Well, Goodbye Blogger! Farewell!

I made the change! Come check out my new blog:

HERE

Looking forward to seeing you all on the other side, closing the Dukan Dietress chapter and continuing on my journey with so much more to offer than information and experiences on the Dukan Diet.

Fitness, nutrition, general health.

Always here to answer any questions, check out the new blog, let me know what you think.

Love, always

-The Blogger Formerly Known As DukanDietress...

CONSTANCE

xoxo

I’m Feeling All Sorts Of Famous (A Positive Post, Promise)

I’m feeling swamped with negativity lately, and yet, there are good things happening all around me, and happening to me. Can’t be bogged down by past mistakes, and last weekend IS the past, no? So let’s reflect on some positives.

A cool story to start this post, so my mom went to a "Women In Business" class-thing downtown earlier this week. It’s about a solid hour away from my parents house. Anyways, so she is sitting next to this lady who she overhears mention ‘carbs’. On the break my mom asked this lady if she was counting her carbs or following some sort of diet. The woman explained to her the Dukan Diet and my mom wrote out ‘Dukan Dietress’ on the ladies notepad telling her to check out my blog.

Well wouldn’t you believe it the woman explained that she had already visited and read my posts and was super impressed that my mom was well, my mom. I feel so famous! :D How exciting!

Otherwise the Dukan Diet has finally contacted me in terms of my Ambassadorship with them. I need to re-submit my success story so they can put in on the site. Feels like FOREVER since I was accepted.

Apparently there are a number of Canadian media opportunities available now so I’ll be re-submitting my story with a few tweaks.

I’ll let you know how that works out, and of course, once my testimonial makes it to the Dukan website!
I will also be attending my first bodybuilding show on Saturday. I will finally get to see in person what I have signed myself up for. I’ll post pictures. I’m pretty pumped for my extremely long day, really excited to support those ladies and watch them pose, take notes, etc. This is the only competition I will be watching before mine so I really need to focus.

Also, my Personal Trainer is one of the judges! So I will be discussing everything I see with him after the show, that’s also pretty exciting. I don’t think I will be able to sleep Friday. Too pumped!

I have been doing really well with my work outs since the weekend of terror. Been consistently going, upped all my weights. I hope to post a chart of my progress here so you guys can see, it’s pretty cool. I started off almost 3 weeks ago doing leg presses 3 sets of 10 reps at 80 lbs and now I’m up to 160 lbs! Just an example of my progress, it’s not so impressive for some of my weaker body parts lol.

So that’s that. A little positive energy in the blog-universe. Hope everyone is having a great day, good things are coming my way I can feel it! Be happy and positive today. If I can spring back from my absolutely terrible experience last weekend you can do anything!

xoxo

Justifying Cheating

I would like to start off by thanking all the sweeties who supported me through my last blog post. You guys rock. Yes, it is hard to admit when you cheat, considering I haven’t done something like this before. I went out of control. It was great to see that I am not the only one who has had a binge-fest happen to me. I’m bad, I know I have a problem, let’s move on and see if we can prevent this from happening again, shall we?

Because it’s true, I didn’t gain any satisfaction from my actions. I don’t feel better now, or like I subdued future cravings. In fact, I feel like absolute shit about the entire weekend. I feel not only disappointed in my lack of willpower and like I took several steps back in terms of my bodybuilding training, but I feel the cravings on FULL FORCE, and now I have to use 3x the willpower to deny them. Just awful.

Nothing positive came out of my binge, in fact, I didn’t find ANY of what I ate super-incredibly-tasty. I didn’t miss any food enough to sit here now and think, well man, I really needed that Chinese food. Nope. I didn’t. Now what got me to cheat like I did in the first place, and then to spiral out of control?

Justifying my actions to myself.

I used every excuse I could think of to push me towards cheating.

