Archive for May, 2008
Setting Goals: A Reverse of Milestones
Thursday, May 29th, 2008
This is a picture of my big fat ass taken at a tournament in February ‘08. I weighed +/- 252 pounds at the time, though when I bought these hockey pants new in 1996, I weighed somewhere around 185. So the answer to your question is, “no, they’re not supposed to look that tight.”
I hit many milestones on my way to 254 pounds. Probably the most memorable was the 200 pound mark. I recall telling my best friend, “Please just shoot me and put me out of my misery if I ever get to 200 pounds.” Well, I lived, as you can plainly see by the fact that you’re reading this post.
At the time I made that statement, I was still captive to whatever it was that drove me to go on my first diet at 161 pounds. I hated everything about myself at the time, so it was easy to blame my misery on my weight. You know the story, “if I only weighed X number of pounds, I will finally be happy.” Isn’t that what every eating disorder self-abuser says? So after my Richard Simmons diet fiasco which left me at 198 pounds, I was two pounds away from what I perceived as the end of any self worth.
From that point, I did manage to exercise off a few pounds to get myself down to 177, but as life played out, it was all “up” hill from there.
So here’s a list of weight goal milestones I’d like to see as I descend back down the fat chick ladder:
Re-Thinking Veggies
Friday, May 23rd, 2008
To appease the vegetable gods, I will endeavor to eat two servings per day. This is quite the challenge for me since I’m already having difficulty as it is eating one serving. I can probably eek in that extra serving in the form of V8 (low sodium) juice. Just shake and pour - instant vegetables! My problem area is getting in the real (green) veggies.
In the comment section of my last post, I went into my vegetable tirade. These things are so foreign to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve eaten the things my whole life… usually in the form of some gooey cheesy casserole, or soaked in some msg sodium Chinese sauce, but raw? plain? Eew!
I have developed a taste for plain (well steamed - no crunch) asparagus, but who can afford it at $3.99 a pound? Don’t these people know that McDonald’s has a dollar menu??? Cost per calorie logic says that the asparagus should be $1.00 for the bundle and the double cheeseburger should be $3.99! But I guess that’s what you get when you’ve got farmers growing grass.
I love canned asparagus, but what’s the point? Just by looking at it you can see there is no nutritional value and enough sodium to mummify my dog.
Do they even make frozen asparagus??? I’ve searched high and low, but couldn’t find any.
Wanted To Feel Normal Again
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008Well, today I did it big time. I ate “normal”. What I mean by that is I ate how I would’ve eaten any other day of my life without giving much thought to it. And HOLY COW! While it could’ve been much worse (I’ve been known to really pack it in on occasion - especially when eating out with my husband) it was an eye opening “bad enough.”
I consumed an additional 1139 calories over my recommended daily amount, plus a whopping double dose of sodium to the tune of 4843mg. The sad part was that I didn’t really have to pig out to do it. I just ate foods that were on my daily consumable list before I started this eating plan. It’s no wonder I didn’t weigh 400 pounds!
If you look at what I ate today, it wasn’t like I was purposely going for any records here. I had a slice of leftover pizza for breakfast, and another for lunch, a 6″ Subway double meat sub for dinner, a small popcorn at the movies, and 2 donuts (my impulse item while stopping at the store for milk!) In between meals I had a Luna bar, and a whey protein shake. But add it all up, and make it a daily event…. and you can see how easy it would be to get up to the 254 pounds I was.
Well, I won’t lie and say I’m queasy and feel like crap, because I don’t. I’m so sick of all these health food organic new age tree huggers saying how wonderful they feel after eating a salad (with no dressing!) and gnawing on tree bark all day. The truth is, the food was wonderful, it was satisfying, and I enjoyed every bite of it except for the guilt. I can live on pizza everyday. It’s one of those foods I never get tired of… that and rollo dogs - you know, the hot dogs rolling on that thing at the 7-11? I LOVE those! Just plain on a squishy Wonderbread roll. Mmmmmm.
