My Physical and Emotional CHANGE!!

"Nothing ever changes if nothing never changes"
~try



Sick and Tired of being Sick and Tired!!

                June 6, 2010

 I knew when I ordered it.....it would be the last one I would drink for a LONG TIME....
TRIPLE GRANDE HAZELNUT Starbucks.com
              (190 calories 7 grams fat 17 grams sugar)


It was Sunday and the "transformation" plan was starting tomorrow!  That's the way it always was---TOMORROW, I'll start TOMORROW---but this was different,
I was sick and tired of being sick and tired!

It really all started when I had watched by best friend loose half her body fat...she had 30 % body fat and had gone down to 12% body fat.  This by the way was something I had never understood.....now weight loss I got that but,  body fat?  What's that and how the heck does someone get that measured?

She not only looked amazing, she was strong, healthy, happy, beautiful, empowered...you name it she had IT and I wanted what she had!!  I became more and more interested in how she did it and what it took to get this beauty INSIDE and OUT!!

You realize I've never worked out!!

June 7, 2010
So it is Monday morning at 5am!!...Monday.....every good diet starts on Monday right??  My friend tells me that she will meet me at 6am at the "hike and bike" trail ( townlaketrail.org)
 and we will go for a run!  I "think" I have the "proper" shoes, the "proper" clothes....you know.. what ever makes me look the skinniest or the most fit....whatever that looks like???  
 Now 5am comes easy for me, the hard part for me is my COFFEE...I HAVE to have it...or should I call it "coffee milk"....(that is what my Mom called it because, it was mainly milk and sugar with a splash of coffee)...some of you I know understand this. (50 calories  12 grams sugar )
Now that I have coffee I am good to go RIGHT?  I did not know for me that coffee was not fuel "food",  but as of this morning it was my fuel...I did not know what was coming! 
I get there and we run, and run and run...1hour
(578 calories burned)
..that was all...that is what she said "no shorter no longer"...I can handle that! 
Wrong...it had to be the hardest thing I had ever done..RUN..it sounds so simple so easy...
NOT..I had to tell her several times that I had know idea what I was doing!.....She said that was OK she would help me along the way.
I don't know what I have gotten myself into???!

"The Protein Shake"

June 7, 2010...still

Sooooo after the run...which by the way.....I was the "sweaty-est",  "red-est"
(are these real words?) and most tired I had been in YEARS,
 and we head to my friends house to have a
 "protein shake"!
OK so I have an idea of what a protein shake is, my husband has been drinking them for years
and I am thinking YUCK....that is not what I want after a hard workout!
I watch her make this chocolate looking milk shake...
1 cup of water,  1 cup of ice,  1 banana and
1 HUGE scoop of this protein powder 
Blended in blender till smooth
 OMG  it has to be the best thing I have tasted...seriously...I had tasted my husbands over the years and his NEVER tasted like this!  I thought it must have been because I was starving, but it wasn't and I have been drinking these now everyday after a hard work out!
 I bought this container at gnc.com the flavor is Double Rich Chocolate.
The whole shake, banana included has
 225 Calories 1.4 grams Fat 15 grams Sugar and 25 grams Protein

"How is your diet and excercise ?"




So after a week of this exercise transformation I decided I should go to the doctor
 and make sure "everything" was OK. 
 See I was thinking I had gotten a little chunky and I was pretty
sure I had a thyroid problem and that was why I was heavy!! 
 So I went and had my blood checked and had my appointment
to find out the results and you know what she said?

"How is your diet and exercise?"

I about died...REALLY...was it down to this...PLEASE tell me I have to take a
"pill" and my weight will just drop off!
But NO,
 she wanted to talk about Running, Swimming, Biking, Yoga..you name it she mentioned it! 

 How crazy is this......I was disappointed.....
I get to my car after the appointment and call my girlfriend and told her that if she was still willing to help me I was in it for the long HAUL and I would do whatever she told me to do!!
Of course her response was " OK I'm excited-LETS GO!!  See ya at the trail in the morning!!"

(she said some other stuff but all I really was thinking about was
 how the heck was I going to do this?
 I HATE EXERCISE!!)

The Eating PLAN!!

