Pump hard……. Pump often

I’m trying. I’m oh soooo trying but that’s 16….count SIXTEEN 8oz cups of water a day!

I’m tired of peeing. I drink therefore I pee. Sounds slightly Zen.

I love water and that’s the only beverage I drink. I just wasn’t drinking a gallon of it a day. So I thought upping my water intake would be easy since I’m used to drinking nothing but water anyways. So even when I’m not thirsty or hungry I try to drink water. I have to to drink a gallon of this a day. Right?

I keep my water bottle in front of my office keyboard so its always in front of my face. It just sits there. Clear and bottled. Just sits there. And I drink. And I drink.

I’ve even starting marking notches on the bottle for every whole bottle I drink to show how much I drunk. By the end of my work day I’ve made three notches. At 19 oz a bottle that’s seven 8 oz glasses. Nine more 8 ozs to go. The gym and post gym water intake is another three 8oz cups. Six more 8ozs before I go to bed?

Never happens. So I need to drink more water at work.

I keep hearing the magical benefits of a gallon of water a day. I’ll do it! I will be a proud member of the one gallon a day club.

Maybe I should start a BodySpace group.

Alisa

Tonight I went out to dinner with my parents, boyfriend, and god-brothers’ mother. Great time and I kept my meal pretty clean. I had a really good salad for an appetizer but I did eat some pita bread with that. I know I don’t need bread at night but ….I have no excuse, seriously. I then had some grilled vegetables for dinner and they were delicious.  For those wondering where was the meat, I’m vegan. So this dinner out had no major (heck not even minor) protein source. I’m too full right now to make a protein shake. So no protein until the morning. Dessert was a mango sorbet. Not bad.

(ahhh heck. I’ve got a car now and I’m STILL out of bananas. That don’t make sense. arrrrrrrrrrg)

All day I did pretty well.  Had a few crackers eariler and this morning I ate the last doughnut. But lunch was corn and tofu with a salad of red leaf lettuce with beans. Made my own dressing of olive oil and fresh lemon juice.Looking forward to the gym in the morning. I’m so eager to go. Last day in the gym this weekd was Tuesday.  Wednesday night I went car shopping, Thursday night actually got a car, tonight having dinner with the family. Saturday morning will be some me time.

Alisa

Went to dinner tonight with my parents and we ate at Olive Garden. Since I have a vegan diet my menu options are limited to the veggie plates and at an Italian restaurant that typically means pasta. Which I was not interested in at 8:00 p.m at night. Unnecessary carbs at that late. So that left either the minestrone soup or the fried breaded eggplant with marinara sauce. I was not in a soup mood and so the fried egg plant was the meal.

I did pretty good with the salad. I make my own on the go salad dressing since I think most salad dressings are so unhealthy they are nothing more than flavored liquid sugar. Seriously, read the ingredient list. High fructose corn syrup aka death by sugar is loaded up in most salad dressings. What I do at restaurants is mix three parts oil olive to one part lemon juice. Basically three tablespoons of olive oil with the juice of a slice of lemon. Whisk with a fork until it takes a creamy texture and there you go. Instant healthy light salad dressing. I do that at lunch for my side salads.

Of course for my dinner salads I make a more intense dressing.  Here’s the recipe if interested.

1/4 cup plain soy milk
1 garlic clove or 1/2 teaspoon of crushed garlic
1 teaspoon of tamari
3 tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons of yeast …yes you read that right

Pour everything but the yeast in the blender and start blending. Then slowly add one tablespoon of yeast at a time. If you like thicker dressing you can replace some of the soy milk with soft tofu.  There you go a healthy salad dressing and for those interested it’s vegan as well.

Plus with both dressings you get a source of healthy fat in the olive oil.

Alisa

I watched this documentary last night and it was an eye opener let me tell you!  The documentary is about the fast food industry and how the size and portions of their food is contributing to the overweight and obesity epidemic that is sweeping this country.  Supersize Me was filmed in 2004 but it is still VERY relevant today.

