Post Holiday Diet Day... 11?

Weight: +???

Sorry for the missed days but I was too sick to workout or fast diet... But I felt good enough today to lift some weights at the gym and I tried a new recipe again taken from the "Bountiful" recipe book for dinner. Again, I will only give you my ingredients for the calories count (as usual I skipped the oil and made a few substitutions), and you can refer to their book or their blog for the recipe!

Breakfast: approximately 24 calories
- 1.5 korean rice cracker

Lunch: approximately 155 calories
- 1 artichoke
- 1 egg
- 0.5 tbsp olive oil light mayonnaise

Dinner: approximately 281 calories
Modified "Bountiful" Summer Squash stuffed with teriyaki pork
- 260g zucchini
- 30g onion
- 2g garlic
- 2g ginger
- 1tsp oregano
- 75g lean ground pork
- 1 tsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp honey
- 10g panko

Snack: approximately 40 calories
- 1 small mandarin

Total: 500 calories

Post Holiday Diet Day 8 Work getting in the way...

Weight: +1.2 kg (2.6lb)

Alright, I knew it couldn't last. This is the sign that I should go back to weighting myself only the day after a fast day again, otherwise I admit it is a bit depressing to see the weight go back up, eventhough I know it will surely go down later...

Anyways, this happened today at work, and I thought it warranted to be shared. Love my patients!

See you tomorrow after my fast day!

Post Holiday Diet Day 7

Weight: +0.9kg (2.0lb)

I guess Wii games are not as efficient as HIIT workouts to lose weight. I probably should have seen that coming. But losing a little bit of weight is better than nothing, and it is just too hard to do a very intensive workout after a work day.

Today I had an especially long and hard day at work, so I simply walked to and from work and also did the 7mn workout with my app... At least I did move 30mn total today... but I wouldn't be surprised if the weight doesn't budge tomorrow. We'll probably have to wait for the next fast day for a significant decrease.

Post Holiday Diet Day 6 - Workout games

Weight: +1.0 kg (2.2lb)

Almost there! The combo of fast diet and Turbo Fire HIIT workouts seems to be paying off!

Today is not a fast diet day and because I just charged my batteries that were unavailable yesterday, I am going to play Exerbeat on the Wii! Love that game. It is so cute and motivates you to move to unlock new exercises.

Talking of games, I thought I would write a little bit about the 7mn workout app I downloaded yesterday:
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/7-minute-workout-seven-high/id650276551?mt=8

The app guides you through a succession of 12 exercises. You are to perform the exercises for 30 seconds each and you have 10 seconds between exercises to "catch your breath" (or really just change into the accurate position for the next one...). You just need a wall and a chair (and I would add a yoga mat to make some moves more comfortable) to do these exercises. No fancy equipment. The app is based on an article published on the New York Times that claims that doing these exercises at maximum effort in exactly that order makes a balanced high intensity interval training:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/the-scientific-7-minute-workout/?_r=0

Does it work?
Too early to tell for me... I like the idea that it is just 7 minutes. I will probably fit that in during my lunch hour when I don't have enough time to leave my office. However, the authors do recommend doing it a couple of times a day if that is your only workout routine. The app mentioned above follows the exact sequence of the New York Times article. I like the fact that it adds a bit of "gamers mentality" to it: you have 3 "lives" and lose one every time you skip a day of workout. You need to stay in the game to unlock a different 7mn workout routine every 2 months... I'll see if I can stick to the same sequence every day for that long... I do get bored fast, that's why I have so many workout dvds to choose from...

Post Holiday Diet Day 5 - spaghetti squash and sausage

Weight: +2.4kg (5.3lb)

Another pound gone! Almost 3lb gone for 4 days of exercises and healthy eating including one fast day. I am hoping the holiday damage will be melted away in just as many days it took to pile the weight on.

Since it is Sunday, I thought I would play some Wii workout games. Unfortunately, I realized both of my remotes were out of battery :( So it is back to some workout videos: Turbo Fire HIIT 20, followed by a new iTunes app I just found challenging people to a daily 7 minutes workout. I will wait to try that app out for a few days before I let you know what I think of it...

Today is also my second fast day for the week. My dinner for today was inspired by the "Roasted spaghetti squash with sausage" recipe published in Bountiful by Todd Porter and Diane Cu. I have skipped the oil and modified the proportions to lower the calories count, but it was absolutely delicious and will surely become one of my regular diet meal! I've included the ingredients below for my calories count, but for the recipe itself, I would encourage you to see their beautiful book or their website:
http://whiteonricecouple.com/recipes/spaghetti-squash-sausage/

Fast Diet Menu:

Breakfast: approximately 41 calories
- 1 pack Kikkoman instant tofu miso soup
- 3g dried wakame seaweed

Lunch: approximately 133 calories
- 300g homemade baba ghanoush (see yesterday's post for recipe)
- 150g cucumber

Dinner: approximately 231 calories
Bountiful roasted spaghetti squash with sausage
- 200g cooked spaghetti squash
- 50g mild italian sausage
- 5g garlic
- 2tbsp of shallots
- 10g parmigiano reggiano cheese

