Calorie Counting: Day 2

Weight: 54.9
Loss/Gain: -0.2

Today was a tough workout day. Which makes it a tough eating day. I burned 500 cals in my PT Session and another couple of hundred coaching and training afterwards. Consequently it’s hard to eat all my exercise cals back.

470 under today. I know you’re supposed to eat them all but I’m sooooo stuffed right now I can’t even LOOK at more food never mind eating any of it.

Will try harder tomorrow!

Calorie Count: Day 1

Weight: 55.1 kg
Loss/Gain: 0

Feeling a bit bloated after a Valentine’s weekend extravaganza.

After a month of the Four Hour Body diet I’m ready to go back to my old faithful: Calorie Counting & Exercise.

While I did enjoy parts of the 4HB diet I found the lack of any ‘real’ Carbs (pasta, wholegrains, etc) made me very cranky. The non existence of Dairy was also pretty tough.

That being said today was pretty 4HB compliant except for my morning coffee (dash of skim milk) afternoon Soy Chai Latté and my diet chocolate cup dessert. The rest of my meals were a tuna & bean salad for lunch and a steak & salad dinner.

I cant wait to go back to breaky tomorrow as I actually really enjoy eggs in the morning. I might add in a slice of toast though just to get some carboliciousness back in my life.

I also coached for 1.5 hours tonight as well as doing a 2 hour Pom dance class. Those gave me back a few cals but I wouldn’t have gone over anyway.

So day 1 of calorie counting down – 30 to go.

Four Hour Body – Reflections

Ahhhhh the Four Hour Body Diet. No exercise + eating plan = weight loss.

In theory yes. I’d like to say that I followed the Diet to the letter, but that would be lies. Like most people I can fool myself into thinking that if I have a little of this or that it doesn’t count. I’m not so deluded that I believe that to be the truth – I just choose to give in to temptation.

So without further ado here are my 4HB diet cheats:

> Instant coffee with 2 teaspoons of raw sugar and skim milk

I tried unsweetened with cinnamon. I tried vanilla extract. I JUST COULDN’T DO IT. I tried for a week and I became such a miserable person that I nearly gave up the whole diet. I figured I’d go for the lesser of two evils and only have 1 coffee a day.

> A swirl of BBQ sauce on my morning eggs and steak

Plain eggs as well as steak just need a bit more kick so I sparingly used BBQ sauce to up the flavour. FYI the Old El Paso Salsa available in Australia does NOT cut it.

> Dark Chocolate

Every girl needs some sweet in her life. If Tim Ferriss can have 2 Glasses of wine I can have my choccies.

> Kettle Bell swings, myowhatever crunches, GLUTT exercises…

Didn’t do them (except some half hearted air squats & wall push ups on my first Cheat Day). I lead a fairly active lifestyle coaching 6 nights a week, my own cheer training 2-3 times a week, and an hour long PT session with Shareen @ PurelyFIT once a week. I found that I was LESS motivated to go on runs on this diet and didn’t experience the boundless energy described by other users.

> Lentils

My one and only lentil experiment with a Fail Safe soup recipe was not good. I’d had lentils in the past and didn’t like them. This did not change my opinion. I’m no master chef but I’m no slouch in the kitchen either. If this was the best recipe I could find that was highly recommended then Lentils were OUT.

> Breakfast within 30 minutes of waking

When I wake up and when I get out of bed are often 2 different times entirely. I usually hit the snooze button once or twice, then open one eye, grab my phone and log into my email (by which time my other eye is usually open). I’ll then check my twitter feed, Facebook, News websites and get a morning chat in with my equally lay abed partner. So if my alarm goes off at 8:30 I won’t be down in the kitchen making breaky until 9:20 or so.

> Drinking Enough Water

I probably don’t drink enough fluids in general. I’ll have one 600 ml bottle of water a day if I’m lucky. It’s not that I don’t like water – it’s that I don’t really get thirsty. Exercising, sitting around the house, traveling – water is my first choice depending on whether I’ve had my Coke Zero for the day. But I was definitely not strict about it.

>Cheat Days

I love cheat days. However they often ended up being cheat periods as what’s the point of a weekend away if you can’t have the romantic dinner night 1 and the lazy brunch the next morning?

What I’m taking away from 4HB:

> Cutting down on white Carbs
> Limiting my intake of Dairy
> Calorie Spiking/Cheat Day
> Protein Kick Start Breakfast
> More Beans and Vegetables
> 450 ml or less Coke Zero per day

What I’m looking forward to:

> Low cal dark chocolate desert cups
> Tortilla wraps for sandwiches and homemade pizza
> Calorie counting (I find this very sad)
> Cheese – even if it’s only a limited amount
> Not feeling guilty about my morning coffee
> Indulging in a little treat every now and again if it fits in my calorie limit

I’m going to give the calorie counting a go for 1 month and see how I fare. Tell you what though, I’m not looking forward to my post valentine weekend weigh in. Scariness awaits!

Four Hour Body – Day 32 CHEAT DAY!

Weight: 54 kg
Loss/Gain: -3 kg

No budge from yesterday. Not expecting it but damn am I looking forward to Cheat Day!

12:30 pm
Massive sleep in and time for Breaky. It’s time for the Big Breakfast. 2 poached eggs, sautéed mushrooms, hash brown, baked beans, sausage, bacon, toasted Turkish Bread and a roasted Roma tomato. Sooooo freaking good. I also have a skim flat white coffee.

2:00 – 3:00 pm
A bit of indulgence for moi. Get my nails done and a pedicure. Feeling pretty cruisey.

