Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Week 2

I'm beginning to doubt the accuracy of my scale. It shows that I lost 3 lbs this week. I have been careful with what I eat and I worked out like crazy, but it seems to be too much for one week. Oh well, I will be positive and think that it's true and that my efforts have given me the results I want. To be sure, I'll get my weight/fat assessed by the end of the month by a trainer at my gym.

Alhamdulilah I'm really proud of last week's workouts. Here's a summary:

Monday March 14 - Body combat followed by 15 mins of cardio.

Tuesday - Body pump followed by 45 mins of cardio, which included a 25 min run.

Wednesday - My muscles were on fire so I took the day off. I stayed home and watched clips of the biggest loser.

Thursday - I imagined being verbally abused by the biggest loser trainers, which helped me work out for over 2 hours; Body Pump, then step class, then 15 mins of extra cardio.

Friday - Body combat.

Saturday - I realized that I didn't get as much runs in this week like I had planned. Unfortunately, I could only fun for 20 mins. I was just REALLY tired. So I got off the treadmill and did a group class called body attack. It was very challenging and much much harder than I remember. It used to be one of my favourites. Anyways, I got through it, but I won't lie - it was PURE, torturous EVIL. Then in the evening, hubby wanted to take me out for dessert. I was debating in the car whether to order a dessert plate, plain ice cream, fruit, or just tea. So in the end, I ordered a waffle with ice cream and honestly, it was the best thing I ever ate. :) It was probably 1000 calories but oh well.. once in a while, I need to treat myself.

Sunday - Off.

I'm going to take it a bit easy this week at the gym, my body needs a break and my back and legs are just begging me to vegitate on the couch.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Week 1 Update

So here's my update: Alhamdulilah, I've basically lost 0.5 kilos, which is basically 1 lb. Wooohoo!!

I'm monitoring my calorie intake; but to be honest, I'm tired of eating vegetables and I'm getting bored of Salads..although I'm now in love with this new baked salmon recipe I tried. I wanted to take pics to share but it was just too delecious, I couldn't stand to get up and get my camera. Anyone have any low-cal food ideas/websites to share?

Here's a summary of my workouts for the past week:

March 8 - Body Pump; 10 mins on the treadmill on a high incline. I was planning to walk a bit more but then I was told a man was going to be coming into the gym; so instead of working out with my hijab on, I left.

March 9 - 45 mins of cardio. A 20 min run and 20 min walk on incline. Burned 440 calories. Walking is actually much harder than running for some reason. But I guess my body isn't used to walking on an incline so that's why it was painful.

March 10 - In too much pain to move.

March 11 - Body Combat followed by Body Pump. I wanted to die and my muscles were screaming in agony, but Alhamdulilah I got through it. I forgot how Combat destroys my arm/back muscles. But my shoulder muscles were glad to be worked for the first time in months.

March 12 - Off.

March 13 - Body Pump and 45 mins of cardio; 15 running and 10 on an incline, then 20 mins on the eleptical.

This week; I'll try to fit in 3 body pump classes and do more cardio. My goal is to up my running time to 25 to 30 mins.

p.s. I went running shoe shopping. My obese feet are happy.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Home is sweet, but without the sugar for now.

Alhamdulilah, I'm back home, which is super fantastic!! I was so excited to land that I wanted to hug random Canadians that were at the airport. It's good to be back home with my hubby and my family. I'm so blessed to have them in my life. But this post isn't going to explain the joys of being back in Canada, or how much I miss sleeping in my bed, or the wonderful quality of Canadian toilet paper, or the fact that I can now use public restrooms without fear of catching a disease and dying an early death.

Basically, I've gained lots of weight and my pants no longer fit. I've gained 6 kilos, which is about 13 lbs. Which is ALOT considering I was away for a little less than 4 months. But I promised myself this post wouldn't be a negative diatribe. Of course I'm dissapointed; but the fact is, that sometimes we lose track of our health for one reason or another. But the important thing is to remember that if you put your mind to it, you can do whatever you want. If you want something badly enough, you have to work hard to results.

Instead, I'm going to focus on what I plan to do to get myself back to where I was before I left. Feeling strong, energetic, and back to a healthier weight (And no, I refuse to tell anyone how much that is, heck, it took years before my husband found out).

We all know that weight loss is a combination of food and exercise. Sadly, it's 80% what you put into your body and 20% what you do at the gym. If it were only the oposite then life would be so much easier!

My goal is to lose 20 lbs by the end of July. I know this is a realistic goal because they say a healthy weight loss should be no more than 1-2 lbs a week. So for the next month, my goal is to lose 5 lbs.

So here is my plan for the next 4 weeks in terms of food intake:

1. No junk food whatsoever. Not even home-made deliciousness.

2. Increase on the vegetables; eat more salads. Basically, lettuce has no calories.

3. Portion control is key, which is something I've never thought of before (I generally eat healthy foods, so that's not the issue. The issue is that I tend to eat too much of it). I shall use http://caloriecount.about.com/ to track my calories for the day. Which should be helpful because it makes you mindful of the serving amount you are eating.  Oh crap, I've already eaten 500 of 1573 calories and it's not even 9am yet!!

4. No late-night eating. I shall not eat after dinner.

5. Drink LOTS of water. Basically 10 cups a day or more.

6. No fried foods.. baked all the way.

7. I shall not say goodbye to bread, but I shall eat less of it. And no white rice.

8. For the first time in my life, I'm going to go sugar-less.. that means no sugar in my tea/coffee/drinks.. I'm using honey instead which actually tastes pretty good. Of course naturally occuring sugar in fruit is good.

9. Aiming to get more healthy protein in my diet.. Beans, fish, certain low fat cheeses, etc.

And in terms of working out:

1. Enjoy going back to Body Pump (weights), Body Combat (kickboxing) and other awesome fitness classes at my local gym.

2. Work out 5 times a week; of those, 3 must include weights. On my days off, I will need to feel like my muscles worked hard enough to deserve a break.

3. Slowly build up my endurance through running again.

4. Push myself beyond what's comfortable and familiar.

5. Prove all those stupid personal trainers that walk around with their high pony tails and squeaky voices that I don't need them to lose weight.

I'm excited.

So next Monday, which will be March 14th, I shall post again with an update on the situation. Hopefully, I'll have some good news to report. In the meantime, I'm going to go snack on some fruit.