Blogging 2 lose weight

I had a good day today!

I went to the gym over my lunch hour and had a lovely workout on the treadmill. I even ran (not jog) for about 10 minutes. It felt great!!! I didn't expect it, but I love running:-) Especially with some nice music to help things along - the 20 minutes passes so quick;-)

Eating wasn't too bad either:

• Meal 1: 1 small roll with 3 chicken viennas
• Meal 2: 2 peaches
• Meal 3: Chinese fried rice that my neighbour sent for me
• Meal 4: 1 apple
• Meal 5: Left-over chinese fried rice with a low-fat chicken schnitzel and salad
• Meal 6: Can of coke (blush, blush) and dried sausage

Apart from the coke, I am happy with how I did today!

What in heaven's name was I thinking starting a dieting challenge just before Xmas???

What a silly idea that was.

Anyways, will restart after new year, but for now I am just going with the flow....

Meals for the day:

• Meal 1: Grapes (didn't feel like having breakfast)
• Meal 2: Grapes
• Meal 3: tuna salad with tomato
• Meal 4: 2 peaches
• Meal 5: salmon and prawn linguine
• Meal 6: chocolate and chips

I really am excellent until after supper! After that I break down what I had built the whole day:-( I need to find something that keeps me busy after supper time and not just sit in front of the TV and eat!

I weighed in at 199.98 pounds this morning, up 3,74 pounds from last week wednesday's 196.24 pounds:-o

Not good, not good at all.

 I made sure my gym bag was in the car when I left the house for work in the morning - NO EXCUSES!

And yet when I was sitting at work, just surfing I made loads of excuses - PMS cramps were killing me, etc. Finally I thought to myself - I could spend an hour at the gym and feel great afterwards or I could sit at work and feel tired at the end of lunch.
So, I dragged myself to the gym.

I had a lovely workout on the treadmill. I pushed myself hard and burned 125 calories in 20 minutes. I could have probably pushed even harder, but I was happy with what I did. And I felt AWESOME afterwards.

Meals:

• Meal 1: 2 slices of low GI toast
• Meal 2: Banana
• Meal 3: 2 slices of low GI bread with egg mayo
• Meal 4: Banana
• Meal 5: Chicken breast with cauliflower and potatoes - healthy, but surprisingly tasty;-)
• Meal 6: Chocolate milk and a biscuit

I am not eating enough protein and way too much carbs, but for now I am happy with my eating. The real challenge will be this weekend when I have friends coming over for Xmas... hmmm and I am planning such a nice menu... moderation is key, I guess.

Oh boy, I am nearing the middle of the first month of my 3-month challenge and no progress yet!

The day didn't go too badly.

Aunty flo came and made me feel like I haven't slept in ages. I got home after work and plonked down on the couch and that is where I stayed for the rest of the evening. I had planned a nice 20 minute swiss ball workout, but nothing came off it.

Meals:

• Meal 1: 1 cup bran cereal with skim milk
• Meal 2: Apple
• Meal 3: 200 ml low fat yogurt with brussel sprouts
• Meal 4: Banana
• Meal 5: sausage and potato chips
• Meal 6: gingerbread biscuit

Oh, dear.... the weekend did not go too well.

I ate completely off-plan. Friday was still ok, had some potato chips in the evening. Saturday was a disaster - no regular meals, went to the movies, had popcorn and chocolate, etc. And McDonalds to top it off.

Sunday was a bit better. Had breakfast and supper and snacked in-between.

Starting a challenge so close to Xmas and new year was not a brilliant idea:-(

I woke up feeling so much better!

I made sure my gym bag was in the car - I really felt great and had such a lot of energy.

I downloaded some songs to make sure I have energetic music to keep me going in the gym and off I went!

I had such a great workout. I did 20 minutes on the treadmill - HIIT workout. I ran - actually ran - for about 8 of the 20 minutes. It felt AWESOME!

Meals: can't even remember!

I finally felt better this morning. I am off today and decided to do my grocery shopping since the shops will be really busy in the next two weeks. And today was no exception!

Meals:

• Meal 1: two slices of toasted low GI peanut butter and banana bread
• Meal 2: None
• Meal 3: 4 small Chicken and beef pies
• Meal 4: chocolate balls
• Meal 5: 4 small chicken and beef pies
• Meal 6: chicken viennas and a glass of milk

I didn't feel like eating today, can you tell? No veggies! I should be ashamed of myself.

I had such a horrible night. I woke up in the middle of the night and threw up. After that I just couldn't sleep, my throat was burning and I felt queasy.

