Whole 30, Day 19

This weekend has been pretty productive, and yes I was a bit lazy yesterday, and if by lazy you mean cleaning up the kitchen, cooking, meal planning, grocery shopping, kickboxing, and yoga, then yes I was a bit lazy for not posting. (oh and I caught an episode of Awkward on Hulu). Decided finally to get down to making this program work for me and not be so reliant on sugars even if from fruit to get through the day, and with the exception of the morning kombucha, I was pretty successful. Another thing which I forgot to post about was some food hacks I have learned through experimentation, and invention. I present to you some thing that I figured out to get iced coffee that is creamy without adding dairy. Hint, you buy this at the Vietnamese Grocery store, it is about $3. The reason why I say invention is that I noticed after I bought this that there was a sticker that said this product would need to be used by 3 days, and if you notice on the bottom, there is about 33 ounces of this.

Had to figure out some way to preserve this, naturally the freezer comes to mind so voila:

I have to give my bf credit for coming up with the idea of putting them into ice trays, but it was a very successfully executed experiment, more actions shots:

Not so sure what the calorie count is because the box did not have nutritional information, but according to MFP raw coconut cream is about 90 calories per tablespoon and that is high but not surprising since the coffee has a bit of an oil slick to it once the cubes have melted, kinda like an executive coffee vegan style.

So, one of the criticisms by the uninformed about the challenge is that it is an “Atkins apologist”. Now, this is kinda stupid. Yes, I have read stuff by Gary Taubes and others who promote eating mostly eggs, cheese, and lots of meat, and even tried it myself. It was not very pleasant for me, and needed some more carbs to make me not wanting to stab someone in the face with a fork. Now, I do agree with the carbohydrate curve, which according to MarksDailyApple.com is the notion to stay in the sweet spot of burning calories from fat and not sugar, you should stay under 100 grams of carbohydrate  and that is what I have been doing and what has really been working for me. 20 grams which is what Taubes recommends is pretty extreme and nearly impossible to eat any kind of vegetables, plus and I know this is TMI, it plugs you up like a damn stopper.  If you stay within the range of 50-100 grams, you can eat a lot more veggies and even a modest amount of fruits. I wanted to really show that my diet isn’t just a bunch of meat, in fact it mostly plant-based, but yes I have some yummy free-range and grass fed flesh to go with my greens:

In their full glory, sorry for the bad lighting:

Eating this way certainly is more visually appealing as you can see. It really does go back to the old saying “You are what you eat”. My skin and hair look more vibrant and I feel less sluggish than when I ate a diet rich in Vitamin TC (taco cabana I will always hold a place in my heart for you) As I have really been addicted to movement lately, posting this and  trying to wrangle all of these pictures in WP has been a bit of a challenge and equalled more ass in the chair time, so I must get up and do something, perhaps this will be a double post day, but probably not, much to restless for that!

Day Thirty

Wow, has it already been almost a month since I started my fitness blogging journey. It has been enlightening, just to think about all of my slip-ups (pre-whole 30, of course). Really needed to get those out of the way before I committed myself to the program, though. Also learning that I am a lot more sedentary that I would like to admit to myself. The numbers don’t lie, and if anything the FitBit is probably generous with steps given that it counts hooping as running, whoops. This just means that I have to become more aware when I begin to feel my butt molding to the chair (is this just me that has that sensation when sitting for long periods of time?) Since coming into the habit of writing everyday, the ideas begin to flow more easily, and surprisingly there are a lot more deeper issues in fitness (psychology of motivation, body issues, nutrition and the science of metabolism) that lend themselves to further pontification. Okay, you are just being flowery, now, but bitches love eloquence. Meals have been more of the same, liked the egg and avocado so much that I ate it last night for dinner:

The right-most one fell out so I had to set it back in the fruit once I took it out of the oven. 20 minutes is a bit too long for baking as you can see the bottom is a bit over-done for my liking, and learning that for best results, you should scoop out a little bit more of the fruit so that egg is snugly cradled in while baking and does not slip out as the bottom one has done, but not the top.  Still a great little meal that you can fix with minimal prep work. The fat from the avocado coupled with the protein from the egg makes it very satiating.

