6 sugar cookies (in 1 day) = 130 calories per cookie x 6 = 780 total... not to mention the other things I ate today.
Going to be an extra long day at the gym! Ugh - bad me, bad!
And the sad part is, I enjoyed those cookies sooo much! They were all left over from Friday's work christmas party. To think I did so well on Friday but blew it on Monday when the left overs were left out in the common area. For shame!
Been doing weighted pullups (about 125/day... with 20 additional lbs) Today I will attempt 30lbs.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Fathead
One of the blogs I like to read in the morning, when I'm having a slow day --> FITBOMB. I haven't read it in a long time, so yesterday afternoon I read about 30posts straight. Aside from my brain feeling a bit mushy, I was intrigued by a comment he made regarding Hulu and Fathead and how everyone should go watch it.
Well, after all that reading, why not spend another hour and a half in front of the computer? So I did.
I enjoyed the movie - it was a nice spin off of the Spurlock Super Size Me flick. Only this time the narrator lost weight eating fast food. Proving the point that Spurlock was going way out of his way to eat unhealthy at these places and that a level headed individual with a modest understanding of health/fitness can eat a fast-food diet with little health concern.
I liked some of the interview with doctors and scientists - and actually I think his personal doctor (the one who gave him the before/after screening) was hilarious! "Has anyone ever told you that you have a heart-murmur!?" "Uh... no" "Good, because you don't have one!"
It's a good film, mildly educational and certainly entertaining. If you've got an hour+ to waste this weekend (And I know you do). Skip over to Hulu.com and watch it. I just typed Fathead into the search bar and it came right up. Enjoy your weekend everyone!
*I weighed in this morning at 152 - down from my thanksgiving high of 156ish... I've been doing MASS PULLUPS (100+) with weight (17.5 + 20lbs) situp routines, pushup routines, and some max weight style lifting to build bulk and strength.*
Well, after all that reading, why not spend another hour and a half in front of the computer? So I did.
I enjoyed the movie - it was a nice spin off of the Spurlock Super Size Me flick. Only this time the narrator lost weight eating fast food. Proving the point that Spurlock was going way out of his way to eat unhealthy at these places and that a level headed individual with a modest understanding of health/fitness can eat a fast-food diet with little health concern.
I liked some of the interview with doctors and scientists - and actually I think his personal doctor (the one who gave him the before/after screening) was hilarious! "Has anyone ever told you that you have a heart-murmur!?" "Uh... no" "Good, because you don't have one!"
It's a good film, mildly educational and certainly entertaining. If you've got an hour+ to waste this weekend (And I know you do). Skip over to Hulu.com and watch it. I just typed Fathead into the search bar and it came right up. Enjoy your weekend everyone!
*I weighed in this morning at 152 - down from my thanksgiving high of 156ish... I've been doing MASS PULLUPS (100+) with weight (17.5 + 20lbs) situp routines, pushup routines, and some max weight style lifting to build bulk and strength.*
Monday, December 6, 2010
Diet Kryptonite...day 28^3
Everyone knows superman has a weakness... but did you know that every diet has a weakness too? Perhaps some of you have been battling that one food (or perhaps food group) that really is more than just food, but some kind of evil arch nemesis. I know I have a few lurking in the shadows. Namely Pizza, Coffee, and Rum&Cokes.
So what should you do with these perpetrators that destroy your good deeds and leave you feeling miserable/guilty afterwords? It'd be a little too easy for me to just say "Avoid them" and it'd be too complicated if I try to explain the feel good chemicals in your brain that you associate with these foods.
The best thing to do is identify them. Knowing your weaknesses will absolutely help you minimize any collateral damage these badins will do to you. For me, it's best to stay away from Friday Lunches that are to Domino's Pizza or John's Pizza and Wings. If that means a couple fridays per month I'm bagging my lunch - okay. Does it mean I might have to sit at my office and eat, sometimes yes. As for coffee... my best defense against this evil foe is to get a good night's sleep and be well rested the next day as to not require that morning cup'o'joe. And as for alcohol...try to remember that the best feel good drug is having a good time - and having a good time does not mean having 3 drinks first.
Perhaps you have your own arch rival in your diet plan - your best bet is to identify it immediately and figure out your best approach to dealing with it, because sooner or later - if you don't stay on your toes - the bad guy might win!
So what should you do with these perpetrators that destroy your good deeds and leave you feeling miserable/guilty afterwords? It'd be a little too easy for me to just say "Avoid them" and it'd be too complicated if I try to explain the feel good chemicals in your brain that you associate with these foods.
