Meal Prep: SMOOTHIES! Plus a Progress Update: Fitness Challenge Steemit Style!

So I posted a while back that I was joining a steemit fitness/weight loss challenge. I am putting a lot of information on here, but it's mostly for my own use to look back on later, so feel free to skip it if this type of thing isn't for you! :)

I've finally gotten myself back home and on a non-chaotic schedule. I'm doing really well in the food department... well, I'm doing OKAY. I'm staying under my calorie count (1800 daily), but the food choices have been far too lax as far as health goes. I know that I feel better, sleep better and perform better when I have enough protein and less sugar, but I've been kinda just winging it for a while.

My plan/goal for this week was to do some meal prep so that I have easy and healthy grab and go snacks/meals instead of relying on my hunger cues to send me ransacking an ill prepared kitchen for food when I come out of the haze of writing/blogging and realize that I'm SO HUNGRY!!!

Yesterday I made meatballs in bulk, marinara sauce and zucchini noodles (the veggie spiralizer has been my best purchase lately!) I also prepped a bunch of smoothie cups for myself and my daughter. I put the ingredients in disposable cups (until I find the right size mason jars for this project anyway) and measured out everything equally and put the 'recipe' into My Fitness Pal so it would be easier to track.

27 g. frozen bananas
27 g. frozen strawberries
27 g. frozen peaches
27 g. fresh spinach
1 scoop of meal replacement powder (I have Saba & Isagenix on hand and tend to use whatever is easiest. You can use whatever you have on hand or skip that part entirely)
1 scoop of protein powder
1.5 Tbsp Fage Yogurt 2% cubes*

You can use water instead of milk and non-fat yogurt to lower calories. You can even skip the bananas and use a lower sugar content fruit like blueberries. Whatever the combination is that works for you.

When we're ready to have a smoothie, we just take the cup out of the freezer, dump the frozen ingredients and powders into the blender, add one cup of milk or water (or hell, add juice if that's what floats your boat) and blend.

**I bought a small silicone ice cube tray from WalMart for freezing yogurt cubes. These measure out to 1.5 Tbsp. each. I added 3 to my smoothies.

Now... onto the fitness portion of the challenge. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this part. I can (and am doing) workouts, but I can't really find a measurable way to do them. I started out with a list of workouts and thought that I'd just see where I started from... and then add to that to see where I was at the end. While I can do this for my own purposes and recording things, seeing that I'm getting stronger, I just do not see how to measure it in a way that fits with the contest (Ie: increasing running time/steady state cardio type things which I do not do and have no interest in.)

Basically I started out with this 'list' and found that I can't even BEGIN to do a full workout yet. I can do FOUR pushups before I literally can't lift myself off the floor. THAT is easily measurable, but other things like kettlebell swings, lifting exercises or the stall bar workouts... those aren't as easy to measure, at least not in some sort of all encompassing way. I could set a goal to increase my push ups by X%, but let's say on pull ups (my goal is to be able to do an actual pull up, but I can't do one at ALL yet, so I don't know how to measure that in relation to the contest.) I can add weight to my kettlebell swings, lifts, etc, but I don't know how I would count that, either.

I guess what I'm saying is that although I do plan to follow through with the contest, I think I'm going to have to stick with the 'personal goals' side of things instead of competing against other people. That is fine with me, really, because I will still find motivation in the others who are participating and can hopefully be motivating to those people as well. In the end, that's what I'm wanting from this competition.

I feel like I'm starting out so far behind anyone in the fitness category that I'm just going to have to set my own goals anyway.

So my personal goals by the end of the competition:

• Do 3 sets of 8 full out pushups
• Do at least 1 actual, full pull up (I've never been able to do one before, so even just one is an accomplishment. Today I was squealing with happiness over the fact that I could hold myself halfway down whilst doing a negative pullup *trying to lower myself down slowly, since I can't yet pull UP)
• Battleropes & Climbing Rope: Be able to do variations on battleropes for 40/20 second intervals for 20 minutes. (Right now I can barely make it for 20 seconds and then only for about 3 rounds before I'm dying and feel like I'm going to literally injure myself).

I also want to be able to do the following with double the weight that I'm using currently, if not more:

• KB Swings
• Hip THrusts
• Squats
• Single Dead Lifts
• Shoulder Press
• 'Round the World' Shoulder Workout w/Sandbag

And, an entirely different type of victory thus far. I started out in April squeezing myself into size 15/16 jeans (and then only if I had to, because stretchy jeans or no, they were tight and really uncomfortable!) and last weekend I bought a pair of size 10 jeans, assuming they would never fit because I went to buy size 12, but there weren't any in that size.

Annnnnnd... they fit! They are snug, for sure, but since I didn't even figure I would be able to get them ON, I'm thrilled!

Height: 5'5" Current weight 192.1