Rumspringa...My Tracy Anderson Transformation: Practicing Recipes

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Practicing Recipes

Today's Workout:

Meta Cardio 30 minutes
Rebounder freestyling 30 minutes

I had gone grocery shopping last day before recently and decided to pick up a few items so that I could practice making recipes in Tracy's dynamic eating plan. Here are my thoughts so far:

blueberry applesauce-This was quite good! The tricky part was coring and peeling hot apples. They took a surprisingly long time to steam (at least 30 minutes if I recall). However, in the end it was tasty. I never realized steaming apples was all you had to do to make applesauce.
sweet potato corn pudding-I liked this a lot. The first bite tasted like regular mashed potatoes actually. Later when I tried it cold, it was not as exhilarating, so I would recommend having this one warm.
carrot parnip puree-My least favorite so far. I don't think this is the fault of the recipe though. I often have a problem with carrots that taste like dirt. I will try scrubbing carrots better next time around before I peel them. I really liked to smoothe consistency of this one and the pretty color. Again, this one is better served warm.
blueberry smoothie-This recipe is from the bootcamp book. I enjoyed this a lot too.

The thing that strikes me most about these recipes is how just 2 ingredients can come together to be so tasty. I am used to natural foods, but still heavy and processed rather than fresh and homemade. One trick I did in order to make the most of my cooking time was I steamed the sweet potato and apples at the same time. Simultaneously, I had the carrots and parsnips boiling in the water below the steaming produce. Kind of clever if you ask me ;) Looking forward to trying more recipes. Stay tuned.

Also did an hour of cardio today in order to help make up for cardio's that I've missed during Meta. I want to make sure I get my extra cardio's in to make up for the one's I've missed before I go onto Continuity 1 on January 1st 2012.

You know, I've never been able to stick to a diet. I'm not someone who's lost all the weight and gained it all back again. So, I'm not sure how I'll be able to stick to this one. I'm really not. I want to try, but it's very hard to imagine going from eating one way to a whole other way over night. I transitioned into eating vegan, cutting out one animal at a time, and dairy later on. We'll see what happens. At the very least, I know I will stick with the exercise. Diet seems a lot more complicated though...

5 comments:

NinaDecember 12, 2011 at 12:05 PM
Hi Leah! I don't think change comes over night - when I changed my eating habits I started slowly but made progress very fast - still I have some snacks here or there but with the addition of meta everything is fine. ;-)
Keep it up and have fun cooking!!! (Starting TAM I really started to enjoy cooking!!!)
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Michelle StylesDecember 13, 2011 at 12:45 AM
I always peel and core my apples before steaming them. But it is sinfully easy to make applesauce. The apple pear spice is also good. I sometimes replace the blueberries with raspberries.
It is all about working with your own unique biochemistry.
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NinaDecember 13, 2011 at 3:09 PM
Hi Leah! you would be surprised but I made nearly 1500 pictures on my last safari trip so there are many more pictures to post :-)!!
Food-changes are very difficult for me as I have some food allergies and had to cut out some food in order to get no allergic reactions. So when it comes to changes in my diet I am not very happy about it. I am like: I can eat that so I want it! I am a little stubborn with that. So in the beginning of my metamorphosis I was like - diet?? what the hell!! I am only doing the exercises and this should be enough. With this in mind I started exercising. So while exercising it was obvious that too much fast food and candy is contra-productive so I researched for food that is healthy but satisfying. Starting the change I ate more frequently like three times a day and I started cooking, which was the best thing that happened to my eating behavior. I became more aware of the ingredients that I used for my meals. Its not less but different. More vegetables and less carbs like noodles. It was a process and still there are some times when I need candy and something quick. Also through my allergies I found out that I cannot eat vegetables or fruits that are processed or filled with pesticides. So I started to buy more from the farmers around me also eggs and freshly backed bread. So step by step my eating habits changed from fast food, processed food to fresh and self-cooked meals, vegetables and fruits. I became interested and thats what lead to quick progress. I lost weight without a diet. Honestly I don't like the word because its always something where I have to be strict and I know from experience that I am not cut out for strict behavior. :-) For example I love love love some whole wheat bread with spread. And the spread is made of vegetables (like mashed vegetables - the whole cream (125g) contains only 1 1/2 pieces of sugar and as side half of a cabbage turnip and some carrots - its filling and it tastes great.
What I want to say is, it is a slow and subtle process but turns quickly into a healthy routine without sacrifices.
So that was a rather long comment :-) sorry for spamming !!
have a great day and night!
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lochanDecember 15, 2011 at 8:00 PM
if you really dislike the carrot/parsnip puree, in her book she uses a edamame/carrot/spinach puree instead. i really like it (sometimes i snack on steamed edamame/carrot instead of blending it, but the puree is really good and filling too):

