{best recovery formula - my recipe}

so... I started doing insanity (shaun T's workout program) two weeks ago today. So far so good. It originated with a phone call on my work phone asking me if I wanted to be a part of a weight loss bet at work. The person to lose the highest percentage of weight loss in two months would win $400. I'm always up for a new challenge, and being very competative and nocturnal (not by choice but becuase I work night shift) I thought it could be a fun new healthy hobby. Plus, every since my last semester in college and then studying for my nursing boards and then starting a new job i haven't really paid that much attention to my weight/health. Not to say I've let myself go, but I didn't stress about it, ate what I wanted to eat and exercised occasionally. I have been the same weight (fluctuating +/- 8 lbs ish) since high school, but it was time to start taking better care of myself and win some cash :)...

let me start off by saying that I have not worked out worked out for like 2 years now... and that insanity is supposedly "the hardest workout ever put on DVD". Why I get these ideas I have no idea... but with its promise to transform your body in 60 days, lose weight, tone up, etc. I thought it would be a good investment to keep me motivated and succeed at my new hobby of health. (can health be a hobby?) -{detour: some of us nurses are some of the most unhealthy ppl around. Since finishing college I have had to learn what to do with all of my free time. Nursing school is no joke, it was miserable and TONS of work... sucked the life out of you. haha. but really. there was no time for hobbies or anything of the sort. We were lucky to go out every once in awhile. So, since graduating and only working 3 days a week I have been learning what to do with my free time. One of my next posts will be: things to do in the middle of the night when you're bored and awake}-

The first days of insanity, well, even just the fit test, was awful. I mean, you can't breathe are going to throw up, dripping sweat like a faucet awful. The first day I thought I was going to die and seriously considered quitting. When I woke up the second official day I had to look up blogs of people's success stories and read them until I was motivated enough to endure the pain. I also took pictures of fit bodies from pinterest and saved them on my ipad and played a slide show as I worked out... hoping to look at them as motivation. Honestly I'd look over and be like, yeah, I really don't care that much. I'd rather just not eat ever again than do this once more. Sounds dramatic I know, but really, it was rough. I decided to take it one day at a time, never forcing myself to perfection or to look exactly like the professionals (which was growth in and of itself) and do my best. As long as my heart was beating out of my chest and I was sweating... that's been good for me. AND... I'm at week two!! 1/4 of the way there! Since the initial weigh in I have lost 12 lbs... 7.5% of my body weight! exciting! More than that, I can tell that I am stronger and have more endurance. One of the keys to keeping on track has been ... I have been counting calories with myfitnesspal (I know it's tedious) and exercise. So far so good.

Anyway, wow, this post started off with me going to tell about the "recovery formula" I created. haha

So as a part of the fitness regimen you are supposed to drink a recovery formula after you work out. It's supposed to fuel your body, help with the post-hard-workout-starvingness you feel after working out so you don't binge... and I guess help with weight loss. So... as an alternative I had found that chocolate milk was a good substitute for Shaun T's "special" formula (and cheaper). I started with chocolate soy milk and then now I am trying chocolate almond milk (which I like more)... but to make it a protein-boosting meal I added some stuff to the chocolate almond milk in my knockoff magic bullet machine (seriously amazingness, get one). So here was my rather pleasingly delightful recipe:

1 cup dark chocolate almond milk
3 tbsp plain nonfat greek yogurt
3/4 banana
2 tsp natural peanut butter (I used trader joe's)
5 tsp soy protein (could be whey I hear it's better but that's what I had)
Ice to taste/thickness

Blends and wah-la! Seriously after not having hardly anything sweet (other than chocolate milk) this was BOMB. and according to myfitnesspal (also in an ipad/ipod/iphone/android app) only 327 calories... which is a meal but a yummy healthier option than plain-old chocolate milk or worse... ice cream (bad :))... so, I will update with photos soon. Until then, Enjoy! Let me know what you think!

PS I'll keep you posted on my progress... sexy body pics to follow :) (in a couple months) hehe