So, I have a lot of free time since it is summer. Every summer I end up losing a few pounds because I spend more time at the gym than I normally do. It turns out that I start taking pilates classes, a bunch a week, and last summer I was close to a nice six pack and in great shape. Well, in the past 3 months, I've put on these 5-6 lbs that won't go away. I really don't like them and we're not friends! And the problem is, I don't know how to attack it. I feel like I'm a superb eater (except when I bake!) and I work out at the very least 6 day a week for an hour. Usually it is more than that though. I have been running 30-40 miles a week since January, so the fact that these pounds joined me is unfair!
When I was in college, and I wanted to lose weight, I didn't really know what I was doing. I read books about nutrition and started counting calories. I was eating veggie burgers, vegetables, cereal, milk - this is when I really started to learn about nutrition and I became really good at it in the years following. But at the time, to lose weight, I started eating 1100 calories a day and I was on the crew team. In 6 months, I lost 25 pounds. My personality changed, I stopped going out, stopped drinking, and overall, stopped having fun. And part of that personality stuck with me and I don't like her at all. As a result, I try not to be overly concerned about my weight, but when I feel like I'm not comfortable in my skin, I take action.
I went to the gym and they have personal trainers. I decided I'd try it so they gave me a consult, which was today. First of all, the PT was approximately 22 years old. Everything he was telling me, I already knew. My main desire was to know how many calories should I be eating for my activity level. When I put my goal weight and activity into fitness websites (i.e.
REAL AGE ) it always tells me 1800+ calories( for sedentary), or more on the side of 2000+ (for medium active) which sounds like a whole lot. I was trying for about a month to do 1500 calories. Nothing happened. I don't want to eat more unless I feel like I have to, and surely, I don't think less would be good. This guy had no numbers for me. Instead, he has a list of 5 carbs and 5 proteins, and pretty much the diet was to have 1 protein + 1 carb every meal and snack for 5 meals a day off that list. There was one vegetarian item on the protein list, egg whites. So I'm picturing :
breakfast: egg whites + oatmeal.
Snack: egg whites and bread,
lunch: egg whites...you get the point.
You could have as many veggies as you wanted. It was a horrible plan coming from a gym! Horrendous! It wasn't something that you would continue to do forever (a lifestyle change) but a stupid let's deprive ourselves until we lose weight diet then start dying for other foods and have a binge and gain all the weight back. Seriously!! I could have taught this kid something! The whole diet was based off of no sodium. I was frustrated. He did my stats though, which was helpful. My body fat was 23%. That sounds high for someone that eats very well and works out 24/7! Also my waist to hip ratio was high (according to Mr. 22 year old). I might go to a real nutritionist because I feel like it's important that I know how much I should be eating for optimal fitness, but for now I'm just going to wing it and try to eat more, maybe 1800 calories a day? Am I medium active? very active? Sedentary if I workout an hour a day and teach or sit for the rest? Maybe I'm not eating enough? Constant battle.
ell, bad run. Took off Sat and ran today, slow and easy, still inside, and it was kind of boring. I decided I ran too many days last week, kind of left me unmotivated, and didn't get enough rest days in between, so I'm going to try to follow a schedule for next week, maybe even just start following a training plan for the 1/2 that I'm doing in September. Has anyone used Smart coach? I like it, but I'd rather be able to choose how many days a week I want to run, and my level of experience. Do you know any other sites out there that create a plan for you?
