Adjusted Reality

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” – Mark Twain

Tag: calorie counting

Random Feel Good Tuesday

Sometimes all it takes is a visual reminder smacking you in the face to make you wake up and stop being a grump.  I was approximately the same scale weight here (February yelp party, pre-half marathon training)…

as I am here (just last week, July yelp elite party).

This last few months may not have been great for weight loss, but I look completely different, imo (in a good way, and I’m not just talking about the horrible hair day vs good hair day).  I used these pictures simply because it was the same professional-ish photographer using the same camera.  Zliten looks a lot smaller too and he hasn’t lost much weight either (but has been building muscle for sure).

I’m also thrilled because I weighed in at 152.0 today – lowest in a while.  I also feel like el piggy with how I’m eating, so I’m glad it’s working.  I also, also went for a nice 5k fartlek (hehe I said fartlek) run outside this morning (it was a tinge under 80 and humid when I started out – much nicer than it’s been for a while) and made a promise to myself to do at LEAST 1 – 5k distance or longer run per week.  I can’t go a month without that again.  It’s been nice to recover from my race but it’s been long enough.  If we are what we repeatedly do, I am no longer a runner.  And I don’t like that.  I’m ok being a short distance/inside runner for the summer, but as horrible as pushing through those 3.1 miles was, and how beat I felt after, I feel WONDERFUL now (yay runner’s high) and I need to work on improving my short times for the relay in Sept (and I’m GOING to beat 25 minutes for my 5k SOMEDAY).

I said I wasn’t going to yak about the new diet tweaks but this is my blog, so I can make (and break) the rules.  I’ll be brief though (maybe).  I just want to share how weird it is.  I feel like I’m eating constantly and at the end of the day, what would make my ratios perfect is a shotglass full of oil.  So incredibly odd.  I’ve already gotten rid of diet bread, the next thing to go is diet dressings and diet cheese.  Instead of turkey no cheese I’m eating italians with salami, pepperoni, and proscuito and jalapeno muenster.  I’m mowing down on nuts before and after dinner.  I’m eating 300 calorie builders bars for breakfast without any alteration to my day.  And I’m at the lowest weight I’ve been in at least a month.

Keeping the carbs where they’re at is no problem.  I’d be rebelling if I had to reduce, but eating my normal 1300 calories of carbs in a 1700 calorie diet is fine.  More protien is sorta a challenge, but I’m doing ok with my 1 lb bag of jerky and greek yogurts and protien bars and such.  Fat, people?  Why is it so hard to eat fat?  I trained myself to stay away from fat because it had so many calories and I wanted the calories I had to count.  Now – I just keep telling Zliten, “I need more fat” and going around the kitchen reading labels and squealing, “Ooh, look this has a lot of fat, that’s awesome!” and shoving it in my mouth.  It’s rather bizarre.  Yesterday was the closest I came to perfect at 45/30/25 and 1702 calories.  I’m just going to have to ease into it.

For the first time in 4 years, someone has asked me to do my job.  I’ve held the Associate Producer title for that long, but it’s been in name only.  I’m always been pinch hitter for something else.  Other hats I’ve worn have included Lead Designer, Community Manager, Audio Lead, Writer, and I’ve done my fair share of marketing/PR stuff, I’ve done grunt design work, and I’ve done some minor photoshop image editing work.  What I’ve never been asked to do is make a gigantic all encompasing schedule for the whole team from nothing and do the day to day tracking of it.  That’s what I’ve been doing for a few weeks (and it’s very “hurry up and wait”, so that’s why you’ve seen a lot of posts).  At first I was a little upset because what I was doing before was much more fun, but I am getting such a kick out of the fact that someone actually asked me to do MY JOB that I’m ok now.

I need a mini-vacation sometime before the shit hits the fan at work (September) and I have more major wedding stuff to deal with (also September).  I’m thinking a 4 day weekend in August sometime sounds grand.  A trip to the waterpark *squeeeee*, a night or two at a fancy hotel downtown Austin, or maybe somewhere within a short drive, or just take all that money, stay at home, and do all sorts of fun weekday things that we can’t normally do.  What would you do if you had 4 days, and were semi-strapped for cash (so no long weekends in Paris or cruises), and just wanted to do something different than normal life?

