Tag Archives: health challenge

Day 7: One week milestone!

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  • Snack: 10 almonds
  • Exercise: 45 mins spin class
  • Breakfast: Scrambled eggs (half egg whites, half regular), sauteed escarole (I had never heard of this veg before), celery, coffee with milk
  • Lunch: Mixed salad with loads of veg, chicken, avocado
  • Snack: Half a carton of Chobani Greek yogurt and half a banana
  • Dinner: Kale salad with smoked salmon and chia seeds, apple cider vinegar, nectarine

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Today marked the one week milestone in my 100 Healthy Days in SF challenge. Whilst there are still 14.3 weeks left in the challenge I’m going to go right ahead and celebrate! Whilst the victory is small, I feel proud of myself for being consistent – both in terms of eating healthfully and blogging every day. Go me!

kale party

One week in and how do I feel? Not radically different- I obviously haven’t suddenly lost a stone or developed a six pack (not that I would want a six pack), but I do feel good. I feel slightly more alert and energetic than usual. I’ve also noticed that I’m not battling any major sugar cravings, which is amazing.

I was even able to go to Mitchell’s ice cream parlour in the Mission with my roommate last night and resist getting a scoop. Anyone who has ever been to this place will know how hard it is to say no. Their ice cream is goooood! Check them out. My fave is the Grasshopper Pie. Arrgghhh enough talk about ice cream.

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Mitchell’s Ice Cream parlour in The Mission. Check them out! 688 San Jose Avenue

 

It just goes to show that even one week of healthy eating can have a positive effect on your well-being. I’m looking forward to seeing how I feel at the end!

Michelle x

Day 6: The 100 Healthy Days in SF Rules

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Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, steamed greens, raw red peppers, raw celery, coffee with milk

Exercise: 1 hour PT session

Lunch: Mixed salad with loads of veggies and grilled chicken, balsamic vinegar

Snack: Mixed salad with turkey and apple cider vinegar

Exercise: 1.5 hours hip hop class

Snack: One apple with a carton of plan chobani greek yogurt

Dandelion and nettle tea during the day

 

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Today was the first day back after vacation and I was ready to launch myself full throttle into the 100 Healthy Days challenge. I am feeling super motivated at the moment! May have something to do with all the fit bods on Venice.

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Muscle Beach, Venice. There was a body building competition on!

I thought it might be a good idea to ‘jot down’ ‘on paper’ (funny how that expression is now practically obsolete with the internet) what the rules of my 100 Healthy Days challenge are. Health and healthy eating can mean different things to different people. As such, I best be specific about what I’m doing lest I draw the wrath of any health zealots out there. ‘You ate store-bought Greek yoghurt?!? That’s not healthy – you need to buy a cow, and a field and make your own.’

 

I’ve also decided to approach this in stages. I don’t think it’s a wise move to radically change everything about your diet and your daily habits in one go. I tried that once and I lasted one very miserable day before gorging myself on ALL of the carbs, meat, sugar, coffee, salt, dairy, cooked veg etc etc that I came across. 

So, for the next 14 days these are my rules:

1. No processed carbs – bread, crackers, pasta (I’ve decided tortilla chips are fine. I’m not ready to let go yet).

2. No sugary foods – chocolate, ice cream (arrrghhhh), cakes etc

3. When I go out for a meal and host a dinner party I will limit myself to one glass of wine

4. When I go out for drinks or a night on the town I will limit myself to three vodka sodas

 

Sound simple? In theory, but I know i’m going to find this challenging. Particularly, the alcohol rules. No jokes about the Irish liking to drink please. 😉 Even though it’s probably true.

Let’s do this!

 

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The Canadian part of me loves rules.

 

 

 

Day 5: Labor Day – last day of summer and vacation

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Breakfast: Turkey, slice of cheese, tomato, low fat greek yoghurt, strawberries

Snack: Banana and iced coffee

Lunch: Grilled salmon salad with goats cheese and almonds, glass of wine

Dinner: Selection salads at airport (edamame, tomato and avocado, kale and peach, chickpea)

Snack: Crudites, hummus, sunflower seeds (on the airplane!)

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Today was Labor Day – my first one in the US. I had no idea what the purpose of this day was so I had to look it up. It celebrates the social and economic achievements of workers apparently! It also heralds the last day of summer. Sad face.

