Hey Folks!
So guess what....I didn't loose any extra weight this last week. So I only lost 8 pounds for the month. Isn't that a bunch of crocket :-/ But what do you expect when you don't do any exercise. Basically my take on the 4-Hour Body slow carb diet is that it isn't for me :-) But I wanted to finish the diet out for the full 30 days. Towards the end I really missed not being able to have some yogurt and an apple in the morning for breakfast. And I just missed having a balanced diet all together. I feel like I need to do exercise, but i wanted to stay true to what was mentioned in the book, so I did not do much exercise during the month.
For the month of February I will be going back to what works for me, which is counting calories and exercise. I will consuming 1200 calories a day and working out at least 2 days a week. I don't want to start out with some crazy workout schedule that I know I won't be able to stick with and then feel guilty about it in the end. I am going to keep the DGW day because I think it really helps prevent you from cheating throughout the week when you know there is a day set aside just for that.
In the past when i counted calories I used the DietMinder Personal Food & Fitness journal. I wrote everything I ate in that book. I recorded how much water I drank, exercise for the day and daily vitamins I took. It has an area where you can also write little notes in it about how you feel. I sometimes look at my old DietMinder books just to see what my weight was or what I was eating ect...
This time I am going to use an application I downloaded on my phone called MyFitness. MyFitness allows you to track your calories, water intake, exercise, weight and add notes. You can also access MyFitness on the web @ http://www.myfitnesspal.com/
So when I leave work today I will go buy light yogurt, apples and a cart full of frozen meals. Since I only cook for myself I am able to get away with living off of frozen meals. It makes life so much easier...the calories are printed right on the box and takes less than 5 minutes to cook :-)
Hey Folks! So we are three weeks in and I am down 8 pounds. I honestly thought I would have lost more at this point but at least it is better than a blank. Actually I am looking forward to my new challenge next month. I will finish out this challenge and remain true to the plan described in the book and share my final thoughts at the end. But the no exercise thing isn't really working for me and I am considering counting calories again but haven't decided if I actually will do that.
One thing is for certain is that I do need to get active and have been putting it off for awhile. The 20lbs in 30 days with no exercise was just another way for me to put it off a little longer :-/
So last week I lost 2 pounds...guess at the end of this challenge I will end up loosing about 10 pounds instead of 20. Is anyone who is doing the slow-carb diet for 30 days close to 20 lbs?
Sorry for not sharing more videos. I have been taking videos on my phone but realized that the android phone will not let you email videos longer than 60 seconds. So apparently I have to download an app that isn't free in order to post my videos. No worries...I will figure out a work around soon enough. I have been dreading this but I guess it is only right for me to post pictures so that I can track before and after during each month. So at the end of the month I will post my first weight loss mug shots :-)
Hey All! I am still here :-)
Last night I cheated :-/ Yes I had three slices of pizza on a non cheat day. So I am ready for my punishment...Let me Have IT. Well I beat myself up about it and to top it off after I finished eating the pizza that new show called "Heavy" came on. HEAVY - A&E’s docudrama follows twenty-two individuals facing extreme life-threatening health consequences as a result of their obesity. So no more cheating for me...I can wait for my once a week DGW cheat day.
So doing a little damage control today and decided I needed to work out. It just so happens that today my sister was telling me how fun the new Wii Michael Jackson Experience game is. So after work I went to buy it and got a great 45 minute workout dancing my butt off.
Let me start off by saying I was starving last night when I left my job. I had no idea what I wanted to eat and in the past I most likely would have ordered a pizza and some wings since i didn't feel like cooking. Well I ended up getting a gyro salad with lentils on the side.
OK so I know all of you want to know how much weight I lost this week. Well...if you must know I only lost 1 pound. I really thought I would have lost at least 3 pounds but only 1...I just don't like it. Now I hate to make excuses BUT...I am going to blame the lack of pounds being lost this week on GEORGE. Yep, it never fails every time George decides to pay me a visit the scale is NOT my friend. I can't stand George, he is always raining on my parade.
