Back in the gym!

I don't like the name of this blog...so I am going to take down the name and put something that I actually like later...but until then it will be "WIP." Let me confess I am not a blogger, so I don't know why I am doing this. Frankly, I hate diet journals, they are boring...but I want to be able to come back and look at what I have done so far. So here is the thing, of course my main goal is to achieve a healthy lifestyle and comfortable weight (comfortable for me) but you have to have mini goals, challenges and milestones to meet along the way that take you closer to your ultimate goal. So, my first milestone is my cousin's wedding on Jan 8th 2011. Hmm...that gives me approximately 11 weeks to get my fat ass into shape.

Bad news....my weight went up over the past few weeks. From the onset of this blog (online diary) to this actual post. I am at a whopping scary 146 pounds.. Aaaarrrgggghhhh!!! That's actually ridiculous. I am also 2.5 points above my BMI (Body Mass Index) range which puts me nicely in the "overweight" region. Double aarrrrggghhh!!! :( Found out on Monday.

Good news....Mrs. C is back in the gym, which means more motivation for me. Yay!! Yeah, she took a break, she is preggers. Awww...I am so happy for her. :) But it's back to seriousness now. I don't want to look back at this journal, 11 weeks from now and be still a freaking 146 (possibly 150) pounds mami. God forbid.

So this is my challenge for the week. Firstly, I am going to drink at least 3 liters of water per day. The goal is to drink the first liter between 8am and noon, the second between noon and 4pm and the last between 4pm and 8pm. That's a shitload of water men. I better get ready for the one million trips to the bathroom. But water is the number 1 ingredient in any weight loss, fitness and healthy lifestyle program. I promise, I will do a special on water one of these days and its million benefits like awesome glowing skin, cleaner bowels (gosh that's like an oldies term - bowels), pooping (yep) etc. Secondly, I am going to commit to the 6-day per week exercise timetable that I pasted on my fridge for this month. It's pretty intense but I want to see if i can keep up. See the problem is that if you are someone that has been working out all your life, consistently, the whole 3 days a week deal isn't going to work for you. If you are new to working out, I suggest starting with 3 days per week. If you are a gym rat like me I will say go for 5-6 days a week, otherwise, my dear you are not going to see any changes o! Okay, okay, okay...my schedule includes 2 weight training sessions (1hr each) otherwise known as bootcamp, 3 swimming sessions, 1 spinning session (i love spinning) and the rest just general cardio. All this is split across 6 workout days. I definitely rest on Sundays men. You need to incorporate a couple days of rest. There really isn't any running in my schedule. My knees have been giving me issues...aww men and I am not even 30. So, I am trying to take it easy on my knees and see if i can actually drop my weight some, so the weight on my knees can reduce and then I can go back to running. There goes my marathon dreams :(

Gotta get back to work but I will check in during the week....laters. Remember it shouldn't be just about fitness, it should be a lifestyle thing.

The enemy - "Holidays"

Wow!! Not feeling very happy today. Stepped on the scale and tears almost came down my eyes. I am 146 pounds. Not fair! It doesn't take very much for me to gain weight but it is very HARD for me to lose it. I knew I was going to put on some pounds after my trip home (NG), but damn, 5 pounds in a week. Everything, within my site was stuffed into my mouth. Do you know that's one of the major challenges we will all face as we go through this journey (You may find that this blog is mostly about weight-loss, diet and exercise because I feel the most important step is getting to a healthy and comfortable weight first). As we move into the holiday season - first thanksgiving, then Christmas (or Hanukah), and new year, the parties never seem to stop. And when you have the parties, that comes with lots and lots of food. Where ONLY the strong-willed survive. And I am sure you have guessed by now that strong-will (when it comes to eating) isn't one of my strengths. But if I have people walking this journey with me, we are going to have to stay strong for each other and learn that will power baby!

