More progress

Working out last time at 2am was a huge mistake. I have absolutely NO excuse for delaying my workout until then. I need to just go in there and do it no matter what.

On my next scheduled workout I took the day off. I did not feel like I had skipped a day since i've been considering working out 3 days a week instead of 4. Why? It seems like I lose more weight this way since I have more time to recover. I probably won't do this. I might makes some changes so that i'm doing my upper body on one day and then the lower body the next day.

Something else strange happened last night. I ended up going to bed at 3am or somewhere around there. At 10am I got a phone call and missed it. I immediately went right back to bed and my mom called to see if I wanted to go to the store with her. Guess what time it was? 2:30pm! I had slept from 3am until 2:30PM!!

I've had this occur in the past when I was working really long hours at work AND weight training. It's rare buy once in awhile when i'm really involved with weight training I sleep 12 hours without waking up once! This is usually when I know I don't need to work in the morning.

After I got back I downloaded a few new albums off of Itunes. It was tempting to just let them download and sit around. I instead just got up and listened to my old music instead of waiting.

My progress has been going very well. For a couple weeks it felt like I wasn't losing anything on the scale, but I was still losing fat. So far i'm down THREE PANT SIZES in 2 months and 4 days!

I purchased a smaller then normal size pair of pants a few weeks ago and they were so tight that I could barely button them. Obviously I didn't wear them and said to myself "How am I going to ever fit in these?!". Well a few days ago I finally could! They were a little tight, but perfectly good enough to wear.

My workout today went very well. It was the hardest one i've had in awhile. Instead of squats, this time I did some calf raises. I couldn't go past 20 reps on each set and my calves were burning. Hopefully I can walk tomorrow! I need to focus on my biceps and calves the most right now. Maybe add in some ab crunches.

My diet over the past 2 months has been basically the same every day. I don't count calories at all. I eat when i'm hungry and always try to eat a protein with a carb. Here's a few general things I like to do:

1) Never go without food or skip meals. I don't like the idea of eating 6 meals a day. I think about that and it sounds 10x worse then it really does. I just like to think of it as 3 meals a day and 2-3 small snacks. My meals are fairly small. At every meal I eat a protein with a carb and also eat a ton of vegetables.

2) I avoid as many highly processed foods as I can. If I do eat pasta for some reason it's always the whole wheat variety. I also tend to not eat a lot of bread. If I do eat bread, the heavier it is the better in most cases. Most wheat bread seems to be just white bread in disguise.

3) I don't eat any cheese of any kind or even nuts. Why? No reason and i'm sure it's perfectly ok and healthy to eat a handful of nuts daily. I don't.

4) Oatmeal (steel cut is the best type) is the best, but if I eat cereal it's usually the kind that has a lot of fiber and protein without a lot of sugar.

5) I don't eat yogurt at all. With me, if I eat one, I'm instantly craving another. The plain kind doesn't do this to me.

6) On some cereal that does taste bad I do sometimes put one package of Raw sugar on it. I'm not going to beat myself up over 5g of sugar.

7) Unfortunately I do drink a lot of beverages with fake sugar. I need to stop really. Maybe removing them from a diet will actually help with fat loss? Makes me wonder.

8) Lots of fruit and veggies. In the past I skipped out on 90% of fruit due to the sugar. This time around it's one thing I will NEVER give up. I buy a lot of those pre-cut fruit packages they sell at stores. I love melon and my 2nd favorite is Ugli Fruit! I limit myself to 1 portion of fruit a day. 2 if it's an Apple.

9) My most consumed item is a...veggie patty. I know i'm weird, but they taste good to me and I don't eat meat. I often get a 6" veggie patty at Subway on wheat without oil or cheese. It's pretty healthy. Burger King also has them, but they add Mayo.

10) I still eat out a lot, but it's all healthy. I stick with three types of foods when I eat out. Veggie Burritos with black beans and rice, fake meat products and whole wheat noodles. I just realized that the Veggie Burritos I eat have white flour tortillas. Not a big deal I guess.

11) I take ONE free day a week to eat whatever I want at ONE meal. I avoid sugary foods on my free day because they're empty calories and I just want to forget what they taste like. On my free day I eat 3-4 pieces of Pizza and have no regrets about doing this. I REALLY look forward to this day and it keeps me on track. I once disliked the ideas of free days, but as long as it's one meal, it's ok with me.

12) I drink a protein shake or eat cottage cheese before going to bed. I prefer the ready to drink Myoplex shakes, but they're very expensive. They're not really good for drinking before going to bed, but they don't keep me awake. I think cottage cheese is the absolute best thing to eat before bed if working out.

13) I now take vitamins daily. I like the GNC "Mega Men" vitamins.

14) My late night snack is veggies, fruit or even 98% fat free popcorn. I avoid all those expensive protein bars as much as I can. My favorite is the Nature's Path "Goji Moji" bar found at nearly every Wal-Mart. It's not really a protein bar, but it just mostly fruit and nuts. They look disgusting, but they taste really good!

15) I don't eat any meat, but maybe a few times a month i'll eat eggs. I do drink milk though. A few years back when I was losing weight I limited myself to skinless Chicken Breast. I was never much of a beef or fish eat. Maybe Tuna Fish, Mahi Mahi and lean Hamburger.

16) I avoid pretty much ALL fried foods. A couple times a month I'll have some eggs (usually without the yolk) and some chips and Salsa. I sure do miss Onion Rings!

17) Overall, the thing I avoid the most is white flour. It just makes me sleepy so fast. I don't know why. Second would be sugary foods unless it's fruit.

18) I try to avoid any salad dressing that is not fat free. The "Lite Italian" has like 15g of fat sometimes!