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Scoobees
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 26 July 2007 07:38 am |
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target #1 eat 1lb of raw vegetables (salads) throughout the day
target #2 eat 1lb of cooked vegetables (steamed, soups etc.) throughout the day
which target do you instinctively think is the harder one?
For me, it would be the 1lb of cooked vegetables. I'm quite often lazy and it's a snap to throw together salads with lots of raw veggies...well, of course it would actually take time to wash, slice & dice them... ...rethinking my answer... . I bought of bunch of stuff today; it's been quite awhile since I spent that much time in the produce section of my supermarket.
Active = 1.4 = similar to the 1.375 that BFFM+CPH uses for 'lightly active'
Thanks! I selected this even though I suspect the 'total energy expenditure' is perhaps a tad too high for me.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 26 July 2007 11:31 am |
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There's no denying that eating healthy takes more preparation time!
Wednesday
A good morning workout; a new project involves familiarising myself with Microsoft Excel. At Sainsbury before gym came just as a guy was reducing produce - good timing. The gym couldn't find a Body Combat instructor so they put on a 'kick-boxing' class: this had an impressive warm-up, which felt challenging and had the novelty of partner-work, followed by a less-than-impressive 'main bit' focusing more on basic technique than on energy expenditure. It was telling that I didn't sip on my water bottle once during that class.
I had to 'rescue' a quantity of potatos today. This ended up as 18.6% of my calories. I wonder whether I should have 'starchy veg' as a separate category!
Exercise: [AM] 60 min Body Step, [PM] 45 min kick-boxing. 1.75 hours.
Shopping: 90p apples(1.8kg) 60p pears(1.2kg) 30p tomatos(700g) 30p broccoli-cauliflower-carrot(500g) 20p carrot-babyCorn-mangeTout(200g). £2.30
Veg: potato400 leek244 runner-beans87 carrot-babycorn-mange-tout42 carrot41 aubergine40 beetroot31 cabbage28 cabbage26 iceberg-lettuce23 =962 44.7%
Fruit: apple372 cherries157 satsumas156 pear144 =829 38.6%
Nuts: walnuts53 =53 2.5%
Animals: vanilla-flavour-whey-powder94 strawberry-flavour-whey-powder51 roast-chicken50 chocolate-flavour-whey-powder35 banana-flavour-whey-powder26 =256 11.9%
Rubbish: pork-luncheon-meat50 =50 2.3%
Totals: 2150, 104.1g protein. 306 is 14.2%
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voodoodoll
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 26 July 2007 02:21 pm |
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hey nir, kickboxing sounds a lot of fun! its just a pity it wasnt as challenging as you'd have liked, sure i'd have been their exhausted going through water like it was champagne
just a quick question actually. I wondered if you plan in advance what you are going to eat the next day or not? i think one of my downfalls is that i never plan and think up on the spot what im going to eat! thats why my calorie intake is so erratic- well that and my will power! Its just i have no idea how you manage to eat exactly the number of calories you set out to each and every day, especially being as you write down the exact calories in each food and i estimate most of mine (based on what it says on the side of the packets and the calculators on this site of course).
Just curious as to how on earth you do it! 
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 26 July 2007 03:35 pm |
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voodoodoll wrote: I wondered if you plan in advance what you are going to eat the next day or not? i think one of my downfalls is that i never plan and think up on the spot what im going to eat! thats why my calorie intake is so erratic- well that and my will power! Its just i have no idea how you manage to eat exactly the number of calories you set out to each and every day, especially being as you write down the exact calories in each food and i estimate most of mine (based on what it says on the side of the packets and the calculators on this site of course).
Just curious as to how on earth you do it!
That is not a bad question. I'll divide the answer into the things I do to maintain the right environment and the things I do to execute my plan.
I live on my own so I have my own kitchen. If there is a food I don't want around, I don't have to keep it for someone else. I have a reasonably large amount of storage space: I have a small fridge, a large larder fridge and a large larder freezer. The fridges are 99% for the purpose of storing fruits and vegetables. The freezer has fruits and vegetables but also stores prepacked portions of animal products (meat and fish). And then of course there are lots of cupboard items.
It is fairly easy for me to keep a 'clean' environment, because there are certain items I have no self-control about. So there are no chocolates, cookies, ice-cream or crisps to tempt me, for example. I tend to get my 'thrills' as freebies.
I am on a budget (I've been on benefits for a year now) and fruits and vegetables can be expensive, so I use a few tricks:
1) I take advantage of discount shops like LIDL, ALDI and NETTO. Especially LIDL's half-price-on-produce sales that they have several times a year
2) the outdoor market we have here often sells borderline fruits and vegetables for "£1 a bowl" which is a way to get at least a 30% discount, sometimes much more, on what they're trying to get rid off.
3) sometimes Sainsbury's employs similiar tactics with undated vegetables in the morning
4) various supermarkets reduce their produce towards the late evening. I "go through" the supermarkets when they're on my way, and when I get lucky I buy in as much bulk as I can.
5) sometimes mum lets me have things from her allotment, especially if I'm willing to pick them myself
6) if all else fails, there are some stand-bys such as tinned vegetables and frozen vegetables. For example 900g of frozen cauliflower at ASDA is just 48p, so I will never go hungry.
Now for execution: I aim for 103.5g f protein every day, and I have a calorie target that I am aware of at the beginning of the day. At the moment this is 1550 on low days and 2150 on high days. This means I tend to eat different things on those days - the low calorie days have to focus more on protein-rich choices as I have to get the same amount of protein on just 72% of the calories.
There are two rules that I enforce throughout the day:
(1) keep my protein proportional to my calories. that means that when I've eaten 20% of my calories for the day, I've also eaten 20% of my protein for the day. I therefore keep balancing any low-protein choices (such as fruit) with high-protein choices (such as TVP, or Whey powder, or broccoli etc.).
(2) don't over-eat or under-eat my calories. I have come up with a very simple system: "100 calories per hour". On a low-calorie day, the eating day starts at 8am - so by 10am I am expected to have eaten 200 calories, by 3pm it is 700 calories etc. Initially (breakfast) I will forward-eat but later on in the day I will try to be no further forward than my allowance.
On a 2150 calorie day, my eating day starts at 5am and finishes at 2.30am, but hopefully I'm not up this early or that late: by around noon I am to be "caught up" with calories I'm expected to eat until that point. After 11pm or midnight I will forward-eat the rest of the calories, rather than wait for 2.30am.
I use a simple spreadsheet I developed to help me balance the protein and calories. It basically has the solution to a couple of simultaneous equations. It is particularly useful for helping me hit my calorie and protein targets for the last thing I eat. It is worth noting that at the moment I don't use a computer for recording my foods - it is all paper based, except I use the spreadsheet to figure out appropriate quantities to eat next.
It goes without saying that I am a big fan of kitchen scales. I have 1g scales (you can get them for under £15 from Argos) which I use for vegetables. For more calorie-dense things like peanuts or Whey powder, I use precision pocket scales that I got on eBay (these are the models people use to weigh jewlerry and drugs). I have one that's accurate to 0.1g and one that's accurate to 0.01g.
One thing I have to juggle is the state of the food. For example I needed to rescue some potatos yesterday, which would explain why I ate 400 calories' worth (yes, freaky that it came to that: not 399 or 401). Generally I use my hunger level to dictate what type of food to eat. If I'm hungry I go for vegetables. If I'm not, I'll eat fruits. If I don't want to eat anything, I'll go for nuts and seeds.
I try to mary the healthy-eating principles of Eat To Live with the result-getting body-transformation know-how from Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle. A while back I was leaning more towards BFFM. At the moment I'm more into ETL.
I eat most of my food at home. Eating away from home requires even more planning: washing, cooking, carrying tuppaware boxes etc. Travelling away from home is even more challenging. I recently travelled from MK to Wolverhampton. My trip was about 20 hours. I carried 4.4kg of vegetables with me
Hope that has painted some sort of picture
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 26 July 2007 06:01 pm |
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Higher-protein vegetables (like courgettes, cauliflower, broccoli, green-beans etc.) are particularly suitable for my low-calorie, and hence higher-protein days - because they kill 2 birds with 1 stone: they are filling (high fibre) and the work towards, not against, my protein goal [I could survive low-calorie days without such luxuaries, but I would need to eat low-protein vegetables (like iceberg lettuce) to fill myself up and then balance with TVP or some other protein source to bring protein back up]. So if I have low-calorie days coming up I try to hold those veg back for those days. So yesterday saw me cooking broccoli, cauliflower, courgettes and green beans - and putting them in boxes in the fridge ready to be reheated in seconds today.
I guess that's succesful planning too. The ironic thing is that I planned to write the above paragraph in my essay above, but it got missed out
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Scoobees
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 27 July 2007 06:57 am |
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Wow! I think I need to bookmark this page in your diary for future reference. If I had just a fraction of your planning, dedication, figuring, etc skills I would be a pro. I think I actually am exhausted just from reading the things you do. In comparison, I am thrilled if I can find the scraps of paper laying around the house with my calorie totals on...
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voodoodoll
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 27 July 2007 03:11 pm |
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| wow! thanks for the detailed reply! i love your idea of "100 calories per hour", seems like a great way to balance your intake over the whole day rather than, like me, finding by 7pm that i need to eat another 1000 calories before bed!!
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 27 July 2007 05:35 pm |
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Glad my witterings are appreciated. Upon re-reading the question I realised I didn't answer a bit of it. The answer is particularly relevant because of my association with OA (Overeaters Anonymous) where some people find it helpful to plan their meals in advance, commit them to a sponsor and then stick to them.
I feel this will cramp my style so I leave it up to the present-tense me to decide what to eat. My systems (described above) just make it more likely that my choices fit with my intentions.
Thursday
Body Pump was with Hannah who was covering for Michelle. Are all my regular instructors on holiday? It certainly seems to be the case. I do seem to have a different attitude to Hannah compared to some other gym participants, and also my mother who has had her cover a Pilates class in the other gym. It is possible that Hanna isn't or wasn't competent in that sphere, but she's been teaching Pump for over a year and she's quite solid. I'm refusing to admit that my views are coloured by finding the 24 year old instructor quite attractive
On the way home I picked up courgettes for £1 though when I weighed them at home I realised it was no cheaper than the current price at LIDL (which admittedly is also a sale). I was tired and spent quite a bit of the afternoon trying to nap.
