GM Diet Review/Experience Day 3

Good morning! Without any delay:

Weigh-in: .8 lbs lost (a total of 3.8 so far)

Breakfast: a bowl of watermelon (plus a little more!) 

Water: 1 bottle (8am) on the 2nd

Oh man, I had a dentist appointment today and then was instructed not to eat anything hard; therefore, I was unable to eat fruits and veggies. I know this will skew my experience, but I'm still going to pick up tomorrow from Day 4 and see what happens anyway! 

GM Diet Review/Experience Day 2

Good morning :) Last night, I slept better than I have in months. I fell asleep immediately, I didn't wake up at all during the night, and I slept for a long time! (This may not seem like a big deal to someone that doesn't know me. But if you know me, then you know that I rarely sleep well!) So even if I choose never to do the GM diet in the future, I might do a "fruits only" day to see if there's a sleeping pattern!

Anyway, here's day 2.

Weigh-in: 3.0 lbs lost (woohoo! I know it's water weight. I know it's easy to gain it back. I know it'll make today's weight difference less than other people experience. But it's all good. It's the motivation I needed today!)

Breakfast: 1 potato with some butter, salt & paprika
Snack: 1 cup steamed corn with some tomatoes, onions and garlic (added lemon juice, salt and paprika)
Snack: 1 cup raw green beans
Snack: 3/4 cup baby carrots
Dinner: same as the first snack with some broccoli, zucchini/squash and green peppers

Water: 120+ oz.

Exercise: 2 mile walk with strength training

I must say that I had to pass so many tests today...we had a pizza party with cookies and cupcakes and cakes and brownies for my little cousin! And then I came home to find that my grandmother had made one of my absolute favorites for dinner. Oh what a long day.

Tomorrow's goal (as long as I remember to do this) is to keep it raw! I needed the savory dishes today but I think it should last me throughout the day tomorrow.

GM Diet Review/Experience Day 1

So today is day ONE, and I haven't even gotten through half of the day yet...but I'm already craving one of my absolute favorite Indian dishes. If I get through today, hopefully tomorrow will be a little bit easier. Veggies are always easier, especially because the day starts off with a potato!

I know that I haven't posted in so long, and I have to update you on a bunch of things that happened, but that's for another day. Although I can't guarantee that I'll go through the 7 day program, I do want to post what I eat and how I feel during the days that I do.

For those of you wondering: is this safe? Is this healthy? Is the weight easy to keep off? I don't know the answers to that...I've researched this many, many times in the past few years but I never seem to come up with real answers. I guess experiencing it on my own will help out.

Day 1:
Breakfast: 1 bowl of watermelon
Snack: 1 medium gala apple
Lunch: 1 bowl of watermelon
Snack: 1 small gala apple
Dinner: 1 bowl of watermelon

Water: 100 oz. (SO difficult because it kept making me have to pee!)

Exercise: 1 mile walk

Now I know what you're thinking: wouldn't having a variety make it so much easier? It might, but sometimes that gets me off track. Honestly, this is the first time I've eaten only fruits in a day and NOT gotten a headache! I also wasn't really hungry during the day, although my stomach bothered me at times. This was cured by drinking water. I didn't have any real "cravings" except for when I smelled/saw the savory dish my grandmother was making.

I shall keep you posted tomorrow!

Homemade Protein Bar (Sloppy Recipe)

Wow I wasn't going to post anymore today but I just tasted the protein bar we made yesterday and it is absolutely delicious!!!! The reason I said it's a "sloppy" recipe is because we did not measure anything...we thought we would use the process of "trial & error" in order to find a taste that we all liked. [But because I like this, I'm sure everyone else does as well!]

First of all, if "chewy" isn't a texture you like, then don't make it the same way we did. We want to be able to make them on weekends and keep them stored for the whole week for all of us, so we didn't make any hard protein bars that could be impossible to bite into later.

Second, do not criticize me if you end up thinking this is too chocolatey...because that's the way we like it :D

Here's an approximate recipe for now, maybe in a week or two I'll put up the real one!

Directions

Take the following five products and heat them up in a pan; melt them together

• Raw, organic cocoa butter (1/4 cup? Maybe a little more)
• Honey (2 tablespoons or less)
• Maple Syrup (we ran out of honey otherwise we would have none) (2 tablespoons or less)
• Sugar (again, we would have only added honey if we had the option) (1 tablespoon because the cocoa butter is super bitter and has no sugar)
• Peanut Butter (approximately 3-4 tablespoons)
• 1-2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Separately, take a handful of the following and completely grind them so it's powdered:

• Almonds
• Cashews
• Pistachios
• Pecans 
• (Can include peanuts, we didn't had much left so we didn't use it)
• 2-3 scoops of protein whey (ours is chocolate, of course)

And include the following when you grind the above:

• 1-2 tablespoons of flax seeds
• 1-2 tablespoons of coconut flakes 

At the moment, those are the only ingredients I remember (I shall ask Tabernacle and see if he remembers more). Mix the grinded products with the melted mix and lay out in a pan. Spread it so make it as thick as you'd like. Let it sit for 8-10 hours to dry up. Cut into pieces and wrap each piece in foil. To be safe, we also put the pieces in a large Ziploc Bag to stay fresh :)

And ENJOY!! Trust me, you will.

