FEBUARY Running Playlist

I want to try something new and share here a PLAYLIST every month. When I have the time I love going on SPOTIFY and listen to some new songs it suggests me too. When I LOVE a song I add it to a list. I usually have a GYM/RUNNING list and another activity list (cleaning, reading, GYSTing...). I love finding new songs and getting addicted to them during the month.

Last year I started doing one for running every month then I got into other types of lists and towards the end of the year, I just listened to other peoples lists (another great way to find undiscovered - for me - music that I come to love).

As much as I hate cold weather and short gloomy days, I'm trying my best to work out every day and run outside every day I have a chance. A new interesting RUNNING list always helps.

I still don't which one is my favourite but by the end of the month, I will have the song that makes me RUN HARDER... FASTER and that will be my favourite for sure.

This was a good month because Ariana Grande released her new album and it sounds quite good.

I invite you to listen to this PLAYLIST and my others and tell me in the comments which are your favourite.

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Resolutions for 2018

This year hopefully is going to better than last year… and that is not going to be hard.

I won’t be doing a written review of my last year because it’s just going to bug me and I’ve already thought about it when I wrote these down on paper. Yes, I love writing on paper too.

So let’s just get started with the resolutions I have for the year of 2018 and some of the breakdowns to achieve those resolutions:

1. RUN my first 10K race: run 5k in less than 30 minutes; run 3x per week; go to the COIMBRA colour run and then do the EDP 10k run in October.

2. EAT BETTER: I was eating ok for a while but with all the stress of late I’ve just reverted to my old ways and put on too much weight for my knees so I want to get back to – eating less processed food; eating less processed sugar; eat more vegetarian and even go all vegetarian (with some cheat meals); I'll be doing some monthly challenges and posing them here on my blog so click on the newsletter to receive notifications in your e-mail.

3. GET FIT: This is the ideal year to get fit because I put on 12 pounds really fast and that usually means I’ll get it off really fast which usually is not good but these are stress pounds so they fall off when I’m not stressed. I haven’t started anything really serious and I’m down 1 pound in less than a week so I think that is a good start. And I said that is was a good time to start losing real weight because I’ll have the easy incentive of those stress pounds sheading and also I can gain a lot of muscle still losing weight. I want to control my portions and reduce until I feel comfortable because I love food and I can’t live eating just one type of thing, so no diets for me. Exercising 5x per week and going in the morning and evening – I started that in November and I saw that even with 30 minutes in the morning and another in the evening my body was transforming. Slow and steady wins the race, in this case; In January do 8000 steps per day and then up it to 10k. I’m already failing this one because day 2 and 3 it was really low, but I’ll compensate; Lose 13kg – I would like it to be a bit more but that is my happy weight.I'll be doing some monthly challenges and posing them here on my blog so click on the newsletter to receive notifications in your e-mail.

4. LEARN a “new” LANGUAGE: I’ve been using Duolingo, an app, really cool to get my French better because it’s a bit rusty and I understand ok but I don’t talk and when I do I pronounce words like I write them and that is not ok. So every day I do some little tests and it takes 5-15 minutes per day which is fun and not time-consuming.

5. VISIT 2 COUNTRIES: last year we went to Madeira which is my country and we went to Marseille, France. I’ve already gone to France 3 or 4 times but it’s very nice to see other regions. This year I don’t have anything in mind yet but I would love to go to London again so maybe not 2 NEW COUNTRIES but still, two countries would be nice.

6. GET SOCIALS UNDER CONTROL: I need to do a timetable where I can fit my socials every day and do something on them every day because they always get out of control and I don’t reply as soon as I want to comments or I don’t publish when I want to and say.

7. TRAIN MY CALIGRAPHY: I love writing and now that I have been bullet journaling for more than a year I want to learn how to properly write. My handwriting is ok but I just want to know how to do calligraphy and use a brush it just looks so pretty.

8. DECLUTTER MY LIFE: I’ve been reading Marie Kondo’s books and it has opened my eyes to not be constantly cleaning and have everything clean all the time. The way is to declutter everything I can and want, leaving me just with what makes me happy and sparks joy. We are changing places so that is going to make things go even faster. When I put things in my new apartment I will just leave the things I really want and LOVE. When I’m done with my home, I’ll start with my mom’s.

