Day 77: Back to Reality

Traveling specifically for Thanksgiving was definitely tough to have perfect PCP dayzz. I managed to get in all workouts, but where I struggled was with the diet. I had my final indulgence early because it was Thanksgiving. I did notice some things that differed from previous Thanksgivings.

PCP influenced Thanksgiving

• I only ate 2 home-baked rolls, while my normal amount is 7
• I loaded up on the steamed green beans - they took over 1/2 of my plate!
• I portioned out the turkey I ate, avoiding the skin
• The sweet potato casserole was too sweet for me!  I felt they ruined the poor vegetable with all that brown sugar and butter.
• I did eat the stuffing, cause it was still sooooo goood.
• No gravy or mashed potatoes for me
• A very small spoonful of cranberries was all I needed to make that lovely Thanksgiving smorgasbord bite
• Still had to have a slice of my momma's raspberry pie.  Still soo good.
• I went for an hour long walk after all the eating, when normally I would sit in front of the TV and as I dozed into an uncomfortable food coma.

So although I made some good choices, I also made some indulgences, so I felt I needed to count Thanksgiving as an indulgence.

What I found hard was being out of my kitchen and controlled environment while on holiday.  I found ways to make it work and followed the exercise 100% but I never got the diet 100% right.  There were many reasons for it, but I think the top two reasons for me was environment and not wanting people to watch me prep food.

Well now I'm back home and spent last night preparing my food and getting back on track, so here's to finishing the PCP strong!

Day 69: On holiday

I'm visiting my family for the Thanksgiving holiday. It feels good to be home. So far the workouts have gone well. Yesterday I ran with the family dog and her pulled me most of the way! The food has been a bit tough, but today I will try to have a better PCP day.

Day 65: Interruptions!

Ugh!  Seemed like the gym is getting a lot busier lately and more people are flocking.  This morning I was interrupted twice in plank position.  I mean who does that?  Who accidentally just walks right into a person doing a plank...oh I'll tell you who, someone engaged in their hi-tech phone and nothing else, that's who!!  WTF~!

To say the least, going to failure on the last set, makes the next exercise even more exhausting.

Day 64: New Diet, New mind

Yayyyyy!!  20g more carb in the morning and 20g more carbs at lunch.  This is going to be a good food week.  Oh how I missed feeling full and satisfied for what seemed to be many, many weeks.

Plus, I have my first after work-out snack.  Yaaaayyyy!!!

Other than that, davincis were killer and legs well, lunges, pistol squats and jump that was a beautiful feeling.  I think something is wrong with me.

I <3 PCP today.

Day 63: A good day

Hello everyone!

While this week of workouts was very draining at the gym, I did the exercises and kept reminding myself of why I was doing this.  So it was rewarding to just be able to go for a run today and although it was cold and wet outside, it felt like one of my better runs.

I'm really enjoying the improved stretching I'm experiencing after every workout.  I am able to go deeper into my stretches than I ever have.

...a moment of weakness :-(

I did have a fail yesterday though in the diet... and I caved and had a Hershey's chocolate bar.  I know it wasn't what I should have chosen, I had other alternatives - fresh fruit, even more whole grains would have been better for me, but in a moment of weakness, I chose poorly.  I'd like to say it made me feel sick, but it actually made me feel better, settled my stomach and I gained the motivation to do my daily workout.  I did extra cardio just because I felt bad about my choice.  But all in all, had a pretty good workout, just feeling a bit weaker on the pull-ups than earlier in the week.

Please stay strong Team Cookie Monster!  Don't let my slip-up influence you to do the same.  Because I'm back from my moment of weakness, ready to attack the PCP again.  Looking forward to the new diets and a fresh start for this last phase of PCP.

Day 58-59: These are the days...

Feeling kind of ill today.  Stomach is queasy, got a lump in my throat and things just feel a bit off.  Veteran's day work provided lunch.  The company actually had food I could eat, so I ate - steamed veggies, rice and chicken.  Guess what I brought for lunch will be eaten tomorrow.  After work, I laid on the couch and worked through feeling nauseous and just not feeling good.  I managed to eat a salad for dinner and after about an hour, I started to feel better.  I roasted some varieties of squash to have for PCP days to come and then went to bed.

