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?

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.)

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.

Elimination Diet, Day 12 (or, the day I'm putting the ED on hold for 24 hrs)

Yesterday I consumed milk, and today I woke up weighing 0.2 pounds heavier than my weigh-in yesterday morning. That doesn't sound like a lot, but I weighed the same for three days in a row and therefore am taking it as a sign of a sensitivity to milk. Well, that and the fact that my stomach felt like the cauldron from the opening scene of the Scottish play. This evening, I weighed in at 112.6 (I'll confess that I broke and had two pizza rolls, but only after I decided to take today off.....reason next). Onto my rationale, I decided that since I'm going to have to take a day or so to recover from my food sensitivity, I was going to take the night off and go to dinner with my boyfriend, who happens to be in town.

We're not going anywhere crazy--just a local steakhouse. I chose this location because I figure the ingredients are pretty apparent--I'm getting a steak (beef + salt), a potato (butter + potato, lol), and a salad (iceburg + dressing). (I was also "bad" and ate two pizza rolls.) Then tonight/tomorrow, I'm going to take the mixture of potassium bicarbonate + baking soda, and wait for my system to normalize (and eat a whole lotta chicken and rice...YEYAH). I really can't even be sad, because I figured I had a sensitivity to dairy, and I've mostly been ignoring the possibility. However, after being off dairy for so long, I didn't realize how TIRED it made me, and how bad it made my stomach hurt. After I introduce soy into my diet, if I'm not sensitive to that, I'll probably start trying to get used to soy milk as a suitable replacement. (I'm going to guess that it's NOTHING like cow's milk, however.)

Didn't go to the gym yesterday due to some serious lactic acid buildup in the ole muscles, but went today and hit it hard! :)

I focused mainly on lower back, and some shoulders/delts. Other than that, today has been largely unproductive. I started my asthma medicines, and I'm hoping to note a difference in the next few days.

Elimination Diet, Day 9

So today I did it. I ate tons of dehydrated bananas. TONS. I dehydrated three of them, and I got better at dehydrating the more I did it. :) (I only ate them in the morning though, until I could gauge whether I'm sensitive to them or not.) And the verdict is in...I'M NOT. I'm also not sensitive to chicken, which I ate the heck out of yesterday.

As for my weight--today I weighed 111.8 (morning) and 111.0 (evening). I'm thinking the decrease in weight over the day is probably because I hit the gym so hard this afternoon. :) It was a legs day, which means I worked my pahookus off and burned some serious calories. I think today's workout  was a lot easier, since I had some protein in my belly (I ate some chicken before I went) and since I had the promise of brown rice for dinner tonight. I'm reeealllly hoping I'm not sensitive to rice, because I lurve it. It would be a sad day if I could no longer eat it.

Here is my chart from the gym today:

Today also kinda sucked, even though I was in food bliss. I had a falling out with my boyfriend, and it made me feel horrible. Here's to hoping tomorrow is a better day! I figure my butt is gonna throb like a sore tooth in the morning, which means I'm going to have to give my arms a great workout to go with it.

Tomorrow, I've got to go to the grocery store, since my dad forgot to get my dogs their food, and I also need to pick up some apples (I've been eating them frequently), some more nuts, and some more bananas. I reckon I'll dehydrate TONS just to keep around for when I need something crunchy. One good thing I can say about this diet is it is teaching me how to do new things in the kitchen--first roasting a chicken, then using the oven as a dehydrator! I don't know what's next, but I don't think I'll mind a bit. :)

Elimination Diet, Day 8

This morning, I weighed in at 111.6. This evening (after--TMI ALERT--having diarrhea), I weighed in 0.2 pounds less--111.4. This could be because I have virtually starved myself in ANTICIPATION today. (Okay, I didn't totally starve myself--I had spinach covered with a lentil/red pepper/walnut puree for breakfast today, two apples, and a bag of pineapple.) Since I was hungry and a little weak, I forwent the gym today. BUT TOMORROW, I SHALL IT IT WITH A FURY.....

See, today is when I got to reintroduce chicken into my diet. I love chicken. I can season it with salt and be okay. Tonight for dinner, I threw a little roasting chicken into a baking pan (it's actually homegrown--my dad slaughtered it himself!), then greased it up with olive oil and course sea salt. Then I added some chicken stock (I pre-made this a few weeks ago from another one of our little roasting chickens); threw in some green beans, red peppers, and spinach leaves; and covered it. I roasted it in the oven for about 1.5 hours at 350, and it.came.out.MARVELOUSLY.

I'm serious. I probably just ate about eight ounces of chicken in one sitting. I've not been this full for days, since I've been starving and counting down the days til I got to eat stuff I reallllly like.

