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trimB
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 18 August 2007 07:24 pm |
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Nir wrote: I did like the retro (90s) music in bar #4
90s music is now retro??!! Ugh, when did I get "old"?
Congrats on your 6 month abstinence, by the way!!
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Scoobees
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 18 August 2007 11:57 pm |
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 Oh man, I still listen to some stuff from the 80s - what does that make me????
A big congrats from me too Nir on your 6 month abstinence! I admire that immensely.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 19 August 2007 12:06 pm |
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trim, scoobees
about the music: I mean I recognised quite a few favourites (I was 18 in 1991), wheras a bar that plays more modern music might leave me feeling differently [though they are more likely to play music I recognise from BTS workouts].
about abstinence: I feel good. When I got my 3-month chip, I thought: "having collected a chip every 30 days, I now have to wait for 3 months for the next one, surely it won't happen" but time has passed quickly.
Saturday
The workouts were good, but 'eventful'. After finishing combat I quickly set up my pump station and ran out for a brief toilet break, coming back to a room which was very much in a different mood, with people fighting for space and weights - some of them feeling quite aggrieved as they had booked a place. Some people eventually gave up their spot and the class started. [I will never consider showing up for pump without first doing combat, and putting enough equipment aside for myself an hour in advance.] The room was in a tense, bad mood. Towards the end of the workout (during the shoulders track) the class co-ordinator (finally) showed up with a printed list of bookings, going around and ensuring everyone present was indeed booked so I'm guessing there were a few non-bookers embarassed at that point (though I did not get to find out who the offenders were). I shall continue to employ a very simple system that has me booking all my classes online. I do it twice a week and on each ocassion it takes just 5 minutes. I'm virtually guaranteed to be top of the booking list for this Saturday class as one of those ocassions is 5 minutes past midnight on Wednesday mornings (i.e. Tuesday nights) when this class becomes available to book.
Went past Waitrose where sample opportunities included 3 types of potato chips, a doughnut with pink glazing, a salami, a hard cheese, crackers, red and white wines. Having pre-surveyed the shop to decide what I shall have I decided I was above it all and left with nothing. I did have a freebie though - I popped into the next-door betting shop and 3 free pens.
Shortly after getting home it started raining  and I only emerged out again when mum showed up, to collect some allotment produce she decided to share with me (3.5 yellow courgettes and one green cucumber - all of them "oversized"). I was aware that Matthew and company would be out in town for a second night but decided I've already put in a lot of time with them and didn't pursue this (though to be honest they could have done more to ask me to join them!). Conversely I made a lot more progress on my computer project, which currently has me reading this tutorial philip.greenspun.com/sql/
Foodwise, having recently finished both the walnuts and the cashews I decided to open a packet of sesame seeds (to go with peanuts, the regular standby). Now that I regard the 'potato situation' under control I once more started focusing on the state of play with fruit (I have so much that some of them are still in the fridge, waiting their turn to go into the over-stuffed freezer). I had frozen-fruit-and-whey smoothies on no less than 9 ocassions. Whey powder made up 18.0% of daily calories, fruit accounted for 69.5%, so together smoothies accounted for 87.5% of total calories. At this rate I expect that some time today I'll find room in the freezer for all the fruit that wants to go there.
Exercise: [AM] 45 min Body Combat, 60 min Body Pump. 1.75 hours.
Shopping: 0
Veg: yellow-courgette36 =36 1.7%
Legumes: TVP33 =33 1.6%
Fruit: pear555 apple535 plums165 strawberries118 galia-melon86 =1459 69.5%
Nuts: sesame-seeds135 peanuts60 =195 9.3%
Animals: chocolate-flavour-whey-powder239 banana-flavour-whey-powder99 vanilla-flavour-whey-powder39 =377 18.0%
Rubbish: 0
Totals: 2100, 100.1g protein. 18.0%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 20 August 2007 04:59 am |
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Sunday
Shey was away, apparently going up in the BTS world to become a 'presenter' (which means that she'll be showing other Jam instructors how to teach new choreography) so we had Kassy for cover (who I chatted to about all things instructor-related for almost an hour afterwards. the bottom line is that I'm as unsure as ever as to whether I'll ever cross the line and be a real 'live' instructor).
Felt slightly reluctant to return to the gym but had a rewarding double workout.
Being a Sunday, I posted my non-progress to the September challenge, which is bothering me. I'm currently having 4 low days per week. That's 2400 calories per week that I'm not enjoying, and for what purpose am I depriving myself? Is this sacrifice paying off at all? There are two issues here, one being the need for me to lose weight, the other being my commitment to the cause. A 5-month graph shows I've made some progress, but a 2-month graph shows me flat-lining. I am a perfectionist and I know that most people would back away from weight-loss when sitting on a flat surface becomes uncomfortable. A part of me is annoyed that hitting 10% body fat is proving so elusive whilst another part of me is willing not to care.
Hisgal (a few month ago) and Suenos (currently) have given carb-cycling a go. Logically this is the next thing that I should be trying, if I want to be leaner, yet I don't think I am willing to make the commitment at present. Ironically with me having those thoughts today, I had a not entirely deliberately engineered 'moderate-carb' day, given that 26.7% of calories are protein and 47% of calories were from peanuts.
So, what next? I'll still be sleeping on it but there is a chance I'll be dropping those low days and just doing high days, on which I should still be maintaining, whilst trying to get this "high carb obsession" out of my system.
7-day shopping summary: 0.26 + 1.40 + 1.50 + 1.00 + 0 + 0 + 0 = £4.16
Exercise: [noon] 60 min Body Jam, [PM] 45 min Body Step, 45 min Body Pump. 2.5 hours.
Shopping: 0
Veg: yellow-courgette121 tomato80 =201 13.4%
Legumes: TVP161 =161 10.7%
Fruit: strawberries233 galia-melon76 =309 20.6%
Nuts: peanuts705 =705 47.0%
Animals: vanilla-flavour-whey-powder125 =125 8.3%
Rubbish: 0
Total: 1501, 100.3g protein. 125 is 8.3%
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suenos
Moderator
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Posted: 20 August 2007 08:01 pm |
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I meant to say congrats earlier on your 6 month abst....that truly is a major accomplishment so a belated "well done and congrats!"
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trimB
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 20 August 2007 10:29 pm |
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Nir wrote: 26.7% of calories are protein and 47% of calories were from peanuts.
Hmm... are peanuts are new macronutrient category? 
I have to admit I'm surprised to hear you question your commitment to pursuing your body fat/weight goals. You seem so dedicated to your plans and routine! Are you feeling satisfied with where you are at now?
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 20 August 2007 11:58 pm |
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Are you feeling satisfied with where you are at now?
Well I'm not, but I'm unable to find a single 'real-life person' who would be supportive of my getting-leaner objective. It's always the "you're too thin" line. In fact I had this again this afternoon (from the top personal trainer in the gym - suggesting that I shouldn't be trying to lose any more, notwithstanding the fact that my number is around 12%).
I'm still commited to being abstinent, to maintaining my weight, to counting calories and to eating healthy - it is just that it looks like I'm taking a break from having a calorie-deficit for a bit. [I've used the term 're-feed' in the past, but it doesn't seem appropriate as I'm not specifically doing it for the purpose of boosting my metabolism].
are peanuts are new macronutrient category?
In a while I will be monitoring my fat/carb% more closely (it is a future computer project for me), but for now I'm doing things on paper and the only things I have reliable figures for are total calories and total protein. Thus I'm using nuts as a handy approximation for fat content. Yes, nuts are not 100% fat, but then neither is everything else I eat 0% fat so it probably balances out.
yes, i am aware that there is a Food Calories & Nutrition Calculator on CPH but as I'm using UK figures for my calorie-counting, I can't use it. The only website I know of that has UK figures charges for accounts!
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 21 August 2007 03:39 am |
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Monday
Getting out to the gym often feels like a chore but once I get there I enjoy it, and I guess this applies to both my visits today. Got some chicken liver at a quarter of its usual price on the way home. Procrastiation saw me reading around SQL and databases but never quite making the progress I was hoping for.
Exercise: [AM] 45 min Spin, [PM] 45 min BOSU, 60 min Body Step. 2.5 hours.
Shopping: 25p chicken-liver(400g). £0.25
Veg: yellow-courgettes117 cabbage63 little-gem-lettuce24 spring-greens8 =212 10.1%
Legumes: TVP33 =33 1.6%
Fruit: pear851 plums153 galia-melon72 apple23 =1099 52.3%
Starchy: parsnip120 =120 5.7%
Grain: shreddies69 =69 3.3%
Nuts: peanuts300 =300 14.3%
Animals: vanilla-flavour-whey-powder193 chicken-liver74 =267 12.7%
Rubbish: 0
Totals: 2100, 99.5g protein. 267 is 12.7%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 21 August 2007 10:35 am |
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| (and thank you too, Suenos!)
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suenos
Moderator
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Posted: 21 August 2007 06:58 pm |
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Nir wrote:
Well I'm not, but I'm unable to find a single 'real-life person' who would be supportive of my getting-leaner objective. It's always the "you're too thin" line. In fact I had this again this afternoon (from the top personal trainer in the gym - suggesting that I shouldn't be trying to lose any more, notwithstanding the fact that my number is around 12%).
Objectively, 12% is still pretty darn lean for the average male though. I only know 2 guys whose bodyfat ever approaches the single digits..one competes and one is a wanna be competitor - so that's not even their "everyday walking around" %'s - just pre-show.
Plus, remember that calipers have a +/- error factor...so it's entirely possible that your actual bodyfat % might well be lower than the 12%...so you could be looking at and focusing on an isolated number that says 12% and thinking "too high", while those that see you everyday could be looking at the actuality of your appearance and thinking "just enough".
Last edited on 21 August 2007 07:03 pm by suenos
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 21 August 2007 07:12 pm |
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I will forever be screwed by the Tanita Body Composition Analyzer I used to step on at my previous gym (Fitness First). It employed BIA technology (just like the 2 BIA scales I have in my bedroom) but it used to give me readings like 9%. I last had access to it in 2006 (July? August?)
I will never know if it lied to me. Was I ever this low, or did it just misreport me? Of course, in case it told me the truth, I'm annoyed that I cannot achieve those same results again. [on the other hand, I don't think my plastic calipers ever pinched less than 10 to 11 milimeteres, so I guess it is possible that Tanita device was lying.
Today is day 2 of my "re-feed"
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 22 August 2007 09:28 pm |
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Tuesday
Enjoyed Pump and crawled back into bed.
