DVD - Max Cardio Conditioning
I went to a potluck last night with an aprhodisiac food theme inspired by Valentine's Day and probably ate more than I should. My contribution was empanadas. The savory entree version was stuffed with black beans, roasted vegetables (asparagus, zucchini, poblano pepper, red bell pepper & jalapeno) & goat cheese. The smaller, "sweet" empanadas were filled with roasted butternut squash, bake plantain & goat cheese. Both used frozen puff pastry as the dough. Both were fabulous. I'm sure I drank a little too much.
If I were more of a calorie counter (as in needing to count every last calorie that goes into my stomach), I would probably be horrified - but I'd accounted for the splurge earlier in the day. Besides, when I do a diet that involves a caloric limit, I just follow a plan for a week or two until I have a good handle on the portion sizes and preparation methods, including how to make substitutions for variety that don't blow the diet away. (so long as I don't start adding lots of extras to whatever I learned to make).
In the past, I've tried using things like Fitday.com but found all of the data-entry tedious and eventually I always defaulted to the less strict monitoring I mentioned above, and would find myself recreating my meals on Fitday days later. I have overall a pretty good sense what I can and should eat, so am able to stick to this less stringent method generally - it's when I start eating out a lot or stop being even moderately vigilant that I get myself into trouble.
The potluck was the first time I've seen most of the people in attendance since New Year's or the last potluck (they are monthly on the 2nd Sunday of the month), some of whom have been following my Insanity progress via this blog. What that meant is that I got felt up a lot. Everyone wanted to feel my arms and many wanted to check my thighs.
Afterward, I spent the night at some friends' place, and as usual when I sleep over there had a wicked allergy attack come on in the middle of the night. I'd forgotten to bring my allergy meds, and had to wait until many hours later to take anything. Mixing red wines as I did last night is sometimes enough to set my sinuses to wonky. Today I found out they have a moldy wall in their rental unit - most likely the reason I *always* have an allergy attack when I sleep there. Waiting so long to take allergy meds when I have an attack of this magnitude makes me feel like I've got a cold or mild sinus infection, with all the requisite body fatigue and general malaise.
On my way home, I stopped and bought some over-the-counter allergy meds (these have always worked best for me) and popped a dose before beginning the 30 minute BART + walking journey home. By the time I arrived, I was able to breathe through my nose but was feeling a little wheezy.
I confess I was worried about my ability to do the workout this afternoon, especially because there are fewer sanctioned rest breaks in the non-interval workouts. I did it anyway. But I felt like I hit a wall at the end of the stretch section. I seriously considered turning the workout off rather than pushing myself through 30 minutes of intense cardio and then another brief stretch to cool down. 30 more minutes? Really?
I made myself do the first couple of exercises after a delayed start of a few seconds. I found myself looking at the clock to find out how long I had left after what seemed like forever. It had been about 3 minutes. 27 more minutes? Really?
I did this every few minutes until there were about 15 minutes left. At that point I'd given myself over to the idea of completing the workout and I noticed I wasn't struggling physically or feeling as tired as I had when I still had 27 minutes to go. I don't think this was all willpower, mind you. I'm pretty sure there was some adrenaline/endorphin effect in the mix, especially because when it was all over, I felt much better than I had when I'd started. Tired, sore and sweaty, yes, but no longer sickly and run-down.
I'm pretty sure what I did tonight is what Shaun is talking about when he beseeches us to "dig deeper".
Showing posts with label diet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diet. Show all posts
Monday, February 15, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Day 9
DVD - Pure Cardio
I have no major break throughs with the workout to report, and I figure anyone who is reading this will get tired of "I took fewer breaks this time" reports (however true they might be).
Instead, I will talk a little about food.
The first few days of the diet plan were hard. I was eating regularly, but somehow I felt an underlying hunger all day.I had a couple of extra "snacks" the first couple of days, but they were healthy. When doing insanity, snacks of a certain variety are called "food blocks" and you are supposed to add them in 100 at a time. Things like 1 small banana, or 12 almonds, or 1/2 cup of yogurt with 1 tbsp. of high-fiber cereal, or 1/2 an apple with reduced-fat cheese. When I snacked, I tended not to add the full 100 calories and only did so once per day (mostly because I still wanted to have a glass of wine later). A full apple. A banana. String cheese. By Thursday of the first week, I noticed that slight pang of hunger throughout the day had gone away and I wasn't needing an extras.
