Calories and fitness: almost six months in

On February 19th this year I started logging my calories using an app called LoseIt. It's free, but I chose it mainly because a couple of friends were already using it. In fact, I had it on my phone for at least a couple of months before I started using it. I've always resisted counting calories - because it's both hard, and honest! - and I haven't been in a place where I wanted to be really scrupulous about my intake.

There wasn't anything magical about the date I started tracking - I was staying with friends who were both riding a health/fitness wave, and it inspired me to get started. I'm still not remotely perfect - I don't really know how best to figure out calories when I eat out, so I've created a generic "restaurant meal" entry that I use, and take a wild guess about how many calories I actually ate. And when I spent two weeks in Hawaii for my brother's wedding, I didn't bother at all - just tried to make healthy choices and resumed my tracking when I got home. In fact, non-tracking has been my M.O. for all the various trips I've taken this year, and I think it's worked pretty well for me.  Fortunately I really do know how to eat pretty healthily, and I've been doing a better job about portion control, which is probably my biggest issue. (Also, I haven't bought ice cream to keep at home since at least the beginning of the year - definitely a help!)

So how's it going? Pretty well! Counting calories FINALLY imparted to me on a gut level why exercise is so important. If I'm limiting myself to 1,149 calories per day, it makes a HUGE difference if I go on a run and pick up 400 calories! There's no question that is an hour well-spent.

I had some medical stuff earlier this year that resulted in me dropping 5 pounds (I'm totally fine now), and since then I've dropped an additional 20. When I started tracking I was at a new all-time high (by just about 5 pounds but still... not the kind of records I like breaking!), so I'm still in a familiar weight range right now. And I've been training for Cycle Oregon, and cross-training by running. Once the ride is over (and it's coming right up!!!! eeek) I know for sure I will bike a LOT less. But I want to keep running, and intend to sign up for some 5k runs, and perhaps a 10k in the spring, so I stay motivated and engaged with exercise. And I can head back to the pool once the rains set in - that's a tough workout!

I use RunKeeper to track my running, walking, biking, and swimming. So far this year I've run 52 miles (!!!) and have biked 907 miles. My pre-Cycle Oregon goal was to hit 1,000 miles, and my stretch goal was 1,200. Since I still have three weekends to train (gah) I may even make it to 1,300 before we go ride 400 miles in a week. Yowza. I've set a goal to run 100 miles by the end of the  year, and I guess I'm on track to meet that goal too. To be honest, I'm way more wowed by the running numbers - I've done Cycle Oregon three times before, so riding 1,000 miles in preparation is significant, but at least a little familiar. Running ANY distance is a totally new experience for me!

As I said recently, this fitness/health stuff seems to come in waves, and I'm under no illusion that I'm suddenly magically a new person. But... I think I have the tools to do this. I'd like to drop a few more pounds before CO, but really, I'm focusing on being strong and active. We'll see where it takes me!

Headwinds, tailwinds

Woo-hoo: it's time to buy a pair of shorts one size smaller! Since February I've been tracking my calories for the first time in my life. I love that various apps make it so easy to do that! I don't do well tracking when I eat out - I made up a "restaurant meal" entry and then take a wild guess about how many calories I ingested. I eat out maybe four times a week, so this isn't an ideal thing, but it's working okay for now. I've also been exercising a lot, and I have to say it's motivating to be able to get caloric credit for the exercise I'm doing!

Last week was the first time I tried running intervals. I did six 6-minute cycles; each cycle consisted of 3 minutes of running fast, and 3 minutes of walking/staggering/trotting. It was really really hard but gave me some payoff immediately - the next time I ran (two days later) I cut a minute off my average speed, and I cut another minute off this week! Now I'm down - temporarily, anyway - to an 11:30 mile, and it's still hard but it's starting to feel like I'm actually running. Crazy!

All in all it's been a great spring/summer for me on the health & exercise front, but I'm realistic and know it's not like I'm suddenly a new person. I typically go long months with little to no exercise, and then may have a biking season or something before resuming my slothful ways. Right now it's feeling pretty natural and good to get out there and exercise, and it's likely it won't always be that way.

A billion years ago I subscribed to Utne Reader, which is a magazine that compiles interesting stories from other media sources. This was in the early 90s, and I remember reading an article about time and how we perceive it and how we cycle through it - sometimes we are sluggish and everything is effortful and takes forever, and sometimes we are a whirlwind of productivity and everything comes together and time is our magical friend. I picture it like a sine wave of effort with the uphill and downhill chunks not really in our control, but hopefully ours to recognize and seize upon.

