Week 4: Progress Report

A short week because I changed my check-in date. Not too bad, this is probably what things will be like going forward if I continue to stick to the plan. I dropped a few pounds and slide the BMI to the left a smidge. I’m doing pretty well eating the right kinds of food, but need to

Week 4 Weight

continue to work on getting the carb/protein.fat ratio down. The week ended with Carbs: 55%, Protein: 22%, Fat: 23%. Work will continue here. I do a pretty good job of tracking what I eat Top 10 Foods - Week 4and drink. This table shows the top foods I’ve been eating. Peach count was driven by a visit to a farmers market last Sunday – they were awesome. The red for oatmeal means it was the highest calorie count for the week. Lots of fruit, pickles (low cal plus a bit of salt and crunch) and chicken. I’ve been looking at fruit to make sure I get the best kind – at the end of the day sugar is sugar and carbs are carbs. Still goodness as this is the best kind to eat. From an activity standpoint, I am working on a constantly increasing level. This week I exceeded my goals and will continue to do this week over Activity Week 4week. The good news is that this will require a steady increase and variety of things keeping me out of a chair. This week I still did some swimming, a bit of walking, mini-tramp time but added some basketball practice and some basic soccer running and shooting. Basically stuff to keep things interesting. I think the numbers get a bit falsely elevated when I am on the mini-tramp, so I need to keep that in mind, but the numbers for Saturday are pure walking, I took advantage of times that I would normally stand around and walked. Walked, walked and walked. I logged more than 19,000 steps – pretty happy with that.

Next Milestone – Weight=204, BMI=34 (class-1 obesity)

Yogurt & Walnuts

Plain yogurt is the way to go – avoid any varieties that contain flavor, color, even fruit. You want to add your own. I’ve done fruit (blueberries) and it is pretty good. I tried walnuts this morning to add a bit of flavor and juice up the protein. Never having done this before, I started with 0.25 cups (~ 2oz) of walnuts. That was way too many nuts. I could easily have gotten by with 1 oz or less. Having a better feel for the amount, not really sure about the taste. I will try again with the lower amount and vary with almonds.

Recommendation Today: Stick with yogurt and fruit.

Week 3: Progress Report

Wrapping up my third week continues with some weight loss and movement left on the BMI map. I think progress is going well. I am learning, generally making good decisions and continuing to be active. I’ve found ways to get some walking in at work and to take advantage of TV time by getting on the mini-tramp (also helps curb the desire to snack).

Week 3 WeightBMI Map - Week 3

I will be moving the Progress Report to Sundays as that maps to the start of the week for the FitBit reporting. There are some great reports on activity and food. The chart below shows my step count relative to everyone else in the FitBit system.

Steps Demographic - Week 3

Still need to focus on the carbs/protein/fat ratios – but it will come! That is one of the key Food Report - 17 JUL 2010things about doing this without a program that will, in the long run, benefit me more than getting specific meals etc. That is the theory anyway. As my manager at work says, “I reserve the right to wake up a little smarter tomorrow.” The chart below shows a summary of my activity for the week. This is a cool view and as long as I maintain it, I’ll know how much I tend to get out of the various activities I complete. Last week, swimming was where I spent most of my time, but I think that mix will shift this week.

Activity Week 3 - 17 JUL 2010

Anyway, lots of information to help keep me on the right path.

Actions

  • Continue activity by utilizing the FitBit Training Guide.
  • Continue to make good choices for food by amount and type.
  • Continue to learn about the contents of food (carbs, fat, protein).

Next Milestone – Weight=204, BMI=34 (class-1 obesity)

P.S.  Logged some pool time today. I think I have pretty good form from the waist up, but tend to let my legs follow (arms do all the work). I made the effort to use my legs and it adds a few new dimensions to the workout. First, it helps even out my stroke and thus make the whole thing less choppy. Second, it makes for a better workout. It made me work my abs a bit, which I don’t recall from my college swimming days (no competition, but a year in swim PE). Going forward will work to make that more natural.

