Whew! It has been awhile since I’ve posted. I’m trying to be faithful with my food but am doing a better job with my workouts. The food is by far the hardest part for me right now and can undo all my great progress if I’m not consistent. I’m getting down to my last 10 lbs which is the hard part. I have an active appetite which rarely slows down, lol. But I feel a lot better when I eat right.
My nephew had a pizza party for his birthday and I planned an indulgence for that night so I could enjoy a slice or two without guilt. They ordered Pizza Hut, my childhood favorite. But I had been eating clean for so long, it didn’t even taste good to me. Shocker! It didn’t taste terrible, it was just not the “I have to eat another slice because it’s so good even though I’m not hungry” feeling that I’m used to. And I love being lactose intolerant, because it makes it easy for me to say no to ice cream, even though it was my former favorite food.
I do way better with my food when I photograph it and post here. I tend to grab more tastes of things passing by when I know I don’t have to write it down. It feels overwhelming right now with all our other projects going on (We are planning a huge main floor remodel of our house and picking out stuff, talking with contractors, thinking about budgets, and worrying about where we will sleep, cook and eat while it’s all going on. Great fun! But stress too.)
Workouts: I’ve been able to up my weights to 15 lb dumbbells for overhead moves like overhead presses. And am up to 20 lb dumbbells for dead lifts, squats, and rows. I feel like I can up those to 25 lbs next week since I can feel everything getting easier. I’m doing my push-ups on a weight bench and can only do 3 sets of 8 right now. I don’t have my elbows as far back as I’d like. It’s more a T than a 45 degree angle. My triceps are still very weak and I need to work on that.
I haven’t lost sight of my goals to do 20 burpees in a row and 1 pull-up. I’ve started adding some pull-down finishers to build up the muscles I need to do pull-ups. I’d like to add some reverse pull-ups on alternate days too. I’ve waited so long to start this that I may not be able to do a pull-up by the end of the challenge but it will happen eventually. I already tried an assisted pull-up with my knees in a resistance band, but it was still too difficult.
The burpees are another story. I’ve learned how to do them more correctly, but I may have a health issue that makes this more complicated than I first thought. I have very low blood pressure and usually black out several times a week. The quick head up head down movements of the burpees give me a terrible headache. At first I thought it was just my needing to get more fit, but after some research it looks like it may be caused by my blood pressure issues and not as easily overcome. I’m abandoning this goal for now until I get some more answers on my heart and blood pressure issues.
As far as my weight goes, I’d feel super pumped about this challenge if I could drop below 140 lbs. That would only be a loss of 5 lbs over a 12 week period, but I’ve also been gaining huge amounts of muscle–so overall the fat loss would be greater than the scale shows. Anyway, 139 is a psychological hurdle that I’d love to break. It’s been taunting me for about a year and I’m ready to climb that mountain.
There’s only 2 weeks left in the challenge and I mean to give it my all. I worked out a new menu for this week based on what I have on hand and a few things I need to grab at Aldi tomorrow. It seems to be simpler on paper than it is in real life–like today, I ended up eating lunch at Mom’s. She had grilled chicken with tossed salad and fresh fruit on it for me–which was awesome and perfect for my plan. It just wasn’t on my list :). Mom had the same thing minus the chicken. I wish I could make her understand the role of protein in weight loss. I nagged her about it quite a big and she finally said, “I’ll have a protein shake later.” But she needed the chicken at lunch AND a protein shake later. She is so frustrated with not losing weight, but doesn’t want to hear from me about it, lol.
Here’s my plan for this week. I just did 7 breakfasts, snack1’s, lunches, snack 2’s and dinners all in a row. I taped it on my kitchen wall and when it’s time to eat just pick one from the appropriate meal and then cross it off. Oh, and my workout recover shake is 1 cup unsweetened almond milk with 1 scoop of Healthy N’ Fit anabolic muscle in chocolate. Sometimes I add a tsp of instant coffee if my blood pressure is low. It is making a big difference in my recovery and muscle building. I love it! I buy it from netrition.com which has the best price I could find. I only drink it after a weight lifting session–not an aerobic one.
B: Chunky Monkey Smoothie
B: 2 eggs with peppers and spinach
B: Chocolate strawberry Smoothie
B: Blueberry Oat Custard
B: Protein Pancakes with Yogurt and Fruit
B: Veggie Omelet
S: Peanut butter yogurt and chopped apples
S: Workout recovery shake
S: Celery, PB and raisins
S: Workout recovery shake
S: Carrots and Hummus
S: Workout recovery shake
S: Yogurt and strawberries
L: Burrito bowl: 1/2 c rice; 4 oz shredded beef; 2 cups lettuce; 1/4 c salsa
L: Egg salad on a low carb wrap
L: Spaghetti squash with turkey sausage and Italian veggies
L: Chicken caesar salad
L: BBQ turkey burger; 1/2 a baked sweet potato; steamed green beans (I like the organic frozen ones from Costco.)
L: Ham and string cheese with spinach on a low carb wrap (with dijon mustard); 1 c grapes
L: Salmon filet; 1/2 c brown rice; steamed broccoli
S: String cheese; 1/2 oz dry roasted edamame; 2 Tbs raisins
S: Apple slices and 2 Tbs peanut butter
S: Protein chicken noodle soup (from Dr.Tague)
S: Tuna and nut thins
S: Protein Pancakes and yogurt with fruit
S: 1 oz edamame; 1/4 c raisins
D: Chicken and grape salad; 1 orange
D: Chicken with chopped apple and sliced almonds over a bed of lettuce
D: Chicken spinach strawberry salad
D: Burrito bowl (See above)
D: Pizza Stir Fry
D: Turkey Hot Dog; Sweet Potato Chips; Raw Veggies and Hummmus (PI meal)
D: PI Basket Dinner at Church (Make good choices, please :).)
If you are still reading after the blah, blah, blah so far, here’s my food for today:
