It’s the day before my 30 Day Challenge, and I am excited!
As promised, I did my measurements before the start of the challenge to mark my progress. So here are the (awful) numbers:
The goal is to lose 8 pounds and 2 inches from each area by the end of the challenge…. Hopefully it works….
The diet for the 30 Day Challenge is as follows:
Eat and drink the following with reckless abandon:
Spinach
Broccoli
Green, Red, or Yellow Pepper
Cucumber
Apples
Asparagus
Cauliflower
Green Beans
Kale
Celery
Pretty much any green leafy vegetable (exception: iceberg lettuce)
Water
Eat 2 – 4 servings of the following throughout the day:
Carrots
Bananas
Berries
Peaches
Plums
Oranges
Pretty much any fresh fruit you like
Eat one 4 – 6 ounce lean serving of the following with each meal:
Turkey breast
Chicken breast
Steak
Fish
Also consider eggs (2 or 3)
Eat one serving of the following with each snack.
Almonds
Walnuts
Cashews
Natural peanut butter (no sugar, no salt added)
Yogurt
Low-fat milk
Eat these only with your meal that follows your fitness training and only in limited portion
Oatmeal
Brown rice
Legumes
Potatoes
Whole wheat bread
Whole wheat pasta
Other whole grain food items
Foods and Drinks you MUST stay away from to lose weight
Salad dressings
Butter
Cheese
Other condiments
Soda (tons of sugar and lots of empty calories)
Alcohol (empty calories and usually leads to bad food choices when drinking)
Sugar
Fast Food
I will record my weight and measurements on Sunday and start the challenge on Monday…. hopefully I will see results by the end of the month. Hopefully, Vic Magary from Gym Junkies will be able to help me =)
I have found a plan that will help me reach my healthy eating goals (aka stupid diet and weight loss). Now, I can’t take credit for this plan. I did my research and found these at www.gymjunkies.com. I really think this is doable, so I’m going to try….
First, the workouts. There are only 6 Exercises to do in each workout: Squats, Lunges, Push Ups, Squat Jumps, Hop Scotch and Baby Burpees (The push ups may be done from the knees if you can’t do a regular pushup….guess which ones I will be doing?! And don’t be fooled by the “baby” in Baby Burpees….they are as bad as regular burpees!) Also, dont forget to warm up before each workout.
Workout A:
Squat: 25 reps or as many as possible before a rest is needed – which ever comes first.
Hop Scotch: 30 seconds of max effort.
Push Up: 25 reps or as many as possible before a rest is needed – which ever comes first.
Hop Scotch: 30 seconds of max effort.
Repeat cycle 4 – 8 rounds.
Workout B:
Baby Burpee: 30 seconds of work, 30 seconds of rest.
Repeat 4 – 12 times.
Workout C:
Lunge: 15 reps each leg or as many as possible.
Hop Scotch: 30 seconds.
Push Up: 25 reps or as many as possible.
Hop Scotch: 30 seconds.
Repeat cycle 4 – 8 rounds.
Workout D:
Squat Jump: 30 seconds of work, 30 seconds of rest.
Repeat 4 – 12 times.
Workout E:
Lunge: 10 reps each leg.
Baby Burpee: 10 reps.
Repeat 5 – 7 times.
Workout F:
Squat Jump: Max reps in 10 minutes. Rest as needed and keep track of the reps completed. Try to beat rep count each time this workout comes up.
Workout G:
Tabata Intervals of the following: (A tabata is 20 seconds of one exercises (quick pace) followed by 10 seconds of rest. You should do this for each exercise for 4 minutes. Your entire workout will take 16 minutes.
