Clean 9 – Day 3

I woke up today soooo hungry and very excited for my first proper meal in 3 days. As I mentioned yesterday the aloe vera juice is now limited to once a day ):  In addition, I am to have the vanilla shakes for two meals along with one 600 calorie meal.

Despite how hungry I was, I was surprised that I struggled to finish my morning shake possibly because of the 12 fl. oz. of aloe juice I had to drink before it. That took me until afternoon when I decided to have my meal after church. After giving it so much thought since yesterday, almost dreaming about it, convenience won. I opted for oven baked spiced potato wedges, a piece of chicken in tomato sauce and a creamy apricot yogurt for dessert. It was average at best, but oh, how I relished it. I should try and get more protein and less carbs into the meals as per the recommendations of the program. I see some shopping in my future.

I consumed about 800 calories (the C9 program allows up to 1000 calories), took 6800 steps, did 20 minutes of zumba and drank 6 cups of water.

Today was also weigh in and measurement day and I was happy to see reductions in measurements and about 2 kg lost. I think it may be nearer 1 kg as my weight had just gone up the day before I started C9 –  birthday party the day before where I had more cake than I should have. Whether 2 or 1 kg, I am still glad to see a change and hope it continues.

With the increase in calories it’s time to up the exercise intensity, but right now, I’m all for some rest and relaxation.

Clean 9 Day 2, Independence Day

Today is my country’s 56th year of independence and we had a grand time celebrating it in church today. Apart from the civil war, things are probably at the toughest they have been in a long while but it was good to switch off for a while, think on the positives and hope for a better future.

The second day of Clean 9 was not as hard as I thought it would be, I got some soya bean milk to mix in with the shake, which as I suspected has quite a bit of soy in it already. I did 30 mins of Wii Fit step aerobics for the prescribed 30 minutes of exercise and achieved 7,300 steps today. The aloe vera gel doesn’t get any better, there is no getting used to it. Overall the past two days I’ve consumed an average of 300 calories.

From tomorrow I am allowed a 600 calorie meal and the aloe vera cocktail is reduced to once a day…yay!!! So far so good, see y’all tomorrow.

Back Again (Again) and Clean 9 Day 1

The last time I posted I was jetting off on holiday with the sniffles. Much as I wish it were so, I haven’t been on holiday since then. A lot has happened and here’s a quick summary:

I had fun on holiday visiting friends, celebrated my birthday with them, saw new places, travelled through three (or four?) time zones to get back home, celebrated the birthday again at work, had a wedding in the family, wrote two exams which I pretty much ate through and added a ton of weight.

I added a Fitbit Alta to my growing list of fitness paraphernalia and have been loving it. Being able to move around without having to carry my phone is great and the fact that the Fitbit app syncs seamlessly with MyFitnessPal is awesome. Anyway, the best assortment of fitness gadgets and apps (one day I will talk about the ones I have used in the past) is no help if you don’t actually use them fully. I’ve been caught in a cycle of eat, weigh, agonize, repeat and now have about 17 kg to lose to reach my goal weight.

In August I started a challenge with my sister to see who lost a greater % of body weight per month and she won without contest – remember exams are synonymous with Cadbury Fruit and Nut. The prize was the equivalent of over about £20 (2 years ago) or less than £10 (our currency is fast plummeting). Well last month she was gonna win again as she decided to do the Forever Living Clean 9 program.

I am not one for extreme diets and would typically not spend loads of cash to starve myself, but when she sent me a package of the C9 program I could not resist. I started it today and thought I should share my progress with you all. I weighed myself and took measurements this morning so that I can track any changes.

Let’s start with the Aloe Vera Gel – it is absolutely, positively, unequivocally the most horrid thing that I have ever tasted and I had to take 4 glasses of it today! I actually gagged trying to gurgle it down. Thinking of doing Clean 9? Make sure you do not take a break when drinking the gel, simply suck it up and drink till you finish, cos once you take a break it hits you in all its awfulness. By the end of the day I was eating small pieces of pear to get rid of the taste. Luckily pears are part of the free foods which you can eat.

There’s a fibre snack that doesn’t really taste of anything, a vanilla shake that is not too bad and a number of tablets/supplements. Everything is taken with loads of water, so add that to the 8 glasses of water that I had to take as well and you can imagine how much time I have spent in the bathroom today. I was just thinking that it’s sort of like the guy who goes to see a doctor and is given pills to take 3 times a day with a glass of water each time. Turns out the issue was that he wasn’t drinking enough water. What if I just skipped the aloe gel and chugged water instead?

