Today's the day, time to transform into the Thin Man trapped inside. Now, over the past 8 years, I've repeated said to my wife and to myself - I'm happy with who I am. And that's true, I am. But, with family history of heart attacks, high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer - I want to reduce my risk and become a more fit person.
I will continue to enjoy the things I enjoy (mainly my family), but I will hopefully have more energy and feel better about my overall fitness level. My kids are very active and I don't want to miss out on any of it because I'm too tired or just don't have the energy any more.
First off, I want to give credit where credit is due. I purchased the book "The Biggest Loser" and after reading it, I realized that I can do this. Surprisingly, it's not that difficult (especially now that I am committed to this change). Thank you Maggie Greenwood-Robinson, PhD & Bob Harper - the book really inspired me. And for those of you out there that don't know where to start or think it may be too hard - this book shows you how simple it really can be to achieve your goals. Remember, right now I'm still trapped in the fat body (also new to blogging - If i can figure out how to post a picture I will get my before photo up -- YUCK!! ) well I've got some work to do.
Anyway - my first day went like this:
After getting my daughter off to school, I realized I'm supposed to have 6 small meals a day rather than the Breakfast Lunch & Dinner that I've been so used to. So I opened "The Biggest Loser" book (TBL) and checked out the sample meals in the back - egg whites... mmm for my caloric goal which is 2000/day I can have 4 egg whites cooked in 1 Tbsp of Olive Oil with Basil and grated Parmesan. Now I didn't have any basil so I just did without - the cheese & oil made it taste pretty good. I had a handful of cherry tomatoes, a pear, and 1 Tbsp of French Vanilla creamer for my coffee and it came to 330 calories - not bad.
Now off to the gym, now this is not something I've done a lot - so I really don't have much in the way of "work out" close. I'm not one for sweats and I typically wear my pajamas around the house; but I was able to dig out one athletic set (it became my summer pj's). So I guess I need to make a trip to the store to get some clothes - will do another time. Anyway, I get to the gym at about 9am and with lots of energy and enthusiasm I step up to the window and say "I'd like to enroll in the Weight Loss Challenge". They inform me that it was cancelled due to low enrollment. What?!? Oh no, now what... Hey, I just saved $5 for the contest and I'm still committed so I ask for some help to get started.
The fitness center attendant, we'll call him Bob, is on site and I introduce myself and tell him that I'm looking to lose some weight and I think today I'd like to start with a cardio workout. TBL talks about cardio and circuit training - so I figured that's where I'll start. I had the choice of treadmill, elliptical or cycle - I chose cycle. I also chose to cycle for 60 minutes. Bob explained the levels and I decided that I should stay on the lower settings until my fitness improves - so I planned to stay at about level 3.
It only took about 5 minutes for me to realize that level 3 was too hard for me so I kicked it down to 2, that was much better - I was able to maintain a speed of 14mph for 60 minutes. It was tough at times, and I thought ok, maybe I'll stop at 30, or 45, but I kept telling myself that I've committed to 60 minutes today and I will complete the 60 minutes. I now know what 60 minutes feels like. So I got off the bike and I felt pretty good, worked up a bit of a sweat. So now it was 10am and time to head home to do some work.
I found it difficult to really focus on anything because I felt so energized, I ended up walking around the yard, picking up trash - moving rocks and bricks, playing with the dog, repairing the sod where some animal dug it up apparently looking for grubs. Then when I finally did go inside I wanted to find a place to track my calories online and I found that www.everydayhealth.com has a great online tool for counting calories you eat and counting calories you burn through exercise. It makes it very easy to see how your intake compares to your goal. To my surprise, when I entered my cycling into the website I found out that I burned off 860 calories for my hour on the cycle - FANTASTIC!!!
So I started filling out my profile on everydayhealth.com while having my snack of a mozzarella cheese stick and an orange (142 calories); I might also add, I also was drinking my 4th water bottle of water. My wife & I each got new bottles they are transparent with some ridges for grip, a locking top and a bottle counter to help keep track of your intake. Each bottle holds 24oz of water (3-8oz glasses) It's called the Intak by Thermos. One thing I learned from The Biggest Loser book is that the water needs to be as COLD as possible. I've heard cold, then I've heard it didn't matter either way, I've never heard a scientific theory as to why it should be cold, until now. Apparently, your body has to warm the water to be able to process it, well if the water is cold your body is working harder to warm the water, hence you're burning calories GENIUS - I love it. See I told you it is simple.
