From Here On In

So I did it.

wikia.com

But am I done?

In terms of what I've got out of this Challenge, it of course depends how you measure it.

1. Stats-wise 

I lost:

• 1 kg weight
• 1 cm from waist
• no change to hips
• 0.8% body fat

I'm not going to lie.  I was a little disappointed with this.

Could it be that the black marks I accrued affected the results? (grand total: 36)

If I had been able to complete the Challenge without any black marks, would the stats look significantly different?

I'm not sure.  I mean, I didn't really accrue black marks for what I considered to be the 'major' no-nos (no grains, no sugars, no processed foods).

I would be interested in knowing how the changes people have experienced (stat-wise) relate to their Challenge performance ie. black marks, but not just # of black marks, but also what they were for, as well as the other variants, in particular, how much exercise (CrossFit) they were doing, and sleep.

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But what about another measurement of result: 

2. My appearance.

Well I think I could look a little leaner.  But, to me, the difference is minimal.  And I'm talking the difference between a week when I get to CrossFit 4 times, and a week when I only get there once..

I fully intended to put my before and after pix up here.  And I still intend to.  But I currently don't have access to the hard drive with the befores on.  I'll look at home tonight.

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And finally, 

3. How do I feel?

Honestly?  I feel pretty good.

Do I feel different though? Ummmm hard to say.

The main things that affect how I feel (physically and emotionally), are:

1. sleep

2. hormones

3. stress

4. diet & exercise

I know this.  Its a consistent thing, and always has been.  By consistent, I mean they are the variables that affect me (not that they are constants, doh).

I don't really lump diet & exercise together like it appears, clearly they are different, and they do affect me in different ways.  BUT they are equal at number 4 in my list.

I know I could do with more sleep.  This Challenge has, however, really highlighted this - recording the hours sleep I get has made me understand more clearly and directly how the amount of sleep I get relates to how I feel in the morning, for example.  Its an ongoing issue.

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Ok.  So there will be certain things that will now reappear in my diet, and I will welcome them back with open arms/mouth.

But here are some things I have learnt / things to take forward from now:

1.  I don't need grains.
2.  I do need more protein.
3.  I love fruit, veg, nuts and seeds.  <3
4.  Its easy to drink lots of water.
3.  I don't mind eggs, prepared in certain ways.
4.  I like black coffee.  [I can actually taste the coffee]

5.  The more CrossFit I do, the better I become.  [obvious perhaps, but true]
6.  The better I become, the more confident I feel, and the more confident I feel, the better I become... [and the more I enjoy it too]

7.  I need to somehow try get more sleep.

Also:

I don't need sugar.  
I don't need processed foods.

But these are things I already knew, and pretty much stuck to anyway.

To be honest, I think my diet was pretty good before the Challenge.

I don't want to bang on about it, but being veggie, for the reasons I am veggie, means that I have always been interested in food, food sourcing, food production, food processing, and how all that relates to your health (physical and mental wellbeing).  This Challenge has stimulated me into looking further into areas of this that I didn't already know about.

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So what's making a return?

Well, I will be reintroducing dairy.  This is for various reasons, including:

1. I love cheese.
2. Its a good protein source for me.
3. Weight loss is not a priority for me going forward.
[not that I want to throw in all my hard work and get fat, but it is not the main focus of my eating, training etc - I am much more concerned about general health and wellbeing]

Realistically, I'm going to drink.
I'm going to eat small amounts of dark chocolate again.
And I will be eating high GL carbs more often.

I don't intend to eat grains at all, if poss.
But at the same time, I know that this won't always be possible.  Like I've said the whole way through, this is a pragmatic choice for me.

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I can't help thinking that at least a contributing part of the lack of dramatic changes may be because, actually, I wasn't that far wrong in the first place.

That sounds pretty bold, and big-headed.  But actually, this wasn't really a big struggle.

And that itself is really quite encouraging.

