Still learning

Okay so I just spent like at least 20 minutes typing this big long entry with all the quotes and explainations and everything just to have it all go away due to a stupid computer error! ARGH! So, unfortunately, you will all just have to make do with the following short and sweet version:

Today I set out to figure out what my minimum fat intake should be each day. Turns out there is no minimum. There is only a maximum of 30%. However, in doing this research I also discovered that the minimum protein for a healthy adult is 0.8g per kg of desired body weight and that 10%-20% of your daily calories should come from protein. I also discovered how to figure out how much carbohydrates I need each day so here are the new numbers I have come to:

240 calories from protein =60g =16%
441 calories from fat =49g =30%
795 calories from carbohydrates =199g =54%
1476 total calories per day =100%

For more info on how I came to these numbers, please refer to the following websites:
http://espn.go.com/trainingroom/s/1999/1001/90270.html
http://diet.ivillage.com/plans/plowcal/0,,gdf,00.html

Thank you and have a nice day! :-)

The last 4 days

When I made the decision to change my lifestyle to lose weight I never thought my problem would be not eating ENOUGH calories! Yet, looking back over the last four days I know that that has been a problem. The trick is meeting the higher calorie target without exceeding my other targets (such as carbs & sugars).

I've also been a little low on fats, but my history tells me that low fats is good for helping me losing weight so I'm not too worried about that.

Another problem I've noticed is my sodium level. However, I'm not too sure what to do about that, if anything. I need to look into how the standard "average" amount is decided and figure out how crucial it is to meet that. It seems nearly impossible to not exceed the level unless I completely cut out EVERYTHING commercially made. I mean, I'd have start baking my own bread.... and I don't know WHAT I would do about meats. Well, for now I'm not going to worry about it.

It's a beautiful day and I think I'll take Ethan out for a nice long walk. :-)

The amazing shrinking stomach!

I can't believe how quickly my stomach seems to have shrunk. Having discovered that my daily total of calories was too low, I've made the appropriate adjustments. So, today I ate something for lunch I probably wouldn't have even thought of eating yesterday. I had a bagel, chicken, and tomatoe sandwich. This is something that MIGHT have filled me up just enough prior to beginning my diet, but probably would have required some pretzels to really top me off. Today, I am STUFFED! Ugh! The idea of eating one more bite is not even remotely appealing. I don't even want to drink any more water for a little while. Don't get me wrong... it tasted SOOOOOO good! But I am SOOOOO full now. :-)

It's kinda weird knowing that I am totally stuffed AND I haven't blown my diet. However, it does make me feel like I NEED to exercise to burn it off... but I guess that's a good thing, right?

It's strange the tricks your mind plays on you. Logically, I know that I made a good, healthy choice for lunch, but emotionally I ......have to resist the urge to over-exercise. I feel like if I'm stuffed than I should do at LEAST 1 1/2 hrs of exercise and probably another hour tomorrow just to "make up" for today's lunch. I wonder where this comes from? Isn't it odd that I think the more full I am the more I have to kill myself exercising? hmmm

You know, I think I believe that the only way to lose weight is to be just a little hungry all the time. Maybe that's not true. I'm going to try to stick to the numbers I've come to and really focus on moderate exercise every day. Then time will be the judge. If I haven't lost any weight in a month, I'll have to reevaluate. If it's working...yippee!

Re-evaluating

Okay, so Luke just chewed me out for my calorie total. He pointed out that my new exercise schedule requires that I categorize myself in the "moderately active" category which, after rereading the descriptions I have to agree with. I was categorizing myself in the previous post based on what I had been doing up until now. But, he's right. Since I'm going to be exercising for 30 minutes, 5 days a week now, I need to change how I view my level of activity. So.....

For "moderately active" I require 2624 calories to maintain my weight.
For "lightly active" I require 2327 calories to maintain my weight.
Subtract 1000 calories from each and I get 1327 to 1624.
Subtract 1327 from 1624 and I'm left with 297.
Divide that in two and I get 148.5.
Add 149 to 1327 and I get 1476.

My new target calorie total is 1476.

Side Note:
I would like to point out that I could easily have hidden my mistake. I had only just published my previous post and it's doubtful anyone would have seen it yet. I could easily have edited that post to smooth over my faux-pas, but instead I decided to stick to my promise of honesty and make the correction public.

Upgrading to Premium

Well, so far, so good. I did quite a bit of exercise yesterday and I think I ate well. Not perfect, but pretty good.

I've already had 32oz of water today and a healthy breakfast. Next up: exercise! :-D

I'm really excited about the two forum groups I'm a part of. I think they're really going to help keep me accountable for staying on track. It's good to commit myself while the motivation is still high. That way when it weakens I've got commitments to fulfill so I can't screw off or quit.

Because I have just upgraded to Premium membership at www.my-calorie-counter.com I am now able to add custom foods, custom menus, and custom activities to my journal. I am also able to customize my target levels and have made the decision to adjust my caloric target level to 1179calories per day.

I chose this number because according to an online calorie calculator my caloric needs are 2031 if I am mostly sedentary all day and 2327 if I am lightly active during the day. As a compromise I decided to pick the number right in between those two (2179). When losing weight you subtract 500cal from your daily total to lose about 1lb/wk. Since I want to lose 2lbs/wk right now I subtracted 1000cal from my daily total. And that is how I got to a target total of 1179calories per day.

