Too Much Protein!

I am still obsessed with health and exercise podcasts and lately added the Ben Greenfield Podcast to my rotation. I have read a couple of blogs and articles by him over the last couple of years and just thought I'll give it a shot. At the beginning, the podcast felt very long winded, but it has grown on me every since and I enjoy learning about all kinds of aspects about nutrition, training and a more holistic approach to nutrition and training. I am resistant to jump on each and every bandwagon mentioned in the podcast, but so far, there was always a nugget in there for me personally, that I could take away for my nutrition, training and general life.

The other day, I listened to episode #192: What happens when you exercise too much and an interview with Dr. Ted Morter titled How to get rid of migraine headaches forever.

Both podcasts contained some information about how much protein intake is recommended for an individual per day. The episode #193 (by the way: the title is a little misleading, because that was just one question from their Q&A segment) highlighted the protein intake from a macro nutritional standpoint and what happens in your body, if you are taking in more than your recommended amount of protein (here is Ben's response!). The interview dug more into the aspect of how excessive protein consumption is throwing off your body's PH level and causes all kinds of trouble e.g. migraine headaches. Not that I have a problem with that, but this was just the angle of the interview.

In the episode #192, he mentioned the recommended daily protein consumption for athletes as 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight (or 0.55gr/ lbs) if you are trying to maintain (not increase) your muscle mass and reach nitrogen balance (amount of protein you eat matches the amount of you use). This amount covers what your body needs for body recovery and muscle repair.

At that point, I pulled out a calculator and typed in my stats to find out the amount of protein that I need and ended up with around 70 grams (rounded up) per day. Then I opened my food log on my iPhone and saw this for last Friday:

I almost fell off my chair. Especially since they also talked about the problems that excessive protein intake can cause.

The funny part of this is, that I have been consciously trying to increase my protein intake since the beginning of the year when I refocused on my nutrition. I have been chugging the protein shakes, eating meat almost every day and even started "spiking" my Greek yoghurt (already high protein) with chocolate protein powder. And now that.

My train of thought took a wrong turn, when I started to focus too much on the macro nutrient pie chart in my food log and completely ignored my total protein intake.

After I recovered from my initial shock, I googled the recommended amount of carbs for endurance athletes and found that anything between 7 and 10 grams per kilogram of body weight (3.2-4.5gr/ lbs) goes. That would mean for me that I should eat between 400 to 570 grams per day.

Quite honestly, I am almost relieved about this. I naturally tend more to carbs and trying to up my protein intake was almost a source of stress at times... I am not even kidding about this!

I was also buying into the whole idea of "eating protein helps keeping you full longer" and often felt like eating carbs just makes your want to eat more carbs. But when thinking about it a little more, I think that mostly applied to sugary carbs. But even if I eat straight veggies, they just don't seem to hold me over that long. (If you have it in you to read more on the topic of sugar, I found this 60 minute report pretty intimidating.) So what do you do, if you want to limit your protein intake, but don't want to be hungry all the time? Add fat to your diet! GASP! I know, I know... That statement goes against every fiber of our media and food marketing conditioned body, but believe it or not: Fat doesn't make you fat!

My goal from here on out is to stay at around 70 grams of protein per day. Increase my carb intake to hit around 500 grams per day and up my fat intake.

With all this being said, I am still a firm believer in calorie consumption vs calorie burn as key for weight management, so all of the above is limited by my daily calorie allowance that is determined by my training volume and intensity. But after listening to the podcast and reading up on the topic, I think that changing my macro nutrient ratio is going to help my body to perform better and decrease the chance of creating health issues.

If you made it all the way to here... Congratulations. Looks like you are ready to join the health geek club! ;-)

Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist, I am just sharing personal experiences and opinions here.

Maintenance Mode

When I lost 60 plus lbs in 2008, I defined my "happy weight" (= an arbitrary number that I will not put on the blog). I don't know what is was about that number, but it just seemed right. I felt good at that weight and I seemed to be easily able to maintain it... And anything less than that, made me look like a wet rat... Trust me, I know... There was the week with the stomach bug.
I was fluctuating around that "happy" weight for around two years and then (very) slowly but surely, the scale creeped back up again. Too slowly for anybody around me to notice much. Of course I did notice it.... I didn't weigh myself on a daily basis, but often enough to see the trend. I just didn't do anything about it.

In the bulk of training for AOMM early last year, I was about 5lbs up from my "happy" weight, but with all of the training going on, who can really think about cutting back calories... right? The thought process was, to take care of it when Mitchell was over. I did an effort for about a week and I expected weight loss out of the week of clean eating, which never came and in no time, I was back eating out every lunch... (A cheeseburger and fries? Of course! I go biking after work, I burn that off in no time.) Once tri season was over, holiday season started and between Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and a couple of birthday parties, I was up around 14lbs from my "happy" weight. I was not overweight based on BMI calculations (how accurate are things things anyways for athletes?), but I was at a point, that I tried on pants before throwing them into my gym bag to make sure they still fit me. I am not joking!

In the middle of January, I decided to finally put a stop to this upward trend and take my nutrition seriously again... for longer than a week. I did this weight loss thing before, there is no reason, I can't do this again. And now I am happy to report, that I hit my goal weight (=happy weight) this week and find myself in mainentance mode once again.

The biggest changes that I did:

• daily calorie burn vs calorie consumption evaluation (shooting for at least a 500 calorie deficit per day = a 1 lbs loss per week)
• take lunch to work
• drink more water
• reduce eating out in general
• treat myself every now and then vs every day
• don't beat myself up, if some days I didn't hit my goals

I want to make this weight (or around this weight) stick this time. I am planning on keeping up these changes (or new habits), because eating better makes me feel better. Also, eating at home is cheaper and not having to buy new clothes is cheaper too!

It's funny, how big of a topic weight is for us endurance athletes. When I talk to my athlete friends and read other athlete's blogs, weight always is a topic. Most of these people are not overweight, but yet we still somewhat obsess about it. It almost sounds like we have it all backwards, because we workout so much, we should be able to eat whatever. But I said it here before and I will say it again: You can't outtrain your diet! (I didn't come up with this, but it's my new mantra.) But a healthy diet will support your athletic goals, not only when it comes to weight, but also in the way you feel. Case in point was the double cheeseburger and fries from a fast food place, that I had after our epic brick on Saturday. It made me sick. Lesson learned (again).

