I live, I eat

Ah yes, it's time for another fitness review. This time I jumped on the bandwagon for Chris Hemsworth's Centr fitness app. I started out with the seven day free trial to see if it was even worth the full try. Lest I say, I stayed on to get the full experience. Signing up is super easy. There is not really much that you have to fill in but you do have the usual height and weight. There are a few goals and preferences that you can fill in, and then you get the whole week's plan. The options for the goals are lose weight, get fit & toned, and build muscle.  I have to say that I can really appreciate that they've made this app to cover pretty much everyone's major goal. There is also a preference for the diet being: regular, pescatarian, vegetarian, and vegan.  Even if you choose to have the regular plan, you can look forward to having some vegetarian options come up in your meal plan. These are able to be changed but I like that it rounds out the nutrition in...

The Beta Test Group - The Beginning A long while back I kept seeing little ads for a beta test group that Chalene Johnson was putting on for a diet program on Facebook. After I caved in and joined I found that they had done this in a couple of rounds so they had a couple groups at different times. (It is an interesting concept of paying to be part of a test group, even though it was reasonable priced for what it was. You are pretty much paying them to be their guinea pig.) In the end it was done in two sections which were paid for separately (both still a relatively small cost). There was so much information coming at you, and for someone that likes to know the ins and outs of what information is out there, stuff from doctors, hospitals, dietitians, etc.  It seemed like a good amount of people were losing weight based on the program. After the beta test groups were done, they were going to go live with the full program. Being a beta tester we got a free membership for the first...

Lest I say that when I heard about Walden Farm's products I was super curious.  I looked for this stuff everywhere and could only find it at my over priced natural foods market and on amazon.  In general, I would say that most of the products were a bit over $5 each.  They have chocolate and carmel sauce, a variety of salad dressings, PB and Jam, Ketchup, and BBQ.  When you are cutting your diet and these things are no longer permissible, this is like finding the holy grail. (Insert singing angels here.) I started this quest with a couple of salad dressings.  I bought the honey Dijon, the berry vinaigrette, and the ceasar.  The first one that I've tried was the ceasar. It was flavorful, but still not quite what the original is. When I looked at the ingredients, I saw that it was pretty much made up of spices, flavor, vinegar, and thickening agent.  As this has no calories, sugar, fat, but has a slight amount of sodium I saw this as a free food. I wen...

It finally happened. The end of the Fast 5 is done.  I had my moments, but overall it wasn't really as hard as I thought it was going to be.  For cravings, the most difficult was in the evening after I've already had dinner.  There is that large amount of space where you would generally fill it with boredom eating or general snacking.  I know my husband did, which did not help me.  He was, however, really good about not buying me any wine to drink.  If it's in the house, I tend to make some excuse so it was better to remove it. Water during the weekend was also a large challenge.  I ran out of my favorite flavoring which is the SweetLeaf Water Drops in the peach mango flavor.  It's sweetened with stevia and has no artificial ingredients. I could guzzle a gallon of water no problem.  I went to the store this morning and bought a handful so I wouldn't be caught without. The meals overall were tasty and the shakes weren't bad either.  T...

It's Saturday, and I knew that the weekend was going to be a bit harder.  I reinforced to my husband that he's kind of the only one that knows I'm on this plan, because we were going out to see my parents. I should rewind and admit that I completely slept in this morning.  We were planning on leaving by 10, which would have given me time to have breakfast, my break shake right before leaving and then lunch with the parents, getting back home for the second shake.  Didn't happen.  I got up late, made sure that I had my breakfast bar, which was the peanut butter granola bar.  It was about the size of the apple strudel and it was so thick.  It was tasty enough, but almost a pain in the tuckas to eat. Not a top pick. Off we went a little after 10, and I made him stop off to get me a coffee. Is it just me or is Starbucks getting too big for it's britches.  The coffee was a disappointment, but it was what I had.  I took a couple waters with me, but ...

