Friday, February 26, 2010 Fear...dominated

"Our doubts are traitors and make us loose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt."
William Shakespeare

Ok, so today was challenging. I woke up at 5:30 and found it really hard to get myself out of bed. I seriously considered not working out, it was the usual monster that attacks me everytime I start getting great results, it whispers "what harm is there in not working out today? you are starting to look great!" but this time it couldn't get to me, I didn't let it. It simply took me a little moment to think about that I had to do it later in the afternoon, was not going to be able and then I knew I was't going to do it. after that guilt would kick in, making me feel miserable for letting myself not workout, guilt would take me to conmfort eating and after that it was all downards spiral and probably falling down the wagon and into a puddle of mud! hahaha I'm a little over dramatic but painting this picture was like fire in bed and I immediately jumped out of it. Problem solved. I now take inmmediate action and have no fears. It is great!

Meal 1 OK. My morning milkshake.
Meal 2 OK. A small apple, 1/3 cup of oatmeals and yogurt.
Meal 3 a total challenge. I had a training session at work and they offered snacks. since I left my food at the office I ate what they served. I tried everything but only once. A gain for me was that I did not eat cookies.
Meal 4 OK. cottage cheese and jicama and almonds.
Meal 5. Beef stew with carrots and avocado.

I went to my zumba class and found it challenging but gave it my best. there are certain days when I feel the zumba class is challenging and I attribute it to the morning workout. I'll track which body part is the one that gives me trouble.

At night at home they cooked one of my favourite meals. I called my brother to keep myself busy so they didn't call me for dinner. It was a great strategy. I went to bed after 3.5 lt of water and 5 succesful meals!

Thersday, February 25, 2010 The force of habit

"I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time."
Charles Dickens

It is very interesting when you focus on something and everything around you starts to somehow react to your interests. Things you used to overlook catch your attention now, things you used to dismiss now seem interesting and you start getting into them. It is even more interesting when things you need to accomplish your desired goal appear in your life when you least expect them but at the exact time when you need them the most.

I relate all this events to a phrase I use a lot "everything happens for a reason". I tend to combine it with another phrase I caught later on "everything has its own place and time" and now with all the things happening to me in this journey I understand them a lot more and they make even more sense.

Right now I am in my eighth continuous week, nonstop motivation, full-time thinking about achieving the body of my dreams, checking results and adjusting action plans, working out at least 5 days a week and staying focused.

Today I realized that the comment I've been making about having unstoppable motivation is nothing more than the effects of the forces of habit. In these almost two months I have developed some awesome habits and they are really sticking. I drink water everyday, I consider if what I'm about to put inside my mouth is consistent with my goals, I have a positive mindset, I go over my new beliefs on fatloss and review my goals constantly to stay focused and it all seems a lot easier eight weeks later. It is great.

A great personal example of the powerful force of habit is precisely in my own life. At the same time I started this fitness journey I started another journey with some coleagues, the dream to achieve some professional goals. In that case consistency has been lost in the distance, dedication never truly formed and desire was never truly there I guess. So right now in my life I have two sides, one is going really strong and the other is absolutely going south, it needs rescue. So, believe in the power of every day taking immediate action, in discipline and in perseverance, they ROCK!

This morning was great, up at 5:30 again. 30 minutes working out, then got ready for work, had my milkshake and off to work! I increased my calorie intake for today and will be back down to a bigger deficit tomorrow for another 3 days. I have been truly compliant today, just finished my fourth meal and I have now mastered resisting carbs at night thanks to the change I did in schedule. I no longer dine at the same time as my family, it is the only way it works for everyone. This way they do not offer me all sorts of food because they know I've already eaten and I get to see results faster.

I am really excited. I am back to the shape I had just after finishing University. It still isn't breaking my personal best but it's closer! I am excited, tomorrow is picture day!

Have fun and work hard (in this order) LOL

Vania.

Wednesday, February 24. The 3 D's that make the Difference!

"The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat."

Napoleon Hill

Finally all things are back in their place. I weighed myself yesterday and the fatloss is still running. I am excited because everyday I am one step closer to the body of my dreams. My motivation is unstoppable, my desire is always there staring back at me in the mirror and everytime I move it is there because my clothes fit so much better now.

