Made it to the Gym!

I had to fight with myself again to work out, but I convinced myself to do a 6:15 a.m. workout. This time I used the gym at my complex. I prayed and prayed that no one would be on the treadmill but someone was, so I decided to torture myself with the elliptical trainer rather than return home. The elliptical trainer burns more calories, which is a good thing, but not all of them have the right "feel." This was one of those trainers that just doesn't fit my body very well. Luckily the person on the treadmill left after about 10 minutes so I finished my workout by doing a walk at 3 to 3.2 mph, which was surprisingly easy. My leap in ability reminded me of my previous experience with regular workouts: after skipping two or three days I would hit a new level of fitness- be able to go longer or faster or at a higher incline. Today I found myself running for a tiny bit at 4 mph! (I remember that when I was in shape I used to WALK at 4 mph for 45 minutes. It's hard to imagine now, but I'm sure I'll be doing it again).

When I returned home from my workout I had oatmeal and yogurt with some thawed blackberries. For lunch I went to a Chinese restaurant with a co-worker and chose the mixed vegetables and white rice. Very tasty, and healthier than what I really wanted: cashew chicken or General Tso's chicken! I was proud for making the better choice, though. At the end of the day I was short on fiber (19 grams) so I ate two pieces of Ezekiel bread to add 6 grams. That's still low, but it puts me in the recommended range.

In response to the question of whether I lift weights (see comments below), I have thought of it but don't really want to do it until a trainer has gone over the correct use of the machines at the gym. But I do have access to dumbbells and could use those- I just haven't put a plan together yet. My goal is to do weights three days a week, two of them on days I don't do cardio.

I weighed myself and it appears I may be down a pound or two. Nothing "counts" until Sunday, but it was nice to see. But I'll probably gain it all back by Saturday, the way things have been going!!

Swollen Feet

My sweet tooth is well taken care of with all of the fruit I'm eating and smoothies I drink. I even indulge in an occasional diet pop. But I find that I crave salt sometimes. I made salmon last night and maybe put too much salt on it because I noticed my feet were swollen today. Oops. My sandals were pretty tight this afternoon. I don't usually have concerns about swelling, so that was a little odd.

Today I signed up again on SparkPeople, the website that has you track your food, exercise, and other things. The Weight Watchers site doesn't allow you to track nutrients or even calories, so I figured if I'm gonna comply with my trainer's nutritional request (or at least try), I'd better find an easy way to analyze my meals. It is 5:30 pm as I type this and I have had:

breakfast:
Mangos, 1 cup, sliced	107	28	0	1
Strawberries, fresh, 1 cup, halves	46	11	1	1
Banana, fresh, 1 large	125	32	1	1
Cherry Juice, 4 oz	90	22	0	1
Whey Protein Powder	110	2	1	23
Sweet Cherries, 2 cups	147	37	0	2
lunch:
Campbell's Savory Lentil, 2 cup	260	48	1	16
Amy's Kitchen, Breakfast Burrito	230	38	6	9
dinner:
Atlantic Salmon (fish), 3 oz	155	0	7	22
Spinach, fresh, 1 cup	7	1	0	1
Salsa, 0.5 cup	36	8	0	2
Feta Cheese, 0.5 oz	37	1	3	2
Newman's Own Italian, 1 tbsp	60	1	7	1
snack:
Sweet Cherries, 1 cup, with pits	74	19	0	1
	CALORIES	CARBS	FAT	PROTEIN
	1,484	247	27	83

In case the above cut-and-paste doesn't come out on some browsers, the end result is 1,484 calories, 247 carbs, 27 grams of fat, and 83 grams of protein. I should state, in all honesty, I didn't do the visual portion control thing at all- I made a smoothie for breakfast and had two packaged foods for lunch. In retrospect, I trust that half a salmon fillet is the size of my palm and that the 1 1/2 cups of cherries I had were not too far off from the size of my fist.

So, it's not looking good for 2400 calories, and I am not hungry enough to eat another 900 + calories tonight. I'll be working out this evening and won't want to eat afterwards. According to WW I've consumed 33.5 points. I guess this would be the time to eat a protein bar, wouldn't it? But I don't want to, regardless of what my personal trainer recommends. I don't like those things. They are expensive and don't taste good and aren't real food, as far as I'm concerned. The fact that they resemble candy bars make them a trigger food for me, as well. Best to stay away.

Today she texted me to ask how I was and if I had any questions. I told her I couldn't figure out how to get 2400 calories in. She told me "you're an athlete! Cardio tonight!" Hmmm- that didn't help. I then told her I didn't think I could eat 2400 calories today. She said to "be honest and put it in my journal." Sigh... I need more guidance than that. I called a nutritionist today just to see what it would cost me. I could use the personal trainer just for the physical training and use the nutritionist for my nutritional concerns. The nutritionist charges $95 for a two-hour consultation, and an additional $100 to see her for a month. That's a lot. I hate it that preventative treatment costs so much! I'm trying to keep myself from getting diabetes, high blood pressure, a stroke, etc. but medical insurance kicks in after you've already been diagnosed. We need to be treating people who are in danger of getting those illnesses.

And on that note, I'm taking a nap!

(P.S. If any of you are on MySpace, feel free to visit and to give me your MySpace URL too. I'd be happy to visit your site as well. http://www.myspace.com/rawodyssey)

Neither Lack of Cheese nor Blisters Will Stop Me!

