Plateau

30 Day Shred - Day 10

It's been a week and a half into the 30 Day Shred. I can't believe I've made it this far. I've seen great results so far and I'm not over the salads. It's just become a way of life now. I know I can't eat anything else, so I pass that fork to my lips and chew. Today's lunch was particularly a long chew. I made up my own salad, with the same ingredients that other salads call for and it was great.

• Spinach
• Diced tomatoes
• Steamed pumpkin
• Pan roasted chickpeas with cumin and coconut oil

It took me over an hour to eat, but kept me full. I brought a banana and walnuts for my morning tea, but didn't eat it until 5pm because I was so full from my breakfast and knew if I was going to soccer training, I'd need some energy beforehand.

My breakfast today was made up too. I was quite impressed of how my scrambled eggs turned out. Again, I took the same ingredients I use at nearly every meal plus the usual egg mixture.

• 4 egg whites
• 1 whole egg
• spinach
• cottage cheese

One of my fears is that if I don't precisely follow the 30 Day Shred, I'll lose out on the real outcome. But does it do any harm to create your own meals if the ingredients are the same? Today I wore some fitted stretchy pants. My legs still filled them out, but I could tell they were slightly loser, but not by much. In the first week, I noticed considerable change especially in my inner and outer thighs and upper arms. Today for some reason, I feel like nothing has changed. Have I plateaued? I've been eating a bit more cottage cheese, adding hot sauce to bland meals and making up some of the meals with the same ingredients. Does that mean I won't see or feel change since I'm 'cheating' on the 30 Day Shred?

I'm letting it go.

Following the Facebook support forum, I noticed many women posting a lull in results during week 2. To jolt my body from my regular routine, I decided to go to soccer training. I was very close to not going because I'm still unsure if I want to play this season. It's a lot of money and a lot of time. Plus the games are on Sundays and I love my Sundays where I have to do nothing but go to yoga at 3pm. I'm glad I went because it was a good chance to play again. I found my skills were very rusty. My brain knew what to do, but my body didn't move as fast as it did before. My reactions were delayed and I often felt like I had two left feet. But the more I played, the better my touches were. Last year I knew I didn't want to play, but this year seems different. Something inside me is yearning to keep playing outdoor. I love the camaraderie among the girls and love play making. The big fire under me is that Early Bird registration ends next Sunday and that's a big $490 commitment. I'll give it another go next Thursday. Perhaps this is my year to get back into soccer.

A sweet finish

30 Day Shred - Day 9

Today I didn't leave my workout until the end of the day. I convinced my colleagues to do it with me at the park during lunch time. Every Wednesday, the developers in my project run a boot camp for anyone to join. It's very inspiring to see some of the hardest working guys leave their desk at lunch time each week and go for a 20 minute run to Pirama Park in Pyrmont. After a series of exercises, they run back to the office.

I joined them two weeks ago and it's been a lot of fun. I sometimes inject some of my own exercises and they're all open to doing them. The stairs, dips and plank were not a favourite.

Today's shred workout was a circuit:

• 10 burpees
• 12 wide squats
• 12 regular squats
• 20 ankle taps
• 20 roman twists

Six times!

It doesn't seem like too many but doing six rounds was exhausting. The 30 Day Shred ordered them nicely because after doing burpees, the following exercises allowed you to catch your breath.

One new exercises I learned today was the team crunch (not part of the 30 Day Shred). The four of us sat in a row and linked arms. We crunched up and down pushing each other. We only did 10 reps and it was surprisingly hard to keep in sync. We did three sets. After each set, we'd change positions. It actually makes a difference if you're sitting on the inside versus the outside. I found myself yelling, "two more!" to keep up the energy and motivation. It makes a big difference when everyone is pushing towards the same goal and we're all grunting, sweating and yelling at each other to push push push. This was real team bonding.

This was the first night in a long time that I got to go home and not think about my daily shred workout because I had already done it! I made a quick omelet and brown rice dinner for Dave and I (doused in hot sauce - I'm sorry I'm not sorry). We put on American Sniper and enjoyed a movie night without me looking up recipes or workout videos.

