Updates

Life has wandered on a bit since I last updated this obviously. Hubby and I made a major decision in our life which for anyone that really knows me will kinda knock you off your feet..

We are gonna have a kid..

I never thought I would say those words and no, this was no accident, I’m not actually pregnant yet but we have decided to go for it. I haven’t gone googly over kids either, a friend and his wife brought their newborn over this weekend and I have to say past the initial aww, cute politeness I really didn’t want much to do with her, I had no desire to hold her or anything but I could definitely see where if she were mine I’d have been totally in love. She didn’t do much but eat and peer around at everyone, I think she is maybe 3-4 weeks old so not exactly the life of the party, she had a cute smile though.

I’m not totally sure what changed my mind, getting older perhaps, realizing that at 31 it was now or never, we couldn’t keep putting it off anymore. I know people have kids much older but for us it was a case of wanting to be fit and able to play with grandkids if such a thing were to happen.

I’m looking forward to seeing my husband as a father, I know it is going to bring him such tremendous joy and he is going to be a wonderful Dad. I do fear perhaps for my own sanity however as I just know that I am going to end up the victim of a whole bunch of pranks…

We’ve been talking a lot about how we are going to deal with the trials and tribulations of rearing a child. I am definitely hoping for a boy, I think the occasional broken bones, skinned knees and fist fights from a rambunctious boy will be much less of a headache than a female tween with body image issues, clothes, hair and makeup etc. And I know Murphy will be laughing his arse off when I get a fairy princess for a daughter. (If you don’t know me in person I hate clothes shopping, don’t wear makeup and am a geek and a tomboy, oh and dolls freak me out, they are as bad as clowns.)

So as far as my personal body image issues go I am now highly motivated to lose this damn weight so that 1) I won’t be the 200lb pregnant lady and 2) I can set a good healthy example for my kid and not show them a do as I say not as I do attitude.

This led me to find Lyle McDonald and his Rapid Fat Loss Diet. I’ve been on a planned diet break for the last 10 days or so but I finished off round 1 at 164lbs. That’s the lowest I have been in over 7 years. I managed to lose 18lbs in 6.5 weeks with his plan. I’m currently at 169lb which is some bloat from my week off (I was not well behaved believe me *lol*) but also glycogen replenishment because the diet is a low carb one. (Actually low carb, low fat and low calorie – if you are gonna try a crash diet, this is the one to do. Plenty of protein though which keeps me full.)

I can actually finally see me achieving my goals, this is it, this is the diet that works for me. I’ve been through so many and I knew a long time ago that the only secret was in finding the one that suited you personally.

I started round 2 yesterday and can’t wait to see what the next few weeks gets me too.

Silence is golden?

Heh, maybe not.

Well I’ve been back up a bit and today am down to the weight I was in my last post.. yay.. Gotta love wastes of time.

Anyhow.. no longer on weight watchers. While I was liking it I wasn’t 100% happy with the points system. Some days when I tracked actual calorie intake it would be 1200 (read bloody hungry) and others it would be 1600 (aka not so bad).

That and I was learning what things could fudge the points counting and I think subconsciously I was playing that game a little too much which stalled me. That lead to frustration and munching. I can’t cheat straight calories in any shape or form.

I also got a new gadget. It’s called the GoWear Fit (which I still think is a stupid name and I tend to refer to it as a bodybugg which is the original device)

GoWear Fit

It is very cool. Basically via a number of gizmo’s inside including a  pedometer, accelerometer, temperature sensors etc it works out how many calories you are burning per minute and thusly shows you for the day.

One major thing I have learned and is something that Leigh Peele (my fav nutrition guru these days – FLzine.com and fatlosstroubleshoot.com ) likes to emphasize is that it’s not all about the workouts. It’s about your daily activity and this is something that the bugg shows really well. All those stairs, housework, pottering around making dinner, grocery shopping etc really can add up. And knowing and seeing that makes me much more aware of my NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis). I get up from my desk more often, take the stairs more often, park my car further away and walk a bit more.

It’s definitely not 100% accurate (and I don’t ever expect it to be) but I am happy that for the most part it seems to underestimate which I am more than happy for it to do. Far rather that then over estimation leading to frustration.

So the upshot is I get to geek out over fun data and nifty graphs which makes tracking intake calories much less tedious.

On that note Hubby and I are cutting all refined sugar from our diet for a month. No candy, no dessert, no pre-processed products that have any form of refined sugar (HFCS, Sugar, Dextrose, Maltodextrin, etc) . This does not exclude natural sugars found in milk or fruit (fructose and lactose) nor does it mean sugars found naturally in vegetables like corn or carrots.

