A New Plan

So I let this space go to pot over the last couple of months.  I haven't exercised consistently in probably two months, but I haven't been too bad with the eating.  I'm down about 10 pounds from where I was a year ago. 

While there's no excuse, my explanation is that the last couple of months of Hub's student teaching were pretty tough.  I basically had to take on all of the household/kid responsibilities for a while there.  But, he did graduate and is now home with the kids for the summer.  So that's freed up a lot of my time.  So back to the mission. 

I think this go round, I'm going to focus a lot more on my nutrition and getting some general movement going on, rather than trying to stick to a hardcore workout program.  I think I was pushing myself too hard with the FBB program.  While I have decent strength in my arms and legs, my core is still very, very weak. I blame the c-sections.  But my back, especially my lower right, hurts from time to time and was really bad when I was trying to do FBB hardcore.  So I'm going to focus on walking, running, and doing some core-strengthening stuff for right now, and look at the more serious stuff in a month or two. 

On the nutrition side, Hubs is suprisingly much more on board about trying to eat healthy.  We've planted a vegetable garden and are making an effort to eat at home more with less packaged stuff.  I'm going back to tracking calories.  I'm going to keep the calories in the 1200-1550 mark and try to meet the protein and fiber goals.  I'm not going to worry about the fat limit too much, if I know all my fat is healthy fat - nuts, whole grains, lean meat, etc.

I think tomorrow I'll start a weekly report - weight, calorie intake, exercise.

Foiled by the snow

I'm just going to have to consider this week a wash as far as exercise goes.   Although, maybe I could do Friday and Sunday to get at least two weight training sessions in.  We down here in the ATL have been under house arrest because of the snow.  Oh well. 

One upside is that I made some awesome pasta over the weekend. 

I've had that quinoa pasta sitting in my pantry forever, so I decided to use it up.  I caramalized some onions in real butter, added the kale and sea salt, and then mixed it together with the pasta and a little glug of Amy's Roasted Garlic Olive Oil.  Sprinkled with feta and toasted pine nuts.  YUM.  I would totally make this again, but I think I'd use different pasta and add sun dried tomatoes.  I tried to to a calorie analysis on it, and it came out to approximately 400 calories.  Although I'm not sure if I got the pasta serving size correct - I'm terrible with ounces.  Add an orange and super yummy lunch.

My First Homemade Nutbutter

After having to comment on Matt's blog about my favorite nut butter, I decided that it was time to make homemade almond butter.  So I pulled out the food processor and we have this:

TA DA!  It's raw almond butter with just a smidge of olive oil in it.  When it finally came together, it was very thick.  I had wanted to avoid adding oil, but I knew I was keeping it in the fridge, so I considered it a necessity.  Besides, there's probably only a tablespoon, if that, in there.  Oh and I added a little sea salt too. 

Review:  it's pretty good, but I think I would much prefer it with roasted almonds.  I've got some walnuts leftover from Christmas in the fridge.  I think my next batch will be roasted walnut and almond butter. 
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It's official.  The jacknife on the stability ball is my new favorite exercise.  My stomach is deliciously sore today. 

counting and juggling

I was really glad when I read Emily's post yesterday about calorie counting.  I've been debating about going back to it, but was starting to get the impression from the blogosphere that it was a bad thing.  But, like with almost everything else, it can be bad for some and good for some.  Duh. 
So, I've decided to go back to calorie counting.  I need to count.  I'm overweight.  But my goal is not to just keep my calories under a specific amount - the real goal is to keep them in a range while meeting my macro-nutrient(?) recommendations too - seeing that I get enough fiber and protein particularly.  I have no problem eating a whole avocado (only because no one else in my family will eat them and I can't bear to waste it), but realize when I do that I've really got to watch my calories (but have almost certainly met the fiber goal!).

So back to the counting and I'm glad.
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This week has not been going well for working out.  I started the Define phase on Monday and I'm still sore.  So yay for that.  Tuesday I wanted to do a metobolic workout, but chose to skip it because of a weird work issue.  Then Wednesday my little boy was sick so I didn't get into the office until 1:30 and couldn't find the time after that. 