9. HELP OUT MY PARENTS: I want to help out more my parents because they are getting older and they need my help around the house so I will be putting aside a weekend per month to help them and do some stuff around their house. I still need to the list of things to do but there are always things popping up.

10. DO MORE DIYs: I love painting and I want to start creating something and seeing how they come out because when I was younger I would love to draw and paint and do crafts. Also, I need to get some furniture revived and that counts too. I’ve already done the list now I need to establish the days to work on the projects.

11. MAKE A NEW RECIPE EVERY MONTH: I’ve already got some in my new recipe book and I’m really excited. I did write down more than twelve though, I’m certain I’ll do more.

12. TRY MEDITATION: Start mornings with 5 minutes every three days and grow to 15 minutes per day. I have not started this one, I’ve forgotten if I’m truthful it’s just something that slips my mind but lately I’ve been really stressed and I see everyone saying that it changes your day. It keeps you more relax and centres you.

13. DECORATE OUR NEW HOME: with the DIYs I talked about in 10. and buy some decorations that spark joy. I need to do the wish list and then cut from it and buy something nice every month (maybe).

14. READ 10 BOOKS: I’ve been reading Marie Kondo’s books and I haven’t finished but I’m loving them and I love reading stuff that makes me grow and think so I want to invest in that and put some time every week to do that. On Sunday I think will fit perfect even those weekends I’m not home I can use READ ALOUD and “podcast” the book.

15. RENOVATE and START A STORE SITE: Now that I started decluttering, I’ve been wanting to sell some stuff but I wanted somewhere more personal and I do sites for others why not do something for me. I code a lot so when I need to update something for me I just drag it or not do it at all. My site doesn’t generate me money so I don’t give it as much attention and I want to change that because EVERYTHING IN OUR LIFE SHOULD BRING US JOY.

16. LEARN A NEW SKILL: This is related to my job and me wanting to grow every year. Last year I didn’t learn any new skill but the year before I learnt two so this year I want to get at least one and update also two other skills. In the era of the computers if you stop learning you will fall behind and it’s also fulfilling learning new things.

17. BE MORE POSITIVE: I'm usually a very positive person but lately, with all the stress (I will be talking more about that if I haven't yet in the resolutions video - COMMING SOON) I've been feeling out of myself, Like I changed to a grumpy person. This did make my family and boyfriend more positive but it's just not me. I just want to get to my ZEN personality and I do think after this experience I will be an even more controlled and balanced person.

I have one more resolutions but I’ll keep those to me until the release. This also keeps you on your feet and coming back, or not.

Tell me what are your resolutions for this year and if you have started any already.

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30 Days Challenge

I started a 30 days challenge on the first of November because the last few months I've not been going to the gym as regularly as I would like and it's making me a little sad. There is no best time to start something than now and I was trying to avoid procrastination this time (procrastination is something I do all the time and I need to just get rid of it in my life).

I'm thinking about doing this because I know I can do it! Last year, around the same time I started running and I felt great and I was killing all of these challenges. I just set my mind to it and did it. So if I did it once I can do it again! (If I do increase these numbers I will update you guys here but also if you want to see my everyday, or almost everyday, goals met, go to my Instagram @nickafernandes - a newer account)

I also would love to succeed at my running goal of this year which is running the 10k in less than one hour and you might think that is a small goal but for me, that will be huge. On the treadmill, I can and I already did it last year but outside, it's just a little bit harder. So let's go! I can do it! You can do it! Let's do it together.

This chart is just showing what I want to do workout wise but I am also doing two more which are related to my health and getting back on track with my yearly goals. Since we're getting towards the end of the ear I need to make sure that my goals are being met or at least trying my best to do so. These other two are no consuming sugar or coffee.

The sugar is the worst part for me because usually, I go 15 days without and then I'm like a junkie and feeling crazy if I don't eat a "bit" of chocolate (when I say a bit, I normally binge). This time I'm going for the entire 30 days and I know I can do it because I'm saying it isn't just for me but "for a greater good" (I don't want to discuss that at the moment, sorry) and that will help me get there. I will probably binge eat the next day (first, of December, let's see).

