Day 3: USANA Reset

While I will admit that I do feel like I have more energy this week, this morning getting out of bed was not the case.

Since I didn't have my chocolate shake last night, I was stoked to have chocolate for breakfast this morning! Added a few frozen berries, and away we went. I think I added more water than necessary, but it was delicious none the less. Chocolate anything is a great way to start any Wednesday!

I opted for hard boiled egg with my Vanilla lunch. I liked the chewing - the worst part of shakes is that I think I miss the physical act of chewing my meals! So I was full for the whole afternoon.

We had a staff meeting in town, with other schools so I had my peanut butter bar in the car on the way in. These meetings are usually notorious for putting on a good spread - lucky for me, today was a budget version, and consisted of savoury swirls, chocolate cake and GRAPES. I helped myself to some of those, not even missing the other options. Throughout the meeting, I managed to drink a whole 1.5 in the hour and a bit we were there. This resulted in 2 trips to the loo, but that's okay. I am finally consciously improving my hydration!

By the time dinner rolled around, I decided to change it up, and go for the salad. Bit of iceberg lettuce, baby spinach, red onion, carrots, mushrooms.. and toasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds. I also added the slightest bit of olive oil/red wine vinegar for a slight splash of dressing/flavour. It sure hit the spot. Didn't even need the eggs I'd boiled, so I;ll save those for when I do.

For the love of veggies!

Around 9pm I wasn't hungry hungry, but still wanted more. I had carefully calculated whether to save a chocolate and have the strawberry that I don't love... but opted to experiment with some Almond Milk and chocolate in the blender. I went for the "less is more" with just barely a cup of almond milk added, a few ice cubes and the chocolate sachet.... OH MY GOD. I created heaven in a glass. It was thick, creamy, and it reminded me of licking cake batter off the spoon.

Ended the day SATISFIED!

Roll on Day 4 - I am ready to rock you!

Let's end with a bit of perspective

February vs September 2012

Day 2 of USANA Reset

I felt heaps more onto it starting off day 2!

I had my glass of lemon water, and took the vitamins.
Breakfast at 7am- I added the water first again, some ice and a few frozen berries. Still not sold on the after taste of the Wild Strawberry flavour, but it's not unbearable so I'll stop whinging

I had a strawberry/mango herbal tea once I got to school, as well as filling up my 1.5L water bottle to have in my classroom so that I actually drink water often.

Morning tea at 10am - Chocolate flavoured protein bar. Still delicious. Still filling.

Lunch at 12pm - By far my favourite shake of the day, the French Vanilla!

Refuel break at 1:30pm - Apple! Remembered that I'd hardly touched my water bottle (6 years olds sure do keep me busy!) so I skulled most of that. My goal is to have it gone by after school, and then another bottle done before bed. I must get better at drinking water!

Afternoon tea at 3pm - School finished, and I enjoyed that Peanut Butter crunch bar - yum yum!

Dinner at 5pm - I was feeling peckish when I got home, so I took Steph's advice, as I'd emailed her last night, and she recommended to have a boiled egg or fresh salmon. I obviously didn't have salmon on hand, so I boiled an egg before grilling up my veggies.

7pm - Onions, mushrooms, broccoli, spinach, carrots and some garlic in a wee bit of coconut oil.

I kept putting off having the chocolate shake, as I wasn't overly hungry. I hope it doesn't throw things off, not having it. It's now 10:42 and it just feels too late.

I feel heaps better today.
Glad I drank more water. Resisted the temptation of Thom eating Doritos next to me (NONE for this girl!)
I didn't do any exercises after school or tonight. I get so easily put off by coming home in the rain. Excuses excuses. Ugh.

Onto the Half-way point tomorrow!

Revelations, motivation and general ramblings.

This weekend was a long weekend, here in New Zealand and the second/last of the PADI dive course Thom and I got for a bargain. Being a certified diver is something I've always wanted to do and now it is done! I really do love that feeling of accomplishment, of making dreams reality.

Since Christmas, I have lost roughly about 9.5kg/20-ish lbs(woop woop!). That was really just a number, that i wanted to see keep going up but didn't mean much to me - UNTIL this weekend, when I had to strap that weight back around my waist to go diving and realised just HOW heavy it actually is. I was stoked! I am more motivated than ever now, to keep at it.

2 weeks ago, I went into the gym to get properly measured and have a body assessment done. I'd started p90x about a month before, but I was curious to know my body fat percent. I'd taken most of my own measurements sporadically before, so none of that was a surprise. I came out with 32% body fat, which isn't really ideal, and the trainer set the goal to get it down to 30% in 6 weeks, when I'd come back to measure up before we head off to Thailand.

She also suggested I look into a "Paleolithic" diet, which is also known as the Caveman diet. I'm not really into fad or crash diets, but she said that cutting out grains and dairy (the Paleo argument is that our bodies were never designed to digest these sorts of foods) to lean out. What the hell I figured, I'll give it a crack. It wasn't so hard to eat just meat and veggies really. I was a star during the week!

...Then the weekend came along. And we were off to Thom's grandparents for the weekend. Saturday, we thought we'd go grab lunch despite being told to bring it, but we figured we were right in town. Oh no, we didn't even stop to HAVE a lunch break. We went straight from dive theory to practical before we knew it! Nana had a lovely roast ready for us when we got home that had 4 different vege with the main meat and I shyed away from the potatoes, but I did indulge in her famous bacon/egg/cheese pastry things that are so delicious. Not that I needed to, but I didn't beat myself up. She made us sandwiches to take to the course, and despite bread being on the banned list, I went with it for convience sake.

Admittedly I have not been following p90x after I got sick, and I counted diving as 2 days of exercise (It's actually fairly strenuous, especially lugging the gear around). Last week was shocking with only one night of exercise, and that was playing netball with the girls from school! But regardless, my good eating during the week did favours for me. This weekend at Nana's, I probably slipped up a wee bit more than I should have, having a CHOCOLATE BAR (*Shudder*) but tomorrow is a holiday Monday, and even though I have to go to school to do heaps of work, I love the flexibilty of knowing that I can make time to work out in the am before I head in to school.

okay 3 days at a time... 18, 19, and 20!

Day 18:  At home morning gym session, total 40 minutes,  hard out TABATAS! Ohhh did I ever feel it after this one! Remember, Tabatas are 8 rounds, 20 seconds of FULL THROTTLE give it your all and then 10 seconds rest, for a total of 4 minutes. I did:
-High knees
-press ups
-lay on the floor, legs on stability ball, lift bum
-boxing!
-torso twists with 4kg
-torso leans, lifting 4kg each arm - touch knee
-lay on stability ball, 4kg fly
-lay on floor, legs on ball, use core to touch ball on each side


Day 19: INSANITY Cardio Resistance & Power ... Not going to lie, I had to DIG DEEP to find some motivation... I was a wee bit sore from yesterday ab - domination, and I knew that I needed something to motivate me, so dvd it was, as I find Shaun T so motivating and inspiring :) 

THEN! later in the evening, I was feeling like 'doing something' rather than just sitting round, so we walked to Shipwreck Bay and back, for an additional bonus 5km! The hill is killer, and I foolishly wore Jandals, so my calves ached a bit, but slow and steady we got there and home!


Day 20: Fact- I'm really proud that I have stuck with this challenge this long, I was so excited to be able to say "I am One Fifth done!" (except I'm probably not going to stop once I get to 100, I hope). So I did INSANITY Cardio Recovery and appreciated every minute of the stretches... okay except maybe not the squat and lunge holds, those kill  me. Every time. 

Cyber world, meet my sticker chart of motivation.