Thursday 27 October 2011

Takin' charge

I haven't posted for ages cuz work and uni have been really busy, but I've been doing quite a lot health-wise since S&S. I bought two sessions of Ultrasound Fat Cavitation (http://www.ayurvespa.com.au/service/ultrasound_fat_reduction/) through one of the coupon sites and had my treatments over the last two weeks. Before I went I was really sceptical about it and didn't see how it could possible work, but now that I've had them I actually think it has worked and reduced my waist by several cms. They measure you before and after each treatment and each time I lost 2-3cms and then during the week after the first treatment I lost a further 2cms. After each treatment you have to avoid caffeine and alcohol and try to eat a low fat diet, obviously this will also help with weightloss, but I think the treatments really do help to kick it along. I'm considering buying a couple more if they come up on the coupon sites again.

The other major thing I'm in the process of doing is trying out Crossfit. Rob and Ken have been doing it for ages and it's completely re-shaped Ken's body (obviously in conjunction with diet) - that boy has abs now! Rob has been trying to convince me to do it for ages and other than fear, the main thing that was stopping me was money, but then I figured that I had been looking at joining a gym or doing PT anyway and Crossfit is heaps cheaper than PT and is more interesting, and gets better results than plugging away at the gym a few times a week, so why not! So I've booked in my first PT session with them for next Thursday (you have to do 3 PT sessions and then you can do the normal classes). I spent hours last night looking at videos on the website and I have to say I'm quite scared, but at the same time it will be interesting to see if I can do any of it and it will be a huge challenge and will hopefully help me get over this plateau I've been on for ages. I am still thinking about doing a half marathon sometime in the future, so improving my fitness to that level would be awesome. I will keep you posted on how I go!

In terms of diet I've been pretty good lately, helped by the fat cavitation thing obviously, but also I've been really trying to stick to the primal/paleo type of diet, which I generally find quite easy, other than when I reaaaaally want pizza, or bagels, or something! Now that I've discovered cauliflower rice I think I will be able to adapt a lot of normal recipes to fit in with that, if I could just find some kind of bagel flavoured vegetable then I'd be sorted. My favourite website is Mark's Daily Apple, it has tons of info and a huge long list of great recipes, nothing I've tried off there hasn't worked out - http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101/.

My weight today is 74.6kg, which is awesome, however, it was 75kg the day before and 75.2kg the day before that, so I am sceptical that I've lost that much in 3 days!! Oh well, I'll see how it is next week.

Anyway, just wanted to give an update, stay tuned for my adventures with Crossfit!

Thursday 20 October 2011

As promised.. photos!

As promised, here are some photos of the latex dress I was trying to squeeze into with the dieting. Totally failed the diet, but luckily the dress already fitted before that so I just looked a bit more lumpy than I would have liked! 

Apologies for the quality of the photos, the iphone 3 camera is shocking. The more observant amongst you might notice that these are from different times, the first one is from ages ago.. I actually look thinner here but I think it's also just the angle. The second one is from after S&S, all my polish has worn off so I look a bit dull :/


Wednesday 5 October 2011

Day 37 (Wednesday) - Final weigh-in day.. epic failure!

So.... final weigh-in day before Saints and Sinners and I can quite safely say that this whole exercise has been an epic failure!!

Starting weight: 75.8kg
Final weight: 75.7kg
Lowest weight during the last 5 weeks: 74.4kg
Days to S&S: 2

Total weight loss in 37days: 0.1kg.. aka 100grams! ..So probably nothing really if you take into account the inaccuracy of the scales and the tiny amount of water required to add or subtract this amount!!!

So, what went wrong? Lots of things I think. Weekends were dreadful due to bad food choices, excessive drinking and no exercise, a general lack of exercise when I was sticking to really low carb levels, pms bingeing  this week has been really bad, but I've also done a lot more exercise in the last two weeks, including lots of weight lifting.. but not enough to make up for the calories I've been eating.  I need to just eat with more awareness and not give in to temptation so often and also make sure I have good food choices on hand so that I don't end up eating crap.

Despite not actually losing any weight, I do feel more toned from just doing all the exercise I have done in the last 2 weeks, it's possible that I have lost fat and just put on muscle, but who knows. I should really have taken measurements at the start as well as weight.

From now on I'm going to focus less on the number on the scales and more on becoming fitter and gaining muscle and losing fat before summer. I want to get back up to running 10kms, which I really can't do if I stick to really low levels of carbs. The paelo/primal type diet makes the most sense to me (best website ever: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101/), although I will still eat carbs on occasion, just not all the time and I'll try to make better choices when I do eat them. Currently I'm only really eating them one meal a day (excluding non-starchy vegetables) and that is going fine and I don't feel deprived (pms related chocolate cravings not withstanding!)

I also think extreme calorie counting and always talking about it makes you really obsessive about food, which is crazy and makes you a really boring person as well. I'm just going to focus on trying to be generally more healthy instead, so I'll keep blogging but just without the count down and the extreme food detail.

Saints and Sinners is Friday and I'm going to wear the latex dress and I'm going to look hot anyway, and yes maybe I'll post a photo ;P

Day 36 (Tuesday)

I'm being slack at posting on time this week.

Breakfast: 2 slices of toast with avocado (best breakfast ever), coffee with skim milk - 151cal, 66.2g carb.

Snack: Dried fruit and nuts - 92cal, 8.7g carb.

Lunch: Salad and a lentil burger patty with laughing cow cheese - 245cal, 35.5g carb.

