Karmacharger

Wow! You sound unstoppable! It's really inspiring to see so much enthusiasm and dedication towards your workouts! You should be careful how much time you spend at the Y. They might soon start charging you rent.

You are probably right Pamela. However, I feel pretty good today. My stomach felt okay when I woke up and my energy levels good. I'm thinking of doing a hatha yoga class instead of bikram today. I might be easier. We'll see how I feel in another hour or so. You are so lucky that you haven't had to throw up in so many years. I have the most fragile stomach on earth. It's terrible.

Hey Courtney! I often have problems staying on track with my healthy eating and here are a few things that I find helpful... I hope you don't mind the unsolicited tips... - To kick the soda habit. I mix sparkling water and pure fruit juice. I get the bubbles I love and more natural sugars. I'm actually rethinking the sparkling water after an accidental experiment that I once did.... I was picking the stones out of the beans that I was getting ready to soak and a few fell into my sparkling water. About 10 minutes later when I finished my drink, the skins of the beans were so shriveled I was able to tear them right off. However, even after 24 hours of soaking in regular water and an hour of cooking, the skins didn't want to budge. Can you imagine what the carbonation is doing to our insides? EEEK - I know planning and preparing ahead of time, involves time and energy you might not have but I find that if I prepare my breakfast and lunch the night before, I'll be sure to get healthy food in me and won't have to make last minute choices. - I bring a cooler to team meetings/retreats at work, road trips, any time I travel or plan to be away from home. I take my cooler to work on a daily basis. If I have the food I'm going to eat for the day on-hand, I don't have to worry about leaving my desk to eat if I'm busy. I don't have to skip meals and I eat whatever it is that I've included in my program. I think you did this when you were traveling for work, I've found it helpful to do it all the time. - Flexibility is important. Allow yourself the occasional treat as part of your program. I used to judge myself and feel bad when I would treat myself, I'd call it falling off the wagon and then feel bad and guilty for doing so. These days, if I've accounted for the treat in the whole of my program, then it's just part of my program. This works as long as the other healthy food that's supposed to be in my program gets in there too. I think it's amazing that you're posting your journey on here and are sharing your process with us! Paying attention to what works and what doesn't is half the battle. Journaling is also the most helpful thing I've ever done when trying to lose weight. Good luck and take care!!

When I went to Cuba for a friend's resort wedding, I brought a big bag of protein powder (back when I used to drink shakes) and made shakes in my room. A piece of paper rolled into a cone makes a great funnel. I'd pour a full water bottle into an empty one, funnel in the powder and I was good to go. These days, I pack a cooler. I don't leave home without one if I don't feel like I'll be in control of my food. I usually make a tofu sandwich for the first day of the trip. I cook some kale, ring the water out of it and pack it in my sandwich. You can get about 2 cups worth in there. You could also make some bean wraps since they travel well and don't take up too much space. Will you have access to a fridge or freezer? I make a snack mix with whole grain cereal, almonds, soy nuts and raisins. I love dried apricots and almonds for a snack. My boyfriend and I are often on the run and realise 6 hours too late that we haven't eaten. We've gotten into the habit of doing car picnics where we'll dash into a grocery store and grab some pre-cut veggies, humus, whole grain bread, bean salad, fruit for dessert and have a picnic in the car. If you're going with friends, I can't imagine they'll be opposed to stopping for 10 minutes for a quick trip to the grocery store. Hope that helps!

Brown rice is my staple today. I might continue this tomorrow depending on how my tummy feels. So far, still wonky. I made brown rice with 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds. I toasted the seeds and added a splash of tamari to them. I think the whole thing is about 3 cups in total. I've eaten a portion of this mix three or four times today. I have a tiny bit left and I might have it later. However, I think I'm done eating for the day. In addition, I've had 1.5 cups of apple juice on ice. It's my comfort drink when I'm sick. I've had 1/2 an umeboshi plum to neutralize the acidity in my stomach and three mugs of kukicha tea. So about 4.5 cups of tea. So in total, I think I'll get about 1100 calories today and I can live with that.