Somewhere along the way things got messed up with the meals. Perhaps it's where I changed teh bar for an entree, or it could be when I realized that I looked at the wrong page in the guide for half the day. Anyways, it's a great thing that all of these meals are interchangeable.  When I weighed myself it as flipping between what I was and the pound lower.  I'm not going to take the liberty to claim that pound, so we will just say that we stayed the same.  Also of note, is that I'm not going to the bathroom for #2 as much.  Peeing? Heck yes, every 5 minutes it seems, but not the rest. I know, TMI, but it's part of the deal. I might try to go a bit more leafy green on my veggies. Today's meals minus dinner: I woke up this morning and got myself to the gym.  I've been pretty good about my workouts, and when I couldn't get to the gym, I did something at home.  I work out harder at the gym, and I have the bonus of the trainer.  I got my gym membership...

Oh my, is it Day 4 already? So far so good. I went up one pound. Hmm?  I've dealt with a handful of cravings and the general boredom food wants.  Otherwise this diet is overall been not too bad. My worst time of the day is actually after I get home from work and after dinner. I'm done with food and there's still a long time till I go to bed. On the regular plan you could have a dessert, so that's one of the payoffs when we are done with this week. Yesterday evening I had the pot pie and reheated the rest of my green beans to go with it.  I cut up the green beans and then mixed the pot pie into it.  It was okay but not awesome. Made me think what the heck were those people talking about.  Not a bad meal and I would definitely have it again though. I'm been drinking a ton of water and it's apparently not gone unnoticed that I keep refilling my gigantic water container and that I have to pee every 10 minutes.  Hey, if that's what it takes.  My cowork...

Day 3!! Not as bad as I thought it might be.  Yesterday I weighed in 2 pounds less, and today was the same loss (-4!!!!). Of course, just my luck that by the time I got to the gym and got weighed and measured by my trainer it was up.  Thank you coffee and water.  So for the duration, I shall only follow my scale, but I will go with my trainers measurements.  I will have to look back and see what my initial measurements were.  I will ask her to measure again at the end of the Fast 5, and then periodically through my weight loss journey. Just as a note to you all, I noticed as I was searching the web for other reviews that most of them are sponsored by Nutrisystem, and I assure you that I am currently not. If they choose (go on ahead!!) to sponsor me, then I will make sure that it is stated in the next blog to notify you all. So things that I've noticed.... It might be that I'm PMSing, but I have been exhausted.  But it's not usually that bad. I've been g...

So I have been pretty active, going to gym a few times a week and going for walks. The down side is that my eating has been way off.  Some of this has been the holidays but a lot of it has been stress.  I'm a stress eater. I eat my emotions. So this is always one of the hardest things to reign in for me. A looooong time ago I did Nutrisystem with my husband. He did not do very well on it, but I lost something like 20 pounds. Nutrisystem  has changed up the plan a bit with more foods and add ons. They also recently added some shakes.  I'm give and take on shakes, but they are great in a pinch and can help with weight loss. Especially if you are not used to eating multiple times a day, it may be easier to drink a shake then force more food down your throat. I went on Nutrisystem and went into my old account.  Even after all these years my account was there. It actually made the whole thing a bit easier.  I ordered the Core plan, which came with some ...

I currently work with a trainer twice a week at my gym and then supplement my workouts either there at the gym or just in my home for other days or extra workouts.  Over time I have amassed a lovely collection of workout dvds. I tend to have a love for Beachbody and dance workouts but I try not to limit myself. On Facebook, Black Fire kept popping up and tempting me.  I knew Bob Harper was suppose to be a good trainer, and there was a 30 day free trial. So I gave it a shot.  I had a DailyBurn account a long time ago, but when I went to go log into it and add the trial of Black Fire, it wasn't there.  Apparently, they were getting away from having a workout and food tracking site.  It was kind of like Livestrong. I made a new account and started my free trial.  You can choose to do the Black Fire, but they also have a couple other programs to choose from, or you can do workouts from various programs to do your own thing.  There is no tracking anymore...