By about 4.45pm met with mum for a gruelling shopping trip that would span 5 hours (she also passed along 3kg of cooked beetroot she didn't want). We arrived at TESCO around 5.20pm and spotted lots of produce that had to be sold today but none of it was priced how we'd like it. Some of it was full price, some of it was 60% of original price and some of it was 40% of original price (which can still be high, in our view). We decided to stay till 6.30pm, sure something will happen by then (as it has on previous ocassions). By 6pm we were losing patience and we were uncomfortable - it was a cold day and it was cold inside the store too (refrigeration). At 6pm mum decided to go on a mission to ASDA, leaving me there to grab stuff for us both if anything were to happen. I stood there, uncomfortable and bored (started reading Dr Fuhrman's Disease-Proof Your Child, a book I've been carrying with me for a few days). She was back to pick me up around 6.45pm (she didn't pick anything good at ASDA). We decided to rest and re-group at IKEA - I drunk 4 decaff coffess with a thin biscuit (23 calories). We were back in TESCO at 7.20pm - having arrived just in time (or possibly 5 minutes later than ideal). The man that we thought was just restacking shelves was armed with the reduction gun and putting prices we've never seen on absolutely everything. After an hour and twenty minutes we both had full trolleys (shopping carts) with items ranging from £0.01 to £0.08 in price. My shopping at TESCO came to a total of £1.95 - just review what I got below. Best shopping ever. We topped it up with a visit to ASDA (my first, mum's second) where I stocked up on chick peas and sugar-free squash at normal prices. Home around 9.30pm and food-related activities saw a late bedtime of 3.30am for me (arghhh!). It is 6.25pm the following day and I'm just now able to post yesterday's diary, that's how bad it is - mostly due to this 5 hour shopping trip.
Exercise: [AM] 60 min Body Pump. 1 hour.
Shopping: TESCO 42p stringless-beans(5.3kg) 18p runner-beans(2.3kg) 12p clementines(2.8kg) 12p strawberries(1.3kg) 12p beetroot-salad:endive-spinach-lambLettuce-beetroot(1kg) 12p ribbon-salad:iceberg-carrot-cucumber-endive-beetroot(1kg) 12p blueberries(900g) 8p pineapple-cubed(800g) 8p sugar-snap-peas(400g) 8p babycorn-carrot-finebean-runnerbean(200g) 8p greenbean-broccoli-babycorn(150g) 6p bananitos(1kg) 5p peas-in-pod(400g) 5p cherry-tomato(370g) 5p salad-with-walnuts-and-goats-cheese(200g) 4p tomato(300g) 4p four-leaf-salad(280g) 3p oranges(1kg) 2p green-plums(500g) 2p mango(300g) 2p crisp-salad:iceberg-endive-radicchio-cabbage(290g) 2p beetroot(150g) 1p bananas(1.3kg) 1p little-gem-lettuce(200g) 1p cucumber(200g)
ASDA £1 chick-peas(5x240g) 38p blackcurrant-squash(2L).
£3.33
Veg: beetroot84 ribbon-salad72 fourl-eaf-salad21 green-beans17 baby-corn16 garden-peas14 mixed-leaf-salad12 runner-beans6 broccoli5 =247 11.8%
Legumes: TVP115 =115 5.5%
Fruit: apple197 pear187 plums138 mango126 galia-melon71 bananito48 figs38 sharon-fruit29 apple-pan-roasted26 grape-pan-roasted10 =870 41.4%
Starchy: carrot8 =8 0.4%
Nuts: peanuts480 walnuts53 =533 25.4%
Animals: ox-liver100 vanilla-flavour-whey-powder82 banana-flavour-whey-powder45 =227 10.8%
Rubbish: goats-cheese65 IKEA-sample:thin-biscuit23 wafer-cone12 =100 4.8%
Totals: 2100, 100.7g protein. 327 is 15.6%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 23 August 2007 04:15 am |
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Wednesday
Got going after 5 hours sleep and so predictably I was tired at the step class. I had about 2 hours to recover at home afterwards but predictably didn't achieve much more than eat some fruit-based 'ice-cream' whilst talking to Nash who was making sure I didn't catch up with anything I wanted to do. I then had to set off to hospital where I arrived promptly for my appointment and was then made to wait 45 minutes before being seen for blood tests. I was eventually seen by the doctor who informed me that my test samples were lost so I have to provide more samples (just great. next time I'll deliver them to the lab personally rather than trust hospital staff!). The doctor will review my file and decide whether to order a bone marrow test - or not. Time will tell. Got back home around 4.30pm (still) exhausted and had a couple of hours to relax more properly before heading over to the gym for the combat class. Carol told me that a modified timetable is posted on the notice-board so after the class I went to review it. Looks like Pump is cancelled on Sundays which is a shame as without it pump is now only available 3 times a week. I also identified 3 classes that I don't do regularly but which are very well atteded and their cancellation surely will upset some people. The class co-ordinator is surely playing with fire. Whilst standing there scrutinising the notice-board I struck up conversation with a newish member, conversation somehow spanned the merits of body pump (which she's never tried), classes she'll miss, weight loss stall (hers and mine) and EDs... then Carol showed up to deliver the punchline: she's rich enough to have subscribed to another gym (LA fitness) - with the possibility of maintaining memberships to both, for a choice of classes. Alright for some. Got some strawberries at Sainsburys.
EDIT: to add cycling to my exercise. oops.
Exercise: [AM] 60 min Body Step, [PM] 45 min cycle to hospital, 60 min Body Combat. 2.75 hours.
Shopping: 20p strawberries(350g). £0.20
Veg: beetroot-salad117 cherry-tomatos66 garden-peas58 ribbon-salad46 four-leaf-salad21 =308 14.7%
Legumes: TVP17 =17 0.8%
Fruit: pineapple312 strawberries237 oranges133 blueberries99 =781 37.2%
Starchy: potato385 =385 18.3%
Nuts: peanuts320 walnuts97 =417 19.9%
Animals: vanilla-flavour-whey-powder192 =192 9.1%
Rubbish: 0
Totals: 2100, 100.1g protein. 192 is 9.1%
Last edited on 23 August 2007 10:22 pm by Nir
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voodoodoll
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 23 August 2007 01:42 pm |
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Nir wrote: then Carol showed up to deliver the punchline: she's rich enough to have subscribed to another gym (LA fitness) - with the possibility of maintaining memberships to both, for a choice of classes. Alright for some.
wow, there are people that actually join 2 gyms!  what a waste of money!
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 24 August 2007 05:38 am |
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Yes. Mind you I know of another gym in this town that's charging £83 a month, which is as bad as being a member of those 2 other gyms combined...
Thursday
Started to actually play around with MySQL tables after coming back from my productive pump class. The gym's class co-ordinator called (in response to the feedback card I filled last night) in an attempt to pacify me. He mentioned that once the classes have been axed, some new ones will materialise in a few weeks. If a new Body Combat does indeed make it, I'll be pleased enough to forgive the departing pump, I guess.
The weather was nice and dad took me to the allotment. We briefly chatted about databases and website-hosting before he had to go. Mum drove me back - with 1.2kg of raspberries I had picked (and some blackberries dad picked for me). This meant I didn't make the 30 minute step class, which I wasn't too bothered about.
My fruit smoothies (or ice-cream) accounted for 954 of my calories (about half) and used clementines, plums, raspberies, cantelope-melon, blueberries, strawberries and oranges. [I briefly reflected upon the fact that, 11-odd years after the failure of my first attempt at "the ice-cream diet", I'm essentially occupying a similiar place emotionally - but I've cracked the nutrition so I can have my ice-cream - and eat it] I tend to use 7g of protein powder regardless of the type or amount of fruit. The food processor was making a terrible noise for one of the smoothies (raspberries) - it turned out that I had forgotten my spoon underneath the steel blade. Oops!
I have to deliver something to hospital tomorrow. There is also the possibility of eating a restaurant meal for lunch with Nash who is on holiday tomorrow.
Exercise: [AM] 60 min Body Pump. 1 hour.
Shopping: 0
Veg: beetroot-salad:endive-spinach-lambLettuce-beetroot120 crispy-salad:iceberg-endive-radicchio-cabbage49 cucumber22 =191 9.1%
Fruit: clementine137 orange131 blueberries96 green-plums94 strawberries94 raspberries81 cantelope73 bananito56 =762 36.3%
Starchy: potato579 =579 27.6%
Nuts: peanuts240 sesame-seeds136 =376 17.9%
Animals: vanilla-flavour-whey-powder192 =192 9.1%
Rubbish: 0
Totals: 2100, 102.5g protein. 192 is 9.1%
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DeterminedGal
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 24 August 2007 06:22 am |
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The food processor was making a terrible noise for one of the smoothies (raspberries) - it turned out that I had forgotten my spoon underneath the steel blade. Oops!
Well, just consider it a little extra iron in your diet.
Your smoothie sounds absolutely divine!
Also, your discipline in recording everything is inspiring.
DG
Last edited on 24 August 2007 06:23 am by DeterminedGal
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 25 August 2007 04:21 am |
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Thanks DG.
Friday
My sleep is usually disturbed so I was delighted to work out that although I did not sleep for long (5.5 hours), my sleep for a change was uninterrupted. Up by 7.30am. Breakfast between 8am and 9am was a prepackaged-salad and cooked sugar-snap-peas. 600g of vegetables (half raw, half cooked) amounting to 179 calories and 12.1g protein. Out by 9.15am and a 40-minute round-trip to hand-deliver some samples to the hospital laboratory, to avoid the disappointment of my samples being lost again (as they were on July 3rd, Grrrrrr). Nash was up, recovering from drinking at home the night before and still amenable to my suggestion of restaurant dining. Mum wanted some 'technical' help - I ended up calling a solicitor's office on her behalf. A quick pre-gym visit to Sainsbury's netted a good deal on mushrooms. According to instructor Vicky, she will be keeping her Friday morning 'Fab Abs Killer Butt' after all - it is not cancelled - "it was just a mistake". A likely story: much more likely is that many people complained loudly - it is a popular class after all, which was my original point (I'm not personally affected, I've dropped this class a while back deciding it wasn't effective enough). Jenny (fellow gym member) pointed out that all changes are from external (£25 per session?) instructors to internal (£12 per session?) instructors, changes are not in members' interests - just a cost-cutting exercise without regard for members. I agree with her, funny that I didn't come to the same conclusion unaided. Almost everyone starts Body Step with double raisers. After the 4th song we are asked to lower our steps. As it was an abbreviated (45 minute) class and I felt suitably warmed-up (having cycled around earlier) I wanted more of a workout and (against instructor's advice) stayed on double risers for 3 further songs. On the 3rd song I saw Rosy, another gym member, raise her step and I guess she either got the idea from me or felt empowered by my action. Naturally I felt guilty, as I don't want to cause the instructor problems and frustration - I just want an effective workout for myself!
