Week 3 Day 6

What an exhausting day today! I’m so ready for bed.

This morning, I got up with my husband to help him get ready for work. Of course, I had the day off, so I stayed awake, got a few things in the house done, then went to the gym for some fasted cardio. I did 25 minutes of steady state cardio on the stationary bike. Then I went home very quickly and took a very quick shower before racing off to my chiropractor and acupuncture appointments.

My appointments went well, and after returning home for a few minutes, I went back to the gym to do several exercises to start catching up on the workouts I missed while sick. I did many of the exercises and then left so I would be home before my husband came home.

Turns out he worked a little later than expected, so I was able to do a little more around the house.

After my husband came home, we ate, and then went back to the gym. My third time for the day! I was so worn out and tired, on my second or third coffee, but managing to still power through. I got quite of few of the exercises done (only 3 left to catch up on the next day) and completed 12 minutes of HIIT cardio on the stairs.

We came home and I was so exhausted. So worn out. My macros were proper today, so that was a good thing. But I’ll be happy to be completed caught up and then able to start week four out fresh.

Week 2 Day 3

Talk about sick. I honestly thought it wouldn’t get any worse. But this morning, I knew better than to go to work. I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle the day feeling this awful, so I called in for a sub and stayed home.

I didn’t sleep much, and I definitely didn’t eat much. Sticking to my diet plan, for the challenge I’m working so hard for, just was not foremost on my brain today. I needed to shift into the mindset of healing my body and getting better quickly. I drank fresh fruit smoothies to up my vitamin and antioxidant content in my body. I drank kombucha tea which I have found to be a good tea for any health situation. I ate soup to benefit from vegetables and the comfort of a warm broth. And I ate a small amount of bread to help me feel fuller while still being gentle on my stomach.

Simple foods.

The funny part about the whole day is I couldn’t sleep. Normally when I am sick, I sleep most of the day away. But today was different. I could barely sleep. So I instead worked on my yearly plans and professional growth plan and conquered a fair amount of teacher work.

When evening came, I battled with my brain. I wanted to go to the gym so badly. I miss the gym. It’s a way of life for me. Plus I have my challenge pushing me. I was so tempted to just “suck it up” and go to the gym regardless of how I felt.

It probably took about an hour for me to mentally battle myself into realizing that if I did go to the gym, I’d probably make myself worse. If I at least waited one more day, I could still make up my workouts this week and provide myself with more time to get better. So when my husband went to the gym, I went to bed.

Week 3 Day 1

As all school teachers experience at least once per year, I woke up knowing that I didn’t feel right. I wasn’t ready to call myself sick, but I knew something was heading in that direction. So what do I do? Refuse to let it get in my way.

I continue on my way, getting groceries, planning my meals for the next week, and assessing my workouts for this week. Many a time my husband told me he would understand if I did not go to the gym but I simply refused to miss it.

I did my workout and was proud of it at the end. I was rationalizing with myself at points about using lesser weights because I wasn’t feeling 100%. But every time I’d start out an exercise, my body kept up with me and I just couldn’t lower the weights. With everything. And that was two circuits of 4 exercises each. Man I was proud.

Now the whole plan was to sit in the steam room afterwards, but as I refuse to walk on public floors barefoot, I simply couldn’t go when I realized I had forgotten my flip flops. So what did I do instead? 12 minutes of HIIT cardio on the StairClimber!

Now, eating was not something I really wanted to do yesterday. Just being thrown off from not feeling the greatest was a problem. So how did I fix that? I grabbed a smoothie while I was grocery shopping: Bolthouse Vanilla Chai smoothie. It tastes so good, packs 18 g of protein, and fit right into my macros for the day. I know it’s not the cleanest drink in the world, but I honestly needed something easy on my stomach and it helped fill a chunk of my macros.

And so I finished the day on track, praying that I should only get better and not worse!

Week 1 Day 5

What a day! Just another insane day to add to list of burdens to carry on my shoulders. Ugh.

Throughout all the stress, and changing my day plans, etc… I managed to stay proper with my nutrition. Not necessarily the times I normally would have, but no stress-eating food choices for me! My water intake was also slower today, but I’m still getting it all in regardless.

