Day 25 & 26: Gloomy Days

I was still on my off today (25th day) and availed the luxury of doing nothing :D I was just at home, folded my clothes, cleaned up a tiny bit and just sat in front of the telly and ate my meals on time. The day started out sunny but then eventually dimmed to a drizzling afternoon.

Im still on plan today, although, the scale seems to have gotten stuck starting 23rd day->it moved up 200gms, 24th-> went down by 200gms, & 25th-> moved down 200gms, and 26th -> no change.. :/ How can I possibly meet my 10kg target by month end at this rate?!



one of my weaknesses :(

I went to watch a movie with friends in the evening. Dinner intact and taken on the 5th hr mark, I was intoxicated with the strong popcorn smell. I was seriously thinking of having a large tub for myself. As I was at the counter buying DC and water, I swear I could have bought one, but told myself  "NO" calmly and sensibly. I thought to myself, I can have some popcorn when Im done with refeed, and thats just around 45-60days away. And time flies fast. If I deviate now, it would feel like I am starting on square one. So--> NO!

Meals for today were egg omelette, fish bokchoy and chicken oregano stirfry. I didnt have fruits today.. just 2 DCs and my crispbreads.. Not so good..

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Weighed this morning, and the scale didnt budge! :(

Its a full on thunderstorm and strong winds today.. A lazy day to go to work :D but Im fine.. Nothing much to report though.

Meals were egg omelette, chicken oregano stir fry, and beef steak with veggies..

I was having bad thoughts today, I've been thinking how good i was for the past 26 days that Im finding this quite difficult, not having the [junk] food that I wanted to eat. I am in a state of being self indulgent and being complacent. I hate this. I cant quit now! Just thinking of another 30days on limited and unflavorful portions (thanks to the no hot spices requirement for me) seems sooooo boring for me.  I may seem as strong, as I havent given in to any chance of deviating (even on my birthday) but it doesnt mean that I dont have my personal demons urging me to step outside this rigid line.

Its a constant struggle. Perhaps its due to the life long avoidance of delayed gratification. Arggghhhh! Then I keep thinking of the X number of times that I tried to lose weight, and I had not finished any single one of them. I lost weight but then did not maintain. Or I lost some weight and decided it was fine and just stopped being aware that it will actually come back if I didnt take care.

No. I cant stop now.

I wanted to go for Power Yoga afterwork, but I forgot my workout clothes.. so I just went straight home and slept early.. :)

Day 24: Excercise

Program wise, I am good today. Ate my meals as planned.

I took a day off to relax as I wasnt able to take a leave on my birthday. I met with a friend who is visiting the country in the afternoon and we spent some time chatting and shopping (for her). I just had 2 cups of decaf and ate my lunch around 5pm.

She cant believe how much weight I have lost bec the last time I saw her I was probably 20kgs more.. She was really dumbfounded and asked me what Im doing, i told her Im doing the Cohen Diet. She is no stranger to this as it is very popular back home, and now that she is here, I sueggested if she wanted to sign up online, this is her chance.. I hope it works out for her, thats going to be a HUGE saving.

I decided to give Body Pump a try again today. It has been 10 days since I last worked out so I think its overdue. But knowing that I havent done any exercise (except for yoga yesterday) I had decreased my weights.

From the moment I started, despite the lighter weights, I felt weaker, my strength is not the same.. and I felt really bad about it. I know its the low calorie diet. I did feel lighter, I am lighter, but I felt the strain that I havent felt in a long time. I did finish the class, but with difficulty. Plus, I didnt sweat much which was annoying to me.

I didnt become so hungry, I felt more tired than hungry.. Like I am about to fall asleep on the wheel and I had no energy when I reached home.

As much as I love my pump class, I guess I wouldnt be doing it again anytime soon. I will be sticking to yoga alone..

Lesson learned.. :(

Day 10: Shhh.. Its All Good

"Endorphins make you happy, happy people just dont shoot their husbands."--- Elle Woods

Hey all!

The scale started to move again just a bit, so Im good..