• I have been doing so well with my diet lately, I deserve this.
• I have been working out so hard lately, I deserve a break.
• My personal trainer told me not to miss out on any moments because of the dieting, my Dukan Anniversary is a moment to celebrate, so I should go out and cheat.
• Every other bodybuilder has a cheat meal a week, I haven’t been so I can cheat now and it equals out one cheat meal a week.
• I will get back to it twice as hard when I’m done cheating.
• I will workout twice tomorrow to make it ok that I’m not working out today.
• Carbs are energy and fill out your muscles, so cheating is good for my muscle growth.
• I have been missing nutrients in certain foods because of the diet so this is supercharging me with nutrients.
• This is shocking my system and making it so any efforts I put in the future will be doubled. Making it so my body doesn’t get used to my training and my efforts get stagnant.
• I wont have another of these until November… ok September, so this is okay.
• I have already cheated this much already, so a few more cheats wont do any more harm than is already done.
• I should allow myself to indulge.
• My training focus should be on working out, not diet, doesn’t matter what I eat, the muscle growth I have made wont diminish because of cheating.
• People eat like this all the time.
• All the calories I ate will just promote muscle growth.
• I wont feel guilty tomorrow, I will get right back to it and just forget this weekend.
• No regretting these decisions, I own them and I wont feel badly.

So you see, all these things made it ok in my mind to have my giant-binge eating weekend. But guess what, I am too embarrassed to tell my personal trainer, I am too embarrassed to tell anyone really. I want to get my emotions off my chest but I feel like I failed myself.

Especially since before I even had that first bite of sushi I told myself it would be so easy to just forget about cheating, go home and make a delicious meal. Better on my wallet, and I would be more successful to myself, I would not regret going home and making pork tenderloin as a treat… I should have listened to myself while I was being rational.

So STOP! You! Yes you! The one justifying to herself that tomorrow you will just work harder, that tomorrow you wont remember cheating, that you want this now or whatever you are saying to rationalise to yourself that what you are about to do is ok…

You will never regret going to the gym.

You will never regret not cheating.

You will never sit at home with your Dukan-friendly meal thinking to yourself, man, if I had bought that chocolate bar and chomped it down in the car on my way here… I would be feeling so much better about myself.

So there is no need to cheat, no need to binge (You never think before the binge that it will turn into a binge…) no need to justify it to yourself because deep down you know it’s a mistake and the wrong decision.

Be strong you guys!

Also, as a side-note. It is so difficult not cheating right now… I keep seeing ice cream in the freezer, I smell doughnuts, baegals, my tummy is just craving them. Damn carbs, being so addictive.

Seriously I mean it though, NO CHEATING UNTIL SEPTEMBER (for my birthday) Come on now, I can do it! I don’t want to feel this shitty again! Gotta be strong.

It’s so hard though. : (

Make good choices!

xoxo

My Eating Disorder, the First Of Many Posts

Well then, good day to all of you!

Most of you are aware that my Dukan Anniversary was on Sunday. We made it! A full year since we decided to follow the Dukan Diet! I can’t believe it, it is all so unreal.

So of course, we made a decision (well… I made a decision and Prawn went along with it) with regards to how we should celebrate.

At first it was an innocent decision, nothing major, Prawn LOVES sushi and hadn’t been in a year. I had gone twice when I was having Celebration Meals and he was always jealous and upset, so I decided to surprise him and have both of us cheat on our diets, and go out for sushi to celebrate our ‘Dukan Anniversary’.

Well… of course, what started off as going out for sushi Saturday night turned into a nightmare, a huge whirlwind of cheating, bad food decisions, an entire weekend of blowing our diets out of the water which ended in Prawn being sick and both of us feeling such guilt and disappointment in ourselves.

Ugh.

So, both of us definitely have an eating disorder, this has become so obvious to us after this weekend. I don’t think we could ever go back to eating normally because after seeing all the bad decisions we made this weekend… I’m surprised we even managed to lose the weight in the first place.

Because I feel that I need to come clean about it (I’m embarrassed, so so embarrassed…) here is a quick synopsis of my terrible weekend:

Saturday morning I ate well, I went to a total muscle conditioning class, one hour. I struggled in justifying the sushi date to myself (I can imagine the next 2-3 of my posts will be on this topic, the justification process) then decided to go out for sushi, then went out for a McFlurry, then a Cinnabon, then popcorn and chocolate at the movies, and a diet coke.

Ice cream, ice cream cone, bananas and blueberries when I got home (a couple bowls) as well as a bowl of cereal (which I really really missed while dieting…)

The next day had two pogos for breakfast, then we were going to go out for pizza for lunch but the place we wanted to go was closed, so instead of going home and making something or going someplace else for pizza, we went out for Chinese food. It was good but we didn’t really want Chinese food you know? We just kindof went and got no satisfaction from it.

