Day Eight: Woohoo!

I actually did the 30 Day Shred!

Hoorah!

7 days late, but who's counting.

It kicked my butt, but I imagine that's because I'm sooooo out of shape having gone without exercise for a ridiculous amount of time. I think it's something I will be able to get good at if I commit to doing one per day.

Aila woke up about 3/4 of the way through it and lay on my stomach during the ab portion. I have a feeling that might have contributed to me taking it a little easier there then I probably should have.

Anyway, giving myself a huge pat on the back. The first step is always the hardest right?

Day Eight: Some realizations

I have realized a bunch of things over the last week.

#1 - I just do not have the time to update a blog on a daily basis. Even though Kian is away right now and in theory I should have all the time in the world, I just don't. Period. Being in school means that the majority of my evenings are spent studying, or working on assignments and the ones that I don't work on schoolwork, I spend watching movies or TV curled up with my husband - you know, the guy I've been neglecting for the last two months.

#2 - So far, in addition to being a terrible blogger, I am a terrible dieter. I continue to cheat daily, and I don't seem to feel a lot of remorse for it. Although I'd say my diet has done a huge 180 in the last two weeks, this is just because I've eliminated the sugar binges, not because I've eliminated sugar altogether. I am still craving sugar here and there and find myself having a bite of this, a pinch of that. I even had a terrible Wendy's incident on the weekend which involved a grilled chicken burger (no fries) and an iced-tea.

#3 - I have still not even done one iota of exercise over the last week - not one. Unless you count carrying Aila around - should that count?

However, despite numbers 2 and 3 today when I stepped on the scale, I was down 2lbs, and I suspect this is a true 2lb loss since it's been like this since about the middle of last week. Not a huge loss, but it's only been one week really, and given that I don't have a ton to lose, it's pretty good. I know it seems unreal, but today my jeans felt just the tiniest bit looser as did my raincoat. Just a teeny tiny bit, but it's moving in the right direction.

Alex assures me that I don't need to diet, I just need to find time to fit in more exercise and I need to stop the sugar binges, which I am. So far, it seems like he's right.

In any case, I am still trying to eat as "clean" as possible, and still have daily exercise as my ideal - I just can't seem to bring myself to put in the videotape, nor can I bring myself to go out for a run, or to a class. There's always laundry to do, dishes to clean, toys to put away or blogs to write.

;)

Today's intake:

Breakfast: Bowl of cereal with milk - 1/2 multigrain cheerios, 1/2 Kashi-go-lean crunch
Snack: 6 pieces of cut up fruit that my daughter didn't eat at her snacktime
Lunch: Piece of grilled chicken and a plate full of steamed veggies (carrots, celery, broccoli, onions and baby potatoes)

Day Three: sniff sniff

My little boy is in the air right now, without me.

Alex's parents decided at the last minute that they wanted to visit their daughter, her husband and my niece before their long trip to Iran in November and when Kian heard about it he insisted that he be able to go as well. This isn't the first time they have taken him - they took him for 4 days last year, when he was just 2 years old, and although it went well during the day, he really missed us at night and it took him a while to settle into sleep each night.

I know he's older now and it will likely go a lot better, but this time they are going for 7 days and I can't help but wish it was 4. He's still only 3 years old - growing up fast, but still so little. 

For the first time ever he actually asked to go to bed last night.

"I want to skip my bath mommy and go right to sleep - I want it to be morning so I can go on the airplane to see Darya."

The little monkey.

I'm going to miss him like crazy. 

So after the cookies were baked (and I admit, I sneaked a little dough, but was good and didn't have any of the actual cookies) the rest of my evening last night went well - food wise anyway.

Dinner was some crab meat and veggies, followed by a big salad a couple of hours later.

This salad is my specialty, and it's soooo delicious. I'm not usually a big salad fan, but I can always find room for this one.

-Spinach leaves

-Avocado

-Tomato

-Walnut pieces

-Dried cranberries

-Fresh fruit (could be apples/mangos/strawberries - whatever you have in the house)

-Feta cheese

Dressing

1/3 cup walnut oil

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsp red raspberry jame

Salt and pepper to taste

I usually heap on the dressing because it's so sweet, but last night I just had a touch of it.