So, my boyfriend and I have this ritual going to gas stations to get our vices. Since we both stop drinking, he has resorted to just cigarettes and a “big soda”, read 32 ounces or more, screw NYC this is Texas, and as the cliché goes, EVERYTHING IS BIGGER.  Obviously in this program, sodas whether sweetened with aspartame or corn syrup are verboten, so that leaves me with the mineral/sparkling water. I have substituted soda in the past for this, and come to quite like it, last night, however I was feeling a bit sick of just drinking water. Yes, my sugar dragon isn’t quite slain. What could I do but try to get some alternative. Enter coconut water. This puppy had only about 11.5 ounces of liquid but was only 60 calories. Because I wanted the satisfaction of drinking a lot (hey as long as it isn’t alcohol, amirite?) I decided to treat myself to a San Pellegrino and diluted the coconut water a bit:

This “mocktail” was pretty tastey. The only thing I would have changed was that I used a little bit too much mineral water. Perhaps in the future, I would add pineapple juice to give it even more of a refreshing tropical finish. It was  bit like a water pina colada, and that sounds probably bad, but sometimes if you want just a taste of something without the ill effects, you have license to make a few substitutions. I know that may go against the spirit of Whole 30, but it really seems like if you deprive yourself of everything, you are going to be worse off in the long wrong. Hell, the fact that I have survived without my beloved bread or dairy (just in the fact that I despise coffee sans creamer) for 15 days is an accomplishment, and I am not opposed to celebrating accomplishments.

Oh, yeah I didn’t go to yoga class this morning, boo, but there is Metal \m/ tomorrow.  Time for my hourly walk around the building.  Enjoy some tunes:

Day Twenty-Eight

I have a confession to make. I occasionally look at thinspo. Yes, it is freaking horrible to my self-esteem, yes those pictures are probably of GIRLS who are 10-15 years younger than I am. It cascades into a flood of “if only”s and it further plunges me into depression, but I do it again and again. Giving up sugar has been wonderful for my body: I feel less sluggish and my skin looks brighter, but these images are basically mental sugar, it activates all the same reward centers in my brain, I guess in some weird aspirational way? Furthermore, let’s just go ahead and include the fitspo, because it is basically the same body fat percentage, but the latter just has a bit more muscle. There is a thinspo for every overly pointy joint connection in your body: hipbone, chest bones, shoulder blade. Yes, I have googled them all, but why?

Why do I torture myself like this? I am clearly never going to be an ectomorphic type naturally, and I love food too goddamned much to ever go full-on ana, but these images of perfect bodies doing ballet poses, or just high fashion black and white portraits of models makes me long  for a  svelter physique. I can’t help but wonder how many pounds I would have to shed.. 10… 15.. 20???? to get to the point where my upper arm is thinner than my elbow. How much suffering would I put myself through to finally be perfect, or would it just spiral into a full-blown eating disorder where even 90 pounds wouldn’t be good enough. It sounds awful, just from what I have read about anorexia and bulimia, but why in the world do I look at these images, then? Fittingly enough, I never went to that therapist’s appointment, maybe I am beyond help. Maybe, I don’t want help.

Still eating clean. Still going to yoga, not getting enough steps.

Day Twenty-Seven

Day 13 of the Whole 30 plan.  No posts on Sunday, but I  surprisingly didn’t fall off the wagon yesterday with the plan, but I did bust out the scale. 120! Only 10 more pounds until my goal weigh. I am not sure if I should go any lower than that, as that might be underweight for my height of 64 inches. I know some girls that are even smaller that go go dance, but really that is a younger persons game and I am not sure if that is even something I have the skills for, though I do love dancing, and I probably will do it until the day I die in my own living room.