It means, in my mind, that I was already on the right track.  It kind of vindicates previous choices I've made. And it generally makes me feel good to know that it shouldn't be hard to keep going.

I'll update this again in a bit.

Day 30: The End/The Beginning

Yes I am posting this waaaaaaaaaaaay after the actual end of the Challenge. Sorry.

I completed the Challenge and maintained an honest and accurate Food Log for the full 30 days.  I just didn't manage to update the blog, since I prefer to add detail on here - if you just want a list of the foods I've been eating etc, just check out the Log.  I'm going to leave it up, anyway.

I'm going to keep this post purely about Day 30.  My post-Challenge results/reflections will be posted after.

Breakfast

• Challenge compliant muffin 

Lunch

• Left over home made veggie burger
• Spinach, cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas, Omega seed sprinkle, lemon juice

CrossFit

Work on Front Squat 5 x 5.  Maybe its the effects of the Challenge.  Maybe its my frame of mind.  But today I felt well good on the front squats.  :)

Coach asked what I had worked up to before, and I said I think 40-45.. Reply was "you mean back squat..?!" Hmm, I wasn't sure.  So we started low, and kept building up.  Obviously got harder, but it felt like it was the awkward position rather than the weight that was beginning to bother me.  Could feel it in my legs of course down the bottom of the squat.. but I smashed my previous front squat and still felt in control. Yussss

5 rounds for time:

10 Burpees

10 Toes to Bar (scaled)

10 Wall Ball

I scaled to the Toes to Bar to the sit up variant one.  I was the first to finish, but a little way.  Looking round, I felt I must not have pushed myself hard enough.  A bunch of people scaled to leg lifts on the bar - this is what I'm going to work on.  Need to keep pushing, keep improving.

Tea

The last Challenge tea!  The last Challenge meal!  Well, the last meal on the Challenge, anyway.  I can't see myself totally jacking all this in, come tomorrow...!

Felt wholly appropriate though to revisit possibly my fave Challenge meal: fajita night!

• Cabbage leaf wraps filled with mexican spiced omelette strips, homemade guacamole, salsa, refried beans, fried peppers, onion, asparagus

For some reason I felt like a smoothie "for dessert" so I did a big ol batch and gave James half:

• Coconut milk, frozen berries, Kinetica vanilla, chopped mixed nuts

Yum. Tasted good.  Felt good.

I'm really looking forward to getting back to full exercise, now my body should be healed and my Dr's said I could.

This might be the end of the Challenge my friends, but its the beginning of the Post-Challenge Challenge...  We'll see just how challenging it really is!

Day 29: Feelin' Fine

I actually can't believe there's only 1 day left of the Challenge. 

Its kind of gone really really fast.  But its also gone pretty slow.

I dunno.

October has been a weird month for me.  I wouldn't say I really have a "normal" or "average" month/schedule, as such, although certain things happen on a regular basis.

But October was really quiet for me, socially, and then I had 2 big fat "MUST DO" weekends, with the most special people to me.  That, coupled with the medical situation.

Meh, I'll assess all this properly later.

Breakfast

• Challenge compliant muffin 

Lunch

Monday = convenience please.

• Leftover carrot + courgette noodles, with 'creamy' sauce (stock, thyme, oregano, basil, sundried tomatoes, olive oil, coconut milk, a little coconut flour, seasoning)
• Peas and broccoli
• 2 eggs scrambled

CrossFit

Gymnastics practice.  I vaguely worked on handstand variations, which meant that I did a few more wall climbs with one hand touches (x10), trying to get as vertical as poss.  I also worked on headstands, progressing from my initial "I can't do headstands"... to being able to get fully vertical next to the wall (I started off using the wall for support, but this was psychological - turned out I didn't need it). Nice.

Its kind of mad how some people are well good at gymnastics from having done it loads as a kid, and it all just comes back to them.  This is not me.  

