Jillian Michaels’ Body Revolution Kickstart, Days 1-2

March 24, 20132 Comments

It’s the end of the second day of Jillian’s seven day kickstart to the Body Revolution, and I am really, really tired. I cheated and jump started the workouts on Wednesday, when I got my kit through, but I had to wait until Friday to get all my groceries. So, I decided to do an extra couple of days of doubled-up exercise before I actually began the programme, and I’m really feeling it today – my fourth day of hour-long exercises. I did not want to get up today, but I did, because I had to go into town with my parents to help my mum pick out some new clothes. Then, I got back and did workout 2 and cardio 1. I have to do them back to back, otherwise there’s just no psyching me up for it! I was totally prepared to half ass it, but Jillian managed to shout me out of that idea, and I gave it as much as I had.

So, that’s where I am with exercises – I thought it was a bit of a pushover at the start, to be honest, but now I’m rethinking slightly! I think a lot of Jillian ‘veterans’ find the first couple of workouts to be fairly easy, but I know she’ll be stepping it up a notch towards the end of this month. I was particularly unhappy to hear the phrase ‘jump lunges’ – probably my least favourite exercise bar cardio in plank (mountain climbers and the like!).

Food wise, it’s going really well actually. I started off on Friday with some delicious bacon, eggs, tomatoes and… avocado…

Jillian demands nitrate free bacon, so that’s what I got. Very expensive, and thick cut too. I much prefer thin cut bacon, but weirdly it seems like the more expensive the bacon, the thicker the cut. I’d happily pay for thin cut fancy bacon but you can never seem to find it! This was hard enough to find anyway, I had to search through all the product details to find one that’s nitrate free. An unfortunate side effect of this is that the bacon comes out slightly grey when you cook it – the pinkness is mostly due to the addition of nitrates.

Still, I’d eat it… wouldn’t you? I added some delicious lemon pepper that we bought on holiday in Cornwall last year. I knew that would come in handy! I wasn’t just buying it willy nilly, promise!

Even though there’s not really much reason to do this, I’ve been logging my calories with MyFitnessPal as well as following the diet. I was fairly concerned when my breakfast came up as 343 calories, rather than the 269 calories it was listed as. Yikes! Luckily, it seems as though the rest of the recipes come in way under the estimates given… Or at least, my versions do!
Lunch was the grilled salmon citrus salad – loved this. I really love salmon!

I probably shouldn’t have, as sodium is a bloater if ever there was one, but I used a simple Japanese recipe to perk this up and really bring out the flavour of the fish. I salted it 15 minutes before eating, then right before cooking, just wiped the salt away, and grilled it. The flavour is amazing.

I have to confess, I slightly overcooked this, so I’ll keep the cooking time to a minimum the next time I make it! It came in at just 184 calories, which is amazing – and I felt full until dinner. Well, the story there is that I didn’t get to eat breakfast until 1pm, so lunch was at 5… Let’s say, I broke Jillian’s ‘no eating after 9pm’ rule right out of the gate, and I also managed to end up eating my snack *after* dinner. I only have myself to blame! I had an epic cleaning session with my mum on the Friday morning, so I just didn’t eat until late. Oh well – you can’t always control the circumstances, but you can control the damage, right? Right!
Dinner was more fish, this time, tilapia!

I really like fish, and capers, and rosemary… So this was delicious! The rocket was pretty ropey, though – wild stuff from Ocado, it was absolutely full of insects and had to be washed several times and picked over leaf by leaf before I was happy to eat it. I wasn’t so crazy about having to do this, but there was no way I was chucking it all out!

It came with the now-familiar salad with dressing and tomatoes – something makes me think I’ll be sick of lettuce by the end of the week! I tried to buy plenty of varieties, so let’s hope I can stave off the boredom. I also bought Waitrose’s low fat essential vinaigrette, which I quite like, and some low-fat Caesar dressing (in place of Ranch, which really isn’t common in the UK) for the Chef’s Salad later in the week. Again, the calorie count for this was much lower than was listed, at just 184 calories. Then, after that, I had my snack of hummus and veggies.
I am cheating somewhat here, because I just can’t give up tea. I have milk in it, which amounts to a serving of dairy, which on the days where I also have yogurt, is not recommended in the plan. I also have a couple of sugars and some sweetner along the way… GASP! No one’s perfect. That’s right, not even me – I just seem perfect. Big distinction! Needless to say, any failures as a result of this are squarely on me. No one can say I wasn’t warned. I am prepared to face the consequences of my tea drinking like a true Englishwoman – with a stiff upper lip!
Today was Saturday – I cheated again a little bit with my breakfast and had the Greek yogurt, cinnamon and almonds – WITH HONEY! Yes, a teaspoon of honey. I’m so sorry… No, I’m not, because sour Greek yogurt actually makes me feel a tiny bit sick, and I can’t eat bacon and smoked salmon all week long, as much as I’d love to.
Lunch had to be out, because I was in town all day, but luckily, Pret a Manger came to my rescue with their tuna salad, a fair substitute for the Chef’s Salad:

