Marshmallow Snowmen and Education.com

Hey guys! It's been a long time since I've been over here on the blog! If you haven't checked it out, hop on over to our YouTube channel! The kids and I have a lot of fun over there, and it gets updated more frequently. 

I recently spoke with Shannon from Education.com, and she offered to share a fun activity for Ryker to do! I had tried getting Cora to settle down for the activity, but two year olds plus glue equals a big old HELL NO. So, we trapped her in her high chair and gave her some crayons to work on her own masterpiece!

I was talking to a friend recently, who has children the same age as ours, about how school will start next year and it's just crazy that kindergarten is sneaking up on us. We've been doing a lot of work at home, disguised as fun for the most part, to help Ryker feel confident and ready to tackle school next year. He can spell his name and a handful of words and write the alphabet and most numbers pretty well! So, we used the following activity and then expanded on it a bit to challenge him a little more.

We didn't have the blue paper and I didn't want to use paint, so we went with white paper and a blue crayon and some glue to get his snowman to stick. He had so much and was so proud of his creation! He's been begging to do new marshmallow crafts all day, every day, since we did this. Let me know if you give it a shot! Tag me on IG with your picture (@christina.kassel), we'd love to see what you create!

You can find this over at https://www.education.com/games/kindergarten, with a ton of other fun things to do! 

Happy Snowman

Whether the snow is fluffy and soft or icy and hard, a snowman is sure to inspire a smile. No wonder this snowman is so happy; he's made using marshmallows!
What You Need:
Blue construction paper
Tempera paint
Bag of mini marshmallows
Paintbrush
Glue stick (optional)
Markers (optional)

What You Do:1. Place a sheet of blue construction paper on the table in a vertical, or portrait position.
2. Ask your child to paint a snowdrift at the bottom of the picture. Then, have her paint snow falling from the sky. Ask her to name the shapes of the dots. They might be circles or they might be ovals.
3. Have your child create three circles: large, medium and small using the marshmallows. The large circle will be at the bottom, the medium goes in the middle and small-sized circle belongs at the very top. Count the marshmallows of each circle aloud. 4. How many more did it take to make the large circle than the small circle?
4. If your child would like to eat her snowman, she can simply finish her creation by using markers to draw in his face and arms.
5. If your child would like to create a picture that will last throughout the season, she can glue the marshmallows into place and paint in the Snowman's facial features.

Pumpkin biscuits and weight fluctuations, related?

Hey friends!

It's Tuesday! That means we are that much closer to the weekend, haha. It's funny, when I went back to work I thought that I would countdown to the weekend, but I really was so busy that it seemed like each Friday would creep up super fast. Now that the kids and I are hanging out together all day, every day, I miss Daddy more, haha.

With that being said, I've been so happy and extra fulfilled with this decision, even though Cora is going through a massive turn with the terrible two's. Little Miss has quite the attitude and throws one hell of a tantrum, but we are working on helping her to not get frustrated. I think a lot of it has to do with her still not having much of a vocabulary to literally speak of, so she gets angry when she is misunderstood or feels ignored. I read an article last week about more mindful and involved parenting with children up to age 3, since it can more effectively help them deal with emotions. I forget how they described it, but it was like the Mom acts as an emotional gauge for the child, so I've been working on being available and not getting frustrated. We read more books, get down on the floor more and I've been messing with my phone less. So, all around a win!

I've also been putting way more effort in to doing the romantic ideals of being a stay at home Mom-ing. For instance...I COOKED PLAYDOUGH TODAY. We found a recipe on Pinterest and Ryker and I pulled out the ingredients, mixed 'em up, colored it blue and the kids are happily playing with cookie cutters. You know what I learned during this activity? My kid knows fractions! I asked him how many halves made up one whole, and he said two, like "duh, Mom". He also knew how many thirds made a whole, but I got him at how many scoops were needed with the 1/4 tsp to get to 1 tsp. He's so dang smart. I read him the recipe for playdough and the ingredients before the gym. When we walked in the door after we got home he was like "alright Mom, when I get my shoes off, we need flour, water, salt and blue coloring, that's what you said was in the recipe". I swear that kid remembers more than I do throughout the day. He reminds me of my grocery list, the fact that he listens and remembers my every word is fantastic...until he repeats some of the less than wonderful words that I use, haha.

