Delicate Flower on Weigh-In Days

(ana)

so apparently, I am a delicate flower......when it comes to weigh in day.  :)  Who knew?.  Good lord, you'd think at my old age and with all the life experience I have (compared to my younger team mates in their crazy sport we are playing), that I'd be more even keeled, and chilled about a bunch of silly numbers that the machine spits out at me every friday.   

......But nope.  I struggle with the initial numbers I see thinking to myself "really???  WTF?  with all the hard work I'm putting in, the strickness of my diet, why did I gain 2.5 pounds this week.  

ARGH !!!!!!

And of course there is the good ole fashion habit I have of always comparing myself to others and Bails and Jen are doing great, losing weight every week, etc. blah, blah, blah.....

So trainer Jamie told me to take a deep breathe and watch and listen.  He explained the numbers to me more carefully and I now see that they aren't really that bad.  I have gained 3.4 lbs of fat free mass (meaning muscle), and was up 2.6 lbs of water weight (which is a good thing as I was dehydrated.) and lost 1.3 % of body fat (all in one week).  So that is good right?  Yes, it is.  and I'm feeling proud of my accomplishments eventhough the overall number on the scale went from 142.4 to 144.8.

Like trainer Jamie says, the numbers aren't always what they seem. So apparently, I build muscle easily which is a good thing I guess. 

This whole process is teaching me so much.  Our bodies are very different and nobody ever said that life was fair.  I may have to work harder, be even more diligent with everything I put in my body, but that's ok.   I need to be kinder to myself and pat myself on the back (which is getting pretty awesome, so they tell me as I can't see it.) for the accomplishments along the way, regardless how small. 

It's a One day a time kinda process.  I'm excited to see what next week brings.  And I have vowed to myself not to be so delicate next time I step on that scale.  :)

Happy Halloween everyone.

Remember that time I sucked it up?

Jen

This week has been full of temptation. I was expecting it, eventually, but week 2? 

Come on, now.

I wanted salty crackers on Monday. Sushi on Tuesday. Chocolate on Wednesday. I had to avoid cheesecake Thursday night (although cake isn't usually a temptation for me!) And today, Friday, is Halloween!

At least it's "re-feed day". Tonight I get a meal out with Husband Jamie. I think I might have a burger. None of this stuff:

I'm all for egg whites but hamburgers win today.

In all seriousness, though, I'm happy with how much I've been able to just suck it up and move on.

How's that, you might ask? 

Well, the advice is simple but not easy. It's something Trainer Jamie has told me time and again. It's about wanting the result and the long-term gains (or losses in my case) more than the instant gratification of yummy tidbits.

Ready for it?

You just... Do it.

Yeah, I know. I was underwhelmed too.  The thing is, that's really all there is to it. You look temptation in the face, acknowledge its presence, say, "No," and continue.

Try it :). It feels pretty good.

Diving deep to find the strength

(ana)....  the training continues and I am learning what I like and what I don't in this whole process.  What I don't like, clearly, are things I need to work on for myself and therefore are difficult.   The training itself is tough and intense and there are moments when my brain screams, "What the heck are you doing?" but I manage to get through those tough spots.  I dig deep, and then deeper, and sometimes, thanks to our relentless trainer Jamie, I find even deeper places to pull from.  That I like, actually love because I am seeing the differences in my body already. Small, but I can see them.

What I don't like (find tough), is the food.  The other day, I actually felt like crying as I was trying to shove breakfast down and didn't want to eat.  Eating 5 meals a day is hard, every 3 hours on the nose and the food is pretty basic stuff at this point.  For a food lover like me, this is hard.  But again, I promise myself to trust in the process and just get it done.

And the patience is tough too.  I have decided to stop weighing myself on a daily basis because I am learning that this number doesn't mean much at this point and that it sets my mood into a tailspin.  My loving partner, Trevor, can attest to that.  :)  So to keep my home a happy place, we only weigh in at the gym on Fridays where the numbers make more sense.

I can do this.....I can do this......  sing it with me folks.......

A week so far..

Bails

Alright, I decided to wait a week before my next blog post. I really wanted to give the week a fair shot before unleashing to the internet world how terrible eating clean is (blah, blah). So in a week, this is my assessment of the diet portion so far.

Currently, my two LEAST favourite words in the dictionary are "food" and "preparation". I feel behind on life, simply because my evenings are filled with preparing more, more and MORE! If anyone tells you it is easy, they are lying. It is hard. It is a commitment. So you REALLY got to want it. "But I want to watch the season 4 finale of the Walking dead RIGHT NOW!" Nope Bailey, you have to food prep. Sucks, right? But it is what it is. I'm not going to look good in a bikini eating pizza and watching the Walking Dead (Believe me, I've tried that for 20+ years, hah!).

What have I learned about food? 

