Beans, beans, the more you eat them...

30 Day Shred - Day 2

It's raining again...

No 'light cardio' until this evening I guess. I'm going to miss my project team's weekly lunch time boot camp too due to a concurrent meeting. Looks like I'm cramming in an entire workout tonight after work.

I arrived at work really looking forward to my 5 egg breakfast. This time it has pears - something I would have never added to an omelet. It was salty and sweet delicious!

Again, due to all the meetings, I didn't eat my morning snack until lunch time. That banana and walnuts sure kept my blood sugar levels stable.

And again, lunch was eaten at afternoon snack time. Today's lunch was harder to swallow. Half can of chickpeas and half can of four bean mix...that's a lot of beans!

I made the mistake of announcing to my team that I'm 'shredding'. One of our more outspoken team members makes a point to remind everyone I'm 'shredding' - all in good fun of course. I'm actually relieved it's out there. It kind of makes me accountable to stick to it. My team is so supportive and I know they'll have my back on this. The looks and questions I get though...

"10 walnuts?! Like 10 pieces of 10 whole ones?"

"You're going to make a lot of music later with all those beans you've eaten."

"I can't stand next to you after you've eaten all those beans."

"I'm shredding too. I have a salad with a side of pork belly and rice."

My colleagues keep me on my ties and definitely my mood light. I'm glad they know because when I can't eat out with them, they'll know why. I keep reminding myself - just 30 days. Well 29 now.

Off to the gym...

I've started 30 minutes earlier than yesterday. I still have to do my 'light cardio' so I'm back to 20 minutes on the elliptical and 1km at 10km/hour on the treadmill. 

Today's focus is biceps, triceps and abs. I surprisingly struggled with 4kg dumbbells so downgraded to 3kgs. Also using the yoga ball for crunches made me nauseous - I get motion sick very easily. My favorite workout were the roman twists. I didn't enjoy the triceps workout but glad I did them. It's a big problem area and I want to get rid of those tuck shop lady arms!

So tonight was better...I got home at 8pm. This time Dave was home. At least the tennis was on, but I did feel bad about not spending much time with him. He's so supportive of my journey though. He even wanted to cut back on his food intake eating a quarter of his pad Thai instead of a regular serving.

I loved my big eggy breakfast, but I really enjoyed my mexi bowl dinner. After two big workouts on Day 1 and Day 2, this dish was very satisfying - although it called for more beans. That's 3 different kind of beans in one day!

I also made Day 3 meals rather quickly because there's no soup tomorrow. I really need to make time to make soup in bulk this weekend.

Now to watch the video tutorials on tomorrow's circuit training. I'm also going to soccer practice eek!

That's a lot of eggs

30 Day Shred - Day 1

It's like D-Day. I've committed and it's time to attack. I spent nearly $200 on Week 1 groceries and my little fridge can't fit everything. I'm a little worried about things going bad because I haven't pre-cooked everything. I'm already noticing how much time it takes to prepare my meals, but I'm just going to have to tough it out this week until the weekend when I have more time. Poor Dave can already sense we don't hang out enough. After a long day at work, I'm off to the gym by 6:30pm and getting home around 8pm. Then I have to make my dinner, eat it and then prepare all my meals for the next day. Should have planned this out a little better.

Today's breakfast was not 1, but 5 eggs! Actually 1 whole egg and 4 egg whites. I've never eaten so many eggs. I have to admit I wasn't so hungry for breakfast because of my massive last meal of tofu pad khee mao. Nevertheless, the more I ate the eggs with cottage cheese, the more I liked it. It also kept me full until lunch time when I finally got to eat my apple and nuts. I consumed my lunch salad meant for lunch time more like snack time. Working a bank with back to back meetings, I find it hard to sit down and have a meal. Thankfully my meals are already prepared and often times don't need heating. So no snack today. The tomato soup recipe looked way too involved and after preparing all breakfast and lunch, I didn't have the energy to make the soup. I'll take the shred's advice and prepare the soup on the weekend enough for the entire month.

So with very little carbs in today's meals, I surprisingly felt OK. I anticipated headaches, but was perfectly fun...in fact feeling light and less bloated.

Off to the gym...