The coffee part is easier because I have been avoiding it for almost two years and I've been successful for the most part. I love coffee for its flavor as most of the food I eat and I can manage well without it but sometimes I just want to indulge. I want to get to this point with chocolate.

When I started cutting coffee I had headaches and I would feel sleepy but one thing that helped me with the sleepy part is drinking a smoothie every morning (another thing I'm getting back to doing every morning).  Now when I don't drink coffee, it doesn't affect me as much.

There are so many things I want to get better at in my life that most of the time I feel overwhelmed but you have to start somewhere. So I'm starting on the things that I can do and that are most affecting me in life.

If you are reading this and want to join me, no matter that I already started, just tell me and/or follow me on my Instagram account - @nickafernandes and #fitnesschallengewithnicka on your Instagram photos and I will like them. I love seeing other people's progress because it incentives me too, and hopefully you will feel inspired too. See you there.

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Getting back to Yoga

After some most needed vacations, a lot of eating and doing nothing... or almost nothing. Now I need to get back to my workouts and all of the activity I can fit in my day-to-day to get rid of some of this vacation weight.

I love doing yoga in the morning but it has been harder to do it every day, even though I miss it a lot and my body does too, I find myself gravitating towards other things like weight lifting and arms and when they are tired I do a bit more arms...
Working out for me, can't feel like a chore or I wouldn't do it anymore. So I always do what I'm feeling that day with the conscious of rotating exercises for each muscle area ass much as I can but lately, I've been feeling that it's harder to rotate and I'm just doing one type of exercise and/or muscle area.

Now that the weather is cooler and I can feel a breeze from time to time I want to start running outside which I know I love and get really addicted to. Also, I want to do some yoga that isn't 15 minutes "stretching style" at the end of the day, I want a hole one hour routine where I can try to get to the next level and do positions I have never done before and those that, at the moment, are really hard, get them to flow better and stronger/longer.
I want these two to come back to my daily routine and then rotate the weight training that I do.

I'm all about starting new and I do my best to grab all these year round dates (the end of long vacations) to start again and get to my goals because the year has not ended so I can still reach them.

You all out there that get a little down when the end of the year looks near, just get back on your feet and every 1st day of every month is a new start or even of every week (If you can view it this way) is a new start so grab it and get to your goals of this year.

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Does the Military Diet Work?

Some weeks ago I went to a friend of mine wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and the food was good.

I had gain some kilos the early months of this year so I wanted to lose some fast for the wedding (their invitation got to us two months before the wedding). I went on line and found the Military Diet which I initially thought this is a joke because you can have ice-cream 3 days a week (on the diet) but, like always, I had to try it to really know what I'm talking about. I do eat a good amount of food (more than I should, to lose weight and some days I even eat more and that is one of the reasons my weight has been increasing) and this was decreasing drastically what I was eating but the food choices were food that I like and usually eat so I started it being careful and taking it slow.

On the first day at breakfast, you can have a coffee a toast with two tablespoons of peanut butter and a half a grapefruit. I did not have the coffee because I don't drink coffee so I had a barley instead (which is similar to coffee but without caffeine) and didn't have peanut butter or grapefruit so I just ate the toast without the peanut butter and instead of the grapefruit I ate a half of an orange (as you can see on the substitutes page).
I felt ok all morning but I did eat lunch at 11:40 because I was getting hungry and I like to eat lunch at 12 o'clock so it was a good time to get it in.
For lunch, I could drink another coffee and toast with a half a cup of tuna.
Again, I didn't have the coffee but the barley and the rest as they demanded.
At 15:00 hours I was hungry and I had already drunk one litre of water so I eat an apple because they allow that for dinner so I preferred to divide the food during the day and eat it when I was hungry. about an hour passed that I was feeling light-headed and this day was the worst to get pass of all the days that I did the diet. Keep in mind that I usually eat 2000 or more calories and I was eating less than 1500 so that was really low for me. then at about 16:40 I ate half a banana and at 18:50 I was famished so I ate dinner which consists of 85g of any meat and one cup of green beans. I had some stir-fried turkey breast with the green beans.
I did not go to the gym because I was feeling really blurry and slow but I did have my cup of walnut ice-cream which was a low calorie one.