Oh well, it’s back to the grind and back to the gym tomorrow. I gotta pedal off that sodium that’s sure to settle on my ankles!
HIIT: High Intensity Interval Training
Monday, May 19th, 2008
Gee, that’s funny! I didn’t even know there was a name for it.
I bought myself a treadmill some 9 years ago to the tune of $775. That was back when you only had 3 choices of treadmills: the standard non-electric “what’s the point of spending the money” model, the “I’m as thin as a toothpick” narrow model, and the “I’m fat and clumsy, and I need a wide base” $775 model.
What’s interesting is that I came up with my own ingenious exercise routine to simulate a hockey game situation where I would go all out for my shift then recover on the bench between shifts. So I’d get on my treadmill and do a 10-minute warm-up, then go into a sprint/recover routine for about 15/20 minutes, then do a cool down. Then I discovered the neatest thing at the gym awhile back. The Nautilus recumbent bike has a speed interval setting on it. Cool beans!
Anyway… I was exploring internetdom when I came across some fitness forums where people would use the term HIIT. I hate going online and reading stuff where there’s top secret language and codewords that only the “in” people know about. Then one day I ran across the syllabus and discovered that HIIT was an acronym for High Intensity Interval Training. As I read up on a few articles on it, I discovered that it was identical to what I had done for years as conditioning training for hockey.
Of course I didn’t know anything about the difference between aerobic and anaerobic training, target heart rate, or glycogen stores, but I did know I needed a way to work on my cardiovascular conditioning and stamina. So my “invention” of interval training suited my needs.
So here I am, back in training once again. My goal first and foremost is to lose weight, hopefully in the form of fat loss rather than lean mass, and secondly, to condition myself for hockey hopefully to the level I was before retirement in 2001. Back in those days, I showed very little concern about the prospect of playing with 3 defense in a game with 15 minute periods. I was up to the task and actually enjoyed the extra ice time. Now I fret at the thought of being shorthanded. The double shifts kill me.
The only difference between what I do and what all those forumites consider to be HIIT is the that what I consider to be HIGH intensity is more likely to be MODERATE to those people. When comparing treadmill routines, they list 3mph as “walking” but for me it’s more like a jog! These people must be 9 feet tall or something! Plus they tend to make fun of people who use recumbent bikes too. Yeah, well, screw ‘em! After 45 minutes on one of these things I have sweat dripping off my face and can barely lift my legs to walk up the stairs to leave the gym. If that isn’t the result of high intensity, I don’t know what is.
Figuring Out Ways To Get In The Protein And Fiber
Friday, May 16th, 2008
I’m constantly analyzing the foods I eat thanks to the Daily Plate program and the short education I received through LA WeightLoss. I think the difference between what I’m doing now and what I did then on the LAWL program is I’m trying to stick to foods that I’m actually likely to eat, can afford, and am more likely to stick with rather than going out of my way to eat a specialized prescribed diet with exotic expensive foods. So far my biggest drawback is the sodium content as I am using inexpensive foods found in the center of the grocery store, but that’s another post.
The next biggest thing which I’m currently trying to resolve is the lack of balance in my diet. I’m still getting way too much fat, not enough protein or fiber, and am a little high on my total carbs. Initially, I was gonna shoot for somewhere between a 40/30/30 and a 50/25/25 (carbs/protein/fats) split, but now I think I’d like to shoot for somewhere between 45/30/25 and 50/30/20. I think I function better on more carbs than 40% as I tend to feel a bit sluggish, especially if I get motivated to go to the gym early in the day before I’ve had much to eat. Plus the fats I’m eating tend not to be overly good ones, so it’s best to just cut them down overall. One of my toughest struggles so far is getting my protein up to the 30% mark.
Do you know how hard it is to get in 30% protein without elevating the fat percentage and consequently the overall calorie count? Sure, there are some great sources of protein out there, but let’s face it… red meat and nuts shoot the fat count through the ceiling, tuna and the preparation thereof is almost a whole day’s worth of sodium, never mind the nasty chemicals, and too much milk with make you a sugarholic! (more…)
