P90x Results

I finally got a chance to try Chefusion in Green Bay. The menu seemed to be pretty Mediterranean style, which is great when you’re looking for healthy eats!

I started off with a bread & dip appetizer. I think the three choices were a spicy pepper hummus, an olive tapenade (my fav), & an aged OO.  Naturally, I ate every last bit with about 8 pieces of bread.

 

 

 

For the main course, everything sounded so good. Then I saw they had a dish with mascarpone cheese, & I was sold. (I have a go-to pasta dish with mascarpone cheese that will definitely pop up here sometime!)

Stuffed mascarpone chicken, root vegetables, & hollandaise sauce.

 

Divine.

Then I got this little surprise in the mail!!! EEEE. Thank you Vitalicious!

Huge assortment of their Vitamuffins & brownies – I’ll have a product review up later this week! 

Yesterday I went shopping to get some new clothes for work. It had been a while..I honestly didn’t even know what size I was! I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I’ve done p90x on and off for a year (I’ve never done the full program straight through, but do the work outs at my own pace).  Normally I don’t talk about weight on the blog, but since I know a lot of you are looking for good work outs, I really do recommend P90x. It honestly made a huge difference for me and gave me results, even though I didn’t strictly follow the program or change up my regular eating:

(did you honestly think I would post photos in a bikini?)

I went down about 2 dress sizes. Given this was over a year, but I didn’t have much to lose. I really recommend the work out if you want something that challenges you, but isn’t impossible (like Insanity..).

I just finished up a light run with fellow WBAY reporter Jennifer Wilson, and am currently refueling before I head into work Super Bowl Sunday!

Skinny iced caramel macchiato with a ridiculous amount of extra caramel

 

I’ll be bringing these to snack on…soy nuts are my current favorite right now. They’re packed with protein, and have tons of fiber. Plus they’re less expensive than other nuts at the store!

 

 

I’ll leave you with my idol. Can’t wait to see her perform today!

 

 

 

 

 

Product Review: KIND Cinnamon Snacks

I’ve always been a huge fan of KIND.  I ate their bars probably more than any other ones in college because they sell them at Starbucks.  So I was so happy they were kind enough to send me samples of their newest products!
They gave me a huge box full of goodies, so I’ll be reviewing each new product as I get a chance! But for now I’ll tell you about the two I’ve tried so far.

The first box of bars I got was the KIND Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Pecan. It has chocolate and nuts. It was an easy first choice.

The facts: You’ll notice it’s sort of an in between calorie count bar – not as much as a Clif but more than say a Luna bar. But way less sugar than most and high in fiber which keeps your blood sugar stable and keeps your tummy full!

I of course ate while working!

The bar was actually way different than I was expecting. I’ve eaten a lot of the fruit/nut ones, and this was sweeter than I thought it would be. Not in a bad way, per say, just definitely more of a go-to bar when you have a craving for chocolate, maybe rather than something you’d want right after a workout, for example. It tasted like a crunchy Reese’s PB Cup! Definitely more of the texture of a Nature Valley bar, whereas most of the KIND bars I’ve had are really chewy. All this aside, it was of course delicious. Definitely recommend this for anyone who needs a candy fix but healthier!

I also tried one of the granolas in Cinnamon Oat Clusters. 

This I loved.  I’m super picky when it comes to granola, because it tends to be higher in calories and I don’t like when it’s too sweet. This was really nutty and didn’t melt to mush with milk. It was perfect on its own too. But again like all granolas it is higher in calories so it’s important to watch portion size. I often eat it for dessert!

And the food porn. Look at those nutty clusters and the flax seed!! I had mine with Silk plain soy milk.

I would prefer the granola as a snack post-work out and the bar as a treat, for me personally. I recommend them both! I can’t wait to try the other products! Thank you again KIND. 

I just finished up half a workout of Insanity, so I gotta get ready for work. TGIF! 

 

 

Second breakfast & A KIND delivery.

Aren’t second breakfasts a thing in the Hobbit or something? I wouldn’t know.

I’m a big fan of two breakfasts. Half of it has to do with breakfast foods being my favorite kind of food, the other being that I just can’t stomach much food before I work out in the morning. 

For example, this morning I had about a quarter of a very old cranberry scone and coffee before my 3 mile run.

After my run I did about 20 minutes of arm work with some free weights…then it was time to eat again!

Chocolate cherry oatmeal: Quaker low sugar oats in maple, Chobani 0 % Greek black cherry yogurt, 2 tsp all natural cocoa powder

I’ve been checking all the style reports from the inauguration ceremony catching up on the news today while prepping a light lunch. I have ZERO groceries right now for lunch so I’m trying to use everything up that I can!

Spinach salad with vegan cheese crumbles & blue cheese dressing (can’t do without it.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two original Boca burgers, hot sauce, Annie’s bbq sauce (I didn’t say lunch was glamorous).

