1. push yourself to get up before the rest of the world - start with
7am, then 6am, then 5:30am. go to the nearest hill with a big coat and a
scarf and watch the sun rise.
2. push yourself to fall asleep
earlier - start with 11pm, then 10pm, then 9pm. wake up in the morning
feeling re-energized and comfortable.
3. erase processed food
from your diet. start with no lollies, chips, biscuits, then erase
pasta, rice, cereal, then bread. use the rule that if a child couldn’t
identify what was in it, you don’t eat it.
4. get into the habit
of cooking yourself a beautiful breakfast. fry tomatoes and mushrooms
in real butter and garlic, fry an egg, slice up a fresh avocado and
squirt way too much lemon on it. sit and eat it and do nothing else.
5.
stretch. start by reaching for the sky as hard as you can, then trying
to touch your toes. roll your head. stretch your fingers. stretch
everything.
6. buy a 1L water bottle. start with pushing yourself to drink the whole thing in a day, then try drinking it twice.
7. buy a beautiful diary and a beautiful black pen. write down
everything you do, including dinner dates, appointments, assignments,
coffees, what you need to do that day. no detail is too small.
8. strip your bed of your sheets and empty your underwear draw into the
washing machine. put a massive scoop of scented fabric softener in there
and wash. make your bed in full.
9. organise your room. fold
all your clothes (and bag what you don’t want), clean your mirror, your
laptop, vacuum the floor. light a beautiful candle.
10. have a
luxurious shower with your favourite music playing. wash your hair,
scrub your body, brush your teeth. lather your whole body in
moisturiser, get familiar with the part between your toes, your inner
thighs, the back of your neck.
11. push yourself to go for a
walk. take your headphones, go to the beach and walk. smile at strangers
walking the other way and be surprised how many smile back. bring your
dog and observe the dog’s behaviour. realise you can learn from your
dog.
12. message old friends with personal jokes. reminisce.
suggest a catch up soon, even if you don’t follow through. push yourself
to follow through.
14. think long and hard about what interests
you. crime? sex? boarding school? long-forgotten romance etiquette?
find a book about it and read it. there is a book about literally
everything.
15. become the person you would ideally fall in love
with. let cars merge into your lane when driving. pay double for
parking tickets and leave a second one in the machine. stick your tongue
out at babies. compliment people on their cute clothes. challenge
yourself to not ridicule anyone for a whole day. then two. then a week.
walk with a straight posture. look people in the eye. ask people about
their story. talk to acquaintances so they become friends.
16.
lie in the sunshine. daydream about the life you would lead if failure
wasn’t a thing. open your eyes. take small steps to make it happen for
you.
Monday, August 26, 2013
Monday, August 12, 2013
Friday, March 29, 2013
Hello Stranger
BUT I am happy to report that me not blogging did not mean that I was spending all of my time sitting on the couch and eating fast food. (Ok....so I was doing that some of the time, but not lately!) I am in the middle of my seventh week straight of eating low carb/low calorie/whole foods and working out 5-6 days a week. To be consistent for seven weeks straight is a BIG deal for me because it has been over a year since I could say that. And not only have I been consistent, but I feel like I am on a really good exercise routine. I have been running 5 days a week, doing Body Pump (a pretty intense weight lifting class) twice a week, Zumba once a week, and Yoga once a week (although life has gotten in the way of my yoga class for the last three weeks. Boo!). I feel like for the first time ever, I have a very well-rounded routine. Usually my weight lifting is severely lacking because I've never really known what to do or how to do it and so I usually end up lifting some light dumbbells for about 15 minutes a couple days a week. Now I am doing a full hour of fairly hard core lifting twice a week! And I can DEFINITELY see the results.