My goal for mainentance mode is to establish eating habits that match my activity level to ensure that I fuel my workouts properly without packing on the pounds again.


Disclaimer: I am obviously not a health professional and just sharing my experiences here.

Barley, Beets and Banana Peppers

Remember the whole "clean eating" resolution? Well, not really resolution, but either way... I have been sticking with it for the last two months. I feel great, I dropped some serious weight, my pants fit better again and my training is going well.

I implemented several changes in the last couple of months and will eventually write a whole big post about it to explain the how's and the why's. But today, I just wanna talk about the change, that I believe made the biggest impact:

Take my lunch to work.

Yesterday's creation:
Chicken, beets, artichokes, barley and
2 table spoons of Italian dressing

I know this is not great news. Every weightloss blog and podcast talks about it, every nutritionist recommends it, but I just didn't do it. I was too lazy. Heck, I lost 60lbs a couple of years ago and still when out for lunch every day during the week.

But for whatever reason, this time around, I wanted to have more control of what I am putting into my body... While calories in vs out is the determining factor if you are losing, gaining or maintaining weight, I wanted to start improving the quality of the calories that I am taking in.

Since I am not a great cook and mostly prepare my meals for the next day between getting home, walking the dog, unpacking my bags from that day's workout and repacking my bags for the next day of workouts, I developed "go-to" meals pretty fast. My two standards are some sort of salad creation (see above) and some sort of wrap creation.

In order to no get too bored about this, I switch the ingredients around every day. And when just switching stuff around wasn't quite enough, I added new (to me) foods that I have not used in the past, like barley, beets, banana peppers and artichokes... It would sound better, if they were called "bartichokes"... I know, not funny!

Actually, I started to cook a whole box of quinoa one night and just keep it in the fridge and then we just throw it into anything we can think of e.g. salads, scrambled eggs, cottage cheese. A couple of months ago I bought a box of barley, but haven't cooked it until earlier this week and I see barley being utilized by us the same way we use quinoa.

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In other news:

Since daylight savings started, Terry and I are taking the dog for a walk for at least 2 miles every night. So far, we got lucky with the weather and haven't gotten rained out yet. We only don't walk her, if I have an evening workout and it's already dark by the time I get home. Then Terry usually takes her for a shorter walk by himself.

It keeps the dog's energy level in check and she's not bouncing around the house like crazy.

Here are some pictures from a recent walk... Spring is here indeed:

Free

 Lately, I have been finding some pretty good resources online... for training and nutrition.

And they are free. Here we go:


BodyRock.TV

Once you get over the skimpy outfit of the host, you see a great resource for workout ideas to spice up your own workouts or you can might as well just follow along their programming. Most of the workouts can be done with little or no equipment. They incorporate high intensity intervals in their routines which make the workouts short, but super tough.

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Late last year, when I had all that back trouble, I did the "Foundation Training" to conquer the beast and had pretty good result. If you don't want to by the book you are in luck, because they have posted several of their exercises as video on the website.

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The Jillian Michaels Show

Podcast Description

Jillian Michaels, America's Health and Wellness guru, brings you the Jillian Michaels Show. An entertaining, inspirational, informative show that gives you tools to find health and happiness in all areas of your life.

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Fat 2 Fit Radio

Podcast Description

Fat 2 Fit Radio is an Internet radio show, or podcast, featuring Russ Turley and Jeff Ainslie. Join us each episode as we share web sites, insights, information, recipes, weekly weigh-ins and more to help you go from fat to fit.

The show is not about fad diets, or get skinny quick schemes. We’re advocating weight loss through lifestyle change, not quick fixes – they simply don’t exist. Stop eating and acting like a fat person and start emulating the diet and habits of a fit person. During each episode we’ll tackle one or more exercise, fitness or diet topics. Week after week if you incorporate the ideas and tips we’re sharing, you will lose weight and start looking and feeling better.

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CrossFit Radio

 Podcast Description

CrossFit Radio is a free service of the CrossFit Journal. The shows are live interviews and discussions about all things CrossFit. The show's hosts interview a wide variety of guests, including community members, trainers, HQ staff and even opponents of CrossFit. The topics cover the full spectrum of the CrossFit world. Interviewees speak of their experiences, insights, strategies, approaches around all aspects of functional movement and elite fitness. The shows vary in length and scope, but tend to be focused around a single interview and run about an hour.

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You Tube Channels:

Zuzka Light
- The Official YouTube Channel for Zuzana Light, co-founder of BodyRock.Tv and fitness personality.

Lionsgate BeFit
- Get high-quality, free workouts on Lionsgate BeFit! Transform your body and workout with top fitness trainers Jillian Michaels, Denise Austin, Jane Fonda and more. Slim your waistline, tighten and tone your arms and get a great butt for free. Are you ready to be fit?

 

Catching Up

Well, let's just start a list and see what we are going to end up with:

