Les Mills 21-Day Challenge Day 6

OVERALL UPDATE

Be sure to read what the program entails and days 1-5 below.

Today, I felt better in my skin because I got up early this morning, looked in the mirror and really didn’t see the need for makeup to teach class. That is a FIRST in a while. LOL I put on a little bit of makeup out of habit, but not much. Surprisingly, doing 2 hours and 45 minutes of classes today didn’t leave me too hungry. I was not feeling hungry at all today. ?? What the heck? Up until 7:00 pm, 3 meals in, I had an Isalean shake (with protein, fat and carbs), a large chicken salad and an IsaLean Oatmeal Raisin bar.

This program is making me realize how many outside bad influences there are out there…. It’s amazing how requests and calories can add up.

DAILY UPDATES

Saturday

Exercise: Taught 45 minutes of RPM (cycling) and 1 hour of BodyPump and took a 1 hour BodyCombat class. Since my diet is under control, I really didn’t need to work out this much today! I felt so much energy in RPM, but then in combat I got a little fatigued and in BodyPump I was energetic, but didn’t lift as much as I could have.

Food: Stuck to the program 90%. I had a 7 funnel cake fries and put a minimal amount of normal dressing on my salad. I am going to take a FREE day tomorrow for Easter. I’ll explain why tomorrow. J

- Under my calories needed by 2101 calories

- Under my carbs needed by 327 g

- Under my fat needed by 52 g

- Under my protein needed by 131 g

- Under my fiber needed by 10 g

- Under my sugar needed by 12 g

Weight: I decided to not weigh myself today

Waist Size: up 1.5 inches!? This is just strange. I am confused.

Bad Influences Encountered: I met a college friend for lunch today, and had some funnel cake fries. Oh well! I am craving wine, but I am going to wait until my scheduled FREE DAY tomorrow for Easter at my grandma’s house. J Cig craving is still there, but not like yesterday. I have a motto if your body screams… tell it to SHUT UP! ha

Happy Easter!! 

Les Mills 21-Day Challenge Day 5

OVERALL UPDATE

Be sure to read what the program entails two posts down. Also, read about my personal experiences on days -4 one post down.

Today my weight was back up to where it was when I started. Very strange, but I did teach BodyPump Thursday and that tends to cause me to retain a little water due to the HARD PUMPIN WORK! Ha. I was told my face looked thinner today, and I woke up feeling happy, refreshed and healthy as can be. My pants seemed to fit looser for sure.

DAILY UPDATES

Friday

Exercise: Taught 30 minutes of CXWORX

Food: Stuck to the program 90% today. I normally get something bad every Friday… either pizza, WG Grinders, Chinese or some kind of take out. Well, let me be honest here…. I would get take out sometimes 2-3 times per week. This evening I decided on Filet. I am thinking it’s okay for me once a week, but sticking to fish, chicken and pork is probably best most of the time due to the fat content.

- Under my calories needed by 250 calories

- Under my carbs needed by 70 g

- Over my fat needed by 39 g (Filet and chips did me in)

- Over my protein needed by 40 g

- Over my fiber needed by 10 g

- Over my sugar needed by 25 g

Weight: down 0 pounds

Waist Size: the same

Bad Influences Encountered: I met a friend for a late lunch as El Vaquero. She wanted to have margaritas. Honestly, I did not want the margaritas. I wanted the CHIPS! I had maybe 5-6 of them and that was enough for me. What in the world does one get at El Vaquero to eat that is healthy? Well, I ordered the chicken salad with double chicken. It came with a slab of sour cream and guacamole. I kicked the sour cream to the side and ate half and was satisfied.

As a former smoker, I don’t crave cigarettes…. But today…. For some reason I wanted one! It was very strange. I guess since I am being good my body wanted me to be naughty in some way, shape or form. But, as soon as I smelled the smoke from a neighboring business at Flow Studio (most of you will know from where) it made me SICK! Needless to say, I got over that non-food craving pretty quick. WHEW!

Les Mills 21-Day Challenge Days 1-4

As promised, here is my update from the last 4 days of the Les Mills 21 Day Nutritional Challenge. I strongly believe there will be a transition period for most people of 1 to 5 days…. meaning I messed up "a little" here and there until today and am now getting used to the eating plan. Moving forward, my posts will be quick, to the point and brutally honest.

I will be tracking ALL of my food at www.myfitnesspal.com, and I suggest anyone else trying the program use myfitnesspal as well. It's free and very resourceful.

For anyone who knows me I have some vices. My vices are in no particular order: CHEESE, meat, mayonnaise and wine. As an adult, I have never been one to crave or like sugar too much. Later, I will describe a moment yesterday when I craved sugar like a monkey trying to avoid a scratch. Also, most meals I prepare take at least 45 minutes. I love to cook, and I love to have red wine while cooking. I can say with this program there is hardly any cooking time involved. One can make a healthy meal in less than 10-20 minutes, so there is really no time for wine while cooking.

