Some Surprising Results + Announcing my Holiday Countdown

This is a recent progress/ update picture (taken last week before seeing my fam in Montreal where I've done a little bit of damage) lol. 

Oh nooooo! So much time gone by and I’ve achieved relatively little after stating to such fanfare. This is a little bit embarrassing but I did not in fact end up going full steam ahead with the plan in October and the beginning of November.  You know… like I said I would… On a very public blog! Eeep!

Despite the best of intentions I ended up travelling for work a few times, attended a few conferences, lots of delicious but decidedly fattening holidays and I also went to see my family in Montreal for my my birthday (though not ON my birthday because I was working).   I don’t know if you have heard but we French love our food and wine.  Holidays, travelling and conferences involve a lot of eating and drinking and little to no exercise.  I’m sure this is not news…

I’m ashamed to say that in the past five weeks I have not logged nearly as many workouts as I should have.  But, I suppose I can’t only write about successes.  I’ve also made some pretty poor choices diet-wise.   To be honest I would have expected to gain weight – my diet has been far from ideal. 

Given all off this, I’m actually pretty happy to say that not only have I not gained weight – I actually still managed to loose some.  Six more pounds to be exact… For a grand total of 15 pounds lost so far.  Now trust me – I’m VERY happy for the weight loss but I’m not happy with myself for not making the most of this and performing the best I know I can.  I actually don’t FEEL like I should have even lost 15 pounds to be honest, I’m very surprised!  I can only guess that even a little bit of high intensity exercise makes a difference. The Group Training Sessions I am doing are intense.  Kind of like a boot camp workout… The only other explanation I can come up with is that I have made a very concrete commitment for which I am now accountable.   Although I might not realize it, the fact that I am being held accountable means that on the whole, I must be making better choices.   Being accountable to someone or something is a tremendous motivator.  I know that when if I miss weeks at the gym or completely go off the map, I am going to hear from the ladies at Christine’s. 

I suppose that Rome wasn’t built in a day and I can’t expect to turn my health habits around completely and permanently in a matter of months… But I also know that if I log four workouts at Christine’s group training classes every week and stick EXACTLY to the diet she has given me, I can go from good to AMAZING. 

Christine recently posted a short little film about goals and how they are achieved via her Facebook page (please go “Like” it if you have not already): http://www.facebook.com/pages/Christines-Fitness-Personal-Training/136315921665?ref=hl]

Here is Christine's Fitness official website: http://www.christinesfitness.com/

Some of the rules listed in the film really made sense to me, here is a little sample:

Rule #1 – Be decisive: you define yourself by the decisions you make (the direction of you life changes the minute you decide which goals you want to pursue)

Rule #2 – Stay focused: the moment you focus on a goal, it becomes a magnet, pulling you and your resources towards it).

Rule #3 – Write Down Your Goals: be specific and measurable and have a deadline (Written goals are catalysts, transforming agents for success and achievement.)

Rule #4 – Planning: allows you to carefully orchestrate all the steps on the way to achieving a goal.

Rule #5 – Involve Others: surround yourself with good people who possess solid experiences.

Rule #6 – Welcome failure: failure has an ulterior motive, it stops you long enough to learn, re-strategize, and re-launch again so that you will be more prepared for success. 

Announcing my Holiday Countdown!

I think that rules # 1 and #2 (being decisive and staying focused) might explain why I have had some success even though I feel like I haven’t succeeded in being as devoted to fitness and weight loss as I could have been.  Rule # 3 (write down your goals) might be where I went wrong… I was not being SPECIFIC.   Bearing all of this in mind – I thought I might give it a go. 

The Christmas season that lies ahead if FULL of dieting pitfalls.  There are multiple family visits (and if you come from a reconstituted family there can be MANY MANY MANY). There are the many holiday parties you will have to attend at friends’ houses, client parties, office parties… The list goes on.

I know I probably sound like the Grinch... Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE seeing family and friends.  I just find that Christmas is time-consuming, expensive and fattening and I know that getting sidetracked during the Christmas season would make me pretty unhappy.  So, I instead of putting on weight during the Christmas season – I am going to aim to loose weight – setting a very specific goal. 

Today is November 13^th 2012.  By Tuesday January 15^th 2013 – in exactly 8 weeks -   I would like to have lost another 25 pounds (for a total of 40 which was pretty much my goal).   Ok in bullet point form now….

Countdown Stats:

·      8 weeks (56 days) to loose 25 pounds

·      Exercise goals: Attend a minimum of 4 No BS Group training sessions at Christine’s (I’m going to set the following parameters: I can attend 3 sessions if I am exceptionally busy one week but I must attend 5 sessions the following week to make it up.  I have to exempt one or two weeks at the end of December where I might be travelling and will have to find a way to TRY and exercise regardless).

So there we are.  No Pressure! Hahahaha.  I’ll keep you guys posted.   PS: I have come up with a few tips and tricks that make things a little bit easier (nutrition tips).  I have to post about them but I've been told to keep my posts a little shorter so they will be coming up.

New Beginnings, (Again)!

In University I spent a lot of late nights studying, eating poorly and packing on the pounds.  Well ok, so maybe living with five guy roommates and trying to keep up with their chicken wing and beer diet also had something to do with it.  What can I say? Most people just pack on their “freshmen fifteen”. I should have been so lucky!  


