I’m sitting here writing while watching Dr. Phil, so I apologize in advanced if it’s a bit choppy, I tend to stop in the middle of paragraphs and try to remember my train of thought while I’m watching the Doc… he’s the best.Ok so since I wrote about how I had goji berries for breakfast yesterday and mentioned that I usually have steak or chicken for breakfast and had some funny comments about it (yes, you Jenna! Haha!) so I thought I’d give you the low-down on how this all started. When I first moved to Toronto I was working at one of our GoodLife Fitness locations as a Customer Service Rep and worked with a lot of really cool and really passionate personal trainers. All of them were/are avid Paleo enthusiasts and originally I thought it was just some fad thing. I worked there for about 5 months and I actually didn’t even research anything about the Paleo Diet until after I had left to go work in my current position. Because I had worked so closely with said personal trainers, I knew where to start my research, Charles Poliquin. He’s very close with one of my favorite trainers at the club and actually came in to our club for a workout once, he’s a huge, lean, muscle building machine!The original article that I read about the “Meat and Nuts Breakfast” is found here, but let me share the first paragraph with you:When people ask me for the best single dietary tip for optimal leanness, energy and sustained mental focus, I invariably tell them to try the rotating meat and nuts breakfast. Clients ranging from NHL & NFL stars to corporate executives rave about the increased mental acuity and focused energy they derive from this food combination. The meat allows for a slow and steady rise in blood sugar. The nuts provide a great source of healthy smart fats that allows the blood sugar to remain stable for an extended period of time.I’ve also written about this before and these were the few points I posted about...- Meat allows for a slow, steady rise in blood sugar rather than a spike.- Nuts provide a great source of healthy smart fats that allows blood sugar to remain stable for an extended period of time.- Improved mental clarity, increased energy, better appetite control, and reduced cravings throughout the day.- Fat loss and muscle gain have also been very noticeable very quickly when making this one change to your diet.And just to be clear, this doesn’t mean that you just crush a huge steak for breakfast… remember, a serving of meat is the palm of your hand (I think), and I learned it can totally be bigger than the palm of your hand slightly, but ensure the thickest part of the meat is in the palm and that should be pretty close to a serving (thank you Whole30!). Also, you should always be eating more veggies and dark leafy greens than meat… The Paleo Diet is not an excuse to just eat chicken all day so please practice self-control! And eat lots of vegetables and fruits, obviously. JSo last night, like I had mentioned, I went all “photographer” with my dinner and my Cannon camera. I got the camera for Christmas last year from C, however C uses it like 95% more than I do and he knows about 195% more about it than I do about the camera so I told him that he just needs to let me learn how to take a sweet photo because he’s not going to be around to show me every time. For dinner we had salmon fillets, plantains and I had baked kale. These are the photos I got out of it:
Dinner, before it's cooked
Fresh kale ready to get baked
An attempt at being artistic
Another attempt
Did I mention I had some wine?
Delicious plantains after I cooked them
Christmas tree - again, with the artistic thing
Can you see what's in the mirror? :)
Kind of good, right? I’ll be using the Cannon to take more food pictures for sure! My arms are so tired, and typing seems to be making them tired. Today for our workout, Jenny and I did chest, shoulders and legs. I wrote down all the exercises we did however I left the list at work, so like usual this is coming from memory and I might have missed something, but most likely not. JPec Deck
Chest Press Machine
Leg Curl
Leg Extension
Lateral Shoulder Raise Machine
Leg Press Machine
Dumbbell Shoulder Press
Push-ups
Lateral shoulder raise with dumbbells
Squats holding a medicine ball in front of us
Squats at the squat rack with barbell and weights
Hammer Strength Chest Press
Walking LungesBOOM! And now I’m fatigued, but I guess that was the point right! I 'm doing another photoshoot with the lovely and talented Tara Noelle in the spring (to see some of her work, click on her button on the right hand side of my page!) and so I want to be in primal shape... I might have to start running outside soon again. Every time I run I seem to hurt... how didn't I hurt all through my half-marathon training? Either way, I'm probably going to want some new gear but I'm trying to save... I found a cool website that ships anywhere in the world and they have gear for a ton of sports including running (some seriously cool running gear).. check it out here! It's called Millet Sports and I mostly just love that I can get gear probably not available here in Canada and they'll ship here (tons of on-sale items too!). I really like this jacket for spring/winter running and these shoes to go along with it... so cute. I love purple. Let me know what you think!Tonight for dinner we’re roasting a whole chicken and I’m going to do some more plantains, squash and brussel sprout chips! I’m also going to make some butternut squash soup which I will be photographing and sharing with you tomorrow! As you may remember if you’ve been reading for a while, the last time I tried to make butternut squash soup it turned out to be more like mashed squash (similar to mashed potatoes) and wasn’t exactly “soup”. If you’re interested, you can read about the whole embarrassing attempt hereI’m working from home tomorrow because I’m going to visit a trading company to inform them all about their corporate discount at GoodLife and I usually get awkward and really nervous and shy when I’m asked to speak in front of people, so I guess it’s good that I’m going to face my fear even though it never gets easier – wish me luck!Stay healthy,
xoxo