Although the program is entirely digital including the shopping lists, recipes, workout plans and tutorials, I wasn't going to show up at the gym with my IPAD to read over exercises in iBooks. Instead I printed today's meal and workout plans and took it to the gym.

Each day I'm supposed to do 'light cardio' but the last few days have been absolutely bucketing down rain. So I'm going to have to do cardio plus the weight training.

20 minutes on the elliptical and 1km at 10km/hour on the treadmill, I'm finally ready to go. Puffed but ready to go.

The night before I watched the tutorials on her YouTube channel so I would know exactly what to do when I got to the gym. Patting myself on the back because the names of the exercises are not intuitive at all.

My first set was squats with a bar, with plates...this was no longer child's play. I haven't done serious weights with a bar and plates since high school soccer. I was intimidated at first because guess where the apparatus was? Of course amongst all the buff dudes. Lucky me there was an extremely tan body builder next to me. Not sure I was inspired, but at least he was so focused on himself that I didn't need to worry about his potential judgement of my bar + 10kg plates on each side.

I switched to lunges and that's when the tremors hit. I got through all the exercises and felt amazing. One mood killer was when I got the courage to step on the scales. It was eye opening. But I had to do it. This was D-Day and it's important for me to measure my success. It's also motivation. Hopefully by Day 30, the dial will have gone down.

The workout was about 30 minutes, but on top off cardio, I was at the gym for over an hour. I got home at 8:30pm. I just want to watch Girls.

Dave was away at D&D (Dungeons & Dragons for you non-nerds) night so I had the apartment to myself. I cooked my dinner and was quite pleased with how filling it was. There were so many textures and flavours together made my hungry exhausted body nourished and satisfied. I even made an extra one for Dave so he could feel included.

Portobello Stack

Grilled quinoa, red onions, cherry tomatoes, spinach and cottage cheese on a portobello mushroom

So D-Day wasn't as bad as I thought. Pressed for time in the evening to cook, wash dishes and blog...this is going to be the tough part. Looking forward to arms and abs tomorrow! 

Time for a change

It's a new year and I'm ready for a challenge. It's not just because I'm getting that new year's resolution itch...I've been floating along nicely for a while and it's time to shake things up.

Being a vegetarian since 1 Jan 2013, my food choices have drastically changed my body. I feel light, but I know I've lost muscle mass. My skin is a bit flabby especially in that anti-gravity defying upper arm and inner thigh area.

I also stopped playing outdoor soccer and running long distance. Don't get me wrong. I ran a half-marathon in May 2014 and the gruelling City2Surf in August 2014. I tend to train hard for these races and once they're over, so is the training. I didn't play competitive outdoor soccer last year but I replaced it with 2x week indoor soccer and 90 minute vinyasa yoga every Sunday. I've also picked up beach volleyball courtesy of Dave's Ultimate Beach Volleyball Training. Thank goodness for Dave's patience and kindness to teach my girlfriends and I the basics for free!

So my challenge...

This month, I'm taking on Emily Skye's 30 Day Shred. The program was recommennnded to me by one of my beach volleyball mate's who's getting ready for her wedding. I'm not getting ready for a wedding, but I view this as a kick-start back into healthy living. There are a lot of programs out there, but the main reason I chose this program is because there are full meal plans and shopping lists, workouts and supportive videos and Facebook community to keep you motivated. It's all planned out and all I have to do is find the time to do it. I foresee a lot of time consumed by cooking.

That's $200 of groceries for Week 1

(minus the helmet)

Another part of the challenge is there's no drinking. February is a good month for me to stay off the grog, but I won't lie...there will be some cheat days. Mine and Dave's 6th anniversary is on the 10th followed by a girl's night out on the 13th to see Fifty Shades of Grey in Gold Class and there's of course Valentine's Day. I also have a big soccer weekend away at the start of March followed by a lot of birthday parties and big 3 week holiday to Sri Lanka and Fiji. Sounds like a lot of excuses or perfect timing, but I'm going to try my hardest to keep on track and minimise the indulgences.

The final challenge is to write a blog for everyday I'm on the 30 day shred. So here goes my first post on the challenge and my last meal of delicious Pad Khee Mao with tofu.

Best Thai for value in Randwick - Blue Monkey

Loving the Australian Open