The main theme for the day proved to be shopping. Mum made contact in the afternoon and we were off to ASDA, then for drinks at IKEA, on to the Bletchley LIDL and finally to TESCO. Our shopping-and-drinks expedition lasted 5 hours (4.35pm - 9.35pm). I wondered why dad (not currently working) wasn't with us - mum explained she is rebelling: as he is making it difficult for her to chat to me on the phone on a day-to-day basis, wanting more of her attention now that he is not working, she's made this time just for us. Nice to see that both of us are seeing this as a chance to spend time together, not merely a mechanical matter of food shopping. I got one shopping bag's worth at ASDA and LIDL. I had 3 decaff-coffees and 2 lemon-ginger-teas at IKEA whilst mum was finding patterns between restaurant patrons' poor food choices and their overweight status whilst also reflecting she wants to do something about her weight (BMI 27 at present) and how she has never counted calories in her life and doesn't intend to start now. We then decided to check out TESCO, which we originally planned to visit (mum was on a hunt for some thick-sliced-white-bread, which neither me nor mum or dad would want to eat, but which my sister who is visiting this weekend is inexplicably attached to. Mum didn't want to spend much on this and after ASDA didn't have any at a reduced price we planned to look at the TESCO bread - but LIDL delivered the goods (28p) so we thought of going home directly.
We were very glad that we didn't as we hit the jackpot at TESCO. I got skimmed milk (nutrient density 13) and refined-flour tortillas (nutrient density 2) as well as lots of fruits and vegetables - 59 items in all (see breakdowns below). There was a lot of post-shopping processing to do, and I was only about 1/2 way done with it by bedtime, which was a rather late 3.30am - so I'll have to continue on Friday. With bargains like these, mum doesn't have to go vegetable-shopping in the outdoor market this Saturday.
Exercise: [AM] 60 min Body Pump. 1 hour.
Shopping:
MARKET £1 courgettes(2kg)
ASDA 150p peppers(green-1.6kg-yellow-0.5kg) 40p peaches(6)
LIDL 23p aubergine 23p mango 20p sweet-potato
TESCO 119p mandarins(6kg) 77p little-gem(2.9kg) 75p cherries(1.3kg) 56p clementine(2.8kg) 42p cucumbers(1.5kg) 40p skimmed-milk(4.5 litres = 8 UK pints) 38p strawberies(0.9kg) 28p bananas(2.1kg) 25p tortillas(6) 20p kiwi-fruit(16) 19p cherry-tomatos(250g) 18p carrot-cauliflower-broccoli(600g) 15p figs(4) 15p grapefruit 15p papaya 13p mango 10p red-lettuce(250g) 10p swede-carrot-potato-leek-onion(500g) 5p green-pepper 3p swede-carrot(500g) 3p avocado
£10.31
Veg: cauliflower137 tomato117 green-beans105 courgettes93 broccoli47 =499 32.2%
Fruit: cherries200 pear172 satsumas136 mango95 =603 38.9%
Nuts: peanuts62 cashew-raw55 =117 7.5%
Animals: vanilla-flavour-whey-powder154 chocolate-flavour-whey-powder59 banana-flavour-whey-powder26 =239 15.4%
Rubbish: tortilla60 IKEA-sample:jelly-sweet22 Waitrose-sample:choritzo10 =92 5.9%
Totals: 1550, 104.2g protein. 331 is 21.4%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 28 July 2007 11:28 am |
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Friday
Even though I got up late (9.20am) I got less than 6 hours sleep due to late bedtime, made my step class. On way home stopped by Waitrose and sampled some cheesecake. Such a pathetically small amount (two teaspoons) weighed 25.1g and estimated at 104 calories. I'm glad I don't have any in my home enironment.
Decided the kitchen floor needed scrubbing (it did). Mum drove by with a Kenwood food processor she got for £1 (what a bargain) and I was delighted to see that it was in working order. That means I have a spare should anything go wrong with my current device - and as they are both Kenwood, everything is interchangeable.
Decided to take advantage of the sun  and do some of my chores (peeling mandarin fruit) outside in the sun. So inefficient though that by the time I got around to doing it (5.15pm) the Sun was having other plans. My progress with the fruits and vegetables has been pathetic s there will still be stuff to do on Saturday!
At OA, an evoking share from someone with stuff in their lives. Then, after a one-hour meeting, we had a one-hour group conciousness that left me bothered. One issue was a rule that if you shared once you can't come in and re-share during the same meeting. I have to wonder whether they are passing this rule because of me as I have a tendancy to keep my first share short and then come in again as I remember more stuff I wanted to say. Perhaps I'll go in with pen and paper and make notes? I am a person that does not like rules so this puts my back up, but I have to wonder whether my re-sharing has been "keeping people up at night". The second matter discussed was another OA member who, at a meeting with a lot of silence between shares, someone said they were bored, put a few coins on the table and left the meeting about 1/2 way through. Although I remember that this occured, evidently it bugged other people and they inserted new words into the chairman script about not being disruptive and even future-proofing about being able to ask people to leave. The whole sorry experience reminded me of business meetings at work (when I used to work). There were plenty of feelings I was bottling up during the meeting. I don't think I'm going to be attending the meetings with particular regularity.
At Sainsbury's around 9pm got lucky with 6 galia melons - 40p each but with BOGOF worked out £1.20.
After a huge smoothie (680g frozen kiwi fruit and 243ml skimmed milk, which creamed up to an impressive 2.5 litres in volume) at 10pm I wasn't in the mood for food, so those last 569 calories came in 3 small snack combinations: TVP+peanuts, TVP+walnuts, TVP+cashew-nuts [last of those at 2am; TVP/nut combos weight (hydrated) was just 267 grams]
Exercise: [AM] 45 min Body Step, [PM] 45 min cycle to OA. 1.5 hours
Shopping: 120p galia-melon. £1.20
Veg: swede-carrot-ptato-leek-onion108 courgettes70 sweet-potatos55 sweede-and-carrot53 cherry-tomatos45 carrot43 =374 17.4%
Fruit: kiwi-fruit333 satsumas134 mango112 strawberries106 peach96 =781 36.3%
Legumes: TVP157 =157 7.3%
Nuts: raw-cashews243 walnuts162 peanuts62 =467 21.7%
Animals: skimmed-milk156 roasted-chicken50 strawberry-flavour-whey-powder31 banana-flavour-whey-powder30 =267 12.4%
Rubbish: Waitrose-sample:cheesecake104 =104 4.8%
Totals: 2150, 106.9g protein. 371 is 17.3%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 29 July 2007 03:13 am |
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Saturday
I take Tamsulosin Hydrochlorise 400 micrograms and Oxybutinyn 10 milligrams. This morning I decided to (temporarily) stop taking these medications and see what happens to the related symptoms. I decided to do this on my own without consulting a doctor. This is the kind of thing I wouldn't share with my mum for fear of hearing a barrage of nagging and/or abuse.
I wasn't sure there would be a Body Combat but it turns out I misunderstood - yes, Shey was going on holiday, but only after teaching this week's class. I knew she was new to this discipline so I didn't know what to expect - she was surprisingly good - I felt I learnt new aspects of the choreography that were glossed over by Angela, she conveyed some extra things and had better timing/musicality (not surprising as I understand she has a dance background). Then Hannah covered Body Pump - when the class was over I realised that one of the participants was Trudie. Trudie was both my and then Hanna's teacher - teaching us to be aerobics instructors! (I think she was there because she would be covering the next class, which I didn't take part in.)
Earier in the week Nash tipped me off that there would be Salsa in the shopping centre. I turned up with lots of mandarin oranges and a kitchen knife (and an MP3 player). I figured that as I was going to be busy peeling those anyhow I might as well enjoy an ambience different from my living quarters. I even got to dance at one point.
Exercise: [AM] 45 min Body Combat, 60 min Body Pump. 1.75 hours.
Shopping: 0
Veg: green-pepper197 courgettes140 yellow-peppers117 green-beans87 tin-tomato68 cucumber20 little-gem-lettuce16 =645 41.6%
Fruit: satsuma184 strawberries112 papaya80 galia-melon48 figs37 =461 29.7%
Legumes: TVP129 =129 8.3%
Nuts: Nut-stand-sample:cashew24 Nut-stand-sample:almonds17 Nut-stand-sample:walnut14 Waitrose-sample:green-olive10 =65 4.2%
Animals: skimmed-milk193 banana-flavour-whey-powder26 =219 14.1%
Rubbish: Waitrose-sample:choritzo-spanish17 Waitrose-sample:brioche14 =31 2.0%
Totals: 1550, 104.3g protein. 250 is 16.1%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 30 July 2007 05:06 am |
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Sunday
Enjoyed jam which was covered by Teresa, who was my first Body Jam teacher when I tried it for the first time back in 2004. She seemed younger than she was? (mid 30s?). Something in diseaseproof.com made me want to re-read bits of the Atkins book (which I've continously had out of the library since early 2004 - can anybody beat such an abuse of the library facility?).
At 3pm I was visited by my sisters and my sister's partner - the highlight I promised my 3 visitors was one of my frozen fruit 'mousse' creations. After some deliberations they selected the following ingredients: (1) frozen peach (2) vanilla whey powder (3) skimmed milk (4) artificial sweetners (5) wafer cones. There was talk of making a second batch with alternate fruit/whey combinations, but my sister decided she was full after having her share. After some deliberation they decided that the word 'fool' may better describe my dessert. I Googled it.
Having finally caught up with the management of recently purchased produce I turned my attention to the potatos in the fridge, some of which require urgent attention. I decided it is only fair to separate "starchy vegetables", which have an Eat To Live nutrient density score of 35, from other vegetables (which could be 100, 97 or 50). The potato project is by no means complete but I'll probably wait for the next high day [Tuesday] to continue in earnest. Potatos are low-protein and therefore do need to be balanced with a high-protein food, so the phrase "meat and potatos" gains an angle.
After missing my morning doses of Tamsulosin Hydrochloride on Saturday and Sunday morning I'm in sufficient pain to decide I've definitely made a mistake. I will resume this medicine tomorrow morning!
7 day food shopping summary: 23.03 + 1.60 + 2.30 + 10.31 + 1.20 + 0 + 0 = £38.44
Exercise: [noon] 60 min Body Jam, [PM] 45 min Body Step, 45 min Body Pump. 2.5 hours.
