Day 35-37 Numbers

Tonight was another weigh in. I lost 0.2 pounds from last week. I also weighed myself right after dinner so that may have impacted it. But at least it is losing something and not gaining anything.


According to my spreadsheet where I keep track of my food and my exercise and my weigh ins, if I continue on this track I will not reach my goal by the June 1st. I will be around 5 pounds off. Which wouldn't be the end of the world, but would still be frustrating. I also did a calculation (because I am nerd) and at Day 37/100, I should have lost %37 percent of my total (16) so I should have lost 5.7 pounds so far. I have only lost 3.2 (really thats all...booo). So I am off by 2.5 pounds. That doesn't seem like a huge number, so maybe I will get back on track by the 50 day mark.


I know weight isn't everything, and I can tell visually that I have lost weight. Dresses and skirts fit looser, and jeans are back to being comfy again. I feel way more comfortable in my bathing suit at Aqua Zumba then I did in January. All of these are good things. Since January I have lost 7.2 pounds, and being 5'2" this does actually make a difference.


This week hasn't been going too well because I have been sicky the past day and a bit. Last night right before Aqua Zumba I started feeling a sore throat, but I went to exercise hoping that would help. It didn't. I had no energy, and came home and literally crashed into bed and fell asleep for two hours. Today I felt better, but still not at %100, and when I feel sick, I want food...specifically carbs. Like toast, and pasta. So today I had more carbs than normal, but at least they were whole wheat. Hopefully I will feel better for Zumba/Aqua Zumba tomorrow! 

Day 32-34 Monday

In my last post I had a bona-fide plan for the weekend..no drinks, control portions, and exercise to work off the sugar.  Fun fact, that was much easier said than done! Friday wasn't too bad. I didn't follow my no drink rule, but I kept it to a minimum (2 actually) but I did eat all my delicious supper and cheese cake (it was too good to say no). I went to Pub Trivia after the banquet, and then my friends wanted to stop at McDonalds on the way home. I got the fruit smoothie instead of fries and it was good.


Saturday wasn't a good day at all, I had lots of coffee, lots of maple sugar, and then lots of celebrations at the event on Saturday (and snacky junk food, oh no). I woke up on Sunday feeling parched and guilty.


It is strange that on the weekend, when I have more free time, I end up never exercising. I think it is because weekends are when everyone else is free too, so I would rather sleep in and hang out with my friends than go to the gym, or exercise. The weather is getting warmer, and all of my school friends/boyfriend are almost done their term, so hopefully I will be able to be healthier on the weekends by convincing them to join me for walks, or tennis or something!


I have still not managed to make it to the gym 5 times in one week, last week was so close! This week I have a good feeling though. I have 4 hours of Zumba/Aqua Zumba booked in, so all I need is one other work out. Today was a non-work out day (not sure why) so hopefully the week will just improve from here.

Day 30-31 Goal for the weekend

This week is going soo much better than last week. So far I have gone to the gym 4 times (Zumba tonight was a blastie blast), and I have been eating really healthy. Also there are no green beers right now, so that is definitely an improvement from last week. My goal this weekend to have a "good" weekend diet/exercise wise. 


What a good weekend would be for me is a weekend with very few cheats. This is going to be hard because I am going out on both Friday and Saturday night, and then Saturday day I am going to a Maple Sugar Camp. Maple Sugar doesn't quite fit into the low sugar diet! So, in order to compensate for that, I am going to try to exercise tomorrow, and at least once on the weekend. 


Also, I am going to try really hard to eat healthy at the Friday night banquet (limit my portions of carbs at least) and eat a healthy before the Saturday event (there will be snacks there which I am going to try to avoid). I also won't be drinking, at all. Then I won't feel bad about the delicious taffy on snow on Saturday :D! Everything in moderation!


Fun food time:
Tonight for supper I made Easy Curry Slow Cooked Chicken, and Indian Cucumber Salad from CBC's Best Recipes Ever (Pictures below). I give it 5 stars! I made it with a whole chicken, but I would recommend actually following the recipe and using chicken thighs, because they hold up better in the slow cooker. It took about 30 minutes to throw into the slow cooker, 4 hours to cook (on low), and then 15 mins at the end to make the salad and the chicken toppers. Lots of leftovers to look forward to tomorrow!

