Well you are now with me on this journey. I was going to wait to start blogging until I could post perfect before and afters but I think that is almost being a coward. Doing that would show that I am afraid of failing and only wanting to post if I succeed. Well I am afraid of failing. I am afraid of giving up. This time I will not.
I plan to do everything completely different than what I have done in the past. That means blogging my journey in regards to getting back in shape and feeling great.
Let me just tell you how I am feeling. I feel extremely frustrated. I started back on this journey because of Scentsy and meeting Natalie Hodson. (Another Scentsy Consultant). Something clicked when I met her. What really hit me was that she was 5'8" like me. I had put it in my head that because of my height, I could never be in shape. In my world, the only fit in shape girls were 5'7 and below. When I saw her and realized that she was almost same build as me, something clicked. I watched her carry her cooler around, go to the gym when we are all sitting on our butts having wine and it was like I got hit in the head. Sitting on my butt thinking that I just would always be a certain weight or keep gaining was ridiculous. And so the craziness began again. The cleaning out of the pantry, the dumping of the fridge, the purchases of whole foods, the cooler, the ice packs, the work out clothes. To stay motivated, I am on the Scentsy Wellness Page where almost 2500 of us are on the quest for a healthier more fit lifestyle. I have already blogged about the first two weeks and now we are on Week 6 Day 42. It is very difficult to stay focused. Some days the Wellness Group discourages me more than helps me. I feel like everyone on there is losing pounds after pounds, inches after inches, just by changing simple things. It gets very frustrating even though I have to constantly remind myself that every single person is different. It is definitely a mind over mind thing. I keep telling myself, I am on Week 6. I have gone longer than I have in a very long time and to not stop now. I really take a good look at how I am feeling. As far as my body is going, I feel stronger, less tired, less bloated. That is what keeps me going. I have convinced myself that my body is trying to trick me. It is not giving me the changes I want because it assumes I am going to quit. It is definitely a competition now between me, my mind and my body.
I am in the gym every day. I do 1-2 thirty minute strength sessions at Koko kit and atleast two 15 minute cardio sessions. I vowed I wouldn't weight myself and only take pictures but last night at the gym, I hopped on the scaled and I had lost 1lb. Frustrating yes but maybe the transformation is happening. My body is finally starting to realize that I am not giving up or giving in. So maybe it has given up holding on to the weight.
I do think this week, I will really focus on eating and making sure I am getting enough calories. I think I am still too low for what I am burning so my body is still thinking it needs to hold on to excess.
After trying many different diets, and bouncing all over the place, I always go back to what I know. Eating clean is the most effective for weight loss and having the most energy. Eating clean basically eating whole, natural, unprocessed foods. This means staying away from preservatives, artificial sweeteners, etc. When grocery shopping, I look at the ingredient list, and if there are any ingredients that I don't know than I won't eat it. The only thing that I do include in my diet that is processed is my protein powder.
For calories, I wanted to try to stay around 1800, but I don't think I have been hitting that. This week I will make more of a conscious effort to log my food in some of my fav websites like myfitnesspal or sparkpeople. They are free. I try to stay at 40% protein, 30% carbs and 30% fat. These websites will calculate that for you.
Foods I avoid:
- processed foods
- foods with added "shooga" (check those frozen weight loss meals)
- foods with too much sodium
- cereal where "shooga" is the 1st or 2nd ingredient
- juice, soda or diet soda
- flavored yogurt
- artificial sweeteners
- white carbs or other simple "shoogas"
Grocery List
- Fruits: apples, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, avocado
- Vegetables: broccoli, green beans, edamame, carrots, peppers, onions, spinach, zuchinni
- Chicken Breast
- Turkey (Lean Ground)
- Shrimp, Tuna, Tilapia
- Plain Greek Yogurt
- Low Fat Cottage Sheet (Fat free has too much "shooga"
- Sweet potatoes
- Ezekiel Bread
- Oat meal or steel cut oats
- Olive Oil
- Quinoa or Brown Rice
- Almond Butter (no "Shooga" added)
- Black Beans, Chick peas
- Flax seed, chia seeds, almonds
- Eggs, Egg Whites
Other Tips:
- When eating salad, I add a protein to it and always use red wine vinegar or tofu dressing. This has no "shooga", no fat. If you are going to use other dressings, watch for the "shooga". Fat free usually has a lot of "shooga"
- I eat every 2 1/2- 3 hours.
- I try to have most of my carbs before 1pm
- Measure your food. Get a food scale
- I take a big water jug to work with me. It holds 74.4 ounces of water. I usually drink two of those a day.
- Use Greek Yogurt as sourcream. Awesome substitute. Has protein and no fat!
- I put cayenne, mint or cinnamon on anything I can. Helps burn fat and speeds up the metabolism.
- I do not follow the "don't eat after 8" rule. Coach Lee says Never Hungry Never Full. If I am hungry, I eat something. I just choose wisely. If I workout late, I fuel my muscles with a protein shake with in 20 minutes of the work out.
The food part is such a huge part of getting in shape. If you don't get this down, then you could quite possibly never see the results you want. Plan your meals, set an alarm and get your water in.
Week 6 begins. Check back and let me know some of your tips too. Let's do this together and most importantly, Don't Give Up! Your body expects you too. We will change that. It is time for our bodies to stop making the decisions and our minds to take over.
We Can DO THIS! Tell me how you are feeling as we start the week.
Until next time....Keep On Sparkling!!
We Can DO THIS! Tell me how you are feeling this week.
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