The best thing to do is identify them. Knowing your weaknesses will absolutely help you minimize any collateral damage these badins will do to you. For me, it's best to stay away from Friday Lunches that are to Domino's Pizza or John's Pizza and Wings. If that means a couple fridays per month I'm bagging my lunch - okay. Does it mean I might have to sit at my office and eat, sometimes yes. As for coffee... my best defense against this evil foe is to get a good night's sleep and be well rested the next day as to not require that morning cup'o'joe. And as for alcohol...try to remember that the best feel good drug is having a good time - and having a good time does not mean having 3 drinks first.
Perhaps you have your own arch rival in your diet plan - your best bet is to identify it immediately and figure out your best approach to dealing with it, because sooner or later - if you don't stay on your toes - the bad guy might win!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Day 24^3
My new outlook on fitness. Probably something I've been meaning to post for a while now... ever since I have been on yahoo answers helping other people lose weight and formulate exercise programs, I've come to the conclusion that "Losing 10lbs" is not the only thing you need when it comes to fitness goal-setting.
Let's consider losing 10lbs as a destination. And everyone knows you need to travel to a destination, so let's agree that fitness/diets are the journey. My new outlook on fitness is that loving the destination/goal is not enough. If you're not prepared to embrace the journey, you're never going to reach your destination (or if you do, you'll likely find yourself somewhere else down the road once you've given up).
Fitness and being healthy are a lifestyle. And we all know that life in itself is its own little journey. So, to me, this philosophy makes perfect sense. Hopefully it does to you too.
So my message to everyone out there who is struggling to lose weight, or struggling to stick to a diet, or just trying to maintain a healthy figure - set a more interesting goal: "I will formulate a diet/exercise plan that will help me get to my destination AND will be something that I can embrace and do every day (or X times per week) with room for improvements and adaptations that I may perform for many years to come" NOW THAT'S A GOAL!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Day 23^3
Perhaps I've gone over this before... but food labels - in all their glory can be quite deceptive. I don't mean the nutritional facts on the back with their sly tricks for serving size and rounding down content... I mean buzz words and trends like "Low Carb" "Low Fat" "Reduced Fat" "Light" "Organic" "All Natural" "Whole Grain" and my personal favorite "Fat Free"
Lets take a look at what some of these mean - and DONT MEAN:
Low Fat: Low fat means a product contains 3g of fat or less per serving, and 30% or less of total calories
Reduced Fat: Reduced fat products contain at least 25% less fat than the original version. This does not mean that the reduced fat version is low fat (or even healthy). Take a package of reduced fat cookies, for example. If the original fat content per serving was 20g, and the fat has been reduced to 15g, it is still five times higher than the 3g per serving that officially qualifies as low fat.
Low-Carb: The FDA has not yet legally defined what "low-carbohydrate" means - so buying a low-carb snack, could mean abolustely anything.
Light: At least 50% less fat or 1/3 fewer calories per serving than the “regular” full-fat food cited on the label.
Organic: 90% of the food item is produced by farmers who avoided the use of bio-persistent nonselective chemical pesticides, fungicides and fertilizers. It does not ensure 100% organic - there is a 100% for those type foods.
Whole Grain: Are cereal grains that consist of the intact and unrefined, ground, cracked or flaked fruit of the grains whose principal components - the starchy endosperm, germ and bran - are present in the same relative proportions as they exist in the intact grain.
All Natural: According to the USDA, food can only be labeled natural if it contains no artificial ingredients or added colors and is minimally processed.
Fat Free: Each serving of food has less than 1/2 gram of fat - but not necessary completely void of fat.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Day 30^3 minus 8 PLUS Thanksgiving.
Today is day 30 of my "3rd Round" of P90X which is not actually P90X, but just lifting weights in a manor to build some bulk. Last week I took off (hense the Minus eight in my title), so I guess I can consider this day 22.
I meant to post this before the Thanksgiving long weekend, but I failed in doing so... but the advice can be applied to any major holiday... perhaps cristmas/easter/thanksgiving (etc.)
The question was "How can I stick to my diet over the holidays?"
The answers are:
1. You're in charge. You make the choices. You ultimately see the food, put it on your plate, re-pick it up with your fork, put it in your mouth, chew it, swallow it. Somewhere along that chain you need to ask yourself "Am I full?" and stop.
2. HAVE THANKSGIVING. Just be a bit prudish - take 1 slice of turkey, take 1 spoon of stuffing, take 1 serving of squash... but when you're finished - you're finished.
3. Most people eat until they are in pain. How many thanksgivings have you had where you just feel bl;oated because you're over-full? Don't get that way. There's no logical need to gorge yourself silly. Skip desserts and have a normal sized portion of food. You really only need 1 bite to get the flavor - the rest is all just going ot make you sleepy and crampy anyway.
4. Watch out for gravey. A little bit goes a long way. There is no need to drown your food in brown-liquid. It's super high in sodium and only excess calories to the already high calorie meal.
5. Don't let others serve you. They dont know your diet and passing them your plate could be the nail in the coffin. *More potatoes?* is a phrase you'll want to battle by saying "Sure send them down" at which point you take only a small amount.