Today I went on a site visit to a hotel we are considering using for an upcoming conference at work. As part of the visit, I was treated to lunch in the hotel's breakfast and lunch restaurant (Park Grill in the Financial District). As you might expect, it's hard to stick to 300 calories when dining out. I made the best choices I could and tried to stick to a mixture of lean protein and vegetables: a mixed green salad followed by a Mexican seafood mixed grill with one bay scallop, two large prawns & a 3 to 4 oz piece of salmon served with broccoli and spaghetti squash (I am not sure what was Mexican about it). The food was fucking amazing, and worth every last calorie.
I don't beat myself up about this sort of "slip" when I am dieting. I know I'm never going to lose a pound a day. I'd have to somehow consume a net -3,500 calories a day to do that. Considering my base caloric in-take were I to lay in bed and not move all day is over 1,400 ... do the math. If you figure out how to consume and burn -6,000 calories a day and not keel over and die, let me know. Instead, I consider my caloric restriction as a cumulative weekly total. If I stick to the Insanity meal plan the rest of the week, even if I ate 1,000 calories more than I burned today (which I doubt, since I slightly adjusted the rest of the meals downward), I'm still going to burn roughly 5,000 calories less than I consume. And I also know that a regular but infrequent splurge, for me, will keep me more on track than if I try to give up everything I like for a sustained amount of time because I'm a fairly serious Foodie so it's hard for me to exist in food-as-fuel mode for too long without falling off the wagon, as it were.
The other pertinent thing about my site visit was that it gave me the opportunity to discuss my "boot camp" with a new person, which in turn got me excited about my plan again. Other people sharing my enthusiasm and being impressed with my effort is a nice little jolt of motivation. And I figure, the more people I tell, the more I'm going to feel accountable, like I have to stick to it. I'm doing this for me, ultimately, but I'm someone who sometimes requires a little help and external motivation. To put it bluntly, I don't want to have to explain why I gave up. Hence the blog.
I have no major break throughs with the workout to report, and I figure anyone who is reading this will get tired of "I took fewer breaks this time" reports (however true they might be).
Instead, I will talk a little about food.
The first few days of the diet plan were hard. I was eating regularly, but somehow I felt an underlying hunger all day.I had a couple of extra "snacks" the first couple of days, but they were healthy. When doing insanity, snacks of a certain variety are called "food blocks" and you are supposed to add them in 100 at a time. Things like 1 small banana, or 12 almonds, or 1/2 cup of yogurt with 1 tbsp. of high-fiber cereal, or 1/2 an apple with reduced-fat cheese. When I snacked, I tended not to add the full 100 calories and only did so once per day (mostly because I still wanted to have a glass of wine later). A full apple. A banana. String cheese. By Thursday of the first week, I noticed that slight pang of hunger throughout the day had gone away and I wasn't needing an extras.
Today I went on a site visit to a hotel we are considering using for an upcoming conference at work. As part of the visit, I was treated to lunch in the hotel's breakfast and lunch restaurant (Park Grill in the Financial District). As you might expect, it's hard to stick to 300 calories when dining out. I made the best choices I could and tried to stick to a mixture of lean protein and vegetables: a mixed green salad followed by a Mexican seafood mixed grill with one bay scallop, two large prawns & a 3 to 4 oz piece of salmon served with broccoli and spaghetti squash (I am not sure what was Mexican about it). The food was fucking amazing, and worth every last calorie.
I don't beat myself up about this sort of "slip" when I am dieting. I know I'm never going to lose a pound a day. I'd have to somehow consume a net -3,500 calories a day to do that. Considering my base caloric in-take were I to lay in bed and not move all day is over 1,400 ... do the math. If you figure out how to consume and burn -6,000 calories a day and not keel over and die, let me know. Instead, I consider my caloric restriction as a cumulative weekly total. If I stick to the Insanity meal plan the rest of the week, even if I ate 1,000 calories more than I burned today (which I doubt, since I slightly adjusted the rest of the meals downward), I'm still going to burn roughly 5,000 calories less than I consume. And I also know that a regular but infrequent splurge, for me, will keep me more on track than if I try to give up everything I like for a sustained amount of time because I'm a fairly serious Foodie so it's hard for me to exist in food-as-fuel mode for too long without falling off the wagon, as it were.
The other pertinent thing about my site visit was that it gave me the opportunity to discuss my "boot camp" with a new person, which in turn got me excited about my plan again. Other people sharing my enthusiasm and being impressed with my effort is a nice little jolt of motivation. And I figure, the more people I tell, the more I'm going to feel accountable, like I have to stick to it. I'm doing this for me, ultimately, but I'm someone who sometimes requires a little help and external motivation. To put it bluntly, I don't want to have to explain why I gave up. Hence the blog.
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