A little painful

As promised here they are. My week 4 results. Since my before pictures are a few years old you can't really compare but you will see that I have still a long way to go to a toned body. I am wearing my Victorias Secret Bikini which is actually too small for me right now. My goal is to wear it to the beach or pool next year and look amazing in it.

I have to admit that I think that the pictures are much worse than the reality. I don't really see myself as shown in the pictures. Maybe this is wishful thinking.

Giving up after week 6

So here I am struggling with myself because I reached that down point I read about in week 6. I did not even realize it was that until about 10 minutes ago when I took a hot shower and tried to find out what this demotivation was I suddenly felt. Actually it started yesterday with crazy cravings and I gave in. My day was filled with Mini Mars bars (a lot of them) and potatoe chips. At least I didn't have a beer with it. I also skipped my LBWO which I was convinced I would make up today until I woke up this morning.

I didn't believe this would happen to me after being so motivated in the beginning. And when I first read that many people especially women give up after 6 weeks I thought: "Well, now that I know that I am prepared."

I find the meal planning very time consuming. When I think about it, it is not even so much the workouts it is the nutrition part that burns me out. I think about nothing but food the whole day.
Maybe I need a different approach. I will try to plan my meals better. Prepare food in advance and freeze it. Actually I found some great things in a bodybuilding magazine. I can adjust the portion sizes and the ingredients slightly and get a BFL perfect meal. What makes 4 portions for a male bodybuilder gives me 8 portions :-)

Anyway, the point of this post is really to let you guys know that I am struggling and maybe reach some of you out there who have the same feelings. I am not going to give in the Giving-up-demon which has found me. I am going to fight him by going to the gym right after this post and do my missed LBWO! I hope this will destroy him once and for all (I think I have been watching "Charmed" too much lately :-)).

Wish you all strength and motivation.

Apple-Tuna snack

Here is one of my favourite snacks within the BFL program:

80g Tuna (in Saltwater)
170g Apple
Just cut the apple into small pieces and mix with the Tuna. You get a BFL perfect snack.

Carbs: 20.2g
Protein: 21.3g
Fat: 1.8g
Calories: 128kcal

BFL 4 week results

After having done the Body for Life program for 4 weeks my bodyfat went down from 23.6 to 22.4% (-1.2%) meaning I lost 600g (approx. 1 pound) of fat! :-) I still have the same weight which equals in my muscle mass going up from 40.4kg to 41.1 kg. I am really happy with these results and they motivate me to continue and keep improving. There are certainly some areas in my eating that I can still improve and I will give this some serious thought once I am back from my vacation. I will have enough time then to plan my meals properly and optimize where needed. I will update this post tomorrow with a picture which still needs to be taken.

Keep going strong.

Pasta-Tuna salad à la Zuzana

Today I chose to do a recipe that was acutally created by Zuzana from bodyrock.tv. I tried this before but now I adjusted the ingrediets to give me a good BFL meal. Check out her website if you are interested. She also has some great bodyweight exercises if you are looking for something you can do after the BFL challenge.

For this you will need:
25g of whole grain Pasta
70g Tuna (not in Oil)
7g dried Cranberries
1/4 Onion
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
Coriander


Cook the pasta al dente. While the pasta is cooking cut the onion into small pieces and add to a bowl. Add the olive oil, vinegar and coriander and mix everything to a sauce. Add the tuna, the cranberries and once done the pasta. Serve still a little warm.

You can double the ingredients and eat half of the dish the next day for lunch.

Enjoy!

Carbs: 22.8g
Protein: 21.9g
Fat: 9.4g
Kcal: 261

BFL - Exotic chicken with pear and feta cheese recipe

So here we have the dinner recipe of my dinner from today. It is a exotic tasting chicken with a perfect balance of carbs and protein.

You will need:
1-2 pears (170g)
50g Feta cheese
50g Chicken breast
Salt, Pepper, Paprica
Cooking spray

Prepare the chicken and the pears by cutting them into 1 inch pieces. Then also cut the feta cheese into 1/4 inch pieces and put aside.

Prepare a frying pan with some cooking spray and add the chicken when hot. Season it with salt, pepper and some paprica according to your taste. Then add the pears and the feta. Cook until the feta is melted and pears are just warm but not too soft.

That is already it. Serve and enjoy.

Carbs: 20.1g
Protein: 20.3g
Fat: 10.1g
Kcal: 258

One week in Greece and keep going strong

I am almost at the end of week 4 of my 12 week Body for Life challenge and next week my vacation on Crete is coming up.

I have put quite some thought into this week to make sure that I can continue my 6 workouts and stay clean with my eating.

I bought myself a Theraband and a jumping rope and downloaded some exercise manuals from the internet. With this equipment I hope to get good workouts if the Hotel doesn't have a gym.

For eating I am sure Greece will offer me some nice healthy meals. I just need to watch my portion size. I will be consistent and leave anything that is too much. Even if I always struggle with wasting food but this time it is what I need to do. I will try to find a local grocery store to buy some healthy things for my "snacks" and bring my protein powder. I don't want to go in a Restaurant 6 times a day :-).

I am convinced that with selfdiscipline and a little creativity I can have a successful Body-for-Life week in Greece.

Wish me luck.

Update: Holiday is over and it was really great. LBWO with a theraband does not work.