heart rate

I wore my heart rate monitor at the gym yesterday. I wanted to be able to track my calorie burn accurately instead of just guessing. Boy was I surprised! From start to finish, my workout was 59 minutes 33 seconds. And I burned 452 calories. The really cool thing about it is, I was on one of those step/elliptical machines that have a heart rate monitor built into the handles so as you are holding on, it tracks your heart rate. The really SUPER cool thing is I was glancing at the heart rate monitor that I was wearing and it was DEAD ON EXACT the entire time! Gotta love when technology doesn't let you down!

So I did the machine for 30 minutes, alternating between a high tension stepping motion and a lower tension, yet faster paced, more true elliptical style motion. Then, I did weight training for my shoulders, biceps and triceps. Just because. Nothing heavy or demanding. So I was really surprised at how many calories I burned in that hour. I really wish I would have worn it while training heavy, just out of curiosity. But since my training style has changed a little, and is more circuit based, constantly moving sorta thing, I will wear it to see what I'm burning when I'm not doing a "cardio specific" workout. Can't wait!

I'm bursting with energy this week and I'm almost positive it has 100% everything to do with my diet. Typically right now I would probably feel a little bloated and lower energy, just because of where I am in my cycle. But I'm through the roof amped. People, if you want to feel better, eat better! Seriously.

A few weeks ago, I went to GNC to buy some powdered aminos. I am used to swallowing the gigantic pills that I have right now, but I wanted to try the powder, just to try it. I was hesitant because it comes in all kinds of fruity flavors and I am absolutely disgusted by sugary tasting drinks: soda, unnatural fruity drinks, kool aid, Gatorade, etc. But, it was on sale so I thought, what the hell. I took some and went downstairs to do a HIIT session. Well, I started to feel really funny. So much so that I had to cut my session short. And the funny feeling lasted a really long time. I was so jittery and uneasy. And since I'm easily prone to anxious and jittery feelings anyway, this was not a comfortable feeling for me.

Let's back up: I've been taking this stuff called Prograde Metabolism , which is supposed to kick ass in the fat loss department. I haven't seen any benefit from it yet because I have only just started my "fat loss" mode and it can take up to 6 weeks to notice it working. I think I've been taking it for a month now. Anyway, you are supposed to kind of stay away from extra caffeine while taking this stuff. When I take it, sometimes I get really flushed for about 5 minutes. My face, neck, arms and chest get all red and blotchy. Suddenly, one day, I realized why I got all funny feeling that day after trying my powdered aminos. Turns out, it's got a little "extra boost" in it. It's called Amino Energy (I didn't notice this when I bought it) and it's got an energy blend in it called caffeine caffeine caffeine! So I got a mega dose of uppity up that day and it didn't really work to my advantage. It just made me feel yucky. And yes, I thought the Blue Raspberry flavor I chose was horrid. But I'm sure I wouldn't have liked any of the other options either.

Moral of the story: always be aware of what's in what you are taking. And if you don't feel right on something, listen to your body.

how to figure out your calorie needs

Yesterdays totals:

Calories: 1546
Carbs: 43.54%
Protein: 38.1%
Fat: 18.37%

These numbers are probably a little off because I had to manually enter calories for dinner last night and when you manually enter calories in MyPlate, it doesn't let you enter macros (like carbs, fat, protein). This is my one annoyance with the site. Otherwise, I love it. Unless there is actually a way to do it that I just don't know about, but I'm pretty sure it would be obvious if I could.

Water: over 72 oz again - yay me!

Here's exactly what I ate yesterday:
Breakfast: Grapefruit juice (1/2 cup), Freshly juiced veggies (104 calories worth), 3 egg whites, 1 whole egg, Bob's Red Mill 7 Grain hot cereal (1 cup) with a splash of unsweetened almond milk (1/4 cup)
Cal:417  Carb:29.5  Prot:24.25  Fat:6.75

Post-Workout AM Snack: 100% whey protein powder drink, 100% whole grain brown rice (2/3 cup)

Cal:223.8  Carb:23.76  Prot:22.01 Fat:3.17

Lunch: 2 slices Ezekiel Sprouted Grain bread, all natural peanut butter (2 tsp), 3 oz tuna

Cal:310.3  Carb:31.65  Prot:28.64  Fat:6.65

Snack: I didn't have an afternoon snack (naughty me) and I was really hungry at dinner time.