I have been trying to weigh myself weekly, but it doesn't always happen. And until today, the last two times I weighed myself I had gone UP. That made no sense to me because I can clearly see in the mirror and in the way my clothes fit that I am losing. And I know what the weight the scale says looks like on me, and I am definitely NOT that weight. So while there is always a part of me that feels the need to weigh myself, I have not been giving it much "weight" (pun intended. ha) because I just know it can't be accurate. Now, I always weigh my dumbbells before I weigh myself to make sure the scale isn't off. So I can't explain why I am getting weird numbers.... I'd love to think it's because I've gained pounds of muscle, but I'm pretty sure it takes WAY longer than that to gain a significant amount of muscle (significant, meaning, it would show up on the scale). And I definitely didn't gain like 2 pounds of muscle in a week! So whatever. The scale can just sit in the bathroom while I start fitting into all of my skinny clothes. :)
Speaking of....I dared to try on my "skinny" jeans that I bought in LA two and a half years ago. Now in case you don't remember, when I was in LA I got down to my skinniest weight ever. So ever since then, my goal has been to get back to my LA weight. Well, according to my scale, I'm quite a ways off from that. BUT according to my "skinny" LA jeans, I am very close!! They fit!! They are a tiny bit tighter at the waistline than I would like, but totally wearable! Just probably wouldn't wear them with a really tight fitting shirt. But...give me a few more weeks! :)
Ok, lastly...I took some photos this morning because I was feeling pretty good about myself. So I figured I'd use this blog as a way to document. First, a comparison:
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| LA - December, 2010 |
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| Austin - March 29, 2013! |
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| LA - December, 2010 |
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| Austin - March 29, 2013! |
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Juice Fast: Day 2
So today didn't go as smoothly as yesterday. I ended up cheating a bit and eating something for dinner. Boo! BUT I'm not going to let that deter me. I got right back on track after that and will continue on.
It's so stupid because I really have not been hungry. My headache ended up getting pretty bad last night, but I woke up feeling fine and didn't ever have a headache or feel weak or tired or anything all day. So why did I cheat? Because I use food for purposes way beyond it's intended use. And I need to figure out a way to solve that.
I feel pretty guilty about cheating, but I am going to keep going, so at least I didn't decide to throw in the towel completely. And if I can continue on for 10 days, I'll still have 8 straight days of fasting. So I think I'll be ok.
Plus, I have gone to the gym two days in a row, which has (sadly) gotten to be a record around here. I ran and did strength training yesterday and then went to a power yoga class today. Power yoga is basically like normal yoga, only a little harder and more fast paced, so it causes you to sweat more. I'm going to wait and see how I feel throughout the fast to decide whether I'll workout throughout. But so far I've been ok. Unfortunately, I seem to have strained something in my neck yesterday at the gym, and I can barely even turn my head from side to side. So I'm not sure if I'll be back in the gym tomorrow. I guess I'll see how I feel in the morning.
Anyway I feel like I kind of an idiot for cheating, but I can only pick up and move forward from here. So I'm going to try not to let it get me down. I'll have better news tomorrow (fingers crossed).
It's so stupid because I really have not been hungry. My headache ended up getting pretty bad last night, but I woke up feeling fine and didn't ever have a headache or feel weak or tired or anything all day. So why did I cheat? Because I use food for purposes way beyond it's intended use. And I need to figure out a way to solve that.
I feel pretty guilty about cheating, but I am going to keep going, so at least I didn't decide to throw in the towel completely. And if I can continue on for 10 days, I'll still have 8 straight days of fasting. So I think I'll be ok.
Plus, I have gone to the gym two days in a row, which has (sadly) gotten to be a record around here. I ran and did strength training yesterday and then went to a power yoga class today. Power yoga is basically like normal yoga, only a little harder and more fast paced, so it causes you to sweat more. I'm going to wait and see how I feel throughout the fast to decide whether I'll workout throughout. But so far I've been ok. Unfortunately, I seem to have strained something in my neck yesterday at the gym, and I can barely even turn my head from side to side. So I'm not sure if I'll be back in the gym tomorrow. I guess I'll see how I feel in the morning.
Anyway I feel like I kind of an idiot for cheating, but I can only pick up and move forward from here. So I'm going to try not to let it get me down. I'll have better news tomorrow (fingers crossed).
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Juice Fast: Day 1
Well if you have been reading my posts on Facebook, you know I am starting a juice fast. The plan is to post here every day of the fast (and hopefully continue on after that), but we all know sometimes life gets in the way of blogging, so I'll do my best!
A little background...up until my move (on May 15th) I was doing pretty well with the healthy eating and exercising. I had some off days or maybe a week here and there, but for the most part, I had stayed very consistent since I started on February 1st (aside from the break from exercise when my leg got hurt before the half marathon). Since the move, however, I have been pretty awful. A change in routine always makes it tough to get back on track, but more than that, I think it's the emotional stuff I am going through that has caused me to completely fall off the wagon. I did join a gym and I've had days here and there in the last month where I've eaten well and exercised, but they have been few and far between.
