It's been a week since the conclusion of the 45 day challenge. In that 45 days I lost about 7 pounds, and trimmed up quite a bit. I was very surprised to see a drop in my blood pressure. It was fine before, but I noticed about 20 days in that it started dropping more. Yes, I weigh myself and take my blood pressure every day. I find it interesting.
This morning, it was 103/53. My pulse was 52. I weighed 185.6. My weight has bounced around in the 184-185 range since the challenge.
And while some might say don't weigh yourself, I enjoy the daily measurement. When I'm eating strictly I feel that it provides a nice window into what my body is doing.
For instance, I've noticed that a little goat cheese in my diet and I'll definitely weigh more the next day. I think it just makes me bloat or causes a little inflammation. Ditto for nut consumption. I don't think it's just the salt because I already consume a decent amount of salt with my normal foods.
So I find that interesting and will continue to keep a daily weight and blood pressure log.
What I'm going to experiment with now is simply eating when I want, and the amounts I want, with little to no thought to any particular amount of protein. I tried to get 180-200 grams protein/day during the 45 days, and was trying before the challenge as well. But now I think my eating patterns are pretty ingrained, and I'm just not going to worry about it.
On days that I do hard exercise , my post workout meal will be a pound of beef and pound of sweet potatos, so I'll get a big source of protein on those days regardless. The rest of the time, I'll just eat and see what happens.
I'll also allow myself a free meal after workouts one day per week. By "free" I mean that if I'm wanting something higher in carbs I'll eat it. No grains, no legumes, etc. That's just off-limits and I don't want any of it anyway. I feel like crap if I accidentally get some wheat, so it's just not on my list of foods that I enjoy.
Sushi, chips with hot sauce, ice cream...now that is still on my list of foods I occasionally want, so I'll occasionally get them. If a one day per week free meal causes my weight to head back up, then I'll change it to every other week and keep tweaking to make sure I can maintain a slow loss of weight until I get as lean as I want to be.
This feels pretty effortless with the exception of the occasional craving, which is mainly triggered by stress. Stress is a double-whammy. First, it drives up cortisol. Second, it hits emotional triggers for me that result in my wanting to medicate myself with ice cream and chocolate. So I'll continue to work on handling stress in effective ways and reducing it where possible.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Log 03/13 - 03/19
Final week of food and exercise logs. The week starts out weird since I was out of town on a ski trip.
Sunday 03/13
*=New low weight
And this wraps up a 45 day Paleo Challenge and my food and exercise logs. I feel like I've lost a little muscle since I stopped focusing on weight training once per week, but overall I'm happy with the changes. I've lost a few inches off my waist and bodyweight CrossFit WODs are definitely better.
I'll wait until next week sometime before I have anything off diet, and I'll probably look at adding in a weight day each week to try to get my absolute strength numbers back up. If I keep pushing to get my weight down I can see being under 180 in another month or two. Anything under 178 will put me at a weight I haven't been since junior high school!
And finally, here's my before and after pictures for the 45 days.
I think I trimmed up a bit. :)
Thanks again to John at CrossFit Richardson for pushing me.
Sunday 03/13
- No weight measurement while out of town
- Rest day, taking care of Katie
- Food: 1) Curry chicken with extra chicken. 2) Tin of sardines and oysters
- No weight measurement while out of town
- Skiing for 2 hours, and then just hanging out with Katie
- Food: 1) Beef fajitas at El Taoseno in Taos. Whole jar of macadamia nuts. 2) Tin of sardines and oysters
- No weight measurement while out of town
- Did workout at home once I got back from New Mexico
- Food: 1) Pound of beef and pound of sweet potato. 2) Tin of sardines and oysters. Estimate 150 grams protein
- 185.8
- WOD at CFR
- Food: 1) Pound of beef and pound of sweet potato with a whole onion 2) 8 ounces of shrimp. Estimate 170 grams protein
- 185.2*
- 3 mile walk
- Food: 1) 5 egg fritata with a half pound of sweet potato and a tin of sardines and tin of oysters. 2) 8 ounces salmon and a grapefruit. 3) 7 ounce beef patty with half a sauteed onion and a whole avocado on top. Estimate 190 grams protein.
- 184.4*
- Rest Day - Meant to go to CFR, but sore. Will workout tomorrow.
- Food: 1) Liver and onioins 2) Pound of beef fajitas at Blue Goose
*=New low weight
And this wraps up a 45 day Paleo Challenge and my food and exercise logs. I feel like I've lost a little muscle since I stopped focusing on weight training once per week, but overall I'm happy with the changes. I've lost a few inches off my waist and bodyweight CrossFit WODs are definitely better.
