Finding my strengths and weaknesses

I apologize for not posting last week. When drill weekend comes everything gets messed up the week of and the week after. So now that things are back in swing, an the holidays to include my anniversary is over--I ran some reports on myself. I have been tracking my intake for a solid 3 weeks. I have been tracking my fitness with my fitbit force for a solid 3 weeks. With that I found my strengths and weaknesses. So I will never say cheat meals are ok to consume. I will never say my beloved cookies are ok to consume. I will still have "cheat meals" and I will still eat my beloved cookies. Here's the deal. MODERATION. That is the one word I need to work on.

The chart below is my tracked net calories (which means calories I have eaten minus exercise calories, so the calories left over). Of the 3 weeks (21 days) I went over my net calorie goal 7 times. So 1/3 of the time I have tracked so far, I have been over. Not to make excuses, but the dates below I have an excuse for... I went over the 24th by a smudge, no real excuse. I went over by a fair amount on Christmas day (holiday food!). I went over on the 27th for no apparent reason. I went over on the 31st (that was all booze I guarantee you because I worked out a ton that day and ate clean to make up for the drinking BEER has SO MANY calories ugh). Then the 1st because that was our anniversary and we splurged on ourselves. Then the 4th and 5th was drill weekend. So bottom line, my weakness to over consume is on holidays and drill weekends. I cannot do moderation on those days. Unfortunately there is not a nearing holiday, those are really at the end of the year. But I do have another drill in a few weeks so I will do my exercise, practice moderation, and make healthier choices. I know one of the things that contributed was that I was so exhausted, didn't want to make dinner, so we ordered pizza. Either I'm going to suck it up, Colin will have to cook, or we will eat some healthyish (full of preservatives) frozen meal, or just stick to eggs, juice, protein shake, salad for both days. I can redeem myself!

So I'm at a 66% success rate with my diet and honestly that sounds right. I think I tried to cut out too much good stuff leaving me with no snack foods. I love the greek yogurt with fresh berries and the fat free cottage cheese, etc. Leaving myself with no taste of the good stuff leads me to really binge on those binge days. So far to wrap up those sections, my weaknesses are 1) holidays, 2) drill weekends, and 3) labels. I have shopped soley at Whole Foods for what 12 days now? My clever brain has decided the vegan chocolate chip cookies from their bakery are far healthier than packaged cookies say oreos or whatever the case, so therefore I can eat them, and have more of them. Granted I have had maybe 3 a day tops, but I love those cookies and I love that my brain fell into the hipster trap of believing the healthier vegan alternative is great. Cookies.Are.Still.Bad. Back to moderation. That is one thing I read in my studies that some people (like myself in this case) will think oh it says low fat or fat free, or oh its organic, or oh its sugar free, or oh its vegan... all that = healthier which means it's more justifiable to OVER CONSUME. Do not fall for that trap!!! Reprogramming my brain is taking a while but it's doable. I'm working on it. I only allow myself some vegan cookie dough after a hard workout when you need a protein shake and some sugars. There's my weaknesses I have come to realize with this dietary/fitness tracking experiments.

I did accomplish one of my goals of being open this month and trying different work out types. I went to hot yoga and fell in love. I have 19 sessions remaining, a new yoga towel, and a whole new mindset. It is AMAZING. I went yesterday and am going again today. I'm going to do my workout DVDS 6 days a week, the gym 2-3 days a week, hot yoga 2 days a week, and my elliptical every day I work so 3-4 days a week. It's enough to throw my body off and give it a challenge, something different. But hot yoga is a must!! I easily see myself getting a package and new mat after my 20 sessions is up. There's nothing to replace that feeling of detox of your mind, body, and soul. It is a holistic practice that I am all for. Swimming I have decided will take place next month. So free days when it's an easy DVD day or something I can go do some laps or on rest days.