Met up with Nash at 12.15pm. We walked to the nearby Pizza Hut - the larger of the two. Unusually, there was no cue to be seated. I spied 6 pizzas on the hot-plates. Nash wanted to "check-out" the other, smaller Pizza Hut so we walked there - about 1 mile. I took glee in pointing out to him that due to the smaller size of the restaurant, pizza choice was more limited. They had 3 pizzas and some breadsticks out at that moment. Nash agreed with me that we had better walk back to the first restaurant. We entered the restaurant at 'the wrong end', noticing a large queue in the middle of the restaurant - a queue towards the hotplate. We then discovered there was also a queue to get a table. After 5 minutes of waiting we were at the head of that queue - the greeter warned us that their pizza ovens are working slow today due to a malfunction so whist pizzas will be arriving, there will be delays. We considered our options and... yes, we were walking once more (3 miles so far). By the time we were seated and ready to head towards the buffet it was 1.15pm, an hour later. Early on I hit the mayonaise-free 'slaw', noticing there wasn't much in the box and hoping this would have them re-fill it (but they didn't - they were out). Similarly with the two varieties of hot pasta (out of pasta - a likely story?). If you're into low-calorie salad vegetables, the choice at Pizza Hut is somewhat limited, so the loss of the 'slaw' had quite an impact. I stopped eating just after 4pm, that's about 3 hours of eating experience, during which time I consumed 8 slices of pizza  (did not eat any of the pizza base, though). I weighed everything except for the vinigarette (which I estimated) and the sprinkles (which I'm ignoring). I did no maths at the restaurant - just recorded weights. It was an hour and a half later that the maths was completed and I had to face my reality
What did I have? Entries in this list have this format: description, weight, calories, grams of protein.
nutrient density 0..3
[3] cheese-tomato-and-toppings, 245.8g, 737 cal, 44.2g (24.0% of calories from protein)
[2] ham-a-la-creme-pasta, 48.7g, 61 cal, 2.2g
[1] salad-croutons, 11.3g, 55 cal, 1.0g
[2] tomato-and-eperoni-pasta, 31.6g, 32 cal, 1.2g
[2] creamy-tomato-pasta, 28.3g, 28 cal, 0.9g
[2] bread-stick, 9.1g, 27 cal, 0.8g
[1] dried-fried-onions, 7.1g, 25 cal, 0.6g
[0] oil-free-vinigarete, estimate=50.0g, 18 cal, 0.2g
[2] couscous, 7.3g, 8 cal, 0.3g
[subtotal: 439.2g, 991 cal, 51.4g protein (20.7%)]
fruits and vegetables, nutrient-density 35..100 [indicated in brackets]
[50] cherry-tomatos, 1157.4g, 208 cal, 8.1g
[50] onion-raw, 406.2g, 146 cal, 4.9g
[45] apple, 240.7g, 108 cal, 1.0g
[97] cucumber, 625.6g, 63 cal, 4.4g
[100] mixed-lettuce-leaves, 323.1g, 55 cal, 9.4g
[35] sweetcorn, 66.0g, 52 cal, 1.2g
[50] dressed-beetroot, 81.1g, 45 cal, 0.7g
[45] red-grapes, 54.8g, 33 cal, 0.2g
[50] slaw, 42.7g, 11 cal, 0.3g
[subtotal: 2997.6g, 721 cal, 30.2g protein (16.8%)]
overall pizza-hut experience: 3436.8g (that's over 7.5lb), 1712 calories, 81.6g protein.
Once I was in posession of the figures I made a number of observations. Calories were 1712. That's quite high for a single meal. Even if I consider this as two meals (at 1.15pm and 4pm) that's still too much and as my body doesn't need this many calories at once, stored fat is surely a certainty. Equally, 81.6g of protein is more than the body needs at one time. Even the notional half (40.8g is too much). 'macro' breakdown: 737 calories relate to pizza. 721 calories relate to fruits and vegetables. another 254 relate to miscelaneous avoidable low-nutrient fare. Anybody else wanting to own up to being able to eat 3.5kg (7.5lb) of food at one meal? A grand total of 1891 calories consumed by 4pm - these are the calories I'm expected to have consumed by midnight. When should I consume the last 209 calories of the day? I cannot follow BFFM guidelines to eat every 3-4 hours as I haven't enough calories. An rare 'opportunity' to not eat for an extended period and see if I can sense my own hunger. (The plan was to resume eating at 10pm but I was so busy I only started eating after midnight). Part of my strategy was to keep myself busy to ensure I wouldn't be thinking about food. This, and the nice weather  dictated that a visit to OA was on on the cards.
Deliberately set off late to OA, arriving about 8 minutes late and just missing the standard readings (of the steps and traditions - done every week). There were 6 others (including a newcomer on her 3rd visit - her first 2 visits during my recent absence - as yet not abstinent). We read the 2nd half of Step 3 and the floor was open for sharing. I let the others share first, for fear of part-sharing and then thinking of things I forgot to share (and being unable to re-share due to those new rules that kind-of caused me to skip the last 2 meetings). I came prepared with a blank piece of paper and a pen and periodically jotted down thoughts I wanted to share as time went by [this is unusual behaviour both for me and in general]. I actually felt that I was concentrating more than usual on other people's shares because once I jotted down my errant thoughts I was able to let them go (rather than constantly mentally rehearsing what I would say). I did not time my share but I was interrupted and quite probably did not get the 5 minute allocation due to overall time limits. I didn't even cover half of what I wanted to say. I don't know if I'll share it here instead, some place else (on an OA loop? that'll be my first ever) or possibly no-where. We shall see. I felt that by jotting down those random keywords I was making more progress than before. A six-month abstinence OA chip is dark blue, if anyone is wondering. On the way home I briefly talked to mum, Nash, Dean and Tracy - yet spent most of the journey just cycling. I then got to Sainsbury's.
My evening visit to Sainsbury was well-rewarded. At around 8.15pm I arrived at the produce section and a manager was putting reduced stickers on packets of 5 'fairtrade' bananas. These packets usually retail for £0.99. They are currently on a "2 for £1.50" special deal, which means that when you buy 2 (which would normally be £1.98) you get a £0.48 deduction on your bill. The manager was sticking 20p labels, meaning I'd get back 8p for every pair purchased. I was able to load 14 packets into my trolley before the guy said I couldn't have any more. Naturally part of me wanted to argue: since when does any supermarket have a rationing policy? Goods are surely available for sale to anyone who wants them. Sensing that I may not benefit from a head-on confrontation, I followed his instructions (actually I had 15 packets at this point so I put one back). I did not know whether he realised that I would be making money from his pricing or just thought I was greedy to not let other passing customers benefit from the 20p offer price. Either way, I moved on. I got my calculator out to double-check my figures. Sure enough, my current shopping would cost me -£0.56, which means I need to find something else to buy. Most of you are probably thinking this is no challenge, however I work under different constraints. It would be senseless to purchase an item at cost X when I usually buy it at a lower cost Y, this will dig into my savings. Yet Sainsbury's is a mainstream shop, not a discount store, so most of what they have to offer is at prices I would not normally pay. Indeed, my frequent visits are to spot bargains on items whose price has been reduced due to their sell-by date - I consider most items in the shop to be expensive at their full price. What shall I do? the last time I had this dilema was when I had a £2.50 "Nectar voucher" to spend. At the time I was very much "into" flat wafers (to consume with my fruit sorbets and smoothies). Each wafer is only 5 or 6 calories but clearly there is no nutrition here - nutrient density score 2 if we're lucky. I got a combination of wafers and some toilet rolls - both of those items qualify as I cannot buy them cheaper elsewhere. Put on the spot, I felt pressured. I plumped for some more toilet rolls (8 rolls for £0.76) and, browsing the nuts and seeds section, sunflower seeds (200g for £0.46). This would give me a grand total of £0.66 and subject to selecting a checkout operative who is unlikely to cause a fuss, I'll be done. Sunflower seeds are not a bad nutritional choice but after an hour of reflection I realised that I could have emerged with a higher-still nutrient density, for example tinned chopped tomatos and cooked red kidney beans at 50 and 48 respectively would have done nicely, thank you. No problem - I'll get those the next time I have this predicament. As I was mounting my bike I realised that it was difficult to transport this quantity of bananas so I was relieved that I was prevented from buying more. If these 'ripen at home' bananas go ripe quicker than I can make freezer space for them, I'll have to throw them away [I plan to give mum some of my loot, though]. 14 packets of 5 bananas make 70. My kitchen scales have a limit so I had to weigh them in batches - the total weight is 10684 grams: so think of it 10.7kg, or 23.5lb if you prefer. How am I going to assign costs to this purchase? That is somewhat arbitrary. I chose to say that the toilet paper was free, the sunflower seeds were at their normal price (46p) and the bananas cost me the remainder (20p).
My brother was supposed to have been on a flight which landed in London at 5.30pm yet 5 hours later he has not showed up or made any contact, so we are worried. I spent an hour ringing flight operator and airport numbers but no-one is able to help me which is rather frustrating. [update at 11.05pm: apparently he's alive and well and arrived in town - I'll be updated with details later on.]
This entry is quite long and took ages to construct! Daily percentages are a bit 'off', as one might expect. My diary has now had 60,000 views - wow - thanks for reading.
Exercise: [AM] 30 min cycle to hospital, 45 min Body Step. [PM] 45 min cycle to OA. 2 hours.
Shopping: 47p mushrooms(790g) 46p sunflower-seeds(200g) 20p bananas(70; 10.7kg). £1.13
Veg: pizza-hut:cherry-tomatos208 pizza-hut:onion-raw146 sugar-snap-peas125 pizza-hut:cucumber63 pizza-hut:mixed-lettuce-leaves55 ribbon-salad:iceberg-carrot-cucumber-endive-beetroot54 pizza-hut:dressed-beetroot45 pizza-hut:slaw11 =707 33.7%
Legumes: TVP3 =3 0.1%
Fruit: pizza-hut:apple108 pizza-hut:red-grapes33 =141 6.7%
Starchy: potato206 pizza-hut:sweetcorn52 =258 12.3%
Animals: 0
Rubbish: pizza-hut:cheese-tomato-and-toppings737 pizza-hut:ham-a-la-creme-pasta61 pizza-hut:salad-croutons55 pizza-hut:tomato-and-eperoni-pasta32 pizza-hut:creamy-tomato-pasta28 pizza-hut:bread-stick27 pizza-hut:dried-fried-onions25 pizza-hut:oil-free-vinigarete18 pizza-hut:couscous8 =991 47.2%
Totals: 2100, 100.1g protein, 991 is 47.2%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 26 August 2007 03:57 am |
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Saturday
Woke up at 5.30am and couldn't fall back to sleep so decided to be useful (as there is plenty of work, preparation for the trip to Notting Hill Carnival tomorrow - general packing and food preparation). The gym opens at 8am and I tried to arrange it so I'd arrive as early as possible (managed 8.17am) which afforded me the luxuary of Sauna, a shower and another sauna before the workouts - feeling lovely and relaxed (before a gruelling workout in which I aim to sweat...). I didn't count but we might have had 40 people doing combat! Then, in reponse to last week's problems with pump the class co-ordinator was ticking names off a list and ensuring that those on the 'waiting list' were last to join [though I think on this ocassion no-one was turned away]. I ocassionally helped the guy behind me, who was doing pump for the first time (and the instructor did not seem to mind).
After the gym made contact with Nash, then with mum, my brother and my sister. I asked my brother what he was doing for food and alcohol, prompting him to panic and organise a shopping trip. I didn't think I needed anything from ASDA (at full price) but thought it would make for a nice social situation so got myself involved. In the event, mum persuaded me to stock up on the tinned legumes that are still on special offer but probably not for long, and while helping brother find 'bombay mix' I stumbled upon raw peanuts at the price I'd normally pay for dry-roasted. At ASDA, 100g salted roasted peanuts are 617 calories and 28g protein whilst 100g raw peanuts are 555 calories and 32g protein. So the roasted peanuts are only 18.2% protein, whilst the raw variety are 23.1%. Currently my protein target is equivalent to 19.0% of calories (on a maintenance day) so one (slightly) detracts from my protein objective whilst the other is actually supportive.
