Ever since my traumatic tooth extraction, I've been eating soft, mushy foods. I constantly feel hungry because of it. I guess you never really realize how unsatisfying it is to be limited to one texture.
However, one good thing did come from my tooth's untimely departure. My husband and I found a recipe for "rustic potato-leek soup" in an America's Test Kitchen cookbook. It's basically a super-unrefined vichysoisse, served warm. When we went to the grocery store to pick up the leeks for the recipe (which calls for five pounds of leeks), we were only able to find three leeks hidden behind the kale. At the checkout, the cashier picked up the bag of leeks and said, "What are these?" I said, "They're leeks!" to which she replied, "Uh. How do you spell that?" She had also asked us about the rutabaga we bought ("Can you tell I don't eat a lot of vegetables?" she quipped, patting her ample gut).
Let me tell you, that soup was capital-A awesome. Even though I was unable to chew or taste on the right side of my mouth, the left side sure got a treat. I was even able to eat a mini croissant with dinner! It definitely surpassed all the mashed potatoes, Malt-o-Meal, and pudding I had been eating previously.
On another note, I got to use the scale at my in-laws' house the other day and was disappointed. My husband said he thought I looked like I had lost a few pounds, yet I'm still 4.5 lbs. heavier than I was when we got married (and a whopping 11.5 lbs. heavier than him, the guy who inhales frozen pizzas and McDonald's and doesn't think twice about what that might do to his waistline. Although... his waistline is almost 10 inches bigger than mine, so what do I know?). It doesn't sound like much, but it's concerning for me. He suggested that it was probably muscle, since we've been going to the gym 5 days a week and I seem to bulk up from lifting. The dentist told me to take it easy and not work out for about 4 days after the extraction, so maybe the combination of mush food and not exercising will cause me to drop a few pounds. I'm concerned that my husband said he thought my "ideal weight range" was about 140-155 lbs., and that if I got to 160, he'd think I was overweight. I can't help but think that means he wants me to lose weight, but is trying to be nice about it. I mean, there's really no other way to take that, is there? I think I'd rather have him just say, "Yeah, you need to lose about 10 lbs." so I can guilt myself into doing that.
Meh. I'm rambling and should go to sleep.
Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Hooray for clowns
I was just looking through the list of contests ending soon at PRIZEY.net and I found a contest from Forays of a Finance Foodie where the prize is a McDonald's Arch Card (whatever happened to the McDonald's dollars that grandma used to send in lieu of an actual Christmas present each year?).
She's got her fitness regimen listed for her to lose her 10 holiday lbs. I do harder cardio and lift more weight, yet I'm still considerably heavier (granted, I am 4 inches taller, but still... and by "considerably", I mean 8 lbs.). It seems like the only way I can lose weight is to have a Ron White situation (i.e, "Ever taken a crap so big your pants fit better?").
Last night, we went to the YMCA and I did the following:
She's got her fitness regimen listed for her to lose her 10 holiday lbs. I do harder cardio and lift more weight, yet I'm still considerably heavier (granted, I am 4 inches taller, but still... and by "considerably", I mean 8 lbs.). It seems like the only way I can lose weight is to have a Ron White situation (i.e, "Ever taken a crap so big your pants fit better?").
Last night, we went to the YMCA and I did the following:
- 35 minutes on the elliptical, level 5
- Biceps curls: 2 sets of 12 reps with 15-lb. weights; then 1 set of 7 reps with 20 lbs.
- Triceps pushdowns: 3 sets of 12 reps at weight plate #6 (~20-25 lbs.)
- Pec deck: 3 sets of 10 reps at weight plate #5 (stupid machine doesn't have any conversions)
- Overhead press: 3 sets of 10 reps with 15-lb. weights
- Some kind of thigh-related maneuver I saw in a magazine (stand with back to a bench, place toes of back foot on bench, use front leg to squat till thigh is parallel to floor)
- Curl-ups on exercise ball: 2 sets of 10 reps. I had to stop because two women were actually pointing at me and talking about what I was doing. Like I couldn't seen them! There's a mirror right in front of where I was doing the sit-ups.
- Assorted stretches
I don't think my diet yesterday consisted of the best things, but only because my husband and I had an argument and he went to bed without dinner. So, I didn't make anything. I ended up eating an apple, a piece of string cheese, and a Toaster Strudel.