Snack: 1 kiwi fruit - 39cal, 6.8g carb.

Snack: Mandarin - 62cal, 12.1g carb.

Dinner: Pork and vegetable red curry, 1 macaroon, 2 chocolate coated strawberries and 1/8 tub of phish food ice cream - 848cal, 53.5g carb.

I suspect the chocolate related binge was due to PMS, even though I'm skipping it this month, based on all the things that have been going on this week I think I still get mood swings and cravings. Yay being a girl!

Even with the binging I didn't go to over my calorie limit, way over on carbs though.

Total calories: 1800
Total carbs: 182.8g
Exercise: 60mins walking - 252cal

Final calories: 1548
Calorie balance: -188
Carb balance: -82.8g



Monday 3 October 2011

Day 35 (Monday)

Pretty good day today, other than eating super sweet American cereal for breakfast (USA foods is BAD).

I stuck within my calorie limit though and did over an hours worth of exercise all up, so I'm feeling good. The number on the scales might be up but I feel a lot healthier if I'm exercising.

Breakfast: Lucky charms and milk, coffee with milk - 269cal, 47.6g carb.

Snack: Laughing cow cheese - 29cal, 0.9g carb.

Snack: Lettuce and cottage cheese - 21cal, 0.8g carb.

Lunch: Beef and broccoli stir fry with oyster sauce - 468cal, 23.6g carb.

Snack: Dried fruit and nuts - 115cal, 10.8g carb.

Snack: Muesli bar - 104cal, 16.5g carb.

Dinner: Steamed zucchini and broccoli with left over tuna pasta sauce from yesterday, 2 glasses red wine - 448cal, 21.4g carb.

Dessert: 2 chocolate covered strawberries and vanilla yogurt with raspberries - 177cal, 27.9g carb.


Total calories: 1631
Total carbs: 149.5g
Exercise: 30mins walking, 30mins heavy weights and 10mins abs - 397cal

Final calories: 1234
Calorie balance: 126 (WOO! Doesn't quite make up for how many I went over by on the weekend but in the black is still good!)
Carb balance: -49.5 (Not so bad, could have cut out the muesli bar and I definitely didn't need the lucky charms)

Sunday 2 October 2011

Day 33 and 34 (Saturday and Sunday) - sugar-fest

This weekend was pretty bad, although I did exercise every day, which is good at least.

On Saturday I went to Red Hill market and ate way too much lunch and bought chocolate pudding and chocolate and butterscotch sauce and then went to USA foods and stupidly bought more chocolate related food!

I also ate a lot of dessert this weekend, which is weird because I'm not really a sugar-fiend so I'm not sure what was going on. PMS maybe? Although even then I don't generally go nuts on sugar or pudding, just chocolate.

Saturday


Breakfast: Omelette and coffee with skim milk - 185cal, 6.3g carb (totally should have skipped breakfast in hindsight but I get grumpy if I don't eat so maybe it was for the best, there were lots of kids at Red Hill!)

Food at Redhill: Thai chicken curry pie - 502cal, 39.6g carb (I was intending to get calamari but it was too expensive so I got this pie instead, bad choice, it wasn't that good).

Lunch at Mornington: Spinach and ricotta canelloni with 1 piece of bread and a coffee - 492cal, 60g carb.

Snack: 1 slice ham - 108cal, 0g carb.

Dinner: Pizza - 814cal, 121.9g carb.

Dessert: 1/3rd tub Ben and Jerry's phish food ice cream - 371cal, 59.4g carb.

Total calories: 2472
Total carbs: 287.1g
Exercise: 40mins jogging - 463cal

Final calories: 2009
Calorie balance: -649
Carb balance: -187.1g

Sunday


Breakfast: Natural muesli, low fat yogurt and strawberries and coffee with skim milk - 432cal, 72.9g carb

Lunch: Pizza - 401cal, 57.7g carb.

Snack: Chocolate pudding and butterscotch sauce - 545cal, 75.6g carb.

Dinner: Wholemeal pasta with a tuna, tomato, onion and corn sauce - 333cal, 45.7g carb. 1/2 bottle red wine - 293cal, 0g carb.

Dessert: Sticky date pudding and ice cream - 540cal, 61.9g carb.

Total Calories: 2545
Total Carbs: 313.7g
Exercise: 40mins jogging - 463

Final Calories: 2082
Calories balance: -722
Carb balance: -213.7g

Fucking terrible weekend! Seriously over my calorie and carb limit every day. Can't keep doing this..





Day 32 (Friday)

Today was a write-off as excepted.

Breakfast: Natural muesli, low fat vanilla yogurt and strawberries and a coffee with skim milk - 423cal, 71.4g carb.

Work football morning tea: 1 curry puff, 1 mini hot dog, 1 ricotta pastry and some fruit - 372cal, 174.2g carb.

Lunch: 1 terriyaki chicken sushi roll and a magnum ice-cream - 487cal, 57.1g carb.

Snack: Dried fruit and nuts - 92cal, 8.7g carb.

Dinner: Parma, 2 pints of cider, 1 pot of cider and a glass of white wine - 1358cal (!!! a whole days worth), 97.3g carb.

Chocolate substitute: Jarrah chocolatte and low fat milk - 83cal, 12g carb.

Total calories: 2814
Total carbs: 282.6g
Exercise: 32mins jogging -370cal

Final calories: 2443
Calories balance: -1083
Carb balance: -182.6g