Day 20

A quick note to all of my friends who have been leaving comments on my blog: I don't get any notifications when you post, so if I don't specifically check, I have no way of knowing you posted. All of your comments are greatly appreciated, and I swear I'm not ignoring you by not commenting back! How do I get notified when someone comments on my blog?

We are 2/3 of the way there!! Last night I got home after a very long week at work and a day of fasting. I walked in the house, heated up some chix with almonds and olives (one of my favorite recipes, and it's ED/low carb friendly!! Score!) and some roasted brussel sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli, and tucked in. (Aside, to all my British friends out there - notice how I slipped in the oh-so-British "tucked in"? You guys are rubbing off on me! LOL!) It was yummy, and I was very grateful for the meal after a day of fasting. Sad thing, though, is that after dinner I moved over to the couch to write my blog, and fell asleep on the couch with my laptop perched precariously. I have no idea what time I fell asleep (around 8:30?), but I woke up at 10:45 pm and then went straight up to bed. So yep, you guessed it, no workout last night.

Surprisingly, yesterday's fasting was not so bad. Sure, I was hungry at certain points, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. I was definitely looking forward to my evening meal, though. Of course there were a few challenges during the day. We had a little going away party for a dear co-worker yesterday, and our corporate chefs made this gorgeous banana pudding cake which looked and smelled divine, but I didn't have any. I do admit, however, to actually feeling my mouth water when I smelled the cake. Heaven! The chefs were also doing some experiments with choux buns at one point, and they looked sooooo yummy, but again, I abstained.

As of this morning I am down 6 lbs., weighing in at 170 lbs. Getting below 170 will be a huge milestone for me, and a very welcome one at that. Today brings my total weight loss to 55 lbs. since starting in January '09. I'm grateful to Dax for this program (http://www.mylondonpersonaltrainer.com/) that helped me break my plateau, and to Annette for making me motivated enough to try this in the first place.

I do have some concerns about next weekend. My brother is FINALLY getting married, and I am making the wedding cake. I always sample the icing and the cake to make sure that it came out properly and to make sure I didn't do something stupid like forget the eggs or substitute salt for sugar. Also, on our schedule, next Saturday is a fast day. Yikes. This however may be a blessing in disguise as this is going to be an occasion that will more than likely NOT be ED friendly in any way. Oh, give me strength.

And now a few thoughts on the new workouts. Well it's actually the same thought over and over again. Evil, Evil, Evil. The first dive bomber is fine, the second is OK, then 3 - 8 are agony! For me though, the worst is those darn rollup/standup thingies. Yeah, my ass doesn't leave the floor for those. Also, the squatting down part is not very fun. I had to put a pillow under my butt because there is no graceful placing of the buttocks on the floor. It's more like a thud that makes the light fixtures shake. My shoulders and arms are very sore after these workouts, and I am spent when done!

So that's all for today. I'll be doing housework and working on the gum paste flowers for my brother's wedding cake, then tomorrow will be spent at the pool and playing volleyball! Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

Day 16?

Hello again, all. Well I have survived over half of Dax's program (http://www.mylondonpersonaltrainer.com/) and I am feeling stronger but also quite sore. I need to incorporate more stretching into my routine and I think that will take care of it, but for now my quads are screaming for a little break. I'm going to skip this evening's 4th workout and instead do some heavy stretching, then get into bed.

After lamenting about the slow weight loss in my last post, the next morning I stepped on the scale and had lost 2 pounds. For some strange reason, I put back on 1.5 over the past few days (FRUSTRATING!), but I have to keep repeating my mantra: it's water weight, it's water weight, it's water weight.

Diet-wise, I've been sticking to the letter of the law, but for some strange reason today I have been filled with lusty thoughts of chocolate and sweets. It's very distracting. Since this is day 2 of low carb, I can't satisfy that lusty feeling with some fruit (I have some GORGEOUS strawberries in the fridge calling my name) so I've been feeling very unsatisfied today. I've been trying to cut back on the nuts and seeds as well because they are so calorie dense and they are not what I really want in the first place.

