What Al Taught Me....

Yesterday I was asked if I used my heart rate monitor anymore. The answer is definitely YES! I love that thing. I named him (well, actually a friend of mine named him) Fat Albert and I call him Al for short. Al is the best friend a girl could have because no matter what, he will not lie to me. He teaches me more about how my body burns calories than any article I could read. Because you take your resting heart rate and you do a little thing called OZone (where you measure how your heart reacts at certain levels of activity) to give you a fitness score, it is one of the more accurate ways to measure your calories burned for YOU. Here are a couple of things that I have learned from Al.

1. I DO NOT burn 600-800 calories in a one hour spin class. I don't want to burst anyone's bubble but according to my buddy Al, I only burn 300-400 (a little over 400 if they class is really good). Now, this does vary by person and your weight and stuff does matter, but I cringe every time I hear my instructor say that we are burning between 600 and 800 calories. As a matter of fact, the more in shape you are, the less work your heart does so the less calories you burn for the same work. I know she is saying that as motivation but I hope that no one uses it to eat extra treats.

2. The treadmill's calories are not accurate. I think that most people know that but just in case. It is sort of funny because when you start exercising, the calories are close, about 15 mins in they start to vary from each other and by the end of a one hour session my heart rate monitor says I have burned a full 50 extra calories. So, depending on how long you work out, your calories may be off one way or the other.

3. I really don't get a good benefit from walking until after 10-12 mins. The first few minutes my heart rate is not much more than it would normally be with me walking around. After that time though it starts to pick up and I seem to get into a mode where it will hover a little elevated for the remainder of the workout. So, I try to never do less than 20 mins.

4. Just because you sweat, doesn't mean you are burning more calories. I used to use that as an indicator....not a very accurate one or concrete one but I used to love to go to spin classes because I sweat more in them so I felt like I was working out harder. Now, while there is no doubt a benefit to sweating out toxins, if you are just looking at burning calories, I actually burn more calories walking (at a 3.8pace) on the treadmill in the "interval mode". It is 2 mins with no incline and then 2 mins with a 3 incline. I burn over 500 calories doing that (as opposed to my 300-400 in spin) but I don't sweat nearly as much as I do in spin class....sometimes I barely sweat.

5. You can't cheat. There is no way to burn calories without actually doing the work. I used to just say I was going to do 20 mins of biking at the gym and think that I was still doing well...the truth is that while this might be good for my leg muscles, it did very little to raise my heart rate at all.

6. Lifting weights elevates your heart rate more than you think. I used to think that because I didn't sweat that much (though I did with a person trainer but not really on my own) with lifting, that meant that I wasn't really working out (see #4). Turns out that I was completely wrong. I have started to notice that I burn a good amount of calories when lifting weights and my heart rate seems to ebb and flow with the lifting.

7. I can tell when something is off....like the post a did last week where my heart rate was really elevated when I had barely done anything. It was an isolated incident but had it not been, I might have discovered something that I wouldn't have otherwise.

I highly recommend that anyone who is going to use calories that you burn through exercise as part of your weight loss plan, gets a HRM. (for WW you get to add in Activity points based on every 100 cals burned but they do not replace 1 for 1 the calories you eat. I think that this is a good way to go about it because it teaches you not to use exercise for a crutch to eat whatever you want.)

.6 down

Well, I weighed in on Sunday morning (though I had to move the scale to weigh in and I never know if that messes with it or not) and I lost .6 lbs. It is not the amount that I was hoping for. I was hoping that since I was at home all week and since I did the detox at the beginning of the week (and snuck a peek at the scale) that I would have lost over a pound but it didn't happen. When I look back, I know why it didn't happen. I went out two nights last week and had about 3 beers each night and I had some very fattening ice cream while my sister was here on Saturday night. It all makes sense and I will just be better about it all this week. I still think that it was good that I lost and didn't gain anything but hopefully in the next couple weeks I can get some more off. I am back on the road next week for the next two weeks so it could be a little harder. The bright side of being on the road is that I don't have to make the food but then again, I don't make the food so it is harder to control what goes into it. I also have become accustomed to eating more fruits and veggies and nuts than previously so I will definitely be making a stop at the grocery store.

