Athletic Build BMI Calculator

I’ve always hated the traditional BMI calculators out there because they always tell me I’m ‘obese’. If you were to look at me you’d say, sure, I need to lose some weight, but I’m far from obese-looking. And I certainly don’t feel it. I was searching around online and found this Athletic Build BMI Calculator, which is much more inline with where I feel my body mass index actually is at and where I want it to be. Check it out here: Athletic BMI Calculator [I've also put the link on the left nav if you scroll down to the "Helpful Tools" links].

Having an athletic build at my height, this calculator says my ‘desirable’ range is actually 150 lbs to 190 lbs. Which is a BMI of 20 to 25. 20-22 being optimal, 23-25 being desirable. I know they say men should have a lower BMI than women, though. So that range can be tightened up to 170 lbs to 190 lbs for my height [5'7"]. On a regular BMI Calculator, my ideal weight range is said to be: 118 lbs to 159 lbs. That’s a pretty big difference… 

None of this makes that big a difference if I’m eating healthy and exercising for better health, and not so much for what the number on the scale says. But it’s nice to know that what my gut told me about where my ‘ideal weight’ should be isn’t considered to be ‘overweight’ if my frame isn’t petite and light on the muscle mass. Getting that validation makes me feel better about my goals. I could starve my way into what the regular BMI calculators call ‘desirable’ … but that doesn’t sound like fun. At least now I know that I’m not crazy for NOT wanting to weigh 120 lbs.  lol…  ;)

Image credit: Animal Scale by AngryStore

Thoughts: 8.23.08

So I’ve been getting on the scale daily for the past 4 or 5 days, and since doing so, and eating better I’ve lost 2 lbs already. I’m trying NOT to be excited about that because I know my body tends to flush out excess fluid it’s been hanging on to while being all inflamed and angry at me for eating crappy and there’s no way I’ll keep up the pace of losing 1/2 lb per day. The reason I try not to get excited is because normally at this point, I would be HUGELY excited and start making spreadsheets to calculate the exact day of when I’d reach my goal if the current pace did continue – which is ludicrous and also dangerous – because it always sets expectations too high and that’s when the number on the scale can cause huge disappointment – even when it goes down. If it’s not going down fast enough to match the fictitious goals I made.

I do like the site that Average Joe recommended [Thanks Joe!!], called Physics Diet – it somehow figures out your average daily weightloss based on some formula to account for the daily fluctuations and give you a more accurate ‘trend’ so you can see that even when your weight goes up a bit one day, you may still be headed in the right direction overall, which is much more helpful in keeping up motivation.  =)

Recipe: Cajun Shrimp, Grapefruit & Cilantro Salad

My husband laughs at me when I finish making my dinner and grab the camera to take a picture. It’s more so I remember what went in it if I can’t post the recipe right away – but I’m also very visual and like to see what I’m talking about. This recipe came to me because I had frozen shrimp in the freezer, and a nice, big grapefruit in the fruit bowl, staring at me all day. 

Ingredients:
Frozen Shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 Tsp Cajun Seasonings
1 Whole Grapefruit, peeled and sectioned
6-8 Pepperoni, thinly sliced
1 Cup Romaine lettuce
Handful of Sliced Celery, Red Pepper and Red Cabbage
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Grapefruit Juice
1/4 Cup Ciantro, chopped
1 Tsp Honey
Salt & Pepper to taste 
Whole Cilantro Leaves, for garnishing

Recipe: Chicken Basil Stirfry

I’ve been posting recipes lately as I’ve been making them, so you may notice a lot of similar ingredients week by week as I try to find ways to use all the fresh produce I buy on a weekly basis. This recipe was my tasty dinner last night. Very quick and easy if you have some leftover chicken breast kicking around, some veggies and some Asian staple ingredients in the pantry. This is for 2 servings…

Ingredients:
1 Roasted Chicken Breast, sliced into strips 
1 Small Package Sliced Button Mushrooms
1 Clove Garlic, minced
1 Dry Chili [optional]
1 Tbsp Ginger, jarred paste or freshly grated
1/2 Cup Red Cabbage, sliced fine
2 Med Celery Stalks, sliced on the diagonal
1 Med Carrot, sliced into long semi-circles
1/4 Cup Red Pepper, sliced into sticks
1/2 Cup Fresh Pineapple, cut into chunks
2 Tbsp Hoisin Sauce
Olive Oil
Sesmae Oil
Toasted Sesame seeds
1/4 Cup Fresh Basil Leaves, cut into ribbons [chiffonade if you want to be fancy...] 
Chicken Stock – optional if stirfry is too dry