Food update

Yesterday was low carb day:

meal 1: 1/4 lean ground beef patty (leftover from dinner), 1 slice pepper jack cheese, 2 big lettuce leaves, 2 slices 11 grain bread (each slice is 50 calories and has 11g carbs. I usually only eat 1 slice of bread on low carb day but I was hungry!), 1 cup coffee with 1 tbsp half half

meal 2: 1/2 cup cottage cheese handful cherry tomatoes and
cucumbers, 20 oz. chia water, 2 mugs coffee w/ half half (yes I'm a caffeine addict)

meal 3: 4 oz flank steak, 2 cups onions, mushrooms, zuchini, green beans with pepper and lime juice (don't usually eat red meat twice in a day but boyfriend chose the dinner meat and cooked it too)

meal 4: 2 pieces of cauliflower with 1 tbsp spicy hummus, 2 celery sticks with 1 tbsp greek yogurt (don't usually eat after dinner but was in bed and my stomach was growling and I wasn't going to try to get to sleep hungry.)

Today is high carb day: I woke up at 5ish bcz my stomach was growling. So tired of this but was also too tired to care and went back to sleep. Got up at 7:30 and had the most amazing high carb breakfast ever!

meal 1: 2 slices 11 grain, 2 eggs, 1/2 apple sprinkled with cinammon and clove spices and sauteed in butter while french toast was cooking. Piled it on top of french toast w/ 1 tbsp maple syrup and 3 tbsp plain greek yogurt (tasted like some decadent dessert.)

Not gonna get that crazy the rest of the day but will be drinking some wine!! Tomorrow is baseline day (moderate carbs) and the end of the double accelerated fatloss phase. Monday I am continuing with phase 2 of Wendy's carb cycling plan, MIC (metabolic increase cycle) which is:

no carb
baseline
no carb
baseline
no carb
carb up
baseline

No more low carb days back to back but 3 no carb days per week. I am now thinking this will be easier than the last two weeks have been.

I screwed up my first day on the metabolic increase cycle. I had toast with eggs this morning. I just realized this 4 hours later.

So no carbs the rest of the day and will skip one serving of carbs tomorrow which is baseline day to make up for it. Not ideal but that should put me back on track.

Carb habits are hard to break!!!

My first day on MIC actually took a turn for the better! I had 1 cup tuna salad on a huge bed of greens for lunch (I make my tuna salad with onions, and tons of celery and spinach and 1 tbsp of both mayo/mustard just to keep it together). I also had 1 cup of steamed broccoli and brussel sprouts with 1 tbsp of greek yogurt on the side. For dinner I had 1 grilled chicken thigh and 2 cups of steamed veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, mushrooms, onions).

I also had two 20 oz. glasses of water, 1 20 oz. glass of water with electrolyte packet (no sugar in this) and 20 oz. chia water and 3 cups of coffee (1 in the morning and 2 mid afternoon before my workout).

Today is baseline day which means I can eat 1 starchy carb at breakfast and at lunch but I'm skipping one of these to make up for yesterday's breakfast mistake. I'm taking another set of pics today and also measuring bodyfat on my handheld bodyfat monitor later this week. At some point I need to get somebody in the gym to measure me with calipers.

My workout yesterday was mobility plus 2 moderate intensity functional training circuits and 30 min. of stretching. Today I'm going high intensity with my best butt workout routine. I'm filming that and my new ab circuit too.

Today is my first actual no carb day. My favorite thing to eat for breakfast on no carb day is a big handful of chopped spinach with 2 scrambled eggs, some pepper jack cheese, 1 tbsp green chilis, 1 tbsp garlic cilantro salsa, and 1/4 of an avocado.

I did realize yesterday that I'm going to have to tweak my baseline days and replace one starchy carb with 1-2 servings of fruit. I really would prefer to eat 1 starchy carb at breakfast and then eat 1/2 a banana and some berries or an apple with my protein shake after my workout (instead of no fruit and 2 starchy carbs).