1. We are not on our way to Myrtle Beach. To explain this a little: Terry was signed up for the Myrtle Beach Marathon tomorrow. Tomorrow will also be four weeks, since Terry was on a run. The doc thinks it's tendonitis, but he wouldn't rule out a stress fracture either. Stress fractures can be sneaking, because a lot of the time they are not visible on x-rays. Now we just wait and see... At least he's still able to bike and swim.
2. First there was talk about going down anyways for the weekend, but then we decided is wasn't worth the money and the time... Now we have some nice alternative plans lined up for the weekend, that I am looking forward to. Quite honestly, I don't care for Myrtle Beach all that much.
3. This weekend is carneval in Germany. Really carneval crazy areas started with the celebrations yesterday and it normally culuminates in a big parade on Monday, before things settle down again. Having been a part of a carneval club for several years as a teenager and enjoyed the partying, I really miss Germany a little more than usual these days.
4. Yesterday at the pool, coach and I were talking about why a lot of dudes drag their feet in the water, while girls tend to stay afloat a little better. My reasoning and speaking for me personally: It's the blubber that I have in my butt. It's a floatation device.... That's my story and I am sticking to it.
5. I am slowly going back to eat normal after the surgery and being on a soft diet for several weeks. Today was the first day back with salad for lunch... While I was able to bite properly before, the chewing still aggravated the area. First salad back tasted yummy and I am just happy that the soft diet days seemed to be over. But I am still chewing mostly on the other side of my mouth.
6. Follow-up on the surgery in general: I had a check up after two weeks and everyone that looked in my mouth said: "It looks awesome!" It's still tender and will take some extra care for the next several weeks, but things seemed to be doing great. I still can not use my electric tooth brush and still rinsing with a presciption strength mouth wash, but those are obviously only minor complaints. I don't feel it during my workouts except for the swimming. I don't know if it's the head position or what, but it still bothers me quite some in the pool.
7. Another follow-up: This time on my attempt to once again get a grip on my nutrition. Things are going really well this time around and I have seen consistant results in the last four weeks on the scale, in my clothes, in my workouts and in my general "wellness". One of these days I will share what I did different this time and some new things I learned and some things that I relearned. But it's important for me to stress, that I am not dieting... I am just feeding myself properly again, after months of eating just whatever I felt like.... and that's mostly junk!
8. I miss CrossFit. It was actually quite funny: Terry and I were sprawled out on the couch last Sunday and I looked something up on YouTube and he said: "Let's watch some CF videos." And then we basically said at the same time: "I miss CrossFit."
9. With that being said, I did my strength work in the gym (vs only bodyweight exercises at home) this week and loaded up the barbell and jumped on boxes and did pull ups... A regular gym really doesn't facilitate a CF workout, but it was better than nothing.... Being sore all week from it, just felt like an extra bonus.
10. Yes, I am nuts... No need to comment on that last sentence.
11. Come Monday, we have one of those wellness challenges at work again. You organize yourself in groups of four and have around 45 days to each log 150 miles (600 miles total for the team) of walking to qualify for the drawing for the main prizes (cash prizes by the way!). There will be milestone prizes too... The smack talking has already started!!!! The boys on my team can be lucky that you just have to complete the mileage within the time frame and it's not about who is first... Otherwise I would be cracking the whip for the next six weeks... Just kidding... No, not really.
12. DONE! Happy weekend!

Good Food Challenge: Day 4-7

Confession time... Here are the eats Thursday through Sunday of last week.

Tons of Salad.

THURSDAY (1,930c)

breakfast: Scrambled Egg Whites with Spinach, Cheese and Black Olives (460c)

morning snacking: Non-Fat Greek Yogurt (120c), Banana (100c)

lunch at my desk: Mixed Salad with Chicken Sausage (720c)

afternoon snacking: String Cheese (100c), Banana (100c)

dinner: Baked Sweet Potato with Cottage Cheese (280c), Pear (50c)

FRIDAY (2,270c)

pre run:  Larabar Cashew Cookie (210c)

post run: Lowfat Cottage Cheese with one scoop recovery power and a pear (400c)

lunch: Mixed Salad with Chicken Sausage (920c)

afternoon snacking: Starbucks Skinny Caramel Machiatto (170c)

dinner: Scrambled Egg Whites with a Baked Sweet Potato (570c)

SATURDAY (2,140c)

breakfast:  Greek Yogurt with Fruit (220c)

ride fuel: 2 Bananas, 2 Larabars Chocolate Brownie Dough, 1 Pear, 1.5 packs of Gel Blasts (880c)

lunch: Grilled Chicken Salad (560c)

dinner: Grilled Catfish on Kale (480c)

SUNDAY (1,880c)

pre run:  Larabar Cashew Cookie (210c)

post run: Smoothie with Chocolate Milk, Frozen Mixed Fruit and one scoop recovery powder (330c)

lunch: Grilled Catfish on Kale (570c)

afternoon snacking: Watermelon and String Cheese (140c)

dinner: Grilled Salmon and Sauteed Veggies (630c)

Nutritional split for the total week:

This was a great week for me and I was able to stick to my goals in general.

The only thing I really completely failed was the 40-30-30 ration (protein-carbs-fat) and I am not surprised, but I am just a little stumped on how I am supposed to reach this. Especially, because I don't eat a ton of meat and my tummy doesn't do well with processed soy products (tofu and the like).

Aside the ratio thing, I am very happy with how I stuck to it. And really still sticking with it as of today.... Okay, okay... Happy Cow is maybe not completely on the clean eating plan, but chocolate milk used as part of a recovery smoothie, I think it still kinda fits in! ;-)

While it was fairly easy for me to do this for one week, it certainly is nothing I would want to sustain for longer... BUUUUT: I feel it helped me to refocus on making better choices.

And more salad.

Good Food Challenge: Day 1-3

Well, I guess it's pretty easy, to post yourself a challenge already two days into the project. Takes the pressure a little off hmmm? Anyways, this is the reason, why it's already time for mid-week update on my "Good Food Challenge".

Here are the eats:

Kidding... This was a cupcake from the beach party themed BBQ on Saturday and yes, it tasted as good as it looked!

But now for real... Here are the eats so far.

MONDAY (2,050c)

pre swim: Bolthouse Protein Plus Shake (380c)

morning snacking: Watermelon (180c), Larabar Cashew Cookie (210c), Banana (100c)

lunch at my desk: homemade Quinoa Salad (540c)

afternoon snacking: Larabar Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (220c), Banana (100c)

dinner: Mixed Salad with Tuna (320c)

TUESDAY (2,020c)

breakfast: Scrambles Egg Whites with Veggies (380c)

morning snacking: Grapes (120c), Larabar Cashew Cookie (210c)

lunch at my desk: Mixed Salad with Garbanzo Beans (610c)

afternoon snacking: Grapes (120c), Larabar Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (220c)

dinner/ post ride recovery: Bolthouse Protein Plus Parfeit Smoothie (360c)

WEDNESDAY (1,900c)

pre run: Larabar Cashew Cookie (210c)

post run recovery: Bolthouse Protein Plus Shake (380c)

morning snack: pineapple (170c)

lunch at my desk: Mixed Salad with Tuna and Kidney Beans (790c)

dinner: Scrambled Egg Whites with Beans and Spinach (350c)

So far so good when it comes to calorie intake and the quality of food.