OVERALL UPDATE

I can tell you that I am pleasantly surprised by the progress in just 4 days. Most certainly water weight and bloating have gone down, and I can tell! I feel much better overall, and my clothes fit better. Given that my dietician wants me to balance out my carbs, proteins and fats in myfitnesspal each day, I am leery about being under so many calories and carbs each day. But, I am willing to believe Les Mills did their research, and I trust 21 days will be safe and effective

DAILY UPDATES

Monday

Exercise: Taught 45 minutes of freestyle cycling and 30 minutes of CXWORX

Food: I had a pre-arranged lunch scheduled before I decided to do the 21-day challenge. No big deal, I just made healthier choices by getting halibut and replacing potatoes with vegetables. I did have a 55-house salad with blue cheese and bacon, and a coke. Bad Angie! After that meal all the rest were on target per the plan. I was not really hungry at all on this day, and felt like I was eating too much honestly. All of the vegetables made me feel full. I actually only ate 4 of the 5 required meals.

- Under my calories needed by 853 calories

- Under my carbs needed by 129 g

- Over my fat needed by 40 g (the 55 house salad did me in)

- Under my protein needed by 29 g

- Under my fiber needed by 4 g

- Over my sugar needed by 36 g (my supplements took me over)

Bad Influences Encountered: As stated above, I had lunch plans. Unfortunately, I gave into a small indulgence on this first day and had a not-so-good side salad. Oh well. Tuesday was another new fresh day.

Tuesday

Exercise: Taught 45 minutes of RPM

Food: Stuck to the program 90%, broke down in the evening and had the 3 remaining pieces of cheese in my fridge with crackers. OOPS, but I got my cheese withdraw out of my system and said goodbye to it for now. It will be there again in the future. I don't need my yummy cheese now. :) On this day, I did feel hungry.

- Under my calories needed by 845 calories

- Under my carbs needed by 131 g

- Over my fat needed by 16 g (Ribeye steak did me in, need more lean meat)

- Over my protein needed by 16

- Over my fiber needed by 13 g

- Over my sugar needed by 11 g (my supplements took me over)

Bad Influences Encountered: A friend needed a sub for a Euchre tournament. I knew there would be drinking and bad food all around me, but I went anyway. I turned down drinks being bought for me and ignored the bad food. One woman sitting right across from me was eating buttery popcorn that looked so good, but I managed to stay in control and had none. YAY

Wednesday

Exercise: Taught 30 minutes of CXWORX

Food: I stuck to the program 100%..... up until 9:00 pm. I went downstairs to get some water, and I had this almost uncontrollable urge to eat sugar. The plan says to eat a hand full of almonds or walnuts... so I did. No, that did not help at all. I opened the fridge, and my eyes went right to the jar of grape jelly! Yes... I did it! That's how desperate I was.. I took a spoon and ate straight up jelly right out of the jar. If that wasn't enough, my "Inner Fat" kid, who loved sugar up until the age of 14, wanted to eat half of the jar. I thought "Angie, maybe you just need some carbs," so I got a piece of brownberry 12 grain bread, put it in the toaster, cut it in half, threw one half out, and put jelly on the other half. There! I was satisfied. In less than two minutes, the bloating starting... I won't give any more details. Was it the jelly? Was it the bread? I have no clue.... Then it was like a frenzy... I wanted more sugar. There was a carton of assorted hard candy sitting on the counter, so I opened it and ate 6 pieces of it in less than 15 minutes. Yes, I didn't even suck on them... I CHEWED them up! Each piece was about the size of a nickel. After that, I was done and learned that if you just try a little taste of something during this program, you could be thrown into a tailspin.

- Under my calories needed by 338 calories

- Under my carbs needed by 21 g

- Over my fat needed by 14 g (I put dressing on my salad, yep)

- Over my protein needed by 43

- Over my fiber needed by 11 g

- Over my sugar needed by 77g (jelly and hard candy did me in hard)

Weight: down 2 pounds

Waist Size: the same

Thursday:

Exercise: Took 1 hour of BodyPump with Karen

Food: I am SO getting used to this plan now. Today was not so bad, except one of my meals was an Isalean Cinnamon Raisin crunch bar, and I had about five crackers. 

- Under my calories needed by 926 calories

- Under my carbs needed by 133 g

- Over my fat needed by 8 g

- Under my protein needed by 5

- Under my fiber needed by 1 g

- Over my sugar needed by 10 g

Weight: down 5 pounds

Waist Size: the same

Bad Influences Encountered: I met some friends at Yogi’s to watch the OSU basketball game. Again, I knew drinking and food would be involved. Luckily, I had one more meal left. I turned down the offer for beer and PIZZA. Toward the end of the game, I excused myself and went home to make grilled chicken and mixed vegetables.

