Day 46: Dusting Myself Off to Try Again

Hello one and all! I was unsuccessful in besting the 2 1/4 mile run. I did two miles again, but I had a meltdown. Not sure why, but I hit the wall. And before I could really register it, I was face down on the ground crying. Hard. Nuts.

But I got up, and I finished the two miles. I'm bummed out again, but Rome wasn't built in a day, and I need to be patient. I've already accomplished so much! Some days it's easy to forget though. Oh well!

In other news, our Calgary trip is coming up, and I need to start thinking about food. And where and how I'm going to exercise!

Happy Thursday, folks!

Day 43: Results Post!

Hello one and all! So, it's Monday, and that means it's time to show you my results! Here we go:

Weight: 158.5 lbs

Bust: 36.6" (down 0.4")

Arms: 11.6" (down 0.2")

Waist: 30" (down 2")

Hips: 40.5" (down 2.5")

Thighs: 23.3" (down 1.1")

Calves: 14.6" (down 0.4")

So I'm down 6.6" and 4.5 lbs! Productive three weeks, I think! Now for some pictures:

Are those abs I see, starting to creep in?? Aww yeah. I was going to take a picture of my beginner biceps, but that can wait. So can my beginner calf muscles, obviously. 

Alright! Results, as promised. Have a great night, everybody!

Day 38: Trying Something New and Terrible Cramps

Hello one and all! So today I decided to try something new. I discovered a website called Fitness Blender, and I tried a couple videos today. One for obliques and abs that I could only do one circuit of, one for glutes, outer thighs and inner thighs that I just did once, and one upper body and chest one that I did twice. I just feel even worse today. My cramps are terrible, my back aches, and I'm exhausted. Yay, right? On the plus side, I weighed myself this morning and my menstrual cycle may not have messed everything up yet. I weighed the same as I did early last week, which may be right or may not be. I've heard you weigh a bit more during your period, so I might do my results on Sunday then check again Tuesday. Just to be sure it's accurate. Also, a correction. I was reading my weight and measurements journal, and I realized that I incorrectly posted my weight during my first results post. My starting weight was correct, 166lbs. But my weight lost in those three weeks was 3 lbs, not 4. So my 21 day weigh in should read 163lbs, not 162. My sincerest apologies for not noticing sooner!mill fix it immediately. That's all, folks. Have a great night!

Day 25: Apparently Only Five More Days For Everything to be a Habit

Hello one and all! I'm just having breakfast (one egg, two egg whites, scrambled; one pear) and I just finished downing that lemon water. It is unpleasant, folks. I do not at all enjoy it. And I mean that. Probably my least favorite part of the 17 Day Diet. It tastes awful.

I wanted to blog now because I just realized something! You know how you always hear that it takes 30 days to build a habit? Well, I've been eating right and exercising for 25 now! So I'm only five days away from making this change into a habit. Pretty exciting, right?

That's all for today, folks. But I'm going to tell you that tomorrow's post will be about working out when you're completely exhausted! Because I sure will be.

Have an excellent day/night, everybody!

Day Eighteen: Sweating Like a Pig and Hitting My Abs

Hello one and all! Today was another running day. It was a little easier today, which was nice. I'm still hoping that someday I'll run and not die! Something to push for, I guess. After the treadmill, I did some of those ab exercises I posted the link to the other day. I kind of just did a bit of a pick and choose. I tried to avoid ones with weights for today, although I did do the toe touch. I also added two 30 second rounds of the plank, and my abs feel great. Seriously, if you haven't already, try them out. You won't regret it!

After my post yesterday, I had a total meltdown moment. You know, crying, laughing. The whole bit. Perhaps you're wondering why? I'll tell you, but don't laugh!

I walked by one of my full-length mirrors with the lights off, and I actually had to double back because I couldn't believe the person I glimpsed was me.

Let me explain. In my room, I have a full-length mirror on the back of my bathroom door. It's the one I use to get dressed. But at the foot of my bed, there's another mirror, on top of a dresser. I don't usually look in that one because the lighting is bad, and I have a hard time angling the mirror so I can see myself. But I usually scope out my side view as I leave my room to make sure everything looks right. I haven't been doing that much lately, because I'm usually in workout gear or my work uniform. But I caught a glimpse of myself in my (tight) workout gear yesterday, and I stopped and cried. I couldn't believe the difference in my body. I mean, I've seen some inches lost. But looking straight on at your body all the time makes it hard to see the changes. And it just made me really happy. I know I still have a long way to go. But seeing progress is great!

In diet-related news, my mom and I start the 17 Day Diet on Monday. She thinks she's insulin resistant, and I'm pretty sure I must be too. So we're going on a sugar detox with the diet. It should be interesting, lots of people see great weight loss in the first 17 day cycle.