Tomorrow is "DGW" day and I can't wait to have some pancakes and those rolls from the restaurant Logans.
Well I want to hear some good news. So now it is your turn to share your progress. Who is still on the plan and how much have you lost? What do you plan on eating on "DGW" day?
I first met George back when I was about 12 years old. Before I actually met George I would hear people talk about him all the time. A couple of my friends had actually met him before me and would act like they were sooo grown and "special" because George was now their special friend. Well let me tell you this...sometimes I wish I never met George. After I met him I couldn't get rid of him. He drops by every month and some times unannounced. He puts me in such a bad mood at times, that most folks don't want to be around me for a couple days. He is a PAIN in my A ...well feels more like a pain in head and stomach cramps. And then when he is around I crave all types of junk food. I don't know if it is the junk food but for some reason my clothes fit tight and my scale is always going up when it should be going down. Damn that GEORGE...DAMN DAMN DAMN!
GOOD NEWS FLASH
Well if any of you out there know George then I have some good news for you if you are following the slow carb diet plan. Timothy Ferris author of the 4-Hour Body states that you should ignore scale readings in the 10 days before menstruation. He advises that since women tend to retain much more water just before their periods to treat your first weighing following your period as your "after" measurement. I don't know about the before thing...but I do know I always retain water during my visit with George.
Dieters Gone Wild...Let the eating begin!!!! This is the one day in the week where you eat all the things you were craving for during the week. Cupcakes...eat it; Double cheeseburger...devour it; Pizza...inhale it; Box of chocolates...pop em until you POP. The idea is that once you stuff yourself, you won't want to think about any junk food for the rest of the week.
BUT....
Make sure to follow these rules:
Make sure your first meal of the day is not a binge meal and drink a small amount of grapefruit juice before your first DGW meal.
Make sure all the DGW food passes through you quickly by drinking coffee or tea with caffeine. I know this works because I can't even finish a cup of coffee in the morning without running to the toilet :-)
Do some funny exercise moves right before you eat and about 90 minutes after. The suggested exercise moves are air squats or wall presses for about 1 minute.
Get your PAGG Stack. In The 4-Hour Body, Tim suggests that these 4 supplements are the 4 horsemen of sustained fat loss which have a huge impact when put together: Policosanol: 20-25mg Alpha-lipoic acid: 100-300mg Green tea flavanols: 325mg (decaffeinated) Garlic extract
Today I am going to share a recipe and my new drink of choice.
Crock Pot Lima Beans
It's time to pull out that crock pot so you can throw in some beans and forget about it. I personally think the crock pot is the best way to cook Lima beans because I like when they explode and they become all soupy like. It takes a long time to get them that way when cooking on the stove top.
Ingredients:
2 bags of frozen Lima beans
1 smoked turkey wing
season to taste
Put those beans and wings in the crock pot and cook those suckers all day long until they explode!!! (8 or more hours)
My new drink of choice is unsweetened tea with lemon juice. I love sweet tea and didn't think I would like it without sweetener. It actually isn't that bad if you add lemon juice. I but the bottle of lemon juice and add about a cap full to glass of tea. Give it a try and if you just can't stand to drink it without some kind of sweetener then add a small amount of Sweet'n Low. Try to wean yourself off of the Sweet'n Low until you don't need it...this is exactly what I did.
Hey All! I am still here and still sticking to the diet plan. On the "Dieters Gone Wild" day on Saturday I was surprised to find myself not very hungry and did not have all the major cravings that i had days before. In fact I kind of forced myself to eat certain things just because I knew I wouldn't get the chance to do it until next Saturday.
The idea of doing this blog and sharing it with people I know is already starting to work its' wonders. Saturday I was walking in the mall trying to find something to wear to my sister's Bday dinner. As I gazed into the window of Godiva I could almost taste the chocolate on my tongue and I almost backed up to walk into the store. But when I looked up I locked eyes with a friend and follower of this blog. Now what are the chances of that happening right when I was ready to go buy some chocolate covered strawberries and a box of chocolate :-) I know it was on my cheat day, but i planned on buying a box and know I wouldn't have finished them all on Saturday. I doubt she even realized that she saved me from consuming about 3000 calories. So thank you Tiffini for popping up when you did.
