Recap w/ a Smoothie Tip!

A large update due to my lack of commitment to writing.

Would say I'm sorry but I'm really not, because I've been going to bed early instead of writing.

I write wherever I can find time. "But there was an entire weekend!" you say. I say, I had issues. hahaha

I had all wonderful intentions of writing over the weekend. Then, the washer happened.

Brockton, my pup, had gotten sick in his crate, on his bed and blanket on Friday, so we threw them in the washer.

Saturday morning, I went to take them out of the washer and the water had not drained.

To make a long story short (cause I do want to get to the good stuff today), I tried to fix the water all weekend and my boyfriend ended up fixing it by banging on it a couple times on Sunday evening.

It was a funny story. You can check it out on www.facebook.com/melfredo7 - if I don't have you blocked of course.

Recap of the first week

I thought the first week was going to be difficult, but it ended up being easy. Maybe a little too easy?

Looking back, I was very focused on my food and exercise, as well as taking all of my supplements.

I had good energy throughout the day, and tried my best to get to bed at a reasonable hour every night. This is not a usual problem for me, but I was trying to get to bed even earlier, due to the change of extremely early mornings at the gym.

I did 3 days of strength training/interval cardio, as well as 4 days with lighter cardio workouts at home (yoga, walking the dog, and exercise videos).

I followed my nutrition plan completely, and didn't stray at all. I actually found it strange that not once was I craving any non-quality foods, and not once was I starving, or even hungry.

I'm pleased with the results from my first week, but don't plan on getting such large results in the future. To keep up with my results, you can click here.

Smoothie Tip!

Smoothies.

They're SO SO SO SO good for you, but man, can they be a pain.

Not to mention that the blender makes so much noise at 4:30 in the morning when your partner and roommate are sleeping!!

I started to make my smoothies the day before, right when I get home from work. I put it in a travel mug, and then throw it in the freezer for the night.

This ACTUALLY makes the smoothie easier to eat if you're a little skiddish about the taste.

When I go to take my smoothie out at 4:30 in the morning, it's frozen, but not too frozen to scrape with a spoon and eat somewhat like Italian ice! Plus I don't have to put too much effort into it because I only eat 1/4 of it before the gym.

Then the smoothie sits in my car and starts to melt while I'm working out and getting ready for work. By the time I sit down at my desk, it's usually this fantastic consistency that resembles ice cream or a slushie!!!

Trust me, this is the way to go. I've tried to make smoothies in the morning, then choke them down because the taste was just meh. Eating it like Italian ice, there is hardly any taste at all. Then when it's milkshake/slushie consistency, for some reason the flavors of the banana and blueberries totally overtake the kale, and it makes it so much more enjoyable!!

Try it out and let me know what you think!!

XOXOXO

Damn you, Ketchup.

I've started to realize that an everyday post might not be feasible for me, so don't expect one every single day :P

Was on point with both my food and exercise throughout the day.

I did get very tired today though. I noticed that I struggled through my strength training (failing on the last couple reps of a few exercises), and that I was tired at work.

Being that I sit at a desk all day (yay exercise ball today!) it's not that I'm exerting myself too much at the workplace. As a matter of fact, I think I might have been tired because I was so bored!

I did end up taking a 30 minute nap in my car in the afternoon during my lunch break.

I ALMOST cheated today. It wouldn't have been an extreme cheat, but it's still not allowed: regular ketchup. I made this awesome grass-fed ground beef meatloaf with zucchini, onion, mushrooms and garlic, and when it came out I just wanted to squirt some ketchup into one of my little condiment bowls and have at it! I ended up putting the ketchup away once I saw it had high fructose corn syrup in it, and ate my dinner portion of the meatloaf without it.

I might be somewhat proud about that :)

XOXOXO

Ouch.

They say the first day is always the hardest, but I don't find that to be true.

It's somewhere around the 5th to 8th day I find the hardest.

However, the second day? ALWAYS the sorest.

Ouch.

