I Ate a lot on Day 8!....

...I thought it was kind of funny:)

So in all seriousness, day 8 definitely kicked PCP up a notch or two (or ten!) From the second I looked at my alloted diet I knew it would require discipline. Not so much in the sense that I have to discipline myself to eat only these non-processed, non-salted foods, but more so that I have to weigh each portion and figure out enough recipes so that I won't die of boredom. For my carbs for breakfast and dinner I had my all bran cereal (with almond milk). I think that's a pretty pure whole grain. I had salmon for lunch and flounder for dinner as my protein. I was surprised by how much food this all was, but I trust Patrick and this process enough to just go with it.

The exercise portion wasn't too bad today. I actually did the 600 jumps all the way through without feeling breathless or winded afterwards! It felt amazing. I only tripped up a few times, and each time I immediately kept going, instead of pausing. I used the push up bars for the first time today and they made my push ups way more difficult. I guess I just have to get used to them. Before I wasn't having a problem with push ups at all, but I know these will make my form even better. Unfortunately I can't find anything in my house to use for the incline pull ups, so I'm still brainstorming on that one.

Tonight I went to a yoga studio I'd never been to before that practices Jivamukti Yoga. I'd never even heard of it before. At first it seemed a little too new age-y for me, but once I let go, I loved it! It started and ended with singing, but don't let that fool you. It was the most intense class I've ever been too, but it was also the most fun. Because I'd never been before, I didn't know what would come next. This allowed me to really be in the moment of each present pose. And also I was having so much fun the whole time, I wasn't focused on the intensity of the pose. I definitely plan on going there more this week. I'm sad they don't have this back at college!

I hope all my fellow PCPr's had a great day 8!

Day 7

So I just read the email for week 2 and the diet definitely seems feasible. I have a lot of nit-picky questions about it, but I know the answers will come in time!

Today, I had more trouble with the 500 jump ropes than expected. I got a new, better rope, but it actually twists up more easily than my older one did. So I'm not sure which one I should use. I'm going to keep trying with the new one for a few more days and see if it gets any better.

As far as my last day before "PCP proper", I did fairly well. My treat was a Hershey bar. I figured it was the last time I'd get sugar in a while and it was the perfect amount. I count it as a half portion because normally I'd eat more chocolate than that!

All in all, I'd say week 1 went pretty well and I hope I do as well week 2!

Day 5 FREEDOM!

SPRING BREAK 2010!

Par-tay!

Haha, not really. Sadly (or happily, depending on how you look at it) I have never been much of a party-er. I'm more of a "couple of close friends hanging out" kind of girl. And liquor is not my alcohol of choice. That would be wine (do not come between me and my bottle of Smoking Loon Merlot). So instead of doing the typical senior-year-spring-break-week-long-party thing, I'm just going home for the week. I should probably mention I live on a beach, so home for me is where most people vacation to. And believe me, I don't take this for granted. I plan to spend a large portion of this week at the beach walking my dogs (that's a pic of my dog in the field right behind the beach and then the other is a pic I took at the beach). And just hanging out with my family. Lame I know, but the older I get, the more important those things are to me. And I am so ready for a break!

I am afraid of how PCP will go in this environment. At school I have a built in structure to my day, so in a way it's easy to fit PCP in. But now that I'm home, I have my mom who can cook anything and the beach which can sound much better than working out. But I know I can do it. I'm still going to work out first thing in the morning; in fact, it should be easier because I can wake up any time I want now! No alarm clock this week! And as far as food goes, with my family's support, I'm sure it'll be ok.

So here's to day 1 of relaxation!

A Mindful Day 4

There are two things everyone always notices about me. I eat fast and I walk fast. I have yet to make a good friend who does not comment on these characteristics of mine. Reading Patrick’s blog about "Becoming Your Psychology" made me contemplate these aspects of myself. His blog reminded me that the physical change the PCP will bring will only go so far. In order for this transition to last beyond these 90 days, I need to embrace a mental transformation. I don’t want to be that girl who loves food so much she scarfs it down without truly appreciating the taste. Or who walks so fast she misses the beauty that surrounds her.

The idea of a mediation practice is not new to me. The first time I did yoga, during Savasana, I could barely keep myself still; much less keep my thoughts still. I am now at the point where I can keep my body silent, but I still have a hard time calming my mind and letting go. I’m going to try to incorporate the daily meditation Patrick describes in an effort to increase my mindfulness and figure out who I really am. One of the reasons I decided to do the PCP at my age (22) is because I figured if I could learn all these lessons and gain better self-awareness early in life, it would make things much better and perhaps easier later on. I might as well make the most of everything available to me. So I now have another goal to add to the program:

Develop a meaningful meditation practice that I actually enjoy by the end of the 90 days. This will be a BIG challenge for me, but the rewards could be amazing.