I joined Christine’s Fitness in Toronto and started working out there regularly with my dear friend Gracey.  With endless amounts of support and encouragement from these ladies I was able to get in the best shape of my life.  Christine taught me how to get the most out of my workouts and how to eat properly.  At almost record speed, she whipped my nineteen-year-old body back into shape.  It seems hard to believe that it’s been 8 years already since I lost 50 pounds.

This is what Christine was able to do with me last time around:



 
So, what’s happened since? Yikes, well, I’m a repeat offender.

And it is definitely not drinking beer this time but stress, late nights, work, work, work…

I also no longer went to Christine’s, my temple of fitness. I was eating poorly. Tale as old as time, right?

My absolute worst habit is without a doubt my pattern of getting very little sleep.  I like to work at night while there are no phone call, e-mails or interruptions or general mayhem.  I will generally work until the wee hours of the morning and then get up and work some more in the AM.  I work in a complicated field you might generally call communications consulting, so my work is very unpredictable, heavily project-based and my schedule is ever-changing from one minute to the next.   

Add to that the fact that my partner is one of the lucky people who strives to ADD weight to his frame – which means our cupboards always stocked with bad stuff (EVIL STUFF FOR THE BODS).  So there you have it, lots of excuses not to be in shape – none of them very good.

I am, however, at a bit of a crossroads...  

I’ll be 28 in a few weeks and that’s a stone’s throw away from 30.  I have reasons other than vanity (shocking, I know) for wanting to be in better shape.  I’m finding that I have less energy these days and that I am experiencing some pain, specifically lower back/sciatica.  I would really like to enter the next decade of my life with better health habits and just generally speaking, I would love to be the best I can be.  I found this beautiful quote and I think it will probably resonate with every woman who reads it:

  “It is a shame for a woman to grow old without ever seeing the strength and beauty of which her body is capable.”

My beautiful friend Gracey Hitchcock, publisher of Dolce Dolce, a health and beauty newsletter I greatly enjoy reading: www.dolcedolce.com, as well as the stunning Christine Steiger, of Christine’s Fitness have both suggested that I try blogging about my weight loss this time around.  Both these ladies know me fairly well and they know that it might help provide me with the inspiration and accountability I need to succeed.

I first discussed this with Christine some five weeks ago and in the spirit of full disclosure I will say that she has given me a program and that I have agreed to write about my experiences while on the program.  I am not being paid to write a blog about Christine’s but you will often see it mentioned on these pages because I really believe that she does amazing work and changes people’s lives.

A Google search will reveal that I have endorsed and provided testimonials for Christine in the past.  I was not paid for these testimonials (none of the members are when they provide testimonials).  You’ll find an abundance of people willing to stand up and tell you how great Christine’s is because it’s the truth.  It is way more than a gym – staff members at Christine’s are more like life coaches than trainers.  They don’t just know your name; they know your pet’s names, where you ache and what you weaknesses are.   Even more importantly, they genuinely care about your happiness, your health and your success.  They will never bully you Jillian Michaels style; instead, they’ll try and provide you with the constant motivation and gentle push that you need to succeed.

Over the past five weeks, I’ve been slowly getting back into the swing of things.  I’ve been getting to the gym about twice a week, doing a Christine’s workout (I should really be getting in much more often) and I have been slowly working Christine’s principles of nutrition back into my diet.  I’ve still been eating bad stuff and having the occasional glass of wine, but I’ve been trying to work in more protein, more complex and fibrous carbs, less sugar and fewer processed carbs.  It’s been a fairly crazy five weeks of work plus impromptu events so I have been derailed more than a few times.  Still, I’m very happy with the results I’ve already had.  Enough stalling, these are my official “before” pics.  This was taken at a good friend's baby shower recently and I'm not lying when I say that my girlfriend, eight months pregnant with twins, looked way better than I did!   These are my new pictures, having lost nine pounds in about four and a half weeks, taken in early October 2012.   Please excuse the low quality pictures.

BEFORE 

You will notice the hiding of self with giant designer purse.  A staple move of mine!


THIS IS ANOTHER (FLATTERING) BEFORE PHOTO TAKEN AT ONE MY BEST FRIENDS' WEDDING (IN JULY)

WORK IN PROGRESS: THIS PIC WAS TAKEN A FEW DAYS AGO, ON MY I-PHONE CAM, SORRY IT IS SO BLURRY.  PLEASE NOTE FOR FUTURE REFERENCE THAT I AM WEARING GAZILLION INCH HEELS IN THIS PICTURE.

FOR REFERENCE PURPOSES AND SO THAT YOU CAN SEE THAT I HAVE SLIGHTLY LESS PUDGE ON MY FACE - HERE IS A PIC OF ME TODAY, AS I AM POSTING THIS:

 

OH COMMON, STOP THAT FLATTERING ANGLE TOMFOOLERY! - OK OK SO MAYBE I REALLY LOOK MORE LIKE THIS:

 
 















To paraphrase my beloved partner of four years, the pudge is starting to melt of my chin but my cheeks have yet to receive the memo...
 
In all seriousness - I’m still a long way away from where I would like to be but I’m very encouraged by these results. I do need to get cracking and serious now.  I start a more rigorous program next week because Canadian thanksgiving is this weekend and just... you know, common now!  I will let you know how it goes and update my pictures.  I will also try and get through thanksgiving without wrecking all of the progress I've made in the past month.  HA! 

As I continue I’ll be sharing some tips and experiences with you, my readers.

Thank you for reading, please feel free to leave me any comments, questions or tips and tricks of your own.

As Christine always says, “Best of Health”!
 
xoxo

Anne