Day 19

I'm not doing any work today, and I'm probably not going to finish the stupid diet.  I've never been constipated before...  The GM diet has made me constipated.  I feel disgusting.  Like I have gas that just won't leave my body.  Ugh.

I know I've lost about 5 pounds, and I don't want to gain it back obviously, so I'm going to keep making an effort to eat better and I will continue to walk in the mornings with Rosie and go to the fitness center whenever I can.

Day 18

Day 6 of the GM diet.  Today is more beef, and veggies.  Yesterday those damn tomatoes could have been the death of me.  I cheated just a bit at breakfast and had a scrambled egg (just 1, no milk) and cooked a small eye of round steak in a pan and sauteed my tomatoes.  After that, I knew I wouldn't be able to eat 5 more if I didn't make soup out of them.  So, that's what I did.  I ate almost all of it, but it took me till roughly 9pm.  Drank 6 full bottles of water, plus about 3 ounces of a seventh.  So about 104.5 oz of water yesterday.

This morning Rosie and I had a good walk, went at full keel for 20 minutes and even started running 3 separate times (up the hills).  Right now I'm roasting some vegetables, and I've got some leftover flank steak and tiny eye of round steaks to get me through the day.  I should get in the shower before Kevin gets up.

Day 17

Well... I skipped my walks on Friday and Saturday.  I was so exhausted from having consumed no protein for 3 days, I just couldn't make myself get up.  Fruit and veggie day was fine, and banana, milk, and soup day was a little better.  I only ate 4 of the possible 8 bananas.  The veggie soup I made is actually quite good- it's a little spicy, which I can't really figure out.  I don't think I put anything spicy in it other than maybe a half teaspoon or so of chili powder.  Anywho, today is "feast day" with beef and tomatoes on the menu.  Still not sure how I'm going to eat 6 whole tomatoes.  Right now, I've been up for about an hour, I've drunk 1 bottle of water so far, and I am STAR-ving.  I went down to the fitness center and rode a bike for 15 minutes, went 3.45 miles.  Stretched, now I'm cooling down before my shower.  I honestly feel a little like I could throw up.  Whatever.  Oh, I weighed myself when I was in the fitness center... Said I wasn't going to weigh in till the end, but I couldn't resist.  I've lost three pounds. I was hoping for more, honestly.  Meh.  Still going, I guess that's the main point.

Day 14

Yes.  Two full weeks in, and I'm still going.  Pretty proud of myself for that simple fact.  Yesterday was pretty good.  Ate fruit all day, and drank something like 86 oz of water.  I really thought the water was going to be a problem for me, but luckily (sarcasm) it's been damn near 100 degrees out and I'm mega-dehydrated so my body actually needs all the water I'm supposed to drink.  So, let's see.  Adhering with the GM diet's day 1, I ate about 1/4 cantaloupe, 1 apple, 10 strawberries, about 20 each cherries and raspberries, and ten blueberries.  Wow, typing it out like that, it kinda looks like I hardly ate anything... But I wasn't hungry, not at all.  Last night I roasted some vegetables and made my "wonder soup" for days 4-7.  I also packed for myself some carrots, celery, broccoli, and cauliflower.  My breakfast potato is scrubbed and waiting to go into the microwave.

This morning's routine was pretty much the same as usual.  Up at 4, stretch, 25 crunches, 18 minutes of cardio, home, stretch, water.  Today for food is probably going to be tough for me.  Only vegetables... not sure if I have strong enough willpower to avoid the occasional taste of mousse or cake or whatever is around.  Shit.  It's gonna be hard.  I'm actually kinda considering going fully paleo when this is over.. Nothing but meat and produce.  I know it's going to be difficult to keep the weight off otherwise, and I don't want to bounce all the way back up from whatever I lose.  Whatever.  On to day 2... here we go.

Day 13

So... Day 13 of my healthier lifestyle has started, but it's day 1 of the GM diet.  So far, so good, I guess.  Woke up at 4, as usual, stretched, walked with Rosie (actually, we started at a jog, but she wasn't having it).  I don't know if I'm going to keep taking her out with me.  She's so willful, and if she doesn't, want to walk, she just stops.  Obviously, that's not exactly conducive to a strong workout with an elevated heart rate.  I have to keep stopping to coerce her to come with me.  I can't just tug on her leash, because she slips out of it so easily.  It's extremely frustrating.