My weight is mysteriously up to 138 pounds today. That's a five pound increase from last week which is fuckin' nuts, man. I've had some untracked treats, but not that much, so I'm guessing either my period is coming, or the cauliflower that I've welcomed back is still sitting in my digestive tract for insane amounts of time. Considering that with my marathon training on top of my powerlifting plan and the overall increased NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis) that comes with no longer being stuck in my car, but instead walking the dogs, cleaning the house, chasing the kids, etc, I just don't see how the slight increase we've made with my intake could lead to this much of a weight gain that quickly.

This is extra confusing and frustrating because (I overthink everything, but not the point I'm making), I'm wanting to gain strength and muscle while running this much. Now, I know those things are usually seen as mutually exclusive, you can't run this much and gain muscle, but you can if you do it mindfully. I read this cool article about a guy that referred to himself as a strength runner. My calories are still relatively low coming off of that prep, so I worry about losing muscle and bla bla bla. I had my longest run yet on Sunday, 7.5 miles and my plan called for a 10 min mile pace. Some people might find that super slow, but I've never claimed to be fast, haha. It took me a little over an hour and ten minutes to finish and I felt great afterwards. Yesterday, I squatted 140 lbs for three sets of 10, deadlifted 170 for three sets of 10 and benched 80 lbs for 4 sets of 10.

I write all of that and I'm like damn, girl! If I read about someone else doing all of this shit, the last thing that would stick with me was their weight being at 138 or that they gained five pounds in a week, except for thinking that the weight must just be a weird anomaly for the week, in fact, as a coach, I'd probably tell her to take a week off, haha. But alas, when do we ever allow ourselves the breaks we would suggest to others? I'm using this week to prepare for a fantastic off day on Sunday, lately I haven't been planning my workout well to allow for that, but I'm going to move my long run from Sunday to Saturday so that I can have one total rest day.

Now, if you successfully made it through all of that rambling, I am going to present you with a fantastic pumpkin biscuit recipe that I worked on last week! I started with one I found on Pinterest, but found that the dough just wasn't what I wanted it to be so I made some tweaks. I made FOUR batches before this one came out the way I wanted the biscuits to be! This makes a ton of biscuits, but it came out best this way.

Pumpkin Biscuits

1 can of pumpkin puree
5 cups of flour
2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
2 sticks of frozen butter
3/4 cup sour cream (full fat)
3/4 cup of milk

Pre heat the oven to 450. Mix together the dry ingredients and whisk them up so they are fully incorporated. I learned the fancy new trick of grating the sticks of frozen butter in to the flour mixture with a cheese grater. As you grate the butter, try to get it to land all over the bowl covering the flour mixture evenly. Mix the sour cream and milk in another bowl until smooth, then pour evenly over butter and flour and mix all of it with your hands. Then, I spooned in the pumpkin so that it got evenly mixed throughout the dough. It also helped to pick up the dry spots of flour. As you knead the mixture into a ball, your hands will warm the butter and help the mixture get incorporated. Once it is, place it on a floured cutting board.

Roll out the dough to about 1inch thickness. Don't go any thinner, in fact thicker may be better! Flour the dough as needed to get it there, I didn't have trouble with it getting to dry during this part. Using a round cookie cutter, or a mason jar, cut out the biscuits and place them close together on a greased baking sheet.

Start by baking them for 10 minutes, then check them! They will rise and have those super sweet layers that Grands Biscuits do! These overcook quickly, so err on the side of caution. I think that I found 12 minutes was perfect in my oven.

I suggest keeping them in a tight container in the fridge, the pumpkin makes me nervous, haha. I found they tasted downright amazing when you microwave one for about 10-15 seconds and topped it with Nutella. Oh. My. Goodness. Enjoy!

Building a smaller waist

Yo, yo, yo, friends! It's Tuesday, yay!

Yesterday was damn near the most productive day of my life. I hit 27,333 steps yesterday!

