does ping pong count?

 

I know I said I was going to try out that exercise last night, but I didn't.  Instead, I went out with a couple girlfriends and ate tons of Mexican food and had three drinks. 1500 calories later, I started to feel a little guilty and started wracking my brain trying to figure out if I could count any activity of the evening as exercise.  We did play ping pong for a bout a half an hour at the second bar we went to.  My calorie tracker says 30 min of ping pong is worth 150 calories.  Hey - I'll take it.  I am not under the delusion, however, that it at all counts as cardio.  Bad Monica.

Yesterday:

Total Calories: 2357

Net Calories: 1660 (411 over)

H2O Intake: 56 oz

Total Exercise: 70 min

Cardio: 0 min

I gotta know

Hey there!  You there!  I want to know -- Is this:

Better than this?:

Should I be doing both?  Anyone?

I've been scouring Shape magazine online looking for other exercises I can do with the ball I got from Abby.  It's taking up space in my little apartment now, and I wanted it, so I better put it to good use.

This one intrigues me:

I'll do it tonight and report back on whether it's one I'll stick with.

I've had a depressing last couple of days, fitness-wise.  I gained weight for like 3 days in a row.  It wasn't a lot, but it still didn't feel good to see the increase on my line graph (yes, it's being tracked on a line graph).  This morning, however, I'm back on the decline.  Drinking water really helps. Especially for a salt fiend like me; I need to drink a lot of water to keep my body at equilibrium or I bloat like a mo-fo.

Yesterday:

Total Calories: 1257

Net Calories: 692 (565 under)

H2O Intake: 64 oz

Total Exercise: 50 min

Cardio: 30 min

bloated

 I woke up this morning at about 6:20 feeling completely groggy.  The stew I made last night was delicious but salty, and no amount of water could combat the bloat that was sure to happen.  When I shuffled into the bathroom and saw my puffy eyelids in the mirror, I wasn't surprised.

I dreaded today's weigh-in because I knew I was going to show a weight increase for the 3rd day in a row.  Argh.  Unsurprisingly, I'd gained a pound since yesterday.  Double argh.  I know it's likely just fluid retention, but it still bums me out.

Yesterday:

Net Calories: 1501 (252 over)

H2O Intake: 64 oz

Total Exercise: 30 min

Cardio: 20 min

This goes to show that another 20 min of cardio would have balanced out my food intake.  Gotta step it up.

ready to hit the gym

 I took the weekend a little easy with the workout, but not so much with the food.  The bacon party I went to did not help.  I managed to squeak a run out on Saturday, but Sunday was a wash.  Yesterday I stayed home, and spent much of the day indoors, doing light exercises (like 4 hrs worth, because I felt so guilty) and then got cabin fever and hit the pavement for a 3.5 mile run.  I ate about 1500 calories yesterday (including two cocktails I had on a date with Andrew), but since I worked off roughly 1000 calories, my net was around 500.  As it turns out, my calories came from a fairly balanced ratio, which is ok since I have a hard time hitting that recommended 50/30/20 ratio I've been talking about.

4 days away from the gym is quite enough to get me anxious to go back and kick into gear.  Today at lunch I scooted over there and snuck in 20 minutes of cardio - 10 on the treadmill and 10 on the elliptical.  It felt great.  I'm going back right after work to finish things off.  I've got a plan for 10 min on the rowing machine followed by my abs work-out.  I ate a lot, though, so maybe I'll hula hoop a little too before BL tonight.

Yesterday:

Net Calories: 501

H2O Intake: 40 oz

Total Exercise: 280 min

Cardio: 40 min
Yay!

first monthly check-in

So I'm off to a positive start.  I've lost 4 lbs, 3.5 inches from my waist, 2.5 inches from my hips, 11% body fat (holy moly!), and am down 0.6 points on my BMI.  I want to continue to work toward my goal at a faster rate, but I want to make sure it's sustainable and realistic for my lifestyle.

I'm also feeling the need to keep myself accountable with more hard numbers, so each post I'm going to report what I did the day before to work toward my goal, diet-, exercise-, and hydration-wise.

Yesterday:

Net Calories: 1,778 (529 over)

H2O Intake: 40 oz

Total Exercise: 40 min

Cardio: 20 min

a delicious nemesis

Yesterday I had a great day, workout-wise and eating-wise.  Mid-day Wednesday was gloriously sunny and crisp so I took the opportunity at my lunch hour to go out and run.  It was fantastic.  Plus, I'm still sore from my work-out the day before.  In that sense, I feel really good.

