45 Strong Challenge: Day 28

 Still feeling pretty ragged this morning; I'm just not sleeping well. I'm just taking things one day at a time.

I did:

• 50 minutes of walking and 40 minutes at F45 for a total of 90 active minutes. Today was the last week of the Piston workout which is a weights workout. I'll miss this one- it's actually a nice way to start a Sunday morning.
• drank 3 litres of water
• did my dental care
• 42 minutes of Spanish on Duolingo. Today is the last day of the Spanish event so I'll be able to slow down a bit tomorrow! I finished in the top ten in the tournament, yay!

45 Strong Challenge: Day 27

Again, super tired this morning. I was awake early enough to go to the Saturday class but I need some active recovery. Honestly I'm not even thrilled to go for an hour long walk today, but I'm 60% of the way done and I'm not giving up now!

Trying to keep things low key today. We don't do much as a celebration for Easter but I did decide to make a ham and cheese scalloped potatoes and veggies for dinner. Everything in moderation, right? I stayed within my daily calories, too.

I did:

• 61 minutes of walking.
• drank 3 litres of water
• did my dental care
• 46 minutes of Spanish on Duolingo. 

45 Strong Challenge Day 26

 OK y'all, today I am just tired. Thank goodness tomorrow is Saturday and it's my active recovery day.

Happy Good Friday! Instead of sleeping in and enjoying not having to work or pack the kiddo off to school, where was I? Sweating my ass off at F45. Sigh. That being said- I went. I just don't feel energized post workout today. I feel sweaty and tired. I think I'm just going to relax today and enjoy the holiday as much as possible. Hope you do, too!

I did:

• 54 minutes of walking and 41 minutes at F45 for a total of 95 active minutes. Today was the last week of the Valor workout which is a team based primarily cardio workout. I'm glad to see the back of this one.
• drank 3 litres of water
• did my dental care
• 21 minutes of Spanish on Duolingo. Tournament ends Sunday and then I can slow down a bit on the Spanish!

45 Strong Challenge: Day 25

 Well, I'm feeling more positive today about my ability to get through this challenge, which is nice! It's been interesting to see my mood fluctuate so far as the days go by, although honestly I could do without the low days!

I'm actually looking forward to today's F45 workout, even though it's the last one of its kind before we switch to the new month. This is the strength day where we work on progressive overload and lift heavy. I have seen visible improvement in my muscles just over the last few weeks, so I'm excited to go in today and see what I can do. I hit a new milestone on reps and weight last time, so I want to see what I can do today! Definitely planning on hitting the protein hard, too. I want to keep feeding the muscles!

So I started today with my favourite easy high protein breakfast that you've seen me mention a few times now, two sunny side up runny yolk eggs on whole wheat weight watchers toast with a slice of deli ham, some red onion, and lowfat cheese. 363 calories, 16g fat, 24g carbs, 30g protein.

Lunch is the quickest and easiest protein heavy meal! I literally just got myself a frozen shrimp ring and I'm having cocktail shrimp and a salad. Not only does it feel decadent, but seafood is low in calories and high in protein. I'm really enjoying it! 174 calories, 2g fat, 2g carbs, 35g protein.

By afternoon though I was looking for a little sweet to complement the spicy cocktail sauce I'd had earlier! I had 1/2 cup chopped strawberries, a container of vanilla Greek yogurt, and just a little drizzle of sugarfree caramel syrup. Sweet and delicious! I added an ounce of almonds on the side. 319 calories, 14g fat, 29g carbs, 23g protein.

Dinner was a homemade cheeseburger with 4oz extra lean ground beef on a low calorie bun with 1oz cheddar cheese and grilled onions, and roasted carrots on the side. I was going to share a recipe for a Big Mac salad but honestly there's nothing wrong with having an actual burger sometimes, even on a day when you're aiming for higher protein and lower carbs! It was delicious and I enjoyed every bite. 522 calories, 23g fat, 46g carbs, 36g protein.

I went for savory for dessert so I could load up on more delicious protein! I had 5 of the PC Black Label cranberry & fennel artisan crisps I've written about before along with 2 oz Brie cheese and 100g Brandt turkey kolbassa. 367 calories, 23g fat, 15.5g carbs, 32.5g protein.

