Body Conscious Ramblings

No, I didn’t run in the Tely 10, but we did decide to take advantage of  the fact that the main road next to where we live was “closed off” for traffic for about 2 hours to go for a bike ride along with the runners. I say the road was “closed off” because it wasn’t really free of traffic. We first went in the direction of the approaching runners and once we spotted the first guy we turned around and went with the flow of runners. Mind you, there was only a trickle of them at the beginning. We continued as far as the finish line and then took a little break to look at the arriving runners. This was a first time for me to witness any sort of marathon and it did give me a chance to reflect on it. I’ve never been much into sports, except for a short while at the end of primary school (the equivalent of high school in North America). I was about 14-15 years old and I got into running and playing basketball for a while. It ended with the end of school though. Apart from that I have never really felt inclined to either keep track of or to participate in anything sport related (except for my gym routine, of course). Today, seeing these people of all various shapes, forms and levels of fitness gave me a different appreciation of anybody who sticks with it and makes it to the finish line regardless of the time they did it in. The first runner in particular gave me a big lump in my throat. On the other hand though, I started thinking about the purpose of the run. For some people it’s a way of life; they go all over the place and participate in all sorts of marathons, triathlons you name it. They are in shape, they probably train all year long. I understand why they would be doing it, it’s how they live. But then there is all the rest of the runners who about 2-3 months (if that) start “training” for the run, then they run and then they are able to say “I ran the Tely 10″. Now I don’t want to sound like the person who is ready to criticize and pass judgement without actually being one of those runners, but the truth is that if you are going to run in a marathon/half marathon or anything else for that matter you should represent something fitness related, ie. be fit, in shape, healthy etc. etc. It means nothing (to me in any case) if you sweated your way to the finish line and then went back to your couch and chips. Sure, it is an accomplishment that you can bring up in a conversation with friends so that they look up to you, but for heaven’s sake CONTINUE, develop a regimen of exercise, running, walking, anything. If you don’t and the next year you look just as unfit, then participation in Tely 10 is not going to gain you anybody’s respect. There you have it. My take on it. And no, I am not about to sign up for it for the next year because I couldn’t care less about all the prestige of being able to say “I run the Tely 10″. I would rather look the part because of hard work all year long than be able to say I participated.

Now on to a different topic… that of food preparation. I remember the time when I cringed at the thought of having to prepare lunch for the next day. The reason for this unpleasant feeling was due to the fact that I don’t just eat my lunch during the day. Each day I have to make sure to have 3 meals with me for work: 2 snacks and lunch. Before what I would be doing is eating supper and then in the evening I would go in the kitchen again and start preparing the next day’s food. This was not very efficient, because I’d feel like I was spending the entire evening in the kitchen. So what am I doing differently ? I started thinking about the next day’s food while preparing supper. Once everything needed for supper is happily getting cooked/roasted/boiled etc. etc. I’m starting the preparation of food for next day. This way I’m finished with both by the time I am ready to sit down and eat my supper and don’t have to interrupt my evening with another trip to the kitchen. It’s a no brainer for me. I’m quite obsessed with this idea of having everything done in time to the point of forgetting that I don’t have to do it when I’m on vacation! Sometimes I’d include another technique which is preparing a big pot of chilli/curry/soup over the weekend that I can consume for lunch for good part of the week. That means there is no lunch prep during the week, just loading it up into containers.

We’re sitting in our coffee shop right now and I’m hearing all sorts of languages around me: French, Italian and Polish

Counting calories can become very tedious if not down right impossible, if you have a family, a job, an animal or two and plenty of other things to do on a daily basis. I’ve tried it before and failed every single time. Recently though I found it increasingly important to find out how much calories I am consuming. I know exactly what comes in and how much (as in the volume), but calories can be a little bit more complicated. And why exactly do I want to know all the numbers? Well, even though I’ve never been a stickler for counting calories I’ve decided that to know exactly how much to eat to loose my body fat it’s essential for me to know the deficit I have to make in order to achieve my goals. I’ve tried many things:

1. Counting them by myself based on the nutritional info on packages! – didn’t work because most things I eat don’t come in a package and it became more of a chore than anything else.

2. Using various websites and/or applications – they never had the product brands that I’ve used and as a result the calorie count was never accurate.

Yesterday I came across www.livestrong.com and I am searching no more! Why is it good? It’s good because it takes literally no effort to compile a day’s worth of meals, it has virtually ALL product brands, it remembers foods already used in a meal, it is accurate and does all the calculations and additions for you. Once the day is done, you can export a table with all the numbers (see the links at the bottom of the post).

Here are some snapshots:

Here is where you add your foods and/or fitness activity

Once the food entered a list of possible entries pops up

And here is your compiled info on the meals with totals for each meal

Next daily and weekly totals

Here is my menu for July 5 2010. My totals and fitness activity are here.

ps. Ok, there is one thing that I don’t like about this calorie counter. It doesn’t break down nutrients into, for example fats into saturated, unsaturated, mono- and poly- unsaturated and trans. Same for sugars and carbs, there is no way of knowing where they came from unless you analyze the food list. But that’s something I can live with.

