I know, I know, I'm supposed to post every day. Naughty Carole. I was terribly busy over the weekend and didn't have a chance to post, but I still managed to follow through with all the diet and exercise.
Day one off carbs was horrible, I must say. I was tired, grumpy, and cranky at everybody and the temptation to cheat was strong, but I held out. So last night I went grocery shopping and got lots of protein rich, carb-free options to choose from. As a result, today has been better and I roasted a delicious chicken for dinner plus a ton of asparagus. Planning for the no-carb phase is a must. As they say, failing to plan is planning to fail.
The new pyramid workout is a killer but I proudly completed the whole thing in about 15 minutes and felt like I could have gone another round, which is completely amazing. The improvements in my body continue, but I have decided to only weigh myself once a week so I don't make myself crazy. Peace out!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
Day Four, A Day Late
Hi Internet. I missed out on my regular blog post last night so I'm doing it a day late again; the dance studio I teach at has been rehearsing late into the evenings, which is when I'm usually on the computer.
On day four I found the workouts to be getting much easier for me and a lot of the initial soreness has subsided. In fact, I just did my day five workout and I daresay I am ready for the workouts to change up a bit and challenge me further!
I stuck to my diet yesterday but by golly it was difficult. I mentioned before that I live at the tip of Washington state on the Long Beach Peninsula and it rains more than two-thirds of the year here. (For those of you who are fans of the "Twilight" series, we are just a few hours by car from the rainy, dismal town of Forks, where the books are set.) Needless to say, by June we are ready for some sunshine, but yesterday it was 50 degrees and raining and my two kiddos and I were inside all day. Usually we are up and about and outdoors for at least part of the day, which is helpful for me to keep my mind off food. But that was not the case yesterday, as we were stuck inside with me fixing them three meals and snacks, comprised mainly of foods I can't eat. I would be lying if I said that I didn't look at my son's toast with butter and jam and fantasize about devouring it whole in one bite. I didn't cheat, though, and I feel really good about that.
I didn't lose any weight from Wednesday evening up to this morning (still at three pounds total loss), which is a bit discouraging, but I have seen huge improvements in my measurements. An inch gone from my waist, hips, and thighs, and half an inch gone from each arm. This seems like a tremendous achievement for just a few days of work, definitely motivating enough to keep going for the long haul.
Okay, off to rear children now. First, here's what I ate on day four:
Breakfast: Oatmeal with apples and raisins and a hard-boiled egg
Snack: Brown rice cake with hummus
Lunch: Salmon with spinach salad
Snack: Red grapes and a handful of nuts
Dinner: Roasted turkey with sweet potatoes and vegetables
On day four I found the workouts to be getting much easier for me and a lot of the initial soreness has subsided. In fact, I just did my day five workout and I daresay I am ready for the workouts to change up a bit and challenge me further!
I stuck to my diet yesterday but by golly it was difficult. I mentioned before that I live at the tip of Washington state on the Long Beach Peninsula and it rains more than two-thirds of the year here. (For those of you who are fans of the "Twilight" series, we are just a few hours by car from the rainy, dismal town of Forks, where the books are set.) Needless to say, by June we are ready for some sunshine, but yesterday it was 50 degrees and raining and my two kiddos and I were inside all day. Usually we are up and about and outdoors for at least part of the day, which is helpful for me to keep my mind off food. But that was not the case yesterday, as we were stuck inside with me fixing them three meals and snacks, comprised mainly of foods I can't eat. I would be lying if I said that I didn't look at my son's toast with butter and jam and fantasize about devouring it whole in one bite. I didn't cheat, though, and I feel really good about that.
I didn't lose any weight from Wednesday evening up to this morning (still at three pounds total loss), which is a bit discouraging, but I have seen huge improvements in my measurements. An inch gone from my waist, hips, and thighs, and half an inch gone from each arm. This seems like a tremendous achievement for just a few days of work, definitely motivating enough to keep going for the long haul.
