So Far So Good.

It's been three days since I rebooted and I think my body is resetting its internal clock. Been doing well to take the right foods. I'm currently re-inventing my relationship with smoothies. Been enjoying them in different combos that include, spinach, beetroot, pineapple, oatmeal and low fat yogurt.

Spinach, pineapple, oatmeal and yoghurt smoothie

Beetroot, pineapple, oatmeal and yogurt smoothie

I've decided that breakfast will be mostly smoothies, oatmeal, muesli and oat flakes, as these usually keep me full till about 2pm in the afternoon. I'm yet to move onto brown rice :(, I can't stand the taste but we will get there.

Things are going well on the workout front too. Been burning 1000+ calories during my morning walks. I prefer going alone as this helps me move faster and there are usually no distractions. I pray God sees me through this and it yields in some positive results at the end of the day.

Today's burn

Yesterday's stats

I will keep doing this as I believe that God will help in the healing process that my body so desperately needs.

500 Calories....

When I bought my Garmin FR70, the first goal I set was to burn at least 500 calories through exercise daily. There were days that I ended up burning about 1000 calories and more but, the main goal has been to ensure that I get at least 500 calories burnt everyday.

If you are like me who bores easily, then you would definitely be looking for a variety of exercises to achieve your calorie burning goals. Here are a few exercises I do to ensure that I blast those 500.

1. Jump Rope

This was the only tool I had when I started at 242 lbs. I jumped rope twice a day till I lost 20 lbs. It is fun and burns a lot of calories quickly. However, I must warn you that it can be quite merciless to the knees. My advice would be that once you feel any kind of pain you need to take it easy.




2. Elliptical

It is very easy to blast 500 calories on this machine within 30-45 minutes. This is the exact brand I have in my bedroom. It's a Trojan Image 350. What I love about it is that I can workout at any time; be it at three am or ten pm. I don't have to worry about safety outside since it's an indoor machine. Oh! and I sometimes watch episodes of Drop Dead Diva or Teen Wolf when I'm on this baby....

3. Hip Hop Abs

Who knew that I would fall in love with Shaun T? lol! I love to dance and the fact that I don't even notice the minutes as I tilt, tuck and tighten away makes this a great tool for me. As you watch the video for the first time it may seem like a very simple workout but once you begin, the sweat just begins to drip. Try the Fat Burning Cardio and Total Body Burn and see how many calories you would burn.

I actually plan on starting his Rockin Body program once I'm done with this and who knows, maybe when I'm fit enough I will give Insanity a go. :-)

4. Jogging

Like I tell my Mom anytime we go out jogging/walking, "It doesn't matter if you are as slow as a snail, as long as you are not walking it's jogging." It can be a slow jog for beginners and as your endurance and fitness levels increase, so can your pace. Jogging burns a lot of calories too. 

5. Walking

Now, this is something we all do everyday. On days that I am too tired to do anything intense, I walk. It could be a brisk walk around the neighborhood or a 60-minute session on the treadmill. 

SO there you have it. These are the main exercises I do in addition to lifting weights and other strength training exercises. What exercises do you enjoy?

I Started Skipping Again!

I have not blogged about my weight for  a while because I just couldn't do it. I couldn't put up a number that would disappoint all those who look up to me. I've been on this journey for more than three years and been only able to lose and keep off 33 lbs. To some of you that's a lot but to me, it's not enough.

These past few weeks we have been experiencing a lot of power cuts in the country due to certain reasons I don't even want to get into. That has sort of put a stop to my morning jogs since I can't be sure of my safety. So, after not working out for almost two weeks it hit me " Why the hell am I not jumping rope?" That's what helped me lose those 33 lbs anyways. So, I resumed my skipping yesterday. Did 1000 jumps in the morning and another 1000 in the evening. :-)

This morning I did another 1200 jumps and I'm hoping to top it up with another 1200 in the evening. All that's left to do is to watch the things I put into my mouth. That has always been the damn problem. lol!

