My Diet & Exercise Program

This year I've been more motivated than ever to start losing weight and
getting into better shape.  I'm already in a shape, it's just kind of an
eggy shape and I don't want that anymore.

I've hired a personal trainer and I think I've annoyed her already.  My
newly-discovered food allergies (as of spring 2003) makes it difficult to eat
anything healthy.  Which, of course, met with an initial "Aw
damn.  I'm only allowed to eat white bread? No corn whatsoever?  Well,
you're the doctor here! I'm not gonna argue!"

The problem is I'm supposed to stay away from whole wheat.. anything, which
really kills any diet program.

My trainer set up a menu of meal alternatives after she found out I had a
tendency to eat 3 meals a day.  I should be having 3 small meals
(breakfast, lunch and dinner) and 2 snacks.  I always try to stay away from
snacking, but apparently it's important. Every meal has been altered for
me.  For breakfast, I've been told to stay away from Special K and eat
either bran flakes, All Bran, egg on rye toast or a favourite now --a recipe for
oatmeal that she gave me.  My coffee intake has dropped by over half and
I've replaced my other 'coffee times' with a 500ml bottle of water. I'm trying
to drink up to 2 litres of water a day.  Doesn't always happen. Also, I'm
not using cream in my coffee anymore which is already over $100 less a year on
our grocery bill which is good because I've replaced it in the budget with Wasa
crackers.  I actually like cottage cheese, so it was an easy addition to my
diet in the form of a snack. Lunch can no longer be the traditional PB&J on
white bread and I'm now having chicken on rye with a side salad (mainly
comprised of red cabbage and romaine lettuce --my allowable vegetables are quite
limited after all).  I'm not allowed to have corn, carrots or celery for
veggies.  Apples, peaches, and pears are out as fruit.  No wheat, no
almonds and no hazelnuts.

Dinner is no longer what my family eats (last night was sausage and perogies,
hello?).  While they ate their dinner, I had brown rice mixed with some
lean beef.  It was a bad dinner really, but I thought I was getting more
support at home for my new diet and exercise program.

Now, the exercise program takes a lot out of me.  My trainer really doesn't
want me out running (shin splints which are really painful) and spending more
time in the weight room.  The weight room, less than 30 feet from my office
cannot be avoided, so I am using it.  My "warm up" is 10 minutes
of rowing.  I like using the rowing machine and had been using it on a
regular basis before, so my novice abilities sees me "warm up" with
close to 1500m of rowing...  I then stretch for a few minutes and she was
impressed with the ease I took that up.  I guess I remember it from high
school.  I follow my stretching with stomach crunches a least favourite
activity from school, but I find them much easier using an exercise ball. From
that I move onto weight training which varies over the 3-day a week
program.  I also have a 4th day that I do at home, consisting mainly of
power-walking and basic lifting.  I use my 20-pound son and it makes him
giggle.  After the weight training is a few minutes of pilates, followed by
30 minutes of cardiovascular 'cool down'.  Warm up, cool down.  The
cool down is either on a bike, on the stair machine or on the treadmill.

The bad news is my weight is actually 15 pounds heavier than I thought.  My
goal was to lose 35 pounds by April, which is still doable, but being heavier
doesn't help attain my goal weight.  Well, 35 pounds by April means I
already have goals for beyond April.

I've already lost a few pounds too.