Now I know how the folks on Biggest Loser feel

when they step on the scale for the weekly weigh in and about fall over in shock to find out they’ve lost NOTHING.

Yep. Nothing.

This friggin muscle I’m building better start burning calories for me soon.  (Though it makes me glad I’m tracking what I eat so carefully…at least I know it’s not my fault for sneaking cookies or eating way more calories than I think I am.)

So much for hoping to be down ten pounds before we head to Italy.

*grumble, grumble, grumble*

A Low-Carb Rant

Let me preface this by saying this is not aimed at any of the players who have opted for low-carb diet approaches.  Instead, it’s aimed at the people who keep telling me I need to “cut my carbs” to lose weight.

Stop already!

Carbs are not evil! They are not evil, they are not evil, they are not evil!

Processed, empty carbs like white flour, white sugar and other “crap” are bad for you. The carbs in veggies and whole grains are NOT bad for you. You do NOT need to cut them from your diet to lose weight. Yes, it may speed the process for some people, but once again, carbs are not bad, nor evil!

So, let me once again share my diet philosophy and explain to you why I am not “dropping my carbs.”

Here are the 6 key points I believe in for losing weight.

1.) Get the recommended 25 grams of fiber a day (your body NEEDS this and it helps you feel full on less food).

2.) Get at least 75 grams of protein a day (so I can build muscle while weight training).

3.) Focus on whole grains and veggies that are high in fiber and protein.

4.)  Eat small amounts of lean meats and organic dairy and focus on good fats like those in nuts and oils.

5.) Combine cardio exercise with weight training.

And most importantly…

6.) Eat less calories than your body burns in a day.

I am not on a diet. I am changing the way I eat to get my body as healthy as possible. This is not going to result in me losing weight as quickly a some contestants, but it will result in me losing weight and changing my habits over the next two months in a sustainable way. Sure, when I reach my goal weight I’ll be able to eat more calories each day while I maintain, but I won’t be changing WHAT I eat. Instead I’ll change how much I eat.

Now, here’s the thing about me and carbs; the reason why I refuse to “give them up” and instead focus on eating the RIGHT carbs. If you are eating WHOLE foods in as close a state as God made them as possible, then no one will ever convince me carbs are bad.

God doesn’t make crap. We might take what He made and turn it into crap, but God does not make crap. No one ever died from eating a diet rich in whole foods.

So please. I appreciate the support, the well-wishing and the suggestions, but let’s chill on the “drop the carbs” talk on this area of the blog, ok? Ain’t gonna happen. I like fruits, veggies and couscous too much.

/rant (and back to happy and cheerful Jen)

Meals for the Day 2/11/08

02/11/08 - Breakfast

Monday is a gym day, so had to start off with some nice, substantial Kashi.

Breakfast: 265 calories, 4.5 grams fat, 44 grams carbs, 8 grams fiber, 15 grams protein

02/11/08 - Lunch

Came home from the gym feeling pretty starved. Yesterday was pretty light on the fiber, so I decided to bulk up with some greens. Nice, big salad with all the veggie fixings. I threw some chicken on there, but left off the cheese. Also used the new Ken’s “spray” dressing because it’s only got one calorie per spray. 25 sprays did the trick.

Also, a repeat of yesterday’s bowl of fresh pineapple with fat free cottage cheese.

Lunch: 400 calories, 5 grams fat, 48.5 grams carbs, 8.5 grams fiber, 50 grams protein

02/11/08 - Dinner

Who says you can’t eat yummy food while “on a diet?” This was probably the best dinner I’ve had since the contest started.

I grilled some mahi mahi filets with some garlic pepper and salt. I paired that with asian style steamed veggies and some garlic and olive oil couscous. I served the couscous on a bed of chopped baby spinach and topped it with red onion, green onion, grape tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and a splash of olive oil.

Mmmm.

Dinner: 532 calories, 21.5 grams fat, 49.5 grams carbs, 6.5 grams fiber, 33.5 grams protein

02/11/08 - Dessert

Mmm….Kashi cookie and milk.

Snack: 220 calories, 5 grams fat, 34 grams carbs, 3 grams fiber, 10 grams protein

Exercise

Another great day at the gym. I changed up my routine a bit today to keep it fresh. Started off with 15 minutes on the treadmill at an 8% incline. I moved from there to the weights for 20 minutes of lifting, then headed to the elliptical for 25 minutes of cross training. Today might be the first day I didn’t feel like I was going to just die during my work out. I hope that’s a good sign.

Total calories burned: 450

Daily Total: 1317 calories, 36 grams fat, 176 grams carbs, 26 grams fiber, 108.5 grams protein

Net calories for the day: 1317 - 450 = 967 calories

Oh yeah, I’m so having cookies and milk and updating this later tonight.

Slowing on the loss…

I knew week two wouldn’t see near as much loss as week one as my body would now be more used to the lower calories, but I’m bummed to see I haven’t lost anything since Friday.

That said, I know why. I’ve been working hard at the gym and here at the house with Yoga to not only burn calories but to build muscle. I’ve been doing weight training since early November and with the Yoga and the cross training on the Elliptical, I’m building muscles even with my cardio activity.

We all know muscle weighs more than fat, so as I build muscle, my weight loss is going to low (at least for a bit.) That’s why I’m glad I bought the scale I have. It not only shows my weight and my BMR to tell me how many calories I need, it also tells me my percentage body fat and my percentage body water.