I’ll keep you updated on how this pans out. I have a feeling it will be pretty interesting!

On a semi-connected note, I had an epiphany in yoga today. This was the first time I've had a chance to go since I started PCP and I was so ready for a good stretching session. The class was with a different teacher than usual and we spent the entire time connecting our breath with our movement. Now, I know every class does that, but we really focused on it above all else. There were no difficult poses today; it was just all about connecting with the breath. For some reason, that's what it took for me to FINALLY realize what "connect with your breath" actually means. It completely transformed how I see my body's movements and how I plan to approach my yoga practice from now on. And to think, if I hadn't happened to go to that yoga class on this day, I might have missed this amazing lesson.

Day 3

Today started off great. I figured out that this plastic thing I thought was part of my jump rope, actually wasn't. Once I cut it off, my skills greatly improved. I did 2 sets straight to 60 without messing up, and I didn't mess up too many times on the others! And I've already noticed I get less winded. I'm actually looking forward to jumping rope tomorrow and seeing if I can do even better! One positive side effect of working out first thing, is I down at least 2 glasses of water before I've even had breakfast. I've always been a big water drinker (that and milk) because I don't like soft drinks (weird I know, something about the carbonation) or coffee. But I've noticed these past few days that I've been drinking even more water than usual.

As far as the strength portion went, I had a lot of energy for some reason and did the maximum reps on each set. My core has been a little sore all day, but in a good way. I know that's my weakest area and one of the major reasons I joined PCP was to strengthen it. I know that'll really help my yoga practice. Oh, and in between my sets of push ups I went into child's pose and it felt great! I did the wheel after my last core rep as an energy boost, but that energy quickly dwindled. At around 2 PM, I could definitely tell I was crashing. I think it's just my body getting used to waking up so early every day. It has definitely made me hungrier than I was on day 1 and 2 though!

I had a really hard time halving my portions today. For lunch, at my university's dining hall I tried to just serve myself half the amount I usually would, but I'm not sure if it really was half. For my favorite DH meal~ honey nut cheerios with cut up banana, I may have cheated a little. I put only half the banana in the cereal, but I could not stop eating those cheerios! Now normally I think I would have gone back for another bowl, so maybe that was me halving it by not getting a second helping. I swear, those honey nut cheerios must be laced with crack they are soooo good. And the DH doesn't always have them, so I had to take advantage of the situation!

All in all a great day 3 for exercise and an ok day 3 for diet!

Day 2

It's snowing. In South Carolina. In March. There is a blizzard going on outside my window right now that while, mesmerizing to watch, causes me to have extreme hermit-like tendencies. Aka I am skipping that afternoon yoga class I'd been planning on attending all day. Luckily I got my PCP workout out of the way this morning, BEFORE the flurries started. I've been jump roping first thing these past 2 days and I think I'll continue to do that. I know if I put it off, I'll end up dreading it all day. Hopefully I can maintain this momentum to get it over with when I wake up.

With this snow, there is little that could get me to venture out right now. Except maybe the promise of the other half of the DELICIOUS veggie sub I had to throw away at lunch. I only get a 6 inch to begin with, so eating half isn't very filling. Maybe it's because I knew I couldn't finish it, but that sub has never tasted better. I was so tempted to just eat the whole thing, but this blog is keeping me honest and I forced myself to throw half in the trash.

2 midterms down, 1 paper and midterm to go!

Day 1

Week one of PCP happens to coincide with midterm week (aka the week from hell) at my university. Not the best timing, but it did give me incentive to wake up early and get my workout out of the way, so I could study the rest of the day. Now, normally I'm a fairly coordinated person, but when it comes to jumprope, I have two left feet. In India, me and my friends would jumprope sometimes for exercise, and they always laughed at how loud my feet would stomp when they hit the ground. While today I kept tried to keep the impact to mainly the balls of my feet, I still kept getting the rope wrapped around me. Also, for now I have to hop twice in between each turn; I'm not yet quick enough to be able to jump once on each turn. I can see how it is great cardio though. While this set wore me out perhaps more than intended, I look forward to improving my jumprope skills as the PCP continues!

As far as the diet goes, this was also more of a challenge than expected. It's 6:14 PM right now and I'm going to wait awhile longer to have dinner in hopes that I won't go to bed hungry on my half-portion!

Since this is Day 1 of the program, I figured it would be a good idea to lay out some goals of mine for the program. By the end of the 90 day period, I will:

-be able to do a headstand in yoga class

-have a better grip on my addiction to chocolate

-be able to jumprope without feeling extremely clumsy (and winded after only a few sets!)

-have a greater appreciation for what my body is capable of doing

I'm sure I'll develop some more goals as the weeks continue, but these are the major ones.

I look forward to reading how my fellow PCPr's are handling the first day!