2014 TypeC Health and Exercise Challenge

[INTJMom]

Ugh! I did all my workouts this week except for one upper body because I got a flu shot and my left arm was killing me.
I'm still doing the knee program.
I found out this morning that I probably walk with the top of my pelvis tilted too far forward, so now I need to work on tilting it back.
Fixing Hyperextended Knee Posture - Somastruct
It's exhausting constantly correcting my posture.

 

[kyuuei]

Oyyy boy I completely fell off the bandwagon lately. I really have. We got to week 3, and I was jammin' great, but then grandma died, the family got sick, tests came up, boyfriend came to visit, Halloween, my nephew's birthday, etc. etc. etc. One excuse after another of eating junk and not hauling any junk around to offset it.

I feel the effects in only two weeks of complacency. I'm tired, need naps, my stomach hurts after every meal it seems, and even though most of the things I made for the birthday were homemade, things just aren't right anywhere with me right now. I cooked a pretty healthy breakfast this morning, but after the party I might as well have eaten nothing at all.


Tomorrow is the ren fest, where I will probably have healthier options overall and I'll walk and run all day so that'll help as well. Monday is an exam, and Tuesday I'll be down in the dumps because my boyfriend has to go home. So I hope Tuesday night or Wednesday I'll be off to a running start.

 

[INTJMom]

As they used to say in the 70s...
Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

 

[INTJMom]

I did my 3 days of exercise this week.
Sometimes it's hard to make myself do it.
But I want to be strong and healthy... so that's my motivator.

 

[kyuuei]

3 days of P90X3 Down baby! And my sister's sticking with P90 VERY well despite work. I think it's a good system she can keep up with, old as it may be, that's okay with me! She still SUCKS at her diet, but we're working on it, one day at a time.

As for me, I ate a preeeeetty fatty and sodium-dense lunch from Veteran's day food stuffs, but I'll be enjoying this amazing butternut squash soup tonight for dinner:
- 1 butternut squash, roasted (a little too long lol but still fine!!)
- 4 carrots sliced
- ginger and onion and garlic, minced
- 3 apples, minced as well
- 3 celery ribs
- salt, pepper, herbs de provence, cinnamon, and nutmeg
- half water half chicken stock 5 cups total
- 2 tsp olive oil

And a similar sweet potato, carrot, apple ginger once I run out of that stuff. Vegetable soup in the morning has been just as enjoyable as oats lately. Hot and rich and ready to eat.

 

[Ivy]

Coming up to the end of the first month on my 4-month program with Amber & Sean. Feeling pretty good about things- the dietary stuff is easy right now, since the focus is stabilizing my weight by eating at my TDEE (which is about 2300kcal- and it's neat, like magic, my weight has stayed within about a pound the whole month) and some fairly wide macronutrient targets, mostly just to make sure I get enough protein to retain muscle when I introduce a deficit in month 2. I tend to hit my protein target of 20-25%, and go over on fat and under on carbs (not on purpose for those, really- it's just the way the cookie crumbles so to speak). Amber & Sean have said this is fine as long as I feel good, and I do. The exercise is hard; I haven't lifted weights in years, and I feel very out of place in the gym, but I figure I paid the same membership fee as the swole bros and so if they don't like sharing the weight room with me, fuck'em.

 

[kyuuei]

Coming up to the end of the first month on my 4-month program with Amber & Sean. Feeling pretty good about things- the dietary stuff is easy right now, since the focus is stabilizing my weight by eating at my TDEE (which is about 2300kcal- and it's neat, like magic, my weight has stayed within about a pound the whole month) and some fairly wide macronutrient targets, mostly just to make sure I get enough protein to retain muscle when I introduce a deficit in month 2. I tend to hit my protein target of 20-25%, and go over on fat and under on carbs (not on purpose for those, really- it's just the way the cookie crumbles so to speak). Amber & Sean have said this is fine as long as I feel good, and I do. The exercise is hard; I haven't lifted weights in years, and I feel very out of place in the gym, but I figure I paid the same membership fee as the swole bros and so if they don't like sharing the weight room with me, fuck'em.

Yeah that's one of the hardest things is getting over that invisible audience. I felt it too when I had a gym, and I went at night for a while because more average-joe lookin' people were there at night.

But, really, most people are more than happy that someone else is in there getting their work out on too. I'm not sayin' there's no occasional douche, but mostly if I asked someone to spot me, they were more than happy, and then sometimes I even ended up working out with people for the fun of it. Usually gym goers are either just as lost as you are, don't care if 100 people or 0 people are there, or excited to help but look mean because they're concentrating on lifting weights.

