We're back!!!

Okay, so I suck at blogging, apparently. But I'm giving it another go, especially now that Ryan and I are on a set food routine.

We have recently starting working out: my goal is to lose the fat, Ryan's is to lose fat and bulk up. In order to achieve our goals, we've set-up a system for our food and workouts.

Food:
4 meals a day, plus a snack. We're still trying to make this work with our jobs (he's in the cleanroom), but this is the plan anyway.
1) Breakfast (few/no carbs) -- fiber/granola cereal with fruit, or omlet with with spinach and fruit, or yogurt and fruit with granola, or oatmeal.
2) Snack -- nuts, fruit, etc
3) Lunch (few/no carbs) --  salad with toppings like chicken (or some other protein like tuna, steak, etc), fruit, veggies.
4) Recovery Shake (after our workouts) -- includes whey protein
5) Dinner (carby) -- pasta with sauce and veggies and protein (chicken, clams, etc) stirred in, or meat with rice and veggies, etc.

I'm still trying to not eat a whole lot of meat (by American standards), just the topping for salad and a normal size portion for dinner. We are getting our proteins from things like eggs, beans and such as well as the meat (in addition to whey protein, although I may switch to something without lactose since my stomach has been unhappy with dairy since we cut back on it).


Workouts:
We start by stretching and doing some minor things like sit-ups, toe-touches, etc. Then we choose a muscle group to work on: abs, legs, arms/shoulders,or back. We spend almost an hour lifting weights that will work whichever group we picked for the day. Ryan is trying to go in order from the top of the body down, but seeing as I have missed our workouts frequently these last two weeks, I have messed with his schedule a bit.... It takes about 4 days of the week to hit every muscle group. We spend a fifth day doing cardio (so important for bulking up, as you don't want to starve the muscles of blood from not having a strong enough heart, and also to drop the belly fat :). Then we usually end up going 2 days without working out, but I think we are going to try and cut that back to one day. Or at the very least do something active one of those days (hike, bike ride, whatever).

Today's food:
> Oatmeal with blueberries for breakfast (plus a piece of cake at a work mtg -- I had to! I swear!!)
> Lunch with co-workers (I haven't gone yet, but I'm planning on either a salad or veggie-intensive entree)
> Pecans and green tea (iced) as my snack
> Recovery shake after the workout
> Pasta with clams, zucchini, tomatoes, and avocado (I may switch the clams out for chicken, depending on when we get home...)

That is all for now. I shall keep you posted.