.44 - If I had only washed the one I got for free, It wouldn’t have rotted and I could have saved $. This time I wont let it go one day without being washed.
Propel Water - $1.28 - Good for me. Have to drop bottled water addiction. Didn’t get to recycle it either.
On The Go Coffee Packets - $2.77 - Delicious and getting their use but too much unrecycleable plastic packaging, not fair trade, has alot of unnatural ingredients. Need to find alternative, safe, fair way to have coffee in my room.
Hydrating Shampoo - $2.94 - Bought for roommate, still hasn’t paid me back.
1/2 Gallon 1% Milk - $2.14 - Next time buy organic milk from the natural food store
Frizz Ease Hair Serum - $7.97 - Worthless seeing how I found my old bottle a few days later.
Body Lotion - $1.88 - Also worthless because that week I got some for my birthday.
Face Scrub - $3.18 - See above.
Gallon of Diet Tea - $2.94 - Delicious and I recycled it.
Mixed Nuts - $8.48 - Lasts awhile. Will recycle the container. Buy nuts from health food store from now on.
Motts Natural Applesauce - $1.62 - Too much sugar, still has sketchy ingredients. Just have real apples.
Toasted Crackers - $2.00 - Sketchy ingredients,junk food, unrecyclable packaging.
Straws - $1.16 - Pure plastic waste. Only used maybe 10 of them.
Napkins - $1 - Could have gotten them for free from the DC
Batteries - $1 - Necessary! Even recycled the old ones. Need to get rechargeable ones when these die.
Hand Sanitizer - $1 - Huge bottle, will last all year. No triclosan in it yay!
Styrofoam Cups - Free - Big pollutants, not sure of safety, unrecyclable. Can be used twice. Next time get compostable hot cups.
Club Crackers - Free - Free is Free! And their replacement will be free!
Peter Pan Peanut Butter - Free. Need to get natural almond butter if/when this huge tub runs out.
Fiber One Bars - Free - High Fructose and Maltose Corn Syrups! Yuk! Stay away. There are other ways to get carbs and fiber.
Gallon of Milk - Free - Again, need to get organic milk from blueberry fields natural store.

Ok so most of the stuff wan’t eco-friendly but nothing was over $8. Anything that needs to be replaced I can either get for free, get an eco-friendly version or get an organic version. In October I can only buy eco-friendly, natural/organic or protein. This wont include the expense of getting my moles removed next week.

Today I brought my recycling bag down to the large receptacle. I recycled tons of paper (that I had previously re-used) three gallons of tea, three energy drink cans and tons of water bottles. However the bottles/cans part was overflowing and there were probably around 50 bottles in a pile next to the huge bins.

Ok campus recycling center - You wanted us to recycle, and now we are. Its up to you to keep up and bring our sorted bottles, cans and paper to where they need to go. Recycling doesn’t mean put it in a huge designated pile outside!