Spring 2010: The Diet Adapts

I always am experimenting with my diet and altering everything that goes into my mouth and what I'm doing with my exercise plan. In an effort to avoid allergens I am once again, altering my diet. I tried having a whole "cheat day" once a week and it did not work for me at all. I use Fitday.com to help me calculate my macronutrients.

This is what I'm eating:

High Fat: Olive oil, coconut oil, and butter

Low Carb: 30-50 grams per day

Calorie Cycled: 1300-1900 calories per day.

This is what I'm not eating:

Soy

Nuts

Dairy

Grain

Gluten

Legumes

My eats:

Low Calorie day:

Pre Workout: 1 hard boiled egg

Post Workout: 1 scrambled egg, 1 tbsp. butter, 1 c. blackberries

Lunch: Avocado Salad with olive oil or 1 cup stir fry vegetables in coconut oil

and protein 3 oz.

Dinner: Sauteed vegetable or vegetable soup or stir fry with olive oil and protein 3 oz.

High Calorie day:

Pre WO 1 hard boiled egg

Post WO 1 scrambled egg, 2 tbsp. butter, 1 c. black berries

Lunch: Avocado Salad with olive oil or 1 cup stir fry vegetables in coconut oil

and protein 3 oz.

Dinner: 2 cups sauteed vegetable or vegetable soup or stir fry

3 tbsp. olive oil

and 5 oz. protein

and 1 cup of berries

Protein: pork, chicken, or beef

The exercise plan: in 2008 I was successful in my weight loss when I was focusing on cardio and yoga. I have decided to go back to that rotation. At that time I was also aiming for 60 minutes in my THR. That seems like a good plan. Over the winter I had dropped back to just 30 minutes per workout in my THR. I don't think thats enough to lose weight. I'm going to increase my cardio. I had also been doing more yoga. Over the winter, I was doing about 2-3 yoga sessions a week. I think that needs to be closer to 4-5.

This is my new rotation:

Sunday: Long jog or MMA Boxing, 1 hour Gary Bromley yoga

Monday: off

Tuesday: Step, Yoga Today

Wednesday: Jog or HIIT, 1 hour Gary Bromley yoga

Thursday: Step, Yoga (netflix dvd)

Friday: Jog or MMA, Kathy Smith Yoga Basics

Saturday: Step Circuit

Heres to this working !

Cold Food

Does not appeal to me. The idea of something cold (except for ice cream) in my stomach is a complete turn off. I like to cook from fresh. I got this way living in FL. I used to like drinking cold water but something happened on one hot humid day working in a theme park, I had this tremendous pain in my stomach and I doubled over. This feeling repeated everytime I drank cold water. Ever since, I don't want cold things. I don't want cold chicken. I don't want cold much of anything (except for ice cream.) I don't mind if a salad is cool and crisp. Thats ok.

Healthy eating step by step from Bay Books

I bought this book on sale. I had to do a ISBN search because the title brought up way to many search results from Google. There are a lot of full color photographs. The book is primarily aimed at the low fat dieter. I am a low carb dieter, my aim is a higher fat diet. However, that doesn't mean you can't use books intended for the low fat dieter. Its very simple to add butter, olive oil or coconut oil. Also, sometimes you may be cooking for someone who requires a low fat diet. While it seems to make sense for everyone to be on a low carb diet not every body can tolerate one. There are medical conditions which preclude one following a low carb diet. Also, there are other things to take into consideration, protein while normally embraced on a low carb diet is not always an appropriate part of one's diet, people with kidney stones often avoid a high protein diet because it tends to increase the number of kidney stones they have. I don't eat as much protein as some people do because I don't lose weight as quickly on a high protein diet. I do better getting most of my calories from healthy fats.

Another fun tid bit about "Healthy Eating Step by Step" is that it was clearly written in a different country than the US. The temperatures are given in F, C and gas numbers. Also, in several instances there are subtle lingual variations such as biscuit where a US citizen would say cookie.

