My recent absence from this blog has been for two reasons. Firstly, I had a really bad week, ate a lot of crap and gained a couple pounds. I felt so gross that I didn't want to blog about how I downed an entire bag of chips and hummus, or how Greg and I ate a chocolate cake in T minus 2 days. Secondly, I decided to try herbalife and wasn't sure how I felt about sharing that. I didn't want people think that I was suckered into some stupid diet club, or bought some pills that claim to do magic because herbalife is actually neither of those things.

I briefly mentioned it in my last post but a lot has changed since then. In a nutshell, I was getting frustrated at my slow progress and decided to do some research into herbalife. I spent a lot of time reading about it and considering it until I eventually contacted the Lethbridge distributor, Debora, and decided to meet with her for a free consultation. Greg, being ultras supportive of me, gave me a few months supply of their stuff as part of my birthday present and now we both are trying their stuff in hopes of being healthier.

So what is it? Well, basically we replace meals with these shakes. It's not Slimfast by any means. It's a powder that has tones of vitamins, minerals, and good stuff your body needs that you never get in your ordinary diet. Plus it has many antioxidants and detoxifying properties, so when combined with some fruits, soy or skim milk your body gets all the nutrition and cleans itself out at the same time. Herbalife also sells other products to increase weight loss like protein powders, metabolism pills and various teas but we decided to go with the shakes for now to just give our bodies a boost and get them digesting some good stuff. Since Greg doesn't need to lose weight (sigh) he only drinks one for breakfast. He normally was eating a granola bar and 34 cups of coffee for breakfast so this is a huge step up. I'm replacing both breakfast and lunch with shakes and eating healthy snacks in between.

I feel this is a way for me to get control over the diet side of this journey. My attempts at eating healthier were lacking and this new plan gives me structure and an easy guide to follow. I don't have to count calories, or add points. For me it sounded like a no-brainer way to "diet". Another applealing thing to me was that herbalife states over and over again that this is not a miracle thing and is not designed to do magic. It's only designed to give your body the right "tools" to break down fats and gain energy and nutrients. So when combined with healthy snacks and exercise people lose weight. It's even recommended for people who don't need to lose weight because of all the health benefits associated with the right intake of vitamins, minerals and good stuff.

So being a sceptic I thought I would possibly gain some weight at first, feel grumpy, miss chewing and feel the bottom of my stomach reaching up and touching my ribs in a growl of hunger. BUT to my extreme surprise I was so full that I couldn't finish my lunch shake. I was also so energized and focused that I went all day without coffee and didn't even miss it. My snacks of boiled egg, almonds, apples and carrot sticks between shakes keep me full, and I mean FULL all day. This is day 6 and I am loving it so far. So we'll see where this takes me.

Weight before herbalife: back up to 169 (UUGGG)
Weight today: 166 (lowest yet)
workout today: got monthly visitor so we'll see
Feeling: still sceptical but motivated to continue. And grateful for some structure on the diet side of things.

The worst part of working out regularly is that you need to continually increase the amount of time or the difficulty of your workout to keep feeling challenged. My 20 minute runs used to be it for me. They would send me stumbling through the door drenched and unable to utter a two word sentence. But now 20 minutes is my warm up and trying to put in 30-60 minutes of exercise a day is a lot harder than fitting in a 20 minute "run". Needless to say I only get 2-3 good workouts in a week now. I still try to do something every day but getting to a class at the gym or hitting the elliptical and weights for an hour is very time-consuming.

On a dietary note, things are still up and down. We never have much junk in the house, but this week Greg was crazing cupcakes and I wanted chips and artichoke dip. So we bought both and ate it all!!!!!!!!!! We both had upset stomachs, and a day of indigestion. Then we decided to top that off with a few Tim Hortons runs and some oven pizzas. Luckily the weight didn't pile on but it didn't come off either. But what's feeling worse to me right now is my energy level and my overall feeling of uggg. Gross food really hits you hard when you avoid it for a long time. I'm not trying to brag but we NEVER have pop, McDonalds, or fast food in general. We rarely have chips and almost never have something like cupcakes around here. So to eat it all in one week feels really McNasty and gave us the McGutRot.

Then I met a girl who is on this program called Herbalife, which right off the bat made me roll my eyes but after hearing her talk about it honestly for 2 hours and then doing my own research and contact with the distributor I have decided to meet for a free consultation and discuss it. In a nutshell it is a meal replacement that is a shake you make with a billion vitamins and healthy stuff in it and almost no calories. The point is to replace one meal with this, continue your exercises and healthy(ish) eating and boost your weight loss. The Lethbridge rep also runs a weight loss challenge that runs for 12 weeks and is only $40. And the best part is, whoever loses the most weight in 12 weeks wins everyone else's $40!! I'm thinking of doing the one in January and shedding all my Florida and Vacation weight.

Anyhow, more on herbalife later. For now, I'm off to think of something to cook with my asparagus for dinner.