I'm taking one bottle of vodka, 37.5% Alcohol by volume. That's 700ml - and I've transferred it from the heavy glass bottle to safer and lighter plastic bottles (I may not drink the entire quantity). Meanwhile my brother has opted for 'WKD' and 'Smirnoff Ice' things - that's vodka with a mixer. Naturally the mixer is full of sugar and calories. There's also the matter of logistics: he got 6 glass bottles, each 700ml (like mine) and these still total to about 2/3 the amount of alcohol I'm bringing. My sister and I had to spend the longest while convincing him that it would be wise to transfer the content of these 6 bottles to plastic. For one thing, it would be a disaster if the glass bottle broke - injury and inconvenience. We also established each bottle is about 1lb, that's 6lb of unnecessary weight to carry! My brother was restistant to the idea - wondering what the people on the streets of Notting Hill would think of him, drinking from non-branded plastic bottles, showing himself to be rather self-concious. This is clearly not an issue for myself or my sister (and probably the same applies to most other carnival-goers too!). After spending some time looking at the cost of plastic opaque bottles (give me strength) he finally agreed that I would supply him with 6 clear plastic 1 litre capacity bottles. A result.
My sister was 'topping up' on snacks (potato chips or maize snacks) and my brother decided he should purchase some food. His criteria was rather familiar to me, as I've been guilty before, minimise price and maximise quantity. With my assistance, he got 100g of tortilla chips (Dorito-alike) for 18p x 2, 200g of roasted peanuts for 21p x 2, 120g of 'bombay mix' for 29p x 2 - spending £1.36 and getting around 4400 calories . Let's not forget the calories he has in the vodka and sugary mixers too.
Back at home, I made more progress with fruit in the fridge: more of it has migrated to the freezer, the only fruit still awaiting freezing are the ripe bananas and bananitos from Tuesday (and the unripened bananas from Friday, some of which are still unrefrigerated). Speaking of unrefrigerated goods, I reluctantly came to the conclusion that my idea of storing potatos in the room (in darkness - covered with a large coat) just wasn't working. Evidently it isn't cold enough! So made use of all available fridge space and all the potatos are now refrigerated.
Rob wanted to know if I wanted to go out with him and my brother (to a pub). At that point in the afternoon I was quite stressed, with lots to accomplish and little time and I certainly wasn't up for that. I was considering a nap but didn't get around to it. Got calmer as I was getting more things done.
Foodwise, today I started off with fruit smoothies but later on skewed towards potatos.
A few word about the all-important food and abstinence survival strategy for Sunday and Monday. Accepting that I'll be drinking non-trivial amounts, I must ensure I use the remaining calories wisely so that I maintain that feeling of 'plenty' and that my intake of protein does not suffer. I'm therefore packing a large quantity of low-calorie vegetables - surely enough for 2 days, as well as TVP which I can use to "top up" my protein status at any time (I can weigh the appropriate amount "in the field" - making TVP more handy than pre-portioned protein choices). Actually total calories from all available vodka, vegetables and TVP is only 3107 (for 2 days) which leaves room for those extra calories that will no doubt present themselves. Just in case they don't, though, I'm bringing peanuts to plug the gap. There is the additional threat of some sort of restaurant outing on Sunday evening, so I might save some calories for that - and if it ends up not happening then I would consider making it a low-calorie day.
This is what I'm taking along:
700ml Vodka: 1554 calories, 28 alcohol units.
16 x 650ml boxes of vegetables, 897 calories, weighing 5831g (12.8lb), breakdown as follows:
1721g cooked cabbage
788g cucumber
680g cooked stringless beans
600g celery
578g cooked mushrooms
574g cooked yellow courgettes
461g little gem lettuce
229g cooked leeks
200g iceberg lettuce
200g TVP: 656 calories, 94.4g protein.
200g peanuts: 1200 calories, 50.4g protein.
I hope I'll enjoy my trip and I hope I'm sufficiently prepared. My account of Sunday will probably appear on Tuesday!
Exercise: [AM] 45 min Body Combat, 60 min Body Pump. 1.75 hours.
Shopping: £1 brown-chick-peas(5x240g) £1 borlotti/rosecoco-beans(5x240g) 40p peanuts-raw(175g). £2.40
Veg: beetroot145 =145 6.9%
Legumes: TVP11 =11 0.5%
Fruit: raspberries148 clementines136 green-plums90 blackberries59 ASDA-sample:pineapple8 ASDA-sample:mango3 =444 21.1%
Starchy: potato1046 ASDA-sample:sweetcorn15 =1061 50.5%
Nuts: peanuts120 sesame-seeds61 raw-peanuts55 =236 11.2%
Animals: vanilla-flavour-whey-powder137 ASDA-sample:chineese-chicken-drumstick66 =203 9.7%
Rubbish: 0
Totals: 2100, 100.1g protein, 203 is 9.7%
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suenos
Moderator
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Posted: 26 August 2007 06:06 am |
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Those 'Smirnoff Ice' things are dangerously deceptive....they don't taste like they contain as much hard alcohol as they do...so it's easy to drink a heck of a lot before you realize "uh oh, I'm officially drunk "...hope your carnival experience is a total blast!
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 26 August 2007 12:05 pm |
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The Smirnoff Ice type things are between 4% and 5.5% alcohol by volume, compared with 37.5% ABV for the regular vodka. So the mixer:vodka ratio is something like 9 : 1. I like the taste but my two issues with the drink are: (1) too much liquid means more toilet visits (2) alcohol is already a major concession given the number of calories expended to achieve drunkness, and in this context Smirnoff Ice is 3 times less efficient (to get one shot of vodka you're consuming 3 times the calories - most of them sugar!).
My tip for low-calorie mixer for spirits is sugar-free squash (sweet but practically no calories): instead of diluting it with water (usually at a 4:1 ratio) just drench your spirit of choice with the undiluted squash. Well it works for me 
Sunday - Part I
I'm all ready to go and waiting for my brother (who is staying at mum's). I hope I have the sense to leave some stuff at the hotel - my backpack currently weighs 4.7kg and the food is in two separate carrier bags, each weighing 3.1kg. So my total load is about 11kg (24lb). Ouch!
mini breakfast: 159g cooked beetroot; smoothie was 337g frozen clementines and 7g vanilla flavour whey protein; sub-totals = 503g, 221 calories, 11.8g protein.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 28 August 2007 02:33 am |
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Sunday - Part II
My brother was ready later than planned and our plans to meet my sister at 11am at the hotel lobby were doomed. In the event we got there around 12.45pm (and my sister wisely went directly to the carnival).
Bought a new Network Southeast discount card for £20 and used it for my and brother's tickets so only one more journey in the next 12 months before it breaks even and starts saving me money.
Did I mention my brother is very image-concious? He took exception to the top I was wearing. (One of the sleevless work-out tops mum bought me for my birthday 4 months ago.) At the train station he gave me an ultimatum: change to a T-shirt or be homeless for the night (I am staying in his hotel room). My immediate reaction was to walk away. 5 minutes later the train arrived and I walked on it (reasoning that I'm primarily going to the carnival, not to spend time with my brother, I'll worry about the details later). My blood was no longer boiling half an hour later and I called to arrange meeting him at Euston when we both got off the train, having been apart for over an hour. When we met I was wearing the T-shirt my brother requested I did, and continued to do so for another 2 hours, whilst collecting the hotel room key. However, almost as soon as we joined the group (galit, hadar, jay and matthew) I changed back to my clothing of choice, knowing that my brother cannot bully me in front of other people, as it would show him up. It was perhaps 2pm when we finally got to the carnival (last ones to arrive!) so we missed the first 2 hours, though this didn't matter as we were there for the day (still there around 10pm when it was very much winding down).
I started drinking at 3pm, starting with 4 shots. I continued topping up with double shots, reaching a total of 12 shots by 7.30pm and gradually sobering up from that point onwards. I noticed that my single-mindedness about staying COE-abstinent was not dulled regardless of how much alcohol I was consuming.
One of the highlights was a spot of Merengue dancing - both myself and my brother were dancing with our sisters (I was reminding him how it was done - he has had lessons but not for 4 years). I also danced nightclub-style opposite my sister for quite a bit.
There were many opportunities to eat junk foods which were being passed around regularly. I made a point of never saying no but I took tiny portions and accounted for all of them.
I panicked for a while when I realised that I could not go to the toilet because the portable cubicles did not have running water (which is required to 'activate' a medical device I have to use). Eventually a solution was found - we used some of the water from my sister's bottle and all was well.
It got quite chilly later on. Matthew was trying his best to drag us to a restaurant or a pub but no-one else was particularly interested so he did not get his way. I was dreading the calorie implications of a restaurant outing, and in any case it later turned out I was more tired than I realised. We got back to the hotel at 11pm and 20 minutes later I was in bed. I rounded off the day with enough TVP to hit my protein target and decided not to care about not quite hitting my 'maintenance' calorie target. Sure, these calories were mine to have but I didn't feel deprived - I just wanted to be asleep! Hitting my protein and calorie targets simultaneously is something I can only easily do at home, with the aide of a spreadsheet.
7 day food shopping totals - once more on the low side: 0.25 + 3.33 + 0.20 + 0 + 1.13 + 2.40 + 0 = £7.31
Exercise: nothing (unless walking counts)
Shopping: 0
Veg: cabbage130 yellow-courgette109 beetroot73 mushrooms64 stringless-beans62 celery21 food-matthew:mixed-veg-stir-fry7 =466 26.2%
Legumes: TVP348 =348 19.5%
Fruit: clementines121 =121 6.8%
Nuts: snacks-eran:peanuts38 snacks-eran:cashew-nut9 =47 2.6%
Animals: vanilla-flavour-whey-powder27 =27 1.5%
Rubbish: vodka666 Hilton-complimentary:shortbread-biscuit66 snacks-Eran:bombay-mix18 snacks-Eran:tortilla-chips10 snacks-galit:bacon-rasher-flavour5 snacks-galit:chutney-flavour-potato-chips5 snacks-galit:hot-spicy-twists3 =773 43.4%
Totals: 1782, 100.0g protein, 800 is 44.9%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 28 August 2007 03:56 am |
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Monday
Woke up around 5.30am and couldn't fall back to sleep - similar story with my brother. Decided to leave the room. Read my book (disease-proof your child) at the hotel lobby for a while; had a rather short workout at the hotel's basement gym (3 resistance machines and some dumbell exercises) and a shower; around 7.30am felt I was tired enough to resume sleeping so carefully snuck back into the bedroom. We got going at 9.15am.
Made contact with Galit and Jason. They're not doing the Carnival on Monday because at least one of them has to drive the car. Last year they tried having one of them drunk and the other sober and it didn't work out for them. They wouldn't consider doing it sober, so they made other plans (shopping and museum). We decided to do the carnival again, and Matthew (faced with the choice) decided to join us rather than them. This was still to come though: first we came out of the hotel in search of breakfast. We had our eye on this pizza place - but it was still closed, as were a few other places. Eventually my brother settled on an expensive Cafe and bought one expensive breakfast meal which he would share with my sister. With the threat of being treated to something nutritionally unsound removed I was free to start my day on the right foot (stringless beans, leek and lettuce: 700g, 145 calories) - followed by TVP. This I did by making my excuses and going back to base.
