Adjusted Reality

I mentioned a lot of these things in yesterday’s monster training recap, but I wanted to elaborate more.

1.  Saturday was an awesome day.  Well, it didn’t start quite so awesome but ended up lovely.  I didn’t go to bed until WAY late and had WAY too much to drink and woke up 4-5 hours later nursing a hangover.  However, I cooked us breakfast (batter blaster pancakes, two slices of jalapeno bacon, and hand grated hashed browns) and we set out on our epic day anyway.  Half an hour in, I felt great.  There is nothing like some moderate exercise and sunshine to cure all ills.  We rode down from our casa to Run Tex (12 miles), did their 4k walk, ate lunch, did the 4k walk BACK to the bikes, and then rode about 3 miles home before deciding AC was better than dripping sweat and rode the bus.

I kept thinking – if you told me 2 years ago that I would be taking a 12 mile bike ride to do a 5 mile (round trip) walk, I would have probably thought you crazy.  Now, if you would have said that the reason I was walking and not running it was because I had already done 4 runs that week for my half marathon training…I would have thought you COMPLETELY crazy.  Amazing how a year or 2 changes things…

2..  For some reason, it took until last Saturday’s ride to click, but I realized that I spend a lot of time in my workout clothes.  Especially since we started riding the bikes.  I had planned on getting SOME sort of new workout attire before the next race because I felt like a shmuck in what I was wearing (and it was my best workout clothes), but I really needed to replace pants and shirts I was wearing 50-100 lbs ago for regular workout wear.  It’s amazing how spiffy you feel wearing workout clothes that fit you and match rather than thrift store sweats and stuff that’s 3-5 sizes too big.  I also picked up a running skirt.  I’ll let you know what I think of it after I utilize it later this week.

3.  I chopped my hair!  If there’s anything that random people might have identified me with over the last 10 years, it’s “that chick with the long hair”.  My hair has been some flavor of length between small of my back to dangerously close to being sat upon, but it is now just a smidge under shoulder length.  I definitely used to hide under it.  Back fat is trivial when your hair covers it!  I might not keep it this short but now that it’s starting to heat up, it’s nice to have a ponytail that doesn’t even touch my shoulders.

Funny story about how it happened though – Zliten is my hairdresser (yeah, my hair is that low maintenance) and I asked for a trim.  As he was cutting it, a big strand curled up and he accidentally chopped it super short, so we just evened it out and now we both think it looks awesome!

4.  I am experimenting with different breakfast stuff.  I’ve been on oatmeal every day for a few month and just need a break.  I’ve been trying out different bars and also seeing whether more protien or more fiber is better for me in the morning.  This week, I’ve tried Luna Bars (tried chocolate peppermint and have a chai tea in queue) and Fiber One (have a box of chocolate mocha).  The Luna bars are about 180 calories, 5g fat, 9g protien, and 3g fiber.  The Fiber One bars are about 140 calories, 4g fat, 9g fiber, and 2g protien.  So far, I think I prefer the Fiber One bars, they filled me up more for 40 less calories.  I’m going to expand into some higher calorie bars and see if they take the edge off enough to eat into lunchtime calories, and I also want to see whether fiber or protien is more important in the morning.

Expect a full post on this sometime soon, but I’m open to any breakfast suggestions.  The requirements are:

-No prep beyond a microwave.  I would be grabbing this and bringing it to work.  I am also anti batch cooking for a week of leftovers for the most part but if it sounds REALLY good and is pretty easy I could be swayed.

-No eggs.  It can have eggs IN it, I’m not allergic, but I can’t be able to taste them.  About the most egg I can handle is egg whites in eggdrop soup and not-too-eggy french toast.  Omlettes and quiche are way too eggy.

-It has to be reasonably filling.  I plan on eating this on an empty stomach around 10am and I don’t want a peep out of my stomach until 12:30-1pm.

-Under 300 calories.  200 preferably, but I’m open to more as long as it rates high on the point just above (fillingness).

