Body Bugg & Counting Calories…

Update: Just found out the sale [free digital readout with armband purchase] ends Wednesday [9/30/09]. Fyi…  =)

This has been a pretty fluid and interesting journey so far… things seem to be happening at a decent progression. I’m figuring things out, getting stronger and smarter about health and fitness with each passing month. I’m at the point fitness-wise where I feel confident trying new sports like kayaking [just have to make the time!], but I haven’t lost any weight in the past few months. I finally had to accept the fact that it was time to track calories burned vs. calories consumed. I watch Biggest Loser and have always found inspiration in the show, but they tend to be vague on the specifics of the program they have the contestants on – until this year. I know they use the Body Bugg to track calories burned, and I now know they put them on a 1.200 calorie a day diet. What I didn’t know until last week was that they expect the women to burn 6,000 calories a day, and the men, 8,000. That is CRAZY!!! I suppose if you didn’t have to work and had all day, it’s easily doable, but not for people with full time jobs, houses, families, responsibilities, etc. But it was good to know. There’s no magic behind their incredible weekly losses – they literally work their asses off!

So… I found a coupon and 24 hour fitness was running a special – buy the Body Bugg, get the digital display for free [here a link to the product page if you’re interested], so I went ahead and ordered it – with apprehension. I’ve never counted calories before and I was worried it would be $224 wasted. Not so at all! It’s incredibly easy to use and really informative. It told me  that in order to lose 2lbs per week to meet my weightloss goal by mid-May, I need to consume 1,850 calories a day and burn 2,850 calories a day. The first night I put the bugg on, it told me I burned 700 calories in my sleep alone! Pretty awesome. Weightlifting is paying off in that department. I absolutely LOVE the Body Bugg. Chalene Johnson, the creator of Turbo Jam and her ChaLEAN Extreme strength training program also fell in love with it and contacted 24hr fitness to be able to offer a coupon special for her followers: bbgcj24

Counting calories is time consuming when you make most of your food from scratch, but I think as long as I measure and write it all down with calculations made, it’ll be a lot easier to make the same dish the next time without taking so much time to figure out all the calories, etc. I made a great minestrone-style soup the other night that turned out to be only 165 calories for a 300g serving [a pretty decent sized bowlful] so I added in a tbsp of parmasan cheese for another 20 calories and it was amazingly delicious and satisfying. It’s definitely been a huge eye-opener the past few days, seeing what has how many calories. I was blown away by how many calories nuts have. I had made a trail mix and I was eating it in 1/2 cup servings – turns out it’s 355 calories, which can throw me off if I’m not careful. 

It’s too soon to report any real weightloss, but I will as I go along. I did lose 2lbs from yesterday, but it doesn’t mean anything. It’s that time of the month so I think it was just bloat going away… I’ll be interested to see where I’m at in a week, in a month and in a few months, to see if I can turn this program into steady, healthy fat loss. I decided that as a reward for making my goal by May [just in time for 2 weddings, which means SHOPPING for some sexy party dresses], I’m treating myself to a trip and some shopping in London. I’ve always wanted to go, since I was a kid, so it’s been a long time coming – and celebrating an achievement this momentous in London with my husband is the perfect ‘reward.’  =)

WHEN I reach my goal in May, it will have been about 2 1/2 years since I decided it was time to do something about my health. If you had told me at the time that it would take that long I would have been disappointed. One thing I’ve learned through this whole process is good things are worth working for. And I have no doubt I’ll get there. In the meantime, I can’t wait until I can do 10 full pushups – not having to go to my knees after 5. It’s the smaller goals inbetween the big ones that keep me motivated.  =)

This is my menu for today. I’m going to put it in this post as an example, but also for my own reference:

• Protein shake [made into 2 meals, before and after workout]: 375
• 2 eggs over easy, 1 tsp oil, 1 slice whole grain bread: 350
• 1/2 cup 2% Greek yogurt with agave, vanilla, lemon zest and 1 cup berries: 170
• Homemade minestrone soup with 1 Tbsp parmesan: 185
• Veggie sticks [carrot, celery, cuke & red pepper] with 1/4 C hommus: 160
• 4oz Roasted chicken breast, 1/4 C [dry – not sure what that’ll end up being cooked…?] Brown Rice
& 3 oz garlic sauteed asparagus [including oil]: 360
• 8oz black seedless grapes & 1 light mini baby bell cheese: 195
—————-
Total calories: 1,795

[Image courtesy of 24hourfitness.com]

Lobster Mac & Cheese

For my first post, I’d like to confess that I had lobster mac & cheese for lunch and it was everything I hoped it would be. Afterwards I felt tired and full, kind of good, kind of groggy… and tomorrow I have a family party that will be full of more delicious food, so attempting to eat healthier this weekend will be a challenge. Oh, and did I mention I’m meeting my best friend for dinner tonight? lol… 

I’ve realized over the past couple of years that eating healthy is easy if I’m organized. I actually love healthy foods, I feel better and I like preparing them. The problem I have is time. I don’t have a lot of it. I drive 150 miles a day for work so I spend a lot of my time on the road when I could be home or ransacking Whole Foods. But, in the end, it’s just an excuse. I also watch a lot of TV in the evenings and don’t get enough sleep because of our recent Stargate obsession. It’s tough coming in on a show after it’s ended, 10 years later. That’s a lot of episodes! We try to limit ourselves to 1-2 per night, but sometimes we just HAVE to see what happens, and we inadvertently put off going to sleep because it means tomorrow is that much closer. It’s more an issue for my hubby than for me. This is a tough time of year for him at work – a lot of long hours and a lot of BS. 

Anyway… I used to say that I didn’t have the time to exercise, but I managed to carve out 45 minutes each morning. Now it’s time to get organized with my food. Because I love to cook and make up recipes as I go, I miss out on routine, which can save a lot of time. If I could eat chicken on Mondays, salmon on Tuesdays, pork chops on Wednesdays… and so on, life would be a lot more simple. I do get bored easily, but there is something to be said about ritual and routine. The less I need to THINK about what I’m going to eat, the less time I’ll spend at the one of three grocery stores I shop, and less time I’ll spend wondering how to prepare it. 

So, that being said, I’m going to focus on coming up with my own menu plan, including snacks and my daily ‘mud’… [I’ll elaborate on that in another post]. Once I’ve got that down, I’ll start working on drinking more water – I’m horrible with water. I could go the whole day without drinking anything, especially when it’s cooler… and after THAT, I need to work on getting more sleep. I used to function on 4-5 hours a night for years and years, all through college and even after that. Then I hit 30 and all of a sudden I need a full 7 1/2 to 8 hours or I’m useless. But, they do say that getting 8 hours a night can INCREASE your metabolism by up to 40%, so that alone is reason enough to keep trying.  =)

Cheers!
~ HELENA