Tomorrow, a coherent, one subject post and absolutely no lolcats.  I promise (until I change my mind).

The New Plan…

Thank you to everyone who commented (here or on spark) or sent me a message.  I’m lucky to have such smart people who actually read this stuff!  I got some amazing advice, so I wanted to make sure to share for those of you who don’t actually peruse every comment.  First, a little Monday cuteness:

  • Check this out, it seems like a very reasonable way to figure out how many calories to eat.  This had me around 1679 calories per day to lose with an average of 419 per day burnt.  So I went ahead and rounded up to 1700 and am rolling with that.  It feels like too much, but I think it’s because I have been eating too little.  Everything under the sun I’ve seen numberwise says I can eat just about 2000 and not work out and maintain, so I’ll trust it.  Also, I’ve never eaten a constant calorie count per day so that will definitely be a shock to my body!
  • Alcohol is a sugar.  Thanks Charlotte – this gave me one of those DUH moments!  Of course it is.  And I haven’t been treating it as such.  As long as I had the calories for it, I didn’t care beyond that.  I need to make sure at the very least that I do not eat sweet treats on the same day I have alcohol, and preferably, to limit it to a few times per week for either.  When I drank a lot I never ate sweets, but now that it’s more occasional, I find myself wanting a somethin’ somethin’ after dinner.  Now that I have more calories, it might not even be an issue, because I bet it’s not just something sweet – it’s that I was hungry and sweets were time appropriate.
  • Try the zone ratio of eating (40/30/30 – 40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat.  I’ve been on this a few days and it’s HARD!  I generally eat low fat without trying – more like a 55/30/15 ratio.  Closest I’ve gotten is 44/27/29.  What I’m doing for the most part is trying to eat what I normally do, but add calories via protien and fat via snacks.  I have to say – I feel full all the time eating this way.  It’s going to take some work to adjust (and I need to accept that my grocery bill is going to go up a bit, healthy fats are expensive!) but I think I am already on board with this.
  • I am also going to try to keep my exercise spread out 6 days a week doing *something* like I have been to go with the constant calorie intake.  There are very few days that I can’t make at least 30 minutes to go do something heart pumping (and those are usually Sundays), and it doesn’t have to be the most vigorous thing every day.  Weights and west coast swing class for an hour is perfectly fine.  I don’t need to kill myself getting a super cardio workout every day, just enough so I can maintain my 419-ish per day.

I’ve had multiple people tell me to give it 2 full weeks (because I *might* see a gain this week) so you won’t hear another peep out of me about this until August 3rd.  Thanks for the advice, moral support, and I’m looking forward to safe and sane weight loss, or if not, at least I’ll never be hungry again, right?

Also, Better’n peanut butter, sliced strawberries, and a tablespoon of honey on sprouted grain bread is just about heaven on earth.  Have a great Monday, and tomorrow I will talk about something different, I promise!

Self Indulgent Navel Gazing Numbers Frenzy

Ok, so I’m having a bad day.  Went to bed grumpy, didn’t get enough sleep, woke up grumpy, didn’t have time for a workout to shake the grump, and people are grumpy and yelling at each other here.  Needless to say, this is not a banner day.  Oh, it WILL get better at 5pm when I leave work and get dolled up and go to the monthly Yelp event but I almost don’t even feel like it right now (however, nothing a little primping and whiskey can’t cure).  What’s at the root of my bad day?  What could have turned it all around this morning?  I hate to admit it, but it’s the scale.  We’re usually pretty good friends.  He’ll tell me the truth, I’ll thank him for telling me the truth and measuring my progress.