Curry Chicken from Best Recipes Ever at cbc.ca

Indian Cucumber Salad From Best Recipes Ever at CBC.ca

Day 27-29 I'm sooorreeee

Today I did a Core Attack class (1 hour of core..at 7:30 am..go) and then I went to Zumba tonight. Yesterday I did the trainer circuit that I learned last week. So tonight, I am beat. Plus side it is only Tuesday and I already have 3 workouts in! My Zumba pass runs out in 3 weeks so to get my money's worth, I have to go to every class. Money is a huge motivation for me to work out haha.


I also did groceries today, and I always unpack my groceries onto the table in the kitchen, and then put them away. It reminds me of the BBC/W Network Show "You Are What You Eat." In one part of the show this nutritionist would come into the person's home and spread out what they eat in a month, and it would be chips, and fries, and take-out, and grossness. And it was all brown. Then she would show them the healthy diet table. To me the healthy table always looked sooo much better.


So today I put my food out on the table and this was the result:

Half Veggies and Fruit (Spinach, apples, clementines, asparagus and more), 1/4 Protein (whole chicken, fish, natural mixed nuts and hummus etc), 1/8 Dairy (Skim milk, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese), 1/8 Grains (Brown Rice, Quinoa, and Split Grain Bread). This is also similar to Canada's food guide, so I know I am not doing a crazy fad diet. 


My supper menu for the next couple of days is:
Tuesday: Small Steak, Sweet Potato and Veggies
Wednesday: Slow cooked chicken with veggies and brown rice
Thursday: Veggie Chili with Quinoa
I am excited, even though it is healthy food, it is still delicious!


I did my weekly weigh in tonight, and as I expected I didn't loose any last week..positive note I didn't gain any either. Hopefully next week's results will make up for it!

Day 19-26-Where did the week go?

In the past week I disappeared from the blog-o-sphere. Not sure why, just didn't feel like blogging I guess.  I missed my weigh in on Tuesday but I weighed myself on Wednesday instead, and according to that I lost another pound! Huzzah! 

Exercise wise I didn't do too well this past week. I keep track of my food and exercise on a spreadsheet (I am a nerd) and there were a lot of "missed" in the exercise column this week. On Thursday I went to the 2nd part of the trainer session I won last week and the personal trainer kicked my butt. It was a great work out that worked everything and had a little bit of cardio. I keep wanting to go to body pump class, and I keep being busy and missing it. Oh well, it is almost a new week and I will just pick up my game. 

Diet wise I have been doing really well during the day. I really like the low carb breakfasts (see older posts) and for lunch I have been experimenting, because I got sick of spinach salad. This week I cooked a whole bunch of cauliflower and broccoli and had it with shrimp and spices (and a tiny bit of cheese). It was like a pasta dish sans pasta. It was easy to throw together, and the leftovers lasted 4 meals!

On the other hand, since Thursday I have been having some cheats. It was St. Patrick's day this week, so I will blame him (green beer does not count as a vegetable).  Monday will come again soon and then it is diet restart time. I think I need to research some new food so I don't get bored.  

I am still liking the "Diet Solution" program.  I also reread the program and realized that the 14 day plan is actually only supposed to be used for the first 14 days. Mostly because it is a pretty strict diet, and doesn't have dairy. In the normal plan, Greek yogurt and cottage cheese and milk are cool. So I will probably switch over to the "normal plan" this week because I should probably get some dairy. Yay Canada's food guide! 

Day 16-18 Doing Good

Day 16: My first day with no cheats at all! I had some eggs for breakfast with spinach, leftover turkey burger with homemade salsa for lunch. Then my good moment came when I realized I was going to be gone all evening tutoring, and would have to eat on the run. Pre-diet this would mean Tims, or worse. So I decided to pack a supper of raw veggies, some almonds, and pieces of chicken. Totally road worthy.  I also forced myself to go to the gym, and because I went that day, I got to give my friends a free week and because of that I won a free trainer session. Karma!

Day 17: On Thursday I went to my fitness assessment with the personal trainer at 6:30am. It was great to get up, go to the gym, and then get back before most of the world was awake. I then left on a 9 hour train ride to visit my family. Once again this would have meant some snacks, and probably junk food (boredum=food for me), but I packed a lunch, some healthy snacks, and some supper to avoid the bad snacks. I did have some Pringles though, because I ran out of food around hour 7.  I also had one TimBit on Thursday, and it was the best TimBit ever. It is amazing how good some of that stuff tastes when you haven't had it for a while.