So our diet is pretty much 100% whole foods, I am cooking a lot more again but it’s good stuff. Shepherds pie (made with buffalo and venison so far, Yum!) a Chicken enchilada bake that was delicious (used carb balance tortillas with no added sugar for that one, gonna try it with corn chips next time though, the tortillas were not so good on day 3 )  - found the recipe for that on the back of a kraft cheese packet.

As you can see, I am eating carbs, white potaotoes!! and still losing weight – After reading Girth Control by Alan Aragon (my other fav guru) I have my macros on a pretty evenly divided split. Something else Alan also suggested which I am really liking is eating for your target bodyweight not your current with a deficit. So after some math I decided 132 was a good goal for my height and muscular desires and so I am eating maintenance calories for that body comp and general activity level. (Which works out at about 1600)

Much less math, no recalculating and no dismal reduction of food as I go down. After just under 2 weeks with no sugar (we’ve been  doing it for almost 3 but I had derby day party foods at the end of week 1 (mm cheesecake) ) I feel great, no cravings, no bad head space. I am eating good healthy food that is leaving me satisfied and my weight is going down steadily. The week before we started was not so good and accounted for most of my weight gain lol – a few to many 1 last pizza (which ended up being 2), 1 last ice cream (don’t ask), gotta finish this off etc etc

I’m the energizer bunny..!

I just keep on going lol…

177.2 this morning, thats a total of 16lbs down from January and 9lbs on weight watchers. Yehaw

Got my first workout in since I got sick last night. Felt good. Actually considering talking to Beth and dropping my Monday BJJ class to do another training session with her. I think 3 weight sessions a week would do me the world of good. Not that I’m not doing great right now but I need to keep my muscle active and I wanna get mean and lean which means hitting the weights.

So I got bored and stuck stuff in sparkpeople to figure out what I am really eating. Turns out to be about 1500 calories, 50% carbs, 30% Protein, 20% fat. 

Funny, I’m pretty sure I was eating around that point before and not having much luck.. So I dunno, maybe it’s just cause I’m doing it this time with some chocolate and stuff that is keeping me sane.

Success Continues

There has been no exercise this last week or two, we have had vendors at working installing equipment and they have been here for over a week. And I got sick with the cold chest infection that has been doing the rounds. Yay for Louisiana weather, one day its 80 the next it’s back to the 40’s-50’s *sigh*

BUT!!! I have stayed on plan, no comfort eating, no stress eating. And while being sick made me gain some over the weekend it came off again pretty quickly. So my last ‘official’ weighin was only down 0.2lbs from the week before but today I got on the scale to see the beautiful 179.6 Thats 6.5 lbs down since I started WW 4 weeks ago and 12.8lbs down since January. 

I am stoked Wether it shows up on next mondays weigh in or not I’m not sure I tend to drop to a new low by friday and then be up a little by monday. I don’t drink much water over the weekends (I know bad me..) and I tend to eat more as I am finishing out my weekly points so my weight is usually up a bit unsurprisingly. I’ve been contemplating changing my weigh in day but it doesn’t really matter, I know the truth of things and my skinnyr graph is what I pay more attention to. (WW doesn’t let you weigh daily which I think is silly) 

The antibiotics are doing their job and I should be back to full capacity to start working out again on Monday which I am looking forward too. I figured I was gonna be taking a week out with these vendors, not two! darn colds.

I wish I knew my spouse’s secret. In the 10 years we have been together I have never seen him with a cold. Migranes, upset stomachs and fevers yes.. but not one single iota of the misery of a sneezy sniffly dripping nose or hacking cough. Pfft.. Then again I think I’ll take the cold over the migrane. Thankfully he hasn’t had one of those in over a year. 

Oh well lunch break is over, catch up with y’all soon.

Week 2 almost..

Okay so weigh in is offically tommorow but I am still doing the happy dance and next week is gonna be extreme chaos as we have vendors coming into to install a whole bunch of equipment which is going to probably mean I will miss all my workouts and rack up some extreme overtime. I am not looking forward to it in the least but we will have to see what I can squeeze in. I will stick to my eating regardless. 

 

Feb 11th to March 1st

So this is from Feb 11th when I started WW to today March 1st. I weighed in at 181.4 this morning, down from 186. The bumps are weekends (valentines day and then a mexican birthday party on saturday nights. The highest bump is the Sunday morning after.)  and also illustrate why I believe in weighing every day. If I had just looked at Mondays which is the two second from highest bumps I would not be quite so happy although personally I would understand given the Saturday night food orgy. As you can see I have ‘behaved’ a lot better this weekend.

