Good day everyone!
I know, it's been a while since I have last updated this blog and I thought that tonight was a good night to bring you up to speed. A lot has happened since my last update, but I won't be going into a lot of details here. Just the high points.
Since my last update in September, I started curling a lot more often. This changed my workout plans as I could no longer workout on Tuesdays nor Wednesdays. My trainer, Karissa, couldn't train me on Mondays or Thursdays. I like my weekends, so I could only workout on Fridays. Once per week wasn't enough to increase my fitness levels so we chose to begin my maintenance phase. We will begin strength training again once curling is complete.
So, on Fridays we have moved to a more general workout style that is sometimes whole body and sometimes just a couple of specific areas. The workouts haven't been any easier because we are in maintenance, but they have been more imaginative. Somehow, I still surprise Karissa with what I can do. I must say that my balance has improved immensely.
Also, during this time, I have been quite ill. I ended up seeing a specialist as I really couldn't eat. I had to change my eating habits completely. For the most part, I cut out foods that made me too full. I stopped eating bread and pasta. I stopped eating anything that might be too spicy (which meant tacos and chili - two of my favourites). I stopped drinking alcohol entirely. True, I hadn't had anything since July anyway, but I continued this. I stopped eating out entirely and really watched what I ate at home.
The funny thing was, I began to eat properly. I always ate healthy, but now I started to eat properly. I actually ate more in the long run than I normally did before. For example, prior to becoming ill, I would have an Nestle Breakfast Anytime to start my day. At noon I would eat lunch (cottage cheese, sandwich, sugar snap peas, a small rice pudding cup, an apple, and a rice crispy square), then at around 6 pm I would eat dinner (normal dinner - protein, starch, veg). That would be it for the day. After I became ill, my eating changed. Breakfast was still a Nestle Breakfast Anytime, 10 am for a snack (All Bran Bar usually), noon for lunch (cottage cheese, sugar snap peas, rice pudding cup), 2:30 pm snack (apple and rice crispy square), 6 pm dinner (protein, vegetable, starch), 9 pm snack (usually ice cream). So, you will notice I actually ate more.
The end result of all of this increased eating - a loss of 31 pounds. When I stepped on the scale on Monday it read 212 lbs. I am not sure I have weighed this much since high school. It's amazing. For a while, I was losing anywhere from 3 to 4 pounds per week. And I feel great.
My illness hasn't completely left yet and I am still on medication so still no alcohol, but I have been able to add some breads and pastas into my diet. I have also been able to bring in some spice too. All in all, the illness worked out for me. Hard to believe.
So, now that you are up to date on that, I will be keeping you up to date on my workouts. This week, I started with 65 minutes on the elliptical machine with an average heart rate of 149 (including warm up and cool down). My target heart rate is 154 so I was quite happy as I sustained that for 55 minutes.
Friday, I return to Karissa for my next workout. She has already warned me that we are working on abs a lot for the next while to help tighten the areas where I have lost the weight.
It looks like 204 is right within reach, but I may end up passing it as I am starting to like the way that I look - for the first time in a long time.
See you Friday!
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