Okay, off to rear children now. First, here's what I ate on day four:
Breakfast: Oatmeal with apples and raisins and a hard-boiled egg
Snack: Brown rice cake with hummus
Lunch: Salmon with spinach salad
Snack: Red grapes and a handful of nuts
Dinner: Roasted turkey with sweet potatoes and vegetables
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Days 2 & 3, Plus Confessions Of A Bona Fide Anglophile
I'm sorry I didn't post last night, Internet, but the season finale of "Glee" was on, and it took all my strength not to snack while watching it. I don't know if you have "Glee" in the UK, but to borrow one of your terms, it is "cracking" good.
Days 2 and 3 have been similar to one another. I have stuck to the diet without fail and committed to the fitness portion 100 percent. I am quite sore, of course, but it's a "hurts so good" kind of sore, the kind of sore that lets you know you accomplished something.
And there is progress! As of this posting I have lost three pounds, and even more amazingly, a whole inch (a whole inch!) off my waist! It makes it much easier to continue with the program when you see such immediate results.
By far my favorite part of this program is the way the exercise schedule is laid out. As a stay-at-home mom of two small children, committing to going to a gym for even an hour a day takes a lot of effort and planning, but the great thing about M.A.P. is that all the exercises (so far anyway) can be done right here at home, and with such manageable 15-minute sessions, it's easy to squeeze them into your daily life.
I especially love Dax Moy's "Meltdown Audio"... it makes the timing of the workout a no-brainer, and I'm going to come right out and say it: his British accent is quite adorable! In fact, I confess here and now that since childhood I have been a total anglophile, into anything and everything British. When I was in third grade my mother received a troubling call from my teacher informing her that I had been speaking with a British accent for over a week. What other ten-year olds do you know that are obsessed with "Black Adder?" What a nut.
Anyway, here's what I've been eating the last two days:
Day Two:
Breakfast: Yogurt, fruit, and a hard-boiled egg
Snack: Chopped veggies and nuts
Lunch: Chicken breast with green salad
Snack: Apple and hard-boiled egg
Dinner: Grilled salmon and vegetables
Day Three:
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs and fruit
Snack: Brown rice cake with hummus
Lunch: Spinach salad with tomato and hard-boiled egg
Snack: Pear with nuts
Dinner: Organic beef and veggie stir fry
So long until tomorrow!
Days 2 and 3 have been similar to one another. I have stuck to the diet without fail and committed to the fitness portion 100 percent. I am quite sore, of course, but it's a "hurts so good" kind of sore, the kind of sore that lets you know you accomplished something.
And there is progress! As of this posting I have lost three pounds, and even more amazingly, a whole inch (a whole inch!) off my waist! It makes it much easier to continue with the program when you see such immediate results.
By far my favorite part of this program is the way the exercise schedule is laid out. As a stay-at-home mom of two small children, committing to going to a gym for even an hour a day takes a lot of effort and planning, but the great thing about M.A.P. is that all the exercises (so far anyway) can be done right here at home, and with such manageable 15-minute sessions, it's easy to squeeze them into your daily life.
I especially love Dax Moy's "Meltdown Audio"... it makes the timing of the workout a no-brainer, and I'm going to come right out and say it: his British accent is quite adorable! In fact, I confess here and now that since childhood I have been a total anglophile, into anything and everything British. When I was in third grade my mother received a troubling call from my teacher informing her that I had been speaking with a British accent for over a week. What other ten-year olds do you know that are obsessed with "Black Adder?" What a nut.
Anyway, here's what I've been eating the last two days:
Day Two:
Breakfast: Yogurt, fruit, and a hard-boiled egg
Snack: Chopped veggies and nuts
Lunch: Chicken breast with green salad
Snack: Apple and hard-boiled egg
Dinner: Grilled salmon and vegetables
Day Three:
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs and fruit
Snack: Brown rice cake with hummus
Lunch: Spinach salad with tomato and hard-boiled egg
Snack: Pear with nuts
Dinner: Organic beef and veggie stir fry
So long until tomorrow!
