Eat a lot, drink tea, and be merry

All the way around the track.  Don't forget to jog!  Thats what I did yesterday and I've lost a half pound.  Over all, life is good.  I'm enjoying my workouts.  I'm looking forward to tomorrow's jog.  I have officially graduated from wogging to primarily jogging.  Tomorrow its a 5 minute warm up walk followed by 20 minutes of jogging then a 5 minute cool down.  I have created my own tune mix for my iPod.  Its sunny.  The weather is perfect.  I am prepared.  I am working on my mental outlook.  Its an exhausting prospect unto itself.

Monday

I over came the urge to stay in bed this morning.  Yahoo!  I went out for my week 5 of the couch to 5k program.  This was a challenging workout.  I did not make it through the third jog without a short rest.  The rest of the week is intimidating.  I should have 8 minutes of straight jogging on Wednesday. On Friday, its the big 2 0.  Wow.  20 minutes of running/jogging without stopping.  I will do my best.  I will keep a slower, steady pace and hope that works.  I did 20 minutes of yoga afterwards.  I would have done more but my computer crashed and I was streaming the video off of Netflix.  

This morning's eats consisted of steel cut oatmeal, strawberries, coconut oil, protein powder, 1/2 a grapefruit.  Before my workout I had 1 ounce of peanuts.  That worked out really well because they don't fill my stomach up but have carbs, fats, and protein.  

I listened to Robert Ullrey's podcast with my workout this morning.  Afterwards, I listened to IOWL.  This is more of a top down approach to weight loss involving the head and the heart rather than a bottom up approach.  That concept I borrowed from Sandra Ahten.  She says that the bottom up approach is feet and stomach.  That would be anything involving diet and movement.  

My weight was up a little bit.  I tried an experiment over the weekend and it did not work.  I will go back to the longer fast on my low calorie days.  Oh well.  Also, I had tried adding soup as my mid day meal for my low calorie days, and it filled me up so much I was not able to eat enough calories.  I am not going to do that anymore.  I will lower my soup to one cup and add a side salad with olive oil.  

And its Wednesday!

Lol.  I am down a little on the scale.  I am working on being more faithful to my diet plan.  I am modifiying my diet to allow a few treats but keeping those portion controlled.  I have decided to use my yoga for most of my resistance training and just one whole body weighted wo per week.  

Breaking down my rotations it will look like this:

S off

M Wog, Yoga

T Step , Yoga

W Wog, Whole body WO

T Step, Yoga

F Wog, Yoga

S Step Intervals

As far as my body is concerned, it seems that the yoga is more important.

In the trenches again

I put on a couple of pounds with my cycle.  It is slowly coming off.  I love to post about my rotations.  The funny part is, that lately I haven't been following them.  

Still, here is this week's rotation, which I have modified several times already, 

M 30 min. Walk/Run. Yoga

T LIC

W Week 4 Walk/Run couch to 5k program.

T CW

F Week 4 Walk/Run couch to 5k program

Sa Imax, Yoga

I am sticking to my low/high calorie cycles.  That seems to work best.  For a while I deviated from my pre-workout snack of an egg, I don't think that worked for me.  I'm going back to my egg snacks.  Also, last week I was haphazard about my breakfast too.  I don't think that helped.  

Its good to be back!

I am finally back down to my pre-medication weight.  Yeah!  It is sunny.  Its hot.  I will be able to start running at 6:30 AM to accommodate the weather.  I don't know that I look any slimmer but I do feel stronger.  Today is a step workout combining two step workouts from Cathe's 4-DS series.  I will also be out in the garden today and then in the kitchen.  I have created a rotation using 4-DS that separates the strength from the cardio. 

Five things that always create weight loss.

I have learned the secrets to weight loss.  I was listening to a fitness podcast and on that podcast they suggested writing down the five things that you can do that you know lead to weight loss.

For me, they are  (in the following order.)

1. Follow my eating plan. (low carb, calorie cycle, higher protein, lots of good fats, no HFCS, no caffeine,)

2. Practice yoga 3x a week. (in the evening before bed.)

3. Do cardio 5 to 6x a week.  (in the morning first thing.)

4. Strength training 2x a week. (Either a circuit wo or split)

5. Track my progress. (blogs, forums, fitday)

If I do this, without fail, I lose weight.  For me number six would be use podcasts for additional ideas, inspiration and motivation.  The trick is not hearing the cookies, ice cream, fried chicken, white rice, bread, or brownies call my name.

If you didn't have to share your fridge.

What would you buy?  What wouldn't you buy?

I would buy lots of fresh greens, avocados, cucumbers and apples.  I would buy grapefruit.  For me, I already buy these items and I do eat them.  I would buy plenty of chicken breast or frozen chicken tenders (no salt added.) I would buy ground turkey or chicken.  I would buy frozen green beans and canned tomatoes to make my version of chili.  I already do that.  I would buy eggs.  I would buy protein powder, coconut oil and steel cut oats.  I already do that.  I guess I already buy everything I do need after all.  

The trick for me is that I sometimes have allowed myself to buy something which was not really supportive of my fitness goals under the guise of its for someone else.  When in reality it was an excuse to have something not so good for me, like bread.  I wish there was some way to retrain myself to only see the healthy food options.  I have successfully weeded out HFCS and white bread.  I have successfully added plenty of water.  I have added plenty of cardio.  I am even doing some strength training.  I want to improve my attendance on my yoga matt.  I need to carve out the chips, fried chicken, and Joe Joe's as well as the akmak and the whole wheat french bread.  Its time to be strict.  

My body is so clever.  It will go into starvation mode if I diet/low cal/way low carb for more than two days.  As a result I have found calorie cycling to be more helpful.  However, eating clean really seems to work as well.  I love the whole wheat tortillas but I was not losing weight even when I only had a half of one with 1 ounce of cheese.  My body just recognized it as tasty and on me tasty often translates into fat retention.  The choices for me are becoming clearer now.  

Life is a beautiful thing.  I need to treat it with respect.  I need to treat myself with the respect I would show to someone else in my care because, after all, we are all in our own care anyway.