thatgirlwrites needs people to cheer her on

[Fitz_Hulk]

Hey, I'm 22, I live in Melbourne, Australia and I'm trying to get fit and look good naked. I want to run a marathon by the end of next year, but my short term goals are to sleep better and feel better in my skin, along with hopefully getting to a size eight jeans without muffin tops. What can I say, I like flat tummies. 

I'm currently moving my diet towards paleo. I had been vegetarian for 8.5 years and I found that I was letting myself eat all this unhealthy food because it was vegetarian, and not taking charge of what I ate. I ate what I wanted, whenever I wanted. I want to change that.

I've tried restricting calories, I've run a 14 km fun run, I've tried bodyweight and hot yoga and nothing seems to stick. I love the six week challenges but I always drop out halfway. I need a slow, long term healthy lifestyle change. I'm counting on you guys to help me out. 

 

[Fitz_Hulk]

I've been doing a short kettle bell-centric workout three times a week for two weeks, as well. I read the 4-hour body and I started the slow carb diet but I don't think it's for me. The beans are too much, and I figure if I'm going to start eating meat again, paleo might be a better choice. 

This is the workout I finished this morning:

20 x glute bridge

30 x flying dog (15 each side)

hip flexor stretch 30 sec each side

54 x 12 kg kettlebell swing (I started out with sets of ten, and am working my way up until I can do 75 swings, at which point I will add weight)

20 x myotatic crunch

20 x cat vomit

[Fitz_Hulk]

My breakfast was bacon, onion, mushroom and spinach with egg whites and an egg (all fried together in a sort of hash) and half an avocado.

[Barfly]

Um, I don't know. You sound like me, though, as far as diet and exercise goals go... Right now I'm trying to do weighted pull-ups, so that is the bulk of my strength training. I also like to backpack, so my cardio is ruck runs. I'd say pick something you like/want to do and do one or two things that get you nearer that goal?

Oh, p.s. That breakfast sounds yummy, and I like to sing too - karaoke - but I don't think I sound too bad (that's the key )

[Barfly]

Also, Rah Rah, go you!

[Big Adam]

Hey, thatgirlwrites.  Nice to Meet you.  Long slow changes are the way to go.  If you can make a small change stick, it's better than a quick burst of huge change that doesn't last.  If you're interested in trying the paleo thing, I'd say go for it.  I've been moving my diet towards paleo for the past year and it's worked well in helping me lose fat while still eating enough to keep my satisified.  I'm still working on cutting out Ice Cream and Peanut Butter though.

Is there any particular time when you find that you eat crappy food?  When I first started trying to make diet changes, I noticed that I tended to eat junk food when I played video games or in front of the TV.  So I made a rule for myself that I could only eat plants when I was in front of a screen.  If I wanted to eat something else, I needed to sit down at the dinner table and actually eat it, not munch on it while my attention was on something else.  I found I was able to eat less junk without feeling like I was denying myself anything.

 

But anyway, you can do this!  If you've failed in the past, then start small to build some momentum and confidence.  Gotta kill a bunch of slimes before you can move on to slaying dragons, right?

[Fitz_Hulk]

Ahh, you guys are awesome! Thanks. 

 

I find it hard at work, mostly because I work at a cupcake store and it's really easy to snack on cupcakes and the toppings that are everywhere (malteasers, caramel sauce, etc...) I also find that I tend to lose momentum during the day. But I'm working on taking it one step at a time. For now, breakfast within 1/2-1 hour of waking is my main goal, and I can do that about 6 days out of seven. Once that's closer to perfect, I'll focus more attention on the other meals, although today I did pretty well. 

Lunch was a chicken salad with rocket, carrot, capsicum, asparagus, parmesan, almonds and with a lemon juice dressing. I had half a full cream latte and a chicken caesar salad with sweet potato chips for dinner. So the dressing, not so good, I have to work on drinking only black coffee, and then there were the snacks at work and a couple mouthfuls of my boyfriend's cider. But overall, not too bad. I even managed to skip the croutons with the salad and bread is a major downfall for me. 

 

Small steps. Small steps. 

[Barfly]

Oh, bread. Yeah, that's a tough one... It's just everywhere, in one form or another, isn't it? Keep at it, the bread craving will go away eventually.

[Fitz_Hulk]

Bread. Oh, that carby, carby goodness. 

Today, I had leek and spinach and bacon hash with eggs and egg whites for breakfast. My biggest issue when I don't sleep at my house (which can be two or three times a week) is that this kind of breakfast doesn't happen. Something to work on. 

About to go for a walk

[Fitz_Hulk]

Went for a walk. Ate lamb and veggies for lunch. Resisted eating a cupcake at work. Ate chicken and a boatload of veggies for dinner. Very happy with how I did today. 

[Big Adam]

That Breakfast sounds incredible.  I love Leeks, but they tend to be expensive at Giant where I buy most of my food.  Your meals really make me want to get more bacon into my rotation.

[Barfly]

You'll lose your taste for bread. Hang in there. Great job avoiding that cupcake! It was the donuts at work that were tough for me...

Your meals sound fantastic, and keep walking; make it a habit!

You're doing so well

[Fitz_Hulk]

Aaand work got me again. The mornings, when I'm around all the cupcake trimmings and they're just coming out of the oven. Gah.

 

Breakfast was good (more of the same) leftover chicken and veggies for lunch, yogurt and strawberries and then chicken stuffed with onion mushroom bacon and spinach. 

