Kat's Journal

K

KatCH

0
OK, so I just read through a few journals and it inspired me to start one... I need to keep track of myself and what I eat/how much I exercise. I think it might help hold me accountable:

So...to start here are my stats:

Age: 26
Height: 5'7.5
Weight: 154.6 lbs

I'm not overweight by any means, but it's a slippery slope and I've been "off" exercise for about a year now (since getting married and moving). The pants that I had to safety pin to hold up a year ago now fit just right. My really expensive jeans (bought almost exactly 2 years ago), are just too tight and way too expensive to buy another pair right now. So I am inspired to seriously get back to it.

Currently I do kickboxing on Mon, Wed and Sat at a martial arts center. I try to fit the gym in on the offdays from Kickboxing and my husband and I have picked up the Insanity work out, which may replace my gym attendance, but in the mornings instead of after work and if I get a run in after work then that would be even better. I'll be playing soccer (I'm a goalkeeper so not too much exercise there) on Wed and Sunday nights as well.

A goal I have is to be able to run my 2 miles in 20mins, at this point I'm not doing much running and haven't for about a year, so it's something I will have to work up to. From there I'd like to push it to 3 miles in 30 and if I am successful with that, I would love to train for a marathon. My hold up now has been recovery from a pretty bad ankle sprain this summer (which I probably didn't give myself enough time to heal from because I was so anxious to get back to soccer).

All this may sound a little ambitious and honestly, I feel as though it could be, but I am going to try to stick with it. As far as for diet...I'm trying to add some protein meal replacement shakes, and cut out soda (completely if possible) and fast food. Not that I drink a ton of soda or eat a ton of fast food, but I need to cut it out. The soda is hard too because at work they keep the fridge stocked full of it and it’s free. Oh the temptation…

So I'll start off with a summary of this week so far (I didn’t have a lot of food in the kitchen since we just got back from our vacay Sunday night and I didn’t go to the grocery store until Tuesday evening):

Monday:
Breakfast: Coffee
Snack: mini ham sandwich
Lunch: mini turkey sandwich and no sugar added applesauce
Dinner: potato soup
1 soda

Hour kickboxing

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Coffee
Lunch: chik-fil-a (I was starving and had not been to the grocery store since we got back from vacay Sunday night)
Snack: no sugar added applesauce
Dinner: 1 rotisserie style chicken leg

No gym/exercise

Wednesday:
Breakfast: bowl of Total Raisin Bran Cereal, Coffee, ½ Grapefruit
Snack: no sugar added applesauce
Lunch: leftover rotisserie style chicken thigh and leg and ½ c potato soup
Snack: no sugar added applesauce
Dinner: CookingLight Chicken Tamale Casserole (394 cal) and small mixed greens salad with oil and vin.

Hour kickboxing

Today (so far):

Breakfast: Coffee/Banana Protein Shake
Snack: ½ Grapefruit
Lunch: 1 serving leftover CookingLight Chicken Tamale Casserole; 1 soda (the water jug was empty at work and the tap water here is more than disgusting)

This is definitely not how I will continue eating…things were a little rough at the start of the week because of the lack of food at home, but I am going to be tweaking the diet and adding some meal replacement shakes to this as well as some other healthy snacks like fruits and veggies. Most of my dinner recipes are low fat/low cal/low carb from CookingLight magazine and I will usually bring the leftovers for lunch. If not for lunch I like the Kashi Frozen Dinners.

Any tips, suggestions, or advice are welcome!
 
Thursday/Friday

Thursday for dinner I made another CookingLight Recipe which was a baked pasta with turkey sausage. 400 cal per serving, with a small green salad with oil and vinegar.

For exercise I took my dogs for a long brisk walk around the neighborhood and played pretty rough with them around the house. (They are 1 year old boxers, so I get a pretty good work out).

This morning I had 1 c Total Raisin Bran cereal with skim milk and a cup of coffee. For mid morning snack I had 2 celery stalks and for lunch I had one serving of last night's CookingLight Pasta (another one that heat's up really well!) For afternoon snack I have brought with me a small container of no sugar added applesauce and a banana. I will probably eat leftovers again tonight for dinner....hmmm Chicken Tamale Casserole or Italian Turkey Sausage Pasta....

I know my diet is still in need of some improvements. The blender we got for Christmas doesn't work right, so once I exchange it I will try to incorporate some meal replacement smoothies with whey protein. Husband goes back to work next week and I'll basically be on my own for meals which means I will be "cooking" less and eating more easy prep salads or the Kashi frozen dinners.

As for the Insanity....I plan to start it next week in the mornings once hubby is back in the full swing of work (he goes in at 4am so I will have the place to myself and wont be tempted to stay cuddled up with him in bed).


