Me in the gym this morning… 

I just watched a very interesting video concerned with the science behind sugar and how fructose is technically poison… and is the main reason we’re fat!

So check out my updated page here!

Also added a bit to the fitness section… 

I made a diet timetable!

As I’ve said many times, including on my health and fitness page, weightloss and healthy eating have a lot to do with when you eat and what you eat at certain times.

The recommended daily calorie intake (for a female of average height) is 1200 calories per day, so here I’ve broken up the calories throughout the day; the most in the morning and the least in the evening. 

The images I’ve added are just to give you ideas of what to eat/cook. These foods are all vegetarian and things that I like. Eating a lot of eggs, nuts and seeds is always good for muscle growth. Fruits and vegetables are always great.

Don’t forget about calcium and vitamins!

Remember, carbs in moderation! None past the afternoon. The carbs that you do eat should be small portions of “good carbs”.

It’s best to eat nothing after 7pm/8pm, but if you are really hungry, then don’t eat anything other than vegetables. Hopefully the image will give you some ideas (vegetable soup, roasted vegetables, tomato salad, garlic mushrooms…)

Link to bigger version of the image:

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/4003/eatingtimetable.jpg

IF YOU WAKE UP AT 7am AND SLEEP AT 10pm (for example) THEN PUSH ALL THE ‘BOUNDARIES’ BACK BY TWO HOURS… adjust to your awake hours!

So here is what I had for dinner. They were delicious.

Ingredients (for one):

• 1/3 can of chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 tablespoon of oregano
• 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan
• 1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• Salt
• Black pepper
• 1 cup of vegetable broth
• 1/3 cup of brown rice
• 2 sweet bell peppers
• chopped basil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Pour tomatoes, oregano, Parmesan, olive oil, salt and pepper into a bowl and mix.

The oregano I picked fresh from my Grandparent’s herb garden:

(Meanwhile) bring the vegetable broth to a boil in a saucepan. Add the rice and cook for 5 minutes. 

Drain the rice through a sieve, reserving the vegetable broth. Add the rice to the vegetable mixture and stir to combine. Transfer the vegetable broth to a small baking dish.

Slice the tops off the peppers and remove the inner ribs and seeds. Cut a very thin slice from the base to help the peppers to stand.

Spoon the rice and vegetable mixture into the peppers. Place the peppers in the baking dish with the warm vegetable broth.

Cover the dish with non-stick foil and bake for 55 minutes. Remove foil and add extra cheese and basil if desired.

(This recipe is based on one I found online, then altered slightly the ingredients and portion size).

My personal trainer wants me to lose 4 pounds in the first week of our training and another 4 pounds over the following three weeks (since the first few pounds come off quickly). I’m having my first gym session with him on Friday… if I feel well.

I feel so ill today and I don’t know why. I’ve not eaten anything bad. Yesterday I just ate whole grain bread, salad and egg, nothing spicy or out-of-date. Maybe too much diet coke. I really need to give that shit up, but it’s my only vice. 

Today for breakfast I had poached eggs and baked beans (debatable whether they’re healthy). But it was gross… probably because I’m ill.

I’m really feeling University pressure now; less than 6 weeks until my dissertation deadline and I’m aiming for a distinction. If I don’t get it I’ll be pretty devastated. I’ve no idea when my TEFL deadline is either. Ughh stress. 

Sorry for the moaning post, but I said I’d post regular diet updates. I only weigh myself every 3 to 4 weeks to avoid obsessing over one pound every day. I’ll let you know if I manage to lose the 8 I’m supposed to in 4 weeks time.

Charlotte Elizabeth x

I’ve improved this. It’s more confusing now, hence why I’ve had to add the mini direction arrows, but it’s definitely better for your diet.

(You can actually eat more than you could with the previous chart because I’ve distinguished between good carbs and bad carbs).

Large, printable version:

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/8559/dietflowchart3lines.jpg

Good luck bikini dreamers <3

Written everything I know (or at least that I can think of right now) about calories, dieting, weigh-loss and nutrition. 

Check it out:

http://barbiecharlotte.tumblr.com/healthy

I’m going to start a diet/ healthy eating/ fitness blog.

Hopefully this will keep me, and you, motivated to get that summer body and to take care our health.