I had to change the way I ate if I wanted to be able to keep exercising and get FIT!
This news was kind of new to me.....like HOW DO YOU DO THAT?
* No Carbs?
*    No Fat?
*  No Sugar?
I really needed a "Plan" and had no clue on how to go about achieving that??
I knew nothing and was willing to do whatever it took! 
So I called "Fantastic"
quick side note: check out her full story on the right of this blog..........
 (this is what I will call her because whenever I would do something I hated 
 during this whole process she would say FANTASTIC!!  It drove me Crazy)

She is my running friend who had lost the 18% body fat and
I asked her what her eating plan had been?
She said she went on a
 30 grams of sugar
30 grams of fat
per day with a max of 1500 calories and she logged her food everyday!
So this is where the "20" questions come in....
How do I do that? What did you eat?  How did you know what to eat?
 I swear I went to her house one day and started looking thru her pantry and
writting things down so I would know what I could eat!
 She also said I needed to start reading lables-- if a food item had 5 grams of fat or less
 she would eat it, for the most part.
 So all raw veggies and salad, eggs, beans, brown rice, turkey, chicken, fish, some dairy.
She said she ate alot of protein, that kept her body physically able to do the excercise!
So I was pumped up!  I went to the store the next day and started a meal plan!!

The MEASUREMENTS and Meal PLAN

This is the most HUMILIATING thing I think I have ever done.....well almost...but for you to see this picture (go to the before link at the top) of me is CRAZY.....but I want you to get the real feeling on how serious I was about this!
I got "measured" the same week that I had this picture taken.... If you have been thru the experience you know about the "pinch" and if you have never been thru it...well let's just say it HURTS!

My body fat was 29.8 % and I thought that seemed pretty good, until the
 trainer that measured me told me (getbackfitness.com) that is considered 
high for my height, weight and age. 
Needless to say I was pretty upset and confused,
but on the other hand it gave me a number to work OFF of! 

I started logging my food that week and WOW did that change my eating right away. 
 I downloaded a app free on my phone called loseit.com


It was the EASIEST way to keep track of my fat/sugars/calories.
My meal plan for the first day looked a little like the following:

I drank 10-12 glasses of WATER a DAY
Breakfast: 
*The Protein shake
coffee
 2 strips turkey bacon (50cal, 3 fat,0 sugar)
2 egg whites (33 cal, 0 fat, 0 sugar)
1 cup fresh spinach (7 cal, 0 fat, 0 sugar)
1 whole wheat tortilla (130 cal, 2.5 fat, 1 sugar)
Lunch:
2-3 cups mix greens
1 chicken breast (142 cal, 3.1 fat. 0 sug)
1/4 c bell pepper (12 cal, 0 fat, 1 sug)
1/4 c fresh corn (33 cal, 0 Fat, 1 sug)
1/4 shredded carrot (13 cal, 0 fat, 2 sugar
1/4 c edamame
tomatoes
fresh basil
2 Tbs Paul Newman's Light Balsamic (45 cal, 4 fat, 2 sug)
Snack:
1 cup butter snap pretzels (100 cal, 0 fat, 0 sug)
2Tbs Humus
Dinner:
Turkey Lettuce Wraps
ground turkey
water chestnuts
bok choy
mushrooms
iceberge lettuce

So my totals for the day always ran about
1300-1500 calories
25-35 grams of sugar
25-35 grams of fat

About "Lose It"

I had to write down EVERYTHING I ate...it was the only way to make this "plan" work!
When I started logging (writing down) all the food I was eatting I put it in a
 spiral notebook, which seemed to work for the first  few days, but by the time it came around to keeping up with the "memory" of the food  I ate and keeping up with the spiral I about gave up!!

My point of telling you this .....well to explain how I got the
 Lose It (loseit.com ) app on my phone!

I have this amazing phone that does amazing things but I am not an amazing user....
so needless to say I don't use it to its full potential!!  So I beagn researching a "app" for my excersie that I did everyday and up popped this WONDERFUL app that saved me time and energy!

I always had my phone with me so I had no excuse for not logging and even better most of the things were already calculated so I didn't have to take the time to program it in.
Ok so for those of you that don't have this CRAZY (amazing) phone.....you have got this on the internet computer!!  So you have no excuse...Go for it and give it a try!.....Get it ..try!! :0

By the way Lose It pays me nothing...I just love this app!!