Eating Right for our type - Week 1 complete!

Well I'm not going to lie... I feel better!

A combo of regular exercise, moderated drinking and healthy eating has made a HUGE difference in the way I feel this week. My numbers aren't as drastically different as I would have hoped, but I'm "down" none the less. So far I'm down a total of 4 lbs and 1 inch... I think that exercise is to blame for the minimal inches because I'm slowly re-building muscle as I lose fat, but hopefully next week's lost inches will be better!

The rest of the week was similar in eating to days 1-3... Lots of smoothies, peanut butter toast, chicken, veggie dogs, salads, quinoa, cous cous, fruit & veggies. The only difference was that I made these awesome kale chips & asparagus fries on Wednesday, and yesterday I ate salmon for lunch... YUM! Oh. And last night we may have indulged in a bit too much red wine ;p

This morning we had feta & veggie omelettes and organic turkey sausages... life is rough! Off to the gym now-- see you next week!

Eat Right for your Type Challenge- Our First Few Days!

Well so far so good!

On Saturday (Day 1) we went shopping and filled our fridge, freezer and cupboards with a couple hundred dollars worth of "A-type" friendly foods. Lots of veggies, fruit, beans, good cheeses, ancient grains... seems like this may not be too tough after all! (And we're certainly not hungry!)

However, the hardest things that are "Avoids" are 2 favorites of ours.... spicy food and sushi. We aren't allowed ANY PEPPERS! Not ground pepper, not jalapeno peppers, no red, green, yellow, orange normal peppers.. and DEFINITELY no Frank's Hot Sauce :( (We aren't allowed anything with vinegar in it so that takes out most condiments, dressings and mustards..) and then even worst, no TUNA! And no crab. So that = no California Rolls or Tuna Sashimi. These are going to be tough ones for us ;p

We are also not allowed any Aspartame (which is fine because it's bad for you anyway) but I do love my Coke Zero... instead I'm using Splenda (because Sucralose, Maltodextrin and Dextrose are "neutrals") and honey to sweeten my beverages :) Luckily Crush Cream Soda and Orange Crush both come made with Sucralose!

MEALS:

Day 1-

Breakfast: Peanut Butter on my favorite Squirrely Bread toast with coffee (almond milk & Splenda)

Lunch: Steamed Chicken on Spinach salad with a side of Ranch dressing (we were out at a restaurant with out-of-town-family and there were no "A type Friendly" dressing options) and a side of steamed veggies, soda/cranberry juice to drink

Snack: Apple

Dinner: Grilled chicken burgers with mozzarella cheese and our new FAVORITE vinegar-free mustard on top, a side of Zuccinni and mozzarella salad, 2 glasses of red wine!

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Day 2-

Breakfast: Smoothie with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, low-fat yogurt, almond milk and flax seeds. Coffee of course (almond Milk & Splenda)
Weekly Sunday Brunch with my family means eating out... so I got 2 poached eggs with Rye Toast. (the Rye had margarine on it which I'm not sure about because I know we're not supposed to do butter... next time I'll get dry toast)

Lunch: 2 Veggie Dogs (bun-less) with mozzarella cheese and our amazing vinegar-free mustard

Snack: 4 dried figs, Diet Crush Cream Soda

Dinner: Father's Day BBQ time!!! So I had 1/2 chicken breast (only 1/2 because we burnt it on the BBQ and it was gross!), around 1/2 cup of BBQ'd Teriyaki Salmon, and a side of quinoa salad. A few glasses of Red Wine to drink of course :)

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Day 3-

Breakfast: Smoothie with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, low-fat yogurt, almond milk and flax seeds. A piece of Squirrely Bread toast with Peanut Butter. Coffee to drink (almond milk & honey this time)

Exercise: Fit-4-Two Stroller Fit class, 1 hour.

Snack 1: 3 dried figs, small handful of unsalted almonds & dried blueberries

Lunch: Quinoa salad with broccoli, carrots, cucumber, onions, lemon, olive oil and garlic. Delicious!! (I added A-friendly curry spices on the leftovers)

Snack 2: 1 dried fig, small handful of unsalted almonds & dried blueberries, Diet Crush Cream Soda

Dinner: Lentil patties are on their way with a side salad...and of course red wine!

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3 days done out of 56! LOL

Eating Right For Your Blood Type - Our 8 week challenge

So the baby is over a year old, the hockey season is FINALLY over, our spring travels full of wine and delicious food have ended... and the bottom line is.... NO MORE EXCUSES! I'm STILL not back to my pre-baby weight and that needs to change.

Wonder why?? Hmmmm... maybe it's the countless bottles of wine I drank paired with pizza? Or the numerous pints of beer that I drank combined with pizza? Or the pizza I ate topped with pizza?? OORRRRR maybe it's the fact that I've been a total SLACKER this month! (OK so it's probably a combo of all of the above!) Regardless. Party's over. It's time to get back to reality. After all, who wants a fitness instructor with a jiggly pizza belly?? LOL

That said, Brad and I have decided to challenge ourselves to something we've always had an interest in, and part-time live by anyway... "Eat Right For Your Blood Type". Dr. Peter J D'Adamo released a book about this in 1996 and it has made him enormously famous. Quoted from his site: He is a "naturopathic physician noted for his popular books on the Blood Type Diet. His series of books suggest that appropriate diet and lifestyle depend in part on an individual's blood type. An acknowledged expert in naturopathic medicine, Dr. D'Adamo's numerous publications and bestselling books have greatly contributed to our understanding of dietary individuality." http://www.dadamo.com/

Luckily we are both A+ blood types, and so is Veronica (obviously), so we only need to make one recipe / meal.

And here we start.

I'm going to blog about this as daily or weekly as my schedule will allow, and update you with recipes and tips that we have loved / hated. I'm ALSO going to take my measurements today (before we cook our first meal after shopping), and weekly will let you know how my progress is going! (I can't promise that I'll get the same commitment from Brad considering he has to work on film sets who won't necessarily cater to his needs-- but we'll see ;p) It will be interesting to see how 'eating for your blood type' combined with a regimented work out schedule will change our overall appearances. It will also be interesting to see the difference between genders!

Saturday, June 18:
Day 1. Grocery Shopping for an "A Blood Type"!

I've downloaded an awesome app on my IPhone that lets us know the foods that are "Benefits, Neutrals and Avoids" for our A blood type. (Conveniently enough, it's called "Eat Right 4 Your Type" and is $3.99) It also offers a hundred delicious sounding recipes! We will shop with those lists and recipes and hopefully come up with something edible!

(Luckily it says that Red Wine is a 'Benefit' for our blood type... ;p In moderation of course!!)

Wish us luck!!