I know, I know, that is not “allowed”  to look at the scale, but hell I wanted to see something that would make me happy after some stuff I would rather not get into, you know how that goes. Even negativity does not seem to faze me with my goals. So right now, I am ripping the workout DVD’s I have to mp4 format so I can view them on my iPad. In North Austin, there is a recreation center that has a free dance studio that would be perfect for hoopdancing (my apartment does not have high ceilings). Really gotten to my practice where I can get the hoop around all the points on my body: neck, hand, chest, shoulder, waist, upper legs, still need to work on the single legs, and then popping it back up to the hand and then back down to body hooping, really close to being showcase-worth, just need to create a cohesive routine and then I would be able to be a performer in that capacity. Hey, just because I am older, doesn’t mean my dreams are dead!

I just found out that Sacred Circularities is doing a scholarship contest for their retreat in Sedona on December 12th. I am not sure if I deserve something like that but would it be cool to meet likeminded people that just enjoy the flow of dancing. I better get to work on my picture and essay! I certainly have the writing skills, but do I have the hooping passion that others do. That certainly is the question.

Speaking of insane talent, this yoga video is really inspiring:

Crazy huh? Even though, I am not a fan of them, I am starting to get more into the Wood classes that my studio offers. They really help my poses get deeper, integrating yogic poses and hooping would be the coolest thing, I think just because they seem to be integrated (tree pose and one-legged hooping) but I haven’t really seen any one fully merge the two practices. Just have to take a rad picture of myself in the zone, man would it be cool to win this. Okay, enough day dreaming, back to reality:

this isn’t me, but it could have been!

Day Seventeen

Just gobbled a bunch of berries for breakfast. Day numero trois for the whole 30. Today, unlike yesterday was good for stress relief because I did make it after a 3 day break to yoga for the Metal (\m/) 60 class. Walking, walking walking to please my fitbit, but also snuck in some elliptical (it is all the same to its motion sensor). Would have done “Hot Cycle” but was a little bit too sweaty, so it was embarrassing , if you know what I mean. Still need to put in more strength training, as that always gets neglected, probably because I like to zone out and read articles/listen to music and you really can’t do that when you are pumping iron. Get it right, Lever.

Yesterday’s breakfast was easier than I thought it was going to be, given that it was at a local Mexican restaurant, but I managed to stay whole30 compliant by ordering the fajita omelet sans cheese, ranchero sauce on the side, and opting out of the tortillas, beans and potatoes that normally accompanies the dish. Still, I ate lots and lots of fruit, which probably means I am not becoming insulin adapted as the intention of the program is. It is all “good” sugar, though, and I move the equivalent of 5 miles everyday, maybe Melissa and Dallas would disagree, but I think I am counterbalancing the sugar with movement.  Speaking of sugars, namely the artificial ones, it is getting a lot easier to avoid the diet coke, and my beloved coffee is becoming easier to chug without diluting it with ice/cream/sweetener.  Overall, I say day two, despite the extra fruit was a success, and I have been eating a lot prettier to boot:

That was lunch: mashed avocados, strawberries, blueberries, and canned tuna. The tuna could have used some more seasoning, but overall a healthy and satisfying lunch. Ever battling the stress monsters, they seem to become less apparent when I bring order into my life. I do believe, again, that there is a certain harmonious atmosphere that order creates. Routine for me, is a bit blissful in that it creates a certain that limits the anxiety of having tasks/projects looming over you, also it brings about a sense of accomplishment even just completing certain tasks like straightening up. Maybe it is all in my head, but it certainly feels better to “take care of business” as it were.

Let me here your body talk, your body talk. If I haven’t mentioned this already, I had to hide my scale in the closet because I would weigh myself multiple times a day, and the Whole30 forbids that. Don’t know if the program is making me lose weight or not, but I definitely thing my stomach is looking more toned.  Struggling through my own insecurities in yoga this morning. This is super silly, but I get really self-conscious about going to the class with all of these skinnier chicks. I am no Moby Dick, but even the teacher today was rather svelte and I felt like a giant Pear in comparison.  Hips, for crying out loud, what the hell is wrong with hips??? Could just be the caffeine on an empty stomach giving me strange fixations, but now that I am not in the room focused on looking at these other chicks, quick where is the tumblr thinspo??,  I feel a bit better. As obnoxious as I am sounding right now, I’d like to have a smaller trunk, hopefully I will be nice and tiny like a dancer at the end of this program.