So, right now, I'm in the downhill curve of the sine wave, in terms of exercise - for the most part it feels good to get out there, I enjoy the activity (even when it's hard and I'm tired and sore and... I swear, I DO enjoy some element of it!), and I look forward to the next round. One of these days I'm likely to encounter the uphill, headwind, don't-wannas and I will have to deal with them when they come.

Also: I'm not giving away my bigger shorts just yet! In truth I'm just at the bottom of my typical twenty-pound average weight range, and chances are I'll bounce back up and my new small shorts won't fit. Maaaaybe I'm really going to keep losing and stay down... or maybe not!

Cleanse: ALL the spaghetti squash

Last night my sister made granola, and also roasted a spaghetti squash so we could have it with quinoa and toasted pumpkin seeds (the recipe calls for spinach but we forgot that bit).

Good grief are we going to be eating spaghetti squash for a while! And since I'm off the obvious toppers (tomato, cheese, butter) it'll be interesting to see what winds up happening.

Breakfast: granola, almond milk, half a banana
Lunch: leftovers from last night's dinner
Dinner: tbd but undoubtedly will incorporate squash!

Cleanse: day 3

I don't think I'll blog every day of this cleanse, but it's a handy way to keep track of what I've been eating.

Last night's dinner was in fact Almond Coconut Curry Greens - and quite tasty too! I skipped the raisins as I'm not a fan, and I don't have lemon pepper so I zested a lemon & added pepper. The recipe doesn't say how many servings it is, but I didn't make any rice so I split the meal between two bowls. In the end I couldn't finish mine so had it for lunch today over rice.

Breakfast: oatmeal with almond butter and 1/4 pear
Lunch: rice and leftover dinner; 1/4 pear
Snack: probably some granola - my sister's making some and it smells good (oats, millet, sunflower seeds, rice syrup) I wound up having a bowl of banana & strawberry with some oats sprinkled on, and some almond milk.
Dinner: TBD. Like, I really have no clue, but I think I'm going to hit a happy hour in which case I will definitely be sure to have a good snack under my belt before I go out.

Symptoms/feelings:
I feel a bit tired, but I don't think that's due to missing caffeine since I drink no more than a cup a day. I had a slight headache come on last night and it's still vaguely present.

Cleanse: day 2

Allow me to brag a bit - after I decided to do this cleanse, a friend invited me out for a birthday beer celebration. I managed to go and NOT have gluten (beer) or nightshade (french fries). Instead I ordered a cider and skipped the snacking. Yeah, I'm also supposed to be off sugar and probably alcohol too, but I'm still chalking this in the win column.

Last night's dinner was soup with brussel sprouts, chicken sausage, and quinoa. It was actually quite good! My sister was doing the cooking so I can't comment too much on the work involved - I don't have any fish sauce so she just skipped that bit. I think it would have tasted quite different if that had been included but I was pretty happy with it as-is and probably wouldn't bother getting the fish sauce just to include it. I would, however, probably quarter the Brussels sprouts and drop them in for the last five minutes to make them slightly less mushy.

Today's food:
breakfast: oatmeal with almond butter and half a banana
lunch: leftovers from dinner
snack: a pear
dinner: tbd. probably almond coconut curry greens and possibly some popcorn.

Cleansing

Well, I'm trying a cleanse - eliminating elements from my diet for a number of days, then adding them back to see if they affect me negatively. Since my biggest health concern is arthritis, I'm using a cleanse designed to address inflammatory issues. The idea is to eat no gluten, dairy, sugar, soy, nightshade vegetables (potatoes, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes), citrus, peanuts, or corn. I'm using this list of recipes as a starting point, and we'll see how it goes. I'm also probably cutting caffeine, since I don't really like soy milk creamer, I'm supposed to cut soy anyway, and I don't like coffee black.

I can't decide if I want the test to show I have no dietary sensitivities. or if I'd rather find a dietary cure for my knuckles. I guess I'll see how it goes!

Today, however, I tried cooking kasha and it did NOT go well. All I wanted was some pot full of grain that I could use in salads, but this stuff - whoa. Mushy and just not nice.

I don't know where I went wrong.. I will try one more time without any confidence. I will also cook a lot less of it!

Anyway, so far today I've had:
breakfast: oatmeal with half an apple cut into it
lunch: butternut squash soup (from Trader Joe) with some spinach leaves stirred in, half a banana.
snack: likely will be tea and nuts.
dinner: TBD.