Dinner: steamed broccoli (2 cups), chicken taco noodle bake (1 1/2 cup)

Cal:550  - and everything else here would be inaccurate so I won't post

Evening Snack: 1% cottage cheese (1/4 cup) - I would normally have 1/2 cup but I didn't because I didn't feel I needed that much

Now, I won't list calories and macros for what I ate the previous day (because it's so dang time consuming), but I will tell you what I ate:

Breakfast: grapefruit juice and fresh juiced veg (as always, before I eat anything), oatmeal and 2 eggs
AM snack: protein powder drink & oatmeal
Lunch: Tilapia, steamed broccoli, small yam w/butter
PM snack: 7 grain hot cereal w/unsweetened almond milk
Dinner: Chicken breast, baby spinach, steamed cauliflower
Evening snack: 1% cottage cheese, anchovy stuffed olives

Ok, now how did I figure out what my "maintenance level" of calories was? There are a few different ways to do this. You can find many sites online that offer an average ballpark number for you simply by entering a few variables such as age, weight, etc. I use what's called the Katch-McArdle formula for figuring out my BMR (basal metabolic rate - which is the number of calories your body burns just to function; for digestion, circulation, breathing, temp control, etc). And this formula is supposedly the most accurate method of determining your daily calorie needs because it takes into consideration your lean body mass (LBM). And the only way to know your LBM is to use a caliper. After determining your BMR, you then figure out your maintenance level of calories by factoring your activity level.

Just to give you an example:
If I were to use a quick and generic way to determine my maintenance level calories, I would estimate 15-16 calories per pound of bodyweight. So for me at 118 pounds, that would be around 1770-1888.

Now, with the Katch-McArdle formula, my maintenance level calories is 2012. That to me is a HUGE difference. Because it means to stay at my current weight, I can eat more!

Right now, I am trying to create a 500 calorie a day deficit by staying around 1500 calories (the deficit gets bigger when I factor in exercise). But if I were to create a 500 calorie deficit using a generic method, that puts me at only 1270 calories a day. That is a big difference. And for an active person, that might start to impact my energy levels and my workouts start to suffer. And when my workouts suffer, and I'm not giving it 100%, I'm not losing fat at my full potential.


You can see the Katch-McArdle formula here

P.S. My husband is a computer nerd and he made me a spreadsheet in Excel a few years back that I can enter my body stats into. We put the Katch-McArdle formula into it so all I need to enter is my current weight and body fat percentage (as per the caliper) and BAM! it gives me my BMR. Then I enter my activity level at the current time and BAM! I've got a range of calories to maintain or to lose. It also tracks my progress with a graph so when I enter my body measurements, I can see how I have been progressing. The very first time I made an entry was in March 2010, so it's fun to see how my body is changing over the years!

Yesterdays numbers

Here's how my nutrient ratios ended up yesterday:

Carbs: 37.7%
Protein: 35.3%
Fat: 26.99%

I am finding that it's very difficult for me to keep the fat percentage down. This is surprising. But I prefer whole eggs over egg whites, for instance. Butter or olive oil on everything. These things add up quickly! I was shooting for around 50/30/20 so really I was pretty close considering I'm a newbie at trying to manage macronutrients. (I'm eating egg whites this morning to see if that helps)

I still can't help but feel that the carbs are too high, but I'm trying to just relax and trust that this will work. I don't know for a fact that I'm carb sensitive so I might be able to pull it off with these ratios. At least in the beginning.

Calories: 1331 - I still had almost 200 calories I could have consumed! Big deficit yesterday (700)! Which is a good thing because I didn't workout. (I know, I know)

Water: over 72oz - I really made a conscious effort to drink a lot (and track it)

I'm living in the now, meaning I'm trying not to look at the entire 12 weeks as a whole, but rather day to day. If I catch myself thinking ahead, I will end up thinking things like, "How am I going to be able to maintain this meticulous tracking?" or "How am I going to handle eating like this" or "What if these macros don't work for me? I'm on a time limit here!" ....and those are self-sabotaging thoughts.

I was a little disappointed in myself for not getting to the gym yesterday, but I didn't cry over it. It's only one day. Mom called me in the morning saying she didn't feel up to going. I totally had planned on going myself, it just didn't happen. Hopefully the sun shining gloriously through her window this morning will inspire her to hop out of bed and get moving.

82 days until goal

Today is the second day into my 12 week timeline. I've had this period mapped out for weeks. When my mom suggested I wait "just one more day" and start today I explained to her that I couldn't. That is how I used to live my life, "just one more day"....and that turns into one more week, one more month.....and I can't do that anymore. That's the procrastinating side of me I am working on changing. I told her I had already drawn out my timeline (literally), dated every day, tapped the pieces of paper together, and hung it to the side of the desk.....I can't change it. I'm an officially in it.

