I'm baaaaaaaaaack

I've not used this blog in a while, and man are things different. I'm currently working full time as an ELA and Social Studies teacher, and I absolutely love it. I'm also taking ANOTHER bar examination this summer (because, hey, why not?).

I've decided to revive this blog for a number of reasons--namely, I'm back to losing weight. I maintained for such a long time that I didn't need to come back to this blog, but one year ago, I had a huge life changing event occur--I broke my foot. I broke it so badly that I had to have a plate put it in that evening, spent three months in a wheelchair, and then spent several more months undergoing rehab. It still gives me trouble, though I'm back on it. The trouble stems from me eating like I was still working out, and that got me up to approximately 125ish pounds. So now I'm back. I've gone back to the elimination diet because it worked so well for me last time, and because I could eat as many of the safe foods as I liked, and because I tracked all the foods I could still eat, which means I didn't have to suffer for the first week like I did the first time around.

Thus far, it's been going pretty well. Here are my stats for the past few days:

You can see I broke it on Saturday night (though not terribly), but I'm back to it. Tonight, for example, I had blackened chicken, steamed green beans, and a baked sweet potato. I also went to the gym tonight, where I worked out on the AMT (15 min/180 calories) and did weights (arms/shoulders), which looked like this:

Time for bed, but keep looking for updates.

Body shots (3.28.13)

I know I don't update as much as I should, but since I'm not on a strict diet regimen, I feel as though I have less to write about. Regardless, I've still been hitting the gym super hard, and have a bunch of strength goals I hope to achieve within the next two months. In order to facilitate this, I located and implemented a 12-week strength training program to (a) reach these goals and (b) to prevent the dreaded plateau people all too often encounter with their everyday workout routine. This particular program employs lots of Olympic weightlifting moves, including power cleans, snatches, squats, and lunges. And I really do think I'm getting stronger! I guess we'll know at the end of the 12 weeks!

Something else I've decided to keep doing is a monthly body shots progression session. How's that for rhyming? I'm going to post the regular size of this month's shots first, and I am also posting a slideshow that I will continue to update as my progress becomes more apparent with each month.

Here is the slideshow:

Kizoa slideshow: Body Progress Thus Far.... - Slideshow

I can really tell the difference between my upper body, in particular my pecs, shoulders, and biceps. I also notice a bit more stridation on top of my ribs.

Today, I also took my body measurements, including my body fat:

Although I've gained a bit of weight from the last time I measured, I'm pleased to report I've lost even more off my hips! :) I also gained .25 of an inch on each calf! I'm not sure why, but the tops of my thighs have gone up, while the bottoms of them have decreased, but I don't mind seeing as how my overall hip measurement is less.

Tomorrow I'll post the 12-week strength training program I'm pursuing! 

Body fat tests and Greek yogurt substitutes....

I keep meaning to get back on the sensitivity diet, but I've not restarted, so there's that.... :)

At the same time, I am really feeling unrepentant. I've been having a grand old time enjoying life and foods and friends since the Texas Bar Exam, and I haven't gained much weight back (just three pounds), so I've been sitting pretty at about 110. This is a good, comfortable weight for me, but I WOULD like to check and see if I'm sensitive to any more foods and thus will probably dedicate another month of my life to it in the near future. (It won't be as bad as the first go-round, since I know that I can eat eggs and rice and chicken and pretty much any other meat.)

I've also introduced Lactaid into my life, and I.LOVE.IT. It's lactose-free milk and milk products, and they're keeping me sane. I was so unhappy when I discovered I had a lactose intolerance (although I was thankful, because the gas and accompanying cramps could have been attributed to many other things, so narrowing it down and honing in on this sensitivity was a big deal). Now? It's like old times!

