Personal Training: First Update

So I started working with a personal trainer a couple weeks ago. Its been exactly 4 weeks actually. She is the instructor for the women's bootcamp class I take twice a week and she is insanely ripped. She use to compete as a sculpting model and I think I heard that she won the Orange County division at one point or another. Anyway, point being she's in ridiculous shape and I'm attempting to get in ridiculous shape myself :)

So, we started training 4 weeks ago twice a week for 30-40 min each session. We will do one day of upper body and one day of lower body per week. In addition to these sessions I do a one hour bootcamp session twice a week and attempt to go either running or swimming one time week, which I have like little to know individual motivation, so this happens infrequently.

2 weeks ago my trainer gave me something she calls a "menu". Its basically a meal plan for the day w/ options on what to eat. This is generally how it goes:

Meal 1 (breakfast): 4 egg whites, 1/3 cup old fashioned oats 1/3 cup mixed berries. This gets pretty boring, pretty fast, so she has provided one other option for breakfast w/ basically consists of the same ingredients except add a 1/4 of a banana blend on high on a blender until smooth with a little cinnamon and calorie free sweetener (I like to use Truvia) and cook in a pan - she said to add crushed nuts on the uncooked side (I love pecans) and then flip and cook until done. Its a little pancake, surprisinly tasty for something that has no flour or sugar.

Snack 1 (mid morning): she informed me that its essential to have a protein shake between meals with all snacks, so I follow the rules. With the protein shake you can have a low glycemic piece of fruit like an apple or greek nonfat yogurt w/ some berries. Honestly this is not too hard.

Meal 2 (lunch): 3 oz of some good lean protein, chicken, fish, etc. 1 cup of some delicious vegetables. and some sort of carbohydrate which may consist of 2 pieces of whole wheat low glycemic level bread, brown rice (brown rice pasta is awesome by the way - but don't forget to rinse it after boiling) or something of that nature. I normally make myself a can of tuna w/ a tsp or a bit more of Miracle Whip light spread on 2 pieces of bread and a side of spinach w/ a bit of olive oil and vinegar. Its filling.

Snack 2 (mid afternoon): Don't forgot the protein shake!!! and additional fruit or yogurt.

Meal 3 (dinner): Again lean protein, but a little more this time, same goes for the veggies and the carbs. The other day I made a really good meal, I was excited. I got some preseasoned Talbot (a white flakey fish) from Trader Joe's and pan seared it with a little bit of olive oil. boiled up about 1/3 cup of brown rice and a little side salad w/ olive oil, balsasmic vinegar and salt and pepper. It was honestly, delicious!

Snack 3 (optional or even consider it a dessert!): sugar free Jell-O, sugar free pudding or even something I find very tastey for some reason; a plain rice cake w/ all natural peanut butter spread on it! Yum-O.

Its definitely not easy to follow this, but I'm getting use to it. Last night my family went out to an Italian Restaurant, and being a swimmer my whole life I am dangerously addicted to pasta!! hello --- pasta party central!!! But being on this "plan" it is essential to opt out of the pasta options. But lucky for me I found a good alternative on the menu. A Greek salad w/ grilled chicken and grilled eggplant as a side dish.

Oh yeah and one must not forget to drink a TON of water. I have never in my life woken up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, but since drinking the amount of water necessarily to stay healthily(i might have just made that word up) hydrated, I get up on average twice a night to go.... pee. yikes! but its a good thing I suppose.

So it has been 1 month since I started the training sessions and 2 weeks since I started the meal plans and I stepped on the scale for the first time since my initial weigh in and......drum roll please....I have lost 4 lbs and on the best part is I'm not feeling flabby, my body is building muscle tone again yay!!!

So that's my update as of now, I will update again in the future. Maybe if I have the guts I will post my before and after pictures...and during if I remember to take them. ;)