Not me. But may as well be.

totalprosports.com

I did do some sports stuff, but the only gym I did was at school, to try and get those sew on badges. (I just tried to find a pic of the badges we did, but can't find any that look right, did they have a tiger on or something?? I think the hardest one was level 6 or 7 and was pink??).  I have to admit it never interested me, because it seemed to be about looking nice (pointy toes, weird flourishes, make up, dancing with ribbons ??!) and that was not me.  But now I see the strength involved, and real skill.  I still wouldn't say its my training of choice, but its interesting.

"The Chief"

5 rounds

3min AMRAP: 

3 Power Cleans (subbed for KB)

6 Press Ups

9 Squats

Rest 1 min between rounds, carry on where you finished the last round.

Still not confident / comfortable with cleans.  Would like to be, of course, but would also like to not spend a full WOD f**king up a movement, and potentially drilling it wrong and maybe hurting my shoulder.  Disappointing I suppose.

Everything else was fine.  Wasn't easy, with a name like "The Chief" I expected nothing less.  But this seems to be a semi-regular WOD, as it was also programmed in April before I started, so looking forward to doing it again in the future, and comparing my results.

Tea

A veggie burger variation :)  And why not.

Not the quickest post-WOD meal, even when not leaving the burgers for the usual time to rest in the fridge before cooking.  But as I've said before, a big part of the process for me is all the prep that comes before the actual eating.  I love cooking!

My favourite outfit.

[is that Chantelle from Big Brother??!]

alibaba.com

Anyway..

• Home made veggie burgers cooked in coconut oil and chilli oil: courgette, garlic, onion, broad beans, chickpeas, egg, coconut flour, fine chopped mixed nuts, cayenne, cumin, chilli, lemon zest, lemon juice, seasoning;
• Baby potatoes, sprouts, broccoli, carrot, with olive oil and seasoning

:)

Day 28: Hello home(stretch)

Don't think I even woke up when my friend left at 4.30am.  Bad form, perhaps.  I don't know, the weeks knock it out of me, and I need my weekends to catch up. [I am getting old..?!]

More surprisingly was that by the time I woke up (only around 10, not at all outrageous for a Sunday), no one else was in the flat.  So I made a quick coffee and made my way to Kings Cross.  Just wanted to get home really.

"Brunch"

Steered clear of the breakfast foods in the station - it appears impossible to get a veggie non-sugar non-grain breakfast - and went straight in for the lunch option.  It was 12 anyway, so not entirely inappropriate.

Picked up:

• Salad: broccoli, chilli, pepper, lettuce, chard, tomatoes, mixed herbs, roasted seeds, seasoning
• Roasted falafel (chick peas, onion, chick pea flour, olive oil, water, garlic, lemon juice, salt, bicarb soda, coriander, cumin, parsley, pepper

The more awake of you will recall this from my last trip back from London.

Spent the train journey producing my detailed schedule for the Leeds International Film Festival.  And James' too.

Didn't even attempt to find anything worth consuming on the train.

Got back and extended my "brunch" to include:

Cheeky smoothie:

• Frozen mixed berroes
  
• 1 scoop Kinetica whey (Vanilla)
• ~200ml coconut milk
• dash of water 
• crushed mixed nuts on top 

Spent the afternoon attempting to make the house look presentable (ahem, downstairs at least), as Freddie's potential new Mum (+ girlfriend!!) were coming round to check him out.  The meeting went well.  Freddie will be packing his bags, it seems..

"Yah hi. Talk to me."

Just for the record this is Freddie, he is our current foster, for Hope Rescue.

[I am not, in other words, selling off my children to ladies that come to visit]

Tea

Thought I had plenty of time to come up with something for tea.  Turns out I didn't really.  Well, that and I wanted a little sit down (ie something easy).

Went for (post dog walk):

Butternut squash gnocchi: butternut squash, egg, coconut flour, tapioca, almond meal, salt, sage; tossed in olive oil with crispy sage and red onion

Bed of peas and broccoli with carrot and courgette 'noodles' (loving that julienne peeler!)