Monday, June 7, 2010
Day 1... A Terrible Day To Give Up Caffeine (And Booze)
Today was my first day following the elimination diet and beginning the exercise program that in 30 days will transform my rather frumpy "I have two kids and it shows" body into "Beyonce-Single Ladies video" body. (At this point I would settle for a reasonable facsimile).
As it turns out the diet is not so bad. I've done the diet once before, though I must fess up and say that last time I didn't cut out the caffeine and I indulged in the occasional glass of wine. I know the diet works, and I also know that the first few days are the hardest.
Unfortunately, the start date of the diet could not have come at a worse time. This week is crazy busy for me, and over the weekend my husband and I chaperoned our local high school's all-night senior graduation party, so we are still catching up on sleep. Needless to say, my usual cup (or two or three) of coffee this morning was sorely missed.
Anyway, quite luckily, my in-laws are organic gardeners and have a vegetable garden that takes up most of an entire acre (I know some of you readers may be from the UK, and I'm not sure what the metric conversion of an acre is, but it's the better part of a football field... er, soccer field, maybe? Manchester United!). Anyway, the garden is just starting to come into season so I have unlimited access to literal truckloads of fresh produce, including over 30 varieties of lettuce and cabbage, delicious tomatoes, potatoes, bok choy, peas, you name it. They also raise chickens, so our eggs are fresh as well. Our beef comes from a family friend who raises grass-fed cows, so we are lucky there too, and our community resides on the furthest tip of Washington state's Long Beach Peninsula, so fresh seafood abounds year-round. And right about now you must be wondering, "Why don't you eat better all the time with this kind of abundance in your fridge?" Ha. You are quite astute, Internet. It's for the same reason that I'm terrible with exercise even though my husband is an athletic trainer/physical therapist. What can I say? I'm a non-conformist.
Part of why dieting is always hard to me has nothing to do with food and everything to do with what food represents to me. I'll save the unabridged version for the shrink's couch, but my mother, a rather cold and reserved woman, is a fantastic cook and the way she showed her love for my siblings and I was through her food. Thus, whenever I am feeling blue, I turn to food for comfort.
Part two of my problem with diets is that I love to cook and I'm really good at it. Not to toot my own horn, but TOOT TOOT. To me good cooking often involves lots of butter, cheese, carbs, and gooey-ness, so that will be difficult to part with. I've decided to record what I eat every day, both as a means of keeping track, and also so maybe anyone that reads this can get a few ideas:
Breakfast: Steel-cut oats with cinnamon and raisins, and one hard-boiled egg.
Snack: Apple and a handful of nuts.
Lunch: Tuna with a drizzle of olive oil and black olives, and a green salad.
Snack: Cut up vegetables with hummus.
Dinner: Roasted chicken, asparagus, and roasted red potatoes with garlic and rosemary.
The thing I can appreciate about the elimination diet is that there aren't really any restrictions on portion sizes, so I freely ate as much as I thought was reasonable without feeling guilty, since the food itself is healthy.
Now on to the exercising. Ha ha... ouch! Laughing hurts. I am a dance teacher/cheerleading coach by trade, so I stay in pretty good shape most of the time, but for the last six months or so I have been nursing a knee injury (and the lack of activity helped me pack on a good ten pounds). Many moons ago while dancing on the college dance team I dislocated my knee and it hasn't been right ever since. A while back I re-injured it and have fought condromalacia and tendonitis since. Condromalacia has to do with your cartilage. Normally it should be nice and smooth and shiny and glisteny, but mine looks, for lack of a better term, like crab meat. In fact, I usually just skip the term 'condromalacia' altogether in favor of calling it 'crab-meat knee.'
I completed all the exercising I was supposed to complete, but if I said that I did so with much speed or grace it would be a complete lie. But I finished it, and for that I am proud. At one point during the "rest" after chest presses I actually had to look around on the floor, so sure was I that my arms may have fallen off, but it turns out they're still attached.
I'm fighting the urge to step on the scale. Maybe tomorrow... if I can get out of bed.
