Revolution, From the Inside Out!

So I have been battling a belly issue for longer than I can remember and have been on and off consistant with my work outs and eating habits for the past few years. I grew up living and behaving like the athlete that I was and since I got to the USA, because my focus was my degree, that's where I was spending my energy on. On and off I would go back to working out and go back to my wanted body image but it wouldn't last too long.

Since Trevor and I got married, in our house we NEVER allowed sugar treats of any kind, white bread or pasta, greasy foods nor fatty meats, soda, sugarly juices,whole milks, sugarly cereals, etc. So being home was easy. I am though tempted when I am some place else and am offered a cookie or a bowl of icecream, and I could rarely resist. But then I thoguht, it's not like I have this everyday, right? :) Trevor is a workoutaholic and really inspires me to be better with my eating and working out.

As of October last year I started to dedicate myself a lot more to my eating and exercise. I was doing weights twice a week (Trevor, a certified personal trainer, would change my weight lifting plan every two weeks to keep it new and challenge my body more) and cardio about four times a week. I was still following a good eating regimen at home and work but would treat myself on Sundays for a dessert. But nothing really changed in my body till the end of the year. Then in the beggining of January I dediced to go more hardcore, and got into a "contract" with Trevor: if I work out Monday-Saturday I get to spend $50 on whatever I WANT at the end of that month. That was supposed to motivate and reward me. And it did reward me but the motivation would really be to have visible changes in my body and that didn't happen. I also stopped taking the pill thinking that would help but, beside decreasing some water weight, nothing else changed.

Finally, after 5 months of consistant workouts and eating changes I told Trevor I wanted to see my doctor - maybe something was wrong with my body, hormones, metabolism, whatever. There has GOT to be a REASON why I am showing discipline and hard work and not one single pound leaves my body!! I mean, I know I can't expect to go back to my size 4 jeans in 12 weeks, but give me SOMETHING, you know?? *sigh* Trevor, also seeing my hard work and no apparent results, agreed that the doctor might have some insights. And so we went.

My doctor started with the statement "Lets put it this way: if I send you to a prison camp, you will lose weight after a while, right?" I didn't like where this was going...

He proceeded to give me advice that I already know is right and was already doing 90% of it, but not 100. So now I am doing it all. Here is what he asked me to do:

1) Lay off the weights for now and concentrate on CARDIO. Work up to burning 800 calories or more per workout, and do it everyday. (yah, that will take a while. I got to 600/hour, just have to get more intensity I guess)

2) Lay off the "five whites": sugar, pasta, rice, potato and bread. I told him I only eat wheat bread or whole wheat spaguetti and brown rice, and in his words, "I don't descriminate. I don't care if it's purple with yellow dots, if it's pasta or rice or bread, it's off the menu!" Ouch!

3) Limit my caloric intake to 1500/day, being 400 for breakfast, 100 for a snack, 400 for lunch, 100 for a snack, 400 for dinner. ( I was already only eating about 1300 so I know I can do that)

4) No food after 6pm. Nothing. Nada. AT ALL! This is the one that's been tough so far. He told me about the "golden hours", between 6pm and 6am, when our bodies do get hungry at night and ideally, they should feed off of what had been ingested earlier that day. Because we do feed our bodies when we get hungry at night, most of that food turns into fat because we don't diggest it all. Anyway, it's hard right now but I have been disciplined.

5) Lots of water, fruits, veggetables, lean meats, eggs ( lean proteins). He told me something I had read before, that most the times when we feel hunger, it's really thirst that we are feeling, so hydrating our bodies is a great and necessary thing.

And here I am... hungry but optimistic. The funny thing is that when I sit down to have my meals (and I LOVE fruits and salads so it is no sacrifice to eat those at ALL) I get full so quick and rarelly finish my plate. And then an hour later I am hungry and am like "dang, I should have finished that" hehehehehe Crazy mind work!

Anyway, wish me luck! And if you want to use some of his advice to yourself, I can only highly recommend it that you do! :) Deep inside we know this is how we should all live our lives anyway: the cleanest and purest way possible!

Hugs!

Kika*