Morning Workouts & Mars Bars

To my amazement, I am actually starting to look forward to and enjoy my morning workouts.  I have to set the alarm for 5.30 am for my 6 am start.  I'm not one of those people who can just jump straight out of bed and get going, I like to lie there for a while, slowly waking up and enjoying the quiet.

This morning's workout was (as usual) on the treadmill.  It was a 30 min combination interval workout  (#2) with the main focus on speed and a little focus on the incline.  I put a small incline at the end of this one because I am usually ready to fall off after the 24th minute and also, because I just couldn't handle any more speed.

After the treadmill, I did day 2 (week 1) of the 200 squats program.  My legs were really feeling it, but I don't know if it was because they were sore from the treadmill or sore from Tuesday's squats.

*HRM Stats*

• Duration : 43.47 mins
• Calories : 429
• Average HR : 149
• Maximum HR : 169
• In Zone : 21.15 mins
• Distance : 3 kms

*Mars Bars*

Mmmmmm, Mars Bars!  Who doesn't enjoy a Mars Bar?  I am sure there are people out there who don't like them, but for me they are a little piece of heaven and they are even better when frozen.  I am a huge frozen Mars Bar fan for a couple of reasons (1) They last longer and (2) I like things cold.

When I was at the checkout yesterday the bars were calling to me.  I was telling myself "no" and doing my best to stop myself from looking in their direction when I remembered 25%.  I decided that this would be the perfect 25% test and I bought one.

*1 Mars Bar*

*25% principle Mars Bar*

 

Once the bar was cut up into quarters, I wrapped each little piece in Glad wrap and then put it into a zip-lock bag and popped it into the freezer.  I still haven't had a piece cause I am waiting for a chocolate craving, gone are the days when I ate chocolate just because it was there.  I like having a reason to eat it now.  I am excited to see how the 25% principle works with chocolate and whether it will be a satisfying experience.

I Think the Scales are Lying

I have been weighing-in on a Thursday which has been going ok, but after a few days of tears and food, yesterday (Sunday) I decided to weigh myself and WHOA! a 2.6 kilo gain in 3 days, which put me at 102.5 kilos.  That's what the scales said anyway.  I believed the scales because the last couple of days I have been feeling really uncomfortable in my own skin.  As disappointed and upset as I was with myself I decided to wear it, start afresh and use it as my official weigh-in, therefore, changing my weigh-in day.  

I used to weigh-in on a Sunday and for some reason I had more success.  I think one reason is because of the fact that I had to stand on those scales on Sunday morning, it made me very careful with what I ate on Friday and Saturday - the weekend.  What makes the weekend so special anyway?  I know for those that work full time, it's their time to let their hair down and relax a little, but for me, it's just like any other day.

I don't work cause I can't afford to.  I know that sounds really weird, but for me to work I would need at least $990 a week just for child care fees.  Putting 3 kids into child care is not cheap.  Plus my husband works every Saturday so weekends are not that special for me so why do I get that it's the weekend, lets party attitude?  Maybe it's from years of working, but for now it's just a normal day and it's something I have to get used to and weighing in on a Sunday really helps with that.

Yesterday we had tickets to a circus (where I applied my 25% principle with Fairy Floss and Popcorn) and while staring at my limited choice wardrobe, I decided to go with my old faithful pants, the problem with ol' faithful is that they don't fit me if I weigh over 100 kilos, but I decided to put them on anyway expecting to take them off immediately and go with the next size up, but to my delight, they fit.  

"Geez you've bah-looo-nd as of late"

I expected my pants to look something like this, only not as attractive!

My ol' faithful pants are very fussy and right on the cusp of sizes so they are a fairly good indicator to me that the scales were lying - I'll just have to wait until next Sunday to find out for sure.

Habits, Cupcakes & 25%

When it comes to habits, my husband has been a bad influence on me in regards to desserts.  I would occasionally have a sweet dessert after dinner, but when hubby and I moved in together, desserts became a lot more frequent which was not good for my waist line (or my pants, or tops). To make matters worse, the hubster also ate dessert after lunch as well, which eventually rubbed off on me and as it turned out, these were not good habits for me to form.

I hadn't really thought of having dessert as 'a habit', it was always something that accompanied dinner, it was part of the meal, not an extra.

"It's noice, it's norrrmal"

Yes, dessert is nice, very nice and it is the normal thing to do after a meal, well that's what I thought anyway.  It hasn't been until recently (with the start of my health blitz) that I discovered that it isn't necessary to have dessert after every meal, therefore, it is a habit and a habit I am glad to break.

In weeks 2 & 3 of my health blitz my focus was on desserts.  I decided to have dessert as often as I wanted, but it had to be fresh fruit with or without yoghurt, this way the dessert still stayed relatively healthy.  If I still feel the need to eat after dinner I have some fruit, but on other days when I want a little sweetness I just add some vanilla yoghurt.  I have found lately that many nights I am not even interested in dessert and completely go without.  Is my dessert habit breaking???

I think the dessert habit has broken at night, but what about lunch?  I often have a sweet craving after I have eaten my lunch so I go back to the fridge and just search for something sweet.  I don't really want fruit cause I know I will be having fruit later and we all know what a disaster it would be if I had more fruit - more fruit, how dare you! 

Anyway, I found a cupcake, yes, just one cupcake in the fridge the other day and decided to have that for my lunch dessert.  The second it came out of the fridge the seagulls kids swarmed me all wanting one.  

A lonely cupcake

Because there was only 1 cupcake it had to be shared.  I cut the cupcake into 4 and we each had a quarter.  As you can imagine, a quarter of a cupcake is not a very big piece, but it was enough for me, it had to be because there was none left.

My sweet craving was satisfied with a tiny piece of cake

This is very good news for me having the knowledge that I can be satisfied with a fraction of the amount that I usually eat when it comes to cravings and food in general really.  I have decided to implement another element to my health blitz called the 25% Principle.  If I can be happy with just a quarter of a cupcake then why can't I use this technique when it comes to other foods as well?  There is nothing stopping me from doing this except greed and the only results I can foresee are good ones.  The 25% Principle can only make me happier and healthier.