jianantonic | (no subject)

I'm a few days into the new fitness and nutrition plan, and I'd like to take a moment to discuss the nutrition side of it. Backing up a bit...several months ago I talked to my doctor about my frustration that I was working out every day and eating what I thought was sort of healthy and yet I wasn't losing any weight. She suggested (correctly) that I was probably eating more than I realized, and if I kept a food journal I'd see that I'm overeating. She also suggested a daily calorie intake of about 1500 or less. I was like you crazy, woman, that won't work. Eating foods that I liked, but cutting way back on portions, I was still slightly above 1500 most days, and I thought that it would be impossible to cut it to anything less without trying out anorexia. I was bad over the holidays and stopped keeping up with the food journal because I knew I was being bad, but I started it back up a few weeks ago. I was still eating way over 1500 calories at that point, and I was fighting the urges to stuff my face with even more crap. Fast forward to the start of my nutrition plan from Gold's...

There's a very short list of things I'm allowed to eat (I had my second bowl of oatmeal today!), and I'm not really in love with any of them (see: oatmeal). To say I'll have to change my eating habits drastically over the next few weeks is an understatement. Anyhow, I was given a plan to follow that has suggestions for anything from a 1200 calorie per day up to 3000 calorie per day diet. My trainer told me to try the 2000 calorie plan, but bump it up to the 2500 on days I'm feeling hungry. I started with the 2000, making some substitutions for things I just.wont.eat. (bananas, meat), and at the end of the day, I totaled up everything I'd eaten. 697 calories, and 13 glasses of water. Oops. The funny thing? Not once was I hungry all day. And I really haven't been since (I've been careful to eat ENOUGH since that first day). It's like I'm not hungry unless I'm already eating. When the food's not in front of me, I don't need or crave it. This is interesting to me. It's not that my body needed more calories and made me hungry all the time before, it's that it either wasn't getting enough of the right nutrients, so I stayed hungry, or it was getting too much of the addictive stuff, so it's not that I was hungry, it's that I needed a fix...

The nice thing about this diet is that it's not meant to be a permanent thing. For twelve weeks, or until you meet your goal (whichever comes first), it is very, very, very strict. After that, a little sugar or alcohol (not supposed to have much of the first or any of the second for the duration of the plan:() is okay, but the idea is that you ween your body off its addictions to the bad bad stuff, and maybe even develop a new relationship with some of the good good stuff, and also you teach your body that it doesn't need a zillion calories to get through the day.

And you know, I thought I'd be miserable on this diet for 12 weeks. It does suck not to have any chocolate or alcohol - not that I'm really a drinker, even, but I miss it when I can't have it. But you know, I'm surviving. My stomach isn't growling all the time. I'm getting enough water for once in my life. And I feel good. That counts for something, right? :)

I went to the gym last night and did as much lifting as I could between my sore abs and upper body from my last workout and my still injured leg. My leg feels okay most of the time, but yesterday I stretched it kinda funny and an intense pain shot through me, so I'm not ready to test it on weights yet. My chest, back, and abs were killing me, so I did a few shoulder, bicep, and tricep machines, and a few ab things despite the soreness, then got on a bike and read and pedaled for 34 minutes. I have bridge tonight, so I'll do pilates at home, then tomorrow I may give the old legs a test. We'll see.

Peace.