"Eat Clean. Train Dirty"

This statement has definately been me this past week.

EAT CLEAN* Originally going into this challenge I thought my life in the kitchen was going to be reduced to bland boring food, and for those that know me this was actually going to be the hardest thing to do for 60 days. I love the kitchen, I love to cook and I love making other people happy thru food. However over the past week I have found some really great marinades and dressings that were not only dairy, sugar, and gluten free but were low in sodium, the brand was Drews and  can be found at Sprouts. I also realized how easy it is to toss a few spices in a bit of red wine vinegar and splash of oil and voila dressing! There have been a few food revelations for me this week making the kitchen enjoyable again. So I thought I would share...

Spring and summer veggies are the best and some of my fave hot day foods it turns out are super easy to make even on a diet. First off I made myself a chilled cucumber salad... you know diced cucumber red onion, and tomatoes and as I have to have protien with EVERYTHING I added in some cold grilled chicken I already had measured out previously. For the dressing I used 1T of e.v.o.o (extra virgin olive oil) and red wine vinegar with a dash of garlic powder with parsley and pepper with a splash of lemon juice. So yummy and refreshing after being outside with the horses or a seond time when I packed it for an after gym snack. I also redisovered spaghetti squash this week. Its been years since Ive eaten it and it was something I had never cooked. Yet so easy, (if you have a very sharp very large knife). I cut my squash in half and baked it rind up on a foil covered cookie sheet at 375 for 45 min without any seasoning or e.v.o.o. Alone it was delicious add to it some homemade sauce and ground turkey... yummo! And usually I dont even like spaghetti. Im sure this next one, which I will include the full recipe for, is the best yet. For those of you that read this and or are doing the challenge this is a must try...

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2012/02/cilantro-lime-tilapia-tacos.html

This brought new life to tilapia!

TRAIN DIRTY* First things first Im pretty sure Im already a gym addict and were only 14days in. Not only am I feeling stronger and more confident in my bootcamp classes at http://www.hardcorefitnessinc.com/ but Ive found a new love for the treadmill and even dare I say running, thanks to CardioTread at http://cardiogirl.com/ Cory the owner at Cardiogirl has been super supportive of my efforts with this challenge and always present for motivation and his signature triple high5! Between these two gyms its made a 3 a day workout schedule easy to maintain and fun. Yes I said 3 a day! My routine now consists of an hour long bootcamp session at 8am follwed by 30 to 40 min of low imapct cardio then its off for a full day of work only to return for a final round of low impact cardio for another 30 to 45 min. Bootcamp sessions range from single muscle group work to full body the toughest of which was last mon. Our workout consisted of ten strength training moves in reps of 75 (most of which were done with weights) were talking

bicep curls*shoulder press* sqauts* leg lifts* sit ups... just to name a few.  My cardio rounds are a rotation of 3 machines...treadmill, elliptical and the amt (my fave). This weekend at home I also mapped out a 3 mile loop from my house around the park and back. I also like to count our stairs, all 39 of them that lead to the horse stalls as a good mini workout. With that said Im sure you can see where the dirty comes in... Im a sweaty stinky mess for a good portion of my day esp. the two this week that I forgot deodorant. Oops! Now I have an extra one in the car just to be safe.

As for the fruits of my labor this week, yes I am already seeing results and so are others...My waist is already trimmer and so are my wrists. I know you are thinking well thats a little silly but when youre working this hard EVERY INCH COUNTS!

XOXO