Chinese food and legs

I have done really well with the meal plan of this program (which, to be perfectly honest, is a welcome surprise for me).

And it sucks.

I went to the coast with out of town family and ate a salad out of tubberware while every one else had local seafood.

Same family sat around a table of Chinese food last night while I sipped water.

Our society bonds over food, and it suuuuuucks to have to sit on the sidelines. It isn't 100% about missing out on the food itself (....that's part of it. Beer battered calamari? Sesame chicken? GAH!), but it feels rude and outcasty to have to refuse food that someone is offering you.

At this point, I feel that when this is over I'll be SO glad to be able to participate with those around me. On the same hand though, I also sit back and recognize how much of that food I would be shoveling in my face, and I think I'll be much wiser about portion control and moderation and all that crap when I'm finished with this.

Moving on!

I got back from my leg workout yesterday, collapsed on the couch, butt twitching. Holy hell. I've wanted to post some workout-y stuff on here (Duh. Workout blog.) but, like I've mentioned before, I also want to respect my trainer's profession and don't want to give away all her secrets for free on the interwebz! I think a fair compromise is to post just the exercises, but not any of the numbers. Most stuff is done with supersets. One set of the first exercise immediately followed by a set of the second (etc), THEN rest. Superset = /

Leg Press/pop squats (plyos. Near barf at the end of just about every set)

Weighted step ups on a bench/lunge (oh hello, quivering cramping ass!)

Butt press/lateral jump/wide stance squat jump (Do I have Heidi Klum's butt YET?!)

Standing calf raise/seated calf raise (I have cows, not calves, so when they cramp up the world ENDS)

I worked my ass off. Literally. There were times when I felt like I was kind of actually drunk!! It went beyond hurting to sorta numb and I almost felt disconnected from my body. I have a hard time focusing on high rep work, so I think it was a good thing. I just tuned out and kept pushing. Not so tuned out, though, that I wasn't paying attention to form. No need for silly injuries!

Anyway, it's nice to be working hard again. It's been a while. I like having a trainer to hold me accountable for my workouts and diet. This is a huge challenge for me and I'm diggin it!

Week 2 check in:

Total weight: -4 lbs
Total inches: -4.5 inches

Week 1 Check In

Weight: -2.5 lbs
Total inches: -2.5 inches

Not bad for one week!

I had my cheat meal on Saturday night. Chicken pesto pizza, garlic cheese bread, and  a little red wine. While it tasted FAB, it totally ripped my stomach up. Psh, my stomach thinks it's all healthy now and can't hand handle pizza?! Might have to reconsider some of my grease filled fatty cheat meals I have in mind for the future.

Other than my cheat meal, my saturday eating was thrown off a bit. It's a lot harder when I'm up at my boyfriends. I brought all of my own food for the weekend, so I wouldnt have to worry about whether or not they had exactly what I needed. I also didn't need to worry about weighing my food. I even brought my scale, tape measure, camera and computer to make sure I could do my check in to Abby on time. Talk about a bag lady.

I had assumed that my cheat meal would be Saturday lunch. I went horseback riding with my grandpa on Saturday, and he usually likes to go out to eat when I'm around, so I planned accordingly. Well we didn't! So I ended up eating the dinner I had packed for Saturday for lunch, and we went over to some friend's house for cheat dinner.

In the mix, I also missed my afternoon snack and was still so full when we got home that I skipped my protein shake before bed. Certainly  not my best day, but I know that there is going to have to be a  little give when I'm up there. I can't adjust to changes as well when I pack food and go away. I was good about sticking my morning snack in my purse while we were out and about, but didn't remember to do the same with the afternoon snack. Lesson learned!

We do lots of running around up there. Just going to the store can turn into an all afternoon run-around, which is fine, but I need to take that possibility into account before we leave.

New fun things!!!!

As I was deadlifting at the gym yesterday, scraping the crap out of my shins, which now look like they belong on a clumsy 5 yr old, I decided I had had enough.

I saw these socks a while ago (ps-that website. Omg. I WANT IT ALL.), and put them on the list of things I would reward myself with during the span of this program. "Don't reward yourself with food, you aren't a dog", I saw on trusty Pinterest. Huh....they've got a point. I decided I'd reward myself with workout clothes!!

I'm not sure that a reward is justified 6 days in, but eff it! My shins NEEEEEEDED these, obvs. Plus, they're clearly 100% awesome and need to live with me.

