What’s up?

It’s been a month at my new job and I couldn’t be happier. I still haven’t figured out how to write entries while I go about my day but I’ve done so many things that I hadn’t been able to do at my last job.

First let’s talk about the 50 plus miles that I’ve been able to log this month so far without dragging myself into the office right after.  I sleep better, I’ve lost over 6 lbs, my diet is more deliberate. I’m now a gym rat and I’m in a great mood with my very lovely team. I’m working on an incredible project with a fabulous jr art director and I’m continually challenging myself so that I feel like I’m learning every day.

Enough about the profession change for now as I am so freaking anxious to share with the world this exciting project. Too bad, I’ll have to wait. For now, I want to write about my diet changes and body changes.

Recently, I caught up with someone at a bar and they told me about how much weight they had lost in the past 3 months. I was shown before and after photos and I was completely shocked. So, I had seen people dropped lbs like no one’s business (think Jennifer Hudson but c’mon she could have had a trainer or nutritionist also) but meeting someone in person who had shed 40lbs in that short time on their own was ridiculously inspiring. I was told  that they used the app called loseit to keep track of their lifestlye. Ok, so miss early adopter here might have missed the wave on this fitness app because she had camped out in an office all day and donating to the gym so, this app was like a shiny new toy.

Loseit works like this:
- Set a goal.
- Get a daily calorie budget.
- Log breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and exercises.
- Do not go over calorie budget.
- If you go over the calorie budget, burn off those calories like mad by making it up with exercise.

I’ve found myself in the gym past 9pm from consumption guilt and of course I feel accomplished. I set a goal to lose 30 lbs but I’m more interested in decreasing my body fat percentage because I’m actually content at this mass – it makes me look healthier. Now, when I make it leaner, I will feel even more healthy.

To be honest, my vanity just wants me to look amazing in itty bitty dresses – there I said it.

Anyway, since I’ve gotten questions, my regime is this:
Some days I run so I have something half an hour before to fuel my body.
For snacks, I try to keep it healthy though I’m prone to random binge sweet intakes. My favorite snacks are actually fruit but I prefer mixed dried fruits and nuts. In the morning before my run I can have a cup of white rice or a cliff bar. I can’t seem to run without nourishment anymore.  After my run, I have proteins along with my 10 calorie vitamin pack. Along with my cup of coffee (with no sugar but probably 45 calories of my coffee creamers). I’ve experimented with C4 extreme so I realize that I might have to give up coffee (for at least 1/2 the day for now). I had to change from Neurocore because women shouldn’t take Geranium extract.

On the days that I don’t run:
Start off the morning with a balanced breakfast. If I don’t get a full breakfast because of time, I have a lean shake. Lean shakes are amazing for meal replacement and they are only about 120 – 170 calories. I also have my active vitamin pack. I also have my coffee (with or without creamers but definitely no sugar).

For lunch, it really all depends on how much I worked out. I prefer cooking for myself but I enjoy having gourmet meals (one of the best or worse things about NYC and diets). These days, I can have sushi everyday but a sandwich will do or anything to quickly fuel me throughout the day. Or, if I had been generous about breakfast, a Lean Shake will do.

For dinner, Lean Shake if it’s too late. Or, meats and veggies to my heart’s content.

This was me the other day:

By July 20, 2012, I hope to be either 30 lbs less or 18% body fat to feel accomplished.

Let’s see how it goes. I hope that will mean even better photos for this blog in the near buff?

I’ll share some of my workouts with you as time goes by. Let’s hope I can keep this up! My goal: At least half hour work-out per day.

Follow my progress on Dailymile.com

Body by Jerlyn, you are what you eat.

Disclaimer: I hope that I don’t offend anyone with actual weight issues with this post. I’m aware that my struggles might not be like most.

The “Weight thing”

It was so difficult for me to reach 100 lbs as a kid (I always remembered being skinny and tall). I remember trying to eat a lot to gain anything. I was 5′ 10″ by the end of high school so having a lean frame allowed me to develop bad habits like going throughout college eating for two people.

Pretty Disgusting! (This was also followed with an icecream bar or two)

Anyway, the above is  me at senior year of high school, my exercise consisted of typing programming code languages and eating anything.

