Day 2 of Metamorphosis

I am not going to write every days progress and experiences, I promise, but today... Well, today was a bit of a surprise for me, so I thought it would be good to share it.

To be honest, considering I dont have that much weight to lose (if any at all), I have not and will not expect rapid declines in my weight (if I lose 5 kilos by the end of the program, thats gonna be great). Moreover, after all the food yesterday - all in total I ate like 1.7l of food (not counting the juice) - I was not thinking I was on diet anymore. In the evening before going to bed, I simply sighed and thought "Oh well, who cares if I dont lose weight, Im still within the normal range for my height" (163cm). So in the morning I simply step on the scales to record the weight of today, no expectations. And after I saw the weight, I had to step back off, look at it in wonder till the blinking number disappeared and just step back up... And again the electric scales show the same 55.7. Same time, same clothes (=no clothes), exactly 24 hours after the previous measure... 0.8kg off? nearly a kilo? 

I mean, I understand, it is not permanent, it is probably all the water and all... And tomorrow I will be back to my 56.5, but hey - I have NOT been under 56 in the past half a year!!! When my scales showed 56.0 were the  happy days. So, whatever it is, it is the first day in the past 6 months or so i actually went under 56, and I am happy about that. 

I walked quite dazed away from the scales, into the kitchen to prepare some Blueberry Applesauce for breakfast... I think I am still surprised, but, boy, it is encouraging. I started my workout like I have the last chance to dance in this life time :)

So, DC went OK, though as I was dancing like crazy, I got pretty tired after 15 minutes, so had to bring it down a notch. Then again jammed in the last 3 minutes or so. I still feel like a hippo a little, heavy and uncoordinated, but better than yday. Still cant follow all the arms motions, but Im trying. Some movements feel a bit weird, but I will get to it. I am not a very sweating type when I do sports (Im more like a face-reddening-type), but jeez I was sweating like hell.

MS killed me even more today. I guess because I was pumped from the scales revelations, so I was really into it. I switched legs today - doing left first, and right second. And I thought my left leg would fall off somewhere in the middle, and I would have to get to emergency... I was really struggling even with right leg (which is so obviously stronger) - exercises 3 and 4 are excruciating (funny but I know this word after reading Harry Potter). But went through it, slower than Tracy does (hence - less reps), but at least I did it  all, with only minor little breaks. I have to say, it was the first time in my life I was swearing in full voice... All the advice on how to deal with struggling (like trying to distract your mind by thinking of something pleasant, planning the day, planning what you would write later in the blog - that actually helped me, watch at the shadows on the wall....) - is weeeeell forgotten when you start to really struggle.

Result after two days: minus 0.8kg, I feel great, as if I am flying (I dont take drugs!), I feel lightness in my whole body, my back and shoulder muscles are extremely sore and glute muscles are aching to sit on. The feeling is welcome though and I cant wait to train them again tomorrow. I still feel my muscles awakened even much later after the training. Ah, good day (I even squeezed in laundry for the time I work out)!

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Give Me 3 Minutes And Ill Show You How To Get rid of Weight Fast

Sometimes things come up and suddenly you become extremely motivated to drop a few pounds and you want to achieve it fast. Maybe its an important meeting, a reunion, or an unexpected trip that you will get to take and you just want less jiggle when you are running down the beach on your holiday. No matter what the reason, there are occasion when people want to know how to get rid of weight fast.
Even though there are a number of things that you are capable of doing to facilitate losing weight fast, you should always put health and fitness first. Trying to lose weight quickly can stress your body and will actually be dangerous if you attempt to push it to far and too fast. However, there are some tricks men and women use to support the body inwards shedding pounds and losing weight fast, but dont get sucked into trying a good "overnight miracle" diet.
How to lose weight fast tip
Pay attention to your current inhalation of calories. Losing weight boils down to math. Burn more calories than you eat and you can lose weight. But, first you need to know how a lot you take in during a normal day. There are some fantastic software programs and websites that can assist you track your calories and will help calculate how many calories you burn.
Once you know where you start, set goals to increase your activity to lose fat more quickly and reduce the number of calories you are taking in. As early as you change
this equation your body will act in response and you can lose weight quickly. The bigger the change you create the faster the weight loss will happen.
How to lose weight fast tip
Now that you have a picture of your daily intake, the fastest way to lose weight is to identify those high caloric foods that you eat that are very just empty calories. Replace sugary sodas with water. Toss out the candy bars as well as replace them with fresh fruits as well as vegetables. Eliminate alcohol. Just these elementary changes can often make a big impact in your efforts to lose weight quickly.
How to lose weight fast tip

Reduce anything that is made with white sugar or white flour and replace it with wholegrain foods. These "white foods" are highly processed and have absolutely very little nutritional value. Replacing a slice of white bread with a slice of hearty whole wheat bread will fill you up faster and provide you with a better sensation of being satisfied. Your whole body will also have more nutrients to help nourish it and it will be less likely to continue craving more food even after you are full.