I woke up at the lovely hour of 4:30 with Vic, like always, and once he was out the door I was on my treadmill and I knocked out 5 miles to get the day going. Ryker scared the shit out of me by sneaking up behind me, and the day was off and running. We had a painter come out and do some touchups, and luckily he came during the first thirty minutes of the four hour window they gave us, so we got to the gym nice and early after taking the dogs on their morning walk. 

Paul and I switched gears to a powerlifting training plan and it has been nothing short of amazing. I thrive on goals and checking boxes (which is why I thought sales would be cool, I was wrong, haha), and so I do better with his training plans than just going in to the gym and auto-regulating my workout. There are days for auto-regulation, but I enjoy his plans much more! Yesterday I had 3 sets of 10 for squat (140lbs), bench (75lbs) and deadlift (165lbs). I'm taking more time to warm up for each lift with foam rolling and stretching and slowly working up to the working set weight and I've noticed a HUGE difference in my performance! I'm going to try and post more training videos to my IG when I can, so come join the party over there!

We stopped off at Wal-Mart, or the Sunshine Store, as Ryker likes to call it, for pumpkin biscuit ingredients. It may have taken four batches, but I adjusted the recipe I found to make my own recipe and they turned out AMAZING. Vic is having a little awards event at work today and that was what I volunteered for the spread. I also made pumpkin butter which turned out super tasty, but looked like brains in the mason jar. Oh well. I'll post the biscuit recipe later this week!

Once the kids were down, I actually got off my lazy butt, paused Grace and Frankie and kept my word to follow along with the Clean Mama's schedule for easy house cleaning. Go follow her on IG! She posts daily tasks and it really does help. This week, my goal is to stay on schedule and hopefully it will help my at home tasks not get to the "Jesus, why is there so much to do?!" point. I scrubbed and wiped down all three bathrooms and felt super accomplished, and the smell of Comet also made me feel like I have almost completed my transformation into my Mother. Shout out to Momma and her incessant cleaning.

I hit my macros on point, but I also added in an untracked glass of red while baking because guys...baking biscuits is fucking stressful! I'm a cook, where I can fudge stuff and make it up as I go, baking is so damn specific and precise and luckily, I'm finding my groove with more and more practice. I'm also working on not being such a food weirdo, haha, so of course I had to take a sample bite of each batch of biscuits. I can't tell you how much baking I did last year where I didn't try anything because of macros! Ugh.

I started this post with a point in mind and then got away from myself. I was pretty stoked on how I looked and felt this morning and took a quick Count Mickula selfie in my kitchen and was pleasantly surprised by my lats. That led me to want to share how you can BUILD a smaller waist, by working on your back! I love training my back because it makes me feel so strong, and I have just a few absolute favorites that I love to use. The idea here is that by building the muscles in your back (which are super sexy and really show off that you're a badass in the gym), you create the illusion of a smaller waist because you create that taper.

Favorite back exercises:
Kneeling single arm cable pulldown
V-Bar pulldown
Seated cable row
Underhand bent over barbell row

For the first two, I suggest going light and high rep until you really learn how to get that mind muscle connection, sometimes I like to place my non-working hand on my working lat to ensure I'm feeling it properly. The right muscle activation is way better than working heavy! Go with a weight that is challenging but allows you to get to 10-12 reps for the cable row, keep that back straight and doing roll your shoulders forward all crazy. For the bent rows, keep that low back in check and always go for form over heavy weight. I track all of my workouts in BodySpace, an app from Bodybuilding.com and they have awesome videos and tips for every exercise!

From there, I'll stop blabbing and get my day started! Happy Tuesday, friends, I'll talk to you soon!

Where'd my abs go? Friday's are for pizza and ice cream, duh.

I had Papa John’s and two pints office cream yesterday, and we’re going to talk about I can stay on track while making crazy decision like that and still getting in plenty of veggies!

I broke down and weighed myself, haha. I took about a week off from it, and it felt good! I’m not going to jump back in to my daily weigh ins, but I am going to keep an eye on the scale a few days a week in an effort to keep things from getting too far out of control. Because even though this is improvement season, I’m still a crazy control freak!