Shopping: 0
Veg: green-beans123 beetroot111 little-gem-lettuce47 aubergine37 =318 14.8%
Fruit: galia-melon256 satsuma186 apple122 peach47 =611 28.4%
Starchy: potato595 =595 27.7%
Nuts: avocado147 peanuts31 cocoa-powder19 =197 9.2%
Animals: skimmed-milk215 herring-pickled50 roast-chicken50 honey-roast-ham50 chocolate-flavour-whey-powder33 vanilla-flavour-whey-powder14 =412 19.2%
Rubbish: wafer-cone12 flat-wafer5 =17 0.8%
Totals: 2150, 104.2g protein. 429 is 20.0%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 31 July 2007 02:42 am |
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Monday
I got up and continued with the labour-intensive "potato rescue" project in the morning, opting to do so in silence rather than with the usual background 'noise' (which recently has been pages from ific.org). Silence is nice, sometimes. I was simultaneously working with potatos in the sink, chopping up potatos, microwaving potato wedges and sorting the part-microwaved wedges by how wrinkly they became. One issue that came up as a result later in the day was how much I should be concerned by acrylamides [e.g. see diseaseproof.com/archives/toxins-the-problem-with-acrylamides.html]. I was also thinking about the efficiency of microwave energy. Normally microwaving is considered to be more energy-efficient than other forms of cooking. For instance less energy is expended boiling water in a microwave compared with an electric kettle, never mind boiling on a hob. Yet the microwave was busy working at those potatos for hours, so I have to wonder.
Decided to skip the morning classes at the gym and then adopted the same approach i the evening. Is this the end of the world? Er, let's see, a rest day - when was my last rest day? it turns out it was Wednesday 4th of July (the day after my general anethetic) which is 26 days ago. A rest day once every 26 days? I think that is acceptable. I'm only joking, people - I know I don't need to exercise every day, it is just a habit it is easy to fall into. But it isn't mandatory!
Did a bit more re-reading in the Atkins book. It is so difficult (and de-motivating) reading it, now that I disagree with much of it. It is interesting how the things I agree with are so readily twisted in order to give "reasons" to things I don't. It is disappointing I did not spot this misinformation when attempting to critically approach this material less than 4 years ago. On the positive side, there is much that Dr Fuhrman and Dr Atkins can agree on, and much of the public are years behind them both. Perhaps I might come up with a list of what they agree on, perhaps not.
Unfortunately I didn't replace the bag-of-herring-portions back in the freezer. It was thawed so I did not want to refreeze it so more herring than intended will be consumed today and tomorrow. I wish the next food choice could be explained as rationally: earlier in the evening I spotted my container of squirty-cream and decided I'd be having some later on if I could fit it in. My portion was 108 calories, proividing 56 calories from 6.2g of saturated fat. That's 3.6% of my daily calories. (There would also be some small amounts of saturated fat in the skimmed milk and the pickled herring). I only made one 'smoothie' today and it was based on frozen tinned tomato (which I classify as a vegetable) with skimmed milk. Hence no fruit was consumed today!
Exercise: none.
Shopping: 0.
Veg: cucumber88 green-pepper86 broccoli76 tin-tomato66 green-beans26 celery4 =346 22.3%
Legumes: TVP194 =194 12.5%
Starchy: potato589 =589 38.0%
Nuts: peanuts6 =6 0.4%
Animals: herring-pickled250 skimmed-milk57 =307 19.8%
Rubbish: squirty-cream108 =108 7.0%
Totals: 1550, 103.7g protein. 415 is 26.8%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 1 August 2007 10:03 am |
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Tuesday
The surgeon indicated he'd like a follow-up appointment 6 weeks after my procedure (which was on July 3rd) yet my late August appointment has now been unexpectedly cancelled - and then re-scheduled by hospital administrators for February (7 months after my procedure!), so I am doing my best to fight this unreasonable treatment. Mum doesn't help by nagging me about this - I'm already doing all I can.
Started the day with a fruit smoothie (cherries, chocolate whey and milk) [later on today also enjoyed one smoothie based on galia melon and two smoothies based on mandarin oranges] and made my morning Pump which was covered by Laura (the strict instructor who some time ago told me to reduce weights). I as concious that, since the last time she taught me, my chest-track weights did in fact legitimately increase back from 17.5kg to 20kg (that's for the entire bar. That's 10kg, or 22lb, on each side, if you need a handy conversion). My last round of increases (only to chest and back tracks) occurred recently whilst doing that 're-feed' - it may been a break in fat loss but at least it had this positive effect. And who knows, maybe it also "re-charged" my metabolism? Though I don't think you need a re-feed any more frequently than every 6 to 12 weeks. For the Quad stretch (that's when you are hopping on one leg) Laura introduced a teaching point that is new to me - "imagine stretching your knee downwards" which does curiously make the stretch better for the Quads. I certainly respect her skill.
On the way back home got mushrooms at Sainsburys, sampled salami at Waitrose and got both cantelope melons and sweet potatos at the market. Like with the courgettes on Saturday, it is difficult to know how fair the prices are in the market as you're buying blind - you spend £1 and get whatever is in the bowl. As it happened again I did not make the substantial saving I imagined as compared with LIDL's current sale prices (of 69p per kilo for sweet potato) which would have had me pay about £1.09 for the bowl of potatos - and at LIDL I would have picked slightly fresher-looking ones and had the ability to select an appropriate quantity. Still I suppose it had the positive affect of having me buy more than I otherwise would have (I usually stick to one sweet-potato per visit to LIDL) and today's food was partly dominated by the lovely (starchy) vegetable, so it isn't all bad news. Also on the way home I noted that it was sunny and decided I must take advantage!
Back at home I got side-tracked, amongst other things, by an interesting webcast put out by the IFIC about nutrition labelling in America, Europe and Asia [ ific.org/foodinsight/2007/ma/globalnutlabelfinb207.cfm ] though eventually I did come out to the sun, listening to MP3 extracts of the diseaseproof.com blog whilst slicing 4 cantelope melons into cubes. I soaked the sun, progressed on my 'reading' and came away with 5 x 650ml tupperware boxes of cubed cantelope - how is that for multi-tasking?
Mum came over and delivered freebies: some vegetables she considered borderline, including spinach and green-beans. Love getting those freebies. She also passed on a packet of KP-branded dry-roasted-peanuts she got on the Sunday car-boot-sale. It was only when I enjoyed those as my last meal around midnight that I realised how superior these are to the LIDL oferring - it is the way it is spiced. I'm going to have to ask her to buy me some when she next goes! Another thing was the mostly-lentil home-made creation. Analagous to me passing time with mum going out shopping, my sister enjoys cooking with mum so her visit this weekend had them try out a new recipe. I'm not sure where she found the recipe but she never tried it before. Basically you cook green lentils (from dry) then add a small amount of egg and a small amount of flour (for binding purposes), add spices to give a distinct flavour and then fry in oil. My sister described this when she was over on Sunday and I asked mum to deliver one patty the next time she was over. I was in luck though, as the 4 leftover patties had not yet gone through the "calorie-enriching" frying process due to lack of time, which meant that I was happy to receive all 4 (I would otherwise have insisted I only wanted one!). I am very much against using anytying but a hint of oil (sometimes required to condition a non-stick pan); my mum is happy to use a teaspoon when she fries onions and the like; my sister's cooking involves a lot of oil - this shocks both me and mum. Mum mentioned that during the last visit, my sister used up the last 1/3 of a one-litre bottle of oil and made some headway into the next bottle! Still all I had to do is make a reasonable estimate of the extra calories from a bit of egg and flour and enjoy my mostly-lentils "bake", which I chose to finish-off in the microwave oven. They were delcious, and not a million miles away from Falafel.
I went through my mail, which included a rather welcome cheque which is a part of my redemption deal for my mobile phone. The deal I took up back in February with "The Carphone Warehouse" has me paying out £420 throughout the year but eventually getting all but £36 of it back in 5 payments throughout the year. The first payment of about £134 arrived like clockwork soon after the contract started, and now after a relatiely pain-free process of mailing a photocopy of my 6th bill, a cheque for £62.50 arrived promptly, which is much appreciated by me. Last year I had a similiar deal with an outfit called "Mobile Rainbow" and this involved a lot of time-wasting and uncertainty as to wheater I would ever see my money. I did successfully chase all that I was owed but I was left with a bad taste in my mouth (especially as I had recommended them to my family and friends too!). The carphone warehouse are providing good customer service here and I'll go with them next year if they offer a good deal. Whilst I am paying the equivalent of £3 a month for a service worth £35, there are people like Nash who refuse to wet their toes with a contract and hence have to use mobile phones on a "pay as you go" basis, which costs more and provides much less for your money.
After doing all of the her town-centre shopping mum telephoned to ask if I wanted to come out to LIDL with her - I topped up my supply of various vegetables, which are still price-reduced. The LIDL produce sale is still going strong, even though certain items are mysteriously absent (this time it was broccoli, cauliflower, aubergines). A later phone call from mum established that produce at LIDL is back to normal prices on Monday (or possibly even Thursday) so we will get at most one more shopping trip at current prices!
It was after 5pm but sufficiently warm for me to want to make best use of the sun. I came out and tried reading a few more pages of the Atkins book (I'm a very slow reader - I'm on page 20 at the moment). I fell asleep in the pulic garden (only for a few minutes, I would imagine). I took the 10 minute walk to Sainbury's. It was clear that I missed some lovely bargains which would have been mine if only I had been there 10 minutes earlier, but I still managed 3 heavy carrier bags for £3.25 which is better that most days (naturally also had a couple of freebies: roast beef and an Indian deep-fried 'pakora'). All in all the day turned out to have quite a focus on food shopping. The bags were heavy enough that it was impractical to read whilst walking home, so I had the MP3 player on instead.
There was lot of busy work unpacking fruit and making it freezer-ready. My fridge currently has a 'queue' of tupperware boxes full of fruit that are all patiently waiting for their opportunity to be deep-frozen. meanwhile, two drawers in my freezer are substantially full with wholemeal bread. Yet I hardly ever eat bread, as it represents poor 'value' for calories and is not highly regarded in Eat To Live and besides I am largely avoiding grains at the moment. Stubbornly I am refusing to discard the bread as I may need the calories one day if cheap fruit and potatos become scarce, so the freezer policy remains "one in, one out" as far as fruit go. They don't need to be frozen for storage purposes - only for smoothie-making purposes. There were also a variety of vegetables to cook.
After a few hours of work, current state of play is that I have lots of high-protein veg cooked and ready-to-eat for tomorrow's low-calorie-day eating: mushrooms, spinach, courgettes, broccoli-carrot-courgette-asparagus mix, beansprout-carrot-cabbage-onion stir-fry mix, green beans, celery and cucmber. If I want to, I could get all my protein from vegetables (rather than legumes or animal products). I'm sure I'll feel full though and go for some fruit or nuts at some point in the day.