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Day 44 of Metamorphosis

Yesterday and today were tough. Level 5 doesnt get much easier: my arms are still about to fly off when Im doing the arms section, my abs are in pain when Im doing lying abs, and by the end of the leg section I feel like both my feet and bottom are about to fall off too. But all of those are great feelings, and then standing in a long-ish shower, I enjoy the hot water caressing my aching muscles. I love hot and contrast showers after the workouts - they bring back the strength and refresh. Sometimes I also want to have a bathtub, to be able to take quick baths very fast, but oh well - in my next house. 

Wally and Gallo - our teachers, from
La Sandunguera dancing school.

I have a confession to make... In terms of diet... Well, I have had a little bit of chocolate addiction in the past two days... I mean it is after Easter now (technically Orthodox Easter is this weekend, so Im not supposed to celebrate quite yet), and all the Easter chocolates are on sale. You can get all those yummy eggs and rabbits for half or even 1/3 of price! And I simply couldnt walk past them. So, I obviously excluded the choco pudding from the diet, as I already had enough of chocolate to last me at least a week... But still - too much sugar in my diet :)

In the next couple days Im gonna keep really busy, as a Salsa festival is taking place in Bremen, and I am volunteering with some help (keeping the long story short, Ill say that I am volunteering): reception, some food and drinks tasks, and hosting 2 artists. Besides that I am going to have dancing workshops whole days on Saturday and Sunday. So, Im saying all this, because I might have no time at all to get back here till Monday or so, and I might as well skip the DC a couple of times: after all I will be dancing up to 6-7 hours a day... I think that is enough of a cardio... :)

And just some memories - my salsa performance in the end of last year (November) - before I went for three months to a cold and dark Stockholm... I love to look at those pics and hope that one day I might do it again - now looking much better too! :)

With a good friend - Constantin.

The girls: me, Svenja 1 and Svenja 2... :)

With boys: Marceli, me, Karolis

Have a great day everyone and a wonderful rest of the week! 

(And Happy Orthodox Easter to those who are celebrating!)

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Day 21 of Metamorphosis

I know, I know two posts a day is a little weird, but a) I want to separate the topics and b) I was on the road today and had a pleeenty of time on the train :) So, hey, here I am again. :)

I started level 3 today. Had to get up at 6 in the morning as I am travelling today (going to Prague), and my train was at 9, so to fit in the workout, I had to really get up early. But I did manage to do the whole hour of workout. It is always so exciting to start a new level, as it means something different, something you don’t know yet, something exciting. I liked level 3 much more than level 2. Well, when I was doing level 2, I can’t say I was a fan of it, but I neither hated it the same way some other TAMers did. In my experience it was difficult, but a bit boring. Level 3 on the other hand is really interesting – I like all the fast movements (“OMG, are you for real, that is NORMAL speed??!!”), I love the angles in this one, the vectors, the interesting moves. Even abs – which are really hard for me, are interesting and unusual, with very unconventional rotations of legs and feet. But again, this level requires even more concentration and attention: you HAVE to follow her precisely. I sometimes had to pause the exercise to see the exact angles, and so on. But it is exciting and fulfilling. To be honest, my butt will probably hurt to sit on tomorrow, as after I finished each side, I felt like it was falling off because of all the stress it went through :)

But anyway, great workout, I’m looking forward to doing it for the next 9 days.

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Day 81 of Meta!!!!!

So, guess what? I have good news and bad news for you here. 

Ill start with the good news. Well, as you can see in the title, I did start level 9!!! Wohoo! Continuity is really soon. To be honest, my hope for no sore muscles anymore by yesterday was just hope. It never came true. Well, my muscles didnt hurt soooo much, but they were still sore, so MS was extremely hard - especially on my right arm and left leg. I have no idea why, but it was. Not to mention, it did kick my ass. And hard. Boy, it was a workout. I had sweat dripping on my mat, me panting and going through a liter of water in just those 30 minutes. In the end I did some stretching and collapsed right there on my mat. At some point during MS my boyfriend came into the room and asked if he could watch (cheeky!!!) - so I kept complaining that it is not muscular structure, but some kind of acrobatics!!! So, folks, it was hard.

