Saturday, September 11, 2010
We Are Up And Running at tracynicolefitness.com
I am officially up and running on wordpress. If you would like to continue following my weight loss adventure, please update your account. My new blog is over at tracynicolefitness.com I will no longer be posting here on blogspot. Thank you for reading!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
We're Moving!
Hi readers. I am moving my blog, tracynicolefitness.blogspot.com to tracynicolefitness.com Please bear with me through the transition. We should be up and running here by early next week!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
"Failures Don't Plan to Fail, They Fail to Plan"
I think Harvey MacKay said it best. Going about the business of obtaining a goal without a plan for how you are going to accomplish said goal is just plain silly. I have been mulling over my plan for the last week. I am now down a total of 16 pounds as of my last weigh in. This is about the point where I would normally beat myself up. When I realized that it had taken me 6 months to remove 16 pounds of fat from my body, my first reaction was disappointment. Then I thought about it for a few days. Here's what it boils down to: I lost 16 pounds in 6 months without a clear plan. That's actually impressive. Actually, you can kind of think of it as weight loss by accident because it certainly was not by design! That's roughly 2.67 pounds per month without a strategy. Imagine what would happen if I put to use the wealth of information I have acquired over the past 5 years of yo-yoing. Over the next few posts I will be going over, in great detail, my strategy for the next few months leading up to the deadline for a contest I recently entered.
Today I want to talk about changing eating habits. I have done far to many diets to count. Some were more effective than others, but bottom line, none addressed the reasons I was overweight. As a result, I regained the weight every time. What I realize now is that lifestyle change is more important than how quickly the pounds can be shed. As a result, I have been more focused on learning how to schedule my exercise and eat for effective training. I have gone over a ton of material in recent weeks in a concentrated effort to learn how to fuel my body properly. The most helpful have been the Eat Clean Diet Recharged by Tosca Reno, and my new subscriptions - Clean Eating Magazine and Oxygen Magazine.
My taste buds are changing as time goes by. I am still not quite where I know I will need to be in that final push. I am still enjoying things like a daily serving of daily, a whole egg in my omelet and the occasional piece of dark chocolate. I recognize that those choices will hold me back, but I also know the pitfalls of too much too soon. I am treating this journey like the marathon it is. As eating clean becomes more natural for me, I will be able to fine tune my foods even more for optimal results. For right now, I am exactly where I need to be.
So what does this look like in practice? I am preparing healthy meals 2-3 times per week. Most of the recipes come from Tosca Reno's book or one of the magazines mentioned. We have a ton of tupperware in the fridge ready to grab and go. I realized that one of my major oversights was on how to be properly prepared in the shortest amount of time. I am a pretty busy person so if I'm running behind schedule and I'm starving, chances are I will hit the drive through if there is not a meal ready to go at home. Now I don't have to worry about that because I am better prepared. Next, I need to hunt around for clean protein bars and a to go shaker cup for those on the road emergencies.
Look out for my post on effective training regimens later this week!
Today I want to talk about changing eating habits. I have done far to many diets to count. Some were more effective than others, but bottom line, none addressed the reasons I was overweight. As a result, I regained the weight every time. What I realize now is that lifestyle change is more important than how quickly the pounds can be shed. As a result, I have been more focused on learning how to schedule my exercise and eat for effective training. I have gone over a ton of material in recent weeks in a concentrated effort to learn how to fuel my body properly. The most helpful have been the Eat Clean Diet Recharged by Tosca Reno, and my new subscriptions - Clean Eating Magazine and Oxygen Magazine.
My taste buds are changing as time goes by. I am still not quite where I know I will need to be in that final push. I am still enjoying things like a daily serving of daily, a whole egg in my omelet and the occasional piece of dark chocolate. I recognize that those choices will hold me back, but I also know the pitfalls of too much too soon. I am treating this journey like the marathon it is. As eating clean becomes more natural for me, I will be able to fine tune my foods even more for optimal results. For right now, I am exactly where I need to be.