Last night was my company's big charity event, Sweet Charity. Chefs from all over DC come out with their stunning creations much to the delight of everyone in attendance. Also, there is a chocolate fashion show where chefs and pastry chefs can show off their talents dressing real people in edible creations. It's a really big deal, supporting a great cause: giving underpriviledged and at-risk children books of their own to help them grow into productive citizens. Anyhoo, there was temptation EVERYWHERE! But Annette and I stayed strong and managed to not stray badly (though at one point I was completely drooling over the martini bar and the chocolate treats that were available). Maybe that's where the lustiness is coming from today.

The weekend was spent at the pool both days, with some volleyball thrown in on Sunday. Man, I suck at it, but I have fun and give it my all, so that's all that matters I guess. After all, I don't think any of us VB'ers are going to join the AVP tour.

Well, off to bed for me after stretching. Keep up the good fight everyone!

Day 12

Ok, Ok, I am falling on my sword, here. I'm not so great at posting every day, so I'll try to get as much as I can in when I do manage to post.

I've only lost 2.5 lbs, and that is very disappointing to me. I've been working hard and sticking to the diet, though I suspect my calorie intake is higher than it should be. We've been experimenting with all sorts of gluten free/healthy snack recipes which are yummy, but the calories are often higher with the GF recipes. I'm trying to keep in focus here and I hope that the pounds will start to come off - that is my major goal with this program after all - but I also realize that I need to take responsibility for all the calories that are going in my mouth, even if they are "healthy" calories.

The exercise routines are well thought out and I like most of them. I'm getting really tired of the Power circuit though. The DB matrix this morning was a welcome change! I had some issues with the full situps and the legovers as I wasn't able to fully complete the exercise, but I tried those exercises again this afternoon and I was able to struggle through them. It felt really great to know that I could do them even though it had looked hopeless this morning.

The low carb food days are really not making me happy. I understand why we're doing them, but I just miss fruit. I find myself snacking on more caloric stuff that is allowed on low carb days than I normally would because I'm really trying to get that sweet taste. Again, I need to take charge of the situation. Time to put on my big girl panties and SUCK IT UP!!

Also, congratulations to all of you out there who are melting away! I'm proud of you all!

Onward to my last workout of the evening, bed, and then day 13. I'll be spending it by the pool and hopefully playing some volleyball (and not stinking it up too badly!). Cheers!

Day 9

Day 3 of low carb is almost over, and I am so ready for tomorrow. I've been entertaining fantasies of what I am going to "indulge" in tomorrow. A banana in my green smoothie for breakfast. Fresh pineapple and melon for a snack. Popcorn with nutritional yeast! I'm so excited!! And I don't have to snack on nuts! Bonus!

Of course, what I find funny about this whole thing is that the things I'm looking forward to tomorrow would have been superceded a few weeks ago by chocolate, sugar, and caffeine! Who would have ever thought I would look forward to a banana?

As for the exercise, I decided to skip last night's workout in favor of some hard core stretching on my IT band. It seemed to pay off, because this morning's ICP wasn't so bad. Power circuit at lunch was also not so bad though the addition of 2 reps every day is definitely starting to add up! An early powerwalk before it got too hot (well, actually that didn't work - it was ridiculously soupy out this morning so I got sweaty anyway), and then tonight's Pyramid will finish off the workouts for the day.

On the pyramid, I'm not under 20 minutes, but I still complete the whole thing. I've done it twice now, and shaved about 30 seconds off between the two. There's only room for improvement from now on!

So goodnight everyone, and enjoy tomorrow's carbs!

Day 8

Well, it's been an interesting 8 days. I've gone from sore to strong and back to sore. Apparently I have some issues with my ITband, so this will present an extra challenge for the workouts.

So let's focus on the food. In addition to the Elimination Diet, Dax has us keeping to low carb selections within the ED realm. At first I was PISSED OFF because I love my fruit, and this is the most perfect time of year for it. The stores and farmer's markets are postively bursting with lovely items that are only here for a few short weeks, and I look forward to this time all year long. Oh, well, I guess I'll have to cram more stuff in my tiny freezer.

My next dilemma was what to eat. Meals aren't so much of a problem, but what about a snack or two? Nuts are so calorie dense that they don't work well for someone like me trying to lose weight. A boiled egg? Snore. Annette and I are trying to find other options, but it is quite difficult. We'll figure it out though. She's got a recipe for rosemary "crackers" made with almond flour that looks tasty, so hopefully it will serve the snack craving.