I've also got bananas dehydrating in the oven in anticipation for tomorrow morning. :) Plus I get to add rice to my chicken tomorrow evening. 'Tis a glorious time in my life. (I can't even talk about a week and a half from now, where I'll presumably be able to eat butter and eggs too, because then I'm making the LARGEST vat of fried rice imaginable and ROLLING IN IT.)

Today has been a trial. I hate feeling weak, and I hate not having complex carbs. It makes it difficult for me to enjoy the gym, and I don't feel like I've been getting the protein I've needed. This all changed when I added chicken back, and will change even more since I CAN have rice tomorrow. It will be the perfect pre-workout meal, as far as I'm concerned. Tons of protein, some carbs, some fats, and bliss!

Elimination Diet: Week One Review

When I decided to start the elimination diet, it was because I was working my ass off in the gym and not seeing results on the scale. Although I know we all like to repeat the mantra that muscle weighs more than fat, the fact remained that I spent eight weeks working out and restricting my calories only for my weight to go UP rather than down.

I had already begun to suspect that I was sensitive to some food I was consuming on a regular basis. Then the week before I started the diet, I went to a Mexican restaurant with my boyfriend, and experienced fatigue, headaches, and severe stomach issues for several days (not one day, mind you). I have always dealt with stomach problems, namely those related to GERD and something akin to IBS. Whenever I ate, I would run to the toilet. Whenever I got stressed, I would run to the toilet. It seemed like I was running to the toilet all the time.

After I read the initial article about Dr. Mansfield's diet, I was skeptical. There weren't many book reviews because this book was only recently released (I think maybe in October?). I also couldn't get immediate hold of it because it was mainly released overseas. However, I found a blogger, Blissful Mama, who was trying out the diet. She wasn't being paid, and her opinions were all her own. And she is really the one who solidified this idea that I should try it as well. So I bought the book.

I'm not going to kid you and say this week has been a cakewalk. The first day was miserable, running to the toilet every 15 minutes as a result of the Epsom salts. Then the food hankerings started. I wanted eggs. And milk. And bread, for God's sake! And I quickly tired of lentils, and pineapple, and lentils. And cod. (If I never have to see cod for as long as I live, I will be a happy girl.) Being from Louisiana, I craved garlic and onion powder. I wanted to douse everything in pepper. I wanted whip out my trusty container of Tony's and sprinkle it on EVERYTHING.

But I didn't. Because I wanted this diet to work. And so far? IT HAS. Below are my statistics regarding my weight throughout the week.

I've lost FIVE pounds. IN SEVEN DAYS. It's a post-Christmas miracle! But the work isn't done. The next couple of weeks marks the second phase of the diet, in which I slowly reintroduce foods. As I said in my previous post, I got to eat broccoli tonight, and you've NEVER seen someone so happy to eat her broccoli.

I'm not going to lie. I'm TERRIFIED at the thought of having a reaction to dairy. Or eggs. Or wheat. Or yeast. But I'm also not exactly welcoming of the thought that I'm slowly poisoning my body with things it reacts violently to. I've got an allergy test scheduled for next week, which means I might have to wait a few days to rid myself of the subsequent allergic reactions that are sure to ensue following those tests before introducing any new foods. That's not the most exciting prospect either. :-/

Regardless, the first week of this diet has proven to me that SOMETHING in my diet is causing my inability to lose weight and my gastric distress. I've already committed this much time and trouble, so I'm going to stick with it and see how the next month and a half goes.

Elimination Diet, Day 4/My Day at the Gym

Yesterday was more of the same diet foods. My morning weigh-in was at 113.8 and my evening weigh-in was 115.2. So far, my chart looks like this:

	Morning Weight	Evening Weight
Night before	---	118.8
Day 1	117.8	114.4
Day 2	114.4	115.4
Day 3	114.4	115.8 (after din)
Day 4	113.8	115.2

My weight is holding pretty steady, and I managed to drink 8 glasses of water yesterday. The corners of my mouth are healing nicely, and I hope that in a couple of days, the cracking will be a distant nightmare. 

So, I alluded to a horrible incident in the gym yesterday. Let me explain....

I already knew it was going to be a shitty day. My littlest brother was running late for school (I drop him off in the morning to ensure that I get up and get my pahookis to the gym), I forgot my breakfast (sliced pineapple) on my way out of the door, and I was starving come gym time. 

Then I get on the only open treadmill to start my fitness test and the woman on the one beside it had the worst imaginable breath ever. I'm talking....rank. It made me want to throw up, except, well, I didn't have anything in my darn stomach to heave! 