The day was not much better, the queasiness continued. I had toast for breakfast and even that tasted awful.

Meals:

• Meal 1: 2 slices of toast
• Meal 2: 0,5 cup blackberries
• Meal 3: 200 ml yogurt with banana
• Meal 4: 0,5 cup blackberries
• Meal 5: KFC twister and chips
• Meal 6: one piece KFC and coke

I see a trend here. I am good until Meal 5, from there on I am a devil.

Definitely need to work on that.

I just couldn't fall asleep sunday evening. I must have rolled around until after midnight when it started to cool down a bit:-(

Meals for the day:

• Meal 1: 200 ml yogurt with one rye-vita biscuit and a cup of blackberries
• Meal 2: apple
• Meal 3: left-over roast chicken with 2 servings cherry tomatoes and 1 serving lettuce leaves and a banana
• Meal 4: apple
• Meal 5: Last of the left-over roast chicken with 4 corn puffs and baked fries
• Meal 6: about 10 chocolate candies and a glass of kiddies cooldrink (with sugar)

I really should have just left the last meal out - I felt really stuffed after having it.

No exercise - still have the sore throat. My anti-biotics will be finished by Wednesday, I really hopes it clears up before then.

Slept very late and woke up with the terrible sore throat again:-(

Cleaned the house and decided to rest the rest of the day.

Meals:

• Meal 1: Portuguese roll with low-fat margarine and grapes
• Meal 2: None
• Meal 3: Roast chicken with coleslaw and a roti
• Meal 4: None
• Meal 5: Roast chicken with coleslaw
• Meal 6: Small choccies and a malted drink

Since starting my challenge this was probably the worst day of eating and not the wedding day! I am not good when I am at home the whole day!

I woke up feeling much better this morning. Still a sore throat and a stuffy nose, but the tiredness is much better.

I didn't do any exercise today, but I worked hard in and around the house cleaning up, doing the laundry, etc.

Meals:

• Meal 1: 100 ml yogurt with a peach
• Meal 2: low-fat chocolate milk
• Meal 3: roast chicken with coleslaw and tomato salad
• Meal 4: None
• Meal 5: Chicken curry with naan
• Meal 6: 3 small chocolate candies

I attended the wedding and really ate nicely without overdoing it. I felt quite proud of myself:-)

I woke up feeling even worse than yesterday. Lucky I had made an appointment at the doc yesterday already, but I first had to go to work.

I didn't go to the gym, I just didn't feel up to it. To make matters worse, this weekend is supposed to be one of the busiest this year with a kitchen tea and a wedding!

Meals:

• Meal 1:
• Meal 2: sausage
• Meal 3: 200 ml yogurt with 1 serving fruit
• Meal 4: None, was at the doc waiting for my appointment
• Meal 5: Mutton pullau
• Meal 6: Small slice of swiss roll cake
  

I enjoyed the kitchen tea, I tried not to eat much, but by the time the food was served it was already almost 20:00. They also had no sugar-free soda, so I had to drink what was on offer.
 

I woke up with a blocked nose. BUT very optimistically packed my gym clothes.

Got to work, didn't feel much better. Decided to read up on whether one should exercise with a blocked nose. Best advice: exercise actually helps opening up a blocked nose. My body was saying sleep, but I thought to myself... it is the laziness talking.

Went to the gym for a 20 minute walk on the treadmill. Burned 90 calories, could have burned more, but just didn't have the energy.

After the gym session, I started to feel worse. I really think going to the gym was not a good idea.

Eating went ok until supper time again. I got home and just didn't feel like eating much. Then I felt like something spicy and bought some samoosas (Indian triangles with meat/veg/cheese filling) - I chose chicken samoosas. Nice, but way too salty;-( Since I didn't know the nutritional info for fitday purposes, I just took something which I thought was similar to the samoosas.

Here is what I ate:

• Meal 1: Oats with chocolate protein powder - extremely filling and tasty!
• Meal 2: Apple
• Meal 3: Ground lamb with 3 servings brussel sprouts and a banana
• Meal 4: Peach
• Meal 5: Chicken samoosas, 3 servings cherry tomatoes and papad (Indian starter) with milk
• Meal 6: None

I also had 0,5 protein shake before my gym session and 0,5 when I got back from it.

My calorie intake came to 2,209. Too high I know, but it was because of the samoosa estimate. Carbs/protein/fat breakdown: 44/21/35.
All-in-all I am not unhappy with how my day went. I know I will be up tomorrow because of the saltiness of the samoosas though.