Things you should know:

1. I suck at cooking! So a lot of the pictures I post may be my boyfriend’s cooking, otherwise I’ll be looking for healthy meal ideas on Tumblr.
2. I’m a broke student with no job, so I’ll be eating on a budget.
3. I’m a Pescetarian, which technically means a diet similar to that of a vegetarian, but which also includes fish and shellfish… but I doubt you’ll see me eating any seafood other than prawns. 

I’ll also post about exercise; the gym, yoga, running, good diet & fitness iPhone apps, etc.

I’ll try and keep this reasonably interesting. I hate diet bores. 

Charlotte Elizabeth.

Wow!

SW:137.  CW:133. GW:126.

Thursday 24^th March 2011

Breakfast: Fruit smoothie (banana, mango, frozen natural yoghurt, frozen apple slices, orange juice).

I did an abs workout after breakfast then spent the whole day in the library; 1pm to 3am so I couldn’t cook anything to eat, so I ate “snack foods” but they can be healthy too! I had a small tuna, prawn and vegetable sushi box from Tesco. I’m not sure how many calories it contained; not many but it’s not ideal because of the rice. I also had a fruit snack box (grapes, mango, kiwi, melon, pineapple) which lasted ages and was less than 150calories. I also had three bananas.

When I got home from the library I ate 175calories of hummus and a load of carrots :/ (I shouldn’t have eaten something fatty so late at night!!)

Friday 25^th March 2011

Breakfast: Fruit smoothie

My boyfriend and I went to ‘Yo! Sushi’ at 6pm which is probably my favourite restaurant. One of the beauties of it is that you can go for a naughty treat OR when you’re on a strict diet! There are so many healthy, no carb, low calorie, vegetarian dishes; it’s fantastic.

Between us we had three plates of edamame (soy beans) they’ve delicious and so low calorie! A lot of celebrities eat them when dieting. We had a plate each of Kaiso Salad (Japanese seaweed, edamame and carrot) and three bowls each of Miso soup. Miso soup is amazing! For £2 it’s unlimited refills, so delicious, very low calorie as it’s just a broth and it fills you up! It contains seaweed, tofu and spring onion <3 _ <3 Yum yum!

We also shared 1 bowl of vegi firecracker rice. That’s bad because it’s carbs but it’s SO NICE!

At about 11pm I had half a carrot.

Saturday 26^th March 2011

Breakfast: half a bowl of Special K cereal, skimmed milk, 1 banana.

For lunch I tried to order healthy; a prawn salad, but when the waiter brought it each prawn was deep fat fried. Fail. It was only a light batter but I didn’t really eat anything else for the rest of the day aside from 2 slices of melon.

At 9pm I want for a run around the village with my brother, (I’m staying with the parents for a few days) then did a full abs workout.

Hey guys! Sorry that I’ve not done one of these in a while but I’ve been veryyyy busy (and lazy) so I thought I’d do a three day diet blog now!

Friday 18^th March

I genuinely forgot to have breakfast lol, I was so busy rushing around to leave for my 10am lecture and trying to sort uni work out that I left my lovely banana at home haha.

Later that day I got some pretty bad news which just killed any hunger that I had so the only thing that I ate until my evening meal was a tomato and feta salad from the Student Union.

I then went to the gym to try and run off some stress. I ran for 10 minutes at level 9, and then walked fast on an incline for 10 minutes. I then went on the spin bike for 10 minutes, then did an abs workout, then went on the stepping machine for 10 minutes.

For dinner I had boiled vegetables (mushrooms, carrots, broccoli and spring greens) with herby gravy and three Quorn sausages.

Saturday 19^th March

My friend Belinda has been trying to convince me that cereal is evil. Whilst I’m still of the belief that it is good for digestion and mostly quite healthy, 350-400 calories of carbohydrate is a lot to be having every morning, so I’ve pretty much given up all carbs and my breakfast is now an amazingly delicious fruit smoothie.

I’ll usually put in 1 banana, 8 pieces of frozen apple (equivalent to one apple) some mango or pineapple and 5 or 6 cubes of frozen natural yoghurt, quite a bit or orange juice, then a bit of water. It’s so nice, especially when it’s very cold. Its calorie value is probably about 250-300.

I then went to the gym and ran for 10 minutes at level 9.5 and walked for 5 minutes at incline 10 and speed 6.5. I then went on the spin bike for 15 minutes, did abs, arms (triceps) and thighs & gluts (squats, sumo squats). I then did 5 minutes on the stepper at level 5. Then I had a banana!!