So, I was 134 yesterday. The last time I weighed myself was right before my parents visited, and I was 132. A few days before that I was 128 lbs. Moral of the story here, is that the second I stop cutting super hard, my body puts weight back on. That is what it should do! I kept an inconsistent period throughout this last cut, so my hormones aren’t nearly as out of whack as they could be, but my body needs to get back to normal and putting fat back on will get me there. Would it be nice to walk around with super visible abs all the time? Hell yea! Does my body do that while also allowing me to enjoy life (because food+enjoyment go hand in hand here, I love food)? Nope. In the past, I would let myself get heartbroken about this. But, my Coach said something in one of his recent podcasts that has been helping me out, in comparison to people who aren’t so focused on shredded abs and aesthetics, I have strong, visible abs, I have definition, I’m athletic and it’s crazy that I need to see each bit of my lower abs to feel accomplished. That might sound vain, but it’s the truth. I still look good, even if it’s not the best I’ve looked. That’s the hard part about the stage and prep, you see your body at its peak abilities and then have to let it go until next time.

But, I digress. The point of this post is that I had pizza and ice cream yesterday and I want to tell you how to balance it out. So, I hit my macros like a boss yesterday, but I also finished my macros by about 2 pm. This is normal for me, and I like to not be bloated at bedtime so this is my normal routine. Those macros included a pint of Cookie Shake Arctic Zero, which I truly love, the key is to let it melt for about 15 minutes which happened to be how long it took me to get home from Wal-Mart. #winning

My post workout meal was that pint of Arctic Zero and this bowl of cauliflower-oats topped with whit chocolate chips and peanut butter, and fat free Reddi -whip because its AMAZING. 

Then, Vic got home from a long day of work and was craving Papa John’s. We never order Papa John’s and I had a crazy AMRAP squat and bench day, so I was pretty hungry. I had one slice of his sausage pizza, and for good measure, I also had a pint of Oatmeal Halo Top because it’s delicious, haha.  Saturdays are my refeed day, so I logged all of that on my Saturday My Fitness Pal entry. Papa John’s pizza comes to roughly 330 calories, 37 C, 15 F and 15 P for one slice from a large pizza. That Halo Top was 280 calories, 48 C, 8 F, and 24 P. I add a little trick in though, since I want to maximize muscle growth during this season of my training.

If you go in to My Fitness Pal and go to add a food, you’ll see there is a section for “my foods”, and then “create a food”. I have created two foods that I unfortunately use often, haha, they are titled Carb Overage and Fat Overage. Each gram of carb is 4 calories and each gram of fat is 9 calories. I just enter that in when creating the food, the serving size is set to 1 gram, but when I log it I can adjust the number of servings as needed.

So, there is a way to balance out wanting yummy foods, even on days where they may not fit your macros. Normally, Saturday is my refeed day, but I adjusted it to Friday. With everything I had, I managed to go over even those numbers by about 35 F (my refeed days have lower fats to account for the higher carbs) and 25 C. So, I will log those as overages for today's normal training day. No beating myself up, no starvation, just being accountable for the overage and moving forward. My day today won't be miserable and I don't feel guilty. 

We’ve got Ryker’s football practice this morning and then we might go to the Pumpkin Patch! This afternoon, a woman from our neighborhood is bringing her puppy over to introduce to our family because I may be dog sitting in early November. I figure if I’m home, I might as well do stuff like that for some extra cash! She offered $35 a day for 12 days, so that’s a pretty easy YES to me! Have a happy Saturday and feel free to ask any questions for macro help, just head to the Contact Me button for the best way to reach me!

Picking up where we left off

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”

― Paramahansa Yogananda

 Hey friends!

I made a crazy decision last weekend, last Friday to be exact. Something was eating at me, and with my Mom and Dad in town and on a drive up to Busch Gardens, I knew the decision was something I had to follow through with. I had gone back to work over the summer, taking a sales job. Actually, with the same giant company that Vic works for! Vic loves his job, and I craved that same sense of outward approval and satisfaction that comes fro a job well done. I enjoyed my time in the Navy, and had hoped I would get a similar feeling that I used to get from solving problems and developing solutions while I was there.

