Ideas

So I've got a mate who's dieting like crazy with his girlie. Unfortunately, she's more into the idea than the reality of dieting. So I've given him some tips, and I thought it would be nice to have them up here too.

If you have any to add, please do so. I have 3 weeks left of the challenge and fresh ideas will keep me going.

Snack ideas - low fat/low carb
Vegetables (celery/capsicum/cucumber/cherry tomatoes) with ricotta. Or tzatziki. Or any other low carb, low fat dip. This one is also quite nice with ricotta mixed with a little pepper, and a slice of deli meat (turkey, ham, pastrami). Ok, maybe 2 slices of pastrami. Its kinda small.

Ricotta can be mixed with;
mashed egg and cracked pepper
peanut butter
fish/ham/chicken paste.
I'd recommend mostly ricotta with a little of the other stuff just to give it some flavour. Definitely more ricotta than egg. Otherwise it gets a gluggy texture.

You can also bake ricotta. Mix with a little bit of honey and sultanas (this version is not low carb). Or frozen berries. Or cinnamon. Bran with small chunks of banana (again, this one not low carb). Milo. I mix mine with flavoured protein powders and just chuck it in the oven for about half an hour, until the top is golden. Of course, that's hard to tell with the amount of cinnamon I put on it, but even if its undercooked, the middle is still gooey goodness.

Low carb nuts. Just a handful. I don't know about you, but I can't ration them, so I don't have them. Same goes for avocado.

Mushrooms are nice if you can stomach them raw. Serve with a small amount of low fat cheese, 2-3 cherry tomatoes, a few olives and pickled onions.

Low kj cordial or flavoured tea can fill the gaps between snacks/meals.

Chewing gum and sugar free lollies are also good for keeping your mouth busy. But in moderation. They DO have a laxative effect and contain kj, with no nutritional value.

An egg. Seriously. Just an egg.

A low carb protein bar. Just make sure its less than 4g carbs per bar.

Low fat
Yoghurt. I recommend Nestle diet. Seriously, cannot sing its praises enough. No fat, no added sugar. Great, creamy texture and fruity taste. Yoplait 'for me' is also quite good (their apple pie flavour is delish!), but its a smaller serve (150g vs 200g), not quite so creamy, and has a bit of a fake sweetner aftertaste.

Berries. On their own if you want. Or with a small amount of yoghurt. And a sprinkle of oats on top.

If you're a total gym junkie (like me atm) and are into your flavoured protein shakes you can mix a half serve into yoghurt. Its kinda like cake batter and seriosuly nom tastic.

Vita weats are also quite good to snack on. You can put a little low fat cheese on it. Or cheese/tomato/pickled onion. Tomoato/cucumber/mayo. Or slice a pre boiled egg and top with a little dijonnaise. Or just eat them plain.

Fruit - pears, apples etc. I've heard that apples are quite good with a little bit of peanut butter. Or cinnamon (shake on cinnamon, bite. Shake on cinnamon, bite). No banana. Too high in sugar.

Weight watchers fruit snack cups.

2 square of DARK chocolate if you need the sugar hit. I find dark chocolate is more satisfying than milk, and less likely to have you running back to the cupboard for more in 20 minutes. Also, plain biscuits, like milk coffee or arrowroot. Just one serve. 3-4 biscuits.

Meal ideas
Ricotta mixed with lean bacon, fresh herbs and pepper. Sliced mushrooms on top of that. And mixed egg on top of that again.

Chilli mince. With vegetables (capsicum, onion, mushroom). For added kick I put in eggplant basted in peri peri sauce. Muchly hot little bits in my chilli. With beans if you're not going low carb. Seved on lettuce with tzatziki and low fat cheese on top.

Casseroles. On stock or tomato bases. Lots of veges.

Cacciatore - tomato, vege stock, browned chicken, onion, potato (cauli for a low carb option), fresh herbs. Braise. Serve with brown rice.

Home made soups. I particularly like chicken and sweet corn, made with (skinless) BBQ chook.

Lean meats. Marinated. Served with steamed veg (kinda obvious, I know). OR grilled meat with steamed snow peas, cauli, broccoli, beans AND grilled tomato, mushroom, eggplant, onion and zucchini. I call this one my 'fake roast'.

Tuna and salad. With a huge mix of veges (anything you can stomach raw), a small amount of cheese, a few olives (hey, its gotta be interesting), bean sprouts and alfalfa. Dressed with plain balsamic vinegar and cracked pepper.

Stir fry's. 'Nuff said.

Chicken skewers with vegetables. Served on brown rice.

Home made pizza on a wholemeal pita bread.