Other good news - I continued with tennis today. Class two. Which was also OK, I could get most of the balls, and sometimes - may be one in 6 serves I actually had those nice strokes. That felt good!

Take #2: class 2 of tennis. Started playing with the real adult balls :) And this time on this pic my legs actually look bulky... Am I all sturdy or what? Hmmm

But here come the bad news. Tennis killed me again. I did something to my left leg - again! I got a cramp in the middle of the class, and was thinking I might collapse. Had to take a breather and a water break, and then continue, but the pain never went away. And my right arm is also killing me again - a bit higher up this time, close to the shoulder. Soooo.... no MS for me today. And I will go to bed today with the hope that tomorrow I will feel so much better. I always try to believe in the best! Good day yall!

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Day 36 of Metamorphosis

To be very honest with you, it does NOT get easier. Really. I mean you get stronger and all, and then the new level kicks your ass once again. There is truly no limit to perfection. You can do it probably for years, and new moves would still kick your little shapely butt. 

I have had a crazy of a time recently. As I mentioned before - I started driving school, on top of that work is not becoming less... I have couple of doctors appointments, salsa festival coming up next week and I have a lot to help out with still... Today was the culmination of ridiculousness of German bureaucracy. First I had 4 hours of driving theory class, then had a quick lunch and 6 (!!!) hours of "first aid course" - an obligatory course for German driving license... Yes, besides that I managed to squeeze in DC in the morning before I left, and MS after I came back home at 21:30 or so. I did it!!! I was really afraid I wouldnt have time. And to be honest, with all the stuff going on, I very often find it hard simply to find time - and it is not like I want to skip it! I honestly LOVE to do MS, but sometimes it is so hard to squeeze anything in. 

Tomorrow is yet again a crazy day:

08:00-09:00 Eye doctor

10:00-14:00 Driving school

16:00-17:30 Driving lesson (practice)

20:00-21:00 Salsa training

21:00- Salsa social...

I am not whining - really. I am just trying to sort out my day and think when I can fit my workouts. When the craziness with driving school is over, I will write some more. But I am still hanging on, I just wish for a little more sleep. :)

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Day 10 of Metamorphosis

So today started a little late, and as I have some repair works planned for the evening, I decided to skip on the office today and work from home (good old academia!). I cant say it is always productive, but sometimes it is - I love to work on my laptop.

I also tried to change my schedule a little bit: try to workout not the first thing in the morning, but after lunch - to see if I like it better. And well, I dont. Well, I guess everyone has his/her hours for certain things. So for me morning are still not very productive work-wise (I think my brain takes much longer to wake up, so normally for me mornings are spent in administrative jobs and correspondence), and so working out in the morning makes so much sense - I dont have to think that much :) Today I stayed at home - not much administrative work here. And well,  emails were sent, I tried to work, not much luck. Then I had lunch and work started a little bit better. An hour or so after lunch I worked out, and hey - surprise surprise, I felt myself much heavier (even though I did feel more strength), but it was hard to do DC. MS though went better - I dont know if it is because it is day 10, or cos it was not morning. But I did it almost to the dot with Tracy! Impressive!!! :)

Anyhow, I finished level 1!!!! Congrats to me!!! Tomorrow starts level 2! I am excited (jubilant I would even say), but also really stressed: I heard level 2 is a real killer, and I previewed it and I did feel like it was all in fast forward. That would be hmmm interesting. Im afraid, I will be really sore after that and will have to pause a lot. Oh well, bring it on!

I will publish my results of the full 10 days tomorrow (may be with pics - if there would seem to be a visible effect), but a little sneak peak:

• Today my scales surprised me with 53.9 kg (118.6), which means I lost around 2.6kg (5.7 lbs) in the last 10 days!!! As I wrote before, my desired weight is between 50 and 52 kg (~112-114 lbs), so hey Im not so far from that :) So I will stick with the diet for the first 30 days I think and then will go off it, but continue eating healthy and not too much. I think already now I wont be able to eat a lot: my stomach seems to have become smaller. 
• As for how I feel, I feel absolutely great! I feel light and stronger I remember myself feeling! I wake up and I like to see myself in the full-height mirror. I am energetic, and I have to say even though sometimes dont feel like doing a workout (=lazy!), I feel like I am missing on on something vital till I do it. My body loves it, I can feel it! 
• In terms on cm/inches, I am not sure... But I have a flat stomach already - I just need to get nicer abs of course (even now I can already make out some muscles forming!!!), but still. Amazing! I also feel like I def lost some inches in my waist, but even my thighs look thinner and better defined. Tomorrow I will give some more details on how many cm/inches I lost too.

