So I've had a few people in my life comment that they didn't think they could do it. Do what? Lose weight? Drink a shake for breakfast everyday? I went into my 90 day challenge knowing this was going to change my life with minimal changes to the way I lead my life! If you can pour a bowl of cereal in the morning, you can make a shake! If you can pack a lunch for work, you can make a shake! If you can make a piece of toast... well, you get the idea!
**I would like to point out that when and if I use the term "diet" I don't mean a diet in the way many of us think of dieting -by starving ourselves. The way we eat is considered our "diet" so when I say it, I mean HEALTHY EATING not starving!
BREAKFAST:
Every morning I wake up with my 2 kids and I make them their breakfast then I make my shake. I like to use my blender and add some fruit to it but if it's that day when I don't have any fresh fruit around the shake is just as good on its own. Literally all I do is pour 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk and add 2 scoops of my Vi-Shake. Shake it up and drink it down! It tastes nothing like any of the shakes I've tried before. I've tried the slim fast and couldn't stomach it to even attempt losing weight with it. I've tried a store bought protein shake and it tasted like it was made with sidewalk chalk. People describe Vi-Shakes as "The shake mix that tastes like cake mix" for a reason!
Now some mornings I have oatmeal instead because a friend of mine showed me this simple recipe that you prepare the night before and leave in the fridge (no cooking necessary). 1/4 oatmeal, scoop of Vi-Shake, and a splash of Almond milk, mix until it has cookie dough texture. And guess what... It kind of tastes like oatmeal cookie dough. I add peanut butter, strawberries or blueberries and it tastes delicious and is very filling.
LUNCH:
In the beginning I was strict about using the Vi-shake for 2 meals and having one healthy cooked meal. So if at lunch time I was at home and "felt like cooking" I would make an omlette with a tonne of veggies. You would be surprised how you can come up with a new idea for omlettes and never really get sick of them! Use whatever veggies you have in the fridge. When you go grocery shopping be sure to stock up on a variety of veggies. My favorites are brocoli, cauliflower, asparagus, mushrooms and frozen spinach. If I was "lazy" I made a shake :)
SUPPER:
If I had 2 shakes already for the day I would join my family for supper but be sure that 1/2 my plate is filled with veggies and I eat those first so that when I get to the starch I don't go nuts on it. I have cut out potatos pretty much all together because I'm not a big fan of them in the first place. Rice must be brown rice and Pasta must be whole wheat! Then a serving of protein. I'm not huge on making sure it's a fat free chicken breast or anything like that I just make sure I'm watching my serving size. You have to allow yourself variety so it's time to get real about what a portion size looks like. You can google it and find many resources but one I find easy to follow is by using the palm of your hand.
Don't bother using a small plate. You'll just be hungry and go for seconds adding a second helping of starches and protein when unless you're working out, is going to hurt your diet. Use a regular size plate and fill it half to 3/4 full of a variety of veggies, include a salad if you like. Then be strict about your starch and protein servings. I like to eat my veggies first, that way I have the starch to look forward to and when I'm finished I'm actually full so I don't go back for more, because I would never go back for more veggies haha. Many of you may not be like this but I can guarantee I'm not the only starch lover out there!
SNACKS - I have 2-3 snacks/day and I choose 2-3 of each of these/snack depending on my hunger and activity level for the day. It's better to feel satisfied on healthy snacks than it is to allow yourself to get hungry and want to binge on sugary treats.
YOGURT -(I don't bother with that crap that has no fat but I do try to go for no sugar or aspertame) Greek yogurt is supposed to be extremely good for you, and a substitute for sour cream but I didn't personally like it. I hear it takes getting used to. I didn't try subbing it for sour cream but it does have that texture! I also have bought that dessert yogurt (with flavours like lemon pie and rasperry crumble) for when I have a desert like craving but this contains aspertame so I don't have them often, they are only 30 calories which is a bonus. I like to also buy the cups because it's all about portion for me and it has to be EASY! My favorite is Astro yogurt, it's sweetened with honey and they are 100 calorie cups.
CHEESE -REAL cheese (and I stick to only one slice)
PIECE OF FRUIT- Apples and Bananas are my go to but I do have berries etc on hand because my kids love them so I do reach for those once in a while. It's all personal taste here and what's in season.
ANTS ON A LOG - One of my kids' favorites! Celery sticks covered in real peanut butter with a few raisins on top. It satisfies that "crunch" and the raisins add some "sweet" to it.