Today, I cursed at him.  He pretty much said to me, “Yeah, I know you’ve been busting your butt for a week and a half now.  I don’t care.  Here’s a disgusting weigh in number from February for your efforts.”  Yes, I last weighed in on 2/12 at 154.8.  Le sigh…

I think the problem is that I’m making the effort.  I understand when I’m letting lose a little or half-assing it, but I am really trying.  Last night, my fiance and friend decided to have some cocktails.  I refrained because I was being good.  They went out to the diner and got chicken fried steak and hashbrowns at midnight and then after hit the bar.  I kept my calories at 1320 for the day, and sipped crystal light all evening with crushed ice.  I tried to go to bed early but shit just kept going wrong and I couldn’t fall asleep.  Not a good preface to stepping on the scale and seeing a number from the way back days.

MizFit yesterday did a great post on Overtraining (and Undereating).I am so glad I trained for and ran my half marathon.  It put things into perspective.  There is a time and a place for intentional overtraining (2 hour runs?  30 mile running weeks with 60 mins+ cross training, 2 full body weights sessions and 2 yoga sessions? yeah…).  After the initial “omg I’m done what’s next” freakout, I realized that my body was happy to crank it down a notch or 5.  I won’t stop racing, but I will be much more responsible about my workouts between race training.  I’m still “working out” most days but way less intense, and mostly fun stuff.  It really got me thinking about my eating – am I really undereating?  Is that even possible?

The eating thing is what’s tripping me up and I know it’s my achillies heel.  The only way I’ve succeeded thus far is if I count calories and find the number I can ingest and expend and lose weight. I am hesitant to remove any foods/food groups from my diet.  Eliminating anything from my diet makes me crazy.  When I can have a taste of the ice cream or a bite of the brownie, 9 times out of 10 I’m fine.  When I can’t even have a bite, 9 times out of 10 I get grumpy and rebel until I get what I want.  I generally eat healthy (in my opinion) and am trying to take myself down from “whatever I feel like” to about 1200-1400 on weekdays, slightly more on the weekends (like 1700-1800).

So I am asking, nay, pleading, for your advice.  Analyze me.  Don’t worry that you’re not an expert/doctor/trainer, I run everything through my common sense filter and I won’t do something just because you say to.  But I’d like to put it all out there and see what suggestions you have for me.  Stop reading here if you’re not interested in a bunch of numbers and just leave me a nice encouraging comment, please.  Persist at your own peril.

My workouts last week (estimated calorie count in parentheses)..

Monday – full body weights and practicing dancing for 25 minutes (84+ weights)
Tuesday – 20 mins yoga and 40 mins leisurely bike ride (313)
Wednesday – 30 mins intense cardio, arms, swing dance class for 60 mins (653 + weights)
Thursday – 30 mins intense cardio, abs and legs, salsa dance class for 60 mins  (602 + weights)
Friday – 30 mins intense cardio, 20 mins yoga (643)
Saturday – Zumba for 60 mins, water volleyball for 40 mins (641)
Sunday – relax

Total burnt: 2936 calories, or an average of 419 per day

This is my food from last week…

Monday – zone bar, mongolian grill (3 oz chicken, 1/3 cup white rice, tons of veggies and some sauce), grilled fish tacos at home with black beans on the side, a peach, two hershey kisses, and a dum dum lolly. 1321 calories, 173g carbs, 32g fat, 89g protien.

Tuesday – luna bar, homemade tuna sandwich on sprouted grain bread, otter pop, homemade meatloaf with 93% lean ground beef, homemade mashed califlower/potato mix, and veggies, 2 peaches, a lo cal fruit smoothie for desert, and 1oz tortilla chips as a snack. 1377 calories, 189g carbs, 35g fat, 88g protien.

Wednesday – 0% greek yogurt with 1/3 packet of oatmeal mixed in, leftovers from the meatloaf the night before (same portion), homemade 9 layer burritos (with 93% lean ground beef, refried beans, rice, low fat sour cream, and veggies/salsa), 2 peaches, 1 oz beef jerky, 1 hershey kiss, and 1 oz vodka (one weak drink).  1408 calories, 166g carbs, 38g fat, 108g protien

Thursday – luna bar, taco salad (made with basically the same ingredients as the burritos sans the tortilla), veggies and tilapia filets, piece of sprouted grain bread with light margarine, apple, a cup of broccoli, and 3 oz whiskey (I made the conscious decision to forgo the rice I was going to have with dinner and have a few drinks instead).  1236 calories, 100g carbs, 39g fat, 79g protien.