Anyway, as I was saying.  Day one of the GM.  I've almost downed an entire bottle of water, and I honestly feel like I could vomit because of all the fluids sloshing around in my belly.  Eating cantaloupe, and 10 cherries.  The water is what I've been most concerned about.  It's really hot, and I know I get dehydrated so it should be easier to drink a lot of water (8-10 glasses a day, with an elevated intake on day 5 to flush out uric acid), but I still can't see how I'll be able to keep a half gallon of water down.  Definitely glad I didn't try to drink anything before we left.  I packed a lunch/snacks last night so I'd be able to just grab-n-go this morning.  Oh man.  My stomach is gurgling from all this water.  Wish me luck.

Day 12

This morning I did as I said I would yesterday.  Went down to the fitness center.  Stretched, got on a treadmill.  Stupid thing kept quitting my program, so I had to move to a different one.  I walked/ran for a total of about 15 minutes at speeds varying from 2mph-6mph.  Then I did some high knees on the treadmill at 1.5 mph, for 1 full minute.  Stretched again, tried to do a plank using a stability ball.  Lot harder than it looks.  Sigh... the results of my weigh in.  It's worse than I thought.  179.5 lbs.  Which means I was probably over 180 at some point.  I feel so gross.  Tomorrow is the big day, starting the GM diet with Katie.  I don't know if she's really committed to it- I keep asking her if she's read about it, and she keeps conveniently forgetting.  I don't know If I'll make it all the way through if I don't have anyone else for support.  Crap.  Wish me luck.

Day 11

So, I guess I had kind of a bad weekend.  Didn't walk with Rosie, wasn't very good with food.  Drank 3 sodas.  Boo.  Anyway, back at it this morning.  I s'pose the important thing is that I keep getting back at it.  So here I go.

I added a little more to our walk this morning.  I keep adding just a little bit more at a time to the distance of our walk every couple of days.  It's starting to get so hot though.  The weather is very weird here.  Instead of reaching the peak heat at midday like we're used to, the high comes around 4 in the afternoon, and the low temp for the day doesn't hit till between 4 and 5am, which is why I get up 3 hours before I need to be at work.  Typically, it's in the mid 50s-low 60s when we go out, but this morning it was hotter outside than it is inside (75-80), and the humidity is stifling.  This is a problem.  It's obviously best to do my working out in the morning because it jump-starts my metabolism and gives me that much-needed shot of endorphins to start the day.  By the time I'm done with work, I'm WAY too tired to try to work out, but the fitness room at the apartment doesn't open until 6am.  I work at 7.  That obviously doesn't work.

Another problem: I haven't been sleeping well.  Sometimes I'll take some benadryl or melatonin to knock myself out for a proper amount of sleep, but if I miss my bedtime like I did last night, I can't take pills that'll put me out of commission for 8 hours.  So I go without, and my possible 6 hours of sleep turn into about 3 hours of sleep and 3 hours of rolling around trying to get comfortable so I can fall back to sleep.  Grr. 

Tomorrow, Tuesday the 19th, I don't work.  My plan is to get up a little before 6, and go straight down to the fitness center to do all my work and weigh myself and get back up to the apartment before it hits swass level outside.  I have to weigh myself.  Stupid that I don't have a scale still.  Katie and I are starting the GM on Wednesday, and I have to document a start weight before I get into that so I know where I am when it's over, and how hard I'll have to work to keep off whatever I lose.  I'm excited.  Nervous.  Little scared to get lazy and gain it all back.  This is going to be really hard work, but I'm ready.

Day 8

An update to yesterday's post... It's called the GM Diet, and it was developed by General Motors for their employees, and field research was conducted by Johns Hopkins.  There are in fact some side effects, naturally, since in the first 3 days you're being deprived of much needed protein and carbohydrates, you feel some fatigue and muscle weakness. Here's a better link that gives you tips on how to prepare, how you'll feel on specific days, meal plans, etc.  My friend Katie said she wants to do it with me, so I'll have some support.

On to today.  4am wake up, stretched, did some light calisthenics, walked with Rosie.  Ran into a stray dog, she got mega spooked and kept stopping the whole rest of the walk.  Weirdo.  Came back, stretched.  I need to get into the fitness center so I can weigh myself.  Nothing else really to report today.  Peace out.

Day 7

Here's my breakfast.  Smoothie and hard-boiled egg (white) with grapes and a peach.  Oh, and a quarter cup of raw almonds (not pictured).  Same routine as usual this morning.  Woke up at 4am, stretched, walked with Rosie, came back, stretched again, looked for another workout to do, got sucked into pinterest.  Showered, ate breakfast.

