Goodbye caffeine...it's been eye opening

Welcome to Try-Athlete the blog where I try all the latest fitness and diet trends so you don't have to. This week I started a cleanse, I decided since it's the new year why not start fresh and get rid of all the bad toxins in my body. I bought a "Complete Body Cleanse" at Trader Joe's that contained three capsules, fiber, liver and digestive.

While on this cleanse you are supposed to limit your consumption of processed foods, carbohydrates, beef, pork, dairy, wheat and soy products. Since I am a vegan I don't eat most of those foods anyway, but under that list was another that stated best to avoid caffeine, alcohol, sugar, potatoes, saturated fats, trans fats and artificial sweeteners. The word that stuck out the most to me was "caffeine," I really enjoy my cup of coffee in the morning. Even though I wake up most days with lots of energy I still enjoy drinking my coffee as kind of a morning ritual. 

New year and new me was starting to be a little harder than I thought. But since I always finish what I start I decided to cut out coffee and caffeine during this two week total body cleanse. This was my first week with no coffee in my system and although it was tough at times I was able to get through it.

Week 1:

As that famous song goes the first days are the hardest days, and isn't that the truth when you are trying to illiminate something from your diet. I always seem to find the first two to three days the most challenging when cutting out sugar,  carbs, etc. as well. 

The first day was weird it was like my body didn't register it didn't have coffee in it. I don't have coffee every morning so my body probably thought it was one of those days. When Day 2 arrived, my boyfriend and I went out to breakfast and we usually both have a couple cups of coffee but I obstained. His smelled amazing and I even asked him if I could smell his cup up close and personal, he let me. The aroma of coffee is almost better than coffee itself. I was low energy that day and I think it was because it had finally kicked in, no coffee and no caffeine. Later that night when I was going to bed, I couldn't get to sleep. I thought it was odd that I hadn't had caffeine and yet I could fall asleep. I think when you detox, toxins that have been in you for so long come out it many ways. I think the fact I couldn't get to sleep was caffeine coming out of my body. 

The third and fourth days were easier but I still thought about coffee and I still craved it. On the fifth and sixth day I was ok I didn't think much about coffee. Since I'm doing this two week cleanse I feel like I've stopped eating a lot of different foods and I miss coffee and sweets the most. I don't eat pasties but for some reason this last week I've been craving breakfast pastries like scones and crossiants. I just think about dipping those pastries in a heaping cup of coffee! But I won't, I have another week to go on this cleanse so I won't be having coffee for another week. Overall, I think this cleanse will be worth it, I am starting to feel healthier and clean inside and out. I recommend doing a cleanse a couple times a year just to refresh yourself. So until next time stay strong and stay fit!

LesMills Combat Week 2

Welcome to Try-Athlete the blog where I try all the latest fitness and diet trends so you don't have to. This week was week # 2 of LesMills Combat and I was still sore from week one. I am starting to see results on my body. My abs are coming back, I used to have a six pack and was unmotivated for a couple of week and noticed my six pack was starting to go away. But this week I started to see definition again in my abs so I am going to keep it up.

Week 2 brought some new workouts I hadn't done yet. One was called "Hiit: Plyo" using high intensity interval training with cardio. This workout was tough, and definitely got my heart rate up. Just like last week their was a burpee series and that was the hardest part of the workout. Doing burpees for 3 minutes straight will tire out just about anyone.

The other new workout I did was "Combat 60," a 60 minute kick-boxing aerobic workout that worked my entire body. I noticed that I'm using my shoulders a lot with this workout and my arms are sore almost everyday. I'm excited about this because I played soccer growing up so I've always had defined legs but it has taken me awhile to build up my arm and shoulder muscles.

Another thing I wanted to touch on this week is diet, because 70% of your of how you look is based on your diet. So like I said earlier I was unmotivated for a couple weeks and I wasn't eating as healthy as I usually do and I definetly saw that on my body. But last week and this week since I started LesMills Combat I have been back to my healthy diet. LesMills Combat comes with a meal plan/nutrition guide and I've tried to follow it to the best of my ability. I am a vegan so their are a few modifications I have made here and there to accommodate my dietary restrictions. A typical day includes oatmeal for breakfast, a smoothie or energy bar for a snack mid-morning, rice cakes with hummus, avocado and tomato for lunch and a vegatable salad for dinner. Grazing on bananas and nuts as snacks when needed. 

I'm starting to feel like my old self again having endless energy and I attribute that to working out and eating healthy...that truly is the secret to my success. I would recommend this workout and diet guide to people that are looking to work hard and see results. Hang in there Try-Athletes and until next time stay strong and stay fit!

Are you a Vegetarian?