I am still way too carb heavy and have to find ways to fix that! This morning, I had a chat with Coach Katie on the way back from the track and we talked about some options to incorporate more protein into my diet and I will keep working on this. That chat also resulted in a grocery store stop after work and switching up my snacks starting tomorrow.

Also, I am sometimes avoiding raw veggies because I am worried it's going to lead to GI problems on my runs, but this morning's track workout went off without any tummy issues which makes me a little more confident in what my stomach is able to do... Knock on wood.

The Good Food Challenge

Note: The pictures in this post are from today's ride and have nothing to do with the post itself. ;-)

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Showing of my turtle jersey.

If you are an athlete, I am sure, people say that to you in the office:

"Take another donut, you'll run that off in no time!"

If you are an athlete, I am sure that at one point you thought to yourself:

"I am training for 10 hours a week, heck, I am going to have an extra piece of that birthday cake and maybe some ice cream on my way home!"

Last weekend, I was at a party and there was a huge spread of food and I went bananas on the buffet. At one point I got stopped by one of the hosts saying: "Chips AND a beer! What is going on?" and then the other host chimed in: "She'll run 30 miles tomorrow, don't worry!"

Truth is, I eat a lot. Truth is also, I eat fairly decent when it comes to the quality of my food. And also, when I was in the middle of Mitchell training, I could get away with a lot, only because I was working out so much. Well, I am not in Mitchell training anymore and over the last couple of weeks, this mindset of "I restricted myself so much (which I really didn't) while I was in full blown training, I deserve XYZ now!" settled in and my waistline... Oh well.

Maybe two weeks ago, I started logging my food again. This time, I do it in Training Peaks, the software that my coach uses to schedule my training and where I log my actual training. She gave me the first round of feedback the other day and basically suggested more protein and more raw fruits and veggies on top of what I was already doing.

An old barn.

With this in the back of my head, I am giving myself a "Good Food Challenge" this week. I am not trying to do this for a whole month, but just for this one week. I don't believe in restriction, but moderation mostly. Still, I want to do a whole week of clean eating, to reboot my eating habits and also because this week is just so perfect and doable. The conditions (my lunch buddy is on vacation, our weekend trip fell through, I am not racing) just seemed to line up perfectly.

It looked like rain the whole time.

This is what I will be shooting for:

• plenty of raw fruits and vegetables
• try to keep a 40-30-30 nutrition ratio (40% proteins, 30% healthy fats and 30% carbs)
• no chocolate (other than what's in the larabars), beer, popcorn, ice cream etc

I am not going to publish my before and after weight, because the weight on a scale is a crapshoot to start with. Also, it's more about better habits and I expect the weightloss to eventually follow. But I will give an account of my eats for this weeks... All of it... Yikes! ;-)

My start and end point.

Excuse me, have you seen my bandwagon?

We are back... Safe and sound in the good old U.S. of A. Escaped the snow and the cold temperatures... Actually, what was even better... We finally got to see the sun again. Seriously Germany, that weather was kind of a joke and if you ever (EVER!) expect me to move back (and on top of it, convince my husband to move to Germany) this has to get better. I can deal with the temps and the snow... It's hard, but I can deal... But not seeing the sun for over a week.... Not funny... At all.

As I mentioned in my vacation posts, the training suffered big time. I got two runs in (one 5-miler and one 11-miler) and then the walks with the dog. Some of them were quite the exercise too. Try breaking a trail through six inches of snow and you'll know that you worked. Or try not to plant your face on the ground on icy sidewalks and you thank yoga and the balancing poses forever. One exercise I did frequently: eating cookies. I also enjoyed mother's cooking in general and the wine was flowing on a regular basis.

Did I gain weight? You betcha! How much? I don't know!

I haven't stepped on the scale since getting to Germany and I won't step on the scale for another two weeks. For two weeks a year, I give myself "carte blance" to eat whatever I want. Last year, I did the same thing and when I got back home, I stepped on the scale the next day and almost fainted. The feeling of guilt was there right away. This year, I will give myself two weeks to get back into my workout routine and regular eating habits before performing the reality check on the scale. I just don't want to feel guilty for those two weeks of dietary freedom. Given, if the weather conditions had been better, I probably would have balanced out the gluttony a little more... But I don't even go there. No guilt.

After not doing much for the last two weeks, I thought I should feel all giddy to get back working out, but honestly, this time I felt like being a lazy for a little while longer.

Fortunately, I have a coach and there are workouts on my plan and so I did, what I had to do. First up was an hour of easy running and even if I didn't feel like it throughout the day, once I was out there, I felt good. Really good... Like all happy to be running again.... After that, I went to the conditioning class at the Y and that was a reality check even without a scale involved. A couple of times, I thought I am going to barf. I have high hopes that it's going to go better next week. Needless to say, I pretty sore today.

This morning then, I had my first swim class for the season and I really enjoyed it. Seems like they found the button for the heat in the pool and the locker rooms at the Middle Tyger Y... I hope it stays that way. We did a 4x50 yards kick board race and I found that I haven't lost my kick. A quick 200 yards time trial also went well, so I am all happy....

Oh and this weekend, I am going to run a half in Travelers Rest. I put this race on the calendar in order to keep me on my toes over the holidays... Funny... In retrospect... Really funny... We'll see how that goes! ;-)

Lazy Girl's Cooking

This was supposed to go online last night... Not sure what happened... This way, it's going to be a TGIF post. Happy soon to be weekend everyone! ;-)


I am pretty lazy when it comes to cooking, but every now and then I make a little bit of an effort, especially now that I am trying to loose a couple of pounds again. Anyways, since time during the week is pretty sparse, I sometimes do a couple of hours of power cooking on Sundays that fills lots and lots of containers in the fridge and freezer to be warmed-up during the week.

Yesterday, I had a free evening for a change, because I already got all my workouts out of the way in the morning. SCORE! So I used that time to finally use up some produce purchases from weeks ago... At least some of them were from weeks ago... Potatos stay alright in the fridge forever! ;-)

Potatos, bell pepper, onion and brussels sprouts... Olive oil, salt and pepper in supportin roles.