If I have the urge for something sweet and cannot curb my craving, I have thinsations on hand because again the portion control has to be made simple and easy for me. Thinsations are 100 calorie packs and you can get a variety of snacks like oreos or chocolate pretzels. Just don't go crazy on them, I keep them out of sight/out of mind because the biggest thing I am trying to avoid is sugar! I'm not really calorie counting but the portion control is good and then when I go work out I know how long it takes me to work off 100 calories.
Now that I am working out/running more I often have 1 shake as a meal replacement and 2 healthy home cooked meals, and use one shake for my work out recovery! It's important if you've worked out that you give your body something to recover!
My work out routine:
In the beginning I was a lazy POS. So I HAD to implement some sort of activity. For a long time I wished that I enjoyed running, I envied people that could just "go for a run" and people that ran 5K's and half marathons. So I decided this was going to be my activity. It's summer so I can do it outside and don't have to get a gym membership. I live by a school so I can ran around the football feild at first, as boring as it was, because I didn't want people to see me run haha. I downloaded a couple of applications for my smart phone. One being RunKeeper and the other RecordBeater. I like RunKeeper because it tells me my stats every 5 minutes; How far I've gone and my average pace. You can also look at your phone for your current pace etc. You can input your own workout "coach" so if you want to make your own intervals you can, I used this app at the same time as C25K (couch to 5K) because this app has you increase your intervals every week and claims to get you to 5K in about 12 weeks. At first I couldn't run for 30 second intervals without hating my life and wondering if it had been 30 seconds yet. By the time I had been doing intervals for 10 minutes I was ready to quit. The intervals started off as 1 minute running and 1.5 minutes walking but I was lucky to make it to a minute while running so I just did my best for a while until I decided it was time to push myself to actually finish the minute and the 20 minute work out. The great thing about these apps for your phone is that they tell you when to run and when to walk and you can still play your music at the same time. Recordbeater even has a neat little option to choose songs according to your pace or choose songs according to beats/minute so you can keep your pace up.
So despite my being a lazy POS I managed to lose 7lb the first 2 days on the challenge. By end of the week I had lost 9lb and end of week 2 I was 12lb down. Now I am still fluctuating around 11-14lb but I'm assuming my body is losing fat then gaining muscle and playing mind tricks on me because my pants are getting quite loose. I didn't measure myself before I lost that first 7lb because I wasn't expecting such a fast start and thought I had a few days to measure and get some before pictures taken. So my stats are only accurate from after the first 7lb. The last time I measured I was down 3 inches in the belly and I'm definately down more now because I wore my favorite jean capris yesterday and they were falling down.
As for my work out routine, I'm a little over a month into my challenge and I can now run 2 minute intervals on a regular basis. I am using RecordBeater for my app now because I can change my intervals rather than follow the C25K program (and RunKeeper hasn't been working for me lately, but I liked that it posted to my FB for me so my friends could see my progress). I have gone to the gym 3 times this past week, I'm still not sure if I'll buy a membership because I have done it before where I sign up then never go. So we'll see how this goes at the gym, for now it's nice to have a little change from running outside. The eliptical and bike provide a little different work out too. My workouts at the gym have consisted of treadmill, eliptical, bike and a little dabbling on the weights. I also go into the studio when there are no classes on to do some stretching and I started working on my abs. I'm still a little self conscious on the weight machines even though I had a personal trainer run me through them but in the end this is about ME not what other people are thinking. Who cares if I can only lift 20lb right? Yesterday I ran 4.5 minutes straight on the treadmill so I was pretty proud of myself. Next time I go for a run I'm going to try running 3 minute intervals and I'm pushing for 4 miles right now. My last good run that I tracked was 3.7 miles in 45 minutes doing 1.75 minute intervals with equal breaks. That run was amazing, I didn't even realize 45 minutes had gone by. I as just taking it one interval at a time.
You can do as little as 20 minute work outs 3 times/week like I did in the beginning. You can start with walking if you need to. I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that Vi-shakes are a miracle and are the only thing you need. You do need to start getting active at some point as you would need to do with any diet to maintain your weight or keep losing weight. Keep your goals simple in the beginning and as you reach those goals, think of how good that made you feel, how good it felt to break that first mile and keep pushing for your next goal. Heck, yesterday I broke a REAL sweat a the gym for the first time, where a drop of sweat actually ran down my arm, and as gross as you might find that, it was kind of a victory for me! So from now on when I go to the gym I am not stepping off that treadmill until I sweat!