Late as ever (due to brother) we headed towards the carnival. We walked around more and sampled some of the sound-stages (these are fixed locations. Yesterday was more about watching the floats on the carnival route). Curiously I was not the one pushing for the salsa sound stage, but I enjoyed it none the less. There was a live band. At some point i was dancing with my sister hadar, which was quite fun.
My brother had to leave at 2.45pm to make his flight, matthew and hadar decided to leave with him. I decided to stick around on my own - doing so for at least another 2.5 hours before heading away. Got back to Milton Keynes just before 7pm. Mum picked me up from the train station and sold on to me some bargains (and also gave me some free cauliflower+broccoli). I was more drunk on less alcohol, because I spaced the 10 shots over a shorter time period (from 12pm till 3pm) and was still feeling under the influence when mum picked me up. Hopefully no more alcohol for at least a few weeks.
I'm glad I went this year. I'm not sure what I'll do differently next year (apart from bring my own water supply - this was a problem yesterday but not today).
Evidently I had packed more vegetables than I needed. I came out with 5.8kg but came back with 1.2kg still uneaten (400g little-gem 300g celery 300g cucumber 200g iceberg). The priority is to eat these asap before they're wasted! My bananas have ripened but there is still no room for them in the freezer. At least I was able to put them in the fridge for now.
Rob wants me to make time for him tomorrow. Specifically, he wants me to go to the pub with him. It is becoming clearer that this is stressing me out. I'm already feeling snowed-under with various chores, and I'm currently also behind on my radio programs, emails, the CPH forum and my computer project.
Despite being at home I decided to eat less than maintenance. I'm exhasuted so it will shortly be bedtime!
Exercise: 2nd consecutive 'rest-day' with plenty of walking.
Shopping: 70p smoked-turkey(1kg) 9p broccoli. £0.79
Veg: cabbage180 stringless-beans88 little-gem-lettuce69 leek48 cucumber40 onion-raw5 =430 24.5%
Legumes: TVP229 =229 13.0%
Nuts: peanuts403 =403 23.0%
Animals: smoked-turkey138 =138 7.9%
Rubbish: vodka555 =555 31.6%
Totals: 1755, 100.0g protein, 693 is 39.5%
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ObsessedwithFitness
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 29 August 2007 03:29 am |
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Nir wrote: I will forever be screwed by the Tanita Body Composition Analyzer
I will never know if it lied to me. Was I ever this low, or did it just misreport me? Of course, in case it told me the truth, I'm annoyed that I cannot achieve those same results again. [on the other hand, I don't think my plastic calipers ever pinched less than 10 to 11 milimeteres, so I guess it is possible that Tanita device was lying.
First of all....I sympathize. Tanita scales (the one I threw in the trash last year) and the new one I bought plus hubby's EVIL dreaded one ALWAYS LIE! Dont feel so bad, Nir. I would listen to your family and friends who love and care about you. You probably look amazing! That scale told me I was OBESE!!!!! And I know I have 10-14 lbs to lose-but no more than that! I am NOT obese, just SLIGHTLY overweight with a high muscle mass. Dont get upset (easy for me to say, I know, sorry) Hang in there though.
ALSO...SO SORRY it took me so long to get caught up but a very much deserved and belated:
CONGRATULATIONS ON 6 MONTH ABSTINENCE!!
I think you are doing fabulous!
OWF
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 29 August 2007 04:55 am |
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Thanks OWF.
Tuesday
Body Pump with Hannah - good workout (following, as it does, 2 consecutive rest-days!). Gone to college welfare office to finalise cost of upcoming course. Tidying up and admin, e.g. call to bank. Walked to bank to get cash out of the machine and to Library to renew books. Discussed future plans for computer provision for mum with my sister. Peeled some ripe bananas, got rid of black bits and placed in freezer. Mum doesn't want to go shopping today which is a relief as I'm already exhausted from hours of chores. No sooner had I written this and dad invited me at short notice to pick raspberries - I managed 5 boxes (1.7kg) and then mum took me to Sainsbury's where I got 150g of 'chewy' fruit/seed mix (sunflower seeds, dates, flax seeds, banana, pine kernels, pecan nuts) for 30p - mum got 32 maple-pecan danish pastries at £0.11 a pair (for dad). She rightly pointed out that no-one could bake something like this for 5.5p - it barely covers the cost of the pecan nut on top!
Made some inroads into CPH forum backlog but by no means finished - and the pile of unread emails is growing, but I need my sleep.
Exercise: [AM] 60 min Body Pump, 30 min cycle to college. 1.5 hours.
Shopping: 30p chewy-fruit-and-seed-mix(150g). £0.30
Veg: broccoli65 cucumber39 cabbage39 cauliflower32 iceberg-lettuce26 celery21 =222 10.6%
Fruit: banana527 raspberries144 plums135 clementines103 blueberrie96 =1005 47.9%
Starchy: potato294 =294 14.0%
Nuts: peanuts180 chewy-fruit-and-seed-mix145 raw-peanuts56 =381 18.1%
Animals: smoked-turkey100 vanilla-flavour-whey-powder98 =198 9.4%
Rubbish: 0
Totals: 2100, 100.1g protein, 198 is 9.4%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 29 August 2007 09:48 am |
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Nir wrote here (Posted: 29 Aug 2006 01:57 pm): Monday
Plan was 2000 calories (Zig Zag day). Morning was perfect. Small meals, protein and fibre and use of gym at basement of the Hilton (most of the time I had entire gym to myself). Noon switched to vodka and extra-lean protein (still on plan). Vodka totaled 8 shots (450 calories). Siblings were buying all sorts of exotic foods from market stalls. This indirectly influenced me to pop into a nearby convenience store and start buying snacks. I did try to share some of the snacks around. Snacks included:
Whole-nut chocolate bar 250g x 2.
Chocolate-covered peanuts 100g.
Bombay mix 150g.
Dahl mix 120g x 2.
McDonald Ice Cream Cone.
Easily over 5-6000 calories just for those, never mind the vodka and other foods consumed. Eaten quickly. Classic binge behaviour. I'll be most surprised if I don't regain at least one pound of body fat, as I'm sure that's at least 3500 over my daily requirements. Rest of the day nothing but small servings of lean protein at intervals (as body can't store this).
So this was most certainly a cheat day. Oops.
The above was my Notting Hill Carnival binge from last year - which I felt like re-visiting.
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Peter
Founder, caloriesperhour.com
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Posted: 30 August 2007 09:21 am |
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Nir wrote: The food processor was making a terrible noise for one of the smoothies (raspberries) - it turned out that I had forgotten my spoon underneath the steel blade. Oops!
I used to make protein shakes with lots of ice (to make them huge... being a compulsive eater). The blender would often get stuck with an ice jam and I'd have to put a utensil in to stir things up.
Far too many times I'd hit the blades... a very expensive oops!
Well, just another insignificant post in Nir's diary!
Peter
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 30 August 2007 11:02 am |
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Research has shown that water that has been mixed with food (for example a soup, but I guess a smoothie, a dip or a blended salad are equally valid) makes you feel fuller than water drunk on its own (even during a meal).
Wednesday
After coming back from the morning step class made several phone calls in order to arrange a different kind of medical device. Hopefully I get to test it out tomorrow or the next day.
Picked up a prescription at the pharmacy and, noticing it was sunny, stayed outside to read my book for 40 minutes. I wonder if this is the last bit of sun this year. Back home I reshuffled the freezer so fruit other than bananas would be accessible. Then peeled more bananas and managed to find space for them by throwing away some loaves of bread. I don't like wasting food but on balance fruit is healthier than grain (45 vs 22 using 'nutrient density scores'). I think bread looked good a while back when I was trying to optimise calories-per-penny (when I was feeling particularly financially insecure). Before throwing away I did have a slice of toast.
I met mum so she could give me some baby sweet corn she decided to pass up (yum). She then telephoned to point out curry sauce jars are just 8p (apparently this is the current 'normal' price). I got a couple, though my estimate is that 70% of calories come from nutrient-poor ingredients like flour. Before combat somebody greeted me - I didn't acknowledge as I thought they must be speaking to someone behind me (I sometimes have problem recognising people!) figured out who it was about an hour later. After combat popped in again and thought I saw a money-back deal on prawns. When arriving at the checkout I was informed that the prawns will be £2.50, not 99p. I got confused and walked away from my shopping. Half an hour later it clicked that maybe the prawns would still have been very cheap, but by the point I realised I could have still had bucketfulls of prawns for essentially nothing I was far away and it was too late. Never mind.
Exercise: [AM] 60 min Body Step, [PM] 60 min Body Combat. 2 hours.
Shopping: 89p mushrooms(1470g) 16p curry-sauce(900g). £1.05
Veg: baby-corn-cob94 mushrooms47 =141 6.7%
Legumes: TVP17 =17 0.8%
Fruit: banana509 kiwi-fruit271 clementines208 raspberries181 strawberries103 bananito79 cantelope-melon70 =1421 67.7%
Nuts: chewy-fruit-and-seed-mix74 =74 3.5%
Grain: warburtons-wholemeal-bread91 wholemeal-tortilla61 =152 7.2%
Animals: vanilla-flavour-whey-powder137 smoked-turkey50 =187 8.9%
Rubbish: curry-sauce58 pork-luncheon-meat50 =108 5.1%
Totals: 2100, 100.1g protein, 295 is 14.0%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 31 August 2007 07:02 am |
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Thursday
Felt energetic in Pump. didn't fail even once in the chest track under my 20 kilo bar (which is unusual). Shall I put it down to recent carb-loading?
After yesterday's failed attempt to secure a Tiger Beer token, I was more succesful today. This token (theoretically) entitles me to a free lunch at a local chinese buffet restaurant. Naturally this opens a can of worms. Can I handle it? How easy would it be to calorie-count? Will I go overboard? I side-stepped this mine-field by not eating at the restaurant today, though I'll have to make up my mind at some point!
Yesterday, as a result of rearranging my freezer I found my portions of pork-luncheon-meat: a deli product that is more (saturated) fat than protein, and had a portion. Today I saw sense and tossed out the remaining portions.
I like the new catheter model I've been supplied with (it has a built-in water pouch) and I'm therefore putting off the purchase of a RADAR key. Speaking of keys, my '.' key has fallen of the laptop keyboard too now (PAGE UP had gone a few weeks ago). Arghhh.
Rob cornered me into a pub outing, which I succesfully terminated after one hour. I had a succesful hunt around for my Microsoft Office CD (and a little tidy).
Mum took me shopping. They didn't get stuck with anything at TESCO. At ASDA I got some healthy plums, some acceptable lean protein (chicken breast and loin pork) and a nutritionally unsound pizza . At Sainsbury's I was forced to re-tell mum the horror of my stupid prawn-related mistakes from yesterday. But at least I managed to walk away today with 4 packets of prawns - at 1p each. A partial result.
Exercise: [AM] 60 min Body Pump. 1 hour.