I'll wait until next week sometime before I have anything off diet, and I'll probably look at adding in a weight day each week to try to get my absolute strength numbers back up. If I keep pushing to get my weight down I can see being under 180 in another month or two. Anything under 178 will put me at a weight I haven't been since junior high school!
And finally, here's my before and after pictures for the 45 days.
I think I trimmed up a bit. :)
Thanks again to John at CrossFit Richardson for pushing me.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Log 03/06 - 03/12
Another week of food and stuff:
Sunday 03/06
Interesting time with diet while traveling. I get very spoiled being able to cook my own food most of the time. Skiing was fantastic at the lower body weight, but I didn't get to do much of it since Katie got hurt. One week left.
Sunday 03/06
- 190.0
- Went for 3 mile walk and worked on the airplane
- Food: 1) A pound of beef with onions and squash 2) Tin of sardines and oysters. Estimate 150 grams protein
- 186.2
- WOD at CFR
- Food: 1) A pound of beef and a pound of sweet potato 2) 2 Tins of sardines and 1 tin oysters. Estimate 180 grams protein
- 186.2
- Worked on the airplane all day
- Food: 1) 16 ounces tuna steak and 2 grapefruit. 2) Fritata with 6 eggs, 4 strips of bacon and an onion. Estimate 160 grams protein
- 185.6*
- WOD at CFR
- Food: 1) 1.5 pounds of beef and a pound of sweet potato. Estimate 170 grams protein
- 186.8
- Worked on the airplane all day
- Food: 1) Pound of fajitas at Blue Goose. Went off diet, and had several handfuls of tortilla chips. This was the first time during this 45 day challenge that I failed to meet my commitment to diet.
- 188.2 (bloating from the chips the night before!)
- Traveling to New Mexico to go skiing
- Food: 16 ounce steak in Raton with a baked potato and a little sour cream.
- No weight measurement while out of town
- Skiing for 4 hours until Katie got a concussion. Doh!
- Food: 1) Curry chicken with extra chicken. It was just chicken and vegetables. 2) 6 oz beef jerky
Interesting time with diet while traveling. I get very spoiled being able to cook my own food most of the time. Skiing was fantastic at the lower body weight, but I didn't get to do much of it since Katie got hurt. One week left.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Log 02/27 - 03/05
Another week of food and stuff.
Sunday 02/27
With 12 days to go on this 45 day challenge, my goal of getting to 180 is obviously not going to be reached by that point. I do still have hopes that I'll get to 185 or less by then though. Then I'll reset my target to 178 pounds. That will be fun.
Sunday 02/27
- 190.2
- Rest day
- Food: 1) 12 ounce beef , 6 egg fritata with whole onion, 2 ounces beef liver, 8 ounces salmon. Estimate 200 grams protein
- 189.6
- Couldn't make CFR, so did Helen subbing 50 squats for the runs and ring pushups for pullups because I hurt my wrist in the garage, used 35 pound kettlebell. 7:15
- Food: 1) 18 ounces beef, pound of sweet potato, 6 ounces beef liver, 1 tin sardines, a grapefruit and an orange. Estimate 200 grams protein
- 187.2*
- Rest day (though worked all day on my airplane)
- Food: 1) 4 ounces beef liver, fritata with 6 ounces fajita meet and 6 eggs, 10 ounces tuna steak. Estimate 180 grams protein
- 186.8*
- WOD at CFR
- Food: 1) 16 ounces ground beef, 16 ounces sweet potato, shrimp cocktail at Rockfish and 8 ounces salmon. Estimate 200 grams protein
- 188.4
- Rest day (though worked on airplane)
- Food: 6 egg onion and bacon fritata, 1 pound beef and 1/2 a sweet potato. Estimate 160 grams protein.
- 188.0
- Rest day (worked on airplane)
- Food: A pound beef with onions and 12 ounces of lobster tail with butter. Estimate 200 grams protein
Saturday 03/05
- 188.4
- Rest day (worked on airplane)
- Food: 1) 12 ounces steak meat with gaucamole at Chipotle 2) 1 pound beef fajita meat and guacamole at Blue Goose. Estimate 200 grams protein
With 12 days to go on this 45 day challenge, my goal of getting to 180 is obviously not going to be reached by that point. I do still have hopes that I'll get to 185 or less by then though. Then I'll reset my target to 178 pounds. That will be fun.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)