Anyway I've blabbered on for long enough. I just wanted to show you that my daily life has not really been interrupted and it doesn't take a lot of effort to join the Body by Vi challenge. Hope to see you on my team! Don't forget I'm looking for people to compete for the best body transformation in a 90 day challenge with cash prizes!
**I would like to point out that when and if I use the term "diet" I don't mean a diet in the way many of us think of dieting -by starving ourselves. The way we eat is considered our "diet" so when I say it, I mean HEALTHY EATING not starving!
BREAKFAST:
Every morning I wake up with my 2 kids and I make them their breakfast then I make my shake. I like to use my blender and add some fruit to it but if it's that day when I don't have any fresh fruit around the shake is just as good on its own. Literally all I do is pour 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk and add 2 scoops of my Vi-Shake. Shake it up and drink it down! It tastes nothing like any of the shakes I've tried before. I've tried the slim fast and couldn't stomach it to even attempt losing weight with it. I've tried a store bought protein shake and it tasted like it was made with sidewalk chalk. People describe Vi-Shakes as "The shake mix that tastes like cake mix" for a reason!
Now some mornings I have oatmeal instead because a friend of mine showed me this simple recipe that you prepare the night before and leave in the fridge (no cooking necessary). 1/4 oatmeal, scoop of Vi-Shake, and a splash of Almond milk, mix until it has cookie dough texture. And guess what... It kind of tastes like oatmeal cookie dough. I add peanut butter, strawberries or blueberries and it tastes delicious and is very filling.
LUNCH:
In the beginning I was strict about using the Vi-shake for 2 meals and having one healthy cooked meal. So if at lunch time I was at home and "felt like cooking" I would make an omlette with a tonne of veggies. You would be surprised how you can come up with a new idea for omlettes and never really get sick of them! Use whatever veggies you have in the fridge. When you go grocery shopping be sure to stock up on a variety of veggies. My favorites are brocoli, cauliflower, asparagus, mushrooms and frozen spinach. If I was "lazy" I made a shake :)
SUPPER:
If I had 2 shakes already for the day I would join my family for supper but be sure that 1/2 my plate is filled with veggies and I eat those first so that when I get to the starch I don't go nuts on it. I have cut out potatos pretty much all together because I'm not a big fan of them in the first place. Rice must be brown rice and Pasta must be whole wheat! Then a serving of protein. I'm not huge on making sure it's a fat free chicken breast or anything like that I just make sure I'm watching my serving size. You have to allow yourself variety so it's time to get real about what a portion size looks like. You can google it and find many resources but one I find easy to follow is by using the palm of your hand.
Don't bother using a small plate. You'll just be hungry and go for seconds adding a second helping of starches and protein when unless you're working out, is going to hurt your diet. Use a regular size plate and fill it half to 3/4 full of a variety of veggies, include a salad if you like. Then be strict about your starch and protein servings. I like to eat my veggies first, that way I have the starch to look forward to and when I'm finished I'm actually full so I don't go back for more, because I would never go back for more veggies haha. Many of you may not be like this but I can guarantee I'm not the only starch lover out there!
SNACKS - I have 2-3 snacks/day and I choose 2-3 of each of these/snack depending on my hunger and activity level for the day. It's better to feel satisfied on healthy snacks than it is to allow yourself to get hungry and want to binge on sugary treats.
YOGURT -(I don't bother with that crap that has no fat but I do try to go for no sugar or aspertame) Greek yogurt is supposed to be extremely good for you, and a substitute for sour cream but I didn't personally like it. I hear it takes getting used to. I didn't try subbing it for sour cream but it does have that texture! I also have bought that dessert yogurt (with flavours like lemon pie and rasperry crumble) for when I have a desert like craving but this contains aspertame so I don't have them often, they are only 30 calories which is a bonus. I like to also buy the cups because it's all about portion for me and it has to be EASY! My favorite is Astro yogurt, it's sweetened with honey and they are 100 calorie cups.
CHEESE -REAL cheese (and I stick to only one slice)
PIECE OF FRUIT- Apples and Bananas are my go to but I do have berries etc on hand because my kids love them so I do reach for those once in a while. It's all personal taste here and what's in season.
ANTS ON A LOG - One of my kids' favorites! Celery sticks covered in real peanut butter with a few raisins on top. It satisfies that "crunch" and the raisins add some "sweet" to it.
If I have the urge for something sweet and cannot curb my craving, I have thinsations on hand because again the portion control has to be made simple and easy for me. Thinsations are 100 calorie packs and you can get a variety of snacks like oreos or chocolate pretzels. Just don't go crazy on them, I keep them out of sight/out of mind because the biggest thing I am trying to avoid is sugar! I'm not really calorie counting but the portion control is good and then when I go work out I know how long it takes me to work off 100 calories.