I found something on pinterest last night that I think I'm going to try.  It's a 7-day cleanse during which, if done properly, you can lose between 10 and 17 lbs.  Here's how it goes:
Day 1- Fruit.  You can eat as much fruit as you want, anything except bananas, but ONLY fruit.
Day 2- Veggies.  Same principle- veggies, veggies, veggies.  Start the day with a baked potato with 1 pat of butter, all veggies the rest of the day (only the one potato).
Day 3- Fruit and veggies.  All fruit and veg all day, no potatoes today, and no bananas yet.
Day 4- Bananas and milk.  You can consume up to 8 bananas, and 3 glasses of milk.  Day 3 is supplemented with a special soup- basically broth with a bunch of negative-calorie vegetables.
Day 5- Feast day.  Beef and tomatoes.  You can have 2-10 oz. portions of lean beef, and fresh or canned tomatoes (6).  You don't have to eat all the beef, but you must eat the 6 tomatoes.  Water intake is increased on day 5 by 1 qt.
Day 6- Beef and veggies.  Eat lean beef and veggies all day, to your heart's content.
Day 7- Brown rice, fruit juices, and veggies.  It gives no amounts, but these are the things you can consume.

Everyday you must drink 10 glasses (I'm guessing 8 oz glasses) of water.  You can also drink black coffee, herbal or leaf tea, and club soda or seltzer.

Here's a link to the blog where I found this (called GM's Diet).  It explains why it works, and what the nutrition on each individual day does for your body, and gives the recipe for the soup.  Also says that you can repeat this flush as often as you like with no complications.  I really want to do it.

Gotta get going.

Day 6

Goooood morning...

Yesterday I took the day off from my normal morning routine.  I don't work Tuesdays, and Kevin and I usually go on St. Louis adventures- trying to do all the "St. Louis Things" we can before we move back home.  I knew I was going to have a long day anyway, so I snoozed the alarm when it went off at 5.  We went to the zoo, and probably walked about 2 miles.  Went and had breakfast, then did some various errands which included more walking. 

This morning, I was back at it again.  Rosie and I went the long way around the community.  Around a mile, I think.  I got up extra early so I could come back and do some more work, but I couldn't find any routines online... which led to me just being sucked into the computer.  But, that did lead me somewhere positive.  Found something called "Beyond Diet."  Trying currently to decide whether I want to spend $47 on this program ($47, one time, that's it... I've already learned a lot just from their promo.  I think it may be worth it??) which includes access to their community, meal plans, etc.  It could be really good for me.  I think I want to.  Eeeeeee. 

Gotta shower. <3

Day 4

I have no post for day 3... I decided it would be best for my sanity to take Sundays off of both my fitness routine and my healthier eating.  Sometimes, I just need to have a delicious, bubbly, sugary soda. What can I say?   Anywho, here we go again, Monday morning.  Bought a pair of New Balance running shoes yesterday and some insoles.  Spent $125.  Kevin was not too happy about it.  He knows I needed shoes, and he's fine with it, but we're supposed to be saving money for our trip home next month.  In exchange, I have to sell a few things to make up for that $125.  Also, he told me I better be serious about this.  I'm trying to be.  I took Rosie out this morning, we went a little farther than normal.  Actually went outside Sun Valley Lake.  I don't think we made it a mile, but we're working up to that.  Well, more than that, obviously.  I'm going to start getting up 3 hours before work instead of my normal 2.5 so that I can incorporate some more exercises into my morning routine.  I have enough time to do more now, but I like having a bit of down time before I have to go to work.  Speaking of that... I gotta run.

Day 2

Day 1 went pretty well, except that I had to stop at Taco Bell for Kevin, and while I was there, I broke down and got a Mt. Dew.  The rest of my day was pretty good.  Work went well because I had a lot of energy to start the day...  Had a turkey unwich for lunch and some pasta salad, didn't snack on any cake... got home, didn't have to pig out right away... Had a turkey, spinach, & tomato omelet for dinner.  Had 2 small glasses of wine, a peach, and a piece of cheese.  Didn't do any additional exercise.  Want to change that today, but we'll see what happens.

Day 2 is starting exactly the same.  4am wake up, stretch, walk with Rosie, shower, smoothie, hb egg white, and it's off to work I go.

back at it in 2012.

day 1 of this attempt to get my ass in shape.  i cannot go to my 10 year high school reunion 60+ lbs heavier than when i graduated.  unacceptable.  also, i want to get down to a healthy weight before i get pregnant, because once that happens, i'll never get this weight off.  so, here i go.

woke up at 430a, stretched, took rosie for a short walk just to ease into my first day.  showered, breakfast:
shake- banana, pineapple, blueberries, spinach, greek yogurt, water.
1 hard-boiled egg white (don't like the yolk, gave it to puppy.)
off to work.  hoping to God my willpower holds up and i don't stuff my face with cake and other garbage.
i'll report back tonight with how i did the rest of the day.
pray for mojo.

<3