DON’T FORGET TO VOTE FOR REGINA

Monday (Day 8)

AM: 1hour grocery shop and food prep

PM: 1.5 hour Kicks and footwork practice, 1.0 hour Muay Thai training

The food I made happen & subsequently ate:

(breakfast 1) 1 piece of whole wheat sourdough toast with a WEE bit of butter, salt, dill weed & cayenne pepper YUM

(breakfast 2) plain kefir + raspberries + apricot & pistachio granola

(lunch) leftovers from last week

(dessert) orange slices.

(snack 1) Brami beans These things are crazy good… and I can’t be sure it was them, but I was feeling ah-mazingly energized after eating them!

(snack 2) pistachios & walnuts

(dinner) shrimp salad: heirloom grape tomatoes, yellow tomato, green pepper, red onion, avocado, green zucchini, a little bit of plain greek yogurt and olive oil for dressing… salt, pepper, cayenne pepper & garlic powder. + Apple Sauerkraut.

It’s 11pm… I didn’t have enough time to make lunch this morning so I had to do it tonight and now my head feels like it’s going to explode. I need to be in bed… like 10 minutes ago.

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Tuesday (Day 9)

AM: 30 minutes swim sprints

PM: 1 hour personal training sesh & 30 minutes sparring/mini circuit

whoa. I’m loving my arm muscles!

The food I made happen & subsequently ate:

(breakfast 1) 1 piece of whole wheat sourdough toast (without the butter this time)

(breakfast 2) plain kefir + strawberries + muesli

(lunch) shrimp salad: heirloom grape tomatoes, yellow tomato, green pepper, red onion, avocado, green zucchini, a little bit of plain greek yogurt and olive oil for dressing… salt, pepper, cayenne pepper & garlic powder. + Apple Sauerkraut & quinoa.

(dessert) orange slices.

(snack 1) banana 

(snack 2) pecans + a few slices of dried mango (no sugar added)

(snack 3) apple

(dinner snack) kiwi + handful of cashews + apple sauerkraut

Feeling defeated. I feel like I’ve regressed. I was so much quicker and more efficient like 1.5 weeks ago and today’s sparring felt more like a struggle to stay standing up right.  I don’t understand. Maybe I’m just tired, but this sucks.

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Wednesday (Day 10)

AM: n/a

PM: 2.5 hours Muay Thai Class (including a bit of conditioning, boxing drills, sparring, & bag work)

The food I made happen & subsequently ate:

(breakfast 1) 1 piece of whole wheat sourdough toast (by itself)

(breakfast 2) plain kefir + raspberries + muesli

(lunch) shrimp salad: same as Monday

(dessert) peach

(snack 1) homemade popsicle  (almond milk + cashew butter + banana + vanilla extract)

(snack 2) handful of cashews

(early dinner pre-workout) Tuna salad (tuna + plain greek yogurt + red onion + salkt/cayenne pepper/garlic powder) + whole wheat sourdough bread 

I woke up with a huge headache this morning and a hunger call I couldn’t refuse (or wouldn’t). I spent my morning and the better part of my day working from my couch. Meditation and food also made cameos. I was feeling better towards the evening and I couldn’t let my day go to waste so I went to the gym.

I felt much better today…. perhaps it was because I ate more than I have been. Or all that time on the couch. Who knows. I wasn’t going to take any days off this week, but I’ve been convinced that’s not a great idea. I’m super excited to sleep in (I’m going to let myself sleep in until 8 (WHAT!)) and just relax after work. I hope this will make the epic workouts I have planned for Friday-Sunday much easier to get through and help me progress. I already felt better in terms of endurance today, so there’s a plus.

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Thursday (Day 11)

AM: sleep in

PM: lay on couch watching episode after episode of The Gilmore Girls (aside from the massive junk food cravings this ignites, I can’t get enough of this show)

The food I made happen & subsequently ate:

(breakfast 1) 1 piece of whole wheat sourdough toast (by itself)

(breakfast 2) banana + kiwi

(lunch) Seared Tuna Nicoise salad (the bacon was listed as ‘optional’ but it came anyway without my asking… I was so bummed to pick the deliciousness out of my bowl) Another Thursday lunch with the team was successful.

(dessert) peach

(snack 1) Brami Beans 

(dinner) 2 scrambled eggs with zuchini, yellow tomatoes and red onions

(dessert) apple, peach, pecans — ok so I went a little overboard. It’s SO hard for me to be lazy and NOT eat food. That’s the best part.

I weighed myself before going to bed and the number was pretty disappointing (11.8lbs). Hoping that was just a fluctuation and I didn’t actually gain weight. YIKES.