The workouts are going well, but they are tough.  I routinely do them in the morning now to get them out of the way.  The amount of sets and reps are definitely exhausting.  Yesterday's focus was biceps and today's focus was triceps.  I really am not digging the elevated tricep dips, by sets 4 and 5, they are really tough to push out.  On a bright note, the alternative to buying new resistance bands...I found a nice machine at the gym that provides an array of different resistances and is fully customizable to the exercise.  So since I'm already paying for the gym membership, and they have this, there's no reason to replace the two I've broken so far.   And if I travel, I've got one band for that ;-) 

I'm looking forward to seeing the results of performing these increased sets and reps.  Yesterday, I had progress in the planks...I was able to hold the first set for the full 60 seconds!  Whoo-whoo!  Set 2 was 30 seconds-5 second break - 20 seconds - 5 second break - 10 seconds.  Set 3, 20 seconds - 5 second break - 20 seconds - 5 second break - 20 seconds.  Then Set 4...oh set 4 - really I remember starting in plank position but at 20 seconds, I was in some sort of trance and I checked out my form and my knees where on the ground!  I have no idea when they went down, cause it still felt like I was working my abs and keeping everything tight!  So weird.  Anyhow, I re-did the set and held for 30 seconds - 5 second break and then 30 seconds.

I'll be playing in another volleyball tournament tomorrow.  Let's hope I do a bit better this weekend as I wasn't to happy with my performance last weekend.  Definitely looking forward to the weekend, it's been a long week. 

Day 55: Lethargic

Food wise things are a bit of a struggle.  Cutting the fruit and carb grammage is causing some pain.  Vegetables are good but I just feel like I need to intake more food, especially with the great increase of sets and reps in the exercises.  I roasted some asparagus last night and it was really good, but I think I used too much olive oil because I felt kind of nauseous this morning.

I went for a nice run yesterday morning, it was brisk out but it was so nice to get back out in the open, fresh air.  Saturday's volleyball tournament went pretty well body wise. I was no where near as sore as last weekend, which is progress, but I was not happy with my play.  We went 6-2 for the day, so still a winning day, just personally, I was knocking some dust off my game.  On a bright note, everyone on my team commented on the way I looked and it was so very nice.  My teammates were all very interested in what I was doing so anytime we weren't playing volleyball, we were talking about food!

I had my indulgence on Saturday night as well.  My roommate, her boyfriend and myself went out to my favorite local Italian restaurant.  It was very good, shared an appetizer of calamari and ordered my favorite main dish, the lasagna bolognese.  Oh and also one glass of pinot noir.  I really enjoyed that meal.  The only thing I noticed was that the calamari batter was a lot more saltier than I remember, but that didn't stop me from eating it, because it was so nice to have added salt, taste it and really enjoy the dish.  Then the lasagna came and it was perfect.  The trio of meat they use, spices, sauce and cheese, they just work together and taste sooo good.  I was really happy to know that my new palate didn't crush this dish.  I will get to enjoy this on future occasions.  I did feel uuber full when I left the restaurant but I was emotionally happy full.  But I woke up the next morning and was ready to go, had the energy for my run and strength in the gym.  It was a good workout day!  No adverse stomach effects, yay!

So with that, I'm back to the PCP diet and it's a bit tough.  I think I signed up for the wrong project.  I should have done the wellness project, because I've achieved my primary goal, which was to establish new habits to eat better and learn to prepare and cook for one person.  Also my secondary goal of establishing a daily habit of working out has been met as well.  I like the slight shift in shape of my body and I have regained my motivation in the gym.  I know how very important eating clean and right is.  And when combining the nutrition plan with a regular exercise routine, well results are fast! 

I will keep going with PCP and see it through to the end.




 

Day 52: Still Trudgin'

Although I did write a day 51 post, I found it was to whiny to post.  So alas, I am still in the valley and truly rounding up the caboose of emotions for team cookie monster.  I think waiting for the weekend for my indulgence might be paying it's toll - emotionally, but it's Friday and I really want to wait one more day so that I can have my indulgence Saturday evening.  With another volleyball tournament scheduled for Saturday, I know that having my indulgence then will be worth the wait.