Then a couple bowls of ice cream during the day and for dinner we went out for burgers, poutine, shakes, and onion rings. I could barely eat a bite of the burger and only had a handful of the fries in the poutine before feeling so full I couldn’t bare to eat another bite. Threw out the rest, what a waste of money.

So you see? It just exploded. What a terrible, terrible weekend (food-wise). I am disappointed in myself but am moving forward, starting with eating very well yesterday as well as today, no cheating, not even a bite.

I’m trying to not let last weekend affect my dieting as of Monday. It’s over, move on, no more excuses. Clean eating until November with maybe only one more cheat day before competition, the cheat day being my birthday in September.

It’s just not worth having another binge-eating weekend or day. I don’t feel any better, none of the food I ate satisfied me in any way, I don’t feel better having done it, I feel worse.

So that’s that. Like I said, you can expect a whole slew of posts on justification, cheating, binge eating, reflections on my year spent following the Dukan Diet, all sorts of treats for you in the future, based on this new experience with the diet.

I have started working on a wordpress blog… just trying it out. I will let you all know when it’s ready for you and will continue posting here in the mean time.

Just wanted to update you all on how bad I was this weekend, but also to let you know that even though this weekend was just, absolutely eye opening and terrible food-wise, I’m right back on the wagon. No easing back into it, just cut out all cheating, and move on, which is what you have to do when something like this happens, no use sulking about it, acknowledge it, and move forward.

Stay strong you guys! Man, this has been hard to admit to… but I feel the need to admit my obvious problem here, and work through it using this blog and maybe help anyone suffering from similar issues. I’m sure I’m not the only one with an uncontrollable overeating problem that has clearly not been solved by following Dukan for over a year now...

xoxo

Another Before & After Shot, Prawn (Full Body)

Before bed, here is another full body shot. Congratulations Prawn! :)

xoxo

New Before & After Picture, Prawn

Today is our year on Dukan Anniversary! :) There are so many things I want to tell you guys about this weekend... lots of things happening, lots of new things regarding this blog.

Instead however, since today is our anniversary (Woohoo! We made it a year!) I want to share a before and after pictures with you, here is the Prawn!

Enjoy! Have a great day!

We lost 225lbs combined in the past year! I can't believe it!

xoxo

Blogger VS Wordpress - A Quick Question

Can someone tell me the pros and cons of using Blogger or Wordpress? I see people making the switch and I'm not sure if I would like to do so as well.

Which is easier to use? What are the benefits of either?

Is it difficult to transfer your posts from one to the other? Can it be done? Which is easier to follow. I know that wordpress followers can only subscribe by e-mail. Is that easier for you or is Blogger's system better?

What would you prefer to see me use?

Any feedback would be appreciated.

xoxo

Exactly What Do I Eat? - A Guide

*QUICK NOTE: This does not describe the Dukan Diet at all, I just realized, if you have not been following my progress you will leave here under the impression that Dukan is a strict, boring diet which is not the case. This is my new bodybuilding diet. If that is what you are here for, continue on. If you are looking for Dukan, you might want to check a few months back. xoxo

June 16^th I will be going to my first ever bodybuilding competition to witness first hand what I have signed myself up for. I have never been to one and am excited for the extremely long day that lies ahead of me. The actual competition starts at 9am where the bodybuilders will strut their stuff on stage and then they will do comparisons.

In the afternoon there is the big show, it starts at 6:30pm I believe.

I asked my mom (my #1 fan) to join me so we can take notes on makeup, hair, tan, posing, the walk, and anything else I might need to know since this is the only show I will be attending before my competition in November.

I will have to prep all meals in advance and when I asked my mom if she wants me to prep her some as well she said ‘well when in Rome’.

So as I was typing all my meals out to my mom (hi mom!) I figured that I might want to let you guys in on exactly what I eat during the day. I have included all my variations. I don’t eat anything not on this list, ever and yes, I do eat this every day of the week, no cheat days or meals for me. Just bland, same-everyday food. Ah well.

I find it’s easier if I bring around a tupperwear full of my fish for the day, one with my *Scrambled Eggs for the day, one with my (etc etc) and then during the day I scoop 1/4^th of each tupperwear together, scramble it, microwave it, add a bit of broccoli and celery (or green beans) and tah-dah.

*Quick note, there is something I include with most of my meals, I make it in the morning after I make my pancake and separate it during the day into every meal. I use my already hot pan (from the pancake) to prepare it.