I’ve tried sales before and I hated it. Turns out, I still hate it. My team offered support and training, but I still hated it. I don’t like to push things on people, I don’t like to push past objections and while I thought I would appreciate the sales goals, they wound up keeping me up at night. No joke, I would wake up to need to use the bathroom at 2 am and the first thing I would think about was work. Considering I had only been there for six week, I knew that this wasn’t going to be a healthy scenario for me.

I’m an outrageously anxious, overly stressed out person. Shit, I’m probably a fantastic candidate for anti-anxiety medication, but it’s just not something I want to bring in to my life. You see, I know that a lot of my day to day concerns and stress are self-produced. Ryker had brought up months ago that he wanted to go back to preschool. So, I started looking for word. When it didn’t happen as easily as I wanted it to, I got in my head about being a stay at home Mom and how people probably think I’m pathetic and haven’t accomplished anything and wouldn’t be good in the workplace. So, I took the first job I got offered and wanted to run with it, despite knowing that sales makes me super uncomfortable. I wanted it to work, but it just didn’t.

Worrying about what people think of you is just so dumb! In hindsight, I highly doubt that anyone gives a shit about what I do with my day, haha. I told Vic that I feel like I’ve seen the light with my being a stay at home Mom, I stepped away for a minute and I missed my babies and our routine and my ability to be there for Vic when he needed me the entire time. Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed of being a powerful woman in the corporate world. No joke, my Mom has a plate I made when I was a kid where I drew myself in a pantsuit dreaming of being just like Barbara Walters. I used to watch her nightly as a small child, I’m not kidding, and dreamt of being a journalist. I loved Working Girl with Melanie Griffith, especially the scene where she walks in to work in her suit and tennis shoes and then changes in to her heels. Who knows why, I just loved it. That’s where I saw my life going.

Fast forward to now. The extra money would be super nice, but the extra time with my kids is nicer. In a year, Ryker starts school and I will never get this time in his life back where he has no outward obligations. So, I’m going to soak it up. I’m going to put a little more effort in to doing fun things, and I’m going to work with them myself on preparing for school. But, I’m also going to be kinder to myself, as a woman, a wife and a mother. I’m going to enjoy my life to the absolute max and help ensure that my family does the same.

 Vic threw my own favorite words at me while I struggled over the last few months to force myself into a groove that wasn’t right. “You can’t pour from an empty cup” and “you have to water your own grass”. So, here I am, with a full cup and my watering pail and I’m taking care of my home first and foremost. I’m working on solely making today a great day, and tomorrow, I will take care of tomorrow.

Today, the kids have their last day of daycare and I have an empty home, so I’m going to hit up the gym and get the house to what I like to think of as “beauty base zero” (hurry, name that book/movie!).  I would love to hear your thoughts and share stories and conversations on how you’ve found your groove! It’s time for me to start getting the day started, I’m happy to be back here with you guys and focusing on what I love and what brings me joy, so that hopefully I can light up my little part of the world just a bit more. I recognize that not everyone has the awesome opportunity to just walk away from a job like this, and I’m going to be sure to take full advantage of how lucky I am. Happy Friday, folks!

🏈 Forward Progress on the Weekend 🏈

Hey friends! 

I wanted to jump on real quick and share my favorite tips for maintaining your routines, or at least not destroying progress, on the weekends! 

This one will be super quick, so here we go:

1) Know your plans. For instance, tonight Vic and I have a date night planned. Now, I'm more of a breakfast than lunch/dinner kind of girl if I'm going to have one Macro-dense meal (unless chocolate cake is involved). So, last night we decided to go to Vic's favorite, the Red Lobster! I know, so romantic, haha, but everywhere is romantic when you've got a big crush on your date. I planned out getting crab legs and grilled veggies and I'm going to drag him to get froyo with me (he's not an ice cream guy). By having this planned ahead of time, I can structure the rest of my day. I had almost considered trying to hoard my macros all day long and then just gasp! order off the menu like a normal person at a new restaurant, but I'm in Contest prep and don't want to risk it. #controlfreak

2) Keep up that water intake! I try to drink 150 oz per day and that is NO different on the weekends. Especially if you plan on having any beer or cocktails, water will keep you full and on top of your game as far as the confusing way dehydration and hunger can feel the same. I love my Contigo 40oz bottle, three a day and I'm good to go for the most part! 