So I'm hoping today that I will be able to get in there.  Lesson learned:  pack enough clothes that you can make changes to your workout or locale if needed.  If I had had my running shoes with me on Tuesday, then I could have gone to the track for a HIIT workout.  But I only had my vibrams, so that was out.  Alternatively, if I had different clothes, I might have sucked it up and just used our gym. 
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Also, I've been having some stomach issues for the last several weeks.  Upset stomach pretty much every day.  So I think I'm going to lay off the dairy for a week and see if that helps.  If not, time to go to the doctor. 
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Today's workout:

1/5/2011	sets	reps	weight
rev wood chop	2	8 each side	60
prone jacknife	2	8
stepup	2	8 each leg	20lb dbs
t pushup	2	4 each side	0
single leg squat	2	8 each leg	0
alt lateral raise	2	8 each arm	10lb db
SHELC	2	8
inverted row	2	8

Me likey this workout.  The prone jacknife is a KILLER in the best possible way.  If you hold the plank position before bringing the knees back in it will make you oh so wobbly.  Love.  The single leg squat is so much harder than it looks.  The SHELC is not bad at all to me, so I added a little extra - I don't let my rear come back down and then afterward, I hold in the upright position for eight counts too.

6am Breakfast:
kasha
banana
peanut butter
splash of milk & glass of milk

This was actually a lot of food and I didn't eat it all.  But it was good. 

9:15 am snack:
string cheese, apple

12pm lunch:
salad at Sweet Tomatoes with egg, feta, sunflower seeds, black olives, oil & vinegar dressing

3pm snack:
green pepper, hummus

5pm post workout shake.  This actually turned out pretty well.  12oz of milk, two cubes of blueberry/peach/avocado puree and a scoop and a half of protein powder.  The protein powder tastes a little like raw flour, but I realized since I'm having so much milk, I can back off to just one scoop.  I'm also debating the need for the avacado, especially considering the amount of fat that's in it. 

6pm chicken, white rice with cream of mushroom, corn.  Yeah, not the best, but since I'm not cooking, I can't complain. 

The weird thing is that I feel like I'm eating a ton, but I was hungry all day.  What's up with that?
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Workout:
Base Phase Workout B
Warmup

Upper Body Core Stability Russian Twist	2	10 each side	30	8lb ball
Prone Cobra	2	2	60
Overhead Squat	2	12	30	15?lb bar
Lateral Raise with External Rotation	2	12	60	10lb
Single leg, single arm romanian lift	2	12 each	30	15lb KB
split stance cable single arm lat pullover	2	12 each	60	30lb
Bulgarian Split Squat	2	12 each	30	0
Split stance cable row	2	12	60	60lb

Stretch and roll

Oddly, the exercise I though would be easy wasn't and the one  I thought would kill me didn't.  Admittedly, I was still very sore from Monday, so I probably didn't push myself like I should have.  But the squat was a lot more difficult than I expected and the bulgarian wasn't as bad.  Although I realized at the end I needed to go down further because I wasn't getting everything out of it that I could.  Lateral raise was sooooo hard.  I started with 12lb weights and after 3 I had to switch because my form was so crappy.  And what looked like a nothing exercise, the lat pullover, was probably my favorite.  It looks like it's just working an isolated muscle, but I could feel everything in my core engaged.  Awesome. 

So I have to say, I'm loving these workouts.  They're hard, but pretty quick and I'm feeling pretty shaky afterward.  Although I have to admit, the shake totally helped with that.  Looking forward to Friday and getting to do some of them again.  I think I'll go for 3 sets this time.

Okay, change of plans

So, I've been reading over at The Great Fitness Experiment.  I love how Charlotte takes a different fitness concept and tests it with her buddies.  I saw the post about about Rachel Cosgrove's new book at the beginning of November and thought it looked interesting.  Well after Charlotte's postive post on the results, I went to Books a Jillion and picked up a copy.  (I couldn't wait for Amazon even thought it was $10 cheaper.  Must learn patience.)

The beginning is a little too "girl power"-ry for me, so I skimmed the rules and the inspiration sections.  I've just gotten  into the meat of it, and I have to say, a lot of it makes sense to me on the anti-cardio stance.   Everyone's felt like the hamster on the wheel before.  Which made me think that maybe running (my "running" is a jog - 10 minute miles) is not effective.  You know our ancient ancestors didn't get this kind of exercise.  They carried, held, lifted, wrestled and sprinted.  Probably as much as they could but only as long as absolutely necessary.  So I think I'm going to give Cosgrove's program a try (hereinafter referred to as FBB). 

