Dave's Not Here

Well — I realized it yesterday.  Call it an epiphany, whatever . . . I found it pretty interesting.

I have lost a couple of pounds this week — while, in my mind, gorging. I have had a lot of trouble getting to 2000 kcals. And, I started thinking about why. When I realized it, it opened my eyes — but — leaves for many battles in the future.

While it is easy to eat 2000kcals of ice cream, candy bars, milk shakes, and chicken wings, it is actually quite a bit of healthy food. Since I’m eating right, I fill up on a chicken breast and a serving of brocolli. My breakfast is usually around 200kcals, and, I’m full after eating it. And, obviously, eating 10 of my normal breakfasts is hard! My problem has been, that 2000 kcals of healthy food, is actually a LOT of food. Divided into 5 equal sized meals, there are 400 calories per meal. That’s four low carb protein shakes. Eleven ounces of chicken breast. Forty cups of salad.

So, because of that, I have been eating too few calories, and I think, I have gone into starvation mode.

Strange — it is hard to eat healthy — not because I have cravings, but, instead, because I have to eat too much food.

Who would have thunk it?

On today’s Pain of the Day (PotD), I ran from my house, to the nearby park, did the absolute longest jogging trail, and then ran back home. I stopped once or twice, and let my HR drop down to 150, before starting again. (Ok, probably 3-4 times).

Google Maps has the distance from my house, to where I hit the trail, at .9 miles. The long trail is 2.25 miles. And, the extra part around the lake adds on .5 miles. So, that’s .9 + 2.25 + .5 + .9 = 4.55 miles. My Garmin clocked me in at 4.16 miles. So — I’m guessing the Garmin cut off some corners

I don’t think I’ve ever run more than 3 miles before . . . so, this could be a new record for me!

Anyway, here are all the gory details (click the image):

Original Post

I finally managed to hit my caloric goal yesterday.  Course, I also ran in the AM, so, maybe I didn’t really hit it.  I ended up eating a $30 sashimi sampler for dinner, which kept my numbers pretty good, imho:

My fat content was a bit high — need to work on that.  But, it did contribute to the kcals so . . .

And, here is a breakdown of what I ate:

Original Post

I got in 3.2 miles today. Burned about 550 kcals. Found out something interesting about my Garmin Forerunner — it does not compute kcals unless there is movement. But, it does plot my heart rate, and I still have my average HR, so, I can compute it myself — but — I thought it was strange.

Right after running I ate a banana and a protein shake. I was completely sated. I had to force myself to eat two scrambled eggs and a bowl of oatmeal to get my morning calories where they should be. And, this is when I’m glad I didn’t pre-plan my meal. I was planning on boiled eggs, but they were out, so I ate two scrambled eggs instead. Breakfast total: 663kcals. 48% carbs 24% fat, 27% protein. So, assuming a 2000kcal plan, I’m 1/3 of the way there — and things are looking good. I did forget to bring my morning snack protein shake to work . .hmmm . . . I’ll have to figure something out there. Maybe beef jerkey.

I think I’m going to do the hundredpushups.com working this evening. And maybe throw in some dumbbell biceps workouts too . . . don’t know. I’m shooting from the hip today.

I’m attaching two days of journaling to this post (assuming I can attach a pdf).  I feel like I’ve been pigging out, yet, my caloric intake still seems low.  I have not worked out the last two days, so, maybe 1750 with no workout is ok?

Please feel free to critique / comment / etc!

Food / Exercise Log

Original Post

I’m off to SLC today.  I’ve really been looking forward to running this jogging trail I found.  But, the highs are in the low 20s, so, I may be confined to a treadmill .  . we’ll see.  I brought some wicking running clothes, but, I’m not sure if they can work at that temperature.  If not, I’ll be doing the “indoor” thing.

My food journal is going pretty well, but, I don’t think it’s completely accurate yet.  It shows me at 1745 kcals, but, I know I overate, so, my portions must have been large.  At least, it feels like I overate.  Maybe I didn’t.  But, I would still guess that yesterday was a 2000kcal day, not a 1745.  For example, my lunch pinto beans had a lot of ham hocks in it.

Now that I’m traveling things will shift a bit.  It will be harder to estimate my meals, but, my snacks will be store bought, so they should be exact.  I think I’m going to buy a pack of protein bars for snacks.  I would do the shakes, but, since I need the calories, I’m going to allow carbs in my first 3-4 meals a day, instead of first 2-3.  (Starchy carbs).  Or, I can just buy some fruit, and stick with the low carb protein — not sure yet.

