Onward and Upward

I've been feeling quite motivated the last few weeks to bounce back from the excessive holiday feasting/laziness. Maybe it was all the January 1st hooplah. Whatever it was, I'm embracing it.

I want to feel more comfortable in my body this year. I don't have super aggressive goals and I'm not assigning any numbers or strict time frame. So far this year I've been a meal prep warrior, tracking my food again, and working out 4-5 times/week. I restarted the BBG program and started with the four pre-training weeks (listed as PT below) to ease into it. I'm currently in the middle of week 4.

I've been planning my workouts each week on Sunday and doing my best to stick to it. Each week I do some combination of:

- 2-3 sessions of BBG (arms and abs, legs and cardio, and total body)

- a zumba class (because I love it)

- a yoga class (because I love it and need to stretch)

- 1-2 30-60 minutes LISS (low intensity steady state) cardio sessions, this can be power/incline walking/spinning/elliptical/hiking and eventually jogging when I feel like it
- 1-2 PLANNED rest days

Here's what my workouts the last few weeks have looked like:

1/4/2015	1/5/2015	1/6/2015	1/7/2015	1/8/2015	1/9/2015	1/10/2015
Yoga class	BBG PT wk 1 - arms & abs	Rest	Zumba class + LISS (walking)	BBG PT wk 1 - legs & cardio	Rest	BBG PT wk 1 - total body
1/11/2015	1/12/2015	1/13/2015	1/14/2015	1/15/2015	1/16/2015	1/17/2015
Yoga class	Rest	BBG PT wk 2 - arms & abs	Zumba class + LISS (walking)	BBG PT wk 2 - legs & cardio + LISS (incline walking)	Short hike (on vaca)	Rest (on vaca)
1/18/2016	1/19/2016	1/20/2016	1/21/2016	1/22/2016	1/23/2016	1/24/2016
Rest (on vaca)	BBG PT wk 3 - arms & abs	Skipped workout, moved to Fri	Zumba class + LISS (walking)	BBG PT wk 3 - legs & cardio + LISS (spinning)	Volleyball	BBG PT wk 3 - total body
1/25/2016	1/26/2016	1/27/2016	1/28/2016	1/29/2016	1/30/2016	1/31/2016
Yoga class	BBG PT wk 4 - arms & abs + 30 mins LISS (elliptical)	Zumba class + LISS (walking)	Rest	BBG PT wk 4 - legs & cardio	Volleyball	BBG PT wk 4 - total body

BBG has a great, motivating community on Instagram and facebook. The women who stick to the program see some incredible results and are really wonderful to each other (a nice change from the usual cattiness/jealousy you see all over the place). I've tried to find a few blogs that track progress from week 1 - week 12 and haven't found many that have actually finished the program. Hopefully I can be one of those!

Here are my observations/progress so far:

- I like leg/cardio and total body days WAY more than arms and abs. Squats continue to be my favorite exercise.

- The only modification I've had to make so far is push ups, but I am now up to completing half of push up sets the full way (on my toes) and half modified (on my knees). When I started I had to do them all on my knees. That's so exciting after just 3.5 weeks! I guess that's what you get doing nearly 120 push ups on arms day...

- My joints (most noticeably wrists and knees) are pretty tender after workouts because of all the jumping/push ups. I hope this doesn't become an obstacle in completing the program. I ain't 15 anymore.

- I love that each workout only takes about 30 minutes, but I leave each session sweaty and spent. Thanks to my Fit Bit I know my heart rate is raised throughout the workouts too. 

- I've been diligent about keeping my rests between sets to 60-90 seconds. It's tough, but it's important to the plan.

As far as eating goes, I'm not following the BBG nutrition guide exactly. I've been focusing on eating semi low-carb, limiting alcohol, and eating as much organic, locally-sourced, non-processed food as possible. I'm far from perfect here, but I'm trying. Here's some yummy food pics:

New favorite side: baked sweet potato with coconut oil and cinnamon

Homemade hummus!

Pistachio crusted salmon. So good.

New favorite recipe.

Train snacks

So I'm feeling really good overall and [knock on wood], this doesn't feel that terribly hard at this point. Scheduling my workouts and planning my food are KEY. Saying no to drinks has been my biggest challenge so far. My fridge is filled with so many delicious beers!

Today my body was feeling tired and I was very happy for the rest day. I just returned from a fun blogger event that I'll write about in another post! It's couch and TV time for the rest of the night.

Reset x2

Remember this post? It's time for another reset! Or a continuation...

After a very indulgent long weekend in New Orleans (more on that later) it's time to get back on track. My sister's wedding is in a few weeks and I have to fit into the dress (don't worry Liz), so I'm holding myself accountable. I signed up for a quick month long DietBet this morning and am going to try to stick to low carbing as much as possible over the next few weeks.

