Tag: Weight Loss

Humor, Instant Pot, Uncategorized, Weight Loss

Shake, Shake, Shake

Cruz2Lose

Day 5 at Planet Fitness:

After getting off the treadmill today, I decided to use the Total Body Enhancement machine.  If you are not familiar with this contraption, apparently it uses red light therapy and vibration to essentially burn fat.  That is the short version. So you step into this machine with pretty much nothing on but your bare necessities, put on a set of goggles to protect your eyes from the light, turn this thing on and choose your program.  I had used this machine a few years back at another Planet Fitness, however, I didn’t recall exactly how it worked. I set the Total Body Enhancement to run program number three out of four programs. Program 1 being a gentle mode and Program 4 having the highest intensity.  As the machine turned on, it alerted me that this mode was suitable for amateur athletes, this is the moment that I realized I may have made a bad decision, however, I decided I was not about to be a quitter.  As the machine gently started,  I was thinking to myself that this level was not going to be a problem, that is when the machine made the announcement that it was in warm up mode.  Once this thing kicked into high gear, I looked around for something to grab onto.  The floor of the machine was vibrating like I was on a back country, gravel road, filled with potholes, doing about 80. I looked up and saw two cords hanging down and I reached up and grabbed on tight like the subway train was going to crash. At this point, I wasn’t thinking about how this was going to enhance my body, and change my life, at this point I was in survival mode.  My previous use of this thing was suddenly coming to the forefront of my memory.  Surprisingly enough, I actually felt pretty energized when the machine stopped and my teeth were no longer rattling out.

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Dinner tonight was left-over Instant Pot pork chops and cauliflower mash.  Now I am taking my tired, achy self to bed. Tomorrow is another day.

Humor, Instant Pot, Uncategorized, Weight Loss

Playlists and IP Cooking

Cruz2Lose

Today at Planet Fitness, I decided to do something a little different while on the treadmill, I decided to listen to music instead of reading. I jumped on the treadmill, turned on my playlist and started my workout. My playlist began with Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop the Feeling which is a high energy, feel good song. I was pumped and walking on that thing like I was being featured in one of his music videos. Moments later my music choices went quite a bit darker and there I am on the treadmill, after several tracks of Kelly Clarkson, angry AF over I don’t even know what but I am pretty certain it had something to do with every man who had wronged me in my life.  After Maroon 5’s Cold, I was beginning to recognize there was a pattern to my music. By the time I finished my workout I felt like I needed to lay on a therapist’s couch or at the very least the hydrotherapy lounge chair – I chose the lounge chair, much cheaper than therapy.

*Note to self:  Create an actual workout playlist.

After trolling the internet to gather a few healthy Instant Pot recipes for my weight loss journey, fullsizeoutput_207blast night I cooked up a recipe that I had found on skinnytaste.com, Braised Cubed Steak. It was budget friendly, simple and had good flavor. Tonight I threw pork chops and rice into my Instant Pot, HOWEVER, I only ate about a 1/2 cup of rice.  I recently purchased cauliflower as a substitute for rice, I just have to look up some ways to dress it up and give it shot. On a side note, tonight I turned down a glass of wine. It really is all about balance, I ate the rice, I passed on the wine. Next time I could be passed out on wine eating rice.

Baby steps.

 

Humor, Uncategorized, Weight Loss

IP Ribs and Other Tales

Cruz2Lose

Last night I decided to get adventurous and stuff a slab of Costco pre-seasoned ribs into my Instant Pot.  I say “stuffed” because I packed the ribs in so tightly that it reminded me of trying to stuff myself into my jeans. That moment you realize that you were able to do it but if anything expands it is not going to be pretty….yeah, same with the ribs. Admittedly, I have never made ribs before but since I have been getting comfortable with using this fabulous cooking tool, I figured they would either be undercooked, overcooked or come out perfect, and in any case, I was fairly confident that they wouldn’t be rendered inedible. I had read somewhere to throw in 1 1/2 cups of apple juice, 1 cup of apple cider vinegar and 1 tablespoon of liquid smoke before putting
the ribs on the inside trivet.  I set my Instant Pot on high pressure for 40 minutes. I am not certain how healthy this all was but I steamed some green beans for good measure. When the timer went off and the IP finished a 15-20 minute natural release, I opened the lid and went to pull the ribs out; the meat was falling off of the bone. I was told that I fullsizeoutput_2072should have pulled them out, slathered them in BBQ sauce and then broiled them for a few minutes, however, they already had a wonderful flavor and I didn’t want extra calories and/or high fructose corn syrup that is in my favorite BBQ sauce.  These ribs may not look like much, however, they were amazing with very little effort.

Today was day two of getting back into the groove of working out. So far I have only tackled the treadmill as I ease into my new lifestyle.  At some point I will add weight training into my workout but for now I am perfectly content with a gentle start.  Halfway through my cardio workout, I had the realization that I would not be a good candidate for a Fifty Shades of Gray type of relationship since I felt spanked hard enough going 3.0 mph on the treadmill. The highlight of my trip to the gym was that Planet Fitness has these incredible hydrotherapy lounge chairs that you can program to focus on a certain part of your back, neck or legs and, additionally, you can adjust the pressure. This after workout delight makes the pain a little more pleasurable. Just a little.

 

Humor, Low Sodium Cooking, Uncategorized, Weight Loss

Threshold of Hell

Cruz2Lose

Today was my first day back to Planet Fitness in three years in my attempts to lead a healthy lifestyle.  After my workout, I was reminded of a post I had once written regarding that iconic scene in Flash Dance where Jennifer Beals is dancing, sits down onThresholdofhell a chair, arches her back and pulls on a cord that dumps water all over her body.  I experienced the same thing after my workout except I was in a chair, hunched over with sweat pouring down me as though I was at the threshold of hell.

As I continued my journey into the abyss, I came home from my workout and threw a whole chicken in the Instant Pot and a second one was in line to be cooked, shredded and frozen. Once the Instant Pot finished its ‘natural release’ with the first chicken, I pulled that baby right out of the pot and the meat was falling off the bone. I began to slice into the chicken and then noticed that it wasn’t completely cooked all the way through. Perhaps the issue is that I usually cook with wine, but this time I hadn’t poured a glass….

Situation rectified. Happy National Wine Day!

~Cheers