That's all for me today, folks. Have a great night!

Day Nine: Music and Motivation

Hello one and all! Today was another running day. Also known as another day to make me feel discouraged. But today, I managed to turn that around. I made the decision to continue mixing up my speeds in intervals with my running. And today, that was really hard. I was feeling really down because I was just disappointed with my overall fitness level. I mean, I'm doing walk/jog intervals, and finding them pretty hard. That isn't something that I should be worrying about at my age. So I was running my intervals and getting really hard on myself in my mind. I won't lie, I dropped the fat bomb on myself a few times. And then, I had this crazy epiphany. This insane moment of total clarity. And it occurred to me:

Our bodies are capable of so many things. I can't keep thinking about this progress I'm making as something that isn't good enough. Instead, I need to constantly seek improvement, and never give up on pushing my limits.

There's my inspirational thought for the day. On a food note, I finally made my clean pancakes, and I had one for breakfast! I topped it with Greek yogurt and thawed berries, and it was actually pretty good. It'll be a nice change of pace! That's all for me today, folks.

Edit: I forgot to talk about the music and motivation part! So, the thing is, I love music. I'm always singing something! And the song of my weight loss journey so far has been the Benny Benassi remix of Shake It Out by Florence + the Machine. Seriously, if you haven't heard it, give it a real good listen. I love the original too, but the remix is good treadmill motivation music. And yes, I know that the song is about heartbreak and a failed relationship (I think), but to me, it's about what I'm doing right now. I mean, a failed relationship and heartbreak isn't relevant to me right now. I'm in a long term relationship with one of the most amazing people I have ever met. He's my better half, my best friend, and all that gross squishy stuff. Seriously. And while I have been heartbroken, that part of my life is so far from me now that that aspect of the song doesn't matter to me at all. What matters to me is that I'm choosing to interpret it in a way that is relevant to me. So I choose to look at it as a song about my issues with food. My issues and insecurities with my body. But at the end of the song, I always feel hope. My body will change, and so will my life and the way I feel about myself.

Have an excellent Tuesday!

Day Eight: Super Sets and Food Prep

Hello again, one and all! Back to working out today. I did total body super sets today, and what a workout that was! Hard stuff, but I feel great now. Last night's cheat meal was delicious. I had a burger loaded up with great stuff: mustard, barbeque sauce, pickles, extra old cheddar, lettuce, a hot dog, and some mushrooms and onions. Plus my french fries! They were delicious. I also had a hankering for ice cream, so Dan and I went to Dairy Queen and got a Blizzard for me (cookie dough and Smarties) and a chocolate shake for him. Plus a mint Oreo Blizzard for my dad. I couldn't even finish my Blizzard. It was great the first few bites, then it was just a really sweet, sticky mess. I think for my next cheat meal I'll avoid ice cream and have something else instead.

Blogging early again today, it isn't even noon yet. But I have things to do today! I forgot to mention that I actually did make the frozen "yogurt" on Saturday. I haven't tried it yet, but it smells good! Today, I'm making steel cut oats for me and momba to have for breakfast, and I'm finally going to try clean pancake making. Good stuff! Then Dan and I are hanging out after he gets off work. Probably going to play more Mario Party 9, because Dan is amazing and he bought it yesterday. It's actually really fun, and finally something different from all the other 8. For anyone who doesn't know, Mario Party is one of my favorite games ever. We had MP 2 and 3 for the N64, and I think we have MP 6 for the Game Cube, and now MP 8 and 9 for the Wii. I can't believe I've never been able to find MP 1, though I've played it before. Maybe I'll look for it....

That's it for me, happy Monday everyone!

Day Seven: Energy and Cheat Meal

Hello one and all! So today is Sunday, which means I have a day off from working out. Which feels kind of strange, I like the energy boost I get post-workout. But it's important to have a day of rest, right?

Even though I won't be working out today, I'm still feeling energetic. It's so nice! I feel like I can go from sun up to sun down and get everything I need to get done and still have energy to spare. It's an incredible feeling, and this is only a week in!

So today, I decided to allow myself one cheat meal instead of cheat eating all day. It's going to be dinner. We're having a barbeque! Burgers, steaks, hot dogs, and my favorite indulgence of the day: French fries! I love potatoes. I think they're so versatile for cooking. Although I won't get to have them too terifically often anymore. But I'm actually okay with that. It's worth it if I'll feel like this every day.

Also, this is totally unrelated to anything about clean eating, but my mom gave me her old iPad! I guess that's on my mind because I wanted to practice typing on it, so this is my first post from it! Cool beans. I'm typing a fraction of the speed I normally do, because while my phone is touch screen, it's a Samsung Galaxy with Swype, so I don't actually type out anything unless it's not in my dictionary.

