Quick update (i.e.: I haven't died)

It's been a while since I've posted, and I'll blame that on my studies for the Texas bar (which are currently whooping my ass, just for the record). Since I last updated, I spent 5 full days away from home and managed to keep my diet (!!!), had a reaction to wheat/sweet potatoes, and am slowly working to come back from the residual weight gain that resulted.

My workout schedule has been pretty consistent (aside from time taken during job interviews), and I'm feeling good about my results. I've been for a few runs outside and like them SO MUCH MORE now that I have an inhaler and can actually breathe. :)

Because of bar studies, I got up today and was in the gym before 7:00 am, then studied from 10:00 to 6:00. I've gotten stuff done, but I NEED TO DO MORE. I'm seriously freaking out about the bar, and can't even begin to express how much I want it all to be over.

Tomorrow, I'll post a proper blog and get back on track with my fitness screen shots, but for the time being, I'm going to veg on my bed and study more family law. God help me.....

I hate cashews, and they hate me.

I've went to bed by 9:30 p.m. the past two nights, and feel like my body is exhausted and pre-sickness, so I'm trying to ward that off as best as I can (I think the good diet, coupled with enough exercise and water and fruits has been extremely beneficial to minimizing potential bugs, however).

Yesterday, I introduced an orange in the morning and that seemed to be fine....no weird effects or strange occurrences. But then, I happened into the health food store while waiting for my second job interview and discovered some raw cashews, which are on the "safe" foods list....I just haven't been eating them due to not having a health food store next to where I live. Okay, y'all, I know I'm allergic to peanuts. I also realize that cashews are legumes. What I didn't realize is how my body apparently doesn't like EITHER of them. About an hour after eating those little bastards, my stomach was aching (and I do mean aching), and I had a headache AND the back of my mouth and jaws felt a little numb. My weight this morning sealed the deal. The past three days, my morning weights have been 109.6, 109.2 and 109.4, respectively. (The .2 weight gain is probably due to potatoes.). This morning, I was up to 109.8, and I wholeheartedly blame cashews. Today I'll be taking it easy and only eating the foods on my safe list, although it makes me angry that my diet was sabotaged by a food that should be low-sensitivity. 

Job interviews were....interesting. The first one I went to was for a legal secretary job in a reaaaally small town. The guy expressed surprise at having not one, but THREE lawyers apply for the job. The second interview was crazy. I mean, the guy was cray, the interview was cray, the questions were cray. My mom is convinced I'll get the second job. ::such is my life::

Today I'm studying, then hitting the gym since I couldn't yesterday and because I MISS IT. I need some weights in my life. (I think I'm hitting biceps and calves today.)

Elimination Diet, Addition of Tuna and Potatoes (and how I'm managing a 5-day roadtrip)

Pardon my absence the past couple of days; I got lazy and didn't add anything new to my diet. ::sheepish face:: However, last night I was able to procure a DELICIOUS tuna steak, which I seared and relished half-raw. My weights for the past few days have looked like this:

It looks like I may have a food reaction to potatoes, although I did eat some of my boyfriend's mom's brown rice, and though she didn't use any oil in it or anything else, I'm wondering if it was a combination of the two. I also weighed in after I had an apple, so I might wait a little longer and reweigh myself to see if it looks like my weight is sticking. Regardless, I'm not in love with potatoes and think I can manage if it's out of my diet. The butter test was interesting, because I am apparently not sensitive to it--just the lactose in milk, it appears. (Butter allegedly doesn't have any lactose in it, or if it does, it's negligible..like...0.07% or something.) 

I'm not sure if I said this earlier, but I have THREE job interviews....all out of state, and all about eight hours from where I'm living at the moment. I had a moment of panic when I realized that my diet may be in jeopardy, but came to and decided that there was no way I was sacrificing my hard work for a couple of job interviews, so yesterday I made 15 different meals--5 bags of 1/2 cup rice (for fried eggs in the morning); 5 bags of 1/2 cup chicken and ~4 oz of chicken; 4 bags of 1/2 cup chicken and ~3 oz porkchop; 1 bag of steak and potatoes (just ate the steak). I also packed about 7 apples, 5 bags of grapes, 4 bags of pistachios, 5 bags of carrots (hopefully that food test will go okay), 3 oranges (that food test too...), and some shredded wheat to test for three days. All of this went into a cold bag, and so far, so good! :) 

In the meantime, I'm using my boyfriend's parent's house as a home base, and trying to get some studying done...which I have to admit isn't going that well. Tomorrow I'm going to spend an entire day driving (I've got a 10:00 a.m. job interview about 3 hours away, then a 3:30 job interview about 3 hours away from the first, then a 3.5 hour drive back to my boyfriend's parent's house). I do plan on listening to Contracts lectures I've recorded myself, although I really need to get some additional studying in somehow. Tomorrow is probably going to be a long night, and I've promised myself that on Tuesday, I'm going to kick some ass. 