I take two whole eggs, crack them onto the pan, then add egg whites (as desired). Including my pancake in the morning I usually go through 500ml of egg whites a day, depending on my mood, all prepared at breakfast. Scramble them up and like I said, I will separate this mixture into ‘Meals 2-5’.

Meal 1:
8:30am

My pancake. Best part of my day right here:

INGREDIENTS:

1 scoop protein powder
1 scoop glutamine
1 scoop greens

¼ cup whole oats
An entire banana (smooshed)
Cinnamon (I do not measure but it is probably between 1-2 tbsp of cinnamon)
1 packet of sweetner

Egg whites. Depending on how hungry I am or how thick I want the ‘batter’ I use more or less egg whites.
Mix all ingredients together, put on hot pan that has a short spray of PAM on it. Flip, voilà.

Meal 2:
11:30am

½ cup broccoli
5x almonds
¼ can tuna
½ - 1 basa fillet OR ½ - 1 tilapia fillet OR 1 boneless skinless chicken breast (all boiled)
*Scrambled Eggs

Meal 3:
2:45pm

3 asparagus spears
5x almonds
¼ can tuna
½ - 1 basa fillet OR ½ - 1 tilapia fillet OR 1 boneless skinless chicken breast (all boiled)
*Scrambled Eggs

Meal 4:
5:00pm
½ cup broccoli
5x almonds
¼ can tuna
½ - 1 basa fillet OR ½ - 1 tilapia fillet OR 1 boneless skinless chicken breast (all boiled)
*Scrambled Eggs

Meal 5:
7:00pm
Right after my workout or during my workout as a quick bite if I’m dying of hunger.

3 asparagus spears
¼ can tuna
½ - 1 basa fillet OR ½ - 1 tilapia fillet OR 1 boneless skinless chicken breast (all boiled)
*Scrambled Eggs
EITHER 1 baked potato, 1 sweet potato, ¼ cup brown rice, or ¼ cup quinoa. (I prefer quinoa diet-wise but I prefer the taste of baked potato as a treat.)

Meal 6:
7:05pm

Protein shake (one scoop) with one or two scoops of glutamine. Two scoops of glutamine if I did weight training, one if it’s a cardio day.

On my day off from the gym (one a week) I do this right before bed.

VARIATIONS

So that’s it! I will snack on leftover *Scrambled Eggs, celery (plain) during the day if I am hungry in between meals. Sometimes I will have one or two extra almonds during the day.

Sometimes I spice it up by including orange or red peppers to one of my meals (not a lot though), or I add a handful of green beans or celery.

A couple times a week I will have a nice steak with the baked potato, quinoa, or other carb instead of my fish or chicken.

NOTES

This is very strict, obviously. I like to think I am dieting at pro-level : )

It’s very difficult, bland, and repetitious, but I am at a disadvantage (or so I feel) because of the rapid weight loss without exercise that I have been doing for the past year. I only have 5 months and if I stand a chance, I need to be as strict as possible.
　
Most competitors allow themselves a cheat meal a week, I don’t need it. I have this dieting thing down.

So that’s that. If you have any questions, ask away! I also drink a lot of WATER, so important. Between 6 and 8L a day. If I season anything it will be with Ms. Dash but mostly I just take all my ingredients scramble them together and enjoy.

xoxo

EEK! BACK PHOTO! PROGRESS FINALLY! YAY!

:D :D :D :D :D!!! <3

I wasn't going to post again today... BUT OMG I HAD TO SHARE THIS!

I was just taking a picture of my back so I could see if there was any progress at all... I have never EVER worked my back out before about...a week and a half ago. Never done a successful back exercise... Started my new program and... BAM!

Where did this muscle come from?! WHAT THE HELL!?!?!?!?!

WHAAAAAAATTTT!?

YAY! :) <3 <3 <3 I'm so happy right now!

On a related note, why is it so hard taking a picture of your own back? LOL

You guys... WHAT! THE! HELL!?

I seriously didn't even think I was working out my back all that much... I haven't even been doing this program for 2 weeks yet!

Carry on... everyone, do your walking today at least! Just do something active! Baby steps, you can do it!

xoxo

The Worst Day On Dukan for Me

I have been asked this a few times, what was the worst part of The Dukan Diet for me, or the worst day I even had following Dukan.