The diet today was OK, but not more than that... I finally did the poached eggs for brunch - really yummy!!! And yes, I love my spices - or rather herbs, so here it is with a little bit of parsley and dried garlic and majoran. Nothing bad or unhealthy. :)

And somehow today is the day of trying new things... So today Im having a tuna-fish salad for dinner. Yum!!!

And in the end of the day I relaxed a bit... Had two (!!!) little Kinder bars (240 calories together) and a little bit of nuts... Not too bad, may be 250-300 calories extra, but well have to see how it will show on my scales tomorrow... Sigh.

Have a fantastic day everyone!!!

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Day 86 AAAA!!!! of Metamorphosis

Boy, it does feel like a home stretch!!! I get excited every time I am doing the workout! 

Today was awesome - I jumped with energy and smile on my face, then MS was tough, but I went through it  in high spirits. The first move still kicks my ass and the supporting leg... But I manage. Arms are still tough, but I am managing now at least. Might start adding weights on day 87 or 88... For at least a couple days. After MS I had nice breakfast, took a shower, signed some post cards to send to friends, and now am off to work. Sigh. Nothing exciting on my side today - no sunrises or hiking, just the beauty of the mountains. 

But hey - just 4 more workouts and I will finish META!!!! WOHOOO!!! I will have to celebrate and get myself something really special. ;)

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Days 7 8 of Metamorphosis

So, days 7 and 8 went well. Both days managed to do the workouts, kept to the diet. I dont seem to progress very fast now, as I cant really increase the number of reps for instance much from day to day, and I am still doing those naughty exercises 3 and 4 very slowly. But I feel great! I feel light, healthy, energetic. Right after the training I am a bit tired of course, but a shower does miracles, and I am back to good mood. Today was tough though. I didnt want to workout for some reason, and it was really hard to even start, to find the strength to do one more minute of DC, then one more... Ah. It felt good though to get over it. I had to say many many many times through sometimes gritted teeth "You CAN do it, Liuba" (yes, I sometimes tend to talk with myself).

The diet... Well, I cant say I am happy with this week. Yesterday (Monday and first week of Week 2) I felt hungry all the time. And I mean it: all the time. It wasnt horrible hunger, but it was always there. Today, however, I dont feel hunger at all and have to convince myself to eat. I just hope, it is not some sort of body adjustment to under-nutrition :)))) Cos that would be bad. I decided to increase the portions just a little bit, so I actually feel NOT hungry after I finished eating - particular for meal 3: make bigger salads, take a piece of chicken a little bigger. Right now my chicken is boiling (yes, I prefer boiled chicken than grilled) and salad is ready (half avocado, some tomatoes and celery - I am addicted to celery these days, so put it in almost everything...).

Dinner:

And the full day diet (its more than it looks actually...) After the first day, it is enough for me - but then again, my salad is quite big, but I thought I cant harm much with salad. And I added a carrot: I like to chew on something when I work...

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Day 22 of Metamorphosis

Today I really felt the difficulty of the level. Boy! How my muscles hurt - everywhere! But even more so on the back and sides. How is THAT possible? Well, I guess it is from the hard balancing movement, and because in the exercises at this level, you really really involve the whole body to perform seemingly easy leg lifts. 

I finally got someone to take some pics of me while I am training, as I am visiting my sweetheart in Prague these days. So here we go.

Thats me basically dead after I finished it all:

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Level 7 restarted day 62 of Metamorphosis

So, Im back from the land of pains and feeling sick and weak... The heat is taking lots of my energy, but I am back on track. I still eat a bit more than I should I guess, but Meta has my back again. I am not gaining weight, I am not loosing it, I am just right. And I love it.

I decided to restart level 7, as I missed about 4 days due to sickness. And as I said before, it is important to take care of your health. So, it was all good. Besides, I dont feel so bad about restarting the level: I was only 2 days into it. And as before, level 7 is indeed tough. Get ready for it. I definitely cannot do all the reps, cannot go Tracys speed - which I sort of could in level 6, so I take it easy and try to push myself just a little bit each day. I am thinking of starting using ankle weights as well. I want results!!! 

To be honest, I should be happy about what I have. The problem is that I wont be getting visible and evident results I think anymore. No, dont think I am a pessimist - I am not!!! I swear! Its just I cant really become much lighter or skinnier... My weight wont go down anymore - I am in my normal slender healthy weight right now. And skinnier - well everything much skinnier than now (in terms of measurements in a way) would make me unhealthy. So here. The only visible results I could get at this point are muscles... But surprise surprise - TAM doesnt give you too many visible muscles... So, I am definitely becoming more toned, my muscles are more defined, but they are not bulking out and are not too visible. And because of all this I do lose motivation sometimes. Not for long - but long enough to stall my workout for an hour or two...

