Cutting down on caffeine

I used to read people blog posts with the same title and roll my eyes. The fact of the matter is I’m deathly scared of cutting coffee out of my life. I love it. But upon recommendation of a book I am reading, and trying to deal with some symptoms I am having, I am trying to wean myself to one cup of coffee a day.

It’s really no big deal…..I usually only drink 3-4 cups so cutting down to one should be a piece of cake right? Right?!?!?! Plus I really think I am more mentally addicted than physically. I just love the taste and the smell. So decaf would probably be good for me.

Today was day 1. Here’s what I noticed:

*Woke up at 5:30 am, did my workout. Everything normal because I don’t usually have my coffee until after breakfast.

*Ate breakfast with lemon water. Found myself unusually hungry.

*Had my one cup of coffee on the way to work.

*Got to work- sort of sluggish. Kids kept me on my toes.

*Planning period: VERY HARD to get work done. Found myself fiddling with my phone way too much.

*Lunch period: more hungry than usual.

*Afterschool: Exhaustion setting in.

 

Now it’s almost dinner time as I type this. I feel relatively normal, just a little more tired than usual. And hungry. I suspect this is because I usually use coffee to distract myself from eating.

I hope that I can stick with it. Try to ask me about it on my blog so I can be held accountable!!!

Have you ever tried to cut coffee out?

Grilled PB&J and Chocolate Coffee Protein Shake

Happy Sunday Funday! I’m milling around on some blogs before popping my Buffalo chicken wing dip in the oven and heading over to a friend’s house for a Super Bowl party. I tend to hate football and I really don’t care about the game- I’m just looking forward to food and friends.

Oven Ready

I don’t really have any super interesting topics to blog about, besides some of the delicious food I’ve eaten this weekend. None of which are recipes I 100% made up, but worth sharing nonetheless.

Yesterday after the gym was craving a caffeinated beverage (I didn’t sleep well on Friday). I knew I should get some protein in to let my muscles recover from the hardcore intense strength training    super lame elliptical workout I have to resort to because of my back.

Here’s what I popped in the blender:

1 cup almond milk

1 scoop chocolate protein powder

1 packet of Folger’s instant coffee crystals

1/4 cup coffee (left over from the morning- it was cold!)

4-5 ice cubes

Serves 1: 130 calories!

Yum! It tasted like a mocha iced coffee.

 

Also, I have been meaning try try grilled PB&J  ever since I saw it on Clean Eating Veggie Girl a couple of weeks ago. Today was the day! So worth it! Delicious.

Just take two slices of bread and ‘butter’ them with coconut oil or butter. (You could use real butter but I thought coconut oil would give it a sweeter taste).

Put on peanut butter and jelly of choice and grill on both sides. I used my pancake griddle.

 

 

Drooooool! So creamy and delicious! Must make again soon!

 

 

Are you going to any Super Bowl parties? What are you making?

2012 Challenge + Weekend recipe wins

Hope everyone had a better Monday than I did…..have to admit it was a rough one. Well- it’s almost over so I’ll look on the bright side. Today I just wanted to write about a couple of things I discovered over the weekend.

My French toast coffee got me through the morning.

 

 

One of the recipes I made last night was some peanut butter granola from Peanut Butter Fingers, and it turned out great!!! I’ve made more of her granola recipes and even though I burnt the first batch it was a winner.  It was the perfect accompaniment for my morning snack.

Another winner for the weekend:Peanut Butter Protein Cookies via Dashing dish. Sorry- no pictures, I scarfed them down quite rapidly.  They are a keeper recipe for sure. I might use these as the base for the kiss cookies I want to make for Christmas. Speaking of Christmas, I was actually able to get some wrapping done this weekend!

 

Woo hoo!

Anyways, I thought I’d share the challenge I joined on Saturday- I’m actually quite excited about it. I heard about it from Emily’s blog and turns out the leader of the challenge is from a blog I regularly read, Sweet Tooth Sweet Life. The challenge is to do 2012 different body weight reps by the end of December. I chose:

Burpees

Mountain Climbers

Push Ups

Lunges

I simply divided 2012 by four which works out to be 503. So I will do 503 reps of each exercise by the end of December.  It’s do able. It works out to about 13 reps of each a day. Piece of cake. I have been doing 25 reps a day so far because you never know when you might need a skip day. I decided that no matter what my workout is, I am going to do these in addition to whatever is included in the workout. Like today my workout included mountain climbers and push ups, but I did the ‘challenge set’ at the end just to add to my overall workout. It’s fun! You should click on Courtney’s site link if you want to sign up!

Question: What gets YOU through Monday?