My Health

So, it has been a fun and exciting week. Just after I wrote that last post I had a visit with my doctor. I know in a previous post I mentioned issues with my gallbladder. Well, I finally went to see a specialist to make sure everything was fine because it runs rampant in my family. Last week I had an ultrasound and my doctor gave me an 80% likelihood that I had gallstones and would probably need to speak to a surgeon.

Well, he called last Friday and he was surprised but I did NOT have any stones and seemed to be ok. We're doing a follow up in a month because like I said, it's very common in my family.

He concluded that my way of eating is what was causing me pain. As weird as it sounds, the ultra clean eating and lower carb diet was wreaking havoc on my digestive system. He hypothesized that my body just couldn't handle it.

So I did some fiddling with my diet and found he was right. As odd as it sounds, following the SBD made me feel sick! It doesn't make sense because I, for one, think that the principles it's based on are very healthy and should, in theory, make you feel healthy. But, for me, it just doesn't work. Actually, some days I find that when I feel super bad, if I eat something higher in fat and carbs I immediately feel better. Strange right? My doctor is as baffled as I am.

And so I begin again. I'll be honest, I'm sick of having a plan. Apparently, plans and I just don't mix. I was looking over my journals from this time last year. It pains me to say that I was eating more overall calories and I weighed about 10 pounds less. Oh yes, and I was probably in the best shape I've been in in about 5 years. AND ... I was on no sort of plan whatsoever. It just ... worked. Like magic.

I've tried to wrap my head around why it worked and why the weight just kept coming off but that's the beauty of the human body. There is no rhyme or reason to it.

So, it's been back to the drawing board for me and my journey. And what have I decided to do?

I'm going to follow the simplest non-plan I can manage.

I'm going to try to eat good, healthy food that doesn't cause me pain that stays within a 1500 to 1600 cal range and I'm going to workout consistently.

And that's it.

Today's menu:

B: coffee w/ creamer, 1egg+1egg white, peppers, onions, laughing cow wedge, salsa, taco sauce all wrapped in a warm low carb tortilla.

S: fresh strawberries and a mini babybel light

L: taco-less tacos at my awesome work desk (ie: seasoned ground turkey, kidney beans, onions, tomatoes and green chilies wrapped in romaine leaves w/ cheese and salsa!)



I have a tentative plan to go spinning after work. Truth be told, today is a substitute rest day for me but a co-worker wanted to go spinning so I said I'd go with him. I desperately don't want to go because not only is today a rest day for me but this particular class that we're going to is beyond brutal. And that is NOT an exaggeration.

Well, in case we do go spinning, I have a Cliff bar packed in my bag to eat beforehand as my pre-workout snack.

And if I make it to spinning, at this point in my eating day I'll be at 1085 calories.

That's plenty of room for a decent dinner!

Now if only I could think of something inspired to make .....

Food Gone Wild

So it looks like I'm winning half of the battle.

On the workout front, I can honestly say I'm kicking serious butt. Since last I wrote, I have completed every workout I have scheduled for myself. Getting back into the swing of things wasn't nearly as hard as I had originally thought it would be. Don't get me wrong, there were some days where it was sheer will that propelled me to finish, but I think I always imagined it to be much, much worse. Or perhaps it's that I can feel my body firming up that allows me to ignore some of the struggle :)

Wed: 35 minute cardio/strength combo
Thur: 60 minute spinning
Fri: rest
Sat: 35 minute strength/40 minute cardio
Sun: 45 minute cardio

On the eating front. How can I say this delicately? Well, lets just say thank goodness I have been working out so much to counteract what I've allowed myself to eat.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all bad.

Thursday was a great day:
B breakfast casserole
L chicken sandwich on whole wheat w/ lettuce and avocado
S whole wheat toast with peanut butter
D chicken and vegetable soup

Friday:
B tall skinny vanilla latte, pita, chicken, hummus and raw veggies (aka Starbucks breakfast)
S ww toast with Peanut Butter
L sushi: salmon sushi, yellowtail sushi, miso soup, 2 pieces Godzilla roll





**This particular restaurant does not offer brown rice as an option. However, I've found that sushi with brown rice is something that I just don't like. I figure it's a trade off. I choose more of the sushi items and less of the rolls and that helps keep the calories/white rice in check. I ate salmon and yellowtail sushi and just ate 2 pieces of the roll**

D ww pasta with tomato sauce and crab meat

And then we hit the weekend.

