Sticking to the Plan

On May 6, all of a sudden I found that I was 2 kg heavier than what I weighed in on May 1st. Ok. I knew that my food wasn't as good as it should have been while my dad was here, but I thought that as soon as I cleaned up my act the number would start going down.

On May 7th, I was 1/2 kg. down.
May 8th same weight.
May 9th same weight.

I don't remember the last time I weighed exactly the same 3 days in a row. It felt strange.

I started to panic.

I started to think of all those excuses that I know do have some influence but are not explanations to fall back on (e.g muscle gain, stress, lack of sleep - yes I know they all are related, but to me it's about looking at the basics - how is my exercise going and what am I eating).

Keeping this photo journal of my food has been good for me. I know I've been writing things down, but this added bit of vigilance has been good. I know I've been eating well. I know I've been exercising well.

My gut reaction was to make some sort of drastic change or look for a firm explanation of why I was stuck.

Again. Panic. Am I at a plateau? What can I do to get out of this rut?

That's when I had to mentally slap myself and say -- Just stick to the plan. 

I think my plan is good. My food is good. My workouts are good. I just need to focus on being patient and sticking this out before thinking about what else to do. Three days at the same weight is not a crisis. While I do realize that to see changes you have to make changes, I also think that once you have a plan, you need to stick to it for a while and really give it 100% before trying to find an alternative plan.

So right now I'm just sticking to the plan. Eat Clean. Train Dirty.

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Aside from my panic this morning, I had a relatively good day. I had a great weights workout.
My students took their final exam. I really hope they did well. I won't find out their results until Sunday (it's marked by the computer - at least there's nothing to grade!)

Then in the evening I went to my first Kajukenbo class. Kajukenbo is a mixed martial art that combines karate, judo, jiujitsu, kenpo, and boxing. It was just me an the instructor today which was good for my first class. It should be interesting. Although I'm not interested in earning belts, and I'm really not too excited about having to wear a gi, I hope that I'll be able to stick to this and not have to move around looking for some sort of MMA training. It's really been an annoying and frustrating struggle finding a place to train in this area!

Me in my new Kajukenbo t-shirt

My food for the day didn't look particularly appealing & I'm not very happy with my lunch choice. Here's what it all came down to.

Breakfast #1: Pre-workout - I ran out of bananas so I only had a date and some peanut butter (yes, I know, not a very pretty picture)

Breakfast #2: Post-workout - My usual 3 omelet muffins + 1/2 avocado

Lunch: I was absolutely famished when I got home. I hadn't eaten for 5 hours and I was feeling really cranky. There was nothing prepared at home, so I reached into the freezer and pulled out these 3 fish fingers. I peeled most of the breading off, but 

Dinner: Tuna fish salad (tuna, lettuce, tomatoes, yellow bell pepper, 1/2 roasted sweet potato, sprinkling of walnuts, and a balsamic vinegar + olive oil mix for dressing) This was by far my favorite meal of the day. It was so delicious and tasty. I normally would not have had the sweet potato, but I wanted something warm and it really gave the salad an extra yummy factor. 

Snacks: After my 2nd breakfast, I had some grapes. I didn't take a picture of them, so here's the old one. However, I had something more like 20-25 grapes, not just 10. 

After dinner I had 3 strawberries. 

Today:
- Workouts:

• Weights at the gym (1.5 hours) - only 5 minutes of skipping as my warm-up
• Kajukenbo at KOK (45 minutes)
• Burpees: 10 {total: 3,620/20,130}
• Squats Day 5: 70

- Food:

• Breakfast: date & peanut butter; 3 egg omelets plus 1/2 avocado
• Lunch: 3 fish fingers
• Dinner: tuna salad
• Snacks: grapes & strawberries

- Other: While my students were working on their final exam I managed to finish some reading and one of my quizzes in my Personal Trainer certification course

Making Progress

I'll start with the two main highlights of my day --

First of all, our warm-up at CrossFit was either 150 regular jump rope skips or 100 double-unders. I felt like I needed to get warmed-up with my skipping before starting the double-unders so I went ahead and did the 150 skips (I'm definitely improving) ... and then slowly but surely I worked up to 100 double-unders!! The maximum number of unbroken double-unders I could do was 8, but nonetheless, I'm so proud of myself for actually completing 100 in a session. I just gotta keep working at it!