Friday – zone bar, chicken pho (vietnamese chicken noodle soup with bean sprouts and broccoli), bbq’d chicken, rice, coleslaw, 2 peaches, 8 oz vodka (we hosted a party that night).  1793 calories, 169g carbs, 16g fat, 110g protien

Saturday – zone bar and a peach, salad bar (a huge veggie-ful salad with lowfat ranch, a cup of minestrone, half a cup of butterbean, some grilled veggies, and a small 1/2 cup of soft serve), Saltgrass steakhouse (bread, salad with half the ranch they gave me, veggies, 5 grilled shrimp, 5 fried shrimp).  1724 calories, 180 carbs, 79g fat, 79g protien

Sunday – Apple, homemade pancakes with sugar free syrup and margarine, 2 slices bacon, 1 small potato shredded to hashbrowns (with PAM), homemade chicken caesar wrap (lo carb wheat tortilla, chicken, olives, bacon, lettuce, cheese, low fat caesar), peanut butter puffins and chocolate almond milk, plum, shared a 100 calorie popcorn, and a sugar free popsicle. 1217 calories, 189g carbs, 36g fat, 58g protien.

Average 1439 calories, 166g carbs, 39g fat, 87g protien.  I would probably add about 100 calories per day because I am a notorious nibbler and just due to food tracking error.

So sure there are some obvious nitpicky things.  White rice instead of brown (restaurants don’t always serve it and it’s near impossible to get my fiance to eat it and he does a lot of the cooking).  Give up the alcohol (no way, jose).  Give up the sugar (I really don’t eat much of it though.  One small sweet per day and maybe some soft serve once a week).  All in all, I really don’t think I do too badly there.  Day by day I might have some slipups but overall it evens out (16g fat one day, 79g the next).

The math *should* even out.  1539 eaten – 419 burnt = 1120 net calories per day.  A sedentary person of my height and weight should be eating about 2000 calories per day to maintain their weight, so that’s creating a 880 calorie deficit per day.  Truth be told, I should be seeing a 1.75 lb loss at this rate with my math.  It’s not happening.  I don’t like it.

So I did some more surfing and this seems to be one of the better calorie calculators around.  Instead of estimating what level of activity you think you do (I think half marathon training is active, someone else out there probably thinks that their mile per day walk to starbucks and back is active, who’s right?), you can also input your exercise.  I generally have my butt planted on a chair if I’m not doing something I would count as exercise, so this works for me to be sedentary but put in my sweat sessions.  It also counts weights for calories which is something my beloved sparkpeople doesn’t do.   I’m considering utilizing this next month as a guide to how much I should eat – put in yesterday’s activity and that will tell me how much I should eat today.  For example:

Monday – 2584 calories to maintain.  Subtract 750 (deficit to get 1.5 lbs loss per week) = 1834
Tuesday – 2253 -750 = 1503
Wednesday – 3089 – 750 = 2339
Thursday – 3255 – 750 = 2505
Friday – 2343 – 750 =1593
Saturday – 2611 – 750 = 1861
Sunday – 2014 – 750 = 1264

This is saying I don’t eat enough, and I should increase my calorie average to 1842 per day at this activity level.  To lose 1.5 lbs a week.  1000 calories is the most one should go into debt per day (losing 2 lbs per week), even then I should be at 1592.  This seems crazy to me.  Am I really just not eating enough?  Should I take the leap of faith and add a bunch of lean protein and good carbs and fruits and veggies and good fat to those days when I’m hanging tough around 1300?  What specifically is missing in my diet?

I am calculating myself into a tizzy, and would love some input.  My sanity depends on it.  I am willing to do what I need to do to give it a good college try (for the most part – you can pry my whiskey from my cold dead hands, you’re not going to convince me potatoes are evil, and I will not give up my once weekly rice noodle pho).  I’m looking for a suggestion that involves moderation, not absolution and abstinence.  I wish I had a giveaway to reward you for even reading this far, but I will give away my eternal gratitude for any help here!

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