After work yesterday, in an effort to stay away as long as possible while my man hosted the fellas for poker night, I went out with some folks to belltown for a light dinner... and drinks.  The whole evening I thought to myself, "edamame, curried cauliflower, and sushi aren't so bad but these cocktails are gonna get me!"

Even with that in mind, I enjoyed three gin and ginger ales during the course of the evening.  They were fantastic.  When I 'fessed up to all of last night's indulgences on the Daily Plate this morning, I noticed I was 600 calories over my recommended intake - about 3 gin and ginger ales, I'd say.  I knew it.

This is just further confirmation that I need to cut down those cocktails that go down so easily and stick to wine, which is under 100 calories a glass and would have cut the impact of my "oops" in half.

checking in today

Lately I've been great with my eating - I still indulge a little, but I've really kept it in check.  I've made changes like pouring myself a glass of water when I wanted a second cup of coffee (with cream and sugar, of course), and I've limited my portions to half of what I was eating before, which was a lot.  I like to eat, I like going out to restaurants, and when something is delicious, it's easy to just keep going rather than setting it aside and boxing it up to go.  Not anymore - I've become so much more portion-conscious.

I've also taken to eating a morning snack at about 11.  I've found that it helps two-fold: If I go to the gym at lunch I feel stronger during my workout if I'm not starving, and if I have lunch with a friend, I'm much better about stopping when I've eaten a reasonable helping because I'm not starting from a rumbling tummy.  Today I ate a dressingless version of Ina Garten's grapefruit and avocado salad.  It's not low cal, but it tasted fresh and I don't feel guilty about it.  I figure as long as I get some cardio in, I'm good to go.  It's a glorious day today and a run to the Fremont Bridge and back might be just the ticket.

I'm finding that while I'm doing great with the diet portion of my life, I need to step it up with the work-outs.  I'm not getting 30 minutes every day like I want to.  Maybe it's every other day, or every two days.  Some of this is my busy schedule, some of it is my own lack of motivation on a given day.  Yesterday I did 40 minutes of strength training but zero cardio.  My goal is to make the cardio constant and the weights an additional bonus.  The trick is getting into a groove and making the time.

Friday is my monthly weigh-in.  Hopefully I'll have some good numbers to report to you.

(almost) guilt free salad

Guys, I LOVE salad. I do. And I've never really been one for those awful fatty ranch type creamy dressings. I think ranch is abhorrent, personally. I'm perfectly happy with a vinaigrette but the ones you buy have all sorts of weird coagulants and preservatives, and I'm not really into that. Recently I've been hooked on this glorious dressing. It's fresh and bright and relies on flavor rather than fat. My current favorite canvas for this is butter lettuce, toasted hazelnuts, and parmesan. And yes, I TOTALLY stole that idea from Le Pichet.

Zest from 1/2 lemon

Juice of 1 lemon

1/4c white wine or champagne vinegar (I ran out of this last time and used red wine vinegar and no harm was done)

2T prepared dijon mustard

2T olive oil

cracked black pepper & salt to taste

Put all of that good stuff in a covered jar, shiggidy shake it up, and toss a couple of tablespoons on your next bowl of fresh veggies. It'd also be killer as a marinade for chicken. Just sayin'.

guilty.

I couldn't help it.  Even greater than my popcorn weakness is my cheese weakness.

Last week our office was host to a group who used our large conference room as a classroom space.   The acoustics of our building amplify everything.  We're used to it and adapt our voices to the environment.  These folks are used to regular buildings, and therefore made a ruckus.  As a thank-you and a peace-offering, they sent us a giant cheese plate today.  Brie.  Chevre.  Stilton.  I sampled everything and then went back for seconds.

I'm bustin' outta my belt, folks.  This is not cute.  I generally have a rule - if I've had a tasty treat and enjoyed it, I don't need to go back and get more.  Cheese apparently doesn't feel that my rules apply, and it insists I continue to indulge.  I can't say no!  Argh!

a little help from Shape

For Christmas my mom gave me a subscription to Shape Magazine because I picked it up during our last weekend away as a family and found it very inspiring.  Today I decided to browse the website a little and found they have something called a virtual trainer.  You enter in your stats and answer some questions on what workouts you like, what you're willing to do, and they give you some suggestions of workouts to try.  I signed up this afternoon.  This is what the web interface looks like:

I haven't added to it yet, so my log looks preeeetty empty.  I want to get more into pilates, but I want to do them at home to get the hang of it first and then take my pilate moves on the town... or at least to a class.  Shape has really good reference pictures to illustrate how to do the moves, so I'm optimistic.