So what does this look like in practice? I am preparing healthy meals 2-3 times per week. Most of the recipes come from Tosca Reno's book or one of the magazines mentioned. We have a ton of tupperware in the fridge ready to grab and go. I realized that one of my major oversights was on how to be properly prepared in the shortest amount of time. I am a pretty busy person so if I'm running behind schedule and I'm starving, chances are I will hit the drive through if there is not a meal ready to go at home. Now I don't have to worry about that because I am better prepared. Next, I need to hunt around for clean protein bars and a to go shaker cup for those on the road emergencies.
Look out for my post on effective training regimens later this week!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Favorite Fitness Tools: The Body Bugg
Yesterday I completed another workout from Chalene Johnson's new series Turbo Fire. It was a great workout. The series is filled with even more dance moves than Turbo Jam and my uncoordinated body has a little trouble following. I don't mind that I look absolutely ridiculous. I am too busy being pleased with the calorie burn. Yesterday I managed 540 calories in the 45 minute video. I was impressed because I usually have trouble burning more than 300 calories using workout DVDs. It was just so fun that I couldn't help but get totally into it.
I talked about making a few changes to my strategy. One of those things is careful monitoring of calories in/out. I just purchased a handy little device called the bodybugg to help me with my efforts. You may have seen this gadget on The Biggest Loser or Losing It With Jillian. It looks like a black armband and you wear it for as many hours a day as possible to give you a picture of how you burn calories throughout the day.
I think the device is most useful if you purchase the accompanying software. The software allows to you to track your meals for a better representation of your daily calorie deficit. One thing I love about the software is that you can look at specific time windows so you know how much you burn during a workout and what the afterburn is like. I'm still learning to use this tool but I can already tell you this. I was grossly overestimating my daily caloric burn. Over the next few weeks I will be working on how to correctly portion and log my food to get the most accurate data from this tool as possible. I also really like that you can use your iphone to input your food. Now I have an excuse to go out and get an iphone!
Monday, June 28, 2010
Under Construction
I mentioned a few changes were coming to the blog and work is under way. Over the past six months I have gone through many different things in an attempt to pursue my goals. I was beginning to feel very frustrated with my progress and decided to take some time to really enjoy life and reflect on what I truly wanted to accomplish. I was not being completely honest with myself and it showed in the number of changes to my eating plan and the large number of workouts missed.
In the last few months I have had time to think about what brings joy to my day and what types of things keep my feet firmly planted on the road to success. Part of that involved taking the time to close myself in a room with a mirror and honestly assess where I am, how I got there and then really thinking about why I wanted a change. To be perfectly honest, I don't dance well. I'm not a very coordinated person. Right now my goal is to prepare for the Fitness Atlantic Ms. Bikini competition next spring. When I have the info on the 2011 competition, I will be sure to update you.
I came away from this exercise with a fresh perspective and hopefully a much more honest view of what I actually want to accomplish. The most valuable lesson I learned in the six months since I started this journey is that this requires absolute commitment. Eating the right foods or working out on a casual basis is not what you need to effect major change. If I had done the reverse, ie ocasionally skipped a workout, occasionally vegged out on the couch or occasionally ate crap - well I wouldn't be here. It required years of abusing myself to get to this state of ill health and thinking that doing well one or two days or even weeks at a time is just not enough.
I have some fresh ideas about how I intend to accomplish the monumental task of retraining my brain to stop the abuse and self sabotage and instead promote health and happiness for myself. I also have a few new tools at my disposal that I will be sharing the info on over the next few days. Please be patient during these transition time. I hope you continue to enjoy following me on this journey.
In the last few months I have had time to think about what brings joy to my day and what types of things keep my feet firmly planted on the road to success. Part of that involved taking the time to close myself in a room with a mirror and honestly assess where I am, how I got there and then really thinking about why I wanted a change. To be perfectly honest, I don't dance well. I'm not a very coordinated person. Right now my goal is to prepare for the Fitness Atlantic Ms. Bikini competition next spring. When I have the info on the 2011 competition, I will be sure to update you.
