Hey! Spring is in the air. I’m hoping to recommit myself to what I love and believe about exercise and fitness. I’ve been off on my blogging for quite awhile now and last night after caving in on the Easter candy, I once again decided I needed to get my butt in gear. I looked up my own blog for motivation! I’m not even close to knowing how to make my blog look all sweet and professional, but I know how to find stuff by typing in key words or remembering when I did something. About a year and a half ago (I can’t believe it’s been that long) I did a super strict 21 day Les Mills Grit Challenge with my good friend. People may say this is a fad diet and too extreme, but as I reread my posts and feelings about how I felt, I couldn’t believe I did it! It makes me happy to do something hard and achieve it. So, for the next 21 days, which happens to be how many days I have until my trip to Key Biscayne, I’ll be following this program to a T!!! ABS will be my goal (: To stay on track and for my own reference, I’ll check in often to post workouts, recipes, and more. I can’t wait. DAY 1 starts tomorrow!
Tag Archive | Les Mills challenge
Drop inches and feel fantastic!
Happy September! Today is all about food. I successfully finished a 21 day healthy eating challenge. And yes, I bought a new ipod, finally!! Have a used it? NO! I’m thinking tomorrow I’ll get my 10 miler in. I don’t have much time till my half so I’ve been doing some last minute training (: We’ll see how this kind of procrastination plays out! Alright! This is what I’ve been doing:
I downloaded this 10 page packet that explained all the details. It’s pretty much lean protein, fats, and veggies with every meal. For 21 days don’t eat any extra sugar, including fruit. Dairy is off limits too (: Sound fun?
Honestly, it wasn’t bad. It became a habit. I knew exactly what I could and couldn’t eat and that was all I looked at. In a nutshell, here are some things I’d eat. For breakfast, lots of eggs. I’d usually have 1 egg and 3-4 egg whites. I’d make an omelet with veggies and put salsa on it. Some days I’d made a protein shake with chocolate protein powder, ice, water, and spinach. I usually had 1-2 salads a day with whatever veggies I had on hand. For meat, I made spare ribs, chicken, turkey burgers, fish, tuna fish. I’d put whatever meat I had left over on my salads. I still used dressing. I don’t like much anyway. I loved balsamic vinegar on anything. I’d snack on nuts. My favorites were almonds, cashews, and pistachios. Whenever I was out, I’d order vegetables in place of rice or potatoes. I really wasn’t hungry. Yes of course I had cravings, but they became easier as a few days passed. My hardest times were on the weekends, usually Sundays and that’s because my brain has been trained to relax and enjoy whatever food I want on Sundays! I’m slowly learning that food is just food and you can always have a treat another time! I freezed several homemade baked goods to eat later! Sometimes it was hard in social settings. People think you’re weird. Oh well. As for my body, here are the real results. I’m 5’7″.
I will make this picture a little smaller though (: I weighed myself a little bit throughout and took measurements at the beginning, middle, and end. My one drawback was running. I do think you need a little more carbs to keep up with running. I felt more winded and it was much harder. I will admit that I took a few days off at the end. Not a great idea. Still working on that one. I don’t want to change though so I’m back on. I will add 2 fruits a day and 2 healthy carbs to help me with my running. I was happy to be able to fit into all my skinny jeans. These jeans I picked out for my skinny friend because they didn’t fit me. Now they do!
Here are a few tips! The food options are so limited, it helped to have a few supplements on hand.
I’d drink an emege every other day. The vitamin drink was my treat in the morning mixed with water. Before my workouts I’d alternate amino energy or C4 and after my workouts I’d drink a muscle milk (not shown). I’d have a protein shake with spinach every day. Another funny help was gum. When you’re eating healthy, all food tastes so much better and a stick of gum was all I needed to lift me up if I wanted something sweet (:
I’m sorry this is so long!! I’ll keep on eating this way with a few days off now and again. With losing and maintaining weight, it has to be a lifestyle change. ALSO, working out like a maniac will do NOTHING if you are not eating properly. Remember that! You can’t outrun your fork.
I have plenty of other things to occupy my mind and keep me busy. Here are a few yard pictures. I still need a few more bushes.
I LOVE this time of year! Well, I have a list a mile long to get working on. I’ll try to be more consistent at my writing. Have a Wonderful and Happy day!!
Get started…again!
Hello again! I have a couple new challenges to share today and I found a GREAT blog that has everything rolled up into one. By far, this has been the BEST blog I’ve seen on normal people getting fit and losing weight. I will be referring to this blog for nutrition, motivation, and exercises for me and others. Here is a page I especially loved called HOW TO GET STARTED WITH CLEAN EATING. It’s encouraging to see people’s success with weight loss and fitness AND to see them sticking to it! I’ll be starting to train my first real client this week. So excited!!
I have had a few health concerns this weekend that have left me a little down. Obstacles are always there. After I get them taken care of I’m going to stick to my workout routine. I’ll get back on my marathon training schedule and run 4 x a week and as far as weight lifting goes, I’m going to attend my WOD of the day classes, GRIT, and my own workout class at the track. That will be it for now. I love Jamie Eason workouts and lifting hard every day, but it’s difficult to train for a marathon AND be hard core buff girl. It’s running season anyway!
I’m BACK! I wrote the first part of this post and then got in a whirlwind of driving all over the world and I’m finally back to finishing this. My crazy life has given me…shingles. That sounds so gross and oldish doesn’t it? I don’t need to go into details, but it’s related to stress and a low immune system. My husband would say I got it from working out too much (: I think it came on because of the awful sickness I had a month ago. Anyway, I’ll get better! My binge over the weekend was so-s0. I really don’t need crap in my body so I’m starting ANEW with 2 plans. I’m going to do the 7 day SMOOTHIE diet that I tried 6 months ago. I’m thinking it will help cleanse my sicky body! Then, I’m going to follow Les Mills 21 day nutrition challenge. Download it HERE.
Sooooo, enjoy these 3 GREAT websites to get motivated.
http://www.heandsheeatclean.com/
http://vedgedout.com/green-smoothie-challenge-2/
http://shbam-4-hhac.wikispaces.com/file/view/LES+MILLS+GRIT+SERIES+21+Day+Challenge.pdf
I’m going to get busy making some yummy soup and relaxing to my favorite tunes that always calm me down (: Here’s a good workout song to add to your playlist today!!