Now I feel like I need to find a different way to measure my results... I definitely feel more energetic and strong every single day. But how do we measure it? I also feel a little addicted to workouts, and really positive about them, and the day starts only after one workout. Thats good right? It means I am closer to the goal of making a healthy lifestyle a habit. Cheers to that!

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Day 48 of Metamorphosis and the bumps along the way

Yes, it sounds crazy that I am - still - on level 5, but I had to restart the level, as I had too many interruptions. Now, however I am delighted to finish it tomorrow (if all goes well, and it should), and start level 6! Wohoo!

MS

Dont get me wrong, it was my own decision to restart level 5, but oh boy I am tired of it. I am simply getting bored. I know every single exercise of the MS, and well now can do it in full reps (though it takes me a little longer than Tracy). This hasnt happened with previous levels. But in true, I have done it like 15 times by now! So I am happy to move on. It is true that you get bored of the same thing, and when you are doing one of the MS longer than supposed to, it also loses some touch of excitement. I was always excited thinking "Just 10 workouts like that - get the most out of it!" Now I am thinking "Oh I wish it was day 50 already!!!" So it definitely is time to move on for good.

DC

Dance cardio is indeed getting boring. But I have to say I know it by now (which is only logical after doing it for around 50 times...), and sometimes I simply turn it on and start jumping automatically - before I manage to convince myself that I dont need to do it. And then the automatic jumps get more energy and I enjoy it. Sweat is the magic powder after all! ;) I also catch myself that while I concentrate a lot on MS, I tend to drift a little bit on DC nowadays - cos my body and mind know by now what I am doing, and I am not working out the specific muscles, I am jumping and dancing to get the heart beat up and loose some calories in the process. But I nevertheless enjoy it. Why? It makes me feel good. As simple as that. I feel great when I finish it - physically and mentally. I love it.

Food

In terms of diet, I went off Tracys diet. Sigh. Well, I was going to follow it for around 30 days anyway, and I did it longer. But simply when those Body Reset repetitive Weeks finished, I could not deal with the ones "with diversity any more (starting Week ??? the BRW become diverse, which involves more recipes, and hence more time for cooking...). My PhD taking most of my time (and this is the biggest reason why I actually disappeared for so long). I sometimes work till 8-9, and then drag my feet home (still have to take a train to get home and all) and drop nearly dead. My driving school also continues... And with being busy and not having enough time for anything, I simply could not follow all the recipes of TA Dynamic Eating Plan any longer. But I keep eating healthy and fresh (mostly). I got into a good routine with food, I already calculate or estimate my calories without needing to really calculate them. I eat lots of salads, lots of fruit, add some fish, poultry or meat on top of that, sometimes I have one of those protein bars and protein shakes to keep me up on protein. Eggs, cheese, quinoa, nuts and just a little bit of chocolate are also in my diet. I also sometimes make soups - really with only veggies and not too fat. Yum!

Little bit of smoked trout and some yummy rucola-tomato-cucumber salad. I love food! Mmmm.

My feelings overall

To be honest, I was feeling a little guilty - for going off the diet, for missing some days (4 days for salsa festival and 4 more days for a wonderful weekend in Monaco), for not eating too healthy all the time (I confess to having an addiction to chocolate as of late and I simply cant do anything about it...), for missing the DC sometimes - thats really naughty of me! Monaco has set me off a little bit, as French cuisine offers a lot of temptations! I gained 2 kilos there, but by now they all went off - without even a big effort on my side. So after all I decided to not feel guilty. I am working out, and Meta has my back. I am doing my best, I am not pushing it, but enjoying every single workout. I dont want to suddenly feel so tired I would not want to workout at all. I LOVE the workouts, I feel great after them - both physically and mentally (after all, I never stop to fight my weaknesses, and every little victory is oh so sweet!) I still eat well and healthy, even if I allow myself to eat some bread sometimes. But generally I keep it better than ever before in my life. So why on Earth should I feel guilty??!! I should feel proud and delighted, satisfied and really glad with myself. I am working on myself and doing the best I have ever done! What can be more pleasing???!!!

So, the advice is: be realistic. No, one should not give up at every difficulty saying "It is realistic: I cant do it" I say "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can" and I move forward. But instead of beating myself up, I praise myself and motivate myself to go on, to keep up to the healthy food, to the workouts - to the better and transformed lifestyle. Cos this is my end goal: A better and healthier lifestyle.

