Wow, I guess it's been a while since I posted, huh.

Well, I'm back now, and I wanted to share something amazing that's happened to me.

I was diagnosed with atypical depression. Wait! That's not the amazing part. 

One of the symptoms of this kind of depression is compulsive overeating, and craving carbohydrates. 

That's right! All the years I struggled with my overeating, I never suspected that it could be a symptom of a greater problem. I always just assumed that I had poor self-control. It turns out that I would've needed superhuman self-control to overcome this symptom!

But that's not the best news.

The best news is that there is a supplement I can take which has been PROVEN to combat cravings in people with atypical depression. It's called Chromium Picolinate.

Yesterday I bought some and took a capsule and lunch... It was incredible! Like a switch being turned off. I no longer had a compulsion to constantly eat, and for the first time in years I wasn't craving biscuits and cake. I went from afternoon tea all the way to dinner without feeling the need to eat, which is a really incredible thing for me. 

After doing some more research I've worked out that I can have one of these capsules every two days and stay under the safe upper limit for chromium.

I am just so thrilled to have made this discovery, and I'm looking forward to finally losing these last few kilos, without having to fight against cravings.

first homework assignment for the contest!

From here:

Write your daily plan for the next 3 days.

This plan must include:

what you will be eating for each meal for the next 3 days.

What time you will be eating.

What time you will be working out.

What your workout will consist of (exercises and cardio plan).

Thursday:

7am - wake, first meal: morning coffee with milk, 1/2 cup raspberries, 1/2 tbsp organic peanut butter.

7:45-8:45am - exercise: 5 intervals on elliptical with 1.75:1 recovery to rest rate. strength training: squat with shoulder raise, cable chops, bent over row to press, bench dips, incline narrow width pushups & dumbbell french press; 12-15 reps of each for 2 sets. walk & stretching to cool down.

9am - second meal: two egg omelette with onion, olives, and fresh spinach from the garden.

9:30-11am - writing essay due at 3pm today (for goodness' sake)

11am-noon - celebratory viewing of the West Wing/Being Erica (only if finished!)

12pm -  third meal: poached hoki with white cracked pepper and garlic, with green beans on the side

12:30-1pm - print out essay, compile hasty bibliography

1:30pm - bus

2-5pm - classes, hand in essay. at 3:50, optional banana and almonds if hungry (fourth meal)

6pm - fifth meal - big garden salad with pumpkin, small serving of beef steak.

7-9pm - family time

9pm - sixth meal - frozen raspberries with tinned peaches and pumpkin & sunflower seeds and almonds.

10pm - sleep.

Friday & Saturday:

7am - wake, first meal: morning coffee with milk, 1 banana, 1/2 tbsp organic peanut butter.
7:45-8:45am - exercise: 5 intervals on elliptical with 1.75:1 recovery to rest rate. strength training: squat with shoulder raise, cable chops, bent over row to press, bench dips, incline narrow width pushups & dumbbell french press; 12-15 reps of each for 2 sets. walk & stretching to cool down.

9am - second meal: 2 egg omelette with onion, olives and fried tomatoes

9:30am-noon - reading and enjoying holiday, probably craft activities

12pm - third meal: big garden salad with poached egg, bacon & pumpkin seeds

12:30-3pm - more reading, enjoyment etc

3pm - fourth meal: remainder of tinned peaches, carrot sticks and hummus

3-6pm - stressing about party, probably more craft activities

6pm: fifth meal: steak, green vegetables and salad

6-8pm: friends come over, help me pick outfit, gossip

8pm: go to party

8pm-2am - dancing, walking, being happily sober (optional snack of almonds & dried fruit)

2-4am - back at friend's house, gossip time again, console her drunken misery

4-9am - sleep

10am - wander home, meal of onion omelette with olives (I love this meal so much at the moment)

11am-3pm - sleep

3pm - banana with almonds

3:30-6pm - watching the West Wing with family

6pm - poached hoki again, with greens on the side

7-9pm - more West Wing

9pm - pear and dried fruit with nuts and seeds

10pm - sleep.

recipes for you!