Fried egg

'Creamy' sauce (stock, thyme, oregano, basil, sundried tomatoes, olive oil, coconut milk, a little coconut flour, seasoning)

Yeah yeah yeah I did the gnocchi on Monday.  But I told you!-its well good!  And I changed it up a little.  I like the gnocchi a little more fried as well.  Only screw up: my egg went a bit mental.  Still ate it.  Still tasted like egg..

Egg on face.

(c) memebase.cheezburger.com

But.... WHO CARES?! - IT'S HOMELAND TIME!

Day 27: Saturday lectures

Yep its that time again.  6 hours of lectures on a Saturday.

Its so weird being down lawyerville (around Holborn) around 9am on Saturday.  It is dead.  I mean, like, 28 Days Later dead.

Me at 9am on a Saturday on my way to lectures, obvs.
lexxverse.com

Breakfast

• Challenge compliant muffin 

Lunch

The trouble with it being dead around here on Saturdays, is that most of the food outlets are closed.  Damn people with actual weekends.

Managed to acquire:

• Edamame salad with muki and green beans, broccoli, leaves, avocado, sesame seeds, 1 boiled egg
• Miso soup

Tea

I think my friend had intended (in his own bizarre non-organised way) that tonight would be our "night out".  But he forgot that our friend was flying back to Sweden in the morning.  And by morning I mean 7am, from Heathrow.  This meant she was up at 4.30am to get to the airport, check in and all that fun stuff.  

Now back int day this would have meant (without further thought) that we would be going out and coming for 4.30am.  But since we are supposed to be grown up now (actually its more because my friend has started his first ever) full time job [how is that possible at the age of 26? avoidance through continuous higher education, that's how] and hence had just done his second ever week of full time hours) what it actually meant was we stayed in, cooked, drank a little wine, talked, and watched shite tv.  Ahhhh..

So we ate (home made):

• Baked aubergine with fried onions and lemon (cumin, chilli, garlic, sumac, seasoning)
• Crispy kale

From a great, simple recipe from the Plenty book by Yotam Ottolenghi (which I happened to buy recently when I was in London, but Hannah already had herself anyway).  I thought I'd written about this book on here before, but can't find it.  Anyway, great book.

I declined the Kettlechips and dips (and Haribo - I'm used to that anyway), and wasn't at all bothered.

That just leaves the red wine.  I'm not proud of it.  But I'm not ashamed either.  It was totally appropriate in the circumstances, and a lovely, cosy evening.  

Snuggling with friends.  Can't beat it, really.

chzbgr.com

Day 26: McKerel

A day of waiting, and rushing.

Breakfast

• Challenge compliant muffin (thank goodness for these babies)

Lunch

Spent the morning in the V&A, most of it queuing for tickets for the Hollywood Costume exhibition.  Nice one.

No tickets available until later in the day, but late opening tonight, so booked that for after my course.

[not in 'til 2pm today due to an exemption I have]

Wondered on down to Holborn, and found somewhere to have lunch nearby where my course is.  The menu looked good (I'd been past a few times before), and it was well busy with suits.

For me the choice was either mackerel, or stuffed courgette.  The stuffed courgette of course running the risk of some kind of sneaky grain and/or cheese (I am very much au fait with the usual stuffings in these things).  I went for the mackerel.  

• Smoked mackerel fillet
• Roasted veggies

Despite being a pub, I happily went for the ol soda water and fresh lime.  Good job they brought that out quick, because our food order was forgotten..  Why does that always (only?) happen when you have somewhere to be..?

Got through the afternoon's lectures and made our way back to the V&A.  Stopped on that street (Exhibition Road?) with all the little french cafes with tables on the street.  Coffee calling.

Entering a gorgeous french bakery/coffee shop might seem like a bad idea on this challenge, but I wasn't really bothered about any of the grain-based goods.  Enjoyed a lovely steaming bowl (yep, really. ingenious!) of delicious black coffee.

