Week 3 recap

It was my third week on the 20/20 Lifestyles program, and after a relatively slow week last week, I stepped it up a notch this week. I focused on eating earlier in the day and spreading my calories out more throughout the day. That seemed to work well, as I weighed in yesterday and lost four pounds over the last week! So that is a total of ten pounds in the last three weeks!!!

I worked out with my trainer on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and J. had me add the stair climber into my regular cardio routine. I did a full ten minutes tonight, and then switched to the elliptical machine for 25 minutes. I also increased the intensity of my elliptical routine to the second level.

In addition, J. added some additional weight into my arm and leg weight routines, and focused more on the plank. I've actually gotten to holding the plank for 40 seconds without dying, and I started in week one at two sets of ten seconds each. He says that when I get to a full minute, we'll start mixing it up and doing it with one arm or leg, etc. I laughed a little, but the truth is that I'm already doing things that I'd have laughed about three weeks ago. So, it's definitely possible.

I met with my nutritionist and individual counselor this week also. I got cheese back this week, so L. and I went to Whole Foods tonight to get some good goat cheeses and meats. I am also going to try a couple of non-cow cheeses made from almonds and rice. My nutritionist swears that these particular brands are good, and don't taste like rubber, but I'm a bit skeptical. However, she's a vegetarian and eats them all the time, so it's worth a try. The weird thing is going be actually eating cheese again. I haven't eating anything but goat cheese for years and years and years. I had to ask L. what the difference between the flavors of mozerella, pepper jack, swiss, etc. are. So, on top of whether these cheeses made from almonds and rice actually taste good, I don't even know whether I like the flavors of cheese that they're supposed to taste like. If it's anything like Boca burgers, I will not be happy. I don't really like things that are masquerading around like a different food. I found the whole Boca burger thing really gross, and I've never tried one again. I'd much rather have a Garden Burger because at least it's not trying to taste like beef.

Other than that, I can tell that I'm starting to get some muscle definition going on, and I was surprised when I got out of the shower the other day actually saw muscles in my back. I told J. that I'm getting ripped :) I've also decided to name the plank after him as J.'s torture exercise.