That brings my day to 1745 calories, 78g fat, 116.5g carbs, and 156.5g protein, which is fantastic! I wouldn't choose to eat this way every  day but I did some very heavy lifting today and definitely want to help build that muscle!

I did:

• 54 minutes of walking and 40 minutes at F45 for a total of 94 active minutes. Today was the last week of the Two Fold workout which is where you do strength training but focus on upper or lower body. 
• drank 3 litres of water
• did my dental care
• 52 minutes of Spanish on Duolingo. Gotta stay in the silly tournament!

45 Strong Challenge: Day 24

 I'm already worn out and the day hasn't started yet! Not because of physical exhaustion, but I'm just really stressed lately, which is not ideal for taking care of my body. I know studies have shown that stress undoes literally everything I'm trying to do to help myself, so I don't love that.

Then this morning literally nothing sounded good for breakfast, which is frustrating because I have so many ingredients on hand. Finally I just gave up and grabbed whatever was easy, and it's funny because it made me laugh to realize that I fell completely back to basics- the old Nutrisystem program that they had back in the early '00s where breakfast was a Nutrisystem entree plus a dairy or protein serving plus a fruit. The program has changed since then, in some ways better and in some ways worse (at least in my opinion) but their food was generally pretty good, and I still do occasionally drive across the border to get an order of the frozen entrees (which are vastly superior to the shelf stable ones)!

So my quick and easy breakfast this morning is a banana chopped into coins, topped with vanilla Greek yogurt and a little caramel sauce, and a Nutrisystem cinnamon roll. I guess old habits die hard but in this case? That's a pretty good habit. I'm not an active Nutrisystem member anymore because I don't order the food frequently enough to keep my auto delivery on, but I'd still recommend that service to anyone looking for quick and easy meals designed to help with weight loss. Is it cheap? No, but when you look at the cost of food nowadays plus the cost of all the ready meal services that have sprung up, it's pretty reasonable. And most of the entrees can be "doctored up" to actually taste pretty good. In fact, if you haven't read back in my blog, that's what Stomach Rumblings was originally about. I shared lots of recipes and tips and tricks to make the NS program work for you. Back in 2010 when I was an active member, I lost 125 pounds with Nutrisystem and I maintained that loss for six years until my life got really stressful and I stopped taking care of myself; stopped even caring about taking care of myself. That's what I have to prevent this time. Weight loss gets harder the older you get, and yo-yo'ing is very hard on your body. I don't want to go through this again.

But I digress! My point is, I'd still recommend them if you're looking for something, and they obviously instilled some reasonable habits in me that I know work well!

I did:

• 59 minutes of walking and 38 minutes at F45 for a total of 97 active minutes. Today was the last week of the Triple Threat workout which is tiring cardio. 
• drank 3 litres of water
• did my dental care
• 42 minutes of Spanish on Duolingo.

45 Strong Challenge- Day 23

 Well I have Bon Jovi stuck in my head- we're halfway there! 

I'm still not getting enough sleep though, and not for lack of trying. I could really use it given how much energy I've been expending lately, but it is what it is.

It's going to be a busy day. I'll just keep doing the best I can. I started today with a high protein breakfast to give me a boost- my favourite pre-weights meal of eggs on toast with cheese, ham, and sliced red onion. Delicious!

My favourite trainer was there today and she always pushes me to try that little bit more. I have a confession to make... I'm still that woman who hates exercise and sweating... but I think I like lifting weights. I feel strong and capable, and I like that.

But man I'm blown out for now! I worked really hard though and I'm proud of myself. Now time to load up on some protein!

I did:

• 65 minutes of walking and 45 minutes at F45 for a total of 110 active minutes. Today was the last week of the Titans workout which is an awesome weightlifting class. I'm sorry that this one will be finished but I'm sure the next month will have similar and good stuff.
• drank 3 litres of water
• did my dental care
• 31 minutes of Spanish on Duolingo. I'm in a silly little tournament on Duolingo this week so apparently I have to do more Spanish than usual to keep up! That's not usually my goal but why not do a little more if I am able to.