That's all for now, folks, have a great Sunday!

Day Six: Mixing It Up

Hello one and all! So today (even though it isn't even three o'clock) I thought I'd blog early! I mean, Dan and I have another hockey game to go to tonight (so spoiled), so why not blog while I have time? Anyways, on to the mixing it up bit!
So when I did my run today, I followed the advice my dad gave my mom yesterday: to mix up the speed at which she runs when she's doing her intervals. So I alternated between my usual 5 MPH and 6 MPH for my running intervals, and six was hard. My legs were jelly by the time I finished! And I will admit I had to pep talk myself after probably the second or third interval... And especially on the last two! But I made it through, and that made me feel really... Accomplished. Obviously, I shouldn't be feeling too self-satisfied, because I've still got a long ways to go. But I can't help but feel that I'm definitely on the right track. And that makes me feel awesome.

Today I'm thinking I'm going to take a stab at some clean eating pancakes, just to mix things up. I picked up the last things I needed, so hopefully they turn out okay (and ideally they'll freeze well). If I have time, I was thinking I would try making some clean frozen "yogurt." Which isn't actually yogurt at all, it's soy! So maybe if I do everything right I'll post my first food picture.

Anyways, have an excellent St Paddy's Day everyone, and be safe!

Day Three: Recipes & Variety

Hello one and all! So after I posted yesterday, I spent most of the night looking up clean recipes. You know, things like comfort foods made clean, desserts, pasta dishes, etc. In short, things I love to eat. I found a lot of good stuff! It was really nice to see that I can clean up recipes and still enjoy them. I found one recipe in particular I can't wait to try, which shouldn't surprise anyone who knows of my love of baking: lemon meringue cupcakes! They look divine, although I'm sure mine will look nowhere that good. But I'll still give them a shot!

Still on the subject of food, lots of good things were had today. Steel cut oats again for breakfast, with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries! This time, instead of a hard boiled egg, I scrambled one egg and two egg whites, then cracked a bunch of fresh pepper on top. Tasty stuff! For my afternoon snack, I had a handful of grapes and some almonds. For lunch, a chicken wrap on a whole wheat tortilla with a bunch of mixed greens, a single (TINY) pickle, and a bit of brown rice. It was okay, I've never been much of a salad person. Then after my workout, I had a chocolate-peanut butter-banana protein shake, in the cute new tumbler I got from work. For dinner, I had a delicious beef stew, with a couple potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, celery, and peas. And whole wheat biscuits. I had one and a half, not the one I was supposed to. But they were so good, I couldn't just have one. And at least I didn't eat six like I usually would...

Dan and I went to a hockey game tonight. It was really fun, we actually won! But there was a lot of junk food around us. Popcorn, pizza, french fries... Although I noticed that that stuff kind of smelled sour after. The smell just lingered. Maybe it was just crappy arena food? Who knows. Oh well.

Workout today went okay. Did more push ups, although I still couldn't manage the decline push ups. Instead of pep talking myself today, I cursed relentlessly at Tony Horton. That's it for me tonight, though.

Good night to all!

Day Two: I Hate Having to Pee a MILLION Times a Day.

Hello everyone!

So today was day two, which meant only one thing to me: I had to run today. I'm doing the Couch to 5k program, which I've started a couple times before. Let me tell you, if you're like me and you fail at cardio of any kind, this is the way to go! Which brings me to a related point...

I absolutely loathe running. I hate how out of shape it makes me feel. I have never been a runner in the whole of my life. When we used to have to run to "warm up" in PE, that killed me. Cardio has never been my friend. And it was embarrassing, because I was skinny-fat. I looked like I could handle running, but just a lap in the gym got me breathing hard. I struggled through PE until high school, when I took Dance instead. That was okay. Some of the core strength stuff we did left me wanting to puke, and I was a hugely uncoordinated spaz, but I kind of struggled through everything regardless.

Even though I hate running because it makes me feel so fat, it's always been something that I wished I could do. I've always wanted to experience that "runner's high." It seems like it would be so relaxing. And easy to think. While your body pounds out a familiar rhythm, your mind is free to wander. But maybe it's just me. I hope I get to that point some day; for now when I run I give myself a mental pep talk:

You can do this. You are stronger than you think. Don't give up on yourself.


You know what else sucks? Having to pee a million times a day. I'm doing my best to drink all the water I'm supposed to, and my bladder is not used to it at all! Oh well. I'll adjust soon enough.


Anyways, this is a bit of an early post, but that's okay. I mean, I haven't had dinner yet, but I can assure you it will be clean! My mom is really good about helping me with that stuff. So have a good night, one and all!