3) MOVE! We like to lift together in Saturday's, but you don't have to hit the gym just go do something! As a society, we generally have the worst habits of sitting at work all week and then on the weekends, we just Netflix and Chill because we're mentally exhausted. This is SO bad for our bodies! Go run errands, go wander the mall, go find some touristy spot in your city that you've never explored! After the gym, I'm dragging the family to Costco to wander every aisle and stock up on some stuff, and I want to wander Home Depot. I want to NOT be sitting in the house and to be moving! 

That's it! Plan ahead just a bit, drink your water, move your body. Don't look at the weekend as a free for all and keep your goals in mind. If you don't have a specific finish line in mind just remember that you want to keep up your good habits! As a runner, I look at it this way. If I'm on a long run and my body gets tired, it is ALWAYS harder to start running again halfway through a half marathon if I stop than if I were to just slow down a bit and keep moving and keep my stride. I hope this was helpful! 

Mango Coconut Smoothie, summer in a straw!

Hey friends! Can I #wcw on a smoothie? Because if I can, I'm crushing all over this concoction and I know what I'll be blowing all of my refeed carbs on for the rest of this prep, and then all the time after that until I find a new obsession. I present, the Mango Coconut Smoothie. Perfect for pre or post workout, and totally able to be modified to fit your macro or craving needs.

Giving in to purchasing that giant bottle of Coconut Creme creamer was a major win for the summer, that stuff rocks my socks for only 5 g of carbs and 1.5 g of fat. It's obviously fantastic in coffee, but I've also been adding it to the Chocolate GIB-100 protein powder from Gains in Bulk that Vic drinks each morning, and I've added it to my pancake bowls and finally, this smoothie.

I added in Light and Fit vanilla greek yogurt as well for extra creaminess and a protein boost. Of all the fat free vanilla greek yogurts, I've found that Light and Fit has the lowest carb count and I like the taste best.

To really just put this smoothie over the top and add some fat to keep me feeling happy, I scooped up a tablespoon of Nuts 'n More Coconut Peanut Spread. Go buy it now, it's amazing. I keep it in the fridge so that it stays all incorporated and not separated. In this case, it being so hard didn't matter, but if I use it for anything else I just spoon out how much I need and microwave it for 30 seconds and it's PERFECT.

I poured in some egg whites for even more protein, and spinach because well, micronutrients and all. I love thinking about leafy greens as little scrubbers that go through and clean me up and keep things running smoothly!

The main star of this show, the mangos, are so fantastic and so frickin' easy because I buy them bulk at Costco. Buying in bulk is clearly the shit, and I am so over tossing fresh fruits and veggies. Even though I've been eating a ton of both fruits and veggies, we still end up tossing stuff because it goes bad, so I go the frozen route a lot of the time. It also makes it so you don't have to add any ice!

Mango Coconut Smoothie

1 cup frozen Nature's Touch Mangoes
1/2 cup Light and Fit Vanilla Greek Yogurt
2 oz fresh spinach
1 tbsp Coconut Creme Coffee Mate
1 tbsp Coconut Peanut Nuts 'n More
3 serving of liquid egg whites

I would suggest adding the ingredients into the blender with the mangoes on the bottom, the weight will get them to settle down and get everything blended if you are using a Ninja cup blender like I did! I added everything to the blender in the order that I listed it above, if you can't add it all in on the first shot, add the first four, blend a bit, then add the rest. Top with some fat free reddi whip and let it blow your mind.

Everything adds up to a large tropical paradise that will blow your mind. Macros are as follows:

Carb: 45.1
Fat: 7.7
Protein: 32.6
Fiber: 5

Full disclosure, I had a caramel rice cake with 1 tbsp of creamy Skippy about an hour before this, and with all of this I was perfectly fueled by this smoothie during my high volume leg day and not overly full, and that means a lot!

