Week 1!

I so love love love the Body by Vi Challenge.  It is AWESOME!

So here is the deal.  The Body by Vi is a shake mix that you can add to just about anything, and I do mean anything.  You can add fruit; such as pretty much any kind of berries, bananas, mangoes, and/or apples.  You can make it Vanilla, Cookies in Cream, Lemon cheese cake (though why you would want to do that, I have no earthly idea) or ... wait for it ... CHOCOLATE!

As originally reported, I have been making chocolate shakes, with one little foray into the Berry world (but I liked the chocolate so much that  I quickly went back!).  I have switched from 2% to Non-Fat to Almond milk and have found that I LOVE Almond milk and especially LOVE that its only 35 calories for 8 ounces, as opposed to 90 for Non Fat!

I have also switched from using unsweetened cocoa to pudding, as the pudding helps thicken it and make it more "shakey" without adding a lot of calories.  Every once in awhile I add in peanut butter too!  It obviously ups the calories and the fat grams a bit, but makes for an awesome awesome taste and since it is more of a meal replacement a few more calories is ok, as long as I account for them somewhere else.

So here is my Day on Vi.

Morning Shake
Snack - Since I have a coffee addiction, my snack is usually my mocha.
Lunch Shake
Snack - Small salad or String cheese or Hard boiled eggs depending on what I feel like
Dinner
Small Late night type of munchy depending on the calories I have had that day.

You don't necessarily have to count calories on the 90 day challenge and in fact most don't.  But since my body is quite temperamental and I want to do this right (and I am anal-retentive) I am counting and journaling everything.

So where am I after just 1 week?

Weight:  -1.2 lbs!

Inches:  -5!

Not bad, not bad at all!  The pounds could come off a bit faster, but look at those inches!  5 inches in just a week!  HOLY COW!  That is just awesome!  And while I want the pounds to come off for the surgery, its the inches that honestly matter the most!

I can handle this!

Day 1!

So today is day 1 of the 90 day Challenge!

I am excited, I am nervous, I am anxious, and did I mention that I am excited?!?  

My mentor on the challenge is so excited about the stuff and has been talking it up for several days that I can barely stand waiting a second more.  But before I do, I have to get down to the real nuts and bolts and get my weight and measurements down ... for posterity?  Definitely not for posterity, cause the Valar know that know one really wants to know how much I weigh or how big I am.  And I certainly don't want a record if it.

But without a record, without a starting point of the journey, one cannot look back upon the road to see how far they have come, right?

Right!  So here it goes!
 
Last official weigh-in in June of 2011 (How sad is that!)

Weight: 306.6 
BMI: 51.0 

Today's weigh-in *Drum Roll*
Weight: 305
BMI: 50.7

*sigh*  It's less, I will give myself that much.  At least in the 9 months since my last weigh in, I haven't ballooned up past where I was when I started the Phoenix journey last year.  And I have even lost another 1.6 pounds!  So Achievement unlocked!  But really, I should be so much further along than I am, and its just really sad that I let myself get so derailed.

But as Gandalf says to Frodo in the Mines of Moria, "All we have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given to us."  I can waste time flogging myself for my inaction over the past year, or I can move on.  And today, I am moving on!

So now to the shake.  

Today I am going to try a chocolate shake, because lets face it ... I LOVE chocolate.

Basic Chocolate Shake Recipe 
2 scoops of Vi Shake Mix
2 Tbsp Unsweetened Chocolate Baking Powder 
8 ounces of Milk*
Ice
and Blend

* 2% Milk is what I have on hand right now.  From what I have read and researched you can use any milk, but Almond or Soy milk are better choices due to the lower calorie and lower sugar content.  2% is never a good choice for dieting/healthy eating , but that is what my Dear Ranger drinks, so that is what I have.

Review
Dear Valar it is awesome!!  It is chocolate, it is sweet and it tastes great!  The only problem is that it was over too quickly and I want more.  I LOVE IT!  

That is a really good sign.  The one thing with the Reset program I tried last year was I couldn't stand the taste of the shakes, the bars, well ... any of it, so being on it, while I had decent results, was awful.  I couldn't wait for it to be over, I choked down the shakes, and I was grumpy and in a poor mood the entire time.  

THIS, this I believe will be very different.  We will have to see if I still enjoy it 30, 60, 90 days from now.  But right now, it is AWESOME! 

90 Day Body by Vi Challenge

Tomorrow I am starting the 90 day Vi Challenge.   I have to admit, my decision to try it and start it was pure gut, spur of the moment type stuff.  But in the past seven years, I have come to rely on that gut feeling and trust it more and more.  So I am going with it and seeing where it takes me.