The second highlight of my day was buying UFC tickets for UFC 162 in Las Vegas for this summer!!

I'm so excited!! :)


I spent some time trying to figure out my routine for the upcoming few weeks. I've got a lot of stuff going on (as usual). I'm going to try to take advantage of my time in Kuwait during my summer vacation to really workout hard. When I first did my schedule I calculated that I was working out for almost 5 hours a day ... that didn't seem reasonable or sustainable, so I've had to modify the plan a little.

Wednesdays are going to be my easy days. I'll use the mornings to get stuff done around the house, catch up on blogging, and maybe do some of my Personal Training studies. Then I'll head to Body Balance class and get a good stretch in. It's been 2 weeks since I did a balance or yoga class so it felt good to get back into the studio.

A shadowed snapshot of me in class today (before class started) 

Since I stayed home, my eating was a bit off in terms of timing. I only had my date and peanut butter in the morning, along with a cup of green tea, before heading to the gym. I had my banana before I went to CrossFit in the afternoon.

Breakfast/Pre-CrossFit snack - broken up through the day

After getting home at around noon, I was starving. I had a bigger lunch than usual - but still leftovers from yesterday - the last bit of fish soup (though a much larger serving because I wanted to finish it) plus the last bit of vegetables from Monday night's veggie mix.

Lunch: Fish soup and a Side of Vegetables

I had my banana and another cup of green tea just before heading to CrossFit.

Our CrossFit WOD sounded simple enough (they always do) ... and then you get started and you think, how in the world will I survive? Today's WOD: 15 minutes AMRAP -- 10 deadlifts (50 kg/110 lb), 15 box jumps, 20 burpees. I only managed to complete 4 rounds, and let me tell you, it was exhausting! [The strength portion for the day was push presses - 10, 8, 6, 6, 6 @ 20 kg, 30 kg, 40 kg x 3 ... I tried 45 and 50 but I couldn't complete the reps of 6 -- max I did was 3 reps at 45 ... disappointing!]


After I got home from CrossFit I was starving! My stomach was growling like crazy. I hadn't planned on that and I wasn't sure what to eat. I ended up grabbing 1/2 cup of raw cashews and 1/4 cup of raisins. It finished all too quickly, and it didn't really satisfy my hunger. I may need to work on coming up with a better small protein snack for times like that. It's tricky because dinner time is close, but a light snack just doesn't cut it in terms of taking care of my hunger!

Snack: Mix of cashews and raisins

I've come to realize that once Wednesday comes around, I'm feeling tired and I'm not really in the mood to cook. I need to prepare for this in advance and have stuff ready either from the day before or pull something out of the freezer. Luckily I had frozen a batch of shrimp and vegetables that I had cooked from a previous dinner. I know that frozen is not as good as fresh, but home cooked meals (even after being defrosted) are definitely a better option than order in or other types of packaged frozen dinners. The dinner tasted ok, though by the time I had heated it up, the shrimp were kind of overdone so they were a bit rubbery. The vegetables, however, were yummy.

Dinner: Shrimp with sweet potato, red bell pepper, peas, mushrooms, and some pine nuts

I'm definitely going to have some emergency meals handy so that I can at least have 1 cooking break during the week.

Dessert: 10 grapes

Today:
- Workouts:

• Body Balance at the gym (1 hour)
• CrossFit at CrossFit Q8 (1 hour)
• Burpees: 80 {total: 3,610/20,130}
• Squats Day 4: Rest

- Food:

• Breakfast: date + 1 tablespoon all natural peanut butter, 1 cup of green tea
• Lunch: big bowl of fish soup (2 1/2 cups); mixed vegetables (leftovers) about 1 1/2 cups
• Dinner: shrimp and vegetables
• Snacks: banana, green tea, 10 grapes

- Other: I made some progress on bookings for this summer. Still lots to book and schedules to coordinate!

Squats + Step-Ups = Soreness!