 

[kyuuei]

One week down! Boom!

My tip for today, since that seems to be a thing I'm doing lately:

Make a big batch of oatmeal and make it into two meals a day. Oats are stupid cheap, and they keep for about a week in the fridge. You make them plain, put them in a giant container, and they'll gel up and be super oatmeal-y all week long. Just pop it in the microwave, or in your dish with some warmed water/liquid, and they're back to life.

You can do a sweet dish for breakfast, and a savory dish for lunch. And half of the meal is already cooked, and it's easy on the stomach.

 

[INTJMom]

One week down! Boom!

My tip for today, since that seems to be a thing I'm doing lately:

Make a big batch of oatmeal and make it into two meals a day. Oats are stupid cheap, and they keep for about a week in the fridge. You make them plain, put them in a giant container, and they'll gel up and be super oatmeal-y all week long. Just pop it in the microwave, or in your dish with some warmed water/liquid, and they're back to life.

You can do a sweet dish for breakfast, and a savory dish for lunch. And half of the meal is already cooked, and it's easy on the stomach.

I actually did oatmeal that way for about a year, but it was because I had an ulcer and the oatmeal neutralized the acid in my system... helped it heal... it went away.

 

[INTJMom]

I am supposed to do 3 full-body workouts per week but Thursday was a wash and I didn't bother trying to play catch-up on Friday.
My Physical Therapist told me to stop doing ab crunches because it's too hard on the neck, but the replacement exercises were too hard on other parts of my body, so I'm going back to ab crunches.

 

[kyuuei]

I actually did oatmeal that way for about a year, but it was because I had an ulcer and the oatmeal neutralized the acid in my system... helped it heal... it went away.

Oatmeal for a year!? Maaan I dunno if that sounds fantastic or monotonous. Probably both. But Im glad it helped! I definitely felt too full today to even bother eating dinner by the time I was done with the second bowl of oatmeal for the day. I just ate vegetables (spaghetti squash spaghetti) for dinner.

I am supposed to do 3 full-body workouts per week but Thursday was a wash and I didn't bother trying to play catch-up on Friday.
My Physical Therapist told me to stop doing ab crunches because it's too hard on the neck, but the replacement exercises were too hard on other parts of my body, so I'm going back to ab crunches.

Ab crunches shouldn't be too hard on the neck with proper form, but if your neck is really out of whack, maybe try a standing ab work out? It might take you a few times to find videos like this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFMcukESjkY

But you can take notes of which moves didn't hurt your body, and put them together to make a custom ab work out. Kick outs, knee raises, twists, etc.

Also, balancing videos are great ab workouts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PIVgUe6z3E

Videos that involve balancing moves and posture fixes could be great ways to work the abs.

Also isometric moves like pulling your abs into your spine, and holding them there for a minute while you breathe, then release. Stuff like that should give your abs tone without disturbing other body parts.

 

[kyuuei]

Whole new week of P90X3 starts TODAY son!

(I add a rest day, butt-only work out day, and a stretching day to my weeks so that I can keep on the 10 day track with my sister's stuff.)

My sister's been suuuuuper awesome about keeping up with her work outs! I think she's really got a groove going now. Now if I can only get her to eat enough. She doesn't realize how much eating one needs to do for wholesome foods to get 1,660 calories minimum a day!

 

[Ivy]

Month 1 of my 4-month program is down and I feel really good about it. This was basically the baseline month- the idea was to stabilize weight by meticulously tracking calories in and out (which worked- my weight hovered around the same pound all month, though I lost an inch or so off most of my measurements) and get a routine going at the gym to build some strength to carry forward. This month we will introduce a small calorie deficit, and the workouts get a little more serious- higher weight, lower number of reps. I feel less and less like a fraud at the gym every time I go.

 

[kyuuei]

^ Good on you! Yeah the more you show up, especially with a plan, the better you feel and the less pressure you feel! The gym is really intimidating at first, but it smooths out quick.


As for me, Yoga today (boooooo), and overall I was over in sugars for the week (I always am lol) and I didn't get as much protein as I'd have liked. I'm trying to get twice the protein as fat calories, with carbs being right on target or over. Though as long as I get a minimum of 1300 I feel pretty good.

 

[kyuuei]

Totally forgot to drop some super secret sexy recipes for holidays coming up!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge

I'm NOT a huge fudge fan.. but this is pretty indulgent and it isn't overbearingly sweet. My versions are listed below. I double the recipe so that it has some substance. Still, when calculated, splitting the doubled recipe up among 6 servings is 147 calories a serving (this is calculated for the second recipe listed).