Turkish Meatballs

-In a bowl, put 150g good quality beef or lamb mince with 2 teaspoons crushed garlic, 2 teaspoons ground cumin, 1 teaspoon hot paprika (you can use cayenne pepper or chili if preferred), 1/4 teaspoon cracked pepper, a dribble of worcestershire sauce and a generous squirt of tomato sauce. 

-Mix ingredients with your hands until thoroughly combined.

-Put half an inch of water in a frying pan and heat.

-Form the mince mixture into balls. A 1-inch diameter is preferable.

-When the water is bubbling, add the mince balls. Turn them every two minutes. The should take about 5 minutes to cook, depending on size. Cooking them in water extracts a lot of the fat while keeping the meat tender.

-Drain. They can be served hot or cold.

Tzatziki

-Finely grate 1 tablespoon of cucumber.

-Mix into 1/4 cup natural, unsweetened yoghurt.

-Serve with meatballs :)

Today is my first High Carb day on the carb rotation diet. yay! I had some weetbix and banana for breakfast (SO GOOD) before doing my workout, which is the first from week six of the Go Sleeveless program. I found the higher reps challenging, and scaled down my weights a little in the second set so I could keep good form. I was still sweating heavily and feeling exhausted by the end.

Right now I'm listening to old Danny Kaye songs and enjoying one of my favourite treats:

Feta Popcorn

1. Mash about a handful of feta cheese with about a tablespoon of caesar salad dressing to make a smooth paste.

2. Stir into about 4 cups air-popped popcorn, trying to distribute mixture evenly through popcorn.

3. Enjoy! this serves two, or a hungry one.

Danny Kaye - Wonderful Copenhagen

High Intensity Interval Training

Pros: 

-huge effect on fitness, fat loss and overall health. I'm much better at sprinting to catch buses now.

-you can use any equipment/cardio exercise you want.

-it's over quite quickly.

Cons:

-ugh boring. it's a pro that it's much LESS boring than long sessions of low-medium intensity cardio, but I never really bothered with that anyway so I can't compare.

-need a heart rate monitor to do it properly. Now, I do have a heart rate monitor which I got for $NZ50 ($US28) at a camping store's 50% off sale. it is... not the best. I realised this when I opened up the instructions and it said 'attach the transmitter beneath the pectoral muscle' and had no alternative for people with boobs. after practising with about a hundred different positions I find it works best with the electrodes at the back just beneath the shoulder blades, but even now it only works 50% of the time - perhaps this explains its discounted price.

-if you do it when you're hungry, you feel faint; if you do it after a meal, you feel sick. I find it alright because I am a slack student and have very little to do with my days, but scheduling it would make it troublesome for some people.

hooray for cooking skills

today's breakfast: cheesy omelette on 97% fat-free ham.

I've entered the Go Sleeveless Transformation Contest!

the details of the contest are here. 

I was already doing the exercise program from Go Sleeveless, and I start week 6 tomorrow. After that I plan to do the 'Results Booster' and 'Toning Accelerator' plans, each of which goes for 4 weeks, so they should take me through to the end of the contest. 

For my diet I think I will try carb cycling. I got the 'Carb Cycling Basics' ebook by Isaac Wilkins as part of the 12 Days of Fitness in 2008 (if I remember correctly). 

I've been trying carb cycling for the last two days, with yesterday being a no-carb day. I had been planning to have some fish for dinner - hoki fillets, steamed with lemon and pepper and garlic, then fried in coconut oil - but my father cooked the most fragrant beef roast. I went into my eating plan and looked at how a swap would work. I had been counting on the low fat and very high protein content of the fish, and in order to get the same protein from the beef I would have to consume too much fat for the day. So I did something foolish. I just got enough beef to equal the calories of the fish, disregarding the ratios of fat to protein. (you have to understand, the whole house smelled delicious from this roast!) I was not hungry when I went to bed (early, because of Earth Hour), but in the middle of the night I woke up ravenous. I was hoping it would be just before dawn, but it was half-past one (!) and I couldn't wait for breakfast; so I got up, went to the kitchen, and ate my first ever midnight snack: half a pear and weetbix with milk. Then I went back upstairs and slept like a baby for another eight hours. I'm counting the calories from the snack as belonging to today's allowance, and I'll certainly be more careful in future about having too little protein on a no-carb day.