I do like this book. If you see it in a bargain bin, you might pick it up. I'm planning to serve the Pearl barkely and Asian Mushroom Pilaf on page 64, the Swordfish Skewers with White bean puree (I will adapt it to chicken) for a party. I plan to also use the brownie recipe on page 105.

Happy reading!

Saturated Fat is not evil

Cool blog about the role of fat in our diet. I am following a high fat low carb diet myself. I found this article to be somewhat vindicating.

Serious Weight Loss

When you are serious about your weight loss goals you throw out the junk food. You just let it go. Yesterday, I dumped two boxes of cookies. I realized that they were not the monetary value (not to mention that now they were stale) that my weight loss goals are to me. Taking care of my health is important to me. I have spent lots of money towards this endeavor and I don't see the point in saving maybe 5 bucks in cheap carbohydrates. I'm leaning towards giving my dark chocolates from Christmas (I still have over half a box.) to a friend. Sound like a plan? I think so.

I'm working on a 50 pound loss. Last year was real rough. Getting started up in the first part of the year was a bit iffy due to travel in February. Also, I didn't have the gumption to get on the scale. I know I'd been heavier on the first but I waited until mid February to weigh in. I know I had been heavier and that I did lose size/inches in February. This weight thing is an ongoing challenge. When I was younger, I thought that once I had lost that weight that would be it, I would be home free. I did not understand that this was a thing one had to maintain on a daily basis with a healthy diet, exercise, and setting my intent everyday. I also have to make sure I have healthy foods available. I can have an issue, especially first thing in the morning, where I'm hungry and I just don't care and I will eat anything, potato chips, chocolates, ice cream you name it and I will eat because its been 12 hours and my blood sugar is low. The key to a successful day starts the day before with a cleaned kitchen and prepared breakfast foods.

These days I am allowing myself a small amount of fruit after a meal. Usually, its a cutie. Today, it was half cup of fresh strawberries. Overall, I'm not finding grain to be my friend. I don't eat much in the way of tubers either such as potatoes or carrots. I do have a fresh eggplant in the refrigerator. I am focusing on green leafy vegetables, cruciferous, and plenty of healthy fats such as olive oil and avocado. I love the avocados on my salad. Watch out for the vinegars, they can have hidden sugars in them. Lemon juice is a safer bet than vinegar.

I am very sore. I don't what did it, either my Cathe Friedrich workouts or the weed pulling or the jogging. I don't know. I do know, I'm experiencing nasty doms in my hamstrings that are preventing me from doing much of anything, including sitting. This week I'm concentrating on a weights/cardio program called 4 Day Split. This will give me three days of rest to work with and time to recover. I will start back up with my jogging program in a week.

What a fabulous idea! Real Food Challenge

Very interesting article. I love the idea of going completely unprocessed. I could do it myself. I don't think that my family would do it. My brother and Dad are addicted to refined foods. One goes for a taco run at least once a day. I could eat just vegetables, fruits, oils, and meats. I could, I really could. As a matter of fact its not a bad idea. I wonder if the challenge excluded dried legumes? Such as lentils or red beans. I do have some gluten free millet after my workouts. I also like the dried Bob's Red Mill coconut meat. Its a fabulous snack, gluten free, low carb, and very high in healthy fats.

Go to http://ow.ly/1dmJI to see what I mean.

Inspired by Penny, I'm up on my soap box.

The challenge presented was the quickest, easiest, and most entertaining way to lose weight. And it must be free. Thanks to the internet, many tools are now very inexpensive or even free. In my mind there are several parts to an effective weight loss plan. What you eat, how you choose to add movement and importantly, what you use to help motivate yourself throughout the process. I believe that each aspect can be addressed for a minimal cost thanks in large part to giving podcasters, the internet, and ultimately to Steve Jobs who insisted on something better than the walkman (remember those?)

