Kicking the Habit-Day 4

Sort of kind of? I think I need an intervention! Actually I have done fine today all I had was a protein bar and that is in no way a cupcake. It doesnt even look like one but I do think that the day would have been more of a win had I brought my frozen banana’s! A store near my house sells organic and baby bananas in big bags for .99 when they are nice and ripe! Actually, all they have to look like is slightly yellow and they sell them that way (Almost 4lbs of fresh organic banana’s for .99 no WAY! Oh yes way!) So tonight as I head home I will stop by the store to buy more. The stash for home is in good shape but the work stash is bare. I told myself I would rather eat my weight in banana’s than eat sweet desserts for 30 days…so far I made it two days, nix the third. I will blame it on banana shortage. Today I enjoyed my protein bar a weeee bit much. A la Herbal Essence/diner scene from When Harry met Sally kind of to much. Strangly that is exactly how I feel about my protein shake right now…sOoOoOo Gooooood.

In Health & banana’s,

Michelle Lee

Protein Pancakes: Sweet Potato Pie

Its like our EAS Soy Protein shake but tweaked to perfection!

• 1 Scoop EAS Soy Protein (17 grams protein)
• 1/2 cp of a baked sweet potato without the skin (15 grams of carbs).
• 1 Packet of Stevia
• 1 Whole egg (7g of protein)
• A dash of pumpkin pie spice and a splash of water to give it that brownie batter like consistency!

In a bowl combine all of the ingredients. Spray pan with nonstick spray and pour in batter! Cook until both sides are bronzed to perfection! I would imagine this would be nice with some Greek vanilla yogurt or almond butter! (The picture above is not mine and came from another site with the same idea-great minds think alike! Check her out!)

Week 8- 7th Heaven

Or the 7th Level of Hell…either or.

Complete 7 sets of 7 reps in numbered order…for time. >:)

1. Deadlifts
2. Jump Squats
3. Kettlebell Swings
4. Burpees
5. Wall Balls (Medicine Ball Toss)
6. Pushups
7. Box Jumps

As always follow with cardio…

In Health,

Michelle Lee

Kicking the Habit-Day 3

Oh boy…I had a brownie and a little lemon bar at the firm’s luncheon retreat but I will try try again! You know that feeling where once you messed up (not horribly but it was not what I had hoped for) that you want to just throw your hands in the air and scream “FORGET THISSSSS!” Followed by complete and utter abandonment as you eat your way through the plate of sugar powdered brownies. Well, I do and that plate is FULL of the best brownies made in Tulsa. Seriously, I wish it could be made into an IV drip. Scratch that, I wish I could eat them without regret. By ‘them’ I mean all of them; sans regret. Each. And. Every. One. Chocolate coma and all. 30 days is 30 days to long…day 3 was a fail. Come on day 4! I wonder if I can go 4 days without a sugar fix?

Kicking the Habit-Day 1

I have made it past the 24hr mark! Day one is complete! I only thought about sugar…all day long. I seriously woke up and thought to myself “I get to go to the leasing office today and I can grab a cookie while I am there too!” Not even five minutes out of bed and I am thinking of my crack pipe sugar fix. I arrived at work very tense and slightly angry from denying myself the aforementioned crack pipe sugar fix. Once I am at work, low and behold, there is a ginormous cookie sitting on my desk. Its bright colors and cheerful “THANKS” written on top of it nearly convinced me to eat it. Well, not really since it wasn’t a chocolate chip cookie. Alas it still was difficult to pass up and 20 similiar replicas which were littered around the law firm.

After Job # 1 I went to Job # 2’s staff party where my sugar cravings nearly got the best yet again! I was good and had some salad and then I had 3 peices of pizza. (Its okay, I planned ahead for this!) I dont usually get to eat this kind of stuff so I decided it would be my splurge for the week. Right before I left, they brought out the dessert pizza’s by which time I had totally forgotten about my sugar fast! I almost had a slice but I remembered that I had plenty of carbs already! It was only as I got into my car that I remembered! SAVED BY PIZZA! Who would have thought.

In health,

Michelle Lee

Week 7-Great Balls of Fitness!

PT: Complete 4-5 Rounds of each set in succession

You will need an 8lb+ medicine ball (preferably padded as you will learn why…)

1.) 25 Medicine Ball Toss: I use the padded medicine balls however in this video she is using your standard medicine ball. I would suggest asking the gym if they would mind if you used their standard medicine balls in such a way before performing these drills. You do not want to be “that girl/guy” who put a hole in the drywall etc…it has happened before. Oh and some genius busted the basketball glass backboard by doing this kind of stunt. Maybe he just thought that basketballs came weighted as standard now…maybe.

2.) 50 Oblique Twist: (25 each side) Okay what he is doing in the video is sort of what you will be doing except you twist your abdomen so that you are tossing the ball to the left and right sides of your body (Think Russian twist just standing up…)

3.)25 Wall-Balls

3 Minute Abs:

Standard Plank (Hold 1 minute), left and then right facing side planks (Hold 1 minute each side or until you complete a full 60 seconds!) Do this 3 times! (I did it only twice today though-busy morning!)

