Starting healthy and sporty in 2014

My dear follower,

hope, you started healthy and without a hangover into New Year. :-)

In the first days of this new year I did some cleansing days (which I also did in summer 2013) with a lot of green tea, water, simple vegetable stock and rice cakes. It´s like an detoxification for your body, because you drink rd. about 3-4 liters (1 gallon) a day. When I did this the last time, I noticed, that dropping pounds was more easily. In this 4 days I dropped 4 pounds (2 kg) - with a remark, that water was the most of the weight loss.

Yesterday was January 4th. Now you think, okay, that´s not a special day.... you´re absolutely right! Excerpt the fact, that in exactly 3 months on April 4, I´ll be a thirty-one-year-old lady... :-)

Three months.... this space is exactly 90 days (13 weeks). As you read in my New Year Resolutions, for reaching successfully your goals you have to break your goal into small steps.
As mine is to reach a healthy body shape, I think the first step is to focus on these ninety days.....90 days are a reasonable time frame and enough time for a visible body change. (One of the most famous workout programs has also a duration of 90 days... see P90x of beachbody.com)

I created for my own progress documentation my own fit book (in the style of this fitbook).
(Note: normally I would buy it, but the delivery time was too long from the States to Germany until New Year's Day).

Spurred on the before-after progress pics on the web (which can be found in droves these days), I took also initially some before-pictures of my body, I weighed and measured myself. As I also promised to stand out against the background of my blog and to be more visible for my readers I´ll show you some of my progress pictures.

To be honest, it´s really a difficult step for me to show you my pics, because I feel ashamed, how I lost self control over my body in the past years and I couldn´t believe how difficult the way is to come back to a shaped body. Although, 2013 was a sporty year for me (incl. participating in a half marathon and dropping 20 pounds), I still don´t feel comfortable in my body.

On November 2012 I started this blog with 205 pounds, now I´m at 185 pounds, my goal weight is between 143 and 154 pounds... (I´m 5'10'') - so you see there are at least 30 more pounds to drop. But I don´t only want to drop the weight to see the number on my scale, but more I would like to shape my body with lean muscles.

Currently I´m size 14 (starting on size 16-18) and at the end I want to have a 8-10.

For reaching my goal, I created a training plan and a nutrition plan with some essential supplements.

WEEKLY TRAINING PLAN
- 3x weight lifting,
- HIIT and
- 2x cardio/running
- thinking of adding P90x :-)

DAILY NUTRITION PLAN
- after getting up: multivitamin supplements
- breakfast:(CARBS+PROTEINS) oatmeal, whey, milk, cinneamon and some berries or rice cake, no-fat cream cheese, chicken breast and cheese
- snack: 1 apple
- lunch:(CARBS+PROTEINS) rice, lean meat or fish and a lot of vegetable
- snack: some almonds
- pre-workout: BCAA + L-Carnitine
- post-workout: BCAA + Glutamine
- dinner:(NO CARBS) salad with egg and tuna or lean meat with a lot of vegetable
- before sleeping: whey


On my facebook page I´ll try to show you some receipes, nutrition and workout pics and as a weekly summary a new post on this blog here....

Let´s get started...!!! Wheeeoooo! :-)

As a good starting motivation I ordered some gym apparel - the next post will follow soon.

Stay healthy and -importantly- tuned....

Back to business

I'm back to Germany after my 3-weeks trip to Boston and New York.

On the one hand I'm sad, because this time had flown so fast. I had really a great time in the States, met so many nice people who became good friends and -as you all know - I reached my most ambitious fitness goal ever: my participation in the BAA Half Marathon on October 13.

On the other side, it's also a good feeling to be home again in a familiar surrounding.


Did you know, that Christmas is closing in very fast....? Or to be more precisely: today in 8 weeks!!

In the Christmas season I'll be off to Chamonix, France for a cozy 4-days skiing vacation at Montblanc with my fiancé. We'll stay in a new hotel next to the mountain with a lovely spa!!

As this 8 weeks are a manageable period, I will come back and keep intense focus on my nutrition and training plan as before.

Although I didn't gained any weight during my US trip, I want to lose more weight.

In the last few months I lost 10 kg (20 lbs) so far, but that's not enough. I want to reach my finish weight until upcoming summer 2014.... 15 more kg (30 lbs) to go.

As promised I'll post more information and pictures of receipes, progress and training moves.

I wish you all a happy Monday...

Let's do it!!

Stay healthy and eat clean.

REVIEW: Funeral of a Carb Junkie - and Rebirth as a Protein Vamp

In my parental home and childhood I only had very healthy food. We bought a lot of foods and milk directly from a regional farmer, baked our own bread, had our own small vegetable garden and there was no sweets in our house.

