Fat, sick, and nearly dead

Posted on April 17, 2013 by techfemme

My cousin and her fiance recommended the documentary “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” to us during my grandma’s 88th birthday dinner party last month. We finally got around to watching it last week, because we had been thinking about fasting and juicing.

The film, which is available free on Netflix and YouTube, was very well done and gave us extra motivation to get started. It focused on juice fasting not just to lose weight, but also to become healthier, more energetic, and to heal from illness. I loved that it was the stories of two different men from two very different backgrounds. It made the whole idea of juicing seem more approachable to us.

Last Friday, I told my coworker to watch it. Not only did he watch it but he started juicing right after. I asked him if he tried different recipes and he said he used all the ingredients he saw the men use in the documentary. He had to pause that part to catch it and didn’t know what quantities he was supposed to use! I laughed and told him there were plenty of recipes on the documentary’s official website. For those of you who haven’t checked it out yet, the official website is http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com

Healthy snacking

Posted on April 17, 2013 by techfemme

A couple of hours after lunch today, I started craving chips and soda. I headed to the vending machine in the office break room and was about to get a bag of gluten-free salsa-flavored brown rice chips, and then caught myself unprepared for these daily cravings I get at work. Instead, I headed to the nearby Trader Joe’s and picked up carrot sticks, almonds, sunflower seeds, avocados, cheese (sorry, not giving this up!), veggie and flaxseed tortilla chips (OK, another cheat item), and almond milk with no sugar added…more than enough to stave off the afternoon munchies for the next week or two!

Here’s a list of healthy snacks put together by boot camp trainer Matt from Dream Body Boot Camp. In his nutrition plan, he recommends bringing healthy snacks with you, preferably in plastic containers or in a cooler with your healthy meals. Keep it simple, and just remember to always carry something with you so you have no excuse to eat chips or other junk food when you are on the go.

Use snacks and drinks that will fill you up and curb your cravings, but won’t add significant extra calories. When you feel starved, you crave foods that add unwanted body fat and make you feel guilty.

Complete List Of Snacks

Fat Burning Fruits (recommended with hand full of nuts for synergistic fat burning result)
Apples
Oranges
Cherries 2 cups
Grapefruit
Apricots
Pears
Peaches
Plums
Grapes 1 cup

Nuts
(I avoid peanuts because of some research that suggests negative heath effects)
Raw almonds
Raw Cashews
Raw Sunflower Seed
Raw Walnuts
Raw Brazilian Nuts

Veggies
Celery (all you can eat)
Celery with 1 Tbsp Raw, no salt added almond butter
Cucumber (all you can eat)
Cucumber with 3 Tbsp Hummus
Carrots
Carrots with spectrum organic Caesar dressing
Steamed Broccoli with spectrum organic Caesar dressing
Jicama (All you can eat)
Jicama with squeezed lemon or lime and cayenne pepper

Baked Blue Corn Chips (a hand full – not the whole bag!!!) with salsa and/or guacamole

Cottage Cheese – 1 cup low fat 2%
Cottage Cheese with sliced apples – ½ cup low fat Cottage Cheese, 1 Small Apple
Cottage Cheese with Peaches – ½ cup Cottage Cheese, 1 small peach (fresh not canned)

String Cheese – 1 stick

Yogurt – Plain low fat – 8oz
Yogurt with blueberries – 8 oz Plain low fat yogurt, ½ cup blueberries
Yogurt with peaches – 8 oz Plain low fat yogurt, 1 small sliced peach
Yogurt with nuts – 8 oz fat free plain yogurt, hand full of nuts (about 15)

Low Carb Tortilla with hummus – 1 La Tortilla Factory Low Carb Tortilla, 1 tbsp hummus
Low Carb Tortilla with Peanut Butter – 1 La Tortilla Factory Low Carb Tortilla, 1 tbsp peanut butter
Low Carb Tortilla with Almond Butter – 1 La Tortilla Factory Low Carb Tortilla, 1 tbsp almond butter
Low Carb Tortilla with Butter – 1 La Tortilla Factory Low Carb Tortilla, 1 tbsp smart balance butter
Low Carb Tortilla with salsa and avocado – 1 La Tortilla Factory Low Carb Tortilla, with salsa, 1/3 avocado
Corn Tortilla with salsa and avocado – 1 corn tortilla with salsa, 1/3 avocado
Protein Shake – 1 scoop whey protein, 16 oz no sugar added almond milk

Cucumber Tuna Boat
Peel cucumber,
Cut in half lengthwise
Scoop out seeds
Fill with canned whit tuna fish in water that has been mixed with Vegannaise (YUM )

Sweet Tooth Chai Tea (perfect when you get a late night sweet tooth)
2 Teabags of Yogi Mayan Cocoa Spice Tea
12-16oz No Sugar Added Almond Milk
Dash of Stevia

Directions- Boil Almond milk in Micro-wave or on the stove.
Put in 2 Teabags of Yogi Mayan Cocoa Spice Tea
Add tiny dash of stevia (very sweet)
Enjoy this filling sweet tooth busting, virtually no calorie treat