The biggest challenges for me are drinking and planning ahead/being prepared, so here are my goals for the next few weeks:

1. Continue with Couch to 5k. I've stuck to it and am on week 3!

2. Two drinks/week.

3. In addition to running, 2 other forms of exercise/week (yoga class, strength training, spin class, etc.)

4. Walk to or from work whenever possible.

5. More reading before bed.

6. More standing at work.

I've got a date tonight with Mr. Math so I have to figure out what I'm going to eat or drink. Having a social life is hard.

Low Carbing Part Deux

I am now officially two weeks into successful low carbing. I can't freakin' believe I haven't eaten any sort of grain product in two weeks. I weighed myself this morning and was down another 4.4 lbs. So crazy!! The hardest part of this continues to be avoiding beer. I went to the Harpoon Beer Hall on Sunday and the beer smell was totally taunting me. This wasn't part of my original plan, but I'm trying not to drink until I go to Miami on the 10th. That first cocktail (hopefully a pina colada on the beach!!!!!!!) is going to be SO delicious. Despite many, many tempting moments I haven't had one sip of alcohol since Sunday the 15th.

I had some fun with cooking this week. Here's what I've been eating:

Good lookin' Whole Foods sausage

I mentioned last week that I had the most trouble with breakfast, so I prepped for it this week. First I made a fritatta with lots of veggies (mushroom, onion, spinach and kale) and mozzarella cheese. 30 seconds in the microwave and this was the perfect breakfast at work.

Veggies cooking

Add the eggs

All cooked up...just a little burnt on the bottom

I wanted something different than eggs, so I made this paleo granola from scratch! I even chopped the nuts and seeds up myself because my blender is broken. This granola doesn't have any grains in it and was made with cashews, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, coconut, honey, egg white and vanilla extract.

Mixin' it up

All baked up

The best part: crumbling it up

Recipe made almost a full gallon!

I actually ate this for dinner. It was SO delicious.

Pork and turkey meatballs and homemade sauce

Breakfast on the go

My coworkers think I'm very weird with these lunch boxes

A little brown avocado does no harm

I felt like a French woman eating this breakfast

I eat in a methodical way -- these were my last bites (I saved the raspberry for last!)

Forgot my lunch at home

Drinking lots of seltzer these days...

Spicy Italian chicken sausage

Cheesy meatballs and mushrooms

The hardest part of this week was all of the eating out and going out. I went out to dinner in the North End and had a tough time ignoring all of the bread, pasta, and fried appetizers. And wine. I was able to stick it out and ordered chicken saltimbocca gluten free style -- the chicken is sauteed without breading, wrapped in prosciutto and topped with mozzarella cheese. I asked for no pasta and got grilled veggies instead. It was delicious!!!!

Another brunch out -- the eggs and chorizo were served with tortillas and breakfast potatoes. I asked for any veggie instead of potatoes and they said they couldn't do anything (??), so I asked for salsa instead. Somehow the tortillas still ended up on my plate but I didn't eat them.

One great thing about this way of eating is that I'm so over prepared, I'm barely thinking about food. Plus, I have more energy and don't want to be just sitting out the couch watching TV and wishing I was eating pretzels. This has opened up a lot of time for fun things! Here's just a couple of things I've done in the past two weeks:

- Visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for the first time:

- Hung out at the old Northeastern stomping grounds, visited my favorite bar Conor's, grabbed a drink (or a water) at Woody's, and drank tea at the cozy Pavement coffeehouse.

- Seeing one of my favorite high school bands at House of Blues. Taking Back Sunday brings back so many memories of my angsty teenage relationships.

- Went to an Improv comedy show in the North End, followed by dinner at Panza and drinks (more water) at Ward 8.

- Subbed in a corn hole league with a guy on my volleyball team. We went 3-1! 

- Soberly sang along to a live country band at Loretta's in Fenway.

- Played another 3 volleyball games -- my skills are improving!

- I did have time to read City of Thieves and watch The Jinx. I would HIGHLY recommend both of these to everyone!

More fun is coming up in the next few weeks! And maybe, just maybe, it will finally stop snowing and the sun will peek out!!

Low Carbing

I've been having a lot of fun lately. But fun for me often equals a lot of eating and drinking. I've been slowly putting on some weight over the past few months, and after an "extra fun" St. Patty's day weekend, I decided it was time to do something about it.

My roommate mentioned she was going to try to remove carbs from her diet. I was at first skeptical (as I always am about any sort of restrictive diet), but decided to do some research. 

Here's what I learned (in a nutshell): 

When you eat carbs (which are typically high in sugar), your body releases insulin into your blood stream. The insulin tells your cells to absorb the sugar out of the blood and tells your fat cells not to release any fat to burn (because the carbs are doing it). Apparently, insulin is a pretty hard worker, because it wipes all of the sugar from the carbs out of your blood, and you end up craving more sugar, and more carbs. 

