LionChick’s BodyBlog

the good news:

i know what’s wrong with me after the tests the doctor ran:
- massive food allergies
- too much of something in the thyroid which is making it over all slow

the okay news:

i get a more comprehensive thyroid panel on thursday to determine about synthroid

the bad news:

- that there is something wrong with me

- that i don’t have a full time job and i am dependant on my parents insurance, and i’m about to turn 23… i am so desperate for a full time job

the annoyance:

i am always, always, always feeling like money is this huge pressure on my shoulders.  it’s like having a two ton gorilla sitting on my back at all times.  i want so desperately to have a full time job, but i feel like no one will hire me… i think it’s because what i want to do isn’t something that requires a big education; i just want to work in sales or management… but i’ve got a degree in english/art history….

i have this dream of selling something i am really passionate about… like i love selling protein right now, and i used to love selling running shoes.. and i would love to do something like work for say, muscletech, or someone, and go to different expos/retail locations, and promote the product.  or any company. nike. mizuno. isatori. columbia. patagonia. northface. namaste allergen free bakery. whoever… being a sales rep is my dream job…

i’m not attached to anyone or anything, and i guess in that sense i’m a lot not like a lion.  i know it sounds selfish but the one thing i’ve learned from all of this is that the most important person to look out for and care about is yourself, and so i feel like being a rep would be ideal. i love to travel. i love to sell. i have my family here, but i don’t have any "new" family (something that i’ve created) and  as terrible as it sounds i don’t really plan on it.  maybe someday i’ll marry, but i am not a kids person.  i like cats, though. and dogs.  i could do a dog, but if i travelled a lot, a cat would be better.

anyways, ramble, ramble. i want a place of my own and a salary of my own and a chance to strive out on my own like a 23 year old should have… and am i trying, yes… but i feel like nothing is really pulling through for me.  everyone i call back doesn’t call me back… it’s like they see "english degree" and it’s like "well, she’s useless."

i think one thing that hurt was when a customer at GNC got mad at me for doing 2 returns before him and told me i was too slow and dumb to get a "real job."  i know it shoudln’t matter what some random dude said, but it did.  it stung, because it was what i was thinkging, and then it was like well, others perceive me as this, too?

sorry to put all my worries out on the internet, but i don’t feel like i’ve said anything bad or derogatory… it’s more a chance to just write out, okay, this is what is bothering me right now… then maybe i can look at it and go okay, and now i see where to go. or maybe someone will materialize and say "aha! you are perfect for this job opening i have."  who knows. it doesn’t hurt to be open about what’s in your heart as long as you’re honest about it, i guess.

it’s been a while since i’ve written on here

i used to be real thin

but my metabolism apparently dropped again, so the weight came back on easy

now i’m back to the original problem i had in college

slow ass metabolism

going to the doc today to get it chcked out and see what i can do for it.

i keep reading about refeeds and how they "stroke" your metabolism.  what are refeeds and how do i go about doing them?  should i be doing them? i don’t eat too many kcals a day, in fact, my fitday only puts me around 1200 a day! this doesn’t seem like enough because "apparently" my "maintence" BMR is aroudn 2100.  However, at 1200 a day, I am gaining 1.5 lbs per week.  So something is off here.  Should I do a refeed, and how should I do it, to get things started?  Or is my body just doomed to slow metabolism for life (I starved myself for 10 years… I can see how this might happen).

Oh, I hope it’s not the second, as I just got certified to be a PE teacher, and the last thing I want is to be the PE teacher who doesn’t look like she can do the sports with her students (I mean, besides my whiteness and inability to jump– that I will never be able to do with my students!)

i realize that many people probably are thinking "way too much protein, not enough carbs"– this may be the case for some– however, i find that i feel much better and can get in eight hours of sleep without feeling junky during the night (sometimes thirsty, not junky, though) only if i have "too much protein."  Id like to say that I should listen to conventional knowledge on this point, but I think that some people’s bodies process things differently from others, so that some people do well with carbs, others with meats, and others with fats.  I am able to gain on what I am eating, as well as feel full and energized all the time, so I will stick with it. If I find that I don’t like the results, I will change. To each their own, and to me, meat.

so you probably want to know, especially if you’re from the ghetto, hey kristin, what you be eatin’?

