Fitness blah-g
Jan. 15th, 2010 07:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
threadwalkerI've been working hard to regain all my good habits... the good habits that slipped away last year. I'm also retooling how/when I eat.
For more boring details in the life of a working mom who's trying to keep fit and healthy..
My strategies all need to be based around planning for success, not testing my willpower.
1. Food is very personal. I have read a lot of articles that debate whether some people are meant to be heavier, whether input-output = accumulation, what effect genetics play, etc. All I can speak to is me, my body, how I feel, and my experience. This is what I know:
-I like food. Food tastes good. It's the only "instant gratification" in my life.
-when I eat more, I gain weight.
-As far as ectomorph, mesomorph, etc, go, I'm the morph that likes to store fat. My body likes to store calories. I will survive the next famine. I hale from sturdy peasant stock.
-if I don't exercise, my weight will climb to 185 lb and it stays there because I'm not willing to starve myself to be thin. (Starve = eat at least 500 fewer calories than I burn in a day) Short of starving myself, my body will store those calories in anticipation of the next famine.
-I like how I feel when I exercise
-when I exercise I become much more interested in how I fuel myself
-when my calories come from stuff that is minimally processed, I lose weight and my body practically vibrates with good feelings. E.G. 200 calories of lean protein, fruit, or slow cooked oatmeal vs. 200 calories of crackers, processed cereal, or other stuff with white sugar or flour.
-I have deep wells of energy when I eat right AND exercise. I also become almost bug proof (an important asset to any parent)
-I'm OCD, so ritualistic food-eating is something I have to be careful of. There are a lot of mental land mines at the table for me.
-I love baked goods. Love love love! I did a post to the glories of Gold Fish crackers months ago and several people came to me afterwards saying that they now craved the snack that smiles back.
-there is no such thing as one cookie or one slice of pizza. My brain can't wrap itself around those unless it's half a package or half a pizza. (which is why I decline so many pizza-outing invites)
I don't advise other people on what to do, I just share what does and does not work for me.
2. I have removed all the baked goodies from the house. I've got late-night munching compulsions which drive me to pace the house in anxiety while craving baked goodies. It sucks. I'm like the caged zoo animal pacing my pen and on every lap I check the food bowl to see if something's been added. The cure?
So far, the answer is to keep the baked goods out of the house because even when I know there aren't any, I still rummage around. (Being OCD sucks.)
3. I seem to have cut back on caffeine without trying to. I've been suffering withdrawl by going down to 40 oz of Diet Coke a day. My challenge is I really like the bubbles and a "flavor". So I'm keeping it at 2 sodas a day and supplementing with sugar-free, flavored carbonated water drinks. Last night I mixed up selter water with a slice of orange. I'm not sure why I'm doing this or what it will truly accomplish, but I am.
4. I need to focus on "refueling" after work outs and not "pre-fueling" for them. So far everything I've read says to plan your meals towards your work outs. EG, I may eat extra calories during the day because I plan to run 6 miles (burn 800+ calories) at night and I don't want to run out of gas half way through. Unfortunately, my plans are frequently sabotaged by F's job. After a few weeks of pre-fueling for work-outs that don't happen, my weight is up 5 lbs. (boo, sss, boo!) This is a hot topic for me because it's a Catch 22 AND I hate not having more control. What do I do?
But wait, there's more! Apparently I need one more hard lesson on fuel. I ran long Monday night and when I came home I showered and went to bed, eating nothing due to current weight drama. I was sore Tuesday, so I ran short Tuesday and finished with the elliptical (800+ calories) and once again went to bed after a shower without eating. Wednesday morning my calves were screaming and I couldn't climb steps. I also had a head-ache and despite my normal breakfast + mid-morning snack routine, I was starving at 10 am and couldn't stop thinking of food. I think my body got pissed at me becasue then I couldn't stay awake through my 10-11 meeting. Probably the lizard part of my brain said, "Enough! We refuse to think one more thought, burn one more calorie or do anything else until this body eats," and pulled the plug. My boss embarrassed me by sending me a text from across the meeting table, "Wake up!" Boy-o-boy, I was THRASHED. Now what?
