Fitness Safari

A week ago, when I began my foray into IF (intermittent fasting), I weighed in at about 128 lbs. Now, that doesn't sound like a lot, but I'm pretty short (5'2"), so I was looking quite soft. Well, I'm proud to announce that after 1 week of IF, a sensible meal plan, and a few hours total in the gym, I now weigh 120 lbs. According to my Tanita body fat scale, I went up briefly this week from 28.5 to just over 30 (as I flushed water weight most likely) and was down to 27.5 when I woke up this morning. Now, I have no idea how accurate these scales are, but what I am shooting for is a downward trend. When I get leaner I will get the trainers at the gym to do a caliper measurement to see where I stand. I know a good deal of my weight a week ago was water weight, but I am feeling thinner and lighter and already fitting into jeans that were too tight just a week ago. I don't look like the woman in this picture...yet...but I'm happy with my progress. Today's Upd...

Stumbled upon Livestrong.com a couple of weeks ago and love it! The MyPlate feature is an easy and free way to log your calories and find out what exactly is in the food you're eating - fat, protein, carbs, sugar, cholesterol, fiber, etc. You can create a calorie goal and enter just about any food or beverage you can think of into the log and it keeps tabs on how you're doing. It also tracks fitness and calories burned and factors that into your daily caloric goal. In other words, if you go to the gym and run 3 miles in 30 minutes, a 120 lb person will burn about 300 calories. Just enter that activity in and either manually enter calories burned or the program will estimate for you and subtract those calories from your food totals for the day. So, you can now eat 300 more calories for the day w/o busting your daily goal. It's a breeze to use and is a great resource to help keep your eye on your fitness goals. Try it for yourself and let me know how it works out for you. Ke...

weekend recap: Fri - left work early to hit the gym running, literally. went 6 miles in 60 mins. Sat - bi's, abs, and chest, surfed 2-3 hours. fun day. Sun - too damn hot. shoulders and 4-mile run in under 40 mins. diet - Hi, Lo, No carbs. lost a couple. down to 117 from 120 a couple of weeks ago. hunger - constant, but mostly tolerable. today - entire front half of upper body kills. waves tomorrow? Never quit!

Ok - If you want to cheat (on clean eating) here's a bit of advice for you - Do it AFTER your workout that day. UGH. I made the BIG mistake of eating not so clean on Saturday at lunch, before I hit the gym for that day. I thought I was going to vomit throughout my entire workout. Though I started out clean - big healthy salad with loads of veggies and beans and only olive oil and balsamic vinegar, I cheated and shared some nacho chips with spinach artichoke dip, guacamole and chile queso with my daughter. While it tasted good at the time, I paid for it dearly during my workout that afternoon. I will never, EVER, eat garbage before a workout again!

(pictured left, Jamie Eason...jamieeason.com - my role model in fitness) SO, after an evaluation of what I've been eating, I seem to have found the reason for my lack of progress in the gym. I've revamped my diet and boosted the protein content dramatically while, at the same time, kicking my workouts up a few notches and I'm already seeing the difference. Seems that a 120 lb person needs between 120-160 grams of protein a day to build muscle. With all of that protein, I'm finding I don't even WANT to eat much else. I supplement with low-carb protein shakes (23 g of protein per shake), Greek yogurt (14-16 g of protein per serving), hard-boiled egg whites, cottage cheese, tunafish and beans. I also eat a tremendous amount of veggies including spinach, asparagus, green beans, mushrooms, onions, peppers, tomatoes and some peas and corn. Sprinkled in the mix is some avocado, nuts or olive oil for my good fats and I don't crave ANYTHING besides another workout. I kno...

Despite my jacked-up efforts in the weight room, this is not a common occurrence. I've been eating about 80 grams of lean protein a day (.8 g per lb of my bodyweight as recommended by numerous fitness sites), along with lots of veggies, beans, walnuts and minimal whole grains such as sweet potatoes and wheat breads all divided into about 5 meals/snacks a day. I'm only drinking water and green tea. If I stick to the plan, I can generally stave off the hunger - for the most part. Today I made two mistakes. I didn't have a mid-morning snack and I made pasta for lunch. I think the two events are related. When I get hungry - and I mean really, really hungry, I crave carbs. The pasta is Dreamfields which claims to be a minimal carb pasta, but it tastes like the real thing (some sort of top-secret process virtually eliminates the glycemic spike normally associated with pasta). It has some protein and fiber, but apparently not enough of either as I was still hungry after I ate a go...