It was too foggy today, another sign of weather change and my throat hurts and Im having colds from allergy (again!! uff).. so thats not good...

Ate my meals as planned. Deviation free.. so thats good

Definitely PMSing.. so thats not good..

But, I decided to join the Body Pump Class AND Body Combat that my fave intstructor has invited me to.. I know this is a big no-no while in Cohens but, I just wanted to see how I'll do. I feel ok to do it so I went.

AND IT FELT SO SO GOOD!!!!!

I lifted with the same weights and gave it my all for the combat class. I had sweat like never before.
I also noticed that I feel stronger and lighter. I really believe my yoga sessions had helped my muscles. I never really paid attention to stretching (for about a year) so can you imagine how constricted/tight my muscles were?? AND! YOU REALLY CANT BEAT CLEAN EATING!!

"Eat clean. Train dirty" -- Unknown

I know Im not supposed to workout while on Cohens, but my consultant said that I need to reduce my workouts so I dont feel hungry. Lets put this in my perspective, I used to do this:

1) Body Pump + Intense Cardio (pump, step, spinning) 3X a week
2) 5KM Treadmill session 2X a week

So this was my normal routine before I started Cohens. I did reduce my workouts to:

1) Yoga 3X a week

Adding this Pump and Combat once a week, is still significantly less.

How did I feel? ---The rush of endorphins was awesome! It felt so good, its addictive!!

I ate my last meal 20 minutes after my workout, which is a beef meal+crackers. An hour and a half later, I had a fruit. I didnt feel ravenously hungry after this workout.

After an hour of reaching home, the endorphins went down and I felt so tired that I slept by 11:30

Body pain was there, which was expected.. all good

Perspired a lot.. felt so good..

Did not feel dizzy nor dying.. thats good..

So all in all the day went great.. Lets just see if I can manage to get up to work tomorrow..

AND, I am thinking of doing this once a week, depending on how I feel the previous day and the day of the workout

Its all good people..

Day 4 & 5: Sick & Soda

Im feeling a bit under the weather today. I have colds/stuffed nose and my throat hurts!

I woke up late so I got to eat my breakfast late, around 1.5hrs after waking up. My nose is so stuffed its difficult to swallow without my nose making a noise! yes thats right!, my nose is making a noise!! :D funny and irritating at the same time. So I kept having warm green tea, pressing the warm mug on my face to ease the congestion.

However, I stuck to my eating plan and did not deviate one bit. I couldnt believe that I have gone 4days without deviating. Actually, I expected this to more than tough. But Im glad I went past through it with medium difficulty. Maybe I had planned my day well to avoid having temptation get to me. Like I havent gone out with friends yet, or maybe coz the weekend has not arrived yet. I do have a birthday party to go to on Saturday and I was thinking of not going. I reckon Im not that strong enough yet.

The office doesnt help either. Today, there was a big meeting and just outside the meeting room were heaps and heaps of chocolate chip cookies, muffins, croissants and other sweet breads.  Nyahhhhhh!!! I looked at those cookies so longingly.. and walked on by..

I think I need to experiment with different recipes on my next batch of cooking. Im getting bored with just the salty and peppery taste. The easiest is to add curry or hot spices, but eh, Im not allowed to have any spicy stuff. How cruel right???? I can do the cooking with sprite thing. :/ I wonder why am I not allowed to have anything spicy? hmm I asked this from my consultant, and the reply I received was:

Having hot spices will slow your progress down and so we ask that you please avoid them for now.

I know, but why?!

Best to just obey right? Its for my own good eh? *pout*

Today is power yoga day. My nose is super stuffed and i have a mild fever! :/ I can still go, it is my rule that if my sickness does not involve fever and body pain, I would still go to the gym, even if its just a few minutes on the treadmill, or going to the sauna or just driving and getting inside the parking lot! then leaving afterwards. More often than not, after 20-30minutes walking on the mill, I end up wanting to do more, AND honestly, I do feel better afterwards. It could be the adrenalin rush, but it made me keep going.

