Family Dinner

I had a family dinner tonight. My mom's family came over for dinner and game night. Playing cards after dinner is something that we always do and it's a lot of fun. My aunt and my uncle are vegetarian so my mom made a lot of healthy dishes. She made a kale salad, a lentil stew, roasted vegetables and trout. It all looked so delicious, I couldn't resist. I didn't want to cheat on my diet as I followed it all day. I even made my own salmon for dinner. I was just curious as to what the food tasted like as it all looked so good so I tried it. It was really good!

It's not a bad cheat but it's still a cheat on my diet especially as it was supposed to be one of my lower carb days. I was torn because I knew I should of stuck to what I had to eat but part of me wanted to try the new food. It's all healthy so what's the harm?

I was going to have some of the dessert too but my boyfriend and my cousin stopped me. They didn't want me to feel guilty and regret eating that much food. I'm happy they stopped me and guided me back into the right direction. I feel bad for cheating but it's also hard to not participate in the family dinner and eat the same thing as everyone else. My small piece of salmon wouldn't of been enough compared to all the food they were eating. I need to start changing my mentality and remind myself I have a goal in mind. Yes, I love food but my goal is too lose weight so if I want that to happen, I need to start making sacrifices. If I want my diet to work, I need to stick to it 100%. This is just a prep for when my real pre-competition diet will come. If I can't do this, I'll never be able to hit my goal. I need to re-focus and always keep my goal in mind whenever I feel the need to cheat on my diet.

Friday Night Lights

It's Friday so that means it's football day for me! The Concordia football team had a game tonight versus McGill. It's their second game of the season. It was a great game as McGill is one of their rivals. The game was at 7 at McGill.

It was a great game! Concordia won 41-7!! It was really exciting. There weren't too many injuries so it was a quiet night for me. It was just really cold on the sideline (where did summer go??).

I had to work out in the morning since I knew I would be busy all night. I just went for a 30 minute run in the morning. I love running in the fall since the weather is cooler. It's very refreshing and the leaves changing colours is beautiful to see. I was more organized for this game and brought all my food for the day. I didn't cheat today and stuck to my diet. Overall, it was a great day and I'm going to bed happy and really proud of myself!

Full Body Circuit

I had another training session with Anthony tonight. We went over the work out I would be doing on my own. I started with intervals using the ropes. I moved onto intervals on the treadmill. I have to walk for 30 seconds, jog for 30 seconds, and sprint at 100% for 3 seconds, for 4 rounds. I did really well with the sprinting. I felt strong, fast, and I didn't have any difficulty keeping it up for 30 seconds.
I moved on to my full body work out. I have to do 12-15 reps of each exercise along with a 30 second rest. Some of the exercises included clean & press, plyo push-ups, assisted pull ups, medicine ball slams, dips, etc. It's a long circuit but it uses my whole body. I was sweating. My heart rate was always above 80% and most of the time it was in the 90s. I burned over 600 calories with my work out. I can't wait to do it again on my own. It'll be tough but I felt great after my work out. I hope I'm not too sore tomorrow!

Day 1 of New Meal Plan

Today was the first day of my new meal plan. I prepared everything in the morning. It took me a while because I had to weigh all my food and calculate everything. I had to make sure I had the right amount of protein, fat and carbs.

My breakdown for the day looked like this:
Meal 1: egg whites + oatmeal + PB2 (powdered peanut butter)
Meal 2: Chicken breast
Meal 3: Protein shake (vanilla protein powder + water)
Meal 4: Tuna + black beans
Meal 5: Greek yogurt + apple
Meal 6: Protein shake (chocolate protein + water)
Meal 7: Oatmeal + protein powder
Meal 8: Ground turkey + broccoli

It was a lot of food and I felt like I was constantly eating. It was different from what I was eating before. I will be eating less as the week goes on because I'll have less carbs to eat. I followed the guide they gave me for the food but I tweaked it a little for me. I hope the rest of the week gets easier. I think it just took me a while as there was a bit of a learning curve.

Pyramid Training

I had my second session with my trainer today. A lot of the exercises I did today were set up in a pyramid style. I started my session with a warm up on the battle ropes. My first pyramid set was for my legs. I had to hold a squat position for 60 seconds, do alternating lunges for 45 seconds, 30 seconds of lily pad jumps, 15 seconds of jump squats and then back to 30 seconds of lily pad jumps, 45 seconds of alternating lunges and finally a minute hold of a squat. It was brutal. My legs were so tired while I was doing the lily pad jumps. I could feel them burning. It was a simply body weight work out but it was really effective.

I did it again for my abs and core. I held a plank for 60 seconds, 45 seconds side plank, 30 seconds mountain climbers, and 15 seconds of V-ups and then back to the mountain climbers, etc. This wasn't so bad since I have a pretty strong core.

I did it one for my cardio and another for my upper body. The cardio one involved skipping, jumping jacks, high knees and squat jumps. The upper body involved lateral raises, dips, shoulder presses and bicep curls. These work outs are simple but very effective.

I ended with some resistance sprints. I ran forwards, backwards and side ways across the gym while being held back with a resistance band. I did it a second time while running forward across the gym and back. I felt really strong doing these and they're a lot of fun (more exciting than the sled!) I ended the session with a 400 ft sprint on the rope machine. He recorded my time and I'll need to beat it the next time I do the challenge.

It was a great session today. I'm feeling sore and tired. It was a great work out. I stayed to foam roll so I'm not to sore tomorrow!

New Meal Plan

I received my new meal plan today. I'm excited to try something new. It involves carb cycling. I start the beginning of the week with high carbs and lower them by the end of the week. At the same time, I increase my fats by the end of the week. My calories and the amount of protein I eat remains the same each day. For week 1, my calories are 1533 and my protein is 227g. For day one, my carbs are 125g and 14g of fat. By day 6, I can only have 31g of carbs and 56g of fat. This is very different from what I've had to do so far. I will have to go back to MyFitness Pal to track my macronutrients. It's going to take a lot more planning and calculating every day. Thankfully, the plan comes with an outline of foods to have each day. The day is broken down into 6 meals and I have meal ideas for each meal and for each day. 

Every week, my calories will decrease by 100. I will be eating less each week and I'll only be on 1233 during week 4. It may seem a little drastic but I need to challenge my body. By eating different amounts each day, my body will always be guessing what's next. I'm excited to see how my body reacts to it and how much weight I'll lose. I'm going to restart my sticker program to make sure I stay on track for the next 30 days. I'll be starting my meal plan on wednesday.

Meal Prep Sunday

As planned, I prepared some of my food today. I kept it simple since my meal plan will be changing in a few days. I will be following the diet my new trainer Anthony will be giving me.

For today, I prepared some chicken salads. I decided to get a little creative with them so I made a spinach salad with chicken, apples and walnuts. I love adding fruit because it adds a little sweetness and crunch to the salad. I also cooked my ground chicken. I add spices and made meals with it by adding green beans.

I cooked extra chicken breasts in case I wanted to have them as meals. This should last me a couple days. I'm excited to get my new meal plan because I really want to change up my diet. I've been eating the same thing for the past 2 months so getting to eat new foods will be exciting. I'll keep you posted!