Well, my pants are a bit tight from the trip… and Christmas, so now is the time to refocus again. I am going to start a lifting program and I think I settled on doing the Female Body Breakthrough by Rachel Cosgrove again. Now I don’t necessarily care for her approach as far as trying to get women to lift with silly acronyms like BITCHH – Be Inspiring, Totally Confident and Hot, rocking the jeans, turning heads, etc., but I guess I understand if that is how she needs to hook the nonlifter. Those women who understand how strength training changes your body don’t need to be catered to like this. I much more prefer the approach written in New Rules of Lifting for Women.
Okay, I’ll get back on track again, sorry. 😳
For me, the eating style is pretty much what I try to do most times, but a bit stricter than I normally do (no sugar except on splurge meals). I didn’t really follow her eating plan too closely when I was doing this a couple years ago, but I am going to this time. I also am going to try something really radical for me, which is to not count calories. I am just going to write down what I ate in a notebook and stick to portions and see what happens. I have tracked food for years, but I thought this would be a good challenge for me. This is not moving towards intuitive eating at all – that just doesn’t work for me, which is okay. It’s just something to help make me very aware of what I am eating. I know that sounds odd to say considering I track my food, but the trackers I use have settings where you can have favorite meals set up or common foods and just add them with a click of a button, so you don’t pay attention as much. Does this make sense to anyone but me?
Basic plan is 5 to 6 eats per day (snack or meal). On lifting days, protein shake post workout. Meals should be as unprocessed as possible with protein and either a fruit or veggie with every meal or snack. Starchy carbs should not include bread or pasta, but things like oats, potatoes, corn tortillas, rice. Protein bar or shake in a pinch, not as part of the daily food.
The idea is to stay on track 90% of the time, which is the goal, and 10% of the meals are splurge meals where you can eat the things you aren’t eating the other 90% of the time. This includes bagels for me a couple times a week and a meal out (not that you can’t follow the guidelines eating out, but the option is there). 10% equals about 3 to 4 meals a week.
And yes, I know it isn’t the beginning of the month when I normally set goals for myself, but I need a mid winter push.
So, here is my example today of a nonlifting food day:
Brekkie – steel cut oats with egg whites whisked in, topped with a banana sauteed in a teaspoon of butter and cinnamon (plus coffee and almond milk).
Morning snack. Sometimes I am really hungry for a snack, sometimes I am fine until lunch. No rhyme or reason to it, either, so I have it if I want it – like today. Grapes and a portion of lean ham.
Lunch. This is turkey chili that I made just throwing ground turkey, canned tomatoes, a bit of onion, chili powder, a can of diced green chiles and some salt and pepper in a pot. Corn tortilla on the side. (This picture is last night’s dinner, but I had the same thing for lunch – only I ate it at the computer!)
Afternoon snack – latte and blueberries!
Dinner – Omelet made with 1 egg plus some egg whites to bulk it up. Topped with some parmesan cheese. Side of sauteed and shredded brussel sprouts.
Evening snack. 1/4 cup of ricotta mixed with 1/4 cup of pumpkin and a boatload of cinnamon. Plus about 1.5 walnuts that happened to be in the fridge. Not sure why a container with only this many nuts was in there, but there you go.
This is made up and in the fridge to have later. I was going to get closer with the picture, but then thought better of it 😀
Eyeballing the day puts this probably around 1400-1500 calories, but again, I am not counting them specifically.
I’ll talk about the strength part later and get back to listing what I do for that. It will definitely be part of Healthy Heart Weekend! I will state my power goal is to be able to do a 25# dumbbell shoulder press – without use of momentum. I got there before and I can do it again!
I’m awful at tracking my food – I know that lately I’ve had more junk type food than I should and that needs to stop. Maybe if I force myself to write it down I will do better!
I track my food and still go overboard LOL! Sometimes I just input 1000 calories when I have a snack attack because I know it’s just way too much.
I like my. Fitness pal for tracking my eats. You are so good at goal setting Lori!
I use MFP as well, which I like. It’s just nice to not know the exact number of calories sometimes.
Hi Lori,
A few quick questions. How did you shred the Brussels sprouts? And what kind of canned pumpkin did you use (canned pumpkin really confuses me hahah!). Thanks. Everything looked great! Good luck!
I use a knife to shred them, but you could use a mandolin or food processor. They cook super fast when shredded, which is a bonus.
The pumpkin is the canned plain pumpkin – not pumpkin pie filling. The ingredients should say only pumpkin and nothing else. It’s about 40 calories per 1/2 cup. My pantry has canned pumpkin in it year round!
