hello there

Just wanted to pop on and say hello and Happy Easter. I have a few posts planned for this week so stay tuned.

Exercise

I think for myself and women in general when we think of diet and exercise we think of salads and cardio. We are almost afraid of picking up the weights. Lifting weights is for men right? If we add some weights to our exercise routine we will end up looking like this right?

Do you think she got that way by accident?
How about her?

Both of these women worked very hard to get their bodies in shape, and both used weights.

When you do a lot of cardio, and especially if you are on a diet where you're not eating enough, your body will start to store fat and use your lean muscle. That's why it's very important to get some strength training into your routine. Even 5 or 10 pound dumbells is enough.

If you are reaching a plateau or can't quite lose that last 5 pounds, start weight training and you will see a huge difference. Not only will it help you lose that extra weight, but it will increase your endurance for your cardio routine. Just make sure you are eating plenty of protein so your body isn't trying to take from your lean muscle.

I was very surprised that I actually enjoy lifting weights. I absolutely hate cardio so weight days are my favorite. But only after a few days of weights I am able to run for over an hour with no problems. The body is amazing isn't it?

happy valentines day!

Let's talk about food!

Before I got involved in HitchFit I would eat whatever sounded good. I had very limited knowledge of what made food good or clean. If it tasted good, I ate it. Once I learned about the content of food and how it worked in my body I could never really eat the same again. Of course I would still eat certain foods, but the voice in my head would say "this is full of natural fats" or whatever.

This is how I now eat my foods. I actually read the labels and I weigh out portion sizes. Not that difficult. I don't even count calories! Plus, once you start weighing your food, you will be shocked at how big or little a portion size is! 6oz of chicken might be 2 large breasts!

The content of food I look at is Protein, Carbohydrates, and Fat. When I look at a food label I see which category has the highest number. Instead of trying to calculate all three categories for one food I just focus on the highest number.

Luckily for me, my trainer has my diet all calculated for me. At each meal I know how much protein or carbs I need. Then, I can just look at my approved foods list and mix and match what I want to eat. It's simple! He also gave me a sample menu for each meal, so I can just eat that if I don't want to do any measuring.

Let me give you an example of how important reading labels is.

Take Aldi's Fit & Active Low Fat Granola with Raisins. Now, I love granola. I would eat it every day. Let's take a look at the Nutrition Facts.

Serving size is only 2/3 of a cup, so it's not very big.
Fat - 3g
Carbs - 44g
Protein - 5g

So, I consider this a carb. There are good carbs and bad carbs, incomplete and complete, but we won't get into that now. Other than to say granola can be considered good carbs but we need to look further.

44g of carbs in 2/3 of a cup is pretty high.  My diet only allows for 20 grams of carbs per meal. Let's look further. Sugars are 16 grams!!!! That is very very high. Dr. Oz says that when you read labels the sugars should be 9 grams per serving or less. This is almost twice that.

The other tip Dr. Oz gives is read the first five ingredients. I wish I had saved the box of this cereal to get a pic of the ingredients, but the second ingredient was sugar and the fourth was corn syrup. Dr. Oz recommends to throw it in the garbage.

Sorry Fit & Active Low Fat Granola with Raisins, but you FAIL! This is not a healthy cereal and I wouldn't recommend eating it at all. That is the trouble with Low Fat, fat is reduced but sugar is increased. Read your labels!!

**My back is better today. Going to see the chiro in an hour and plan to hit the gym slowly tomorrow.**

Week One

So I started on Sunday. My first day was great. I wasn't craving that bad and was enjoying the diet. I got to the gym and got in my assigned calories.

Monday was great too. Diet going great and I started strength training. Let me tell you, strength training is where your whole diet/exercise comes together. I will blog on that more later though.

Tuesday was when the cravings started. I got a headache and felt shaky from the withdrawals. But, I kept on course and got to the gym again. I didn't get all my assigned calories (burned) in but planned to make them up on Wednesday.

Wednesday was the worst day. The cravings were horrible and I felt the worst. The first two weeks are the hardest but if you can get through them those icky feelings go away. I kept on doing good in the diet switching up foods for a little variety.

Then the worst possible thing happened! I was so looking forward to another night of strength training (my favorite) at the gym. When I went to get Reagan from school in the afternoon I leaned in the car to put Kobe in his carseat and I felt something slip in my back.

I kept telling myself, it's ok, it's ok! I can just rest it tonight and it will be fine by morning. I can squeeze in my weight lifting later in the week. So, I rested my back and didn't go to the gym at all.

In the morning I felt better. Then I lifted Kobe up. My back went completely out. I was in so much pain!! This wasn't pulled muscle pain, but nerve pain. Horrible horrible nerve pain. Again, I tried to convince myself that if I just rested I'd be ok in the morning.

After getting Reagan and Zion to school that day, I had to go to Roanoke to take some tests for a job. I had my dad help me get Kobe in and out of the car. I picked Zion up and rested the rest of the day. Jerime had to pick Reagan up from school.

Friday morning I couldn't even get up out of bed. It took me 10 minutes just to get on the edge of the bed. I could stand up but couldn't straighten up. My mom was already coming over to watch the kids for me, so I quick made an appointment with the chiropractor.

I was able to get in right away and she adjusted me and gave me electric shock muscle therapy (if you've never had it, it feels amazing!). I am still in a lot of pain. Today I'm able to get up a little, but by now I'm pretty much back in bed until morning.

I am so disappointed! This really puts me way back on my goal of finishing on my birthday. But, I am trying to keep going eating clean and will get back in the gym when I'm healed enough.

Poo. :(