Mouth Watering Cucumber Jicama Snack
Peel and chop cucumber
Peel and chop Jicama
Chop up and enjoy

All you can eat extras – Lemon, salsa, pepper, balsamic vinegar

Dutch Chocolate Shake
1 Scoop Whey Protein (refer to shopping list)
1 Cup Frozen Berries
About 1 cup No Sugar Added Almond Milk (depending your personal preference)
Blend and enjoy
Added Extras that I like (1/3 cup almonds, 1 Tbsp Flax Seeds, 1/8 cup dried shredded coconut, 1 Tbsp Raw Cocoa Nibs (See Shopping List)

My 1st Day at Boot Camp

Posted on April 16, 2013 by techfemme

Traffic was a pain in the butt Monday morning (extra 20 minutes), and the building was hidden from the street, but luckily I made it on time. Had a quick initial consultation with the owner/trainer who was very chill, and then started my first boot camp session at 9AM. Now, I don’t usually get up before 10AM, so getting up at 7:45 to get to boot camp was quite an accomplishment.

There were 16 of us that showed up for the session (all ages — mostly women, but there were some men), which started with warmup exercises and ended with a cool down. In between, we alternated between six or so stations to do different sets of exercises to get our full body workout. We used steps, medicine balls, dumbbells, ropes, stability balls (those things that look like yoga balls cut in half), and kettle bells. If there’s one exercise I hate the most, it’s the one where you have to lean all the way back on a yoga ball or stability ball and come up and touch your opposite foot with your hand. Every time I do it, I feel dizzy and nauseous. It happened in the past, and it happened again this time. I had to take a few breaks and tried doing jumping jacks to keep my heart rate up, but I was struggling to finish the session. Water was my savior.

I need to do a little more research on plyometrics, but they say these non-stop total body workouts are best for blasting fat. I suppose that’s why people swear by the Insanity workout by Shaun T. and why this boot camp guarantees results.

Our Weekend Hike

Posted on April 16, 2013 by techfemme

On Saturday, we went hiking with Mike’s friends. Today is Tuesday, and my legs have been sore ever since. It was a 6-mile hike, which wasn’t so bad, but the whole trail was uphill! We took a few shortcuts going up and down but they were very steep, which was challenging but fun. The views at the top were amazing. It was a hot, sunny day and there were only a few shaded areas along the trail. At the top, the wind was very cold and strong. We snacked on apples, string cheese, and sunflower seeds before we hiked back down. I was feeling quite victorious at the end of the hike, after wanting to give up so many times along the way. This was our first time getting back on the mountains in over six months!

On Sunday, we went to a cafe in a nearby town that serves gyros. I skipped on getting one of their delicious looking cappuccinos since I’ve quit coffee for over a week now, and got a green chai latte instead. After lunch, we went grocery shopping and picked up some items for his meals for the week and for juicing. We juiced for the first time that night, using the juicer his mother bought from Macy’s a long time ago and never even took out of the box! We were feeling lazy so instead of baking chicken, we bought a roasted chicken and took it apart for his lunch salads and his dinners. For his dinners, we also added brown rice for some days, and zucchini. I’ll talk more about meal prep and juicing in separate posts.

Dream Body Boot Camp

Posted on April 6, 2013 by techfemme

Today, I signed up for Dream Body Boot Camp, which was recently named the Bay Area A-List’s Best Boot Camp for 2013. I chose the 6-week “Flat Belly Formula” program that includes access to the boot camp sessions and a nutrition plan. There was a deal for only $45 on LivingSocial and the location is close to work, so heck…why not give it a try? It seems like a reasonable length of commitment and it makes more sense than other programs that promise amazing results in just a few days, which I don’t care for because NOTHING WORTH HAVING COMES EASY!! Living a healthy, active lifestyle requires a lot of dedication. It’s a life-long commitment you have to make to yourself!

Here’s what their website says:

Dream Body Boot Camp	Other Boot Camps, Fads and Big Box Programs
Fun, innovative and unique workouts Flexible scheduling and affordable pricing Guaranteed results Friendly, supportive environment	Stale, tired workouts which never change Limited classes with pricey fees Nothing guaranteed “Workout snobs” & unsupportive instructors

They even have a money-back guarantee!

I gave the place a call to see how to get started, but only got an automated message asking me to leave my information. Not a very welcome start, but hopefully there’s some quality and value to this program and that it isn’t as gimmicky as their website. I’ve been thinking about trying boot camps for a while and luckily, there are tons of options in the Bay Area. Since I haven’t had much luck finding a good personal trainer (I’ve tried working with 3 different ones at 3 different gyms so far), I thought I’d just try group training and see if it would give me the extra motivation I need to get back into a regular fitness routine like I once had before I got my first desk job.

I’m excited to see what the program has to offer and I’ll share my experiences here, after I get started. I’m also very interest in seeing what type of meal plan they recommend to go with their workouts.