Highs and Lows of Week 2

So we are in the middle of week 3 and I can't help but notice that week 2 was a lot easier. Last week, I could resist any food not on my meal plan and I would have the urge to work out harder and longer. Unfortunately, this week that is not the case. I have stuck to my meal plan for the most part this week, I did have 2 Halloween sized chocolate bars yesterday though. It has been very hard this week to not give in to my cravings and laziness. I think it may have something to do with the crappy, rainy, cold weather. But today I am feeling much better, I am passed the sluggishness of the weekend.


Week 2 was a great success, until the weekend hit. It all started with drinking a ton of Jack and Cokes, 2 nights in a row on the weekend. I had such a great time though, and I danced my butt off so that counts as cardio right? I'm going to label the drinking and partying all weekend as "in between". I consider it a high point of the week since I had a great time but I can label it as a low point because I consumed a shit load of alcohol. Halloween is such a fun time of year! This year I was a pirate one night and Pikachu the next night.

Sunday was a disaster. You want to know the only food I consumed for lunch AND dinner? Pizza. Yup, that's it. I ended up having Domino's for lunch when I rolled out of bed at 1pm and then homemade pizza for dinner. I had 4 slices combined, but it definitely set me up for a lazy and bloated Monday. Because of my pig out Sunday, when Monday came I was ready to say "fuck it", and eat bad. But I didn't and I'm so glad 1 bad day didn't turn into a bad week.

A high point of my week was working out twice in 1 day. I NEVER do that! I did cardio on my elliptical and a bootcamp class in 1 day burning almost 1000 calories total. Also, I planned to do 5k when I started my cardio but when I was done an awesome song came on so I did 6k. That also, NEVER happens.

Another high point of my week was sweet potatoes. I just love them so much. I get to have them with dinner every 3ish days so it's something I look forward to. Like tonight I am having them with dinner and I can't even wait!! I'm also obsessed with extra lean ground turkey! So many delicious possibilities!!!

As of Monday, I am down 6 lbs. That is a definite high point. Persistence pays off. I am noticing small changes to my body which motivates me to keep going. I also find it very helpful to keep motivational pictures on my phone and Instagram. Seeing quotes and other people making healthy decisions has a huge impact on the decisions I make.  I'm excited to meet with my nutritionist next week so she can see my progress!

What should Canada do about junk food?

I read an interesting article in The Globe and Mail today about obesity and how Canada should deal with it. Basically, The Ontario Medical Association feels that junk food should be treated the same way tobacco products are, with higher taxes and warning labels. They say obesity is a public health epidemic causing 2 billion dollars a year to Ontario's health care costs. TWO BILLION DOLLARS! 

I actually have 2 opinions on this topic, both contradict each other. At first I thought this was a greedy idea proposed simply as a tax grab. But I got thinking and they just might be on to something. First of all, I think that healthy foods should be more affordable. This would definitely help with the consumption of healthier foods, especially in lower income families. I also think educating kids and their parents on how to eat healthy is a key factor. The biggest influence in a kid's life is the people they are being raised by. And I don't wanna hear the old, 'ohh it's the media' bullshit either. Make nutrition and fitness information more accessible for families. Junk food is a treat, not an all day, everyday thing and people need to realize this. 

Now who's going to pay for all of this? Obviously, suppliers of healthy foods aren't going to lower prices (and their profits) for the sake of public health. The government can only afford so many free services that promote healthy lifestyles. You know where the money should come from? Taxing junk food. A portion of the tax should go to the health care costs and a portion to filling the gap for promoting healthy lifestyles.

But then there's the issue of what the government thinks is "healthy". It drives me insane when I see the "Health" check mark on things that have 100 ingredients or tons of sugar. Oh, it is low in sodium though?? Must be healthy. No cholesterol?? Awesome. News Flash: If the food doesn't contain an animal product it doesn't have cholesterol in it! But it would be very hard to label foods as healthy and unhealthy for the general public. There are obvious foods that are healthy and unhealthy but there are a lot of grey area foods too that some people consider healthy and others don't. Will it be based on calories, fat content, sodium, all of the above? This leads me into my 2nd and completely different opinion on the matter. 

Now to argue with myself.. Why is the government going after the consumer and not the supplier? Maybe changing our regulations and standards on mass food production would help. The government should go after McDonald's and fast food places. (Even though McDonald's now claims they don't use artificial products in their food, but that's another story.) The government should stop these companies from making their food with the cheapest shit they can find. They should also stop labeling their products to mislead the consumer into thinking its healthy. Tax the companies that supply this shit to us if they don't comply, even better fine them. Use the extra tax money for health care and health education. If the big companies don't like it then they should increase the quality of their food. If the government wants change, I'm talking about real change not a band aid solution then they need to go to the source. 