1. Well I believe Jen, Ana and I will be solely responsible for making chickens extinct. THAT'S how many boneless, skinless chicken breasts I've eaten.
2. Basa fillets, a species of Vietnamese catfish, tastes exactly how you think a bottom-feeder would taste - like mud. Even soaking them in lemon juice makes no difference, unless you like lemon-flavoured mud.
3. Baking sole in the oven is a HUGE piss off. I didn't realize how much the fillets shrink when they're cooked. Seriously, massive shrinkage. Which makes you have to cook MORE. Sigh.
4. Quinoa is not appealing at all. And it gets stuck in your teeth.
5. Thank GOD for apple cider vinegar or quinoa would be permanently fired from my meal planning. Period.
6. I did NOT eat enough food before starting this, making eating 4 ounce chicken breasts 5x/day a huge challenge, and slightly revolting.

What have I learned about myself?

I think I'm tougher then I give myself credit for. As much as I wanted to stamp my feet and protest, I stuck with it for the week! AND I lost 2 lbs eating more food then I've ever eaten, EVER.

THAT'S pretty cool.

At some points during the week, I thought I was going to throw up I was so full. So losing weight while feeling like an elephant was pretty shocking!

Without sounding too candid, I also learned that pooping is important. I like pooping daily. Its like a mini-victory every day. NOT pooping is taking away my daily victory. And I'm scared because I don't know where the food is going?!?! So I'm drinking like a whale and taking magnesium to hopefully speed up transit time. It's like Ottawa rush-hour in there - a parking lot!

So we'll see how week 2 of this goes! I'm trying hard to keep up work-out wise with the other 2 ladies, but they definitely got some years on me. Just got to try your hardest, right?

Here's to pooping!

You can't spell "Legendary" without "Leg Day"

Jen

Oh man. It doesn't get easier, we just get better, right?

Right??

Leg day Friday. We died. So much glute activation... And I just have to say, I'm a huge wimp when it comes to legs. Ana destroyed me without even blinking! All weekend I was holding the counter to ease myself down onto the toilet, and wincing as I walked up and down stairs. 

So ladylike.

Friday was also weigh-in day; we were all pretty nervous. One thing I remember from last show is this: weight and body fat and all of those numbers quickly become objective measures.

One's worth should not be measured by one's fat. (Say that again if you need to). Actually, a quote I've come across on Pinterest says pretty much that, but better:

So yes. We all have fat still (and fingernails). Amazing! It's been a week! It feels longer....

In a week, I can honestly say I have re-learned that my body is awesome. It hasn't reached its potential yet (far from it), but it's strong, and capable of being lean and even stronger.

My trust in Jamie and his training skills is high. My trust in my diet is high. My love of chicken... Is waning.

But we press on.

Week 2, baby. Let's give 'er.

Chicken and Rice with a Side of Trust

(ana)  There's this thing called trust.  And often it is very hard to do when you are facing something new in your life.  I have surrounded myself with an amazing coach and very supportive people as I go down this path to reach my goal, but I have to say that trusting the food part of this process is hard. 

We started on our food regime this week and we need to eat every 3 hours and I'm finding it a real challenge to stuff that food down.  The prepping, the cooking, and the constant eating seems like it takes up a lot of my time but I am trusting the process and trusting that it will work. 

I have been told that the first week is tough but soon when my body adjusts, all this food I can barely get down, will feel like not even close to being enough.  Hard to believe.....but I am adding a sprinkle of trust on this.

At this moment in the training, I'm finding the work outs easier (and they are not easy) than the food.  and the funny thing is, I LOVE FOOD.

Trust, trust, trust.......

The diet - making up the meals

Jen

Ugh. I have homework to do. As usual, I procrastinate, and so it's 8:30pm on Sunday and I'm using my macronutrients to create meals for myself on My Fitness Pal.  An arduous task at the best of times... and I'm a morning person.  So that was a little bit stupid on my part.

In any case, I've been successful in putting together some sample meals with the proper (ish) nutrients, that seem palatable and can be mixed around for variety.  I didn't include veggies in these calculations on Trainer Jamie's instructions (Trainer Jamie is a little different than his alter ego, Husband Jamie, whom I don't often listen to) ;)

Veggies are "free" for now - meaning I can eat all these meals with a salad, if I want, or a heap of broccoli, or even a green pepper (something I always crave when my intake of sugar regulates itself).

I decided that I would eat at the following times:

• 6:15am (about an hour after I wake up)
• 9am (my hungriest hour)
• 11:45am (the only protein shake in the diet, pre-workout)
• 1:30pm (post workout awesomeness)
• 5pm (dinner with the little one)
• 8:30pm (when munchies usually strike)

6 meals.  It's going to be fun :)

Here are some of the meals I've put together with the appropriate nutrients (approx 23g carbs, 5g fat and 35g protein).  

• 1 egg, 1/2C egg whites, 1/3C chickpeas
• smoothie with 1 small frozen banana, 1 tsp almond butter and 1 scoop of protein or 1/2C egg whites
• Salad with a can of tuna, 1/4 of an avocado (or some oil and vinegar dressing), 1/4C quinoa
• 1/2C spaghetti squash, 1C cottage cheese (1%), 10 almonds
• 4 oz chicken breast with 1 tbsp salsa, 1/2C brown rice, 10 almonds
• 3/4C lean ground turkey (with homemade taco seasoning), 1/2C brown rice, 6 almonds

That's all I've got for now. It's enough to make a day of it tomorrow.  Big Costco trip in my immediate future, though, I can sense it...

So stoked about this! It begins early tomorrow am!