Another interesting tool I found on Shape.com was a more thorough way to estimate the % body fat.  The livestrong tool just asks for three measurements:  your waist, your neck, and your hips.  Shape doesn't factor in your hips, but in addition to the waist and neck, you also measure your forearm, bicep, and thigh.   I feel like this is a more accurate way to determine body shape and fat percentage.  livestrong has me at 33.8% with their measuring method, while Shape has me at 27.6%.  I'm more inclined to believe Shape's assessment, just because it's a little more thorough.  Here's the target areas:

Apparently I'm ok, but I'd like to get down into the 24-ish range.  So back to pilates.  Anyone have any favorite moves?  I'm open to tips!

ab workout ideas

I need to mix up my ab workouts.  Lately I've been doing the wii hula hoop, which has helped a lot, and then the old standard planks - 50 sec straight on and then 50 sec for each side, 50 regular crunches, 50 side twist crunches on each side, and then from my back I extend my legs and draw a circle in the air with my toes, not quite touching my heels to the floor at the bottom of every circle, 25 in each direction.  So that's all well and good, but I need more.  I need a switch hitter to my standards so I don't dread them.  I also don't want them to be too complicated or using machines that everyone uses and I can never get to. 

Today at lunch (just 30 minutes from now) I'm going to try out the captain's chair for a little switch-up.  Shape Magazine's Oct issue (also the inspiration for this blog) had an article on how to work out your abs effectively, and the captain's chair was one of the exercises.  I'm going to try some of their tips and see where it gets me.  This will probably only be a lunchtime one because after work the gym is packed and I'm not in the business of waiting for machines.  Any other suggestions?

walkin'

I don't know what the hell I was doing all morning, but it wasn't dishes and it wasn't packing my gym bag.  Finally, at 7:40 this morning when I realized there was no way I was getting out the door on time with everthing I'd planned, I ran frantically around grabbing whatever I could.  Got my shoes, my makeup bag, and a little frozen-lunch-whatever.  It looked like coconut curry quinoa with chicken from what I could tell.

The weather was pretty decent at noon today, so instead of going to the gym like I had planned to if I'd been able to get my act together, I just put on my shoes and struck out down Westlake.  It was a nice little 30 min trip before I dug into my frozen lunch.

Turns out what I thought was quinoa with chicken fir my lunch was actually old frozen potato salad.  Dangit.  Not gonna eat that.  Luckily there's a Whole Foods nearby.  I went and got some cholay chicken over rice and zuke.  It was delicious, but about 45 minutes later I was not feeling so hot.  I'm better now, but I'm wondering if my lunch had anything to do with my upset tummy.  Don't worry - no ralphing.

Anyway, I'm feeling good that I squeaked a walk in today because the rain came back shortly thereafter.

Overall, I'm noticing my body is leaner and firmer.  It's a good feeling.  After watching Biggest Loser last night, I had a dream about having a Jillian-style trainer and I came out with rock-star abs.  My 2010 goal is to get a midsection I'm proud of - something I've never had before.

A goal!

Holler!
Last night Monica and Ani came over to wii and watch the Biggest Loser. I love that show. I made pork chops, green beans, and brown rice. Healthy! (Monica what's the calorie tally on those?)
Weighing in on the wii I was about 4 pounds heavier than usual - but that was after I ate dinner. This morning when I weighed in I was 4.5 pounds less than last night! Sweet.

My goal, you ask? Some friends of mine are getting married in beautiful Cabo San Lucas next month. I am attempting to go on standby tickets, so in the event that I get lucky and get my butt there, I'll be on a beach and in photos so let's not embarrass ourselves, hmmm? My goal is 10 lbs in 5 weeks - a little accelerated but not unhealthy. LET'S GO.

a serious test in restraint

Ladies, wish me well.  I have a whole tupperware of molasses spice cookies in my file cabinet drawer and I'm starving.  Not only did I make them with regular wheat flour (for other people), but I'm also trying to limit my carb intake to 55g per day.  I'm at 53.  Basically I need to eat a giant hunk of meat and nothing else.  That means none of these:

Oh the pain!

I'm pumped to get together with some of my favorite ladies tonight and tune in for another episode of Biggest Loser!  Maybe we'll wii-hulahoop too!

Digressions

My cousin works for Frito-Lay. Last summer when we were all camping, he pawned off boxes and boxes and boxes of these single-serving bags of chips on us. I thought I might eat them but realized they were all disgusting except for this chile piquin - nice and spicy! However, they were sitting in a box in my bedroom since April, and I wasn't eating them, because why would I eat potato chips? Empty calories, and I don't even love them that much. I was going to take them to movie night at my brother's house (weekly gathering of ~20 of our friends, I make dinner and Mike picks a crap movie) but I forgot them. I drove to work today and you know that people in an office will eat anything, so I left them in the breakroom.