Day 18: Today I ate pretty well (like I said before my family is very healthy) and attempted a snowshoe with my mom. It was pouring rain, and our snowshoes were malfunctioning so we had to turn back early. We actually ended up walking through the snow to get back, and that was a pretty good work out.

I realized this week that I am not an emotional eater persay, (an example being I don't eat if I feel sad) but more so a "I deserve it" eater. For example, if I have a productive day, I deserve a treat. If I did well on something, I deserve junk food. I also realized that this is really stupid. What I should think is "I deserve to reach my goals" and perhaps I need to find something else as my "reward" instead of food.

I may start a tip jar. Whenever I feel that "I deserve food" feeling I will take some change (about as much as a chocolate bar) and put it in the jar. Then at the end of the month I could buy something with it. Like shoes. Mmm delicious.

Day 15- Progress

Tuesday night is my weekly weigh in. I wasn't sure how it was going to go. On one side my weekend of carbs happened. On the other hand I was pretty good with exercise and diet last week in general. And I noticed on Saturday when I tried on a dress that I hadn't worn since Christmas and it was definitely looser. 

And the result was...... I lost another pound! 14 more pounds to go to reach my goal! 

Today I went to Zumba, and I ate pretty well. There was a pancake breakfast this morning, so I had some, but I didn't eat any syrup on them. Lunch was a salad with chicken, supper was a turkey burger patty and homemade salsa, and an avocado, and my post workout snack was a chocolate-almond-banana smoothie. The way the diet solution meal plans work is it is actually 4 small meals a day and a snack. The fourth meal is meant to act as a boost after a work out and can be a cup of protein shake (or smoothie) or chicken and veggies etc. 

The smoothie of choice is pretty similar to what the meal plan had in mind, but it is way more delicious. 

I take 1 banana (or two) and some ice, a spoon (or two) of crunchy almond butter, and a cup or so of chocolate almond milk (no sugar!) and chuck it in a blender! Mmm mmm good. 

Day 10-14 Losing Count

For those keeping score at home, I somehow missed a day counting, and now I am actually up to day 14, not 13 as I thought. Now that that is settled, on to the meat of the matter...or lack there of, more so carbs of the matter

I am starting to notice that writing my Monday post of this blog is a little like a walk of shame. Weekends suck for diets and exercise, at least for me. Especially since this weekend was full of celebrations: Birthday Parties/Iron Ring weekend for my boyfriend and friends. So Friday was all you can eat sushi. This was a restaurant where they charge you for anything left on the plate, so we had to eat, and eat, and eat. I love sushi, but I never want to eat white rice again. Then Saturday was a little bit of a party, so that wasn't diet friendly either. And then Sunday was slightly better, but there were carbs involved, and today for some reason there were also carbs involved. Booo evil carbs, they keep lurking in my life (in the form of free Chinese food today).

I still haven't done my fitness test again, but the good news is last week I exercised 4 times, this week I really really want to get 5. Seeing how I skipped today (oops) I am going to have to get my butt in gear! Maybe I will eat better next weekend!

Day 9-Zumba time!

I got to do my favorite exercise today, Zumba at the Dalplex (Dalhousie Gym) with Richard Gormley. For those who have never done Zumba, it is a cardio exercise class disguised as a dance party, with latin and hiphop flare. It was created by a Colombian fitness instructor and dancer, Beto Perez, who started throwing Latin dance moves into his routines, and volia Zumba was born. (Side note, according to Wikipedia Beto choreographed routines for Shakira...fun fact).


Richard is the Dalplex instructor and he is AMAZING! I know Richard from home, and he started teaching Zumba to about 6 people in a small studio the summer of 2009. The six people have transformed into hundreds, and the floor literally shakes when the class is going on at the Dalplex. Zumba is a great program, but Richard makes it so much more fun with his energy and enthusiasm!! Check out this Video for an (stylized) idea of what Zumba is! (1. I don't know what they are saying either, and 2. No you don't necessarily get a car like the singer when you do Zumba..sorry.)