Ok, so after rereading this cluster fuck of thoughts I think my 2nd opinion wins. I love it when I win. 

Highs and Lows of Week 1

Week 1 of 6 is done and I had a pretty great week. Here are the highs and lows.

Lows
Being sick! Despite my best efforts to get rid of this chest cold, I am still sick! This cough just won't leave! I am not taking medicine for it because I don't want to just cover up the symptoms. It is getting better though so I'm sure it'll be gone soon.

Weekend pig outs. I have my week routine down, but as usual the weekends are food overload. Instead of having 1 cheat meal I had 2. Pizza Saturday night and pasta Sunday night. Carbs are my weakness! I just have to work on it harder next weekend. I always convince myself it is okay, I always have a reason why it is okay to eat what I know I shouldn't. Self control is definitely something I am working on.

Work out slacker. That's me! I didn't work out as much as I should have this week. Not really anything else to say, other than I have to step it up this week.

Highs
I climbed the effin CN Tower. I know I've talked about this but I am still proud! My legs didn't even hurt the next morning. I could totally do it again today. Ok, maybe not today, but someday.

Weight Loss. This week I am down 3 lbs even though I wasn't perfect. It is definitely a good start. I know my meal plan is working and my efforts aren't for nothing. I didn't find myself hungry during the day at all because I am eating so frequently which is new for me. I'm usually starving at all times when I am trying to lose weight. I am eating big portions of protein which definitely helps with the hunger issues as well.

I feel great. Eating healthy and exercising makes me feel waaaay better than when I'm munchin' on a cheeseburger. Ok, I don't really eat cheeseburgers anyways but you get the point. To not wake up bloated and gross is amazing! To know I am once again working towards a goal. It's nice to have the support of my boyfriend, family and friends too. My mom's been making sure I have a good variety of foods to eat and Justin is letting me adjust the meals we cook to fit my meal plan.

Exploring healthy foods. All week I've been looking up healthy recipes and getting new healthy foods to try. This week I bought roasted soy beans from Bulk Barn. They are high in protein and are good for snacking. I also made an awesome bean salad that I warmed up and put on brown rice. It is basically mixed canned beans, chopped red and yellow peppers, onion, pepper and a bit of Light Italian Dressing all mixed together. Yum!

Some of my favourite foods of week 1! 

CN Tower Climb Complete!

Well I'm on my way home from Toronto right now after finishing the CN Tower climb. I have to say, it was probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Physically and mentally exhausting.
It was mentally tough because first of all, you can't have any music. I always work out with music, it is a huge distraction for me. So basically I was thinking, ' fuuuuck. ___ more floors I'm so tired' the whole time. Another thing that was tough was seeing the numbers for all 144 floors. Seems like you're never going to finish.
The main reason that it was so tough physically is because I wasnt prepared. I am pretty sure I have bronchitis and have been sick for about 3 weeks now. Not being able to train properly was a huge factor. Breathing was so hard seeing how I'm still sick. I was not about to back out though and I didn't really think it would have been so hard to breathe.
I have to say though, getting to the top was an amazing feeling! I worked my ass off to get up there and I am proud that I did it. To look at the CN tower now and know I have climbed it is an awesome feeling. And even though the whole time I was climbing it I was tellin myself that I am NEVER doing it again, I do want to do it again next year. I'm sure I can improve my time of 30:17.

Meal Plan

As strict as the meal plan I was given is, it is super easy to follow. It is pretty straight forward. The only thing I am going to have to adjust to is that my biggest meal is now at lunch. My nutritionist did this is because I was finding myself getting so sooooo hungry after work, before bootcamp class. Because I was so hungry, I would grab a "snack" aka a bagel before bootcamp, or I would wait until I got home at 7:30 pm and totally pig out for dinner. Neither of these scenarios are good for losing weight obviously. When I don't have bootcamp and I am working out from home, I will keep the same schedule so I can get my workout in as soon as I get home from work; then I'll have the night to eat and relax.

Also, to keep myself on track I am keeping a food journal. It isn't completely specific or detailed, just what I ate for what meal and snack. I'll also track how much water I drank, if I took my vitamins and how many calories I burned during exercise. Nothing too time consuming or crazy, it's more of a visual motivator for me. 

So here is the meal plan I will be following for the next 6 weeks. 