Tonight's dinner turned out very well. It was chicken breasts cut into small pieces, sauteed in a bit of coconut oil with salt, pepper, curry, ginger, garlic, onion powder, unsweetened coconut, and sesame seeds; cauliflower roasted with salt, pepper, olive oil, and topped with nutritional yeast; and brussell sprouts quartered and also roasted with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Tasty!

So it's off to do the last workout of the evening. Cheers, everyone, and check out http://daxmoy.ning.com/ if you want to learn more about what I'm doing here.

Day 4

Another morning Meltdown completed, and I'm noticing my density is increasing! I'm still incredibly sore in my quads, but the arms and shoulders are starting to hurt less. Annette and I are doing the Power Circuit at lunch time as it's the least sweaty of the routines. I'm so glad to get that one done and over with so I have just the ICP at home. Cardio is proving to be tricky, but we're trying to power walk at work as well to incorporate *some* cardio.

On the way home from work last night, I started getting super tired again. When I walked in the house at 7:30pm, I went straight to the couch and napped for an hour! I then got up, fixed a little dinner (chix breast with curry, ginger, and sesame seeds sauteed in a tiny bit of coconut oil, and some sauteed spinach with a little nutritional yeast added in - YUM!), watched an hour of boob tube, did my ICP, then crawled in bed by 10:30. Slept like a rock again, and could have used more.

I'm a little less tired today, but I'm still pretty worn down. I was fighting the head nod on the way into work today, but it was not as bad as yesterday. I really don't like this tired, lethargic feeling.

The diet has been no problem so far, other than cravings for sugar and caffeine. Christina, our very sweet Chocolate Temptress, has been restocking her supplies at her desk so it takes quite some effort to stay away. It's also a bit sobering to remember that I can't just pop something in my mouth and then forget about it. If anything, this process is making me VERY conscious of everything that goes in my mouth.

Hope everyone else is coping well! Cheers!

Day 3...kill me...please

Ok, so maybe the title is a bit dramatic. My quads are still super sore, and going downstairs this morning was akin to torture. However, I sucked it up and did the Meltdown this morning, and even improved my density, though I don't possibly know how. Once I get moving it's not so bad, but that initial flinch after being still for more than 3 seconds is not pleasant.

So here's my big problem now. I'm exhausted!! I went to bed last night at 10:00 pm sharp, which is way earlier than my usual 11:00-11:30. I slept like a rock, waking up only once to hobble to the bathroom for a quick pee, and then fell right back asleep. My alarm woke me at 6:00 am, so I was up and "running" to do the morning routine, including the meltdown. I was in my car by 8:15 for my hour long drive to work. But, about half way there I got tired, dangerously tired. I literally had to pull my car over and nap for about 25 minutes because I was doing the "head bob" behind the wheel! Scary! Now I'm in my office and having serious concentration issues.

I may actually sell a little piece of my soul for some coffee. MMMM, coffee. With milk. And sugar. Steaming hot. Wrap my hands around the warm mug.

NO NO NO NO!!!!! Snap out of it!!!! (face slap) Must focus on wor...zzz.

Soooo, day 2. My quads are on fire, and I have stubbly arm pits today b/c I couldn't lift my arms to shave. Lifting the mascara wand took way more effort than it should have (when did they start weighing 20lbs?) Surprisingly though, I haven't had an issue with caffeine headaches...yet.

Thank goodness for Annette! She sits in the cube next to mine at work, so we work together to make sure we have snacks and are keeping up with exercise. The weather here has been perfect yesterday and today, so we did a brisk walk yesterday at lunch and today we're going to do the power circuit. That is, if I can actually get out of my chair and/or tie my shoes.

Here are my starting stats for the MAP challenge:

176 Lbs.
Neck - 15"
Upper arm - 13.75"
Bust - 43"
Ribs - 36"
Waist - 35"
Hips - 43"
Thigh - 25.25"
Calf - 16"

I've just signed up for London Personal Trainer Dax Moy's 30 day M.A.P fatloss challenge and I'll be keeping a day by day, blow by blow account of the whole thing.

http://www.mylondonpersonaltrainer.com/