May 21

Breakfast:
Isagenix shake- 240 cals
Midmorning snack:
Fruit bar- 130 cals
Almonds- 150
Lunch:
Chicken sandwich with spinach, avocado, and miracle whip- 240 cals
Afternoon snack:
Protein shake- 120 cals
Dinner:
On the Border Chicken Salsa Fresca- I may have eaten 460 cals of that meal... it wasn't good but I was hungry
Ate some animal crackers when I got home from dinner cuz I was still hungry! 200 cals

Total: 1540
Burned 590 at the gym with a great run. Still falling short of the number of calories I'm told to get, but I don't feel like I'm starving myself by any means so I'm not going to stress about it. If it seems weird that I drink shakes during the day, it's really only because of the simplicity of them. I like getting the protein for breakfast but I'm just not an egg in the morning person. It's also quite easy to mix a shake up really quick, I know how many calories they are, and I like them.
As for the vitamins I take, I'm currently taking the GNC prenatal vitamin pack, which includes a fish oil pill and a calcium pill. Obviously I'm not pregnant, but I will be by the end of the year and it's always good for women to get those extra vitamins anyway. I also take a liver and kidney detox pill because of my gallbladder problems and some natural supplements for the same reason. I've kind of been slacking on taking everything lately so I need to get back to it... shame on me. There are a lot of great vitamins out there with all sorts of good stuff, but they can be very pricey. We'll probably start looking for a better vitamin for me soon so I'll let you know what we find, but the ones I'm taking aren't bad. As for the protein powder that we drink, incase you're interested, it's the Beverly International which is one of the best. Very low in carbs and calories but tastes great, even in water. I recommend protein shakes for people who do a lot of weight lifting like we do.
Ok, girls night out went way past my bed time so I'm off... more tomorrow!

May 20... eh

Breakfast:
Isagenix shake- 240 cals
1 slice of bread w/ smidge of pb- 60 cals
Lunch:
Out to lunch with Mike today! I got a turkey sandwich from Corner Bakery and a small bowl of soup-- approximately 500 cals
Snack:
apple- 55 cals
Skippy natural pb- 180 cals
Dinner:
Quiznos small Tuscan Turkey sandwich- 410 cals
BBQ Baked Lays- 120 cals

Total: 1565 Calories
Ok so we ate out for lunch and dinner today. Lunch was just a fun, middle-of-the-week treat with Mike. By dinner, the headache that had been bothering me throughout the day got worse and I just didn't feel like cooking. Mike insisted on running out to grab something and Quiznos was his choice. The Tuscan Turkey sandwich is actually a fairly low calorie choice. Next time I'd do it without the cheese and a lot less of the sauce... but Mike was getting dinner and I didn't want to bug him with special orders. I also didn't work out today... I only feel slightly guilty about that. I wish that I had run this morning, but I've been struggling to get enough calories in already this week so it certainly won't kill me. Tomorrow will be a good workout so I'll make up for it.

Why didn't I do this sooner??

As we all know, healthy eating can be somewhat expensive. Mike and I willingly take on that expense because the benefits far outweigh the costs, but I'm always happy to save a little money where I can. Today, I believe I've come accross a solution that will save me a little money and probably some time as well. I went to Costco and stocked up on meat. We're a small family, so buying food at Costco just always seemed a little much for us. Well, today I bought a big pack of pork chops, a large fillet of salmon, a bunch of chicken, 4 pounds of ground turkey breast meat, some frozen mahi mahi, fresh scallops, and a rotisserie chicken. Tonight, I took the time to portion it all out and stick in the freezer what we won't use immediately. We'll get 5 meals out of the pork chops, 4 out of the salmon, 4 out of the turkey, 5 out of the chicken, 4 out of the mahi mahi, 2 out of the scallops, and the rotisserie chicken will serve as a lunch options to go on a salad, sandwich, or whatever else seems tasty. That's a month worth of meat in my freezer for somewhere around $150. I spent less per pound on everything I bought at Costco than I would at Kroger and it's all fresh (well, except for the frozen mahi mahi) and very healthy. This will likely make meal planning easier and it will save me from those random trips to the grocery store when I have nothing around to cook. Plus, it's all portioned out so I'll only cook what Mike and I will eat in one meal which means that I won't be throwing food away when it doesn't get eaten later. (Hmm... maybe I'll even go a step further and sit down one day and come up with a bunch of meal plans for all of this meat so I don't have to think about that either... maybe.) Is this brilliant or have you all been doing this all along and I'm an idiot for not doing it sooner? I can't take any credit for the idea-- this came from my sister, Kristen, who is also a very healthy eater. I'm thinking that I'll continue doing this from now on and I'll try to start going to the Famer's Market for produce. I hear it's less expensive and better there so we'll see. Plus it's just fun! Just thought I'd share what seems like a great plan for our family incase it might work for any of you as well. Goodnight!