Now I know, the sugar adds up a bit here and there, and the carbs and fat and calories probably do too, but that's normal in protein bars. This is a much cheaper than buying protein bars, and they really taste delicious! And you can cut the pieces into any size that you'd like :)

If we finish all of the ones we have by this weekend, we'll make more and calculate calories, protein, carbs, fat and sugar :)

P90X Experience

I can't promise I'll tell you what every day feels like, but once I start doing the challenge, I'll try to update you on how things are going. I'll also include my thoughts on the 12 DVDs (if I get the chance to do so!); that way, you'll have a better idea of what the program is.

[I know I have two weeks left, but I just wanted to set up my posts.]

What is P90X?

According to my coach, I should do the "classic" plan, but I'm going to do some more research before deciding between classic and lean. I've never been one to just listen to people ;)

So for those of you that don't know what p90X is, here are some websites, followed by a brief summary by myself!

• http://www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_programs/p90x.do
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P90X - it's always great to read things on Wiki!
• http://www.letsgettoned.com/ - my coach's website (he's pretty awesome, and super nice)

Here's how I see p90x. It's a 90 day program that tells you when to work out and when to rest. One day you might be doing arms, another day chest, another day yoga, and another day cardio. There are 12 DVDs that come in this program, one of which is Ab Ripper X (which you are supposed to do every other day) and one of which is Stretching (intense stretching, of course; which you are allowed to do on your "rest" days). Every day, you're doing something new to your body and mixing things around, so you can't get "used" to it. This means that you are less likely to plateau because of what Tony Horton (founder/creator of p90X) calls "muscle confusion". 

Who can use p90X? People that want to lose weight, get lean, tone their bodies, build some muscles, etc. You have to be careful - it's VERY intense and difficult to follow. (There is a "fit test" that they recommend you take before starting to see if you should do it or not. You also take the same test after your 90 days to compare results.) There are no "cheat" days with the workout; if you do that, then you can't blame anyone but yourself for not seeing great results. 

The diet plan? I mentioned this in another post but what's great is that you can eat what you want and all you want, but you have to follow different ratios in each phase (3 phases, 30 days each). You can find this on the website as well. It's explained well and you can contact someone to ask more questions if you have any about the nutrition aspect of it. Results are only "guaranteed" if you put the diet and nutrition parts together, which is normal in all exercise regimes. 

If you ever try this, here's a tip: do not give it a 100% on your first day or first few days! You will feel worn out and will want to quit. It's not worth it. Start around 70-80% and build up to it. It's tough, take breaks like Tony says to and drink some water in between to stay hydrated. 

Yeah that's about it for now :) do your own research and you'll find tons of things! 

iFit Level 1 Experience

March 11th 2013

So I have not started using this yet but I wanted to set up the post and explain what the program is supposed to be like. I'm not sure how many days a week you use it, but it's an 8 week weight loss program which comes on a little card. You insert this card into the elliptical, and select what week/day you're on, and then just use the machine for 30 minutes. During this time, Jillian Michaels gives you health tips (yes, you hear her voice!) and the resistance on the machine keeps changing automatically. It goes from 1-3.5 mph which is a great level for my foot. :) I heard that there are 17 levels altogether, so if this really goes well, then it might be worth investing into her program and getting a few more. We'll see :)

March 13th 2013

Today was day 1 of week 1 (4 workouts this week). Unfortunately, I came nowhere near to the 30 minute workout but that's alright! Just like the bike, I'll have to work up to it so I don't mess up my foot even more! I did 5 minutes today plus my P90X Ab Ripper X workout plus probably doing some yoga tonight (depends on our schedule). Anyway, here's what I think so far.

• Jillian Michaels is scary! (In a good way, of course.) It makes you want to keep pushing yourself because she's encouraging you. 
• She reminds you to take a sip of water to stay hydrated - that's cool. Sometimes it's difficult to remember to do that on your own if you're so into the workout or into whatever show you may be watching. 
• She really does give some tips, it's pretty cool! But she doesn't talk too much, so it's a good balance. 
• You have to pay attention to your RPM because she tells you what to hit since she obviously can't control your speed. It is difficult now if I'm watching TV but I'm assuming I'll get used to it. 

I'll let you know more when I know better :)