Identifying Culprits....

Mental note to self; Diet Soda does not help my weight loss efforts. After a couple of experiments I realized that I gain anytime I drink Diet Coke. I guess my body identifies it as one of the bad guys. So no more diet coke or pepsi  for me. 

I also noticed that I'm consuming food that is three to four times less than what I used to eat before. It's amazing to find that the body needs very little amounts of the various food groups to thrive. Wow! So where did all the junk use to go in the past? Of course that was a rhetorical question, the mirror in my room shows me the answer every morning. Lol!

Exercise has been pretty good lately. Unfortunately my  foot hurts so there may be no workouts for me today. Guess it's from all the skipping I've been doing lately. Not my fault, I really love skipping :-). Will try the elliptical though to see if I can handle it tonight. I went on a three week gym hiatus but I will be resuming attendance next week. I'm glad that my trainer will get to see a loss on the scale even though he hasn't seen me in three weeks. Though I've been telling him about my workouts, I have a feeling that he has a few doubts. 

Update On Jump Rope Challenge...

Phew... Just finished jumping rope. My calves were begging for mercy by the time I had finished these evening's set. Wow! 3000 jumps in one day! I just hope I don't cry tomorrow morning.

3000 down, 12000 to go. :-)

Jump Rope Challenge!

Shit!! Sorry, but that was all I could say when the scale's battery decided to go off this morning. The result: I couldn't check my weight. Aaargghhh! I hate it when that happens.

Anyways, I started jumping rope again and realised that 1000 jumps were not as hard as it used to be. I therefore decided to challenge myself a bit and hopefully, break this sudden slow weight loss pattern.

The Challenge: Do 3000 jumps 5 days this week

It sounds crazy but, I plan to split the sessions. And, I promise to update you on how each day's session went.

Are there any workout challenges that you may want to attempt? Share please... :-)

Two Are Better Than One!

After putting off jumping rope because the sports bra didn't seem to support the twins adequately, it finally hit me this morning when I realised that I didn't want to walk on the treadmill. Two sports bras!

I tried it and had a quick and fun filled jumping experience. 1000 jumps was a breeze and I intend to do the remaining this evening... I can't wait :-).

I hope to see some weight loss by the end of next week. I didn't do so good with exercising since my knees were affected by the bad weather (Dunno why). Hopefully jumping rope will solve that problem for me.

It's a new day and I'm feeling good...

Exercising Twice Daily.....

Yesterday evening I was a bad girl, I took too much palmnut soup (made with palm fruit and consumed mostly in Africa). I knew I was going to pay for that decision so I wasn't surprised when I checked my weight this morning and the scale still read 100.5. Guess it means i will be taking lesser amounts of palmnut soup from now on.  

Now, to the topic of discussion. I've read several articles that suggest that exercising twice daily is a very effective way of ensuring weight loss. My friend who happens to be a dietitian also suggested that since I love jumping rope, doing that twice daily in conjunction with resistance bands wasn't a bad idea. So I've decided to try that from today and see what happens by the end of the week. I however, will be variating my workouts to include going  for walks or doing the treadmill in the evenings.

This morning I found out that I finished 1000 jumps in just 20 minutes; a huge achievement since a few months ago, it took me almost 45 minutes of panting to get there... Yayy! And, since I had to work out for thirty minutes, I added another 500 jumps making it a total of 1500 jumps this morning.

Diet-wise, I seem to be lacking my appetite this morning so I had a Diet Coke (I know that's bad!), and a small pita bread. After taking that, I decided to sip my usual green tea. Perhaps by lunch I will be able to consume the brown rice and vegetable sauce I prepared.

Now that I'm a lot wiser, I'll definitely have a tuna/chicken salad for dinner.

Hope your day is as good as I 'm hoping mine will be....

P.S: Thanks to all the followers/comments.