It is all because of a little thing called dedication. Yesterday, when I was changing into my gym clothes I noticed that the pants I chose for that day felt different, and just like that it hit me, I am slimmer. It is a ver interesting thing because the diference is slight, small but definitely there. At that point I got to thinking that this is the pace that weight uses to slowly creep up on you over time, so subtle you easily get used to it and do nothing about it until the clothes are too tight to ignore. So dedication, uh? YES, dedication, determination and desire. The 3 Ds that make the difference. they have helped me persevere and stay on track long enough to see results, long enough to love the journey and continue with all my strenght, better than ever.

Today I woke up at 5:30 determined to measure myself and workout. I measured until today because my little siblings lost the previous measuring tape and I bought one last night. I use a website for my workouts where there is a streaming video that I follow, it is different everyday for 5 days a week and changes every 30 days. There was something wrong with the videos this morning and I couldn't do the workouts. At the last minute I remembered there is an abs workout I could do, I haven't done it a lot so it contributed to changing things up, it was awesome.

What was also really awesome were my measurements:

Weight: 77.6 kg
Waist: 77 cm (minus 1 cm)
Hips: 94 cm (minus .5 cm)
Arms: 32 cm (minus .5 cm each)
Calves: 40.5 and 41 cm (minus 1 cm combined)
Tighs: 67 and 68 cm (minus 1 cm combined)
Hips (around thighs): 109 cm (minus .5 cm)
Below bust: 84 cm (minus .5 cm)
Neck: 36 cm

All this information gives me a change in my bf%. Today I am 25.9% and on February 14 I was 27.2%. So this is what I have lost in numbers since that date:

Weight: 400 grams
BF%: 1.3%
Centimeters: 5

It is wonderful, I am really grateful for the results I am able to post today and very happy too. Now, I am looking forward to posting another picture, one week after the last one so that should be this Friday evening or on Saturday morning.

Thank you for reading and sharing my journey. Stay dedicated, determined and full of desire for your dreams and dream BIG!

"Find something positive to think about and don't let the conversation in your head end with a negative comment. Always end on a positive comment."

This is my entry for Tuesday February 23:

I'm really happy, finally I was able to weigh myself and not only that. It was awesome to see that I have los weight. Last time I checked at the same time I weighed myself thid way was last thursday and I weighed 78.6 kg. This time my weigh was 77.6 kg. I am extatic! Of course after this I was super motivated to workout and continue my efforts on this wonderful journey.
I start a new set of workouts for this month. The first day was awesome. It really feels great to change things up. A few hours later I was feeling all the work I did in the morning specially in my legs and butt and later at night at the zumba class I really felt it in my chest. It is amazing the adaptation response of our bodies.
On the nutrition side, today was not perfect. Here's the story:
I work as a staffing analyst so everyday I interview people who are looking for a job. Today, after I had finished an interview and as the candidate was leaving he gave me a small packet, it contained home made bread, a kind of cupcakes. I got to the office and told my co-workers we had bread. I took the top of one of the cupcakes and ate it :). It wasn't that good so I didn't finish it, but there's more missconduct, wait until you read the rest. We left the office early to attend and HS&E monthly meeting. There were snacks afterwards! Oh my God! I could not resist them because they were traditional mexican food, and the kind of food from Veracruz, where I am now, so I am not that used to it so I see it and it's really hard to resist it. I did not overeat nor stuff myself. It was about 40 minutes before my last meal so I decided to work really hard at the zumba class and not eat the dinner at home, I counted the snacks as my last meal, at 6:30 pm.
At the zumba class I did not have as much stamina as I had yesterday. I did my best but wasn't as jumpy as the day before. I have seen this happen to me but I don't let myself get worried I just continue going strong.
At night I prepared my meals for the next day, took bites from what they were cooking for dinner at home and finally got myself out of the kitchen before I ate everything in it.
It was a good day, a positive day.

"We will receive not what we idly wish but what we justly earn. Our rewards will always be in exact proportion to our service". Earl Nightingale

That's right. We get what we give, our results are always in direct proportion to our efforts. In this post I am sharing all my thoughts and efforts from Monday February 22.
I got up at 6:30 and got ready for work. My boyfriend stayed until this morning and we drove together to the city where I work. There I took him to the bus station where he'll take the bus back to Mexico city. It will be another 2 weeks until I see him again, that's really sad! I miss him already.
This morning I did not exercise, I have done some adjustments to my workouts so I workout on weekends too. On the nutrition side of it, it was a good day. I behaved properly and I feel really good about it. In the office I had 2 cups of cofee so I knew I had to make up for that drinking 2 more glasses of water. I hadn't had coffee in a long time so it tasted great. Next time I'll make sure to drink just 1.
At night I went to my usual zumba class. It was wonderful. I am really happy because I endured it and gave it all my best. I try to really work it when I'm there. I see people who dont push themselves and I wish I could say something to motivate them but I don't want them to take it the wrong way, I'm new and they don't know me very well and the other way around.
I went to bed a little later than I wanted but it was because I spent some time with my family, it was worth it.