Yesterday's squat total: 340
Today's squat total: 195 (45 with 40-50 kg on my back; 90 with 10 kg dumbbells in each hand)

Plus I did step-ups today - 45 for each leg with weights in my hand (8 kg/hand)

Doin' my step-ups this morning & trying out my new Nike Free shoes - not bad! 

Today's Result: holy soreness!!

As I approached the stairs heading up to my classroom, I took the first one and thought - hmmm this is going to be painful. I definitely felt my muscles with each and every step, and as the day progressed, the feeling intensified, but I absolutely love that feeling. I'm hoping the results of all these squats will show (i.e. that I'll have a really nicely shaped ass) ;)

So, today was my last teaching day of the semester!! We've still got 10 days of the semester left (exams, admin stuff, etc.) but today was my last day in the classroom. On our first day of the semester I had my students write a letter to their future selves 10 years from now. I had them write about their hopes, fears, dreams, and so on. They did a really good job. Today, as a surprise, I put the letters (along with a letter from me) in envelopes and sealed them with instructions to not open the envelope until Jan. 26, 2013. It was just a small gesture, but it was really well received. Of course they wanted to open them right away. I do hope they'll save them and look back on their time in university with fond memories (plus I hope they don't lose them)! :)

I had a busy day overall. Luckily most of my food was just leftovers from yesterday so I didn't have to spend any time cooking - just reheating.

My breakfasts (pre/post-workout) and my lunch were exactly the same as yesterday. I'm not uploading the pictures here, but if you want a look, you can check out this link to yesterday's blog post.

I got hungry in the afternoon and had a snack of 5 tortilla chips with a dollop of salsa on each. I know that I only had these coz' they were in the house. I'm sure I could have made a healthier snack - but this is what I ate.

Snack: 5 tortilla chips w/a dollop of salsa on each

I wasn't particularly hungry when dinner time rolled around, so I just heated up a bowl of some of the vegetables that we had with dinner yesterday. It was good enough for me.

Dinner: Vegetables from last night (sweet potato, bell peppers, and cauliflower)

Today:
- Workouts:

• Cardio at the gym (treadmill & cross-trainer) (30 minutes)
• Weights at the gym (1 hour)
• Deep stretching + yoga at the gym (missed it in the morning) (20 minutes)
• Squats Day 3: 60

- Food: 

• Breakfast: pre-workout - banana, 1 date, 1 T natural peanut butter; post-workout - 3 omelet muffins & 1/2 avocado
• Lunch: 1.5 cups of fish soup
• Dinner: Mix of vegetables
• Snack: tortilla chips with salsa

- Other: I checked out a potential MMA training place ... I may be starting on Thursday. Stay tuned :)

Getting Back into the Swing of Things

I love Mondays because I do my MMA training on Monday mornings. I can't wait until summer vacation begins and I'll be able to add a few more days of MMA training - including some sparring - in the morning. Today I mainly focused on boxing, so donning my 'Boxing Attitude' t-shirt seemed appropriate ;)

An early meeting at work meant only a 45-minute workout for me this morning. I wish I could have gotten my butt out the door earlier, but it just wasn't happening. Despite doing my morning yoga to center myself and stretch, by the time I left the house, I was frantic :/ Must work on that!

By the time I got home, all I wanted to do was sleep. I did end up taking a 20 minute power nap and then I was up and out the door to head to CrossFit. I took some time off from CrossFit while my dad was in town. Now I really want to get back into it. Nothing beats the HIIT of the WODs. Our strength focus for the day was chest presses off the floor. Six sets (10, 7, 5, 5, 5, 5) I maxed out at 35 kg; I could have tried 40, but I didn't feel confident. Our WOD (workout of the day) was killer. I mean, at first it sounded simple, but by the time I was halfway through, I was drenched in sweat! WOD: 20 minutes AMRAP: 5 pull-ups (I'm not there yet, but I'm getting better), 10 push-ups, and 15 squats. I did 19 rounds, which comes to a total of 95 pull-ups, 190 push-ups (180 on my toes, 10 on my knees); 285 squats!!

