P90X, Shakeology, and my niche

I've been plugging away the last few months, same as normal. But the scale edged upward and I couldn't figure out why. I cleaned up my diet, increased my workouts, increased my lifting days, and increased my weights. Last week, I think I figured it out. With all those increases, I never increased my calorie intake. Most days, I was somewhere around a 1000 calorie deficit. If I wasn't tracking, usually my diet was less than healthy. I think my deficit was too big most of the time, so my body was holding onto fat. Then when I had a higher calorie day, my body held onto that too. Not fun. So I've increased my calories and low and behold, the scale has leveled off. Once a certain visitor disappears and I'm not so sore, I think it will start going back down. Oh, I do believe some of it is muscle, since my clothes still mostly fit well. I am more concerned with size and shape than weight at this point.

In case my body has become too accustomed to my beloved TurboFire/Kick/Jam and ChaLEAN Extreme, I also decided to switch up my workouts, in hopes that it'll help burn off the remaining belly fat I have and I'll get the lean, toned look I would so love to have. After toying with the idea forever, I decided I'm doing P90X. So I started it last Monday. I was a little scared, to be honest. Everyone talks about how hard it is and I had it built up in my head as the gold standard of home workouts. But I not only survived week one, I crushed it. I mean, I'm still feeling my way through it, but I pushed hard through it and never once did I think I was going to die. Obviously, I'm in better shape than I've given myself credit for. But it's a change and I am pretty sore, so I believe it's working. Even with all the muscle soreness, the scale is level again. That's a nice thing to see, especially after a slow but steady gain. I have this sense of accomplishment and like I can conquer the world. I faced this scary thing and I conquered it. I love it. :)

I also started drinking Shakeology last week. I was skeptical. But at the same time, I believe that Beachbody fully researches their fitness programs and they have quality products. So even before beginning Shakeology, I believed it was the best shake out there. But there were big claims about it. It helps you lose/maintain your weight, fewer colds, it cuts cravings, it lowers cholesterol, it makes your hair and nails stronger and healthier, it helps with symptoms of IBS, fibromyalgia, and other stomach/digestion issues, etc. But with my frustration with the scale and my curiosity up (especially since I have issues with IBS, bloating, and stomach acid), I decided it was time to try it. I tried the Tropical Strawberry. It's good but tastes like something I can't quite put my finger on. It is a little gritty, but apparently using a blender instead of a shaker cup solves that issue and that's because it's vegan. But overall, it's pretty good. I'm still switching to chocolate next month because I hate cleaning our blender, lol. Here's the thing. Day two we had small group. There was a chocolate peanut butter cake. I had a piece. It was delicious. But I was satisfied and didn't want more. I didn't want a cookie either. It's day eleven now. My period started. Normally by now I've been craving everything under the sun. And I've noticed that if I give into a sweet craving, then I want salty, then sweet again, and it continues. I haven't had any strong cravings this week. None. My favorite Cadbury mini eggs are open on the counter and I haven't had any. No cravings for sweets, salty things, or anything deep-fried. Absolutely remarkable. Now, this might be due in part to my increased calorie intake. But I am amazed. I haven't noticed any other benefits yet but it's only been a week and a half. The scale hasn't really gone down either, but with the combo of my period and a new program and muscle soreness, that's not surprising. So we'll see.

Oh, I should add: I'm drinking it as a snack and a supplement. I'm still eating three meals a day of good, whole, healthy food. I do not think meal replacement shakes are a good idea. In what other country is there an excess of food and a problem with obesity, and people think the solution is not to give up crappy food but to give up solid food in favor of a "nutrition" shake? I mean, really, people. You won't give up McDonald's and pop and candy and junk but you will stop eating solid food altogether? And what happens when you don't have money to buy the shake or you decide you want to take in calories you can actually chew? You regain the weight and usually a little more. Most shakes don't have the nutrition to be worth the money they cost and won't do jack for you in terms of health. Eat healthy, nutritious, whole foods. If you think you could use it, add a nutritious shake as a supplement to fill in the gaps. How will you know if it's actually worthwhile? You'll probably be more satisfied and have fewer cravings. How do you know if the shake is a scam? They recommend drinking their shake more than they recommend eating a whole, balanced diet. If they recommend drinking their shake for two meals a day and only one actual meal? Run. I feel I should mention here that I did try one of the other shakes as a meal replacement several years back. I still had cravings. I plateaued, about 25 lbs over what's considered healthy for my height. I didn't notice any health benefits. The only thing that was noticeably thinner was my wallet. I lost more weight and gained more health eating real food and counting calories than I ever did drinking some shake. Bottom line: if you must, use a shake as a supplement, not as a meal. But check the nutrition label first. If the shake only has nutrients you could easily get in real food, don't waste your money. Buy the food instead.