Anyone have any tips for calculating my BMR and determining what my max cal intake should be in order to lose weight?
 
as far as smoothie blenders you can get one at walmart for 20bucks and the container is the cup you drink out of...really good for on the go.

Several small meals works for me 4-5. keeps me full til right before the next meal.

keep up the work
 
You can use an for BMI.

Are you weighing/tracking/logging your food? If not, you should - it's your best bet to know how many calories you're actually taking in.
 
I don't weigh my food, but I am tracking what I am eating. When I cook I follow the recipes and divide them into the amount of servings it says it makes, that way I think I am getting pretty close to one serving.

I am getting pretty confused on what actually equals weight loss. Someone the other night told me it was less the cal intake and more the carbs. Any insight?

So for this weekend, it was really tough to stay on track for diet purposes. Its my husbands last weekend before his cycle picks up and there was a lot of hanging out going on.

Friday night I ate 1 serving of leftover chicken tamale casserole and at our friends place I had 1 beer.

Saturday morning I had a glass of orange juice, we were out for lunch and we went by chick-fil-a and then we went to dinner with friends at a stir-fry place.

I went to the hour long muay thai kickboxing class in the morning and today I am definitely sore.

This morning we had a breakfast of eggs with 1 slice toast and all I have been drinking with water. I will probably make some sort of baked chicken and green salad for us for dinner.

I know throughout this process, the hard part for me will be the weekends. My husband and I are pretty social and enjoy being out with friends. I wanted to start this process during his cycle because we won't be nearly as active on the weekends (he will work 7 days a week).

I will be starting Insanity this week when cycle starts. I'll keep everyone posted on that progress as well.
 
Regarding weighing and tracking - try it for a day. You may be surprised at what you come out with. You'd then know that if you eat x # of calories, you should expect your body to do y.

Fat loss is calories in - calories out. If you take in more calories than you burn, the body will store more of the excess as fat. If you burn more than you take in, the body will use fat to replace the missing fuel along with some muscle. While diet dwarfs working out in terms of calories, working out, particularly strength training convinces your body to burn more fat than muscle when does need fuel. Protein, which is used for repair and maintenance of muscle is critical in this regard. Carbohydrates provide the body ready access to fuel when needed, but it's really easy to take in a lot of calories without realizing it. Healthy fats are also necessary to help keep the system running at optimal. (1g of protein = 4 calories, 1g of carbohydrates = 4 calories, 1g of fat = 9 calories). Hope this helps.
 
Would I need to buy a food scale?

So let's see where did I leave off...

Sunday evening I had a small bowl of potato soup and half a grilled chicken breast.

Monday

Breakfast: 1 c total raisin bran with skim milk, coffee
Snack: Mott's Natural No Sugar Added Applesauce
Lunch: Kashi Pesto Pasta Primavera (frozen dinner)
Snack: Mott's Natural No Sugar Added Applesauce, Special K Strawberry Protein Bar
Dinner: 1 chicken breast on brown rice

Activity: 1 hour kickboxing

Tuesday

This morning I started the Insanity Work out with the Fit Test. My results are as follows:

Switch Kicks 71
Power Jacks 43
Power Knees 77
Globe Jumps 25
Suicide Jumps 9
Push-Up Jacks 0 *
Low Plank Oblique 34

The reason I got 0 push up jacks is that i have a very weak wrist. I can't support my weight on it while also kicking my legs out. I injured it last soccer season (I'm a goalkeeper) and don't really know any good ways to strengthen it.

Nutrition for the day will follow. My plan is to hit the gym tonight after work too.
 
A scale's the surest way (over and above other volumetric measures like cups) to know how much you're taking in. For about $25 or less it's well worth investment.
 
Well I will see if I can find something relatively inexpensive this weekend. Until then, I'm stuck eyeballing it.

Tuesday:

I did the Insanity Fit Test in the morning. My results are posted in my last post. I actually did worse than I had when I "tried it out" before the holidays...ugh!

Breakfast: 1 cup (measured) total raisin bran with skim milk; coffee
No Snack
Lunch: Kashi Chicken Pasta Pomodoro
Snack: Cinnamon Weight Control Oatmeal
Dinner: Beef post roast over brown rice

Activity: I went to the gym and walked 4.5 miles in an hour on the treadmill at an incline between 3.5 and 9.0. I'm going to have to work up to running, but I kept it at a good steady strong pace that worked up a good sweat and kept my heart rate up and my breathing heavier (i.e. harder to carry on a conversation with my friend on the next treadmill). I did 50 crunches at home and then played rough with my boxers.
 