Today so far:

Breakfast

My usual oatmeal and 1/2 banana

Snack #1: Nonfat Chai Latte from Starbucks (Yep, I'm posting from school)

Snacks I have brought with me: carrots and hummus and a pear - I'll eat these around 12 after my classes are done. 

If you can believe it, I still have not found any time to actually work out - all of my extra time is literally devoted to studying or cleaning the house. I barely have any down-time lately - no shows, very little internet time. I don't feel like I'm just making excuses, I'm actually that busy.

However, now that Kian is gone for the week, I only have Aila to care for and she naps twice a day, so starting today there are no more excuses. I will shred every single day for the next 7 days and hopefully manage to still fit it in somehow when he gets back.

Day Three: Groundhog Day

My mornings feel a little bit like the movie Groundhog Day right now. Exact same routine every single day.

Peacefully enjoying some REM sleep, I'm always woken up by the sound of my youngest child screaming to let me know that I haven't anticipated her wake-up and been there to greet her with a smile. Once she's changed and fed I hand her over to my husband who groggily opens his eyes enough to make sure she's not eating paint or playdoh - which has happened on many occasions.

After my shower and morning rituals I come down and have a glass of water and a large bowl of oatmeal with ground flax, ground almonds, raisins and a bit of honey.

Every.
Single.
Day. 

This is why I stopped eating oatmeal previously. I just got too bored. I might have to start switching things up a bit, and it's only day three.

Anyway, yesterday I didn't get a chance to come back to the blog because I went out for a night on the town with some girlfriends - it was so nice to dress up and have drinks (yes, I had one drink) and real conversation with people other then my three year old.

I was great all day and tried to be somewhat "good" at dinner, although I don't think Tosca would approve of my bellini and chicken and veggie rice bowl - I imagine she would have been good and had the pork lettuce wraps with a glass of lemon ice-water.

No shred again because of the night out - however on the scale this morning I'm down 3lbs already! Probably water weight, but hey, I'll take it. At least it's moving in the right direction. I won't count it until next Monday when I do an "official" weigh in, but it's something.

On to today:

Breakfast: glass of water and large bowl of oatmeal, flax, almonds, raisins and a bit of honey.
Banana

Snack 1: Carrots and hummus

Lunch: 1 slice of whole wheat toast with tuna, feta cheese and mint leaves

Snack 2: Grapes

Now my little boy is requesting to make cookies - Save me!

Day Two - Are you kidding me?

I'm at UBC this morning - reviewing for my quiz and quietly sipping my Starbucks CHAI TEA LATTE?!?!

Zero willpower from this girl.

I did ask for non-fat, do you think that counts?

*sigh*

In any case, in a rush this morning - no time for oatmeal, here's what I was able to scrounge up at the last minute:

Breakfast
1 apple
6 walnuts
a handful of dried cranberries
10 baby carrots (i'm guessing - I didn't count)

I have some more walnuts, carrots and cranberries for my mid-morning snack to be consumed after my class and then will hopefully redeem myself this afternoon.

I already have one follower - Hi Andrea!

I wonder if she noticed that I didn't blog about my experience with the 30 day Shred last night? Yes, remembering that you have a quiz in the morning on a chapter you haven't read yet will put a damper on that first night of exercise.

More to come.

Day One

Off to a good start.

Breakfast:

Oatmeal with ground almonds, ground flaxseed and raisins - tsp of honey
Glass of water

Snack #1 aka Mistake #1 - Nothing planned in advance. Had nothing for a snack and was starving by the time we were heading home for lunch - Stole 10 of the kids goldfish crackers. :/

Lunch - 1/2 can tuna with green onions on 1 slice of WW toast. Topped with just a sprinkle of cheddar cheese and broiled. Glass of water.

A trip to the Superstore is in order - We're out of salad, and I need to buy some baby carrots and celery to cut up for snacks - More hummus would be good as well. And maybe some lemons - this water is pretty tasteless.

More to come.

Snack #2 - Some grapes shortly after lunch, then a pear before we went out shopping.