Everyone wants to be appreciated, so if you appreciate someone, don't keep it a secret. Mary Kay Ash

Okay so this is the story of my weekend.

It was a wonderful weekend spent completely with my boyfriend. He came to visit me and spend the weekend. It all started when he arrived on Saturday, at 1 am. I was already waiting him with his dinner ready because he had been traveling for 7 hours. I resisted eating that late and only took a small bite of his sandwich to calm my hunger, I knew we would go to bed soon so it wasn't worth eating.
At 9 I woke up and did my two workouts scheduled for the day (including cardio). After this we had breakfast. I didn't feel like going out. He wanted to go to the movies but I did not feel like driving all the way to the other town (right now I live in a very small city and there isn't a movie theater in it). Instead, we watched some movies and went downtown for a walk in the afternoon. We watched some traditional ritual from the city and walked to a monument overlooking the town. I had never seen the city fromthat spot at night, it looked wonderful. We did not stay long because he was feeling his throat a little sore and it was quite windy so we decided not to risk it.
At night I got attacked by the bingeing monster. I ate a lot of popcorn and chips and felt really bad after it. I decided not to hold on to the guilt and to workout a little bit. My little brother and sister joined me so it turned into games and we had a lot of fun. It all made me feel really better.
On Sunday we did not go to the movies either. We went for another wal but this time earlier, but before all that we went running together. Once we arrived at the racing track we played some soccer together. I really enjoyed it. I didn't think it could be so tiring. After about 15 minutes or so I did some laps.
I am really happy now that I enjoy excercise and I love doing so. I never get tired of saying how different it is this time and I know I am moving in the right direction.
While I was running I realized I have more endurance and while I was playing I felt a lot more control over my lower body, it is all great!
We got back home and had lunch. Orange juice, a slice of bread with some goat cheese and grilled cheese (no bread, just cheese on a grill) I also had some jicama (I forgot how it's called in English).
On our walk in the afternoon we decided to have some ice-cream. Mine wasn't creamy at all, I looked for a slightly harmless version, like a sorbet. I found strawberry and mango. It was delicious.
Back home I was starving (we had to wait at the car wash for over an hour, after walking for almost 2). We had tacos! I enjoyed them and did not overeat.
I loved this weekend. I am really thankful I got to enjoy such a wonderful couple of days.

I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and mean to keep doing so until the end. Abraham Lincoln

That's right! I'm really focusing on everyday doing my best, beating my own records and achieving a los of personal bests. Today I got up at 5:34 and did my morning workout session. I got ready for work and had my morning milkshake at 7 o'clock. I left on time for work but sady today I did run into traffic, no biggie!

I was surprinsingly well-behaved on the nutrition part, exercise is no problem, the problem is somethimes I seem to gravitate towards carbs LOL. But today was very different I was compleetly compliant, really hungry but remember "hunger is not an emergency" and like Tom Venuto says "It is the feeling of fat cells shrinking".

I left work at 5 and got home at 6. I helped my little sister with her homework, fixed my dinner and got ready for my zumba class. It started until 8:25 and ended at 9. I hope that next week everything is more timely and formal.

Here is my picture from today. I don't see a lot of difference but on the mirror I feel I have made some progress and my clothes fit very differently. Let's wait to see what the numbers say on sunday.

Thanks for reading and let's keep burning.

Don't settle for mediocrity when you know you are capable of excellence!

This is my description of yesterday, Thursday February 18.

Today has been a great day. I woke up at 5:34 am but decided to stay in bed for a couple of minutes more. I started my workout routine at 5:40 and by 6:10 I was ready to take a shower. I have to confess that I did cheat a little bit, I weighed myself again. It is no longer 79, it is 78.6 and I won't rest easy until I see a number below 78 in the near future (I'm giving it until the first days of next week).

While I was taking a shower I got hungry, really hungry! I was STARVING, a really fierce hunger stroke like it hadn't in a long time. I believe it had a lot to do with the new practice I've started since yesterday.

