Getting organized!!

It's been over 3 months and I've gone up and down in weight and made very little progress. I came to the realization that it's because I am not being organized about it. My greatest successes with this have come when I have tracked my progress. Procrastination is my enemy because when I allow myself to procrastinate tracking things, I procrastinate actual effort. So from here on out, there's a plan.

1) I am photographing everything I eat. At the end of each week, I will be making a photo collage of my food intake and posting it here.

2) I found an app that allows me to put in my weight, my measurements, my body fat % and it organizes the info for me and even makes graphs. This is a lot easier than sitting down at my computer and making spreadsheets for myself!

3) This app also has exercises and workout plans, and I can keep track of what I am doing at the gym and export that info to my email.

From now on, I will blog at the end of each week, using the photos and information from above. To start things off, here's what I did yesterday:

Ninja Warrior = Inspiration

Jennie and I stayed up till 3:30 in the morning watching "Ninja Warrior" and then watched 2 more episodes while eating brunch. If you have never seen Ninja Warrior (which is likely if you don't have cable and the G4 channel), you should watch it. These guys (and sometimes gals) perform the most AMAZING feats of strength, endurance, balance and agility. I'm not kidding. This stuff is near impossible. Our favorite is Makoto Nagano, a fisherman who is one of only 3 men who have ever completed the course.

For more information (and a good laugh) please read this: http://www.badassoftheweek.com/nagano.html


Now, let's be realistic... I will never be able to do the stuff these guys do. You won't see me surfing on a metal board down a slope, jumping off, hanging onto a metal chain with my bare hands, jumping onto a trampoline to propel myself onto a rope ladder and crossing a curtain using nothing but grip and arm strength only to reach an inclined monkey bar hanging over a freezing lake. But. If a 37 year old japanese fisherman can do all that without slipping or falling, I can certainly get in better shape than I am now and learn to do a decent back kick / front kick / side kick combination without losing my balance.

So after we got done with our Ninja Warrior mini-marathon, we got out the target mitt and our kenpo student workbooks and went out barefoot in the grass to practice. Very productive! Jennie got a good practice session of what she needs to know for her next test (which also helps me hone my basics), we worked on our balance, did some kicking drills, I worked on my blocking and Kata 4, and then we did a little light bare-hand sparring. After that we hit the gym and I got in a little weight lifting, some stretching and a mile on the exercise bike.

I won't be flying to Japan to try and become the next Ninja Warrior champion, but I did take another step forward towards getting my black belt, and that feels good. :)

What's on the Menu: Reviews

After reviewing some of my material for karate, I did a LOT of cooking today. Which unfortunately meant also doing a lot of dishes.

Here's what I made and how it all turned out:

Brunch:
Open-faced ciabatta with pears sauteed in apple sauce, maple bacon, and blue cheese crumbles, all melted and toasted in the oven. This recipe is a total keeper! When I suggested that we bring the leftovers to our friends next door, my girl was like "Um... no!" Haha. I guess it was a "win" :)

Dinner:
Banana, black bean, honey and coconut milk soup. This one was interesting. I liked it and it was more filling than I expected. Not something to do all the time, but I think it would make a really good side dish or appetizer.

Dessert:
Wedge of brie cheese smeared with strawberry jam and wrapped in crescent roll dough. Baked in the oven till golden. This is a classic! EASY and it's definitely satisfying. Served it as a spread, with Wheat Thins. Caution: I'm sure this is very high in calories. It's also really filling. Best done in small portions!!


Prepared for Tomorrow:
Crock Pot candied kielbasa. Brown sugar, ketchup, horseradish, kielbasa. Mix, let cook for an hour or so. YUM! So yum, in fact, that my fiancee is now referring to it as "The Precious". I had a little taste, and it is great. That's gonna be my lunch tomorrow.

Good food! Karate too!

Food:

My last post may have been slightly misleading... Just because I ate junk all week last week doesn't mean that's ALL I'm gonna eat. The cool thing is, I got that out of my system last week and by the end of last night I was ready for some salad and healthy stuff. So after karate, my girl and I hit up the salad bar at the grocery store. It was awesome. Then today, we split a really fresh, nicely done turkey focaccia and a small pear salad.