Thats how I developed the habit of going to the gym. I didnt force myself to excercise well ALL the time. I just need to get my butt in there, and from there it became a part of my day. Once Im inside the gym, I just keep wanting to do more than what I intended to.. most of the time.

I decided not to go though :( Because I also learned my lesson 2 wks back, I was feeling the same but I forced myself to do pump and step and was able to finish and felt energized afterwards. But in the evening, I was knocked out, knocked out at home very sick for 3 full days! I cant afford that right now, so I just went home, ate my dinner at 8, and I fell asleep even before the 2hr mark. I was waiting for it, but I guess I was sick so I just dozed off. You know that situation when you are trying to keep your eyes open.. dozing off.. waking up.. dozing off.. waking up.. then finally snore your way into oblivion! :D

* Peace *

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Day 5

I woke up today slightly better, my colds are a bit better.Im glad I took that rest yesterday evening and it was good I had my meals prepared in advance, I didnt feel like cooking nor eating at all!

I noticed that I wanted to drink Sprite Light yesterday and today, to which I did. I never was a soda drinker, ever! This is allowed in the CD, 3 cans a day in fact, but I still am skeptical about it. Ive always seen softdrinks as really bad, and if ever Im having one, I will have only 5 sips of it. Never really fancied it. I had one today as well, and I feel fat already.. Go figure..

Still deviation free today. But per my standards I have deviated. I took on the CD with a goal of cooking for myself, so for this entire phase, I vowed not to eat anything aside from what I cooked. This morning I had a yogurt and a fruit, as I couldnt really bring myself to get out of bed. I thought of bunking work but no, I still went.

Oh and its someones birthday too.. I swear, this office is abundant with temptation every single day!!

I went for hatha yoga today and i fell on my ass while doing the headstand.. :( i did the class ok but i can still feel like im not a 100%. Ive been sick on and off for 2wks and I blame it on the weather.. I will try to make it to powe yoga tomorrow morning. That is if i wake up

I made my 3days worth of meals, so I can concentrate on the weekend on updating my CV and actually applying for jobs! I have been putting this off for quite some time now. Procrastination.. uff!

Good night..

Cant Seem to Say Goodbye

For now..

Today I had my last hurrah with strength and high intensity training. Attended Body Pump and Body Step for the last time this quarter. Said my ta-ta's and "will miss you's" to my gym class buddies, all hoping to see me succeed on my journey and all are looking forward to teasing me with my measley weights when I return.


I intended to freeze my gym membership for the durati5on of the Cohen Diet, but I still cant wrap my head around not going to the gym AT ALL.

This place got me started. Woke up my sleeping muscles. Made me realize that I still have that strength within me and that my stamina hasnt improved ever since I left the gym. This place is my escape to avoid a 1hr traffic on the way home from work (nice eh? :D).

Best of all, when I rejoined the gym for the nth time, I finally saw its purpose to me with an ending so enticing that it made me keep going. Now, I dont see this place as something that I HAVE to go in order to LOSE weight. Like a chore that I have to do but would be great if somebody else can do it for me.

No, this is THE GYM(NASIUM), a place for movement, strength training, body building, sweat, health, sports, dance, group work, flexibility, goals and human interaction. It made me long for a fit body (not a thin body). It made want to run, jump, lift, box and kick and it made me work to achieve it too. I cannot imagine my days without it now.

So for now, I will keep it open for and I will only attend yoga classes twice a week for starters or until I see how excercising will affect my diet behavior. Why yoga? I have been going to yoga classes for the past 3 days and I like it. It provides the pressure, but not so intense that I am dead sweaty and gasping for air. It made me feel a tiny bit sore but I havent been stretching enough for over a year so the wee bit of pain and resistance in each movement is totally expected :D 

AND!!! yesterday, I was finally able to do a headstand!!! whoooohooo! even if it was against the wall.. I am sooo happehhh 8-). So i cant wait to see what else can I do and how much flexible I can become afterwards. Im giddy happy :)))

But if it will affect my discipline with CD, then I will really have to stop for a while.

*Namaste* :)