As it turns out the diet is not so bad. I've done the diet once before, though I must fess up and say that last time I didn't cut out the caffeine and I indulged in the occasional glass of wine. I know the diet works, and I also know that the first few days are the hardest.
Unfortunately, the start date of the diet could not have come at a worse time. This week is crazy busy for me, and over the weekend my husband and I chaperoned our local high school's all-night senior graduation party, so we are still catching up on sleep. Needless to say, my usual cup (or two or three) of coffee this morning was sorely missed.
Anyway, quite luckily, my in-laws are organic gardeners and have a vegetable garden that takes up most of an entire acre (I know some of you readers may be from the UK, and I'm not sure what the metric conversion of an acre is, but it's the better part of a football field... er, soccer field, maybe? Manchester United!). Anyway, the garden is just starting to come into season so I have unlimited access to literal truckloads of fresh produce, including over 30 varieties of lettuce and cabbage, delicious tomatoes, potatoes, bok choy, peas, you name it. They also raise chickens, so our eggs are fresh as well. Our beef comes from a family friend who raises grass-fed cows, so we are lucky there too, and our community resides on the furthest tip of Washington state's Long Beach Peninsula, so fresh seafood abounds year-round. And right about now you must be wondering, "Why don't you eat better all the time with this kind of abundance in your fridge?" Ha. You are quite astute, Internet. It's for the same reason that I'm terrible with exercise even though my husband is an athletic trainer/physical therapist. What can I say? I'm a non-conformist.
Part of why dieting is always hard to me has nothing to do with food and everything to do with what food represents to me. I'll save the unabridged version for the shrink's couch, but my mother, a rather cold and reserved woman, is a fantastic cook and the way she showed her love for my siblings and I was through her food. Thus, whenever I am feeling blue, I turn to food for comfort.
Part two of my problem with diets is that I love to cook and I'm really good at it. Not to toot my own horn, but TOOT TOOT. To me good cooking often involves lots of butter, cheese, carbs, and gooey-ness, so that will be difficult to part with. I've decided to record what I eat every day, both as a means of keeping track, and also so maybe anyone that reads this can get a few ideas:
Breakfast: Steel-cut oats with cinnamon and raisins, and one hard-boiled egg.
Snack: Apple and a handful of nuts.
Lunch: Tuna with a drizzle of olive oil and black olives, and a green salad.
Snack: Cut up vegetables with hummus.
Dinner: Roasted chicken, asparagus, and roasted red potatoes with garlic and rosemary.
The thing I can appreciate about the elimination diet is that there aren't really any restrictions on portion sizes, so I freely ate as much as I thought was reasonable without feeling guilty, since the food itself is healthy.
Now on to the exercising. Ha ha... ouch! Laughing hurts. I am a dance teacher/cheerleading coach by trade, so I stay in pretty good shape most of the time, but for the last six months or so I have been nursing a knee injury (and the lack of activity helped me pack on a good ten pounds). Many moons ago while dancing on the college dance team I dislocated my knee and it hasn't been right ever since. A while back I re-injured it and have fought condromalacia and tendonitis since. Condromalacia has to do with your cartilage. Normally it should be nice and smooth and shiny and glisteny, but mine looks, for lack of a better term, like crab meat. In fact, I usually just skip the term 'condromalacia' altogether in favor of calling it 'crab-meat knee.'
I completed all the exercising I was supposed to complete, but if I said that I did so with much speed or grace it would be a complete lie. But I finished it, and for that I am proud. At one point during the "rest" after chest presses I actually had to look around on the floor, so sure was I that my arms may have fallen off, but it turns out they're still attached.
I'm fighting the urge to step on the scale. Maybe tomorrow... if I can get out of bed.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Getting Straight With The Weight
Hello. My name is Carole and I've signed up to particupate in London personal trainer Dax Moy's 30-day fat loss M.A.P. challenge. I will be using this blog to post the daily play-by-play (and bite-by-bite) of my progress. Here are some "before" pics of me; hopefully in 30 days, I can post some amazing "after" pics! Please excuse the poor quality of the photos, I was usig my iPhone.
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