I hope my personal trainer doesn't see this but I bought feta cheese yesterday. I decided I "can't live without it" right now. I like to make taboule and add feta to it. I also went against her advice and used the protein powder in my smoothie this morning. Why am I being defiant? Well, I eat probably between 1200 and 1700 calories a day including those items. When I cut out the cheese, nuts and protein powder it takes out over 500 calories. That, along with the exercise (I burned over 300 yesterday) will give me a huge calorie deficit. I recognize that I'm just being stubborn about eating the foods I like. I did make one concession though- I bought the brown rice she recommended. I am going to prepare it as if it were taboule and add feta to it!

Yesterday's workout was not especially fun. At the gym I discovered that the little rubber earbud thingies were missing from my earphones- that was enough to make me consider cancelling my workout right then- no music, no workout! But I decided to use the earphones anyway. The sound quality was horrid and make my workout much less pleasant. Plus, my sneakers, which a friend gave me, really are too narrow and were severely hurting my toes. Not wanting to be a wuss or use any more excuses to not work out, I pressed on. After the workout I sat in the nearest chair and took my shoes off. Blisters on both little toes! Today, the blister on one toe is almost as big as the toe itself! I have new earphones, but I won't work out at all today unless I can get some sports sandals that will leave my toes in the open.

So far I'm feeling good about the food. Since I'm considering my diet to be "high raw," eating out is not anxiety-provoking. I just get the salad that looks the tastiest and closest to raw, and make minor adjustments. Last week I ate at a restaurant with a coworker and had the candied walnuts removed from my salad and replaced with sliced avocado. Today I'm having another working lunch and am not anticipating major problems. Later, I have a meeting with my PT to discuss nutrition and I think it's important to tell her honestly what I'm willing and not willing to do. I want to keep the cheese, period. I can live without the nuts. And I think I would prefer to count WW points or some kind of food values rather than doing the visual portion control thing (that doesn't work with food addicts anyway- some days my fist will be a lot bigger than other days!!)

Things are going well so far.

June, 2007

STARTING OVER. AGAIN.
I'm sitting here in my lovely apartment after a 40 minute treadmill workout feeling pretty good: proud, capable and confident! It's been a loooong time since I've done anything decent with my health, and I have been paying the price with all the predictable effects - the weight gain, bad complexion, poor fitness level, lowered energy, not-very-happy-mood, low self esteem, blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda. But last week I was ready to get back on the wagon, so up I hopped. I have lost about 8 lbs (the first week is always mostly water), and today I started working out.

PROGRAM AND GOALS

Fitness
To get me back into the gym, I found a personal trainer. Today was my first meeting with her. She recorded my BMI, measurements and starting weight. I have to get a doctor's release before we truly begin to work out, but she wants me to do 40 minutes on the treadmill at only 2.5 mph, 0 incline, 5 days a week. As my cardiovascular fitness improves we'll increase the speed and incline level. Eventually we'll add weights and do a 30-minute circuit training type of workout (ugh). I can only afford her once a week right now, but that's all right.

Weight
My initial weight goal is to lose about 30 lbs in three months. My overall goal is to reach 160 lbs by the time I earn my doctorate in 2009.


FOOD
Although my goal is to eat a "high raw" (not all raw) diet, I am starting out cautiously. Last time I started raw I jumped in with both feet and lost 25 lbs in one month, and about 1/4 of my hair. I want to lose weight quickly, but not with that kind of side effect! I'm still growing my hair back and it looks better, one year later. I stopped wearing a wig last month- scary move, but a happy occasion.

My previous raw diet was very low in protein so this time around I plan to ensure that I get enough of it. Since I love nigiri sushi, I will be getting some of my protein raw. These past two weeks I've been having a fruit smoothie with protein powder every morning, low-fat vegetable or vegetable/bean soups for lunch, and then salads with some sort of cheese for dinner. For a snack I eat raw cashews and almonds. My trainer wants me to stop eating cheese and nuts, and to not do protein supplements. She recommends I eat oatmeal, egg whites and brown rice, all of which I am willing to do for a little while as I establish myself in this new health routine. She knows I am avoiding all red meats and fowl but I didn't go into the whole future raw thing with her- I'll do that later!

Now, I'm not sure if I like what my trainer is having me do for food: she uses the volume method for determining portion sizes rather than counting calories or food values. I mean, how do you determine an index finger's worth of olive oil? She admits that this is "ambiguous" but wants me to try it out before I completely reject it. We'll see how it goes but I am already not overjoyed with the foods or the portion-control method.

HOW TODAY WENT

I am SO out of shape it is pitiful. She did a stress test on me and wanted me to stop when my heart rate went back down to 119, but it never went below 130! My resting pulse was 80. She set me up to do 40 minutes on the treadmill at 2.5 mph. When she left, I experimented with raising the incline to .5 and then 1, and raising the speed to 2.7 - just little changes to see how my heart rate was affected. She wants me to stay between 117 and 144 beats per minute and I did that, but overall I only achieved 1.75 miles in 41 minutes. I'm very impatient and want to go faster than that, but I know I have to start slowly. The good thing is that I can only get better, and it'll be fun seeing the improvement. My arms and my neck are a little sore, and I'm sure my legs will be sore tomorrow, but my iPod will help to distract me from pain when I work out tomorrow.

Well that's it for today. I'm about to see what I can eat for dinner! A fist-sized portion of something...