So here are some tips to help in avoiding the dreaded holiday weight gain:

1. Always go for smaller portions - Use a small soup bowl to give you a mental image of what to eat at a single sitting. Think no more than 1 cup of carbs (16 tablespoons or 227 grams), more of protein and veggies.
2. Try to pick the healthier options - Don't pick up that juicy, scrumptious looking chocolate cake instead go for popcorn or some healthier alternative available. And if there's none...psych yourself into believing that there will be some when you come back later and hopefully its all gone by then. LOL!
3. Drink your recommended 3 liters of water per day - Yep! you have to drink that water. OMG! We seriously underestimate the power of water. Even as I write this blog, I can barely drink 1 liter of water per day. The goal is to get to the point where I am drinking 3 liters per day. I think i will dedicate one post to the benefits of drinking water and it's role in weight-loss. You will be surprised believe moi.
4. Use this as an opportunity to practice will power - If we are truly honest with ourselves, we will see that "will power" is really the "crux" of it all. Every major lifestyle or habit change involves an enormous amount of will power. That's why you hear of people that go on this crazy diets where they are eating just fruits, No carbs, only meat etc and are able to maintain it for sometime. It is because they have will power. I have tried every diet known to man but I am never able to go beyond day 3 at the most and that's because I don't have the will power when it comes to diet. But I am determined now to change this and I am hoping as my blog matures I will have developed it, even if not for myself but at least for my readers (fingers crossed).

I think this will be a good opportunity to reiterate why this blog even exists. Let me put out the disclaimer right now. I am not a nutritionist, I am not a personal trainer, I am no expert on these matters; I am just a single, young woman who genuinely wants to make some serious permanent lifestyle changes in the area of diet, exercise and pure living. And I figured that there might be others, who are embarking and have struggled for years just like me. I always feel it helps to share with others - generally have a support group. If you are looking for expert advice, I suggest you make an appointment with a PT or a nutritionist. I also feel that by writing about my milestones, struggles & challenges and successes and mentally telling myself that I have an audience I will be more motivated to continue. So, you are welcome to leave your comments, questions, etc and just general check-up on how things are going for you. We are not perfect individuals, if you are you probably shouldn't be here. We are not perfect, so expect to see ups, downs and plateaus. But I am determined more than ever to take this challenge for myself and for anyone out there that's following this blog. One bad characteristic of mine is that I never follow through on many things in my life...and this is an opportunity for me to prove myself wrong. So let's have fun blogging...

The supernatural childbirth

The title of this one can sound counterintuitive considering that this isn't a blog about child birth…Although somewhere down the line we may need to devote a special blog to pregnant women wanting to return to their pre-baby weight. That's the title of a book. It's a book about giving birth with the aid of God's promises and it made me wonder about the role of the supernatural in all other stages of life...hmmm! You can easily take out the "childbirth" in that title and replace it with "marriage," "career," or "parenthood." On a serious note, why does it feel normal to call on God's help for bigger (or more natural) issues such as choosing a life partner, work, childbirth etc and it feels weird to do the same when it comes to weight loss. I stand corrected, this blog is not entirely about weight-loss its about adopting a healthy lifestyle and that includes, eating right, drinking right, exercising, meditating and even praying.

So I challenge you to ask God to walk with you on this journey to a "supernatural healthy lifestyle (hey, I coined the phrase, so I better not see it anywhere :) )." Sometimes, I feel like I am asking God for way toooooo many things at this point in my life, that adding this one may be too much. I often wonder if majority of Christians out there think like me. Not to side track, who am I to say so and so is too much for God? So, let's channel God's promises to our personal journey because this is just as important as any of the typical milestones in life. Don't you think so?

On your marks..

So my girl came into town for the weekend…nice to have her around but not good news for my "journey." Before I go on talking I just remembered that I wanted to share with you all another reason why I decided to start this blog. See, I need to be accountable somehow..I absolutely hate food diaries. It seems so mechanical.

"Breakfast - 1 bagel with cream cheese; lunch - Jollof rice and chicken etc…" It just seems so mechanical and I am not entirely sure I even know how to count calories for Nigerian food. So I decided to just start a blog and talk about everything but the main focus will be on my eating and exercising habits and anything else that comes to mind that way it's more fun…yay! Also, when you feel like you have an audience, you don’t want to disappoint them by falling off the bandwagon toooo often.