Morgan Spurlock did a 30 day test on himself. He ate only McDonald’s for 30 days to see what impact the Mickey D’s diet would have on his health. So for breakfast, lunch and dinner he ate ONLY the items on the McDonald’s Menu. He had a starting weight of 185.5 pounds and by the end of 30 days he had gained 24.5 pounds. Can you imagine that? That’s insane.  He talked about how he would feel bad but as soon as he ate McDonald’s he would feel much better and not long after that he would “crash” and one of his doctors mentioned it sounded like he was getting addicted. And I know people like that. They eat fast food because it makes them feel better but within 30 minutes of eating they are laid out in a stupor. And to me that’s an addiction. When you KNOW something is bad for you and you do it anyways because of the temporary feel good and then you crash not too long afterwards. It’s an addiction. It’s a rush.

As I watched this documentary I noticed how Morgan went from being an alert and vibrant person to a very lethargic and tired individual. Granted eating fast food three times a day for 30 days is a bit extreme (and expensive) but it just shows the effect fast food can have on the body. Even the three doctors and nutritionist who monitored his trial were astounded at the impact this “diet” had on his health in just a month.

What amazed me though is how the portion sizes at fast foods have increased over the years. It stated that when McDonald’s first opened its doors decades ago they had only one size fry and that size is currently the small. So they added the bigger sizes over the years. And did you know the supersize fry they used to have (I think they discontinued that size) is a half a pound!  A half of a pound of fried potatoes at one meal and THEN you add the burger AND the supersize drink of the day!

So I went to McDonald’s website to check out the nutritional information of a large fry, their biggest burger (whatever that is) and their largest soda. (I’m sure the nutritional information for other fast food joints is very similar.) So their largest soda is a 32 oz and for a Coke that would be 310 calories. A large fry is 570 calories and a double quarter pounder with cheese is 740 calories. That’s a total of 1,620 calories for ONE meal. That’s a lot food. So here are the rest of the numbers for that meal. 1,730 mg of sodium, 196 carbs, 155 mg of cholesterol. That’s amazing. McDonald’s has this neat calculator on their website called “bag a meal” and you put the items on their menu into the “bag” and it gives you the nutritional information of that meal. Pretty neat.

So, if you have not seen this documentary you can watch it on Neflix instant online viewing if you have Netflix or you can watch if for free online at this link http://freedocumentaries.org/film.php?id=98  (the video you see is a preview. Click the watch film now link to see the whole film). No registration required. Just click on the link and the movie starts.

Whew! That’s what happened to me the last few days. First, I came down with a bad sinus cold on Wednesday and by Thursday morning I was too congested and “spaced out” to go to work much less hit the gym. I was out for the count. I was better by Friday and was able to make it to work (barely though) and by Saturday morning all I wanted to do was rest my body. I was feeling pretty good by Saturday afternoon and thought I would go see a movie Saturday night then BAM! My monthly shows up. Hey if that was too much info I’m sorry I need to blog right about now.

So that drags my body back under the radar and all I did Saturday evening was go to the grocery store. So here it is Sunday afternoon and I’m feeling like my body is in recovery mode. I’ll be glad when I feel 100% back to normal and daily routines get back to normal. I’m so far off my routines it’s just a shame. Normally, I’m in the gym Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. So that means I missed Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and today in the gym. My body feels like it too. But it’s the mental aspect of not being in the gym that I’m missing right now. Being in the gym gives me clarity and mental discipline. I’m in a slight brain fog right now.

And oh my goodness. My diet went out the window by Friday. It’s just embarrassing. I normally log what I eat and my daily supplements in my exercise journal. I haven’t seen that journal since Friday much less logged a single thing in it. I went out to eat on Friday and ate my cheat meal. Saturday morning and afternoon went pretty good in terms of my eating. But when my monthly kicked in later Saturday afternoon I had no energy to be disciplined with my eating. Here it was late Saturday night and I’m munching on fried tofu. Got up this morning and finished the rest of the fried tofu and then didn’t eat anything until about an hour ago. Spent the whole day sleeping and only woke up to drink a protein shake. Now I’m eating a bowl of veggies and drooling over the idea of more fried foods. Good for me I don’t keep flour in my house so I can’t fry a thing.