Yesterday I had a snack of some Doritos and probably ate more than a serving and my stomach didn't feel good afterward. That is a good sign to me. That means that my eating habits are starting to adjust and my stomach (and body) recognize when I give it junk food and it makes me feel yucky (which it should). Hopefully this will continue. I can take the .6lbs at a time as long as it keeps going down each week. Eventually I will get there...even if it takes me 6 months and that is all that matters.

Day 3 Detox

I made it!! I think that I am going to try to keep up the extra fruit and veggies up but am going to definitely have my latte tomorrow and will probably reintroduce meat in as well. I will try to hold down the salt content and will use more herbs and natural seasonings because they really do taste better.

Here are my eats for the day:
breakfast - pear, sunflower seeds
snack - sunflower seeds
lunch - Panera side salad (with some balsamic vinegar) and panera summer corn chowder (this was not the best choice because it was a bit creamy (not thick but still)).
Snack - trailmix (raisins and other nuts, no salt)
Dinner - Wendy's baked potato (had to put a tiny amount of buttery spread because it wasn't tasting too good with the pepper) and side salad without dressing (sadly I like the taste of lettuce).

When I was reading all these websites about the detox and cleansing, a lot of them said that it would cause you to go to the bathroom a lot more....and some of them even suggested taking laxatives to help things along. I didn't really experience that in the first two days but then tonight, I did have a little tummy ache. I say this just to make the point that just because you do a detox, it doesn't mean that you will spend the whole day on the toilet.

Day 2 of Detox

Yesterday was a rough day for me. My headache was awful all day and I found it hard to concentrate at work. When I got home I went for a bike ride with C and where my heart rate is normally around 130, it was spiked to 160. I am not sure if that related to the fact that the night before I had not slept well and the cats seemed to bother me so my asthma was acting up or if it had to do with something else. Once I calmed down and got into the ride, it slowed back down and was more normal but I just found it weird.

I still feel more full than I normally do and think that I can tell that my blood sugar seems more stable. I have eaten a lot of nuts though and those have fat in them....unfortunately. Without all the salt to retain water, I feel like I pee a lot more.

Last night I had to give in and have some caffeine. My headache was unbearable and I don't plan on giving it up for good so I figured it wouldn't hurt. I think that my recommendation to anyone trying to do this would be to either ween yourself off the caffeine before you start or just to not give up the caffeine. I fully realize that this means that it might not have the full effect that it is supposed to have but I also seriously doubt that one cup of a caffeinated beverage will really derail it completely.

Here are my eats for yesterday and I honestly didn't feel hungry until right before dinner:
breakfast: peach, nuts
snack: grapes, nuts
lunch: brown rice, nuts
dinner: cod with lemon and pepper, snap peas, mashed potatoes (no butter, salt or milk)

Today and probably tonight I will have to eat out so I am going to try to stick to the most unprocessed items I can get but I think that I might struggle a little here. Overall, I feel like the affect is still really good. I haven't eaten anything processed since noon on Saturday so it has been three days and I still feel good (minus the headaches...which someone said could be the toxins leaving, not sure I buy that and I think that it is just caffeine related). I think that I have found easy ways to replace items I would have eaten before and I think that I can follow a healthier diet now than before. So, while I might not have been as strict about the caffeine as I should have been, and while I might have to eat out tonight, I am still WAY better off than I was a week ago. I have also been drinking more water so that has helped a lot too. I think that if I slowly adjust my eating habits to be more like these three days (but adding back in milk and meat) then I think that I will slowly get rid of whatever it is that processed food puts in your body. I am not looking for a quick fix but I do think that these three days have been a good jump start.

Day 1 of Detox

I weighed in this morning and losts .8 lbs. Not a bad number considering I was on the road last week and I had Mexican (read as: huge bowls of cheese dip and chips) twice while traveling. That is right in line with healthy weight loss and it might take me a while to get to my goal weight but at least I know I can live that way and I am not doing something that I can't keep up.

So, today is my official day of Detox and I am not sure how it is going. I have a headache and I am sure it is because of the lack of caffeine this morning. Sad, but true. I have often read that the benefits of caffeine outweigh the negatives but it is part of the detox to not have any coffee, which I assume means espresso (which is what is in my lattes). It does say that you can have herbal teas so I am headed to the grocery soon to get some green tea or something to see if it will help the headache. Other than that, it has not been that bad. I can have fish so I think that I am going to attempt to cook some fish tonight...we will see.