It does help that I *love* this salad, and it’s only about 315 calories with the dressing included.
Now, another confession – I had a cappuccino when I was out. I counted this as my snack, does that make you happy? I sure hope so, because by the time I got home I was starving and exhausted, but I had to grit my teeth, knuckle down, and exercise until I felt like I was going to black out. It was 8pm before I ate, but if that’s okay with Jillian, then I’m counting it as a minor victory. It did help that dinner was steak.

Mmm, steak! I put steak seasoning on some sirloin and fried it with cooking spray. I’m not grilling a steak in our grill – it’s a pathetic, fake grill and I only honour steak with the mightiest of kitchen utensils – the frying pan. The salad of tomatoes and olives was delicious, and the spinach was pretty good too. Although the recipe title says it comes with wilted spinach, the recipe itself doesn’t really get you to wilt the leaves (other than with the heat of the steak sitting on top), so I took the liberty of wilting them in the pan while the steak was resting. Calorie count: 299 calories.
So, two days down. I’m definitely missing puddings and Coca Cola Zero, although I’m not missing carbs that much. I could eat some fries and bread, but I’m not going to kill my cat to get them. I can’t believe how satisfied I’ve felt just eating various types of salad and a protein portion every meal, it’s really eye-opening. Having the recipes has definitely helped me stay on track in that respect, but then it’s still early in the process and I’ve not had to repeat any meals yet… So, we’ll see! But so far, other than my weary body and aching muscles, I’m feeling very positive and motivated to continue!

Graze Nibblebox and Lightbox reviews

January 25, 2013January 24, 2013Leave a comment

I have to say, Graze have really stepped up their game. The company creates boxes of nibbles and snacks that they send to you (postbox friendly!) on a weekly schedule (or daily, depending on how much you like Grazing!) so you can eat healthily at your desk.

Anyone who has ever tried dieting for any length of time will be able to tell you that healthy eating and low calorie eating are not the same thing. Avocados are a case in point. Full of healthy fats and vitamins, these beautiful little fruits will set you back 160 calories for 100g – about double the calorie count of an apple. Thusly, addicted as I was to Graze’s delicious offerings, I eventually had to cancel. The boxes could be as much as 800 calories a time, and although you’re not supposed to eat them all in go, I have to confess there were times when the lot would disappear over the course of a day. At the time, I wrote to the company to tell them that I had to cancel because of the high calorie content of some of their boxes, and although they promised to look into it, I have to confess I didn’t really believe them.

So now it’s time to eat my… well, not words – thoughts? Anyway, since I’ve been gone, Graze has been busy, and so when I got an email offering me some half price boxes as a New Year offer, I was bowled over by their new ranges when I actually checked the site out. I think when I had left Graze was introducing breads, but now they have a delicious range of crackers and dips, and delightful looking bakes, including an entire range dedicated to my favourite British institution – high tea!

Yes, when they say high tea, they mean it quite literally – they even send you the tea bag! And, it comes guilt-free.

As you can see from that logo on the packet in the top right, this is from the Graze Light range. When you sign up, you can select a nibblebox (which I tried first) or one of the Graze nutritionboxes, which comes in three types; the eatwell box, boostbox and lightbox. The lightbox has all of the same great goodies as the nibblebox, except no dark chocolate, or flapjacks. You’ll be sent trays that contain between 50 and 150 calories each (and you get four trays in each delivery).

Here’s another little treat I had in my last Graze box – sticky chocolate pudding. For 176 calories, you get a mix of milk chocolate drops, jumbo raisins and green raisins – not too naughty at all, in my opinion! I also highly recommend the Korean rice crackers – it was Graze who originally got me addicted to these beauties, and for that I am eternally grateful to them!

I’m delighted with Graze’s new range – but a little bit disappointed that they no longer offer fresh fruit. I can understand why, because there were times when my fruit turned up a little – well, fizzy. And, sometimes it felt a bit ridiculous working from home and eating grapes that had been posted to me when there was a whole bowl of fruit in the kitchen! Still, I hope that they can include the option for fresh fruit at some point in the future when they can source stuff that stays fresher for longer.

If you want to try Graze yourself for free, use my code! Type in 6KDFWFW at Graze.com, or follow this link: http://www.graze.com/uk/p/6KDFWFW. You’ll get a free Graze box when you sign up, and I’ll get £1 off my next order – now there’s incentive for both of us! Each Graze box costs £3.89, and you can cancel any time you like.