Normally I would also go to Aqua Zumba (Zumba in the water) right before normal Zumba to get two workouts in one, but today I missed Aqua Zumba. So I am up to 3 workouts this week, and plan on going for a run tomorrow (and redoing my fitness test). I am excited that this week is going well for exercise!


It is also going well for diet. I can tell I am eating healthier with the diet solution, but I definitely don't feel starved, and I am not missing anything. Breakfasts are the biggest change, because before I would always have toast and peanut butter and orange juice. Now I have an egg/meat and veggies, and water or herbal tea with Stevia (an all natural sweetner).  The point is to eliminate sugar, so all drinks except water and herbal tea are out.  The creator of this program emphasizes that breakfast foods can be leftovers from the night before, and don't have to be traditional breakfast food which is different. This morning for example was a low fat sausage with stir fried peppers and onions, and it was delicious!


And mixed in with all the healthiness is one cheat day a week, so tomorrow when I go out for sushi for my friend's birthday tomorrow, I won't feel super guilty!  Mmmm sushi. White rice carby sushi. I can't wait : D!

Day 8- Fitness Goal

As I mentioned in the last posty post my measurement plan is similar to the tv show X-weighted. I really like that tv show, as it is completely realistic (it was also started in Halifax and still features Fred Conners, the owner of FRED salon in the North End). It is over a 6 month time period and focuses not only on the weight loss, but on fitness levels. The "my x-weighted" website is actually the best fitness tracker so far. (I gave up on diet.com a while ago, the website was slow, and ugly and had way too many stupid ads). So now I am doing the x-weighted site. It is above and beyond my 100 day challenge, as the my X-weighted program is for 6 months. 

On the tv show the trainer, Paul Plaka's starts the six month progress by doing measurements, a weigh in and a fitness challenge. Then he makes the participants set a weight loss goal and a fitness goal. And on the online version you get to do the same thing. The program even calculates the ideal weight loss for you based on your height and current weight. 

I have my weight loss challenge already with my 100 day goal and maybe I will add an extra 5 pounds to it for the 6 month challenge, I don't want to get too skinny haha. And now I have a fitness goal: In 6 months I will run a 5k in 25 minutes, do 100 sit ups consecutively and do 50 push ups consecutively (most of them being real push ups).  I am going to do the 5k for CIBC's 2011 Run for the Cure. 


There is something about this concrete challenge that inspires me to work out more. I went to the gym today to see how far I can run in 25 minutes. I made 2.5 k, and walked part of the way, so I definitely have room to improve. I also did the x-weighted fitness assessment: 20 plyometric lunges, 20 squat with clean and press (with 5lb hand weights), 20 "lay down and stand up" and 20 jumps over the fitness mat. The lay down and stand up killed me, as per usual, and the whole thing took me just under 4 minutes**.  Once again, room for improvement! 


Side note on food: the sprouted grain bread tasted exactly like normal bread, and the diet solution meal plans are almost what I normally eat (except with weird bread) so it isn't too strange to switch over. If I was a cookie/sweet lover it may be more of an issue!


**I just re-watched the video that I linked, and I realized I cheated on most of it..oops. I am going to re-do this tomorrow and actually do it correctly!

Day 7-8 Diet time and Weigh in

Today I went and did groceries to kick start the "Diet Solution" diet. I was pretty impressed that I managed to find the exact brand of sprouted wheat bread that it recommended. Good job superstore health food section. I was also surprised because for the past little while my healthy eating meal plans have been really expensive. This bill was pretty reasonable. 


I was going to go to the gym yesterday, but it turned into a mega nasty snowstorm in the evening so I did P90x yoga. After 45 minutes I wanted to be finished, but then I went for another 30. With 15 minutes to go the instructor started to slow down, and stretch out, and I was like wait a minute we can't be done, there is still 15 minutes left of video. Then the instructor said "And now it is time for YOGA ABS." Needless to say it was a good work out. 


And since tonight is Tuesday, I did my weekly weigh in. I know a lot of people don't go by the scale when they are trying to lose weight, but to me it is the easiest most concrete results I can get. I took my measurements at the beginning of the whole process and I will see where I am at in the end. (My weigh in/measurement plan is similar to x-weighted).  So far I have lost 1 pound. 1 pound may not seem like a lot but if I lose 1 pound every week until my goal I would be almost there. Also, healthy weight loss is 1-2 pounds a week. So I am on track, but it would be nice to see bigger results!