You Are My Candy Girl! {Day 41}

The last day of April in 2011, Lana gave me my first challenge that started this change in my life. “No Sugar!” I melted. My mother and father are both bakers. On their kitchen counter there is always a cake, cookies, or some sort of candy. My grandmother has a draw in her house FULL of candy. Goodies are everywhere in my life. Ice cream was my biggest weakness. I loved going to Pickle Barrel and getting a waffle cone or even swinging by Dairy Queen for a cherry dipped cone with sprinkles. (I am drooling right now just thinking about it) Sugar and I were best friends, we did a lot together and it has been a tough ride since we broke up.

The day Lana shot the sugar in my life I was pretty sure I would never make it. At the end of this April, it has been 12 months since I have last eaten a cookie, cake, or even ice cream. The challenge today is to think of sugar beyond treats. When reading ingredient labels it is important to understand that sugar is used in a lot of things. Today the challenge is to Cut out all food and drink with the first five ingredients that include simple sugars or syrup. Includes brown sugar dextrose corn sweetener fructose cellulose and anything with the last 3 letters being -OSE.

This challenge is going to be hard with Easter right around the corner, but it must be done! Natural sugars are still good to eat, but still not in excess.

Sugar Sugar!!

One Less Day 

The Count {43&42}

Combo day! After yesterdays suggestion, I hope you found a program that will help you track your food better. These programs will also help today's challenge too. Along with writing all of your food down, it is now time to add calorie counting! This will include calories in and out. These can be added to the food journals you are already writing down. 


The second challenge for today is to attend a yoga class once a week. This form of exercise really gets the body to stretch at the same time a solid work out. I remember the very first time I experienced yoga. I could not stop laughing because I knew I looked like a complete fool! I was thinking I looked just like the teacher, man was I wrong! "Lock the knee!" 


Count 'em up and get a mat. It's YOGA time!


One Less Day! 

Day 44: Balance {In Food}

I need to remember blogs don't post from my phone. Sorry its a day late! You get two today.

If this last year has not changed my life forever it is my fault. It has not been a year of diets, but a reorganization of my life style choices. Lana never asked me to do something I wasn’t able to do forever. Some of the worst diets around ask you to do things that you could not do forever. If we are to be changing our lives, then we must be practicing habits that will last a lifetime. Sometimes it is hard to know what a balanced meal looks like. For a while, I thought a balanced meal came from Costco. A coke and a giant slice of pizza all washed down with soft served goodness of “yogurt”.  I have since learned this is not the case.

There is a pretty standard nutritional guideline issued by the FDA. This guideline is suggested for the 2,000-calorie diet but is easily modified for everyone. The challenge for today is to know and eat within the suggested guidelines. Many programs are available on line, or as an app on different phones, that show you how you are eating.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-diet/NU00200

This is mine for Friday

It is important to know and understand that each day is a new day, but staying within these suggested guidelines prevents you from getting unhealthy with your eating. When some diets eliminates carbs things start to get haywire. Carbs are what gives you energy and when we have no carbs to burn, we start to burn muscle. That seams counter intuitive. Trying to gain muscle when our body is eating the muscle.

It’s a lot to change and get used to, but once we know healthy eating habits our lives will start to change!

One Week Done!!

One Less Day 

Day 50	Write everything that you eat and drink down. Including what time you consumed it.
Day 49	No Eating after 7 PM
Day 48	Walk/Run 25 miles a week (Intentionally and apart from other workouts)
Day 47	Drink Enough Water!
Day 46 (Today)	Eat 5 servings of veggies. Four must be green and carrots can only be eaten ever 3rd day.
Day 45	Give up one unhealthy food choice
Day 44	Keep within the Healthy Food Guidelines

Give It All

Each of you has officially made it through the first five days of the challenge. Great Job! Stick to it, it might get easier. Yesterday I was feeling a little tired and honestly struggling to get my 25 extra miles in this weekend. Not a good sign! After a long week I was really feeling a vacation. Thinking of a beach, or a hotel room, anything away from real life would have been nice. The bad news is that our food choices can never take a vacation.
 

Today, Day 45, the challenge is to give up one unhealthy food choice. That could be ice cream, chips, cookies, if it’s bad for you give it up! For the next 45 days I will not be dining out. Breakfast, lunch and dinner will all be prepared at home.

What will you give up for the next 45 days?! Good Luck!