I have decided to eat my last meal of the day right before my zumba class because I had been eating it at around 9:30 and goint to bed at 10:30 or 11 and since this was not a long time after eating maybe it's having an unwanted effect. The recomendation is to have your last meal at least 2 hours before bedtime. Yesterday it was 7:30 when I ate my chicken and veggies, and went to bed at 11. This is the reason for my crazy hunger this morning, I changed something and now I'm seeing results related to it.

When I had finished getting ready for work I prepared my morning milkshake and packed all my food for the day. I left home at 7:05 and it really made a difference because I arrived at work at 7:57. Now I just have to leave work on time so I don't run into so much traffic.

All my meals went ok. I was tempted by a small cookie. There were 2 cookies in the packet and I shared one with my co-worker. It was delicious! Other than that I did not drift away from my nutrition and I feel I made an awesome job at being consistent.

I have a discovery to share, while I was looking for some information online I bumped into a website that I just loved. I was looking for the nutritional information of the veggies I brought for my meals and found it on an awesome website. It is www.nutritiondata.com. I just love it! It is so cool to help you keep track of your calorie intake, you create your profile, save your foods, add your recipes so it makes it really, really interesting and easy. I have never kept a food journal but now I'm seriously considering starting one on this site.

I left work at 6 ppm and arrived at home at 7. It was a good drive, not so much traffic, thanks a lot. To make thing even greater we finally had class today! No more lazy people messing up the schedule. I really liked the class and got tired and covered in sweat hahahaha! I have to say I did feel a difference in exhaustion due to the 2-day pause we had. The previous days with no class I did workout at home with a 20 minute DVD but it is nothing compared to a 50 minute class.

Today I also had dinner before my cardio. I am happy because I see results constantly, all my clothes feel different, fit better and I feel incredible. I am truly unstoppable and can't wait for weigh-in day on sunday to take measurements and share them. also, this weekend I promise to catch up with photos.

Have an amazing day and remember, we are all capable of excellence.

Obstacles and challenges happen for a reason, they are not designed to make you fail... they are designed to help you succeed.

This morning started out like one of those days, just weird. A day when strange things happen to you one right after the other, that's why I chose this quote for today, to change my mindset and turn obstacles into opportunities for succes.

Last night I was really cold when I went to bed. I knew I had to go to the bathroom right before sleeping but couldn't get myself out of bed and this is the origin of the strange morning events as you soon will learn. I woke up almost instantly, got up as if I were pulled by some strange string, the ultimate time had come, I had to go, really bad. When I was getting ready to go back to bed a thought crossed my mind: isn't it awful when you wake up just minutes before the alarm clock goes off? Hopefully today won't be the case.

Haha, I was sadly mistaken. It was 5:28, just minutes before the alarm clock was programmed to mark the start of a brand new day. I got into bed to enjoy a couple of extra warm minutes. When the time came I got up, walked my way to the living room for my first weigh-in for the week. Another thought crossed my mind: what if I gained weight? No, I've been doing great.

Another sad prediction! The law of attraction at its best, like they say, beware of the thoughts you keep, because everything in reality manifests from the mind. the truth is that according to the scale I am up 1 kg since Sunday morning. This time I don't understand why. What I did seriously consider was to stop this nonsense and set a formal weigh-in day. I am thinking sunday mornings at 8. I have to say I got really sad with what the scale said, it set me to a gloomy mood. Nonsense, I better get myself to workout. I did my Tuesday quickie workout and cardio workout, I was done by 6:25. I got ready for work and left home.

Traffic in this city is something I had never experienced before, and it does not seem to lessen, quite on the contrary. I do not get upset by it because it is always there and there is nothing I can do about it. I just drive and enjoy my favorite music, the more I drive, the more I sing that's the way I see it!

On the nutrition part, everything is going OK. I have just had my fourth meal at 4:30 and I'm planning on eating the fifth right before I go to my zumba class because I have been dining really late and with my father and his wife so I don't control myself properly, I tend to eat some of what they're eating. This is also the reason why I can't seem to control my eating on weekends, it is my mission to control my calorie intake this saturday and sunday.

This is what nutrition looked like today:

1. Milkshake at 7 am: a cup of skim milk, 1/3 cup of oatmeal, 2 eggwhites, 6 almonds and a banana.
2. 100 grams of yogurt and 1/3 cup of oatmeal. 3 ham rolls (turkey breast)
3. 1/2 cup brown rice and 3 chicken/egg patties in tomatoe sauce.
4. 4 ham rolls with cream cheese, 6 almonds and a cucumber
5. Chicken breast, carrot and almonds.