My class. Sigh. It fizzled and died after Christmas break. I am disappointed. I'm trying my best to look into other options and believe something better is coming or the timing was wrong or something. Probably the most frustrating part is that there is now a competing TK class in town that has a huge following but it's just atrocious. Poor form, no cuing (which means even worse form in the participants), the count was off, etc. It was TK Zumbafied. Not good. And I can guarantee not a person there is a true Turbo lover. They're just groupies of the instructor. So I'm still looking for my niche. I will find it and I will be awesome in it. I feel like I'm in the right area but I just haven't found quite the right spot yet. It's coming, I know it. Honestly, the timing would be better once the kids are in school and I have more time to devote to my pursuits. For the time being, P90X fills my need for a project and feeling like I'm challenged and doing something worth-while.

Keeping up

I promise I've been keeping up with my workouts and (mostly) eating healthy. Posting on the other hand...my apologies.

I did my second 5K a week after the first. My time was 34:21. Not bad. Btw, the first "5K" was actually 3.6 miles, NOT 3.1. So I was even happier with my 37-38 minute time. :)

My class is slowly growing. I have 3-4 regulars. I'm hoping word of mouth continues to spread, but it's nice to know at least a few people will be there, excited to Turbo.

I'm still doing CLX twice a week. I'm in the Lean phase now. The scale is up. I'm not sure how much of that is due to my looser eating habits and how much is due to added muscle. Everything still fits me well so it's hard to say. I had hoped to be below 140 by now but instead I'm stuck right below 150. I haven't lost inches but I am more solid. The area I would still like to get rid of? My belly. It's the first place my poor diet shows. :s My jeans fit tighter through the thighs now too. Yes, it's because they're more muscular. But I was hoping things would fit BETTER. Okay, so I added more muscle. When does it start to burn off the fat and make me smaller? At least I'm stronger.

I seem to have maintenance down, even if I AM a few pounds higher than I'd like to be. So overall, I'm happy enough. :) I'm still wearing a size 6 and much smaller than I was even a year ago. At this time last year, I was thrilled to discover I could fit back into my 10s. This is good, it's just a different mentality that I'm still adjusting to.

First 5K!

I ran my first 5K on Saturday. It was cold and windy (about 42 degrees) and the track was actually 3.6 miles instead of 3.1. My time was 37-38 minutes (it wasn't a timed run), which isn't bad for my first 5K+. I still didn't enjoy it, lol. I'm not sure I will EVER enjoy running. But it's good to mix things up and do something that makes me uncomfortable. I'm running another 5K next Saturday. Yes, I scheduled my first two races a week apart. Good thing it's only 5K and not 10 or a half, lol.

I officially start teaching Turbo Kick for JSA next week! They HIRED me! Last I heard, only one person had signed up for the class. We need more to run the class, but this is a start. Go sign up, k? This means more advertising and hopefully a regular class. And it means I make a profit. This is a good change. I'm excited but nervous too. I'm still running the class tonight - if nothing else, it's good practice.

I added CLX back in. I felt like I wasn't as defined as I had been and I wanted to increase my muscle mass to help with maintenance. This is my 4th week (wow, already?) and I feel stronger. My calorie burn has been a little higher already too. Which is good, since the scale has been up. Part of it *may* be added muscle. But my diet hasn't been super clean lately either. I have to admit that I'm pretty happy where I'm at and I'm not very motivated to tighten things down. So for now, I'm maintaining. We'll see where I'm at in another week or two, lol.