I was a mere 130 something pounds and I went off to college, possibly gaining another 10 lbs finally.

It was still a fluctuation of 5 lbs yearly, all throughout then and finally I graduated to move to NYC.

Immediately, I thought, “Jackpot!” Only if you’re a fellow a foodie, you can imagine how excited experiencing different cuisines was for me. It’s literally placing me in a candy store — well, there are also candy stores here.

I did start gaining but most of my friends were struggling with body issues incomparable to me so what would someone who was tall and 150ish have to complain about?

Nothing really until…

Fast forward to 2011.

I stopped exercising almost altogether except rack up miles on the track and parks. I could run like nothing but even if I burned 1800 calories a pop on distance, the scale doesn’t change after I noticed a 20ish lb difference.

I trained for a half marathon and that didn’t matter either (see, I don’t run to get slimmer). I did realize alcohol consumption had a lot to do with the weight gain (since it’s the only thing that changed about my diet). I stopped drinking altogether for the half marathon.

What do I do now?

Well, I think diet and exercise is a lifestyle change. Even if I love food, I had to start eating differently. I know, I do post my lunches on my facebook… the food that I usually had will change soon.

I needed to cross train as well. So when I started a new job, I checked out their corporate gym memberships immediately! I got a trainer who made me stronger and after all 8 sessions, I feel my running has improved and I’m able to push myself on my own now.

What many folks don’t realize is, exercise takes commitment. You can’t go on a couple weeks/months and immediately quit once you’ve reached your goal. You have to be able to maintain it. So, my daily routine now includes squats, dips, situps, leg raises and pushups (I’m doing the hundred pushups challenge). I also started tango classes last month and signed up for bootcamp, boxing, pole dancing and belly dancing which I will be redeeming as time  passes and I need new motivators.

I didn’t imagine that I’d ever be able to run the half marathon. I had to work at it, much like I have to work on exercise.

Since the half,  I’ve been able to also run the 5 mile pride race and 10K for Cystic Fibrosis. I have another 10 mile race to run and a half marathon the following week. I’ve been logging miles on the daily mile.com (everyone should join this) – great motivator. Send me a request and I’ll be happy to add you so that I can cheer you on!

Diet

I’ve also started this diet thanks to Miguel Cardona (@miggi)

I’ll keep  you guys  posted if I lose anything but currently my body looks leaner even if the weight is the same.

I realized the other day that most of my laundry has been gym clothes…

I’m basically addicted to exercise these days. I feel better, sleep better, have more energy… Hooray for staying healthy in 2011!

What are you doing for exercise? diet? etc?

 

Health matters

In the past entries, I’ve been sharing various activities that I’ve been doing in NYC. I’m going to discuss one more: Boot Camp Training. I found a coupon online for 5 sessions and I’ve completed one thus far and it kicked my butt.

I care a great deal about my health. By constantly remaining active, I feel better and sleep better. So when I saw this I was all for it!

This is the website http://www.brooklynbridgebootcamp.com/. I had my session with Ariane and found out that she recently did a triathalon, that girl’s hardcore!

The bootcamp took place from the Manhattan part of the bridge and back. We did lounges, pushups, sprinting, speedwalking, running, curls, etc. The next day, I felt like I was hit by a truck.

She was impressed that it was my first time and I kept up. Point for me!

This was a great change of pace besides my 5 am runs.

I certainly intend to complete the next 4 sessions.

Another thing I’m trying is my very own exercise equipment:

This is the BodyForm Total Fitness Platform and the BodyForm Fitness Slider. I selected them at Brookstone (who provides free delivery), however I saw them on Amazon for the same price so it made sense to just get them there.

My gym membership ran out (even if it’s only $75 per year). The hours were not convenient to me so with my morning runs, yoga, bootcamp, pole dancing, calisthenics, and these two additions I should be fine!

I’ve never really had a specific routine so I’m going to try to log what I do daily which was inspired by my friend Francky who has stopped smoking for a month now – I’m so proud of this! No one usually listens to me when I preach about not smoking and he did. I know it was difficult for him to give it up. However, I am happy that he did.

It’s almost August, have many of you kept your resolutions to lose weight, start a healthy regiment or stop smoking?