Summer of Pain

My sister, Natalie, and her family flew in last night and I can't begin to say how excited I am! I'm obsessed with my nephew, Vince (he's going to be 2 in August!) and it's going to be great having them all in Canada this summer. I could write a 1500 page blog about how much I love my nephew, so I'll restrain myself and just say he's pretty freaking amazing.

Natalie, has been doing great with her workouts/food for anyone who doesn't have her on Facebook. She has managed to not only get the baby weight off, she looks even better now than from before she got pregnant---this is no easy feat, ladies and gents. Aside from her 5 a.m. Crossfit workouts, she has been following the Paleo diet.

For those of you who don't know what that is, it's basically eating like a caveman. This means no grains or legumes--only nuts, seeds, lean meats, fruits and veggies. Unlike Atkins which also endorsed no grain carbs, the Paleo diet requires lean meats. On Atkins you could eat 100 strips of fatty bacon because it's protein lol. As well, the reason for not eating grains is because that is not something cavemen ate and as a result, we have in a sense trained our bodies to eat it even though it's not something we are naturally process. Our bodies have to work harder to process grains and so if you cut those out entirely and get your carbs through other sources, you will go straight to burning fat. I'm probably leaving a bunch of stuff out, so if you would like to read up on it, check out this link: http://thepaleodiet.com/ .

Now I won't lie, I'm a little skeptical of it because I'm a girl who loves bread in all it's forms. I don't see how anyone could realistically avoid it, or more importantly, not want it. I have shared all this with Natalie and she says that the first week was really tough as you are adjusting from eating one way all your life to something that's pretty different. After doing it for two months or so, she says she feels great and rarely craves anything non-Paleo. In the event she does, she'll usually have a bit of it and it won't affect much because she is always eating so healthy. Another thing she mentioned was a heightened sense of awareness with her body and how she feels. It's like putting premium gas in your tank...better for the car!

I'm always up for trying new things and being proven wrong. Also, my way of doing things has been hit or miss---great for a few days and lazy on others. So over the course of the summer, I'm going to eat Paleo. Over the next week, I'm going to be easing myself into it but incorporating and I'm aiming to eat full Paleo by June 1st (I like starting things at the start of the month...I'm weird that way). Just to make it interesting, if I don't stick with it for at least a month, I'm going to give Natalie $100. If I do, I'm going to give myself a $100 to go to the spa. I really hope I win. lol

Also I'm quitting my gym membership at Goodlife (it's so tough to get those guys off my weight machines!) and I'm going to be enrolling in Natalie's Crossfit classes every morning. I think this will be good for me to switch it up and workout outside in the summer because the weather here is so perfect! Of course I will be supplementing my cardio with my Stairclimber, but I'll get more weight training in this way. Plus I'm intrigued by Crossfit...I've heard great things about it.

So this will basically be the "Summer Of Pain" but in a good way. Natalie and I are going out for a run today and assuming I don't die, I will keep ya posted on how Paleo/Crossfit goes!

Thanks for reading and I hope your training is going well too everyone!

'Food sucks, this feels good!'

It has been a month since I've written and believe me when I say I have a good reason. Since mid-March until the end of April I have been taking part in the joy that is tax season. Six weeks with a total of six days off and enough stress to make the Mad Hatter seem like a chill guy. But it's not all doom and gloom--it's now May and I have reclaimed my life! Back to watching 'Pawn Stars' with my parents and writing in my Fitbook like it's the next Great American Novel.

Training has been different than I had expected. I must admit, that I was pretty cocky that I would not let my time be consumed by tax season and that I would fight against the exhaustion and go the the gym. I then discovered that I am not the bionic woman. I figured out early on that I would need to roll with my schedule but be as healthy as possible. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, a huge help to me was getting to bed early during that time. I've been going to bed around 9-9:30 on weeknights and I can't lie, it feels great! I actually feel rested which is new for me.

 On the food front, eating healthy at work is a breeze for me--I bring super healthy snacks, eat a clean breakfast and for the most part, lunch is pretty solid. I've been cutting down on going out for lunch (from 3-4 days a week to about 1-2 right now) but it's still a work in progress. Dinner is always great because my mom is adorable and offers to make me dinner every night. She's really into healthy food and even more so now since watching "Food Inc." which really is an incredible movie that I highly recommend. That and "Overboard". Classic.

Speaking of clean food, I'm doing something I've never done before this coming Saturday: I'm going to a farmer's market! I've always threatened to go, but then I would just, groan, roll over and go back to bed. Apparently the trick is to go pretty early. Usually waking up at 7 a.m. on a Saturday would seem like a punishment but I'm pretty excited to check it out. I will make a video to post on my facebook page, so watch for it and the hilarity that is sure to ensue.

My goals for this week are to workout more and complain about it less. I've been waking up to do cardio and I always feel so great afterwards. It's getting on the stairclimber that's the hard part! I haven't lifted weights in a while so I'm going to start getting the focus back on that as well. Maybe mixing it up between the two will make me complain less. Or at the very least suffer in silence.

So I'm armed this week with two new Nicki Minaj songs to workout to, an assessment of my body fat to track my progress by, some new workout clothes and an even more focused attitude. New blog entry in a week! Til then, happy training ;)

P.S. If you're wondering what kinda look I'm going for, check out the pic to the left. Daaaayyymm. Makes it all seem worth it!!