Yesterday morning I ran 4 miles and this morning I did upper body strength training. Both were easier after my two rest days last weekend. Every now and then a girl just needs to take a couple days off. Yesterday's calories were 1,492 and grams of protein were 68. Oops! I didn't meant to eat that little protein yesterday, I will do better today. Reminder: I want to eat at least 100 grams of protein a day. In fact, I read an article yesterday ( http://blog.womenshealthmag.com/scoop/should-you-double-up-on-protein-to-lose-weight/ ) that sited a study sited in the FASEB Journal (I had to look that one up, too). Study participants all wanted to lose weight. They ate the same number of calories, but 1/3 ate the recommended daily amount of protein (around 55-60 grams for a woman my size), 1/3 ate twice the RDA of protein, and 1/3 ate three times the RDA of protein. Interestingly, all study participants lost about the same amount of weight, 2.7 to 3.5 pounds during the 31 day study period, but those that ate twice the RDA of protein lost the most fat. Those that ate the RDA of protein lost 41.8% of their weight from fat (less than half!!! That means the rest came from muscle!!!), those that ate 3 times the RDA of protein lost 63.6% of their weight from fat, and those that ate twice the RDA lost 70% of their weight from fat! Based on the conclusion of that article, I am just about on track by trying to eat at least 100 grams of protein a day. Yesterday's 68 grams was pretty lame. I'll do better.
My weight has been hovering at or just below 155 for about two weeks. This morning I weighed 154.8. I am more than ready to start losing weight again!! I have decided that I am not buying any more clothes until I get to at least 145 pounds. That will actually be difficult because I don't have a lot of fall and winter clothes. Last winter I just bought what I needed to get through the season, because by the time I was done losing weight spring was not that far off. I need to pull my box of cool weather clothes out of the basement, but I find myself looking through catalogs as they come in the mail. Not allowing myself to shop for clothes until I lose this next 9 or 10 pounds is good motivation!!
I am struggling a bit with my decision regarding EnduraCamps. I like the idea of working with a small group of people focused on training for triathletes. The gym is just a little neighborhood store front converted into a small gym, it kind of reminds me of the gym in the movie Rocky. Nothing fancy, just a place for athletes to train together. I like that. The biggest problem is that it is not in my neighborhood and the classes aren't at times that work particularly well for me. The earliest class in the morning is at 5:45am a couple days a week. With the 15 - 20 minute drive, that doesn't get me home until after 7:00. I really prefer to start my workout at 5:00 and be done and in the shower by 6:30. In the evening classes are at 6:30. I was sort of half-way planning on going to tonight's class, but I started to get stressed out just thinking about what time I needed to leave work to make sure I got there on time. Unfortunately, work is a half hour south of home (45 minutes in evening traffic) and the gym is 20 minutes north of home. One of the reasons I work out in the mornings is so I don't have to worry about a late day at work interfering with my work schedule. I have just about decided not to try to make this evening's class, but the same class is taught by the owner Thursday morning. I will probably go to that one and see how that impacts my morning routine. My guess is that the combination of inconvenient class times and a less than convenient location may cause me to decide that EnduraCamps is not my solution to finding a place to train.
Tonight I am going to swim. I haven't been swimming in over a month!! I bought a new suit last weekend, so that's good. I have my swim clinic in a couple of weeks. I need to get in the pool. Now!! I also need to add some light evening exercise so that I can start losing weight again. No excuses. Go swimming, Roberta!!
Food, food, food! Food is such a funny thing. Sometimes I don't think about it at all, sometimes I think about it all the time. Alcohol is easier, I don't really care if I drink or not. I don't miss it at all. For some reason a glass of wine at dinner sounded good on Saturday evening, but in retrospect, I don't think it made it any more enjoyable. Of course, one can't just stop eating. Meals have to happen on a fairly regular basis. For the most part, my eating is rather formulaic, and I am OK with that. It's easier that way. But when I get super stressed at work or when I get home in the evening and I'm bored, I start looking for food. It's almost like a programmed response to a feeling of unease or boredom; eat. Funny thing is, eating doesn't make it any better, it just occupies me for a few seconds. It doesn't make the problem go away. It's not entertaining. It's just momentarily distracting. I'm getting better and better at shutting down that desire to grab something to eat when it pops up, unbidden, but it still pops up. I imagine it will take a while longer to undue the conditioning of using food as a way to calm myself. It's getting easier, but I still get frustrated with it from time to time.
The food problem is bigger than that, though. As I mentioned in my blog post yesterday, it is really dawning on me that my life has changed irrevocably and forever. Food and alcohol is no longer part of my entertainment. It is not how I relax and it is not how I socialize. When we are looking for something to do in the evenings or on the weekends, going out to eat or drink is not on the list of possible options. I'm not saying that Jack and I will never eat out, but 9 times out of 10, or more like 49 times out of 50, when we eat out it is because we are out doing something else at a meal time and we need to eat. Our goal is to find a place to have a meal that fits within our food plan, a lean source of protein, some sort of veggie, perhaps some other carb like a baked sweet potato or brown rice, no wheat, no sweets, no fried foods. A meal out isn't about having fun, a meal out is about feeding ourselves, on plan, away from home. This doesn't mean Roberta and Jackie are not any fun, it just means we don't have our fun by eating and drinking. Fun must come in different ways. But how? With who? Those are the big questions. I sense that somehow my training and my socializing are going to dovetail together, but I have not figured out how that is going to happen, yet. Ideally, I would like to be part of a fun-loving group of middle aged people that make being healthy one of their number one priorities. Where do I find that group? Do I start that group? This is what I need to figure out. This is what I am struggling with.
I meet people that I think are interesting and we have some common interests. I suggest that we should get together sometime and they say, "That sounds great! Let's meet in Brookside for a drink after work." Yeah, I don't think so. Hanging out in bars, even if I am just going to drink water in eat carrot sticks, is not what I want to do. Yes, I have some figuring out to do.
Enough for today. I need to get ready for the dentist...
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