Anyway, back to the original topic at hand -- clown food. My husband and I refer to McDonald's food as "evil clown food" because he knows it's unhealthy and very bad for him, yet he desires it greatly. And Ronald McDonald is a creepster. When my husband goes for his yearly check-up next month, he wants to celebrate by going to McDonald's. He's planning on getting a rich and artery-clogging clown burger; I told him I was going to get a Fruit and Yogurt Parfait. He looked at me and said, "Well, that's not any fun." Says the guy who is the same height as me, weighs less than me, yet still complains about being fat. Just because I have the metabolism of a Neandertal....
Anyway, go check out the contest and try to win yourself some artery-clogging clown food! It ends today at 3 PM CST, so HURRY HURRY HURRY! :-P
Friday, January 14, 2011
Am I overtraining?
I've been working out regularly since early 2006, when I finally got fed-up enough about being fat to do something about it. I lost about 50 lbs. and have been able to keep it off (currently struggling with a marriage-induced gain of about 5 lbs., on account of frozen pizza, buffalo wings, burgers, and beer).
Anyway....
My current routine consists of going to the YMCA about 4-5 days a week, where I bust my ass on the elliptical or treadmill for 30-45 minutes and then lift weights for 20-30 minutes. I routinely get my heart rate into the high 170s-upper 180s on the elliptical (from a resting heart rate of 50-55 bpm) and sustain that level of exertion for 15-20 minutes; the remainder of the cardio workout is spent with the heart rate in the 140s-150s. Occasionally, I switch up my routine by riding the bike or jogging on the treadmill, thought both are rough on my knees. As far as the weight training goes, I've always been able to lift a considerable amount for a woman (I have to laugh when the magazine recommend using 5-8 lb. weights, since I use up to 25 lbs. depending on the exercise). I don't have a steady weight training routine, but my only guideline is to work antagonistic muscle groups on the same day (e.g., biceps and triceps, chest and back, hams and quads) and not to do the same thing two days in a row.
Here's my problem....
I hit 150 lbs. and the scale doesn't so much as twitch in the lower direction. The lowest I had gotten to was 146, but it quickly went back up. As I mentioned above, I've gained about 5 lbs. in the past ~4 months. It doesn't seem like much, but it's enough to annoy me. Since I know what caused it (enjoying life), I'm confident that I'll be able to shed the weight. But I know from experience that the number will refuse to drop any lower. I'd like to lose at least another 5-10 lbs. beyond that, but in spite of my vigorous workout routine, nothing seems to happen. That's why I wonder -- am I overtraining? Is my body trying hard to hang onto all my fat? I read somewhere that overtraining causes fat to be deposited in the lower abdomen (one of my trouble spots) because of excessive cortisol released into the bloodstream, and the more a person tries to exercise off that pooch, the more the body is stressed, and the more cortisol is released. So, it's a vicious cycle of attempted gunch-removal leading to gunch-retention.
But then you might inquire about my eating habits. For breakfast, I usually have a David's whole-grain bagel with "natural" peanut butter (i.e., that which is made from peanuts and oil, not partially hydrogenated crap) and organic jam; when I get bagel fatigue, I'll have oatmeal with brown sugar and dates, Grape Nuts flakes with almondmilk, or rarely, scrambled eggs. For lunch, I usually have leftovers from the previous night's dinner. Dinner can be a wide variety of things, ranging from salmon and corn chowder to wild rice casserole to homemade Chinese food to tacos to.... you get the picture. Everything I cook is from scratch (except things like bagels) and often includes organic produce and dairy. For snacks, I try to have fruit, beef jerky, pickles, etc., though I do like Chex Mix and granola bars and the like. I don't drink pop and I don't use artificial sweeteners, except for stevia. I have an affinity for desserts, but I do try to limit them as much as possible. I realize that if I cut them from my diet entirely, I'll crave them more. So, I'll have a little bit of chocolate or candy every now and then, which ends up being just about every day. I will admit that I overeat every time my husband and I go out to eat -- when we go to Perkins, we both clear our plates; at other restaurants, we both gorge ourselves on pizza and chicken wings and burgers. One time, we went to Red Lobster (before we discovered Darden Group supports seal culling, but that's another topic for another post) and my husband inhaled almost 60 shrimp in the all-you-can-eat special while I had a lobster tail, 5 large shrimp, 4 scallops, about a cup of rice, a Cheddar Bay biscuit, and a Bahama Mama cocktail (ouch. it's a little painful to recall all that). I eat out more and drink more now than I did before we were married, but I know that's the cause of my RECENT 5lb. gain.