Wednesday:

Breakfast: 1 cup total raisin bran, coffee
No Snack
Lunch: Kashi Chicken Pasta Pomadora Frozen Dinner
No Snack
Dinner: 1 rotisserie chicken breast and 1 cup of pasta
Dessert: 100 cal pack chocolate covered pretzels

Activity: Hour of kickboxing and rough play with my dogs
 
To start the day I woke up and did 35 of the 45 minute Insanity DVD (the first one after the fit test). I ran out of time because I woke up a little later than I had planned. The first DVD was only 25 minutes and this one was 45. I will plan better next time. I can already feel it though.

My diet this morning consisted of coffee, 1 cup (measured) total raisin bran cereal with skim milk and when I got to work I had a 90 cal Kellog Strawberry cereal bar.

In the last week I think I have noticed that my hunger has decreased. I'm not exactly sure what to attribute that to, but I think I have an idea of the culprit.

I stopped my birth control on Friday because it was making me feel all out of whack. I think it's what has made me constantly hungry and also what has made me gain about 10lbs in 3 months. Kind of a weird coincidence since also in the last 3 months I have been eating better and actually working out....yet 10lbs!! So I cut it out to see if I felt better and for the last week I have not been craving food like I previously had been even though I've been more active which in my mind would make me more hungry.

Anyway, I have brought some snacks to work with me today. Hopefully I won't need them. :)

The plan is to hit the gym tonight. I might try to run a short bit on the treadmill. See if my ankle can withstand it for at least a mile. Although, I have to say I can really feel the walking at an incline in my butt and quads.
 
Ok so no gym...my gym partner ditched me. But it was nice so I decided to try a run with the dogs. Heh. It was more of a 2 mile run-sprint-jog-abruptly stop-sniff-walk-sprint-run-repeat. We did that in 30 mins. The I did 30 mins of a work out video I have that is put out by Women's Health, so I feel pretty good.

Diet throughout the day:

Snack: reduced fat peanut butter crackers
Lunch: Kashi Pesto Pasta Frozen Dinner; 100 cal chocolate pretzel pack.
Snack: 1 Fiber One "pop tart"
Dinner: Still TBD- probably a thin sliced pork chop and green salad

Tomorrow will be tough, we're having a staff meeting and my boss is ordering in Pizza and there will be a cake for the receptionists birthday. I promise I'll be sensible, but I'm not one to pass up free lunch. :)

I do an extra long run tomorrow since it will be 65 degrees here!!! woopwoop
 
Ok, so I haven’t posted in a few days and I’ve done my best to keep track of my progress. To the best of my recollection, this is how it has looked:

Friday:

Terrible day diet wise. As I mentioned before, my boss had pizza ordered in for our lunch meeting and I’m not one to pass up free lunch.

So Breakfast: 90 cal Kellog Cereal bar; coffee
Mid morning snack: doughnut (brought in by the HR lady who was down for our meeting)
Lunch: 2 slices pepperoni pizza and small slice of chocolate cake; 1 soda (the water guy had not delivered our full water jugs)
No afternoon snack
Dinner: 1 leftover slice of cheese pizza

Activity: 2 mile run with my dogs. We made it in 25 mins this time around. I think we will get better as they get better at running. Plus the time accounts for the children stopping us to pet the dogs on our run as well.

Saturday:

Morning activity: 1 hour muay thai kickboxing class
Breakfast: 1 Fiber one pop tart; coffee; banana
Snack: Reduced Fat Peanut Butter Crackers (160cal; 7g Fat; 19g Carb; 5g prot.)
Lunch: Muscle Punch Smoothie from Smoothie King
I didn’t really eat anything for dinner because I was going to a party. They had munchie snack type foods and I think I stayed pretty sensible for what the options were. I had 5 glasses of white wine.

Sunday:

Breakfast: 1 c (measured) total raising bran; coffee
Lunch: I don’t remember eating lunch
Snack: 3 handfulls of popcorn at the movies
Dinner: 1 single serving bag of frozen green peas

No activity today.

Monday: We were off work today so my diet was still a little unpredictable

Breakfast: 2 eggs; 2 low fat frozen organic turkey sausage; 1 slice toast; coffee
Lunch/Snack: 1 pack reduced fat peanut butter crackers (see nutrition info above)
Dinner: grilled chicken Panini with tomato, 1 slice provolone cheese, red onion, and a small amount pesto low fat mayo, on whole wheat bread. Side of sautéed zucchini.

Activity: 2 mile run with one dog. 19 mins.