This past week should have finished up Brazil Butt Lift and started Hip Hop Abs. Well after drill kind of threw me off, then working all week, and Colin left for drill--it's been a messy week. I did my best, still worked out 6 days for the week but not quite on the schedule I had on my calendar. I missed 3 full days somehow of Brazil Butt Lift Advanced so I decided to give the program a fair chance, I added them into this week. It's 1 50 min workout and 2 23 min workouts so really not that bad... 12 days worth I missed 3 and I'm keep myself accountable!! I did start hip hop abs and successfully completed week 1. Am I sore? No. Do my abs look better? I have no idea. I know Brazil Butt Lift has given me a lot of lower body strength and helped me knock out 40-50 push ups in a row! I don't know that my butt is legitimately lifted, but it has contributed to my weight loss and overall health. Just like I gave that time and a fair chance, I will do that with Hip Hop Abs. I will give it the initial 4 weeks to see if I see improvements in myself. I am a dancey kind of person so I actually do find it pretty enjoyable and fun. I enjoy Shaun T and I definitely after 6 weeks was ready for a break from Mr. Brazil Booty. 

So my plan for the next 3 weeks is to finish part 1 of Hip Hop Abs, hot yoga 2x a week, gym 2-3x a week for weight lifting, cardio days I work, and be weary of those vegan/organic labels, and have the cookies in moderation. I will also have drill the end of those 3 weeks so it'll be a good test for me to practice being healthier in the drill scenario. I might make a crock pot or something so I've got a healthy thing to eat both drill days. Today I have to hit the gym, hot yoga, grocery store, clean the house, and prepare food for the next few days. I will definitely be making some things and this week I promise to post those recipes I love so much. 

One more thing, I've talked about MyFitnessPal, Map My Fitness, Fitbit, but I have not talked about the Pact App!! I love apps if you couldn't tell. You use your REAL money to make wagers. So my pact is that I will exercise 6 days a week. For every day I don't exercise I have to PAY $5. and You can wager anywhere from $5 to like $50 per day you miss. I also have a pact to track my diet 7 days a week. Any day I miss I pay $5 for that. The last pact I have is to show proof I'm eating vegetables 14 times a week (2X a day at least). And for every vegetable I don't eat (if I'm under 14 at the end of the week) I pay $5 each. So I could lose a lot of money. If you do not make your pact you pay the wagers. If you do make your pact at the end of the week, the people who did NOT make their pact are the ones paying you. So this is my first week and as you can see I need to add 3 veggies today... but my pact will have been complete. So I earn money for it. It's an additional method to make myself accountable. I'm all about that right now!

Well, that is it for now. Next Sunday I have a weigh in and body fat. I might do measurements if I'm feeling ambitious. I've got some things to work on but like I said baby steps. I've come a long way in 6 weeks but I have a long long ways to go still. Keep up the good work, thanks for reading. 

-Nic

Ringing in the New Year

It is January of 2014. Thank god 2013 is over, it sucked. This year however will bring a lot of new challenges to my life. I'm ready to take them head on!!! To get this New Year post kicking off, let's take a look at 2013.

In 2013 I had a flux of excellent physical activity and terrible physical activity. I went from doing 2 work outs a day from Jan-Feb while I was studying my NCLEX to none for a while and working night shift, to gym a lot, to not, to Insanity, to nothing. It's been a roller coaster. Dietary wise wasn't too bad, obviously not the best but it got worse after my surgery. So the end of the year I kicked my butt in gear and did a solid one moth of full dedication. Here is what my calendar ended up looking like:

So out of 31 days of December, there were 4 rest days, 3 days I should have worked out but didn't, and 24 work out days. The diet got much better, slowly but surely added veggies and removed some crap food. It was an overall loss of 3 pounds and 2% body fat in December. Considering the holidays…2 family holiday meals, a party, New Year's Eve drunk fest, I'll take it! My weekly goals for December were: To get into a fitness routine (check), to add veggies (check), to add vitamins (check), ensure bed time 10pm--getting down to being in bed between 10 and 11 so that's pretty good, and then add AM work outs (check!) 

Still loving every minute of my FitBit!! It totally rocks. I've shown it to several people who have purchased theres. Every week it sends me a weekly status update. Here is the one from last week, which was my first week using it. 