I’ve never had a restrictive diet before. It sucks. I was vegan and then veggetarian for some time in college, but it never felt forced. I genuinely had no desire to eat meat/animal products. Now, I just feel fucking ravenous for things I’d never normally want to eat — like Mac n’ cheese and gallons of ice cream. Ok. Maybe I’d want to eat that, but not nearly in the manner I do now. Diets suck… Why in the world would anyone do this to themselves and think it’s sustainable? I’m doing this for a month. I can’t wait to eat as much as I want (mostly I just want to eat more healthy food).

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Friday (Day 12)

AM: 30 minute Swim Sprints

PM: 1 hour personal training sesh | 18 rounds of 3 minute sparring sessions with 1.5 min second rest

The food I made happen & subsequently ate:

(breakfast) plain kefir + raspberries + muesli

(lunch) shrimp salad: you guessed it… leftovers. These lasted the whole work week. Woohoo!

(dessert) orange

(snack 1) sugar snap peas (great snack, I love munching on these things! They’re juicy, crunchy, and a little sweet)

(pre-workout snack) 1 piece of whole wheat sourdough bread 

(dinner) egg salad + apple sauerkraut (the healthy version… my version: boiled eggs, raw zuchini, red onions, plain greek yogurt, salt/pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic powder)

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Saturday (Day 13)

AM: I let myself sleep in, I need more rest than normal.

PM: 2.5 hours training  (Muay Thai Class, clinch drills, sparring, abs)

The food I made happen & subsequently ate:

(breakfast) muesli + strawberries (larger portion than normal… I’m not planning to eat much for lunch so this should be plenty)

(post-workout snack) banana + a handful of cashews 

(dinner) Salad + veggie summer rolls  (met up with an old friend for dinner… always hard to stick to a low cal diet when eating out and your dinner mates are not quite on the same page. At least we went to a vegan restaurant, that helped. A bit)

(post-dinner snack) carrot sticks & green peppers with hummus – The big fight was on and of course I went out to a bar to watch with friends… I couldn’t partake in the endless pitchers of beers or the giant platter of chicken wings, but indeed I had a snack (and seltzer)

Being social and training for a fight don’t really mesh. I went away last weekend and as much as I loved it, I feel like I missed out on decent training time. I met up with some friends tonight and thankfully their choice for dinner was a vegan spot so my temptation was pretty low. I went to see the fight afterwards and although the bar wasn’t quite as accommodating to my current diet, it wasn’t too hard to just stick to my carrot sticks.

If I’m not training, I’m in a horizontal position trying to rest and convince myself I’m not hungry. This is probably the hardest part.

I got another massage today, which was awesome and incredibly painful (that part sucked). But my legs are now way more relaxed and I no longer feel like I’m walking on stilts. You get me?

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Sunday (Day 14)

AM: grocery shopping

PM: 1 hour personal training sesh (focus on combinations and footwork) 1 hour of stretching/light cardio

The food I made happen & subsequently ate:

(breakfast) bowl of apricot & pistachio granola + fresh blueberries (my little treat)

(snack) dried mangos (ok so I ate WAY too many of these things. Sure, there’s no added sugar, but it’s still sugar. I had a stomach ache after this. dumb.)

(lunch) so I kind of ate ice cream for lunch. yes, I went there. When I found this brand on Instagram, my ice-cream restricted self couldn’t help it. I probably ate less than a portion (which is only 60 calories WHAT), but maybe I ate a little more. Who knows…definitely not a pint. UGH. I suck at this. I bought 3 pints because it’s me. I’m not eating any more though until the fight is over. This was dumb.

yes, that’s 240 calories PER PINT. Halo top.

(dinner) Spicy basil shrimp & beet salad AND brocoli & portobello shroom salad (I’ve listed ingredients below)

Shrimp salad:

• shrimp
• cooked to soft beets
• fresh thai basil
• cayenne pepper & salt

Shroom salad

• browned onions
• lightly (very lightly) sautéed broccoli & portobello mushrooms (the broccoli is still very crunchy)
• fresh curly parsley
• plain greek yogurt
• salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic powder AND Nutritional Yeast (so yummy)

All in all this week was great. I feel stronger and more energetic. I also have sucked terribly at the whole not eating thing. I haven’t gained any weight, but I also haven’t lost anything… However, I did learn that weigh-ins happen in the morning-ish time before you eat and I’ve been weighing myself at night time (your true weight). SO… this means I’m not really behind. I came in at just under 109lbs this morning! Woohoo!

So I’m still going to buckle down and get really good at not eating things like extremely low cal ice cream or too many dried mango slices (evennnnn though theres no sugar added). I’m also going to stop ‘tasting’ my meal-mates tastey-yet-restricted food.

Next week I plan on hitting conditioning even harder and continue focusing on technique.