Cover Your Eyes! This is Scandalous!

Don't cry. Don't tremble. It's OK. I know it's hard to see such a blatant, in-your-face visual attack of carbs! Hug yourself. 

This is what I had for lunch today. Today I ate an early lunch because I have back to back conference calls until about 5pm-6pm, at which time I will do a (yes I hate them) late workout. Because I know I'll be working out later, say from 6-7:30pm, it makes sense for me to eat something NOW, so I have more than enough time to digest and do some cardio later. (You all know, I have discovered how important it is for me to have a totally empty tummy to be able to do cardio effectively.)

Why am I posting this picture? Because this lunch today is something that in the past 2 years, I would have been horrified to even THINK about eating. It's a chicken salad sandwich made with roasted chicken breast, Miracle Whip Light, fresh tomato and whole wheat bread. 

Some of you may wonder, what's so bad about THAT? But many of you know what I am speaking to here. When you get into that crazy diet mindset, or are following a strict competition type diet, when all you really want is to get lean and healthy, you've probably been taught that the above lunch is nothing short of scandalous, it is blasphemy! 

My former Insane/Obsessive-Diet-Complex mind would have feared this as a meal and the thought process would go something like this, "OMG I can't have that. It's on TWO pieces of bread! Body For Life says I can have carbs but only 1 piece, not TWO!" or, "OMG I can't have BREAD! That's processed food! It's too many carbs! I should just have the chicken salad ONLY." or, "OMG I can't have Miracle Whip Light! That's "fake stuff" and it has sweetener in it! I should only have REAL mayo or better yet- NO FAT MUSTARD. Wait, better yet, just plain chicken breast on a plate." or, "OMG I can't have this roasted chicken breast, I'm sure that some of the fat from the skin that was on that chicken seeped in to the breast so it has more fat grams that just a plain boiled chicken breast!" or, "OMG this bread doesn't have enough fiber in it!" or, "OMG I can't put tomato on that sandwich, tomato is a fruit and I don't eat fruit." or, "I can't have whole wheat bread, I can only have sprouted grain/spelt/rice flour bread!", or "This is not the correct proportion of Protein/Carbs/Fats - I need to add more protein, less carbs, more fats OR More protein, less carbs and less fat!"

Stop. The. Insanity. 

If you try to follow all the "RULES" out there, you might get to 10% body fat. And my guess is you will be somewhat miserable inside, as I was. And I suggest that the vast majority of you trying to follow all these insane rules are NOT getting anywhere NEAR that low body fat AND YOU ARE MISERABLE. 

Don't get me wrong. I'm eating what I want now. But without question~ I MUST, and we all must control the AMOUNT OF FOOD WE EAT. And we all must get active and stay active. Period. 

I will NEVER GO BACK to Rule Madness. Take a peek at Skwigg's post today that also reflects some similar madness. Thank you Skwigg for starting me on the road to sane, real-life thinking about health and fitness. CLICK HERE. And thank you Skwigg for informing me about Brad Pilon and the Eat Stop Eat way of eating. AMEN. My life is forever changed. 

Happy Hump Day!

Hey Kids!! Has your Hump Day been a kick butt one?? ;-) Has mine? um, yes. Totally. My workout today was Cathe HIIT 30/30 followed by Cathe Butts N Guts, a personal favorite. I burned 705 calories for a WOOT!!!! Amen.

And on that note, to answer your question Chelle, the intermittent fasting (Eat Stop Eat) has NO effect on my ability to do workouts. At all. I've done a killer workout, like today's workout which was an hour and a half, on a total empty stomach/fasting day, and I'm fine. I'm not weak throughout the workout and I'm not dying of hunger later in the day. I seriously can't believe how much easier it is to get through a fasted day than I would have imagined. Don't get me wrong, I do have many times where my stomach gets a twang and I think that I'd sure like - whatever- but that's the key- I THINK I want something.  You just have to say to yourself, this is just for today, it is NO big deal, so stick with it. It is much more of a mind thing to conquer and when you do- at least for me, I find that the following days I am far MORE aware of true hunger, and I only want to eat when I'm really physically hungry. And then when I do, I'm filling up faster than ever before. So overall, I'm so pleased. This is an amazing fit for me and I see myself incorporating this technique or way-of-eating year-round. 

