Hope you find this helpful and will attempt to incorporate some of it into your life.
So Here's my Week 1 entry:
My goal for this challenge is to maintain my weight and gain more muscle tone and strength, as well as continue eating healthy. I cannot be losing weight right now, since my BMI is on the border of being underweight and normal ( and that's after I gained 3 lb on purpose). So I need to stay where I am and prepare my body for the physically demanding aspects of pregnancy and childbirth.1. Height: 5'11", weight: 133 lb
2. Your fitness challenge(s) for this week: 30 minutes of intense pilates every other day + 30 minutes of cardio ( rollerblading, running, swimming or treadmill) every other day. Special exercises designed for pregnancy to increase flexibility (daily) + Kegels (twice daily). A total of about an hour of physical activity a day.
3. Your health challenge(s) for this week: My eating habits are close to perfect, however I could improve on water intake. My goal will be 8 glasses of water daily + continue eating the way I do now.
4. How well did it go: This is week 1, so the question doesn't apply, but I do have to mention that I've been pretty much following the fitness part of this for a while now
5. Failures and slip-ups: I do catch myself forgetting about eating. And while it's sort of fine right now, I cannot skip meals or go without food when I am pregnant. Therefore I need to work on making sure I eat throughout the day. Also there are days when I eat 2 or 3 cookies after meals, rather than just one.
6. Weekly challenge wisdom: It really feels absolutely amazing to be doing good in both fitness and nutritional part of my life. I feel like a 100% better person, accomplished and guilt free.
7. Advice to fellow GET FIT members: All you need is be determined and be strong! I know some of you think you'll fail, but with fellow bloggers' support you might just be strong enough to go on.
8. Your self-portrait ( optional but strongly encouraged)
"MY DREAM SELF"
This selfie was taken about 3 years ago or so, right before I left for New York to model. I had spent the previous month working out 2 hours daily ( pilates and step aerobics ) and dieting, so at that point I had very little body fat ( probably dangerously little) and really nice strong muscles. I realize that right now, when I am getting ready for a baby, I cannot diet, but I can continue improving my muscle tone and flexibility. This photo will serve as a reminder of what I strive to look like once I have a baby and that working out and eating healthy NOW will help me bounce back easier and faster LATER.
Now that you're done reading about this part of the challenge, make sure to check out Shutter Mama's post, as well as enter in the Selfie Saturday linky ( this week's theme is "my dream self" photo).
And don't forget to join and write your own post with your goals ( see questionaire above) and a self portrait of what you'd like to look like. Don't forget to display the GET FIT GET HEALTHY buttons ( code on the sidebar)!
NEXT WEEK SELFIE SATURDAY THEME: Full Body Shot - Take a full body shot- it will be your starting point in the GET FIT challenge. In a few months we will take another full body shot to view our progress.
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Please don't forget to VOTE daily!
Blog Hopping today with Saturday Stalk Savings Blog Hop Surfing Saturdays
8 comments
I loved this post. I actually just got done talking to Jose about maybe holding off on going out for a while because I felt like it was shitting on my challenge. So that’s cool that you talked about that. I love your wisdom. *ahem* your picture is AMAZING. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it
It’s so awesome you are doing this! So many people need help because they just don’t know what to eat and how. E to the rescue! Lol
It’s so weird here when it comes to restaurants. The traditional salads usually come with no oil and salt at all and you add them yourself if you wish to. Tomato and cucumber salad with Bulgarian white cheese (something like Feta but so much better!) or yogurt that is only produced here with cucumbers, garlic and walnuts – yes, please!! But in the last few years more and more foreign salads appear in the menus like Caesar salad or other lettuce salads and they all have ridiculous amounts of oil and/or mayonnaise! So yeah, “always order dressing on the side” is an excellent rule!
It’s the same with the recipes. I never use more than one tbsp olive oil or butter no matter what I’m cooking and I often even skip those. I made “a healthier version” of brownie the other day for my niece (if brownies can ever be called healthy, ha!) and the recipe called for 250 grams of butter!! I used only 100 and it was still to much in my opinion. I also used wholegrain flour instead of plain and brown sugar instead of white (again, used less than half of what the recipe called). In the end, nobody even believed me when I told them I have used less and not as bad ingredients, my grandma even thought I had bought these at the store, ha 🙂
I’m wondering about the USDA guidelines, I’m not sure I quite understood those. Like, my meals consist of about 50% veggies, 20% protein, 20% fruit and the rest 10% is for carbs (preferably beans, potatoes or whole grains). If I am not mistaken the guidelines suggest that you eat mostly carbs?
USDA guidelines is what we are supposed to eat when it comes to a balanced intake. An average body needs 250 grams of carbs, 50 grams of protein, and neglible fats ( preferably good fats: omega 3s), so that’s what the USDA food pyramid is referring to.
First of all, beans are not carbs, it’s pure protein and it goes into the protein groups. Potatoes are also not whoel grains, it’s startch, so it doesn’t count.
Here’s the pyramid image, btw, if you’re interested.
BTW, the same recommendation are given in all of the best pregnancy books as well. As much as I don’t like eating too many grains and pasta and rice (carbs), every book definitely states that you’re supposed to eat at least 7 servings of that a day.
http://library.thinkquest.org/07aug/02049/pics/NApyramid.gif
I was gifted a great book called “Restaurant Confidential” that has the nutritional information from hundreds of restaurants, including fast food places. But the best thing about it is that is tells you the best and worst things to order from all of these places so it makes it really easy to flip through and see what to get. Just another tool that might help someone!
Wow — great tips! We usually eat at home or make similar (healthier!) desired restaurant foods at home. It is scary how quickly calories can add up when eating out! And I do tend to eat better when eating at home.
And your dream self would be great to be able to almost (healthy) achieve after the baby! (like you said, possibly dangerously little body fat– you’re baby’s going to need some of that after they’re here!)
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and for the encouragement!
I can’t wait to see what’s next. I hope doing this will bring me to greater hights & keep me on track. I love the tips & I think it’s an awesome concept.
🙂
I’m sorry but beans have twice to four times the amount of carbs compared to the amount of protein or am I just reading this wrong? http://www.dietbites.com/diet-2/beans-calories-nutrition-info.html
Yes, you’re right, but it still goes into the category of protein ( plant protein), probably because it has a significant amount of protein compared to, let’s say, grains.