My last 'meal' (of 420 calories, but just under 100 grams) involved 313 calories from those dry-roasted peanuts and 107 calories from that squirty cream [do I hear 'compulsive over-eater', anyone?]. I am not worried because I know that, bad-for-me as this is, there is at most 750 calories in the container and once it is gone, I'm determined not to get it again (and I'm sensible enough to only have it as an end-of-day treat, when I need a calorie top up but am not hungry).
I rounded the day by catching up on MSE (Money Saving Expert, a weekly email tip I go through on Tuesday nights) which had me busy until after 1am. What a busy day!
Exercise: [AM] 60 min Body Pump. 1 hour.
Shopping: Sainsbury(AM) 15p mushrooms(200g)
Market(AM) £1 sweet-potatos(1.5kg) £1 cantelope-melons(4)
LIDL(PM) 106p courgettes(2.1kg) 32p celery(700g) 29p swede(1.2kg) 23p mango(350g)
Sainsbury(PM) 50p beansprout-carrot-cabbage-sweetcorn-onion-red+yellow-peppers(1.2kg) 50p pomegranates(600g) 50p cherries(450g) 45p beansprout-carrot-cabbage-onion(1.5kg) 30p plums(500g) 30p kiwi(6) 20p potato(2.5kg) 20p pears(850g) 20p broccoli-carrot-courgette-asparagus(250g) 10p pineapple(180g) £7.30
Veg: beansprout-carrot-cabbage-sweetcorn-onion-red+yellow-peppers84 beetroot52 =136 6.3%
Legumes: lentil-egg-flour-spices165 =165 7.7%
Fruit: mandarin-oranges390 cherries166 galia-melon120 cantelope-melon9 =685 31.9%
Starchy: sweet-potato308 =308 14.3%
Nuts: KP-dry-roasted-peanuts313 =313 14.6%
Animals: skimmed-milk238 herring100 Sainsbury-sample:roast-beef38 chocolate-flavour-whey-powder24 =400 18.6%
Rubbish: squirty-cream107 Sainsbury-sample:pakora24 Waitrose-sample:salami12 =143 6.7%
Totals: 2150, 103.6g protein. 543 is 25.3%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 1 August 2007 11:52 am |
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Wednesday - Part I
Great start to a low-calorie day, I challenge you to beat this:
135g cooked mushrooms, 312g cooked spinach, 402g cooked swede: reheated in microwave, mashed in food processor with 'tikka masala' spice mix; 286g stir-fry-mix (microwaved, tikka masala spices added).
Totals: 1135g of food (that's 2.5 pounds!). just 190 calories and 15.1g protein.
I do sometimes get the feeling that I'm the only one around here who is really into eating  . I understand some people are turned off by the idea of eating vegetables for breakfast (in this quantity or even in smaller quantities).
Off to the gym shortly.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 2 August 2007 02:36 am |
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Wednesday - Part II
visit to bank; home to store mushrooms and out to read in the sun - covered more page today.
This radio program [ bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4_aod.shtml?radio4/civilisation ] had a theme song which I felt compelled to track down [ youtube.com/watch?v=UXqeVzA7pGM ]
Managed to get melons and some veg just before my afternoon gym visit (right place at the right time); Kassi covered the combat class and she was quite good. On Sunday she'll be covering jam.
Exercise: [AM] 60 min Body Step, [PM] 60 min Body Combat. 2 hours.
Shopping: 99p mushrooms(1.6kg) 25p broccoli-carrot-cauliflower(500g) 20p cantelope-melons(2). £1.44
Veg: beansprout-carrot-cabbage-onion184 spinach125 courgettes109 beansprout-carrot-cabbage-sweetcorn-onion-red+yellow-peppers72 green-beans40 broccoli-carrot-courgette-asparagus37 mushrooms15 =582 37.5%
Legumes: TVP5 =5 0.3%
Fruit: cherries181 plum163 cantelope-melon90 kiwi-fruit88 pineapple69 =591 38.1%
Starchy: swede44 =44 2.8%
Nuts: KP-dry-roast-peanuts60 =60 3.9%
Animals: skimmed-milk203 vanilla-flavour-whey-powder39 banana-flavour-whey-powder26 =268 17.3%
Rubbish: 0
Totals: 1550, 103.5g protein. 328 is 17.3%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 3 August 2007 04:11 am |
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Thursday
I was amongst at least 25 disappointed gym members all ready to go for a Body Pump class for which the gym failed to arrange a cover instructor for Michelle who is on holiday. There was a mass walk-out, leaving plenty of weights, mats and steps which a team of 3 members of gym staff ended up putting away. The majority decided to go next door and take part in the Spin class. This particular class, normally taken by Angela, was covered by Lou who is a based at my old gym, so it was like re-living an episode from a year ago. I perceive she had some hand in the way I left that gym so I have some resentment feelings, but there is no doubt that she is a professional as an instructor - with useful teaching points and a way of motivating participants.
Weather was disappointing, after the last couple of days. Dean called to consult on what foods to purchase. Most choices were sensible, but Pesto?? seriously. I had a nap and later on went on a long shopping expedition with mum, discovering a special offer on legumes in tins, making what is probably the last produce purchase on the LIDL sale that's about to close, TESCO was slim pickings. Coffees at IKEA.
morbidlemon: I did find TVP at TESCO, but at our branch the 375g packet is priced at 99p (i.e. 26.4g per 100g, similiar price to Sainsbury's). If it really is 62p where you live, this is likely to have a "price-match" status due to it being available at a similiar price elsewhere (such as a rival supermarket or local Indian stores) - either way, take advantage.
Exercise: [AM] 45 min Spin. 0.75 hours.
Shopping: Market £1 galia-melons(4.5) £1 kiwi-fruit(30)
ASDA 60p brown-chick-peas(3x240g) 40p chick-peas(2x240g) 20p borlotti/rosecoco-beans(240g) 20p blackeye-beans(240g) 20p cannellini/white-kidney-beans(240g)
LIDL 92p aubergines(2kg) 85p courgettes(1.7kg) 64p celery(1kg) 45p sweet-potato(650p) 29p swede(1.2kg)
TESCO 45p pineapple(1.2kg) 39p pears(1.2kg) 9p cucumber(250g)
£7.68
Veg: beansprout-carrot-cabbage-onion92 beansprout-carrot-cabbage-sweetcorn-onion-red+yellow-peppers71 =163 7.6%
Legumes: brown-chick-peas271 chick-peas270 =541 25.2%
Fruit: mandarin-oranges399 pomegranates204 mango93 cantelope-melon81 =777 36.1%
Starchy: sweet-potato140 swede43 =183 8.5%
Grain: wholemeal-bread67 =67 3.1%
Nuts: KP-dry-roasted-peanuts92 peanut49 =141 6.6%
Animal: skimmed-milk231 =231 10.7%
Rubbish: ASDA-sample:choritzo30 ASDA-sample:cheese17 =47 2.2%
Totals: 2150, 103.8g protein. 278 is 12.9%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 4 August 2007 04:19 am |
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Friday
I'm trying a new calorie feeding formula for low-calorie days, 80*(T-6.5), i.e. start eating notionally at 6.30am, 80 calories per hour. I also intend to have Sunday and Monday as adjacent low-calorie days, so I can have a repeatable 7-day cycle (high days on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays - coincide with the 60-minute Body Pump workouts).
Breakfast of lettuce, mushrooms and walnuts; an early morning shopping trip with mum to NETTO and LIDL followed by a cantelope-melon-and-yogurt smoothie.
Step class was an "Exercise To Music reunion": myself (qualified in January), instructed by Jo (qualified a year before me), other participants in the class included Jenny (qualified 6 months before me) and Trudie (who was my teacher for the course!) accompanied by her husband. Because Trudie was my teacher I have respect for her and I'm sure I was trying extra hard to keep good posture etc.
Mum popped over to deliver 2.5kg of beetroot she doesn't want; It as a warm day, and I took advantage - reading in the sun. Decided to skip OA, parly because of what happened in the group consiousness last week, partly due to laziness. I can claim a six-months abstinence chip in 2 weeks' time so I guess I won't be staying away forever.
I have been thinking about fruit  today. This is because I am re-reading the Atkins book. I'm at the point of the book where he suggests that although fruit are rich in nutrients, they are also rich in calories and carbs and so the nutrient density per calorie is less than vegetables and their consumption should be controlled in order to achieve lower carb consumption which correlates with regulation of blood sugar (and hence insulin) levels and corresponds with more effective fat loss. I immediately contrast this with the Eat To Live position, that fruit have a nutrient density of 45 (versus vegetables which range from 50 to 100, and legumes at 48) and that you should eat lots of fruits for their protection against cancer and heart disease. As to the effectiveness of a low-carb approach, there clearly is no doubt - read the appropriate carb-cycling chapter in BFFM and/or refer to discussions of "competition diets" for body-builders. moderate-carb diets are more effective for people who are insulin-resistent (though I doubt that I am one, as I have reached my current slimness on a very high carb diet, and I don't test as diabetic on a fasted blood test). Endomorphs do better on low-carb. Anybody will do better on low-carb to lose that last 1lb when it is a matter of competition. Incidentally fruits are discouraged by some bodybuilding gurus given that they convert to liver glycogen as opposed to muscle glycogen. My mum pointed out that some countries' nutrition guidelines are fruit-limiting, she can think of an example suggesting 9 servings, of which 7 are veg and just 2 are fruit. I like fruit. I think that's why I gave up Atkins in the first place, before my awareness of saturated fats came to the foreground. I am wondering whether I am genuinely concerned about witholding the nutrients that fruit provide or whether I am just a greedy food addict who loves their fruit. I am a lot more easy-going as far as reducing my fruit intake if I am ever hungry, especially on a low-calorie day or if I have to save calories in order to incorporate some high-calorie rubbish in my day - I will focus on vegetables and feel no guilt about this. I would not trade fruit for nuts unless I'm very not hungry. I guess that's why sometimes (but not today) I'm in danger of going too low-fat. Today's fat is probably in the 35% range and carbs around 40%. Hey look, I wasn't expecting to fit so much fruit in and still end up with 'moderate carbs'! Maybe there is still hope for me and carb-cycling. [Vegetables weighed 1620g, fruit weighed 1380g, total produce 3.0kg (6.6lb) so I certainly wasn't deprived]
Not today and not tomorrow, but some day I will have proper protein/fat/carb breakdowns. [and for the rest of my life? ]
I called the gym and they currently have no confidence about running a combat class or a pump class tomorrow, so I may have an unexpected rest day. If that's the case I'll swap Saturday and Sunday this week and have a low day tomorrow.