Which brings me to my experiment of the day--I know I'm sensitive to sugars. When I'm not eating it, I FEEL better, and after eating it again after a month of having not, I was shocked at how sluggish it made me feel, and how disgustingly SWEET it was. I tried Truvia in its place, but it gave me a headache, so I swapped to honey and agave because they're much less processed alternatives. That being said, sugar seems to be added to EVERYTHING, and you never know what kind of sugar it is (as in, it says 11 grams of sugars--aside from the label telling you what's in the product, you don't know if the product derives most of its sugars naturally, like fruit, or from additions of sweeteners). Particularly, there is a LOT of sugar in Greek yogurt. This product is like the trifecta of awesomeness and stuff I'm not supposed to eat, since it contains both sugar AND lactose.

Today, I got irritated with the fact that a 100 calorie portion of Greek yogurt contains ELEVEN grams of sugar. That's absurd, in my opinion. So I got out my Lactaid cottage cheese (I hate the texture of cottage cheese, but it's good for you) and decided to try to make something similar to Greek yogurt. I put 1/4 cup of it into a food processor, added 1 tablespoon of Lactaid milk, spooned in 1 teaspoon of organic honey, then sprinkled a pinch of cinnamon and cocoa powder in it and put it in motion. I topped it with 1/4 cup Kashi cinnamon crumbles (yes, it has sugars, but I'm looking for some awesometastic alternatives and considering making my own granola because it's not really *that* difficult). And do you know what? IT TASTED A LOT LIKE GREEK YOGURT. And I was able to control the type of sugars that went into it. :) And with the Kashi on top, it had 10 grams of protein and 130 calories. I'm going to count that as a win.

Monday, I also had the opportunity to get my body fat tested at my gym. They used a 3-spot test, and measured me as between 19 and 20 percent body fat! Because I know that about three months ago, I would have been AT LEAST 28% body fat, I was both shocked and excited. I've also started a new work out regimen in the gym to increase strength, so I'm going to see how that impacts my body and am going to try to stick to it as closely as I can (aside from adding more cardio than is recommended--I'm not a bodybuilder and I think that the cardio recommendations were made with bodybuilding in mind).

So, do *you* have any "healthy" food substitutions that you like to make or any recipes that can double as a deliciously decadent counterpart?

First 5K

Finished my first 5K today (well, first *real* 5K--I ran one years ago and didn't formally register and had bronchitis and undiagnosed asthma, so I'm counting this as my first real one). Yep--I FINISHED. :)

I also won the overall women's division, with a time of 28:02. (All the faster women runners were competing in the 10K, but I STILL WON.) According to my MotoActv, the race was actually 3.32 miles, which meant my average pace was 8:27 minutes/mile. As far as personal bests, I ran my first mile in 7:54 minutes. THAT'S FAST, y'all. Although I progressively got slower, I'm still really proud of myself and excited about the possibility in competing in more 5Ks. My slowest mile was only 9:06, and at 3.10 miles (an actual 5K), my time was 26:25 minutes.

Obviously, I'm extremely proud of myself, and excited about my capability to run now that I'm properly medicated with regards to my asthma.

I'm also excited about my award, which wasn't a medal, but was a stretched canvas poster of today's event. A big one. And it's allllll mine. :D

Progress (measurements)

Lately I've been adding foods in no particular order, although I'm definitely still following the "rules": I don't add anything that's in the same food family within five days of the other, I still space them out, and I monitor my weight religiously to make sure I'm not sensitive to the food. The past 24 hours, I've added in black pepper and strawberries. Neither caused a reaction, and I'm happy to be able to add them to my "safe" foods list, although they're not absolutely necessary. Tonight I ate ONE STEM of broccoli (which didn't make me gain weight last time) and got terrible gas--I recall having gas last time, and apparently that's not a normal reaction to broccoli (which is just what I wrote it off as). :) That makes several foods that I really can't eat without gastric distress. These foods are:

1) Caffeine
2) Wheat
3) Sweet potatoes (but not normal potatoes--weird, huh?)
4) Broccoli
5) Cashews (I'm allergic to peanuts, so I guess it stands to reason)
6) Milk (although I think I'm going to introduce lactose-free milk tomorrow and see what happens)

Some foods I'm not necessarily SENSITIVE to but that I like to stay away from are butter and onions, because I don't like how they make me feel.