And if on the way I look in the mirror and see the beautiful abs and tiny ass - hell, I wont say no! 

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Favorite Pins of the Week

I hope everyone had a good weekend!  It was super busy for us!  One of Kevins good friends came in to town to stay with us for the weekend, we went out with friends to Coeur dAlene, ID on Friday evening, then Saturday was spent Downtown Spokane for Hoopfest, the biggest 3-on-3 basketball tournament in the world.  Happily, our court was super close to my work, so we were able to park for free and haul all of our chairs and stuff over with ease.

Since I wanted to give Kevin some time to hang out with his friend he hadnt seen in a while (read: play video games, lasertag, and other boy stuff), in downtime I kept to myself and read, worked-out, and was on Pinterest, of course ;).  Here are some of my favorite pins from the last week:

Pinterest - Follow Amy!

Doesnt this corn quinoa salad from
Eating Bird Food just look like summer? (source)

Arent these water as fire images just gorgeous? (source)

Did this yesterday for my first workout after a
2 month hiatus of traveling and having an
injured hip.... my god.... it is shameful how sore I am! (source)

Im also doing this abs challege, as my girlfriends
wedding that I am in (was) 14 days away.
Good motivation to stick-to-it! (source)

Makes me think of what I will be doing on the
4th of July with two of my best whiskey buds :)
(source)

Doesnt this look like the perfect fall
apple-picking outfit?  I know!  I know!
Too soon to start wishing it was fall ;)

Happy Pinning!

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Day 76 of Metamorphosis

Aaaand I am back on the wagon again – and back online too! I will post later where I have been in the past two weeks (it was FUUUN!!!), but right now just a little update.

Today is day 76 of Meta for me and I can’t wait to finish level 8. Honestly. It’s been too long already.

Yesterday we finally reached our little hide-out in Switzerland – yes in the Swiss Alps… (told you, the story will be interesting, and with lots of pics :) ) It’s breathtaking! Really!

The Swiss Alps! On the way to the town Nendaz

We have a little chalet in a little village in Nendaz with an extremely picturesque view towards the villages resting on the mountain sides and the high picks with still some snow. Beautiful. But as villages go, there isn’t much to do: there is one restaurant about half an hour walk from here, and a café. We don’t have internet (I am writing this in an “off-line mode” and will publish it when I do have access to Internet), we have to stack our fridge with yummy and healthy things, we have had some arguments about it too. I can’t imagine how those of you who live with husbands and kids manage to diet! Living on your own means you just have to fight your own vices, with people around it means you also have to jungle the family food and not get tempted to eat more than strictly necessary. And to be honest, I can’t even imagine following the TA dynamic eating plan when you have a family!!! Respect to you all!

The chalet we have is pretty small (just a kitchen-living room downstairs, bedroom, bathroom and a tiny extra room upstairs – and I mean everything is really small, so don’t snort when you hear about all those rooms), so there isn’t much space for me to work out. MS might be possible to fit somewhere when some furniture is moved out of the way, but DC? Forget it! So what do you think I did? :) I worked out outside!!! Yes, I am dependent on the weather and if it rains I’m kinda screwed. But how often do you have a chance to work out in the fresh mountain air, have a breathtaking inspiring view – and so simple, you just need to walk out of the back door. I am totally enjoying it! But weather is indeed a factor: I started my workout around 10am, and it was already sunny and warm. And believe it or not, after 5 minutes of DC I was sweating and breathless, hot and sticky. I don’t know if that is because of the break I had in DC (perhaps, partially), but I think it is mostly because of the sun. The workout gets extremely challenging in the sun!!! I managed to do 20 minutes DC, and then moved the MS to the shadow of a little bush. :) But I did it!

I felt great! Finally getting back to the daily workouts is great. I love it. I woke up with a smile and was sooooo looking forward to the workout. May be some breaks are sometimes necessary for us to start feeling better about the workouts? :)

Coming soon: our wonderful holiday in Italy and the different type of workout you can get there, lots and lots of pics, and soon soon soon some new results! (I have my measuring tape, my camera and new bikini – wohoo!) Stay tuned!

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Eat A Good Amount Of Fresh Produce To Lose Weight Naturally

Because you do not feel good about yourself or you have to lose weight for your health, it is important that you are educated before you begin the process whether you want to lose weight. The article that is following created to help you put on pounds loss knowledge.

Find a weight loss buddy. You might find it easier with a partner. Whether the partner competes you, it will add fun to your endeavor and lead to positive things with you or coaches.