Well I have had a few negative experiences with the Dukan Diet:

• I was bullied and lost a big chunk of ‘friends’,
• There was the pizza incident, where, I came home to find an empty box of my favourite pizza on the counter and wept, embarrassingly, for what seems like hours,
• All the temptation that exists, saying no, resisting. Wearing down my willpower,
• Going out to meals with friends and family and having to a) not eat at all because of no Dukan alternatives on the menu or, b) not order what you actually want (delicious looking nachos, hamburger, and cheesecake for dessert) and instead ordering a salad (please no pecans, corn, dressing, or cheese, thank you).
• Missing out on Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner, Easter dinner, Mothers Day brunch with my family. Even though my family were ALWAYS more than accommodating and accepting.

But I will have to be honest, the most negative experience I had on the Dukan Diet was my birthday, where no, I did not cheat, not even a single bite.

It was a lot of factors though, but that was the worst day for me on Dukan, absolutely. We had travelled to New Brunswick to see some of my family who lives there (a 10 hour drive), it was a nice, relaxing trip with my family and I’m very happy to have gone. But my birthday was shitty, even though my family tried their best.

The only gift I got was a teddy bear from one of my sisters, another of my sisters was all the way back home, my first birthday without her (other than my very first birthday) my first birthday where none of my extended family were there, I felt like a burden when it came to the diet and food for my family out on vacation, I couldn’t eat cake, I was far away from Prawn. Just everything together, absolutely terrible. I cried soooo much that day and the day preceding. Just terrible feelings all around.

Oh, and I couldn’t go out with my friends to celebrate, and even if I did, I couldn’t drink or anything (which really bothered me at the time) so what was the point?

Also, it was my time of the month. Yes, just an all around bad day.

Thinking back, it never occurred to me to just… cheat. If it had come to my attention that I was being stupid and could just cheat I might have, but then I would look back on my birthday and not only be upset over all the negativity that happened, but then I would also have this guilt that I had cheated on the diet, that it totally wasn’t worth it, I would just hate myself.

Well there you go, the worst part of The Dukan Diet for me was not being able to cheat on my birthday… but then again, if I had cheated, then THAT would be the worst part of the Dukan Diet for me. So they cancel each other out I guess.

I have had an amazing experience on Dukan. All the temptation, exhaustion, use of my willpower, they all don’t compare to how sexy I feel now, to how proud I am that I never cheated, to how proud I am of my successes. Nothing compares to how amazing I feel right now. It’s all completely worth it!

Keep working hard, always.

xoxo

Our Books Are Here! (Picture)

We have been waiting for these for like... 2 weeks! So excited to LEARN!

Woohoo!

More good news!

I get home from my workout yesterday to find a box, the box is addressed to The Prawn.

OMGNOWAYCOULDITBE!?

I freak out, rip open the box and…

THEY ARE HEREEEEEEEE!!!

Our books!

YAAAAAAY!

A girl Prawn works with who I have known for a long time (she is a sweetie) and I talked at the gym once, she had this book on her. I looked through it, it is a GREAT looking book with area specific exercises, organised by body part, with instructions, tips, and information about the various muscle groups.

One of many books I plan on purchasing to educate myself about female bodybuilding!

I find the book has really good pictures, for a fitness book. The workouts are organised within the specific muscle groups by difficulty and gym-extras (a bench, dumbbells, bar, different machines, etc) that you use to perform them.

At the back there are different workouts to try to achieve different things, or different routines to try so different exercises together that are effective or whatever. It looks really informative and I can’t wait to dive in and LEARN!

That’s all for today… I’m just too excited.

We also got one for Prawn! He is signing up for the gym today (or so he says). He was waiting for the book to come in, now he has no excuses. How exciting!

I am aware that I have a new program to follow with regards to my workouts, but this book will still give me info my trainer just doesn't really have time to give me, like information about my different muscles and workouts I can do on my cardio days where I am not doing my 2 hour long weight training program. I can use the information to target muscles I don't feel I worked out fully the day before. Just spice it up a bit.

All in all, what a great day!

xoxo

Prawns Choice & Progress

A quick note, I have a new tab up above, if you will notice, with upcoming posts, pages, and updates to the blog. Just to give all you fabulous people a sneak peak. I have been asked quite a few questions and want to post about different things that are on my mind, just not all at once, so check it out! You might see one of your questions answered in the next little bit, I have not forgotten about you!

Now, for all of you who have been patiently waiting for Prawns choice and progress here it is.

If you recall, poor Prawn, has suffered a 6 month plateau, where he has dropped barely any weight and has been discouraged.