If I pre-fuel and miss a workout, calorie disaster. If I don't pre-fuel and get my work-out in, I thrash myself. If I eat after a workout I am encouraging a really bad habit that becomes an obsessive compulsion and which has put me in this spot. There's a fine balance between taking in enough calories, taking in too much, and starving yourself.
To quote my favorite frog, "It's not easy being green." It's definitely not easy being me.
I read the January 2010 issue of Oxygen on Monday and I started using some of their recipes. First, I have changed my breakfast. Instead of grabbing fast food (i.e. a banana) I have hot oatmeal (slow cook, not instant) cooked with 1/2 banana, fat free milk or water (depends on if I worked out the night before) and then I mix in flax seed. It's high in fiber, high in protein, sticks with me, is about 5-7pts (WW) and helps with muscle recovery. I still have my mid-morning 2pt snack, but I am not starving by lunch.
After a hard work out (= more than 45 minutes and/or more than 3 WW activity points) I refuel with the Oxygen smoothie recipe that combines banana (potasium), blue berries (anti-oxidants!), pine-apple, milk and whey (protein, = muscle recovery). Food is a very personal thing for me and tied to my mental landscape. What I noticed Wednesday night was that the activity of prepping the smoothie and then eating/drinking it didn't "feel" the same way a successful raid on baked goods feels, so I'm optimistic that the smoothie thing won't become self-defeating or encourage bad mental habits.
Results:
I feel like a poser using whey because I'm not a power-lifter. However, Wednesday morning's lesson is that I really do need to plan for recovery. Wednesday night I did the elliptical hard for an hour (800+ calories), had a shake that night, had the oatmeal the next morning and I felt great Thursday morning.
My plan is to keep this up through the half-marathon (February 7). I half expect my weight to bump up a few pounds at first, but long term I think my body will love me for the nutrition plan and it will burn the fat.
For more boring details in the life of a working mom who's trying to keep fit and healthy..
My strategies all need to be based around planning for success, not testing my willpower.
1. Food is very personal. I have read a lot of articles that debate whether some people are meant to be heavier, whether input-output = accumulation, what effect genetics play, etc. All I can speak to is me, my body, how I feel, and my experience. This is what I know:
-I like food. Food tastes good. It's the only "instant gratification" in my life.
-when I eat more, I gain weight.
-As far as ectomorph, mesomorph, etc, go, I'm the morph that likes to store fat. My body likes to store calories. I will survive the next famine. I hale from sturdy peasant stock.
-if I don't exercise, my weight will climb to 185 lb and it stays there because I'm not willing to starve myself to be thin. (Starve = eat at least 500 fewer calories than I burn in a day) Short of starving myself, my body will store those calories in anticipation of the next famine.
-I like how I feel when I exercise
-when I exercise I become much more interested in how I fuel myself
-when my calories come from stuff that is minimally processed, I lose weight and my body practically vibrates with good feelings. E.G. 200 calories of lean protein, fruit, or slow cooked oatmeal vs. 200 calories of crackers, processed cereal, or other stuff with white sugar or flour.
-I have deep wells of energy when I eat right AND exercise. I also become almost bug proof (an important asset to any parent)
-I'm OCD, so ritualistic food-eating is something I have to be careful of. There are a lot of mental land mines at the table for me.
-I love baked goods. Love love love! I did a post to the glories of Gold Fish crackers months ago and several people came to me afterwards saying that they now craved the snack that smiles back.
-there is no such thing as one cookie or one slice of pizza. My brain can't wrap itself around those unless it's half a package or half a pizza. (which is why I decline so many pizza-outing invites)
I don't advise other people on what to do, I just share what does and does not work for me.
2. I have removed all the baked goodies from the house. I've got late-night munching compulsions which drive me to pace the house in anxiety while craving baked goodies. It sucks. I'm like the caged zoo animal pacing my pen and on every lap I check the food bowl to see if something's been added. The cure?
So far, the answer is to keep the baked goods out of the house because even when I know there aren't any, I still rummage around. (Being OCD sucks.)
3. I seem to have cut back on caffeine without trying to. I've been suffering withdrawl by going down to 40 oz of Diet Coke a day. My challenge is I really like the bubbles and a "flavor". So I'm keeping it at 2 sodas a day and supplementing with sugar-free, flavored carbonated water drinks. Last night I mixed up selter water with a slice of orange. I'm not sure why I'm doing this or what it will truly accomplish, but I am.
4. I need to focus on "refueling" after work outs and not "pre-fueling" for them. So far everything I've read says to plan your meals towards your work outs. EG, I may eat extra calories during the day because I plan to run 6 miles (burn 800+ calories) at night and I don't want to run out of gas half way through. Unfortunately, my plans are frequently sabotaged by F's job. After a few weeks of pre-fueling for work-outs that don't happen, my weight is up 5 lbs. (boo, sss, boo!) This is a hot topic for me because it's a Catch 22 AND I hate not having more control. What do I do?
But wait, there's more! Apparently I need one more hard lesson on fuel. I ran long Monday night and when I came home I showered and went to bed, eating nothing due to current weight drama. I was sore Tuesday, so I ran short Tuesday and finished with the elliptical (800+ calories) and once again went to bed after a shower without eating. Wednesday morning my calves were screaming and I couldn't climb steps. I also had a head-ache and despite my normal breakfast + mid-morning snack routine, I was starving at 10 am and couldn't stop thinking of food. I think my body got pissed at me becasue then I couldn't stay awake through my 10-11 meeting. Probably the lizard part of my brain said, "Enough! We refuse to think one more thought, burn one more calorie or do anything else until this body eats," and pulled the plug. My boss embarrassed me by sending me a text from across the meeting table, "Wake up!" Boy-o-boy, I was THRASHED. Now what?
If I pre-fuel and miss a workout, calorie disaster. If I don't pre-fuel and get my work-out in, I thrash myself. If I eat after a workout I am encouraging a really bad habit that becomes an obsessive compulsion and which has put me in this spot. There's a fine balance between taking in enough calories, taking in too much, and starving yourself.
To quote my favorite frog, "It's not easy being green." It's definitely not easy being me.
I read the January 2010 issue of Oxygen on Monday and I started using some of their recipes. First, I have changed my breakfast. Instead of grabbing fast food (i.e. a banana) I have hot oatmeal (slow cook, not instant) cooked with 1/2 banana, fat free milk or water (depends on if I worked out the night before) and then I mix in flax seed. It's high in fiber, high in protein, sticks with me, is about 5-7pts (WW) and helps with muscle recovery. I still have my mid-morning 2pt snack, but I am not starving by lunch.
After a hard work out (= more than 45 minutes and/or more than 3 WW activity points) I refuel with the Oxygen smoothie recipe that combines banana (potasium), blue berries (anti-oxidants!), pine-apple, milk and whey (protein, = muscle recovery). Food is a very personal thing for me and tied to my mental landscape. What I noticed Wednesday night was that the activity of prepping the smoothie and then eating/drinking it didn't "feel" the same way a successful raid on baked goods feels, so I'm optimistic that the smoothie thing won't become self-defeating or encourage bad mental habits.
Results:
I feel like a poser using whey because I'm not a power-lifter. However, Wednesday morning's lesson is that I really do need to plan for recovery. Wednesday night I did the elliptical hard for an hour (800+ calories), had a shake that night, had the oatmeal the next morning and I felt great Thursday morning.
My plan is to keep this up through the half-marathon (February 7). I half expect my weight to bump up a few pounds at first, but long term I think my body will love me for the nutrition plan and it will burn the fat.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-15 08:12 pm (UTC)I am the same way and trying to get my trigger foods out of the house but have yet to get rid of pizza..I make calzone/pizza once a week for our movie night and I've been working on portion control with that and healthier toppings/fillings.
Also on the look out for a good breakfast. I've been craving oatmeal and looked up some recipes and planned to make some but it got knocked off our list due to budget issues this week but then I wound up picking some Cranberry and Pomegranate instant stuff as an impulse buy when we did go shopping (I wonder if that is a sign of my progress though, that my impulse buy was healthy?). Anyway I made some yesterday and remembered why I don't eat oatmeal, it's a texture issue with me *sighs*. What to do now?
no subject
Date: 2010-01-15 10:45 pm (UTC)I hear ya.
I like reading your posts, we are very similar in how we process and the tools we use.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-18 12:04 pm (UTC)Wait!
Date: 2010-01-16 07:40 am (UTC)Just a thought...
Re: Wait!
Date: 2010-01-18 12:03 pm (UTC)