On Sunday I had planned on going to the 12:00 Bikram class. I was still in bed at 10:30 and felt myself wanting to skip out. My girlfriend Akilah called and said she couldn't make the 12:00 class but was going at 6 so I said I would do the same. Well when 6 started getting closer I started to feel lazy and thought to myself "I'll go tomorrow". Sent a text to Akilah asking if she wanted to go tomorrow instead and she said "No, we have to go today". My first Bikram class since 2009 and almost 50 pounds heavier was not how I remembered it in the past. It felt horrible to bend down and feel my stomach getting in the way of me stretching. I have always had trouble doing exercise because of my chest (I am very top heavy), but never because of my GUT. I couldn't even lay flat on my back and feel comfortable because my butt was lifting me off the ground...SMH...I have to get this weight off. I think I did more sitting on my mat breathing during each pose than actually doing the poses.
Well I am going to sign off here even though I could go on for hours.
And That's All Folks!
My cheat day meal at Eatonville: Fried chicken, mac n cheese, greens and the smallest biscuit in the world. Yep that is a little teeny tiny biscuit next to fork. LOL
First off I can't wait until Saturday gets here because I have been having some major cravings. The one thing that is going to be first on my list to eat on “Dieters Gone Wild” day is the corn bread that Safeway makes. I have been going crazy thinking about eating a piece of that cake like corn bread. I can't believe how much food is like crack. But I am hoping all my cravings will die down in my 2nd week.
So my first weigh in results...I have lost a total of DRUM ROLL PLEASE...5 POUNDS . Maybe it is just water weight that i have lost, but at least the scale went down and not up. The real numbers will start to show next week. Up to this point I have not done any exercise, but I do plan on going to Bikram Yoga on Sunday.
My “Dieters Gone Wild” day is going to be really special since it is my Sister's 30th birthday. She is also doing the 20 pounds in 30 days challenge, so it will be really entertaining to see how we both binge out on food and drinks Saturday night. She planned a night out on the town, starting with dinner at Eatonville followed by drinks and dancing at the ChiCha lounge. I will be sure to share pics and videos with you all.
There are a couple of small rules that you have to follow on your “Dieters Gone Wild” day. I will post them later tonight.
And That's All Folks!!!
Egg whites with turkey sausage.
The book that started it all. Feel free to purchase it from my blog because then I know you are supporting Me Ms DMV :-)
I didn't realize just how much the carbs really make you feel full...you know that gut busting need to take a nap feeling. I have not had that feeling despite stuffing myself with veggies. I guess that is a good thing.
Today I was craving pound cake and something cheesy (cheesy pizza, cheese burger or lasagna). I was starving on my way home from work and wanted to be able to eat some good old comfort food. I stayed true to the plan and cooked my special Goulash...basically a bunch of stuff thrown in the pot. The goulash contained: ground turkey, onions, corn, tomatoes, string beans, peas, carrots, mushrooms and cabbage. All the veggies were from the can except for the cabbage. This should last me a couple days and will be packed up for my lunch tomorrow.
A lot of folks have been asking me about Bikram Yoga. If you have never been to a class before you should definitely try it out at least once in your life. Most studios offer discounted classes for first time Bikram students. Here is a link to the Bikram class locator: http://www.bikramyoga.com/studioLocator.php
It really does do your body wonders and you will start to see and feel results very quickly. You will sleep like a baby, have tons of energy the next day, and your skin will be looking better than ever.
Below I will share what I experienced when I was first introduced to Bikram Yoga.
Posted 1/8/2008
A Good Friend of mine kept talking about this yoga class she had been taking and how I needed to go. she had been talking about it for over a month, but I already had gym membership at Golds and didn't see why i should go someplace else when they had Yoga at Golds. Plus i never really got into the Yoga thing. I was trying to loose weight so always went for the Cardio type of stuff. Well November 9th my girlfriend called me and asked again, "You should go to BikramYoga with me 2morrow morning". I was like "You are right on time with this, I am willing to give it a shot".