I had a deadline today and didn't get a second to breathe until 3 pm. That's a long time since my breakfast of cold cereal at 730 am. It's raining outside though, and I'm in heels and my hair looks pretty good, so I don't feel like going anywhere, especially since there's not much on offer 'round these parts. So I'm choosing to eat this bag of potato chips and a diet coke for lunch, and wasting these 300 empty calories on a whole lotta nothing. From a caloric standpoint, I am partially accepting it because it's INSTEAD OF and not IN ADDITION to real calories, but in a way that makes it worse because I'm not getting any actual nutrients. I am making dinner for Monica and Ani though, so I still have a chance to redeem myself.

a week in review

I thought I'd give you a little preview into my journey toward developing healthy eating.  Y'know, so I still feel accountable.  Here's the progression of the past week:

 

I'm getting better, right?  Some days it's really hard to keep the carbs at a reasonable level.Still, it's not quite looking like this:

I'm trying.  Being so aware of the ratios has been an interesting experience.  It makes eating better a sort of game.  I like that.

it's good for your heart, right?

Despite drinking an entire bottle of wine on Saturday night, I feel pretty good about my calorie intake and exercise.  Abby and I got together like old times to speed walk and eat something healthy.  It was, over-all, a weekend of portion control and getting outside at least twice a day.  I also remembered how much I love walking. 

I started eating my new breakfast, which is egg whites, spinach, and greek yogurt, and it needs some tweaking but working more protein into meals has made for a happy household overall.  I definitely feel better, and the man in my life is happy too.  The daily plate is definitely to credit with opening my eyes to what I'm eating and how to alter subconscious bad habits into conscious good ones.

I feel like I'm approaching my goal at a decent pace and I'm happy with my progress so far.

four victories and something to work on

I have been doing really well lately, even with some minor set-backs.

1. I worked out for 40 min at lunch yesterday
2. I stayed within my suggested daily calorie intake
3. I drank a ton of water
   
4. My scale said 166 today (but that was before breakfast; does it still count?)
   

So that's all well and good, but I still need to work on my calorie ratios.  They look nothing like what Jillian suggested:

See?  Still way too many carbs.  I guess I'm still getting used to the idea of eating a motherload of protien and minimal carbs.  It's tough, man!

I'm meeting an old friend from my girlchoir days for lunch today.  Haven't seen her in 10 years.  I'm pretty excited.  Just hope I can stick to my guns about eating well - restaurants are tough, man!

popcorn problem

I was doing so great yesterday.  I worked out twice, avoided treats, limited myself to one cup of coffee with coffee mate, and drank a ton of water.  Then I went to a movie with friends after work.  I was going to be strong, I really was.  I even ate two cups of greek yogurt (a protein powerhouse) so I would have better will power.  But I didn't realize how strong my love of popcorn is.

Ani said she'd split it with me, which made the idea of getting movie popcorn not such a bad idea.  Then I went ahead and ate the whole damn thing.  Sorry Anster; I didn't anticipate having that reaction.  I woke up this morning totally swollen and sleepy.  Dang salt.  I should probably just stay away from popcorn altogether.  It's for the best.

*As a side note, I would like to add that It's Complicated is definitely worth seeing and I LOVE Alec Baldwin even more than before.

guess what

I weighed in this morning after eating breakfast, and have struck 167.  Yay and double-yay!  I then did 20 minutes of wii-fit yoga before jumping in the shower.

Anyone else watch Biggest Loser and cry last night?  I sure did.  I love that show.

getting tips from Jillian

Me again.  Tonight is the season premier of Biggest Loser (not that I have a tv to watch it, but I like to catch snippets now and then), and like all weight-loss stories and before/after pictures, I'm inspired.  And I love Jillian; she's no-BS.  I went to her website yesterday to see what she had to say about me and my quest.  I'm not going to spend the $4/week to sign up for the program, but I did enjoy entering my data into the widgets to see what magic numbers they would spit back at me.  Apparently because I crave salty foods and meats and cheeses as snacks, this means that half my calories should come from protein, and only a fifth from carbs.  Seriously!  I'm supposed to eat more fat than carbs!  I included a visual for us all.

Ok so now to talk about my victories and shortcomings of late:

Yesterday I was totally lame about working out.  I just wasn't up to it, and I know that's no excuse.  I know my body and I know that I can't just cut back calories and expect to lose weight.  It's an all-inclusive effort.