Menu for July 6th.

I have been cleaning up my act since January 2010. Yes, it was one of those quiet New Year’s resolutions. I say quiet because I didn’t go through the whoopty-doo announcement of starting something new, I just quietly eliminated crap that has accumulated in my diet by means of negligence and laziness. Yes, I admit that in the past 2 years I have let myself slip when it comes to healthy eating. I’m like anybody else in this respect, tempt me with chocolates and red wine and I will succumb. I don’t know what caused it but for the past 2 years it has been extremely easy to succumb. Long story short, the liqueur filled chocolates and wine quickly started to show in my behind and sooner or later something had to be done, so I’ve cleaned it up. Now, what has to be done to loose weight and body fat is not some big secret that everybody tries to uncover (even though the dieting community behaves as if though it was a secret). All one needs to do is to eliminate the junk from the diet and by that I mean all processed foods have to go, baked goods, sugar, white flours, white rice and pasta are a no-no. Replace all that with veggies and fruits, plenty of lean protein and consume the good carbs (whole grains – brown rice & quinoa, beans, oats, sweet potatoes) and good fats and you will get yourself in a good enough shape to start adding exercise. Which is what I did sometime mid-march, I joined a gym and started my regular visits. It’s been 6 months of clean-eating and about 3 months of strength training and cardio at the gym and I’m still wanting more. I’ve lost about 8kg (17.6lbs) in weight for a total of 55kg and 27cm in measurements. I’m quite happy with this accomplishment (not happy that most of my clothes don’t fit me now and I can’t replace them with new ones at this point) especially since I’ve persisted long enough to see that 8 ugly kg go. Most people want to see results the first week of starting a new regimen and most people fail to loose any significant weight, simply because they want it NOW. You are not going to see results right away, because getting fit/lean/shredded (or whatever else you’re aiming at) takes time and hard work. All the crap you’ve put in yourself is not going to magically melt off. I laugh when I hear people who complain because after x number of weeks they haven’t lost weight. First of all, if you do any amount of strength training you might not even see the weight coming off because while you loose fat you are gaining muscle, so look in the damn mirror instead of weighing yourself!

Revenons à nos muttons**….. Right now I’m pretty content with the measurements, but I’m still working on my body fat, I want to get to a happy place with it, even though I don’t know what that number would be, mostly because I have no idea what my body fat percentage is right now. I guess I’ll just go by the look. So I did my research and came across a simple principle of carb cycling, it’s used in bodybuilding circles quite liberally in order to lower the overall body fat percentage. Like I said it’s quite simple provided the pantry is already clean of junk food! There are 3 days in this diet that need to be cycled: day 1 is high carb day, day 2 is low carb day and day 3 is no carb day. On your high carb days 4 out of 6 meals will have carbs (or 3 out of 5), on your low carb days 3 out of 6 meals have carbs ( or 2 out of 5) and on no carb days you eat no carbs except for vegetables which are eaten on all days.

Lean Protein sources include:
Chicken (white meat)
Turkey (white meat)
Tuna Fish (can)
Fish (flounder, tuna (fatty or not), salmon, shark, etc.)
Shellfish (all types)
Protein (preferably whey post workout, and casein before bed; MRPs must be low-carb)
Lean beef (including lean cuts of steak)
Cottage Cheese (0 or 1% fat)
Egg whites (egg beaters)

Higher fat Protein sources include:
Chicken (dark meat)
Turkey (dark meat)
Eggs (half whites, half whole eggs)
Steak and other meats (not exceptionally high fat cuts)
Cottage Cheese (Whole Milk)

Approved fat sources:
(Natural) Peanut Butter
Flax Oil
Heavy Whipping Cream
Mayonnaise
Hemp Seed Oil
Olive Oil

Approved carb sources:
Brown rice
Oats (Slow Cooked Preferred)
Sweet potatoes or Yams
Fiber One (All Bran) Cereal
Starchy Veggies (corn, peas, etc.)
Beans/Legumes

Approved Yet Limited Carbohydrates:
Whole-wheat pasta
Whole grain breads, pitas, etc.

You cycle those 3 days for as long as you wish. I just finished 1 cycle and decided to give it a try for a month, if I can make it. As you can probably gather the no carb day was the most difficult mentally and physically. It was easy to not include carbs in my meals, but the mood and the energy were droopy to say the least. I found it difficult to stay awake at work and there was no way I was going for a bike ride or to the gym in the evening. I just did not have the necessary fuel in me to do any mental or physical activity. So why would I be doing it to myself? Well, apparently the idea is that playing with the input of carbohydrates makes the body guessing as to where it’s supposed to get its energy from. When you cut carbs, muscles give up stored carbohydrates – called muscle glycogen – as energy. In general, when glycogen levels fall, the body increases its ability to burn body fat. The no carb day will deplete your carbohydrates reserves which allows the body to use up muscle glycogen and and if protein intake is sufficient the body starts burning body fat for energy. Next, on your carb days you will replenish the muscle glycogen by eating more starchy in order for the body to never use muscles for energy.