So back to my gist, my girl TO (hahaha sounds like TO show…which I absolutely love btw) came into town for the weekend. It was nice to have her around but damn my whole eating was "jacked up." So we went out for breakfast for some fried chicken and waffles and a big jar (yes they serve their drinks in huge jars) of ice-tea. WHOA!!! Weird combination right? I thought so too when I was first introduced. Anyway, you would think that we wouldn't want to eat anything else for the rest of the day…but nope we had to take a trip down to some frozen yoghurt place a couple of hours later. This place is fantabulous and is a guilty pleasure of mine. So you come into the store and its all self-serve. You get your yoghurt (that's what they say but gosh it tastes just like ice-cream), then you pack on all the toppings you can possibly fit in there. Why does little miss I am on a "personal journey to a healthy lifestyle" decide to hop-skip-jump over the healthy toppings such as strawberries, pineapple etc. to brownies, mini m&m's and peanuts? Only my God knows. So after two bowls of yoghurt (of course I didn’t have two) and probably ~1000 calories heavier, I went home feeling pissed at myself. See I do this all the time, eat and then fill pissed. LOL! Would you believe we still found a way to fit dinner in that night. I was trying to be all healthy and all and had some okra soup. I am ashamed…and I am turning red here. But if I don’t air my dirty laundry like this, how will I take the necessary steps to change. That brings me to something I realized I haven't done which is to actually set goals and milestones.

We all know the ultimate goal here is get to a healthy lifestyle but how in this world am I going to get there? So here's the plan, we are going to work out 5-6 times a week (I know you may think it’s a lot but I am a fitness buff and I have pushed my body to the point where anything less than that will not result in any meaningful weight loss) and we are going to eat "smaller portions." I am going to start my day with a bowl of fruits - I know, I know…I am cutting out proteins and carbs, don’t worry I will get my portions later in the day. I just want to be like one of those people that starts their day with lots of water and a bowl of fruits to cleanse their system. Guys, the best advice I can give you here is to incorporate lots of fruits and vegetables in your meals at every sitting. About the exercise, if your new to working out, I will recommend you start with 2-3 times (30mins of cardiovascular and 1 session of strength training) per week until you begin to build your stamina. Anyhoo, that's my plan and I am sticking to it!! By the special grace of God…we will get there. Whoa…it's 1.08am and I am here blogging in like 4-5 hours, my girl Ms.C is going to be ringing down my phone for our morning workout session. So gotta run to bed. Talk to you tomorrow. Ciao

A fresh start....

My major problem is that I start things and never finish…Whoa! Who does that? Anyway…I am committed to changing this problem I am going to start this personal blog about my "personal journey to a healthy lifestyle." This is something that I promise myself that I am going to keep writing about until I get to where I am going. So this is how we are going to do it… I am going to talk about how unbearably hard it is for me, the steps I am taking and my progress to date. I guess every one in life needs to set personal goals in all areas of their life. I want to start this blog as a guide to my personal goal or becoming healthy. Let me just start by saying that its not like I am over 200 pounds or anything like that. I just want to achieve a target weight of 115 - 120 pounds (not entirely sure what that is in kg), be very lean and fit (like being able to do 10Ks, half marathons and possibly a full marathon who knows…joke of the year - running a marathon was my 2010 resolution LMAO) and just not crave unhealthy foods like pizza, ice-cream, chocolates, burger & fries etc….gosh !!! I am so salivating now. Hopefully, 30 days from now I will no longer be salivating for those things I listed above. Oops I even forgot "movie lovers butter popcorn." :( I am sure by now you can tell that I absolutely L-O-V-E food. So my plan here is actually not to deprive myself of certain foods but to learn to eat the right things and in the right proportions. Occasionally, I will still eat the usual suspects but in very rare occassions. Oh…one more thing to add to the list…warm chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream. I have tried it all from the GM diet, to NO-carbs to Atkins. Omo, if there's a diet out there…your girl has done it. Then what ends up happening is that I lose the weight drastically and gain it all back and even more once I stop the crazy diet. So, even though I may talk about some crazy diets out there that I have heard about; you are definitely not going to find me advocating for anything that asks you to cut out a particular food group or something like "master cleanse."

So here's the plan…I will blog each day (or close enough) about what I am eating, how much activity I am trying to get in and just life in general. There's a fourth goal that I didn’t mention to you guys (my little secret) why I am embarking on this journey. Along the way you will probably find out.. But stick with me ladies & guys as we start this journey. And oh btw just to my weight loss goals in perspective, I weighed myself yesterday and I am fully balanced at 141 pounds (or is it 140 pounds). I wrote 140 on my fridge…let me be in denial there…HAHA! There's no talk about what I ate today o because today is the last day to eat silly and I know I am going to go to the movies tonight so that "movie lovers butter popcorn," I am having you tonight baby…toodles