I just got a package in the mail with new samples from one of my favorite organic snack brands…but from who!? (note the title of this post). I’ll have a product review later this week!

 

Fitting In Fitness – Working Out At Home

How many times have you said “I just don’t have time!”—to work out, to spend time with friends, to relax….essentially, to take care of yourself.  I am not devaluing your schedule, mind you, I’m sure you are very busy! But guess what? We all are. There’s never enough time (or money) it seems. There are some days where I leave the house at 8 a.m. and get home at 11 p.m., and while complaining is great, I’m not unique. Heck I don’t even have kids (kudos to you that juggle that too)!

Something I am big on is not making excuses. So you’re busy. Too busy to take care of yourself? Nope.

For people that are crazy busy, I cannot stress enough how much I love workout DVDs. If you’re like me,the biggest battle is just getting to the gym. When I’m crunched for time, these are my go-to. I have about a dozen, but here’s my top 3:

1. Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. I’ve been doing this work out for 4 years now, and I still come back to it on a semi-weekly basis. It does* get much easier after you’ve done it a few times, but if you’re short on time, it’s amazing. So many friends have tried this and love it. Great for beginners.

3 workouts, 25 minutes each. < $15, in stores or online.

 

 

2.  Jackie Warner’s One-On-One Training With Jackie

My best friend and I were hooked on this DVD. We somehow lost it in our moving process and I immediately had to go rebuy it! Unlike my other favorites, it’s pretty much only weights-focused. I know that’s not everyone’s favorite, but this work out is what I do when I feel like I want to tone up. Jackie is really motivating.  *Side note, you will not be able to sit down for 2 days after the leg work out.

3 workouts, 20 minutes each. < $15 in stores or online.

 

 

3.  Isanity Workout.

I was torn on this one, because I actually prefer p90x over Insanity, but if you’re short on time and want something that will feel like you’re going to die make you sweat, this work out delivers every single time. The host is a little annoying….but It’s VERY cardio focused with max interval training, and many of the workouts are are under 40 minutes. To be honest I’ve never done the full program, I just do single workouts when I want to change it up.

 Around 20 workouts, ranging from 30 mins-1 hour. $144 on Amazon.

What are your favorites?

 

Chi-Town Eating

I love Chicago, always have. Since I moved to Green Bay I’ve been able to go twice, and it’s the perfect getaway for me since it’s the midway point for my friend Jessica and me and now my friend Bailey has relocated there.  This past weekend I visited Bailey and her boyfriend, Andrew!   I got in around 11 AM and, naturally, the first thing we wanted to do was eat!We were in Wicker Park, and both craving something a little spicy so we found Pot Pan Thai. I had their thai fried rice veggie bowl with tofu. I order this a lot when I’m at Asian style restaurants, so it wasn’t anything too spectacular for me, but I knew we’d be eating a heavier dinner.

That held me over pretty well until dinner. I didn’t get a chance to do an official work out Saturday (I always take Saturday or Sunday “off”), but we did get to roam the streets downtown and beauty blogger Bailey told me what make up to buy helped me get some great cosmetics and beauty products for work. Success. Needless to say we were hungry about 4 hours later.

We had dinner at Lou Malnati’s - every single person at the station told me this was the place to go for deep dish. Most people know my history (or lack thereof) with pizza, I didn’t eat it until I was about 21. I don’t know why. One poor experience as an 8 year old so I just didn’t….NOW I like just about every kind. We started off with their garlic spinach cheese bread. This was to die for.

I didn’t drink at dinner, I try to limit cocktails to 1 a day or I know the calories creep in. Plus since I knew we were splurging with food this weekend I figured I wanted that more! The deep dish sausage pizza:

The picture isn’t anything special, but it really was SO good. The crust with five sticks of butter was the best I’ve ever had. Keep in mind, this was a splurging weekend with friends, so worth it.

That said, we were feeling the food coma after dinner. We ended up going to a 90 minute yoga sculpt class the next morning. I always recommend people look for yoga studios when they’re traveling, because it’s the one workout you don’t need to have any equipment with you, and you can still make it work). I became a huge yoga fanatic over the last 2 years, and I’ll go into more on that later about how beneficial I think it can be.

After that we grabbed lunch at a fantastic dive gyro shop (of course I forgot to take a photo because I was STARVING), and we ended up running into a high school friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in seven years. So naturally, it was awesome we both looked like crap decent.

For my last night I wanted to experience a BYOB restaurant (YEAH. These are everywhere?!).  Can’t even remember the name of the place…so let’s just get to the food.