I have eaten foods that originally would have been banned from my diet, I’ve had rice and baked potatoes with butter! white rolls and chocolate too. I’ve had carbs out of workout periods and eaten out three times this week. Is it super athlete healthy? no, will I get to 10% body fat eating like this? highly unlikely. I don’t care, I’m past that now, I am eating to lose weight not to be super healthy food snob that eschews anything in a packet. Packets are making my life easier. Steel cut oats made with water are bleugh, for the same points I can have a packet of Kashi oatmeal and a packet of quaker raisin, date and walnut  mixed and I am happy. Is it perfect? nope. Is it as super nutritious as the steel cut? Prolly not, but I am losing weight so I don’t care anymore. 

*pokes tongue out* Neener Neener Neener *lol*. 

I sound like such a kid sometimes, I have come to realise though that I can eat super healthy PN style or I can diet, not do both. This is not to say I am living on lean cuisines, I still grill fresh chicken and fish, I still have my huge bowl of organic salad greens with assorted seeds and roasted bell peppers every night. It’s just my lunches are convenience first, sometimes it’s a healthy choice steamer, sometimes an organic smoothie and a ‘craver’ etc. 

Speaking of which these are cool. ProGrade Cravers, small (180 cal) organic nutritious snack bars made with 100% organic dark chocolate. I get them through David Whitley (A kettle bell guru) at http://davidwhitley.getprograde.com/cravers. You can’t buy direct. Nobody else I gave one to at work too liked them but I think they are fantastic, I got the Peanut Butter ones, I am not exactly sure what ’spirulina’ flavour would taste like and I don’t like almonds so i figured the PB would be a good bet. They are expensive (I think it was about $2.50 maybe $3 per bar after shipping) but I am not eating them every day, 1 or 2 a week maybe. 

So yeah, life is good so far. I am very happy with this, I will come back to athlete nutrition when I get to athlete levels. 

Oh new toys recently I got a Tassimo Beverage System yesterday, I love it It’s mainly coffee as it makes espresso’s, cappuccino’s and lattes but you can get hot chocolate and tea discs as well. It reads a barcode on the disc and adjusts water amounts and brewing speed based on the type. I need to experiment with the coffee packets, the gevalia signature blend I bought for plain coffee is extremely weak so I know not to go for mild anymore. They have a pretty wide range though. Only downside is not being able to make my own discs but I can live with that.

Workouts Week of Feb 23

Monday: Jiu-Jitsu – 60 mins

Tuesday: Jiu-Jitsu – 90 mins

Wednesday: Circuit Training

Repeat circuit 5 times

• 5 x Barbell  Cleans – 65lbs
• 10 x Pushups
• 15 x Barbell Squats – 75lbs

Thursday: No training – should have been a seminar but I was exhausted and decided not to spend 40 bucks on a 3 hour seminar that would have gone in one ear and out the other.. 

Friday: No Training 

Wednesday was a killer, my legs and glutes are still sore today It looked such a simple and innocent circuit on the board. I did good squats too, our squat rack is one you have to step into, the safety bars at knee height go in a full square around you. This is actually cool as you can step back while doing squats and make sure your butt touches the bar at the back, I managed that on all 75 squats

The pushups were supposed to be ring pushups  (feet on a box, hands holding rings (like gymnasts use, we have them hanging from a pullup bar) that are level with the box) but last time I tried those I screwed my shoulder up for several weeks so I decided to work on doing normal pushups instead. The ring variation takes incredible upper body strength to hold the rings steady while you lower your body to them. I just don’t have that yet. One day though On a good note I did actually do some of the pushups on my toes, I can’t get down very far but hey it’s a start

The cleans were just tough, the two guys I was working with had to do it with 45lb plates so we compromised and used a 35 and a 10, I just stripped off the 35’s on my turn and put them back off when finished, I’m sure that burned a few extra calories on its own I did try with the full 45lbs, I could lift it.. no way I was gonna clean it though.

2 days missed training was a pain but I was also moving peoples offices at work and friday especially I was on my feet all day, moving and crawling under desks and up and down stairs like a yoyo, both days were exhausting.

Week 1 Success!

So weight watchers is definitely working for me right now. By Friday I had dropped to an current low of 182.4 which is officially 10lbs down from where I started in January.

A mexican birthday party on Saturday night boosted me back up a little for my official Weight Watchers weigh in this morning  (183.8lbs) which was expected but I still netted a 1.6lb loss for last week. I didn’t go over points either just bit into my activity points a little. I expect that to be water weight which will vanish off this week.