Snack: approximately 75 calories
- 3.5 korean rice cracker
- 10 tic tac grapefruit mints

Total: 481 calories

Post Holiday Diet Day 4 - revised Baba Ghanoush

Weight: +2.9kg (6.4lb) :)

The post holiday weight loss is going well! For today, I did a 25min Turbo Fire HIIT workout followed by the Turbo Fire 10mn stretching routine. I also looked up some recipes online to follow my other resolution of trying one new recipe per week. I love eggplants so I decided
to try making baba ghanoush while substituting a couple of ingredients. I've never tasted the "real thing" so I am not sure exactly what it is supposed to taste like, but my result tasted ok and was satisfying enough considering the very low calorie count. So here it is!

Modified light BABA GHANOUSH recipe:

Ingredients:
- 1 cooked and peeled eggplant (roughly 600g)
- 5g garlic
- 40g fat free sour cream or greek yogurt
- 15g lemon juice
- 10g sugar free fat free peanut butter
- dash of salt

Put all ingredients together in a robot and process until smooth.
Give 2 portions of roughly 300g and 110 calories each. Eat with cucumbers or celery for a very low calories lunch!

Post Holiday Diet Day 3 - New Year Resolutions

Weight: +3.2kg (7lb) :)

Yes! The Fast Diet is not letting me down and I lost 0.4kg (almost 1lb) after one day of fast. I gotta say, after yesterday's run, my legs feel very heavy. Add to that the fact that my back is still very stiff, and I couldn't really figure out what I could do to workout. I ended up doing a lot of mild stretching after work... better than nothing... Luckily, I at least walked to work today (roundtrip about 3km).

So today, instead of a formal workout or diet, I decided to do a spiritual step forward and write my 2014 Resolutions!

Somehow, resolution feel to me a bit like writing up job objectives: you have to write something that looks important enough, but not too far-fetched otherwise your boss (in this case your conscience) will nag you come year end review. This year, I want to:

1- Move at least 30 minutes a day
2- Slowly go down to my ideal weight of 60.0 kg and maintain it!
3- Find and try one new recipe per week.
4- If the recipes are good, try to adapt them to make them Fast Diet friendly!

Good luck with your own resolutions!

Post holiday diet day 2 - salmon tartare

Weight: +3.6kg (8lb) still :(...

Woke up with the worst backache ever... Really, flying and sitting for hours always does a number on my spine, it's annoying. I had a hard time bending down to pick up some socks in my bottom drawer! I really thought I would cancel the gym altogether. Then, when I was walking to work, I realized that walking wasn't too painful (the first 4 hours of the morning sitting and hunching over my computer at work were though) so I decided to hit the gym over lunch break and kept my workout super simple with a 5mn warm up, 20mn jog and 5mn cool down, followed with a LOT of legs and back stretching. Total: 40mn of workout, and 20mn left to walk to and from the gym and swallow my lunch. Challenge complete!

Menu for today's fast diet:

Breakfast: approximately 41 calories
- Kikkoman instant tofu miso soup
- 3g of wakame

Lunch: 160 calories
- Lean Cuisine Chicken in Wine Sauce

Dinner: approximately 235 calories
- Pacific salmon tartare served with 2 korean rice cracker
(4.6oz of raw pacific salmon mixed with 7 yum yum sweet pickles, both diced in small cubes. Add 1tbsp of unsweetened rice vinegar or more to taste)

Snack: approximately 48 calories
- 3 korean rice crackers

Total: 484 calories

Post holiday diet day 1 Whipping myself to work out

Weight: +3.6kg (8lb)

So I woke up this morning weighting even more than when I landed last night (how is that even possible?!). I didn't have time to go do grocery last night and the hospital was still full of sweets leftover from Holidays gifts exchanges so I postponed the Fast Diet to tomorrow...

I have to admit I am jet-lagged and aching all over from yesterday's long flight back... BUT once at home, half asleep, I decided to pick one of my workout dvd from my collection at random and put it in the dvd player. It was a 30mn workout (Beachbody Turbo Jam Fat Blaster). It is split with different sequences: warm-up, 4 tutorials + high intensity turbos, cool down and stretching... I especially needed a workout that included a stretching today with my back being as stiff as an ironing board.

That will have to do for the first effort of the year. Tomorrow: fast diet and hopefully I will have time to hit the gym!

The damage after my 12 days of Xmas...

It really didn't feel right to blog about dieting when I was hopping from one wonderful Holiday party to another. I don't think I went totally overboard on food, but I did enjoy a bit of everything. Today, the scale told me I had gained 3kg (6.6lb) over the 2 weeks of Holidays spent at home with my parents delicious home cooked food. So I decided I was going to pause the narration of my first six months on the Fast Diet to instead show you my post Holiday efforts (diets and gym exercises) to lose these 3kg (6.6lb). You can then have a feel of how long it could take you everytime you fall off the diet wagon.

Happy New Year everyone!