My Lifestyle Change

So yes, I have been doing carb cycling for 3 weeks now and following the workout program Chris Powell outlined in his book Choose More, Lose More for Life. Those 9 Minute Missions are KILLER, but it is a 9 minute promise I have not broken with myself yet. I'm not a powerhouse everyday, but I DO make sure I do them. It may not be done at an ideal time, like RIGHT WHEN I GET UP, but I DO get them done.

I've learned to be flexible with myself. Getting up at 5 am was just not reasonable for me. I tried it for a week and felt powerful, but by the end of the week I was exhausted. So it's 5:45am rise for me, get my 9 minute mission in and then I have breakfast by 6:15am. I then eat every 3 hours after that...My last meal at 6:15pm. I do my cardio of HIIT training on the treadmill or even just as simple as interval walking during my son's nap. I'm finding it's more doable for me. It was a little frustrating at first because it seemed like my whole morning revolved around getting my son down for his nap. But this morning I decided to try something new...I'd do my 9MM, eat breakfast, help my husband make his breakfast and lunch (he's slowly easing into the lifestyle too! #victory) and then I shower. That's a new thing. Not the fact that I shower, but the fact that I showered BEFORE my cardio. I figure that I don't need to waste the morning anymore, and 2 quick showers a day won't be a terrible thing. If anything, that will free up my morning a bit more. I'm trying this tactic this week...we'll see how it goes. When the baby gets up, we do little things here and there and then he usually goes down, asking for "nigh nigh" time and then I'll head down and do my cardio for an hour. My sister, Cookie, has decided to make some changes too and so when she gets home from school we do our daily PiYo workout. Love it.

Now, I'm not a gym rat. I'm not a gym junkie or an exercise-a-holic. I'm finding that movement throughout my day really helps my mental and emotional clarity. In all seriousness, for me it's better than any medication I could take. Because of the trauma my emotions and body went through with my pregnancy and surgery with my little guy as well as a traumatic event of my mother almost dying post a surgery she underwent, I dove into a postpartum/post-traumatic depression. It took about a year of therapy (changed my life...there is NO shame in getting help when you need it. If you think you need help in that aspect, don't be ashamed...GET HELP) to overcome the depression and a natural supplement recommended by my aunt. Those combined, saved me. When I was cleared to step away from such frequent therapy, I relied on my supplement to clear my head. Then I started exercise and focussing my energy on what I COULD do, versus what I COULDN'T do or SHOULD HAVE done (the word "should" has been practically eliminated from my vocabulary. It automatically induces guilt...ain't nobody got time for that). My exercise routines and early rising has CHANGED my life. My movement and early breakfast is a priority for me EVERY DAY. My FitBit Charge HR is a great motivator in that...If I don't get my cardio in, just because life happens, I DO make sure I get my 10k steps a day.

It's all about keeping promises to yourself. Promises that are small, but also great motivators towards a healthier lifestyle.

So, what EXACTLY is Carb Cycling? I'm sure I could research it further and get all the nitty-gritty about it all...But I just really love how simply Chris and Heidi Powell explain it in their 3 books. But, to put it simply, Carb Cycling is alternating between High Carb Days (HC) and Low Carb Days (LC) with 1 Reset Day where you can be smart but still satisfy cravings. Another way to do it is to still alternate between Low Carb and High Carb days but have 1 reward meal (anything you like), earlier in the day, on your High Carb days. I follow the first method that I explained...Saturdays are my "Reset Day". Saturdays are also my weigh-in days and my Weekly Smartpoints refresh.

With Carb Cycling, water is SO important as well as protein with each of your 5 meals. You eat breakfast within 30 minutes of waking up, which, no matter what type of day it is, you have a HC breakfast. Then from the point that your first bite enters your mouth, you eat every 3 hours. 1 serving of protein is critical with EVERY MEAL you eat, EVERY DAY. Make protein a priority! Make water a priority as well. If you can't just drink plain water, low calorie or calorie free flavor squirters are fine. To be ultimately hydrated, it is suggested to drink and shoot for 1/2 your body weight in ounces. So say you weigh 100 pounds, you shoot for 50 ounces of water a day. As for myself, I drink 1 gallon of water every day. I use my fitbit app to track that. Yes, I DO drink 1 gallon and yes, that IS way more than my body weight, but it's what my body likes now (10 gulps each time the bottle touches my lips...thanks Chris and Heidi). It took a LONG time to work up to it...almost a month...but now, it's no big deal. And breakfast? Yep, I get it within 30 minutes of waking up or as darn close as I can. If I get off by an hour...I'm in a funk all day and I hate it. Believe me, that took practice too, but your body is AMAZING! It adjusts so quickly! My first week of trying carb cycling, (I call it my practice week because I didn't really know what I was doing), breakfast that early was SO HARD. I was sick eating breakfast. But I stuck to it, and when I was ready to go full throttle the next week (starting my OFFICIAL SWING at Carb Cycling) I would wake up hungry and ready to go. I woke up RAVENOUS this morning and LOVED my breakfast at 6:15am. Your body adjusts so quickly, and when you love it, it will love you. There you go, Body, there you go.