A good friend and co-teacher of my father’s has been doing the 90 Day Body by Vi Challenge for about 29 days and has lost 10 lbs and 10 inches, while at the same time reducing her blood pressure and gaining energy.  Now I am not stupid.  I know there are no quick fix, no magic pill, and nothing that will magically take everything off in just a matter of weeks or months.  It is a complete life change and while I like to think that I have always been making good decisions, the reality is that I like chocolate a little too much, my portion sizes have grown a bit in the past three years, I like chocolate oh and I like chocolate.    While my body is not normal, doesn’t process things normally and has the metabolism of a turtle; lasting weight loss be it from eating and exercise or from surgery is only going to happen with life style changes.

That being said, I like what I see in this challenge.  I like the makeup of the shake mix.  I like the nutrients that it has and the versatility in the 100 different recipes that are out there.  And I like the comments and feedback that I have seen.   From everything I have heard I am going to have to be on a protein shake/supplement after I have surgery, so I might as well start now as I work to get that 10% off right?

So to begin with, I ordered the basic shape kit, as I don’t want to get too financially invested if I am not happy with the shake taste or the results.  It arrived today and I am quite stoked to begin.  Unfortunately, though it’s been on the UPS truck since 5 am, it wasn’t delivered till 4:48 pm, so I should really just wait till tomorrow to start.

Really, I should.

But I really want to try it now!  No, I will be good and wait till tomorrow and start the challenge off right!

I think I am lost! Where is that trail exactly? - There and Back Again

It has been since November that I have made any kind of posting about where I am on the trail. At that time I was at mile 72.5. I am ,supposed to be walking Bilbo's path in the Hobbit, but methinks I got a bit confused and followed four wandering Hobbits into the Old Forest instead! It just so happens that mile 73 is Crickhollow! And while Bilbo and the Dwarves bypassed the Old Forest and went the quicker way around, I think I got lost wandering around the Old Forest and talking with Tom Bombadil.

According to the mileage that I have tracked, that means I would have just left Tom Bombadill and am wandering somewhere around the Old Forest, lost! I know that there are miles that I didn't track during the past five months, so I am just going to figure that Tom helped this Wandering Elf to the edge of the Forest, where I was able to find Bilbo's path again and have now made it to Bree. So for The Journey to the Lonely Mountain and Back Again, that puts me at mile marker 85.
Bree!!!

Now that I am back on track, I will be hopefully on my way to Rivendell, with no more side adventures. Though in Middle Earth you never know what might cross your road and take you off the path!

Updated There and Back Again mileage!

85/967 Journey to Lonely Mountain
50 miles Wandering in the Old Forest
85/1934 There and Back Again

The Road Goes Ever On and On ...

Rebirth ... Again ...

Obviously it has been far too long since I have checked in.  I could give all sorts of excuses about how hectic things are with my mother, with personal issues, and with work; but the reality is that stuff is always happening in life that makes things hectic.  I just didn’t choose to make writing a priority. 

That time is in the past.

I have periodically checked in with mileage updates and such, but nothing more than that.  Honestly it was probably because I didn’t want to put into words that I had stopped doing just about anything with regards to becoming healthier.  I had let the events of last April side track me.  I let myself slip down that very slippery slope of self-pity and stopped working out, stopped eating right, stopped tracking, stopped just about anything.  I always said, “I can have this because my dad died”, or “because I feel sorry for this” or “because my nail broke” or whatever excuse I could come up with at the time.  And each time, I would say that I would “start a new tomorrow.” 

I haven’t lost ground, but I advanced much either during that year of sabotage and self-pity.   That is to say that I am basically the same weight as a year ago,  give or take a pound or two.  Which is good in some respect, I guess.  Because with everything going on, it is honestly amazing that I didn’t gain another 30 – 50 pounds in emotional eating. 

But really, it’s just sad that an entire year was wasted.  And it took flying on another airplane, being stuffed into a Barbie seat, and having to spend four days with my sister-in-law in Vegas, who is in control of her health and happy with her body, for me to snap out of it and realize that I am the only one that can facilitate the change. 

It is time.

I am not sure how many rebirths a Phoenix can have before they actually make it to full fledged adult hood, but apparently for me it is at least three. The nice thing about being a Phoenix, is I can always start again and remake myself if I stumble and fall.  

The Road Goes Ever On, just sometimes you stumble off the trail and get lost in the Old Forest for awhile.  Well, I have finally found my way back to the road and its time to start again!