According to tons of posts that I read on various fitness and bodybuilding sites yesterday, plenty of people eat fruit post workout and are still able to lose bodyfat. Most of the advice I read said that carb types can experiment with this more. Protein types probably can't tweak much or at all. So again Metabolic Typing comes into play even when you're carb cycling!

Today of course is no carb day so protein and tons of veggies only.

My first no carb day went better than I expected. I ended up having:

meal 1: handful spinach, 2 eggs, 1 slice pepper jack cheese, 1 tbsp green chilis, 1 tsp garlic cilantro salsa, 1/4 avocado, 2 cups coffee w/half half

meal 2: 2 oz grilled chicken thigh, 1/2 cup steamed veggies, 2 tbsp greek yogurt, 5 cherry tomatoes, 10 nuts, 20 oz water

meal 3: small coffee w/half half

meal 4: small bowl of filled with lettuce and 2 oz flank steak, 5 cherry tomatoes, 5 cucumber slices, onions, 1 tbsp cottage cheese, 1 tbsp greek yogurt, 1 tbsp garlic cilantro salsa, 20 oz water

meal 5: 8 oz water, 1 scoop chocolate whey, 1 packet raspberry electrolyte mix, 5 ice cubes

Today is baseline day and so I get to eat one starchy carb at breakfast and lunch but I'm replacing the second starch with fruit so that means I have to get my workout in before then in order for this to work for fatloss.

I'm glad I'm sticking with this for another 3 weeks. Once I finis up with week 6 I'll decide whether to do the final stage. Week 8 falls on Thanksgiving week but it would still work with cheat days.

I have a pair of really cool cargo pants that I got as a xmas present a few years ago. When I am at my fittest these pants are 3 sizes too big and I can easily put them on and take the off while they are zipped and buttoned. I also have to cinch them pretty tight with a belt or they fall off (which is kind of why I like them so much).

When I'm not at my fittest and leanest they only feel 1-2 sizes too big. That is how they had been feeling for the past 2 months. Today they feel HUGE which means my bodyfat levels have dropped again!

Scales and monitors and pants are all ways you can track your progress but in the end it's how you feel about yourself that really matters and right now I'm starting to feel great and more motivated to write great fitness articles and create & film more awesome fatloss workouts for my visitors.

That is why carb cycling is important to me right now. Not bcz I actually care about some number on a bodyfat monitor or scale. The better I feel about my body the more inspired I feel to help others and the more successful my free workouts site is.

Do you know your underlying motivations? When you do sticking to your healthy goals is much easier than just saying I want to be healthy or I want to weigh this much or fit into these skinny jeans etc. It's never really about that for anybody as dozens of clients that I've helped have all confessed when they reach their goal weight.

After 3 weeks of following the carb cycling plan outlined in Wendy Chant's Conquer The Fatloss Code book I've decided to go back to The Carb Rotation Diet by Jayson Hunter.

Wendy's plan (available on Amazon for $16) was easy to follow but it made me feel hungry, tired, irritable, and very low on energy all day every day. Plus the results have not been nearly as impressive as the results I got in under 3 weeks with The Carb Rotation Diet which is a $47 digital download (I've owned this book for years now and have used carb rotation twice before).

I took my 3 weeks pics yesterday and even though I can see the improvements they just are nowhere near as impressive as the ones I achieved with Jayson's low high no carb rotation diet 2 years ago and also 10 years ago when I first tried his method of carb cycling.

Some things I hated about Wendy's plan
very high protein
5-6 meals per day
too many cheat foods allowed on high carb days
felt so depleted some days I had to warmup forever to boost energy levels enough to workout
no fruits allowed except on high carb days

I will still be carb cycling for 5 more weeks but I know the Carb Rotation Diet is just a much better fit for my metabolic type. I think Wendy's would be a great plan for yo yo dieters and people who are o.k. eating a higher protein diet, and those who like 6 meals a day.

I personally just don't want to waste any more time with Wendy's diet. I want to focus on something that's going to get my body maximum fatloss in the next 5 weeks and that is Carb Rotation. Will keep posting my experience/results with that.