A great method to lose weight is to start out eating tuna. Tuna is one of the healthiest sources of protein around and its simple to prepare. You can mix it with some non-fat mayo and put it on a sandwich, or you can place it in a salad.

Many people are trying to lose weight through a "diet". This approach makes sense: if you want to lose weight you need to cut your calorie intake. But there is a better approach: first look at providing the complete nutrition to your body it needs. Then your system shall manage to cope with losing weight while staying healthy.

You should try making it your goal to lose at least one pound each week. You should try to make an adjustment to reach this goal if you are not losing this. One pound each week ensures that you are slowly losing weight at a healthy rate.

For a few social people weight loss does not come easy: They will eat right, they will exercise, and the pounds just dont want to budge. If this is your situation, there is help. Going to a doctor and weight that is discussing medication will likely be helpful. These medications will help your body lose weight faster, so long as, you are still taking care of yourself.

You need to start focusing on only one thing at a time if you want your diet to be as successful as possible. If your goal is to ultimately lose weight and get in shape, it might be too much too fast to attempt to do both at once. Start with attempting to burn the fat with exercise and diet, and then worry about toning those muscles.

A motivator that is great your weight loss journey is to take photos along the way. Once a month, every ten pound,s or at some other interval that is regular snap an image in the exact same clothing, and marvel at the changes in your body. Humans are visual creatures, so seeing the weight loss in glorious color can be a motivator that is great.

One food that is secret losing weight is avocados. They are packed full with fiber, which helps you feel full faster, and stay full for a longer period of time, They also are high in healthy fats. Eating avocados will help you to find a alternative that is great meat, and you can experiment with many different recipes.

To conclude, regardless of what you main reason is for planning to shed weight, you need to ensure you are informed about the procedure before you begin even. The above article has shown you some helpful tips when preparing yourself to lose weight. Take these tips and use them to your benefit!

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Day 13 of Metamorphosis

Day 13 went fine, a bit too busy: work, getting the groceries for week 3 (was a bit late as was celebrating on Saturday, and Sunday all the shops are closed in Germany), cooking, doing laundry, cleaning up... Now I still need to unpack - still havent done so since I came back from Sweden!!! Soon a month ago. Sigh. This is just me.

DC was easier today than ever I guess. I was sweating damn a lot, but at the same time, felt strong and cheerful throughout the workout. MS was also OK, but it is still hard to balance, and man I hate planks! They suck :) I can only do like 10 reps of exercises with planks, but well at least it is fun.

Today I updated my level 1 results with some pics, and honestly, was impressed myself! It is working and I am determined to keep it up!

Have a great day yall!

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The Top 5 of the Very Best Diet Tips

Diet is something most people fear, along with such scary stuff similar going to the dentist. But diet plans are really not all that terrible and with this sampling of the very best diet tips, you will find that it could be relatively painless - not unlike a painless dentist.
One diet tip that should happen the top of the list of the very best diet tips is this:
Eat Less, Burn More.
Actually that is the weight loss program itself. If you programmed the calorie related aspects of your living around this tip, you will end up losing weight as effectively as you ever can on any diet program.
Create a vision board
The vision board is simply a real board where you put pics of things that you want to obtain. In this case, if you would like a strong, healthy and slim body discover a body that is exactly what you intend to have and post as many degrees of this on the board as probable. Be sure that you will consider it each day and visualize having that body. If you need to have got lower cholesterol numbers, get a photo of a lab result with the numbers you desire. Time and again, this has proven to be a very powerful and effective tool.
When eating, think small and recurrent.
A three meal a day program is old school as well as ineffective for effective and lasting weight loss. Eating 6 to 8 small meals a day keeps your blood sugar secure and your hunger pangs at clean.
Everything in moderation, do nothing extreme.
You could almost hear the sigh of relief from those reading this specific tip. But it really is genuine, because your body is so well-balanced and well-designed that it offers contingency plans that go into immediate action at the slightest hint associated with an emergency or imbalance. And this is just how it interprets a sudden caloric reduction which accompanies fad diets, thus explaining why they never do the job.
Think lifestyle change, not diet.
Some people think that we are already hard wired to react adversely towards word diet. While I dont know if this is true, it is an unassailable fact of which to most people, diet sounds short-lived. So think of what you will do as part of your weight loss or eat healthy program as a lifestyle change. That simple paradigm adjust can work wonders.

A lot of people are probably stunned at the simplicity of the ideas but make no mistake about that, the best diet tips are in truth the simplest. These five are the strongest and the very best diet suggestions around. In fact if you would likely only follow all five of these people, you would no longer need to keep anything else in mind since theyve already everything covered.

