Granted, this may not be the best plan because look how much I've grown (literally, and not taller) since I was 25.
With the BCS Fitness challenge, I have not decided to cut out all carbs or cut out all sugar or eat only vegetables watered only with the filtered, icy run off of Antarctic mountain streams. I don't want to live in a world without cake or margaritas or my mom's chocolate chip cookies.
Granted, I could live in a world with many, many fewer cakes and cookies, and that's what I'm working on.
(Wait, are there mountains in Antarctica? Whatever.)
I'm just trying to eat more of the good stuff and less of the bad stuff and watch my overall calories in a day. I mentioned before that Brad suggested 100 grams of protein a day, so I'm trying to keep track of that, too.
I've been using this app that I've had on my phone for ages, My Fitness Pal. It's a web site, too, but I like the app much better than the site. It will track all of my nutritional intake and exercise as long as I use it. My favorite thing? The barcode scanner. If I'm having some HEB four pepper hummus, I can just scan the barcode, type in how much I ate, and all of the nutritional information is collected right there. That's everything - calcium, protein, sugar, cholesterol, fat, vitamins - EVERYTHING.
My second favorite thing about the app is that it has a recipe builder. I can enter all of the ingredients (with the barcode scanner) and tell it how many servings and it calculates the nutritional information for my recipes. This a) is awesome and b) keeps me from entering ingredients by hand every time I have the same meal.
I find this to be very interesting. I find that I usually get all of my recommended vitamin A with my breakfast. I find that 100 grams of protein is very difficult for me (I only got there once in the last week), I find that I have more sodium in my diet than I imagine I should (of course that's a guess because I really have no idea how much sodium I should have in my diet).
Brad the Fitness Guru gave me a food journal to complete so he can look it over and make recommendations, and I'm going to print out the diary and reports on my nutrition from each day of the past week and take it to him tomorrow. I thought about putting it in a spiral notebook with tabs for each day, but that might make me look like I'm trying to be an overachiever.
Things I love that I think I can eat and not feel guilty about:
four pepper hummus with baby carrots
sauteed squash
rotisserie chicken
I guess I'll find out for sure tomorrow when I hand over my
I've managed to stay around 1400 calories a day most of the week. I'll ask Brad tomorrow if that's even a good goal because we didn't talk calories before. (It's the magic number given to me by my magic MyFitnessPal app.) I've only been hungry a couple of times, like tonight when we didn't eat dinner until 8:30, but overall I have not felt like I'm missing out on anything by eating healthier. There have been a couple of days when I felt like I ate constantly all day long and still had less than 1200 calories. Weird.
Saturday was rough because it was our family Easter, and there was food-a-plenty. I took my own chicken salad (this is my favorite chicken salad recipe) and tried to make healthy choices. Then I ate some chips, but only because there was queso and you really can't eat queso without chips. Then I ate a piece of cake, but only because it was chocolate cake and I don't want to live in a world without cake. Then, later, I ate a brownie, but only because it was Blessings and Brownies Day, a very important made-up holiday that requires brownies to be eaten. Overall, I hit the 2000 calorie mark, and I only felt bad about it for about thirty seconds. Maybe I should feel guiltier.
I'm thinking I ambushed my body with that cheese and chocolate and sugar and it had to work extra hard to fight off the unhealthy food invaders and I probably lost an extra pound or two because of it.
That's how it works, isn't it?
It occurs to me now that I'm talking about all of this nutrition stuff like I know what I'm talking about, and really I don't know what I'm talking about. I feel like I should add some disclaimer to state that. Consider yourself disclaimed.
The first question everyone asks about workout #2 (last Thursday) is whether or not I puked. I did not puke. Brad's staff is encouraging and pushing me, but I don't really think they want me to pass out. Everyone else did 40 of each of these 10-12 cardio exercises, and the trainer told me to do 20 of each and then go back and 20 more of everything I had time for (you know, since I'm the new chick and they don't want me to pass out). I don't like not doing as much as everyone else, so I made sure I did 40 of everything (in two rounds of 20). Those last few incline push-ups weren't pretty, but I did them.
It was about 15 minutes after I finished working out, when I got home, that I thought I might lay down on my driveway and stay there for a few days. But I had a PTO dinner and a baseball game to attend, so instead I got in the shower. I'm glad I kept moving. If I hadn't, I might still be in the driveway.
Tomorrow is workout #3.
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