Exercise: [AM] 45 min Body Step. 0.75 hours.
Shopping: NETTO 34p low-fat-yogurt(450g) 21p peanuts(200g) LIDL £1 pointed-cabbage(5) 49p onions(1kg) 49p sweet-potato(700g) 23p mango. £2.76
Veg: mushrooms119 courgette40 little-gem-lettuce26 broccoli23 cauliflower19 =227 14.6%
Legumes: TVP56 =56 3.6%
Fruit: kiwi-fruit274 cantelope-melon156 =430 27.7%
Starchy: sweet-potato42 =42 2.7%
Nuts: peanuts261 raw-cashews174 walnuts94 =529 34.1%
Animals: low-fat-yogurt134 chocolate-flavour-whey-powder71 skimmed-milk53 =258 16.6%
Rubbish: Waitrose-sample:sourdough-bread8 =8 0.5%
Totals: 1550, 103.5g protein. 266 is 17.2%
Last edited on 4 August 2007 04:24 am by Nir
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 5 August 2007 03:16 am |
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Saturday
Called the gym at 8am to receive good news: no combat class, but someone called Jim will teach Pump - besieged by complaints about Thursday's cancelled Pump class, they did their best to find someone. 10 minutes before the class was to start, a relieved and out-of-practice Jim handed the microphone over to Hannah, who was surprised to discover the issue - she told us she would see us next Saturday, she reasoned. Evidently some bleep in communication. I started the day assuming it was a low-calorie day but adjusted to a high-calorie day throughout the day.
After a short rest at home, Dean made contact: he has come to Milton Keynes for the day and has the Disease-Proof Your Child book that he purchased but not yet made time to read. We spent over 4.5 hours together. I think the last time I saw him was when I travelled to Bedford for his son's Christening in November, an emotionally charged ocassion which saw me binge-drinking and binge-eating. I spent some time following him as he tried to make the most of sales in clothing and sporting shops - but sales must have already peaked as they were not prevelant in the shops we visited. We simultaneously talked about diet, establishing that of my vegetable, legume and fruit recommendations he has taken fruit most closely to heart, followed by legumes. In the short term we highlighted a protein-defficiency and although not ideal, I decided to instruct him to supplement protein from animal sources. Under my guidance he got 4lb of Whey at Holland&Barretts, and at Sainsbury's 400g of TVP and 650g of tuna. We rushed over to rescue his car from a parking ticket, driving out to an audio store and coming back to park near my flat. I gave him some free parking vouchers for today and future ocassions. I showed him Whey powder in action by mixing vanilla-whey with frozen-cherries which he enjoyed in a wafer cone - I followed this with TVP with Marocan spices. I had to endure some sports commentary which he was keen to have in the background. We tested his body-fat. BIA scales said 26% but the calliper reported better news - only 16.6%. That's what we'll go with. Dean is an example of somebody muscular, where BMI 26 does not indicate a problem. His unhealthy eating habits are more of a concern than excess fat. We did a bit more shopping and then it was time for him to drive home to his family. It was great to spend so much time together.
I don't seem to be following the BFFM guideline of eating every 3 hours too religiously. Today for example 4 hours between 8.30am and 12.30pm; Yesterday there was a 5-hour gap.
Despite having a Dr Fuhrman text to dig my teath into, I'm still on the Atkins book project. Just finished Part 1.
Exercise: [AM] 60 min Body Pump. 1 hour.
Shopping: 0
Veg: beetroot446 courgettes134 aubergine52 green-pepper34 red-lettuce22 =688 32.0%
Legumes: pinto-beans220 TVP71 =291 13.5%
Fruit: kiwi-fruit274 cherries136 =410 19.1%
Starchy: sweet-potato99 carrot49 =148 6.9%
Nuts: peanuts193 walnuts163 raw-cashews83 =439 20.4%
Animals: skimmed-milk74 vanilla-flavour-whey-powder31 =105 4.9%
Rubbish: squirty-cream69 =69 3.2%
Totals: 2150, 103.5g protein. 174 is 8.1%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 6 August 2007 02:55 am |
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Sunday
Very hot day. Went out for an hour before jam. Kassy was good enough given she's only just passed her exam and taught it twice in a real world setting. General confusion at the gym meant some people were called to say classes were cancelled. There were only 3 of us and the instructor - we still did our best. Afterwards went home for a bit then tried being out again - a mixture of sleepiness and constant need to use the public toilets had me cut that outing short. I didn't feel like going to the gym again and felt better after going for a nap instead.
Decided on some slight adjustments: protein target goes down from 103.5 to 100.0. High/low calorie days go down from 2150/1550 to 2100/1500. Decision around 8pm but still I'll apply it to today. 50 calories per day could make a difference of 5lb a year, yet if I'm making clever food choices I should not feel deprived. My new Monday-Sunday cycle (1500, 2100, 1500, 2100, 1500, 2100, 1500) with 4 'diet' days will therefore average 1757 calories a day.
Yes,no more squirty cream!
7 day food shopping summary: 0 + 7.30 + 1.44 + 7.68 + 2.76 + 0 + 0 = £19.18 (tends to creep up on me)
Exercise: [noon] 60 min Body Jam. 1 hour.
Shopping: 0
Veg: garden-peas227 courgettes138 aubergine54 little-gem-lettuce46 cucumer44 green-pepper41 =550 36.7%
Legumes: rosecoco-beans188 green-lentils152 =340 22.7%
Fruit: galia-melon116 =116 7.7%
Nuts: peanuts327 =327 21.8%
Animals: skimmed-milk63 low-fat-yogurt52 =115 7.7%
Rubbish: squirty-cream52 =52 3.5%
Totals: 1500, 100.0g protein. 167 is 11.1%
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suenos
Moderator
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Posted: 6 August 2007 08:38 pm |
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Hi Nir! Loooong time no see...I'm glad you're still around! 
What are you currently working on with your fitness level? I'm guessing you've gotten your bodyfat% to what you were aiming for last year...but I see you are zig-zagging? is that for maint. or did you decide to go lower? Are you lifting now or did you decide to give that a pass? I read back a few pages and can't tell if you're basically following ETL or BFFM...or maybe you've merged the two concepts into a "Nir Plan"? Yea, I know, nosy, nosy, nosy girl...but as always, I find you so darn interesting!
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 7 August 2007 12:18 am |
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Hi, great to see you back here, looking forward to following your progress. You were certainly helpful around the time I was out of control September/October of last year (along time ago, now).
My weight is now just about back to what it was back then but I'm around 12.7% and I'd like to be 10% hence the zig-zagging. I do 3-4 Body Pump workouts per week, that's "small" weights (35kg = 77lb bar for squats, for example), 5 minutes per body part (i.e. very long sets). Going back to October-January I was in a gym with no studio classes and I did more 'classic' training (3 sets of 12 per exercise, 4 day split). Once I get to 10% I will want to do a bulk. This cut is taking somewhat longer than I imagined - I may well have to step it up in terms of calorie reduction or (god forbid) moderating my carbs. The "Nir Plan" is indeed a marriage ETL and BFFM - with concessions to both. At the moment it is leaning slightly more towards ETL a while back it was the other way around. For example Whey protein isn't an ETL thing, and yet getting most of my protein from vegetable ('incomplete') sources isn't the BFFM thing, but I'm finding a balance I can live with.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 7 August 2007 04:19 am |
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Monday
Skipped AM gym visit, instead opting for a mixture of reading and napping - both in bed (initially a slow start, I've now read the first 2 parts of the book). College called with an interview date for the IT course I've applied to do. I called the hospital and was relieved to discover they rescheduled my appointment (originally August and then postponed till February) so it is in early September. Mum offered a shopping trip and without much remorse decided to ditch the PM gym visit and go shopping instead (first rest day after 6 workout days). I got some stuff at ASDA. Then I headed off to IKEA whilst mum went to TESCO. I think I drunk 8 decaff coffees before getting bored and leaving. Mum was in touch to tell me some great shopping was had at TESCO. We met up again at ASDA where I got a few more things. Finally we divided up the TESCO goods - I got 13 kilos (over 28lb) of vegetables for just under £4 - mum pointed out that if I had been with her it might have been more as she was pitted against other customers, doing her best. I think she did very well. I'm so lazy.
Exercise: none
Shopping: ASDA £1.20 courgettes(2.5kg) £1 plums(3.7kg) £1 rosecoco-beans(5x240g) 60p black-eye-beans(3x240g) 40p brown-chick-peas(2x240g)
TESCO 60p cherry-tomatoes(10x250g) 57p broad-beans(3x500g) 35p leafy-salad-with-tatsoi(7x125g) 33p carrot-cauliflower-broccoli(3x300g) 30p spring-greens(3x500g) 26p green-beans(2x300g) 26p baby-leeks(2x175g) 20p beensprouts-mushroom-cabbage-carrot-onion-pepper(2x300g) 20p courgette-pepper-mangetout-redonion-babycorn-carrot-eek-garlic(300g) 17p mange-tout(300g) 17p purple-sprouting-broccoli(200g) 14p mushrooms(750g) 13p cabbage-leek(300g) 12p carrot(4x500g) 12p beensprouts-carrot-cabbage-pepper(300g) 5p spring-onion(190p)
£8.17
Veg: broad-beans161 pea-carrot-cauliflower-broccoli71 tomato69 aubergine55 courgette-pepper-mangetout-redonion-babycorn-carrot-eek-garlic51 garden-peas47 beenprouts-carrot-cabbage-pepper46 cucumber40 purple-broccoli34 little-gem-lettuce29 =603 40.2%
Legumes: TVP33 =33 2.2%
Fruit: mandarin-oranges172 pomegranates102 cantelope-melon92 galia-melon10 =376 25.1%
Starchy: carrot75 =75 5.0%
Grain: shreddies23 =23 1.5%
Nuts: raw-cashew105 peanuts32 =137 9.1%
Animals: skimmed-milk216 banana-flavour-whey-powder37 =253 16.9%
Rubbish: 0
Totals: 1500, 100.1g protein. 253 is 16.9%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 8 August 2007 03:47 am |
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Tuesday
Headed out for morning pump (my friend Jon who I was due to do Pump with this afternoon cancelled, so I decided to get my workout done and out of the way). No such luck. This gym has gone downhill these last 7 days. On Thursday they had no cover for pump (most people did Spin instead), on Saturday they had no cover for Body Combat. What next? apparently their cover teacher cancelled at short notice but this time they didn't line-up their 'emergency instructor'. No. Instead the studio coordinator proposed to do a 'freestyle' weights class involving a BOSU. I know that he has been trained to teach a BOSU class. He managed to offend the assembled crowd though by threatening to making substantial changes to the class timetable, and used a phrase "if you don't like it you can leave" (though I'm not sure if he was referring to the class he was about to instruct, or the gym in general). This offended a number of regular members and he had to get his manager (who came and pacified some people). After 10-15 minutes of time-wasting we proceeded with the class, which wasn't a patch on pump. I didn't know what was coming so I didn't know what weights to use and therefore wasn't sufficiently challenged.