6. If leftovers are offered - simply say "Thats okay" or suggest somebody else who has a bigger family that has kids.
7. Alcohol - most families (at least mine) tend to drink way more than normal on holidays. Wine, beer, liquors, etc... just go dry and if you're having a hard time - have a glass of wine with dinner but dont go overboard, not only does alcohol contain a lot of diet-busting sugars and calories, but you want to be able to drive home at the end of the night too. So keep it to 1 drink, maybe 2 at most.
8. Don't sit by the snack table. Youre going to nibble - it's the way it is. Stay clear of the chips, pretzels, cheese trays, fruit platters... they're all going to tempt you to no end.
9. Go for a walk! Get outside! Nobody's going to fault you for wanting to get some fresh air with the family all yelling/screaming at eachother (again another thing my family tends to do on the holidays - perhaps it's alcohol related?)
10. REMEMBER REMEMBER REMEMBER - if you screw up and you totally blow away your diet on Thanksgiving - don't give up on your diet and exercise. The faster you get back to dieting the better you'll be. Don't say "Oh Christmas is coming in 1 month why should I even bother" NO NO NO say "Tomorrow it's back to my normal routine and get myself back on track" Don't throw in the towel because you screwed up 1 night.
I meant to post this before the Thanksgiving long weekend, but I failed in doing so... but the advice can be applied to any major holiday... perhaps cristmas/easter/thanksgiving (etc.)
The question was "How can I stick to my diet over the holidays?"
The answers are:
1. You're in charge. You make the choices. You ultimately see the food, put it on your plate, re-pick it up with your fork, put it in your mouth, chew it, swallow it. Somewhere along that chain you need to ask yourself "Am I full?" and stop.
2. HAVE THANKSGIVING. Just be a bit prudish - take 1 slice of turkey, take 1 spoon of stuffing, take 1 serving of squash... but when you're finished - you're finished.
3. Most people eat until they are in pain. How many thanksgivings have you had where you just feel bl;oated because you're over-full? Don't get that way. There's no logical need to gorge yourself silly. Skip desserts and have a normal sized portion of food. You really only need 1 bite to get the flavor - the rest is all just going ot make you sleepy and crampy anyway.
4. Watch out for gravey. A little bit goes a long way. There is no need to drown your food in brown-liquid. It's super high in sodium and only excess calories to the already high calorie meal.
5. Don't let others serve you. They dont know your diet and passing them your plate could be the nail in the coffin. *More potatoes?* is a phrase you'll want to battle by saying "Sure send them down" at which point you take only a small amount.
6. If leftovers are offered - simply say "Thats okay" or suggest somebody else who has a bigger family that has kids.
7. Alcohol - most families (at least mine) tend to drink way more than normal on holidays. Wine, beer, liquors, etc... just go dry and if you're having a hard time - have a glass of wine with dinner but dont go overboard, not only does alcohol contain a lot of diet-busting sugars and calories, but you want to be able to drive home at the end of the night too. So keep it to 1 drink, maybe 2 at most.
8. Don't sit by the snack table. Youre going to nibble - it's the way it is. Stay clear of the chips, pretzels, cheese trays, fruit platters... they're all going to tempt you to no end.
9. Go for a walk! Get outside! Nobody's going to fault you for wanting to get some fresh air with the family all yelling/screaming at eachother (again another thing my family tends to do on the holidays - perhaps it's alcohol related?)
10. REMEMBER REMEMBER REMEMBER - if you screw up and you totally blow away your diet on Thanksgiving - don't give up on your diet and exercise. The faster you get back to dieting the better you'll be. Don't say "Oh Christmas is coming in 1 month why should I even bother" NO NO NO say "Tomorrow it's back to my normal routine and get myself back on track" Don't throw in the towel because you screwed up 1 night.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Day 12^3: Why friends are bad for diets
This is when the blog holds you most accountable, when something neat happens, but you can't be too proud of it because then everyone will know you cheated on your diet/exercise. Well, I did. So here's my story.
Friday lunch, at work, typically involves eating out at restaurants that are not P90X approved. So, I'm a stick in the mud 90% of the time and bag a lunch and take it to where we're going (obviously mom + pop shops are out of the question, but I don't mind plunking down a bagged lunch at McDonalds or Taco Bell or Pizza hut. And frankly they seem to understand). But today we went to My Tomato Pie.
This fine little Italian place in the Northern region of Buffalo is pretty well known and has some of the best pizza around. Knowing pizza is my kryptonite, I decided I might just stay at work and eat my bagged lunch (which is still sitting on my desk - hence I ultimately decided to go). A couple people wanted to split a pre-ordered pizza so we wouldn't be waiting for hours to get our food and they needed me to complete the split... the long and short of it, I went and left my lunch at work.
