No eating after 8pm??

I read an article that said if you eat after 8 your body has a harder time digesting the food and you're more then likely to go to bed with it just sitting there.

I also read that it doesn't matter what time you eat, it matters WHAT you eat.

Now what's the truth? Can they both be true or only one?

"While there is no scientific evidence that eating after a certain time of the night can make you gain weight, people who habitually eat their main meal late in the day do tend to have more difficulty controlling their weight. Research does suggest your body burns calories less efficiently later in the day. And the fact that most of us are less active later in the day – watching television, relaxing, reading or sleeping – makes you less likely to burn those calories."

So there you have it, if you are feeling snacky and it's after 8 pm grab something healthy and small, and side it with a glass of water. I promise you wont turn into a Gremlin!!

Speaking of calories, you want to burn more then you are putting in. For health reason, height and weight, you need a certain amount in your daily life

For example I am 157lbs and my height is 67" (5'7") if I want to be lets say 130lbs I would have to intake 2050.2 calories per day to maintain your current weight without exercise.
1935.3 calories per day to reach your goal weight slowly and maintain that weight without exercise
If you reduce your current caloric intake to 1550.2 calories per day you will lose one pound per week without exercise.
If you increase your current caloric intake to 2550.2 calories per day, you will gain one pound per week

this based off About.com nutrition. http://nutrition.about.com/library/bl_nutrition_guide.htm

Weight:157lbs
Exercise for the day: moving planks, 30pushups, 30squats

It's only Saturday and I'm already STARVING

Oh weekends. I find those to be the hardest for me. Everyone is home and my normal routine of me and Dean and our schedule is off so every Saturday my eating gets thrown off. Everyone is home and doing so many things and nothing is calm, not to mention I like to have a couple drinks with the hubs once the youngest has gone to bed then we watch movies or tv shows and have some snacks. Last night we went out for some drinks with some friends and I only had 2 drinks and ended up coming home having a cheese stick and going to bed. Today though I'm already craving chips and cheese and bean dip and pizza and everything that I shouldn't be eating I want. I wish I knew how not to cave into the foods I want. There's times where I wont buy it thinking oh I'm just craving, it'll pass I'll eat something else, but a week later I'm still wanting it and then I over do it and end up eating so much more and feeling sick and guilty and I NEVER learn! My thought is maybe I don't need to cut out the bad stuff, maybe I need to portion it, and keep working out. BTW I hate portioning foods, to me, it seems like I have NO control and I need to baby myself and I want to think that a 30 year old doesn't need to do that. We did though just put some stuff in the house, trail mix, some freeze dried fruit called "Crunchies" (Soooo good!)so maybe if I eat those I'll get the crunch sound that a chip would make and maybe it will do. It's a day by day process for me and I do as best as I can. I can't get down on myself because I ate something unhealthy I can just try to not eat so much unhealthy and eventually cut it out all together. 


Weight: 158
Food: bacon, 2 BLT wraps, pineapple Crunchies, and a cheese burger

workout: none

  

But Primal eating is gonna suck!

That's exactly what I thought when my husband had first suggested it! He came home from the Dr and said that he recommended this "Primal Blueprint" book and it was about cutting out carbs in your diet. WHAT!?!?!? I couldn't even think about eating food without some sort of carb whether that be the main course or a side of bread or whatever, I most certainly didn't think I was going to like this.

At first it was hard, the cravings and the being hungry ALL THE TIME! If you know me, you know that you don't want to be around me when I'm hungry! We replaced all the food that had carbs, no bread, no chips, no sugar, no white flour. We used instead coconut flour and almond flour, Stevia for sugar, Nuts and berries for the chips, and a fridge full of fresh veggies and fruits. Now we always had veggies and fruits for an option (not a fan of scurvy), but we had tons! Also trying to get the kids to eat them all the time in replace of their normal snacks was crazy hard. I remember bringing my mom boxes of snacks, granola bars, fruit packs, cereals, veggie chips all sort of stuff.

I thought I am not going to be able to bake anything, and I'm not going to be able to cook! Well about a week or two into it I realised that the cooking part wasn't much different then the way we always ate. We just didn't use the carb part. Fajitas but in a lettuce wrap same with burgers. we had lots of salads and different veggies. We always left the table stuffed and it wasn't because of breads or anything that would be bad for us. As far as baking I found some uh-mazing recipes. two are cupcake recipes ill post a link at the bottom. 