Tuesday:

Breakfast: 1 cup (measured) total raisin bran cereal; coffee
Snack: 100 cal pack chocolate covered pretzels; 12 raw baby carrots
Lunch: Kashi Frozen Pesto Pasta Primavera
Snack: 1 pack reduced fat peanut butter crackers; 1 banana
Dinner: Small Muscle Punch Smoothie from Smoothie King; 2 hard boiled eggs.

Activity: 5 miles on the treadmill. 2.5 miles running; 2.5 miles walking. 1 hour. My Nike+ recorded 577 cals burned. Rough play with my dogs for about 45mins.
 
I'm still not seeing any progess with my weight and I know that my calorie intake is down and I've been working out. Any ideas?
 
Well I don't have it down to specifics, but I have a general idea.

The 1 c of cereal is 170 cals. Not sure about the skim milk, but I probably use 1/3 -1/2 cup. The Kashi meal (pesto) is 290 cals, 11g fat, 37g carb, and 11g protein. The Kasi Chicken Pasta Pomodoro is 280 cals, 6g fat, 38g carbs, and 19g protein.

The raw baby carrots are 40 cals, 9g carbs and 1g protein and 0 fat.
The apple sauce is 50 cals, 0mg fat, 12g carb, 0g protein.
The other snacks are the 90 cal cereal bar, the 100 cal pack of chocolate covered pretzels, or the 160 cal pack of peanut butter crackers.
And then with the dinners I make from Cooking light that are usually under 500cals. All drank with water.

So I really feel that my cal intake is right around 1100 – 1300 cals per day. That’s an approximate. I mean, maybe I am taking in more than that, but I feel like I am noting/recording everything I eat.

And so far it seems (as per my Nike+) that my 2 mile runs with the dogs burns around 275 cals. I am sure the kickboxing burns more than 500. So I am just confused as to why I have not seen any fluctuation at all. Granted, I know there is the day to day fluctuations, but the past few times it’s been between 153-155. I’m only 5’7.5 so it’s a bit frustrating. I will NOT let myself hit 160. That would be an all time high.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!
 
You've got a lot of carbs, and very little protein - you should try to shoot for 1g of protein per pound of your target bodyweight. I'd suggest (again) getting a scale and making sure of what you're taking in. You may feel like you're taking in a certain amount of calories, but you really don't know.
 
Yeah, when I typed it out I did realize how many carbs it was. I have to go to Bed Bath and Beyond to exchange our blender this week so I will see if they have a relatively inexpensive scale for measuring out the food.

I also watched on the today show the other morning that apparently nutrition labels have a really large margin of error and that's allowed. I was pretty surprised by that.

Is there a good website that has nutrition info for various foods (like fruit, veggies, sandwich meat etc, etc.)?

I've never been a calorie counter/big dieter. I've just always tried to make "healthier" choices and it's worked, but I guess as I get older my body is working the food differently. What a bummer....
 
Ok, clearly a learning process.

Yesterday's Diet:

Breakfast: FiberOne Strawberry Pop Tart, Coffee
Snack: Reduced Fat Peanut Butter Crackers
Lunch: Kashi Pest Pasta Frozen Dinner
Snack: Mott's Natural No Sugar Added Applesauce
Dinner: Panini with 2 slices turkey breast, 1 slice provolone cheese, 1 T light mayo with seasoning, 2 small slices tomato, red onion on wheat bread. 1 zucchini sauteed.

Activity: Hour kickboxing (we did a pyramid); 45min rough play with dogs.

Today I am going to watch and count cals, prot, fat and carbs. Any suggestion on what my carb intake should be? I’m a little confused by what you said about protein needing to be 1g for every pound of my target weight. Is that daily?

So far today...

My morning weight was 151.4 (I told you it fluctuates)

Breakfast: 1 C Total Raisin Bran Cereal (160cal; 1g fat; 40g carbs; 3g prot.) 3/4 C 2% milk...we were out of skim...(97.5 cals; 3.75g fat; 9g carb; 6g prot.) Coffee with 2 T 1/2 and ½ (25 cals, 1.5g fat, 1g carb, 1g prot.) and 1.5 T sugar (72 cals; 18.9 g carb)

Definitely writing it out in this much detail is an eye opener. As far as the sugar and coffee go, I’m trying to cut back because I know that’s SO bad, but I guess it could be worse if I drank it like that throughout the day. I’m hoping to do the breakfast protein shakes with the coffee where I don’t need the added sugar, but again I’m still waiting on my blender.

The total for breakfast looks like this…

354 cals, 6.25g fat, 68.9 carb, 10g prot.

Although I'm not noticing significant changes in the weight (but it has only been about 2 weeks since i've started making changes) I am however noticing changes in my stomach and arms. Those have always been my first place to tone up though. So I guess that's always a good sign.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top