The Abs Diet

It's a very good book for learning what to look for and watch out for on nutrition labels, learning how to space out your meals to optimize their benefit to you, and developing a well rounded basic workout routine. The only downfall I found is preference for chemicals in place of natural fats, for example I don't eat margarine or low fat mayonaise as sugested, and I buy 1 or 2 percent yogurt, milk, and cottage cheese and regular mayonaise because small amounts of the natural fats are a necessary part of healthy eating.

I read the Abs Diet in 2007 and learned a lot, in fact it's one of the things that helped keep me at my prepregnancy 155 lbs, unfortunately I've been maintaining my healthy weight so long I don't know how to loose weight. The change of lifestyle that came with having a newborn has me at 177 lbs that's overweight and unhealthy.

My plan is to read the abs diet again, in the back of my mind I sort of thought I'm still incorporating the ideas from the book into my life, but if I'm honest with myself I know it's not true, my diet and lifestyle needs an examination and redirection. I don't think ten oreo cookies, or ten christmas goodies, or fifteen chocolates throughout my day on a regular basis where a part of the plan.

So, to some extent I followed the eating plan today. Exept for the Trix I had for breakfast... but that's not super bad cause I didn't eat a lot and I've been eating good portions at the right times the rest of the day. I need to do food shopping again soon so I'll be getting all kinds of good supplies for healthy eating on this plan.

Still no progress

Yes, I'm still thinking about being healthy...
thinking has to make it's way into doing yet though

I got pants as a christmas gift, it was a little depressing cause they where a little tight at size 13, while I used to fit between 11 and 12 comfortable. Breastfeeding does require a bit of extra fat so that the hormones can circulate properly and I know I'm required to eat a lot so that my body is being taken care of and producing milk (they sure don't put dairy cows on low calorie diets and for good reason) but that doesn't mean chocolate and ice cream...

I need to eat healthier and get more activity into the day. I realize that I'm not suposed to be training for a marathon or anything at this point but I was out of breath after two rounds of DDR that's ridiculous.

My hopes:
Get the house clean
Declutter my house and my goals. My goals are top heavy in comparison to the time and mental energy I spend on them. I need to stream line them so that I can actually get some of them done.
Work out a daily routine for keeping the house clean
Make excercise a part of that daily routine
Cook low sodium and low fat foods, keep away from processed foods, eat more vegitables

How am I going to do this:
Invite mel over tomorrow to help with house cleaning
Wake up and eat breakfast then do a bigest loser workout
Sit down with my household coach binder and organise it, make a section for thoughts and daily evaluations
Write about my goals and select what I'm going to be working on for the next month

Being Healthy an overview

I am finally seeing that health begins with a simple statement, that is not just said, but felt and believed. That statement is some like, "I want to take care of myself." or "I want to honor myself." It takes effort and patience to really slow down enough in life to pay attention to our dietary habits. Yet to really regain your health, you need to carefully listen to the signals your body is telling you about how much foods to eat, and what types of foods to eat.

"The best way to find out about your unconscious apart from dream analysis is by doing what I call the Daily Review. With its help you can find out your true reactions to certain events; you begin to pull off masks and stop pretenses. You can find out where your actions go against a spiritual law.

The daily review should be conducted in the following manner:

Let the whole day pass in front of your eyes and in your memory; think of everything that has happened and has given you, in some way, a disharmonious feeling or reaction.

And no matter how wrong the other may have been, the moment you have been negatively touched by it, there must be something wrong within you. Write down in a few words the occasions, your reactions and associations. If you follow this practice through for some time to come, and not just once or twice, but faithfully, you will see after a while a clear pattern emerging.

At first, these disharmonious incidents will appear entirely unconnected and isolated; they will be meaningless for you. Later on you will begin to sense and, in time, clearly understand the pattern. This will help greatly.

Pray for enlightenment and guidance every time you conduct the daily review. Then ideas will flow into you and will eventually furnish you with further clues, though at first they may not make sense to you. Do not discard any of the ideas; do not resist them. Later on, all of them will form a clear picture. As with a puzzle, when you look at the pieces, you cannot see the picture, but if you patiently put them together, you will succeed."

Day 10 totally broken dieting

Dang. I don't use words like that, I don't even think words like that, I'm a hypercleanmouth/head. I used to feel hot and attractive, eleven months ago. I feel like crap today D= no the diet is not going well nor the excercising. I can't be completely negative though, at almost three months old, the little girl has finally learned how to breastfeed like a champ so, yeah, a beautiful ray of sunshine to brighten my dark day.

I had the flu for the past two days and today woke up with a bladder infection and heat rash ouch it's not fun stuff at all.

My husband has been doing stuff for christmas with his work that I'm not able to come to because of caring for baby so on top of barely seeing him between taekwondo (five days a week) I also haven't seen him all weekend, I used to love doing that stuff with him.