Thoughts on Change

Did you know that your brain's neural pathways are used to your habits? Things work in your brain a certain way because of the way you do things. And when you try to change something, it changes your brain too. I heard the best analogy in grad school: it's like you cross a field everyday to go to town. You take the same path - it's worn down and clear, it's familiar, it's comfortable, there's no resistance. One day you decide to take a different, new path through the field. It's hard. You have to step over tall grass and beat down a path to walk on. There's resistance with every step. It's uncomfortable and a lot of work. It would be so much easier to go back to the old familiar path. But there's a reason you decided to make a new path and the path of least resistance is not always the best path to take, especially if the only reason you take it is because it's easier. So you fight your way through. You make it to town tired and feeling ragged. But you feel a sense of accomplishment because you made it. The next day you take the new path again. It's still more work than the old path but it's easier than yesterday. As you continue choosing the new path each day, it gets easier and easier to walk and feels more comfortable and natural. The old path starts to become overgrown and when you occasionally take that path, it doesn't feel as good as it used to. Even if it becomes completely overgrown, the ruts remain and sometimes you wish you could just go back there. But the new path is better.

Your brain creates new neural pathways when you learn something new or try something a new way. Try writing your name with your non-dominant hand. It's difficult because it's different and new. With practice it would get easier. When you start out eating healthier and exercising regularly, it's uncomfortable, it feels unnatural, and you'd rather go back to eating chips on the couch. But stick with it. It will get easier and it will be worth it. Go blaze your new trail.

Improvements and updates

I've had my BodyMedia Fit (BMF) for about five weeks now. I still love it, which is not to say it's been without its kinks. My display wasn't syncing well to the armband so I replaced the battery. I still had problems. I spoke to customer service and they were very helpful. They covered my shipping to send my original back and they sent me a new one. There was a glitch in their system, so I actually received TWO replacement displays. I still need to send the second one back but almost every person I've spoken to there was helpful (the one that wasn't was named Steve. MY Steve is much better) and they emailed me another UPS shipping label for the second one. The new display syncs better and I've been really pleased with the customer service. Better yet, my BMF has served its purpose: I'm back into the low 140s and weigh less now than I have since college. I'm aiming for just below 140 and will maintain there. I think that's a good weight for me.

Speaking of a good weight for me, there are bathing suit pictures of me on Facebook. I didn't cringe. I didn't untag myself. I didn't criticize every thing I saw wrong with myself in the pictures. I LIKED THE PICTURES. I have never liked the way I looked in a bathing suit, ever. So this is huge news for me. My body is not perfect. But I accept it for what it is and I am proud of how I look now. I've made a lot of progress and I'm proud of what my hard work has accomplished. For 3 kids in 3.5 years, I look pretty dang good. :)

I had a business opportunity that sounded great. Teaching three days a week at a new fitness place in Grass Lake. I was excited, until I saw the facility and met the woman in charge. Nothing was ready. The room that I would have been teaching in was just walls and a tile floor. No mirrors, no fans, no stereo. The woman in charge seemed scattered and all over the place, NOT the sort of person you want to go into business with. Then she mentioned I'd have to bring my own stereo and fans, she wanted me to paint the wall, and honestly expected to consistently have 15 people per class (at this point she had not advertised or researched or anything) and make $900 a month. The signs couldn't have been more clear if they were neon and flashing. Moral of the story: not every opportunity is a GOOD opportunity. Trust your gut.

BodyMedia Fit

It came! And I love it. I'm a numbers person so all the data it gives me is awesome.

It tracks calories burned. Sometimes the display is slightly different from the numbers the computer shows, but that's normal. The computer is more accurate and more personalized, but the display gives a close estimate without having to sync the BMF to the computer.

If you enter all your calories consumed, it tracks levels of different nutrients and food groups. And it calculates whether you have a calorie deficit or surplus and if that puts you on track to gain or lose weight.

It counts steps. Which by the way, I apparently don't walk a lot. I still burn a good number of calories though.