5:00 – 7:00 pm
Coaching my Youth Cheer class. We’ve had a lot of girls from last year move up an age group so we’re low on numbers. Tumble class is going very well though

8:00 pm
A small bag of Honey Dijon Mustard chips from Red Rock Deli. They’re delicious and totally hit the spot.

9:30 pm
Piiiiiiiiizzzaaaaaa! More bad white carb-liciousness. BBQ Base Chicken lover get in mah belly. Also Garlic mini pizza and a couple of glasses of Coke Zero.

11:55 pm
End my day with half a Kinder Bueno Bar. Milk Chocolate and Hazelnut filling goodness.

Day 32 Summary
I really enjoyed cheat day this week. I feel like I’ve indulged in yummy foods, upped my cals but I don’t feel like a bloated moo cow. Success

Four Hour Body: Day 31

Weight: 54 kg
Loss/Gain: -3 kg

I’m nearing the end of my 4HB journey. One more good day to go before it’s cheat day.

12:00 pm
Mushroom Salad with tomatoes. Small coffee.

1:30 pm
Portugese chicken with garden salad, hummus and a can of Coke Zero.

3:00 pm
Bottle of water.

7:00-8:30 pm
Senior Pom Class. Great progress from my high school ladies. So pleased!

11:10 pm
2 tbsp of peanut butter.

Day 31 Summary
Being on the road seriously kills eating patterns. Cheat day tomorrow – Bring It On!

Four Hour Body: Day 30

Weight: 55.1 kg
Loss/Gain: -1.9 kg

Hrmmm…

10:30 am
2 poached eggs and 2 turkey slices. Coffee

1:20-2:30 pm
Teach a dance class become moderately sweaty.

2:40 pm
Mmm shared Coke Zero.

5:39 pm
Seared classic chicken salad. Share a medium coke. Avoid major diet fail by stopping at 5 McDonalds French Fries. These are a HUGE trigger food for me but I was able to back away after a little taste. I feel like I’ve accomplished something. Sadness

7:00-10:00 pm
Coaching and training. Really positive night for all my teams. I did some tumbling and busted out for the very first time a running handspring tuck. It was spotted but hells yes!

Day 30 Summary
Still pretty sore but totally loving the personal and team progress in the past 2 weeks of Term.

Four Hour Body: Day 29

Weight: 55.6 kg
Loss/Gain: -1.4 kg

Back up again? Must be the extra exercise upping my muscle mass. I don’t feel any bigger. It might be time for measurements.

9:30 am
Mega Protein breakfast Batman. 2 Egg frittata with shaved beef & spinach.

2:30 pm
Leftover shaved beef and hummus.

3:45 pm
Leftover Tuna & 4 Bean salad

4:20 pm
2 pre workout dark chocolate squares

4:30 – 5:30 pm
Personal Training. Really suffering today so she lays off the jump squats and killer legs and ups the core workout on Bob the BOSU ball.

7:00 – 10:00 pm
Coaching Senior Cheer & only one athlete for Open Cheer. Lucky girl has a private lesson with me inc. a good full body stretch and lots of back handsprings.

11:10 pm
Mexican Chicken Fajitas. None of the chippies or bread is for me 1 can of coke.

Day 29 Summary
Ridiculously sore legs from cheer & pom. I’m putting on weight but I’ve lost another 1/4 inch off my waist. It can’t be all bad right?

Four Hour Body: Day 28

Weight: 54.8 kg
Loss/Gain: -2.2 kg

Going back down after Cheat Day. Goody.

9:45 am
Laziness = 3 poached eggs & coffee

2:30 pm
Tuna, veggies, and 4 bean mix salad with a splash of balsamic vinegar

3:45 pm
Can of Coke Zero

5:00 pm
A bit more of lunch salad. Feeling very peckish.

6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Tumbling session. Spotted a LOT of backwalkovers. Really pleased with athlete progress.

7:45 pm
4HB fail. A handful of McChicken bites and sweet and sour sauce.

8:00-10:00 pm
Pom class. Lots of kicking, turning and leaping. Good for the body but I will be S O R E tomorrow.

10:45 pm
BBQ Turkish beef plate with hummus and a lettuce & tomato salad. Yum!

11:30 pm
2 small squares of dark chocolate.

Day 28 Summary
Slowly coming to the end of my 4HB journey. I can tell I’m slacking by my willingness to eat slightly suss foods.

Four Hour Body: Day 27

Weight: 55.5 kg
Loss/Gain: -1.5

Diet fail results in a gain. Booo.

10:00 am
End up burning my breaky a little bit due to multitasking before the Superbowl starts. Fritatta and coffee.

12:30 pm
Second cup of coffee.

2:00 pm
Leftover veal stir fry from yesterday.

7:00 – 10:00 pm
Coaching and stunting. Soooo many full ups. I’m getting OLD.

10:30 pm
Mcdonalds grilled chicken salad. Yummy.

12:00 am
2 small dark chocolate squares.

Day 27 Summary
Better on the food front today. Enjoyed the Superbowl and glad that I stayed home from a diet perspective. If I had gone anywhere it would have descended into a hot dog and beer fueled fiasco.

Four Hour Body: Day 26

Weight: 55.3 kg
Loss/Gain: -1.7 kg

Had a sleep in. Less than a kilo gained from cheat day. I’m feeling pretty good.

11:30 am
2 egg frittata, spinach, ham, and mushies. Coffee.

3:10 pm
Icy Cold Mojito @ The Ivy Pool. I’m here for a fashion show.

6:00 pm
Diet Fail
Polished off the rest of the Honeycomb ice cream. Rule #1: Don’t keep the remains of Cheat Day in the house.

9:30 pm
Veal stirfry.

Day 26 Summary
Blehrg… I hate diet fails. Tomorrow better be better!