Chez FitMercy

Happy new year to my friends and readers.  I had enjoyed every bit of the festive season with family, rest and of course lots of food. I ate to satisfaction with " healthy " in mind. I had some excesses too like heavy creams, sodas (unlimited)and second helpings too. But I was conscious of the cooking methods like substituting frying for grilling; minimizing oils to the barest;  I also tried new recipes, in all of this I did not stop intermittent fasting,  I was sure to be doing the needful on a daily basis, so the scale was not crazy at the end of the year at 167.4lbs but weigh in this morning was 170lbs [a number I have not behold in a long while], I am starting on a fresh plate and determined to be healthier this year and probably get to my first goal weight of 155lbs by June this year. I have great plans and focus, believing God and my efforts to reach all my goals this year. I am posting from my mobile because of some internet issues right now on the compute

I am concluding the series on managing stress this week. The fifth tip according to the article is referred to as the 4 As i.e. Avoid , Alter , Adapt and Accept . These, as extensively explained in helpguide.org : Avoid unnecessary stress It’s not healthy to avoid a stressful situation that needs to be addressed, but you may be surprised by the number of stressors in your life that you can eliminate. Learn how to say “no” – Know your limits and stick to them. Whether in your personal or professional life, taking on more than you can handle is a surefire recipe for stress. Distinguish between the “shoulds” and the “musts” and, when possible, say “no” to taking on too much. Avoid people who stress you out – If someone consistently causes stress in your life, limit the amount of time you spend with that person, or end the relationship. Take control of your environment – If the evening news makes you anxious, turn off the TV. If traffic makes you tense, take a long

Stress is simply a reaction to a stimulus that disturbs our physical or mental equilibrium. In other words, it's an omnipresent part of life. A stressful event can trigger the “fight-or-flight” response, causing hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol to surge through the body. Never say "there is nothing I can do about it". No! Don't accept stress as a part of your lifestyle, you can deal with it, you can minimize it, stress can be controlled. Some quick tips according to Stress Management by Lawrence Robinson, Melinda Smith, M.A., and Robert Segal, M.A.: Move your body frequently—don't sit for more than an hour Make positive face-to-face connection with other people a priority When you can't change the stressor, learn to avoid, alter, adapt, or accept Reduce your intake of alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine Do something you enjoy every day Get all the restful sleep that you need to feel your best. According to the authors, there are a few ti

Weight loss journey can be as interesting and as boring, it can be as inspiring as it can be frustrating. It is the desire to keep moving no matter what, that brings the most success. I had been on this for the past 6 years and it is funny how many times I had to lose and regain those tiny pounds but somehow I am nearer to my goal weight now than ever before. Sometimes I lose weight rapidly, other times they come in tiny bits and some days it's like I woke up to gain 5lbs that will refuse to go away irrespective of what is done. In this long journey to great health, I have learnt to keep on keeping on even when the surrounding conditions doesn't permit it.

Yesterday was weigh in and it was not too good thanks to wacky hormones (every woman's monthly bane). I weighed in yesterday and I thought it was due to late dinner on Tuesday that showed on the scale but when I tried it this morning, it was worse despite the controlled portion yesterday and taking my early dinner. Now I know it has something to do with water weight. Anyways, the week was not bad and I did everything to be sure the weekend challenge was on point.

The Biggest Loser Challenge (BLC) is still on and I had a great week save my lack of consistent exercise. The challenge emphasized greatly on setting goals on all levels and meeting them. Nutrition Goals I did a daily meal plan and tracked it in my journal at the end of the day. I made sure to record everything that made it's way into my mouth daily and wrote statements of caution for anything that was not planned for the previous day. I realized at the end of this challenge how good it is to plan meals ahead, it gave me a sense of discipline and some accountability. Fitness Goals I did badly on this part, for whatever reason I am a bit incapacitated. I wanted all my exercise videos on a memory card because of some hard disk issues I had with the computer and solution seemed not to be coming forth quickly. I am not making excuses because I had lots of other alternatives but I promise myself that this week will be better. Goal Setting I did not get the instru

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 sure you are familiar with the Biggest Loser TV series that ran its 17th season this year - since 2004. It is a challenge where obese or overweight contestants are made to go through rigorous exercise and strict dieting disciplines. They compete for cash reward for 3 months and after which a ranch winner and a home winner emerges. So when next you hear " biggest loser ", its not pessimism they mean the individual with the lowest number on the scale, I will most love to be in that category, lol.  Post today is about a replica of this TV series that I have been involved in over the past 4 years. This is an online version of the biggest loser TV series. This challenge runs for 15 weeks straight with a weekly Wednesday weigh in and some other in between activities just to keep team mates on their toes for the period, some of which are:

I have cracked my brain over what to write about today and when I tried putting some post together about " living healthy on a low budget " (watch out for that next), the topic " family " just popped in my mind and I decided to just pour my heart out a bit this week and also reminiscence into what my family eating style was about too. I grew up within a family of 7 including mom and dad. We are a combo of 3 boys and 2 girls, friendly siblings in our years of growing, we did everything together and really loved ourselves. I think as we were growing we started recognizing our individual differences and it could only make us form parties, I don't mean we disliked ourselves but we started preferring one person over the other and obviously became closer with one more than others, lol. (If this has not happened in your family, raise your hands up).

What or who are food pushers? We encounter them daily during our weight loss journey and instead of avoiding them I think we can be polite. This post is based on some facts about food pushers and as I had personally encountered them and the few reasons why they push food at you. They can be categorized into 3.