May 19... still figuring things out!

Breakfast:
Isagenix shake- 240 cals.
Post workout snack:
Protein shake- 120 cals.
Lunch:
Leftover chicken- 289 cals
Salad- 50 cals
Dressing- 35 cals
Rice- 50 cals
Snack:
1 medium apple- 55 cals
2 tbs. almond butter- 190 cals
Pretzels- app. 100 cals
Dinner:
5 scallops cooked in olive oil, lemon juice, with lemon pepper- app. 120 cals.
Salad- 70 cals
1/2 baked potato with 1 tsp. light butter- 100 cals
1/2 cup green beans- 20 cals
Other random bites here and there (small handful of grapes, a few croutons, a goldfish or two)-- maybe 100 cals
Total for the day: 1416!!
All of this and I am nowhere near where I need to be. I actually burned 810 calories at the gym today so technically, I should be consuming somewhere near the 2200 calories mark. Ice cream anyone?!? Ok, I need to plan better. Obviously, I'm quite used to eating very few calories so it's going to be hard to readjust. I'm not going to allow myself several hundred calories of junk by any means, but I just need to be getting more good stuff in me. Maybe instead of the shakes for breakfast, I need to start eating eggs and veggies, maybe some yogurt, or something a little more hearty. And Meridith, I'm completely with you on the healthy fats. That's why I eat the natural peanut butter and almonds and I always cook my meat with some olive oil. Plus, the salad dressing that I eat is an olive oil mixture so I get it there too. I really don't feel like I'm starving myself, but I guess I need to fuel my body more for the intense workouts that I get. I'll do better tomorrow. For now, maybe I'll go have some pineapple and cottage cheese or something. :)

May 18, 2009 at a glance

Breakfast: Isagenix shake- 240 calories
Snack: Medium apple- 55 calories
2 tbs. skippy natural peanut butter- 180 calories
Lunch: 1 can tuna fish- 150 calories
1 tbsp. miracle whip- 35 calories
1 slice reduced-cal. wheat bread- 40 calories
Protein shake- 120 calories
Dinner: Cilantro Lime Chicken (YUM! Recipe on Heather's blog).- 289 calories
Salad with lots of tasty veggies- 70 calories
Greek vinegrette dressing- 35 calories
Mexican Rice- 100 calories
Black bean salsa- 40 calories
Total Consumed: 1354 Calories

Workout: 40-minutes interval run. 419 calories burned. Technically, according to the plan the trainer put me on, I still need to take in 531 calories. I'll eat a light snack but I don't suspect I'll get quite that many by the end of the day. Guess I can throw in more calories tomorrow.

Um... yeah

Ok, so this is going to kick my rear end. I met with the trainer again today to go over the work out portion in greater detail. Here's the deal--
So, as you may or may not know, there are certain heart rate zones that achieve different purposes. Everyone's zones vary and they can change over time and depending on level of fitness. I learned that my "Base" in in Zone 2. Base is the heart rate at which your body burns the most calories while still using fat for fuel. Once you get out of the base level, you are burning more carbohydrate calories and fewer fat calories. The ideal is to burn more fat calories. So, my base is 173-178 bpm. My "Threshold" is 183 bpm, which is the last stop for burning fat. Beyond that, I would be burning nothing but carbs and over exerting myself. Because of all of the running I've done, these are pretty high, which is great, but it means that I have to work pretty hard to reach the highest level of efficiency. As I proceed with zone training, my threshold heart rate will increase and I will also see and increase in the percentage of fat that I burn while working in Zone 3. The ideal is to burn mostly fat calories while working in zone 3. Still with me? Some of you may not care about this, but I thought it was interesting and potentially helpful to others.
What does this mean for my workouts? Well, I'll do zone training, working in each zone for certain periods of time in order to burn more fat and increase my body's efficiency. On days that I do just cardio, I'll warm up at zone 1 (163-173) for 5 minutes then move to zone 2 (173-178) for two minutes, then move to zone 3 (178-183) for 3 minutes. I'll alternate with intervals of zone 2 and 3 to reach a 45 minute workout and then cool down in zone 1 for five minutes. Each week, I'll add another interval until I get to 60 minutes and then the trainer will change my workout again.
I did this today and yowsa! I didn't even get to zone 1 until I was running at a 6.7 mph pace, then it took running at 7.4 to get to zone 2, and on up to 8.5 to get to zone 3. That's pretty speedy! I did it, but it was tough. Fortunately, once I got my heart rate going, I didn't have to run quite that fast to keep it up, but it was definitely an intense workout. I can certainly see how working out like this will make a difference. I guess it was about time.
As for the days I do strength training, my cardio will consist of a 5-minute warm up, 30 minutes in zone 2 and 5 minute cool down in zone 1.
Day 1 and I am so glad I did this!! It's really nice to know what I'm doing instead of guessing and hoping. I realize that this may not be available to all, but if you can do it, I highly recommend it, especially if you've plateaud like I have. Obviously, working out at the same intensity as I was a year ago just wasn't cutting it anymore. When you reach higher levels of fitness, you have to step up your game. I also highly recommend getting a heart rate monitor and watch. I love mine! It's just so great knowing that I'm working out effectively. So now I just keep plugging away at this and see what happens. Thanks for all of the support I'm getting. Hopefully this information is helpful to more than just me. :)