Additional I did a lot of sports: 6 years of ballett, apparatus gymastics, aero wheel, badminton and advanced swimming. In my other spare time I was a very agile girl with playing twister or tag in my next neighbourhood.  

I was a really fit, healthy and lean girl. The word "overweight" was unknown.

When I got older and spreaded my own wings, I moved in my own flat. I ate everything what my taste liked. This paradise of sweets, chips, other unhealthy stuff (smoking) and unlucky relation ship in combination with no ambition of continuing the training weren´t without serious consequences: My sport level decreased to a less minimum.

via lifestyle.t-online.de

I gained weight (slowly but consistently), my skin looks unhealthy and sallow and I felt myself flabby....very flabby! I arrived in the doom loop... without any energy of doing some sports.

I recollect to a spontaneous rollerblade event a few years ago: The first half of these 20 km I got help by colleagues with pushing/pulling of my body .... the other 10 km I gritted my teeths and labor to the finish line. I gasped for breath while entering the finish, a restaurant. The other finished their meal at this time. My lung hurts as a 50-years-old chain smoker although I was just 22!!

This was a real remarkable point in my life. I was really sad, how far I ruined my own health and condition. And I figure out, that I have to change extremely something in my life.

I tried to change my entreched habits but when you do the same wrong things over a long period of time, you can´t change everything from one day to another. 

I bought a lot of fitness books and fitness magazines with their "ultimative plans for weight loss"... I tried a lot... really a lot! But no of them was right to involve it in daily business for a full-working lady like me.

I changed my nutrition from fast-food to "normal" food. But unfortunately I didn´t realize, that I ate too much carbs a day. At the highest point I ate 2-3 big rolls only for breakfast, some candys before lunch, a normal to big size lunch at the canteen, coffee with sugar, in the afternoon also cookies and also a warm dinner and -finally- some snacks in front of the TV in the evening.... that was round about over 3000 kcal a day!!!!

I was fixed at the sugar maelstrom: every time, when I ate a few days low-carb I got edgy and nervous and was really looking to satisfy my hunger for sweets and carbs.

Two or three times I get away from this addiction and feel astonishing changes: my energy came back and my gastrointernal system works also better. But the cut to low-carb was too quick, so I felt back into my old habits.

In October 2012 I reached a inacceptable limit on my scale, which I promised myself, never to pass.
I HAVE TO CUT THE RELEASE CORD!!!

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Additional to my many existing fitness books I dig the whole internet after right nutrition and training plan for me. But that was less easy than I had thought. The author A says: "Do this!" and the author B says: "No, try that!". After reading so many books and magazines I got really confused, what´s right or wrong.

Shortly before I gave up my research I found the amazing transformation of Kelsey Byers, the plan of Jamie Eason and a detailed customer review of Tosca Reno´s book: The Eat-Clean Diet. All three girls gave me the right portion of motivation and information for a complete restart. 

To keep trying and not to fail anymore I decided to create this blog for my own motivation.

I changed completely my nutrition (start to involve peux-a-peux clean eating and low-carb into my daily life), did a food diary (since 1st January 2013) for monitoring the calories and went regularly to the gym. Although my weight fluctuate, I feel today myself more healthier: I feel myself more lean, have more energy - also in the afternoon, and my skin looks even better. It´s getting better and better.... and I never want to come back to the point as a Carb Junkie!!

My goal is to loose 20-25 kg (40-50 lbs) and to shape and strengthen my body with low-carb clean eating and doing sport with consistence. I´m in the right way to my purpose.

P.S.: Here is a summary of my important links of my internet research:

• LABRADA - Goal: Burn Fat and Tone Up
• Manual of the LABRADA Lean Body Challenge Program 2013 (pdf)
• Templates of Training and Nutrition Journal of the Lean Body Challenge 2013 
• Manual of the Challenge Program of Kelsey Byers (pdf)
• Jamie Eason´s LiveFit 12-week Plan
• Receipes of Jamie Eason´s LiveFit

 
P.P.S: Some of you may wait for pics of me. I´ll post the traditional before-after pics, when I see huge results. I give you my word.

Stay healthy and keep your fingers away from candy :o) !! 

Merry FITmas!

My Mission for this year´s Christmas will be:
 

Get fit, not fat, this Christmas

 
The festive season is upon us, and that can only mean diet debauchery, abandoned fitness regimes and six-hour TV marathons. But it doesn't have to be this way. With a little forward planning and a smidgeon of self-discipline, it is perfectly possible to enjoy a happy Christmas and enter the New Year feeling fit, not fat.