It has been found that 80% of your success with weight loss is garnered from your diet. What you put in your mouth is pretty much the thing that determines success or failure to lose weight. The trick is discovering what causes you (not your friend) to lose weight, gain weight or prevents weight loss. I, personally, gain weight from fried chicken, Chinese take out, pizza, donuts, and ice cream. Fitday or Spark can help you make the connection from what you are eating to what happens with your body. Even without purchasing measuring cups and a food scale, just writing down what you ate can help you understand what is going on with your body. Also, make a note of when you feel good and when you feel bad. Does eating certain foods give you headaches or indigestion? Does alcohol always make you gain weight, no matter how little calories you ate? Does eating soy slow down your weight loss? Does protein powder make you gain weight? I always put on weight with those foods. You may notice similar kinds of issues but with foods that bother your body, that may be an entirely different list from my list.

Often people whine and complain about the cost of healthy food. After all, Top Ramen is like 10 cents! Well, you just found a very cheap source of calories. The question is, what did it do for you? It filled your belly. How long after that were you hungry again? Did you have to add something to it? Look, I'm not saying top ramen is evil, but consider those inexpensive veggies you can add to your diet, improve the nutrition going into your body, and still not break the bank. Be honest, how much did you spend on coffee? Those fancy coffee drinks are not cheap. But, guess what, cabbage, carrots, and fruit in season is cheap. And, what little money you spend now is much less than the price of doctor visits when you have poor health from being undernourished and obese at the same time. Visit Sandra Ahten's podcast the Reasonable diet or 6 minutes of sanity to learn more about inexpensive diet options. (I'm not paid by her for the 'endorsement', it was free.)

Last night I bought a head of lettuce for $1.29. Its a beautiful red leaf lettuce packed full of nutrition and flavor. If you buy your nuts on sale like I do at Raley's, you can get almonds in bulk for $3.99 a pound. Its not always that cheap, but their nuts are good and fresh. Thats a whole pound! Thats 16 servings. Do the math. Its 25 cents per serving. For the lettuce its about 4 servings which is about 32 cents a serving. (I'm rounding) Add lemon juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper, guess what you just had lunch. You can add protein if you want. Thats up to you.

Exercise: walking or jogging. In theory you can just go out the front door. But, we all know there are potential issues that can crop up. I do have a small kit of things that help me with my walking, hiking and jogging. Other inexpensive options are jump rope or calisthenics. Netflix is an excellent source for workout dvds. Yoga Today.com is a free streaming source for new yoga workouts off the internet. I'm assuming that you have internet access because you are reading this.

Meditation, while more relaxation than activity, helps tremendously with your mental outlook and health. We all need a mood boost and when we aren't using food for emotional support we must get it elsewhere.

My favorite podcasts for motivation are Inside Out Weight Loss with Renee Stephens, The Reasonable Diet with Sandra Ahten, Motivation to Move with Scott Smith and Joy, Pheddipidations, and The Two Gomers run a marathon. All are free. Yippee! I love the free. Well, except you do need a mp3 player, computer, and internet access. So, in a way its free. The content is free. I find motivation on Spark people reading other people's blogs. Those are free!

The tools I use most of the time that are not free:
1. Digital food scale. I got mine on sale, it was $30 at Target. The price varies.
2. iPod Shuffle. Mine says "rapid breath" because thats what I do in yoga. Cool, right?
3. Wrap around ear buds are awesome because your buds don't fly out of your ears when you are jogging.
4. Sweat band (dollar store). I really hate sweat in my eyes.
5. cuddl-dudz workout pants ($15 Target for two pair.)
6. sunglasses (Dollar store)
7. Trainers: shoes from Ross or Sports Authority on sale. I have several pair for different activities.
8. Digital Bathroom scale
9. DVD player for my videos.
10. My circuit step for aerobics.
11 Lots of workout dvds. I may be a Cathe Friedrich addict, I'm not sure.

Maybe the most important things are the ones I don't buy. I don't have a gym membership. I don't have a personal trainer. I don't buy the super expensive name brand shoes. I do buy nice socks. Those matter. But, the truth is if you watch what you eat, journal, and do simple exercise like walking and stretching, the weight will probably come off if the macronutrients are in check. The exercise is just there to buoy your metabolism up and to keep you from being in a plateau. It helps with mood and most people experience a dip in mood during dieting/weight loss. I do.

Thats all for now, tune in next time for the EDH Diet Soap Box!