Welcome to Try-Athlete, the blog where I try the latest fitness and diet trends so you don't have to. This week I struggled with my Vegetarianism. I don't like labels I eat healthy but I don't necessarily put myself into any categories even though I pretty much am vegan and vegetarian and eat mostly raw as well. I'm not sure why I don't really tell people I am these things.
I have watched so many food documentaries lately that it seems cruel and horrible to eat animals that lived an inhumane life just to die for me to eat. I haven't eaten any meat, poultry or fish in over a month and I haven't missed it. It's interesting when you cut something out of your diet for a few weeks and you end up never looking back.
I just want to be socially conscious about what I'm putting in my body and how it was raised and treated. This week was a struggle because we went to a seafood restaurant right by the ocean and I love seafood. As soon as we sat down I saw this lobster salad that looked amazing and I don't even like lobster. But something else caught my eye when scanning the menu the Crab & Shrimp Louis, I used to love crab and shrimp before I started on this journey.
I ordered the Louis with no egg and the dressing on the side but I still ordered it with the crab and shrimp. When it arrived it looked healthy and delicious but a part of me felt guilty because or the crab and shrimp. I ate it plain without the dressing and each one of the components was so flavorful the dressing wasn't needed. I ate the whole thing and once I was done the remorse set in. I couldn't shake the feeling that I had done something wrong I didn't know where they got their seafood from or if it was caught wild and not harmful to other sea life. I knew if my some of my girl-friends were with me they would look down on me.
I feel like we all make mistakes and struggle sometimes with change and new ideas. I got myself out of my funk by realizing I'm not perfect and no one really is even though we all try to come off like we have all the answers we don't. Sometimes we mess up or fuck up or order the wrong thing but it's our future choices that can help us feel better about ourselves. Next time I go to a seafood restaurant I most likely won't order fish because I will remember how I felt the previous time. Or next time I won't even put myself in that situation I will just pick a different restaurant something vegan or vegetarian or raw.
As long as you feel good about your decisions and find out if the meat/poultry/fish you are consuming was humanly raised, grass fed, wild and all the other things we need to ask then enjoy. I choose to cut all animal protein out of my diet because I've seen and heard too much to eat those things but even I had a slip up and I think it's normal to sometimes fall and get back up, dust yourself off and continue on your healthy path. This is a journey that has just started for some of us and I believe hiccups will happen but we can overcome them and it will just make us stronger! It is a marathon not a sprint so until next time stay strong and stay fit!

Vegucated

Welcome to Try-Athlete the blog where I try the latest fitness and diet trends so you don't have to. Last week I watched a very informative documentary called "Vegucated." It was about a young woman who is a vegan and got 3 New Yorkers to become vegan for 6 weeks. It was a very inspiring film and I learned a lot about how farm animals are treated in this country. Some of the scenes in the movie where hard to watch because they showed the inhumane treatment of the animals. At the end of the film all 3 of the people stayed vegan.
I decided hey I should do that, I already eat mostly fruits and veggies. I do indulge in the occasional turkey burger with cheese, which would have to be cut out. I realized that not everyone knows what a vegan is when my co-worker brought ceviche (fish) to our employee party and said he thought it was vegan. A vegan is no meat (including fish), poultry and dairy. Vegan's don't purchase leather or any animal products to wear as clothing as well.
I decided to try a week of being vegan and see how I felt at the end of it. I usually eat oatmeal with almond milk for breakfast. No meat or dairy to start my day. Almond milk is a fabulous milk substitute and it's delicious. I work at a breakfast/lunch joint which serves epic bacon. I haven't had a piece of bacon in probably over 6 months but I serve it everyday. This week I felt conflicted serving bacon after I had watched what happens to pigs in the film. The restaurant I work at serves local farm fresh food so I was optimistic that the bacon I was serving was treated with respect. All week at work I was bothered by how much meat and dairy people ordered. Breakfast is supposed to be the most important meal of the day and all these people were starting their day with grease, fat and cholesterol.
Lunch was a little hard because the kitchen staff makes our lunch and they made a salad with cheese covering it and fried chicken sandwiches. I didn't eat either of them instead I waited till work was over and went to our local organic cafe Palm Green and ordered a hummus wrap. No meat, no cheese and it was amazing!
The week started to fly by and I didn't really struggle with being a vegan because when I saw meat or thought about it I remembered all the horrible but true facts I had learned about in the film Vegucated. One night I made myself a smoothie with spinach, banana, mango, coconut oil and almond milk and I got all the protein and nutrients needed and was full just from eating a smoothie that was 100% vegan.
At the end of the week I decided to stay vegan for another week, it wasn't that much of a challenge for me any more to eat vegan so why stop. I challenge everyone to research where your food is coming from especially the meat products you are eating. If everyone saw what was happening to animals behind closed doors they would be vegan too.
Overall I recommend becoming a vegan I had more energy this week, so until next time stay fit!