2011 *New Year* Challenge

[Athene]

Good days are here. I weighed myself and I'm still at 155.something which is good. I can see changes in body immediately from cutting out dairy and grains, stomach is sucking in on itself and some of abdominal muscles are finally visible, which rocks - I KNEW they were in there somewhere ; ) Need to focus on school a bit more right now, it's reading week and I have a paper to re-write that is worth a huge portion of grade. Got to buckle down at work, school, and the gym.

Nutrition
Breakfast - whey isolate shake, 1 apple, 300 ml coffee.
Lunch - 1 cup bison, 1 cup carrot/sweet potato.
Dinner - 2 eggs, 3 strips bacon., 1 cup watermelon/cantaloupe/honeydew.
Snacks - 10 almonds, 1/2 cup blueberries.

Workout
Crossfit training - 1 hour, vigorous effort + a 6 minute HIIT workout at the end that was almost traumatic... in a "good way"? Can I say that?

[Athene]

Thanks Brent! Feeling good.

Nutrition
Breakfast - 2 eggs, 3 strips bacon, 1/4 cup green pepper, 300 ml coffee.
Lunch - 4 cups salad greens, 1 cup blueberries, whey isolate.
Dinner - 4 oz turkey breast, 1 orange, 2 cups romaine, 4 baby dill pickles.
Snacks - 10 almonds

Workout
Recovery

[Athene]

Had a good week, didn't finish all the schoolwork I was supposed to but I'll it together this weekend. Had first real "cheat meal" since the 2 week no dairy/no grains thing started. I have to say it was delicious, but I don't really like the way I feel physiologically. I feel really tired and bloated. I guess skipping grains makes a big difference for me, or no dairy, whichever it is. I'll have to experiment more when 30 day trial is up and see what makes me feel the most energized and the least messed up. So far so good, except for the pizza I had this evening.

Nutrition
Breakfast - whey isolate shake, 1 apple, 10 almonds, 300 ml coffee.
Lunch - 1 tin smoked oysters (I love them!), 1 cup fresh blueberries.
Dinner - 12" thin crust pizza (1500 calories)
Snacks - 1 orange

Workout
Crossfit training - 1 hour, including HIIT: 250 meter row with 12 goblet squats (20 lbs weight) x3

[Boss Man]

1,500 calories in a pizza? That's absurd. I mean I've seen amounts of 1,200 but 1,500? That's absolutely disgusting and I don't know how that company making it can justify themselves.

[Boss Man]

Not really no. I've seen 1,200 calorie ones before, but it might be the ones in the US are even more caloric than the ones in Britain.

Personally as I find the idea of eating pizza disgusting, I tend not to pay too much attention to them.

Though being the US, I should have expected the caloric amounts to be potentially way over the top.

[fit-fanatic-2025]

If you get the specialty slices it probably is. But just a slice of pepperoni pizza from domino's or the major major chains it's less than 500.

or if you have like really thick pizza crust it may be as well. But just a hand tossed slice of pepperoni or cheese pizza it's not 500 calories.

[Bonnie]

Just two cents, but I know when I ditched the carbohydrates ( bread etc ) then restarted I felt so full, like to full, takes a bit of getting used to again.I had the same reaction when I started the pasta, which I hadn't eaten for a year or so.All good now though The grease on the pizza might of had some effect also, when you stay away from deep fried or greasy foods then try & go back, your body doesn't react very well, or mine didn't.I ended up avoiding anything but pure foods, just a personal choice, because I felt sick when I ate the other ones.I did go through a phase of " I should be able to cheat " then just said pshh not in the cards & moved on.I had heart palpitations, burning in stomach due to grease, was nasty.Good luck with the reintroduction process

[Athene]

Just two cents, but I know when I ditched the carbohydrates ( bread etc ) then restarted I felt so full, like to full, takes a bit of getting used to again.I had the same reaction when I started the pasta, which I hadn't eaten for a year or so.All good now though The grease on the pizza might of had some effect also, when you stay away from deep fried or greasy foods then try & go back, your body doesn't react very well, or mine didn't.I ended up avoiding anything but pure foods, just a personal choice, because I felt sick when I ate the other ones.I did go through a phase of " I should be able to cheat " then just said pshh not in the cards & moved on.I had heart palpitations, burning in stomach due to grease, was nasty.Good luck with the reintroduction process

I definitely had heart palpitations... it's not a good scene. I think it's just psychological now, I don't crave things physically, it's an emotional/mental thing, and all I can say about it for now is that I feel like I'm on the right track. Seeing immediate results in the mirror from the Crossfit training helps. I don't want to bloat up and see ab muscles disappear, I like seeing them ; ) I appreciate your two cents Bonnie, thanks.

[Athene]

Nutrition
Breakfast - 2 eggs, 1/2 a green pepper, 1/2 cup blueberries.
Lunch - 1 tin smoked oysters, 1 orange.
Dinner - 1 chicken breast, 2 cups lettuce.
Snacks - 1 orange, 1/4 cup blueberries, black tea.

Workout
Was supposed to be a recovery day, but I ended up shovelling a ton of heavy snow (30 mins, vigorous effort).

[Athene]

So many eggs today!

Nutrition
Breakfast - 2 eggs, 2 cups chopped tomato/pepper/asparagus, 300 ml coffee.
Lunch - 4 oz ham, 1 smallish baked sweet potato.
Dinner - 4 egg whites, 1 orange, 2 celery stalks.
Snacks - 12 almonds

Workout
Recovery. Lats are the worst

[Nokie173]

Nutrition
Breakfast - 2 eggs, 1/2 a green pepper, 1/2 cup blueberries.
Lunch - 1 tin smoked oysters, 1 orange.
Dinner - 1 chicken breast, 2 cups lettuce.
Snacks - 1 orange, 1/4 cup blueberries, black tea.

Are your snacks after dinner??
I would suggest having fruits in morning snacks as it has natural sugar and carbs.
As for night snacks... more protein like string cheese, cottage cheese, hard boiled eggs, scramble eggs if you like, protein shakes, etc…
Since it’s already late you’re not gonna burn as much like during the morning/day. That’s just little input.

[Bonnie]

Nokie, cheese has sugar & carbs too

[Athene]

Are your snacks after dinner??:

No! Sorry for being confusing, I just wrote it that way. "Snacks" are other things I ate between meals.

[Athene]

Things have been crazy. This is the gist for the period, it's the same as before, I probably won't be updating this properly until I post after-photos at the end of March and weigh in. I look around the threads for second here and there and remain inspired by all of you!

Nutrition
Breakfast - protein, fruit carb, healthy fat.
Lunch - protein, fruit carb, veg.
Dinner - protein, fruit carb, veg.
Snacks - healthy fat, vegetables.

Plus lots of black coffee and water. Oh yeah, and clearly I eat pizza once a week and that's just it! I perused diary and every week or two weeks it happens like clockwork. I wonder if this is why I don't lose big numbers? I don't know. I think I'll always have a cheat meal every week.

Workouts
Mon, Wed, Fri - Crossfit training for 1 hour
Tue and Thur - Recovery and stretching/active rest days with snow shovelling, walking, etc.
Sat - 5 km run/walk
Sun - 1000 m swim

[Bonnie]

I used to stop & pick up a doughnut weekly saying to myself " this is treat ".Until I started saying to myself..really is this a treat or a stumbling block in diet ? Doughnut went.How many weeks have you been without complex carbohydrates now ? Well except the pizza each week, which is doing you no favors.

Why exactly was it you cut them out ?