The current recipe being eaten in the house:
4 tbsp melted coconut butter
4 tbsp speculoos cookie butter
1 package hot cocoa powder
1 pinch of salt (or a few shakes of a slow-pouring salt shaker)
1 very ripe banana
2 packets turbinado sugar

Basically shove all that into a food processor or blender of some sort, and blend on high until well incorporated. Then dump it into a container, stick it in the fridge until it's hardened. (I don't have coconut oil on hand to play with.. but I'd bet near anything taking a 3 tbsp coconut butter and 1 tbsp coconut oil would produce a harder product with some substance to it if you didn't want it so gooey ish and more hardened fudge like. Or just shove that shit in the freezer.)

What I'll be making for Thanksgiving:
4 tbsp melted coconut butter (like 10-15 seconds in the microwave usually does it)
2 tbsp hazelnut spread
2 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp cacao powder
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 very ripe banana
1 pinch salt
A slight dash vanilla extract
1 packet turbinado sugar
a handful of Guittard 63% dark chocolate chips. (These are my favorite chocolate chips in the whole world ever ever.)

Blend it all up, dump it in a small serving container, and sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Stick in the fridge till ready to be served.

More rich chocolate/peanut butter flavor to mask the banana since three people in my household aren't fans of banana. (How?!)



Finally, because ice cream is super awesome, frozen yogurt ice cream without a stupid ice cream maker:
Large gallon ziplock bag.
Literally any recipe you want for ice cream ever. Frozen yogurt flavors abound the internets. I went with egg nog flavor and used coconut milk nog from so delicious and mixed it with plain yogurt and some vanilla beans and sugar. Swish that alllll together nice and blended like, sealing all of the air out of it first!, and then lay it super flat like a sheet of milky creamy goodness. Freeze it for a few hours, until it's rock solid!

Then, without opening it, bend it like you're trying to break apart some scratch off tickets perforated together. Bust it up in the bag into chunks, and dump it into a blender/food processor, and blend those chunks up into a creamy nice soft serve. You can serve it like that, or you can go on and dump it into a container, seal it with plastic wrap (making sure the plastic wrap touches the product top and doesn't leave that air gap over the top.. alternatively, a container that fills up right up to the top with a lid) and stick it in the fridge for just an hour or two. Voila. Ice cream.

One food processor, one ziplock bag, and two recipes later you've got some fancy healthy desserts to eat with that pumpkin pie for pretty cheap.

 

[PocketFullOf]

Got back into training today, I feel a lot better. Hopefully I can get back to rock-climbing soon.

 

[swordpath]

I just got a Ninja blender. I need some good recipes for kale smoothies (and other healthy) smoothies.

 

[Ivy]

I smoothie it up every morning- usually greek yogurt or kefir, fruit, and spinach. Just whatever I have on hand. No need for a recipe. I like them pretty thin so sometimes I add milk or water.

 

[Ivy]

This morning it's a bunch of raspberries, a banana, kefir, and water. I wouldn't make this one again- too seedy. And I didn't have any spinach. I don't like kale.

 

[kyuuei]

I just got a Ninja blender. I need some good recipes for kale smoothies (and other healthy) smoothies.

Recipes can be super handy for when you're starting out. As you get further into it, you start to realize what you like or not. For me, I love green smoothies as long as they're not gritty and I can't taste the bitterness of the leaves.

For kale and swiss chard, that means adding lemon every single time to neutralize some of that bitter taste. Darker greens are just going to be bitter. Spinach is VERY agreeable and lacks the bitter taste, so if you're not a lemon person, spinach is the way to go. I also think it grinds up better than kale. Make sure you de-stem the kale, the stalk won't grind up as well and it'll turn into a gritty mess. You can turn the stalks into vegetable skewers if you want a purpose for them and have veggie kabobs.


Basic formula:
60% fruit (1 cup)
40% vegetable (1/2-3/4 cup)
A handful's worth of add-ons (cacao powder, honey, soaked nuts, etc.)
Liquid enough to blend it together (at least 1/2 cup, but I usually use at least 1 1/2 cups because I like liquid-y drinks)

I would stress with a nutribullet, while I LOVE it and think it's awesome, please make sure you do NOT fill past the max fill line. Also, ensure you have the lid on tight enough. Both of those things will make a disaster you do not want to deal with.

BUT! If you want a "I need a recipe I like I can follow each day" thing:

Portfolio Archive - Simple Green Smoothies

Here's a sexy no-think-no-brainer recipe website.