Shopping: ASDA 87p plums(1.4kg) 20p american-hot-pizza(mozarella,cheddar,spicy-beef,cajun-chickenpepperoni,roasted-chillies,330g) 20p chargrilled-chicken(200g) 20p roast-pork-loin(150g) Sainsbury 4p prawns(4x180g) £1.51
Veg: mushroom78 tomato75 =153 7.3%
Fruit: banana719 clementines302 galia-melon234 raspberries91 =1346 64.1%
Animals: vanilla-flavour-whey-powder118 roast-loin-pork43 chargrilled-chicken-breast25 prawns14 =200 9.5%
Rubbish: pizza-toppings401 =401 19.1%
Totals: 2100, 102.9g protein. 601 is 28.6%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 1 September 2007 04:02 am |
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Friday
Step class, and some progress with my project. Access and MySQL are tricky to make work with each other. For example, any view columns with fractions must be converted to strings or else Access will throw a fit. Updatable tables have to have an extra 4-byte 'timestamp' column to avoid another wierd bug, and so forth. It isn't clear to me which of these two pieces of software is to blame. Maybe they're both rubbish.
present from mum: cranberry juice. Remarkably this artificially-sweetned NETTO version is only 9 calories per 100ml. The ASDA 'light' version is 25 calories - what a difference. Helped mum sign up online to a roadside recovery service (she's hopeless with these kinds of things) then a visit to the allotment yielded: 1150g spinach, 1000g raspberries, 230g chard, 190g apple. Finally a late-night trip to sainsburys netted some raw peanuts - in their shells.
Exercise: [AM] 45 min Body Step. 0.75 hours.
Shopping: 115p mushrooms(1.9kg) 20p peanuts-in-shells(500g). £1.35
Veg: mushroom-common-boiled152 spinach-boiled76 cabbage-boiled68 beans-green-boiled67 chard-cooked35 =398 19.0%
Legumes: TVP-dried52 =52 2.5%
Fruit: bananitos627 banana515 galia-melon122 plum-british-lightred90 cranberry-light10 =1364 65.0%
Nuts: peanuts-salted60 monkey-nuts57 =117 5.6%
Animals: Honduran-umbo-king-prawns50 vanilla-flavour-whey-powder39 =89 4.2%
Rubbish: Sainsbury-sample:lamb-rojan-josh-deli74 honey-lemon-chewing-gum5 =79 3.8%
Totals: 2100, 100.1g protein (19.1%), 33.9g fat (14.5%). 168 is 8.0%
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voodoodoll
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 1 September 2007 08:02 pm |
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Hey Nir,
wow- i never knew that you could get such low calorie cranberry juice! i love the stuff but stopped having it as the one i was having had 70cals per 100ml, not exactly good for my diet!
anyway i hope you can help me! i've finally decided to take a big step for me and do my first body pump class! i see in your diary that you regularly take Pump and Step. i just wondered how many calories you think Pump burns in an hour and how the difficulty of the class rates to other Les Mills programmes like Body Step, Attack and Combat?
im thinking about introducing all these classes into my routine in time but i heard that Pump is the best for fat burning due to it involving weights- is this true?
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 1 September 2007 10:33 pm |
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Pump has a lot of potential for good - because it introduces people to exercise with freeweights (mostly a barbell; some tracks use a plate or dumbells) under supervision. The structure is high repretition with lowish weights so the emphasis is on endurance more than strength (so it isn't the ideal class for a body-builder). Most people doing pump are new to weight-training anyhow, so they get results with it.
It is difficult to estimate calories burnt weight training. Exercises using large muscle groups (I mean leg exercises: the squat and lunge tracks) will burn more calories than the bicep-curls track. In the CPH activity calculator, use Weight Lifting - free weights or machine, moderate
Step and Combat but I'm not sure which burns more - my guess is Step but it is purely a guess. Attack is demanding but I haven't done it for over a year (my gym doesn't have a license for it). It is possible, even likely that these cardio classes burn more calories than Pump - but pump will do more for your muscles and indirectly boost your metabolism, so you should definitely get on board.
Oops - I was wrong about the cranberry juice from NETTO - it is even lower as the 9 calories refers to a 200ml serving, not 100ml
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 2 September 2007 10:27 am |
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Saturday
Got up and ready, got to the gym studio by 8.20am to set up for pump (which starts at 10.15am...) before shower/sauna. Studio is now busy between 8.30 and 9.14 for Tai Chi so I watched everyone at 9.14am rushing to reserve some weights. That might be me next week. Good combat/pump workouts. Got some applies on the way home. Home by noon and stayed in for the rest of the day (long nap in the afternoon).
Further tinckering with computer project means some of my end-of-day figures are now automatically calculated (which means they now sometimes don't add up due to rounding errors: on the veg line 102+62 curiously make 163. The total 163 is correct, both '102' and '62' must be rounded-up figures i.e. greater than 101.5 and 61.5 respectively but add up to less than 163.5. Oh, the joy of computers). Accounting for chewing gum consumption is now slightly less tedious, too. On the upside, I have a clearer idea of my carb/fat split. I even have a figure for total saturated fat (Dr Fuhrman recommends keeping it under 5g per day, incidentally) and my total fibre is 58.3g (I've managed to impress myself ). Next thing would be to learn more about 'mysql stored procedures'.
Food again was mostly fruit. At one point very early in the day though 48% of my calories were from (healthy) fats - total fat ended up at 18.1%. I wonder whether I should let fat/carbs do whatever they like or whether I should be pushing carbs down more agressively.
Exercise: [AM] 45 min Body Combat, 60 min Body Pump. 1.75 hours.
Shopping: 40p apples(850g). £0.40
Veg: spinach-boiled102 courgette-boiled62 =163 7.8%
Fruit: apple428 banana378 pear154 galia-melon122 clementine107 plum-british-lightred92 raspberries76 =1,356 64.6%
Nuts: monkey-nuts198 peanuts-salted120 =317 15.1%
Animals: vanilla-flavour-whey-powder148 roast-pork-loin50 Honduran-jumbo-king-prawns50 =248 11.8%
Rubbish: honey-lemon-chewing-gum15 =15 0.7%
Totals: 2100, 100.8g protein (19.2%), 42.2g fat (18.1%), carb 62.7%, 58.3g fibre, 6.9g saturated fat. 263 is 12.5%
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newstart
New Member
| Joined: | 26 July 2007 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 359 |
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Posted: 3 September 2007 02:24 am |
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Hi Nir,
I was just reading your diaries and saw your entries about Combat.
It made me feel really foolish, because when I was reading Voodoodoll's diaries and saw that she was taking a class in Body pump which was next door to a class in Combat, I thought she was talking about real warfare training, so I sent her a reply about how it sounded like it might be a lot of fun. I went on to tell her that five years ago I trained to be a corrections officer (and got the job, by the way) the most fun part of my training was learning to block, and to restrain, and to take down. I loved it, and I thought Combat might be somewhat the same. I guess not...
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 3 September 2007 03:06 am |
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| If I do ever hit anyone (and it has happened a few months ago - roundhouse kicks without spatial awareness) I have to apologise quite a bit
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 3 September 2007 11:53 am |
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Sunday
Woke up at 4am and stayed up so it was going to be an unusual day with naps and eventual bedtime before 9pm.
£3.98 spend netted almost 15kg (over 32.5lb) and I only had to go downstairs to pick it up as I was buying it 'remote-control' with mum calling every now and again from TESCO and ASDA asking "do you want to buy X for £Y"?
Swede are evil, especially uncooked. The swede broke another one of my kitchen knives. This isn't the first time this has happened but at least I didn't get blood all over myself this time around.
At 5pm decided to stay home and so today became an unplanned rest day (the first after 5 consecutive workout days).
For my project, my objective today was to be able to see "running totals" of macronutrient breakdown, as they were after each food I ate (rather than just seeing agregates for the entire consumption so far) which is why I thought I'd be hitting those 'stored proceudres'. But I did not become a stored procedures expert after all (that will have to wait for another day). Instead I spent a while seeing if running totals in reports would do the trick before changing my mind and learning how to do running totals with self-join SELECTs instead.
At 8.20pm, having at that point consumed 1359 calories, 206.6g of carbs amounted to 60.8% of total calories - yet everyhing I consumed from that point was nuts and seeds (ok, chewing gum too). Carbs ended not much higher, at 219.3g, now representing a much lower percentage of total calories (41.8%). Also look at me fitting in 4lb of fruit and still getting to "moderate carb" - so I guess it isn't too much of an imposition.
About 1/6 of the fat from peanuts is saturated, accounting for most of my saturated fat - 15.1g today (!). My sodium number is a low-end estimate as I'm still missing sodium numbers for most of my fruit and veg. With the weight of my various food 'groups' now displayed, you can see that a low % of calories from vegetables doesn't necessarily mean a low quantity!
Exercise: spontaneous rest day. 0 hours.
Shopping: 156p swede(7kg) 112p pear(3.7kg) 90p oranges(3.3kg) 20p cucumber(480g) 20p kiwi(315g). £3.98
Veg: [1533g] stringless-beans154 courgette-boiled107 runner-beans(raw?)37 iceberg-lettuce21 =318 15.2%
Fruit: [1803g] apple184 pear178 clementine106 plum-british-lightred85 banana83 cranberry-light14 =649 30.9%
Starchy: [299g] swede-boiled33 =33 1.6%
Nuts: [160g] peanuts-salted772 peanuts-redskin-raw48 chewy-fruit-seed-mix45 sesame-seed40 monkey-nuts33 =938 44.6%
Animals: [84g] chocolate-flavour-whey-powder85 Honduran-jumbo-king-prawns50 =135 6.4%
Rubbish: [12g] chewing-gum-honey-lemon15 ice-cream-cone12 =28 1.3%
Totals: 2100, 102.2g protein (19.5%), 90.5g fat (38.8%), 219.3g carb (41.8%), 15.1g saturated fat, 59.9g fibre, 0.83g sodium, 163 is 7.8%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 4 September 2007 05:24 pm |
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Moday
Ooops, for yesterday forgot to do the 7-day shopping summary so let's do it now: 0.79 + 0.30 + 1.05 + 1.51 + 1.35 + 0.40 + 3.98 = £9.38
Had the impression that enrollment at college was first thing in the morning so anxiety got me up and running by 6.20am, preparing vegetables for the day ahead. On Nash's advice I called them. It turns out enrollment is between 2pm - 7pm and the specific time was in the letter they sent (which did not arrive). This turned out to be 6pm but they agreed to reschedule it for 2.30pm which was more convenient for me - meaning I could fit both AM and PM workouts (I originally imagined I'd be missing the AM workout - and then a 6pm appointment meant missing the PM workout).
Angela did the AM spin and then did her second class too - the one that was going to be cancelled in the new timetable. The gym is back-peddling some of the unpopular timetable changes due to protests from members. There is a notice from the general manager displayed at reception suggesting that some of the cancelled classes will in fact be re-instated (some of them only towards the end of September) but the suggestion is that the onus is still on us to write him and request this, so writing a letter is now on my to do list (I hope I get around to doing it at some point!). One of the members was organising a petition to save another class and I signed it before leaving for home.