Meal #5 will be right before my zumba class. Hopefully people will show up for it today, yesterday nobody else did because it was raining so I worked out at home with a cardio DVD.

I have drank 10 glasses of water so far and the goal is 12. I am feeling hungry now but hunger is not an emergency, it is the feeling of fat cells shrinking.

In the beginning...

Once upon a time there was a happy little girl named Vania. Physically, she had beautiful brown eyes, curly brown hair and was a bit overweight (that's how her loved ones described her using a soft tone for discretion purposes). Truly, she was not so happy about it. She knew she yearned to be lighter, like her friends. She was a cheerleader for the local football team and longed to be light enough to be atop the human pyramids or carried by the older girls. She hated the fact that clothes didn't fit her right or were too tight. She wondered what it felt like to wait to grow up a little bit more so pants fit you right because they never did.

Everywhere she would hear that she'd grow out of it. 'She's a kid, let her enjoy her childhood' or 'It's not such a big deal, she is quite healthy as it is.' one thing was true, no one approached her to find out if she was OK with her weight, nobody asked if she wanted to change and she didn't know she could take matters into her own hands, all she did was do as she was told and enjoy life, and she really did, don't go thinking she didn't have a great childhood 'cause she had a blast!

So now you wonder, did she grow out of it? NO, not really. She learned to live with it, to follow what most people repeat over and over again, love yourself, always love yourself and accept your body as you are.

So, what now?

Ok, so now I have come a long way. In my case it has been a lot of preparation to start this journey. Since I have always accepted the way I looked, longing for a slimmer body but not beating myself up for not having it I never thought I was addicted to diets or that I had a weight problem. I have tried several times to loose weight, sometimes with a lot of success and others with no success at all. The truth is I got addicted to finding the next big thing and not giving full dedication to one strategy or combination of strategies.

Now I understand there is no big deal about it. Like Tom Venuto says it is a simple thing to loose fat but it is a very complex thin also because of the number of factors that are invlolved in the process. I am excited to say that this time I am very different in so many ways that I am prepared to say good bye to my excess fat once and for all. No more information overload, no more changing programmes in the middle of them, no more falling off the wagon over a cookie, a party or a bingeing episode, we all have them so deal with it and keep moving forward.

Now, let me tell you how the unstoppable transformation journey has gone so far...

Stage 1
Start date: January 4, 2010
Start weight: 82.2 kg.
Start BF%: unknown
Starting measurements: unknown
# of pants in suitcase that don't fit: 5
Picture: I don't have one formally but I'll upload one from new year's to take as reference.
Plan: workout everyday in my zumba class and run on weekends. Do some portion control.

This is a picture from new year's: sorry but I wasn't thinking about transformations then...

Two weeks later, I don't see a lot of progress. By January 11 my weight was down to 81.7 (400 grams in 1 week). I kept reading blogs from my favourite fitness authors Tom Venuto and Scott Tousignant.

Stage 2
Start date: January 18, 2010
Height: 1.65 mts
Start weight: 81.7 kg.
Start BF%: unknown
Starting measurements: unknown
# of pants in suitcase that don't fit: 5
Picture: There is one I took in the office. Promise it will be here tonight.
Plan: Follow Scott Tousignant Unstoppable Fatloss Programme (I have signed up for 6 months). I do quickie workouts in the morning progressively increasing the weight I carry and zumba classes at night. I follow Tom Venuto's BFFM nutrition.

This is a picture from February 10:


I have decided to start a blog to hold myself publicly accountable for this wonderful journey to success, the journey to the body of my dreams. I keep a writen journal but now I am aiming for more accountability and motivation. This are my most recent results:

Date: February 14, 2010
Height: 1.65 mts
Weight: 78 kg
BF: 27.2%
Measurements:

• Waist: 78.5 cm (lost 1.5 cm so far)
• Hips: 94.5 cm (lost 3.5 cm)
• Biceps: 32.5 cm (lost .5 cm)
• Thighs: 67.5 and 68.5 cm (lost 1.5 cm)
• Calves: 41 and 41.5 cm (gained and lost, the same as starting point).

# of pants in suitcase that don't fit: 2 YEAH!

Well, this is it for today. I'll be sharing this with people and hopefully I have some visitors and comments.