As far as workouts go: I took Friday off (read: did yoga) and got some REALLY great studying done, then my workout plans fell through on Saturday. Since I was crunched for time (I had shopping to attend to with my family--got 150 bucks worth of new workout clothes), I youtubed and worked out to TWO separate Jillian Michael's videos that day. I'm kinda ashamed to admit it, but my forearms and back are feeling it today, lol. It was a nice 500 calories burnt for 55 minutes of exercise, though, and did me good (after all, it's always a good idea to mix things up). Today I went to the gym and got 30 minutes of cardio. 

So my question is...how do YOU manage to go on roadtrips and not break your diet?

Elimination Diet, Beef + Yeast

So I'm not allergic to beef, and SHOCKINGLY not allergic to yeast (which I choked down last night, and which sucked, lol). My weight last night was 112.0, and my weight this morning was 110.4.

Yesterday was a good workout day, and a great food day as well. I ate responsibly, hit my back and lats REALLY hard, and have the residual lactic acid/muscle soreness to prove it. Today I worked out my legs, and I *know* they're going to be screaming tomorrow. My workouts from the past two days looked like this:

Feb 6, 2013: Shoulders/Lats Workout

Feb 2, 2013: Leg Workout Day

Yesterday's food intake looked like this:

Yesterday, I scheduled interviews for two jobs next week, and while I'm excited, I'm also kinda bummed. This means that I'm going to have to plan REAALLLLY far in advance so I can square away my diet, and it also means that I'm going to have to spend time driving rather than studying to get to those interviews (they're far away, for the record). However, I REALLY need a job, so I'm sucking it up, and would really appreciate some good thoughts sent my way!

Elimination Diet, playing catch-up

I know I didn't blog yesterday, but I have lots to talk about and report today. :) My recent weights have been:

2/04: 111.8 (M); 111.8 (E).................Introduced coffee and lemons
2/05: 111.2 (M); 112.4 (E).................Introduced eggs and melons
2/06: 110.6 (M)

Although I didn't have a weight gain after coffee, it inspired diarrhea and general stomach discomfiture, but since I rarely drink it anyway, I don't really care all that much. I am going to chalk caffeine (including tea) up as a failure for my body to process, and going to work on avoiding it in the future. However, I have to admit....introducing eggs was HEAVENLY. I'm an eggs kinda girl--I can eat them just about any time, and I always have them on hand. I love them for their protein, and like eating them right before the gym for a bit of an added boost.

Yesterday, I actually counted all my calories for my food intake, and I worked hard at eating at "recognized" meal times, although I did snack throughout the day too. My calories and food eaten looked like this:

As you can see, I had four (!!!) servings of fruit: two apples, a cup of watermelon, and a handful of grapes. I also ate the hell out of brown rice yesterday, and exceeded my allotted calories of the day...and STILL lost weight. Although I'm on the "lower" end of the carb spectrum, I'm certainly on no Atkins diet, and my protein intake was good, although not great (I really want to get it up to about 100 grams of protein a day). My fat intake exceeded the limits, but I find myself embracing these "good fats." One thing about the book whose diet I'm following is that it does not lecture against eating fats. That's not to say you should only eat fried food all the time, but definitely makes a logical argument in favor of healthy ones. Dr. Mansfield makes the point that people have ALWAYS eaten fats (particularly animal fats), but just began to get obese within the past 100 years, and he pinpoints that to the recent addition of refined grains and sugar to the diet.

I also drank nine (!!!!) glasses of water yesterday, which I think is easier because I've been adding fresh lemon to it to give it a bit of a zing. After only sea salt for seasoning, I have discovered my mouth and body are really appreciating any type of strong flavor, and I'm working on bringing out the natural flavors of food I'm cooking with more and more.