After a couple of hours to myself I headed over to college where unexpectedly I had to endure an interview with a couple of guys, one of whom might have been head of the IT department - their concern: as a mature student, will I be able to cope with the rigours of a full-time level 3 qualification? Wouldn't I rather do a level 2 qualification first? I asserted myself as best as I could. I was, after all, presenting them with all the relevant GCSE certificates they were after. I think their concerns are unwarranted . Mind you, it has been a while since I've done anything full time, I hope I can handle my time once more not being my own! (the other challenge is to 'fit in' amongst a group much younger than me - I'm 34 and my peers will mostly be 16-17) I proceded to the checkout to pay for my course and was on my way. My induction is a 3-hour affair next Tuesday - to include unspecified "snacks" which I'll probably have to dodge.
Home for another 2 hours before hitting the gym for a demanding BOSU class (which I survived). Interestingly the next class (Step) is normally easier than BOSU but I was struggling, with lack of energy [which I'm putting down to my anemia]. It was only through stubbornness that I perseveered to its conclusion.
Project: I am trying to figure out a formula (an expression) that needs maximising in order to find the 'best' food to eat in the circumstance when I've eaten too much carbs and not enough fat and I want to reverse the situation. At the moment I'm feeling a bit dim as I'm not sure if I should be maximising (kcal/carb) or perhaps (fat/carb). Either way (predictably) nuts and seeds are coming out well - but then so are things like prawns and pork (?)
Another early night.
Exercise: [AM] 45 min Spin [PM] 30 min cycle to college, 45 min BOSU, 60 min Body Step. 3 hours.
Shopping: 30p romaine-lettuce(700g) 20p iceberg-lettuce(700g). £0.50
Veg: [1499g] beetroot-boiled178 stringless-beans118 cabbage-boiled29 onion-raw25 courgette-boiled24 runner-beans13 cucumber11 little-gem-lettuce6 celery3 =407 19.4%
Fruit: [1872g] pear216 orange149 plum-british-lightred95 raspberries82 cranberry-light13 =555 26.4%
Starchy: [754g] potato-baked100 swede-boiled69 =169 8.0%
Nuts: [140g] peanuts-salted363 sesame-seed244 chewy-fruit-seed-mix175 =783 37.3%
Animals: [67g] chocolate-flavour-whey-powder116 roast-pork-loin50 =166 7.9%
Rubbish: [12g] chewing-gum-honey-lemon21 =21 1.0%
Totals: 2100, 100.0g protein (19.0%), 79.8g fat (34.2%), 245.4g carb (46.7%), 11.9g saturated fat, 71.2g fibre, 0.54g sodium.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 5 September 2007 03:54 pm |
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Tuesday
Just as instructor Michele is back (she does not work during school holidays) I'll shortly be unavailable for the AM workouts due to my own school commitments [specifically, from next week].
Tried to get in touch with my counsellor to arrange first session of this academic year but college phone lines were down. Managed to get through anyhow (by text message) and had a session at 4.15pm. Milestones were that I don't feel I often properly 'reflect' upon life. Incidentally I've now been working with my counsellor since October - and signing up to this new course is actually partly so I can keep attending.
Tried to attack my radio 4 backlog, assembled a list of links. However in the evening Nash called and held me back. We spend over 2 hours talking about nothing in particular, whilst I was doing nothing more useful than eating [mostly vegetables]. Time wasted. Did nothing on the project today.
Exercise: 60 min Body Pump, 45 min cycle to college/supermarket. 1.75 hours.
Shopping: 0.
Veg: [1557g] cabbage-boiled89 stringless-beans70 beetroot-boiled53 onion-raw33 runner-beans28 little-gem-lettuce20 courgette-boiled19 cucumber13 celery6 =330 15.7%
Fruit: [2928g] banana297 pear208 apple191 clementine162 orange152 kiwi-fruit114 raspberries83 cranberry-light13 =1,221 58.1%
Starchy: [830g] Starchy swede-boiled91 =91 4.3%
Nuts: [33g] peanuts-salted73 sunflower-seed-hulled66 peanuts-redskin-raw53 =191 9.1%
Animals: [144g] chocolate-flavour-whey-powder146 chargrilled-chicken-breast50 Honduran-jumbo-king-prawns50 =246 11.7%
Rubbish: [12g] chewing-gum-honey-lemon21 =21 1.0%
Totals: 2100, 99.6g protein (19.0%), 32.3g fat (13.8%), 352.8g carb (67.2%), 4.6g saturated fat, 78.2g fibre, 0.80g sodium
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 6 September 2007 03:19 am |
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Wednesday
Got up early, in hospital by 9.15am though (predictably) had to wait till around 10.40am to be seen by the consultant. We looked at pictures he took of my insides while I was under anaethetic back in July, he described a couple of possible surgical procedures. We agreed that the next step is to refer me to a London-based specialist. He will be writing a letter. Whilst in hospital I missed the AM step class.
Had a nap in the afternoon; got to Sainsbury's at the right time (6.30pm) to get fennel, mushrooms and fennel at good prices (6.2kg for £1.44 !) before a fun combat class.
Today is an example of how low-fat I get when I eat hardly any nuts/seeds (without those sunflower seeds would have been even lower!). Carbs almost at 70%...
Exercise: [AM] 45 min cycle to hospital, [PM] 60 min Body Combat. 1.75 hours.
Shopping: 80p cantelope-melon(4; 3kg) 52p fennel(11, 2.6kg) 12p mushrooms(580g). £1.44
Veg: [2058g] stringless-beans138 runner-beans62 tomato53 fennel-boil43 mushroom-common-boiled32 cucumber23 =351 16.7%
Legumes: [5g] TVP-dried16 =16 0.8%
Fruit: [3098g] pear402 apple339 banana170 clementine160 orange146 raspberries83 =1,301 61.9%
Starchy: [248g] swede-boiled27 =27 1.3%
Nuts: [21g] sunflower-seed-hulled122 =122 5.8%
Animals: [109g] chocolate-flavour-whey-powder182 Honduran-jumbo-king-prawns50 =232 11.0%
Rubbish: [70g] curry-sauce41 chewing-gum-honey-lemon10 =51 2.4%
Totals: 2100, 100.0g protein (19.0%), 27.4g fat (11.7%), 363.3g carb (69.2%), 3.7g saturated fat, 88.8g fibre, 0.67g sodium. 283 is 13.5%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 7 September 2007 03:42 pm |
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Thursday
Probably the last morning Body Pump class for a while.
Finally did some more on my project. More complicated SQL (self joins; IF function; first legitimate use of the UNION construct) to figure out what my "meal times" are (by analysing gaps between the discrete 'eating times'). Ultimately this proved fruitless - if I define a meal as terminating with a break of about 30 minutes, I have about 11 meals in a typical day. If the break has to be 1.5 hours or more, I have 3 or 4 meals. Putting it another way - I rarely stop eating! Is this piece of software meaningless or is it merely highlighting eating-disorder behaviour? I'll revisit this if my eating patterns change (perhaps, as a result of starting the course next week). More meaningfully I now get the computer to do a bit more of the fiddling I usually do in the editor.
Mum decided to postpone the planned shopping trip and I could have fitted an afternoon Step class but I dedided to skip it. I'm now practically caught-up with my radio 4 staples (and the "listen again" feature seems to have been fixed at long last).
Exercise: [AM] 60 min Body Pump. 1 hour.
Shopping: 0
Veg: [1753g] runner-beans(raw?)180 stringless-beans81 fennel-boil52 mushroom-common-boiled16 romaine-lettuce15 =343 16.3%
Fruit: [2522g] banana588 clementine163 orange147 cantelope-melon141 raspberries82 =1119 53.3%
Starchy: [56g] potato-baked43 =43 2.1%
Nuts: [68g] peanuts-salted349 sunflower-seed-hulled55 =404 19.2%
Animals: [74g] chocolate-flavour-whey-powder117 chargrilled-chicken-breast50 =167 8.0%
Rubbish: [14g] chewing-gum-honey-lemon23 =23 1.1%
Totals: [4485g] 2100, 102.2g protein (19.5%), 48.7g fat (20.9%), 313.3g carb (59.7%), 7.96g saturated fat, 70.74g fibre, 0.55g sodium. 190 is 9.0%
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DeterminedGal
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 8 September 2007 05:22 am |
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Nir,
Just stopping by to say I enjoy reading your posts. You've given this old girl from the South quite an education. You're a hoot! (That's a good thing!)
DG
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 8 September 2007 05:31 am |
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Thank you, DG!
Friday
Decided to see what a low day feels like when using my software (as it stands) so made a few quick changes to accomodate different calorie targets on different days. I do love the flexibility of prototyping with databases - I can't see myself using off the shelf software when a bespoke app is so easy to create. According to mum a serving of fruit is 80g - going by that, I've had 10 servings of fruit and still managed to keep carbs below 43% of calories.
Holland & Barrett's recent price hike mean that although Whey powder is once more on sale, tubs are £12 rather than £11. For the moment I'm staying away in protest. Did snap up some flax seed (sometimes known as 'linseed' over here). Got mushrooms at Sainsbury's.
Went out shopping with mum from 5.30pm till 9pm. We scouted TESCO (which did not look promising) then visited ASDA, where plums were the only bargains to be had. Came back to TESCO and stalked the produce department for 40 minutes before we struck lucky (I netted about 14kg (over 30lb) of fruits and vegetables for £2.98). We rounded the evening with coffees at IKEA. The shopping trip contributed 149 calories of rubbish to my day (that's 10%) in the form of samples (mini cinnamon roll at IKEA, organic dark chocolate at ASDA) - and salads with croutons (most of which did get discarded!).
If you want to grind your flaxseed in a food processor, my tip is to do so in batches of 50g. I started off trying to grind all 500g at once and nothing much was happening - and this was still the case with around 100g, but the magic was certainly happening with 50g of the seeds flying around.
Today has been a succesful proof-of-concept for BFFM-style carb-cycling, getting carb% to low 40s is not a particular challenge, it does not mean abstaining from fruit and it is certainly possible to eat a large quantity of produce at the same time. Tomorrow it is back to a high day. I'm not quite ready for a 3-low, 1-high carb-cycle just yet.
As ever, a succesful shop makes for a late bedtime. It is almost 2.30am and I'm not quite in bed yet.
Exercise: [AM] 45 min Body Step. 0.75 hours.