So I met her at 8:00 in the morning on Saturday. I had no idea what I was in for, all I was told was to bring a yoga mat, towel, 2 bottles of frozen water, dress light(half naked) and be prepared to sweat!!!! So I walk in with my friend with an open mind. There is a small lobby and everyone takes their shoes off when they walk in and place them into cubbies. The aroma of Lavender is in the air. I see a lot of slim folks walking around with really skimpy outfits on. Anywhoooo, I take my socks and shoes off, take of my sweatshirt and head to the Yoga Room.
I walk in and this blanket of heat hits me in the face. The room is about 110 degrees and my skin already feels moist. I lay my mat down in the back row, sit my frozen waters beside my mat and take a seat on the floor. Me and my friend are whispering back in forth like 2 school girls. I notice alot of people are laying flat on there back, just basically chillen. My friend says we are supposed to do that so that are body can warm up and get use to the air in the room. It also helps relax you before the class starts. So the instructor walks in. He is a very lean man with some really small tight speedo booty shorts on... That's enough about him.
On The very first exercise we did, I almost busted out laughing. We had to breath in deep with are head pushed forward (people sounded like vacuum cleaners, I have never heard such deep breathing in my life) and then breath out pushing are head far back We did this like 10 times. 15 minutes into the class I am bending down touching my toes and a water fall of sweat comes pouring down my face, blinding my site. I peer through my lashes and noticed my legs are drenched, as if I just stepped out of the bathtub. When I stand up straight, all the blood comes rushing back to my head and my heart is pounding as if I just ran a 100 Meter dash. Several times I just had to stand there and breath to keep myself together. The instructor tells us, whatever you do, "DONT LEAVE THE ROOM" just sit down and breath, but "DONT LEAVE THE ROOM". So we are approaching about 45 mins into the class and I'm thinking "thank goodness, I am just about 'WELL DONE', and ready to be taken out of the oven". I stretch a lil harder and hold the poses a lil longer because I know we are almost done. Then the instructor says "Ok, that concludes the warm-up, now lets start Yoga". My thoughts go blank, then I regain consciousness "WHAT THE F%$@, THE WARMUP". I look over to my Girl and ask "How long is this class", she giggles and says "90 minutes".
30 minutes later I am laying flat on my back, just chillen in "Savasana" with an ice cold wet towel on my face that has been soaked in Lavender. I am soaking wet from head to toe and feel like I just ran 10 miles in 90 degree weather. The funny thing is, I feel GREAT!!!!! I always love that feeling you get after an intense workout, I just usually really dislike or don't enjoy the exercises you have to do to get to that point. But I actually liked doing those Yoga poses and I was eager to try it again to make sure it wasn't a fluke. I signed up for the Intro Month and went back the very next Day. After that I was hooked and going 3+ times a week. That's 600+ calories burned every class
THE RESULTS AFTER 4 WEEKS
After the first 4 weeks of counting calories, going to Bikram(HOT) Yoga, and writing everything down I lost 16 pounds. The only thing I could say was "WOW, IT REALLY WORKS". 12 pounds in 4 weeks and an extra 4 pounds if you exercise.
THE RESULTS AFTER 8 WEEKS
It's January 7th and I have lost 25+ pounds. I did not loose the 16 pounds in the 2nd 4weeks because I couldn't afford the Bikram Yoga during the Holiday Months. That class is expensive ($150 for a unlimited month), and if you sign up you want to be able to go to class as much as possible to get your dollars worth. So I opted out for the month of December with all the holiday parties, time off from work, shopping for gifts ect... I still continued to count my calories and even started taking Kukuwa Dance workout at golds gym, since I did have a membership :-)
Today(Jan 7th) I will be going back to Bikram Yoga, I miss it so much. Every time I took that class I left feeling like I could breath so much better, the best restful sleep, tons of energy the next day, skin looking better than ever. I just felt GOOD. I will let you know if this euphoric feeling returns after the class.