Obviously my least active day was Christmas lol. But here's what we're looking at for the week, and what it tracks. Pretty sweet! It also has a 12 step program so each week you try to be a little more active which I'm working on. This week has gone well except New Years Eve will pizza and booze I went WAY over cal in vs out and then yesterday New Years Day super hung over and our anniversary so I planned that as my weekly rest day for this week. It's ok to throw your body off once in a while though with some extra calories so it doesn't plateau. 

So now that it is January, this concludes week 5 so far of changes with success. Next week I'll finish the advance portion of Brazil Butt Lift and add in Hip Hop Abs which will take me through the end of this month. Here is the calendar I made for my fridge for January.

Last week I accomplished one of my weekly goals for December which was to start exercising in the mornings before work. I get up at 0500 and do a half hour on the elliptical. It seriously jump starts my day. It also helps when I get home if I'm too tired to be super active, I've already got some exercise in there. So what else is happening this month? I've picked up extra hours at work gotta make some money this year and pay off my debt! But also to add different types of workouts. I've got my elliptical, we've been taking the dogs for walks, but this month I'm going to try and add swimming and hot yoga. We'll see how it goes. I have to buy a swim suit, yoga mat, and hot yoga towel. 

I just bought some more supplements for this months training. I've been asked a lot what all do I take. So here is the break down to include the ones I just bought: multivitamin, joint guard, green tea, hydroxycut, CLA, BCAA, and fish oil/omega 3. I also use syntha 6 chocolate protein powder with almond milk after workouts. For my pre-workout I just bought some C4.  It seems like a lot and for me I have a REALLY sensitive stomach with pills. But this combo works out pretty well for me. If you're more interested in the brands of them let me know I'll tell you which ones I buy. I usually get all my stuff off BodyBuilding.come

We also started shopping at whole foods. I'm excited for trader joes because their specific brand is really good stuff. Whole foods was expensive (mostly the meat) but it's nice to clean out the pantry and fill it with things good for our bodies. I just bought a vitamin/mineral powder like one of those veggies in a pill but powder form. Since I have my mean green smoothie daily, I'm going to put a scoop of it in my smoothie daily for the extra nutrients because I still am not eating enough vegetables (hate them so much). Oh yeah heres my recipe for my smoothie, been asked for it a few times:

1/4 c kale

1/2 c spinrach

1 stalk celery

1/4 c strawberry

1/5 of a cucumber

3 baby carrots

1/5 of an avocado

1 small organic apple

1/5 of a tomato

1 tbs chia seed

1 tbs flaxseed

1 c water

1 c pure coconut water

This recipe makes two large cups of juice which I have one with breakfast and the other about an hour or two after breakfast. It's awesome. Takes some acquired taste though. It all tastes fine to me now so I figured adding the powdered veggie nutrients will be a cake walk. So my breakfast is the juice and 3 scrambled whole eggs (come on lets be real if you only do the whites you lose half the protein and nutrients! and besides if you're worried about cholesterol, it's not the eggs that'll kill you, it's everything else bad such as fried, greasy, fast foods).

Well last but not least, my goals for 2014…. I haven't quite mapped them all out but this is what I have in mind. Mind you that they don't all have dates and some are vague:

To get down to 110 pounds by my 26th birthday June 2nd

To get down to 15% body fat by my 26th birthday June 2nd

To get therapeutic massages on my hips 2x a week until feeling better

To run every other week (bad hips, too much impact, add elliptical, bike, and swimming)

To walk the dogs daily

To write down every day something good that happened (journal style) and review them Dec 31, 2014

To save money and pay off my Debt by Dec 31, 2014

To stick with my 13 month workout calendar so that by Dec 31, 2014 I will have completed Brazil Butt Lift, Hip Hop Abs (1 & 2), Turbo Jam, Turbo Fire, Insanity, Insanity Insane Asylum (1 & 2) so that 2015 I reward myself by getting a personal trainer. 

TO BE POSITIVE and to not be hard on myself. 

That's it for now. Next week I promise to put up a recipe page and talk more about Paelo and the Whole 30, so get ready for that! Here's some weekly motivation so get out there, work out, eat better, feel better. You can't put a cost on your health and your life. Choices, changes, and changes--you must make a choice to take a chance or your life will never change. I made the choice, I took the chance, and my life IS CHANGING. It's up to you.