Hot 100 Update

This was another pretty busy week. Fitting in exercise with a lot of demands on my time from work and family is not easy-- but I did it. Here's my Hot 100 goals-- which I modified last week, and how I did:

Exercise a minimum of five hours a week: Without even checking my fitness journal, I know that I've got this! My totals aren't going to be the massive amount they were a few weeks ago, as my schedule right now won't allow that; but I know that I will have exceeded the minimum when I log my fitness hours for the week, which I generally do on Sunday or Monday.

Eat Foods Rich in Omega 3's at least 3 times a week: Again, I aced this. This is almost so easy for me that maybe it shouldn't even be a goal. Then again, there are plenty of times when we are busy and I don't feel like cooking, and DH says he'd be fine with some scrambled egg whites-- but BECAUSE of this goal, I'll quickly grill some salmon and throw a salad together.

By the way girls, I don't do most of the cooking because of anything like an old fashioned marriage. I do it for two reasons. One, DH works a physically demanding job with a lot of overtime, putting in at least 50-60 hours most weeks. I work from a desk at home and therefore don't mind being the one who does MOST of the cooking and cleaning. What I do can be stressful but it is not physically demanding.

The other reason I prefer to do the cooking is that Jeff simply isn't as good at it as I am. I have a flair for it. When people eat over here they almost ALWAYS ask how I can make low-fat, healthy food taste so good. Honestly, I dunno, it is just a talent I have.

Complete all three months of the ChaLEAN Extreme program: I am somewhat off schedule for finishing this before the end of the year, due to the flu I had last month and a super-busy week a few weeks ago. But I am on track for starting the final phase on Monday and I WILL take this to the end as I feel this program has helped a lot. When I am done with the program, I will do a post with details of my results and an honest review of the product.

Consume at least five fruits and veggies a day: I'm good here too. One thing that has helped is something that I started doing about a month ago. You all know that I gave up "fake sugar" of any kind. I do not drink soda or crystal light and I limit myself to one or two cups of coffee a day. I don't mind drinking water, especially in summer, but this time of year, I can only stand so much of it.

When I read Arnold's body building story not too long ago he talked about mixing orange juice with water and ice in a huge container and he would just drink that at the gym for extra vitamins-- no doubt this was an early, home made form of gatorade. Well, this gave me the idea to do this with grapefruit juice. Studies now back-up what our grand mothers used to say about grapefruit helping the body to break down fat.

So, for the past month, I drink 16 oz of grapefruit juice a day that I mix with water. Every morning when I get up, I immediately grab my fitness journal and put in 200 calories for the grapefruit juice and cross two fruits off of my requirement for the day. As I posted yesterday, I can tell that I am going to have a more substantial fat loss this month.

This is one of several things that are different so I don't know how much this new habit is contributing to my success, but I have been enjoying doing it and will continue. When I feel like splurging, I buy whole, organic grapefruits and make the juice fresh squeezed-- makes me feel like a princess!

Eat only when hungry: Last week I changed one of my goals from eating 5-6 small meals a day to eating only when hungry. I think that this was a good move, at least for the time being. My calories for the past week have ranged anywhere from 1200 to 2000 per day, with 1600 being about the average. Interestly enough, 1600 is the average most days irregardless of whether I eat two times or three or four times in a day.

All in all, the grapefruit juice, avoiding grains, the eating only when hungry and the jogging intervals seem to combine into a formula that has transformed my body into a fat-melting machine. I don't know how to explain it but I can actually feel my body melting the fat away every day.

I was losing steadily all along, but slowly these past few months. Now, even without a scale I can tell that the pace has picked up. I believe that when I return to the doc's at the end of the month there will be a substantial loss.

I am sure that as my body adapts to what I am doing now that the rate of burn will slow down again and I will have to tweak the formula if I want to keep progressing at this rate-- but I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

Right now, I feel in this wonderful state of grace that what I am doing is effective. I feel energetic and healthy-- something you may take for granted in your 20's or 30's but not at my age!

Anyway, what I have loved most about this challenge of Steve's is that it keeps me looking at things and being honest about how effective they are.

Have a great day my friends! Remember, where the mind goes, the body follows!