Kat's Journal

Well at 10:45 I got hungry for a snack. (I think I need to reevaluate my breakfast choices and pick something that might hang with me better).

I just had a mid morning snack of 2 hard boiled eggs. I calculate that to be 142 cals, 10g fat, 12 g prot, and 1 g carb. Sound about right?
 
That's why I was suggesting weighing and logging. What we think we eat and what we do eat varies - sometimes widely.

If your target weight is 135 lbs you'd want to have about 135g of protein per day and then build your carbs/fats around that. All that protein will help you retain muscle and keep you more satiated over the day.

If you're noticing changes in your body, take measurements - your waist at least. You could be recomping or bulking without realizing it.

Your breakdown for eggs seems in the ballpark. Hopefully this helps.
 
Yeah you are definitely right about that. Thanks for all of your input. I can't remember if it was you here or in my other post about supplements, but someone mentioned protein shakes may not be the best for keeping "full", but I had been hoping to substitute these for breakfast and possibly other meals to cut out some added carbs/cals and to also boost the protein. Any tips?

I definitely need something to keep me full in the morning. Most days, the Kashi frozen meals keep me full for the afternoon sometimes with a mild snack.
 
Supplements are exactly that - they add to your current food plan, they don't replace it. I'd reserve them for pre-workout nutrition and still take in as much whole food as I could.

As for revising your food plan, always (if feasible) have a protein source at every meal. Chicken breasts (skinless) and salmon are two great sources and tuna's good too. (Have the fish f you need healthy fats). Just about any lean meat will do. I'd also suggest steel cut oats instead of cereal as they take longer to digest. (Though as an exercise, measure out a cup of your cereal and weigh it - compare it to the weight of the serving size on the box. Not all cups are created equal.)
 
Ok so I am here for an update. I have been logging best I can in a notebook that I have been carrying in my purse. Although, like I mentioned before…weekends are the hardest for me.

Anyway…

Thursday cont.

Lunch: Kashi Chicken Pasta Pomodoro (280cal; 6g Fat; 38g Carb; 19g Prot.)
Snack: Special K Strawberry Cereal Bar (90 cal.; 1.5g Fat; 18g Carb; 1g Prot.)
Dinner: 2 slices turkey breast; Pork Chop and steamed broccoli
Activity: 1 hr treadmill (3.95 mi/458 cals)

Total nutrition count (minus the pork chop and broccoli – not sure what the macros were for that)
866 cals; 23.75g Fat; 126.9 Carb; 42g Prot. – so I think this is still pretty low on the calorie intake. Thoughts here?


Friday (1/22)

Breakfast(7:30am): 1 C Total Raisin Bran, ¾ C 2% milk, coffee with 2T 2% milk and 1.4 T sugar
Snack (10:45am): 90 cal Special K Strawberry Cereal Bar
Snack (11:50am): 2 Hard Boiled Eggs
Lunch (2:00p.m.): ½ Pork Chop, 1 String Chees and yes…1 soda (eek!)
Snack (4:45pm) 1 string cheese
Dinner: 2 slices of cheese pizza (the hubby had ordered it before I got home)

No activity :(

Saturday (1/23)

Breakfast: 1 medium banana
Lunch: 2 slices cheese pizza
Snack: Coffee w/ 2 T 2% milk and 1.5 T sugar
Dinner: again…2 slices of pizza

No sodas today though, so that’s good considering my husband ordered a 2L of Coke with the Pizza.

Activity: 1 hour kickboxing; 1.5 hour soccer practice (maybe I made up for the pizza here?)

Sunday (1/24)

Breakfast: none
Lunch: Strawberry Banana Protein Shake (1 c frozen strawberries, 1 medium banana, 1 c skim milk, 1 scoop vanilla protein powder, 1 T flaxseed oil)
Snack: Reduced Fat Peanut Butter Crackers
Dinner: Spicy-Sweet Pork Tenderloin with 2 spoonfulls of mashed potatoes & 10 steamed baby carrots (the nutri info for the pork recipe is 169 cals; 5.1g fat; 24.4g protein; 5.3g carb per serving of 3 slices with 1T sauce)

No real activity today.

