Eating Clean and Training Mean

Guess who's back? Back again... Great, now I'm gonna have that song in my head....

Hello to my Fellow Fresh Foodies!!

It's been over a year since I even logged into my Fresh Foodie channel on you tube or this blog.  I had to think long and hard just to remember the passwords.  But here I am, once again, ready to start over. 
This has been a crazy year.  I moved 3 times, lived and studied abroad for a few months, all the time struggling with health issues.  At the beginning of this summer, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired.  I'm 31, way too young to feel this rotten almost all of the time. 


THE WORKOUT PLAN
Some friends of mine have been raving about their CrossFit workouts and how much fun they had.  I noticed that instagram has a thriving weight loss community and many of them were raving about CrossFit as well.  I looked it up and found out there was a gym (or as CrossFitters call them: a BOX) near me.  I was told I could have two free trial visits and see if I liked it.  I was hooked. I did the trial visits the last week of June,  signed up at the beginning of July and have never stopped going.  CrossFit is a PERFECT way to keep your workouts fresh.  You never do the same workout twice unless its a "Benchmark" or "Hero" WOD that you are revisiting to see how your fitness has improved since the last time you tried it.  My membership is for two days a week and I supplement it with two Crossfit home workouts per week as well.

After a WOD in my local BOX

THE EATING PLAN

Doing research and getting excited!

But, as we all know, what we take in is the most important part of trying to lose fat for good.  The recommended eating plan for Crossfitters is the paleolithic diet, (also known as "caveman" or paleo).  But as a vegetarian, this eating plan was far too meat-centric for my lifestyle.  So, I once again turned to the instagram weight loss community to see what they were eating.  And that is where I found out about "Eating Clean".  I went to the library, borrowed "The Eat-Clean Diet" and read it from cover to cover.  It's an easy read with lots of helpful suggestions and explanations. I eat 4 to 5 small, "clean" meals per day.  I try to make sure there are no more than 3 or 4 hours between each meal. And I stop eating 3 hours before bed.

Yes, I took the book with me to the grocery store,
It has a great pantry list inside.

Grocery Haul after my first Eat Clean grocery shop

THE APPS
I do everything on my iPhone these days, and tracking my eating and weight loss is definitely one of those things.  I have found four apps to be especially helpful (and fun) to use.  Here are my four faves of the summer so far:

#4: TimerCam
This is a self-timer camera app.  It can be set to 5, 10, 15 or 30 seconds and can use the front or back camera on the iPhone.  This is the app I use to take my body shot progress pictures (and outfits of the day for my lifestyle channel.)

TimerCam Icon

OOTD Shot for other channel

#3: PicFrame
This is the app that helps make collages with the option to add labels, filters and backrounds.  Its a fast and easy way to tell a story of several pictures with just one upload.  I can show ingredients along with the finished meal, WOD (workout of the day) along with my #sweatyface or before and after shots. The possibilities are endless!

Example of one day of Eat Clean Meals

After a WOD at the Box,
WOD and #sweatyface

#2: WorkoutHero

What the app icon and
welcome screen looks like.

These are collages made using the
WorkoutHero app along with PicFrame.

Here is what the screen looks like
 after you enter a WOD into the system.

Most crossfitters have a notebook at the gym where they keep track of their workouts along with details like finishing times, weights and reps. This is the app that helps me keep track of my workouts.


#1: Instagram!!
Of course!  This app helps share my pictures with the online weight loss community.  There, other members with similar interests can share encouragement and suggestions.  You can add filters and link to your Twitter and Facebook accounts for ease of sharing with your other social networks. I post pictures of meals, workouts, grocery hauls and more.  I post several pictures every day, so this is the fastest and easiest way to stay up to date in between blog posts and YouTube videos, which I don't do very often.

My profile page. Follow me and see my daily updates!

THE CHALLENGES

THE BASICS:
The first month on my new plan, my challenge was to turn "the basics" into a habit.  I Eat Clean 4-5 times per day and do a CrossFit WOD 2 times per week at the BOX and 2 times per week on my own. 

Here are my results:

Find this picture on my instagram and
it has all of the stats in the caption!

Exceeded my WOD goal!

AUGUST 2012: THE BASICS + ....Portion Sizes
The current 31 day challenge is for the month of August! The goals are the same as the BASICS challenge, but with a special emphasis on PORTION SIZES!

Whether you join me, someone else's challenge or make a challenge of your own, let's continue to challenge ourselves and, as always, keep it fresh!

XO,
Fresh Foodie