One Less Day

Day 50	Write everything that you eat and drink down. Including what time you consumed it.
Day 49	No Eating after 7 PM
Day 48	Walk/Run 25 miles a week (Intentionally and apart from other workouts)
Day 47	Drink Enough Water!
Day 46 (Today)	Eat 5 servings of veggies. Four must be green and carrots can only be eaten ever 3rd day.
Day 45	Give up one unhealthy food choice

Popeye Strength

I would be so happy if I could fill all my daily calories with ice cream. Huckleberry Milkshakes, strawberry cheesecake waffle cones, and Shamrock Shakes from McDonalds would be my favorite day of the year. The truth is I haven’t had ice cream in over 10 months, yet I still dream of it. Since giving up sugar I have had to fill my days with other types of food. Some foods are easier to add than others.

For todays challenge its time to mix up what food you are eating. Day 46 Challenge is to eat 5 servings of vegetables. Four of the five must be green, and the 5^th can only be carrots every three days. The 4 servings of green veggies must all be different. So eating 4 servings of celery does not count! Spinach is a great choice, but if you eat only spinach for the next 46 days you might look like Popeye. I’m not sure that is the most attractive choice, but then again you might be into sailors that are proportioned oddly.

Just a questions; who had to wake up to pee last night?

 Popeye Strength!

One Less Day

Day 50	Write everything that you eat and drink down. Including what time you consumed it.
Day 49	No Eating after 7 PM
Day 48	Walk/Run 25 miles a week (Intentionally and apart from other workouts)
Day 47	Drink Enough Water!
Day 46 (Today)	Eat 5 servings of veggies. Four must be green and carrots can only be eaten ever 3rd day.
Day 45

Water Logged

I have the wonderful privilege to live with my grandmother. She is pretty amazing in some ways but in some ways she if flat hilarious. She is always comparing today’s world with “back in the day”. We talk often about each of these daily challenges and she always has something to say. For most of the challenges she say, “Oh Serene, I don’t know about that”.

Today’s challenge was a major “Oh Serene” moment. For today's challenge you will use the following water calculator to see how many ounces of water you need to drink a day. (And Drink It!) For me, I am drinking 200 oz of water every day. Along with food journals please keep track of the amount of water you consume.

http://nutrition.about.com/library/blwatercalculator.htm

When I told my G that I was going to drink 200 oz she thought I was crazy. “Back in the day, each house would get one pale of water for the entire day. I’m pretty sure you are doing good at three 8 oz glasses of water for the day.” Ladies and Gentlemen, grandma is wrong. We each need well over 24 oz of water a day.

Warning: You will have to use the bathroom SO much at the beginning.  I was even waking up in the night, not cool! It really does get better. It also helps if you have a water bottle and can keep filling it up. It makes tracking the ounces that much better.

Belly Up!!

One Less Day  

I Would Walk 500 Miles

I remember the very first time I met Lana. I was invited to attend her Boot Camp one early summer morning. At 5:30 am I was at the park ready to do whatever she told me. I was heavy, out of shape, and had done little exercise in a long while. I told myself that I would keep pace with the class and wanted no one to know how fat I really was. Every time Lana told us to do something, I did it full force. Never once did I back down because I was physically unable to complete the task. I was constantly pushing myself harder and longer than ever before. That first day of Boot Camp if Lana said jump I asked how high. By 9 am that same day, I couldn’t walk. I was working at a store on Main Street and I could hardly use a stapler. My entire body hated me for weeks. Although I did return to Boot Camp two days later, never once have I made the mistake of keeping up to act “fit”.

A good excuse for 25 miles a week.
The best dog in the world, Lollie!
Her and I enjoyed a 4 miles loop today.

Today’s challenge is the first “physical” challenge so far. I know, I know, we are only three days into this 50 day melt but each of us needs to change how we move. Today’s challenge requires you to move more. Day 48 the challenge is to walk/run 25 miles in a week. These miles need to be on purpose, not part of your every day life. If you are physically able to run some of these miles, do it! Not because you must but because you can. I so wish I was able to run all 25 of these miles, but I must walk. If you are currently doing some type of exercise these 25 miles are in addition to what you already are doing.

This challenge is going to take some serious time management. Do us all a favor, don’t wait and have 25 miles to do in one day. You will feel just like I did after my very first time at Boot Camp.

“I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more. Just to be the man who walked 1,000 miles to fall down at your door.”

Happy Walking My Melting Friends!

One Less Day