Chez FitMercy

There are instances of economic recession all over the world right now, and Nigeria is not an exemption and if I am allowed to say this, we seemed to be at the core of it right now. I am writing as it relates to my environment and what I practice. I noticed that healthy foods can be expensive in this side of the world except you are truly determined to do what is right. I will highlight food sources and what you can consume to get the daily requirements of such classes of food. I will dwell more on protein , fruits and complex carbs because that is where we have most challenges when it comes to being balanced around here. Protein Beans : Right now beans seem to elude the present recession as the price of beans is stable at N1200.00 ($3.00) for a paint rubber measure. It's a staple seed that can be diversified. You make your beans porridge, pudding and cakes out of this and you still have your fill from little. ( 3/4 cup cooked beans = 1 serving )

I am making this a quick post so that I am not breaking my weigh in streak. I weighed in yesterday at 170.2lbs and that is a result of one week of inactivity but keeping food choices on point. I did well intermittently fasting and made good food choices, I also tracked my meals in my journals without default. You might wonder why I feel a gain of 0.4lbs is a good thing, I think so because I am just coming out of TOM and I normally expect a 3lbs gain most times but I think something is working for me, I only hope it has nothing to do with lack of exercise which characterized this week. I coming up with a series of posts on hunger, cravings and a desire to eat , I am almost done with it and I promise you it will be a good time to keep "overeating" under forever. ________________________________________________________________________________ I danced last week for a total of 90 minutes and I was surprised to have over 10,000 steps on my tracker, that is

I weighed in this morning at 170.2lbs and that is a gain of 0.6lbs this week. I did well because I had NSVs . I feel so proud of this achievements and I know that the scale will soon move towards the right direction.  NSV means Non-Scale Victory , it is very important for everyone on a weight loss journey to imbibe this as a culture if they want to ever make a headway. It is often said that the scale nor the numbers on it does not determine what success you have. I agree with this and I think it is fact even though it is easier to feel bad and misbehave after any weigh in that shows an unfavourable number. 

I had an 0.4lbs weight gain between last week and today. I am not surprised because " it's not possible to keep doing the same things and expecting different results ". All my plans to take my workout up a notch last week was forfeited by some factors beyond my control, "weather" (over 37 degrees celcius and over 27 at night). I hate making excuses but I seemed to be very helpless at this point, the scotching sun during the day and the humidity at night is quite overbearing. According to a previous plan , I intended utilizing the mornings but they are as equally humid as the nights too. The effects of all these is low morale and total body debility and I don't feel encouraged to do anything. It looks to me that my mind is not working neither is my body. I am presently on intermittent fasting and I am consistent with it, but I also think I eat too much while breaking the fast and it is really jeopardizing my efforts of the fasted periods. I h

Intermittent Fasting (called IF) is a pattern of eating where you time your eating. There is a deep study by various people on this (Read on  here ...) and I have tried some of these including:- 16:8 Fasting You fast for 16 hours and limit your eating within an eight hour window. I was doing this day in day out early 2015. My breakfast was coming in by 3pm every day and I lost weight and my blood work became almost perfect. I think I got discouraged along the line when some "concerned folks" started complaining that I am doing "too much". I regret ever listening to them now, not sure they were God sent. 24 hours Fasting . This is when you don't consume any calorie for 24 hours straight, I normally fast breakfast to breakfast i.e. 7am today till 7am tomorrow. I did this as a "collabo" (together) with the 16:8 and I think this was what made my weight loss so drastic and noticeable. I did this early last year and I had a surprise

How has been the day friends?  Today is Day One of Project Scale Down . I measured my girth at 36.1 inches Weighed in at 169.6lbs (77kg) A starting picture too. The next blog will be 16th of January for Day 15 progress. Follow me on twitter for daily updates. Observations : 1. My core had become very weak from lack of exercise 2. I did 60 secs plank hold twice, I started shaking at 2 secs the first time, 12 secs the second time 3. Fitness Blender core exercise for 20 minutes and I stopped the video thrice 4. I am really out of shape. Extras : I am beginning 5:2 Diet Fast by Monday 4th, 2016. It is a healthy way to keep your body in good shape. I have tried it before and I am ready to do it again. I will blog about this and what I did after the first day is successful.