Hop Scotch
Squat
Baby Burpee
Push Up
The workout routine for the 30 Day Challenge is as follows:
DATE / WORKOUT: 28-Nov Workout A, 29-Nov Workout B, 30-Nov Workout C, 1-Dec Workout D, 2-Dec OFF, 3-Dec Workout E, 4-Dec Workout F, 5-Dec Workout G, 6-Dec OFF, 7-Dec Workout A, 8-Dec Workout B, 9-Dec Workout C, 10-Dec Workout D, 11-Dec OFF, 12-Dec Workout E, 13-Dec Workout F, 14-Dec Workout G, 15-Dec OFF, 16-Dec Workout A, 17-Dec Workout B, 18-Dec Workout C, 19-Dec Workout D, 20-Dec Workout E, 21-Dec OFF, 22-Dec Workout F, 23-Dec Workout G, 24-Dec OFF, 25-Dec Workout A, 26-Dec Workout B, 27-Dec Workout C, 28-Dec Workout D.
Wish me Luck!
I have one week of awesome, eat-without-thinking left before I have to start my healthy eating plan (aka diet!)
I always struggle with the decision of healthy vs. unhealthy foods…. and 9 out 10 times unhealthy wins. And now that I am close to 30 (*sigh*) I need to eat better, and be in better shape (internally and externally)
So, to say that I’m dreading next week, is an understatement. I love food and I love to eat, and the unhealthier (?) the food is the more I like it. Now, I have a plan for the healthy eating plan, which I think will work… (lots of water is included at every stage):
Pre-Breakfast: Juice of half a lemon diluted in a glass of water
Breakfast: A large coffee (this is my cheat for the morning, as I can only drink flavored coffee), a cup of yougurt with fresh fruits and Kashi Cereal
Snack1: A banana and An Orange
Lunch: A large salad, and one of the following options for the top: grilled chicken or quinoa
Snack2: Carrot sticks
Dinner: This will vary, because I will be cooking for the hubby too. Usually our dinners tend to be on the healthy side, but I will stay away from pasta and rice for the duration of the healthy eating plan (aka. stupid diet!)
Snack3: Cup of tea with one spoon of honey and One Orange
I give myself 10 days before I break! Wish me luck…. but first….the unhealthy week =)
My hubby is turning 30 in 10 days.
I have a few surprises planned for him, which I hope will make it a very memorable week-end. (I will discuss the surprises after his birthday – sorry, but if by any chance he is reading this post before the big day, I dont want to ruin what I have been planning for the last 2 months!)
As part of the big day, we (his friends and I) are taking him out to one of his favorite restaurants, and after dinner, we are all going back to our house for a party =) The next day (hopefully, when he is somewhat sober) we will have the family over and I will make him one of his favorite dishes for dinner and a DQ Ice Cream Cake for dessert!
His milestone birthday has me thinking about mine, which is coming up in September. I don’t feel like I’m about to turn 30. I don’t dress my age, I don’t think my age, and I certainly don’t act my age… Yet, I still find myself struggling about turning 30 and whether I have accomplished everything I wanted before this birthday milestone. I don’t know if I ever even made that checklist for myself….Maybe I should! But what would I put on it? I am married to a great person, living in the suburbs in a nice house, with the cutest dog that ever existed. I have a good education and a good job, which does have room for improvement, but at least I have a job. I have lived in 3 different continents and traveled to many beautiful places…. So what can I put in that list to accomplish in the next 10 months that I haven’t already done? And is 10 months enough to accomplish anything?!….is this a how a mid-life crisis starts?!?
Most of the items on my checklist have something to do with food and/or travel….maybe I should look for a job as a travelling food taster?…Anyway, the one accomplishment on top of my checklist is actually a joint venture with my hubby…. and it would (or could) take less than 10 months to achieve ;o) It’s a petrifying, life changing, beautiful (hopefully blonde and chubby), expensive and a big responsibility accomplishment….but it would be the BEST one.
Anyway, this milestone is all about him, so hopefully he has an amazing one, and I pray that he has achieved everything he had on his checklist!
Since in my last post I mentioned our dog, and chances are I will talk about him a lot, I decided to introduce him to you.