I also had a chiropractor and acupuncture appointment today. Of course your body undergoes a lot of bad changes with stress, and this week had a high dose. But she was also concerned about my embarrassing but damaging fall at Wal-Mart the weekend before. So thankfully, my acupuncturist also targeted my stress points. Funny enough, when I was done, my wrist no longer hurt, but the pain had gone into my hand which is what I’m guess the needles have done. I am kind of glad the pain has left my wrist, but the aching pain in my hand is still not great.

I want to just take a moment and fill you in on a couple goals I had for this challenge. Aside from excelling in the workouts and staying on track with diet, I also wanted to increase my water to 3L (12 cups) a day. I know I don’t get enough water, so by purposely adding it to my challenge, I have been able to do this successfully each day. As a side note, try going from little daily water to that much water, and be prepared to run to the washroom 10+ times a day. I honestly was wondering if our secretary thought I must be pregnant… Promise it was just the increase in water!

My second challenge I added on was sleep. Now this week has SUCKED for getting in sleep. But next week is always a new week, and that is another that I plan to work on.

So that’s basically it for today. The workout was awesome and again in a circuit style. I finished up with 12 minutes of HIIT on the stairs. I was a sweaty mess!

I’ve just about finished up my nutrition and I’m ready to surrender to my bed. My body needs the rest and the break from everything, so on that note, have a good night everyone!

3-Day Refresh: Day 2 Review

Well, day 2 was hard. It’s hard to watch the people you live with eat things that you crave… ugh.

However, there is no denying the amazing feeling your body has. It’s so difficult to describe other than it just feels right! Like there are no digestion problems, your body is acting properly, my workouts were still solid, and veggies are super appreciated. 

I still haven’t come up with that magical flavouring to make the Vanilla Fresh taste good, so I’m just chugging to get it down. (Can’t wait to be done drinking those!!)

At this point, my biggest advice is to get your mind set right! If you’re not holding yourself accountable, you won’t make it. Get that brain out of your tastebuds and into your body’s feelings. You’ll feel amazing, but those tastebuds will scream. So tell them to back off, and drink tonnes of water.

Fight those bad cravings!

Day 3, here I go!

Changing Your Diet Doesn’t Have To Be Hard

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen people fail with diets. In fact the very word “diet” has so many negative associations. I am 100% using the term a lifestyle change because to me, a diet is temporary thus causing temporary results. I want something more permanent, something that will change my life.

Lately, I’ve been giving advice to a cousin of mine. She has paid for every fitness/diet program that has been available in her city. Every single one of them has either left her feeling horrible, or never gave consistent results. It just seemed so hard! And who can blame her?

Most diets require you to switch your entire daily life in an instant. If you’re an avid junk food eater, try having no junk food for a week, or even a couple of days. It’s almost like quitting smoking cold turkey. For most people, it’s hard!

But it doesn’t have to be that way. What I’ve been telling my cousin to do is to switch out things in her diet slowly. So for example, one week she tried switching regular fries for baked sweet potato fries, coconut oil instead of a canola oil, Ezekiel bread instead of regular breads, and other simple switches like this. The other thing she has been doing is trying to try a new food every week. She had never tried things like avocado before. So one week, she bought a couple to try, and found out she loved it! There went all of those fatty condiments out the window.

It’s not hard, and it doesn’t have to taste bad or even bland. One comment my cousin couldn’t believe is that the food tasted so good. And what did I do? I gave her support, I gave her ideas, and I gave her suggestions about wholesome, healthy food.

I will be going after my nutrition and fitness certificates this summer. I love being involved in the fitness world and seeing the positive effects on everyone. My cousin has lost 18 lbs for the month I have been helping her, and that includes no extensive exercise, simply walking and at-home yoga or pilates if she has the chance. The main result has been diet. She’s seen improvements in her own energy, she feels better, so many good things.

If you would like to make changes in your life, and need someone to support you, let me know. I’ve been heavily involved and have tried many different styles of workouts, many different diet plans, and I would love to help you. Most often, all we need is support, and when it comes to making lifestyle changes to be healthy, you definitely have mine!

Just remember, only about 10% of success happens in the gym; 90% is the battle in the kitchen. You can do it!

Extra Tip

If you’ve never tried this before, do it! You’ll be surprised how that candy craving goes away, and how delicious your new “candy” is!