Healthy Snacks

I'm going to the movies with my man tonight. And because part of movie-experience is the snacks, now I'm facing a question: What on earth can I snack?

I'm really not gonna munch my way over a bucketfull of popcorns/chips/candys and soak it down with gallons of soda. But what is there for an option? What would keep me happy, satisfied and not leaning towards grooms sack of unhealthy goods?

A while of brainstorming...

Some great suggestions I came up:
- Carrot sticks (love them) they are crunhcy which is a huge plus.
- Frozen berries
- Grapes (all though not for me 'cos the IBS)
- Goji berries! This one's is great... yum!
- For fizzydrinks gotta choose diet but better yet, sodawater.
- Reasonable amount of almonds or some other nuts/seeds
- If candy is what you crave, try to choose sugarfree or lollipops. One lollipop goes a long way and the sugarload is quite small.

Now I have a plan. I'm going to buy unpeeled almonds and gojis, mix them up with some garlicpowder and pepper. Served with a sodawater and lollipop for desert.

Now comes the "easy part" - deciding what to wear. :)

Maybe I should dress like Jessica Alba, the leading actress in the movie...

High Maintenance

I'm all about training my body, seeing what it's capable and trying to keep it fit, firm and in shape. This usually helps me to stay in my training and eating routine; wake up at 06 am to do morning aerobics, to do those final reps at the gym, to push harder when running, choosing carrots over candy, etc.

But sometimes...

Sometimes I push myself too hard. If I'm sick or truly just tired and stressed out there would be more positive effects if I would just calm myself down, rest and meditate. I have my usual rest days of course, but if it's not in schedual it's hard for me to justify rest allthough I know I would need it.

I have same stubbornes with my weight (I have E.D -history, which is now-a-days awfully common). I weigh about 61-62 kg /134-136 pounds, which is fine in comparison with my height (176 cm /5,77) feet, but i have this obsession of weighing under 60 kgs. At my lowest I weighed 54 kg/ 119 pnds which was too low, but emotionally I feel that I should weigh 57-58 kg. It might be that my hormones just don't function properly  in those numbers so I'm torn in between.

All these high expectations cause me too much stress so I'm also training acceptance, failure and peace of mind. So more yoga and mindfulness for me, thanks!

But hey, I've got some good news. I've dumped the sugar and lowered my salt intake. Yesterday I've got huge chocolate and liquorice crawing which I did NOT fall. So three days of succes!

The Ground Zero

Tomorrow is the day of no excuses. I'm finally ready to start with the gym program and also with a diet that supports my training.

I'm kind of a sugar, as well as salt, addict (which does explain the huge amounts of ketchup I fancy...) but now is really time to stop with that addiction. I have some excuses that I've been using in order to include unhealthy foods to my diet. One of them:
" I have such a hard time to find food I can eat so it's okay to beast with chocolate. "
 - The truth is that although my diet is quite narrow (I'm vegetarian and I suffer from IBS (irritable bow syndrome), there's still an easy way to eat healthy

And another:
"I love to bake."
I mean really? :) This must be my favorite. It's so easy to convince myself that what I really love to do is baking and the consequence is just by accident munching away with my sweet, salty, greasy and oh, so delicious outcome, which too often doesn't go well with my IBS and leaves me with unimaginable painful stomach cramps

But now I'm hoping that keeping this diary will also help with keeping my promises to myself.
Fingers crossed.

Measurements

I promised to tell little of myself, so here it comes...

I'm 22 years old female student from Finland (that should explain all the typos). I study social field in University of Applied Sciences. I have previously studied sport instructing also in UAS (one year before I changed my main)- from there I got the education for swimming, weight training, wellbeing P.E, aerobics, indoor cycling and body care instruction. I also studied the basics on nutrition.

I'm into a variety of exercises; running, yoga, weight training, swimming, etc.. Everything where you can move. I also take lessons in Taido, which is a Japanese style martial art.
Traditional archery is my newest hobby which I'm into with my bow-making groom.

Music is another passion of mine. I'm a huge metalhead, listening styles like death, black, symphonic and folk metal. Classical music, specially played by cellos, is also close to my heart.

I'm almost ready to start with my new program in gym. Final max-weights must be first tested. :D

To becoming a Hero

This is mood of the day. Starting a blog and a new gym program, I'm hoping I can find ways to have an impact on myself and maybe others. The new gym program HST - Hypertrophy-Specific Training, an it's about loading the muscle to induce hypotrophy. The whole body workout -three times a week.

The basic principles why HST:
1. Tension: okay, you have to weight train for building up muscle
2. Frequency: you train muscle frequently and keep anabolic stage on
3. Progressive Load: increasing the load should help building up muscle
4. Avoiding Failure: the charge is focused to muscle not nerves (also faster recovery)
5. SD = Strategic deconditioning: obligatory 7-14 days pause on training before new cycle for full recovery and to ensure adequate stimulus to muscles in next cycle.

There is a lot of "for building up muscles", but don't be scared. Muscle is good! :) Can't wait to get started with this!

On my next post there's going to be more about me - Who am I?