The Results

So I went in for the metabolic tests on Saturday. It was extremely difficult to get up at 5:30 after a very late night, particularly given that it was pouring rain outside and I just wanted to sleeeeep... but, I made it for my 6 am appointment. First up: calorie assessment. I sat comfortably in a chair with a mask that covered my nose and mouth and breathed into a machine that monitored my carbon monoxide output vs. carbon dioxide intake for about 20 minutes. From that, the computer program determined my resting metabolic rate to tell me exactly how many calories I should be consuming. It wasn't all that difficult, except that I was becoming extremely claustrophobic with the mask on and I wonder if that affected my breathing or the results??? And why is it that it's so much harder to actually relax just because someone tells you to relax? I was thinking about being completely relaxed to the point that I was not so relaxed at all at points. Stupid mind games. Oh well. The test ended and I was told that I should be taking in no less than 1466 calories a day. If I maintain that rate, I can expect to lose 3/4- 1 pound a week (which at this point sounds great... it's possible that I'll lose more, but the trainer didn't want me to expect too much in case it doesn't happen some weeks). Of course, if I work out and burn 600 calories in a day, then I need to add 600 calories to my diet. The trainer explained that because I have likely been consuming fewer calories than I've needed recently, my body has adjusted to maintaining at that number of calories and stores fat despite the fact that I'm working hard to burn it. Theoretically, if I give my body what it really needs, it will respond in kind and do what I want it to. We shall see. I have avoided counting calories to this point but it appears that in order to get to the next level, I need to get a little more serious. And while 1466 calories seems somewhat low, I was told that the number will actually increase as I reach new levels of fitness. Weight lifting is apparently key here and while I have been doing that four days a week for more than two years (I worked out when I was prego), I haven't changed things enough to stimulate muscle growth and strength for added calorie burn. My body got very accustomed to what I was doing so it's a good thing I've recently changed gyms and my entire program.
The next test was the cardio test. I was hooked up to the same mask and got on a treadmill while the trainer monitored my heart rate and breathing to determine my cardio fitness and optimal fat burning heart rate zones. This was actually fairly painful. I was only on the treadmill for 12 minutes or so but the mask was killing me! I was so claustrophobic on this test that I just wanted to tear it off. She had me gradually increase the speed and incline to reach my maximum rate so I was in some pain by the last couple of minutes. I made it through and although we have not yet had the chance to discuss the results, I did learn a few things. First of all, when it comes to cardio fitness, I'm in the top 96th percent of my demographic. I was pretty happy about that... looks like all of that running has paid off and left me with a happy heart! I learned that my optimal fat burning heart rate zone is 173-178 bpm. (That's actually higher than most people's would be so don't go by that for your own target.) I'll have my heart rate monitor and watch, which will programmed with 12 weeks of workouts so that I can work out much more efficiently. I'm meeting with the trainer again tomorrow to talk more about the work out part and to get on a program (we ran out of time on Saturday) so we'll see what more she says. It has all been very interesting to learn about and I'm looking forward to seeing how this affects my progress. I am committed to sticking with the 12-week- program to really put this to the test. And now that I'll be counting calories fairly religously, I'll likely start keeping track of all of that here, as well as menu plans and recipes. It's going to be great to have all of this to look back to after I've had more babies and need to do it all over again. Isn't being a woman grand?? :)