I managed to get through my upright bike, my AMT, and my running cardio (my fitness test was better than the last time, so that's a plus!); then I headed to the weight room. Since I had done pecs and lower back the day before, I figured I could do some triceps and abs to balance it out and focus on legs during the latter part of the week. So I grab my bosu ball and I'm heading to set up my station when I hear a guy kinda yell/grunt really loudly by the leg press machine. I figure he smushed his finger between two plates (haven't we all?) and I didn't give it much thought....until he did it again, much louder, and remained hunched by the machine. 

I cautiously approached him from the other side, asking if he was okay (because I thought maybe he had somehow gotten caught under the machine--I had no idea how I was going to help, but I HAD to offer). That's when I notice his hands were curled into claws and that he was seizing. 

At that moment, he fell down and began to convulse. I've seen someone have a seizure before, and luckily there was someone else in the weight room at that time who ran to help assist me. We rolled him over, and then realized this was no normal seizure. He was bleeding from his mouth and his eyes. His eyes actually looked black around the edges because of the blood vessels, and I saw blood coming from them. It wasn't just broken blood vessels, but ACTUAL blood. Now, had it just been coming from his mouth, I would have figured he had bitten his tongue. As it was, we knew something was very VERY wrong. 

I told the guy who was holding him to stay with him, then SPRINTED to the main desk to tell the person to call 911; that a man was having a seizure. Being as she was from another country, I guess she didn't understand me or why I was shouting. I shouted to the rest of the gym that if a medical professional was there, that they needed to come fast, because he needed a doctor or a nurse. By that time, I had already grabbed my phone and started dialing 911. They answered immediately, and after I calmed down, I explained where I was, what was happening, and to send help. A few minutes later, the managers of the facility also came downstairs and attempted to help. There was nothing I could do, and he was having large muscle contractions by this time, and lapsing in and out of consciousness. The police chief arrived, and about ten minutes after making the call, the paramedics (FINALLY) showed up. 

It turns out that this guy (who couldn't have been older than 21 or 22) had a preexisting condition; he wasn't wearing a medical bracelet indicating his propensity for seizures (which I know can be difficult and burdensome to wear in a gym). The medics got him in the bus and started an IV, and he suffered a gash to the head as well when he seized. I gave the police a report, and then went cut my workout short and went home. 

The rest of the day was pretty much wasted. I didn't feel better until I called the hospital, explained who I was (to three separate people), and just asked if he was okay. They told me they couldn't give me a report (which I was okay with and understood, due to HIIPA), but that he was being released (it was noon at that time).

However, it got me thinking....the emergency procedures in this gym were sorely lacking. No one covered this guy to keep him from going into shock (and the weight room was cold). The people behind the front desk were not equipped to handle such an emergency. They didn't even call the ambulance, but instead opted to phone the police, which could have wasted PRECIOUS minutes had this been something worse (not that this wasn't God-awful) and had I not called 911 instead. No one brought a defib in case this guy's heart stopped, and I'm not sure they even had one. It seems to me that every single gym should have an emergency plan in place, particularly at a university. No alarm was raised, no intercom system was used, and no one seemed to be in much of a hurry. 

It also made me think about how fragile life is, how unpredictable your day may be, and how much I hold on to trivial details when I should be thinking about the larger picture. 

Just food for thought....

Body Shots - 1/21/2013 - Gauging where I'm at

I looked high and low for a swimsuit, but they're all packed up. Thus, I picked some boyshorts and a matching top to take these pictures in (which are actually probably more covering than a swimsuit!).

As the caption says, I've been working out for about eight weeks--I started on November 27 (after gorging myself on EVERYTHING). I hope to have a lot more definition by the time summer rolls around, and I'd LOVE to have some cuts in my legs.

Compared to where I was 8 weeks ago, I look TONS better. :) I wish I had some proper before pictures to display.

Elimination Diet, Day 2

I started day 2 by weighing in as soon as I woke up. The scale still read 114.4 from the night before. I figured that today my weight would go back up as I started to rehydrate, but by the evening, I only weighed one more pound than I started (115.4).

I hit the gym hard, focusing mostly on legs and lower back. I started with a mile and a half on upright bike (doing for alternating resistance, hill style), which took eight minutes. I normally do cardio first, but I wanted to really hit the weights hard since I had slacked off recently. After weights, I went for 20 minutes on the AMT, which is one of my favorite machines in the gym--it's like an elliptical on steroids. My workout routine consisted of the following (I nickname my own free weight exercises, and estimate the time for each one--I actually did weights for 38 minutes yesterday, but I try to account for rests):

If you're not familiar with www.sparkpeople.com, I suggest you take a look. It's what I use to track my exercises and calories daily, and I absolutely love it. I also take progress of how many miles I go during the week (running, cycling, on the Stairmaster and AMT, etc). I'll also do a post soon about my gadgets that I use in the gym and my undying love/adoration for them.

