Time to Shred It!

It's a only a month until Christmas, so I'm going to prioritise cardio fitness now that my eating is under control and my stress levels are way down. Although I am active every day for at least 30 minutes by power-walking, and always bring groceries home from the store on foot, it's really not enough to reshape my body. To maintain, yes; to change, no!

Consistency is key here: I need to exercise six days a week with one rest day. I've printed off a blank calendar, and I get a smiley face for every workout. Not much of an incentive, but it'll give me a certain satisfaction to see a month full of smileys. Outside the weather here is, uh, yucky to say the least. Rainy, grey, cold, a few snow flakes, some ice, so any exercise will have to take place indoors. Too slippery for much power-walking.

I seem to need direction and timed workouts these days. Not sure why, but anyway, Jillian Michaels is going to be my buddy on this ride since I already have some of her DVDs gathering dust on my shelf: 30 Day Shred, Shred-It with Weights, Banish Fat Boost Metabolism, Yoga Meltdown.

If I (or my knees) get tired of her, I have the Ultimate Body-Challenging Workouts for Weight Loss which in itself has a variety of workouts. And on my shelf there are other DVDs like Caribbean Workout - Kickboxing and Aerobics,  Mari Winsor Pilates, and a few other less intense workouts.

I do still have my elliptical and a Rebounder, so if I get bored in the middle of a workout, I can just pop down to the basement and go exercise on those. I already do maybe a few times a month, but that is definitely not enough to shred some of the fat off.

I've already started this morning with the 30 Day Shred, and had to make modifications but I didn't lose pace at all with the workouts. I sweated, and now I feel great. After the workout, I had a protein and fruit smoothie, and a small bowl of Bran Buds and oatmeal.

A small Non-Scale Victory, my man left some mango ice cream in the freezer a couple of weeks ago, and it is still there... untouched! Usually I would succumb to temptation and it'd be gone. But there are no cravings, even though I've passed through that time of the month. I'm not going to press my luck in this though. My food rules are still in effect: No junk in the house!! 

I'm still not confident I can handle a bag of chips or chocolate singing their siren-song from the pantry.

An Experiment

I've been bored as heck with my diet, and it didn't seem to be working for me,  so I signed up for a week-long plant-based regime with a nutritionist I know. Recipes were provided, as well as support. Some of the recipes were more complicated than I'm used to, and some of the ingredients unfamiliar like nutritional yeast!  One of the good tips was to eat until feeling 3/4 full, but it's sometimes a challenge to actually do. 

I'm happy to report I did feel good at the end of the week! Good energy through the day, no heartburn. Being lactose-intolerant, missing dairy was not an issue since I've eliminated a lot of it, or use alternatives. But I did miss eating fish and poultry... and the little bit bacon I do allow myself to have! Beef not so much, although I do like a good steak once in a while. 

After the week-long experiment was over, my man and I went out to a restaurant (not fast-food) for some fancy burgers. Oh boy, was I sick that night. Heartburn, bloat, the whole nine yards of digestive turbulence. He ate the same thing without any side-effects. 

This past week, I've been taking it easy, and not eating junk. Pumpkin and squash soups, buckwheat pancakes with berries, vegetarian chili, California rolls, roasted chick peas for snacking, grilled fish with roasted veggies.

Going forward, I'm certainly going to incorporate more vegetarian meals into my diet.

Weight this week has been bouncing from 194.5 to 191.7 lbs.