Starting situation: I'm overweight 15 kilograms and I would like to slim down my body and, more, I would like to re introduce some sport in my daily life.
In the beginning of August I was trying to do a little bit of exercise in the morning, before going to work... 10-20 jumping jacks - 20 abdominal - 20 push ups... nothing more, but it was a little start.
In the middle of August I went to the sea for just one week, but it has been enough for stretching my muscles with long swims. For personal reasons I had to come back in town two dais before work and I felt the need to maintain a bit of workout activity... all my body was asking it...
I found a running programme on the Internet :
1th week: 1 minute running 2 minutes walking for 7 times (21 minutes) everyday of the week.
I did it in the weekend and I continued it during the working days of the week and.... it was hard, but a little bit easier everyday, and it was something that my body really wanted and needed.
Then, when the working Monday arrived I decided it was time to wake up my body first thing of the day... I woke up, took a DVD I had at home, with workouts of 20 minutes and started doing it!
I love Elise Gulan way of working out .... I have even another DVD that she made and it is my favourite of all times (Element: Ballet Conditioning), but that one is too long for morning workouts, instead this one is made of different little sections: Interval training (20 minutes); Arms workout (10 minutes); Abs workout (10 minutes); Legs workout (10 minutes); circuit training (10 minutes).
The other nice thing of the DVD is the possibility to chose which sections I will see and in which order, so every morning I can chose to work on a different part of my body or just do cardio workout.
The other thing I like about Elise Gulan is that she uses a lot of isometric exercises and that she stretches muscles while working out....
On eating I've read a lot in the past and I'm quite confused sometimes: some say that Mediterranean diet is the best even with pasta... some others say that the proteins diets are the best and that we should avoid all sugars (Dunkan in example), some others are in the middle (Zone diet, Montignac)....
I found even some news about the Tone It Up nutrition plan: I read a lot on the site and on the blogs of people who have tried it and I think that there is good and bad.... I like their attitude and the free workouts
I think that their advice on doing some cardio in the early morning and of making some other exercise before dinner is a good advice. I think that eating organic food and being aware of what we put in our body is another good advice. The idea of the salad in the mason jar is a big yes! Even the idea of the dressing on the bottom of the jar is pure genius, I love it! That's why I receive their news letter.
I think even that one of their secrets about the dieting system they propose is the ingredients that speed up metabolism.... one example is the Meta D or Bombshell spell that they advice to drink first thing in the morning..... they suggest to drink one or two spoons of apple cider vinegar with a glass of water or pineapple juice (more or less) .... it reminded me of a conversation with an hematologist I had some years ago and he sustained that there were some models he had cured that used to drink some vinegar to stop craving but that a practice like that, long term, would destroy their bodies from inside.....
The other day I wanted to experiment it my way.... I just added to the glass of pineapple juice ONE TEASPOON on organic apple cider vinegar.... well!
I can imagine why you don't crave anymore..... It's because all your body (stomach first, intestine later) is burning and twisting like a mad snake!!!!
No way! Not for me!
I can accept, instead that a little bit of green tea or some cinnamon or a now and then seaweed in the diet can speed up metabolism.... even vinegar in a vinaigrette for salad or a little bit of lemon juice in the water that you drink can be a good help to clean your body, but a FEW and with all the CAUTION of the world.
In example, my husband is a little overweight and he asked me if it was good for him to take some of those foods... well, he has to be more cautious than me in doing it, because he suffer for high pressure and all those substances that speed up metabolism make even blood pressure higher...
So I'm back to the idea that, given that it's important the quality of food you eat, because it's the fuel of your body and mind and if you give good fuel you have a good performance of your cells, what I went back was the idea that our body needs a little bit of everything and that loosing weight is a math thing:
now I've restarted using my best eating control resource: Sparkpeople
It's a free website with weight, fitness and nutrition trackers that help accountability.
I do my diet and track what I eat everyday and the system tells me if I met my calories range, if I had too much or too few of fats, carbohydrates and proteins on the basis of the Mediterranean diet, if I have to eat more or less due to my daily workout and when I'm going to reach my goal of 60 kilograms. (march 2013)
I'm reading even the book Clean and Lean Diet and I find it quite interesting... but I'm just at the beginning...
Ohhhh... wow... almost forgetting... I lost one kilogram in one week!