I walked quite a bit today and achieved 10,057 steps and 66 minutes of activity. Today wasn’t too bad probably because I had leftover energy from yesterday’s meals. I hear the second day is the hardest, good thing tomorrow is the weekend.

I’m gonna go to bed now before I give in to the craving for a cup of creamy, yummy yogurt.

Jet Planes and Sniffles

I’m leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again. 

Hi guys, long time! I know right?  Hope you have all kept well. I’m going on vacation so I’m quite literally leaving on a plane. Sadly though I do know when I will be back. Oh for the liberty to roam from one continent to another, I probably should have thought about that before deciding on a career choice. 

All my bags are packed; I’m ready to go… The taxi’s waiting; he’s blowing his horn

So typical me I made a list of what I wanted to take along and packed them last night, checked and double checked. Didn’t get a taxi though, was driven rather frantically to the airport by my sister and just as we arrived at the airport got a text that my 9 am flight had been moved to 11:30! Oh what I could have done with a couple more winks in the comfort of my home. Do they intentionally make airport chairs uncomfortable, perhaps so you don’t sleep off and miss you flight? If that’s the case, someone please tell them that it is working brilliantly. 
While I’m somewhat excited as I am going to a new country to see friends and family, I am also a bit worried. I’ve been battling with the cough since the last time I posted and am currently taking antibiotics as it has now become an upper respiratory infection. You think that’s bad? Picture sniffles and a stuffed up nose plus a general feeling of being unwell 2 days before your over 24 hr trip. I am like a walking medicine cabinet trying to remember what time each medication is to be taken and hoping that I don’t spend the long haul flight coughing. 

I want to enjoy my trip, I want to experience new things, sights and places. I can be ill at home any old day. I have been looking forward to this trip for months, this is not quite how I imagined it starting.

But hey, I’m gonna have faith that things will only get better. 

Cardio Kickstart Day 15 – Under the Weather

Hi guys, it’s been a few days now since my last post.

Saturday and Sunday were rest days and I actually did that. I have been feeling a bit dodgy and drowsy so I haven’t kept up with my daily 30s.
I noticed a cough on Friday, and although it hasn’t developed into a full blown cold like a guy at work experienced, I have been a little wheezy and short of breath. Strong perfumes, stuffy rooms, exhaust fumes are very overpowering just now. This is the closest I’ve come to having a full blown asthma episode in ages! I have taken medication and hopefully will be better soon.
Cardio kickstart is at day 15 right now. I am behind on one workout and hope to catch up with it tomorrow morning instead of the scheduled rest day. I found that I am not so wheezy in the mornings so I did the Monday workout today. It was plenty of lower body work – sumo squats with pivots, squats with calf raises and lunges in every imaginable direction. I achieved an additional 51 minutes of activity and took 5517 steps. I haven’t logged my food in days- possibly cos I know it hasn’t been going too well in that department. Also possibly because I am not so concerned about counting calories while trying to fight off a hacking cough. My immune system definitely needs all the help it can get.
While we’re on the subject, why do we say we are under the weather when we do not feel well? 
Goodnight guys, see you tomorrow.

Cardio Kickstart Day 11 – Losing It

Good morning everyone. Rise and shine!

So you remember how I said yesterday I was going to get out of bed and start my day with Devon, well it didn’t quite go like that. I got on the scale and I sorta lost it. No…I hadn’t lost weight, quite the opposite really…I lost motivation. The weight wasn’t shifting so I immediately did 4 hours of cardio and regulated my food intake…not. You know what I did? I crawled back into bed. I figured why wake up early and get in some work if I’m not losing the weight? I went further, I ate anything and everything that I felt like (stopping short of chocolate though). I was working hard and it didn’t matter … I thought. 

Later in the evening I reminded myself that all the weight didn’t pile up in 3 weeks, and much like anything in life, things may not zoom along as fast as we want it. 

If life were that simple then we wouldn’t need the fruit of the spirit of patience also known as …wait for it…long suffering. 

So I went back in the evening and had my 22 mins with Devon, 22 mins of triceps kickbacks, bent over rows, boxing and push ups. I’d forgotten all about mountain climbers until yesterday, never mind foot fires, I like mountain climbers even less. 