AFTER BIKRAM YOGA ON JAN 7thWow, it was sooooo Great!!!! I was running late and rushed to get there and when I arrived, the room was packed. I have never seen so many people in the class. we usually only have 2 rows of people and today we had to squeeze in a third row. The class was great and I was sooo surprised at my performance. I have lost a little more weight since the last class I took about 3 weeks ago. I could really tell the difference...I was hitting poses I never hit before and didn't need to take as many breaks as I used to.
Chillen in "Savasana"
At times you feel like a kid again practicing tumbling
I'm sticking to it. Lunch for today was broccoli and ground beef...simple and easy to prepare. Drinking my water and staying away from the carbs. I snuck a peak at my weight today and the scale was showing me some lovely numbers. I will do my weigh in on Friday, which is the day before my cheat day.
First day going to work while on the no carb diet. I ate what I packed up last night and drank water all day.
When I got home I went to see the movie Tron. Halfway through the movie I ended up taking off my 3D glasses because I felt a slight headache coming on. And guess what, it didn't make a huge difference because the 3D parts in the movie were "NOT" all that. So save your money and go to the regular viewing of the movie.
After the movie I had dinner at Fridays. No carbs as you can see from the photo below. The sauce in the middle was the Jack Daniels sauce, which I know is full of sugar. I will admit I did dip my steak a couple of times in the sauce but it really was only a "couple" of times :-) I finished the whole plate...Oh I actually shared one of my grilled shrimps and some of my steak with a friend, so I think I did pretty well today.
I haven't done any exercise yet, but I plan on going to Bikram yoga on sunday.
No carbs...doesn't this look yummy. Yeah right. But it was tasty!
Collard greens w/ smoked turkey wings, baked chicken tenderloins and mashed navy beans :-)
I have been drinking my water...but i really want to drink some diet soda. I have also been drinking alot of unsweetened tea with lemon.
So a couple of my girlfriends have mentioned doing Bikram Yoga again. I think I'm going to give it a Go since I really liked the hot yoga class and did wonders for my weight loss in the past. A couple years ago I wrote about my first experience with Bikram yoga...i dug it up and decided to share with you. Enjoy!
Posted 1/8/2008
A Good Friend of mine kept talking about this yoga class she had been taking and how I needed to go. she had been talking about it for over a month, but I already had gym membership at Golds and didn't see why i should go someplace else when they had Yoga at Golds. Plus i never really got into the Yoga thing. I was trying to loose weight so always went for the Cardio type of stuff. Well November 9th my girlfriend called me and asked again, "You should go to BikramYoga with me 2morrow morning". I was like "You are right on time with this, I am willing to give it a shot".
So I met her at 8:00 in the morning on Saturday. I had no idea what I was in for, all I was told was to bring a yoga mat, towel, 2 bottles of frozen water, dress light(half naked) and be prepared to sweat!!!! So I walk in with my friend with an open mind. There is a small lobby and everyone takes their shoes off when they walk in and place them into cubbies. The aroma of Lavender is in the air. I see alot of slim folks walking around with really skimpy outfits on. Anywhoooo, I take my socks and shoes off, take of my sweatshirt and head to the Yoga Room.
I walk in and this blanket of heat hits me in the face. The room is about 110 degrees and my skin already feels moist. I lay my mat down in the back row, sit my frozen waters beside my mat and take a seat on the floor. Me and my friend are whispering back in forth like 2 school girls. I notice alot of people are laying flat on there back, just basically chillen. My friend says we are supposed to do that so that are body can warm up and get use to the air in the room. It also helps relax you before the class starts. So the instructor walks in. He is a very lean man with some really small tight speedo booty shorts on... Thats enough about him.