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Rest day and the power of indulging

Today was my rest day. Not very resting though I have to tell you. I woke up at 6am because some builders were making noise outside my window... At 6am!!! I am still sleeping at that time, and they are already "noising" around!!! And I have to tell you, I went to bed only at 2... So, not much sleep.

At 9 I had to be at the university at the structural equation modelling (SEM) course - which to be honest was interesting and exciting, so I was not - thankfully - falling asleep. After that - as a normal PhD student - I got so excited, I went back home and started using SEM for my own data... By the evening I was exhausted from work, and sleepy. 

I did let myself indulge in a little bit of dinner: carrot-parsnip puree, quinoa (yes, I found it thanks to one of my readers Nina - Thank you so much!), several olives, a slice of cheese, pureed tomatoes with garlic and some weird bio-diet-ham (of only 8 cal a slice... weird! but I simply had to try it). All that with a little glass of wine, some candle light and instrumental piano music of genious Ludovico Einaudi... Perfect evening, just wish my sweetheart was here in person and not just on Skype... :)

Dinner, Week 7 with some extravagances... :)

I LOVE candles... Long time ago I used to find them a waste of time and space... Now I love the little flames...

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Day 85 of Meta and the sunrise to remember

Today is day 85. I feel like dragging it all. I really do. Because I dont want Meta to finish. And no, I am not doing it on purpose, it happens, but I do have the feeling that I want to stop time for a while and hang in there - in that last level. Is it because I am not completely satisfied with the results? I might have been eating a bit too much, I cant check my weight as there are no scales. I have been having problems sticking to the workouts every day, because there is always so so so much to do.

But anyway. Enough of self pity :) The good news - I did day 85 today! 5 more days folks! Just 5 more days! It has been a great wonderful time! Today I did the workout in the evening, but it is still kicking my ass. Some of the MS exercises I can repeat after Tracy, some I really have to stop every 5-10 reps and rest for some seconds. It is tough!!!

But today was a great day. It actually felt too long and may be even as if it were two days. In the morning (well, at night) we woke up at 3:30 and went to see the sunrise on top of the mountain. Well guess what? If it is 15 degrees C here during the day, it was 0 up on the top. But boy was it so worth it!!! We went with 3 (!!!) ski lifts to the very top (where the skiers are even not normally allowed) of Mont Fort. We even saw the Mont Blanc - the highest peak in Western Europe (we dont count the Russian Elbrus, which is higher hohoho... :D) But all in all, guys, judge for yourself - it was even more beautiful in real life!!!

Most of these pictures - simply no comments... We were too frozen to really appreciate it all right there. But after doing this great trip, having these pictures.... We definitely will remember this for a lifetime. 

Do you know what it is like to go from about 15 degrees to 0? This is what it is like... And a hoody doesnt help! There was snow! In the middle of July. Boy was I freezing! 

There is Mont Blanc behind me...  Yeah!

A leisurely ride on a ski lift is nice when the sun is already out and the air is getting warmer. :) 

How big is the difference when you go down... and note - not all the way down! 

All in all, great day! We had a small breakfast after the sunrise and crashed for a nap. Then Liuba did a lot of "window-shopping" online, tried to work and workout. Well, the day was good anyway. :)

Enjoy your surroundings people!

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Day 6 of Metamorphosis or getting back on track

I decided to count only the days of training. Hence, today was my day 6 with a rest day in between 5 and 6.

I dont know whether it is just the rest day, or a rest day spent in a not such a healthy manner, but it was actually harder to workout today. DC was a killer, and MS a murderer :) DC still gives me a great kick, I like it. I feel my calves muscles developing from all the jumping, and they look so good already - much more toned, and I feel them sore. I still have not perfected the MS, I still have to stop in between every 10th rep or so (for exercises 3-4 in particular), and I noticed that it is easier for me to do all the exercises on my left leg! Thats so odd - cos I have always been right-handed through and through! But all in all even though I went through it, I could not do as good as I did in day 5... And I am back to day 2 weight (:(), but oh well - I had fun these past two days, and the Chinese dumplings were oh so good! Today I am back to the diet, and all is good (feel much better too, as guilt is not killing me). But the experience of the last 2 days showed how much your progress can be hindered by couple of drinks and a party. Good lesson. :)

I am back on the train though, am training again, going to have salsa training later on, so thats good. As I am past mid-level 1, so I started dreading level 2 already - I read a lot in other blogs and in TA Community, that it is a killer, so lets see. I have some time to get both really scared and really excited :)

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