 

Day Nine

After a wrenching of emotions, the saga continues.  Focus Pocus, the brain fog clouds the way of any concentration these days. More poses, very sweaty, little motivation other than this blog, however. I keep hoping that one day I will wake up one day excited about working out, but you are doing well just getting me out of bed at 6am. As it turns out, walking 10k steps requires a lot more than just walking around the work building every day once an hour. It really takes an effort to get over 5 miles. I did it yesterday just in the morning by walking around the apartment complex I don’t know how many times, and ultimately I got 15,000 steps by the end of the day. Yay for me!

Plenty of hydration, diet has kinda sucked. Not eating enough calories, but what is new. Not much insight into that, really. Day 2 or 3 without having a diet coke. No smoking. Eating lots of yogurt, which reminds me that I haven’t had a proper lunch today. Could be the cause of this mysterious cloudy mind.  Sleep has been easy. Experts say you should have an electronic curfew, but what if you actually like going to sleep with the TV on, I find the antics of Micheal Scott and Dwight Shrute to be a charming way to drift to sleepyville, yes, zzzzzz, indeed.

I have no affiliation with BodyRock, but I have been following this as a plan pretty rigorously, hey the price is right!  One of the hosts, Lisa, posted a video on her fanpage about being consistent with your diet and workout plans. It really is simple but it requires a habit shift. I have been doing a lot more with yoga and walking, but for these workouts it is just a matter of wanting or not wanting to. Again, I can’t really say that I want to, but I want to write, and other than this journey, things are just not that exciting for me, so this is something that maybe people will want to listen to or maybe not, either way, typing along like an exercise machine!

Today’s BR workout was pretty boss, could not seem to really get as high as I wanted on the jumps. Here are my scores:

1) Surfer kick out 2 jump squats 2 tuck jumps [4, 2,2]

2) 5 Mountain Climbers 5 Star Jumps [3, 2,2]

3) 2 Forward Lunges 2 squat and press 2 upright rows (no sandbag) [6, 3,3]

4) 2 pushups come up to a burpee 1 tuck jump [2., 2, 3]

Every day I am getting better.

Day Eight

Fueled by caffeine and Emergen-C.

Bikram yoga was amazing as usual. I really feel a connection with my body and some pleasant side-effects have emerged. My body image has improved. Yesterday in class I was kinda feeling a bit insecure compared to some of the other skinnier chicks to the side of me. This has been a common problem of mine, even with the weight loss, I have been Goldilocks-ing myself into some serious insecurity. I can’t just believe that my body as it shrinks (namely my booty and boobies) is “just right” by my, ahem society’s, standards. That really sucks, too. Becoming more focused with my body and how it performs in certain asanas such as reverse table top, and bridge poses really sweat away any doubt I had brought about by my fake inadequacies.

Less impressed with the Wood 60 class than I am with the Fire. The Wood class was more Pilates based, which I suppose is good, but the temperature was not as hot and the focus was on the smaller muscle groups, where I am more about the explosive movements in Fire. I am looking toward doing the other classes, just have to balance my schedule of other classes with work. Neither the Wood nor the Fire classes had what I would consider inversion poses, which I have read are super awesome. William Broad would disagree, but with anything, don’t be an idiot. You can be injured driving a car, if you are careless, should you swear off driving, probably not. My yoga experience today was unfortunately punctuated by a talking-to by my instructor. After not being able to shower yesterday after class (both people were occupying the two showers), in the final corpse pose, I left early to dibs on the shower.  Well, I suppose that is bad yoga etiquette, and I should have just stayed. Ironically enough, no one needed the shower today in the morning class. So, I guess I will either have to find a way to not shower (ew), or avoid the lunch time classes from now on.

Day Six

Oh so exhausted, and it is barely 9:30. Who has two thumbs and worked out twice today? This gal! Feeling really accomplished from getting up at 6:30 am this morning and then getting my cycle on in spin class. The most effective way to do something is really just to do it. Writing about what you plan to do is no good, and psychology affirms this. Wish I had more things to say. Need to put a point by point outline. Organization. RaRaRa.. Fitness! Just real tired, *yawn*.