So no more running for now.  I will pick it back up because I do enjoy it, but I think I'd enjoy it a lot more come spring/outside only and didn't get shin splints.  I've always enjoyed lifting and had already decided pink girly weights were not doing me any good.  I want to feel the burn.  I love being sore the next day.  I'm fairly familiar with a lot of the excercises, but this is going to take a little research and studying on my end.  I need to be able to remember how to do all the exercises when I go into the gym (I know it's silly, but I cannot bring the book in with me.  An insecurity for another time.)  So that's this weekend.

The second half is nutrition.  I have cleaned up my diet a good bit over the last few months.  It's been slipping a little lately, but still way ahead of where I was.  I'd like to tighten that back up, so this is a ggod vehicle.  But there are a few things that are going to be major challenges for me. 

First, eating within 15 minutes of getting up.  Ugh.  I'm not usually hungry right away, but I guess I can give it a try.  I've noticed that the breakfast meals she suggests are pretty large, so I'm going to need to do some prep for that.  Second, the post-work out shake.  I'm a little hesitant on protein powder and how on earth would I make one?  I'll train at the office after work, so can I make it ahead of time?  Or use a pre-packaged shake?  Or just use chocolate milk?  Lastly, according to the plan, you should have six meals a day every three or four hours.  That's going to be hard to do, especially trying to have dinner with the family at six.  Need to do a little planning and thinking there too. 

The second time (of three - does that make me a yo-yoer?) that I lost a good bit of weight, I was running and doing a little weight training, but my eating was really strict about 90% of the time.  I was doing Sugarbusters, which focused almost entirely on removing white processed foods from your diet.  White table sugar and its evil twins, white flour and white rice.  It also focused on the "unseen sugars" - fructose, surcrose, corn syrup added unnecessarily to things; I think they were anti-HFCS 10 years ago. Looking back, I still think it had valuable lessons and was almost the pre-cursor to clean eating. 

Anyway, on that I avoided all white stuff (sugar, white bread, rice, potatoes) and products with added sugar in them.  I dropped probably 20 pounds without realizing it.  (Seriously, one day I put my bra on and couldn't figure out why it was so roomy.  For someone who is pretty book smart, I can be really dumb sometimes.)  So, while I think that RC recommends that you avoid all pasta and breads, I'm going to eat them in minimal amounts, but only if they are whole grain (whole wheat pasta, 100% whole wheat/grain bread w/o sugars).  But really, I think that's the only nutrition "cheat" that I'm planning on making. 

So, Monday I will be kicking of my own FBB experiement.  I'm planning on using the blog to track exactly what I'm doing.  So I'll report back on Monday.

Lame-O

I haven't done a very good job about keeping up with this blog.  But I have stayed on track.  I'm down 7.4 pounds so far and have done a pretty good job with the eating.  The weekends are killing me, but during the week I'm pretty darn good.

I've started on a new breakfast.  I tried to make kasha on my own*, but broke down and bought the pre-packaged Kashi brand.  I tried mixing in a little Kefir, but I don't like it.  I may try the flavored kind, but the plain, unsweetened kind tastes like watered down sour cream.  So now I'm mixing the cooked Kashi with pumpkin puree, peanut butter, honey, and flax and chia seeds.  Pretty darn good and VERY filling.   

Lunch this week has been a raid-the-pantry soup I made this weekend.  We had almost no food in the house, I just went through pantry and fridge throwing stuff in a soup pot.  Start with garlic in EVOO, throw in canned diced potatoes, canned tomatoes with juice, black beans, corn, chicken, kale and italian seasoning blend.  Ta da!  I really like the kale in the soup.  Heck, I just like the kale period.  I probably need to use the rest of that up tonight.  But I think soup's going to become a staple for weekday lunches this fall and winter.  So easy and healthy. 
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I started running again!  I'm so excited.  I did two one-mile runs last week and the shins were just fine.  But I'm being really careful.  For the first one, I ran on the treadmill and for the second, I mostly ran on a trail in our neighborhood (a little on the concrete).  I'm also still stretching a lot and have increased my walking warm up and cool down time.  I actually think the walking after running helps more than the walking before.  So I'm uping my mileage this week by .2.  It does bug me a little to have to drop back to such short distance, but if that's what it's going to take, so be it. 


*I seem to have the only Whole Foods in the nation that doesn't have bulk bins. 

I'm an ostrich, but a Plan is coming together

I was reading Emily's blog this morning and her post about hearing Jonathan Safran Foer struck me: 

His talk delivered a number of points that truly gave me chills.  The most memorable being this one:  if every person reduced the number of meat dishes they consumed each week by just ONE meal (just ONE!), it would be the equivalent environmental impact of taking FIVE MILLION cars off of the roads.