Following is a screen shot of the calories I consumed yesterday. I just threw everything together, so the 3 cups of lentils for lunch were actually spread out through the day, etc.

As you can see, even though my diet is incredibly limited, I'm still getting the proper amount of carbs, fat, and protein, which is probably better than I did before (I was getting either far too many calories or far too few), but I don't have the refined sugars and proteins that I'm used to. I won't lie--my little brother got pizza yesterday and I side-eyed it so hard. I can't wait for day 7, when I get to introduce broccoli, and especially day 8, which is CHICKEN!!! :)

Elimination Diet, Day 1

Yesterday (1/20/2013) I started the elimination diet. This consisted of me taking two tablespoons of Epsom salts and only eating foods off the recommended 40 list. The Epsom salts function as a laxative to "eliminate" everything else bad you've had up until the time you started the diet, and BOY HOWDY, DOES IT. I was miserable all day yesterday, sprinting to the toilet, and my workout *really* suffered because I was so dehydrated. At one point, my legs felt weak because I had literally just expelled all the water from my body. Even though I tried to rehydrate, there simply isn't enough water in the world to counteract the disgusting way Epsom salts work on your body.

The night before I began the ED, I weighed in at 118.8. I'm not gonna lie. Those numbers broke my heart. It's really what galvanized my ass into action, when I am being completely honest. The next day, I measured myself in the morning and weighed in just above 117 (I guess that's my "resting weight") and by yesterday evening, I was down to 115.6. I lost 3.2 pounds of water weight in one day. That's a LOT of effing water.

So what did I eat yesterday? I had an apple for breakfast, then I soaked and simmered lentils for lunch. The great thing about the first seven days of this "diet" is that you can have AS MUCH OF THE FOODS ON THE LIST AS YOU WANT. The difficult thing is the only thing you can season with is pure sea salt and olive oil. Luckily, lentils taste awesome with salt on them, and I had two bowls. Following this, I went to the gym, then to the grocery store to stock up on some more food that was on the "good" list. I came back home with a lamb chop, a bag of cod, a fresh pineapple, some fresh apples, some pistachios, and some walnuts. For dinner I had the lamb, which sucked. I am no master chef, and salt is NOT enough for lamb. I followed it up with some pineapple.

At the end of the night, as I said before, I weighed 115.6. This morning, on day two of the diet, I weighed 114.4. Weird.

Overall and honestly, as far as my reflections for the first day go: it was miserable. My body was hungry, I took a nap because I was so tired, my stomach hurt due to the Epsom salts, and I was irritable for all the above reasons. However, my stomach never actually felt hungry (I just knew my body was). The foods aren't all too bad, and after I figure out how to cook everything, I'm sure it will be better. I'd love to find some raw cashews, because I can cook with those easily!

A little about me + goals/measurements

Although I've blogged before, I've been strictly anonymous and like to write about my rants and raves. I've been wanting to write more about my progress to getting back into shape, but my other blog is not the venue in which others may appreciate it. Therefore, I created this blog to foster a sense of accountability in my workouts, to track my achievements and failures, and also to possibly help others as they try to achieve their own goals.

I'm a lawyer by trade, although since I've graduated from law school and passed the bar, I've been woefully unemployed. I'm from the great state of Louisiana, where the general attitude is that people live to eat, rather than eat to live. I'm unashamedly of the former group, and will not lie--I lerrrrve food. I'm not in terrible shape, and I'm not overweight or anything more than average. But I'm tired of being average. I want to look great. I want to feel great. And I want to do so in such a manner than is SUSTAINABLE, not just something that happens once a year after I cut out ALL THE THINGS that I want to eat. 

I will admit that I've gained about five pounds since I graduated from law school, and I don't like it. I'm five foot two, and five pounds shows up. This was the main motivator to get back into the gym, but now I think I really need to kick it into high gear. I'll be posting some pictures of me in a swimsuit in the next few days so as to watch my progress, and my weight/measurements/goals are listed below.

Goals:

(1) Eliminate overly-processed foods from my diet 6 days out of the week. 

(2) Cook at home more often. 

(3) Lose about ten pounds.

(4) Eventually see lower ab definition.

(5) Identify food sensitivities and work to avoid them.

(6) Experiment with diverse foods.

(7) Get to less than 20% body fat. 

Body Part Measured	01/19/2013
Weight	118
Chest	33
Waist	25.25
Hips	37
Bicep (unflexed)	L: 10         R: 10
Bicep (flexed)	L: 10.75    R: 10.75
Calf	13
Thigh (top)	L: 21.5      R: 22
Thigh (above knee)	15
BMI	21.6