On the way home, my MP3 player ran out of things to play. I guess I should have seen this coming. I am now up-to-date with all the diseaseproof.com blog entries, and I needed to 'manufacture' more things to listen to, which took up quite a bit of my day. Next on the list will be back issues of 'Food Insight' magazine ( ific.org/foodinsight/index.cfm ).
Unsatisfied with my workout, I returned to the gym in the afternoon (sampling some olives and buying some chicken liver at Sainsbury's on the way) and this time the cover teacher (Emily) turned up to deliver a satisfactory pump workout.
I mostly stuck to lower-protein vegetables, keeping the high-protein ones for the low-day tomorrow. Splashed on fruit-and-whey (5 smoothies during the day).
Exercise: [AM] 45 min BOSU-with-barbell, [PM] 60 min Body Pump. 1.75 hours.
Shopping: 49p chicken-livers(400g). £0.49
Veg: beetroot216 leafy-salad-with-tatsoi90 aubergine64 leek-and-cabbage37 leek33 =440 21.0%
Fruit: kiwi-fruit273 pear210 banana209 pineapple155 red-grapefruit82 plum6 =935 44.5%
Starchy: carrot96 =96 4.6%
Grain: shreddies34 =34 1.6%
Nuts: peanuts361 Sainsbury-sample:green-olives19 =380 18.1%
Animals: chocolate-flavour-whey-powder70 strawberry-flavour-whey-powder66 chicken-liver42 banana-flavour-whey-powder37 =215 10.2%
Rubbish: 0
Totals: 2100, 100.2g protein. 215 is 10.2%
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voodoodoll
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 8 August 2007 01:37 pm |
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| hey nir, sorry about your gym. they sound hopeless! have you thought about joining a different one or putting a complaint in? you are paying for the gym so its only right they should have competent instructors to take the scheduled classes. Hope all gets back to normal once holiday season is over.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 8 August 2007 02:13 pm |
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| When I was at Fitness First we had this all the time and it was quite frustrating. Now, at Virgin, this rarely happens, but clearly they do not have a proper system. I actually want to keep a low-ish profile as I've tried the other approach before and I know where that can lead me!
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 9 August 2007 10:05 am |
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Wednesday
Had a red skin rash within an hour of waking up but before eating or handling any food. Makes me wonder whether I'm intolerant to food after all or whether I am reacting to something else in my environmet. I'm glad these episodes are not too frequent. Started the day with a good body step class.
Unlike yesterday when there was no time for my Atkins book, I did read a few pages today but mostly searched for stuff of interest on the web. Here is another book that is now on my reading [or rather, listening] list - from the WHO (World Health Organisation), I bring you: euro.who.int/InformationSources/Publications/Catalogue/20040130_8
In the afternoon headed over to college to have an admissions interview. I am now accepted for the course, subject to a positive reference, production of school certificates and payment of the fee. One of the things to do tomorrow is go on the examination board's website and dig out info about what this 'BTEC national diploma' entails. A tight squeeze but just enough time to cycle over to Sainsbury for some bargains before Body Combat. Angela is finally back from her holidays, nothing like the real thing. A post-gym return visit to Sainsbury. Altogether, having spent under £2, I was clutching 4 carrier bags. Have you tried cycling a mile with over 14kg of produce balanced on your handle-bars?
Just before 10pm the gym called: tomorrow's AM Body Pump is to be replaced with a 'legs bums tums' conditioning class. Never mind, I logged onto the gym website and booked myself into Spin with Angela.
The siren song of fruit (580g plums, 380g pineapple, 245g mango - and 770g if we're being 'technical' and counting cherry-tomatos as fruit) seems to ensure that the alleged advantages of carb moderation remain elusive, with today's fare best described as low-fat vegeterian.
Exercise: [AM] 60 min Body Step, [PM] 45 min cycle to college/gym. 60 min Body Combat. 2.75 hours.
Shopping: 76p rhubarb(1.7kg) 60p white-potatos(10kg) 30p brussel-sprouts(700g) 20p savoy-cabbage(1.2kg) 10p celeriac(1kg) £1.96
Veg: brussel-sprouts187 cherry-tomatos139 beensprouts-mushroom-cabbage-carrot-onion-pepper87 mange-tout64 cauliflower51 mushrooms42 leafy-salad-with-tatsoi36 broccoli29 spring-onion23 =658 43.9%
Fruit: plums198 pineapple156 mango140 =494 32.9%
Starchy: swede39 =39 2.6%
Nuts: peanuts187 =187 12.5%
Animals: vanilla-flavour-whey-powder122 =122 8.1%
Rubbish: 0
Totals: 1500, 100.2g protein. 122 is 8.1%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 10 August 2007 06:07 pm |
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Thursday
I watched through the glass to confirm that my judgement to skip the 'legs bums tums' class was sound and then joined Angela for a Spin class. On the way home sampled olive-bread at Waitrose and white chocolate buttons at Thornton, then purchased 5 ripe (overly ripe, actually) mangos (to be hacked into bits and frozen) at the market and headed home.
In the afternoon used a clipper to shave off my head (my hair was getting longer and unmanageable as it has been 3-5 months since I last did this) so I'll be without hair for a couple of weeks.
Mum made contact before 5pm. I made an easy decision to skip the gym (meaning this ended up being a high day without Pump!) and we were off to ASDA, where she bought various cakes, including 180 'Mr Kipling Bakewell Slices', each 160 calories, for a total of £3 (less than 2p each). Why? My dad insists on desserts and this saves her the effort of baking. There was nothing for me to buy this early.
We then hit the jackpot at TESCO - everything was 10% of the original price. I got 500g of smoked turkey, everything else was a vegetable or a fruit including (for the second time this week) large amounts of potatos - shopping at TESCO was 28kg (or 61lb - that's half my body weight). After a very successful trip to the Bletchley TESCO we travelled another 5 miles for a reconnaissance mision to Kington TESCO where we were thoroughly disappointed, leaving with nothing.
Mum said the shopping trip was conditional upon a visit to the allotment where she would water some plants but to sweeten the pill I'd be picking raspberries to take home. While we were there mum also provided some other produce. I left with: raspberries(1kg) yellow-courgette(700g) chard(620g) spinach(340g) dark-green-beans(35g) blackberries(30g)
Although I kind-of promised mum that with my newly-aquired potatos I'll discard the old ones, the compulsive me decided to have another 'rescue mission', identifying and cooking the most questionable potatos, to avoid wastage. The potato-rescue and other storage activity had me busy until bedtime at 2am [with more work to follow tomorrow]
Exercise: [AM] 45 min Spin. 0.75 hours.
Shopping: Market £1 mango(5 of them, 2.8kg) TESCO 80p courgette(2kg) 75p shiitake-mushrooms(620g) 54p king-edward-potato(7500g) 54p cherry-tomato(800g) 39p green-beans(800g) 37p wafer-thin-smoked-turkey(500g) 33p white-potato(7500g) 27p spring-onions(470g) 26p Tutu-salad(300g) 20p piccola-salad-potato(2kg) 20p apple(800g) 20p sweet-potato(700g) 17p tomato(350g) 16p peas(230g) 11p parsnip(500g) 10p pear(1kg) 10p portabello-mushrooms(190g) 8p celeriac(400g) 6p swede(1kg)
£6.63
Veg: rhubarb47 savoy-cabbage35 celeriac27 yellow-courgette22 =131 6.2%
Legumes: TVP3 =3 0.1%
Fruit: plum167 cherries146 galia140 mango90 pomegranates61 blackberry8 =612 29.1%
Starchy: potato709 carrot59 sweet-potato46 swede37 =851 40.5%
Nuts: raw-cashew165 =165 7.9%
Animals: smoked-turkey104 vanilla-flavour-whey-powder82 strawberry-flavour-whey-powder39 chocolate-flavour-whey-powder28 =253 12.0%
Rubbish: Tesco-sample:salami26 Tesco-sample:pork-sausage22 Waitrose-sample:olive-bread19 Thornton-sample:white-chocolate-button18 =85 4.0%
Totals: 2100, 100.1g protein. 338 is 16.1%
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suenos
Moderator
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Posted: 10 August 2007 08:09 pm |
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| check your inbox!!!!!!
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 11 August 2007 09:25 pm |
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Friday
At the gym, the communal instructor's microphone headset (or rather, the transmitter box) has been broken for over a week and Jo had to shout her instructions. It was a hot day outside and our air-conditioning only seems to work on cold days so we were sweating but had a good workout.
At Sainsburys I sampled some sesame prawn toast. The lady behind the counter rudely snatched the display card from my hand (it has the product name on one side and the nutritional info on the reverse). Luckily I had already memorised the information. She said something rude about how I never buy anything to the next customer along. Rude and incorrect actually, as I've purchased several whole roast chickens from the deli counter (last year when they could be had for 50p each). I walked away. A few minutes later I went to the customer service desk and complained/vented, so perhaps she will be told off. I certainly don't intend to avoid samples in the future - but if I need info on these cards I may hold the card far enough that the member of staff the other side of the deli counter cannot reach me.
That proved not to be the most shocking part of the day, because less than half an hour later I lost control of my bicycle when the front brakes spontaneously dismantelled mid-journey. I'm not sure if/how/when this gets fixed but I'm cautiously continuing to ride the bike, with just back brakes. I'm riding it alot slower though.
Spent some time outside reading in the sun. When I got back in I met Rob on Yahoo Messanger and we arranged to physically meet at the pub. We stayed there for 3 hours (he had 4 pints - I had nothing). We moved on to another bar (we got a tip-off there was a live band playing). I stayed there for 1/2 an hour but wasn't n the mood and left - Rob liked them and stayed. The bar was next door to my gym so I hopped into the Sauna for 15 minutes before heading home.
I was out of the flat for a total of 5 hours and consumed my first food after a 6 hour gap (oops). Even though it was a low day, and despite getting home just after 10pm I was catching up with my 1500 calories till about 2am. I was largely eating potatos and using meat (specifically smoked turkey) to balance with protein. Hence I was eating a "meat and potatos" diet which is a general shorthand for a poor diet, isn't it? At 2am I was frustrated with the time it would take to cook additional potatos so I finished the day with peanuts and cashews, which are always easy to consume.