It calculates your activity level based on METS. It tracks amount of time spent doing moderate or vigorous activity. I did have an issue with it not registering my HIIT workouts as vigorous activity. Apparently the sensors are supposed to be centered on your tricep. I had it slightly above my bicep. Since I adjusted it, voila. No issues tracking my vigorous movement. Although I did get VERY annoyed when a delightful person on the BMF FB page was very condescending and said that just because I'm tired and think I'm working out hard doesn't mean it was vigorous. Nice, huh? (I have to admit, I took some satisfaction in seeing I have a better figure. I tend to be petty when I'm annoyed. I don't like being talked down to.) Luckily the other people posting on the page have been much more helpful and personable.

It tracks your sleep efficiency too, which is pretty cool. It can tell the difference between when I'm just laying down or when I'm actually asleep. It tells me how long I was in bed and how long and I slept and how efficient my sleep was. Pretty cool. :)

So far I'm down a few lbs since I got the BMF (and stopped eating oil-popped popcorn). I feel leaner too, which is wonderful. I was feeling thick for a while, so feeling lean is really great. I'm aiming for 140 now, to see how I feel there. I'm pretty happy, now that I'm feeling thinner again. But I think more of a buffer between me and my scary weight would be a good thing. I'm very happy with the BMF. Oh, the only downside? I had to order the watchband for the digital display separately (another $20). But that's it.

If anyone is interested and has questions about it, please feel free to ask. :)

Popcorn = kryptonite

Maintenance has been a little rough lately. I mentioned in my last post that the scale went up a bit. Well, it kept climbing. Slowly, but steadily. At first I attributed it to other things: strength training, my period, water retention, indulging a little too much at the different graduation dinners. And it was just the scale, right? Well, my clothes still fit fine, but I did my measurements the other day, like I do at the beginning of every month. My waist is up a little, along with my abdomen, chest, butt, and thighs. Not cool. I checked my body fat percentage and that's up a bit too. I was pretty down about it all day and then jumped into solution mode. I need to fix this NOW.

Steve told me I look the same, but you can't argue with every measurement going up. And he said 5 lbs isn't much. That's true. But it's a slippery slope. If I let it go, how soon will it turn into 10 lbs? Or 15 lbs? Or more? No, I'm out of my maintenance range and I need to fix it. So far I've increased the intensity of my workouts and slightly lowered my calories. Nada. I'm barely below 150.

I ordered a BodyMedia Fit. It's a BodyBugg - made by the same company with the same technology, just marketed a bit differently. Plus the monthly subscription is less expensive and it also tracks sleep efficiency. It should be here in a week or two.

But last night Steve wanted popcorn. With my tightened calories, I figured I should measure the popcorn and figure out how many calories that was (we pop it in oil in a dutch oven). I'd tried to figure it out before, but ended up trying to convert amount of popped kernels to amount of popped kernels and it was a confusing mess. So we've been estimating that a batch of popcorn was somewhere between 400 and 600 calories. And I've been allowing for that many calories in my range. So no problem, right? WRONG. According to my Calorie King book, 1 oz of oil-popped corn is 145 calories. Last night's batch weighed 7.3 oz, after removing the unpopped kernels. That's 1058 calories. Uh oh. Popcorn has been a regular evening snack around here. And if Steve isn't home or doesn't want any, I've been know to eat the entire batch. Yup. I've been eating 500 calories MORE than I thought I was.

Now, a math lesson. 1 lb equals 3500 calories. In order to lose about a lb a week, you eat 500 calories less per day. 500 x 7 (days) = 3500 or 1 lb lost per week. So if we reverse that and eat an EXTRA 500 calories a day, we GAIN a lb a week. Yeah, not good. In retrospect, my metabolism may be higher than I thought, if I've been overeating that much and haven't gained more.

Last night I ate a measured amount of popcorn. From now on, I think I'll stick to microwave popcorn. It's pre-measured and if I get the 94% fat free butter kind, the whole bag is only 300 calories. If I need fewer calories, I'll eat a 100 calorie bag. Good grief.

Moral of the story: MEASURE your food. Calculate the calories. Write 'em down. If possible, don't estimate your calories. It could save you a LOT of grief.

Btw, just by avoiding popcorn for a few days and measuring it last night, my weight is slightly lower. I'm at 148.2. Much better than the 150.8 I've seen lately. At least it's moving in the right direction again. :)