Sooo

I'm on the downhill run. Almost there. I'm so close to the end of this, that I can practically smell it. This week I cut carbs. Seriously CUT CARBS. I mean, I'm literally having oats (sans milk) in the morning, celery & ricotta, protein bars, and baked ricotta for snacks, and tuna & salad for lunch, and meat & veg/salad for dinner. I can't have yoghurt or vita weats because they're too high in carbs.

Needless to say, this has been a bit of an adjustment. I've had to add cheese or olives or half an egg into salads. The day I had my last tub of yoghurt, one of my workmates was chattering to me about unimportant stuff. I was almost finished the tub and just wishing she'd shut up so I could savour the moment. In the end I looked up at her and told her that I do love her, but this was my last tub of yoghurt. She grinned and let me savour the goodness of the black cherry. It was then that I realised Pinks 'please don't leave me' was playing in the background. I thought it highly appropriate.

I also make up about 4 days worth of salad, prepackaged in tubs, in advance. I mix egg, penut butter or fish paste into the ricotta to make it less 'cardboard diary'. And protein too. When I bake it. With cinnamon on top. I'm very excited about trying banana ricotta with cinnamon tonight. Yummo! And I have 30g servings of turkey and pastrami frozen, for if I ever serve with plain ricotta.

I have had slip ups. Transitioning to veges and ricotta snacks was hard. Its about half celery, and the other half is cucumber, capsicum and two or 3 cherry tomatoes. The first day I went straight to the work fridge and had a protein bar afterwards. Fail.

And I've started keeping only a few protein bars at home. In the freezer to prevent excess snacking on them. They're bastards cuz they're extra chewy. So when they're frozen they're nigh impossible to eat. The rest of my protein bars are at work. In the fridge there. I have them as an afternoon snack, so I don't really need them at home.

I have resorted (once) to eating penut butter straight out of the jar. The penut butter now lives in the freezer, keeping my protein bars company. I'll pull it out when I need to make more ricotta mix.

Aaand, lastly. I have given up calorie counting. I know enough to be able to keep track of what's allowable, and what isn't. I just need to keep my carbs as low as possible. So I've stopped sending myself around the bend, trying to keep the calories low. Most of my intake is protein anyway, which I should be having.

Todays weight: 74.1. Up a little, but I'm still happy with it.

Wow. Again.

These are my results so far for the challenge. I think they speak for themselves.

Total weight lost: 8.5kg.
Total cm lost:23
Total muscle gain: 2.4kg*
Total fat loss: 10.9
Body fat %: From 31.65% to 17.4%. That's a difference of 14.25%.
Resting Heart Rate: From 60BPM to 41BPM

*After initial loss in the first 4 weeks, I've gained almost 5kg of muscle in the second.

Happy

So I lost my gym mojo. I went in on Sunday to do a quick set of cardio and a basic set of weights. I had places to be and family to catch up with. And I had to be there relatively early. When I left I was tired, and cranky. I hurt. And I was sick of the fact that the gym takes up ALL of my time. I mean, its not like I have the greatest social life, or guys lining up to date me, but I'd like to have the option of it at least.

*sigh*

I had no drive, no desire to go on Monday. I reaaallllyyy had to drag myself there. Most of the time, when I do, I perk up once I start exercising. Not Monday. No Sir-ee. I was in full blown PMS meltdown and all my body wanted was carbs and chocolate. I wanted chips and donuts. Despite the fact that the last time I had donuts was about a year ago. And as for chips - one packet before the challenge started. And I don't remember the time before. Yep. Full blown hormonal rebellion.

I did, as an aside, discover how to fake cake batter. If you mix Nestle Diet (cuz I fucking love it in all its creamy, no fat, low carb dietary orgasmness) with a bit of chocolate protein powder, you get the correct texture. That thick, gooey chocolatey mess. Yum. It has a very similar flavour. With the exception that it has a bit of a yogurt after-tang. But still, when you can't have, that's about as close as you're gonna get.

I took Tuesday off. I was feeling ever so slightly more motivated, but I decided that I needed a break. So I took it. Stayed in and did... nothing. Watched Buffy. That's it. I didn't cook. I reheated some Thai chicken/prawn soup. I didn't clean. I just.did.nothing. And it was great.

Today was much better. Had a coffee pre gym to make sure I was perked up. But I didn't need it. I was on fire. Running a bit faster than my norm. I hit my 3K mark about a minute earlier. Did legs with Simon. He told me we're gonna get me spray tanned for the last photos. And that we're going to revamp my diet as of next week. I told him the scales were going up. And he said 'Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. Halfway through the challenge, if all is going well, you'll be putting on weight.' Gee. Thanks Simon. A little late with the info, but still much appreciated. Got complimented by one of the trainers during my session. Hit the cross trainer post session. Had some random woman appraoch me to tell me that she's been watching me for ages, and that I'm doing really, really well. Which put a hell of a smile on my face. Then the next thing I know, its 8pm and I'm leaving the gym. Absolutely on top of the world.