I came away from this exercise with a fresh perspective and hopefully a much more honest view of what I actually want to accomplish. The most valuable lesson I learned in the six months since I started this journey is that this requires absolute commitment. Eating the right foods or working out on a casual basis is not what you need to effect major change. If I had done the reverse, ie ocasionally skipped a workout, occasionally vegged out on the couch or occasionally ate crap - well I wouldn't be here. It required years of abusing myself to get to this state of ill health and thinking that doing well one or two days or even weeks at a time is just not enough.
I have some fresh ideas about how I intend to accomplish the monumental task of retraining my brain to stop the abuse and self sabotage and instead promote health and happiness for myself. I also have a few new tools at my disposal that I will be sharing the info on over the next few days. Please be patient during these transition time. I hope you continue to enjoy following me on this journey.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
So Happy to be Back on the Wagon!
I am super excited to write today. I am presently preparing to embark on the next step of my journey. I've tried tweaking my diet over and over . . .and over again and finally feel confident that I know what works for me. I have taken quite a bit of time off from this venture to get some things in place for my sanity. I know I will have major time commitments beginning in the next few weeks and wanted to make the transition as stress free as possible. Tons of changes have been taking place around here. Just to mention a few, we have almost finished renovating the bedroom and our den. I am speaking it into the universe that both those spaces AND my office will be completed before school begins!
It's time to get focused on regimen building for my health. Right now I am fooling around with foods and supplements until I iron out something that requires little thought on my part so that I can put it on autopilot. Recent discoveries include the fact that wheat and sugar are no nos for me. I know, I know. You are thinking of course you shouldn't eat cookies, cake and candy if you are shooting for weight loss. Um I knew that. What I didn't know is that my body seems to be exceptionally sensitive to these ingredients even in the healthiest of foods. I am currently in love with Pamela's Wheat Free Baking Mix and agave. There are tons of health articles out there vilifying agave but right now I still believe it is better for my body than sugar. If I come up with a better alternative I will certainly post about it but there is no way I am interested in Splenda, xylitol or any of the other "alternative" sweeteners out there.
I've got to run off and get some things done around the house but I do want to let you know where I am currently. My current weight is 191.4 down from my high of 205 a few months ago. Pictures are coming this week. I am getting ready to begin a round of ChaLean Extreme and I will post my starting stats at the end of the week. I have been doing Slim in 6 most recently and since my last update I've lost:
Chest -1in
Waist -0.5in
Gut -1in
Hips -0.5 in
It's time to get focused on regimen building for my health. Right now I am fooling around with foods and supplements until I iron out something that requires little thought on my part so that I can put it on autopilot. Recent discoveries include the fact that wheat and sugar are no nos for me. I know, I know. You are thinking of course you shouldn't eat cookies, cake and candy if you are shooting for weight loss. Um I knew that. What I didn't know is that my body seems to be exceptionally sensitive to these ingredients even in the healthiest of foods. I am currently in love with Pamela's Wheat Free Baking Mix and agave. There are tons of health articles out there vilifying agave but right now I still believe it is better for my body than sugar. If I come up with a better alternative I will certainly post about it but there is no way I am interested in Splenda, xylitol or any of the other "alternative" sweeteners out there.
I've got to run off and get some things done around the house but I do want to let you know where I am currently. My current weight is 191.4 down from my high of 205 a few months ago. Pictures are coming this week. I am getting ready to begin a round of ChaLean Extreme and I will post my starting stats at the end of the week. I have been doing Slim in 6 most recently and since my last update I've lost:
Chest -1in
Waist -0.5in
Gut -1in
Hips -0.5 in
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Changes on the Horizon
I know I haven't posted in quite some time. I have been of thinking, living and just plain relaxing. I am going to be taking a new direction with the blog shortly. Hopefully you will still find it interesting. My life is taking a new direction and as I go through major changes in my professional life, my personal life has been evolving as well. The blog will be broadening in scope to include aspects of life not directly related to my personal quest for fitness. This has been a space for me to talk about what is important to me and these days that involves a wide variety of topics. You will see plenty of info on workouts, health and wellness and these days I am finding myself more drawn to natural beauty products and processes as well. I hope you will stay tuned!
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