Make sure you check out the commonly asked questions at: www.lesmills.com/research

If you need specialized nutritional guidance or help contact Flow Studio's Health and Wellness Coach (Teresa Harlow) at teresa.harlow@youcanwellness.com or (740) 972-1116.

Visit www.flowwithus.com for more information on Flow Studio's Elite Group Fitness Classes.

Les Mills 21-Day Nutritional Challenge

Les Mills 21-Day Challenge

Nutrition is an essential part of health. We all know the huge benefits of exercise and that eating healthy, whole, clean, nutrient-rich foods enhance health even further.

You may have heard about the new 21-day eating plan Les Mills is offering.

Les Mills is moving into nutrition because they stand for a fitter planet, plain and simple.

The 21-Day challenge is a way to RESET YOUR HABITUAL EATING PATTERNS.  This means they are using a safe 3-week period to help detox your body and healthy eating habits so you can start fresh with more conscious behaviors around food.

The Penn State University undertook a Literature review on the safety and efficacy of low carbohydrate diets like this one.

What you need to know is the 21-day plan is a low carbohydrate diet and it has the essential components to be considered safe.

You must follow the plan, as it is, especially the prescribed amounts of vegetables and water and eating at the regular intervals. And if you can't live without carbs, eat some; just make sure they are whole unprocessed and nutrient rich.

And remember, this approach may not be right for you; it is just an offering for those of you who want to try it!

If you have tried and feel it is beneficial, you are most welcome to share it. You can find the full report at www.lesmills.com/research

What Is Included In the Les Mills 21-Day Challenge

Reduce your waist size in just 21 days! Check out the Les Mills Pyramid (NOTE pyramid contains photos that aren't in the plan) to remind yourself of the different food classifications first. Now, this is tough - but Les Mills promises that you won't regret it. You will only be sorry for not having tried it sooner.

This is it: Women eat FIVE meals per day and men eat SIX meals a day. On workout days, one of these meals is a post-workout protein shake.

THE FACTS

1. There is no evidence to suggest that low carbohydrate diets for a SHORT period of time are harmful.

2. This plan eliminates the foods we KNOW to be terrible for us - high calories and low in nutritional value - like processed snack foods and sweetened beverages.

3. Numerous investigations have demonstrated that low carbohydrate diets improve glucose control in the body, raise HDL cholesterol, reduce triglycerides (TGs) and improve the parameters of metabolic syndrome.

MEAL PLANNING

Every Meal MUST Contain:

Protein: one palm full of animal protein; that includes fish, chicken, turkey, duck, pork, beef, lamb, shellfish and eggs.

Fat: a thumb size focusing on getting in your essential fatty acids; like avocado, olive oil, walnuts and flax seeds.

Carbohydrates: one to two handfuls of low starch carbs such as asparagus, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, leafy greens, raw carrots, onions, tomatoes and eggplant.

Protein Shake: only WHEY protein and water. Women should have .01 ounces per kg of body weight; men should have .02 ounces per kg of body weight.

Water: take your body weight in kg and multiply by 0.033 liters of water per day, then add an extra 8 ounce glass of water for every hour of exercise.

Foods to Avoid: diary products, roasted salty nuts, grains, including oats, polenta, rice, couscous, wheat, fruit, legumes (beans), starchy vegetables, and soy apart from Tamari.

And to drink: Water, herbal tea, coffee (black), black tea, No sweeteners.

TIPS

- Never skip meals, as this will just leave you feeling hungry

- If you feel hungry between meals, snack on 6-8 nuts

- Try to stop eating 2 hours before bedtime so the digestion process does not affect your sleep and recovery

- Vary your protein sources to get a good mix of amino acids, so you do not end up with food sensitivities

- Never skip the veggies, as these are an important source of fiber to keep your digestive system healthy

- East a ratio of 2:1 white meat to red meat

- To monitor how well you are doing, take a waist measurement before the after the challenge

DAY 22

Follow the eating guidelines shown in the Les Mills Food Pyramid and make sure you practice following the portion sizes suggested. Remember: try to stay focused on eating whole foods only!

This eating plan is difficult; you will have moments when you want to chew your arm off, and times when you'd consider mugging someone for their French Fries! But once you slide gracefully into your skinny jeans in three weeks' time all the pain will be forgotten. Go to your cupboard now, put everything that's not on the list in a box, drive it to the nearest homeless shelter and leave the box there. Go to the gym and enjoy the next 21 days of Bliss.

Make sure you check out the commonly asked questions at: www.lesmills.com/research

If you need specialized nutritional guidance or help contact Flow Studio's Health and Wellness Coach (Teresa Harlow) at teresa.harlow@youcanwellness.com or (740) 972-1116.

Visit www.flowwithus.com for more information on Flow Studio's Elite Group Fitness Classes.