 

and then a twix bar. 

 

gosh darn it all. 

 

oh, well. tomorrow will be a good day. i have it off so I'm going to do kettle bells AND go for a walk. 

[Barfly]

Maybe you shouldn't try to quit cupcakes cold turkey, considering where your work.that's just setting yourself up for failure every day. How about limiting yourself to one cupcake per day and adding some exercise to your routine if you have another? Something like that?

[Fitz_Hulk]

Hmm. Sounds like a good idea, although I don't have much time for more exercise at the moment. I'm trying not to stress out about it, and just to remember to bring paleo-friendly snacks to work so I can eat them instead. My other idea was to bring gum to chew in the morning, which seems to be my weak time. 

[Fitz_Hulk]

In other news, today was so-so in terms of diet. I still have a lot of non-paleo foods in my cupboards, and I hate waste, so for the next two weeks I'm giving myself permission to eat some every day. After that I'm throwing it all out. I'm still going to focus on eating a good, high protein, paleo breakfast and stick with my strength work and walking.

I did this workout this morning before breakfast:

20 x glute bridge

30 x flying dog (15 each side)

hip flexor stretch each side

55 x 12kg kettlebell swing

18 x myotatic crunch

18 x cat vomit

plank (on forearms) 30 sec

side plank (forearms) 30 sec each side

Then I went for a half hour walk after breakfast. Breakfast and dinner were both paleo meals (basically bacon and veggies) while during the day was not paleo friendly at all (I had grain waves, among other things) 

To sleep soon. I think I got about eight hours last night, so that was awesome. 

[Fitz_Hulk]

Also, any tips for going to sleep would be AWESOME. I am currently sucking at it, if you can tell (I live in Australia...)

[Ebag]

For me if I can't get to sleep I like to meditate for 10 - 15 minutes to get all the stress and everything off from the work day and the likes.

 

It usually works for me.

 

Then again, I get like 5-6 hours a night because of my schedule. So sometimes my body is just so tired the second I get comfortable anywhere I'm out like a rock.

[Barfly]

Also, any tips for going to sleep would be AWESOME. I am currently sucking at it, if you can tell (I live in Australia...)

Advil PM about an hour before. Or a couple of Benadryl.

[KB Girl]

Sleep is always troublesome. What works for me is telling myself a story. In my head y'know- just a stupid little story and then while thinking up details I usually fall asleep.

[Big Adam]

So, I've always had trouble getting to sleep as well.  It seems like my body's ideal time to sleep is from 4-7 pm.  I'll get home from work and be sleepy and want to take a nap, but once 9 or 10 rolls around and it's getting close to bedtime - BOUNDLESS ENERGY!  I've been able to get a fairly good sleep schedule, but it's something that I need to work at and be disciplined with to make it work.  Here's a few things that have helped me.  Feel free to use or disregard them.

1) Consistency: This is the biggest thing for me.  I've found that if I stay up late on the weekends, it bites me in the butt on sunday night and I end up lying in bed staring at the back of my eyelids for hours before I can finally drift off.  Whereas if I go to bed at around the same time every night, it's fairly easy for me to keep falling asleep at that time.  Keeping my sleep consistent on the weekends is actually part of my current 6-week challenge.

2) Meditation right before bed: A quick 8 minute session of focusing on my breath helps me to calm the flood of thoughts that often comes when it's time for bed.

3) Routine: I have a fairly standard 20 minute routine right before bed.  I shave and brush my teeth, read a little bit of my bible, make an entry in my food/workout journal for the day, possibly read a little if it's still early, then meditate and go right to bed.  Going through these motions helps to tell my body and mind "ok, start winding down. it's bedtime"

[GeminiDragon]

Bread. Oh, that carby, carby goodness. 

Today, I had leek and spinach and bacon hash with eggs and egg whites for breakfast. My biggest issue when I don't sleep at my house (which can be two or three times a week) is that this kind of breakfast doesn't happen. Something to work on. 

About to go for a walk

could you share this recipe? It sounds yummy and I would really like to try it!

[Barfly]

How are you doing with diet, workouts, sleep, life?

[Fitz_Hulk]

How are you doing with diet, workouts, sleep, life?

So, last week was my last week of holidays from uni, so I went away with my boyfriend for a couple of days. We ate well for a few meals (beef stir fry, chicken salad, egg and bacon "muffins" but for the most part I let it go, so I could enjoy the holiday without trying to start a new lifestyle plan at the same time. We did go walking a lot, and that was awesome. 

I'm currently trying to get rid of all the non paleo foods in my house. After my birthday, which is in eleven days (yup, I'm counting down. Yes, I'm lame.) I've decided to throw out all food that will likely derail from my mission to go completely paleo. 

(In essence, at the moment I'm eating pretty well for maybe half of every day. I'm working on increasing that percentage.)

The holiday completely threw my sleeping patterns off, so I'm working on making that more consistent. My problem is mostly that I get distracted by phone/laptop around about the time I should be getting to sleep. I'm thinking of turning off my laptop at night time (generally I don't turn it off at all) and maybe getting an alarm clock that isn't my phone so I can do the same with that. 

I've been walking more, though. I have run keeper on my phone and I've set myself a walking challenge to Walk to Mordor (and back) which, as we know, is 2,846 km. I am at 1%. I have a long way to go

 

To recap: not been going that great (hence not updating) but I have some plans I want to execute to make it easier to make the right decisions. 

[Barfly]

It's always best to have a plan