I know that might sound weird, but I'm very visual. I have to write everything down or draw it out. I map out my life. It's like if I don't actually see it on paper, it doesn't exist. Some might say this is neurotic. But I think it's therapeutic.

So I'm out of muscle building mode and into lean out mode. I am VERY proud of myself and what I have accomplished over the last few months. Because I finally was able to make a clear decision about what I wanted. I decided that I was strictly going to focus on building muscle and consuming enough calories to do so. And guess what? It worked! I ate and followed a training regimen that was geared toward gaining muscle. And I have gained about 7lbs.

Before, I was so worried about eating more calories than maintenance because I was fearful of seeing the number on the scale go up. Fearful of gaining fat instead of, or along with, the muscle. But I got tired of being scared and going nowhere. I was going nowhere because I was trying to eat to lose fat, yet training and in a mindset to gain muscle. No wonder I never got anywhere!

"It's physiologically impossible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same moment in time. You can't gain muscle in a calorie deficit and you can't lose fat in a calorie surplus, it's that simple." Tom Venuto

I was so busy flip flopping back and forth between trying to gain muscle and trying to lose fat, that I couldn't accomplish either one. I had to have a clear goal and I had to make up my mind. One, then the other. So, I worked on muscle first, since I was already fairly lean to begin with. Then, once that specific timeline was over, I would switch over to fat loss. I had clear and distinctly different goals in mind. And I had exact dates for when I would follow each. It helped immensely! And just like I was finally successful in gaining muscle, I will be successful at losing fat. I have seen the importance clearly defined goal setting.

So now my focus is on fat loss and very strict and clean eating. I am limiting calories to 500 below maintenance and tapering carbs. I'm going to try and follow a baseline of 55/30/15 for my nutrient ratios the first week to see if that produces favorable results. It's hard because I've never really honestly paid attention to those for more than a day or so. I'm plugging everything I eat into MyPlate on Livestrong.com so I can see how I'm doing throughout the day. I even have the app on my phone that syncs with my online account, so whether I'm on my computer at home or out, it'll track to the same account. No excuses!

I'm setting myself up for success with all this planning and tracking.

I'm also in the process of weaning myself off of my anxiety medication. My doctor wanted me off it by summer and my counselor says if I stop it completely my brain won't like it, so I'm slowly taking less and less. It's been a long time since I've had a panic attack and the more distance I put between myself and the last attack, the more confident I feel in my ability to control it. I've learned some helpful techniques for calming myself and becoming more mindful. It's been a wonderful experience because I'm able to apply it to other aspects of my life too. And for me, this justifies the phrase "everything happens for a reason". Bad or good. Even from bad things, good things can come.

Picture time again

I wanted to post some pictures again. It seems like it's been awhile. And since I've gained some weight (yay!) I wanted to see:

#1) if I could visibly tell that I have gained
          and
 #2) where I have gained it.

I know that my booty is bigger. Some people might think that's a bad thing, but in my case, I am actually trying to build my butt, so I'm very happy about it. The ONLY places I would be unhappy about becoming bigger are in the abdominal region and in the thighs. So far, no growth there (phew!) so that means no fat gain there either. Eventually I wouldn't mind working on growing my quads, making them more muscular, but right now that is very low on the priority list. And I don't especially like training quads specifically.

First, an area that I don't photograph much. Because I don't really know how to flex my back muscles in the first place. And it's hard trying to flex, while holding a phone and getting a picture of yourself in the mirror behind you. I have a nice camera and a tripod, why don't I use it? Laziness I guess.

Next, my biceps, which aren't very big. I'd like to build them up a tad more but I don't focus on bicep specific exercises. I use compound movements that hit many muscle groups at once, including biceps. Again, not my main area of focus at the moment. And also, what the heck is up with my hand?

Triceps are next, of course you can't see them very well with my 'self portrait on a phone' skills. I used to do a lot of dips. Haven't for a while.

Oops, found another bicep pic.

Ab region. Always looking the same. The thing that makes me most proud about it is that these pictures are taken after not being extremely gung-ho with my diet. I'm eating carbs at night (for shame!), I'm eating a few girl scout cookies here and there, some wine, etc. So the fact that I can still see definition is astonishing. Imagine what they will look like after 12 weeks of clean eating!

The next picture is one I can use as a "before" picture because I want to see that oblique line pop out more. It's there, I can see it, just not really easy to tell in a photograph. But as I lean out, it will be more noticeable.