Confession - I bought Kian and Aila a cinnamon sugar flavoured pretzel to share and I couldn't not have one taste - Mmmm!

Dinner was going to be late so I had a pre-dinner snack instead of a post-one: Carrots with Red Pepper Humus and a few spoonfuls of the kids scrambled eggs that they didn't finish.

Dinner: Kalen Polo - a rice, veggie and meatball dish prepared by my in-laws, served with some plain organic yogurt and lots of fresh steamed veggies.

Confession: I think my portion was too large, but god, it was so good.

Post dinner snack that I wasn't supposed to have: the leftovers of Kian's vanilla yogurt and frozen blueberries.

Yikes - Writing that all out, it seems like I just ate non-stop today.

I give myself a 6/10 for effort and a 6/10 for accomplishment today.

Before Pictures

So I know these are TERRIBLE before pictures but I did ask Alex to take some tonight and they were all blurry, so these will have to do for now. These were all taken today at the Apple Festival at UBC. I searched back to the summer to find other pictures of myself that would be better for before photos, but there are almost zero photos of me for the last 6 months. Coincidence? I don't think so.

Face and arms: My face is just a bit chubbier then it used to be, but you can really see how chubby and untoned my arms are. Definitely not my best feature right now.

Frontish View: You can see where the belly chub hangs over my pants - very flattering I know. And I actually like this outfit!

Back view: Perfect view of my love handles :( I never used to have these.

So obviously I have some work to do, and I know that it's going to take more then 30 days to get to the finish line, but I'm curious how much of a change I can expect to see in that timeline if I work very hard at it. 

So there you have it.

I'll be checking in tomorrow evening after my work-out to update my first day's experience. 

Sayonara!

The last supper

Okay, well it's not actually my last supper, but this may be the last day that I actually feel full after eating supper. That's the one thing about clean eating so far - Even though I read about all these people who are having trouble finishing their plates and are just too full to eat more than 5 meals a day, I assure you, this is not me. I am an eater and I am always starving about two hours after I finish my latest meal/snack.

I know this because this last week has been sort of a trial-run. I wanted to see if it's something there was even a remote possibility of me sticking to before actually committing to a full 30 days of it.

Yep, I'm actually that type A.

Anyway, so far I've been doing well every day, following the plan more or less except for the tiny little issue of my cheating.

I. cheat. daily.

One day it might be a few scoops of full fat, full sugar vanilla yogurt - the next day it might be a tablespoon or two of nutella (we've gotten rid of everything else chocolate in the house, I was desperate). And so because of this, I need to come up with some anti-cheating strategies, or I know I will be confessing to a cheat meal every day and that's not going to be good for my results.

So today I am off to purchase some "cheat" ideas that aren't really cheating. Some of the suggestions I've gotten from my lovely facebook friends have been:

- Chocolate Almond Milk
- Skinnycow popsicles and ice-cream sandwiches
- Kashi go lean granola bars
- Different homemade "clean" baking ideas

I know it's better not to add these in right away, so I'm going to aim to completely eliminate all traces of chocolate from my body (Sorry Aila) for at least a week before I add them back in, if needed, but at least it will help to have something somewhat allowable in the house instead of stealing my kids nutella at 100 calories a tablespoon.

The Plan

Have you ever seen those ads that boast that someone has lost 20lbs in 2 weeks or 8lbs in 8 days? I've always thought they were either a) outright lying or b) misrepresentations due to the fact that the dieter was 300lbs+ to begin with an so the first 10-20lbs are just water weight anyway. Either way I have never believed this kind of outcome would work with a more average woman, and I imagine pigs would fly before this would ever work on me.

Although not identical to this average Canadian woman, I'm pretty close to it. 

Height wise we're neck and neck. She's 5'3 and I'm pushing 5'4.

Weight wise we're a little further apart, but not by much. I'm hovering around 140lbs and she's a little heavier at 153lbs but we're close - a little too close for my liking actually.

And because of this I've decided to try a little experiment. Well, this and the fact that I'm extremely unhappy with my body these days. Although I may not have as much to lose as others out there, there's definitely more junk in the trunk then there was before having children and it's time for it to go.