So after 2 days of eating much closer to my normal diet my energy levels are back and I'm feeling so much better plus I slept great.

My meals yesterday were:

meal 1: 2 cups coffee and no food. I was not hungry and I don't believe in eating just to eat.

meal 2: (11 a.m.) 2 scrambled eggs, 1 slice 12 grain plain, 4 slices grapefruit, 20 oz water

meal 3: 1/4 cup zucchini, mushrooms, garlic sauteed in olive oil (leftovers from night before) with 2 tbsp black beans plus 7 slices of cucumber with 2 tbsp hummus and 5 cherry tomatoes (best lunch I've had in ages and no animal protein which I normally don't eat at lunch time but had been for 3 weeks and was main reason I had been feeling so low on energy and irritable), 20 oz water

meal 4: 1/2 cup full fat cottage cheese, 2 tbsp vanilla yogurt, 1/2 banana, 20 oz water (this was my post workout meal around 5 p.m.)

meal 5: 1/2 raw zucchini w/ hummus and cilantro garlic salsa, 10 tortilla chips 20 oz water

After dinner I had 1 mini heath chocolate and 1 mini twix from my son's Halloween candy. That and 2 pieces of laffy taffy (I had Saturday) is all the Halloween candy I've had this year. It was a small cheat and I will not be having any more candy or other sugary treats for the next 6 weeks.

Yesterday would be considered a hi carb day, 2 servings of starchy carbs plus all the fruit, veggies and protein I needed plus 2 small cheats (small being the keyword).

Today is low carb day which means I get to eat 1 starchy carb and as much fruit/vegetables/protein as my body needs.

Then no carb day is no starchy carbs and no fruit at all so higher protein and lots of veggies.

The main difference between Carb Rotation and Wendy's carb cycling plan is Carb Rotation gives you more freedom with fruit and with protein plus cheats need to be very very small or you just don't cheat at all.

I'm happy again!!! I should've just stuck with what had worked in the past but was curious to try something different and glad I did bcz it helps me make better recommendations for people who ask questions about this on my free workouts site.

Yesterday was a low carb day and after my workout I had a really great protein shake:

8 oz water
1/2 orange
1/4 banana (leftover from breakfast)
1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
1 packet raspberry electrolytes
6 ice cubes

I was gooood and I am so much happier now that I'm eating slightly less protein and more fruit. I can't believe how much higher my energy levels have been the past 2 days since I switched from Conquer the Fatloss Code to Carb Rotation.

I also noticed that I don't have indigestion all the time like I did when I was eating protein 4-5 times a day so my abs actually look flatter than they did before when I was gassy and starving!

My skin also looks healthy again. When I was depleting carbs completely 3-4 days per week I looked wrinkled, tired, and hagard. I look young again!

I'm more excited now too and I'm expecting even more fatloss in the next 2 weeks than in the first 3 weeks!

Had a great no carb day yesterday.

spinach, eggs and salsa for breakfast

cottage cheese and 1/2 banana for lunch - (I love that I actually can eat bananas and other fruit on no carb day I found this out yesterday)

grilled chicken thighs and veggies in tomato broth plus 1/2 banana for dinner

1/2 scoop chocolate whey and greek yogurt before bed

I also did my hardest workout of the week. The video of that one goes live later today. I'm only slightly sore today which means my glutes, hips, upper body and core is getting much stronger.

I started uploading videos on youtube about 4 weeks ago (after about a year off to recover from a hip injury) and the changes are starting to become more visible (to me anyway). Stomach is flatter, arms are more toned, back fat starting to disappear, legs getting leaner, endurance better, exercise technique is better.

I really slacked off with both diet and workout intensity this past summer. I'm gonna try not to let this happen again!! In case anybody is wondering I ALWAYS workout (pretty much daily) and have been since I was a kid but it's the intensity that changes for me when I'm slacking. I just don't train as hard.

It's amazing how just being consistent with some type of healthy eating and exercise will keep you at your maintenance weight but your bodyfat and body tone reveal the truth about how you're training and eating.