And lastly, my tiny quads.

It's sort of cool being able to see them through my pants. Even thought they aren't very big and I have to flex. I notice them most when I'm at the gym (because there are wall to wall mirrors). As I'm doing curtsy lunges especially, I can see multiple lines through my workout pants. It's way cool to be able to see what you have worked so hard for. Even though I don't work them specifically (with leg extensions for instance) they still get worked through those compounds moves like squats and lunges.

I tried to take pictures of my hamstrings but I just couldn't get them to show in that light. I could barely see them through my pants as I flexed them, but those little buggers are trying to come in! I've been working them heavy. Yesterday I just blasted them. I added some single leg seated leg curls, and then double leg curls after my usual punishing of deadlifts, walking lunges, lying ham curl and glute/ham raise machine. Today, I feel them!

And that's all folks! I will take my official "before" pictures on Sunday, which is the start of my 12 week timeline. And in case you aren't up to speed, I am starting my "lean out" phase. Going to get my bodyfat percentage down as low as I can. Then, I'm going to see all that beautiful muscle that I've gained!

sick as a dog

Went to the gym yesterday and worked as hard as I could with this illness I have. I did the whole routine, just cut the sets short. Stayed on track with weight load though. Ugh. I just can't believe that I'm sick again. I'm starting to worry that maybe there is something else going wrong inside my body that I can't seem to fend off these colds.

I'm a bit of a worrier so here is what is going on in my mind:

"My lower back has been unusually sore for many weeks now. I thought it was because of the heavy deadlifts. Now I'm thinking, maybe that big mole on my back is cancer and that's why I'm getting sick all the time!"

Yeah, see how ridiculous I can be sometimes? Of course, I don't really think I have cancer, but I can't say it hasn't crossed my mind. Because for someone who is pretty much fit as a fiddle, and eats her veggies, it doesn't seem very fair that I've gotten sick 3 times so far this winter.

It started with just a crappy feeling Saturday, sore throat, etc. Nothing that stopped me from going out though! Sunday was worse. Monday, thought I was feeling ok to workout,  (because exercising can actually help you feel better when you are sick) and went to the gym. Felt great until about 3pm and it all went downhill from there. I had chills and just felt like poop. So I ordered pizza for dinner cuz I couldn't cook. I even ate some pizza. I didn't care, I was sick. Went up to bed. Laid down for a little while until the kids came up to bathe and woke me up. Then I puked up the pizza. After that, my throat felt worse, like razor blades. Ugh. Sleeping was ok until early morning when it felt like my throat was closing up. Now I've started coughing. It's mind boggling.

Nevertheless, I will try to carry on as best as I can. Next week, starting on the 11th, I will have 3 months left until goal. I've got my plan in place, just waiting for the starting gun. Training for muscle gain has been going so well, it's going to take more than a cold (or 3) to stop me from reaching my goal!

I'm gaining!!!! I'm gaining!!!!!!

http://www.flaviliciousfitness.com/blog/2012/02/29/cardio-workout-for-fat-loss/

Click on the link above to see useful information about cardio.

You get the video on her blog page also, but she shares helpful tips on

how to burn fat efficiently with HIIT cardio.

Our bodies get used to steady state cardio, which is why I'm not one to use it a lot.

We are great at adapting and so we need to constantly challenge ourselves

if we want to see improvement in our bodies.

I've been keeping track of her videos on her blog for a while now. It's been fun following her through the whole process of getting ready for a photo shoot. I've taken away a ton of useful information from her. I've Incorporated some of it into my routine, but for the most part, I'm still using my full body workouts 3 days per week as per Mike Geary's book - The Truth About 6 Pack Abs

and guess what??

Nothing, and I mean nothing, that I've used before has created change in my body like his routines. I am up to 118lbs!!! I can hardly believe it myself. That means, I've gained something like 7lbs in the past two months or so. I don't recall exact numbers or dates at the moment, but it's an approximation.

How do I know that I have not just gained fat? - good question

Because I still fit into my clothes. In fact, I fit into them better. Muscle is dense and compact, 5lbs of fat looks a lot different than 5 pounds of muscle. Fat takes up more space.

I....AM....STOKED!!

One thing that sucks right now is that I have a cold....again. Seriously, 3rd cold in 4 months. Not even cool. It's so rare that I get sick so this is quite weird. This winter has been hard on Emma and I. I think we just keep reinfecting each other. Oh well, it's not going to stop me! I'm still going to the gym today!