If you’ve been following along, you know I’m doing the Jamie Eason Live Fit 12 Week Training Program.  I should have completed Week 5 two weeks ago, but a cold knocked me out for a week, so I had to wait to start Week 5 last week.  I’m happy to say that I completed it nearly perfectly and it feels so good!  At the end of this week, I am really starting to see visible changes in my figure.  My arms and shoulders and getting more defined and my waist is diminishing!!  I can see more tone in my legs too:)

I have started taking a Branched Chain Amino Acid supplement (I add 3 tablespoons in my water bottle) while I work out.

On Monday, I introduced you to Maggie, otherwise known as my BFF, and shared her absolutely killer physique and eating regimen.  She works hard to stay in shape, and today, we’re giving you all the details on the workout she did to initially reduce her body fat and gain such lean muscle mass.

Remember, it took her five months to lose 5.5 percent body fat (going from 17.5% to 12%).  During that time, she was working out 5-6 days a week.  Back then, Maggie worked part-time, so it was admittedly a little easier to get to the gym on her “off”

One of the best things I can do in a week to ensure healthy meals are available and ready to go is prepare a batch ahead of time, usually on Sunday evening.  Then, I like to portion them out into containers so that all I have to do is heat them up.  A basic trio of ingredients eaten constantly in our house is grilled chicken, brown rice, and green veggies like zucchini.  This time, I also added black beans. 

For me, one large chicken breast is sliced and divided into two portions- one is usually too much for me.  I boil one cup of dry brown rice- it yields about 3 cups or so cooked.

I’m so pleased to see that my best friend’s fitness journey is resonating with you!  I pinned her abs on Pinterest and it’s fun to see people repinning:)  My fear was that someone might feel intimidated by her  extremely fit physique and then get discouraged, and I definitely do not want that to happen.  My goal is to ENCOURAGE and uplift you, while at the same time, sharing knowledge and insight into what we can do to really change our bodies, and our lives, for the better. Maggie said that she was encouraged too, and even more motivated to come up with some new recipes that I can share here.

I made these “brownies” over the weekend for the first time, and could not believe how good they are!  The consistency is actually more like a cake, but you don’t have to feel guilty about eating this cake.  The recipe comes from Jamie Eason and I put in italics how I tweaked it.  I think the next time I bake them I’ll leave out the sugar and see how that tastes. (*update, I left out the sugar completely and added a 1/4 – 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips and it’s even better!)

Ingredients

1 cup Oat Flour (I ground oats finely in a food processor)
2 scoops Vanilla Whey Protein Powder (I used chocolate protein powder)
½ tsp Baking Soda
¼ tsp Salt
3 tbsp Baking Cocoa