So my sample menu for 3 days looks more or less like this:

Day 1 high carb:
Breakfast: 1/3 cup of dry oats + 1 cup of berries + 3 TBSP of no fat plain Libert̩ yogurt + dark coffee (2 egg whites + 1 whole egg Рoptional)
Mid-morning snack : 3 TBSP of no fat plain Liberté yogurt + 1/2 cup berries + 1 Tsp of natural hazelnut butter
Lunch : 3oz chicken breast + 1cup green beans + 1 cup lettuce and shredded carrots + 3 oz brown rice
Mid-afternoon snack : 1/2 can tuna in water + 1 TBSP vegannaise (mayo without eggs) + 1 egg white + 2TBSP brown rice
Supper : 3 oz chicken breast (or turkey or fish) + 1 cup greens + 3 oz brown rice
Night snack : Tea

Day 2 low carb:
Breakfast: 1/3 cup of dry oats + 1 cup of berries + 3 TBSP of no fat plain Libert̩ yogurt + dark coffee (2 egg whites + 1 whole egg Рoptional)
Mid-morning snack : 3 TBSP of no fat plain Liberté yogurt + 1/2 cup berries + 1 Tsp of natural hazelnut butter
Lunch : 3oz chicken breast + 1cup green beans + 1 cup lettuce and shredded carrots + 3 oz brown rice
Mid-afternoon snack : 1/2 can tuna in water + 1 TBSP vegannaise (mayo without eggs) + 1 egg white + 2TBSP brown rice
Supper : 3 oz chicken breast (or turkey or fish) + 1 cup greens
Night snack : Tea

Day 2 no carb:
Breakfast: 2 egg whites + 1 whole egg + veggies for omelette + some left over chicken breast + 1/2 grapefruit
Mid-morning snack : Tuna salad without rice + egg
Lunch : 3oz chicken breast + 1cup green beans + 1 cup lettuce and shredded carrots
Mid-afternoon snack : apple + hazelnut butter OR Tuna salad without rice with carrots in oliveoil dressing
Supper : 3 oz chicken breast (or turkey or fish) + 1 cup greens
Night snack : Tea

I’m trying to cut out my night snack which usually is way too much peanuts or some sunflower seeds. Instead I’m only having some fruity tea.

* abbreviations:
ch – chest
w – waist
a – arm
t – thigh
h – hips
c – calf

** Revenons à nos moutons – Let’s get back to the point

It’s time that I admit something publicly – I have cheated on my vegetarian diet. Not once, not twice, but many times now. So what went wrong? Well, first of all I came to the conclusion that I cannot envision my life without fish (fresh or smoked salmon are a must for me). So if I decide to include salmon, why not grilled chicken or turkey? And that’s exactly what has happened. One day, after a month’s worth exhaustion with trying to come up with edible meals that don’t include meat I just gave in and suggested chicken for supper. My other half looked at me in amazement and asked “Are you sure?”. I think that deep down he was hoping this day would have come. So I said yes, I was sure. Now at this point I was having doubts and fears of failure. I was month and a half into this vegetarian conversion, not a long time, and I was already giving up! So after a moment of silence I said “You know what, forget it, I can’t do it!”. Long story short, he did go to the grocery store to pick up some skinless, boneless chicken breast. From that moment on the meat started to regain its place in our lives. However, it’s not as simple as that…

I’ve always associated vegetarianism with healthy foods but I’ve come to realize that this couldn’t be further from the truth. Vegetarianism CAN be a healthy diet but in my search for healthy vegetarian dishes I have learned that vegetarianism can be just as unhealthy as “omnivorism”. I’ve found countless of blogs and online resources on how to become vegetarian and I must say that most of them disappointed me in that they didn’t offer healthy choices. I have bought several vegetarian cookbooks, all of which didn’t account for healthy eating. Heavy sauces, sugar, white four, refined grains were all present everywhere! Yes, I suppose I could just skip those ingredients and adapt the recipes to my liking. But that’s not the point. The point is that I have been duped! I have been lead to believe that vegetarian equals healthy and that is clearly not the case. Another problem was the fact that many of the cookbooks did not include very many MAIN dishes. They were full of sauces, dips, salads and deserts, but when it came to making a main dish all they offered were Veggie BURGERS or rice and noodle bowls! I don’t know about you, but for me loading up on refined carbs is not my most favourite thing to do. Yeah, it might be yummy for 20 minutes it takes you to consume them, but it’s not so yummy or fun when 60 minutes afterwards you feel hungry again!

So, I officially quit vegetarianism and I don’t feel bad about it. Of course I’m still open to good quality, healthy veggie dishes, but I will no longer freak out at the sight of meat (mostly chicken, turkey and fish). I have never given up my yogurt anyway, so I have never been truly vegan or anything. Part of it has always felt to me a little bit like a fad thing.

Now that I have this bit off my chest I can move on

Here is some vegetarian humour for you:

Downloading corn

What do Humanitarians eat?

Lettuce

Food chain position