Baseline

These are the my starting point co-ordinates. Will be tracking them on a monthly basis. For short-term motivation, I'll track weight on a weekly basis.

Food and Exercise Log

I am keeping an (honest) track of my food and exercise routines here.

Exercise Framework

Kriss and I discuss how I can incorporate the exercise into my routines. To begin with, we'll do 2-3 sessions of high intensity training together while the remaining days 3-4 days I can continue with my brisk walk, short jog that I have anyways been doing but now with 5-10 minute additional specific exercise.

So a week could look like:

Sunday - Jog 20 mins plus brisk walk 20 mins, 5-10 minutes of core exercises

Monday  - Rest

Tuesday  - Guided 1.5 hr session with Kriss

Wednesday - Brisk walk for 40 mins, 5-10 minutes of core exercises

Thursday - 30 mins walk on treadmill at 9 incline and 5 km/hr speed, 5-10 mins of core exercise

Friday - Guided 1.5 hr session with Kriss

Saturday -  30 mins walk on treadmill at 9 incline and 5 km/hr speed, 5-10 mins of core exercise

This will evolve as we move along. The above is the framework I gathered from our discussion.

Nutrition Framework

Day 1 - 18 Dec, 2013

Kriss walks me through my eating regime for what she calls the first phase of fat burn.

The premise is that I have lot of fat stored in my body as reserve (holy grail true) and it needs some intensive intervention by way of diet and exercise to burn it up. Hence, my exercise and diet will be geared towards this objective. Which means that I have to temporarily abstain from some otherwise reasonable food choices till we can bid some of this reserve goodbye.

Here's what I absolutely must NOT have -

1. Sugar - includes honey, brown sugar, dried fruits, artificial sweeteners. Fruits are excluded, though not more than 2 per day and the more citrus ones and never after dinner.
2. Processed flour - includes all white flour (pasta, white breads, cakes) as well as whole wheat flour (chapatis, tortilla wraps, fancy multigrain breads)
3. Milk - Yoghurt and cottage cheese excluded. 

These are things that I absolutely MUST do -

1. Drink 3-4 ltrs of H2O 
• half ltr first thing in the morning taken lukewarm with half lime
• 1 ltr during workouts
2. Have 5-6 soaked almonds along with breakfast
3. Have 2 tsp of grounded flax seeds 
4. Protein shake with water post intensive workout
5. Use Stevia syrup as substitute for sugar in my coffee/tea 
6. Have one CHEAT meal every week - eat whatever I crave, just one time a week

My skeletal daily meal plan should look like:

0730 - 0.5 litres of lukewarm water with half lemon

0830 - Breakfast

Snack 1

1130 - Lunch

Snack 2

1900 - Dinner

Snack 4 (optional)

Breakfast comprises of 

1. Scrambled egg made with 1 whole egg + 2-3  egg whites and as many veggies as I like - bell peppers, mushrooms, spinach. Garnish with sea salt, pepper
2. 5 overnight soaked almonds
3. 1 bowl of yoghurt with 2 tsp flaxseed powder

If it becomes too boring, I can have oatmeal once a week.

Lunch comprises of

1. Lentils/Beans
2. Brown/red/black rice
3. Veggies
4. small portion of chicken/fish - she says its important to include a tiny portion as its works wonder in this combination 

Dinner comprises of 

1. Salad/fresh greens or stir fry veggies - salad dressing should only include olive oil/apple cider + lemon+ sea salt. 
2. Good portion of chicken/fish cooked with minimal oil

Snacking options are

1. Handful of nuts -almonds, walnuts, macadamias. NEVER roasted, only raw
2. Hummus with carrot/cucumber/celery sticks
3. Yoghurt with fruit
4. Fruit (apples, berries, kiwi, orange)
5. Post dinner snack - 1spoon of almond/peanut butter (with no additives), or a water based protein shake

Other pointers - 

• 1 piece of dark chocolate allowed but not after dinner
• No more than 1 glass of red wine per week (so obviously ZERO alcohol otherwise)

Some BIG changes here. 

My immediate feelings are that Dinner is going to be difficult to manage and that I will miss my red wine and chocolate at night. The big silver lining is that groceries and meal planning is going to get really simplified once I get a handle on this.

Transformation Goals

I will consider myself transformed if -

1. I see a toned myself. Toned means firm upper arms, upper legs and abdomen. 
2. I feel strong. Its hard to articulate strength. You just feel it. I'll know it when I feel it.
3. I drop 10 kgs of fat.
4. I know how to design my meals and am at peace with those choices.

I have a month long trip back home coming up and it threatens to un-do all the good intentions. I will have to manage that. Maybe its good in a way. If I can do this in spite of this trip, I will know that I can REALLY do this stuff. 

Transforming MJ

I have been overweight all my life. As an infant, my parents fought maximum over who would carry me. As a teenager, I struggled to get skirts for school uniform in my size and bore the brunt of all the subtle and not so subtle jibes. As a college student and young professional, I mostly stuck to Indian traditional wear which was more forgiving of the excess baggage I carry.

Ironical then, that I am the lightest I have been as a young mother to an infant.  Pregnancy and post-birth period were good for me in that I found myself lighter than my starting point. Maybe thanks to yoga, good nutrition and lack of a hectic cubicle lifestyle.

But I am still overweight, by a cool 10 kgs if not more. More important still, I am nowhere close to as fit as I would like to be. I feel the lack of energy and it affects every part of my life. I have read a lot about eating healthy but still struggle to put our meals together in a way that's healthy and tasty.

I have been dabbling in a little bit of this and little bit of that. Yoga classes here, some running there. Long evening walks with my son in the stroller. Some healthy eating habits. But it doesn't move the needle in a meaningful way, making it very easy to relapse to poor habits.

So I am doing the hitherto unthinkable and signing up with a personal trainer. Kriss Nicole will be my fitness coach and nutritional adviser for the next 3 months (or longer).

I am going to do as she says and I will capture it all here. There is going to be a transformation. I just know it.

Keep tabs on me, will you ?