Today was also the last day of my mini vacation, which was rather apt. We spent it walking down Venice Beach and then headed to Hollywood Blvd. Venice Beach is a bit seedier than I imagined, but there were a lot of ‘typical’ sights to see – rollerbladers with strollers, surfers with six packs (!), skaters in the skate park and a massive body building competition by muscle beach! Hollywood Blvd was interesting enough and we got a bonus view of the Hollywood sign, which was lucky!

As for healthy eating, I was able to avoid poor choices for the most part. I decided to give the eggs a break as I had had them so many days in a row. So, I went for turkey instead. A few years ago I would have turned green at the thought of turkey for breakfast (or even eggs for that matter) but since giving up cereal about 2 years ago, I’ve come around. It’s not that bad!

A surprise for me was the snack on the Delta flight home. Not only was it free, it was healthy! Crudites, hummus and sunflower seeds. It’s very rare to see this on any flight – it’s normally pretzels or a big lump of sugary carb, Interestingly, they were only serving Coca-Cola drinks on the flight. I got to thinking, as Carrie SATC would say – did Coke sponsor the snacks to try to associate themselves with healthy options?

On the flight home I mused over my healthy eating challenge and how I fared during the vacation. Overall, I would happily declare it a success. Whilst not all of my choices were 100% clean or healthy I definitely made a more concerted effort than I normally would. I did allow myself a glass of wine, the odd piece of cheese and some frozen yogurt, but in general I avoided the really bad stuff- processed carbs and excess sugar. If I had been 100% clean I think I would have been slightly miserable. And what’s the point in that?

Tomorrow I will be throwing myself wholeheartedly into the challenge – clean living and back to exercise!!

Skater boy at the skate park in Venice Beach

Skater boy at the skate park in Venice Beach

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Baywatch!

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Me on Venice Boardwalk

Day 3: Hangry and suffering from FOMO. But happy.

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Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with spinach and mushrooms, bacon, apple
Snack: Iced coffee and banana
Lunch: Seared Ahi salad with glass of wine
Snack: Frozen Yoghurt with fresh blueberries and peaches
Dinner: Small slice of bread with pesto, Seafood soup in marinara sauce, grilled ciabatta, white wine.

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Soooo, today was a challenge to eat healthily for two main reasons.

1. I got hangry.

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This is me feeling hangry

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, hangry means hungry and angry. This came upon me just as we got into Santa Barbara. We had no healthy snacks in the car, I hadn’t eaten in 5 hours, and there was also lots of fighting over directions trying to get off the freeway. Suffice to say I acted like a starved, raving beast, which was no fun for anyone, particularly my travel companions when they tried to reason with me. “I don’t give a flying #%%-%$# where we eat. I need food NOW.” Thankfully, we found a nice restaurant so I was able to make a healthy choice. However, we all agreed we needed some wine to get over the trauma.

Lesson learned here was, plan ahead, bring snacks and eat every 3 hours to avoid getting hangry and being disowned by your family.

2. I had FOMO.

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Me drooling over the frozen yogurt

FOMO stands for the ‘fear of missing out.’ I had that today when my Mom decided a frozen yogurt would be nice after lunch. I had a lovely apple all ready to go but FOMO got to me so I caved and got yogurt. (Could still have been the effects of being hangry in fairness… It took a while to recover). Also, at dinner my step dad was raving about the bread and pesto he was inhaling as we waited for our meals, which gave me FOMO so I had to sample. It tasted just OK (I think he was hangry so was just grateful to have food).

Lesson learned here is that I’m going to experience FOMO many times over the course of these 100 days. Realistically, I may not actually be missing anything that great. I just need to remember my goals and become friends with that feeling.

Road trip wise, we had a lovely day. Not as much beautiful scenery as yesterday, but we had a lovely time wandering around SLO and Santa Barbara. Very different towns- SLO is quite sleepy and calm (lovely little plaza and the mission is pretty) and Santa Barbara is a lot busier and full of tourists, but with beautiful Mediterranean style architecture. We finally arrived in Santa Monica and hung out on the pier. Very touristy, lots of amusements, bright colors and smelled like sugar.

Universal Studios tomorrow plus a Labor Day BBQ. Another day, another challenge!

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Palm trees- so quintessentially LA

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Mom and Step Dad dipping their feet into the Pacific Ocean

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Winning BIG on the whack-a-mole