Choosing Fit

Went a little crazy on the Chinese food. :( I know, I know one day doesn’t make a HUGE difference but anytime I let myself go a little I feel like I’ve lost my control.

Anyone go through this? How do you recover from it and get back on track?

[From the ‘Tone It Up’ Nutrition Plan VIA http://ToneItUpDiet.com]

“If you don’t eat often, your body releases the hormone cortisol. Cortisol has positive effects with your fight or flight response and dealing with pain, but it also has many negative effects. Cortisol impairs cognitive performance and suppresses your thyroid function and metabolism. It decreases your lean muscle tissue, decreases your bone density, raises your blood pressure, lowers your immunity and worst of all for our Tone It Up clients: it promotes belly fat!

YIKES!

Cortisol directly stores visceral fat in your abdomen covering those beautiful muscles you work so hard for. Stress can also trigger higher levels of cortisol… so we want you to be stress-free.”

(Source: facebook.com)

Woke up & drank a big glass of iced green tea with lemon.

M1: Egg white omelet, with onion, tomato & hot sauce

M2: Baby carrots with hummus & light babybel cheese wheel

M3: 2 pieces of toast with almond butter & banana, 3 flax-quinoa crackers

M4: Can of tuna with mustard carrots & onion

M5: 2 baguette slices, cheese & grapes

Throughout the day I drank multiple glasses of water, iced green tea, & ice water with lemon.
(M1, M2 etc just means Meal 1, Meal 2, etc)

One of the hardest parts of losing weight for me is patience. It’s easy to look in the mirror and feel so disgusted with the image reflected back that you think it’s hopeless, there is no way you will be “one of those girls” the skinny toned beautiful girls. This is something I have always struggled with and being on a healthy diet always seemed like a waste of time when I couldn’t see immediate results as with crash diets. This time around I am putting all my energy into patience and faith. I have to believe eating right and exercising on a constant basis, day in and day out WILL be worth it. I will see results, I just need to be patient and determined.

As I have struggled with poorly planned “diets” in the past, I think it is very important to set some goals for my new healthy lifestyle. I like to call them goals rather than rules or guidelines because it makes it something worth striving for rather than something you aim to break.

My first goal is to aim to eat around 5-6 small meals a day. Rather than a traditional breakfast, lunch, and dinner I think it is beneficial to eat much smaller portioned meals more frequently throughout the day to keep your metabolism running and trick yourself into feeling like you are eating more when you are actually cutting calories.
Portion size is going to be key! A very important thing to learn is what constitutes one portion of any food.

My second goal for this journey is to fit in as much exercise as possible. I aim to hit the gym around 6 times a week give or take, depending on how busy my schedule gets, for about an hour each day. For now I am simply focusing on a lot of cardio, but I will try to incorporate more strength training once I feel stuck in a rut. I typically use the treadmill or elliptical as my machine of choice.

My third goal is to increase my water intake significantly. I know that I have a problem getting my recommended daily amount of water which is an obstacle I must overcome to lose weight. Water intake is a key to weight loss. I will aim to drink at least 8 glasses a day. Minimum.

These are the goals I have set for now, but I will try to update them as often as possible, as I learn what does and does not work for me. I think this is a solid starting point though and I will go from here. :) Wish me luck!