Well we sat down, there were 9 of us. We each ordered our drinks (water for me of course) and then ordered our food. When our food came, 8 people got their pizzas and calzones... except for 1 person. The waitress came back and asked if anyone needed refills and didn't realize 1 person didn't have anything (it also didn't help most of us were sharing). Eventually he spoke up and asked "I was just wondering - what's the status of the small chicken finger pizza?" The waitress said she'd ask and came back very apologetic "I'm so sorry, it's just being cooked now, it must have gotten mixed up... we're going to bring it out as soon as we can, and by the way it's on the house. Would you like a soup or salad to hold you over, also free?" He accepted a soup.
About 10mins later, after everyone else was pretty much done eating, his pizza came out. it was presented by the manager, or perhaps the lead-waiter. He was holding some cards in his hand. Three $10-gift cards to My Tomato Pie. He apologized and said he hoped this would make up for it. At this point, my friend was sky high - sweet free food AND $30 to come back and have some more!
The waitress was about to bring us our bill and she said, with one final attempt to make sure everyone was okay "Just to be sure, I want to offer everyone at the table an opportunity for a free dessert, if you're still hungry" she then gave us the choice of two mightily sugary options: snicker + oreo pie or a heath + kit-kat pie. Needless to say 9 out of 9 hands went up for one or the other. Dessert was served, insulin spiked, and I was very content.
I'm letting everyone know about this experience for a few reason...
1. I know I stick to a pretty hard diet, but even the temptation of friends and free food get the best of even the strongest willed now and again.
2. Fun stuff like this is always nice to talk about and I hope everyone had some fun reading about it.
3. I think the service at My Tomato Pie is outstanding. The fact they went head over heals to make sure we were content with our meals definitely makes me want to return there, even if our order got messed up.
4. Remember, cheating on your diet is like skipping an exercise. If you don't confess and get back on your diet right away things can get really slippery. Admit guilt, get over it, and get on with your fitness!
I hope everyone has a great weekend! I'm slipping into a sugar-comma...
Friday lunch, at work, typically involves eating out at restaurants that are not P90X approved. So, I'm a stick in the mud 90% of the time and bag a lunch and take it to where we're going (obviously mom + pop shops are out of the question, but I don't mind plunking down a bagged lunch at McDonalds or Taco Bell or Pizza hut. And frankly they seem to understand). But today we went to My Tomato Pie.
This fine little Italian place in the Northern region of Buffalo is pretty well known and has some of the best pizza around. Knowing pizza is my kryptonite, I decided I might just stay at work and eat my bagged lunch (which is still sitting on my desk - hence I ultimately decided to go). A couple people wanted to split a pre-ordered pizza so we wouldn't be waiting for hours to get our food and they needed me to complete the split... the long and short of it, I went and left my lunch at work.
Well we sat down, there were 9 of us. We each ordered our drinks (water for me of course) and then ordered our food. When our food came, 8 people got their pizzas and calzones... except for 1 person. The waitress came back and asked if anyone needed refills and didn't realize 1 person didn't have anything (it also didn't help most of us were sharing). Eventually he spoke up and asked "I was just wondering - what's the status of the small chicken finger pizza?" The waitress said she'd ask and came back very apologetic "I'm so sorry, it's just being cooked now, it must have gotten mixed up... we're going to bring it out as soon as we can, and by the way it's on the house. Would you like a soup or salad to hold you over, also free?" He accepted a soup.
About 10mins later, after everyone else was pretty much done eating, his pizza came out. it was presented by the manager, or perhaps the lead-waiter. He was holding some cards in his hand. Three $10-gift cards to My Tomato Pie. He apologized and said he hoped this would make up for it. At this point, my friend was sky high - sweet free food AND $30 to come back and have some more!
The waitress was about to bring us our bill and she said, with one final attempt to make sure everyone was okay "Just to be sure, I want to offer everyone at the table an opportunity for a free dessert, if you're still hungry" she then gave us the choice of two mightily sugary options: snicker + oreo pie or a heath + kit-kat pie. Needless to say 9 out of 9 hands went up for one or the other. Dessert was served, insulin spiked, and I was very content.
I'm letting everyone know about this experience for a few reason...
1. I know I stick to a pretty hard diet, but even the temptation of friends and free food get the best of even the strongest willed now and again.
2. Fun stuff like this is always nice to talk about and I hope everyone had some fun reading about it.
3. I think the service at My Tomato Pie is outstanding. The fact they went head over heals to make sure we were content with our meals definitely makes me want to return there, even if our order got messed up.
4. Remember, cheating on your diet is like skipping an exercise. If you don't confess and get back on your diet right away things can get really slippery. Admit guilt, get over it, and get on with your fitness!
I hope everyone has a great weekend! I'm slipping into a sugar-comma...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)