Monday (1/25)

Morning weight 153.4 (there is that pizza I suppose)
Breakfast: 1 C Total Raisin Bran cereal with ¾ C skim milk; coffee with 2 T ½ & ½ and 1.5 T sugar
Snack: Banana; 90 cal Special K Vanilla Cereal Bar
Lunch: Kashi Pesto Pasta Primavera
Snack: Motts Natural No Sugar Added Applesauce; 90 cal special K Strawberry Cereal bar (before kickboxing…I was feeling empty)
Dinner: Char Siu Pork Roast with whole grain brown rice and sweet peas (nutr. Info for pork roast: 227 cal; 9.5g fat; 21.6g protein; 12.7g carbs…not sure about the rice and peas)

Activity: 1 hour kickboxing

Mid-afternoon weight at the doctors office: 152.2

Tuesday (1/26)

A.M. Weight: 151.8
Breakfast: Normal Breakfast of Cereal and Coffe plus a banana
Snack: 1 chocolate muffin (it's another co-workers bday and so we have treats today)
will update as the day goes on...
 
Thoughts: less carbs, more protein, and possibly more calories. Your food scale will help with all of the above.
 
So do you think ADDING a protein shake after the work out in ADDITION to my dinner would be a good idea? I was afraid to do that to go over board on calories.

Ugh I wish I didn't love my carbs so much. I'm an Italian girl and have been so used to eating pasta like every day. When it was just me while my husband was deployed not only was I eating my Kashi pasta meal for lunch but also making a dish of pasta for dinner. So quick, so easy, so cheap, so GOOD.

These are definitely hard habits to break, but its my age catching up to me. It's that point where my body has slowly started changing and I guess processing and storing things differently.
 
If you're going to have a protein shake, make it for pre-workout nutrition. But more to the point, replacing all those carbs with protein especially and healthy fats would be a more optimal (albeit more difficult) change.
 
So to round out the rest of the day I had a banana for snack and then for dinner I had 1 left over pork chop over a salad with grape tomatoes, onions, and 2 T low fat sesame ginger dressing.

I also did about 45mins on the treadmill, ran about 2 of the miles and walked another 2, but I had to stop abruptly because I got a shooting pain in my shin. Bummer. Still I feel pretty good about todays diet.
 
Ok today was odd....just odd for diet purposes. I am almost embarrassed to post it haha...It was just a really busy day and so I grabbed what I could and was hungry at odd times.

Morning weight: 152.4

So to start...it was alright

for breakfast I had Scrambled Eggs (1 whole, 1 white) and an english muffin with my usual coffee
then I went to work...

I had a few handfulls of Conversation Hearts, they surely are a weakness of mine this time of year. Luckily this holiday comes and goes quickly.

For lunch I had 2 hard boiled eggs.

Snack a doughnut

Dinner same salad as last night and a small dish of ice cream (hubby brought it home as a surprise).

Activity: Hour kickboxing; 45 mins rough play with the dogs (it's like a full body weight work on playing tug-of-war with the rope)

Anyway...I'll do better tomorrow.
 
Today was MUCH better and I feel better too...

A.M. Weight: 151.2

Breakfast: 3 eggs (2 whites, 1 whole) scrambled; 1 whole wheat english muffin, coffee

Snack 1: 90 cal vanilla Special K cereal bar

Lunch: Kashi Pest Pasta Primavera; Banana

Snack: Applesauce

Snack: 2 hard boiled eggs

Dinner: Pan Grilled Halibut filet with chimichurri sauce and 1/2c rice with zucchini, corn, tomatoes and green onions (it was a cooking light recipe and was YUMMY...even my husband who always turns his nose up to fish liked it.)

Activity: 1 hour treadmill. 3.5 mi. I had to walk the whole thing (at an incline of 10) because my shin is still sore.
 
Oooof....I fell off the wagon a bit. February was just a bad month for me, schedule wise, and then between the valentines candy and girl scout cookies (my once a year indulgence)...everything was just bad. A couple of minor injuries (just bad scrapes on my knees from soccer) also put me out of kickboxing for a week or so and then a minor surgery on Friday put me out again for Saturday and Monday. Anyway...excuses, excuses...basically I Just let myself slip and I knew it.

March is a new start. The goal is 15lbs by May 11 (so 9 weeks). The goal is based on my good friends wedding date and I'll be going back home for a visit.