The hardest part about the “now” is getting my mind back into a disciplined state. Monday is a rest day in my exercise week but I just might go tomorrow and do cardio. I need a jump start right about now.

My mind is getting a bit back to normal. I’m shaking off that ridiculous idea of fried foods as I realize my body needs some healthy carbs (as I’m sitting here munching on shredded wheat and wondering why I’m feigning for some fried foods).  So I’m making my protein pancakes which is made from oatmeal, a banana, about six blueberries, soymilk, and protein powder. I’m topping it with a strawberry syrup I make by putting strawberries in a bowl with a little water and then heating it up and letting the sugars in the strawberries create a syrup. I then blend it and I have strawberry syrup!

I’ve been keeping my workouts in my new journal and it has been helpful to monitor my progress and it allows me to record the data I need to put into my BodySpace charts to really see my progress. The journal also helps me to keep track of my diet as well as supplement intake.  So I’ll be uploading my stats from the week pretty soon.

I modified my eating habits two weeks ago. For the exception of my once a week cheat meal I have removed processed foods from my diet (well I still use store bought salad dressing).  This has helped to keep my eating very healthy and much more natural. My cheat meal can be anything I like so it could be pizza or a veggie burger or onion rings so my cheat may sometimes have processed food. Although what I noticed this week is that when I eat healthy all week I’m not so inclined on cheat meal day to through my discipline out the window and eat junk.  But this past Friday I did have some potato chips. Hey I was stressed and got weak and bought some bar-b-que chips. Not the big bag from the grocery store though just the individual bag you buy from the corner store.
 
Yesterday my sister came into town and I hung out with my family for the day. We went out to eat for lunch and I actually ate pretty healthy. I had braised tofu with spinach for appetizer and then a tofu salad. The restaurant is Asian fusion so the sauces were pretty healthy.  I felt good about my choice on the menu items as I stay away from the fried foods.  Dinner I ended up getting veggie samosas from an Indian restaurant. GREAT food but the samosas had potatoes and they were fried.  But since my order came with only two and I ate 1 ½ (my sister ate the other half) I don’t think I had too many carbs.  The meal was a veggie stew and even though I asked for it to be medium in terms of spicy it was still WAY too spicy so I only ate about ¼ of the stew. But I really messed up when we all sat down to watch the movie Transformers.  I ended up eating two yes TWO cups of peach sorbet AND ¼ cup of glazed pecans. It’s like 11:00 p.m. and I’m downing all that sugar aka CARBS. 

Plus when I went home to grab an overnight bag I forgot my vitamins.  And since I was gone all day I didn’t get my protein shakes in for the day so my protein intake was lower. 
One thing that is true when your daily eating and/or exercise routine is interrupted it throws you off.  You really have to “plan-n-pack”  your eating and supplements when you are not going to be in your regular routine. 

Today, my sister said she will hang out with me at my gym.  As a gym fanatic I’m excited about showing off my gym!

Day three of the six meal a day program proved to be interesting.  By 4:00 p.m. I was tired and realized I needed some carbs. I brought some oatmeal (no sugar or salt added) and added a banana and chopped dates (the dates make it sweet).  Within the hour I was feeling pretty good. I realized that although cutting back carbs is important as in the American diet there is way too many carbs the body really does need the complex carbs that are in food naturally. The oatmeal, banana and dates all have natural complex carbs and gave me the energy I needed to work out that afternoon.

The shopping aspect of this eating program is what I have to fine tune. I need a grocery list and I need to check my food supply every morning to make sure I have everything I need for the upcoming days. I forgot bananas yesterday so now I have to go back to the store and buy bananas.