This is where it gets interesting

I had to run some errands at lunch today and thought about food choices I have made in the past. There is a Wendy’s nearby as well as a few sub places. Lately, I had been going to Chipotle and getting a chicken burrito. Now, I know adding cheese and sour cream was not a good idea, but everything else seemed fine. Healthy even. However, since I started trying to eat smarter I have not been there. Before I headed out I thought I would see what I was eating and what better choices I could be making. This is where things get interesting. I quickly found the nutrition information on their website (thank you Chipotle) and started looking at what I would get on my burrito. Here is what that looks like:

Chipotle - Old Burrito

Even my limited experience up to this point had me picking my jaw up off the ground. Most of the ingredients seemed so innocent, so healthy. So I took a closer look at the ingredients, what makes more sense and created the following: Green Chili Chicken Burrito Bowl.

Chipotle - New Burrito Bowl

Granted, this is still a good amount of calories and sodium (what isn’t), but what a difference a little knowledge can do for your health. This was very tasty and as I was eating it, I realized this was something that I could make pretty easily to boot!

Chipotle - Improvements

 

For those that are interested, here are the improvements. To me, this is stunning. These are the kinds of things that make this so real. These are great reminders that you can still have fun at nights out, but just need to be aware of all the hidden badness.

Bon appetit!

Walking

I really don’t like walking, but need to get over that and enjoy it for what it is. Outdoor time, quality conversation without electronic interruption (mostly) and the obvious health benefit. Well, I’ve been using the FitBit (souped up pedometer) for almost two weeks and tonight was the first night I actually walk walked. It was nice, pace was pretty good and I felt good after.

Walking - 17 JUL 2010

If committed, this will get better and more frequent. I know this is good for more than just calorie burn, but the fact that what I burned off was just a little more than eating a Snickers is astounding. I’m hoping that these little nuggets that pop up keep me honest as I get a little deeper into this process.

Next: Still need to get through my book! Will do some reading tonight.

Where do you start losing fat first?

I was wondering where you start to lose fat first. Not sure why that popped into my head, but I did some looking and it appears that you tend to lose weight from the top down. Starting with your face and head then moving down to your body.

It gets interesting when you have problem areas like the pelvis, buttocks, and thighs of women and the bellies of men. In these cases you need to give those areas extra love (crunchies etc.) in order to burn fat. Another interesting note, the fat that women develop has an advantage during pregnancy (none beyond that) while the fat that men accumulate does nothing except shorten our lives.

Curious about what happens to the fat? The following is from the Mayo Clinic website, one of my favorites.

Body fat breaks down during a series of complex metabolic processes.

When you burn more calories than you consume, your body uses fat (triglycerides) for energy. This causes your fat cells to shrink. In turn, triglycerides are broken down into two different substances — glycerol and fatty acids — which are absorbed into your liver, kidneys and muscle tissue. From there, the glycerol and fatty acids are further broken down by chemical processes that ultimately produce energy for your body.

These activities generate heat, which helps maintain your body temperature. The resulting waste products — water and carbon dioxide — are excreted in urine and sweat or exhaled from your lungs.

– Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D.

 

FitBit added a bunch of new stuff to their site yesterday. There is now a Premium area that adds a bunch of analytics and reporting as well as the FitBit trainer. This is designed to move you along from a sedentary to active lifestyle. It analyzes the activity that you record and creates goals and encouragements. I did the trial and here is how it looks for the daily view.

Fitness Plan - Week 1

As you can see, I have a little more work to do tonight. Will hit the mini-tramp while catching an episode of something (probably MI-5). A got a swim in today and it was good. Getting my wind back and enjoying the time to think while in the water. It cracks me up a bit to get out of the pool and sweat. It makes sense, but seems wrong somehow.

Just another day in the life

Pretty good job eating today according to FitBit:

Daily Calorie Composition: 57% from carbs, 18% from fat and 25% from protein.

Activity on the other hand was different tonight. No walking, mini-tramp or swimming. Rather, 3.5 hours doing moderate activity (volunteer helper for huge school clothing order). It was fun and burned some calories in a different way.

Activity - 14 JUL 2010

Otherwise another relatively sedate day at work. Did manage to get up and down the stairs a few extra times today. Should be some good sleep tonight in any event.

There is so much to really learn to eat right. Each day I start thinking about different aspects. calories, carbs, vitamins, sodium, sugar (especially in fruit) and most recently fiber. Made a minute amount of progress in the book. Need to spend some quality time holed up in my office and get through it.