My new diet is once again tough.  Carbs were cut again.  BUT I still got the AMAYW for veggies at lunchtime!  The stomach churns of hunger have left, just like Patrick said they would, but now I just feel munchy in the evening.  Maybe it's because the workouts are a ton tougher this week and truly exhausting.  Adding 1-2 more sets per exercise is killer!  And it was nice to feel tiredness in my arms.  But I broke another band and that's frustrating 'cause all I got left is one.  It's unfortunate these bands don't last longer, but after reading some of the reviews of the set of bands I bought, seems like they weren't praised for their longevity or quality.  Oh well, new bands soon, until then, I'll use the gym bands :)

I do have a question, does dried fruit have the same effect as fresh fruit?  I had some dried fruit yesterday instead of fresh fruit for one of my fruit snacks and well, let's just say I found an enhanced and immediate digestive effect!  I just was totally not in the mood to cut up any fresh fruit I had in the house, weigh out what I was allowed and then bag the rest of the fresh fruit for another time.  So opted for ease of just weighing out the dried fruit and being done with it.  It was a bit tough to eat because although it had a natural subtle sweet flavor, I sure missed the added sugar and preservatives of the previous dried fruit I would eat before PCP.  This dried fruit was purely just that, ingredients: papaya or mango.  Nothing else.

Day 49: Halloween is Over

...And thank goodness for that.  All that candy, all those treats, that was tough!  But I stayed true to da PCP diet.  Let's see it's been a while since I blogged last so here's what's been going on.

Sock monkeys!

The 2 amigos

I hosted a reverse coed 4's volleyball tournament this past Saturday and it was awesome.  Players came with a coed partner and then got paired with other coed teams to form random teams of 4.  King and Queen style of round robin play, best record wins.  One of the requirements was that teams dress-up and play volleyball in costume the entire tournament.  I had prizes for 1st, 2nd, best costume male, best costume female, candy count prizes and a razzie award for the worst costume!  Here's a few pics from the tournament.

Super Hero Dixie Cyclone and Racer X!!

What's radical is that I haven't played ball since the early summer, took some time off because I needed a break and focused on coaching.  But man did it feel good to get back on the court.  And what was even more awesome, was that I felt pretty fast on the court.  Food wise, I stuck to the PCP diet and felt fine most of the day.  After the tournament though, I did need to intake a bit more fruit because it was an extra long day of being active but overall, didn't feel too hungry during, just after.

To be successful in this type of tournament, teams must be able to adapt and play with anyone.  Find a way to get along and the most adaptable and complimentary team wins.  And guess what, my partner and I ended up winning the whole thing!  My main priority was just to have fun, but it was extremely awesome when the final results came in and my partner and I ended up on top.  YAY - Usagi Tsukino aka Sailor Moon and John McEnroe!!

As far as working out on that Saturday, Patrick said to at least do the jumps.  But after the tournament, it would not have been wise for me to do so, my body was completely exhausted from the day.  So I did not do any PCP workout.  Sorry Patrick.  I did stretch though.

Sunday and Monday were painful sore days.  My quads and calves were equally sore from all the max jumping, I was always in the front row block jumping at Saturday's tournament.  My shoulders and abs were sore from pressing and squeezing every time I would block.  The PCP workouts are tough, but there's nothing like a day of volleyball to create great fatigue and soreness in my muscles to last a couple days.  But nothing on my body felt injured, just sore because I hadn't used those muscles that intensely in so long.  This is huge because my right knee was giving me some issues last time I played ball, and it didn't hurt!!  So yet another reason I wanted to join PCP, to see if that would help the knee.  I did do the PCP workouts on Sunday and Monday.  Kung fu situps were impossible for me so I used the roman chair at the gym and it worked out better.  60second planks were a failure, I could barely hold for 30seconds in row after the second set.  That was really no fun, no fun at all.

So now it's Tuesday and I'm happy for just a cardio day.  I kind of like my nutrition plan right now, so I really hope it doesn't change much.  It already seems I'm on the lowest end for carb intake that I can be and keep sane.

On a random positive note, I roasted broccoli for the first time last night and that was such a nice change from steaming it.  Can't wait to eat the rest of it later tonight for my veggie snack.