At this point my day begins to normalize and I get back to work, which I won't get into. But its not long after my snack that it's time for lunch - seems like I just ate - I wasn't really hungry, but it says 6 small meals, and I'm committed so I crack open TBL again for ideas. Well, I ran into my first challenge - the suggestions for lunch either - I didn't have the ingredients or didn't really appeal (mostly because I wasn't really hungry). So I started doing something dangerous - I was looking through the cupboards for something that appealed to me. But what I found was tuna - I love tuna salad sandwiches. Now I knew that I couldn't go all out like I have in the past so I read the label. The can of tuna had 2 servings for 50 calories each - I can eat both servings and still only have used 100 calories NICE. Now I want Mayonnaise... uh oh 90 calories for 1 itty-bitty tablespoon *sigh*. Okay I'm committed, so I grab the measuring spoon and a butter knife, I fill the spoon with mayo and level it off with the knife and drop it into the tuna - now I'm at 190 calories, still not bad and it actually tastes good without all the gobs and gobs of mayo I used to put in it. I added a large salad of iceburg lettuce, cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes and 2 Tbspns of a light Raspberry Viniagrette and a Dannon Lite N Fit lowfat Yogurt for a total calorie intake of 451 for lunch.
Now, it is St. Patrick's Day - and I am Irish. I passed on the green beer, but I could not pass up on the Corned Beef & Cabbage. 2.25oz of corned beef & 2 cups of cabbage, 2 WheatThin Flatbreads, and 1 small canned potato, the total for my yummy St. Patrick's Day meal was 325 calories. I weighed my corned beef on our new nutritional food scale, gives the calories, fat, carbs, fiber, and other measurments with pre-programmed data based on the weight of your food. It is a must have if you are truly committed to better eating habits.
At this point, my "Weight Tracker Dashboard" on everydayhealth.com showed that I still had 1500 calories that I could consume - now I had no intention of eating 1500 calories for my evening snack, but I knew I had a lot of flexibility. So I looked at some of my snacks that I used to enjoy - One of my favorites is tortilla chips and salsa. So I looked at the nutritional values and noticed that 6 chips (these are big chips) are 120 calories, so 9 chips (1 1/2 servings) would be 180 calories. And to my surprise - Salsa has very few calories, 2 tablespoons of salsa is only 9 calories, so I had 4 tablespoons and my snack came to 200 calories. Now I do feel guilty eating all that sodium -and I will work on controlling that - but I still ended up only eating about 1400 of my 2000 calorie daily budget - PLUS I burned off another 860 calories so my net intake for the day was only 540 calories.
I drank 5 bottles of water - 15-8oz glasses, that's a lot of water.
What I learned today, is that I need to plan out my day a little better, I'm getting most of everything I need, but I don't want to become counter-productive and jeopardize my health for the sake of fitness. I will continue drinking lots of water, it keeps me feeling full and its much more refreshing that drinking pop. So other than my morning coffee, I have had only water to drink today. Day 1 was pretty easy, I know that it will become more challenging as we move on but I'm committed to this change.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Next time try the starkist product "Tuna Creations." It is a sack of tuna, comes in a variety of flavors (my husband likes "Herb and Garlic" best) The package is 4.5 oz which says it is 2.5 servings at 90 calories per serving...225 for the whole bag then. With the additional flavoring the calorie heavy mayo is less necessary. Wrap it in a high fiber tortilla and you can get full on very little (throw some of your veggies in the wrap even...)
ReplyDeleteYou are doing great so far, and I can see that there are good things in your near future. My husband (who lost 60 pounds 3 years ago and has kept it off) says that the biggest change is that you have to stop deserving treats. His personal choice on the diet was really miserable...really...and now when he looks at food choices, instead of thinking "I deserve to eat that because I had a tough day" etc he thinks "I deserve to not have to diet like that again, so I can do without." Our weight is often less about our food and more about our relationship with food....so be sure to spend time talking with your family, your colleagues, your blog hehehe about why you used to eat the way you did...and about why you are eating the way you are now. Keep it in the forefront (which I think you are doing great so far...but this is early days still.) Looking forawrd to following your experiences. :) k.