At one point the diet becomes about portion control and Prawn did not change his attitude towards his portions, as well as over the months adding fattier entire rotisserie chickens to his daily diet and drinking 2% milk, as well as full fat yogurt on occasion.

So he was not losing, he was frustrated (I mean 6 months of not seeing the scale go down… are you kidding). He never cheated or strayed from the diet, but it has been a daily struggle to keep himself motivated through this entire process.

Prawn never actually wanted to lose weight, he only started Dukan because I was crying about being fat one night, I felt unattractive, disgusting, I hated myself. Prawn suggested we try the Dukan Diet that my Grandmaman had told us about thinking I would be over this in a few days, that we would be back to indulging on whatever in no time.

He thought we couldn’t stick with it, I thought the same thing. But we both started and… I mean it has been almost a year (on the 10^th of June, it will be our one year Dukan Anniversary!) and we are still eating so healthily. It’s amazing.

Anyways, so Prawn wasn’t sure about his next steps. He was fed up of Dukan, he wanted to lose on his own terms, with his own rules. He felt with Dukan he was constrained and that the weight loss didn’t reflect so much on him as it did on the diet.

It was a big discussion, that lasted several days, almost an entire week. We asked advice from everybody, including you guys.

Prawn decided… to stick with Dukan but to try it a little differently.

He cut out his rotisserie chickens, he cut out all dairy (except a splash of milk in his coffee). He was for the first little bit controlling his portions but I feel now he has strayed away from that because… well he has actually not lost any weight still. He is fluctuating between a 10 pound gain and his lowest weight.

Why does this have to be a constant battle?

When I had my last Celebration Meal, weeeeeks ago I convinced him to join me. I thought maybe a little surprise to his system would jolt the weight loss. Did not happen.

Why does it have to be so frustrating?

He decided that the day he gives in and eats a rotisserie chicken at work or yogurt or milk or cheese, that is the day he will move onto Consolidation. So he will continue until his last willpower gives up and then he will incorporate a Celebration Meal a week into his diet. I don’t believe he wants to eat the daily bread but am convinced he will indulge in the cheese and fruit.

Poor Prawn. It just doesn’t get any better for the poor guy.

He wants to join a gym, but he has been saying that since I met him. I feel like even if he joins he is not in the right place to consistently go and see results. I fear this is the last thing that will finally push him to lose weight though.

I feel like he is losing inches, it’s just so hard to gage. Also, he does have a lot of loose skin, which I feel must weigh a lot… He wants surgery but I don’t know if that’s something he should really be looking into at his young age (22 years old) especially since he has not given exercising a good solid try.

So that is that about Prawn. Any words of encouragement or suggestions are ALWAYS appreciated. I mean, we are approaching the 7 month of no weight loss mark… that must be so depressing for the guy.

I think it is incredibly discouraging for him to see that I have not only broken through my plateau, but found the willpower (finally) to hit the gym consistently and am getting results in that sense. I am still losing inches and looking better and better and he is just stuck, you know?

I want to post a new Before and After pic of Prawn, those are old, he looks so fabulous, really, even though his weight loss has just stopped. :)

MAKE GREAT CHOICES TODAY!

xoxo

Are ‘Greens’ Helping? – Acid and Alkaline Levels

Long time readers should be aware that I suffer and have suffered since day one of dieting, with exhaustion. I am tired, always. No matter how much I sleep, no matter how much water I drink. Vitamins don’t seem to help all that much. I am just tired.

I am also incredibly thirsty all the time. No amount of water seems to help. I drink over 6L of water a day and could drink more, easily. Just always feel thirsty and am always drinking water. I don’t have a diet high in salt (at all) and I don’t drink any carbonated drinks anymore, which I have heard makes dehydration worse.

Last month I discovered that perhaps all this was because of the acidity of the Dukan diet, that maybe my PH balance was out of wack, low alkaline levels might be the cause of my exhaustion and constant thirst.
Of course, not being a Doctor, I really have no idea.

The other day I had a long conversation with an amazing woman I was introduced to through my aunt. She actually competes in bodybuilding and has the EXACT stage body I want. Just a stunning woman. So nice and helpful I am really thankful for our conversation.

So, she mentioned that to balance out how acidic my diet is maybe I should look into ‘greens’. I did, picked up a tub of powder and have been taking it for a few days now.

