Days 5-7

Days 5 & 6
The weekends are always tough, even without trying to cut weight... They always seem to be empty on Friday morning, but by Friday night I've made plans that have me running across the GTA all weekend.  Trying to get the balanced meals, getting them at decent hours, getting workouts in, and avoiding temptation all have to become priorities.

I did ok this weekend, I ended up basically turning breakfast and lunch into a slightly larger brunch because of how late I slept both days, had my afternoon snack and then ate dinner.  I even managed to stay dry, watching the UFC, and avoid the food at a close friends' business' 1 year anniversary BBQ.  The downfall was definitely dinner on Saturday night; I was craving steak, but I went a bit overboard:

22oz T-Bone, with a "side" salad, homemade sweet potato fries, and sauteed onions and asparagus.  It was damn good!

I also started my 2/day workouts now, AM and PM.

Day 7
Well, despite the new 2/day workouts, I seem to have plateau'd at 209.7-210... I'm not sure if it's the "cheating" I've been doing or the size of my afternoon snack, which have been about 2 cups of salad everyday.  I think I'm going to try cutting back the snack size and see what happens.  I'm definitely noticing a difference already, my pants are fitting looser and my shirts are a bit more snug across the shoulders/chest/back, and a bit looser on my gut.

1 week down, 6 to go...

Day 1-4

Sorry I'm writing this late, but I had some "technical difficulties" with the internet at home this week.

Days 1 and 2 are, in my opinion, the hardest of the 12 day Wild Rose D-Tox.  These are the days when I'm craving EVERYTHING I can't eat, especially the junk food: chips, chocolate, fast food.  These are also the days during which you feel exhausted, run down, like the first few days of a cold.

Day 1
Day 1 was ok, I had made sure that I removed all of the things I wasn't allowed to eat from my house; all the junk food anyway.  The one thing I forgot was the small bag of Lays BBQ chips I had in my desk at work.  After I struggled with that all day, I ended up crushing them all and throwing them out... Will power FTW!  When I got home from work I made supper, and had planned on doing the Cardio-X DVD from P90X, but I wasn't quite feeling up to it, so I went for a 2km run instead and finished up with pushups, wall sits, calf raises, and a bunch of different styles of crunches.

My starting weight is 216.5lbs, on my 6'1'' frame, and I took the dreaded before photo, so here it is:

Day 2
Day 2 is much the same as Day 1, just with less cravings.  I cooked some extra food so I'd have easy lunches for the rest of the week, but the highlight of today was definitely the chinoa-jumbalaya (recipe coming later) that I made for supper.  I wanted a workout today, but just couldn't... After supper I laid on the couch to let it settle for 30mins before a workout, then woke up 4hrs later.

Day 3 
I'm starting to feel more like myself again, not so run down, more energy.  Today, I decided cheating was ok... Not a big cheat, just a little one: balsamic vinegar.  I made a spinach salad and wanted some dressing, so I made a simple balsamic vinaigrette with about 2tsp of vinegar.  I'm ok with that.  I also weighed myself today, and I'm down about 4lbs since starting!  After supper I finally got around to that Cardio-X DVD I've been trying to do since day 1.

Day 4
My energy levels are back to normal, and I'm feeling the benefits of the detox already.  No more snooze button 5 times, when my alarm goes off I'm ready to get up.  I had another small cheat today: Sriracha hot sauce on some leftover chinoa-jumbalaya.  Today I did the same workout as I did on Day 1, 2km run and a bodyweight workout at home.

Overall, so far, I'm feeling pretty good about everything so far, but I'm just getting started.  I really love this detox as a starting point because you see results in the first few days, which just motivates you to keep going.  Lot's more to come, follow along!

The beginning... At last

I'm what I would call an average 23 year old.  I have a desk job, that I've had for 2 years, so needless to say my physique isn't what it was in high school.  I live in a 1 bedroom basement suite, and I drive a reasonably priced used car (which I love more than anything). I get some exercise in when I can, but that's usually only a couple times a week - if I'm lucky.  And I am, in the worst shape of my 23 years.

Well, I watched Thor last week, and that movie just makes you wanna get jacked.  So after a careful (drunk) birthday weekend, I decided that's what I'm going to do.  Not just for any reason, but because I've decided I'm going to be a Viking for Halloween this year... Yes. In 7 weeks.

Growing up ski racing competitively, I understand what it takes to be in shape: how to eat, how to train.  I'm a CSCF (Canadian Ski Coaches Federation) Level II coach, which also makes me an NCCP "Development Level" coach.  I've even taken a few evening "classes" about nutrition and training.  I have the basic know-how, I've just been too damn lazy.  The basic outline of the plan is this:

Weeks 1-3: trim up, shed some excess fat, using body weight/light weight exercises.  This will help strengthen the muscles needed to stabilize/support when I start going harder, and get my body ready for what I'm about to do to it.

Weeks 4-7: Go big!  This is where it's gonna hurt. I'm going to be eating big and lifting big, to well.. Get big! I mean really, when was the last you saw a picture of a small Viking.

My week 1-3 secret weapon is the Wild Rose Herbal D-Tox (about $35 at Planet Organic).  Basically, it's an herbal "detox" that helps clean the toxins out of your body, and flushes your GI tract.  It's pretty simple, take some pills with breakfast and supper, and follow their recommended diet.  Their diet asks you to eliminate all flour (gluten), fermented foods (vinegar, soya sauce, yeast), dairy, oily nuts, and refined sugar during the detox.  I've done this before, and as recommended (by them) I'm doing it again about 6 months later - they recommend twice per year.  Last time it definitely kick-started some weight loss; but more importantly when I was done, I felt great. It wasn't such a battle to get out of bed in the mornings, and I didn't crave salty, oily food... I just felt, better.

Wild Rose Herbal D-Tox

The few first days are going to be hard, no doubt about that. But Day 1 is tomorrow, so follow along as I  transform myself into a Viking.