I also hit the gym yesterday, and incorporated the 20 minute yoga video I found on youtube into my initial stretching. It's such a nice video--it was filmed on a beach, and it flows from one pose to another with maximum description so you don't have to constantly check her form. The commentator also has a nice voice, with no obvious accent (which I find soothing). I think the yoga helped warm my muscles up more than I normally do just by stretching, and I was able to get in a GREAT workout in an hour and a half, including the 20 minutes of yoga. My workout yesterday looked like this (I focused on calves and triceps while lifting weights):

If you have any questions about my workout, or would like to see demonstrations of anything, please let me know and I'll make a concerted effort to do so.

Ultimately, I am extremely proud of yesterday, because I really feel like I did so much right--I ate tons of fruits, I was able to work out in an effective manner, I actually drank OVER my allotted ounces of water (this is a big deal for me), and I actively monitored my calories. I'm still slightly shocked that the scale read 110.6 this morning, but I'll take it! Today I'm supposed to be introducing beef, so I will have to get on that quickly--I hate waiting for dinner, and you have to space things out by at least 9 hours (which sucks). Since I'm only introducing yeast tonight, however, I may eat beef in an hour or so.

Hope you're having a GREAT day! :)

Elimination Diet, Day 16

Today was the day I was able to begin reintroducing foods into my diet (YAY!!). Specifically, I introduced pork (okay) and onions (will know tomorrow). My measurements for today were 111.6 (morning) and 111.2 (evening). I don't know why my weights are generally lower in the evening, but whatever.

I ate shit tons of chicken and rice today. Then EVEN MORE rice. With a pork chop for breakfast. And, to be honest, the pork chop was pretty damn good. Tomorrow, as long as I don't have a reaction to onions, I'll probably make another pork chop slathered in onion powder. I'm also introducing ground coffee and lemons tomorrow, which means I have to go to the grocery store sometime tomorrow to buy the lemons. If lemons are okay, then it's GREAT news. The more things I can use to season my food, the better.

I also took today off from working out. I've been reading up on rest days, and even though I sometimes feel guilty about taking them, I know that they help me in the gym. I'm also not going to lie...it's a lot easier taking rest days when your entire body hurts. (I woke up this morning in pain--my butt, quads, obliques, and biceps are ALL hurting.) I like the pain though--it tells me I've done something right. I'm debating whether I should take a cardio/yoga day in the gym tomorrow then resume weight training on Tuesday, or just go back to weights tomorrow. I'm thinking of the former. And maybe a run outside (because the weather has been GORGEOUS lately).

I've got to REALLY start working on getting highly motivated for the Bar. Tomorrow I'm focusing on slogging through as much criminal law/evidence crap as possible (it's 130 pages long).

Safe food days

Yesterday I wrote a blog expressing how annoyed I was about having to wait until my body normalized again, but then I decided to bellyache to one of my good friends and not post such a negative post on blogspot. It has officially been three days since I broke my diet--not entire days, but about 55 hours, and my weights the past few days have looked like this:

I've yet to weigh myself for tonight, but I anticipate being back to normal tomorrow and being able to reintroduce onion powder and pork. :) (Or so I hope.) The past few days, I've been eating a LOT of chicken and rice, apples, grapes, bananas, and pistachios. And you know...it hasn't been that bad! I've mostly been irritated at how long it took for my body to return to normal, but considering the extent of my reaction, I guess I shouldn't be surprised (I also discovered blood in my stool the day following my food binge, so I'm not quite sure how I should take that). 

Yesterday and today I hit the gym hard. Despite my time constraint in the gym yesterday, I hit my biceps hard enough in a 15 minute weights workout that they are SCREAMING today. I think the fact that I really hit it as hard as I did and didn't allow for rests are what caused the great workout, and I hope to do that again sometimes, particularly for small muscle group days. 

Today I opted to do some interval training with my weights, and started the sets with some cardio. I burn a lot more calories when I do interval training with my weights, but it REALLY takes a lot out of me, and I prefer to do it only once or so a week. 

I want to focus on getting better at doing pushup burpees and mountain-climbers in the future. I'm not able to sustain them continuously like I am for my up-and-overs and my jump roping, and I know that it's due to lack of practice. 

Tonight I'm eating more chicken over rice, and might make a chicken and rice soup to "mix" things up a little bit. We shall see--hopefully pork will be on the menu from now on too, but it's *really* hard finding unadulterated pork, so probably not as often as chicken.