I'm glad I have my gym mojo back. Life is just better at the gym.

Week 7

So. Its the end of week 7 of the challenge. I'm still working hard. Not that anyone is really that surprised, hey?

Not much to tell this week. I did get a lovely compliment from one of the (gay) guys at work. In writing. Denovos is the cafe name.



Today we had a BBQ for the challenge. It was quite fun. We played games and ran around like fools for an hour, then ate some really taaasty steak and salad.

There was a circuit of sandbags that we had to do various things to. One of which was a shoulder press, doing a squat and lifting the bag over our head to the other shoulder. Squat and repeat. I told one of the girls in the challenge that I could see it breaking over my head, and getting covered in sand. She said she could see it happening to me. Sure enough, when she was in front of me, she put the bag down, turned to me and said, 'that thing has got a leak in it'. I'm just grateful its the day I wash my hair :$

After the BBQ we headed back to the gym and I clocked up 30 minutes running on the treadmill. I didn't really feel that I'd done a strenuous enough work out.

Todays weight - 74.8

Inspiration

If my Dad can come back from the brink of death, with brain damage, and only have a bloody limp, then I sure as fuck can keep pedalling when my legs want to fall off, and push that weight one more time, and give up chocolate. Hackworthy's are bloody hard to kill and we don't quit.

I will be proof of that.

Todays weight 75.4.

Week 6

So we're into week 6 of the challenge. Not quite at the end. Halfway mark is on Saturday.

So, to recap, started at 82.3. Last 'official' weigh in was 76.5. So in 5 weeks that's a loss of 5.8kg. Not too bad. I've clocked up 3 losses of around 2 kg, and stayed flat for 2 weeks. Those weeks being the conference, and the week before my last weigh in.

Which is not really my bad. Honestly. I went home to visit Dad and was working my butt off. I had tuna and vita weats at Maccas on every stop along the way. Not that I stopped a whole lot. And I went running/walking every day. I made my own chicken salads. Which was kinda hard in the face of the feast that Mum served the last night. Lasagne. Potatoes. Salad. Wine. And a fucking gorgeous cheese and tomato twist from bakers delight. Stupid me went and picked my favourite bread for dinner. I swear I can eat half of one of those all by myself. Annny way. I made myself a lovely chicken salad. And I really did enjoy it.

My downfall was the chocolate. Damn the chocolate. Earlier that day Mum and I had been to factory sales and they had Enerst Hillier choc coated fruit and nuts for $2/500g. I bought 2 packs and Mum bought 1. Mum opened up her pack and I was picking at it. Rather than take a few here and there I'd have a small handfull, walk away, and come back 20-30 min later for another one.

Weigh in was the next day, in the PM. I was dehydrated and had just been in the car for about 8 hours. So not really sure how that afected the weigh in.

Work outs have been good. I'm taking a much needed day off the gym. Did an epic session on Sunday (2.5hr) and have been killing myself at the gym ever since. Getting less painful each session. Had legs with Simon last night. So now my butt is extra sore. I guess I'm gonna have to get used to this. *sigh* But its worth it in the long run. I did sumo squats last night. I half half of my body weight on my shoulders. Just cuz I could. And then Belgian Split lunges. With 30 kg weights. I'm surprised I can even stand to sit.

I've also started doing protein shakes as I leave the gym. I have 2 proteins. One is good. Tastes like a coffee milkshake without milk. The other is not so good. Tastes like talcum powder in water with a vague chocolate flavour. I've also started having L-carnitine to assist recovery. 1 gram split pre and post workout. Strangely, its since I've started doing this that I feel sorer. Mayhap I'm just working harder.

Diet is going well. I am cutting back on carbs where I can. www.calorieking.com.au is a fantastic resource. Gives me a complete calorie breakdown of what I've eaten. I'm switching away from my museli in the morning, to rolled oats, protein and berries and cinnamon. Gotta give the cardboard some flavour.

AND I've changed around my snacks slightly. I used to eat an apple as I left work, and then some vita weats when I got home, pre gym. Now I eat the apple as I get off the train and head straight to the gym. Bonus! Means I get there earlier and I can save myself some time at night. Me likey.
One other diet change - my last snack of the day is a boiled egg. My diet is too low in fat, so having a little bit, with no carb, at the end of the day is the smartest choice for me. Much better than low calorie fruit yoghurt.