So I've been searching for something that would get me motivated again. I've been seeing commercials for the documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead," which you can watch for free here. It's a pretty interesting documentary and made me want to try a juice fast.
So today was day 1. I was pretty excited to start just because I really felt the need for a fresh start. And what I was doing hadn't kept me motivated, so I thought something more hardcore might get me into the right mindset. The first day was not too bad. Honestly, the juice completely filled me up. The guy who made the documentary suggests drinking juice 6 times a day, but also says you should let your body guide you and drink when you feel you need it. I only drank three juices and had some herbal tea in between. Now, the fact that I was full did not mean I didn't want to eat! The guy on the movie says for the first few days he didn't watch TV because of the food commercials. It definitely makes it tough! And I made the mistake of watching Gilmore Girls, where they are pretty much eating junk food ALL the time. More than anything, I think I wanted to eat out of boredem. I definitely tend to use food as entertainment and it's been way worse since I moved and have very few people around that I know. This weekend the only people I know are out of town, so not being able to use my old fallback entertainment was really tough. But I stayed strong.
The plan is to do a 10 day fast and see how I feel. If I'm really ready to be done, I'll move on to a day or two of juice as well as eating fruits and vegetables (which is what the website for the documentary suggests), and then transition into what I was doing before the move - lean meats, vegetables, fruits, etc. If after the 10 days, I'm feeling great, then I will probably continue for another 5. We will see.
Anyway, here's a quick photo spread of my day! The link to the website for the fasting information is below. They have tons of juice recipes, and so far they have been pretty good!
I was a little scared of the last juice because it was primarily vegetables and I wasn't sure how it was going to taste. It actually ended up being my favorite of the three! Although the breakfast juice was pretty delicious, too!
If you'd like to take a look at the juice programs and recipes, you can go here.
I am definitely feeling a bit of a headache tonight, and I'm guessing I may feel worse tomorrow. But the first couple of days are supposed to be the worst because your body is detoxing and getting adjusted. So if I can get through this, I should be feeling good soon! So far, it hasn't been too bad. I'll post again tomorrow!
A little background...up until my move (on May 15th) I was doing pretty well with the healthy eating and exercising. I had some off days or maybe a week here and there, but for the most part, I had stayed very consistent since I started on February 1st (aside from the break from exercise when my leg got hurt before the half marathon). Since the move, however, I have been pretty awful. A change in routine always makes it tough to get back on track, but more than that, I think it's the emotional stuff I am going through that has caused me to completely fall off the wagon. I did join a gym and I've had days here and there in the last month where I've eaten well and exercised, but they have been few and far between.
So I've been searching for something that would get me motivated again. I've been seeing commercials for the documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead," which you can watch for free here. It's a pretty interesting documentary and made me want to try a juice fast.
So today was day 1. I was pretty excited to start just because I really felt the need for a fresh start. And what I was doing hadn't kept me motivated, so I thought something more hardcore might get me into the right mindset. The first day was not too bad. Honestly, the juice completely filled me up. The guy who made the documentary suggests drinking juice 6 times a day, but also says you should let your body guide you and drink when you feel you need it. I only drank three juices and had some herbal tea in between. Now, the fact that I was full did not mean I didn't want to eat! The guy on the movie says for the first few days he didn't watch TV because of the food commercials. It definitely makes it tough! And I made the mistake of watching Gilmore Girls, where they are pretty much eating junk food ALL the time. More than anything, I think I wanted to eat out of boredem. I definitely tend to use food as entertainment and it's been way worse since I moved and have very few people around that I know. This weekend the only people I know are out of town, so not being able to use my old fallback entertainment was really tough. But I stayed strong.
The plan is to do a 10 day fast and see how I feel. If I'm really ready to be done, I'll move on to a day or two of juice as well as eating fruits and vegetables (which is what the website for the documentary suggests), and then transition into what I was doing before the move - lean meats, vegetables, fruits, etc. If after the 10 days, I'm feeling great, then I will probably continue for another 5. We will see.