So I am doing the happy dance on the way to class tonight and feeling highly motivated right now. Life is good when you’re on a roll

Workouts Week of Feb 16th

Monday: Jiu-Jitsu – 60 mins

Tuesday: Jiu-Jitsu – 90 mins

Wednesday: Circuit Training

20 mins alternated jogging/walking

• Ring Dips
• Barbell Cleans
• Burpee Pullups (Do a burpee under a pullup bar, grab bar on jump and pullup)
• Box Jumps (12″ box)
• Squat Thrusters (45lb bar)
• Slosh Pipe holds (12′ pvc pipe half full of water. Gotta try and hold it level)
• Kettlebell Clean and Press (12kg bell)
• Plate grips (45lb plates, grip on in each hand and just hold it)
• Sandbag Squats (5olb sandbag, swing sandbag onto shoulders and back to floor on each rep)
• Rowing

Thursday: Jiu-Jitsu  – Had an in house tournament. I lost both my matches but that wasn’t unexpected

Friday: No Training as Beth was moving house.. Probably should have volunteered to help

Workouts – Week of Feb 9th

Gonna try a weekly log format since there is not much to log regarding my actual Jiu-Jitsu Classes.

Monday: Jiu-Jitsu – 60 mins

Tuesday: Jiu-Jitsu – 90 mins

Wednesday: Circuit Training

• Air Dyne 44 calories
• Medicine ball slams: 10
• Air Dyne: 33 Calories
• Medicine ball slams: 15
• Air Dyne 22 calories
• Medicine ball slams: 20
• Air Dyne: 11 Calories
• Medicine ball slams: 25

Tough -much harder than it potential sounds.

Thursday: Jiu-Jitsu – 90 mins

Friday: Training with Beth

Warmup:

• 10 mins walking on treadmill. 2.9mph holding water pipes.
• 5 mins stair master – lvl 4
• 40 x Squats – 45lb bar
• 40 x Swiss ball pushups

Circuit – Repeat x2:

• 30 x Kettlebell swings – 20lb kb
• 30 x Medicine ball bounce (hard 30lb ball)
• 15 x Medicine ball slam (soft 30lb ball)
• 15 x Medicine ball squat and throw (soft 20lb ball)
• 30 x Jumping pull ups

Cooldown:

• 10 x Ab wheel
• 10 x crunch and squat from slanted bench.

Awesome workout. The last item was pretty cool, to explain it a bit further you lie on the bench and roll forward like a crunch ( ie putting all the work on your midsection) but you then stand up. Then you drop into a squat and sit back down and roll back with the same crunch style action. Beth said eventually that will be done with all kinds of weight added. I think she was being nice as by that point I was dripping with sweat and probably looking like I was about to expire. Fun stuff I am very much looking forward to our future sessions.

Overall a very successfull week, I enjoyed 2 days of I think well deserved rest over the weekend

Weight Watchers

Well after my last small rant at life and myself dearest Pa came up with a suggestion, Weight Watchers.

My initial instinct was pfft, done that (many many years ago) bunch of crap, nasty processed foods, counting points ocd eek, but I heard him out and figured what the hell.

This might potentially be the best thing I did. The points thing is not triggering my OCD. I don’t have to weigh every single blasted lettuce leaf, just my non-veggies. Nothing is banned. Now with that said most of the elite nutrition systems poo poo WW because they don’t teach good nutrition. If you want to spend all your points on 100 calorie snack packs in a day you can.

And yeah I have seen a good chunk of that in the message board etc but you don’t have to eat that way. And even WW is now teaching ‘healthy guidelines’ which include plenty of water, fruits and veggies, lean proteins and healthy fats.. sound familiar?

I am applying all the healthy nutritious eating I have learned within the points structure and so far its working. Even with valentines day which included a trip to a japanese steakhouse and the ice cream parlour after I lost weight. I weighed in 2lbs down this morning which is fantastic. I am over the moon.

Granted I got in my 5 full days of workouts last week which probably helped a lot but it really showed me what I can do when I put my mind to it.

Speaking of which, Beth Rocks Friday night was a full hours session and she put me through the wringer I’ll leave that for another post but I felt real good this weekend that this plan works, I can see it will work, I just have to stick to it.  And on that score my beloved husband has decided I am going to stick to the plan 100% for 6 months and he is going to help me. I believe this currently involves unlimited tickling (which I hate) when I go over my points. And kicking me out of bed early to get extra workouts in to make up for the points.

I’m think I’m either going to be in awesome shape or divorced in 6 months