Let me know if you give it a shot, and don't forget to use my code ChristinaK10 over at Gains in Bulk, that GIB-100 tastes great mixed in this as well, I made it for Vic! With having recently had surgery, we've been making sure he's getting in a ton of great quality nutrients, and also making sure he gets in his glutamine to help him heal and get his digestion right after all the tummy trauma. My in laws fly in tomorrow, but I'll try and pop on here over the weekend! Don't forget to subscribe via email or share this recipe, it really helps me out a lot and pushes me to keep trying new things to share with you guys. Talk to you soon!

Fiber Friday and Fruity Pebbles French Toast

Fiber, it's what's for breakfast over here! I hereby dub today "Fiber Friday", and let's talk about one of my top two staples, every day, no matter my current nutrition goals. I eat a lot, I mean A LOT, of two things: greek yogurt and double fiber bread. To be honest, at one point I had to reevaluate my fiber intake and actually slow it down because I was eating nearly 65-70 g of fiber a day and too much fiber can lead to the same issues as too little fiber.

The American Heart Association suggests 25-30 g of fiber per day, and a quarter of that (roughly 8 grams) should come from soluble fiber. What's soluble fiber, compared to insoluble fiber? Soluble fiber absorbs water during digestion.  Excuse me for this visual, but think of when you eat too much fiber from insoluble fiber rich foods and imagine what kind of poops you would have if they weren't absorbing water during digestion. Ouch. So, mix it up! A lot of people turn to fiber supplements to hit their goal, but you can get a ton of soluble fiber from fruits and vegetables! With it being summertime, there are berries everywhere, they make for a great sweet snack and a cup of raspberries offers the 8g of soluble fiber that you should try for each day.

Soluble fiber, besides being readily available in fruit and veggies, which means you'll also get a hefty dose of naturally occurring micronutrients and have a delicious meal, also plays a factor in reducing cholesterol levels and can help with blood sugar for people with diabetes. 

I like to eat a big, hearty breakfast before I head to the gym. My breakfast always contains a good amount of carbs, which always come down to either rolled oats, Nature's Own Double Fiber bread or Kodiak Cakes Power Cakes, all of which offer 4 to 5 grams of fiber per serving. You may here people suggest carbs that digest quickly pre workout, and lately I've been eating a chocolate rice cake with some sort of nut butter on top, and that's usually about two hours after I've had my giant, hearty breakfast. With this combo, I find that I am fueled and satisfied for my two hour gym sessions and I've been healing well, and not hungry!

Here is what I made this morning, it took me all of about 7 minutes and oh my goodness, it was delicious. Let me know if you give it a shot!

Fruity Pebbles French Toast:

3 slices of Nature's Own Double Fiber bread
5 servings (230g) of liquid egg whites
A splash of vanilla extract
1 serving (33g) of Nuts 'N More Coconut Peanut Spread
1/4 serving (15 mL) of Sugar Free Syrup
1/3 serving (10g) of  Marshmallow Fruity Pebbles

Mix the egg whites and extract together, soak each piece of bread in the mixture and cook them up! Layer each slice of toast with 1/3 of the coconut peanut spread, top with syrup, fruity pebbles and light whipped cream!

Macros:

Carbs: 58.3
Fiber: 14
Fat: 13.7
Protein: 46.3
Calories: 512

He didn't want that appendix anyways and Week 1 of Prep!

Hey friends! Sorry I went all MIA this week, it's been a doozy of a past couple of days. I'm scheduled to take my real estate licensing exam this weekend and when I have a deadline like that I tend to get useless for everything else! Dumb, I know. Also, I had a phone interview yesterday for a sales position that I think went very well, fingers are crossed, and then.....Vic got appendicitis. What a first week of prep, huh? He had been complaining about pain in his stomach all week, we just assumed that maybe it was indigestion or gas and so we tried to treat it that way. I had my appendix removed in college and by the time I knew something was wrong it was damn near bursting and I couldn't stand or move around at all. Vic's work has a clinic on site and the doctor told him "yeah, that is probably appendicitis, you need to get to the hospital" and the nerd went back up to work and finished out a meeting before driving himself to the hospital! He had surgery last night and was actually able to convince them to send him home instead of staying overnight, he's resting now and seems to be well on his way to feeling better!