I've been staying at the place where I work the last two days to visit because my house is lonely and since I'm not doing their food shopping anymore they only had tinned soup and peanut butter and jam sandwiches so on top of everything I feel terrible from what I've been eating.

He came to where I work to visit and he disrespects me in front of the youth I work with constantly, "can you get me a cookie I'm feeding the baby" "get your own damn cookie" and didn't want to go home though I was tired of being there especially since one of the girls has taken a particularly bad attitude toward everything and isn't ever happy, I was completely sick of her negative combacks to anything said. So I left and I'm home alone with baby though I do hate being lonely I hate negative attitudes and disrespect more.

This evening I expereinced that frightened feeling that scares me to the marrow of my bones, that I won't be able to take care of her, that I won't be able to handle it and will just break and give up, hand her over to someone and say please I can't take it anymore just formula feed her and leave me alone. But I want so badly to be a good mother and I love her dearly, which is why those thoughts scare me so badly. I couldn't imagine her confused little face wondering why I wasn't there she relies on me completely. I can't even leave her with aunty or grandma with expressed milk to go shopping anymore lately, she won't take her bottle and cries for me almost inconsolably.

I just feel crappy inside and out today. Physically, relationally, emotionally, even spiritually just crappy. My overall health just isn't well.

My "dark day" is pretty pathetic when compared to what other people are going through around the world, I just had to write it out to get my head on straight again and put things into perspective I'm already feeling a bit better about things, thank you blog. And I don't care if I've not done my best these last ten days I'm not a quiter it seems determination is ingrained in my nervous system.

I will beat this and get back on track. I will feel hot and good looking again, I will be in control of my body again to subject it to my dieting, excercise and other wills. I will take my measurements today. Because 20 days from now I'm going to be taking more progress pictures ready or not and there dang (oh oh bad word again) well better be some progress! because there is dang well going to be some effort put it to get them results.

Day 4

Didn't excercise today, unless you count being tired and out of breath from five minutes of pushing a van out of the snow, so I did get a bit of physical activity today at least I wasn't just sitting around.

Eating went okay but not great I had three cookies some jello and two pieces of cinnamon raising toast, other than that I ate good food but once again, good food on top of the bad, perhaps going from bad food to good food is going to be a gradual transition?

Day 3

I gotta say eating today was great! Compared to the last two days anyway. I ate only good stuff

One thing I have to work on is my eating scedual, part of this whole plan is to eat at regular intervals, that is a small meal or snack every 2-3 hours until three hours before bed. Today I did have three cups of hot chocolate, but I resisted a seven up float and I am so happy I did. I want to comit 90 days to eating the kinds of food and getting moderate excersise that'll give me energy and confidence. I feel so crapy when I eat food and sit around all the time.

Alright, off I go to do my excersise if my little girl will stay asleep long enough.

Excercise:
Jillian Michaels - The Biggest Winner Shape-up backside

Food:
A smoothie in the morning
Brown rice, pulled pork, and veggies
About a cup of pasta in the evening
With yogurt and trail mix for snacks in between

Day 2

So yesterday I had access to good food finally, but ate bad food on top of the good so not that great of a start to my 90 days of healthy eating. I anticipate todays going to be a hard one too. It's Becks birthday and we're having a tea party and watching Jane Austin videos. There's going to be cheescake and other dainties oh nooos.

I'd like to say, since it's a birthday I should make an exception, but my family is so big that there's a birthday every month if not some other party, like Christmas... so that's not going to work, I'll just have to have very small portion sizes and limit how much of it I eat and be sure not to miss my workout today.

I know! I'll make sure to stay filled up on water and eat a good portion of the healthy food available, like tuna and egg salad sandwiches, so I don't have any hunger leading me to eat the bad stuff. Yeah, let's see how that goes.

How did the party go? Well I resisted a cookie before the party, then during the party I feel I was moderate in my intake for the most part though I didn't take just a sliver of cake as I'm suposed to, I took two whole pieces and that's cheesecake we're talking about here. At the end I considered taking one last sugar cookie but resisted, yay me. I also had four cups of coffee with flavoured creamer (I can't resist that stuff it's amazing) and a small glass of wine.

Day 1 Photos

Finally getting back on track

For a while we where so tight on funds that I couldn't afford all the healthy foods I would usually love to be able to buy like fruit and veggies, We where mostly living off the good mercy of parents, going over for meals etc.

Now today I've eaten very well and did an excercise routine to boot.

Excercise: Jillian Michaels - The Biggest winner kickboxing and tomorrow I hope to do another one in that same series.

Food:
Mixed Berry Smoothie
Sole and Veggie Rice
Vector cereal
Yogurt
Pear
Chicken, Crab and veggie stir fry on whole grain noodles
... ok, I had a mars bar =P

After the mars bar I really got track. My husband and I went out to my parents and I had six cookies, a bowl of ice cream, glass of wine and cup of coffee with flavoured creamer.