I wore my new CrossFit t-shirt today -- I'm in love with this picture. We've got it up in the box, and I have claimed him as my CrossFit boyfriend. When I'm focusing on looking up during my squats, it's his face I see, so I use it to motivate me.

I'm so glad I pushed myself to go to CrossFit. There was a point when I almost didn't go -- I've got to remember that if I don't push myself now, then the changes I want to see are not going to happen.

My food for the day:

Breakfast (pre/post-workout) was my usual trio:

Lunch: Fish and Vegetables in Coconut Broth

I made a batch of fish soup on Saturday night for me to have during the week. I didn't have it yesterday, but I tried it out for the first time today -- not too bad! It needs a bit of tweaking (perhaps more lime), but it was rather flavorful, quite filling, and definitely healthy.

I haven't worked out the calorie count as yet, but I will soon and then post it along with the recipe.

Dinner: Baked Salmon with Veggies

Salmon + Sweet potato, bell peppers, and cauliflower

Snack: nuts after CrossFit/grapes after dinner

1/4 cup raw cashews & a tablespoon of raisins

Post-Dinner Snack/'Dessert' - 10 grapes

Today:
- Workouts:

• Yoga in the morning at home (15 minutes) 
• Cardio-kickboxing at the gym (45 minutes)
• Deep stretching at the gym & at CrossFit Q8, post-workouts (total 15 minutes)
• CrossFit at CrossFit Q8 (1 hour)
• Burpees: 30 {total: 3,530/20,130}
• Squats Day 2: 55

- Food:

• Breakfast: pre-workout - banana, 1 date, 1 T natural peanut butter; post-workout - 3 omelet muffins & 1/2 avocado
• Lunch: 1.5 cups fish soup
• Dinner: baked salmon with vegetables
• Snacks: 1/4 cup of raw cashews and a tablespoon of raisins; 10 grapes

- Other:

My to-do list for May 5-June 5 is complete; now I just have to get to filling in all these blanks! I'm sure other tasks will come along, but this chart will definitely do for now!

Countdown to Summer

The countdowns have begun!!

• 2 teaching days left
• 10 working days left
• 32 days until I travel for summer vacation 

I definitely like the look of those numbers!!


Today started off quite well. I restarted my morning yoga routine, I got my omelet muffins baked for the week, and I had a good list of things to do to follow. For the most part, my day went according to plan, but everything seemed to take a lot longer than expected. A meeting at work that I thought would only last 45 minutes went on for 2 hours! Anyway. The day went well, and although I was still feeling a bit of residual stress/anxiety from the past 2 weeks, I was glad that the week had started and that I had a schedule I could somewhat stick to.

After doing my yoga at home, I headed to the gym and did a cardio warm-up followed by weights (NROL Hypertrophy workout 3A).

Gearing Up to do Seated Incline Dumbbell Chest Presses

My eating schedule was a bit off today as I didn't eat my second breakfast right after my workout. I got busy at work and was munching on probably too many nuts in the meantime :/

I ate my second breakfast for lunch around 1:30 p.m. (during my meeting at work) and then didn't eat dinner until 7:30 p.m.

I had a productive afternoon, working on my Personal Trainer Certification studies. I completed the first 5 quizzes (I had started doing them last week though) and got 100% in all of them :) (Proud to be a nerd!)

The highlight of my day was a long overdue massage. I may make this a weekly/bi-weekly Sunday ritual. Let's see how well I do with getting back on track first!


In trying to keep better track of my food, I'm going to try to also keep a photo diary. It's something that I've seen quite a lot of bloggers start to do so I thought I'd give it a try.