Overeating is the process of eating excess food in relation to the energy expended by a person. There are a thousand and one scientific explanations that is given to what happens before, during and after overeating. I want to explain overeating as it relates to me. I mostly have this experience when I think I am too hungry or when I enjoy the meal or when the food is my favorite. I think as much as it is easy to explain overeating, it starts from the mind then the mouth and the most effect is felt in the stomach then the waist in that order.

I have kept at this streak for 20 good weeks straight up. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy Find Below my chart for the past 5 months of consistent weigh ins.

I have been weighing myself and blogging about it for almost 20 weeks consecutively. I feel proud of myself because I know that consistency is very important in a weight loss journey and I am doing just that. For the past 3 weeks I had been posting on eating, hunger and other things in-between. I posted about CRAVINGS , DESIRE TO EAT and HUNGER , today and I am going to make my inference from the past posts and how it could affect me as a person (one of the purpose of this blog is for readers to learn from me and succeed). My conclusions goes thus : 1. I now know what true hunger means, which according to Dr. Fuhrman is felt at the throat and at the back of the mouth (refer to the last week's post)

It's a new week and I am a little excited today for some reasons: 1. I had my first workout Wednesday morning after more than 3 whole weeks of inactivity. 2. I just got clue to a new challenge and I am really excited that I may not bored out of this. 3. Intermittent Fasting is working and I am not worn out. It's more spiritual than physical and that keeps me going. 4. This is my 200th post on this blog, a wonderful milestone for me. I am proud of myself The post on true hunger is not really mine but a fact as researched by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, M.D.  Happy Reading. Hunger is good to experience on a daily basis. Hunger is important to aid in our enjoyment of food and get the precise signals from our body to know the amount of calories we need to maintain our lean body mass. When we eat when we are hungry food tastes much better and we are physiologically primed for proper digestion. Hunger, in the true sense of the word, indicates to us that it is time to e

Thank God for another week. It had been hectic this past few days such that I had been extricated from my daily routine, I had attended to everything as they came. I mean this past week had been without a proper planning just because it was not working and many things are being undone at the close of the day (when I retire to bed nightly). I decided to start my series on CRAVINGS;  this is a strong desire for something such that unless it is satisfied it could jeopardize other things. Food cravings on the same page is the strong desire to eat a particular food or a food group, if not satisfied the person could either go hungry on other essential foods or could overeat other foods. It is quite unfortunate to know that cravings tend to the wrong foods especially sugars, it is really rare to see someone crave veggies or fruits, we tend to crave ice-cream, chocolate and simple carbs. We also crave foods we normally will not eat. Craving is not hunger, in fact we normal

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

This week had not been really interesting save the surprise birthday party I was at on Monday 20th. On the healthy lifestyle road, I can say this week was a bore. I tried working out but the morale was just not there (always remember that this happens a lot along your journey to success). Well, I needed to something interesting for this week's post and voila  - "clutters and de-cluttering" . We have all had to battle with this at one time or another. If you are a working class and you are like me with an 8 hour job with other extra-curricula activities on a daily basis, then you will relate with this a lot. Sometimes it becomes worse and you just must find that time to get your house in order. At a point, a cluttered house was my bane till I found a secret of handling one room per time and in a month my home became a safe haven again. Funny part is that when the house is cluttered there is a superstition that one will be having constant nightmares (I don'

When we talk of personality, we are referring to who you really are , what stuff you are made of, what you do as habit or attitude effortlessly or sometimes without thinking. For example you can never advise an extrovert to start talking because it is done without thinking neither will you force an introvert to socialize since he won't bulge. In the psychological world, they have a lot of classifications that I am not delving into in this post. I will be referring you to some quiz (at the end of the post) where you can find out where you belong and what you can do to help achieve your healthy goals. Did you wake up 4:30am everyday to get some runs in and after a week you were either exhausted, bored and uninterested in it any longer? Were you in a monthly challenge and your schedule did not see the light of the 5th day? Have you tried Yoga and you wondered what the slow motion is all about? Did you register in a gym at the beginning of a year and you wondered why t

I love cooking.  I love learning new cooking tips. I love trying new recipes. I think it could be responsible for my tendency to overeat. I love the food I cook or let me just say I love eating food, good foods, delicious food. Can I say I lack self control? Or all these episodes of overeating even after intermittent fasting is emotional in nature? I have tried 5-6 meals a day and I ended up overweight and now I am doing intermittent fasting still I tend to overeat at my non-fasting window or days. The question I am asking myself today is this: AM I AN EMOTIONAL EATER? Whenever you eat outside hunger it can be defined as emotional eating. Anytime you eat to soothe yourself or suppress a negative emotion e.g. anger, sadness, or even boredom you are emotionally eating.  I am aware of this but I seem not to be able to help myself when the eating starts but I try that it doesn't spin out of control, at least I am sure to get it curbed within 24 hours,

Last week, I was very religious with tracking both food and workout on a daily basis and all was going well till Saturday when I was supposed to have tabata, I just realized my heart rate was high, my body was not ready and till this morning I had not lifted a finger in my home gym.  It would be a lie if anyone told you it's all rosy and active through a weight loss journey there are lots of ups and down. In fact I think my own journey had been unique. I cannot work on a regimen for 4 weeks straight, No I can't! BUT I WILL, as you know that I get bored easily, so to be frank the road is not easy at all and I am not exempted.