And.... Spaghetti Squash.

Until a couple of weeks ago, I didn't even know of the existence of spaghetti squash... Until it was featured in Runner's World as the seasonal food... Funny enough, I found it right away at the local Bi-Lo.... No fancy grocery store whatsoever. To be honest, I had to read the sticker on in, because I really can't tell the difference between a pumkin and this one.

This the whole bunch after being chopped up and roasted in the oven for an hour*. The only thing left to do was now to cut open the spaghetti squash, scrape out the insides and mix it into the other stuff.

* Time I used to do laundry.... It's all about efficiency.

To fix lunch, I also took some black bean burger patties (made in one of my Sunday afternoon power cooking session) out of the freezer. While I throughoutly enjoyed the roasted veggies today for lunch... The black bean burger tasted off and I just had a couple of bites. Oh well. You win and you loose.

Those last 5 lbs - again

Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist, just sharing some thoughts and actions of mine.


It's not the time to push the panic button quite yet, but it was time to make (once again) a better effort concerning my nutrition.

In the summer, I hardly wear jeans or pants for that matter... Skirts and dresses and a couple of shorts... Workout gear is made out of spandex and therefore is pretty forgiving plus/minus 10 pounds. Anyways, it's not summer anymore and while I was mostly ignoring the number on the scale for several months now, the "Jeans Test" can not be fooled. They still kinda/sorta fit, but some of them were not comfy anymore.... think "Muffin Top".

Another big motivator to loose a couple of pounds was my upcoming half marathon this Saturday.... Weight loss means, less weight to haul over a 13.1 mile course... If that's not motivating then I don't know what is.

In order to keep my goal in sight and track able, I signed up (for free) at an online calorie count website, I found over a blog post from Laura. My experience with food logs are pretty limited, but what I found appealing at first was their recipe analyzer tool. Basically, you can type in any recipe you have sitting at home and it gives you the nutrition information per serving.

The site gives you a log for food, activities and weight. First you have to define your weight loss goal (mine was 6 lbs) and the time frame in which you want to accomplish this goal (for me: by race day, which was around 5 weeks). It won't let you enter a weight loss goal that is too aggressive... Max I think is 2 lbs a week.

Then you choose your activity level and your daily calorie intake target. I chose a sedentary activity level, since I sit at my desk most of the day which results to a little under 2,000 calories per day need for a female my age and body composition to stay at the same weight. I chose my intake target at 2,000 per day which means that I shouldn't gain any weight on days I stay within that target and don't to any workouts. My weight loss opportunity should arise for days where I hit my eat target and burn more calories, so I would have a calorie gap!

So much for the theory. The reality unfortunately looks a little different. We are just a couple of days away from my target date to have lost those 6 lbs and all I did loose was one measly lbs. To say I am frustrated, doesn't really describe the situation... And of course, I am not expecting any weight loss miracles during taper week. It's especially weird/funny/comical, because according to my food and activity log, I had an average calorie gap of 500 per day since I started logging.

This only leads me to one conclusion: My food tracking isn't especially accurate. I have a high confidence in the accuracy of the activity log, because that one is pretty straight forward. But the food log... I must be underestimating my intake... A LOT! Especially, since I don't cook most of my meals (I know, it's bad!) myself, it's sometimes hard to guess. A small factor also is (I think), that I started back up with weight training around the same time and while the scale hasn't moved much, my pants fit me better again.

But not all is lost! I will certainly keep this up over the winter because it makes me more conscious about my food consumption, not only in quantity, but also in quality.

The food quality aspect has been especially interesting, because it gives you an analysis based on nutrients and vitamins in your diet. After a couple of weeks of tracking my food, I noticed that I didn't take in enough calcium. On the one hand, it's a complete no brainer, because I stopped drinking milk months ago (swapped with almond milk) and also have little dairy in my diet to start with. On the other hand, it just never occurred to me, that I am not giving my body all it needs... Too little calcium equals weak bones... For an endurance athlete, that is a stress fracture waiting to happen! So I started taking calcium supplements to balance this out. I also have a deficiency in potassium... And still need to find a solution for that... And don't say bananas, tomatoes, potatoes... I eat that on an almost daily basis and it's still not enough.

Feel free to weigh in on the topic! ;-)

My Theory About Scales

Last Friday, I noticed a scale in the Women's locker room at the Caine Halter YMCA. The scale is set up right in front of the mirrors with the hair dryers where everyone lines up to get ready.

I have seen scales in the weight/ cardio rooms before, but not in a locker room and especially not such a huge electronic one. To be honest, I am not happy about this. I think scales are helpful to keep track of your weight or your weight loss, but I don't like to be surrounded by them.

Coming from the background of having lost a lot of weight myself fairly recently (in 2008), I am throwing out my observations (this is not a study and I don't have any proof for that):

1. you are overweight and deny it, you don't even own a scale
2. you are overweight and know it, you might own a scale, but don't step on it (what's the point right?)
3. you are currently trying to loose weight, you own a scale and use it
4. you are at a healthy weight and never had any issues with your weight, you most likely don't own a scale
5. you are at a healthy weight or underweight, you own a scale and use it

People in the category 1/2/4 are not going to use the scale in the locker room.

People in the category 3/5 are already concerned/ obsessed with their weight and with the scale in the locker room, you give them just another opportunity to step on a scale and fret about their weight. Truth is, a person's weight varies throughout the day and can vary several pounds throughout the same day. It doesn't make sense to torture yourself.

I know what I am talking about! I used to be one of those people that stepped on a scale several times a day. I was never underweight and not overweight since I crossed the line between normal and overweight on the BMI sometime in 2008. Still, I tortured myself with every fluctuation in weight since then.

Don't get me wrong. I believe that weighing yourself is a necessary tool to keep the weight off and a lot of studies do support this statement. But we are talking about weighing once every couple of days or once a week. So there is a place for a scale in your home or even in your gym, especially, when you are trying to loose weight and to keep the weight off that you already lost, BUT you have to make sure that it doesn't become an obsession.