Today is probably going to be a light day on the work-out front too.  I got up early and did 30 min of calisthenics this morning to give my metabolism a little rev.  I've eaten sensibly for two days (minus the half cup of rocky road I somehow needed after dinner last night).

Food-wise, one thing that seems to be keeping me on track is having a variety of vegetables around.  Last week I roasted a whole chicken, so when I get home from work each night, I cut up a quarter of a red onion, saute it in a little olive oil, ad a clove of garlic, minced, and then cut up a head of broccoli or one zucchini and add it to the mix.  While the vegetables are cooking, I pull some chicken off the bone until I have a decent pile.  I add that to the veggie mix and cook just long enough for the meat to warm.  A little salt and pepper to taste and it's ready.  I can probably have it fridge to table in 10 min.  In the past I probably would have had some rice to go with it, but let's be honest:  I don't really need it.  Even brown rice isn't that great for me.  Any recipe ideas for high-protein, low/no-carb dinners?

sausage city, sweetheart

Oh!  Did I tell you about the time I sausaged out of the top of my NYE dress?  Yep.  Totally did.  I don't know what the hell is going on with me.  I wore the dresss in September for Sabina's wedding, and it was totally acceptable.  Then the day before new year's eve I put on this dress right here:

I had a MUFFIN TOP coming out over the bodice!  WTF!  If I stood a certain way, it looked ok, but I was going to a fabulous party and I did not want to have to worry about standing a certain way all night.  Know what I mean?  I ended up just wearing a black cocktail dress that I have had forever, loaned out a million times (because it looks good on literally every one of my friends), and trusted not to do me wrong in pictures.

Luckily, Jordan's strategically placed silly NYE hat covers the belly that I'm positive I did not remember to suck in.  Thanks, Jordan! :)

So the moral of this story is, I have an additional side goal: I do not want to look like a stuffed sausage the next time I put that dress on.  There's no reason for that.

wtf granola??

I was all excited about this cholesterol-free breakfast I love, but the calorie count is pretty much through the roof.  700 calories is ridiculous!  I feel tricked!  Am I just having sticker shock or do you think it's worth it?

Here's what's in it:
1cup granola mix:
low-fat granola with pumpkin seeds and flax seeds
dried cherries
sliced almonds
raw walnuts
1/2 cup greek yogurt
1/2 cup fruit

Half an english muffin with a tbsp of cream cheese and an egg on top is only 300 calories including my coffee with coffeemate.  Is it worth it to double my calories and go cholesterol-free?  Am I being too anal about the whole thing?  Since I'm only supposed to take in a net of 1600 calories I'm feeling a little miserly.

Also, it's been over a week and I'm still at the same weight.  I kind of feel like I suck.  Maybe I should just take delight in the fact that I didn't gain any weight during the holidays, but I still feel a little defeated.  Any suggestions?

meet Abby

Hi, kids.

I don't have a good place to take a "before" picture, in schlumpy clothes, so here's one where I actually am wearing flattering clothes but still am a little less svelte than I'd like to be. Clearly that's me on the right because everyone else in this picture looks amazing. Note meaty arms and chunky midsection. We won't talk about my chest, because I'm German and I'm pretty sure I can't avoid it, but historically I can shave off a cup size or two if I lose a little excess pudge.

Laying it all out on the table like Monica did, my beginning stats:

Age: 28

Height: 5'6"

Weight: 170

Waist: 34"

Hips: (forgot to measure)

BMI 27.4 (according to the Wii Fit)

Size: Large/12

I too got a wii fit for christmas, so Monica and I have been playing it together and separately. I think it's REALLY fun, and sadly the fact that it makes fun of you for being overweight/not working out makes it easier to stick with - you want to show that game who's boss.

My goal weight is 155 and to easily fit into a size 10- I've been an 8 before but I honestly don't think that's realistic. I look and feel great at 155 and I'm very comfortable there. Mostly I just want more toned arms and less muffin top in jeans.

Two years ago when our friend Michela was getting married, and Monica and I were both bridesmaids, we did workouts together and stopped drinking beer entirely. I dropped 10 lbs like it's no big deal just because of the beer. How sad is that? I hate to give it up, and admittedly I drink much less now, but I think it's going to have to get cut out again. I'll allow myself a drink or two once or twice a week, but I'm going to be much more rigorous about keeping it very limited. Goodbye beer, you nectar of the gods. Let's still be friends.

So that's my situation. Admitting my chubby tendencies to the internets will hopefully guilt me into sticking to my guns. Wish me luck!

love, mcnabbs