The FitBit arrived and pretty excited to use that. 10 floors of steps seems like a lofty goal, but it would be achievable for restroom breaks and the ridiculous amount of water I have been drinking lately, but probably sweated out a least a liter this morning and evening. Oh, the 5:15 wake up will be awful tomorrow, but if I make it to the bed by 10:30 tonight, will get a good 7 hours of sleep. Not sure about other people, but it seems like I only need about that much lately, even with achieving beast mode status at the gym.

I really can’t say enough good things about the classes I have been taking. Super motivating and super challenging, but I don’t think I am over-training. Emergen-C has really been a life-saver after the workouts and only has about 30 calories, which makes it a lot smarter to have as opposed to the typical sports drink which is comparable to a damn soda. No diet sodas for me today, btw. Another small victory, but still a long way to go.

So, really going to get more experience using the FitBit before giving a thorough evaluation from my oh so authoritative position. It’s funny because it isn’t true!

Day Four

Sweaty like Woah. Well, right now, clean from the shower, but man was I dripping this morning. If you have never tried it, give Bikram Yoga a shot. But, what about your low tolerance for such bullshit? Okay, most yoga does not do it for me in a sense of challenge and strength, but this class entitled “Fire 60” from Sunstone Yoga really pushed my limits. Even if it was just a placebo/sauna effect, it worked! Even though I would never give up my beloved coffee, in fact I had a “Mocha Lite” Grande Frappucino before the class, but starting to understand why people go on detoxes, now, even if it should just be called fasts.

Sleep was pretty awesome last night. Only woke up about a few times and had some wicked cool dreams about teleportation and time travel. On a semi-related note, does anyone get the sense that processed or fast food contributes to vivid/weird dreams. Made the connection with nightmare and ramen noodles a while back, I am thinking the fact that I had a WhataChickn salad (don’t judge) made me have them. They weren’t nightmares, but very strange! I teleported to China, which my conscious mind has acknowledged for a while a desire to go to Asia, and not just for Puroland!  Food connecting with sleep kind of goes back to my holistic assertion regarding well being, but I would also add that the five things are all interconnected. Ugh, is it too late to get a BS, or perhaps MS, hell why not a PhD, in Nutrition? One of my advisers mentioned that going back for a degree is like having children, you don’t realize how bad it is until you are going through it. I cannot speak for the childbearing, but even trying to blog every day has been a challenge (a good one) so trying to focus that energy into thesis material and conforming to academic standards is not the most pleasurable of activities unless you are into that sort of thing.

Day Three

It is a beautiful morning in Austin TX, you know before it approaches triple digits during the middle of the day! 14 more pounds until my GW, as suspected just needed to do some penance from my Sunday brunch to get the weight back down to desired. No drinks or dining this weekend (nevermind the fact that I would be too broke anyway!) “CHAOS” class from CGArena was terrible wonderful. Strangely enough way more sore in the hamstrings then the upper body, but really achey all over, that’s good, right?

It sucks that they are so expensive, though, the LivingSocial deal allowed me to have 20 classes for only $29, but it would normally be around $65, so that is obviously a bit out of my budget. At any rate, I will be able to take 19 more classes this month and enjoy the benefits and then continue with my at-home fitness. Following my motto, “sweat every day”, looking forward to some strength training plus boxing at 6:00 pm. Yay, the fitbit finally shipped, hopefully Monday it will finally be here.

Sleep, what can I say about it that is interesting? Weird dreams and waking up thorughout the night. Getting 7ish hours is pretty good, wish I could have made it to the 6am cycle class, but I felt like nailed to my bed this morning, gotta love those DOMS. As I have gotten older the idea of waking up at 5:00 actually does appeal to me. The night owl thing is okay when you are in college, but really what is there to do after midnight besides watch Netflix or drink (or both)? However, being an early riser is challenging, especially in the summer. There is daylight until 9 pm, and so you get to enjoy about one hour of nightfall before you have to sleep at 10, and with that schedule you only get 7 hours, so it is tough, but this may be all that I need.

So, I need to get back to work, and I guess tomorrow after hot yoga/cycling, I will discuss stress reduction!