Hmm, you know how sometimes things look good on paper, but following it is a bit more tricky. Well, that is what I experienced on my first day of my new challenge. BUT I know this is simply growing pains and soon I will be clued up on what it is all about.

Eating went quite well.... until about supper time....

• Meal 1: 1 boiled egg with 2 servings of cherry tomato
• Meal 2: 0,5 meal replacement shake
• Meal 3: 120 grams tuna (packed in water) with 3 servings cherry tomato and a banana
• Meal 4: meal replacement bar
• Meal 5: Ground meat with 2 servings brussel sprouts and 1 serving mixed veg. I also had half a roti (Indian bread)
• Meal 6: 2 glasses of coke

Now I need to explain... the roti was not part of what I was supposed to eat and the coke definitely not on my list of items to drink. BUT I am a coke addict and the roti was so fresh...

One thing I have learnt is that I will definitely not buy a meal replacement bar again - the calories are too high and the fat content is also surprisingly high. Another lesson - you can eat a lot of veggies, it fills you up and is really good for you.

According to fitday, the days totals came to 1,941 calories (definitely too high) with the carbs/protein/fat breakdown being 44/29/27.

For exercise I did not do my 20 minute walk, I only did 10 minutes. BUT I am glad I at least did something;-)

I am starting the challenge at 197 pounds.

My measurements are:

• Neck: 14.5 "
• Bicep: 12.75"
• Forearm: 10.5"
• Chest: 39.5"
• Waist: 37.5"
• Hips: 44"
• Thigh: 25"
• Calf: 15" 

Found this interesting site to calculate body fat- not sure how accurate it is, but it can be useful:

Body Mass Index: 33.7 kg/m2


Waist-to-Height ratio: 0.59

Percent Body Fat: 43.3%

Lean Body Mass: 111.1 lb



You are overweight by 23.2 kilograms (51.0 pounds)

You need to exercise at least 30 minutes every day.

Minimum caloric requirements: 1788 Calories per day

Limit your food intake to 1519 calories per day to lose 2.0 pounds per month.

Your diet should contain at least 52 grams of protein per day.

I started my new challenge today and so far it is going great.

The only thing bad so far is the cost of the vitamins I had to buy - quite high, but I figure I could at least go all of the way and see what happens.

The mealplans of this new challenge is fairly similar to that of Body for life (BFL) with the main difference being the fact that yogurt and milk are seen as proteins and not carbs as with BFL.

Basics of my mealplans:

• I must eat 6 times a day, with about 5 hours between the main meals, i.e. I will be eating something every 2,5 hours.
• Each meal consists of a protein plus fruit/veg. Some meals have starches also (morning and afternoon), some don't (late afternoon and evening).
• Meals are low GI.
• I MUST drink 2 - 3 litres of water per day.
• I MUST get between 6 - 8 hours of sleep per day.
• Vitamins to be taken: multi-vitamin, Omega 3 & 6 supplement
• Additional things: fat burner and CLA
• MUST do 30 minutes of exercise per day, but it could be as simple as walking.
• For the first week I have to weigh my food so I can learn about portion sizes.

Well, that's it in a nutshell.

A few weeks ago there was an ad on the TV requesting people to send their details for a free diet by a dietician. It was one of the leading sports nutrition manufacturers in my country, so I decided to give it ago. Then I forgot about it.

Last week the dietician send me a questionnaire to complete regarding my weight, health status, food preferences, etc. When I got back to work yesterday my new diet was waiting in my inbox. She has only given me the mealplans for the first week, but after the first week I am supposed to give her feedback on my progress as well as any cravings/difficulties I had while following the plan. Then she will give me week 2.

According to her I could be at my goal weight within 3 months! Wow, that would be pretty amazing!

What I like about this is the fact that I have to give her feedback - obviously I can choose not to, but then I don't get the next week's mealplans. So, I really want to try this and I will do my best to stick to it.

Based on her plan for me I only need to walk for 30 minutes a day during the first week. I am sure it will change over time, but I think it is a nice way to get going.

I went shopping for the fruit/veggies and other stuff I will need. Tomorrow will be my starting date. So, wish me luck and let's see how it goes!

The past few days have been hectic, dd had to have her tonsils remove and then she experienced some complications and we had to stay at the hospital until she got better. Food in the hospital was not healthy (surprisingly) and meals for mothers had to be ordered so early and only a limited number was available, that I lived off take-out.

The result? I am up almost where I started the beginning of the year - 197 pounds.

I am going to do the following:

• Small weekly goals
• 6 meals a day
• 6 - 8 glasses of water per day
• Exercise at least twice during the first week

Let's see how it goes....