I thought about this a lot since I saw that scale in the locker room. I believe that scales are more "dangerous" for people that have a tendency of being unhealthy by being too skinny and not by being too big... that's why I left this note this morning, before I headed out for my run:

No picture of the scale, because cameras are not allowed in the locker room!

So long!

That was good, but time to move on....

Note: The planned post for today, was part III of my 5-year USA anniversary (see here for part I and part II), but I realized yesterday, that some of the pictures I wanted to post are on my work computer and not at home. That means part III has to wait until tomorrow evening.... And you are in for treat, because 2007 is the year Terry and I met. ;-)

I am celebrating my last day of the "7 Days of Laziness" by relaxing in bed while watching TV, reading and yes blogging.

Really, the last week didn't produce anything that would really fit for the blog... It was nothing much going on. No big or small adventures, no crazy workouts. Just taking a break from everything that resemble structured working out (I did my 10 minutes of core, but that was it.) and just indulged in A LOT of food. I am pretty sure I gained a couple several pounds, but I refuse to step on the scale right now.

My training cycle for the Spinx Half starts off tomorrow with a 30 minute run and some weights. That should ease me back into things. I will also try to do all of my runs this week in the morning, since temps are forecast in the higher 90s. Honestly, I expect the run tomorrow to feel really crappy... Just like the food I consumed throughout the week. Still, I don't regret a thing... I think I really needed to take this break and push the reset button.

One more note, because I am a little in a reflection mood right now. Looking through the pictures for my 5-year USA anniversary was hard. I picked out the shots that I liked and that I feel good about and there were so much more that I didn't even want to look at. I am talking about pictures prior to 2008. As hard as it was, it also let me take my little journey to a healthier and fitter me. Does that conflict to me indulgence week... I don't think so... It was just a break, a vacation from my go-go-go training lifestyle and exactly what I needed to reboot.

So long! ;-)

This Is NOT A Food Blog

Back when I decided to start a blog, I sat in front of my computer screen for a long long time, trying to come up with something smart as my blog name... Everything that I liked, kinda seemed to already be out there or it was too specific to describe the content that I was planning on "broadcasting" on this channel.

So I fell back to describe the most basic situation that I am in... A German in SC... This is not all that I am, but it certainly explains a several of my posts. But I didn't want to spell it out like this and so I decided on the apple strudel to represent the German side of things and the peach cobbler to describe the SC side. I thought that was smart and I let you be the judge of that... You maybe never thought twice of the title, but now you know.

Back then, I was completely unaware of the food blog world... Since the name of the blog already has this kind of food blog vibe to it, I recently toyed around with the idea to make my food consumption part of my regular posts.... After a little consideration I scratched it, because:

1. BORING:  I am not saying that food blogs are boring. Au contraire! I actually read several food blogs on a regular basis and really enjoy them. But following my eating habits would certainly be boring to all of us. I am a creature of extreme habit when it comes to my eating... If you were to compare my food intake from week to week, there wouldn't be much of a difference.
2. PRESENTATION? WHAT'S THAT? Yeah... I am a pig... I can eat out of takeout box any day of the week... Why get one of the pretty dishes dirty hmmmm? Even though most people operate this way, it's not going to fly on a food blog. Which brings me to...
3. THE PICTURES: In order to document, most blogs use pictures of the food. First of all... You don't want to see what eat (see point 2.) and I am just way too lazy anyways. Last night, I thought of taking a picture of the beer and the hot dog that I had at the ball game to make it part of this post, but I just couldn't get myself to take out the camera before digging in.
4. DON'T COOK: That's another sad fact of my life: I hardly ever cook. Well, to explain myself here a little.. I also hardly ever eat at home during the week other than breakfast. I have my biggest meal at lunch (most of the time at one of the places around work) and if anything at all, I just snack on fruit or something similar when I get home at night.

There would be a big advantage though: If I feel like somebody is watching what I feed myself, I think I would be more mindful about my choices. It's not about weight loss for me at the moment, but it certainly is all about making (another) effort to clean up my nutrition. Last weekend, I had two longer workouts that both didn't go as planned and I think a big part of that was missing energy. When it comes to food, you can be dead on your calorie needs, but how you feel is mostly determined by the quality of the calories that you are consuming... It's all about "crap in, crap out"... If you feed yourself with crap, that's exactly how you are going to feel during the workout.

Speaking of workouts... With all the "hotel-charges-for-canceled-rooms" and other drama going on this week, I didn't write much about the workouts that I was able to squeeze in and it has been a fairly good week for me... I'll spare you the exact stats, but this is basically how it looked:

Monday
good fast bike ride on rolling hills

Tuesday
good interval run on the new section of the Swamp Rabbit Trail

Wednesday
tough spin class followed by short brick run, legs felt good off the bike

Thursday
longest continuous swim in a year or so, 3,500 yards at a moderate pace

TODAY
REST DAY... Well, I wanted to hit the weight room over lunch, but due to my little "adjustment of status" stuff going on, I had some errands to run...

Outlook for the weekend
There will be trail running (with new vest and hopefully the complete course this time around), a BBQ with friends, a bike ride and some volunteering at the package pick-up for the Assault Of Mount Mitchell.

Have a good one!

How To Get (Back) In Shape

You can see this post as a follow-up from yesterday, but actually it was inspired my requests from friends that I received after publishing some of my wedding pictures.

Basically, it's the "How did you do this?" question that I received a lot since I lost all that weight. And my short answer always is: eat less, move more. But sometimes, people want to know some specifics, some tricks and I give them what worked for me.... Okay people, always remember, I am not a trained professional in the medical, nutrition or exercise field. What you read here is what has worked for me and my lifestyle... If it gives you a couple of items that you can implement in your life and if it's works for you, that would be GREAT!

The first thing, we have to make sure is that we are not embarking on another diet (short term view), but need to do a lifestyle change (long term view).