If you already get Graze boxes, let me know what you think!

Review: Graze.com (hannahcburke.wordpress.com)

The 1953 Vintage Diet: Day Three

January 11, 20131 Comment

Yesterday was the third day of the vintage diet, and I was actually on the day that’s written on the sheet! I had to skip Wednesday because the lamb I bought had to be eaten, so here’s what was on the plan:

As usual, I took this as more of a guideline, and had my usual toast and Flora in the morning (146 calories), saving the haddock for lunch. Cooking anything for breakfast is a bit of a nightmare, in my opinion, but I can just about manage toast. It did mean that lunch was pretty darn tasty, though – a bed of spinach, topped with a poached egg and some poached haddock, plus the fruit salad (only 300 calories)!

Dinner was an eccentric proposal to say the least – endive and watercress salad with lamb cutlets? I couldn’t face the prospect of not having anything with that, so I cheated and added some wild rice. This is a pretty big cheat in all honesty, because the idea seems to be no carbs in the evening, but I definitely didn’t have enough lamb to make up for the lack of carbs…

This meal (including the rhubarb, which I bought in a tin) came to about 500 calories, so the day wasn’t too bad at all… Except… Well, let’s just say, I broke down slightly at about half ten, when I was still working on my deadline and feeling pretty sorry for myself, so I ate a packet of Poppets. There may have been some white mice involved too. Either way, I pretty much nixed my calories for the day. But, the only way to be successful at something if you don’t get it right first time is to try again, right? The absolute worst thing you can do on a diet is to give up after a little hiccup. So… ONWARD!

The 1953 Vintage Diet: Day Two

January 10, 2013Leave a comment

My second day on the 1953 diet continued in a very similar vein to the first – namely, swapping things around! Here’s what I was scheduled to eat today, and when:

I don’t know about you, but making cauliflower and braised onions at lunch isn’t my idea of a relaxing break… I ended up dispensing with the orange for breakfast, and the sliced lamb for lunch (no idea where to get deli lamb from, in all honesty…). I then moved the cauliflower to dinner, and the cheese and biscuits to lunch. Are you keeping up? It’s getting a little bit complicated round these parts!

I very clumsily worked out the original calories of this plan as 287 for breakfast, 343 for lunch, and 421 for dinner – but that was before I worked out how to make the braised cauliflower and onions, so the end result for me ended up being higher even after I ditched the lamb and orange. (The end total was around 1050 calories.)

So, for breakfast, I had a scrambled egg on toast with tea, which was 247 calories. Lunch was three cream crackers, a slice of mature cheese, and a pear (delicious lunch, actually, I enjoyed that – shame it wasn’t all that filling), with a snack of vegetable cup-a-soup around mid afternoon. I was honestly so ravenous by then that I couldn’t give two figs whether it technically counted as ‘broth’ or not – the instructions specifically tell you not to eat thick soups, and this one had CROUTONS in it. Croutons. So that took me to a calorie count of around 318.

Dinner was about 463 calories, technically – although I did steal one of my husband’s potato croquettes which was 87 calories. Wow. (A potato waffle is only 100 or so!) I didn’t steam the fish, I fried it with some olive oil spray. Together with the peas and the braised cauliflower and onions, it was actually pretty tasty!

The braised cauliflower was awesome. I had only a vague idea about how you would go about making this dish, so I Googled it and adapted this recipe. I ended up sauteeing one small onion in a teaspoon of olive oil and 10g of butter until golden, then adding 400g of frozen cauliflower and 10g more butter, and frying until coloured in patches. Then, I added half a beef stock cube and water up to the halfway point of the veggies, and I simmered until the liquid was practically gone and the cauliflower was soft – and tasty! This serves two, by the way, but you can easily reheat it for another dinner. It ends up being around 185 calories a portion, because of the butter, which is terrible really (the cauliflower is only 50 calories for 200g!), but I imagine this is how it would have been made around the time the diet plan was created. Butter definitely plays a role in most of the diet plans I’ve seen from the ’50s. Hardship, right?

I am aware that this looks utterly replusive, but I assure you, it tasted delicious.

All in all, with my teas and coffees, today was just under 1300 calories. Usually I’d make sure to be doing plenty of exercise along with this, but unfortunately, my work schedule is nuts this week – and to be honest, I’d rather blog. Ha. With calorie counts like these, I’d imagine that there would be a weight loss of around 1lb in a week. I haven’t dared weigh myself since Christmas, to be honest – which isn’t helpful for measuring results, but I think the alternative would actually be soul destroying at this point. Maybe I should try to fit in some of these great little retro exercises I found in The Book of The Home II (1956). Do you think I could do them and type at the same time if I cheated a little on the arm movements…?