So now they're mine.

Both colors.

Oops.

Lunch Woes

On Day 6 of my meal plan, I'm happy to say that I haven't cheated one little bit. It's mostly decent enough, and I eat every 3 hours, so I don't really get a chance to get hungry enough to want to snack.

But lunch.

I choke down lunch every day, because I haven't been able to figure out how to sufficiently make it not gag-worthy.

My options are:

tuna or chicken
bread or grains (rice, quinoa, etc)
almonds or mayo
and a large garden salad with no dressing.

(NO DRESSING. I usually just use balsamic vinegar, but PLAIN?! Blech)

I usually take my choices and toss them all in to make one big salad. It's still far from enjoyable. The mayo I'm allowed isn't quite enough to wet the tuna, and I can't seem to make my chicken so it isn't as dry as the damn Sahara.

I'm allowed lemon and spices, so I made a lemon garlic aoili with the mayo and use that as a dressing. It's a small enough amount of mayo that it just barely wets the dish. It's far from mayo-y (I never had mayo prior to this).

I need to put my thinking cap on and get creative, within my parameters, so my lunches don't suck quite so much....suggestions?

(guess which meal I'm 100% likely to use my cheat meal on? Romantic dinner? Hell no. LUNCH. Every time. )

On the workout front, I'm sore as helllllll!!! But that's to be expected. I'm surprised at how weak I am at some stuff, but I have to remind myself that I need to just suck it up, scale it back, and work to my current capabilities. It will get better, and I will get stronger.

I'm trying to only get on my scale once a week, for my progress reports to Abby, so I'm interested to see what it says on Saturday.

Back to Black

I asked Abby what my rules were for coffee and tea, and she told me "in moderation" and mentioned that I was allowed up to to 2 packets of Splenda a day.

Artificial sweeteners.

Barf.

I assumed that meant no half and half. I don't put much in my coffee, but a dollop of creamer and about a half tsp of sugar do just the trick.

I want to stick to her rules as closely as I can, so I figured I'd just drink tea. I like that plain, and it has a little caffeine.

But tea isn't coffee, which I started to  miss.

I LIKE my coffee, not even just for the caffeine aspect! I thought I'd teach myself to like black coffee. I've tried before, but it's just so bitter and blech!! My boyfriend, LeGreg, bought some vanilla flavored coffee this weekend, which smelled amazing. Coffee never tastes just as it smells, though,  unfortunately.

Right when it hit my tongue, it was bitter city. Then it would mellow out. It was NOT enjoyable.

I should note that he bought a cheapy bag of Dunkin Donuts coffee. Cheap coffee doesn't always taste the best anyway, so maybe it was that.

This morning I put just the tiniest sprinkle of splenda in my black coffee at work and....SUCCESS!! It takes just the edge off the bitterness, leaving the coffee flavor that I love.

The beginning!

I received my meal plan and workouts on Tuesday. As check-ins are on Saturdays, I assume that I don't REALLY start until this Sat. This works out really well for me because my best friend is moving across the country this week. This is her last week at our job, and there are lots of celebratory food eating events to see her off.

This also gives me a chance to get familiar with the workouts and start following (mostly) the meal plan. 

The workouts are mostly mon-fri, a mix of machines, kettlebells, and free weights/barbell stuff. I was quite relieved to see that I only have one weekend workout, and it's a running sort of deal. This makes things MUCH less complicated when I'm visiting my boyfriend on the weekends. I was a little nervous about having to find a gym up there. 

My meal plan is 6 meals a day, most of which include a carb and a protein. I have some options, but I'll need to get creative! Free use of herbs/spices and lemons will have to come into play. I do get one cheat meal a week, which I will be fully taking advantage of!

Epic timing- I was gifted a Costco card on the same day I got my meal plan. I now own more oatmeal than I will probably ever eat in my entire life. 

I saw a need for change, and I took the step to hire someone to help me with it, knowing that I'm in a rut and wasn't much help to myself. 

I really want to be successful. 

And I will be. 

My goal is to focus on every DAY. Don't worry about how I have 5 days until I get another cheat meal (or whatever). Just focus on successfully getting through the current day and leave tomorrow til tomorrow. 

Also-I won't be documenting every meal or workout. It isn't fair to my trainer if I put all of her hard work on the internet for all to find for free. This is something that she does for a living, and I fully plan to respect that.