I had dinner early because I was going out that night :D I had marinated tofu that was SO NICE! Even my boyfriend loved it and he’s not a vegetarian. But it’s quite expensive and just this small amount was almost 400 calories!!! I suspect that’s because it’s quite oily, but I tried to drain that afterwards.

I had the tofu with boiled vegetables and gravy. My gravy is so nice; it’s Bisto vegetable gravy granules then I add dried mixed herbs. (I probably have about 50 calories worth on a meal.)

When I went out I didn’t drink because of the bikini contest approaching; got to stay in shape! Even though my friends thought that I was boring lol. On the way home I went to Subway (I love the ones that say open until 3am) and got a salad bowl. Then when I got home I was still so hungry that I had three vegetarian sausages which is quite bad to eat so much so late but I had been dancing and it wasn’t carbs.

Sunday 20^th March

Breakfast: No bananas, too lazy to go to the shops just for them so I substituted it in my smoothie with another apple, (it wasn’t that nice).

Lunch: 3 vegetarian sausages (yes, I eat them a lot but they’re only 57 calories eachI love them and I need the protein for muscle build) and 2 scrambled eggs.

Dinner: I’ve not eaten it yet! I assume it will be something boring, vegetarian and low calorie.

Gym: Not today! It’s my rest Day

Charlotte Elizabeth x <3 x <3 x

Now this diet is quite extreme so I wouldn’t suggest young girls copy me or girls of a healthy weight, but I have a few weeks until a photo shoot and less than 7 weeks until the Hooters annual bikini contest, so it’s time to hardcore diet <3

What I’ll be Eating.

It’s best for your metabolism to eat little things several times a day, rather than 3 huge meals a day, that way your body can deal with the calories better.

Breakfast: Medium sized bowl of cereal with semi-skimmed milk and sweetener.

Snack: Carbs allowed – probably vegetarian sushi, nom nom nom.

Lunch: Protein and fruit

Snack: Non-carb-snack e.g. carrot sticks

Dinner: Protein and vegetables e.g. vegetables and Quorn, vegetable and prawn stir fry, vegetable omelette.  

When to eat: No carbs after 5pm, No food at all after 8pm.

Drink: Lots of water and hot water with lemon.

My Goal Weight.

Height: 5’8”

Heaviest Weight: 158 lbs

Current Weight: 137 lbs

Realistic Goal Weight: 126 lbs

Dream Goal Weight: 119 lbs

Exercise.

Gym 3 or 4 days a week

-  Cardio; treadmill, spin bike, stepper, cross trainer.

-  Abs

-  Gluts & thighs

-  Arms

Work (waitress) 2 days a week

-  7 hours on my feet, lots of walking!

Day One!

Okay, I won’t be posting a blog of what I’ve eaten every day because you’d all get very bored and… CBA! I’m a busy woman; full-time 3rd year double degree with approaching deadlines, a job, the gym, boyfriend and social life… I don’t have time to keep taking pictures of carrot sticks and telling you that my legs look super fat today haha! But I will try and post one or two times a week.

Breakfast:

Medium sized bowl of Special K Red Berry with artificial sweetener and semi-skimmed milk.

Snack:

Banana

Lunch:

Small salad comprising of lettuce, cherry tomatoes, blue cheese and some mustard/mayo sauce thing. Also 2 scrambled eggs and a few grapes.

Snack:

I was so hungry when I got back from the gym that I ate one before I remembered to take a picture haha! I just saw this is Waitrose, it’s really nice and low carb! All three rolls are less than 200calories! They’re Prawn Rolls which are rice paper rolls stuffed with prawns, vermicelli noodles, carrot, lettuce leaves and coriander. Yum yum! (I’m a vegetarian but I do eat prawns, nothing else.)

Dinner:

I ate this far too late at night but to do uni work in the library all day then going to the gym at 6pm or 7pm means that I’m not going to get any dinner until 8pm or 9pm :/ Eating that late at night is a huge NO for dieting!! I just boiled a load of vegetables and eat them with vegetarian gravy. Eating late at night isn’t too bad if it’s just veg.

Exercise:

I went to the gym with my friend Belinda (lovebeli.tumblr.com), this was my first day back so I didn’t do anything amazing haha!

-  Treadmil; 3 mins warm up, 11 mins running, 5 mins walking at incline 11.

- Gluts and thigh exercises

-  Abs exercises

-  Stepper; 5 mins at level 8

-  Cross trainer; 5 mins at level 4

I’ll be back in a few days ;)

Charlotte Elizabeth x <3 x