I had some pictures taken just the other day and was very unhappy with the weight i have put on in the last year and a half. It was very noticeable in my face and made me realize where I am headed. Kind of an eye opener. I am thinking if I can get this 15lbs off and keep it off, maybe even going to 20lbs I will reward myself with new photos. Later on I may post a few head shots on here from the wedding (Aug '08) and now, just so you all can see the diff in the face. I'm not so sure I'm ready for body shots on here though.

Anyway, I'm thinking of going with a low carb diet for the first 2 weeks. One article I read suggested 20g max carbs per day. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Also, does anyone have any tips for waking up earlier? I'd really like to go on morning runs, but everytime that alarm goes off at 6:15 I hit the snooze button knowing I really don't have to be awake until 7. It's probably more of a self-discipline thing, but something I probably need to do. With my soccer and kickboxing committments in the evenings now, I just don't have the time to really hit the gym in the evenings. My poor dogs and husband might start to feel a little neglected.

Anyway...I am back....for real this time. :) With that...I'm off to kickboxing tonight.
 
Yes offence to whoever comes up with them, but low-carb diets are stupid. Carbohydrates (CHO) are not the enemy. Misuse of them does a lot of bad, though. CHO is the primary energy you will require to get through ANY workout, and it is the primary energy you will require to RECOVER from any workout. Yes, protein has its importance, too, but the body can only use so much of it.

Now, to respond directly to the article in question, 20g CHO is about 80-90kcal (some of my sources say 1g CHO is about 4kcal, some say it's closer to 4.5). Your body needs to get a bare minimum of 1200kcal/day to avoid going into starvation mode (unless you have a very rare metabolic disorder, in which case the normal rules don't apply...looking at your details, you don't have such an issue, so normal rules apply to you), and really you should be consuming a lot more than that. If you're only getting 80-90kcal (max) per day through CHO, that means that you're only really left with fat, alcohol and protein (the latter of which, your body is unlikely to use in such high doses, so really you're only left with fat and alcohol to sustain yourself).

Realistically, most of your energy should be coming from CHO, but it should be wholesome CHO with minimal processing. So avoid sugar unless it's coming from fresh fruit. Use whoelgrain or multigrain bread instead of white bread. Make kebabs and sandwiches and pita rolls for meals, instead of cake, cookies and ice cream. Wholesome CHO is characterised by the following 2 traits: low GI (glycaemic index) and high nutritional value. The more processed a food, the less likely it is to have the above traits.

GI is basically a measure of how fast your body converts CHO from food into usable energy. High GI food is quickly converted into energy, often producing a "sugar rush." Hormonally, this means highly increased insulin. The role of insulin is to take glucose (made from CHO) out of the blood and into the muscles. The body should always have a ccertain range of glucose in the blood. Particularly high levels of insulin can take so much glucose out of the blood that you become faint afterwards (thus the "sugar crash"). This is one health reason to focus on low GI foods, but as far as weight is concerned, the main reason is that once the afforementioned glucose is taken out of the blood, the body wants more CHO to neutralise the blood-glucose levels, so you get hungry faster. High GI foods, therefore, make you eat more throughout the day, week, month and year, ergo you consume more calories than you would if you ate healthier food, ergo weight gain.

The trick is not to eliminate processed foods, or fatty foods, or alcohol (well, alcohol is rather expendible functionally, but I assume most people wouldn't quit without a fight). The trick is proportions. If you look at any healthy eating pyramid, CHO is actually highly recommended, but instead of clling it "carbs" they call it bread, grains and cereal.

About 60% of your caloric intake each day should by CHO, maybe more, of which you should aim to have at least 2/3 low GI. About 20-30% of your caloric intake each day should be fat. That doesn't mean 20-30% of the food you eat should be fat, though - every gram of fat has twice as many calories as CHO or protein does. Of the fat you consume, no more than 1/3 should be LDL (low-density lipoprotein) which is the "bad fat." Most of your fat should be coming from sources such as fish, nuts and vegetables. About 10-15% of your caloric intake should be protein. There are no recommendations that I've stumbled across on caloric intake of alcohol, but I think it goes without saying that to be healthy, it should be pretty low.
 
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