So insulin is great -- it saves you from having too much sugar in your blood, which can lead to some pretty bad health problems -- but in the process it makes your body store fat and prevents it from burning fat. When you eat a lower carb diet, there is less insulin in your system, so your body burns any fat you eat as fuel, and if you need more, your fat cells release freely release fat into your blood system to be burned as fuel. 

So I decided to give it a shot. A 7-day shot. I'd been so unmotivated and uninspired so I felt like a little structure could only do me good. Plus, I have a lot upcoming that I want to feel more comfortable and energized for. So one week later, here's how it went:

The Rules:

1. No counting calories and no "extra attention" to portion control (aka I always look at portions, but I'm not going to be measuring and counting things)

2. Eat when I want to, even if it feels often

3. Eat as much as I want of:

- Meat (grass fed preferably)

- Fish and shellfish

- Eggs

- Natural fats like real butter, coconut oil, olive oil, avocado

- Veggies (everything but potatoes, basically)

- Full fat dairy products like cheese, sour cream, Greek yogurt (milk in moderation)

4. Eat in moderation

- Deli meat (Boar's Head or Whole Foods brand only, low sodium if possible, 0g sugar)

- Nuts and seeds (including nut butters)

- Berries and other fruit
- Olives

- Wine or cocktails without sugar (vodka based preferably)

- Dark chocolate

- Natural sweeteners like honey (rarely)

- Sweet potatoes (small amounts)

5. Avoid

- Sugar and unnatural sweeteners
- Starch: All bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, etc.

- Legumes
- Low fat or fake dairy products like margarine
- Beer :-( :-(

6. Keep casual track of carb amounts -- aim for ~30 carbs/day

What I've been eating:

Skinny Taste's cauliflower "fried rice" -- so good!

Thai dinner! I really wanted drunken noodles...

Blurry pic, but this is steak and brussels sprouts

I was very proud of this perfect bacon!

Snack bag: sunflower and pumpkin seeds, a few dark chocolate chips

Burger (bun removed, salad instead of fries)

Tuna melt, didn't eat the bread

Exercise:

I'm still going to PT for my foot so exercise is pretty moderate. This week I did yoga twice, strength trained twice, sat on a bike once, and did a decent amount of walking. Plus my PT exercises every day (or almost every day).

Results in Week 1/How I've Been Feeling:

- I really missed bread and pasta for the first few days. It was also hard to sub out fries/not eat bread at restaurants, especially when surrounded by friends eating them. That being said, I didn't feel SO bad about it. This isn't a permanent change and no one was forcing me to make these choices except me. I also feel astonished in general that I went an entire week without any bread/grains. I never thought I'd be able to do that!

- I had the hardest time with breakfast, so prepped better this week. More on that in another post.

- I didn't eat chicken once this week, and probably ate more red meat than ever in my life. I'm going to make sure I include some leaner meats in my diet like turkey and pork.

- I miss fruit. I was eating fruit with almost every meal AND as snacks before this. Now I'm sticking to berries with breakfast and a few slices of orange if I need it. I definitely don't plan on eating this little fruit for the long run.

- Full fat cheese is amazing. I've had the best time exploring the Whole Foods cheese counter. No wonder I felt like I needed to eat multiple cheese sticks to be satisfied!! Also, regular bacon is a million times better than turkey bacon. Duh.

- I felt pretty tired the first few days and had a bad headache on day 2. I didn't think I was eating a lot of sugar but clearly I was. On Wednesday morning I started to feel different -- definitely more energized and awake. I've woken up almost every day before my alarm goes off.

- This takes A LOT of prep and a lot of dish washing, but I've, dare I say, been enjoying it.

- I'm spending a lot of money on this. Protein and fresh veggies are expensive. BUT, I didn't have even one sip of alcohol this week so I easily saved some $$ there.

- After the first two days I haven't felt hungry at all. I didn't expect this to happen to me because my appetite is usually constant. Protein really IS more satiating! Plus, having no restrictions on when/how much I eat is helpful in not making me feel deprived.

- I think my skin is clearer than it's ever been. I was struggling with a lot of breakouts on my back the last few months, and they've nearly all cleared up at this point. I took this picture yesterday when I was wearing very little makeup because I thought my skin looked so clear!!

(Probably could have smiled)

- I weighed myself this morning and I lost 9 POUNDS!! In one week. That's Biggest Loser shit right there! In my many years of dieting, I have never ever experienced anything like this. I imagine a lot of it was water weight, but I was shocked when the number popped up on the scale.

I feel so motivated and excited about this! Last night I spent 3 hours cooking and tried out a couple new recipes. Onward!