Tag Archives: Gym

Cliff day 14: Another Pound Bites the Dust

Posted in Cliff, Cliff Exercise, Cliff Progress by

And Another pound gone and another pound gone, another pound bites the dust. Weighing in around 140 and down 7 pounds, woot woot!

Our approach to this detox has been much different on the second go around. The first time we did it, I was pretty miserable. We were incredibly strict, had 0 slip ups and it just wasn’t fun. The point of all of this, is not just to eat healthier, it is to lead a healthier happier life. I used to hate the shakes I made, they were bland and not the sugar filled ones I was used to. The thing is, I like peanut butter as much as I like sugar (mmmm Reese’s, my old go to treat). So even though peanut butter was not part of the original plan, it has allowed me to look forward to my morning shake instead of dreading it. My shake is now banana, unsweetened almond milk, strawberries, hemp protein, flax seed, and just a touch of vanilla extract. If there is one lesson you take from this blog, it is you have to do what makes you happy. That hypothalamus needs to be kept satisfied in some way. Did you know broccoli doesn’t stimulate it one bit? Shocker. So, if you’re having issues adjusting to all this, throw in something you love, whether it is a fruit or something you can’t live without (NOT CANDY!)

As for how my detox is going, I slipped up a little bit, although I’ve said from the beginning it would happen. I went out with coworkers on Friday and I had a scotch, it was glorious. I was proud I was able to stick to just one. While I was worried it may affect the detox, I didn’t regret the decision. I woke up yesterday below the 140 mark and Today I am 140.4. The weight is melting off as I guess my old metabolism has decided to emerge from its hibernation, realizing I’ve taken a break from abusing it. As of now, I consume 1600-2000 calories a day but I would like to up that after this month to stimulate the muscle growth (Did someone say second lunch?!). I’ve also decided to introduce a healthy electrolyte drink in the morning, as I have been a tiny bit shaky and this should help.

Enjoy the long weekend everyone!

Dena Day 13- Finding Balance

Posted in Dena, Dena Progress by

I am learning that the hardest part for me of this detox process has been finding balance…especially now that I have introduced going to the gym! For the first week or so, I had found my rhythm and was doing really well on prepping meals.  If I didn’t have the groceries I needed for dinner, I had plenty of time to swing by the grocery store, meat or fish market, and eat at a decent hour. But, it was time to get sweating (and not from the oven while cooking up a storm). Two nights ago was my first day back into the gym and I had planned to go straight after work since I am not a morning person.  My first set back was when I ran out of time in the morning and did not pack my gym bag.  The truth was…I had no idea where my gym bag even was! No problem!  I’ll just swing by my apartment after work to change and head on to the gym! Well do you know how cold it was that night?!? And my apartment was soooo warm.  I convinced myself that I HAD to go since I failed the night before but I will only do a quick workout. After all, by the time I got home it was around 6pm and I also needed to run to the meat market to pick up ground turkey meat for the cauliflower pizza crust I wanted to make that night, and the meat market closed at 7pm.  So…I never made this recipe before, but how much trouble could it really be?  The funny thing is that I had no excuses not to go to the gym in the cold. I was going to walk to the meat market and the meat market is literally a block and a half away from the gym.  After the gym, the meat market, and the vegetable market to pick up the cauliflower, I was finally  home!  It is now a little after 7pm.  My advice to you is to: A- read the entire directions of a recipe beforehand and/or B-try more complicated dishes on the weekend if you are pressed for time during the week.  This meal was delicious do not get me wrong and I will definitely make it again. However, It just took longer than I expected! By the time I finished cooking, it was 9:15pm.

Lessons Learned (sort of)

The next day I made sure to bring my gym clothes to work in my recently found gym bag. Also, we had leftovers of pizza we were able to bring for lunch which was nice. Cliff was going to be at a comedy show at night so I did not have to worry about eating together and what I was going to make. But, I realized that we needed food for the next day’s lunch and dinner since we were going to see a show after work.  For some reason after work, I was really hungry so instead of going straight to the gym, I decided to go home and eat something small, digest a little bit, then go to the gym, then cook meals for the next day. Finished up at 10:15pm and I was exhausted!

Lessons Learned 

  • Plan meals ahead- decide what you are going to eat for the week or at least a few days at a time
  • Spend some time on the weekends going food shopping and gathering all of your supplies.
  • Cook a bunch on Sunday to get you through the beginning of the week
  • When possible, make extra food and freeze it for emergencies or when you do not feel like cooking. This works great with burgers!
  • Stock your cabinets with proteins like canned salmon, and sardines.  This can easily be added to a salad to create a quick meal.

-Dena

Cliff Day 10: I pick things up and…

Posted in Cliff, Cliff Exercise, Cliff Progress by

I put them down.  My first trip back to the gym was a good reality check. I had dreams that I had not lost that much in the months while I was healing, but I was so so wrong.  I did a basic chest workout to get my muscles into the groove of things and nothing seemed to go right.  I was constantly worried about my elbow and I’m not even going to discuss how little weight I could do.  I have always been a skinny guy, and while this has its perks, it also has its downfalls.  Building muscle has been a huge challenge throughout my whole life.  I have tried many different supplements, and nothing has ever gotten me to the point I’ve dreamed of.  I am avoiding any until this detox is over, but I will list out my favorites at some point.  When I have ever come close to a muscle-building goal, I have sustained some sort of injury.  I mean once I had to  take a 4 month break from working out because I hurt my wrist while playing soccer.  That’s right folks, I hurt the thing you are not even allowed to use in that sport.  Now that I am fueling my body with the good food it can actually use, my hope is my gains will go up up and even more up.

