Upper Body Workout, and CHEESECAKE!

Happy Tuesday!!!

I hope that you all had a famous weekend!! So instead of doing my intense workout on Saturday, I did it on Sunday. This is also when I had my cheat meal. So this is how my day went on Sunday...

Workout:
1. Chest Press (5x10)
2. Bent Row (5x10)
3.Curl w/Kickback (4x12)
4. Cable Fly (3x15)
5. Straight Arm Pulldown (3x15)
6. Skullcrushers w/Barbell Curl
7. Hanging Leg Raise (or Roman Chair) (4x25)

Cheat Meal:
Turkey Cutlets, Brussel Sprouts, Ciabatta Cheese Bread and Chocolate Chip Coconut Cheesecake

....say what?!!? Yes we made Chocolate Chip Coconut Cheesecake. So here's the recipe:

Crust:
- 5 sheet of Graham Crackers
- 2 tbsp. of coconut oil (add a tad bit more if needed)

Filling:
- 1 8 ounce of REDUCED fat cream cheese (not fat free)
- 3/4 cup of plain Greek Yogurt
- 1/2 cup of stevia
- 1 tbs. of vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp. whole wheat flour
- 2 egg whites
- 3/4 cup of unsweetened coconut flakes
- 3/4 cup of chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350 degress
2a. Crush graham crackers, add oil. Mold mixture in a tin foil lined baked dish (8x8ish)
2b. Bake crust in oven for 8 minutes
2c. Allow crust to cool for 10-15 minutes
3. In a bowl mix: cream cheese, Greek yogurt, vanilla, flour, egg whites (one at a time). Mix until smooth.
4. Fold in coconut flakes
5. Add 1/2 of chocolate chips to the pie crust.
6. Pour liquid mixture over crust
7. Bake for 25 minutes
8. Let cool for 30 minutes at room temperature
9. Move to refrigerator and let set overnight.


 

Protein Confetti Cake

Soooo....

One of my biggest issues with staying on track is my LOVE of sweets. Seriously, I would marry a chocolate cake if I could. :-P I try to stay focused and on track but I frequently have a "treat dessert" in my week as well as a "treat meal". This is helpful, but I have been looking for a healthier dessert so that I can indulge without feeling guilty. So last night after a long time of searching Pinterest I found a good recipe!!

So with a little adaptation for a weightlifting queen like myself, here is the recipe! I call this Protein Confetti Cake.
- 3 tbsp of whole wheat flour
- 1 tbsp of protein powder
- 1 tbsp of stevia
- sprinkle of cinnamon
- 1/4 cup of milk
- 1 egg white
- splash of vanilla (or extract)

1. Mix all dry ingredient together.
2. In a separate bowl whisk together wet ingredients.
3. Spray another bowl with non-stick spray
4. Mix dry and wet ingredients.
5. Microwave for 50 seconds - 2 minutes (I set mine for 2 minutes and just watched. Everyone's microwave is a little different)

 

One of the great things is that this recipe allows for you to change and make it whatever you want. If you want chocolate cake, add unsweetened chocolate, or chocolate protein. Its simplicity is wonderful! And did I mention that it was delicious?!?!?!???!! Enjoy! 

Weekly Workouts

Hey guys!!

Hope everyone is having a great week so far!! I have been super busy since coming back from vacation and being sick, so I apologize for the lack of posts :-(

But have no fear, I am in the process of writing multiple posts that I can post over the next couple of weeks. But while you are anticipating those releases, here are some of my workouts from this week!


Monday:

(Right Click to save to Phone/Computer)

Tuesday:

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Thursday:

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Friday:

(Right Click to save to Phone/Computer)

Hope you enjoy the workouts! If you do any tag me on Instagram, I love to connect with you guys!!! :-)

Food Face Off: Coffee Creamers

Ok, so I decided that I had so much fun on my last food face off that I wanted to do more!!! So what I'm hope is to find foods that are "controversial" and put them to the test!!!

Up first is coffee creamers. So many people drink coffee to get the day started, but are they healthy? When I first started trying to have a healthier lifestyle coffee was one of the first things I changed. I had talked with my trainer and we discussed that sugar free is better than fat free, because they tend to add boo-koo sugar to make it taste yummy. So I started get sugar free everything. In general this is probably a good practice. To this day I look at sugar and sodium and I try to get the product with the least amount. So recently I started wondering, is sugar free creamer good for you though? There is a difference between being "better for you" and "healthy". So here is what I learned:

REGULAR COFFEE CREAMER

 -Most (if not all) coffee creamers have partially hydrogenated oils. This is a process that manufactures do to make a semi-solid liquid. This is a mixture of soybean and/or cottonseed oil mixed with a metal (say what?!?). This is then added with flavor (natural and/or artificial) and water to make coffee creamer. The scariest part of this is that partially hydrogenated oils are TRANS FAT - the worst kind of fat. The kind of fat that leads to heart disease and diabetes (say what?!?!).

RULING: NOT HEALTHY

-And just a side note about trans fat: Most people know now that this is the worst kind of fat and although it does occur naturally in some foods, it should never be consumed from artificial sources. Health conscious people read labels and look at the fat content, and if it has trans fat, they throw it on the ground and have elephants stomp on it :-P . Those tricky manufactures though try to sneak trans fat into products unbeknownst to the consumers. They will put <0% , this does not mean that there is no trans fat (people think zero means none...it doesn't). Companies can use <0% and still sneak 0.5% of trans fat! When buying food in the frozen or aisle sections, you always want to look for partially hydrogenated oils, this means trans fat, which means you need to call your herd of elephants!

-Another note, recently (June 2015) the FDA has come out and said that more studies have looked at the effects of trans fat on overall health and have made the move to ban manufactures from using it in foods. When this ban will be put into place is still uncertain, most likely 2016 will be the cutoff and companies will have to stop using partially hydrogenated oils. (awesome sauce!!!)

SUGAR FREE COFFEE CREAMER  

- As listed above most sugar free coffee creamers contain partially hydrogenated oils, really the only difference is that they use Splenda (sucralose) instead of sugar. In the future I want to do a food face off of sugars, but currently I am still in the process of research, so look for it in the future! Sugar free still has fat, still has calories, still has hydrogenated oils. So in reality it really isn't any better for you than regular creamer.

RULING: STILL NOT HEALTHY

"HEALTHIER" REPLACEMENTS:

-Ok so I imagine that your next questions, is well Cassie, what do I put in my dern coffee?!? So I have some suggestions that would register in the healthier column.
1. Coffee Mate Natural Bliss - this newer coffee mate has no artifical substances and no partially hydrogenated oils!! WooHoo!! It is made with milk, cream, sugar, and carageenan (a natural thickener). Just use it wisely - meaning don't dump the whole thing in yo cup!
2. 1% or Fat Free Milk - this is a great option because you can get calcium and a little extra protein with your daily cup o' joe! Add some stevia for extra sweetness. You can also look at other natural sweeteners like honey.
3. For you dairy free or allergy peeps: Almond or Coconut (unsweetened versions) milk. Add this and a little stevia - viola!

So the ruling, as usual try to consume as much whole, natural foods. My go to rule when buying groceries is to have as few ingredients as possible. So if it has a long list of ingredients that wouldn't go in the cart. It takes time to let this process become the norm, but I promise it's so worth it!!!