There is all the mental aspects:

• make a conscious decision to change your personal situation
• commit yourself to those changes and tell other people about your plans if that helps you to stick with it
• set yourself manageable milestones and goals
• reward yourself when reaching a milestone
• don't get down on yourself when you fall off the bandwagon every now and then.... BUT make sure to get back with the plan ASAP
• adjust your goals if circumstances change e.g. health, family emergencies, job demands etc
• establish good habits... once you make something your routine, it's much easier to stick with it
• try to motivate the people in your direct environment to join in with you
• try to avoid people that sabotage your efforts... it happens... oh yes

The exercise portion of it:

• if you haven't done anything in a while, start out with 30 minutes of exercise at least five days a week
• handle your exercise like an appointment, put it in your calendar to commit yourself
• most importantly: choose an activity you enjoy! if you resent the type of activity, chances are pretty slim that you are going to stick with it
• if you like to workout with company, find a workout buddy, if the person is unreliable, find another workout buddy
• set yourself goals e.g. 5K race, be able to keep up with the advance step class etc

The nutrition portion of it:

• eat breakfast
• reduce your portion size
• stash healthy snacks at work
• have your smallest meal in the evening (I know, that might be the biggest adjustment)
• reduce sugar (sparkling water instead of sodas) and fat (grilled instead of fried) intake
• treat yourself, give yourself a day off a week
• eat more veggies and fruit

You see.... Nothing earth shattering here. Most likely, it's nothing you have never heard of before... It's not rocket science, it's actually fairly easy... To loose weight you have to put in less calories in your body and burn more.

Even though I have lost my weight in 2008, there are still days and weeks, where my diet is less than clean. Sometimes it has been quite a roller coaster ride, but so far I was able to keep the upper hand. Nobody is perfect and I have to remind myself of that too... A skipped workout and a greasy burger is not the end of the world. When it comes to health, it's the big picture that counts and the fact that you get up more often than you fall down.

So long! ;-)

Breakfast

Note: This post almost didn't happen... The idea zipped by and almost got lost somewhere between my brain, an eight hour work day and the keyboard... Fortunately, I ended up remembering what I wanted to share... Yay for me.... Or yay for you.... Since you get something to read now... ALL THREE OF YOU! ;-)

Remember the health assessment at work that I mentioned several weeks ago? Back then, I filled out the questionnaire, but today was the lab day e.g. weight, measurements, body fat and drawing blood. My appointment was at 8.45am and I was supposed to fast 8 hours ahead of getting the blood drawn. Picture me getting up at 5am, drive to the pool, knock out 2,600 yards in an hour, get dressed, go to work and then work until the appointed time rolls around... And all of this WITHOUT BREAKFAST. By appointment time I had stomach cramps, felt woozy and almost started biting my fingers off... Okay... The last item is maybe a little (tiny) exaggeration.

But it got me thinking about how much my eating habits have changed when I finally decided to get healthy. You see, if you have ever read about healthy eating habits and how to maintain your weight, sooner or later you stumble over the claim that:

• breakfast kick-starts your metabolism in the morning (here is one example, just google it and you'll be surprised on how many articles are coming up)
  
• fueling your body properly during the day avoids binge eating in the evening when the body preps to sleep (here is an article more directed to athletes, but it really applies to everyone, once again google it and you will find)
  
• eating breakfast is one of the habits that most people have that were able to maintain a significant weight loss (in this article are also the other habits)

So, can I hear a YAY for breakfast, please? YAY! ;-)


(Picture is from here and the article also has some information about why breakfast is so IMPORTANT!)

Before I started my (somewhat*) healthy lifestyle, I was a notorious breakfast skipper myself. But since I never read articles about nutrition and weigh loss, I never made the connection between my weight and my (non-existing) breakfast habits. I also never thought that this is such a common habit for people with overweight. Have you ever noticed how many contestants in the Biggest Loser mention at one point during the show that they have been skipping breakfast a lot. Of course, this is not the only mistake made by the contestants when it comes to eating and exercise habits and it certainly wasn't my only mistake either.

* I certainly still have a lot of room to improvement when it comes to the quality of my nutrition. But compared to what I used to put into my body, I came a long way and in the meantime am able to balance out calorie intake with calorie expense.

If you are a breakfast skipper, please consider to ditch this habit and have a healthy breakfast to kick-start your day. It's just one simple step to improve your nutrition and has a real impact on how you feel throughout the day (increase energy level and such). It certainly is worth a shot.

When it comes to me this morning... As soon as I got back to my desk, I raided my healthy snack drawer (whole grain cheese crackers, granola bars etc), but it took me until having lunch to finally feel back to normal.

So long!

PS: Tomorrow my parents plus brother get back from their road trip and I'll be off work to spend some quality time with them. There is a good chance that you won't hear anything from me until next Monday. Then I plan to resume broadcast as usual... married and all! ;-)

Rest Day? Maybe Next Week!

Normally Friday is my rest day and most of the time I am really looking forward to it. No packing breakfast, gym bag, work clothes etc the night before…. No hassle on Thursday night and then sleep in Friday - until 6am that is. So much for the plan.

Last night I had the tri clinic at the Eastside Y and planned on doing my scheduled run afterward. Before heading into the Y, I talked to Terry on the phone.

K: What are you up to?
T: I am draining the water out of the hot water heater, so I can take the water heater out of the laundry room and tile the floor.
K: Sounds like fun. Ummm… How am I going to shower tomorrow morning?
T: Aren't you working out tomorrow morning?
K: Well, I guess I am now!

Honestly, I didn't feel like running last night anyways and I really don't like to blow off the run completely, but getting up this morning (packing my work clothes etc) really sucked.

After getting up, I started layering in the running gear that I laid out the night before, since I was planning to run outside somewhere around the Caine Halter Y. After getting dressed and sticking out my nose into the wind, I returned to my trusty gear closet and retrieved some shorts and a t-shirt… No way, I would be running outside this morning. Yes, I don't care for the dreadmill, but I am sick and tired of being cold. Turned out that it was in the twenties this morning and in the teens with windchill. Thanks, but no thanks.

Anyways, the dreadmill run felt crappy, my left hamstring and knee felt crappy and the feeling didn't improve after the warm-up and the first two intervals (a total of 17 minutes)… So I called it a day… At least on the treadmill and moved over to the cross ramp. On the ramp I found myself an incline and resistance that didn't aggravate my hamstring and knee and got another 30 minutes of cardio in before stretching for a while. Well, after having several really good runs in the last couple of days, I guess I was just due for one of those again. Maybe it was also my attitude towards treadmill that made it so crappy. That thing just seems to suck all life out of me.