Ooooff.  C'est delicieux, mademouiselle!

[cheeky fingers on hot scone NOT mine]

Tea

Another rush.  We waited for our ex housemate, who went AWOL (drinks with new colleagues at new job, forgot to check phone..??), which meant by the time it got to tea, it was pretty late.

We sauntered into a Japanese restaurant close to his house, and ordered, stat.

• Ramen: beansprouts, chilli, tofu, peppers, onions, bok choi, coriander, lime, coconut milk, lemongrass, rice noodles

They also gave us on the house:

• 3 pieces of tuna sashimi

Oh and I had a glass of wine.

2 blackmarks...  I am bad.  But honest.

schlurrping the noodle... who me..?

(c) gifbib.com

Day 25: Keep calm and eat fish

Aaaand so it continues...

Back on my course in London this weekend, with the added pressure of seeing my old uni housemates (not see for forever)..

What's that coming over the hill, is it a BLACKMARK, is it a BLACKMAAAARK..?

Breakfast

• Challenge compliant muffin (cooked up a batch last night to take with me to London)

Lunch

Hmmm... lunch.  Lunch has consistently been the most troublesome meal of the day for me, throughout this Challenge.  This is usually a result of me rushing/not having time/not having prepared.  I think that's a the reason (excuse?) for most people...

I had planned to have a fairly leisurely morning, getting up a bit later to catch my train to London.  As usual, this did not happen.  Various urgent emails from work, with important people not realising I'd taken today off to travel (Out of Office anyone?  Anyone??)..  I missed the train I was supposed to get, and then not only that, but I did not have time/failed to pick up any food on my way in (was intending to follow the M&S tradition).

I had figured (oh innocent naivety) there would be something (anything) I could eat from the onboard cafe thing.  So I went up and had an extended chat to the very nice man working in the cafe car.  Really sweet, he tried his very hardest to find something I could eat...  Turns out East Coast do not stock anything without grains and/or sugar.  

So he ended up (bless him) "sneaking" me a staff only "salad"...

Only for me to get to my seat and find... a luminous mass of pasta with (reconstituted?) ham!!

 

Trying to capture the highlighter yellow pasta in all its luminous glory...

[at least my nail varnish matches my fruit selection though..]

Trying to record the full role call of E numbers in this thing was somewhat futile.  Basically, it was full of crap. No, no, that's too kind.  It WAS crap, absolutely.

Is this what's called a salad these days?! I am rather alarmed.

Still, I appreciate the sentiment.

Anyway, this left me with:

• 1 Challenge compliant muffin (not brilliant to be eating for breakfast and lunch I know, but I had to eat something!)
• 3 plums
• handful almonds
• decaff coffee, water

Lunch of kings.  Kings stuck on an East Coast train to London whilst participating in a 30 day nutrition challenge, anyway...

Got to London, and topped up with:

• Mixed leaf salad (ohh pure green leaves, how I have missed you!!), with tomato, carrot, spinach, lemon juice, olive oil and seasoning

Phew.

Tea

At the mercy of my ex-housemate, who is by and large pretty bloody rubbish at organising anything, we were taken to a pub in Kensington, that also serves Thai food. Okkkk...

I went to a pub that also serves curry in Garforth once.  It wasn't great.

This pub, however, was actually well cool.  It was basically like being in a permanent memorial to the jubilee or something.  Covered in royal / Winston Churchill / general Englishness type items.  I mean covered.

And the food was pretty good.

I knew I'd be drinking (I was), and made a decision to eat some rice, in order to reduce the likelihood of getting smashed.  It worked.  It was a really lovely evening.  Oh, and I ate prawns.

• Thai green curry: prawns, peppers, water chesnuts, snow peas, carrot, thai aubergine, courgette, broccoli, cashew nuts
• 2 small spoonfuls of brown rice
• 3 glasses of red wine

I forgot to mention, the pub is also disguised as a garden.  Sneaky.

(c) Churchillarmskensington.co.uk