Many people fall off the exercise bandwagon at Christmas, or rule out the idea of getting into shape during the festive period, assuming there is no point in starting until the New Year.

But given that one of the biggest barriers to exercise is lack of time, a break from the usual routine can provide the ideal opportunity to begin or maintain physical activity. Staying active over Christmas not only reduces your chances of gaining weight, it also helps energise you, reduces stress and gives you a break.

Exercising first thing may entail getting up a little earlier than normal, but it does ensure that you get your workout done before other commitments and crises get in the way - and it will kickstart your metabolism for the rest of the day.

Workouts don't need to be long to be beneficial. If you're prepared to work hard, you can fit a super workout into just a 30-minute window. It's a trade-off between duration and intensity.

If an influx of family and visitors make it difficult to do your usual workout, try to get everyone involved in something seasonal, like ice skating or a winter walk.

If you can't drag yourself - or anyone else - outdoors, look for indoor alternatives to slumping on the sofa. The ubiquitous Wii-Fit Plus or XBOX360 Kinect - maybe you´ll find one of these gifts underneath the Christmas tree - offers a realm of opportunities for hitting virtual tennis balls, punching invisible targets or having a dance battle without leaving the living room.

While it would be rather Scrooge-like to suggest that you forgot all treats and extras at Christmas, you can limit the damage by selecting your festive foods more carefully. Try choosing healthier nibbles like pretzels, roasted chestnuts, unsalted nuts, dried fruits or satsumas instead of crisps and chocolate. And think twice before you open your mouth. Do you really want it, or are you just eating it because it's there?

Don't feel obliged to eat more than you normally would, just because it's Christmas. Turning down seconds doesn't mean you didn't enjoy your meal - it's just that you have had enough.

Similarly, there is nothing wrong with politely putting your hand over your glass when it still has wine left in it, so that you can keep track of how much you've had. When the whole season is an excuse for celebration, those alcohol units can really mount up. Mulled wine on Christmas Eve, buck's fizz with breakfast, wine with dinner, Baileys, brandy … Keep tabs on how much you are drinking, and intersperse alcoholic drinks with soft ones and plenty of water.

It's worth bearing in mind that it's not the amount you exercise and eat between Christmas and New Year that is the problem - it's what you do between New Year and Christmas that makes the real difference!

I found in the internet this helpful pdf-file for Xmas & New Year ’s Calorie Countdown, which I want to share with you.

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I´ll be off to St.Anton in Austria for a sporty Christmas Season from December 23 to December 25: Skiing, Winter walk, Swimming in the hotel pool and using the gym!

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Confession

I have a confession to make: I have been the biggest slacker in terms of fitness in the last few weeks, months, years ...

When I was a child I did a lot of sports: classical ballett, swimming, and gymnastics. In my spare time I played always outside with my friends.

But now? I´m getting chubby and chubbier and that really sucks! 
Quite frankly the reason for that being that my gym has definitely not seen enough of me lately and late-night (and wrong) snacks while studying or watching TV has been filled my stomach a few too many times. 

To make a picture of me: I´m female, 29 years old, engaged and work as a full-time assistant in the south region of germany (between Stuttgart and Munich). Besides my office job I do a study in general management as a distance learning class. And finally, my Body Mass Index is 28 (yes, twentyeight!)

Well, it’s all about to change!!

I am determined to get back to my old healthy self in the next few weeks and months. On April 2013 (in 4 months) I´m getting 30 and that will be my first cornerstone to recheck my fitness path.  

The other cornerstones 2013 will be:

• On May, 5 there will be in my home town a 10K city run (5x2km)
• On July, 28 there will be the premiere for a participation in a triathlon
  (short distance/olympic distance)*
• On September, 22, there will be also a 10K city run.

*Short Distance will be 500m Swim, 20K Bike, 5K Run
  Olympic Disciplin: 1,5K Swim, 40K Bike, 10K Run

Maybe some of you feel the same way and that’s why I thought I would share some of the things on my to-do list.

• I´m overweight. To get in a normal space of weight I have to loose at least 15 - 20 kg.
• Workout at least 3-5 times a week
• I have to train to run 30min, 5K, 10K without a break
• Reducing the sweets in general and especially in the late evening
• Asking myself: Am I really hungry or just bored?
• Drinking a lots of water and unsweeted tea: at least 2 liters.

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If you guys like my posts like this, I’d be happy to share some of my workout routines, favorite music for motivation or more healthy meals. I am by no means an expert in the department, but I always love hearing what works for others. Just let me know in the comments. Also, I’d love to hear what you guys do to stay active and healthy!!