Since I want to get into my best shape for my race in just 4.5 weeks, I started writing down what I'm eating and trying to count it up and inputting my workouts to see how many calories I'm burning. Yesterday I came up with 2,500 burned and 2,000 eaten which is right on track for that 500 calorie deficit so that I can lose 1 pound/week or 5 lbs by Broad Street. I usually last about 3 days on calorie counting and then I just lose interest and get frustrated. I'm trying hard to do it, but what I find difficult is that I don't eat exact things that are listed, instead, I make things that have random ingredients that aren't even in the system - like pancakes not made with pancake mix, protein powder "fudge," muffins w/ oat flour base, etc. It's kind of tedious to enter in all of the ingredients and tally them up and frankly, I don't have time for it! I'm basically estimating things with a handful of ingredients. I don't have time to put it into the computer either, but I know it's good to see what vitamins you are deficient in and how much fat/protein,etc you are eating. I am just writing it on a post-it note and tallying it up. Do you know any good sites that make it easy?
What I learned so far is:
- Within 30 minutes of working out I need to eat something or I'm going to make bad decisions and start picking at everything. I'm starving.
- Around 2pm/3pm I become starving if I don't eat a good lunch. Sometimes I am just picking making both of the kids lunches and don't make something substantial enough for myself.
- Around 5pm, I'm ready to inhale dinner.
- Around 8/9pm, I feel that I've deserved a dessert or to pick at food even if I'm not hungry.
- I was surprised that I was eating 2000 calories actually - all of those little pickings add up!
I have been checking out those things where you wear something around and it calculates your calorie burn and heart rate all day. ex:
FitBit and
Body Media Fit.
I think I want something that I can wear to see what my heart rate is throughout the day. Any suggestions?
Training post race week:
Monday - swim 4000 yds - used flippers, my legs were tired
Tuesday - ran 10 easy miles split up (7ish in the morning and 3 in the afternoon)
Today - 2nd spin class! did 2 miles, abs and arms, then the class = 42 min and 11.9 miles
My legs are still tired and knees a bit sore!
Your eating habits/timing sound just like mine - except you usually make wise choices with food and I dont :)
ReplyDeleteMy eating habits are very similar. In fact, I could have written that time line. My problem is that I always intend skip those 500 calories to drop the last few pounds, but at 8/9 pm, I ALWAYS eat something. And all those somethings add up.
ReplyDeleteI dont know how you do SO much and have a family too! your my hero!
ReplyDeleteA good protein rich breakfast helps me. Lunch is key too. If I skimp (soup, etc) then I am like you around 2pm. Fitday is good if you have time to enter. There is an iPhone app Fooducate app for the iPhone. Good luck. I usually estimate, try to plan for good food choices based on those estimates.
ReplyDeleteFor the 8pm snack, try to do one of those 100 calorie snacks. They are enough for me when I cannot resist.
You should eat a protien/carb mix within 30 minutes of a workout as it aid recovery - milkshake / smoothie / yoghurt / carb/protoien mix bar.
ReplyDeleteCounting all those calories sounds exhausting! It's def not for me!
You should def make time to eat properly at lunch - I know it's hard with the kidiwinks in the background, but it's good for them to see you eating properly too.
I'm often starving at 5pm too, but as Al doesn't get home until 7pm we eat then. I'll often have a snack at 5pm with Murray as he eats his tea which gives me energy for bath + bed time and stops me wanting to eat off my arm as I make tea! LOL!
It sounds like you're in pretty good shape already - think you just got a PR??!!
I'm a grazer too. It's hard when your day is so long not to be.I find I turn to pre-packaged foods when I'm counting calories, which isn't a good shift.
ReplyDeleteI've been happy with my Polar F6 HRM, but it's 5 years old now. I'm sure you can find something fancier at the $100 prive point now. I've heard good things about the Timex Ironman series too.
I tried the whole calorie counting too, and it was exhausting. Iam not going to do it anymore. I am just going to try to make smart decisions.
ReplyDelete