5.  I think I’ve settled on what the half marathon plan will be.  At first, I was thinking running 5 laps around my neighborhood would do me just fine.  Then, I started reading about this guy, Joe Hale.  I mean, the besides the obvious inspiration on raising a whole bunch of money for a charity he cares dearly about, and the obvious OMG he’s running way further than I can fathom – it really made me realize that I wanted to run an official race.  So today I started looking into the Seattle Rock and Roll Half-Marathon, and I got as far as looking into booking the weekend trip on travelocity – it’s just too expensive.  It’s definitely on the list for next year because I’ve never been and it would be a GREAT excuse to go.  Maybe even by next year, I’ll be running the full marathon!   Maybe.  I’m not entirely sure if I’m that insane.

After doing some additional googling, I found one a bit more reasonable – Carraba’s Classic Half-Marathon in San Antonio.  Instead of a flight/hotel/food/entertainment budget for a 5 day 4 night trip (which believe it or not was hundreds cheaper than a 3 day 2 night trip…) and 100$ race entry fee, I’m looking at an hour and a half drive, a one night hotel stay (which was 150 bucks for the jacuzzi suite and just goes down from there), and a 24$ entry fee.  Plus, there is also a nature walk Zliten can do instead of just sitting there waiting for me to finish!  It’s much more appropriate for a first race, me thinks.  Unless I decide I hate it though…I foresee more weekend trips coresponding with races.  Sounds like a great way to see more places.

Now, to get through the rest of the workday and attempt my first official tempo run tonight!  Pictures today courtesty of my new haircut because I am vain and want to see my mug plastered all up in this post.

So one of my guilty crap-tv indulgences is The Biggest Loser.  I’m not sure WHY I watch it.  Maybe, it’s because I used to have a lot in common with the people on the show – I felt so heavy and out of control and like I’d need a miracle to get my weight under control.  Now, of course, I know that all I needed to do was have some patience and make little changes that added up and stick with it, but back then – I had no faith that I could lose 10 lbs let alone 100.  It might be a selfish thing – as in, hey, I look better than the people on TV  – since normally comparing my physique to anyone on TV is as useful as comparing my cooking skills to the chefs on Food Network – I might think I look pretty cute today and might have enjoyed the spicy lentil soup I cooked up, but these people are making careers of it.  Of course I can’t compare.

It also might be that in a world of ridiculous reality TV, at least these people are getting some sort of benefit out of the show.  I think that’s why I like Top Model too (this has sound, be warned) – as twisted as it is, Tyra is helping these girls live what is for most of them a life long dream.  Stuff like Rock of Love or Charm School or Tool Academy (things that would NEVER grace my TV, but I can’t help what’s on TV when I’m at the gym.  I have to look at SOMETHING and the wall that says Austin, Texas gets boring), no redeeming value whatsoever.  These people are being given what a lot of us former marshmallows dreamed of – a fresh start in a skinny and fit body by the end of the show, and an opportunity to continue the rest of their lives with what they learned.  Even though a lot of them end up gaining weight back because, well, easy come, easy go – at least they get a chance.

However, the minutiae of the show sometimes gets to me.  I really hate the obvious product placement – not that I mind them advertising healthy food/items, but it just seems so fake and contrived trying to slip it in as part of the show.   I know the show is a game as well – but it just gets to me when they throw a fit about only losing, like, 5 lbs in a week.  I’d be happy with 1 lb.  Really.

One episode, they were making lower calorie versions of fast food like pizza and burgers.  This is good!  I have learned how to cut calories on many indulgences by making them at home.  What irked me was one team that made a burger of some sort, don’t remember what was on it, but it had a little ramekin on the side of mustard and ketchup.  When they were grading the submissions, they lost on calories and the food guy supposedly giving them tips said it was because of the mustard and ketchup on the side.

Excuse me?  I don’t know what’s up with that.  I’ve heard that from a few people that eat their burgers dry because they think mustard and ketchup are what’s bad for you on a burger.  Each tablespoon of mustard is essentially calorie free, under 5 for sure.  Each tablespoon of ketchup is about 15.  So a normal human will ingest MAYBE 20 extra calories if they ingest a tablespoon of each.  Who can eat a burger dry?  I can’t.  I would honestly rather eat something else rather than go without my 20 calories of condiments.  I’ll concede that ditching the bun, while not my thing, does offer significant calorie savings.  Ditch the plastic cheese for about 60 calories less – fine, I don’t need cheese.  Like it, but don’t need it.  Forgoing the squirt of ketchup and mustard – not significant.  What else are you going to put on it?  Mayo at 90 calories per tablespoon?  Ranch or Bleu Cheese Dressing at 75 calories per tablespoonBBQ sauce at 20-25 calories per tablespoon gets a bad rap too – seriously?  Wanna tell me we’re all fat because of BBQ sauce?  No!  It’s the bacon, cheese, and mayo on that burger that’s killing you.  I promise.  Leave freaking mustard and ketchup alone!  What a horrible example!  If I didn’t know better, I would think, “crap, I’d never eat a hamburger without condiments.  I guess I’m just destined to be fat”.