Exercise: [AM] 45 min Body Step. 0.75 hours.
Shopping: 0
Veg: garden-pea118 spinach61 mushrooms33 rhubarb31 green-beans30 tutu-salad21 =294 19.6%
Starchy: potato698 =698 46.5%
Nut: raw-cashews182 peanuts33 =215 14.3%
Animals: smoked-turkey200 strawberry-flavour-whey-powder27 =227 15.1%
Rubbish: Sainsbury-sample:prawn-toast40 Thornton-sample:chocolate-covered-raisins26 =66 4.4%
Totals: 1500, 100.0g protein. 293 is 19.5%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 12 August 2007 06:55 am |
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Saturday
Good double-workout with instructor Angela (who turned 52 today  ). samples at Waitrose. Holland & Barrett have another sale so topped up on omega 3 capules but have more than a year's multi-vitamins so didn't get those. Spent an hour reading in the sun , then came home briefly. Nash turned up so went out to sit in the sun with him for a bit. Tried to fix bike but I had no clue what to do.
Spotted that full-priced Whey powder at Holland & Barrett has gone up from 21.99 to 24.99, quite a price-hike (+13.6%) especially given that this product is sourced from the US and the GPB/USD exchange rate is actually favourable. I don't buy this at full price but this will impact on me because on the next half-price sale it'll be £12.50 instead of £10.99.
Eating continued to be dominated by food wastage considerations [read: 1.5kg of potato wedges].
Exercise: [AM] 45 min Body Combat, 60 min Body Pump. 1.75 hours.
Shopping: 424p EPA-fish-oil-capsules(250). £4.24
Veg: green-beans100 savoy-cabbage65 chard62 mushrooms61 tutu-salad22 yellow-courgette21 Waitrose-sample:pickled-onion-in-balsamic-vinegar3 =334 15.9%
Legumes: TVP52 2.5%
Fruit: mango367 =367 17.5%
Starchy: potato1162 =1162 55.3%
Nuts: raw-cashew29 =29 1.4%
Animals: banana-flavour-whey-powder56 smoked-turkey50 =106 5.0%
Rubbish: Waitrose-sample:cheeses50 =50 2.4%
Totals: 2100, 100.2g protein. 156 is 7.4%
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Scoobees
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 12 August 2007 07:10 am |
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Hi Nir - just curious on the omega 3 capsules you mentioned...are they different than fish oil soft gels? I was taking the fish oil ones for quite awhile and was shocked to read in ETL that he doesn't recommend them - and something about them being rancid.
[read: 1.5kg of potato wedges].
I would LOVE to take some potatoes off your hands! I'm still having a craving here and there for potatoes...and bread.  Sometime in the near future I just might have to have a serving - or two.
Thanks for the congrats in my diary!!! I'll enjoy some quiet time soon to come up with my next goal.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 12 August 2007 07:21 am |
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I know potatos isn't exactly Dr Fuhrman's favourite [nutrient density scores: potato = 35, bread (whole-grain) = 22, bread (refined) = 2] but I'm not letting any more potatos go to waste.
I'm afraid my capsules are  fish-based. I've never done the experiment of cutting one in half, so I can only hope my capsules are not rancid inside. I'm afraid my budget doesn't run to buying "DHA Purity" and these capsules work out 5p ($0.10) for 3.
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Scoobees
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 12 August 2007 07:34 am |
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I've never done the experiment of cutting one in half, I was seriously thinking of doing that to mine...but after taking them for so long, I don't think I really want to know. If I find out they are indeed rancid - too late now... yuk!!! Better not to know.
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voodoodoll
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 12 August 2007 09:33 am |
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| hey nir, thanks for the shocking revelation about my favourite cereal, no wonder it was so addictive and i had it every day!! what cereals do you recommend? i really like special k and cornflakes, please dont tell me they are as bad for me as the golden nuggetts!! (*hands bribe under table* )
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 12 August 2007 11:09 am |
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I like the fact Special K is slightly higher in protein compared with other cereals, but neither of those are whole-grain.
At home here I have some "shreddies" (ok, I have the LIDL own-brand version) which are 100% whole-grain and 100g has 14.7g sugar (and 343 calories), and I do have a bit every now and again, but to be honest, I'd rather spend my calories on nutrient-dense foods like fruit, legumes (including soy products like TVP), vegetables and (when I don't feel like eating, or have to eat lots of calories) nuts. Last night I had 29 spare calories and was briefly contemplating those shreddies (having written about your cereal) but ended up plumping for raw cashew nuts instead.
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suenos
Moderator
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Posted: 13 August 2007 05:12 am |
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Nir wrote: I'm afraid my capsules are fish-based. I've never done the experiment of cutting one in half, so I can only hope my capsules are not rancid inside. I'm afraid my budget doesn't run to buying "DHA Purity" and these capsules work out 5p ($0.10) for 3.
During a brief (very, very brief) attempt at going vegetarian, I used 100% Vegetarian Omega-3 DHA capsules...talk about pricy - $16 for 30 caps...that's some expensive algae!
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Peter
Founder, caloriesperhour.com
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Posted: 13 August 2007 09:59 am |
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BTW -- and as usual my comments in your diary are off-topic -- we are going to get some TESCO stores in the U.S.!
Peter
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 13 August 2007 11:31 am |
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My younger sisters are more widely travelled than myself. They've noticed that as far as unhealthy snack foods (think potato chips and other stuff made from maize), the ones available at TESCO at the various European destinations they've visited (e.g. Germany, Hungary) are more novel, tasty and very cheap. [and simply unavailable over here in the UK]
Sunday
Had about 15 minute to prepare and pack my breakfast (celeriac, chard, courgettes, savoy-cabbage) into 3x650ml boxes before meeting up with mum at 8am. We packed my brake-challenged bicycle into her car and headed to the car-boot-sale. I started eating my breakfast in the car and continued in the outdoor market. We located the cycle-repair guy, got a quote for the repair (£5), left the bike and wondered around. I picked up a chocolate sample at a foods stall. Mum aked how it was physically possible for me to eat so much without feeling stuffed. Mum continued browsing while I returned to the cycle-guy who was running late due to a job that took longer than expected. I got my book out and waited there. The gym called to let me know my jam class was cancelled. When the new brake cable was fitted and the bike re-tuned I cycled via LIDL (to confirm the produce sale was indeed over, and pick up more chewing gum) and then the gym (to discover they don't carry the newspaper I was after). At Sainsbury I discovered that the newspaper memory-stick giveaway is a somewhat pathetic 32MB-capacity memory stick. Decided not to bother (it would have cost me 85p and more of my time). Went home to relax. Mum went to ASDA and sold me some bargains (ox liver and leeks). I had an effective afternoon workout.
Exercise: [AM] 45 min cycle home from car-boot-sale via LIDL/gym, [PM] 45 min Body Step, 45 min Body Pump. 2.25 hours.
Shopping: 270p chewing-gum(180) 44p ox-liver(750g) 40p leeks(880g). £3.54
Veg: courgettes128 cherry-tomatos97 savoy-cabbage36 chard35 celeriac25 =321 21.4%
Legumes: TVP33 =33 2.2%
Fruit: galia-melon84 raspberries79 =163 10.9%
Starchy: potatos614 =614 40.9%
Animals: ox-liver241 vanilla-flavour-whey-powder94 =335 22.3%
Rubbish: CarBootSale-sample:chocolate34 =34 2.3%
Totals: 1500, 101.0g protein. 369 is 24.6%
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voodoodoll
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 13 August 2007 02:30 pm |
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| hey Nir, wonder if you could help, im a little confused with some terms ive come across on this site- like what on earth are ectomorphs, mesomorphs and endomorphs?!! i think ive heard endomorph refer to someone who needs to eat a low carb diet in order to lose weight ( i could be wrong though!) hope you can help- if for nothing other than satisfying my own childish curiosity!
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 13 August 2007 02:45 pm |
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| Check out muscleandstrength.com/articles/body-types-ectomorph-mesomorph-endomorph.html
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voodoodoll
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 13 August 2007 02:51 pm |
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| thanks nir, that clears it up for me- im certainly an endomorph!
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 14 August 2007 03:31 am |
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Monday
First thing headed to nurse's office to have a blood-test for PSA. On my home a throw-away line by Nash about my having to miss the gym and, to prove him wrong, I decided to pick up the pace and make that (unscheduled) stop - I really wasn't planning it or I would have packed my water bottle. Made a sudden realisation that I've had my breakfast under the misapprehension that it was a high-calorie day and had to compensate by increasing protein intake (using some handy courgettes) to bring it into line as the low-calorie day it was supposed to be.
When counting, at 3pm, I've had 14 bowel movements in 24 hours . I think that counts as diarrhea and I'm wondering what I've done to deserve it. I stepped on the scales and was 1.5kg lighter than my morning weigh-in (generally I'm always HEAVIER as the day progresses!). Have I got food poisoning? I'll keep an eye on this.
Mum showed up, selling me 3 small (50g) out-of-date packets of dry-roasted-peanuts and giving me some freebies: mushrooms (750g) and a frozen block of Tofu (250g). Maybe this is a clue: mum tends to give me the stuff she's not sure about eating, and normally my digestive system can take a lot more than her's, but perhaps the tables are turning. I balanced some Tofu (high protein) against peanuts (lower protein).
Having felt sorry for myself earlier in the afternoon, I nevertheless headed off to the gym and had a challenging BOSU class. During the last 5 minutes I was making my escape plans, reasoning that I've already done cardio today - but ended up staying for the step class anyhow.
Today I've opened my eyes and realised that whilst I've been busy rescueing potatos, other things have got worse - for example outer leaves of cabbage and lettuce were getting drier. So today has been vegetable rescue day. Oh, how do you like my percentages today?
Exercise: [AM] 30 min cycle to nurse/gym, 45 min Spin class, [PM] 45 min BOSU, 60 min Body Step. 3 hours.
