Food.

food today: banana, 42g protein smoothie, nuts, apple, gazpacho soup, raw salad, banana w/ peanut butter, tofu, meatless meatballs, veggie juice. stayed away from the chocolate layer cake. also decided to include veggie juice in this list from now on. today i ate, drank, and slurped a lot of vegetables. yummers.

so, since i started needing to be at work at 9AM, my schedule has been:

5AM wake up
5:15 or so get out of bed
5:30 or so start working out after brushing my teeth and throwing water onto my face
6:30 finish working out (this will be a problem after I get to 1.5-hr long workouts); make protein smoothie
7 get in shower, clothes, make up, hair
8:00-8:15 drive to work
9 get to work
6-7 leave work
6:45-8 get home, make veggie juice, eat something
10 bed

areas that need improvement: I NEED TO BE IN BED BY 9. like 0:45 ago. I need to get out of bed and working out more quickly so I won't be late to work next week when I have 1.5-hr long workouts.

i know this started off as an exercise blog, but that morphed into an overall health blog, and i started writing about food on here, and i found out exactly what i've been eating that's been causing my acne, so in a roundabout way the relationship between food and acne fits on this blog. since I should have been in bed 0:45 ago, the quick run down of food to acne is as follows:

1. foods that break down into glucose (including glucose itself, duh) will cause your pancreas to release insulin to stabilize your blood sugar.
2. the fast release of insulin causes an increase in androgens. (also it causes an increase in serotonin in your brain, which is what the "sugar crash" is.)
3. increase in androgens means more sebum excreted through your facial pores.
4. hello acne.

well, that's the thought behind it. it's obviously not agreed upon everyone yet. i just hate people who say diet and acne aren't related. they say acne is caused by hormones. well what causes changes in hormones?!??! gee, i wonder. FOOD, maybe!? anyway, this completely explains why my low-refined-carb diet is clearing up my skin; i thought it was just the sugar i was refraining from that made my skin clear up, but i think it's all of it: eggs, dairy, carbs (including the sugar). processed foods in general. i just need to eat food that is low on the glycemic index. it's been two days strong.

i am so, so, so excited to have clear skin. and abs. but really, clear skin. that is my motivator.

P90X, Day 24: Kenpo X

This morning I felt much better than yesterday. No headaches. I had a hard time balancing though; I don't remember toppling over this much. And I'm wondering if my back kicks are side kicks... however, I have finally gotten the hang of Star Punches. Anyway, nothing much new here, tomorrow is stretching and then Kenpo again on friday.

Hmm what I ate yesterday was in last night's post... It definitely gets easier to refrain from the food you want after time. Cravings are also easier to handle after the initial transition. I've been off eggs and dairy and I've been minimizing my refined carbs (especially sugar) close to nil except for two occasions in the past two weeks with the last week being more strict and where I want to be for the rest of my life. I still want sweets after lunch, but I don't keep any sweets at work and the sweets that ARE at work have milk in them. OH, that reminds me -- I haven't updated you guys on what I've found out with regards to refined carbohydrates and acne. I'll update you later when I can type with 10 fingers (as opposed to just one on my phone), but the short story is that it looks like I have another motivator to continue eating only fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans tofu, and air.