I will update after the day is done what I ate today.

Update: Ok, it is 9:30 now so I am pretty confident that I am done eating for the day. Here is a run down and a recipe :-)

Breakfast: Bowl of grapes, peach, and 1/4 cup of unsalted nuts
Lunch: 1/4 cup of unsalted nuts, leftover potatoes from last night
Snack: 1/4 cup of unsalted nuts (I know, a lot of nuts)
Dinner: Halibut with lemon, garlic, and dill (see recipe below), brown rice plain, snap peas

Honestly, I was not really hungry throughout the day...Granted, all of this was eaten between 10am and 7pm so there weren't tons of hours to get hungry during but I will say that I felt more satisfied without ever feeling full. I am taking some of the brown rice to work tomorrow for lunch. The one thing that I have realized so far from this (other than the fact that I get a huge headache with no caffeine) is that I put salt on a lot of items. I am not too concerned about it since the amount of salt we get from table salt is really small in comparison to the salt in the processed foods we eat, but I really do miss it. I would have put it on the rice tonight and the potatoes. Pepper will have to do.

Halibut Recipe (halibut is pricey but this was good).

2 Halibut steaks
1 tablespoon dill (I used fresh from my garden)
1/2 Lemon (fresh)
1 clove of garlic (fresh)

Rinse and pat down the fish, cut up the lemon and squeeze it on the fish, chop up the dill and garlic and place that on there. Bake in the oven at 375 for about 20 mins....yummy!!

It was super easy and tasted good. The dill and lemon was strong but I like both of those flavors. If you don't you might want to sub in something.

Day .5

I am starting the detox process today. I say Day .5 because I wasn't able to start after lunch. I am not actually going to seriously count this day but figured that I would do all the shopping and then start the process. Not sure how it is going to go but I am going to do it for 3 days at first and then see if I want to try to make it a week.

Basically the only things I can't eat are processed foods, dairy, and meat (plus no salt or butter, but I can use herbs, garlic, and olive oil). Right now I have some potatoes roasting in the oven with some olive oil and italian seasoning. I think that brown rice and potatoes are going to be key to this for me. They seem more filling than the fruit and veggies that I had for lunch but we will see.

I am also allowed to have unsalted nuts and popcorn but good luck finding that anywhere. I am going to try a health food store tomorrow but no luck at Kroger (either that or it was just too packed for me to look that long).

Other than that, the weigh in is tomorrow....not sure it will be good but at least I will be in town the next two weeks so I am going to make some progress there!!

Exercise

I don't feel like doing it. I just don't and I struggle with that. For some reason when I am home I love going to the gym and I love sweating but lately I haven't felt like it on the road. I know that it can be a vital part of losing weight and I like the extra points that it gives me to eat but I guess not enough to make me actually do the exercise. I am hoping that today it is just because I am still on the very edge of a somewhat cold. The only real symptom I have left is a little tightness in my breathing....that is not too bad but it makes it even less appealing to exercise.

Other than that, the eating went pretty well until lunch yesterday and today. Yesterday was Mexican and I cannot resist cheese dip. I just can't do it. I don't ever suggest Mexican restaurants if I am trying to be healthy for this very reason but yesterday I went to lunch with the location personnel and I had to eat there. I did get fajitas without the tortilla but I also inhaled the cheese dip as always. Sadly, the cheese is not the bad part for you, the bad part is the tortillas. Today was Italian. I went to an Italian place the other night but picked the fish entree instead of pasta but today I gave in. I did still get a chicken scampi dish and mostly ate the chicken but there was still butter and pasta involved.

I am going to be home tomorrow night and for two weeks after that so I am hoping to really make some progress in that time. I found a cleanse that I like and I think that I might try to do it. Some websites say to only do it for 3 days but the one I found says 7. I am not sure if I could keep it up for 7 days but I could definitely do it for 3. The only thing that I don't understand about this stuff is that most of them tell you that you might feel flu like symptoms while your body is getting rid of the stuff. So, if they are already in your body, how come you start to feel bad when they are leaving? Doesn't seem logical to me but we will see....not sure what day I will start with.