Shopping: 26p big-D-dry-roast-peanuts(150g). £0.26
Veg: courgettes210 cabbage118 green-beans79 spring-greens77 spring-onion67 little-gem-lettuce39 mushrooms37 iceberg-lettuce9 =636 42.4%
Legumes: tofu148 TVP6 =154 10.3%
Starchy: carrot68 potato62 sweet-potato62 swede9 =201 13.4%
Nuts: bigD-dry-roast-peanuts509 =509 33.9%
Animals: 0
Rubbish: 0
Totals: 1500, 100.1g protein. 0 is 0.0%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 14 August 2007 10:27 pm |
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trimB
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 14 August 2007 11:40 pm |
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Nir wrote: Check out muscleandstrength.com/articles/body-types-ectomorph-mesomorph-endomorph.html
Thanks for posting this great article (although I hope to find a similar one geared towards women's body types). I read it this morning. On my way downtown to meet my aunt who is visiting, I saw a group of 3 men on the train... They were very obviously illustrative of the 3 male body types. One was tall and lean. One was muscular and broad. And one was soft and roundish. It made me smile!!
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Scoobees
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 15 August 2007 12:59 am |
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And thanks for posting the pyramid! I penciled a quick one in my notes from the book - but I could print yours out and post in on my fridge for a constant reminder. Thanks for the visual.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 15 August 2007 01:02 am |
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| Cool, isn't it. Every month or so I go through the new stuff that accumulates on the diseaseproof.com blog (it is quite high-volume!), and this is one of the things that jumped out at me.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 15 August 2007 06:16 am |
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Tuesday
Struggled to make my 9.30am pump class - ran in whilst people were squating i.e. half-way through the warmup. There is a dance troup (teenage girls doing street-dance style activity - nothing to do with the gym I expect they've just hired the space) hovering around the gym this week; A notice which we members think is related - our morning classes are either shifted to the small studio or, as is the case for me on the next couple of days, shifted from 9.30am to 9am. If I cannot make 9.30am, how will I fare tomorrow?!
After eating a variety of vegetables during the morning and afternoon, I was challenged by a 'tomato-ice-cream' (frozen cherry tomatos - 96 calories, chocolate flavour whey powder - 39 calories, total weight 542g) which left me so stuffed I had to take a 2 hour nap to recover. Going to the gym wasn't practical by the time I awoke. Finally got going again when mum called to say she got lucky at Sainsbury (bargains offer coincide with rainy days, which today was) and had enough stuff to share with me. I got 3.4kg for £1.40, details below.
Reading wise: didn't get around to reading Atkins today. Did the rounds on all the blogs on my reading list, for example Richard Herring. Biggest one is, as ever, diseaseproof.com. Also revived my interest in groggs (the Cambridge Uni forum) - I'm almost a year behind so there is lots to read.
By 10pm my ambitious plans to eat even more vegetables were squashed as I decided I was too stuffed. My last two mini-meals, at 11.25pm and 2.30am (nap in between) involved (dry, unhydrated, crunchy) TVP, dry-roasted-peanuts and walnuts, weighing a modest 94 grams and 543 calories. Maybe if I thought about it a little bit earlier in the day I would have squeezed in more fruit instead.
Exercise: [AM] 60 min Body Pump. 1 hour.
Shopping: 30p cabbage-leek(750g) 25p green-beans(450g) 25p asparagus(200g) 20p celery(900g) 20p orange-apple-pineapple-grape(600g) 20p fennel(500g). £1.40
Veg: cherry-tomato96 cabbage-and-leek54 cabbage52 celeriac35 spring-green34 mushrooms17 courgettes15 iceberg-lettuce10 =313 14.9%
Legumes: tofu69 TVP33 =102 4.9%
Fruit: galia76 =76 3.6%
Starchy: potato770 carrot109 sweet-potato76 parsnip16 swede11 =982 46.8%
Nuts: bigD-dry-roast-peanuts454 walnuts56 =510 24.3%
Animals: chocolate-flavour-whey-powder67 ox-liver50 =117 5.6%
Rubbish: 0
Totals: 2100, 100.1g protein. 117 is 5.6%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 16 August 2007 04:34 pm |
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Wednesday
I felt quite weak during the AM step class and wondered whether anyone could tell. When this sort of thing happens I assume it has something to do with my mysterious anemic condition. Tomorrow I'm due to see a dietitian who will attempt to probe my diet for clues.
I came to the conclusion that Microsoft Excel does not have the features I require for the computer project I want to undertake. I spent some time watching training videos for 'Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition' before a fun body combat workout. Got some strawberries at Sainsburys.
Rob suggested I'm better off looking at PostgreSQL, which I've never heard of, so I looking into that for the rest of the evening.
Exercise: [AM] 60 min Body Step, [PM] 60 min Body Combat. 2 hours.
Shopping: 150p strawberries(2.3kg). £1.50
Veg: courgettes160 cherry-tomato88 green-beans77 spring-greens56 cabbage-and-leek46 asparagus36 celery23 =486 32.4%
Fruit: orange-apple-pineapple-grapes264 =264 17.6%
Starchy: potato238 =238 15.9%
Nuts: peanuts281 cashew36 =317 21.1%
Animals: banana-flavour-whey-powder56 smoked-torkey50 ox-liver50 chocolate-flavour-whey-power39 =195 13.0%
Rubbish: 0
Totals: 1500, 100.2g protein. 195 is 13.0%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 17 August 2007 04:38 am |
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Thursday
Had to forfeit my AM pump to make my hospital dietitian appointment. I tried to describe how I eat (I mentioned 'Eat To Live') but I don't think I was able to paint an accurate picture. I mentioned eating 100g of protein - she thought it was too much and might account for kidney problems but didn't know if this would apply if I'm getting most of that protein from vegetables - she'll look into that. I asked about the downside of avoiding grain and she entioned B vitamins. She also suggested that unlike fruit, whole-grain were slow-energy-releasing and would keep blood sugar stable (but she lost me when suggesting that they're better than vegetables - I think it is well known that vegetables are lower-glycemic than whole-grain!). She got the impression I eat a lot of soy (which I don't) and thought there was a downside to that. She suggested that my next hematology visit (next week) includes tests for Iron, B12, Zinc and Calcium - probably a good idea. She correctly observed that I was unlikely to make changes based on her suggestion (a good call). She proposed analysing what I eat to see if she could come up with anything else. Unfortunately my paper-based food diaries are useless to her as my hand-writing is illegible. I spent the next 1.5 hours sitting in the waiting area, copying the last 7 days of food intake into the booklet she would normally give people to fill in the week ahead. I confirmed that she was able to read my more-carefully-handwritten attempt before leaving.
I bought a bowl of broccoli at the market and was disappointed to discover at home that it only weighed 750g. It would have been cheaper to buy frozen at ASDA. Arghh.
On the project front, Rob visited and hinted that he'd be happier if I found a company to host my hypothetical website. It turns out that there are a number of free oferrings including MySQL but none including postgreSQL - so perhaps I should look into that database instead! Meanwhile Nash revealed that his ISP (same as mine) allocated his router a static IP address, opening the door to the possibility I might be able to run a website from home instead of looking for a free host company.
Mum has decided not to go shopping so I was able to work out in the afternoon. Upon coming back finally able to catch up on emails and CPH - before having an early night.
Exercise: [AM] 45 min cycle to hospital/market, [PM] 30 min Body Step, 60 min Body Pump. 2.25 hours.
Shopping: £1 broccoli(750g)
Veg: beetroot223 leek81 little-gem-lettuce23 fennel19 iceberg-lettuce16 cabbage11 =373 17.8%
Legumes: TVP15 =15 0.7%
Fruit: mango414 strawberries236 plums200 raspberries78 =928 44.2%
Starchy: potato201 parsnip29 swede21 =251 12.0%
Nuts: cashew-raw247 walnuts54 =301 14.3%
Animals: strawberry-flavour-whey-powder107 chocolate-flavour-whey-powder94 vanilla-flavour-whey-powder31 =232 11.0%
Rubbish: 0
Totals: 2100, 100.0g protein. 232 is 11.0%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 18 August 2007 04:02 am |
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Friday
Last night was an early night so I had an early start, though eventually it was time to work out. Came home tired. Got up from my nap and chatted online to Rob who then suddenly informed me Matthew was in town (short notice for him, too), so by 3pm we were assembled.
Initially it was Matthew, myself, Rob and his sister Verity. Later on Verity managed to get Chantel out who in turn invited her friends Collet and Mark(?) and boyfriend Nathan. We did a total of 4 pubs.
Whilst in the 2nd one, dad called and we had an unusual convesation [well I rarely talk to him in any event]. He started by asking for the calorie values of a bunch of stuff he has eaten today (we've never had a converstaion on this topic, so long as I've lived - I do wonder why the sudden interest. It has given me an insight into his day: 'A' food were some apples, 'B' food were some slices of whole-grain bread, but it was mostly 'C' foods: hard cheese, croissant, bakewell (cake) slices, crumble with custard (my dad clearly has a sweet tooth). His total for the day will surpass 3000 calories.) We also touched upon HTML, which he's teaching himself - and I pointed out my various bits of presence on the web (including here). Overall a rare bit of 'bonding'.
Whist the initial group of 3 were making their way to pub #3 I left them and went home for some dinner (we were already out for over 3 hours and I was substantially behind on calories) and also decided to drink 100ml i.e. 4 shots of vodka (first time since July 21st - so a 4 week gap) and using TVP to prop up protein; at 6.30pm I've forward-eaten my calories till 9pm, having consumed no less than 731 calories (half of my daily allowance) during this very short pit stop at home!
Came out to discover Matthew treated the other two to a meal at the 3rd pub. Probably for the best that I was absent or I would have made food choices I would live to regret. In this and the next bar I found myself increasingly leaning on the Atkins book for something to do, which you'll correctly observe isn't the most social thing in the world to do, but I am like that! I did like the retro (90s) music in bar #4 where I stayed till I decided I've had enough and left around 11pm (not before finally finishing the Atkins book - at least I've achieved something today).
EDIT: due to the long outing (3pm-11pm), I skipped this evening's OA meeting, which would have been my first opportunity to claim a chip for six months of abstinence (which I intend to claim on a subsequent ocassion!)
Exercise: [AM] 45 min Body Step, [PM] 15 min cycle between pubs. 1 hour.
Shopping: 0.
Veg: cherry-tomatos184 broccoli98 spring-greens45 celery38 celeriac31 fennel18 pub:tomato6 pub:rocket3 =423 28.2%
Legumes: TVP289 =289 19.3%
Starchy: potato177 =177 11.8%
Nuts: peanuts261 cashew26 =287 19.1%
Animals: chocolate-flavour-whey-powder31 vanilla-flavour-whey-powder27 =58 3.9%
Rubbish: vodka222 pub:sensations21 pub:fries13 pub:mustard10 =266 17.7%
Totals: 1500, 100.0g protein. 324 is 21.6%
Last edited on 18 August 2007 04:05 am by Nir
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