An additional 58 mins of activity all through the day, 8040 steps and over 2000 calories consumed summed up my day. 

For me losing it this week hasn’t just been about fitness. The week has been pretty emotional making me re-evaluate a lot of things. Sacrifices made which were taken for granted and which have led me to wonder if it is not just less stressful to withdraw and leave people to their devices. For an introvert that is easily my preferred option. 

But then I think of where I am today, and who I am and the ultimate sacrifice made for me oh so long ago. 

Have a great weekend guys. Ttyl. 

Cardio Kickstart Day 10

Good morning everyone, hope you slept well. 

Since I need to get off my backside and get to work this is going to be really brief. 

Day 10 was a full body workout day ( rear lunges, mountain biking – which is effectively squats with jumps, leg raises, foot fires – my least favorite, push ups of course etc ). I am halfway through the program workouts- another 11 days and 6 workouts to go. 

I walked around so much I achieved 91 mins of activity not including the EA Sports Active workout. But then I ate so much cake (blame it on my sister who randomly decides to bake) that I pretty much cancelled out all that effort. 1717 calories consumed and 9503 steps taken and you get the gist of my day. 

I’ve been coughing with an itchy feeling in my throat. Hope I’m not coming down with something. A colleague is pretty bunged up with a cold. Hope it isn’t going round. 

Enjoy your days guys, lemme go start mine with Devon the digital trainer. 

Cardio Kickstart Day 9 – Rest

Hello everyone, hope your day was good. 

Rest day was just that – restful. 

40 mins of activity, 1403 calories consumed and 4927 steps taken. Tomorrow is back to the grind. Can’t wait to see what Devon the digital personal trainer has in store for me (just kidding). 

Good night 😴

Cardio Kickstart Day 8 – Civil War

I went to see Captain America (finally, I know you’ve all moved on to X-Men) and I thoroughly enjoyed it! The folks at Marvel sure know how to spin a good story with nice twists and turns. A friend once said that the Black Widow was his favorite Avenger. He argued that she doesn’t have super powers but still holds her own in any fight. I must say I see his point, watching the action sequences with Scarlett Johansson’s character basically fighting multiple people in a sorta dance where she swivels off one while kicking another you have to admit that she is pretty cool. With popcorn and a drink (my dinner) I was pretty happy. 

I didn’t get much sleep last night, I didn’t want to keep dwelling on what was bothering me, so I watched Madam Secretary until my internet connection went haywire. It probably just wanted me to go sleep. That said, I am a bit tired out from sleep deficits plus being stuck in traffic coming home tonight. 

What’s with the questions these days eh Human? No I ain’t pushing it to 90 – already done 75 mins normal activity + 20 mins of a full body workout with EA Sports Active (squats, triceps kickbacks, skipping, stride jumps, plank etc). I took 7094 steps and consumed 1222 calories. 

Hope your day has been good folks, good night. 

Cardio Kickstart Day 7 – Drowning

Hello folks. Hope you had a good day.I’ve been laying here thinking about mine. 

You know when you get bad news, and you keep wondering where you went wrong, what you could have done differently, why you didn’t see the signs? When you wonder if you need to give someone another chance when they’ve been given so many and still decide not to go on the straight and narrow, and you wonder “is this it, is this how this person’s life is gonna go?” And you think of the people that are going to be hurt by the news you are keeping under wraps. That is me right now. I am a logical person…I am still processing… But I fail to see the logic in throwing away opportunities that others have sacrificed so much to give you; opportunities they didn’t have themselves. I want to trust that things will change, I have to hope that things will change…because how it right now…it isn’t an option that will end well. 

There are so many responsibilities that are vying for my attention right now, but I just want to curl up and think, brood, process. Again I don’t want to dwell on it, I tell myself I have done my best and everyone has to live with the choices they make, but sometimes, others also have to live by choices made by other parties.

I can’t really process, I’m hurt, I’m disappointed. I feel like I could drown in the heaviness weighing down on me, the waves of dashed dreams and hopes, the bleak outlook. 

My head tells me that “all things work together for good”, that God’s grace is sufficient for any situation, that…. But right now I’m human, and I’m struggling to stay above the waves. 

Today’s stats: 23 mins of lower body work (EA Sports Active 2); 43 mins of activity (Human); 1071 calories (MyFitnessPal); 5054 steps.