It has something like 13 servings of veggies, tastes ok… and by ok I mean pretty gross but tolerable.

It is supposed to balance out your acid and alkaline levels, says so right on the container. Very promising. I hope it’s enough to fix me. I’ll let you know after a few weeks if it does anything.

So far, I have not noticed a difference. I have been taking it every day since last Thursday. We will see by the end of the container if it has helped anything. I should also try and eat more veggies on my own.

The brand I bought is ‘Progressive’ and it’s called ‘Greens’. Hopefully I feel better and I can share some good news with you guys, with anyone suffering from severe dehydration or exhaustion while following Dukan or another high protein diet.

Like I said though, I’m not a Doctor, you should always talk to your Doctor before using a supplement like this. I’ll let you know if it works! My fingers are crossed because I really do feel like crap, and I have on and off for the almost year I have followed Dukan and my new similar high protein diet.

xoxo

Fitness Progress - End of Week One Of New Program (Pictures!)

Hey you guys, sorry about the mini absence there. Busy busy with life and really too exhausted to blog. I thought since you guys have been so patient that I would reward you with some progress pics. So here they are! Not anything crazy, definitely not ripped, a lot of progress to be made still. But check it out! I'm so happy and proud! :)

As of today (well... really tomorrow) I have been on my new program for a week. Other than one slip up last Tuesday where I ate stupid amounts of fruit (like... 3 whole bananas, an entire container of blueberries, an entire container of raspberries, as well as 3-4 entire apples...) I have been on point with my diet.

After my fruit-binge (fruit is too delicious) I went up to 158lbs. This mornings weigh in was at 156.8lbs so it's going down steady.

My new goal is to get down to 120-130lbs. So, as with everything else progress is so slow, but the scale is going down, I can't complain.

My new weight training program, the one my PERSONAL TRAINER! :D :D :D gave me (sorry, I get so excited LOL) lasts me two hours a day.

It consists of a 5 minute warm up of fast-paced walking around the track and walking up two flights of stairs (and then down two flights of stairs, obviously) then 5 minutes of interval cardio (which is nothing) and then 4 minutes on the armorator to cool down. Easy.

Then weight training to target my entire body, a few super-sets (where you do one set of something, let's say the leg press machine, then you run to another machine and do a set there with no rest) and after a good hour and a half of lifting heavy weights and tracking them in my binder I do stretches and it's over.

I do that one day and then the next I have an off day, where I do cardio. I aim to do half an hour of high intensity cardio, which I hate. I also get one full day off the gym a week where I need to mentally prepare myself that I'm not doing anything and I don't feel guilty and I just relax.

That day is tomorrow because today was really INTENSE at the gym.

On Friday I did my two hours of weight training. I then went out dancing with a few girlfriends (one who just moved to BC and I haven't seen in two years, OH MAN do I miss her) then Saturday I did another two hours of weight training (not supposed to do it two days in a row, but I was just feeling it) and man was I sore.

I was going to do another two hours today but my back and shoulders hurt way too much. Instead I did a little over an hour of cardio. Went nuts on my quads (my quads and calves are my weakest areas right now since the weight loss left them a little chunkier than the rest of my body.)

I don't know, I just kept picturing all the muscular quads the girls competing have and I had that image in my head, it kept pushing me throughout the workout.

I did 20 minutes on the treadmill, then hopped on the elliptical and did 20 minutes there alternating between level 4 and 10 (level 10 almost ripped my quads off I swear). Then I ran up and down 2 flights of stairs alternating between hopping up one step at a time and 2 steps.

I would KILL for a Stepmaster at my gym :( Just sayin'

All and all I'm dying. Tomorrow is DEFINITELY a well deserved rest day. I have not eaten more than my allowed fruit since Tuesday and not only did I go dancing last night (again) but I'm going dancing tonight! So lots of leg work and sweating and cardio.

Actually, fun fact, last night Prawn and I went Swing Dancing, that was so much fun. We did the Lindy Hop, it was a new experience for both of us and a fun, free date night! (Free last night, usually would have been only 5$!)

So I guess you could say life is going GREAT! Seeing progress and results, feeling strong, sore. I can barely walk up stairs now I'm in so much pain. But all worthit.

As of today I have exactly 5 months to my show. 5 MONTHS! Getting a little nervous. Have to start shopping for my bikini soon.

Thanks for your ongoing support. If you have any questions about my workout routine, just ask!

xoxo