well…

i’ll give you a run down, because i’m starting to get a pattern from this

my first meal is almost always "the same"– it’s oats, protein powder, and flax seeds.  about every 3rd day or 4th day I have rice bran instead of oats because I like the variety and because it helps me go number 2.  but I don’t want to go number 2 too frequently, so i don’t do that a lot.  Occasionally (about once every 2 weeks or so) I may have an omlette instead of this meal, but it throws off my macros a bit, so I usually only do that on sundays when I don’t train, just so it won’t affect my performance.

my second meal is IMMEDIATELY after I hit the weights, and it is a protein shake made with (usually) whey protein, although this week I had rice protein once to see what it was like.  I didn’t like it as much as I liked the whey.

Usually during my workout I drink about a 1/2 serving of Xtend because it keeps me hydrated (it’s still very hot here and I don’t want to overheat)

About 2 or 2.5 hours after my shake, I have my third meal.  THis is sort of the KING MEAL of the day.  It’s the most filling and usually most delicious, because I need the most nutrients to replenish, ya know (well, Meal 1 is very filling, too).   I usually have a fairly exorbitantly large piece of meat (about 6 oz. or so– at LEAST 30 g. of protein, if its a fatty meat, and if it’s tuna or chicken sometimes even more meat), as well as a bean or squash product, or occasionally oatmeal, or yams, or if I’m in an omlet mood (I just really like omlets), admitedly sometimes I will have an omlet with some flax (aka egg whites and flax) added to the meat instead of a carb source.  Again, since I need some carbs I don’t do this too much.  Also I usually have a bit of steamed veggies, I’ve been doing brussels sprouts some this week and have been enjoying them– kinda like baby cabbages!

About 3 hours or 4 hours after this I have my fourth meal; it is usually either a piece of meat and veggies or a protein shake and veggies or I may try some soy yogurt sometime soon (after I finish off some of the stuff I have in the fridge) and see how that goes.  I may also try some fruit here at some point but again I need to finish off what I"ve got before i buy new stuff. but blackberries are in, and I love them (one more reason why I should move to michigan!)

About 3 or 4 hours after this I have my "dinner."  Dinner is very similar to the fourth meal, except maybe a little bigger,especially in the veggie department.  I usually will have a couple servings of veggies here, incl. mushrooms ebcause I"ve read that the folate and folic acid in mushrooms is very good for women.  since i don’t eat enriched wheat products i don’t get in the proper amount of vitamin b, so having these helps me to get in those nutrients that i am missing.  i usually will have asparagus here, too, as it helps me go poo.  and of course my meat.  sometimes i make dinner omlettes out of eggwhites and hamburger patties or steak strips, or i might have grilled chicken, tuna and mushrooms and eggs, ostrich, bison, beef, beef, beef (i like beef a lot), or for a special treat, perhaps venison.  recently i’ve been eating a lot of turkey because of thanksgiving leftovers.

finally, for my sixth meal I have another serving or two of protein.  i usually mix it with "not quite enough" water to make a pudding like consistency.

throughout the day I drink water or munch on ice (it’s SO HOT HERE).  i’ve cut my coffee way back and i have a cup in the morning with silk, and sometimes maybe some silk and stevia in the afternoon (as a little treat).  other than that, i’m a water gal.

i think i may start adding in cheat meals (backslash "treat meals") sometime soon, as I am getting more and more comfortable with food, and this will allow me to have a greater cycle in caloric intake.  the main reason i will add them is because i want to keep a good track of my nutrition and i find that often i am nearly (or sometimes veribly) sidetracked by a craving (mostly for an enormous, fatty piece of meat– ted’s montana is like the golden calf to me).  so i may start, just once every few weeks, taking myself out to a treat at either ted’s montana (how i would enjoy that 35.99 bison tenderloin– which can be made ’sans gluten’ because of seasonings!– or perhaps at Nagoya (local sashimi place)– or even at this fabulous restaurant in smyrna (papadeux) that makes a "lobster salad"– it is just what you think it is– mounds of lobster meat spread atop of a lot of green things.