Shopping: 105p plums(1630g) 104p linseed(500g) 45p red-cabbage(5.8kg) 39p mushrooms(650g) 30p peaches(1.5kg) 26p roasted-mediterranean-veg-salad(250g) 26p italian-style-salad(220g) 25p blackberries(250g) 20p oranges(2.2kg) 20p strawberries(300g) 20p peas-and-runner-beans(250g) 20p veg-kebab-pepper-courgette-redonion-butternutSquash-babycorn(200g) 14p red-orange-peppers(320g) 13p baby-orange-peppers(250g) 10p banana(1.3kg) 9p celery(400g) 8p mango(300g) 7p cos-lettuce(250g) 5p spring-onion(110g). £5.46
Veg: [2991g] stringless-beans173 cabbage-boiled94 pea-frozen-SP87 fennel-boil58 mushroom-common-boiled56 veg-kebab-pepper-courgette-redonion-butternut35 lettuce-mixed-leaf24 runner-beans19 iceberg-lettuce9 courgette-boiled8 onion-boiled6 pepper-red-boiled6 celery5 tomato1 =580 38.7%
Legumes: [47g] TVP-dried33 chick-pea-boiled21 butter-bean-boiled20 =74 4.9%
Fruit: [792g] orange146 cantelope-melon71 mango9 plum-british-lightred3 =228 15.2%
Starchy: [4g] potato-baked3 =3 0.2%
Nuts: [70g] linseed328 =328 21.9%
Animals: [79g] chocolate-flavour-whey-powder65 Honduran-jumbo-king-prawns50 =115 7.7%
Rubbish: [47g] IKEA-sample:cinnamon-roll60 croutons53 ASDA-sample:chocolate-dark-cherry-green&black36 chewing-gum-honey-lemon23 =171 11.4%
Totals: [4030g] 1500, 100.2g protein (26.7%), 51.1g fat (30.7%), 159.8g carb (42.6%), 5.38g saturated fat, 75.68g fibre, 0.56g sodium. 286 is 19.1%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 9 September 2007 08:03 am |
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Saturday
My neighbour spotted me as I was heading off to the gym this morning and gave me some apples that he was given by a friend with a tree - that's 12 free green apples (1.1kg). I loved my workout but later got worked up when I realised that I forgot the book I'm reading [Desease-proof your child] in the studio  . I hope I will eventually get it back! I sampled some peppered ham at Sainsbury's. When nutritional info was available on samples I previously only jotted down "calories per 100g" and "protein per 100g". Now that my system is more detailed, I'm jotting down more numbers [all per 100g]: 1) calories 2) protein 3) total carbs 4) sugar 5) total fat 6) saturated fat 7) fibre 8) sodium. It is a noticable difference.
The mobile phone I use as my personal organiser showed a "10am-3pm" appointment at the Council offices but I couldn't remember what it was for. It turned out to be a somewhhat uninteresting free outdoor event (mostly for children). I grabbed a single "fun-size" Twix bar and was on my way [Later this calculated at approximately 104 calories - and almost 5g saturated fat.]
By 5pm mum arranged to meet me for a shopping trip. 5 minutes she called again to ask exactly where I was. I managed to fall asleep during that time period. Unlike yesterday, this shopping trip was a relative failure, a gamble that did not pay off. Mum was hoping that England's qualifier (an international game of soccer that relates to next year's European championship) would ensure no shoppers and bargains for us (the way that poor weather sometimes works in our favour) but no such luck! Got 200g of wafer-thin roast chicken slices for 29p but otherwise nothing to show for 3 hours of work [and as stated, I was ready to fall asleep - which I eventually did when I got back home].
Contrasting with yesterday: as a high day, a lot more fruit [by weight and as a proportion of calories]. It took 500 calories from peanuts just to keep carbs relatively low (for me!) at under 55%. I notice that my final score (Animals+Rubbish) is these days much closer to 20% than 10%, but I'm not beating myself up about it.
Exercise: [AM] 45 min Body Combat, 60 min Body Pump. 1.75 hours.
Shopping: 29p wafer-thin-roasted-chicken(200g). £0.29
Veg: [844g] pepper-orange62 cabbage-boiled47 pepper-red36 spring-onion23 romaine-lettuce20 =190 9.0%
Fruit: [2582g] apple203 clementine162 pear132 mango117 plums95 peaches92 strawberries80 blackberries63 =944 45.0%
Starchy: [71g] potato-baked55 =55 2.6%
Nuts: [84g] peanuts-salted501 =501 23.9%
Animals: [121g] chocolate-flavour-whey-powder194 chicken-roast-wafer-thin52 Sainsbury-sample:peppered-ham-deli34 =280 13.3%
Rubbish: [36g] twix-mars104 chewing-gum-honey-lemon26 =130 6.2%
Totals: [3738g] 2100, 100.0g protein (19.0%), 62.2g fat (26.6%), 285.2g carb (54.3%), 14.29g saturated fat, 59.89g fibre, 0.88g sodium. 410 is 19.5%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 10 September 2007 03:09 am |
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Sunday
For some reason I got up at 3.30am and wasn't falling back to sleep so had an online session. Eventually went back to bed at 7am. My noon jam class featured 4 tracks from the new release. Most BTS instructors have only been shown their new choreography yesterday - so new pump, combat, step etc will follow in the coming weeks. As of next week Shey who teaches jam on a Sunday will also be teaching me combat on a Monday. She's also got a new jam class on a Tuesday. I wonder how gym members will feel about that - especially those who used to attend that recently-cancelled Monday evening jam class with another instructor. Time will tell.
Today for the first time I was directly affected by the timetable changes, my Sunday body pump class is no more! I got out of the gym early and there was still some daylight so I called mum and we were off to put some of my washing in her machine and go to the allotent to use up the daylight. I spent an hour picking lots of raspberries. I was supplied with other goodies. Total loot: yellow-courgette(1.8kg) raspberries(1.7kg) apples(1.4kg) chard(1.1kg) cucumber(560g). Aware of recent knife breakage mum was on the lookout when at the car boot sale and I got as a present 4 knives to add to my collection (a bit larger than I'd like - but you don't complain too loudly when the other person is holding 4 knives).
7 day food shopping summary: 0.50 + 0 + 1.44 + 0 + 5.46 + 0.29 + 0.60 = £8.29
I'm planning a second successive low-calorie day tomorrow.
Exercise: [noon] 60 min Body Jam, [PM] 45 min Body Step. 1.75 hours.
Shopping: 60p mango(1.1kg)+green-plums(300g). £0.60
Veg: [899g] chard-cooked58 fennel-boil47 pepper-orange-raw46 =152 10.1%
Fruit: [1304g] peaches182 plum-british-lightred84 cantelope-melon71 mango46 =382 25.5%
Starchy: [93g] potato-baked72 =72 4.8%
Nuts: [110g] peanuts-salted272 chewy-fruit-seed-mix131 linseed68 peanuts-redskin-raw60 sunflower-seed-hulled56 =588 39.2%
Animals: [226g] Honduran-jumbo-king-prawns100 chocolate-flavour-whey-powder86 roast-pork-loin50 chicken-roast-wafer-thin50 =286 19.0%
Rubbish: [12g] chewing-gum-honey-lemon21 =21 1.4%
Totals: [2643g] 1500, 101.6g protein (27.1%), 57.8g fat (34.7%), 143.3g carb (38.2%), 9.16g saturated fat, 43.91g fibre, 1.98g sodium. 307 is 20.5%
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DeterminedGal
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 10 September 2007 05:22 am |
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Nir said: I got as a present 4 knives to add to my collection (a bit larger than I'd like - but you don't complain too loudly when the other person is holding 4 knives).
LOL. You're a cut up, Nir. (pun intended)
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Scoobees
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 10 September 2007 11:30 pm |
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Ok - you both got me laughing now!
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suenos
Moderator
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Posted: 11 September 2007 02:07 am |
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Hey Nir,
Just curious (read nosy) about something....since you are already lean and well-conditioned, have you ever given any thought to approaching your lower body fat% goal by working towards adding more muscle mass and seeing where that takes you rather than continued weight loss at this point?
Last edited on 11 September 2007 02:08 am by suenos
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 11 September 2007 02:17 am |
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To gain muscle I need to eat more and during this time I fully expect to gain fat. In fact I read an article by Lyle suggesting to keep going with a bulk until you hit 15% (for a man) and then start a cut. Only freaks (mesamorphs), beginners and those who are back from a break can gain muscle and get lean at the same time!
Besides, I'm afraid of big weights so any excuse to put off a bulk period
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suenos
Moderator
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Posted: 11 September 2007 02:31 am |
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Of course you'd have to eat more, and yea, a little fat gain would be inevitable...but controllable and only temporary (hence a cut following)...but wouldn't it nice to eat above maint. for a little while after maintaining a deficit for so long (of course that's the greedy inner child in me speaking...I promise if I were a guy I'd soooo be bulking right now... )...and speaking of Lyle, he also reccommends maint. breaks after a prolonged period of dieting.
p.s. I don't believe for a second that you are afraid of heavy weight...too funny!
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 11 September 2007 02:39 am |
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Actually I've just had a diet-break, looking back I had over 2.5 weeks at maintenance (2100 calories) and I can certainly stretch 2100 and have plenty of fun with these calories. So I think I'm coming back "rested enough". Now that I've developed some home-made nutrition software and am able to track macronutrient breakdown [not just calories from nuts] I'm ready to try again and see what happens!
I do have one hand tied behind my back though, because my budget is limited and the most suitable vegetables (high protein, low carb) aren't on sale. I'm finding myself including more animal products than I'd ideally like to [sounds familiar?]
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 11 September 2007 03:04 am |
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Monday
What I thought was a yellow courgette (low calorie, high protein, low carb) turned out to be a squash (higher-calorie, high-carb, low-protein) so it threw me off a little in the morning. I did my spin class (probably last AM class for a while) unfortunatley the book was not found. In fact at one point today Dean called (asking me for advice about a knee injury - I talked about exercises for the quads but made sure he understood I was no expert on injuries) anyhow he's going to see a physiotherapist so he's not on his own. Anyhow I admitted I lost his book.
Messed some more with the Access/MySQL project. I can now filter on which foods I have in stock and on food by category. Also started working on the 'recipe' feature (still some way to go though).
In the gym the 45 minute BOSU class was shortned and the replacement instructor did not make it challenging - I don't think I sweated! I used my 1/2 hour gap to find the manager and voice my complaint about the cancelled sunday pump classes. I then browsed CPH on a terminal until it was time for Step.
1/4 way through the day (calorie-wise) my carbs were at 58% but I managed to fight back and ended my day at 32.5% (lower than target) yet still managed to fit in a sizeable amount of produce. I've packed some lunch for my trip to college tomorrow. Luckily it is a high day. Then, depending on how I feel, I might have up to 3 consecutive low days (Wed-Fri).
Exercise: [AM] 45 min Spin, [PM] 30 min BOSU, 60 min Body Step. 2.25 hours.
Shopping: 45p plums(1.4kg). £0.45
Veg: [757g] chard-cooked70 romaine-lettuce45 fennel-boil14 =129 8.6%
Legumes: [14g] TVP-dried48 =48 3.2%
Fruit: [899g] raspberries139 peaches92 plum-british-lightred18 =249 16.6%
Starchy: [433g] winter-squash-baked160 =160 10.7%
Nuts: [119g] peanuts-salted538 chewy-fruit-seed-mix93 sunflower-seed-hulled24 linseed18 =674 45.0%
Animals: [162g] chocolate-flavour-whey-powder67 turkey-smoked-wafer-thin50 roast-pork-loin50 Honduran-jumbo-king-prawns50 =217 14.4%
Rubbish: [14g] chewing-gum-honey-lemon23 =23 1.5%
Totals: [2398g] 1500, 100.0g protein (26.7%), 68.0g fat (40.8%), 121.9g carb (32.5%), 11.44g saturated fat, 52.43g fibre, 1.89g sodium. 240 is 16.0%
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