On the second day for breakfast, I could have half of a banana, a toast and an egg. I just had the toast and a boiled egg on top and reserved the half of a banana for the evening. I felt ok all morning.
For lunch, I had the boiled egg and half of the cup of cottage cheese I was allowed with five crackers. I could not eat all of the cheese because I was full. I did eat it when I was hungry at 16:30 and on this day I went to the gym because I felt quite energetic all day, very different from the first day. I would say that was from not be use to so little kcals and this day my organism was ok with that amount of food. I did do a heavy workout and I did take 12 minutes more than usual but I was happy that I did not feel bad during all of it.
At dinner, I had two sausages a cup of green beans because I did not have broccoli at the moment.
As always I was so happy to eat the ice-cream that today was half a cup at about 22:30.
I did not have the banana because I did not need it.

On the third day, I could have an apple a slice of cheese and five crackers, for breakfast. I had the apple in the middle of the morning because I was a bit hungry and I did need it.
At lunch, I had a boiled egg and a toast like they said and I ate half a banana at 15:30. It was really hard this day, I did feel some hunger that I corrected with drinking three litres of water. This was the first time in a long time a drank this much water. I did not have stomach pain but I felt a little empty.
At dinner, I had a cup of tune and waited half an hour to eat the cup of ice-cream so I didn't go to bed with an empty belly.
Overall this day was good but I did not go to the gym and the good thing is that these days I was not with a lot of work or I could not do it as fast as normally because though I felt most of the time well it was a little blurry and I can't say it would be easy if I didn't love ice-cream as I do. When I was hungry I would think about the ice-cream I could have at the end of the day and the hunger would almost vanish (be tolerable).

Kilos I lost: They said you can lose from 2-10 pounds each time you do this three-day diet and I just lost 1.7 kilos (3.7 pounds). I think this is because I do have a lot of muscle (exercise regularly) and I already eat healthy so it is much harder to lose weight when you already have a good "diet" plan.

Then the next four days I ate more or less the same as I do but less portion-wise because I felt I did not need as much food to feel full as before.

I did do this diet two times more (three times in a month) and I did get into the dress I wanted. In total, I lost 3.8kg (8.3 pounds) but a week after coming back from the wedding and eating more or less normal. I did get 2kg back. I don't think that was bad because after attending a wedding and stretching my stomach out again I always increase my weight a little.
That was not the major problem but the lack of my period is a big problem.
I've been three weeks without it coming. I'm not pregnant and I had never been so much time without it coming since I got it for the first time. I'm a little worried and I do think that this diet was the biggest problem for that occurring as it was the only change in my life the last 2 months. I will be waiting for it to return but this leaves me thinking that this diet is really bad for your hormones and not just for diabetes (all that ice-cream tastes great but does not do your good things).

Pros:
It makes you drink more water.
Decreases the size of your stomach.
You will be recompensated for the lack of food all day with ice-cream (not really a good thing though - I have mixed ideas still)
You lose weight (it can be water weight but still it's a loss and if you need that small push to get on the healthy road then maybe it's ok)

Cons:
You feel blurry (good just for when you're on vacation or doing nothing).
You feel a lot of hunger the first day of the first time.
The last day is always hard.
You eat too much sugar - ice-cream, so you will crave it on the other four days you aren't on the diet.
Your body thinks it's in hibernation mode or starvation mode if you do this more than one time, that is why the second and third time it wasn't so hard.
It sends you mixed signals about food because you're not eating unhealthy but then you eat ice-cream which is empty calories...
I did not get my period (it just came 3 weeks after - finally).

Rating: 2/5 mostly because of the lack of period.

Do I recommend? No, this has more cons than pros and you can't live and function whether you're a student or a worker this is not enough calories for a person to function normally. Every "diet" should become a lifestyle for your to have success on it and you should love everything about it. Also, it should be 80% healthy 20% not so healthy and it's more than 25% unhealthy with all that ice-cream.

Tell me in the comments what is/was the best diet you tried??

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