Pre-workout Breakfast

(banana, 1 date covered with coconut flakes - sometimes 2 - 1 tablespoon of peanut butter)

110 calories + 25 calories + 100 = 235

Vitamins/Supplements in the Morning

(3 fish oil tablets, 2 glucosamine/chondroitin tablets, 1 Centrum performance multivitamin, 1 Ecinacea tablet)

My Daily Breakfast during the Week - Omelet Muffins + 1/2 avocado

320 calories (recipe here)

Snack

(mix of raw almonds, walnuts, raisins, and cashews)

My Dinner - 225 Degree Salad 

(the story behind that name will be explained once I post the recipe)

Basically French beans, roasted tomatoes, bell peppers, walnuts, lettuce, and grilled chicken + a whole grain mustard & vinegar dressing

(basic recipe here, but updated, more tasty recipe will be posted later)

Today:
- Workouts:

• Yoga in the morning at home (15 minutes)
• Cardio + weights at the gym (1.5 hours)
• Deep stretching at the gym, post-workout (15 minutes)
• Burpees: 15 {total: 3,500/20,130}
• Squats Day 1: 50

- Food: 

• Breakfast: pre-workout: banana, 1 date, 1 T natural peanut butter
• Lunch: 3 omelet muffins & 1/2 avocado
• Dinner: 225 degree salad with grilled chicken
• Snacks: too many nuts and raisins

- Other: 

• Completed the first 5 quizzes of my personal training certification

13 in 13 Post #5: May Plans

The past ten days involved a lot of stress, a lot of work, a lot of tears and tension ... it has been rough. When I hit my breaking point on Tuesday night I decided to step back a little and just figure out how I was going to make it through the next four days without completely collapsing.

I haven't worked out since Tuesday. Any down time I had since then (which wasn't much) I used to rest/sleep. I made a conscious decision to just try to relax and sleep until Sunday. Dealing with the stress of my dad's hospital visits and of course our continued arguments over food, my brother's paperwork crisis, and everything else was just too, too much.

I really thought that I would be able to handle the stress much better, but I didn't. As I said, there were lots of stress-induced tears this past week ... but now it's over.

So on to more positive things:

• My menu for the week is up on the whiteboard. I've got the basic groceries to get started and I'll do a bigger shop during the week
• I finished my last batch of grading for the semester (and now only 12 days left until summer vacation starts!!)
• My dad has returned home so I've got my house and space back - what a relief
• All the junk food that entered the house while he was here has been put in a bag that I'm going to give to my housekeeper so that there is no temptation around 
• My exercise plan for the week has been written down, and I'm going to do my very best to stick to it

I didn't do a proper review of how I did in April, but you can read my summary of how the month went here.

So now, my specific May goals -- actually, these goals are for May 5 - June 5 (I travel for summer vacation on June 6th)

1) Weight loss: End the month lighter than what I started
2) Exercise: Complete 35 workouts this month
3) Personal Trainer studies: Complete 3 quizzes
4) Cooking: Post my recipes!
5) Academic: Work on my chapter outline
6) Burpees: Continue working towards the ultimate goal of 20,130
7) Squats: Start the 30 squat challenge (I started this in April but then got distracted by other stuff so I'm restarting from May 5)
8) Yoga/Stretching: Do yoga in the morning daily & a minimum of 15 minutes of deep stretching daily + at least 4 yoga/balance/pilates classes this month
9) Food journaling: Food journaling daily - both in writing and in pictures
10) Other: Spring cleaning - get my office sorted & Vacation planning - get all hotels etc. booked!

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I wasn't going to exercise today, but when I saw how behind I was on my burpee count for the year I went ahead and did 100 burpees. They're still tough, but I've found that controlling my breathing in a particular way helps me get through them without feeling like I'm about to completely collapse!

Burpee count to date: 
January - April: 3,385
Today: 100 (total: 3,485/20,130)

Quick April Review

Quick, quick, quick post - review of April

The Good Stuff
1) I completed my Fitness Nutritionist course and did really well on the final exam!
2) I wanted to complete 40 workouts this month & I completed 45!

The Okay Stuff
1) My weight goal was to end each month lighter than the previous one: I did, but I am disappointed with only a 1/2 kg (1 lb) loss for the month
2) My overall eating habits have been good, and I feel much more confident around food. However, I obviously still need to tweak my eating habits because with the amount I'm working out, it just doesn't seem to add up.

The Bad Stuff
1) I've been feeling really stressed out, which is affecting my sleep.
2) I've felt really disorganized and overwhelmed; I need to work on my time management and planning.


That's my basic post April review.

My May goals and plan for the month will be posted this weekend. I just need to survive the next 3 days.