understanding my intake and output

When I jumped on the "get fit" bandwagon, I decided I would be really, really serious about it.

Like, super serious.

So I spent an hour perusing all the possible BMR and BMI and Daily Value calculators that exist.  I did that thing where you enter all the possible variations of yourself to see how it changes. You know?! Like, ok, here's me NOW.  Ok, here's me THREE YEARS AGO. Ok, here's me where I want to be in a year. Ok, here's me if I got REALLY chubby.

Am I the only one who does that?!

My first favorite site was Runner's World's BMR calculator.  After entering my {real} info, this is what I got for my Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR: calories I expend if I do NOTHING except sit and let my organs and body function normally. No eating, no moving, nothing.)

 

I like the breakdown of what daily caloric needs are, and how they change based on the type of lifestyle I lead.  It made me realize why it was possible for me to eat like crap when I was 18 but still be thin - when I was playing soccer and running cross country nearly every single day but Sunday, I was pushing my body HARD. Not to mention how much faster my resting metabolic rate was at 18! Le sigh. Those were the golden days.

When committing to getting fit this time around, I also was interested in learning about the amount of vital nutrients my body needed, and being more aware of giving those to my body. I used the USDA's calculator (designed for medical professionals but who's looking?) to see what kind of levels of carbs, fats, and proteins I should be getting each day.  (I was also able to find the levels of vitamins and macronutrients too!)

 

 

By far, my favorite online tool was one that Topher sent over with the email subject line "because I know you love this stuff."  It is WebMD's BMI calculator plus (!), which also finds your waist ratio, your BMR, your targeted heart rate, and helps you develop a strategic plan for accomplishing your goals, whatever they may be. Plus, it has colorful graphs, which, in my seriousness, I love!

But, all of this was just the precursor to the best thing that's happened this week in terms of serious eating well business.

I took my twitter friends up on their suggestion and joined MyFitnessPal.

Friends, it's fantastic.  Even better than the online tool I used for WeightWatchers a while back.  Even better than DailyBurn that I used a while back.  Even better than LoseIt, which I checked out.

It's the best.

MyFitnessPal takes all of the information that I spent hours culling and organizes it for me.  At any time, I can use their BMI or BMR calculator.  I can check to see if I'm getting the right amount of calories for my fitness goals, AND the right amount of carbs, fat and protein.  And the site's recommendations for these nutrients is exactly in line with what the USDA recommended: 250g of fat, 68 grams of protein, and 60 grams of fat.

It's truly wonderful.  

Almost as wonderful as the three pounds I've dropped as of this week, after FOUR WEEKS OF NO CHANGE but buttloads of exercise that didn't seem to make a difference.  When I finally saw those three pounds gone - all at once it seemed too! - I gained the much needed energy boost to barrel headfirst into this week's workout schedule.  And it's feeling good!

Thank you to friends who suggested a variety of fitness tracking tools!

Do you keep track of your carb/protein/fat intake?

a personal revolution: eating

Today marks nearly three weeks of my efforts to do the simple things that make me feel good- mainly, move more and eat well.  I've detailed a little bit about how I've gone about the moving part- and will be sharing an update about that side of things next week- but I haven't dove too deeply into how I'm giving my body the energy to do a bit more every day.

To be honest, it hasn't been the biggest focus of the last three weeks -- learning how to run again has -- though it is something I'm paying attention to.  I've just found that, for me, it's about making a small choice each day that means a better food decision that I would have made otherwise.  And there have been bad decisions too, of course!

To begin with, I mentioned a long time ago that I was going to give up caffeine, and then how I failed at that.  And then I shared that I actually did give up caffeine for over two weeks.  It was actually crazy how intensely my body responded to a lack of daily Coca-cola.  I think it was a lack of that mix of sugar and the caffeine that caused me to have headaches every afternoon and evening for five days straight, and helped me realize that somehow my body had come to expect this daily onslaught of sugar and caffeine.  After not drinking it for those few weeks, I also realized how little I came to want a Coca-cola or a coffee.  Now I only get a soda when I really, really want it, or for a specific occasion, or drink coffee when I'm invited to go out with some of my co-teachers.  I'll admit, these past few days I was in Phnom Penh and also having some tummy troubles, I went back to drinking more soda than I'd like -- but it's easy for to stop drinking it or put it down once I've had a few sips, which I think is still a step in the right direction.