NOW, onto the good stuff.  If I told you, you could make pizza out of cauliflower, would that be something you’d be interested in?  WELL, thanks to that magical girlfriend of mine, we had exactly that last night.  Not only that, due to Dena’s allergies, we had to substitute eggs in it with a flax-seed mixture.  It took a LONG time, a bit of “bickering”, and a huge mess in the kitchen, but after all was said and done, it came out great.  I’ve also learned, to never tell anyone I was a dishwasher in High School because my mom’s favorite line, and now Dena’s is…”But we need a professional to do the dishes!”  But I digress.  We used Tomatoes, Basil, and Ground Turkey as toppings.  While i would not call it your every day pizza, it certainly was pretty darn close.  And the best part was we had leftovers.  I haven’t been this excited for lunch since yesterday’s lunch of leftovers!  My weight has grown stagnant, which I am okay with because I am still looking and feeling better every day.  The world needs to understand weight is just a number, and that it is about how you feel, how you look in your eyes, and how you’re treating your body (although I wouldn’t object to weighing 170 built of pure muscle). Napoleonic Complex much?

Dena-Day 11-Time to Move!

Posted in Dena, Dena Exercise, Dena Progress by

I am not going to say that binge watching 7 seasons of Dr. Who this past Fall caused my weight gain, but there was sure indeed a correlation! While Cliff was going to physical therapy for his Tendinitis, my workouts went from hour long intense gym classes with Cliff at a new gym we were trying out (Epic Hybrid Training) to sprinting several blocks to catch the morning subway as I saw it approaching the station. When Cliff’s elbow starting bothering him, I thought he only needed to rest up for a couple weeks and I saw this as a little break for my muscles! But that turned into three months of physical therapy.  I know I could have gone to the gym by myself, but I was in a serious rut and I was secretly enjoying my evenings alone watching Netflix.  I could not wait to get home from work, make or order dinner, lay my expanding buttox on the sofa and watch some eps!

Everyone goes to the gym for different reasons.  For me, it’s not only for weight maintenance, but it really helps me with my moods.  In addition, I have loose ligaments (perhaps from doing years of dance and gymnastics as a child?) and it is important for me to keep my muscles strong around my joints or else I suffer from subluxation-mainly in my shoulders   (This condition is known as shoulder instability and may result in the upper arm bone (humerus) moving partially or completely out of the socket during certain arm movements).   Since I stopped working out, I have experienced a multitude of issues with my shoulder.  But for some reason, it was just sooo hard for me to get back into my routine.

As the new year approached, of course one of my goals was to get back to the gym. The idea of a packed gym filled with people beginning their New Years Resolutions was a bit daunting to me. On top of that, the first week of the detox left me pretty exhausted and I could not get up the motivation to get to the gym.  After about a week though, I began sleeping better and my energy went way up (especially at night for some reason). This combined with the numbers decreasing on the scale has given me that extra boost of motivation to get back to the gym!  I only did a quick work out today but I am on the right track to getting back in a routine

-Dena

 

Cliff Day 8…Sandwiches I Miss You

Posted in Cliff, Cliff Progress by

Sandwiches….All I can think of are sandwiches.  Sandwiches in the morning, sandwiches with bacon, and sandwiches inside even bigger sandwiches.  I want to take a bunch of ham add some american cheese and put it on a fabulously delicious French Baguette.  As you may be able to tell, the weekend was a rough one.  Dena and I went to hang out with some cats at Meow Parlour, a fun cat cafe, and I got Decaf coffee for the first time in my life.  If you have never had Blue Bottle Coffee, I highly recommend it because even their Decaf was great.  Earlier in the day I was not all that hungry for lunch so I had a small piece of chicken (big mistake).  By 3 P.M. I was starving, so I did the only logical thing and got Katz, just the pastrami, no bread.  Now, this technically falls under the allowed foods on the Detox, since it is just meat and spices, but I felt it was a bit of a cheat.  I really did it to try to satisfy this sandwich craving.  While amazing, the craving for a sandwich is still there.

Not surprisingly, Sunday was the first day my weight had not gone down at all, in fact it had gone up a little.  I attribute this to more water retention from the Katz.  Watched football all day while Dena made me almond crusted wings (absolutely amazing, Recipe to be posted).  For dinner we had turkey meatballs over spaghetti squash in a home-made tomato sauce.  If you really want to detox, I highly recommend just getting an awesome girlfriend that knows how to make yummy healthy food, makes it much easier.  Weight this morning was back down to 142.2 and my stomach is looking better every day.  This is day 8 now and we will begin our gym routine but this shows that just by changing your diet you can start melting off the weight, even without steady exercise.

For now, I will be overindulging in vegetables and listening to Galavant on repeat to drain away the pain of the Dallas Cowboys Loss.

-Cliff