As far as weights, this morning I weighed in at 108.2 and this evening I weighed 108.6 lbs. I also finally took some measurements of my body this morning, and my progress looks like this:

Obviously this is a huge difference, and great progress in such a small period of time. At this point, I'm not even TRYING to lose weight. I'm just following my diet and working my ass off in the gym, and the weight just keeps coming off. I've decided to revamp my program to focus on really gaining muscle and cutting fat (rather than focusing on weight like I've been), so I'm going to be researching how to do that.

I've already discussed my training this morning, but here are my charts with regard to exercise and diet, respectively:

Also, today I did something big: I registered for a 5K. It's only my second one, and the first time, I was an undiagnosed asthmatic, ran with bronchitis, and wanted to die. My time was around 33 minutes, if I recall correctly. This time, I'd REALLY love to run a 27 minute 5K, but I'll settle for under 30. :) I'm going to be training for this in the gym and outside too, and I'm really excited--but I don't have much time! It's going to be on March 9! (Wish me luck.)

Personal Best in Running....

Today I ran a personal best on the inside track, and felt GREAT doing so. :) Since I've had my asthma diagnosed, I've been on a daily double dose of drugs to help manage it, and although my peak flow readings aren't much better, they have been improving. When I start cardio without having my inhaler, I can go for about five minutes before my heart rate is about 180 and I feel like dying. When I take ONE puff, I can go for thirty minutes without even thinking about stopping and my heart rate is a LOT lower.

So yeah, personal best. Today I was able to jog 2.7 miles in 24:27 (although the gym sign equates 9 laps with a mile, and I went 25 laps, which technically means 2.78 miles, BUT I'm going with my Motoactv instead....). My max heart rate was 181, and my average was 173 beats per minute. I could have kept going, but wanted to log the time without slowing my overall pace. I'm working up to jogging 3.1 miles (a 5K) in 27 minutes, and I think I can achieve it soon. I'm going to work on it inside, then go outside (which is harder due to the incline and planes of the road). So yeah, my pace is 9:03 min/mile, which is about the range I need to run that 5K. :D (So excited!)

I only did cardio today, but I'll log my fitness and eating tonight, along with all of my measurements. What personal bests have you achieved lately?

Body shots showing progress + update

Today, though I spent a good amount of time studying, I managed to work out and take some body shots for comparison (seeing as how it's been 4 weeks and 2 days since the last time I took them and I wanted to be consistent). Here are the before and to-date (as it's technically not really an after):

BEFORE

TODAY

Although I can see some results (namely in the calves and back region), I still have a lot further to go, in my opinion. I'm trying to get my legs more "cut" and want to cut some of the fat still left on my abs. However, I am proud of the progress that you can see in just four short weeks, and hope to gain even more the next four!

While at the gym today, I felt like a moron. I've been inwardly moaning about the lack of rowing machines at my gym (which is otherwise a top-rate facility and amazing), and finally made it up to the inside jogging track. WHERE THERE ARE AT LEAST FIVE ROWING MACHINES. Although I had already done tons of cardio, I still hopped on a machine and rowed for 5 minutes (1000 m) for old time's sake. It felt good. Here's a shot of what I did in the gym today (weight training only targeted the triceps):

My running keeps getting better and better, and I've finally gotten rid of the residual effects of the wheat/sweet potato from a few days ago! My weight has finally normalized again at around 109.6, so tonight I added black pepper (I know, I shouldn't shift things around, but I'm tired of waiting for black pepper and want to go ahead and figure out if I'm sensitive to it). I've been packing my lunch while studying every day, and make sure to pack TONS of fruits/carrots to eat throughout my studying period. It makes it a lot easier to focus on what's in front of me if I'm not hungry.

I'm basically falling asleep at the keyboard right now, and have to wake up at 6:00 am to work out, so I'm going to bid you adieu.