 His point was that we cannot realistically sustain the level of meat that we are currently consuming.  His argument isn’t against eating meat entirely, it’s against the current manner in which our meat is produced – 99% through factory farms.

I'll admit that I haven't read this book or any of the other "biggies" about factory farming.  I've gleaned enough from the snippets I've read or other commentary to make the purposeful choice NOT to read them.  That may sound weird, but let me explain. 

I'm at the first step of what I plan on being a MAJOR, and therefore, lengthy conversion of my diet.  I feel like if I were to read the "biggies" about factory farming, particularly as relates to meat, I would be forced to make sweeping changes for which neither my family or bank account is ready.  So I'm actually sticking my head in the sand for now.  And I'm okay with that.

I haven't really thought about the actual steps per se, but maybe it's time to do that.  First, I wanted to improve the quality of the foods I'm eating.  While my diet is not perfect and nor will it ever be, I can say without a doubt, that it's probably 100% better already.  I've quit the fast foods almost entirely and also quit the frozen dinner lunches.  I think my foods are now fresher, have more nutrients, and are more whole. 

Second, I want to drastically cut down on the amount of meat I'm eating and replace it with plant based proteins.  I've been eating quinoa and beans like no one's business.  Admittedly, my colon complained a little bit at the beginning, but after about a week, it settled down too.  So far, I suspect I've cut down my meat intake by about 40%.    I'm starting to think of meat as more of a garnish, something to be added to soups or other meals for flavoring, but certainly not the star of the meal. 

Circling back to my link to Emily's post, I had begun to get a feeling that our American obsession with meat was a unhealthy in a lot of different ways.  The quantity of meat and the quality of meat that we're eating cannot be good.  I feel confident in that even if I haven't read all the literature.  Yet.  So today when I picked a veggie patty at Subway (hey, sometimes circumstance forces your hand), I felt that I was making a better choice for me, but also for the environment.  It's win-win. 

I think step 3 will be incorporating more vegetarian meals into our family meals.  As part of this, I'd like to cut out some of the admittedly crappy meat we've been feeding the kids.  So my plan is to introduce vegetarian Tuesday dinners.  Hubby cannot cook on Tuesdays, so the menu on these days is pretty much up to me.  Also, he hates to eat a big meal before his soccer games on those nights.  So a light, veggie-concentrated meal would be perfect, no? 

Next steps will include eating better quality meat, better quality cheese, eating locally grown produce, growing my own produce(eek!), better eggs, stricter adherence to the dirty dozen/clean dozen rules and who knows what else.  Or in what order. 

It's a process, baby.

Check the Label

So Hubby is in school right now getting his B.S. in Physical Education and Health.  As part of his practicum hours, he has to teach a high school class.  The lead teacher wanted him to do a lesson on reading food labels.

Hubby is not the world's healthiest eater.  He loves red meat and starches in a box.  One of the first changes I made to my diet was to start looking at the protein and fiber in my foods.  Making sure I get enough of those nutrients is as important and keeping the fat and calories down.

Hubby seldom reads labels himself, so going through and creating the lesson plan has been eye-opening.  I've been telling him for months how there's "no food in your food," but he has just blown me off.  But I swear after this exercise, I can see the wheels turning in his head.

So the first part of his lesson will be taking about the different nutrients and the recommended quanties of each.  Then he has them look at sample food labels and fill out a questionaire about the different foods and their components.

The last part was my idea.  I pulled the following items from our pantry (sorry for the crummy pic):  

 From left to right we have ramen noodles, red lentils, brown rice, Kraft Macaroni dinner, red quinoa, and rice a roni noodles.  The lesson calls for spliting the students into six groups.   Then, as a group they would need to determine whether or not they thought the above was a quality food or not and why. 

I was big on the use of the word "quality" vs. "bad."  I mean, I like some Kraft dinner.  But I know it's not a quality food, so I don't eat as much or as often anymore.  I think we should think about food in its varying levels of quality, rather than "good" or "bad".  "Bad" implies that you should never eat something, but good, REAL nutrition seems to be about making quality choices overall so that you can have some less quality indulges. 

For me, sometimes nothing but a real Dr. Pepper will do.  And you know what?  I indulge because that's what it is.  An indulgence.  Not part of my regular diet.