Now I'm on a cooking kick. I had my fill last week of fast stuff. So tonight I went "recipe hunting" online at allrecipes.com and printed out this weeks "menu." I think what I may do is look up stuff online at the end of each week, and then go get the stuff I need to make a few things. That way I have stuff to take with me to work. Less expensive! And also a bit more satisfying than food court. More variety as well. And it helps me improve my skills!

Tonight I made a chicken and broccoli casserole. I work tomorrow, so I'll be having that again tomorrow for lunch. Sunday I have big plans! Candied kielbasa and bacon/pear/blue cheese ciabattas. Mmmmmmm :) Also I found this great recipe for coconut, banana and black bean soup which I plan to serve with couscous. Later in the week... ginger/lime grilled salmon.

Karate:

I have not been blogging enough about this. It's been an on/off summer. I can really only make it once a week because of work, but I did audit the rank test!! It was the first test I had been too in like 11-12 years. I knew it would be hard physically, but I forgot about all the mental confusion and frustration that goes with it. I wasn't even officially testing and I think about 2/3 through it I thought "Omg. I am an embarrassment. I suck." I wanted to cry. But I didn't and I made it through. It was good for me. Really pointed out the stuff I need to work on.

The unfortunate thing was that I had to go lobstering on little sleep the morning before the test. So by the time I got to the test I was already ridiculously tired and worn out. Which I am sure lead to some of my screw-ups. The last fall I had to take in the test, I did not do it properly and I hit the ground HARD. Jostled some stuff in my torso. Bothered me for the last two weeks. Now I'm pretty sure I bruised/cracked a rib. Because last night after class (and we didn't even do take-downs) it felt like someone was periodically stabbing me. It hurt to sit, to lay down, to breath... No fun. Couldn't sleep on that side AT ALL. My poor fiance has had to listen to me moan all day.

There is another test in a couple weeks, and I may or may not be ready. We'll see...

I've been going to the beginner class with my girl a little too much. Partly it's because it is convenient for us to go and leave together and be able to have dinner together after and only take one car and all that. But I think part of it is because there's someone in the advanced class that I get bad vibes from. I need to just get over that and deal.

Tomorrow I am going to open mat before work. Time for me to go put some Tiger Balm on my ribs and get to sleep at a decent hour!

Onward...

Yeah, I ate junk food... and lost weight!

Weight: 213
Body Fat: 39%


That's right! This week's "diet" has consisted of Steak, Baloney Sandwiches & Chips (good chips, not some corn crap), Hibatchi Grill, Coldstone Ice Cream, Qizzno's, Dunkin' Donuts, Johnny Rocket's, and McDonalds. Before you start thinking "Oh no! She really went off the deep end!" read on...

I am down a pound since yesterday, down 2 pounds since last week and the lowest I've been in a while. Lower even than when I was stressing about what types of food I was eating. Here's how it worked out...

First off, I've been eating my meals in 2-3 "rounds". Like, it took me 3 days to drink a small Coldstone milkshake. I just had a little every time I was craving it. Same with the steak dinner and hibatchi. Ate half at dinner, half the next day for lunch. If I make a sandwich, I make half a sandwich and then put a handful of chips on the plate, put the bag of chips away. With Quizzno's, instead of getting one of those monster sandwiches, I had what they call a "Bullet"... It's a little skinny baguette. Mine had chicken pesto and tomatos I added some bbq baked lays and a small diet coke.

Now... for the real fast food... You know, the real "evil" stuff...

I got my morning coffee at Dunkin' (real cream, skip the sugar). Instead of getting a breakfast sandwich I figured just a small hash brown would be enough, and it was.

For lunch, Johnny Rocket's. Patty melt, skip the fries, diet coke. Ate half the patty melt, and then later on my 15 minute break, ate the other half.

Dinner... McDonald's! Crispy honey mustard snack wrap, small fries, small diet coke. Totally enough food to feel satisfied.

By the end of all this, I felt GOOD. I didn't overstuff myself, didn't feel tired and bloated, wasn't having any sort of crazy sugar cravings, and I thought to myself "I bet I lost weight." And I DID. YES!!

So my recommitment to the Paul McKenna plan is working. It's not about what I eat, it's about how I eat and why. I keep reminding myself... food is fuel. Eat when I'm hungry, eat what I want not what I think I should have, and don't look at it as something "special" or a "pick me up"... it's just food. I need it to live. And I only need enough to not feel hungry anymore.

And now I am off to have half a sandwich and some garlic parmesan kettle chips. Yum yum. Photos to come soon.