cutegreekkoukla’s BodyBlog

Now I’m on a new food plan and I’m gonna try it out for two weeks and see what happens. I eat 6-7 meals a day!! wow! It’s a lot of food, but its all good food; chicken, salmon, sweet potatoes, brown rice, almonds, asparagus, broccoli, steel cut oats, egg whites, fat free yogurt, natural PB, blackberries, strawberries, and flax seeds. Can’t wait to try it out and see what happens! I’m at 1521 cals, 41 fats, 145 carbs, and 141 protein! I hope see results!!! =)

Ok so now it’s time to step things up; tighten up my eating and workouts! I’m working with a trainer once a week, who by the way, is the best! I’ve been with her for two years, she does AMAZING things! She knows her stuff and gives it to you straight! I get my eating plan tomorrow and my workout schedule! I’m super excited to see how this will go!!! We will take bodyfat counts in two weeks and see what happens! Wish me luck….   =)

It started out as head congestion for two weeks, which I was told on Friday was a sinus infection; ok. I could live with that. I got antibiotics to clear it up… then the next day, I woke up coughing, but I go the gym anyway, work out my back hard that morning, and slowly decline. I skipped my 20 minutes of cardio and just went home. By 4pm that day I’m fully a mess. Sore throat, fever, head aches, (my back is sore! lol from working out), I’m exhausted…. it goes on like this for 4 more days! I got slammed. I’ve been out of the gym since Saturday and out of work for the past 3 days (I don’t work Mondays anyways). I thought by now I would be better… I am slowly getting there, but still oh so tired. Does anyone have an remedies to get rid of this thing?? I miss the gym!!! terribly.

soo I was working out before, but only like 3 days a week, max. mostly just 2 days and the other days I was a cardio junkie! lol I am now doing 5 days a week of strength training… and its only been the first week… and wow!! what a difference it makes! Already I feel a difference in all my muscles and I don’t feel as tired and I burn off more calories in the same amount of time as doing cardio. I LOVE it! I love the feeling of strength training… its amazing. Only thing is, I’m sore!!! A good sore, but sore. lol

 Eating clean has been hard, but I found myself tonight faced with chocolates, cake and ice cream at dinner at my moms… and didn’t touch any of it! Actually, I just kept on thinking how I would feel horrible tomorrow in the gym doing my leg work-out! And thought about how it would set me back!! and it worked! I didn’t even crave any of it and it wasn’t hard to pass it up at all! I feel soooo good about this because last week I didn’t do so good. I think it’s all starting to come together and just come natural not to eat the junk and it feels great! Can’t wait to see results in the couple of weeks… lol   Well, hope everyone has a great week!!! 

wow! time flies! I haven’t been keeping up with things and haven’t kept track of what I was eating and it has caught up to me… ugh. it hasn’t been bad foods, just too much of my good food. lol but now it’s time to get back on track and not lose focus just because throws stress doesn’t mean it’s time to indulge when I’m trying to lose weight. I can’t wait to just reach my goal!! Some times it becomes soo frustrating… but I need to stay focused! When you (people) were starting out, was it as difficult or was it easy?? I always wonder how it was for other people… some times I feel like this is a battle for me and I wonder if it was for others? hmm… well, time to get back on track and stay there!!

It’s coming on 2 years since I started all this… I took my first mile run at an unhealthy 180lbs. It was then I realized why I’ve been sad, lathargic, and had no self esteem! I smiled to the world about myself… always held my head with "confidence" but inside I really didn’t believe any of it; which made me eat more and care less…

(my family is Greek… we eat when we’re happy, sad, angry, anxious, excited, lonely, etc… We eat all the wrong things! I grew up on cookies, chips, cake and ice cream. The 4 basic food groups. No, literally. I stayed (fat) skinny until I hit pubity! Then I started the womanly transformation and it all caught up to me right after high school! But I didn’t care. I ate what I wanted, when I wanted. Take-out, eating out, ice cream for breakfast, and dinner if I wanted. It was aweful! I hardly ate veggies and sugar cereals were the best! Anytime of the day or night. I can recall late night snacks and trips to places open 24hrs. McD’s, Burger King, Applebee’s desserts, Ice cream cakes were the best! I was killing myself from the inside out by doing the one thing that keeps me alive… Eating.)

When I finished the mile, something inside of me happened… For the first time I felt some pride in myself. I didn’t stop there, I ran it 3 times a week. I lost ten pounds! I felt ontop of the world! I was 10lbs less for my graduation from college June 2007. I gained some real confidence in myself! I even bought a new dress for the party! By the end of the summer, I was down 20 lbs! I went from 180 to 160… right around my birthday, Aug. 29th. I turned 21 that year. I was feeling great!!

My mom and I started going to the gym together that fall. I always went later in the afternoon or at night but she said if we wanted to go together, I’d have to in the morning… so I did. (She lost 70 lbs!) It was fun. But the scale wasn’t moving much anymore. I was up 5lbs, I was down 3lbs, I was up 2lbs, I was… annoyed! So we signed up for a program at the gym. We had 3 months to do it, and they tracked all our progress. It was the first time I saw what my body fat was at for real. At 165lbs, my body fat was at like 33%!! (oh my!) They measured me all over… all high numbers. But, it introduced us to weights, which I was petrified of! But it got us in the weight room. Needless to say, I had no form and had no idea what muscles were called what! (Tricep??? Hamstring?? Speak english to me!!) The program gave us papers with a routine written down and one day a week we met to show us what the moves were and how to do them. Well, 2 days later when I went to do them on my own, I forgot! And twice we met to talk about nutrition. (another subject that was foreign to me!) I took notes and tried to apply what they told us to everyday life. Well, all-in-all, I didn’t succeed at the program. I think I lost like 5 lbs. (I did meet my trainer in that program though!) My mom had been talking to my aunt, who got a trainer, and came up with the idea we should do that too! So, we started after Christmas in 2007.

I remember the first time my mom and I went to her… we hurt. I couldn’t move. Not the next day, but right after the work-out! WOW!! It’s a sweet pain that I got very familiar to though. So, she worked us out and gave us a meal plan. It was very hard to stick to it. I still kept eating what I wanted, only not as much. I kept at the same weight for a few months and she kept telling me it’s all about what you eat. Eventually, I only cheated like a once a week and eventually, I lost 5% body fat (down to 28%) and 15lbs. I was at 145lbs in June 2007. I was lifting weights and had proper form, I knew what muscles were what, and I was going 3 days a week and cardio 6 days a week. Then, I left for a trip for two weeks… I gained it all back! Everything I was taught, was thrown out the window. Even though I used a tredmill and ran for like an hour a day, I still ate. I don’t know why I ate, but I did. I ate a lot. Then I came back for a month and went on a vacation again. Within that month span I lost 10lbs. I was at 150lbs. I was satisfied but disappointed. This other vacation was a cruise for a week. I ate again. I gained back the 10lbs. No, literally 10 lbs in one week. It is possible when you eat ice cream, and just food all day long! From big breakfast to buffet lunch and gormet dinners. When I got back in August, I was dissappointed again when I tried to keep up with my old schedule at the gym, I couldn’t breathe and it was hard!

In Sept 2007, I told myself I would leave all that eating behind! I would no longer eat like that again! I picked up a book, “The Clean-Eating Diet” by Tosca Reno. I finally understood what my trainer was telling me about eating clean and what it does to my body when I eat the way I used to. It all made sense. On Thanksgiving and Christmas, I ate like normal people would. But they were just one day. Since Sept. I have lost the 15lbs and have started to seriously workout with weights, trying each week to beat the last time I lifted. I’ve noticed a huge change in my body from the last time I was at 145lbs. I have more muscles! (LoL)

I ate the way I did because of stress and it’s how I grew up; it’s how I knew to deal with life. In the last 6 months, when I eat something “bad” I feel horrible about it. I’m still trying to let go of the emotional part of eating. It’s hard and slow but I am doing it. I feel great about myself and my accomplishments. My self esteem is way up and I have the confidence to do anything in life; I hope to one day soon compete. I would love to be able to get where I want and get up on a stage and show off all my hard work. Even if I don’t win… just getting up there would be enough for me.

None of it is easy but if you keep your goals in mind and keep reaching, you’ll eventually touch them before you realize it.

so one of my weakness I’ve notice lately is peanutbutter. (natural) any kind, smooth, creamy, chuncky, salted, unsalted. my diet is EXCELLENT with just lean protein and veggies and some fruit…. but as soon as I get around peanutbutter… mmm, its just so good. I can pass up chocolates, cake, icecream, etc… now my new battle is this one evil. and i notice it is hindering me in losing weight… anyone have any tricks to avoid stuff, esp. when you have no choice of it being there?   (I nanny for three diff. families and they all have it in their house… and their kids love it and have it all the time lol I don’t have it in my house for I know I’d eat it lol) Help!

felt good to vent though. lol

Soooo, I’ve been a big cardio junkie and I think I do too much!! Does anyone have any suggestions for a great cardio routine that will kick my metabolism into high gear???

I’m new to this site and pretty much to the body building world. I recently started wanting to do more and the thought of doing my first competition in 2009 is new. When I first started, I just wanted to lose some weight and look good, then it turned into wanting a healthier lifestyle over all; eating and exercising. Now, it’s more than that. I have this drive in me to become one of those people I was always afraid of and said, I couldn’t ever do that! I have a personal trainer at my gym who has helped build my confidence and has said to me, "You could do a competition if you wanted to!" And it stuck in my head. I get excited thinking about it and that I could actually do that. That’s my strive! I would love to meet others who have the same interests as I do… what better place.   My family has supported me through weight loss but don’t know the extent of how far I want to go just yet. And my friends, well, have no interest in even losing weight… Soooo  hopefully I’ll meet some new friends!!!

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