Ok...two weeks in and what have I learned, and what have YOU learned? I've love to know so please comment at the end of this post.
This week I have seen:
- That your weight on the scales goes up the days after eating more sugar and starchy foods.
- That your weight on the scales goes down again a couple of days after eating clean, real food again.
- That going public with what you are going to do helps keep you on track in most situations.
- But that emotional triggers can still over-ride sometimes, mine being extreme tiredness and stressing when time is running out.
I now need to get organised better, so I am going to plan out my week and roughly what food I am going to eat, plus all my exercise sessions. That way I can go into auto pilot for the week and don't have to think if I don't have to!
If you fail to plan you plan to fail!
And time to re-visit my original goals. Below is what I put.
What I want:
1. I WILL lose 6-8 inches from my body.
2. I WILL lose 6lbs on the scales.
(Although the overall
look will be more important as I will be weight training and trying to
increase my lean muscle mass, therefore scales won't be a great method
of tracking results, my clothes will!)
3. I WILL fit into my jeans comfortably and not have to undo the top button when I sit down!
4. I WILL cut out/reduce chocolate and biscuits.
5. I WILL do a ten minute high intensity workout on 5-6 days each week.
6. I WILL do weight training workouts on 5-6 days each week.
7. I WILL drink 2.7 litres of water each day (I'm currently 135lbs so 1 litre for every 50lbs bodyweight = 2.7 litres).
8. I WILL be kind to myself and maintain a positive can-do attitude.
9. I WILL post on this blog my progress and meal photos.
Now it's a very common thing to look back over the past two weeks and only focus on what I didn't do, haven't achieved and all the times when I ate sugary food. For some reason we are pre-programmed to do this.
We always forget about all the positive things we did. So next time you spend some time making changes that will improve your health and get you leaner, make sure you write a list of all the things that you do well and ONLY those things!
What I have done well:
- I've exercised 5-6 days each week
- I've drunk my quota of water on most days
- I've not written the day off when I have eaten something I didn't plan to
- I've kept all my main meals clean and healthy
- I've reduced the amount of chocolate and biscuits I was eating compared to before.
- I have posted my food photos and updated this blog for each day
- I still have a positive, I can do it, attitude
- I still believe I CAN and WILL do this!
www.EmmaBFitness.com
www.FabulousinaFortnight.co.uk
www.BoffosBootcamp.com
www.OptimisationPlan.com
www.7in7for7.co.uk
Today was Duck Pond Market day. A day where I usually relax my eating a little as there is so much yummy food there. Food that is local and home-made with good quality ingredients. So when I say relax a little, it's not a complete blow out day like diving into a huge greasy pizza and chips or something!
But, I knew the home-made fudge guys were going to be there. And with this in mind, rather than have a spinach quiche for breakfast and an Argentinian steak sandwich for lunch (OMG the sacrifice! They are delicious!), I decided to have a smoothie before I left and take a salad with me. That way if I was going to have sugar, I was at least going to avoid a double dose of wheat.
So...
Meals:
Smoothie of half avocado, spinach, milled seeds, probiotic, coconut milk, greens powder supplement, vanilla protein and water to blend.
Lemon fudge AND white chocolate and cranberry pretzels from the fudge stall. They ended up being next to me! Bad move :-0
Tuna, butter bean and avocado salad for lunch, but only ate two thirds of it. (Probably too full of fudge! ;))
I ended up eating the rest of the salad later on in the evening.
www.EmmaBFitness.com
www.FabulousinaFortnight.co.uk
www.BoffosBootcamp.com
www.OptimisationPlan.com
www.7in7for7.co.uk
Ooh yes I could feel the aches in my chest and arms after the previous heavy weights session! These aches are called DOMS, delayed onset muscle soreness. With the emphasis on the 'delayed' part, I knew that later on it could be a whole lot worse, oh dear would have to wait and see!
Training:
Busy day today. Kicked off with a 50 minute doggy walk then off to train a client.
I decided to join in too so did an interval training density session. 5 rounds of 5 mnutes, as many rounds as you can using dumbells, barbells, bodyweight, gliders and kettlebells.
Whew! Hard training with an already tired body, but having a rest day tomorrow.
Meals:
Green smoothie, this time with a banana as was post workout, the best time to have sugars and starches.
Evening meal was steak, oregano garlic tomatoes and steamed cauliflower and pak choi.
I spent the afternoon rushing to get stuff ready for my stand at the Duck Pond Market, where I advertise once a month. I got a bit stressed and ate some biscuits. Not very exciting ones just plain, but ate them because they were there. My second trigger alongside extreme tiredness.
What to do next time? Get organised earlier!!
www.EmmaBFitness.com
www.FabulousinaFortnight.co.uk
www.BoffosBootcamp.com
www.OptimisationPlan.com
www.7in7for7.co.uk
Up early this morning for my monthly trip to the Dog's Trust as a volunteer. I adore dogs and this is me doing my bit to help out. So a nice active morning walking and cleaning kennels.
I may be a fitness trainer but when I stay for a whole morning it totally wipes me out! Different kind of active to what I usually do. But today a bit less as I had a lot of work to do today.
