The Green Diva

Health & Fitness February 2010 update

February has brought mixed gains in terms of weight gain. If you see my last update you’ll note that I ordered some hemp protein powder to incorporate into my diet. I was expecting it to taste quite bad but luckily it hardly has any taste at all. I have it in a vegetable smoothie which works best with the powdery texture of the protein. Overall it has been easy to add to my diet, after only two weeks of regular consumption my hair is stronger and glossier. As I’m in my first year of veganism it still takes a little planning to make sure I get my protein intake. The powder makes it easier, especially as I’m in training.

I bought a Zumba Fitness DVD set to bring some fun cardio in my workouts; I love to dance anyway and was very intrigued by the adverts. I will do a review on the DVDs once I’ve finished my rigorous testing!

The focus is still on the kettlebells to build a bit of muscle and add strength, I must admit I still haven’t upgraded to a heavier weight purely because I have been so busy with finishing off some design projects. Now I’m working from home I plan to really up the tempo with muscle-building exercises. This is not going to be easy with my natural somewhat weedy physique. As I stated last month I will now be posting photos to track progress, this one isn’t great as I’ve literally just woken up so please ignore the panda eyes.

In terms of numbers I managed to get my BMI to 17.57 for a week and then in dropped down again to my usual 17.36. It even got to 17.11 which is worrying as I was eating more than enough food. I need to experiment with how I eat, in the past I constantly ate food throughout the day and still stayed slim. So now I’m trying to eat regular meals as well as snacks whenever I feel hungry. It will be interesting to see if this makes any difference, perhaps it will aid in slowing down my metabolism a little.

My biggest gain this month was in identifying the area where I must improve: keeping a regular routine. Both diet and exercise are included in this- I am terrible when left to my own devices. I even forget about food when I am working, and with my current 7 day on- 7 day off working week this is something I must keep a close eye on. I may end up setting an alarm on my phone to remind me to eat and exercise on time. Here’s hoping March brings a more toned physique…