3/4 c shelled edamame
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
handful of raw spinach
pinch of cayenne pepper

steam the edamame and carrot. blend the edamame and carrot with spinach and cayenne. add water as needed to thin the puree for blending.
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LeahDecember 16, 2011 at 11:08 AM
Ichan, thanks for that tip! I will definitely try that!

Nina, thanks for the long-winded feedback. Haha, j/k thanks for taking the time to respond. Very helpful. I'm sure I will find myself referencing your post many a time.
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What has Made This Time Different?

I have attempted to try to stick to an exercise routine so many times in my life, and yet I've rarely made it past a week or two at the most. This time has been a whole new experience, and this is a list of the reasons why (subject to change). Perhaps one or all of these will resonate with you too:

1) I have a simple, mental, visual analogy to help me focus on the bigger picture: In the past I've dieted and exercised and wondered why am I not losing weight? The key was that I wasn't consistent. The truth was that my efforts were sporadic rather than stacking one on top of the other. So it felt like I had exerted so much energy (which I had), but because it was not one foot in front of the other, my efforts did not stack up to any actual results. This made the most sense to me once I understood the the visual analogy of climbing a wall. My goal (lose weight/get fit) was to get over this wall. My attempts to get over the wall included climbing up (working out, dieting). However, I was constantly climbing back down the wall without realizing it (getting off the dieting, not exercising). Over time, I was exhausted from climbing up and didn't understand why I had not yet made it over, after all I had put in a lot of effort. It was then that I realized that every time I stop exercising, I am not picking up from where I left off the next time I start up again. Instead, I have to start from the very bottom of the wall. The steps up the wall do not help you climb over unless the are consistenly moving in a forward direction upward. While this may seem simple, and easy to understand intellectually, it was something I had to understand in the form of an epiphany. It was the first step to me being able to be consistent with my Tracy Anderson Method.

2) Make the goal about following through with the actions, rather than just focusing on the end results: Now that I understood that consistency was such an important factor in being successful with my goal, I had to figure out how to actually be consistent when I had never before been able to. It was so hard for me to imagine getting past level 1, because in my previous attempts I had learned how to do a few days of level 1, feel defeated, take a break, and then start over on level 1 again once I felt like I just couldn't take being overweight any more. My brain only understood how to stop and start over, so it just couldn't imagine what it felt like to move forward to L2-L9 and beyond. So, I made a commitment to myself that I did not even have to do the levels if I did not want to, but that I would play the videos every day as though I were doing them, just for the sake of my brain understanding what that would feel like. Amazingly enough, this triggered something in my brain so that it could at least entertain the possibility of experiencing the program beyond level 1.

3) Don't tell anyone I am learning to establish an exercise routine, until I'm on a roll. I understand using someone as an accountability buddy, and I do think that is helpful. But for me, I found that when I told people I was starting to exercise I diverted energy away from my goal (establish a regular exercise routine). So when I used to tell people, "oh I'm starting something new" people kindly wanted to know how it's going, how much I've lost, all these reasonable questions. For me, that added an extra pressure that I just didn't need. I didn't want to be accountable to anyone but myself, and I because I am someone who worries too much about what other people think, it just served me better to start the journey on my own and learn from my own experiences, learn to trust myself and my own instinct, and feel free to experiment without fearing judgements from others.