as you can see, for the most part i enjoy very much what i eat, as it is all "whole foods" (save the protein powders) and very tasty.  i don’t really crave sweets, except occasionally fruits, any then usually berries are what i want, as i don’t really like the other fruits THAT much (they’re not "bad," i’m just not a fruity person).  also admittedly i will drink a few sips of diet coke from time to time. this is mostly because it is in the front of the pantry and water is in the back, so i have less of a chance of getting the dogs stuck in the pantry if i grab a diet coke over a water.  but i would prefer the water, so usually the coke just sits around for a bit until i throw it away for being 3 days old and only 1/4 drinken.

is drinken a word? i don’t know because i’m an english major who doesn’t like reading. so i’ll say sure.

why did i ever major in english? seriously.  if i could change one thing in my past it would be where i went to college– i would have gone where i originally wanted to go (michigan) and i would have studied what i originally wanted to study (physics).

but i can’t change the past, so i’ll just keep on moving on from here… my goal is to make money, get in shape, and get to michigan in the next few years– i don’t really care what i end up doing job wise there (so long as it is NOT teaching), but i want to be there.  it is TOO HOT down here.

gotta get more protein today to make up for yesterday

i should be a frickin’ eskimo. i’ll eat blubbery seal and fish all day and live in the COLD.

I’m going to post the  link to my fit day in 2 weeks.  Meanwhile, I’m logging all my intake on it.  When I post it, we can all analyze the data together and see what it shows.

I should probably note that so far it has been very helpful.  I like that it does the percentages for me.  For example, yesterday I was SO HUNGRY all day and ALL NIGHT.  I looked at yesterday, and my protein and fat intakes were significantly (about 10 percent for the fat, 15 for the protein) lower than normal, whereas my carb intake was about 25% higher than normal!!!

My protein grams were nearly 50 less than normal, too, whereas my carb grams were up nearly double their normal place.

So today I’m going back to what I’m used to and what works

High protein.  Starchy carbs in the morning fiberous at night.  Decent fats throughout the day.

And by HIGH protein I mean HIGH protein.  HIGH. I get so weak and tired when I get less than 150 g of protein a day.  Discusting for a 100 lbs gal? Yes.  But I’m doing it because someday my metabolism is going to catch up with my eats and I’m going to be so happy that I’ve trained my body to take in a LOT of food.

Not to mention, I LIKE MEAT.  Meat makes me feel good, it makes me function well, it gives me sustained energy.  And it’s gluten free.

So 1.5 more weeks and my fitday will be up on here and we can all look at the data together.  I know.  It’s like the release of a new action movie, right.  Be excited.

Still logging my diet on Fitday.  I’m not sure how to make the link public yet.

WHat I’ve discovered is that it is very helpful in tracking what I eat and how it affects my bowel movements.  For example, I tend to "move" better on days that I eat more protein and less carbs.  When I eat brocolli or cauliflower that is not organic it also seems to stop me up.  Eggs, it appears, keep me rather loose, as does asparagus.

So… I guess this boils down to saying that I need MORE PROTEIN and less carbs,  When in doubt, protein must be my nutrient of choice for addition.  Adding carbs seems to only make me feel sick.

THerefore, I will continue on this path.  Today will probably have many carbs, as I made "pumpkin pie whey loaf"

it consists of

egg whites

pumpkin

whey

water

xanthan gum

and every serving has about, oh, i dunno 30 grams of protein in it? yes!!!!

and also about 10 grams of carbs

and also i had aspargus for another 6 or 7 grams of carbs.

so all in all, some carbs. some protein.  a good post workout meal.  a bit sweet, but i’ll live.

later on i shall have STEAK.  yay.

sorry for the lack of posts, I’ve been using "fit day" to try to see what my kcal intake is.

will post it in about a week and let you know.

i ate gluten… i wanted to see what would happen

i have a rash all over my arms and i’m constipated and bloated and pissy and GEEZ my arms are ITCHING SO BADLY!!!!!! AHHHH…  this is annoying as hell.

Today– more carbs day?

Started with a Protmeal supersize (1/2 c. oats, 1 scoop whey) sans flax.

Next will be, I think, perhaps some other sort of whey cool combination (I crack myself up)

Then perhaps a quiche made with winter squashes?

Ostrich later,I suppose maybe tuna

And then probably Pro 96.  New shipment came in the mail and I’m psyched.