So for the weekend, they forecast highs in the 50s for Saturday and Sunday and I am looking forward to the training duathlon organized by the Upstate Tri Club and then a nice bike ride with a friend on Sunday.

On other news: I am back at my goal weight of 125lbs! YAY! That is one 2010 goal completed! Double YAY! ;-)

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Sick and Tired - Quite Literally

.... Or the weekend of skipped workouts.

All last week, I felt like something was up. I just felt tired and cranky and unmotivated.

The weekend started on Friday with a skipped trainer ride. I was set on doing this workout even though I had a very short night before. After I left my chiropractor appointment Friday after work, I just felt exhausted and went pretty much straight to bed.

Saturday started early with a 6AM wake up call and being at the race site for the Greenville News 5K at a little after 7AM. The volunteering was fun, we did the Kid's Run and time flew by, but three hours on my feet in the cold just left a mark. The planned six miler that I did right after I left was cut short a little and slow (even for me), but at the same time laborious. Well, I didn't have a crappy run in a while so maybe I was just due having one. I called it another early night.

Sunday started off as usual with a nice breakfast and church. They called for rain and raining it did... Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. When I finally dragged my feet out of the door, Terry and I were discussing possible routes... I had the crappiest attitude towards running (that didn't happen in a LONG time) and when the rain all of sudden turned from a little drizzle into pouring down in buckets, I turned on my heel and went back to bed.

Yesterday, I woke up with a sore throat and just did a little strength workout in the evening. Today more sore throat, but still went to do my swim in the morning... Over the course of the day, the sore throat developed into a full blown (pun intended) sinus infection. Coach said to reduce my workout volume in order to give my body more rest, so I won't get "sick sick"... I don't know, if we are not already past that point.

Needless to say, that I am frustrated... No, I am FRUSTRATED!!! I just barely recovered from this cough and now I am in for round two? Really, I shouldn't be surprised because one after the other in the office is getting sick and with my workout load, I am not surprised that my immune system is showing me the finger. Myrtle Beach is just three weeks from now and time is ticking away...

Also, my goal of being back to 125 lbs by the end of the month has been moved to the end of my priority list. While my body is trying to fight this infection, the last thing I want to do is cut calories, but I make sure to reduce my junk calories as much as possible in favor of good (in a nutritional sense) food. Still I have been steadily coming closer to that goal again and I am not worried about it, it just (most likely) is not going to happen until the end of NEXT month.

Activate Upstate 2010

How is your new year's resolution coming along? Did you make any new year's resolutions for 2010??

In case you are still looking for a goal for 2010, need some inspiration, accountability and a group setting to motivate you and keep you motivated? Why don't you just stop by at the Carolina First Center tonight and register for Activate Upstate 2010? If you can't make it tonight, then just register online for Activate Upstate Greenville, Spartanburg or Laurens!

The program description according to their website is:

"Activate Upstate is a FREE
year-round healthy living awareness program that targets youth and adult
obesity and related diseases. The program encourages participants to
accumulate at least 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity five days
per week by completing their daily activity log online. Participants will
receive Healthy Living information about nutrition, exercise and health
education weekly on the website. Participants also take part in weekly
and monthly weigh-ins and counseling, as well as attend “Health Talks,” a series
of lectures by wellness and medical experts that focus on topics related to
health and wellness.

Track your progress and that of the
Upstate right here! This website will provide every participant with
a confidential login so that they can privately monitor their weight lost and
physical activity during the program. Visit this website often for
the latest stats on the Upstate’s progress to lose weight and get physically
active.

Regular physical activity reduces the risk of coronary
heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure. It helps control weight and
contributes to healthy bones, muscles, and joints. It helps relieve the pain of
arthritis and reduces the symptoms of anxiety and depression. People of all ages
who are generally inactive can improve their health and well being by becoming
active at a moderate-intensity on a regular basis."

The flyer to the Activate Upstate 2008 program was actually what kicked off my weight loss journey. I didn't participate in the program, but their program description just triggered something in my brain. 30 minutes of moderate activity five days a week... I can do this, I thought... And I did it and I came a long way since and my body is capable of so much more by now.

Whenever I see the posters and news articles about the program being kicked off for another year, I remember when I started back living a healty lifestyle and hope that others will do it too with a little help and inspiration with this program.

Clean Up Your Act Already!

I mentioned casually a couple of posts ago, that I did quite some damage on the weight front over the holidays. After being good for almost two years, I thought to myself the heck with it and I will enjoy everything I feel like during the two weeks of winter vacation in Germany. My mom cooked a lot of my favorite dishes and she baked tons and tons of Christmas cookies. I enjoyed every single meal and every single cookie! :-)


So stepping on the scale when we got back was quite an eye opener, but I had the mindset that once I am back in my routine, things should go back to normal quickly. Well, hardly any workouts for almost two weeks because of this cough and still indulging in anything and everything high sugar, high carb, high fat under the sun sure delayed the getting back on track process.


With a week of regular training (since the cough) under my belt, things are starting to get back to normal... I already dropped a couple of pounds as well and I still feel confident, that I will be able to be back at 125 lbs by the end of the month.


One obstacle that I didn't anticipate (even though I should have) during my "Holidays Everything Goes" Diet was that my metabolism frighteningly fast got used to additional amounts of calories that I fed it for two weeks. So even as I am back in my routine, I have a much harder time to say no to sugary things and only very slowly get my act together. You see, once you are used to a clean diet, it's so much easier to stick to it... That's at least my experience. It's the time to get your body and mind used to that clean diet that is hard and slow. Unfortunately, it's much slower to clean up your act again than falling into old patterns.


Even though I still have a hard time at the moment to pass on chocolate, muffins and co., at least I was able to get my body back accustomed not to crave food in the evenings anymore.


That way, I slowly but surely clean up my act once more, also with the motivation of the half marathon in four weeks.


Oh boy... in four weeks??? Yikes!