Hence I did not go to the gym this morning, but got some extra sleep. My body clock is still off from air travel over the previous weekend, but it will settle again soon.

Exercise today? Not phenomenal, but I still put effort in.

I still got up somewhat early, and took the dog for a walk. It wasn't a sweaty walk, but it was still something.

Then during lunch hour, I walked in the blazing sun to the shopping center next door. I sweat more doing THAT than I sweat taking the long walk this morning.

When I got home, I was running around the house doing all sorts of things, and realized that sweat was dripping off my face. Great warm up for an hour of yoga! Just a basic video on youtube, but it definitely felt good for my mind and body.

Most excited thing today? I was able to get an exercise ball to sit on at work! I started the morning looking for a spare one I saw lying around, to find it was taken. However, someone kindly helped me find an individual that was not using theirs, and alas, my very own exercise ball!

Because of the chronic neck pain I suffer (and yes, I had another lingering headache today!) I could already tell that the ball was going to help relieve pressure from my entire spine, and I did start feeling relief!

What I'm Trying to NOT Beat Myself Up About

When I don't live up to my initial expectations, I ALWAYS end up beating up myself about it (badly) which in turn destroys my motivation and focus; i.e. all those times I gained the weight back!

I know that this lifestyle change will cause me to change my daily routines. I did pack my gym bags and got all of my food ready last night, but this morning, the soreness and exhaustion just got to me. I'm trying not to beat myself up about it.

Fact is that my body is just not ready for those workouts almost every single day this week. But it might be next week! We can only wait and see!

 The fact is that even though I had a low-intensity day, I was still 100% on point with food, and I managed to find SOMETHING in the form of exercise to sweat.


Feeling good for the night,
XOXOXO

Day 1 of Forever

The whole idea behind #TheRevolution, is that it's not a diet you do for 30 days, or only until you lose your weight. Those don't work.

#TheRevolution is a lifestyle change.

Today is Day 1, and the process will never stop from here forward.

I have 3 things that I am focusing on for this transformation: food, exercise, and mindset.

Surprisingly enough, starting this blog today is causing me to falter on my new nightly routine (fail!) so I'm just going to wrap up my day and how I feel, so that I can get to sleep!

My Motivation Tools

I log all of my food and exercise on MyFitnessPal. It helps hold myself accountable.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/melfredo7111

I also have a FitBit that I like to use for accountability, and to challenge myself against my friends who have FitBits as well.
https://www.fitbit.com/user/2BK8KB

Both of these have been great motivation tools throughout my journey thus far.

Day 1

The first day is always the hardest. You can pretty much expect to not feel great the first few days of doing something like this.

For instance, I'm giving up all dairy and gluten products. Don't get me wrong, I love my cheese and bread, but it makes me feel sluggish and foggy (and fat!).

My body has reacted to not giving it dairy and gluten today, by giving me this fantastic lingering headache.

Expect something like this the first few days. After 2-3 days, it will go away, and will not come back.

I fought off the headache today by taking one Aleve this morning, and one this afternoon when the headache started to come back.

I should also mention that I suffer from chronic migraines and headaches, and they tend to come about from high intensity exercise and extreme heat, so I will most likely have these more often than someone who does not have this condition will.

I had trouble sleeping last night, but was up bright and early at 4am to have 1/2 of my breakfast before my workout at the gym. Today was strength training and cardio.

Got ready for work at the gym, then it was just over 9 hours of constant focus on a computer screen (yay for massive amounts of work because I was on vacation for 10 days before today!).

My biggest complaint from today was the lingering headache, which should be gone tomorrow.

I didn't have massive amounts of energy, but probably just what I needed to get through my day. I am tired now.

One thing I really enjoyed today that I didn't think I would was the boneless skinless chicken thigh I had for lunch today.

I'm also really enjoying the night-time green tea that is making me sleepy!

I'm afraid if I continue on, my post will only become more incohesive. Tomorrow will be better, I promise.

I'm off to finish this tea, stretch and have some meditation time.

XOXOXO