Anyway I'm getting off topic. The point of the "Primal Diet" is to take carbs out of your life and replace them with meats, nuts, berries, anything that a caveman would eat. A caveman isn't going to have bread ya know. Also exercise, you never saw a "fat" caveman. once again think back to the caveman era, they ran...a lot! they did squats, they did push ups, they did planks. Using their own body weight as the weight. When you don't eat carbs your body has to make energy from something, so it burns the fat in your body and BAM energy and weight loss. Never do anything that will make you so out of breath you want to die. you should work out to get a good sweat and then let your heart rate come down. 

when I was using "insanity" I couldn't believe the amount of "legs" we did, but after reading this book my sister had bought for me "You are your own gym" I realised why. When you work out your high muscle areas, you are going to be burning fat all over your body. That's why when I was running AND eating strictly primal I was loosing inches and weight. 

http://www.tgipaleo.com/2012/02/12/red-velvet-cupcakes/

http://www.thewannabechef.net/2012/01/16/paleo-vanilla-cupcakes/    My favourite!!

You are your own gym : Mark Lauren

Primal Blueprint : Mark Sisson
http://primalblueprint.com/
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/

I do have the primal blueprint on a pdf so if you are interested in it let me see if I can send it to you. Just let me know




  

Walking like Frankenstein

Yesterday i decided to do some stairs. I have 19 stairs I did them 5x, up 5 and down 5 then after dinner i ran 3 miles. when I walked through the door i swear my legs felt like JELL-O! It was one of those uncomfortable, heck yeah i did it pains, took me about 5 mins to walk normal. Now today the outside of my hips hurt but thats a good thing when it comes to working out, that means you're doing something right haha. Now yesterday I ate pretty well until it came to about 8:00pm. Lets see breakfast i had greek yogurt with berries and a little sugar (I hate sour berries), and lunch was 2 BLT's no bread and dinner was 2 Tyson Chicken Nuggets that Dean didn't eat. I wasn't hungry for dinner,obviously, but when I came home from running and burning it all off i was, so i did what any normal person would do, I drank a bottle and a half of water then had 2 beers and some Jalapeno Cheetos, they are my weakness. Not a very good idea when trying to lose weight, but I am human and full of weaknesses and one of them being food. 

Todays agenda is

30 squats

a ladder of 5 pushups, total of 30

20 flutter kicks (ugh)

2 min arms.

5X stairs

It can be hard to work out in the house with Dean but we just got him a pair of gym shoes and he thinks they can make him do anything so he's been wanting to workout as well. So hopefully I can do everything in the same block and not spread out through the day! I know I said I would post a picture but I have to find my camera first I'm guess Dean might know where it is! It reminds me of when we first moved to GA I couldn't find my camera anywhere, everyone thought I lost it and was upset, come to find out my 6 year old Angel took it and put it in the backpack of her doll. I knew I didn't lose it!!! 

Hello, is it me you're looking for?

I wanted to create a blog for many reasons.

1. To hold myself accountable
2. So I can look back and view my progress
3. If it's on the internet and there's a possibility that other people may see this I feel I'll have to stick to it! 

I love food, and by that I mean I enjoy the taste of well prepared food. I also enjoy the taste of junk food and processed foods which is why I'm 161lbs and can't suck it in any further. Ladies and gentleman let me tell you something, you CAN'T suck in back fat! 

I've never been a image kind of girl, I never really cared how I looked (thank you dads metabolizm)  but then I had my son and gain quite a bit and have been having a hard time taking it off. This has been for 3 years now.

I've done many things that HAVE worked. I did "Insanity" with Shawn T by Beachbody which made me lose inches and gain muscle but i pretty much stayed the same weight of 160's. I've also trained for a marathon and did a primal diet during that process and dropped down to the high 140's. I thought this is great if I keep running I can reward myself with something every once in a while. Well I ran 26.2 miles and my knee started messing up which made me take off from running longer then I wanted, and I stopped being so primal with my eating, and here i am 6 months later and back in my 160's. Now before I go any further I want to make myself clear. I, in no way think I'm "fat", I think I am at an unhealthy part of my life and my shape (when I gain weight I start to look pregnant) is not what I want it to be. 

My goal is to lose inches and gain muscle. No I do not want to be a muscle builder, not my cup of tea, I just want to look healthier. I want to be an example to my daughter and son that eating healthy and exercising isn't just for athletes. I've been watching "Extreme Weight Loss with Chris Powell" and I'm going to give myself a year. every 90 days I'll post a picture of how I'm doing and in the mean time I'll post what I'm eating, what workouts I'm doing, my weight and my sleep schedule. I will also let you know about the primal diet and other nutritional information I have read, seen or experienced in my life. 

I'm excited to take this journey and have you along with me.

Courteney