What really got my goat though… there was one show where one team got 24 hours of luxury.  They started with dinner, and then went to the bar, and then had late night munchies.  One of the women, god forbid, had a few puffs of a cigarette, and actually put it out because she said it tasted gross.  Sure, they went overboard, but wouldn’t you if you were essentially trapped in diet deprivation hell for the 10 weeks prior?   They came back and got totally lambasted by Jillian for indulging.  She looked like her eyes were going to pop out of their sockets while she was yelling at them about fried food, tequila shots, and other bad stuff.  She went on and on about the woman who took 2 puffs off a cigarette.  Really?  You’re going to tear down the woman who was curious, had a puff, and then actually drunk-as-a-skunk put it out because it tasted crappy and said she was done with smoking?  Commend her.

The funny thing is – the team still won the weigh in.  I’m glad that after all that, it still shone through that one day of indulgence is just that – one day.  In the grand scheme of things, if you are good 80% of the time and not so good 20% – you’re making progress.

It’s not all crap though.  Two weeks ago they had all the contestants run a half marathon (I didn’t see it until WAY after I decided to run my own, so I’m not copycatting, I swear!).  Most of them are obviously strong for their weight because of all the workouts they’ve been doing, but they definitely did not look like the type of people that roll up to the starting line at your local race.  The lightest gal was about 180 and the heaviest man was around 330.  Only one guy did not finish (and it was due to his knee problems more than just his general overweight-ness), and two finished actually pretty respectably – around 2:15.  I’m glad it showed that you don’t have to wait until you’re the perfect weight to go after something ambitious, which is something I’m still working on myself.

I just wish it wasn’t 2 hours.  I mean, I love watching it on a Sunday morning while I’m making the grocery list because it only needs half my attention, but it’s usually afternoon by the time I finish the show!  Anyone else out there watch TBL?  What do you think of it?  Am I banished from the kool kids klub for admitting I watch it?

I had high hopes for this little experiment.  I had visions of finding that “sweet spot”, like last year, where I could establish a program where I ate a certain amount of food, exercised a certain amount per week, and reliably lost 1-2 lbs per week.  You see, besides the times in the past when I was at a happy weight, this was probably the happiest I felt about weight loss in general.  Being stuck chipping away at the last 18 lbs, ounce by ounce, is incredibly frustrating.  While I would have told myself a year ago to shut up and die for being angsty about that, but it’s just been such a long quest.  I want to see this through to the end.  The tunnel keeps getting longer and longer though.  18 lbs would have been a little over two months when I first started.  A year ago, it would have been reliably about 4 months.  Now – who knows?

I guess the point of my bellyaching is that I really was hoping that this month I would find the magic formula – no, not the “take these magic acai berry pills and become 50 lbs skinnier in 2 weeks” type of magic, but as I said before, the sweet spot.  That is, the amount of calories I can eat and not starve myself, and how much I can workout for that calorie intake without overtraining.  I know it’s supposed to go down as you lose weight, but for me it almost stayed static from about 235 to 170, and then it become like pulling teeth (though I guess pulling teeth would take off a couple ounces…tee hee).  January and February gave me a taste of what it’s like to lose regularly again, but March, oh March – you saw me stall out again like an old hippie’s VW Bus.

Let’s get down to nitty gritties.  The first week, I worked out normally (actually increased it a bit due to birthday indulgence guilt) and counted my calories.  The second week I worked out the amount the first week dictated by adding up all my calories and applying the formula I determined at the beginning of the month – 9100 calories (or 1300 per day) was the minimum, and with that, I would do the minimum of workouts (3-30 min sessions plus strength and yoga twice).  My normal calorie intake was 10200, and I would do my normal workouts at that point (4 a week sessions with about 3.5 hours cardio, strength, and yoga).  For each 100 calories over 10200, I would add 7 minutes of intense cardio (running, DDR, or the arc trainer) or 15 minutes of relaxed cardio (walking, biking easily around the neighborhood).