I do notice I get hungrier more often. That was not the case when I first started a couple of days ago. Maybe my body is adjusting to not having huge meals at any one time. Reminds me of when I stopped eating meat a few years ago and the first few days it was great. I felt lighter and more alert but then I felt hungry and tired. Took me about two weeks to get adjusted.  Maybe this is the same thing. One thing exercising has taught me and that is the body is trainable so I’m sure with enough time this new eating cycle will feel normal.

Yesterday was day two at eating six moderate meals a day. I have to say I had a lot of energy throughout the day and the day went by pretty quickly. I guess when you finish a meal and realize three hours later you need to be warming up or putting together another meal your day picks up speed.  Eating the same thing every day doesn’t bore me like I thought it would. (I’m a vegan and I’m used to having a limited diet.)  I am focusing on food as fuel and not as entertainment or consolation which helps me not get attached to the art of eating and needing something new and different.

I went to the grocery store last night to stock up on items I’m in low supply or out of and ran across an interesting dilemma. What do I do when the food item I need is out of stock? I wanted to buy some stir fry veggie mix and the grocery store was out. So I’m standing there looking at a blank spot on the shelf perplexed. I’ve put so much planning into this eating routine I didn’t plan for needing alternatives. This shouldn’t be a big deal but since I’m just starting this eating plan I really don’t want to start adjusting it too soon. Hopefully, the grocery store I go to this evening will have what I need.

I will admit it feels odd to feel full most of the day or to realize that at any given point of the day it has always been no more than three hours since I had a meal. I’m excited to see what my weight loss will be in a month as I add a better eating habit to my exercise routines. 

What I am pondering is my eating routine over the weekend. Monday through Friday is easy. My routine varies very little. But on the weekend when I’m out and about I just can’t lug around plastic containers of mixed veggies and salad!  I’ll have to work out something for the weekend.

I started this program today with the intentions of journaling my thoughts for the next seven days. My goal is to make this a lifestyle change but first I should get through the first week. On the surface it seems simple enough. Instead of eating three big meals a day eat six moderate healthy meals a day. By replacing the snacks with small healthy meals then I’m not adding more food to my day just better planned eating throughout the day. I learned about this while watching a body building video on YouTube (gotta love that site).  The speaker mentioned that each meal should contain some protein.

The three meals I eat every day were easy to plan for. It was the other three meals I had to think about. I mean SIX meals a day? That takes planning a good grocery list and planning the cooking. I realized I can’t think in terms of breakfast, lunch and dinner with snacks. It’s like meal one through meal six. I also realized my carbs need to be in the first half of the day and very little if any carbs in the second half of the day. So meal one was a smoothie of vanilla soy milk, a banana, two tablespoons of natural peanut butter, and a scoop of vanilla soy protein powder. That was quite filling. Meal two was an apple with unsalted roasted peanuts.  Meal three was a salad with sautéed veggies and tempeh (sautéed in a table spoon of olive oil) and seasoned with Italian seasonings and Mrs. Dash. Meal four was a bowl of stir fired veggies and a protein drink of protein powder and water. Meal five was mixed veggies with portabella mushrooms and tofu. Meal six was a protein drink of protein powder and water. Now keep in mind I didn’t hit the gym today so tomorrow I will have to tweek my meals to account for the carbs I need to hit the gym. Also keep in mind these are not big plates of food like a "normal" meal. My portions about half the size. All things in moderation.

Tomorrow will be the same except I’ll have a banana about an hour before hitting the gym. This gives me the extra carbs I need for my workout. I’m thinking of buying a thermo mug and heating up some oatmeal and cutting up the banana and eating that as I’m finding the banana wears off about halfway through my workout. Since I’m going to the gym right after work I need the thermo mug as a way to carry the food and eat on the go. During my workouts I tend to drink Gatorade for the carbs but if I’m adding oatmeal before the workout I may only need water during the workout. I’ll have to try it out and see.  Right after the workout I’ll drink the protein drink of soy protein powder and water. Since I ride public transportation and it will be about 1 ½ hours before I get home I’ll bring some sautéed mushrooms to munch on after the gym on my way home. I was eating a banana but I now realize that after I workout I have no need to eat carbs. Then I’ll eat my last meal when I get home as I would have already consumed the evening protein drink.