Weight Today: 167
Workout: 60 minutes tonight...Goodbye evening.
Feeling: Like I'm learning more and more about healthy living and all the things our body needs and all the junk we put in it. This has been a fun week of research for me.

www.herbalife.com

If you're thinking of investing in some free weights, I would encourage you to take a look into the resistance band. This little number was about $15 at Canadian Tire and can serve a variety of functions that would otherwise require an entire set of free weights. And at $7 a piece, who can afford all the different weights?

The nice thing about the tube is that you can adjust the intensity level by either giving yourself more slack or making it tighter, and thus harder to move. It was recommended to me by a personal trainer at my gym when I had such bad shin splints a few months ago. She suggested I sit on the floor with the rubber tubing around my feet and flex my feet until the tubing felt tight. That exercise will help build calf muscle and reduce the splints.

Since then I have looked up a number of different exercises and am finding resistance training challenging but also very effective. For this shoulder and ab exercise, you stand on a piece of the band and lift the end in the air, and then crunch down to the side. When the band is at the peak in the air it's the hardest and is working all those arm muscles.


This is the crunch back down. If you exhale while you crunch this way you are working your obliques.

If you stand on the tubing in the middle in a lunged position you can do bicep curls with it. The lunch makes it a core workout too.

Staying in the lunch and pushing your arms back works your triceps...oh boy does it ever.
Anyhow, for a few bucks this investment is awesome and I recommend it to anyone. Plus its easy to store and light as a feather!

Weight Today: 167
Workout: Elliptical and resistance training yesterday, probably more Elliptical tonight
Feeling: anxious about the weight I'll probably gain on my upcoming trip to Florida. But confident in my ability to bounce back. My goals for the new year are exciting and challenging! tba

Dear weekend; why do you fail me?

It seems it's always the weekends that do me in. It's non stop with the movie nights that usually mean pizza, the Starbucks runs, and the socializing and dinners that include my days worth of calories. To top that off I rarely get a workout in because of all the stuff going on and the fact that Greg is home and we just want to have some family time. Then Monday rolls around and the scale disappoints me.

So here I am on Monday afternoon deciding what to do tonight. Watch TV or go to the gym or just do some cardio at home. Oh brother.

I was also inspired by my sister's new diet and decided to take tomorrow to prepare some chicken breasts, rice and veggies in advance and keep them in the fridge for my lunches for the rest of the week. I sometimes skip lunch and then end up stuffing my face around 3pm with some bready-cookie type thing. This way I hope to make myself eat lunch and keep my energy levels up and my metabolism burning for the rest of the day.

Weight Today: 168
Workout: t.b.a
Feeling: slightly inspired lately to work my way towards a new fitness goal such as a half marathon or at least a local run.

Well I sucked it up and kept on keepin' on (who says that?). Anyways, I ate a piece of cake and felt nasty so I changed out of my pajamas and did a workout. Let me tell you how incredibly difficult it is to get out of ones pajamas and into really tight pants and a sports bra. It should never be done.

Anyways, I got all sweaty at 9 in the evening, showered and went to bed. The next day I decided to get on the scale and to my surprise it showed no gain and some nice loss going on.




So I guess I'll keep on pluggin' away. I think it's also time to combine more nutrition and diet into the mix as well. I'm not planning on counting all the calories I eat or becoming obsessed about it, but I am going to need to pay closer attention to this because I've heard it can be up to 80% of the battle. That's HUGE. So on the menu this morning:

coffee
egg white omelet with tomato and a piece of whole grain toast

I've also swapped a dinner plate for a salad plate for all my meals to keep my portions smaller.

Weight today: 167 (on old scale which battery was replaced)
Workout: at least 60 minutes of aquafit tonight
Feeling: determined and much better, thank you.

hhhhhheeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllpppppppppppp mmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I have done nothing as far as workouts in 4 days. Bluck. I feel frumpy and grumpy. As soon as I stop working out, counting calories and watching what I eat I end up back where I started and I do not want that to happen again. I have had a busy week but that is no excuse. I told myself that if you want this to happen, you need to make it happen. That means fitting it into your schedule as a priority and making sure people know that you need to go to the gym or the pool or hit the Elliptical and whatever else is going on can wait. But after family visits, halloweening, parties, and movie rentals the work out has been slipping further and further down the priority list.

I fear another back slide and that really scares me. I know that 4 days without working out does not equal backslide, but it's not just that I haven't worked out. It's also that I feel unmotivated and apathetic about it now. I still want to lose weight and look good, but that drive, that determination is fading and I want it back.

So, what do people do when they hit this kind of dry period in their journey? Why are some athletes able to maintain years and even decades of regular fitness and not ride this rollercoster that the rest of us seem to be on of our fat highs and our skinny lows? I need to answer to these questions. I need to tap into what it is that athletic people have that I don't. Maybe I'll never be an athletic person with ripped arms and the ability to do regular push ups. Maybe some people are just able to obtain that and others are not?

I bet I would feel differently if my results were more dramatic, but after six weeks and only 4 (maybe 5) pounds of weight gone, I feel I'm grasping for some hope to hold onto and keep this journey alive.

Weight today: haven't even checked
Workout: debating if I should do something right now
Feeling: see above