I hope you all had a fabulous weekend.

We ended up seeing Thor: The Dark World on Friday and it was awesome!

It was a fun, interesting and engaging story.  I also love Natalie Portman and of course, Chris Hemsworth.

Speaking of Chris Hemsworth; when watching Thor, you can’t help but think “How in the world did he get so amazingly HUGE??”

Crazy.

I’ve also wondered the same thing about Hugh Jackman and The Rock (Dwayne Johnson.)  It’s unbelievable how MASSIVE these guys are!  In fact, I don’t even think The Rock looks real….he looks more like a cartoon.

It will be fun to see him in the film, Hercules next spring.  I think he was the perfect pick for that role, BTW.

Well, in case you’re wondering how these guys got so HUGE, here’s what I found out ’bout it….

Apparently they workout a bunch (2-3 hours every day), of course.  They follow a very intense weightlifting regimen along with some cardio (treadmill, elliptical, etc.) mixed in.

I’ve also heard Hugh Jackman talk about working out on an empty stomach first thing in the morning so he could burn more fat.

Ya, I think he successfully burned off every ounce of fat.

Even though these guys exercised hard and often, all of them have said the diet was more important and grueling than the workouts.

They pretty much followed a very strict, high calorie diet (4,000-6,000 calories a day) consisting of lots of protein (chicken, turkey, steak and fish), veggies, fruit and a few select grains.

They ate every 2-3 hours and only ate carbs up until lunchtime.  After that, it was just massive amounts of lean protein and veggies (mostly broccoli, cauliflower, spinach and kale.)

Chris Hemsworth also talked about eating a lot of quinoa because it has the highest protein content of any grain.

Anyway, I found a couple interesting articles about these guys if you’re interested:

• A great article from Men’s Health about Chris Hemsworth’s Thor diet and exercise plan.
• A very extensive and in-depth article from PopWorkouts.com about Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine diet and exercise plan.

Now, of course I have no desire to look like these guys, or even a female version of these guys…

Yikes!  Why do women even want to look like that!???  I see chicks like this at the gym and I just don’t get it??!  Seriously?

But, I do find it fascinating how lean, strong and efficient the body can become with exercise and proper nutrition.

Soooo, with that being said, I’ve decided to follow an extra strict and healthy diet myself from now until Thanksgiving (I actually started yesterday.)

It’s only like 11 days….I think I can handle it. 😉

Oh, and I’m not going to eat 4,000 calories a day.  I’m not trying to look like that chick above, lol.

I’m actually not even going to count calories.  I’m just going to focus on good, clean, real food.  I’m also going to cut out all grains.

Oh, and FYI I really love grains and think they are healthy, but I also like to cut them out from time to time.  It really helps to cleanse the body and make it more efficient.

I usually eat a pretty healthy diet, but sometimes I get too “comfy” in my typical diet and find myself eating way too many “healthy carbs” and not enough fruits, veggies and protein.

Soooo, I decided to work up a plan and make a more conscious effort to eat well.

Sooo, here’s what I plan on eating:

Breakfast: Eggs (1-2 whole eggs + 2-3 egg whites) scrambled with veggies and protein (ham, turkey) and topped with a little cheese.

Lunch: A big salad or leftovers from dinner

Dinner: Lean protein, lots of veggies and maybe a sweet potato or fruit.

Snacks: Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, nuts, protein shakes, fruit

That’s it.  Love it.  I actually don’t think it’s too hard to eat this way (I love all this food!), but it can get a little bit boring.  I just make sure I always have enough food on hand and plan my meals ahead of time.

Here are some of the things I’ve been eating today and yesterday:

My egg/veggie scramble with ham and Feta cheese topped with ketchup (low sugar)…

I made my basic Crock Pot Chicken recipe for dinner yesterday.  I had it along with a sweet potato (topped with cinnamon) and a salad….

I made mashed potatoes and gravy for Kev and the kids and opened up a jar of homemade applesauce for them too.  They loved this meal and had no complaints.

I’ve also been loving big humongoid protein shakes.  This was a yummy Strawberry Banana one (unsweetened almond milk, vanilla protein powder, frozen strawberries, frozen bananas, spinach, a bit of stevia and ice.)  Loved it!

Tonight, Kev and I are going to a Cafe Zupas VIP event at the new location opening in South Jordan, Utah.  It will be fun, and I’m sure I’ll order a big ‘ol salad and maybe some soup (I’ll check the website and see if I can find a healthy one!)  Can’t wait.

Oh, and because we’ll be at Cafe Zupas, I won’t be able to go to my Bootcamp class tonight. 🙁  However, I plan to run over to the gym for a quick upper body workout as soon as my big kids get home from school.

Well, that’s the latest.  I wish you all a very happy Monday!