((I need to try making yer turkey chilli))
Super simple, which is the goal 😀
I didn’t know you could add egg whites to oats, and I completely forgot about pumpkin…again. I haven’t bought it or roasted in in ages. And I love it! As always, thanks for the inspiration 🙂
Yes – I have been whisking egg whites into oats for years. It’s a nice protein boost and fluffs up the oats. Go slow when adding though (right at the end of cooking) so you don’t end up with scrambled whites. Ewww.
I like your plan. Personally I don’t think we should count calories all the time, at some point you should know what is good for and what not. I’m not doing it anymore, it makes me cranky. The eating plan sounds very good to me except leaving out bread and pasta but that’s personal.
I’m definitely in for next weekend. So far the weather looks good and Bella will participate then too in our 12K walk. If we don’t go I will run at least once this weekend.
I don’t eat that much bread or pasta anyway, so it is not a big deal. However, I still fit in my bagels on the 10% days. It’s all good that way 😀
I wish I liked lifting/strength training as much as you do.
I have to say, the two weeks I was doing Dr. Oz’ plan, I REALLY, REALLY enjoyed not tracking my food. I’ve started up again and Monday found myself playing that game of “oooh I have a few more calories” when I wasn’t even hungry! Not good. I need to figure out where the balance of not tracking and what I call over tracking is. Maybe set up some general rules of eating?
I like the 90/10 thing as I’m at the point where no matter how much I want to lose weight, I also want to live my life and not be stressed about food.
Why yes, this comment was all about me LOL!
Comments can be all about you – that’s how I do it LOL!
I like the general rules of eating that I am following now. I am going old school and just jot down in a notebook what I ate. It’s a novelty now, which probably will wear off, but I’ll take it!
I totally thought you went off the deep end and put seared SCALLOPS on your oatmeal!!! At first glance the bananas fooled me.
I’ve had so much illness since fall, It’s been hard for me to stay on track with anything resembling my normal routine. I’m over the strep throat and sinus infection that sidelined me for two weeks and finally feel pretty good. I’m going to do a 21 day sugar detox (no booze, no sugar) to reset and need to start rebuilding my stamina.
Ewwww! Scallops on oats! Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad…
IE does not work for me wither Lori as much as many like it. I counted way back when I had a good basis for my eats & calories & stats & all that. From there, I just adjusted based on clothes fitting & scale & I always measured out any new food so I knew the portion size… I guess what I am getting at is for my life for many years now, I have a good feel of what I am eating but I have not tracked to specifics or counted calories for years. I made adjustments to my current eats & always knew the portion sizes & nutritional stats of the food I eat cause I do have a goal to have a certain portion of fat, carbs, protein.. 🙂 Kinda like what you are doing. With age, I had to make a lot of adjustments for sure!
I’ve had sauteed bananas on my mind for a week and -poof – they show up on your blog. I haven’t ever had much success making them, is it better to us a really firm banana?
Can’t wait to hear about your lifting progress!!
Firmer banana definitely better. You also want to let them just sit in the pan and flip them once. Don’t stir them around.
I love your new challenge. I was thinking this morning that now that I am back to my night time workouts, it makes such a difference – I don’t want to eat shit after I workout at night!
But I do know I need to tweak my nutrition – while having a piece of pizza isn’t the end of the world, I can’t have it every day!
The mom in me wants to caution you with lifting and your back. The supportive friend in me wants to support you wholeheartedly. The Gemini in me means that you never know who will be commenting!
It’s great that you’re taking action now. Stay on top of the little things so they don’t become big, you know?
Your thoughts = my thoughts! I know one thing I can do for my back is to strengthen my core much more. I also told John last night that I will do the FBB program, but if it seems uncomfortable for my back, I will switch to New Rules of Lifting for Life.
Sounds like a good plan – glad you are being flexible and realistic with what you have to deal with.
I appreciate your stark honesty about weight gain, etc. Makes me feel better. 🙂 I like your plan. Taking a few pages from your book.
Shoot, my library doesn’t seem to have FBB anymore. I’m getting bored with LfL and would like to take on something fresh. For now, I’m going to combine LFL and some routines from Swiss Ball for Total Fitness. (I love passive core work.) And, of course, the skim coat/painting workout. 🙂
Since I know about how many calories my meals have, I’d just as soon use a notebook as anything else for tracking. When I feel the need for more info, I just use sparkpeople. Whatever works, right?