Day One: Good Eats and Lots of Sweat.

Hello one and all! So today was day one of eating clean and exercising. My original intention was to alternate weights and cardio six days a week. Cardio was (and still is) training for a 5k run. Weights was supposed to be alternating upper body, full body, and lower body super sets. Instead of doing super sets this morning, I sweated along with Tony Horton in the Sculpt 3/4 DVD from the P90 program. It was hard!

The very first move had me feeling completely discouraged. A decline push up. I couldn't even do one, getting down as low as Tony was telling me to. I was feeling really bummed out. Then I realized that I was starting on Sculpt 3/4, not Sculpt 1/2. I didn't have a chance to build up my strength and whatnot like most people following the program would. So I stopped beating myself up, and I got down on the floor and did some push ups. Knees on the ground, but still. I did some push ups!

I pushed through the entire workout. But I made sure to know my limits. Although once or twice I definitely did pick up weights that were way too heavy. But I corrected that pretty quickly!

My eating was pretty good today. Breakfast: Steel cut oats with thawed strawberries (and their juice, yum) with a hardboiled egg and two big glasses of water (equal to one litre, I measured). For a post-workout snack I had some frozen red grapes and another big glass of water (two cups right there). For lunch, I had a mixed green salad with cut up chicken and a balsamic vinaigrette and another big glass of water (another two cups). For an afternoon snack, I had twelve almonds and a small Granny Smith apple with peanut butter. For dinner, I had half a chicken breast, sweet potatoes roasted with cinnamon and a pinch of brown sugar, and broccoli and baby tomatoes steamed with oregano and basil. With dinner, I didn't have water. I had a small glass of 1% milk. All in all, I'm feeling pretty good today!

Something not so good today: I decided to weigh myself, do my measurements, and take some pictures to compare my progress to. Everything in that regard was awful. I cried a lot, wondering how I let everything get so out of control. Lucky for me, I had my amazing boyfriend Dan to help pick up the pieces! I'm so glad to have such a great person in my life. He always knows exactly what to say to make me feel better. Even when I've squished myself into a bikini that barely holds the girls in, when I look like a stuffed sausage with tiny stubby legs, he tells me that I'm beautiful, and I always will be. Talk about a great guy! So I got him to take the pictures for me. And to bring myself out of meltdown mode, I kept telling myself:

You are not trapped in this body. You will not always look like this. You're taking steps in a great direction.

That thought definitely helped calm me down. So now, to bed. I have a really early wake up tomorrow morning for work. After work, the running begins!

Have a fantastic night, everybody!

Introduction: The Day Before I Change My Life!

Hello one and all! Before my journey really starts, I thought it would be nice I started this blog off by introducing myself, and letting everyone get to know a bit about me. So, here we go!

My name is Erin! I'm a 22 year old girl living in beautiful British Columbia. I'm five foot one, and my life needs a change! At 22, I'm a complete carb, sugar, fat, and salt junkie. If it's bad for you, there's a 99.9% chance that I will eat it and love it. Anything, seriously. You name it. I love chocolate, chips, candies, burgers, deep-fried anything, cheese, pasta, cookies, cakes, pies, cupcakes... This is no good for me, because I also love to bake!

About a month and a half ago, my mom and I started eating clean and exercising. We decided to start running, doing a Couch to 5k kind of program. On alternate days, we would also cycle and do resistance band exercises. We were eating clean with a cheat day a week. Well, I was. My mom had cheat meals. I liked the day format better! Anyways. So, for about two weeks, everything was awesome. I lost weight and inches almost immediately. In a week, I lost two inches off my waist. It was great!

Then my mom went back to Alberta for a family emergency. I tried to keep going without her, but it was so stressful and we were all so worried about her that everything just kind of... Fell by the wayside. I did run for the week she was gone, but I didn't eat anything that could be considered healthy AT ALL. I was cooking for three guys (my dad and two brothers) and I just caved in and ate what I made them. So, fast-forward to now: I've gained back all the weight (and then some). I feel tired and lethargic all the time.

A week ago, I decided that I am the kind of person who needs definite structure. I decided to make myself tables and charts and pages of exercises to do. I researched exercises, cardio, how to work my abs without hurting my back, everything. I've spent hours looking at clean eating recipes. I've spent hours looking up food substitutions-I'm a bit of a picky eater. I hate cucumbers, zucchini, raw tomatoes (I'll eat them cooked), raw peppers (I don't like them much better cooked, but I like the colour), watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, eggplant, and more things than I can even come up with off the top of my head. While I'm a picky eater, I'll try anything once!

That's all for tonight, I think. So read on, and see how my journey unfolds!