So this blog is going to be - you guessed it - ANOTHER diet and fitness blog - and the only things that make this one special, you know, apart from the fact that it's about moi, is that a) it will be an experiment and b) it will only last 30 days. That's 30 days where I'm going to be completely open and honest about what I'm eating, thinking, feeling and doing with the high hopes that on the 30th day pigs will fly and I will have actually lost a ton of weight and will be fitting into a size 2. 

Kind of like my own version of the last 10lbs bootcamp only without the personal trainer and televised embarrassment.

Instead, I will be starting off my fitness plan by committing to doing Jillian Michael's 30 day Shred (which has been sitting, unopened, in a drawer since last Christmas) and I will be loosely following Tosca Reno's guide to clean eating because oh my god - have you seen that woman? She looks good.

I will also be posting pictures - before and afters if you will - of my weight loss journey starting tonight. 

The "before" pictures will be of my current "topoli" self, which is the inspiration for this blog. Topoli, as I have often been lovingly told by my Persian husband means "cute little fat thing" - yep, that about sums me up right now.

The "after" pictures will, in theory - be my head on Tosca Reno's body. But yes, let's not get ahead of ourselves shall we?

So since this blog is all about being completely and utterly honest in order to start to make some healthy changes in my life, I figure I should start with what my diet currently looks like.

I would say that it used to be 80% healthy, 20% sugar, however recently the percentages have been a bit off. I generally start the morning off with a bowl of cereal - usually 1/2 multigrain Cheerios and 1/2 Kashi go Lean crunch with skim milk and occasionally will eat a banana along with that. 

It's rare for me to snack in the morning, I'm usually out and about with the kids, but if I happen to be close to a Starbucks and my husband isn't around then I'm likely to whip in for a Chai latte and a piece of chocolate chip banana bread. 

Lunch is usually pretty healthy, but high-fat. My staple is two slices of whole what toast topped with feta cheese and avocado and then an apple on the side. Even though cheese and avocado are both high in fat, I envision them as "good fats" and I don't see myself giving them up totally anytime soon.

It's the afternoon though that usually gets me. Once Aila is down for her second nap and Kian is watching his afternoon dose of Diego or Dora, that's when I have a bit of me time which generally includes something sweet. And lately that something sweet has been a full cup of chocolate chips - yep, you heard that right. I will often poor an entire cup of chocolate chips and eat them in one sitting - washed down with a gingerale. 

I'm a complete and utter sugar addict. 

Dinner is always very healthy thanks to my mother in law who currently lives with us and cooks organic, healthy meals each night - staples are chicken, rice and veggies and salmon, rice and veggies with a few varieties of each throughout the week. My portion sizes could probably use a bit of work here, I'll admit. 

And then once the kids are in bed, it's sugar rush part-deux and I'll often have a bowl of ice-cream, more chocolate chips, a few cookies - whatever is in the kitchen as long as it fills the sweet requirement. 

No wonder my 11 month old is still waking up every two hours in the night - she's probably wired on chocolate breast milk 

Okay, so those are the dirty details and these are the changes that I'm going to focus on over the next thirty days:

 - 6 smaller meals a day - all of them with protein and veggies/fruit

- Oatmeal with ground flax and almonds for breakfast

- 1 slice of toast at lunch and a very small portion of rice at night 

- Snacks of nuts, dried fruit, cut up veggies with hummus, fresh fruit, boiled eggs, salads

- Lots of water - since I am starting from scratch here, I am going to aim for 4 glasses per day to start and try increasing that over time. 

- Absolutely no processed sugar for the 30 days. 

- 30 minutes of the Jillian Michaels DVD per day, after dinner, with any other exercise throughout the week as a bonus.

There are other things I can do, I know, and if I can get through these 30 days successfully, then I'll start adding some of them in, but this is a good start for me. 

If you've made it this far then I have a favor to ask and that's for encouragement. Accountability is a good thing in this kind of situation and if I know I have people that are going to be checking in and monitoring my progress I think I'll be more likely to stick with it. In theory that makes sense, right?

Before pictures coming soon and the 30 day countdown starts Monday, October 18th.

Wish me luck :)