**PLEASE do yourself a favor and read this post from Julie Go Lean. CLICK HERE. She nails it right on the head. Losing weight isn't easy and guess what?? It doesn't stop when you get there, it is a lifelong effort. Commit to it!**

Anyway, I saw this picture somewhere today (it really scares me sometimes how awful my short term memory is. My long-term memory is epic and I remember EVERYTHING, small details you'd never think anyone paid attention to, but ask me what I did this morning and I'll tilt my head and really have to think about it....queer, I know.) and it blows my mind. Not sure why I'm even surprised, but seriously- why why WHY do advertisers still insist on photo-shopping EVERYONE so that look completely inhuman?? I mean, really, the message we are sending here is frightening in that some of the people they photo-shop i.e. Faith Hill, Britney Spears, Kelly Ripa, Madonna, Gwenyth Paltrow, etc. - um hello?? They are pretty hawt naturally! Take a peek at what a normal Britney looks like on the right, and her photo-shop fantasy-I-am-a-Barbie-doll look is on the left. #FAIL on Candies. 

And we wonder why 8 year old girls are starting to go on diets. Sad thing is, girls, you go on a diet and look perfect to try to attract the boys, and then they'll still go all Tiger Woods/Hugh Grant/Prince Charles/Jesse Whatever/Halle's Ex/Mutt Lange on you. OOPS. Did I sound a little negative there? Sorry. ;-) I'm just calling a lamea** a lamea**. 

Monday Manjoyment.

I'd like to implement a new holiday. October 15th. Why? No idea. It just seems right. 

#GoodHeavens #BreakMeOffAPieceOfTHAT

How is your Monday? Mine is fantastic. 

I'm blogging late today because, well it's been that kind of day. I also reveal in my vlog(s) today what I was alluding to last week, and that is, after chatting with one of my online BFF's Jackie (CLICK HERE FOR HER FABULOUS BLOG) in regards to appropriate calorie counts and such, she told me about "Eat Stop Eat" by Brad Pilon. I know I had heard of this before and that Skwigg (Click Here For HER Fabulous website and blog) had also done a review, where she tried it out for 30 days. Anyway, I had only heard good things about it, but probably in the back of my mind I thought it wasn't a good thing. Well, after talking to Jackie and reading the eBook (you can order off Jackie's site), I realized that this was something I wanted to try. It's all about calories in vs. out and by incorporating this intermittent fasting 2x per week max for 2 separate 24 hour periods, you are creating a nice deficit in your weekly intake, therefore making the other days a bit easier to handle....you don't have to be as obsessive about calorie counting or low-carbing or any other eat-round-the-clock style of dieting. It is NOT a crazy concept and he does NOT advocate using the non-fasted days to pig out or "free day" approach. It's about sensible eating, but by breaking it up with fasting, creating that calorie deficit, you can handle the occasional office party or late night out a bit more easily. 

Jackie did an interview with Brad Pilon the author, on her site, so check it out, and also see/hear my feedback after I incorporated two days of fasting last week. I'm quite pleased with how much easier it was than I thought, how much my stomach has shrunk from it (both in appearance but also in that when I eat now, I'm getting fuller faster) and also how this mentally makes you more aware of "TRUE" hunger. The next day, I find myself realizing, "hey I'm not really hungry right now".....PLEASE NOTE!! This is not - from the author or me, anyone saying that this is some dumb mental game to play to try and starve! Its just a more reasonable approach to eating like a human being. I have just never been in to this whole idea of creating scientifically balanced and proportioned meals and snacking all day long to "keep the metabolism burning" and all that. Not my thing. I don't believe it is wrong- it obviously works for many, just not for me. 

Love to hear from any of you that have done this and what your thoughts are!!

To purchase the eBook from Jackie, you can GO HERE.

Also, part of the workout I did today was incorporating this Billy Blanks Bootcamp video- the whole thing is uploaded on YouTube- check it out! 

This was a surprisingly tough workout. I say surprisingly because most of Billy's later produced material IMO was more beginner/intermediate in nature. I need a BUTT KICKING WORKOUT! ;-) This delivers. I burned 552 calories in about an hour, combining this and some of Tracy Effinger's Squeeze Stronger. 

Also, here is some LL for further Monday Manjoyment Experience. Enjoy. OH DEAR.