Anyway, here's a quick photo spread of my day! The link to the website for the fasting information is below. They have tons of juice recipes, and so far they have been pretty good!
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| My fridge after a trip to the Farmer's Market and the grocery store this morning! |
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| Before shot: Breakfast! Watermelon, pineapple and ginger. |
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| The result! |
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| Lunch: Apple, orange, sweet potato, carrots, and beets. |
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| A very pretty juice! |
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| Dinner: Mean Green juice - cucumber, kale, celery, apple, lemon, and ginger. (forgot to take a before picture of this one.) |
If you'd like to take a look at the juice programs and recipes, you can go here.
I am definitely feeling a bit of a headache tonight, and I'm guessing I may feel worse tomorrow. But the first couple of days are supposed to be the worst because your body is detoxing and getting adjusted. So if I can get through this, I should be feeling good soon! So far, it hasn't been too bad. I'll post again tomorrow!
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Information Overload
I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed. The last couple days have not been good in terms of diet or working out. It's that time of the month, which meant Thursday I woke up and was completely bloated. This is never good for my state of mind, as I feel like if I'm already feeling and looking completely fat, what's the point of eating healthy. Stupid, I know, but that's how my mind works. I've skipped working out every day since Wednesday... I managed to eat pretty well during those days, but not so well for dinner. And yesterday was a complete failure.
I think I've got myself back into the mindset of getting back on track today. Although the thought of getting back into the gym after almost a week off and several days of not eating so well is daunting.
I read the Harcombe Diet book yesterday, which is the diet I mentioned in my last post. I'm torn about whether to start it or not. It's not really that different than what I've been doing, but there would be a few changes. I've read some blogs about the diet and some people say they've lost a lot of weight in the first induction phase, but some people didn't. And a lot of people say that even when they lost weight in the first week, they lost nothing in the next couple weeks after. So I don't know.
Then I was reading health magazines this morning and I just feel like all of the information is overwhelming. Some people say eat nuts, some people don't. Some people say cut out dairy, some people say it's needed. Articles say that certain fats are needed, but the amount and foods to eat are really specific (but vary from article to article) and it just feels like it's so hard to keep up with it all. I think I need to just throw it all out of my mind and just get back to what I was doing. I mean, it was working. Maybe not as quickly as I'd like, but I also wasn't sticking to it as strictly as I probably should. But really, until the bloating started, I was feeling pretty positive about it. So I guess I'm just going to stick to what I've been doing, as I'm at least comfortable with it and therefore, it will be easier to stick with rather than trying to start something new.
I don't know. I've been really moody this week, too. I don't typically have really bad "female" symptoms, but this month seems to be a bad one. Hopefully things will be looking brighter by the middle of the week. I'll just try to take it one minute at a time until then.
I think I've got myself back into the mindset of getting back on track today. Although the thought of getting back into the gym after almost a week off and several days of not eating so well is daunting.
I read the Harcombe Diet book yesterday, which is the diet I mentioned in my last post. I'm torn about whether to start it or not. It's not really that different than what I've been doing, but there would be a few changes. I've read some blogs about the diet and some people say they've lost a lot of weight in the first induction phase, but some people didn't. And a lot of people say that even when they lost weight in the first week, they lost nothing in the next couple weeks after. So I don't know.
Then I was reading health magazines this morning and I just feel like all of the information is overwhelming. Some people say eat nuts, some people don't. Some people say cut out dairy, some people say it's needed. Articles say that certain fats are needed, but the amount and foods to eat are really specific (but vary from article to article) and it just feels like it's so hard to keep up with it all. I think I need to just throw it all out of my mind and just get back to what I was doing. I mean, it was working. Maybe not as quickly as I'd like, but I also wasn't sticking to it as strictly as I probably should. But really, until the bloating started, I was feeling pretty positive about it. So I guess I'm just going to stick to what I've been doing, as I'm at least comfortable with it and therefore, it will be easier to stick with rather than trying to start something new.
I don't know. I've been really moody this week, too. I don't typically have really bad "female" symptoms, but this month seems to be a bad one. Hopefully things will be looking brighter by the middle of the week. I'll just try to take it one minute at a time until then.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Going the Extra Mile
I apologize for being so horrible about posting on this thing lately! It seems like every time I think about posting, I either don't have time or I'm just really not in the mood. And when I have the time, I just forget! So sorry!