But I did get to walk this STUNNING chap!
He was so chilled it took me twice as long to walk round the field. We even saw a rabbit and he was like...whatever ;)
Back home for my first meal, and had the other half of the fritatta I made yesterday with salad.
Training:
Workout 1: kettlebell conditioning
Filmed a ten minute blast of kettlebell and cardio exercises
Workout 2: heavy weights
Chest, triceps (back of the arm) and core
Trained with my male client who is on a muscle building mission and made me lift heavier than I would if I'd been on my own! The end of my arms for the next two days I reckon at least!
Had another slice of rye bread, hummus and tomatoes when I got home from training.
Dinner will be a home-made buffalo meat burger with stir fried veggies.
www.EmmaBFitness.com
www.FabulousinaFortnight.co.uk
www.BoffosBootcamp.com
www.OptimisationPlan.com
www.7in7for7.co.uk
Had the most horrendous nights sleep...if you can call it that.
Why is it that you can be falling asleep on the sofa, but when you go up to bed you can't sleep?
That was me. I went up to bed at 10.30pm and think I fell asleep about 3 hours later. I woke up about 3 times to go to the loo and just tossed and turned most of the night. I hate this. It doesn't set me up physically and mentally for the next day. Extreme tiredness makes me throw all goals aside and reach for the sugar...which is what happened today :(
Meals:
I had planned an intermittent fast, but after getting some provisions at Sainsburies, one of my fave treats landed in my trolley...Emma's home made rock buns! So that was breakfast, doh! (not all 4 btw!)
After that I took the dog out so got a 45 minute walk in, but was so tired it was an effort to put one foot in front of the other. Came back home and both myself and the dog collapsed for half hour. It did make me feel better and I recovered my blip with a healthy lunch. You see the day doesn't have to be written off completely.
I made an asparagus, red onion, red pepper, courgette and spinach frittata and had it with a little salad and sprouted mung beans.
I now have the other half all ready for brunch tomorrow. Planning to try and fast again. Will be easier as off to volunteer for the morning at the Dog's Trust, and try not to bring any home!
Had a small snack when I got in at 9pm. Too tired to make something properly and didn't want a belly full of food.
Just had a slice of rye toast with hummus and sliced tomatoes.
Not the most balanced eating today but it wasn't a complete right off. This important thing is to just keep going!
Training:
Joined in with my bootcampers with bodyweight, skipping and band pyramids. We all worked damn hard!
www.EmmaBFitness.com
www.FabulousinaFortnight.co.uk
www.BoffosBootcamp.com
www.OptimisationPlan.com
www.7in7for7.co.uk
Weight was back to 9st 6 this morning, what it was before the weekend's treats. This shows that as an eating for life strategy, you can get back on track with just a couple of days clean eating and drinking water following it.
However, if you have a lot of weight to lose, then it is far better to not deviate for a couple of weeks at least! If you have had a poor diet in a long time you will need to give your body a longer period of time to kick the toxins, unwanted water and fat cells out of your system.
Meals:
No breakfast today as doing an intermittent fast. I ended up eating really late last night so not actually hungry when I woke up, so just had a cup of herbal tea and started getting the water down me. First meal will be at 3pm, 17 hours after I ate my dinner.
Lettuce roll ups with chicken, hummus, tomato, cucumber and avocado
My colleague gave me these dried fruit mixes from his Graze boxes. Now although they are still a natural food, dried fruit is very high in sugar. Wasn't a great move eating them as all they did for me was leave me very bloated :(
Courgette spaghetti and lamb ragu
Training:
Feeling heavy in the legs today after the cardio resistance bootcamp session last night. So made today a rest day.
Rest days are just as important as the actual training as this is when you can heal and get stronger.
www.EmmaBFitness.com
www.FabulousinaFortnight.co.uk
www.BoffosBootcamp.com
www.OptimisationPlan.com
www.7in7for7.co.uk
After one more clean eating day my weight was back down to pretty much what it was before the weekend at 9st 6.4. Proof that you don't pile on fat in a weekend, it's all about levels of water in the body.
So cut out crap, reduce the starchy stodge and get drinking 1 litre for every 50lbs body weight. The first thing you can do to start getting healthy and lean!
Meals:
Usual smoothie ingredients except used more coconut milk. It was so rich and filling I could only get through half of it! So the rest went into the fridge for later on.
Back home later on I had the other half of the smoothie and a small meal as I was still not that hungry. It's important to listen to your body and not just eat because it's 'lunchtime'.
Cold chicken, cherry tomatoes and Moroccan topped hummus.
Grilled steak with steamed veg sprinkled with oregano
Still taking fish oils, zinc and vit d supplements and drinking my quota of water as much as I can. Takes a conscious effort to keep track though.
Am already organised for my meals tomorrow. Always try and have a rough plan and get anything out of the freezer that you might need.
Training:
Did a cardio and resistance training interval session with my bootcampers. And even though we were outside it was a sweaty one!
Still feeling determined! I WILL beat her!!
www.EmmaBFitness.com
www.FabulousinaFortnight.co.uk
www.BoffosBootcamp.com
www.OptimisationPlan.com
www.7in7for7.co.uk
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