Week 72 Weigh In & 45 Strong Challenge: Day 22

 Yay- the scale is moving again! I hope this keeps up for a little while! Again, I know that when you're gaining muscle that the scale might not move for a while because muscle is heavy, but it's still a bummer to work hard and stay within my calories and not see that number drop even when it's literally only one factor in weight loss. But I really needed the boost this week. It's first thing Monday morning and I'm already exhausted and I haven't even gone to work yet let alone gone to F45 today. Those Monday workouts are really rough! It's six pods of three exercises each, which all target the same muscle group. You work out for five minutes with only a ten second break between a full set of three. It's really strenuous- and they're not easy exercises either! 

That being said, my fitness tracker says that my cardio fitness score is slowly increasing, and that's awesome. Yet another visible marker that my health is improving. So while these cardio sets feel very hard hopefully they will get easier. Although I'm sure when they get easier, my favourite trainer that I love to hate will find a way to make them difficult again!

I have been trying to keep my calories towards the higher end of my range because of the high amount of exercise I'm doing during this challenge, so I guess I will keep doing that. I had been worried because the past few days the proportion of carbs has swung a little bit higher so I thought maybe that was going to stall me but I've been so tired that I think my body has genuinely needed the extra energy. My glucose readings are all still within range so I'm not going to worry about it. I do try to get 100g of protein daily but meal planning gets more difficult the more tired I am, and life has been stressful lately. I'm hoping to do some batch cooking this week so that I can just grab a container of leftovers out of the fridge for lunches rather than figure out what to make. I bought a bunch of meal prep containers that are all the same and instead of storing food in serving dishes in the fridge, I portion them out into appropriate meal sizes so they're just grab and go. Bonus- they even look like they're in takeout containers for that little extra bit of feeling like it's junk food!

Today I noticed that I was hungrier- I'm wondering if I do need to keep my calories higher? I'll have to see how it goes. I had to squeeze in my morning snack today even though timing was weird because I was just so hungry. It's not the kind of hunger that feels like Ozempic isn't controlling things- just normal hunger. I'll see how it goes.

Still keeping my dose at 0.75mg for now... I'd really like to save that last boost to 1mg for when I stall closer to my goal weight. Since I'm taking Ozempic for diabetes and not for weight loss, I won't be prescribed a dose higher than 1mg, since it's definitely helping my A1C. So if that's my last increase, I want to make it count and hopefully help my weight loss start moving again when I really need it. I admit it's been tempting lately since I've only lost 6 lbs in the last 3 months but I keep telling myself to give the exercise a chance to work. Muscle burns more fat, and I've definitely put some muscle on. Since the scale had been staying the same, that means I have actually been losing fat while I gain the muscle, since I didn't gain weight. So my daily calories burned should increase as long as I keep up with the F45- and that means the fat loss should start to increase as well. It's a marathon, not a sprint. I'll be patient and keep doing what I'm doing even when I don't feel very patient and want results RIGHT NOW!! A 2 plus pound weight loss in a week at this stage of the game is great!

Onwards and downwards... I'm nearly halfway through the 45 Strong challenge!

I did:

• 60 minutes of walking and 38 minutes at F45 for a total of 98 active minutes. Today was the last week of the Loyals workout which is a brutal cardio workout.
• drank 3 litres of water
• did my dental care
• 31 minutes of Spanish on Duolingo. 

OZ Year 1 loss: 68lbs (click here to see the week-by-week tracker!) 

OZ Week 53 gain: 1.4 lbs continuing dose at 0.75mg

OZ Week 55 gain: 1.6 lbs

OZ Week 56 loss: 0.6 lbs

OZ Week 57 loss: 2.0 lbs

OZ Week 58 loss: 2.4 lbs

OZ Week 61 gain: 5.4 lbs

OZ Week 62 loss: 1.4 lbs

OZ Week 63 loss: 3.0 lbs

OZ Week 64 loss: 1.0 lb

OZ Week 65 loss: 0.4 lbs

OZ Week 66 loss: 1.8 lbs

OZ Week 67 loss: 0 lbs

OZ Week 68 loss: 1.4 lbs

OZ Week 69 gain: 0.2 lbs

OZ Week 70 gain: 2.2 lbs

OZ Week 71 loss: 2.4 lbs

OZ Week 72 loss: 2.2 lbs

Total loss on Ozempic so far: 75.8 lbs