Also, now that I've upgraded to Premium I can see the totals at the bottom of my journal and there's no guess work about how well I did.
It's a bit frustrating to see that I went over my caloric target yesterday by 84 calories. It doesn't seem like much, but if I had just resisted that bowl of cereal after dinner I would have stayed under my target. Knowing that I probably could have chosen something else to fill me up with less calories makes me want to kick myself. Oh well. Now I know and next time I'll choose better.
The great thing about the "diet" I'm following is that I'm not totally starving myself. When I'm hungry I eat. It's just that I don't get really full every time (just satisfied) and I make smarter choices (cereal excluded).
Having the MCC website makes it so much easier to have confidence in my choices because I can see everything at a glance. For example: If I see that I'm low on protein then for my next meal/snack I can choose something higher in protein than I might otherwise. If I see that I'm high in salt, than I can choose something with a lower sodium content.
I'm very happy with my early Christmas present. :-)

Progress

Well, having now weighed myself at about 1:30pm (which is closer to the last time I weighed myself) I can now more accurately claim a lose of 1.5lbs for a current weight of 191lbs. Not as amazing, but still pretty good considering it was the week of Thanksgiving. I'm satisfied with it.

Well, in other news, I have found a really cool website called my-calorie-counter.com. I have signed myself up for a free account at this site and will be keeping my food and exercise details there instead of trying to keep them on this blog. The site has all kinds of really cool features that make it much easier to figure out how much of what (ie calories, fat, protein) you've eaten. It also helps you to track and compare exercise and diet details and progress which helps you figure out what is working, what isn't working, and what you might want to try for better results. It also has a forum where you can talk to other people who are trying to lose weight and get support and tips that way. Another of it's features is a blog, but I will continue to keep my thoughts and such on this blog (the one you're reading). Since I will be tracking my numbers on the other site, this will be my dieting diary of sorts... the emotional side of it more than the hard numbers. However I will post my number progress on this blog every now again.
To keep an eye on how I'm doing daily you can visit my MCC homepage at:
www.my-calorie-counter.com/kamariden

As for exercise today... I did 20min cardio dance by myself, then another 20min with Ethan, another 10min of cool down and stretching, and about 15min of the yoga exercises I did during my pregnancy which focus on flexibility, deep breathing, and conscious relaxation.

I have done really well diet wise today. My water intake has been stellar and I still have a good amount of calories and such left for dinner which Luke is making right now. He's making chicken and a mix of green veggies. I can't wait.

Today I am excited, pleased with my results, and motivated to keep it up.

Post-Thanksgiving Progress Report

Already, I have found that the exercising is making a difference in my level of energy and that my son is benefiting from the results. So that's added motivation.

My usual form of exercise is to do a mom & baby dance video (by Infantastic) that he absolutely LOVES. So I get a double benefit of exercise and bonding with my son.

Thursday, Nov. 23rd, I celebrated Thanksgiving with my husband's family. Friday evening I drove out of town to go have a second celebration with my family. I did well at the first Thanksgiving with keeping my portions small and only having one piece of desert instead of the second servings I wanted.............................


As for my score in eating over the weekend... well, I didn't do as great as I had hoped, but I did do pretty well under the circumstances. I stuck to my small desert rule and didn't eat the huge amounts of foods that I wanted to. I tried to keep my portions reasonable and stopped eating when I became satisfyingly full rather than can't-eat-another-bite full. ;-)
And, on top of that, I actually exercised a little bit Saturday morning- something I hadn't planned on since I was out of town. It was a sort of 20min power walk video of my mom's. It certainly wasn't at the level of intensity I'm used to, but at least it was something. I owe my mom a thanks for suggesting it.
On Wednesday, Nov. 15th I weighed 192.5lbs. On Thursday I weighed 192.5lbs. Because I was out of town, I did not weigh myself Friday or Saturday. Just now I weighed myself again and to my utter shock I weigh 190.0lbs! Yippee! Of course the real test will come around noon tomorrow since that is the time of day I weighed myself at previously and I know people can fluctuate slightly throughout the day. Still, at least that means I definately didn't gain anything! Yeah!
So, overall I'm feeling pretty proud of my Thanksgiving celebration outcomes. Now comes the hardcore stuff. I've really got to make a point of drinking a ton of water so that I can keep my portions small and my meals spread farther apart. I also have to really commit to exercising at a calorie burning level and duration EVERY DAY.
The combination of these factors is what really seems to work for me: small portions, low fat intake, tons of water, and regular hardcore exercise.
Actually, my apparent success for these past few days has really got me excited.

I 've read that for many people, having a clearly defined goal (a reason beyond a simple number) is key to whether or not their attempt at weightloss is successful.
For me, my most motivating goal is to have a natural birth the next time around. To help better my chances of successfully acheiving this, I will need a high endurance (in case of long labor), excellent flexibility (especially in my lower body for birthing positions), leg & arm strength (also for birthing positions & for lifting Ethan), strong ab muscles (for carrying the baby in pregnancy & pushing), strong kegel muscles (to protect my pelvic floor during delivery), and an overall excellent health to lower my risk of any pregnancy complications such as gestational diabetes or pregnancy induced hypertension. This list doesn't cover all the needs but you get the general idea.

Well, on to another very important need: sleep. :-)