So what does a HC day look like? 1 portion of **protein + 1 portion of carbohydrates + 2 servings (fist sizes) of veggies. I flex it a little bit and allow myself fruit with each meal if I choose. Technically it's 1 portion of carbs like rice or toast or pasta, but I'll have that and then a fruit (if I feel like it) because fruit is 0 smartpoints with Weight Watchers. A LC day is 1 portion of protein + 1 portion of fat + 2 servings of veggies. I LOVE LC Days for the fact that I can have my peanut butter, my light cheeses, and avocado and all those yummy healthy fats. I could eat a whole jar of peanut butter, I love it so much! So on LC days, sometimes I'll plan for a Tablespoon of Adam's Crunchy Natural Peanut Butter and just suck on it...oh, so good. Yes, working to Natural Peanut Butter took some getting used to. I am a Jiff Extra Crunchy girl all the way...but now, since loading on such nutritionally dense and YUMMY food, Jiff is a little sweet and a little heavy for me. I stick with the Natural Peanut Butter as well as PB2...best invention ever. If you are thinking of trying it...do it. So MWF are LC days and T,R,Sun are HC days with Saturday being my Reset Day. On Reset Day I'll usually eat foods that are combinations I don't have during the week...like my PB2 and Banana sandwich (fat and carb together doesn't happen during the week). My first Reset Day I went overboard with 4 cake donuts and 5 pieces of pizza throughout the day, totaling a glorious 100 smarpoints for my day. I didn't get sick, because I still listened to my body...but now I'm finding that I'm not craving that stuff so heavily...in JUST 3 WEEKS! We still have Pizza Lunch during the week, because I love it and my family loves it, but I can work with just 1 serving now. And we don't get the cheap stuff...Papa Murphy's is a new family favorite. We save money in our budget just for those pizzas. Mmmm!

(**Proteins are considered yogurt, lean meats,  egg whites, protein powders, and cottage cheese. Those are my staples! Carbs are your starches like fruit, beans, potatoes, grains, cereals, pastas, tortillas, and breads. And then you have your fats. The cheeses BESIDES cottage cheese, nut butters, nuts, egg yolks and avocados. Salt Free spices are a must and then all veggies-being careful with potatoes, peas, and corn-are free game. Have as MUCH as you want! In later posts, I'll fill you in on some of my favorites.)

How does Weight Watchers fit in with this lifestyle? My good friend M&M has been doing the same way of eating with me and we were talking last night about how it all fits together for us. We both came to the conclusion that "Weight Watchers helps me with the portion control and to recognize which foods are worth it or not and then Carb Cycling teaches me HOW to eat it and in what way". I am a Lifetime Member and have been since my son was born. I have been able to maintain, but still felt stuck. With the roll out of Beyond the Scale, I am currently 15 pounds below goal...with 7.5 of those pounds just coming off since January 7th and the other 7.5 I was working on since September. Only 2 pounds were taken off trying to work with Weight Watchers, but the other 5.5 came off with Beyond the Scale and new Smartpoints. As of today, I have only 0.9 pounds to go until I reach my ultimate goal, and only 3.6% until I each the body fat percentage I want. I'm seriously loving the lifestyle I'm living right now!

So my friends, that's the big shpeal of my lifestyle changes as well as a background of where this steam engine is headed. In the future, I'll be posting my favorites and fabulous finds of protein bars, granola bars, yogurts, and the like. If you have any questions or need some recommendations, hit me up with a comment! I'll answer as soon as I can!

Remember, feed your machine the fuel it needs...and make it taste good!
Mangiamo,
Camille