4) Don't make any changes to diet initially, but instead first focus on making exercise a regular part of my routine. Learning to exercise regularly and consistently & eating nutritiously are both lofty goals in and of themselves. To do both simultaneously has never ever worked for me. For my brain, my emotions, my inability to adapt to change, it was far too large an undertaking to attempt diet exercise simultaneously. For me, exercise is the easier place to start because it feels more in my control. There are only two choices (to exercise or not), and it is completely up to me, and not influenced by much else. On the other hand, food requires more preparation what with shopping, and storing and cooking, and taking food with me places. Exercise is just once a day whereas eating is something to work on multiple times throughout the day. Another thing is that if I attempted exercise and diet at the same time, if I did poorly in one area that day, it wiped out any good work I did in the other area (in my mind), and made me want to give up on BOTH. Exercise is the place to start for me.

5) Accept that my objectives are long-term and therefore no matter how hard I work, I will not be skinny in a month or two. But a year from now and for the rest of my life I will be.

6) Keep a blog or journal. For me, blogging has enabled me to see that some days are challenging, but there are also other days are easier. It is easy to forget the good days when I'm just focusing on the negative one at hand. Blogging allows me to go back and remember the positive things I've gained and learned along my journey.

7) Exercise with a buddy in the beginning to help make exercise a daily habit. While I didn't tell anyone about working out until about 2 weeks after I'd started, after that when I told my friend she was excited and wanted to try it out too. We exercised together for about two weeks, and that helped me establish a routine of exercising first thing in the morning consistenly.

8) Immerse myself in the success of others. I read others' blogs and success stories and facebook and the TA forum. www.masteringthemethod.com was such a great tool because it was the first visual I had to understand that this was going to be a journey and a process. It is so easy to see the "before" and "afters" and think that 1 week or a month of commiting will take me from before to after. Being able to see the "during" as well made such a difference to my brain because it was like the missing piece of the puzzle to understand this is not in any shape or form an overnight, overweek, or overmonth process. It showed me the bridge from "before" through "during" to "after".

9) Watch and re-watch and watch again Tracy's informercial and multiple visits to QVC. Especially the first month I watched them almost every day. Seeing the informercial is the pique of excitement in the beginning of a new exercise routine. Watching the infomercials help me remember the feelings I had in the beginnning and reminds me why I began this journey in the first place.

10) Trust Tracy, yourself, and those who have come before you, and have faith that while you can't imagine it today, each step you take will lead you to your after as it has for so many others.

11) Let go of being a perfectionist. Being a perfectionist prevented me from succeeding 100% of the other times I've attempted to exercise. It was vital to learn to only do whatever my personal abilites are and nothing more. Understanding and believing that I would build from wherever I was starting, as there is no need to exhaust myself physically and mentally by exercising beyond my capabilites was again instrumental. The very first time I tried metamorphosis, I was beyond defeated and in tears as there was no way I was gonna be able to do 40 reps of all the leg exercises as she did. I initially would pause the TV after every exercise attempting to complete 40 reps like Tracy was going. Helllllloooo, Tracy is in shape and she invented the method for goodness sake. I never exercised and was carrying around at least 50 pounds that didn't need to be there. Because I couldn't be "perfect" I thought I couldn't do the method. This was completely false. Finally, I figured out that I just had to do whatever reps I was able to do while she was doing the same exercise. Then when she moved on, I moved on to the next move. Suddenly my abilites were increasing, just by doing my personal best. It was the same thing with the cardio. It was important to me to play the whole tape, but that didn't mean I had to be jumping the whole time. Instead, I would step touch or march in place, drink some water. The point is that I got to experience what 30 minutes of cardio would feel like, and eventually be able to build up to it. I can now do an hour of cardio :)

...to be continued

90 Day Metamorphosis with Tracy Anderson

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Practicing Recipes

5 comments: