Falling off the rails

Last week my diet fell off the rails a bit.  I tried to increase my protein intake and decrease my carbohydrate intake.  My body hasn't responded very well, or is still adjusting.  Most nights I was hungry and let it get the best of me.  Looking back on my food log, it appears that I was more than 1000 calories over for the week. That *should* translate to a weight loss of 1-1.5 pounds instead of 2 pounds.  In reality, it meant I gained a pound.  I was honest in my food logs, so it must be just an over-estimation of how much I burn during workouts.

Some of this is also just normal fluctuation, but I do not like the trend I'm seeing on the chart.  For weeks it was a steady up/down on my dailys.  Last week it leveled off and just started gradually curving upwards.

Hurricane Sandy has cancelled my business trip and my PT appointment, but I'm about to head to the gym anyway.  I've got to get some movement in today before the storm gets really bad.  Now that I don't need to salivate over a Double-Double, I'm taking this week and sticking to my food calorie limits with no credit for exercise.  It's time for a market correction, so to speak.

Wish me luck!

In-N-Out Burger, Business Meals, & Free Cookies

Next week I'm going to California for work.  I'm staying at a hotel that gives out free cookies (but does not involve two trees).  And that hotel is right across the street from an In-N-Out.  Some of you on the good coast might not know about In-N-Out, but let me try to explain it to you.  Imagine what McDonald's would've been if Ray Kroc decided to sell cars instead of milkshake machines.  Too obscure?  Ok, imagine Chick-Fil-A and Wendy Thomas had to raise Tim Horton's baby.  That baby would sell hamburgers, expand slowly, treat its employees well, use high(-er) quality ingredients, and put biblical references on cup rims.  A guy named Donny turned me onto the place.  My favorite thing about the place is the simplicity of its menu.  It's absolute fast-food perfection.

So I'll be working all day, having dinner and a few drinks with colleagues, and then settling down with a good burger and some free cookies.  This will happen all 4 nights (or more, if I can't make it through lunch).  It's got FAT WEEK written all over it.  Oh, and I'll be doing this once a month for the next 6 months or so.

At least that's what would've happened if I hadn't made a commitment to fitness.  Sure, I'm not going to leave Cali without a burger; and yes, I'll be eating out every night and I'll be socially and professionally compelled to have a drink.  But I'll plan for it.  I'll make it to the hotel gym in the mornings, and I'll stay near my target calorie intake.

And if the In-N-Out bURGEr strikes, I blame Donny.  Shut the fuck up, Donny.

 

TMI

Also, my farts smell REALLY BAD right now.

Is it still Cooking Light if you eat 3 servings?

I don't typically post anything to the blog about feeling satisfied; but when I'm hungry, writing a post helps me wait for my brain to catch up to my stomach.

This is one of those posts.

Today's been a pretty good day for macronutrients. 25% fat, 35% carbohydrates, and 40% protein.  Calorie distribution hasn't been bad either.  987 for breakfast, 530 for lunch, and 690 for dinner.  No early morning/late night binges.  I lifted weights in the morning.  I made sure to get a fair amount of carbohydrates before the workout.  After the workout, it was 450 calories from protein powder/shake.  Lunch was a hoagie w/ no cheese.  No worries about mayo; I hate the stuff.

So dinnertime came around and I'm hungry, but no more than usual.  Tonight's dinner is a beef stir-fry.  The recipe is from Cooking Light.  It's almost entirely beef.  I ate all that we had - 3 servings.  So why am I still so hungry?  I'm sure that most of it is in my head, but what isn't?

My strategy is to load up on calorie free liquids throughout the night and otherwise occupy myself with stuff... like writing a blog post about being hungry.

Feeling weak

That cold really kicked my ass.  I took a few days off from exercising, but tried to stick with my diet.  I had some mixed success with that.  On the bright side, my weight is down 14 lbs since I started logging.  Even with that encouraging news, I'm totally spent right now.  I binged (again) last night, and tried to pay it off through seriously constricting my calorie intake today.  Then to top it off, I had to burn a few hundred calories, and didn't get to do it until 10:30-11:30pm.  I feel sick to my stomach from the exercise.  This can't become a habit.

Short food summary:
Late night Gremlin binge (feeding after midnight): 1803 kcal
Breakfast: 0 kcal
Lunch: 540 kcal
Dinner: 350 kcal

It was no carbs after lunch, and even for lunch the only significant carbs were in the wrap/tortilla... and THEN I followed those no-easy-energy meals with the elliptical for 55 minutes.  Ugh.

Today's progress chart:

Making progress...

... but paying the price.  Look at the net kcal vs food kcal bars today

Day 3 of The Head & Chest Cold

2 days in a row of no exercise.  I can't sleep at night because of my congestion, I can't exercise early in the morning because I've been up all night, and by evening I'm too tired to from all the mouth-breathing and lack of sleep that I don't get to the gym.

On the bright side, I'm still staying under my calorie limits because eating isn't giving me much pleasure when my sense of taste and smell are severely reduced.  Did I mention the nausea from nasal drip?  MmMmMm MmmMMmMmm  GOOD!

It's also another cake-day here.  Happy birthday to my daughter!

One month in & I hate Burpees

Well, I'm one month into my fitness program.  Well, at least since I've been keeping logs.  For the first 2-3 weeks I was just trying to form an exercise habit without worrying about results.  Take a look at how I've done...

Not bad, right?  That's 11 pounds in 4 weeks.  If you're counting the actual days, yesterday was really a month, but I didn't make it to the gym.  I caught a cold from my kids.  It's worse today, but I went to the gym anyway.  I had an appointment with my personal trainer.  God bless accountability.

Today's gym session wasn't my greatest.  It was lower body AIT training.  I have no idea what AIT stands for, but it probably sounds less daunting than KYHRUUYASDTYFLYWPO (Keep Your Heart Rate Up Until You Are So Dizzy That You Feel Like You Will Pass Out).  I can't remember exactly what we did, but today's routine looked something like this:

• Do this circuit 3 times:
• Jumping Jacks (30 seconds)
• Step-Ups (30 seconds)
• Burpees a/k/a Squat Thrusts (10 reps)
• Do this circuit 3 times:
• Weighted Squats (15 reps)
• Leg Extensions (15 reps)
• Deadlifts (15 reps)
• Run.
• Alternating Lunges (20?  30?)
• More Burpees
• Calf Raises
• This thing where I step on and off the bench 20 times while holding dumbells
• Wall Squat holds with weight

Somewhere after the run my mind went fuzzy from my heart rate, lack of blood sugar, and the cold.  And this was one of those days where I was taking it relatively easy because I'm sick.  I don't mind doing any of those exercises except for the burpees.  Those suck the life out of you.  Seriously, they make me feel like an instant failure, but I suppose I'll just get better.

Decision to see a Personal Trainer

Shortly after I moved (back) to NJ, a gym opened around the corner.  I know this because it was right next to the cupcake bakery and easily visible from the Wawa across the street.  I'd never been to a gym.  I don't know the proper way to lift weights.  There's probably mountains of quality, free information on the 'net and in the library.  In nearly 36 years, I haven't read a page of it.

I occasionally surfed to the local gym's website.  They offered a free sales pitch personal training consultation.  There wasn't a single event that got me to fill out the form.  I didn't hit "rock bottom" in the same way an alcoholic might; nonetheless, I filled out the form.

I went to the consultation.  Sure, it was designed to get me to sign up, but it wasn't the hard sell and never-ending contract that I expected.  It involved some measuring, some fitness tests, and yes, some sales pitching.  The test put it down on paper for me.  Black and white. Man In the Mirror.  Beat It.  Wait, no.  That's Michael Jackson.  I was in bad shape and probably set a high score for body fat percentage.

I decided to sign up, not just for the gym, but for the training.  I need the accountability.  I can count to 15 on my own, and look up routines, but a trainer teaches me proper form, designs my workouts, and makes the time I spend in the gym more efficient.  A trainer pushes me when I'd otherwise take it easy.  But it's keeping the appointment and knowing that I have to have already gotten in my cardio when I get there that gives me the accountability.

So now I've got a fitness plan.  I show up, do what I'm told, and by the time the pool is in, I should be ready to show off my stretch marks.

Finding the time

One of the hardest things about getting motivated to start going to a gym was finding the time.  I knew I had the time, but it wasn't consistently available.  I have 2 always-available times - before everyone wakes up, and after the kids go to bed.  My kids can be a handful at night.  It's mentally exhausting, and after a trying night with them, any hope of using the exercise bike in the basement (prior to joining a gym) just evaporated.

I mostly go to the gym in the morning, but not this morning.  Last night I was awake until 3am doing some past-due paperwork for my job.  There was no way I was waking up at 2 hours later to get some cardio in.  Yet I knew that I had to find the time today.  The first available time I had to go was after 10pm.

Sometimes, you just gotta find the time.

* Edited to add: In case it wasn't clear, I found the time tonight... and now I'm hungry.

Calculating your daily calorie needs

There are 1000 diets out there and every single one of them boils down to one simple fact: To lose weight, you must consume fewer calories than you burn.  It's the one and only true answer.  What differs between diets is how you accomplish that.  The man behind the curtain in all of it is determining how many calories you burn.  There's no perfectly accurate way to do this... at least not any reasonable way.  But we do have some research and formulas available to us.  But before we get there, allow me to state the obvious.

A Birthday Party

Quick post... Yesterday was my father's birthday.  I "failed" with respect to calories, but I still didn't do so badly.  Whenever I go to Mom's house, there's a chance I forgot to count something.  I'm not updating my calories in real-time there, and it'd be rude to ask Mom exactly how she prepared stuff.  So the rundown:

My Inspiration, Part 3

My daughter is about to turn 6.  She just started Kindergarten this September.  For her 5-year-old checkup the doctor told me what I didn't want to hear - my daughter's height & weight put her at a statistically higher risk for obesity and therefore the diseases that go along with it.  Doc's advice was to not worry too much, cut back on her juice and be sure to get her involved in daily physical activity.

Now you wouldn't look at her and think that she's fat.  I doubt you'd even call her "pleasantly plump."  She's just large compared to her peers.  You might have even dismissed the doctor's warning.  But I was worried.  I was worried of a lifetime of teasing.  Of being picked last.  Of self-hate.  Of never ending anxiety.  Of failing as a father to set a good example - or worse, enabling it all to happen.

Not the body I imagine as "at risk" for obesity

My fears didn't paralyze me.  That would just be an excuse.  But I didn't really do much to help.  All I did was cut back the juice, try to encourage healthful eating, and play outside as often as the weather allowed.  No, that's a lie.  That's what my wife did.  I poured juice, justified junk food, and taught her how to play Nintendo.  And to top it off, I led by example.

Now her 6-year-old checkup is on coming up fast, and just like when you eat healthfully in the days leading up to your own checkup, I needed to start setting a better example... but I'm still a sucker for Mario.

Good Morning!

Woo hoo!  I made it through the night & didn't binge!  My kids are sick and sleeping, so I think I'll go hit the gym before the day gets underway.

Pizza Night & Exercise Calorie Credit

I did it again last night.  I woke up and binged... on ricotta cheese and cold leftovers.  I had a solid amount of calories at dinner yesterday, too.  482 for the Mix & Match Pasta Bake that my wife made, and 480 via scoops of protein powder.  I think the poor breakfast just caught up with me.  Tonight I've just got to stay asleep.

We haven't eaten dinner yet (7pm, at the moment), and I'm pretty hungry.  It's pizza night, and I've only got enough room in the calorie budget for one slice - two slices if I take the exercise calorie deduction.  Not fun at all right now.

My inspiration, Part 2

I was asked by a close friend to be his child's godfather.  I was honored.  I still am honored; but I was also anxious.  I knew that this meant being in pictures.  In a suit.  In front of everyone.  I didn't have a suit that fit, but I had plenty of time.  Surely I was just going to lose some weight to fit back into the old suit starting tomorrow.  Yeah, tomorrow.  Always tomorrow.  I waited for so many tomorrows that it was 2 days before the baptism before I decided to go look for a new suit.  Before George Zimmer started guaranteeing that I'd like the way I look, he used to sell his suits by talking about businessmen being able to get the clothes they needed very quickly.  He was the Domino's Pizza of suits.

I thought for sure that I was going to be laughed out of Men's Wearhouse when they took the tape to my chest and waist.  And when I walked in wearing a pair of cargo shorts and a polo, no one even looked at me.

Today's food

At some point in the future, I'll show you how I'm calculating my calorie allowances and how I use that data to check that those amounts are working correctly.  I haven't figured out how often I'm going to review the data and make adjustments, but I digress.

Let's look at how I did today:

My inspiration, Part 1

Back in May, my above ground pool busted.  I hated that pool.  It was an eyesore in the yard and a pain in the ass to take care of.  I couldn't have been happier that it broke.  But my wife and children wanted to swim.  By June we secured a HELOC, July we had a contract for an in-ground pool, August we had the permit submitted, and finally started construction this month.  Once I inked the deal, we were talking of pool parties and family swim time.  I don't mind taking a private dip in the pool, but the thought of baring my giant hairy gut in front of guests brings me enormous shame and embarrassment.

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