I did drop my 3.5 lbs of water weight I gained this weekend eating poorly!  So, I’m back down to my normal plateau weight (216 -> 212.4).  I’ve been stuck between 208 and 213 for 3 months.  Which, while it sounds like nothing, just reaffirms my hypothesis — that I’ve been starving.  I’m curious how I’ll do traveling.  Since I typically over eat at least one or two meals a day — eating out with coworkers, I should hit my 2000 calorie goal pretty easily.  And, if we are right, I should still lose weight this week.  (Or not — since I’ve been in starvation mode, It may take me a week or two for my body to recover)

Anyway, enough babbling — time to get my mind ready for a flight worth of airplane work!

I’m trying to get a simple food diary spreadsheet working in Google Docs, but I’m having some PEBKAC issues. Maybe someone out there can advise me.

First, here is the sheet: Dave’s Food Journal — And I’m using this nifty form to enter data: Dave’s Nifty Form

• My first problem is the WW Points tab.  The calcuation works, but only if there is an actual number in the fiber column.  If it is left blank, it is defaulting to some big number, and the formula acts as if there are 5 grams of fiber (or more) in everything I eat. – FIXED – Thanks Gary! – New Formula: =E2/50 +G2/12 – IF( ISBLANK(I2) ;0 ; (MIN(I2,4)/5))
• My second problem is still in that same column – how do I get the forumla to always be in that column like the timestamp. — and — speaking of that — how did I get that timestamp in there?
• Finally, I’d like to generate totals based on the day (in the timestamp), so that I can get sums on a per day basis (per meal would be nice too) — any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

-Dave

Let’s see how this works!

Test!

I slept in this AM after a long night, so, I’ll work out this afternoon sometime.  This morning I want to focus my blog on what I can do to break this plateau.  I’ve been between 208 and 213 for two and a half to three months now.  I joined FastTrackToFatLoss.com (which I love!) about four weeks ago, and, no change.  I mean, there have been changes, but, I’m not even losing one pound a week.  And, over four weeks, that should not be.  I’ll measure later today, and comment on this if my inches have changed noticeably.

So, what I’ve tried / noticed:

• I’ve taken my caloric intake down to 1300, and up to 2000 — no change.
• I’ve kicked diet cokes.  no change
• I’ve joined FastTrackToFatLoss, with much “better” workouts than I was doing before.  While I’ve noticed and loved the soreness, no change on the scale.
• When I travel, I tend to drop weight, but, it comes right back.  I *think* that’s because I do mostly lower carbs when traveling, which dehydrates me.  When eating out, it is typically easier to lower carbs than to eat perfectly.  Also, when I’m at home, my kids are eating all day, which makes my hungrier.

So — what next?  I don’t know if I can last more than another week or to without some results.  Before I joined FastTrackToFatLoss, I was toying with the idea of going low carb for a month or two.  And, that thought is still on the back of my mind.  While I don’t consider it a very good lifestyle choice, it might be a good one to break this plateau.  If you take my total weight loss over time, it looks impressive.  50lbs since March.  But, honestly, I lost those 50lbs by around September.

I REALLY love strength training.  But, maybe I should go to cardio only?  I really don’t know.  I’d love to be able to show off my muscles, but, they’re sitting cozy under about an inch of fat, hiding from the world.

Looking forward to thoughts from everyone.

-Dave

Original Post

Had a normal lower body workout today.  Didn’t feel like wearing a HR monitor, but I know where my HR should be, and it was there

Legs & Butt

Superset

• Lunges: 12/12/12 @ 25# – Last set on left leg was 8 — started hurting
• Seated Calf Raises: 10/10/10 @ 180#

Squats: 12@135#, 12@185#, 12@185# — All with perfect form!

Back

Superset

• Romanian Deadlift: 12/12/12 @ 135#
• Seated Close-Grip Row: 10/10/10 @ 120#

Close-Grip Pullups: 8@-120#, 6@-120#, 6@-130#

Biceps & Forearms

Superset

• Dumbbell Curl: 12/12/12 @ 25#
• Reverse Curl (Barbell): 10/10/10 @ 35#

Blew off last exercise — ran out of time.

Original article here.