April 12th

Today I hit most of my needed nutrients, but also had a lot of empty calories, what's new right?

Fruit and Veggies:
1 orange
1 peach
1 mango

Dairy:
2 cups fat free soy milk
2 cups 1% milk

Grains:
1 slice rye bread
1 cup granola
1 cup minute rice
1/4 cup bran

Meat:
1 slice ham
3 eggs
1/2 scoop protein powder
1 piece fried chicken
1/8 cup ground beef'
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1/2 cup sugared peanuts

Drinks:
Large 7-eleven pumpkin latte
4 cups water

Snacks:
1 mars bar
1 7-eleven toquito

So what kind of essential nutrients did I get today?
Protein: 4, should have 3
Calcium: 4, should have 4
Vitamin C: 4, should have 3
Green Leafy and yellow: 2, should have 3-4
other fruits and veggies: 1, should have 1-2
Grains and Legumes: 3 1/2, should have 6 or more

Comments:
Ways this menu worked out well: I had a good variety from each of my goal categories, adding protein powder and bran helped bump me up in those categories
Ways this menu would work out better: It's easy to see what could have been better here cut out the drink and treats... easier said than done.

First Really bad day - April 10th

the 10th was not a very healthy day for me.... I did eat nutritious food, but to much bad food on the side. And I enjoyed it, so nya =P

I had a DQ waffle bowl and flame thrower burger in the afternoon, then a Large Tim Hortons mocha in the evening on the 11th.

Second Day - April 8th

I did far better than yesturday with managing how much I ate. I'm quit proud of myself =)

Fruit and Veggies:
1 cup steamed broccoli
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup onion
1/2 cup romain lettuce
1/2 tomato
1 apple
1 cup cranberry juice

Dairy:
1 glass soy milk
1/4 cup cream cheese
1/4 cup cheese
1/4 cup yogurt
1/4 cup fat free sour cream

Grain:
English muffin
2 wraps
1 cup refried beans

Meat:
1 slice bacon
2 eggs
1/2 cup lean ground beef

Drinks:
1 1/2 cup mocha
2 cup iced tea
5 cups water

Treats:
1/2 cinnamon roll
4 chocolate eggs

So what kind of essential nutrients did I get today:
Protein: 2 1/4, should have 3
Calcium: 2 1/8, should have 4

Vitamin C: 3, should have 3

Green Leafy and Yellow: 4 1/4, should have 3-4

other fruits and veggies: 1 1/2, should have 1-2

Grains and Legumes: 4, should have 6 or more

Comments:

Ways this menu worked out well: I didn't eat more than what my calory intake needs even with having treats in the morning and evening (that cheesecake, and cinnamone bun I mean), I think not taking seconds and trying compensate for the lack of nutrition in the snacks helped with that

Ways this menu would work out better: It was thursday, which is the day I get together with friends in the morning and evening... what is getting together with friends without good foods right? So I sacrificed some nutrition for tasty treats today. As you can see I'm under my needed intake for a couple categories.

Nom Nom, check out that delicous foods

Wonderful nutrients headed to the baby development factory.

First day Analasys - April 7th

This healthy eating thing is hard. =( I just want to eat lots and lots of these delicious foods, I know it's good food, just not in such high quantities. Also I've recently started feeling movement just last week! I've got a pretty active little one in there, just like mom right little guy.

Fruit and Veggies:
1 grapefruit
1 kiwi
1/2 cup cooked red pepper
1/2 cup cooked green pepper
3/4 cup onion
1/4 cup carrot
1/2 cup cooked spinach
1/2 cup cooked cabbage
1/4 cup cooked celery
1 cup cranberry juice.

Dairy:
3/4 cup yogurt
1 cup grated cheese
1 cup soy milk

Grain:
3 wraps
1 1/2 cups rice

Meat:
1/2 cup sirloin steak
1/2 cup pork

Drinks:
1 1/2 cup mocha
5 cups water

Treats:
2 cookies

So what kind of essential nutrients did I get today:

Protein: 4 1/4, should have 3

Calcium: 5 3/4, should have 4

Vitamin C: 9, should have 3

Green Leafy and Yellow: 2 1/2, should have 3-4

other fruits and veggies: 4, should have 1-2

Grains and Legumes: 4 1/2, should have 6 or more

Comments:

Way to much food in general, went far above necesary servings of some things and a little under others. Need to try work out more of a balance.

Ways this menu worked out well: I managed to take in the necessary amounts of most of the 6 categories.

Ways this menu would work out better: cut out the seconds, I had two Steak Fajitas and two servings of Pork Chow Mein. I think I'm just a little enthusiastic about getting these vitamins in me and am sacrificing the needed balance of calory intake. Every bite counts, I need less quantity and more quality.

Also, if I want cookies and a mocha, I can't just add them on top of everything, I'd have to sacrifice other foods in order not to go over my necessary calorie intake which would make me take in less vitamins.