Day one went pretty well and I was not hungry and I ate healthy all day with most of carbs (if not all of them) were before lunch. This should help my weight loss a lot. Since I didn’t get hungry throughout the day I did’t come to any meal famished needing to wolf down a whole plate of food. Moderate portions every three hours was plenty of food.

 Also, on this way of eating you eat one "cheat" meal a week. Anything goes (for the most part).  I’m keeping my cheat meal for the weekend. A veggie burger with onion rings at the Vortex is my idea of a cheat meal!

Yesterday was another rest day for me.  I’m noticing that on Thursdays my body is just exhausted and I’m too tired to hit the gym.  I normally work out on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and that would explain why by Thursday I’m tired not to mention why I was not getting housework done as I’m coming home during the work week like around 10:30 p.m. and 11:00 p.m.  My new workout plan will have me in the gym Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. This gives me Tuesday and Friday as off days and rest days.

After a relaxing evening at home and some quality rest I’m semi-ready to hit the gym. My body is still tired so I do not think I got all the rest I needed. But I’ll get some exercise in today. My sister is in town and she is staying with my parents for a few days. Since my parents have totally updated their home gym with a VERY nice new treadmill and a stationary bike I plan on trying out their treadmill.  Daddy also has a nice set of dumbbell weights on a rack so I can do my biceps tonight as well. At least that is the plan. It takes me an hour to do the treadmill and anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to work the weights. Being closed up in the exercise room for 1 ½ to 2 hours may be a bit rude. So I’m not sure yet.

I’m finally getting very regular with my improved eating schedule. I’ve cut out a lot of carbs from my diet as I was a big lover of fried foods. I’m still a big lover of fried foods but I’ve reduced my intake greatly.  I allow myself one cheat meal a week and that is on Saturday. I eat whatever I want for that meal.  It’s still a vegan meal but it can be as delicious and as fried as I want it!  I am highly looking forward to my cheat meal tomorrow.

Currently my meals are as follows. Meal 1 is a smoothie made up of 100% grape juice, vanilla soy milk, a banana, frozen strawberries, frozen blueberries, and a scoop of Super-Red Pro-96 Soy Protein powder. Meal 2 is a peeled apple and a handful of unsalted dry roasted peanuts.  Meal 3 is cooked veggies with a baked potato with soy butter.  Meal 4 is a sweet potato with soy butter and light brown sugar.  Meal 4 is one scoop of Super-Red Pro-96 Soy Protein powder in 8 ounces of water and a banana.  If I go to the gym then I get another protein powder/water drink right after working out. Meal 5 is a salad of fresh veggies, lettuce and tofu with ginger dressing. Lastly an hour before bed is another protein shake made up of carrot juice and one scoop of Super-Green Pro-96 powder.  That’s what I eat six days a week although it is much easier to keep it exactly as above Monday through Friday. The weekends are a bit flexible as I tend to go out with family and friends and we may end up getting something to eat or I may end up at my family’s home and eating what’s available there. So far this new eating routine and my many hours at the gym are paying off. I’m loosing the weight.  Plus I’m loosing my insatiable cravings for fried foods.

One thing I’m noticing is I no longer see meals as breakfast, lunch and dinner with snacks in between. That routine doesn’t work for me and based on what I’ve seen on body builders blogs and articles it does not work for a lot of other people as well. The idea is to keep the body fueled ever few hours and that mindset does not fit with a three meal a day plan. No wonder people munch heavily on whatever is in their office snack machine. If you only eat three meals in a day you will eat a LOT at each meal trying to keep you held over until the next meal and you will snack on junk food trying to stop the hunger pains and growling. The way I eat I do not get hungry often and if I do I know I’m not that far away from my next meal.

I got this idea from a bodybuilder’s article on bodybuilding.com.  I do love this website. 

DivaInPink