Day 4 and 5: Usana Reset

I'm pretty terrible at daily blogging, especially when I do almost exactly the same thing day in and day out. If it gets boring to write, surely it must be boring to read... 

Day 4
Felt pretty good all day. Walked to school and home from school since Thom was away working in Whangarei, so that was all good.
I switched to shakes with low fat milk rather than water, and was just absolutely loving the consistency and flavour!

For dinner, I was ultimately quite lazy, and chose to have a single home made serving pumpkin soup from my freezer. I didn't feel like salad, and couldn't be bothered cooking anything. 

I was definitely feeling lighter!

Day 5
To be honest, today I was just over the idea of drinking all my meals. I loved the bars and apple I ate simply because I chewed and enjoyed.

Now for the true confession... After work drinks on a Friday have generally been quite common practice in my teaching career, but this year being at the beach/away from town and closer to home,  they've been far less frequent or regular. Today of all days, the principal bought a box of Coronas and cracked it in the staff room!

It was necessary. I did have one. Slowly.

I cringed. I debated. I really debated. and then I justified that it's 'just one beer'.
And it was just that. One beer. Social and relaxing.

Left it at that. Hopefully it doesn't undo everything I've done.  But no guilt here.  

Came home and made a massive salad, with chili shrimp on top. I really wanted meat! That did the trick.
Didn't even have my chocolate shake tonight as I worked on my travel blog - Canuckiwikate. 

So now, I've still got two meal replacements left up my sleeve. 

I had a squizz through the resources that I got emailed with the program, and the low GI grocery list is everything that I already buy - I just tend to try to eat less of the grains after going paleo. (Still refuse to cut anything completely because I don't want to make my body intolerant and complicate my life). 

We are back! Using workouts I've 'pinned'

Attention Ladies and... okay I know it's likely more ladies instead of Gentlemen

I am back! And I am going to blog. Perhaps you couldn't tell I got out of my blogging routine. Once I got sick and fell off the 100 Day challenge, I avoided my blog. Perhaps I felt like a bit of a failure at the time, but the truth is I am far from it!

My goal was to lose my excess flab (it still is my goal!) but I had the incentive of heading to Thailand in July. Well that trip has come and gone. It was absolutely fabulous.

About 6 weeks or so prior to leaving, I got my measurements done at the gym. The trainer gave me some diet advice, and I was working on doing P90X, although that programme is another one for the 'Started and I lasted a Month' file. My eyes were opened to the Paleolithic or Caveman diet, where you eliminate all grains and dairy from your diet for at least 30 days.

It was TOUGH, but I did it. When I'd cook for myself, I wouldn't cook anything grains or dairy. Certainly made for some interesting meals! Once we got to Thailand though, I didn't limit myself. I didn't want to avoid rice!

I've been back to real life for 2 months now, and I haven't sussed out my routine. I want to eat less carbs, but I've bought them, and they've been in the house, so that makes for tricky self control. I want a balance between a strict paleo diet, just a more mindful of less carbs, more protein kind of diet.

That being said, since I started  my MISSION in January, I have seen my body completely change. At my heaviest I was sitting on 86kg (190 lbs!!), something that I was none too proud of. I felt uncomfortable in my own skin. NOW, I sit at about 75kg (165 lbs) and while I still would like to lose another 5kg (to put me at 155lbs or so) I'm not fixated on the specific number, as much as still improving my fitness levels, and toning up the flabby bits.

I've enjoyed a few non-scale victories over the past couple months, but most importantly was fitting into ALL my old jeans comfortably again (!!!). It has also been nice to have various people noticing and commenting on the changes.

I've been doing a bit of running, intermitantly rather than regularly. 2 weeks ago I did the Tough Guy and Gal 6km Mud Run in Rotorua, which was great fun frolic through cow shit and tiptoeing through ice cold water- but the paddock hills KILLLED me, as hills always do. Last weekend, I got off my ass Sunday morning, and did a 10km beach run around the reef in 1:42. This weekend just passed, I went into town nice and early on Saturday morning, and ran a 5km loop - without giving into that litle voice in my head that says "I'm tired, let's just walk" for a 2.5 KILOMETERS - new personal best for me!

Like lots of others, I've joined Pinterest where you can find HEAPS of excellent workouts all on board. I've created my own SWEAT board. I also see all those SomeEcards that say "it's great you've pinned another workout that's going to make you fit isn't it" and decided I didn't want that to be me. If I've got all these great resources, by golly I ought to use them. When I got home from school at 5, I faffed around getting into my workout gears, but I did it. And I'm not exactly sure what it was about today, but I've decided I'm going to keep doing it.

And I'm going to hold myself accountable again. I can't promise you my posts will be entertaining or informative - hell they'll like be ramble-y exactly  like this one. But I need to remember how far I've come, and not just focus on how far I've yet to go. I've learned that I don't do well sticking to those programmes and routines like Insanity and P90X - and that's okay. I've still got them, and they're still awesome as workouts, and I can still use them as I like even if I don't follow it to a tee.

I am back, and I'm gonna bring a better me, baby!

3 months till summer, and THIS year, I'm going to be READY.

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.