Update

Originally written on May 24th, 2010. Again, pretty self explanatory :) It's a happy post haha.








Well hello everyone,

I thought I should update all interested on my lifestyle changes that I mentioned in my previous note.

Well... great news! Putting everything together - nutritionist, trainer and willpower - I've managed to lose over 17 pounds in 5 weeks!!!! :D More importantly, I've lost 2 inches around my shoulders (yay collarbone definition!), 2 inches around each thigh (o.O!!), 1.5 inches around my neck and 0.5 inches around my waist and hips! Also, you can totally see the difference in my face (that was almost immediate... like within the first 2 weeks I think haha :D)

How have I changed my lifestyle, do you ask? Well, two of the most important changes I've made have been to start getting up at 6:30am every day to make all my meals of the day (breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner) and walking to and from school and other places during the week.

The meal making has been one of the coolest changes that I never thought I would get into. I've never been much of a cook, but the recipes that I get from my nutritionists are easy and personalized to me. I can now make 3.5 meals in less than an hour (and no, none of the meals *have* to be smoothies if I don't want them to be :P). The meals let me gauge how much I have to eat that day. Thus, I'm not restricted to eating all of my lunch during lunch time. If I get hungry around 10am, I can snack a bit on what I brought for lunch (so far the chicken quesadilla is my favourite! Although the Caesar's home-made pizza is really good too!). If I eat a little snack in the morning, I just know that my lunch is a little smaller. But that's ok, because as long as I stick to the portions that I make in the morning, I can really eat whenever I want.

That being said, there are some rules to follow for optimal results of course: don't drink pop (easy for me, surprisingly!), don't drink more than 1 cup of coffee (suuuuuper easy for me lol, coffee is still gross for me), try not to eat after 7pm (I push this till 8 or 9 sometimes due to my night classes haha), no more than 1 glass of juice (sorta easy. I just make sure I don't buy juice from the store and then I can't be tempted :D), and finally get the 8 glasses of water in a day plus whatever you drink at the gym! The hardest part of all those rules was to figure out how to get the 8 glasses of water a day. That's just hard haha. So you have probably seen me and will probably see me toting around a 591mL water bottle, which is 2 glasses of water. I just need to make sure to drink 4 of those in a day. I try to get 2 bottles done before lunch time, and then 2 bottles before dinner. If you break it down like that it's not too hard anymore :)

On to the walking everywhere! The distance from my house to the school is 3km and I can walk that in about 40min with a full backpack on. I recently had to go pick up my car from my friend Jay's house on Sunview (2.5km from my place), and I went jogging! I can officially say I've jogged somewhere because I jogged at least half the distance :D It would have normally taken me 30min to walk to Jay's house, but with the walking/jogging combination I made it in 20!!!

I've also been walking to my nutritionist's office which is located on Fischer-Hallman and Glasgow from the University. That's about a 3.3km walk (according to Google Maps!). I'm going to start walking/jogging when I go to the nutritionist's because I normally don't have a backpack, or if I do, I make sure it's empty of everything but my food journal. :) Sometimes I walk back to the University too (if I have the time!). Other times I just hop on the 12 because the stop is right outside the front door of the clinic and is direct to the University (and to my house, as a matter of fact!).

Both my nutritionist and my trainer serve as accountability for me. Yes, I could probably figure out the eating and the gym routine on my own with lots of hardship and struggle... but then would I actually get up the willpower to do it? No, unfortunately :( I probably wouldn't be that motivated. I work very well having people to go to. I can't miss a meeting with them because that is just rude. Having my trainer waiting for me at the gym means I can't just skip out that day because I'm tired. Knowing that my nutritionist will call me if I don't come in to the clinic every 2nd day for my howdy-do's, means that I have to get there and bring my food journal, which means: 1. it better be up to date and 2. I'd better not have cheated or ate crappy foods because then they will see them and I will feel bad for not following their program.

This accountability doesn't fit everyone, and I recognize that. But for me, having to see my trainer 3 times a week and having to go into the nutritionist's every 2nd day is an amazing tool that keeps my goals front and centre in my head. :)

Anyways, I feel absolutely amazing! I have more energy, I am getting over my body issues slowly with the help of some amazing people and many friends. A lot of things have been immediate, like the loss of extra fat from the face, the fact that I can sit cross legged without too much strain now (trust me, that was a big issue before), my knee pain is significantly reduced and I feel smaller :) Be careful! You might not recognize me the next time you see me haha :D

♥♥Leslie