Why do I think this is so important to my own personal health journey? It may not seem like a huge deal, and there are plenty of people who drink caffeine or soda regularly that are still quite healthy.  For me, though, I've come to see that my tie to soda was a bit like me tie to all things convenient - it was cheap, easy, and delicious.  But I know that's true of nearly all overly-processed food items, and I want to move away from relying on man-made easy, delicious foods and turn more toward the natural, real things that can be just as convenient, yummy, but also much more healthful.

Whenever I eat food that is chock full of unhealthy fats or overly loaded with sugar, I can immediately feel a dip in my energy.  Just this weekend, I chose a meal out of convenience and didn't feel like doing anything for the rest of the day. Compared to the days when Chris makes us healthy, balanced meals, it just felt terrible.  

A delicious meal: broccoli, mashed carrots, barbecue pork on a small slice of bread. And a first Coca-cola in days!

So, I've starting making a conscious decision to pick up a banana when I wanted something to snack on.  Drink water with sugar-free drink packets when I wanted to drink something sweet.  Ask Chris to buy a lot more greens and veggies for our meals and prepare them as healthfully as possible. (Which he happily does - he's far more health-conscious than me, and a far better healthy foods eater than me to begin with!)

I also began to write down what I ate, every day.  I actually started doing this more than 20 days ago, to establish a baseline of the kinds of foods I was eating to help me find small things to change and eliminate each day- it helped me figure out that I needed to give up soda after I noticed how many I was drinking each week and how it always seemed to lead to even more sugar consumption afterward.

I'm actually on the hunt for an even better online food tracking diary, one that will help me estimate how many nutrients I'm getting, as well as make general guesses at the energy I'm expending each day when I run or work on my strength.  I'll be trying out a few in the next few weeks and will be back with a full report in a few weeks, which will hopefully help others that are also a bit overwhelmed by all the fitness and food tracking devices out there.

I had wanted to share how I figured out the daily breakdown of nutrients that I should be getting, but as this is getting a tad long, I'll share that next time.  Have a fantastic day, all!

a personal revolution

Today, I washed a pair of my socks for the first time in over a year.

I know that sounds terribly disgusting but it actually isn't- I hadn't worn the socks but twice or three times and for no longer than thirty minutes each time.

These socks directly correlate the amount of true-blue-pushing-myself-body-movement I've given myself in the entire fourteen months of living here in Cambodia.

And these past ten days, I've worn them four times and pushed myself to a sweaty, messy limit each time.  And those other days? I mostly exercised in my undies inside my house, sans-socks, but still sweaty and messy those times too.

I'm having a revolution of sorts. A personal revolution.

I have felt it coming on for a few months now (really, a few years if we consider all the yo-yo up and down eating/exercising plans I've been "following" inconsistently for the last five years.) There must have been a tipping point and I think I reached it, and I tipped. Fell, more like?!

Something feels different this time?  Something feels like I actually want to be a more healthful person. Not just thin, like I was in college, but strong. I want to have the strength of mind to conquer my lazy, squishy body, the strength of soul to do it even when it's hard, and the strength of hundreds of muscles working together to carry me forward every single day for many years to come.

Part of it has to be the confluence of a desire to have children sometime in the next few years, and the need to possess a strong, flexible, healthy body to do so. 

Part of it must be the realization that with one year left in Cambodia, I'll never have this time in my life again, where I have a very self-driven work schedule and ample free time to more than just exist- and if I don't spend a little bit of time, every single day, trying to improve myself, I'm wasting it. 

Part of it was the last weeks spent with Paige and our talks in the pool and over dinner revolving around that same timeline we have for ourselves for babies, and families, and the few roads to happiness we're excited to take, and seeing her having used the last few months to build that strong, healthful body that can carry her across the finish line in a half marathon and look forward to do it again. 

And part of it is a plethora of fantastic inspiration of powerful blogging women, who remind me that it's never too late to become the muscular, fit woman that I was as a girl.

Whatever it is, its something I'm loving every minute of- every single drop of sweat, every single soaking sports bra I peel off after a good "run," every single second that I push my legs to carry me forward just one.step.more.

I've been keeping a daily log of sorts of how the first ten days have felt. I'll be back later today with that story, and tomorrow with the nutrition side of this personal revolution- because it's not just about the movement I'm making, it's also about what's powering my muscles to do so.

You with me?