His name is Bear and he is gentle, sweet, playful, cuddly, protective, scared of everything! and a troublemaker all in one, he is also a huge foodie (fits right in the family). ….and he has us wrapped around his little paws!
For those of you who know me (I’m imagining that I have thousands of followers and a bunch of my followers actually know me), know that I am the perfect procrastinator who suffers from self-diagnosed OCD. As you can imagine, this is an insane paradox of characteristics to live with every day!
But, I have made up my mind and I am going to work on a plan. A plan that will allow me (and by default my hubby) to a] become healthier (and lose weight) b] become a better cook and c] be more proactive in living.
Let me explain the last point first. At the moment, our lives have become very predictable and I’m afraid will turn boring very fast. We wake up super early (North American Style) and get ready for work. Take the dog out for a quick (and I mean quick) walk, and rush to commute into work, work hard, commute back home, take the dog out again for a longer walk, make dinner, eat dinner, clean up, watch TV, take the dog out for one last time and sleep….and rinse and repeat for 5 days a week….which is why I’m working on a plan to change things a bit… so for the we-need-to-be-less-boring part of my plan…. haven’t completely figured it out yet, but maybe getting involved in some community initiatives, maybe start a new hobby that doesn’t involves TV watching…. suggestions are welcome!
For my first point of I-need-to-get-healthy I am starting to go back to the gym and do spinning classes twice a week and even some of the group classes at the gym like Zumba =) Hopefully this will help me lose the 10 pounds I have been trying to get rid of for the last year! And of course the healthy eating (aka dieting) is implied.
Then comes the I-need-to-be-a- better-cook….well… that is a BIG work in progress. I’m getting better, but I need lots of help! However, I am a cookbook lover and I will try new things at least once. My poor hubby is getting tired of being my tester, so I may be looking for volunteers soon.
Once I have a detailed plan in place, I will share (yep, that’s the OCD speaking) but I cant commit to an exact date =) (and that’s the procrastinator speaking!)
How do you move on, and start fresh after a tragedy? I would love for someone to tell me that there are 12, 18…24 steps to do this, and I would do them. Every single one, no matter what they were.
For the last three months, I have woken up each morning with a flood of emotions, each of them unique and different. Every morning I am faced with one or a combination of the following: anger, sadness, pain, guilt, relief, anxiety, happiness, panic, worry, blessed, miserable, assured for the future…. but I still haven’t figured out how to cope with them, and accept them as part of my life and incorporate them in my day. If I could figure out how to do this, I think I could easily start fresh. Maybe…
People tell me it takes time. I know it does. It has gotten easier as the months have gone by. But there is that moment, not a special moment, but just a random moment, and bam! it hits me and I remember this tragedy, and all those emotions come flying back, all at once, overwhelming the day…. and in that moment, my healing resets back to day 1 and I have to start again, slowly and painfully.
The worst part (for me) is when I see the love of my life, the one I would do anything for, and realize that he has it worse than I do. The truth is, this tragedy is a calamity, a catastrophe, a life-defining moment for him…. and I am helpless in making it better. If I could, I would do anything to spare him of what he is personally and quietly going through, but I can’t. All I can do, in my own imperfect way, is to be there. Just plain and simple: be present.
During times like these, the life of the people living through a tragedy changes course for ever. New priorities arise. Things that seemed important no longer are…. I have learned (and I hope its true) is that no matter what changes, continuing to live and take part in life’s simple pleasures like family, food, sunshine, and even rain! will help with the healing process and will create a new sense of normalcy. One day, that new normalcy will feel natural and what “it always should have been”….which is the beauty of life and love.
Imperfectibleme is my fresh start. I hope you join me in this crazy journey of imperfect attempts at an amazing life full of triumphs, stupid job stories, [lack of] cooking skills, marriage, friendship, love, laughter, sadness and a bright future =)
imperfectibleme 