While I haven’t lost any weight the last several days, I am seeing my % body fat go down. It started at 42% (ugh, can you imagine?) and dropped to around 40% last week. In the last two days, it’s dropped to 37%, while my body weight has stayed the same. That means I AM building more muscle, which explains why I’m losing inches but not weight.

The plus side of this is more muscle = more efficient burning of calories. So, if I can keep this up, I may temporarily stall in my weight loss, but I’ll eventually pick it back up and drop at a better rate. So don’t go getting overconfident my comrades in consumption, I may end up losing this week, but I’m building a lean, mean, calorie burning machine to take you out in the home stretch!

Another Side Challenge…

Elizabeth over at Able Reach is “sympathy dieting” with those of us in the SEOs Fight Fat contest.

She’s also issued a challenge.

If each of the eleven SEOs at SEOs Fight Fat sell a new display ad by February 14th, I’ll dye my hair pink.

To be fair, Valentine’s Day is only six days away. If they want a re-match, I’ll go green for three new ads each by St. Patrick’s Day - March 17th. Do both and I’ll do both. Come close and make me an offer, but I’m not shaving anything.

Anyone biting? I’m doing pretty good on the sponsorship front, but the other folks here need some dollar lovin. Come on you big search firms, vendors and engines! Get off your tushes and sponsor a good cause! It’d be fun to see an SEO have to die their hair pink or green!

Ugh. Second Temptation

Only the second time I’ve been tempted by food since this journey began. This time it’s leftover pizza from a place back home. My folks brought it a week or so ago and the leftovers have been sitting in the fridge. All I really want is the crust. I keep telling myself the crust probably isn’t so bad for me (it’s not greasy pizza, it’s a really “dry” type of crust) but i can’t find nutritional info on it, so I guess it’s out.

Donna and Scottie are putting up a good fight.

It’s for the kids. Yeah…it’s for the kids.

Off to repeat that over and over while I look for alternative options.

My first weigh-in

Well, this morning was dissapointing. After six straight days of fun and happy loss, today was stagnant. Same exact weight as yesterday.

That said, the new weight is 191, a drop of 6 pounds from my starting point. Guess we’re all shocking our systems as I see Donna and Scottie have each lost 5 pounds. No word from Debra or Nathania yet.

That said, I see we’re going to have some serious competition, so I’m going to be kicking up the exercise effort.

The toughest part for me? I know I could lose weight faster, but I don’t want this to be temporary weight loss. I know I have to lose weight by doing a lifestyle change, one that I can keep up in the long run. I couldn’t do Atkins long-term, I couldn’t subsist on 1000 calories a day long term, I couldn’t do a master cleanse on a regular basis.

So,  I’m going to work my tail off to change my lifestyle, develop healthy habits and keep aiming for that 25 grams of fiber a day. Hopefully, it will be enough because those<a href=”http://www.hmbana.org”> milk banks</a> desperately need the funds.

Elnora likes Yoga

So this evening the kids were on the back porch with Greg while I did yoga in the living room. I’m using “The Firm’s” power yoga tape, and seeing as how I’m not the most graceful person, I banish Greg to someplace out of site while I use it.

About halfway through the tape, Elnora (my three year old) came wondering into the room. She looked at me, looked at the TV, put herself in plank position and said “me do just like mommy!” I had to laugh because her form was better than mine.

Wouldn’t you know, that kid followed along  for the last half of the tape? Every time she got in a new position I heard “me do like mommy” again. (It’s hard to hold yoga poses when you’re laughing.)

When it was over, she shouted “do again!”

I told her she’d have to wait until another night. But apparently I’ve found myself a yoga buddy.

The calories I never knew I ate…

Now that I’ve been at this for a week, I’m amazed at how many calories a day I was really eating. A little embarrassed too.

See, as much as the other competitiors want to tease me for taking pictures of everything I eat before I eat it, I have my reasons. I work from home and have toddlers. Now anyone who has spent time with toddlers know there are two things that happen with toddlers and food.

1.) They want to share it.

2.) They don’t eat it.

That means I ended up eating quite a few bites of “shared” food each day just to get my kids to eat. It also meant I ended up “cleaning up” their food pretty often. Emmitt leaves half a banana? Sure, I’ll finish that and throw away the peel. There are two bites of chicken nugget left on Nora’s plate? Chomp, chomp, swallow.

Until I started taking pictures (which meant deliberate planning of any food that went in my mouth) I had no idea how absent mindedly I did this. The first few days alone, I could count 300-500 calories per DAY that I would have eaten if I hadn’t been using my “take a picture” rule.

No wonder I’m overweight!

Willpower

Why is it somedays I can look a chocolate chip cookie square in the face and walk away without touching it and other days, I’m dying to eat something I know I shouldn’t.

First temptation came up today. I bought turkey sausage to try, as it’s loads better for you  than regular sausage and the kids and hubby adore sausage. So I figured tonight I’d make them pancakes, sausage, eggs and yogurt for dinner.

So I sat here and calculated. I could eat 2 sausages, 2 scrambled eggs and three small pancakes light on the butter and syrup for 670 calories.

And I thought.

And I added up what I’d already eaten today.

And I didn’t like what I saw.

But I wanted sausage and pancakes DANGIT.

So I IMed Robert. Who reminded me what I’m playing for.

So I sat down with my math again and realized I could eat brown rice with soy sauce, two turkey sausages and 3 full cups of steamed carrots and broccoli with seasoning then wrap it up with a 100 calorie pack of Oreo thins and a small glass of milk for dessert and STILL come in well under that 670.

And temptation was thwarted.

Whew!