Tuesday, January 12, 2010

The beginning of a new year and daily menus

My intent is to eat and move in a manner that produces 53 pounds of fat loss. So far this year, I've lost 1.4 pounds. I'm sticking to my general plan.

Gluten free and now mostly dairy free. I do have 2/3 of a pint of Stoneyfield After Dark ice cream left, that is to expensive to just through away. 1/4 of a cup per week should be ok post workout.

Low carb/clean eats: 30-60 g. of carb/day. I do allow myself a gluten free treat on the high days post cardio workout and on regular days I do have a very low carb cereal called puffed Millet from Arrowhead. I do have 1/2 c. of plain yogurt left and some fresh blueberries. Also, I tried the Trader Joe's nitrite/nitrate free bacon but I'm retaining water so I'm probably not going to buy that again even though it was very tasty.

Caffeine free, completely or very close to that. I discovered a while ago, that I get headaches from caffiene, even a little bit. I quit drinking all sodas several years ago, but I gave up caffeine last year. I stopped drinking teas with caffeine. As it turns out, I read online that caffeine retards your liver's ability to dispose of the estrogen in your system. Well, I'm estrogen dominant, that is what caused my PCO symptoms. As the estrogen is built up in the body, if it doesn't find an estrogen receptor it is converted via enzymes into testosterone. The testosterone is what then causes the symptoms including hirsuitism, cysts on the ovaries, weight gain, brittle bones that break, hardening of the arteries and ultimately death via heart attack between the age of 40 and 45. Caffeine also induces insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is also known as pre-diabetes. Insulin resistance is what is thought to cause the PCOS symptoms. Insulin, that is not properly absorbed due to overly abused receptors and a high carbohydrate, low fat diet, is converted into testosterone. As noted before, it then causes tremendous problems in the female body. As a result, I am now considering giving up chocolate as soon as I blast through the chocolate stores I have in the pantry (there isn't much.) I usually only have a small square on my high calorie day. But if the caffeine is as bad a culprit as it appears to be at this point, it may need to go.

Calorie cycle 2 low calorie days followed by one high calorie day
Low cycle: 1200-1500 calories
High cycle: 1800-2000 calories
Daily food/activity journaling: Its easy with Fitday.com to track everything. Also, I intend to post my low carb meals here.
Weigh/measure my eats. I got a brand new digital food scale for this, no reason to leave it in the drawer! Also, I bought an extra set of measuring cups/spoons at the dollar store, I love a bargain.

Diet break down

Low day: Pre workout: 2 eggs poached in microwave with a tablespoon of coconut fat 20 min before workout.
AM Post workout: 1 c. puffed millet, 1/3 c. Enviro kids, 1/4 c. coconut cream, 1/2 c. So Delicious unsweetened coconut milk
Noon: 2 cups salad greens, protein, and olive oil drizzled on top.

High Day: it just adds a fourth meal.
Dinner: 1 cup. vegetables, protein, and olive oil drizzled on top.

I drink 8 cups of water and two cups of decaf tea, usually herbal.

The other components: cardio, yoga, journaling, and podcasts. Currently, my cardio rotation is dependent on the weather. I can't run/jog in the rain. I won't do either with a mountain lion in tow. We had one for six weeks in the neighborhood. I live in a rural area. I use my yoga practice as my over all body conditioning. My job requires significant upper body work that produces doms in that area anyway. I get lower body doms from running hills, step aerobics, and MMA videos. I don't do real fighting, I'm not interested in

My current rotation, break down:

AM
Sunday: Jog, yoga
Monday: off
Tuesday: Jog, yoga advanced
Wednesday: Step Steady state
Thursday: HIIT/dance toning workout
Friday: Step Intervals, Easy yoga
Saturday: MMA

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