Week 1 (3-1 to 3-7): Calorie intake approximately 11000, cardio 300 minutes/3417 calories burnt.  Starting this experiment with my birthday week, where such things as tex mex hangover brunch buffets, wings, burgers, garlic fries, chocolate heaven, and much much more happened was a doozy.  I knew I was a little over by the end of the week but 800 calories?  Yikes.  8×7 = 56 minutes, so basically, I had to add a whole ‘nother workout day.

Week 2 (3-8 to 3-15): Calorie intake approximately 11100, cardio 270 minutes/3732 calories burnt.  Then, the birthday celebrations just kept going.  The beginning of the week was great cal-wise, but then there was the comedy club and appetizers and drinks.  Then there was Zliten’s birthday party.  On top of it, I had to add in an extra workout, which oddly enough seemed to directly correlate with wanting more food.   Fancy that!

Week 3 (3-16 to 3-22): Calorie intake approximately 10200, cardio 315 minutes/397o calories burnt.  This week I worked REALLY, REALLY hard to get my intake back down so I didn’t have to work out so much the next week.  It was miserable.  I was grumpy.  I just wanted to EAT some days.  EAT as much as I wanted, until I felt full, damn the calories.  I think there were some day I took bites out of the refrigerator of turkey pepperoni, cheese, chocolate, jelly beans, etc and then just blocked them from my head because I was not going to friggin’ work out for an extra TWO hours the next week.  I also found this week I went from craving salty food to sweets.  It’s been insane.  For the longest time I used to be able to take or leave sweets but now I feel like I could live on fruit, chocolate, etc.  For some reason, my body started processing things differently – it wanted FUEL ME NOW food, nothing with staying power.

Week 4 (3-23 to 3-29): Calorie intake approximately 10500, cardio 370 minutes/4418 calories burnt.  This week was a little more normal, I was able to keep the intake down alright and I almost missed the extra day of working out.  Oh yeah, I didn’t.  I went on an epic bike ride instead.  I would have been at 10200 but I let myself have a little more than normal Sunday because I burnt so much.  I was still having the crazy sweets cravings, but I felt less like I was on a desert island rationing my food, awaiting a rescue.

This week would be a normal workout week if I was going to continue on, but I’m not.  I’ve found that I definitely don’t want to eat less – or at least my life doesn’t lend itself to doing so.  I also found I don’t really mind working out a bit more, but I also don’t relish HAVING to do it to pay for my sins the week before.

I’ve also reconfirmed that this part of my life is a juxtaposition right now.  The healthy living thing that is making me happy is exercise.  However, exercise seems to have very little correlation to weight loss.  If I do some, it’s good for me.  If I do a lot, I don’t seem to do better.   The hard part is calorie cutting.  I do NOT like limiting my food intake all 7 days of the week.  I do NOT like having to restrict fun stuff.  However, when I get all uppity about it and become Quix-the-diet-gestapo-grumpsalot, I see progress.  I also realize the months where I lose very little weight I AM still making progress.  My pants have gone from OK to baggy since March 1.  I am a much stronger runner than I was at the beginning of the month.  The pants I was wearing yesterday were too-big 11/12s.  The new pants I’m wearing today are actually size SIX (though I’m pretty sure they’re vanity sized, I haven’t worn this size since my gymnastics days, can’t deny it feels good!).  I’ve increased my weights and reps.  I am all around harder, better, faster, and stronger.  It’s not all doom and gloom.

That being said, I’m done with being uber focused on the calorie counts, at least for a while.  I don’t want to live and die by the amount of food I’m eating.  I work out pretty darn hard already, I’d rather not have to work out more just because I indulged a bit.  And to top it all off – I lost LESS weight this month than ever – I went from 155 to 152.6  (and let me tell you, I have not seen that number since last Thursday, I’m floating all over the place in the 153-154s).

Anyone else have a better weight loss month last month?  Achieved a really awesome goal?  Hit me up in the comments to bring a ray of light to this not-so-thrilling post…