Setting Myself Up For Shredtastic Results... Thursday, February 12

I decided to do a 30 day shred program, designed by me for specifically me, so today I sat down to write it out and measure myself.  I'm very much a goal-oriented, goals-needed kind of gal and I figure that this would keep my mind occupied as I focus on each level and then every 10 days I have to level up. I'm already pretty good with eating clean but my downfalls are with getting in enough water, late night eating, and bread and dairy products, more specifically milk and cheese!!!  Lately many Hulkies and friends have been showering me with pastry gifts and it's been stretching my will power to extremes. My other kryptonite is cheese.  I haven't eaten cheese for the last, I don't know, maybe 10 years and now ETraders has marble cheese that's oh so delish, oh so perfectly sliced and oh so tempting.  I freakin' love cheese and throw a slice of that over some eggs on bread, hello Heaven!!!  I've been pretty good at limiting my dairy intake to milk with my morning coffee, Greek yogurt in with my breakfast oatmeal bake, but there are days when I have a second cup of coffee with milk and the cheese, it taunts me and I give in.  

As for late night eating, that's a price I have to pay with running a business in Korea because food is very much a big part of the culture as is drinking.  My sponsors all know food is the way to my heart and I can be easily bribed to a late night meal out if there's promises of mouth-watering meat, especially rotisserie chicken.  We try to keep our business meeting/dinners to Saturday because it means eating at a reasonable hour but occasionally during the week a sponsor drops by and wants to take us out after work.  This makes it hard to avoid eating late because I can only close the club so early, like 11:30pm, and I can't exactly decline a meal out from a sponsor who has financially invested into our boxing club.

LEVEL 1:

• One cup of water before eating anything.
• Cheat meal allowed twice a week, Wednesdays and Saturdays. 
• If eating late, the snack must be smaller than any other meal eaten that same day.
• No milk allowed after first morning meal.
• Only allowed bread every other day.

LEVEL 2:

• One cup of water before and after eating anything.
• Cheat meal allowed twice a week, Wednesday and Saturday. 
• Stop eating 2 hours before expected bedtime.
• Only allowed one daily product a day -- either milk, cheese or Greek yogurt.
• Only allowed bread every other day but to be eaten before meal #4.

LEVEL 3:

• Drink one cup of water every hour awake (can occasionally double-up for an hour missed because the point is to really up my water intake).
• Cheat meal allowed only once a week, preferably on Saturday or Sunday.
• Stop eating once the club is closed during the week.  However if sponsor insists we eat after hours this counts as the weekly cheat meal.
• Only allowed one dairy product a day and if it's either milk or cheese they are to be eaten only with breakfast.  No time limitations if a Greek yogurt is chosen instead.
• Only allowed bread every other day but to be eaten before training (usually will mean with meal #1 or #2)

I should note here that my rules for each of the levels may seem rather tight and restricting but you have to realize that I'm not going from eating bad to eating good.  I already eat very well, very clean, so I'm looking to fine tune it even more and to crack this plateau I seem to have reached.  I train very hard, clocking in over 50kms a week in just 4 days of running, then 6-7 hours of boxing plus another 4-5 hours of weight training.  I average 16 hours of training spread out among 6 days per week with Sunday being my only full day off all training.  

Some Basic Clean Eating Meals I Already Eat By:

• Eat 5-6 smaller sized meals a day.
• Eat every 2.5-3 hours.
• 1-2 servings of fruit a day and to be eaten in the first half of the day.
• 1-2 servings of healthy fats a day and to be eaten in the first half of the day.
• 3-4 servings of veggies a day.
• 3 servings of starchy carbs and to be eaten with breakfast, pre-workout meal and post workout meal.
• Protein with every meal.
• No coffee after 7:30pm.

Let me correct myself here, I eat very clean already but have noted that just recently my intake of bread and cheese has skyrocketed ever since the discovery of sliced marble cheese at ETraders and how it's just a perfect couple made in mouth-watering Heaven when paired with egg and sliced bread.  It's so delish in fact that our Hulkies insisted I put it on our juice bar menu here at Hulk's.  I sell our open face sandwiches for $3 and I make any where from 2 to 7 on any given day.  Finding decent bread in Korea is pretty hard considering they treat it more like a dessert item than someone thing for sandwiches and meals.  Consequently, I definitely question the nutritional value of regular store-bought bread and try to go out of my way to at least get healthier options like multi-grain at the bakeries.   The mix of the cheese with the increase in bread intake has left me rather bloated feeling and I think that mixed with the other dairy intake has been my weak point in my clean eating.  This 30 day shred is more or less just me trying to fine tune my eating and get my bread and dairy intake more controlled with some mini goals and guidelines.  Damn those open face sandwiches though, I wish they tasted nasty but my mouth is watering just thinking of them... hahaha.