Breakfast..7:00am
Usana Nutrimeal Shake + Fruit
Snack1.. 10:00am

1/3 cup Roasted Soy Nuts

   Whole Fruit
Raw Veggies (2 tbsp hummus)
      Usana Bar
   ½ Shake
  Handful of nuts
Lunch..12:30pm
Leafy Salad + Lean Protein + 1 serving of Carbs
(brown rice, quinoa, whole grain bread + hummus)
OR
Bean Salad + Veg + Whole Grain serving
Snack2 .. 3:00pm
Different choice than Snack 1
   1/3 cup Roasted Soy Nuts
     Whole Fruit
     Raw Veggies (2 tbsp hummus)
      Usana Bar
     ½ Shake
    Handful of nuts
Dinner
60% Veggies + 40% Lean Protein
         Stir Fry (no rice)
 Chili (chicken, turkey, beef)
    Soup (no potatoes)
 Wraps with lettuce (no tortillas)
        Eggs + veggies
*Every 2-3 days allowed 1 serving of sweet potatoes OR squash.*

If hungry before bed, eat veggies..

If you didn't notice, there is NO dairy in sight. I don't know how I am going to go 6 weeks with no cheese. Heartbreaking! For the lunch and dinner sections I only listed a few options for meals. As long as I stick to the structure of the lunch I can easily come up with many more meal ideas. 

I will be eating 1 PLANNED cheat meal a week. This will include a night of drinking as a "cheat meal", with Halloween and my softball banquet coming up not drinking is NOT an option! lol 

Also, I should mention that I am not a nutritionist and that what she came up with for me, may not work for you.  It is based on my activity level and goals.

Personal Challenge

After being sick for almost 2 weeks, I am coming out of my hibernation and starting to exercise again. I haven't been to bootcamp in 2 weeks and I haven't been able to do the stairs. Awesome considering I am doing the CN Tower climb this weekend. I'll be the girl lying on the ground crying and coughing a quarter of the way up the stairs. I'm hoping the weather isn't completely terrible tonight so I can do the stairs, it is supposed to be rainy. cold and windy all day though. My favourite!!
Today was supposed to be the first day of my bootcamp's weight loss challenge. I was so excited to win $1500 which would be awarded to the person who lost the most weight, inches and body fat %. Unfortunately, it was postponed until January!! :( Since I was already planning and preparing for it, I am going to do it anyways. Of course, the $1500 prize isn't a motivator anymore but maybe I'll think of something creative to reward myself with. Oh I know, being fit as hell! I was lucky enough to have a meal plan made up by my nutritionist at work. Last week we sat down, went over my goals and made a meal plan incorporating Usana products. Coincidentally she is an associate as well and I have to say; I haven't met a Usana associate that isn't completely awesome!! Seriously, she helped out a lot. I have a check in with her the next time she comes into work which is at the beginning of November. Ugh, November. I HATE winter. I will post the meal plan in the next few days. I should let you know, it is strict! Very, very strict. I am planning on doing this for 6 weeks though so I think I can handle it.
Along with my very strict meal plan I will be doing my usual 3 bootcamp classes a week and I will workout at home 2 days a week. I haven't had to use my elliptical in forever! It's sad to see the nice weather go, working out in my basement is so depressing! Maybe I'll give my home "gym" a mini makeover! With the thousands of DIY ideas I have on pinterest, I'm sure I can think of something to make it a happy place!

Product Review: Polar FT4 Heart Rate Monitoring Watch

I recently got a new work out fitness gadget as an anniversary present and I am in LOVE! I got a heart rate training watch; the Polar FT4. 

The watch records all of the data sent from the heart monitoring strap that goes around your chest. Set up of the watch is super easy. You set the time, date, your age, gender, height and weight and you're ready to go. After playing around with it for a few minutes I could easily start/stop a session, find where my training data is stored and how to return to the regular watch feature.

Based on the stats I imputed, the watch lets me know my target heart rate zone. Working out in this zone will optimize my workout efforts, telling me when to work harder and when to slow down. It saves all of your monitored workouts so you can see your improvements and train accordingly. My favourite feature is the calorie tracker. It records every calorie burned and keeps a record of total calories burned. Even though I know it isn't 100% accurate, it is a good motivator and it is more accurate that cardio equipment counters. When you see the burned calories added up, it makes me want to workout harder and more often. 

I love the size of the watch as well, it is very small which surprised me. The only issue I found was that I have to wear it loose on my wrist because it gets in the way when I am doing push ups. The heart monitoring strap lines up right under my sports bra so I don't notice it when I am working out at all. If you are wearing a tight shirt to work out it will stick out in the front a little bit but it is barely noticeable. And let's face it, if you are worried about a little bump in your shirt, you are not focusing on your workout enough! 

The price is reasonable as well, it is approximately $100 I think. Since it was a gift I don't know the exact price but online it ranges from $69 - $115 depending on the website. 

Overall, the FT4 is simple to use, informative and user friendly. It is great to use when you are exercising away from machines with built in heart rate monitors like treadmills. It is small enough that it doesn't interfere with your workout while providing you with the visual motivation you need to work harder. 

Did I mention it comes in pink?! Bonus marks!