The rest of the week has essentially just been entertaining the kids between rain storms (yay for the first day of summer rain, poop on that weather) and studying for this exam. I actually found an app that allows me to run through tests and study questions which is a much easier format to work on as opposed to just running through powerpoint slides. I haven't talked a whole lot about going back to work, but I've been looking at different options for the last few months, waiting to see if something particularly awesome grabbed at me. The awesome part is not having to return to work, but being able to be picky about it, but I'm used to having a job and contributing to the family and the kids actually want to be with other kids in daycare/preschool, so I'm on board with testing out the waters. I'm pretty excited about the interview I had yesterday, I'll let you know when I hear back!

But, on to prep. I started this out at 139 pounds, a lot of which was water weight from birth control snafu's and Disneyland trips, so while that number freaked me out, I knew that it would go down relatively quickly.

Last week ---> This week

I started with roughly 16 weeks to play with, so I'm excited to have a good amount of time to whittle down to stage ready. I was about 125 pounds at the Arnold, so I imagine we will have to get close to that again. My starting macros are much higher than they've ever been on prep before and that's exciting! In fact, my carb target for training days is the same as my carb target for my refeeds last prep. For those that don't understand those terms, my coach has me carb cycling. So, I have numbers to hit on training days (higher carb), numbers to hit on off days (lower carb) and refeed days which happen once a week right now and involve much higher carbs to up your glycogen stores and keep you from going totally bonkers, and lower fat to help level out calorie intake. If you are interested in learning more about carb cycling just comment below or send me an email at c.kassel@yahoo.com! I use carb cycling with my clients as well.

Last week ---> This week

I had mentioned previously that I wanted to coordinate these prep updates with some information about Parkinson's disease, considering that my prep is fueled by my Grandmother this time around. The frustrating thing about PD is that they don't know why it happens, and right now all you can really hope to do is use various methods to deal with symptoms. They do know that PD affects the neurons that produce dopamine, killing them and reducing the overall production of dopamine. Dopamine signals the brain on how to move and coordinate one's movements, so as these levels decrease so does your ability to control your movements and coordination. While everyone thinks about tremors when it comes to PD, balance is a huge factor in subsequent injuries and frustration because falling can happen quite often.

As I mentioned before, they don't really have a handle on any way to say "this causes PD", but they have found a number of genetic and environmental factors that they believe play a part. Let's chat real quick about what the Parkinson's Disease Foundation has identified as potentially protective environmental factors, some of which I find exciting. Again, they haven't been able to really nail down anything for sure because PD is such an obnoxious disease to study, but they have found a decrease in the development and prevalence of symptoms when patients are exposed Vitamin D, exercise and caffeine. What does this tell me? This reinforces that developing healthy habits of getting outside, getting exercise and my coffee addiction may be helpful in the long term, haha. The studies on caffeine were small, but showed that adding caffeine to the routine of patients didn't help with sleepiness, but their motor functions were improved. People that have higher Vitamin D levels are at a lower risk of ever developing PD, and the brain benefits of exercise help keep pathways and productions healthy, not to mention that reinforcing mind muscle connections and muscle memory can help with the balance and gait issues that come with PD.

Ok, this got long! It might seem like all of the above is just useless information because there isn't a lot to support anything, and that's what is so frustrating about when I hear about the trips to the numerous doctors that my Mom takes my Grandmother to. Everything is "well, let's try this for a while" and there isn't a whole lot to go on. Ugh. For now, I'm going to ensure that I take the best care of my body in the most basic ways possible, get outside, get moving, eat well, challenge my brain. It's all I can do at the moment to hopefully reduce the genetic likelihood of developing PD myself, since I have a pretty close relative with PD.

That's all for today, folks! Happy Thursday and we'll talk soon!