Saturday
B ww toast with peanut butter, skim milk
S milk chocolate candy!!
L whey protein, raspberries, skim milk
S 3 triscuits, babybel lite
D 4 slices of pizza (2 w/ bacon and pineapple - 2 w/ tomato and basil - medium)

Sunday
B 2 slices of pizza
L 2 slices of pizza (did I happen to mention we had leftovers!?)
D taco bell (mexican pizza no meat/extra tomatoes, volcano taco, 1/2 crunchwrap supreme)
and finally
a slice of chocolate cake

Whew!
Trust me, it was a lot of food. Needless to say, I got way way off course. And now it's Monday and I'm sitting pretty at work with my lunch bag filled with my good, healthy food and I'm back on track. Cause that's all that matters. Getting back on track.

Monday's plan:
B egg sandwich (1 egg, 1 egg white, sandwich thin, laughing cow wedge)
S chicken and vegetable soup
L roasted chicken breast 3oz, green beans, roasted potatoes/peppers/onions
D i'm supposed to be making a mushroom risotto from Rocco DeSpirito's Now Eat This! cookbook - Hopefully I'll get to it - it's his version of risotto that uses Textured Vegetable Protein instead of the traditional Arborio Rice. It'll be my first time cooking with TVP so I'm curious to see how it turns out.

Hopefully it'll be great. So far I've been extremely pleased with the recipes I've tried from that cookbook!

Working Out Is Fun!

Yesterday's double workout was a smashing success.

Somehow I managed to get up in the morning and do some strength training. Trust me, it was sheer will that got me out of the bed. I am just NOT a morning person. But an added bonus of the double workout: I had good energy throughout the whole day. My lunch break workout completely revived me for the rest of the day.

In other awesome news, I also got up early TODAY to get in my cardio workout. I'm meeting up w/ an old friend after work today and so I wanted to get my workout out of the way, otherwise, I might have used meeting her as an excuse to not do it. In all honesty, it wasn't the greatest workout but I figure something is better than nothing.

This is what I have planned each week for working out:

MON: OFF
TUES: Cardio/Strength Training
WED: Cardio
THUR: Cardio/Strength Training
FRI: Cardio
SAT: Cardio/Strength Training
SUN: Cardio

I do a minimum of 30 minutes continuous cardio and right now I'm doing a full body strength training program that also takes around 30 minutes. As I increase strength I will probably move to a split routine but we'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Today's schedule:

workout: AM/done (250 cal burned)

B: Whey, Rasp, Skim milk smoothie (263 cal)
S: Breakfast Casserole (230 cal)



L: Chicken and Vegetable Soup (165 cal)
D: Dining out

That's all I have planned so far. Oh, I think I might be heading to GNC to pick up some more whey protein. Exciting right?

It's Been Awhile ...

I've been off the grid the past 3 weeks. Lots of life events that had to take priority over my wonderful blog.

I got injured, then my boyfriend got injured and then my dog got injured. The dog is still being nursed back to health. She hurt her back last week and we've been treading lightly ever since. I'm hoping that she's getting better but I can't honestly tell. We have a follow up visit to the vet on Friday and I'm hoping for good news.

On the health and wellness front, life still continues on. I was debating trying to make a "catch-up" blog post about the last 3 weeks but decided against it because honestly, nothing has really changed.

On the weighing in front, I am up +.6 lbs from my last post. It's been up and down since I last posted with nothing major in either direction. So basically I have been maintaining.

And since I haven't really seen any gains in my weight loss last week I started incorporating a few things.

First, I'm tracking actual calories again.

I happened across the blog of a woman who was doing South Beach and saw good strides in the beginning (Phase 1) but who did nothing but maintain while following Phase 2 - so she started tracking calories in addition to applying the Phase 2 rules and for her she needed that discipline to get the scale moving. I mean, tracking calories has worked for me in the past very well so I'm going to start trying to keep my calories in the 1400-1500 range.

Second, I've gone back to the gym. Who was I kidding? I have always done extremely well on an exercise heavy program and to leave it out of the equation just doesn't make sense. I'm on a 6 days of cardio/3 days of strength training schedule right now. I know that sounds like a lot but that's pretty much par for the course for me. I'm aware that my body needs a consistent workout schedule in order for change to occur. And more importantly, I feel much better when I am on a moderately heavy workout schedule - I think for me it's a great stress reliever.

Today looks like this

AM: strength training / 30m

B: whey protein, milk, org. raspberry shake with flax seed oil
S: breakfast casserole (eggs, egg whites, red pepper, mushroom, sweet potato, cheese)
L: Roasted chicken, green beans, twice baked sweet potato

PM: cardio / 30m

S: 1.25 c. chicken and vegetable soup (homemade)
D: ??

Also, I'm going to start tracking my body fat %. I bought calipers and am now practicing with them. I find that right now I'm extremely inconsistent with my readings so I'm going to keep practicing until I get the hang of it. No need to track measurements when I'm not very good at it. I've read that it takes quite some time before you start getting consistent readings so that's what I do in the morning. I stand in my bathroom and practice w/ my calipers :)

I'm thinking in another week I should get the hang of it and when I do I'll start tracking that too.