The movie was excellent. It really put you in the character's shoes and identify with his struggles of killing 'the enemy' and coping with being home despite the PTSD. I highly recommend it - plus it's directed by Clint Eastwood. Four stars.

"Do you want yogurt?" Dave jumped at the chance. He knows I'm not eating chocolate or any other sweets, so he isn't really eating them either. The 30 Day Shred made me buy the yogurt to add to pumpkin soup. I don't have time or the appetite to eat an afternoon soup, so that yogurt has been in the fridge for over a week. Dave prepared two bowls and drizzled honey all over them. I was instructed to buy honey, but none of the recipes call for it. So now that I have it, I'll eat it.

This was the first unnatural sweet thing I've had during this journey. I don't know if I should feel guilty because it's sweet or should I not because it's part of the shopping list?

Either way, it tasted amazing. With Dave at my side snuggling together for movie night, hump day ended nicely with a sweet finish.

Vanilla yogurt with honey

Put cottage cheese on top

30 Day Shred - Day 8

Today's a rest day hooray!

Except I didn't rest...

I had back to back meetings today. At least I wasn't double booked. I made it to all my meeting, but that meant was that it was only at the end of the day that I had a chance to finally sit down and do my work. After replying to some emails, I finally had to sit down and get to writing. Half of my job is getting people onside with that I'm writing. The other half is working out what I'm supposed to write. Then there's that extra 20% of my job where I actually write.

My deadline was the next day. And I was starting from scratch...

I had a good idea of what I was supposed to write, but it's not that simple. I have to look at research on specific  keywords to weave into the content. I have to look at our competitors to see how they frame their story. Then I have to think...how do we want to frame our story. Once that's all figured out, it's actually pretty easy to words on the screen.

Unfortunately for me, my creative process started after 5pm, which meant I wasn't actually writing until 7pm. I was outta there by 8pm.

I felt sorry for myself, but I also felt accomplished when I powered down my laptop. It was a good day actually. I got many people onside with what I was writing (that's 50% of my job), figured out what I was going to write (the other 50%) and finally wrote it (that extra 20%).

Where I wasn't winning was managing my time at home. I got home at 8:30pm absolutely famished. I hadn't even made my dinner much less my shred workout for the day.

I bit my lip and took out those dumb bells while Dave put on a TV show we could both enjoy - Heston's Great British Food. Heston Blumenthal (I feel like he's so well known, but I'll explain anyway) is a food mad scientist. He creates amazing gastronomic experiences. In this show he dives into the history of Britain's iconic foods like fish and chips or the roast. In this episode he explored chocolate. I thought I'd be more into the show, but my hunger pangs were too distracting. Plus, I'm not such a chocolate lover anymore since completing the I Quit Sugar program (well 4 out of 8 weeks of it). I do have my cravings like yesterday when I wanted a smookie. Tonight my mind was more preoccupied with finishing these ab workouts and making a a Simple Mexi Bowl of brown rice, capsicums, avocado, mushroom, cottage cheese and hot sauce. It's a weak spot! I know I'm not supposed to have sauce, but you can't make a Texan eat Mexican food without hot sauce...actually any food without hot sauce.

Lately, I'm finding that if I just put cottage cheese on top of a green salad, bean salad, pumpkin salad or sweet potato salad...it tastes better! It's pretty well known that cheese isn't a dieter's friend. But it's cottage cheese, not haloumi (my favourite cheese since I've lived in Australia). Gotta watch myself. It's one tablespoon, not four.

I finished shredding and eating by 10pm. This was the latest dinner I've had in a long time, shred or no shred. I don't ever want to do this again. I need to find a better way of getting my work done without having to work too late or miss out on important meetings. I need to find a way to prepare my meals so I don't cut into Dave and Shadiyah time. I have to say this was an unusual circumstance. I rarely stay so late at work. But I do feeling accomplished both at work and in my 30 Day Shred program. No pain no gain right? Or lose weight that is.