Thankfully, my lack of blogging has not meant that I've been slacking on the diet/exercise regimen as well. I've had some ups and downs, but I have actually been pretty consistent. Even times when I've felt like I wanted to just forget about the whole diet for a little bit, it's only lasted for a meal, or (one time) a day at the most. For me, that's pretty good. As usually if I have a cheat "day," it turns in to a cheat week...or month...or what diet?
So I'm feeling pretty good. I've been going fairly consistently since February 1st. And I'm pretty sure I'm the thinnest I've been since I gained the weight back beginning of last year after I came back from LA. I still feel like I should be further ahead than I am. But I have been a little looser than I typically am about letting myself indulge in things every day or two. This probably is part of the reason that I've been able to stick with it so long, because I haven't been so intense. But at the same time, I feel like if I tighten things up just a little, I'll see much better results.
I've been tweaking my diet a little bit. Still sticking with the whole food/low carb/low fat approach. But I have started adding in a few low carb fruits (mainly citrus and berries), and I've started to get back to juicing. I'm experimenting with adding some fruits into the juices, as I got a bit tired of pure vegetable juice. I made a grapefruit, orange, and spinach juice this morning, which was delicious! I also ordered a book online, which should be here this week, by Zoe Harcombe. It's basically a take on Atkins, but I think she allows for a little more carbs. And apparently her induction process (which is only 5 days) typically allows you to lose 3-5 pounds! She says that one person in a study lost 17! So I'm kind of excited to try it.
And lastly, my leg has finally healed enough where I've been able to get back to a normal exercise routine! I feel like I'm still trying to get my mind back to where it was when I hurt myself, as I don't feel quite as motivated and excited about running as I did then. I guess it helped to have such a definitive goal back then. But it's getting better. And my stamina had felt really low the last few weeks (I think due to the fact that my body was still trying to heal my knee - or, my iliotibial band if you want to get technical), but it has gotten much better over the last week, so that makes it much more enjoyable to run.
So that's about all that's going on in the world of Emily's Get Back to LA Weight world. I'll try to be better about posting regularly!
Thankfully, my lack of blogging has not meant that I've been slacking on the diet/exercise regimen as well. I've had some ups and downs, but I have actually been pretty consistent. Even times when I've felt like I wanted to just forget about the whole diet for a little bit, it's only lasted for a meal, or (one time) a day at the most. For me, that's pretty good. As usually if I have a cheat "day," it turns in to a cheat week...or month...or what diet?
So I'm feeling pretty good. I've been going fairly consistently since February 1st. And I'm pretty sure I'm the thinnest I've been since I gained the weight back beginning of last year after I came back from LA. I still feel like I should be further ahead than I am. But I have been a little looser than I typically am about letting myself indulge in things every day or two. This probably is part of the reason that I've been able to stick with it so long, because I haven't been so intense. But at the same time, I feel like if I tighten things up just a little, I'll see much better results.
I've been tweaking my diet a little bit. Still sticking with the whole food/low carb/low fat approach. But I have started adding in a few low carb fruits (mainly citrus and berries), and I've started to get back to juicing. I'm experimenting with adding some fruits into the juices, as I got a bit tired of pure vegetable juice. I made a grapefruit, orange, and spinach juice this morning, which was delicious! I also ordered a book online, which should be here this week, by Zoe Harcombe. It's basically a take on Atkins, but I think she allows for a little more carbs. And apparently her induction process (which is only 5 days) typically allows you to lose 3-5 pounds! She says that one person in a study lost 17! So I'm kind of excited to try it.
And lastly, my leg has finally healed enough where I've been able to get back to a normal exercise routine! I feel like I'm still trying to get my mind back to where it was when I hurt myself, as I don't feel quite as motivated and excited about running as I did then. I guess it helped to have such a definitive goal back then. But it's getting better. And my stamina had felt really low the last few weeks (I think due to the fact that my body was still trying to heal my knee - or, my iliotibial band if you want to get technical), but it has gotten much better over the last week, so that makes it much more enjoyable to run.
So that's about all that's going on in the world of Emily's Get Back to LA Weight world. I'll try to be better about posting regularly!
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