Please, forgive my nails. I had the spicy green chicken curry. They didn’t have brown rice so I stuck with white over fried:

Cleaned my plate. It was so good. I find that on trips I always tend to eat less in the amount of food I eat, but more decadently. Now that I’m home, I’m back to my normal mini meals throughout the day, but that are more low-fat and energy building. So the posts will get more “health conscious” as I get back into the normal swing of things. This morning I started off with cottage cheese (2%) with honey & coffee with creamer. I have to do my 4 mile run this morning, and after that I’ll have a more sustainable breakfast that I’ll post later!

I start my dance rehearsals this week too for the charity competition I’m doing! That should be a fun work out to add to my routine, so I’m excited to keep you updated on that. If Beyonce can look that phenomenal, dancing must be working for her.

I mean, this is motivating.

Something I didn’t do in the first 2 years of KWP was take a lot of questions – I’d get emails but would often respond privately in messages. If you have any specific questions, comment and I could always do a blog post on it!

 

KWP Revived

I’m back!! I know, you thought this day would never come (neither did I). But I’ve missed blogging, my foodie friends, and added inspiration in my own life to stay healthy and fit.

For those of you who don’t know about Kate’s Whole Plate, I started this blog when I was in college (hence why previous posts are quite dated). I was always interested in fitness and nutrition. I saw friends go on diets and it bothered me how people, women especially, thought about food and our relationship to it. I started giving friends advice on changing their relationship with food and exercise, and something stuck. I started KWP as a way to show women that you can feed your body real, whole foods, including regular indulgences (mac n’ cheese, waffles, and carrot cake for me), and lose weight, maintain a healthy lifestyle, whatever your goal is. Then I started reviewing and blogging about food products for various nutritional companies, guest blog, and eventually bought my own domain…but when 21 credits, work, and life sort of took over my senior year, the blog became a full time job and I decided to shut it down. Two years later, juggling a career, community events, charity causes, family, friends, my original goal is still the same: you can find a healthier relationship with your body no matter what weight you are. I am not perfect but I always maintain that same mission, and I like to think I’ve helped a lot of friends find what works for them and embrace their bodies, too.

Let me be clear that I am NOT a nutritionist or a personal trainer, I did not study this in college and I do not speak as an expert. I simply know what has worked for me, in my ups and downs to always find a balance in body, mind, and spirit.

Due to my work schedule and community projects, the posts will be perhaps slightly less frequent than in my college days but the message stays the same. I’ll post photos of what I eat, how I make time for fitness in my busy schedule, and blog about day-to-day life.  If you have any questions, I love giving feedback, just remember it’s always best to get a doctor’s professional opinion as well.  I’m just giving my input on how a workin’ girl keeps it real. Hope you’ll read!

 

Merry Chreestmas!!!

After I watch the Grinch (Jim Carey version) that’s the only way I can say Merry Christmas! So far it’s been an amazing* Christmas with my family.  And it’s only part I until my little sis and nephew from Cali come home to visit next week!!! Can.not.wait.  It’s all about the fam right now:)

 

…and the food right?

While this doesn’t look glamorous, it was delicious!  I made some homemade chicken salad with a little Greek yogurt in place of mayo (it worked!) to up the protein/make it a little healthier and added a huge vat can of Costco’s diced chicken. I knew I’d be running around doing last minute Xmas shopping running errands so I pretty much lived off this yesterday.

We made a huge feast for the traditional Christmas dinner!

the spread.

My plate: beef tenderloin, baked cheddar crumb potatoes, carrots w/ EVOO & sage (I had 2 helpings-for those veggies obviously!), and a roll.

haha take note of the *fresh rolls in the background…the night seemed to get more fun as the wine came out O.O I had to get a photo because I used my new wine charms from my godmother!  This was a cabernet Ben brought back from Argentina

I had a lot a few of the wheat “entertainment crackers”..???with some spinach artichoke dip that I didn’t photograph?!fail.

I also snatched up one of the chocolate macaroons –the others are coconut and cocnut with choc. drizzle!  I didn’t go to heavy on the sweets this year?  I’m guessing those 80′s nylons were just too tight lol

 

Of course then it was time for the annual “we’re not doing pjs this year” gift that turns out to be …PJS!

Lee & me;)

On the subject of food and gifts, we got Luke (Leah’s bf) Candyland because we joked that he only plays nerdy games LOL  We thought we’d dumb it down for him a little bit and go with something basic…he seems amused!

 

Lee & Luke–I think they look like siblings :p

I just had Christmas brunch with my family and did gifts!!! SO excited–I’ll share more later…it has to do with the blog too!  I’m off to Ben’s house to celebrate Christmas with his fam and then tomorrow it’s Christmas with my grandparents and then (WO.) NEXT week I do another Christmas with my sis!  Woof.  Gotta love the ongoing Christmas spirit! I hope everyone is having a safe and wonderful holiday….what was your favorite gift!!?

Mine is my new mini Kodak vid!