nutbread to the rescue

Today was a working away from home day, and afraid the cravings would get me, so I bought some nutbread and some dried figs to take to work. Ate one small piece of bread and didn’t like it all, better with butter and some cheese I’m sure, so just waited till dinner time so I could eat my quinoa/vegetable salad. Enjoyed that and got me through the evening. So no sugar today! Just great to have managed that again.

Only managed one workout – power circuit again, with 10 walkouts. Tried a slim version of the magic 100 at work, got through 40 squats, 40 lunges and 40 pushups against a wall, when I got interrupted. Still, half a workout I guess. Innerthighs are still killing me.

I’m also aiming to go to bed before 11 pm, usually when I come home from work at 10 pm, I like to stay up late, not tonight though.

Reboot 2 – a new start

After a few lazy weeks, I am now back with full commitment to the program. Reboot 2 is gruelling (to me at least). The workouts are hard, expecially the magic 100 and 5 alive. I have spent a week just learning to do them and memorizing them more or less, so I don’t have to go back to the videos all the time before a workout.

I’m mostly ED compliant, but not ready to follow the nutrition plan to the letter. Too much low-carb days, never mind the fasting. I will take that on in week 3, and am curious if the numbers drop when doing this. For now, I am happy to maintain the weight- and fatloss.

I have realised it’s hard to comply with ED when eating with friends, their sympathy only goes so far. A friend invited me for a birthday dinner tonight, so I will try to make the best of it, eat low-carb, but to only toast to her birthday with water, will be taking it too far. It’s actually weird to realise how “normal” it is for people to drink alcohol, and make you feel like an abnormality if you don’t.

reboot

After a lazy week of deloading, full of good intentions to restart map. But going it alone just isn’t really going to work I realised on day 2. Too easy to make excuses about being busy, to keep on track with the exercises. As it’s not my strong point anyway.

So now this blog will be tracking my progress through reboot. Starting Monday, and will need the weekend to get the new exercises working for me. Great to have the videos as a guideline. And be fully compliant with ED again. Although I might keep the cottage cheese and feta in,  as well as an occasional slice of bread as I’m going to France soon and don’t want to overload on food I haven’t eaten for almost 2 months.

As for goals: I hope to lose another 4.4 lbs by Christmas and another 1 inch off my waistline. All the other inches lost are a bonus, but not my primary aim. Also would like to have some more strenght in my shoulders and arms, finally do push ups on my toes. And one day…. hope to be able to get down on the floor and lift myself up to perform the bridge again!!

30 day MAP finals

Took measurements again today, and results for legs a bit better.

Amazing to have lost 3 kilos and so many inches in just 1 month. I can certainly recommend Dax Moys programs to anyone interested in losing weight and strengthening their body. At any age. Really happy I took the time to do this!!

I hope to see some more results by the end of July as I will continue exercising and eating clean for at least 80% of the time.

For anybody’s who’s interested: http://www.londonpersonaltrainingstudio.com

Last day – sad & glad/ measurements

Last day has arrived! Glad because the tough part has ended, 4x 15 minutes exercises sounded easy when I signed up, but out-of-shape-me had a hard time doing them. Proud to have mastered the squats, lunges and spidermans though. Still a lot of work ahead of me, mastering the last sets of exercises. Will continue at a slower pace. (20 years younger and a lot of this training would have been a lot easier, I remember myself doing things that have become nearly impossible now, I still remember the day I lay on the floor and wanted to do a bridge and couldn’t lift myself off the floor. I was devastated!!!)

Sad because it was also fun, challenging myself  and having a support group. The accountability is really important. Realising I wasn’t the only one struggling certainly helped, getting encouragement was nice. I’m going to miss it!

I’m going to take pictures tomorrow, but have taken measurements. And have got results! Maybe not where it was most important, waistline, but overall…. not bad. Especially when trying on my own for 4 months – since February – nothing would shift AT ALL.

Weight: 140,8 lbs: – 6.6lbs

Ankels: same.  Calfs – 1/5 inch, so both sides -1 inch

4 cm above knee: – 1/4 inch, so both sides -1/2 inch

8 cm above knee: – 1 inch, so both sides – 2 inches

highest point leg: – 1/2 inch, so both sides – 1 inch

arm: – 1/4 inch, so both sides -1/2 inch

breasts: – 1/4 inch (thank god, hardly lost there)

under breast: – 1 inch

waistline: – 1 inch (a start!)

hips: lost the most here: – 2 inches.

So, not a bad result after just 30 days. 3 kilos (6.6 lbs) and 9 inches overall. Well done, me!!!

And a big thanks to Dax Moy, who offered this program for FREE! And put a lot of his time into this, giving advice and support. Amazing really, and I am very grateful. Hope there’ll be another challenge sometime in the future, would really like to do this again – but not for a few months.

Day 29

Almost done, as far as MAP is concerned, not at all as far as goals are concerned!

My weight is down 6.6 lbs = minus 3 kilos!!! Waistline 29.7 inches = minus 1 inch (from day 3 MAP, as it went up and then took me a long time to get it back down, but better than start, so something is FINALLY happening with that as well)

Going to try another 2 meal day today, as it seems to have effect, and then tomorrow a 3-day meal. Going to mix it up in future, combining low-carb days, with carb-days, 3 meals, 2 meals, maybe another fasting day, as it’s not too hard, especially when busy.

And keep exercising, whether I like it or not. Walking around the park is obviously not enough to keep the weight down.

Almost at the end

Today is day 28, and almost at the end. In a way a relief, but also already thinking about how to keep part of the program as a daily continuing part of my life. I’m looking forward to putting back some of my favourite foods in my diet, such as cottage cheese and feta and some bread, mosly rye and spelt, and less eggs and meat, more pulses.

The difficult part of the challenge was the low-carb eating. Having eggs for breakfast almost every day, and all the chicken and turkey and some beef, I didn’t enjoy that. Makes me want to become a vegetarian. Eating meat in moderation is what I like best. I don’t think I’m a protein type of person.

I haven’t been exercising a lot this weekend, because my knees have started hurting, as well as my right shoulder. A bit of a wimp, but I’m not too keen on developing real problems with these parts of my body. I need my knees for walking the stairs to my appartment, and biking around Amsterdam. I will go back on the exercise program in a few days time, I want to do at least either meltdown or the pyramid 6 days a week. I will have to see at the end of July if I was faithful to this. Also I want to alternate between movement matrix, powercircuit, bodyweight matrix as a second exercise each day. Maybe go back on the DB matrix if and when my shoulder feels better, buy some heavier weights to make that program work better. Because my shoulder and arm strength could really use a boost!! As I’ve discovered.

I thought the first thing I would do after the challenge would be to eat some chocolate and drink a cold glass of white wine to celebrate, but actually I’m a bit fearful of doing this. It might take me right back to the starting point of this programme, undoing in 1 day what I managed in 30. Because I feel I’m still in a very delicate balance of having lost some pounds and some bellyfat, but it could jump right back. The change hasn’t been dramatic enough. Not because of the program, but because I feel I haven’t really pushed myself enough. So I’ll keep training and eating clean through the whole month of July to see if I can manage more weight- and fatloss. And then enjoy a nice vacation in la dulce France.