On The very first exercise we did, I almost busted out laughing. We had to breath in deep with are head pushed forward (people sounded like vacuum cleaners, I have never heard such deep breathing in my life) and then breath out pushing are head far back We did this like 10 times. 15 minutes into the class I am bending down touching my toes and a water fall of sweat comes pouring down my face, blinding my site. I peer through my lashes and noticed my legs are drenched, as if I just stepped out of the bathtub. When I stand up straight, all the blood comes rushing back to my head and my heart is pounding as if I just ran a 100 Meter dash. Several times I just had to stand there and breath to keep myself together. The instructor tells us, whatever you do, "DONT LEAVE THE ROOM" just sit down and breath, but "DONT LEAVE THE ROOM". So we are approaching about 45 mins into the class and I'm thinking "thank goodness, I am just about 'WELL DONE', and ready to be taken out of the oven". I stretch a lil harder and hold the poses a lil longer because I know we are almost done. Then the instructor says "Ok, that concludes the warm-up, now lets start Yoga". My thoughts go blank, then I regain consciousness "WHAT THE F%$@, THE WARMUP". I look over to my Girl and ask "How long is this class", she giggles and says "90 minutes".
30 minutes later I am laying flat on my back, just chillen in "Savasana" with an ice cold wet towel on my face that has been soaked in Lavender. I am soaking wet from head to toe and feel like I just ran 10 miles in 90 degree weather. The funny thing is, I feel GREAT!!!!! I always love that feeling you get after an intense workout, I just usually really dislike or don't enjoy the exercises you have to do to get to that point. But I actually liked doing those Yoga poses and I was eager to try it again to make sure it wasn't a fluke. I signed up for the Intro Month and went back the very next Day. After that I was hooked and going 3+ times a week. Thats 600+ calories burned every class
THE RESULTS AFTER 4 WEEKS
After the first 4 weeks of counting calories, going to Bikram(HOT) Yoga, and writing everything down I lost 16 pounds. The only thing I could say was "WOW, IT REALLY WORKS". 12 pounds in 4 weeks and an extra 4 pounds if you exercise.
THE RESULTS AFTER 8 WEEKS
It's January 7th and I have lost 25+ pounds. I did not loose the 16 pounds in the 2nd 4weeks because I couldn't afford the Bikram Yoga during the Holiday Months. That class is expensive ($150 for a unlimited month), and if you sign up you want to be able to go to class as much as possible to get your dollars worth. So I opted out for the month of December with all the holiday parties, time off from work, shopping for gifts ect... I still continued to count my calories and even started taking Kukuwa Dance workout at golds gym, since I did have a membership :-)
Today(Jan 7th) I will be going back to Bikram Yoga, I miss it so much. Every time I took that class I left feeling like I could breath so much better, the best restful sleep, tons of energy the next day, skin looking better than ever. I just felt GOOD. I will let you know if this euphoric feeling returns after the class. AFTER BIKRAM YOGA ON JAN 7thWow, it was sooooo Great!!!! I was running late and rushed to get there and when I arrived, the room was packed. I have never seen so many people in the class. we usually only have 2 rows of people and today we had to squeeze in a third row. The class was great and I was sooo surprised at my performance. I have lost a little more weight since the last class I took about 3 weeks ago. I could really tell the difference...I was hitting poses I never hit before and didn't need to take as many breaks as I used to.
HAPPY NEW YEAR and Deuces to 2010!!!!
Well this is the first day to the 30 day challenge and first day in 2011. I am going to try to stick to blogging with you folks for the whole year.
So I made sure I ate what I wanted yesterday...captain crunch cereal with milk, Taco Bell, grapefruit and soda. I think not being able to drink my diet soda and diet tea is going to be the hardest part. I know i wrote in the previous post that you could drink the diet soda and tea, but it turns out that the substitute sweetener doesn't help with the weight loss. The book 4 hour body suggests that you only consume 1 16oz diet soda a day. That really SUCKS...but so does all this extra weight. So I filled my filtered water pitcher and made sure my ice bin and ice trays were full.
My first meal in 2011 was egg whites (something I already eat on the regular), turkey sausage and two big glasses of ice cold water.
Sooo...who is joining me on this "How to loose 20 lbs. of FAT in 30 Days" challenge?
