No Going Back Now...

Goal today: My main goal today is to take it slow, and get comfortable with the gym and eat all my food and enjoy every bite. 

Supplements

Supplements are the most important factor when living a healthy lifestyle. It is more vital the older we get as well. I am pretty good at taking my vitamins and supplements (although I hate taking pills) :) I take a complete multi-vitamin every morning with breakfast along with Super Omega-3 (EPA/DHA w/Sesame Lignans & Fruit Extract), Vitamin D-3, and Organic Cold Pressed Flax Oil. Its good to take your vitamins with food, especially the Omega-3's (otherwise you get that fishy burps). I also am drinking a Detox tea this week along with some organic green tea. There is nothing going wrong with tea ever! Remember to drink plenty of water as well!

Workout Day #1

Upon walking into my apartment’s gym, I was told that it was fairly warm in there but being in the basement I figured I was being told false truths! I walked into the gym and realized I dressed wrong. Since gaining some weight, I wore pants and a long sleeve shirt. Boy was I wrong! The gym was practically a sauna (88 degrees) which I do not mind, I love to sweat! Today I did a high intensity level workout on the treadmill. I incorporated 1 minute of all out running and then recovered for 2 minutes. I repeated this cycle for 20 minutes. I am out of shape that is for sure but my endurance is still there. I then did 5 minutes of fast paced jumping rope and then proceeded to stretch for 5 minutes. I am getting over being sick so I did not want to push my body too hard today so in order to be safe I am going to start slow and gradually add on 10 minute increments each day. High level interval training is essential for sculpting your figure! From years of being a swimming athlete, I know that high interval training starves your body of oxygen so even after you are done working out your body burns calories! My apartment gym has most of the equipment I need, and even a boxing bag. Looks like I will be ordering some boxing gloves! Although I was not able to work out more than I wanted; I will always stick to progress not perfection.

Breakfast 10am

The most important meal of the day: breakfast!!!! Breakfast not only rev's up your metabolism but it keeps you from binging on foods later in the day when they may not be healthy. Breakfast also helped me be in a great mood all day today. Today I had two egg whites, a handful of grapes, watered down cranberry juice, and detox tea. I also had all my vitamins. Eggs carry 4g of protein in each egg. I am going to drink a water bottle full of water about every two hours today. I am also bringing lunch to work today so I do not get caved in to eating fatty or junk foods at the college. The eggs really helped me stay full for most of the morning.  

Lunch 2pm

I am having an awesome lunch today packed with so much goodness! Making your own lunch at home will not only help you save money but will keep you from eating fatty foods at your workplace. Today I have some mixed nuts (sunflower seeds, and walnuts), banana, applesauce, carrots, detox tea, and a ham sandwich. I am focusing to eat as much protein I can and limit the number of carbohydrates I intake each day. In the next week, I will lose a lot of water weight. After that I will start to build muscle and continue to eat a balanced diet. 

When you work out, your body burns the carbohydrates and then the fat stored in your body. (Muscle burns at a higher rate than fat). The fat that you have on your body currently is basically stored energy. In order to lose weight efficiently, you must have a healthy balanced diet and exercise. Not to starve yourself! That will only hurt you more. When it comes to losing weight it comes down to calorie intake versus the number of calories you are putting out. Essentially our bodies are absorbing the fat: The body converts all the fat we have in our body to carbohydrates which in turn is metabolized into carbon dioxide etc. 

Dinner 6pm

Dinner was a protein explosion! Had some oven baked chicken I prepped on Sunday, kale, avocado, broccoli, edamame (with soy sauce...thanks mom & dad), tomatoes that I didn't finish at lunch and some extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) on top of the kale. I also had some whole milk and then washing down the awesome taste of kale with a small piece of jerky and some detox tea! For the rest of the night I am going to get my schedule put together and hopefully head to bed early! When I am at my best (healthy and in shape) I usually need about 6 hours of sleep but try to get at least 8 hours of sleep. 

Goal today: Achieved

Today was a very good day! I have never felt better and it is amazing how good you feel when you exercise. I didn't want to wake up this morning but I did because I knew I didn't have a choice. To be honest I didn't think I would make it without having sugary drink or candy. I am used to it in order to get through my long days. The suite that I work in always has candy out and I resisted temptation. :) I also visualized my goals this morning when I was getting ready: not only my body to be back into shape but my emotional well-being.Being healthy helps you have a positive attitude and you rarely get sick.  My dad taught me when I was younger before every swim race, visualize myself winning the race and then go kick butt. I continue to visualize as I believe it is a very important factor in success and failure. I am very excited to go to bed and head to the gym tomorrow once again. Even though I was only able to run for a little while, I was able to walk out of there sweating like a madwoman and I know I don't need to go 100% right away. Progress not perfection when it comes to body, health, & wellness. 

*peace n blessings*

Luciana Reichel