Now that I am working out/running more I often have 1 shake as a meal replacement and 2 healthy home cooked meals, and use one shake for my work out recovery! It's important if you've worked out that you give your body something to recover!
My work out routine:
In the beginning I was a lazy POS. So I HAD to implement some sort of activity. For a long time I wished that I enjoyed running, I envied people that could just "go for a run" and people that ran 5K's and half marathons. So I decided this was going to be my activity. It's summer so I can do it outside and don't have to get a gym membership. I live by a school so I can ran around the football feild at first, as boring as it was, because I didn't want people to see me run haha. I downloaded a couple of applications for my smart phone. One being RunKeeper and the other RecordBeater. I like RunKeeper because it tells me my stats every 5 minutes; How far I've gone and my average pace. You can also look at your phone for your current pace etc. You can input your own workout "coach" so if you want to make your own intervals you can, I used this app at the same time as C25K (couch to 5K) because this app has you increase your intervals every week and claims to get you to 5K in about 12 weeks. At first I couldn't run for 30 second intervals without hating my life and wondering if it had been 30 seconds yet. By the time I had been doing intervals for 10 minutes I was ready to quit. The intervals started off as 1 minute running and 1.5 minutes walking but I was lucky to make it to a minute while running so I just did my best for a while until I decided it was time to push myself to actually finish the minute and the 20 minute work out. The great thing about these apps for your phone is that they tell you when to run and when to walk and you can still play your music at the same time. Recordbeater even has a neat little option to choose songs according to your pace or choose songs according to beats/minute so you can keep your pace up.
So despite my being a lazy POS I managed to lose 7lb the first 2 days on the challenge. By end of the week I had lost 9lb and end of week 2 I was 12lb down. Now I am still fluctuating around 11-14lb but I'm assuming my body is losing fat then gaining muscle and playing mind tricks on me because my pants are getting quite loose. I didn't measure myself before I lost that first 7lb because I wasn't expecting such a fast start and thought I had a few days to measure and get some before pictures taken. So my stats are only accurate from after the first 7lb. The last time I measured I was down 3 inches in the belly and I'm definately down more now because I wore my favorite jean capris yesterday and they were falling down.
As for my work out routine, I'm a little over a month into my challenge and I can now run 2 minute intervals on a regular basis. I am using RecordBeater for my app now because I can change my intervals rather than follow the C25K program (and RunKeeper hasn't been working for me lately, but I liked that it posted to my FB for me so my friends could see my progress). I have gone to the gym 3 times this past week, I'm still not sure if I'll buy a membership because I have done it before where I sign up then never go. So we'll see how this goes at the gym, for now it's nice to have a little change from running outside. The eliptical and bike provide a little different work out too. My workouts at the gym have consisted of treadmill, eliptical, bike and a little dabbling on the weights. I also go into the studio when there are no classes on to do some stretching and I started working on my abs. I'm still a little self conscious on the weight machines even though I had a personal trainer run me through them but in the end this is about ME not what other people are thinking. Who cares if I can only lift 20lb right? Yesterday I ran 4.5 minutes straight on the treadmill so I was pretty proud of myself. Next time I go for a run I'm going to try running 3 minute intervals and I'm pushing for 4 miles right now. My last good run that I tracked was 3.7 miles in 45 minutes doing 1.75 minute intervals with equal breaks. That run was amazing, I didn't even realize 45 minutes had gone by. I as just taking it one interval at a time.
You can do as little as 20 minute work outs 3 times/week like I did in the beginning. You can start with walking if you need to. I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that Vi-shakes are a miracle and are the only thing you need. You do need to start getting active at some point as you would need to do with any diet to maintain your weight or keep losing weight. Keep your goals simple in the beginning and as you reach those goals, think of how good that made you feel, how good it felt to break that first mile and keep pushing for your next goal. Heck, yesterday I broke a REAL sweat a the gym for the first time, where a drop of sweat actually ran down my arm, and as gross as you might find that, it was kind of a victory for me! So from now on when I go to the gym I am not stepping off that treadmill until I sweat!
Anyway I've blabbered on for long enough. I just wanted to show you that my daily life has not really been interrupted and it doesn't take a lot of effort to join the Body by Vi challenge. Hope to see you on my team! Don't forget I'm looking for people to compete for the best body transformation in a 90 day challenge with cash prizes!
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