3 Reps of the Following:

Kettle Bell Russian Twists: 50

Standard Sit-Ups: 50

Bench Leg Pull-Ins: 50

The Formerly Fat Girl Diaries

If I could subsist on Nutella and pancakes without becoming a health statistic I would be a happy girl.  I was never a yo-yo dieter but I have lost 20lbs and gained those 20lbs every 2 or three years (or am I?)I would not change my diet I would just begin exercising. When life, aka undergraduate studies and other stressors got in the way, I would eat more and work out less. There was a period of time in High School that I lost 70lbs in about year thanks to starvation and running. That phase will never be repeated or recommended to anyone. In April of 2010, I decided that I wanted to lose weight and I would do it by running. I started with barely being able to do one mile to a champion length of three miles (YAY!) When the summer had ended I had lost 20lbs and I was motivated to keep the pace throughout the year. How long did that last? Maybe three months and about halfway through my senior paper. So I gained it back plus three pounds and decided I would save up for personal training when I graduated in May. Fast forward 11 months and I have lost a total of 61lbs the healthy way! Even though I weigh as much as I did in high school (HOORAH!) I look toned and fit now and not just skinny! I still want to lose 10-11% body fat but I am so proud of myself! It was not easy even with my PT. Now that my trainer is at another gym I am going to train myself! Obi wan has left the building in other words. He left me in that critical last 20lbs stage! The hardest to lose-or so they say. Over the last few months I have lost maybe a half pound per week but this past week I lost a whole 2lbs! What did I do? I ate. And ate. And ate. Did I mention that I ate? I thought that I would have seen a gain but I was surprised to see the opposite. Which means that every so often it is okay to eat the occasional Soppapilla (or five..well that was excessive). But the key is to keep going to the gym! Go hard! Never give yourself the excuse to NOT go to the gym. Well maybe a tornado would change my mind but you get the idea. I realize that the last 20lbs will come off by diet and the past 61 were solely from a major fitness overhaul (and diet too). But my habit of over eating and sweets needs to be tamed so to speak. I have mentioned clean eating and I have tried to implement that as best as I can. But you can overeat on good things and of course the sweets as well. I need to learn moderation. Only 8 weeks are left before the NPC fitness competition (which I may not participate in..just go to watch first). But still, what if I can get into peak shape by that time? What if I can do it? It is delayed gratification at its best. Would you prefer the temporary pleasure of eating copious amounts of food/over-indulge on sweets or would you like a svelte, toned abs-a-licious body that you have always wanted? I would. Damn the cravings. Damn every mood swing and stick it to hormones where the sun never shines. Lets get to work. You and me-we can do this. Be your own trainer! Oh, and I can run 6.5 miles in 1 hr now. Take that twinkie.

In Health,

Michelle

Week 6-Be your own personal trainer

(EZ Bar) Upright rows, (EZ Bar) Thrusters,  (1 Pood) kettlebell swings.

• Pattern of set: 21 of each, 18, 15, 12, 9, 6, 3 and finish with 1 of each.

25 Wall balls, 50 walking lunges, 22 medicine ball pushup for three rounds!

• Use a weighted medicine ball (I use a squishy padded 18lb weighted ball) for all excercises.
• The walking lunges: raise the weighted ball above your head for the entire excercise!
• The pushup is done on the medicine ball in this video at the 40 second mark (nothing crazy and if you need to go to your knees in a sissy pushup (We all have to start somewhere) by all means sissy away.

Finish with cardio! Today I worked on my legs (lost and 1.5 in my hips and gained .5in in my thighs oh hecks no!) I have muscular legs but I need to be proportionate so I did the treadmill at the highest incline at 4.2 mph for 30 minutes. Its not a whole lot of time but it will help me keep my muscularity but tone things down a bit by building lean muscle. I should also add that I am running 3 times a week for an hour (flat and fast 6.5mi). I have been doing this for a little over a month and I have seen a BIG difference!

On my way to NPC!

I am officially 8 wks out to my NPC competition in Oklahoma on June 9th! I am almost at 19% body fat..almost as in 10% away but I am losing about 5% every 3 months now! If I cant do the show I will at least go see it in order to know what to do (which might be the wisest thing anyways…) This means the diet need to get TIGHT! I have been a bit lax and thank God it hasnt affected my weight loss but I need to hone it in better! I can see my obliques already (I am naturally small waisted) but my rear needs to catch up so to speak! I have lost a 1/2 inch from my waist, 1.5 inches from my behind and it looks like I may have gained an inch in my thighs (but I am a bit bloated at the moment-carbs and female stuff). May 15th is going to be the day I purchase my entrance tickets or not. If I am not down to about 20% by then I wont enter (there are other competitions in late summer!) but I will go watch to see what it is all about!)

I have posted this before but here it is agian:

Protein (1 gm protein per lean body weight at least)

My aim will be to eat 1200-1300 calories for the next two months consisting of vegetables and protein. I will have a protein shake with 1/4 cp oats in the afternoon and a snack of cottage cheese before I go to bed. 5 meals a day consisting of three 300 cal. meals/two 150 cal. snacks. I am going to have an Easter brunch but I will not go crazy. I promised to myself! I would like to lose 5lbs this month if that is possible! So far I can barely budge the .5lb per week even with working out twice a day but my diet has been all over the place. So this might be the trick! I have heard that once you get to a certian weight it gets harder to lose (which seems to be happening already.) I will post weekly updates and photo’s to track my progression! My 10lb weight loss (5% BF reduction) has helped me see great differences in my body! I am more lanky (I am tall), my booty is starting to remove itself from my life-thank God! On the down side I lost a cup size (NoOoOoOo!! Et tu, chest??) and my butt seems to be flattening (Um no…I need you to STAY where you are! Size reduction yes but shape-NO!)