My wonder is this -- why did I hit the 150 lb. plateau and have been unable to get the number any lower? Does anyone have any suggestions?
Anyway....
My current routine consists of going to the YMCA about 4-5 days a week, where I bust my ass on the elliptical or treadmill for 30-45 minutes and then lift weights for 20-30 minutes. I routinely get my heart rate into the high 170s-upper 180s on the elliptical (from a resting heart rate of 50-55 bpm) and sustain that level of exertion for 15-20 minutes; the remainder of the cardio workout is spent with the heart rate in the 140s-150s. Occasionally, I switch up my routine by riding the bike or jogging on the treadmill, thought both are rough on my knees. As far as the weight training goes, I've always been able to lift a considerable amount for a woman (I have to laugh when the magazine recommend using 5-8 lb. weights, since I use up to 25 lbs. depending on the exercise). I don't have a steady weight training routine, but my only guideline is to work antagonistic muscle groups on the same day (e.g., biceps and triceps, chest and back, hams and quads) and not to do the same thing two days in a row.
Here's my problem....
I hit 150 lbs. and the scale doesn't so much as twitch in the lower direction. The lowest I had gotten to was 146, but it quickly went back up. As I mentioned above, I've gained about 5 lbs. in the past ~4 months. It doesn't seem like much, but it's enough to annoy me. Since I know what caused it (enjoying life), I'm confident that I'll be able to shed the weight. But I know from experience that the number will refuse to drop any lower. I'd like to lose at least another 5-10 lbs. beyond that, but in spite of my vigorous workout routine, nothing seems to happen. That's why I wonder -- am I overtraining? Is my body trying hard to hang onto all my fat? I read somewhere that overtraining causes fat to be deposited in the lower abdomen (one of my trouble spots) because of excessive cortisol released into the bloodstream, and the more a person tries to exercise off that pooch, the more the body is stressed, and the more cortisol is released. So, it's a vicious cycle of attempted gunch-removal leading to gunch-retention.
But then you might inquire about my eating habits. For breakfast, I usually have a David's whole-grain bagel with "natural" peanut butter (i.e., that which is made from peanuts and oil, not partially hydrogenated crap) and organic jam; when I get bagel fatigue, I'll have oatmeal with brown sugar and dates, Grape Nuts flakes with almondmilk, or rarely, scrambled eggs. For lunch, I usually have leftovers from the previous night's dinner. Dinner can be a wide variety of things, ranging from salmon and corn chowder to wild rice casserole to homemade Chinese food to tacos to.... you get the picture. Everything I cook is from scratch (except things like bagels) and often includes organic produce and dairy. For snacks, I try to have fruit, beef jerky, pickles, etc., though I do like Chex Mix and granola bars and the like. I don't drink pop and I don't use artificial sweeteners, except for stevia. I have an affinity for desserts, but I do try to limit them as much as possible. I realize that if I cut them from my diet entirely, I'll crave them more. So, I'll have a little bit of chocolate or candy every now and then, which ends up being just about every day. I will admit that I overeat every time my husband and I go out to eat -- when we go to Perkins, we both clear our plates; at other restaurants, we both gorge ourselves on pizza and chicken wings and burgers. One time, we went to Red Lobster (before we discovered Darden Group supports seal culling, but that's another topic for another post) and my husband inhaled almost 60 shrimp in the all-you-can-eat special while I had a lobster tail, 5 large shrimp, 4 scallops, about a cup of rice, a Cheddar Bay biscuit, and a Bahama Mama cocktail (ouch. it's a little painful to recall all that). I eat out more and drink more now than I did before we were married, but I know that's the cause of my RECENT 5lb. gain.
My wonder is this -- why did I hit the 150 lb. plateau and have been unable to get the number any lower? Does anyone have any suggestions?
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