A doozy of a post.

Last night I went bowling.  And I hate to bowl.  I didn’t actually bowl, I just cheered but bowling alleys give me the willies.  Our bible study had a social night and bowling was the flavor of week which is unfortunate because it was still bowling.  I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time though and I love these people so much.  If I’m going bowling, I don’t want to go with anyone else.

 

 

Before delving into a fascinating book review, I have some FCA updates because that is what this blog was initially for and not how happy or sad I am on a certain day or what I had for breakfast (oatmeal, if you wondering, every.single.day). 

I can work (and get paid) for 10 hours each week.  It doesn’t sound like many hours but it is really perfect because right when I started working part time for FCA, my work load/responsibilities with my “real” job increased and I have become incredibly busy.  I increased my hours to keep up with the amount of work that was now included in my job, so 10 hours with FCA was perfect.  I am still struggling to find my stride in keeping my “real” job and scheduling my meetings with the students and keeping up with their own schedules, hello, these kids are super busy.  I had a student tell me this morning that once her exam had started in mid May, she’d be getting out early and could do lunch.  Seriously.  She’s 17 years old.  I don’t want to short change FCA at all and obviously want to do everything I start with excellence, so please pray for me that I can find my groove and be fruitful. 

This morning was the weekly bible study at Hillsborough High School and Justin, the VP of that club, is a senior and leaving next Tuesday.  Every Wednesday I went he wore something similar to the below picture, it is so great.  A senior in a bow tie is my new favorite thing.  So cool.  I brought donuts to celebrate the bright things to come for Justin as he heads off to college. 

 

It should be of no surprise to any of my friends how much I love “The Biggest Loser”, not one of my friends here watches it too which is super lame because it is so awesome so I just talk about it and they are bored.  The trainers are the best part of the show, I’ve liked all of them except for Anna Kournicova and I can’t put my finger on why, but she just didn’t fit.  I found on twitter that one of the trainers came out with a book and my Audible.com credit was burning a hole in my digital pocket so I bought it. 

“Jumpstart to Skinny:  The Simple 3 Week Plan for Supercharged Weight Loss”

In a Bob Harper nutshell, this book is a pretty rigorous regimen of eating/working out like I’d imagine a celebrity does to look so fantastic on the red carpet.  It is a three week plan for someone that has a big event to get ready for in a short amount of time and wants to look like Angelina Jolie.  Something that has not seemed feasible to the common girl like me and after reading about what it entails to look so fantastic, I don’t know if I’m game either.  He prescribes an 800 calorie diet with a selection of work out “packages” you can choose from 5 days a week.  In addition to the 800 calorie diet however, you can eat as many vegetables from a pretty extensive list in whatever amount satisfies you. 

The number of calories I was required to eat to look like a pop star was making me hungry but I’m willing to try it.  Diet/Nutrition have always been interesting and I love me some Bob Harper so I’m going to try it and make some variations of his plan.  So you can plant a big ol’ asterisk next to me when I’m done because I didn’t do it Bob’s way. 

I wouldn’t recommend getting the audio to this book if you are a normal person that buys books.  I usually check them out from the library but because it was a three week plan, and I am cheap and don’t buy books when my tax payer dollars allow me to rent them, I used my Audible credit.  I kept wanting to re-read parts about the diet itself and science behind it but I know it’s not safe to mess when my phone and drive.  It did come with a PDF of the recipes and exercises with a daily plan for each as well which I liked.

The Good-or at least what I’ll be following for three weeks:)

-Bob Harper is very motivational and I really love his training style on the show.  He narrates the book in the same style and I couldn’t get enough.  He’s so funny and straight forward.

-Drink more water.  Then drink some more water.  And more water.  Drink lots of water.  (He prescribes 80 ounces or more)

I'd like a dozen donuts for them.....and a cup of water for me:(

-All you can eat vegetables.  My life anyway.  Bob recommends eating them raw and I get it, but kind of hate it.  Sorry, raw mushrooms are like licking an armpit.

 

-No salt.  I’ve been trying to cut back my salt intake recently and this requires pretty much none.  I am interested to see what happens when you omit salt from your diet (it’s naturally occurring in many foods, but I won’t be adding any).

-Basic exercises you can do without a gym.  I have a gym but appreciate that there is not once part of his routine that requires one.  Most of his exercises are walking and using your own body weight to work out. 

-No processed foods.  Thank you Bob Harper for not making a “Bob Harper Meal Replacement Shake”.  I hate when famous people do that.  I’m such a sucker for marketing.

-No complex carbs after breakfast.  My oats in the morning are going to be my only complex carbs.  If he mentioned the research on this it went over my head but I’ll play this game for three weeks.

The BadL

-95% of the recipes have meat in them (there is one for every day and every meal on the program so if you ate meat, you wouldn’t get bored).  This surprised me because I was 99% Bob Harper was vegan.  Normally I would just add beans or tofu or other meat replacement but he is very adamant about getting the ratio of carbs/proteins/fats that each of his meals provides.  I wouldn’t think that my kidney beans provide the good fats that salmon provides and I want to make Bob happy.  I’m going to stick to my normal breakfast oatmeal recipe because there is no added sugar, and pretty much eat as I normally would for the other meals.  I’m going to try the recipes he put together and omit the meat.  I tweeted at him about it but Bob Harper has not found it important to respond to yet.  I’ll keep you updated. 

Last night I made an eggplant sauté with tomatoes and portabellas.  I put lots of garlic, oregano, cumin, chili powder, and red pepper flakes in but I missed salt.  That is going to take some time to get used to.  You can look forward to the daily update.