Day 68 I typed up a whole blog entry at work and then tried posting it. However, I couldn't get it to post. Something to do with cutting and pasting. It's funny how things workout sometimes. I was all prepared to go to 6:30 AM yoga today. I was diligent last night in preparing. I went out of my way to go to the yoga studio to get a replacement card so I wouldn't have to deal with it at 6AM today. I found out when I got there that I had actually left my card at the studio and didn't have to pay $3 to replace it. I was with a friend at the time and we noticed one of my other friends sitting on the patio of a neighbourhood bar all by himself. We popped in to join him for a drink. I had sparkling water. I wasn't about to drink alcohol less than 12 hours before a yoga class. And I'm not much of a drinker anyway. Well, we were having a nice time but it started to get cold, the humidity was killing me a bit, as was the second-hand cigarette smoke. At a certain point, my stomach started doing weird flips and flops and I had to get out of there. My friend Rob walked me home and we made it about a block and a half away from the bar before we had to turn onto a side street so I could "toss my cookies" without an audience. Thankfully, I had a plastic bag on me so I was prepared to contain the "cookies." It was gross. I felt gross. I feel lucky to have a friend like Rob. He held my hair, told me I was going to be fine and made sure we found a garbage dumpster before getting home. It's amazing how far we walked without seeing a garbage bin. I fell asleep not long after I got home. I woke up to the phone at 7:30 when my boyfriend called. He woke me from the deepest sleep I ever remember having. I puttered around my condo and went to work. I felt icky, tired, off and a queasy. I made some kukicha tea and brown rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I toasted some pumpkin seeds and threw some tamari on them. That will be all the food I eat today. Three cups of brown rice with a quarter cup of pumpkin seeds. I have about 1.5 cups left and it should get me through the day. Especially since I'm not so hungry. I had some apple juice too. I'm back to kukicha tea. My cure all for headaches, sore throats, tummy aches etc is to eat part of an umeboshi plum. They're pickled Japanese plums, at least one to three years old. The taste is very strong, sour and salty but I find they really help balance my system out. I came home from work and took a nap. I woke up two hours later. I'm ready to go back down but I think I will read for a bit first while I drink my tea. I can hear my tummy working through its state of distress. My leg muscles are still a bit sore from Tuesday. My shoulders, chest and back are stiff and sore from my workout yesterday. My abdominal and diaphragm muscles are sore from last night. If ever there was a reason to slow down, this is it. I'm going to take it easy tomorrow, maybe take in a yoga class if I'm feeling better. I might fast on brown rice for another day if my stomach is still wonky in the morning. I suspect some bad tofu is the reason for all of this. I bought it in bulk so it didn't have an expiry date. I don't think I'll be doing that again any time soon. However, after this experience, I will probably now have an aversion to tofu... like I do brown lentils. Yuck. On the bright side, it feels good to be resting and taking it easy... even if my stomach is at war with itself. I really hate that I found joy in weighing myself this morning and seeing that I was almost a kg lighter than I was yesterday morning at the same time. It's not real weight loss. I'll go back to normal when I'm feeling better. However, I was also missing a 1/2 inch on my waist today too. I was tempted to go in for my final measuring today. I'm going to do my best this weekend to take care of myself and get measured on Monday as planned. Happy Friday! May your weekends be fun!

Thanks DV! I feel much better today. My period finally came and my body is reverting back to normal. Days 66 and 67 Yesterday morning I woke up with another headache. I didn't feel so hot but managed to get up and into work very early. I got home nice and early because of my early start. I was in bed and napping around 4pm yesterday afternoon and got an hour of sleep. It was bliss. I walked to and from the vegetarian restaurant that I went to for dinner last night. It was about 35 minutes each way. I don't count that as cardio but it was still better than nothing. This morning I had a great training session with my trainer. We trained upper body and it was good. I got confirmation on form for my lying hamstring curl... it's been so long since I've done it, I had to double check. Turns out my hams are strong! My trainer had me do an interesting warm up exercise for my chest. It went like this: - Get into a push-up position. - Put your left forearm to the mat - Put your right forearm to the mat - Put your left hand back into starting position - Put your right hand into starting position Repeat until collapse and change up the starting hand after a certain number of reps. It was a weird form of torture but I liked it. My trainer jumped the gun and handed me the 30lbs dumbbells for my chest press. I wasn't ready. My mind was prepared to do 27.5 and I couldn't pump out more than 2 assisted reps. I'm going to do more working out on my own and build my way there. I think my trainer is over estimating my ability. Or maybe I'm under-estimating it... or perhaps we meet in the middle somewhere. Who knows? All it in all, it was a great workout and only day one and a half of my period so I feel good for accomplishing what I did when all I really want to do is go to bed. I'm thinking of going to hot yoga tomorrow morning. I probably shouldn't do yoga with my period but I don't care. I want to start shrinking in advance of Monday's final measurement. Wish me luck! My goals for tonight and tomorrow: - Eat at home. Do not eat out. This applies to most of this weekend. - Get to bed early - Go to morning yoga or after work - Stay focused.

Pre-Workout 3 c water Post-Workout 1/2 c grainless cereal 1/2 c brown rice 1/2 c almond milk 2 t raisins Lunch Vegan Pizza Tofu & Avocado Salad 1.5 c apple juice Dinner Tofu nuggets Broccoli w/ 1/2 t olive oil 3 T rice dream chocolate fudge "ice cream" I ended up throwing up the tofu four hours later. Something about it didn't agree with me. Ick.

Breakfast 1 c brown rice 10 almonds 1 T raisins 1 apple 1 T maple syrup Lunch 1 c brown lentils w/ zucchini and corn 1/2 c brown rice avocado sandwich on spelt bread light juice spritzer I hated my lentil lunch so I bought a sandwich. A few months ago I got sick and there were lentils involved. Ever since then, I can't eat them. Snack 3 dried apricots Dinner Vegetarian Buffet (Broccoli and Tofu, Yams, Soba noodles, Salad greens) Sliver of vegan raspberry chocolate cheesecake Coconut square (I didn't need it)

I have to give my boyfriend credit for my favorite lines: Where do cows get their protein? Where do cows get their calcium? With the calcium question people always answer "Milk" and then I follow with "Yeah, but for how long?" And that usually gets them thinking.

I remember listening to CBC radio one day and the announcer said something like "... as smug as a vegetarian during a mad cow outbreak." and I thought to myself, yeah, yeah, I get a little smug. I was going to ask "how can people still eat things they know are bad for them?" but in my own way, I'm just as guilty. I mean, vegan chocolate cake sweetened with barley malt, still has waaaay more calories than I need. Sure, it's better than the alternative but it's certainly not "good" for me. I wonder what motivates us (humans) to make these bad choices?

Hey Ladies, My problem with lunges isn't really balance. Although, I'm sure it would be if I were attempting walking lunges. I'm still having huge problems with my quads ever since I over trained them a few weeks ago. I have really bad knees and have neglected the muscles around them for so long. Today I was able to do 10 static lunges per leg using just body weight. I plan to build from that and increase what I can do but in a healthy way. The first time I did lunges, a few weeks ago, I did some serious damage. I know my legs have had enough when they feel like they're going to snap. I've been working out long enough to know the difference between a nice burn and an injury on the horizon.... For me, the big thing is more that I haven't given up entirely on lunges. I'll keep working at them and let you know how it goes. Days 64 and 65 I didn't make it to the gym yesterday. I woke up and was getting myself all psyched up when I realised, I didn't feel well. I thought I had a migraine coming on. I decided to go into work early and leave early since I had to go look in on a friend last night. I'm training with my trainer on Thursday too so I decided to do my weights on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday instead of my normal Mon, Wed, Friday routine. I haven't been eating as well as I should be. I guess it has to do with my period, or the funk I'm in or, the self-sabotage kicking in. I take responsibility for all the crap I've recently put in my mouth and from now on I look at each meal as a new opportunity to do better. I am finally getting my period! Yay! I look forward to all the bloating disappearing so I can get on with my life and my contest. I am super tired today and will likely do all my dishes, prepare food for tomorrow and spend the rest of the night in bed with a book. I do hope I fall asleep while reading it. I'm tempted to go out for a bit but I really feel like my body is telling me to rest. And so I will. I had a killer leg workout today and think I've earned it.

Pre-Workout Water w/ lemon - Leg day - Post-Workout/breakfast 1/2 c grainless cereal (sprouted almonds, sprouted sunflower seeds, sprouted walnuts, raisins, apples, figs) almond milk Snack 12 grain bagel black tea w/ vanilla rice milk Lunch Indian buffet 1 cup rice 2 cups mixed vegetable curries Dinner 1 tofu cutlet 3 cups mixed vegetables The Indian buffet was icky. I had a lunch date and that's the only place she wanted to go. I'll have to find a way to tell her we can't go there together. I hate it. I couldn't finish what was on my plate. I've got to stop eating out.

Breakfast 1 c wheat cereal w/ almond milk 1 t raisins 6 almonds Lunch Tofu sandwich on walnut bread Pickle Dijon mustard Miso soup with root vegetables and black kale Dinner Cucumber and Tomato sandwich on dark rye Pickles, olives Chickpea salad Too many flour products but not bad considering I had to eat out for dinner. I'm glad I was able to come home for lunch. The soup felt good.

I agree with all of Pamela's suggestions! I go to Fresh almost every time I'm in TO. Fressen is delicious, especially for brunch! I can't say enough good things about the Big Carrot either, lots of healthy food and natural products. I always joke that the "mothership is calling me home" when I go there. There's also a Commensal restaurant on Elm Street (I think) it's like a vegetarian buffet style place. I haven't been so I can't make any suggestions but I find happycow.net provides awesome suggestions. Have a great time in TO!

I fell off the food journaling wagon. Keeping track of my food over the next week will be crucial to getting me to stay on track for the last week of my contest. 3 cups water Breakfast 1/2 c oats (dry) cooked with: 1 apple 1 t raisins 1 t maple syrup 8 almonds cinnamon Snack 2 dried apricots Lunch tofu, grilled veggie sandwich on w.w. pita 1/2 vegan maple syrup sweetened cranberry bran muffin Dinner vegetarian shanghai noodles w/ tofu spring rolls Dinner made me feel very very very very ill. Too much oil. Never again.

Days 62 and 63 I tried to spend as much time as possible outside yesterday. I phoned up a friend and we took two of his three kids to the park to feed the ducks. They were very cute, a bite of bread for them, a bite of bread for the ducks. It was a lot of fun! I picked up two books from the library "The Body Sculpting Bible for Women" and "A Diet for a New America." They should keep me busy for a while. I'm not sure I like the Body Sculpting Book. I think I prefer the Body for Life program. I'm going to read more of it today and see what I can get out of it. There appear to be more exercises in it so I might find some ideas on how to train my uncooperative legs. I fell asleep reading it and had a nice nap before going out to meet my friends for dinner. I walked to the restaurant and it took me 45 minutes. I must admit, I wasn't going fast... I was people watching as I strolled through Chinatown. It was such a beautiful walk, I had a really long moment full of peace and gratitude. I just felt lucky to be alive and grateful for the beauty in my life and in that moment. My goals for today are: - Get through my to do list so I can focus on my last week of the contest - Buy groceries - Prepare food for the week - Go to bed early - Map out my workout for tomorrow - Eat clean - Meditate In the next few days I'm going to try to cut the sodium from my diet as much as possible to help with my final measurements. I just wish my period would get here soon so I can gain and lose the weight that comes each month before my final measurement. I'm also hoping to do some hot yoga classes the weekend before the contest ends to sweat everything out. I wonder if that will work or backfire... I'm also tempted to juice fast for my last three days... that could be risky though.... I could put myself in a yo-yo type situation. I could also go with a more sound plan which is to keep doing what I've been doing and see what happens. *sigh*

I thought about going to the bike dump but got mixed reviews. Most of the used bikes I found on Craig's list were really pricey. The reason I wanted to get a used bike was because I didn't want to buy something new, when I perfectly good used model would do... My friend was telling me to go to CT and check out their selection. I might just do so I don't spend the whole summer without a bike. Last October when I was visiting Berlin, I did a 4.5 hour bike tour of the city. It was the first time I had been on a bike in over 14 years. It made me want to start riding again.... I'm not sure what I can say that will make you feel better about running shorter distances other than it's good for you. I know it sucks but it will be worth it in the end! I had to stop running, my knees were suffering in a big way... maybe I'll try again when I've lost more weight. We'll see. In the meantime, happy trails regardless of whether you're on bike or foot! Also, have you thought of swimming as a way to boost training? It's really low impact but will help with endurance and stamina.... I used to love "running" in the water.

Congrats on all the progress you've made so far! I hope you figure out what's causing the palpitations. Good luck with the next six months! With all the dedication you've demonstrated so far, I know you can do it!! If you fall short of adding some weight to your glutes, I'm willing to sacrifice some of what I have...

Hey! I was thinking about you yesterday when I was writing in Hayley's blog about her running progress. I'm glad to see you're taking the slow and steady approach. I find it hard to give my body time to rest when I just want to pick up where I left off. I think you've got the right attitude. From where did you get your bike? I've been looking for one all summer! I'm trying to buy a used one but I might cave and get a new one....

Hi Diana, welcome! When I started weight training again, my trainer told me I wasn't getting enough protein. I went on to calorieking.com and looked up all the beans I had been eating (chickpeas, lentils, black beans etc) to see just how much protein was in them. It turns out there's tons of protein to be had. I think if you get a good variety of whole grains, vegetables of all kinds, beans, nuts, seeds etc. You will be fine. There are lots of good plant-based shakes if that's something you decide you need. I found taking it one day at a time, and sometimes, one meal at a time to be really helpful. Giving up dairy was harder for me than giving up sugar. Good luck with your transition!

The flavor (and texture) of tempeh is incredibly different if marinated before cooking in my opinion. If it is sliced thin and marinated for several hours or overnight (in something like a soy sauce mixture or Braggs, etc) then pan-fried in a little oil the sour taste is replaced by a delicious nutty flavor. Thanks for this tip! I'll try it this week and see if it helps! I keep trying to eat it but I'm not enjoying it very much... I try to hide it under my veggies and pretend I don't taste the sourness. Bleh.

Day 61 I didn't get to bed as early as planned and only got 7 hours sleep. I was tempted not to go into the gym but I was awake before 6am and decided to give it a go. I was feeling pretty anxious about a lot of stuff that's going on right now and couldn't sleep anyway. I knew a workout would make me feel good and help burn off some of the stress. I wasn't quite ready for my chest press with 30lb dumbbells today. I ended up only being about to pump out three reps with 27.5lbs. I might've been able to do more if I had a spotter but I didn't. I don't know why I did this but I ate a lot of junk today. I know better than that. I have no excuse for that. I have to get my eating back on track... I am so tired right now. I could fall asleep and it's not even 8pm. I think I might just go to bed anyway. My plan for tomorrow is to get some cardio in and take Sunday as a rest day. I look forward to using the elliptical again. It's been a while. Happy Friday!

Congrats on your new job! I hope it's everything you want it to be! It sounds like you're running longer and walking much less since I last popped in here. Congrats on all your progress!!

Hi and Welcome!