My Food and Workouts Lately

My nutritionist told me like a year ago that I should be adding some red meat to my diet.  But I never did it because I thought eating chicken and fish would keep me more healthy and lean.  But no matter how strict I was with my food, I noticed that I still had this layer of fat over my muscles so I couldn't get that really lean and toned look.  There is a big difference between losing weight and losing body fat.  I had a feeling that by restricting my food so much, my body was actually losing muscles which are the fat burners.  No wonder I wasn't losing any body fat!  My nutritionist is also a body builder, so I figured she would know better than anyone how to lose body fat.  Clearly something was not working with my food - I work out a lot and I refuse to believe that my body just won't get to that level.  It might be genetically easier for some, but I'll make up for my lack of good genes by hard work!

Well, I can't find my nutritionist anymore.  It's very weird, because she was a referral I got from someone from my gym, and she worked out of her own home so it's not like there's an office I can stop by.  Last I heard from her, she went on vacation to Costa Rica and was supposed to be back in a few weeks.  But months went by and she hasn't returned any of my numerous voicemails or emails so I guess I give up. 

In the meantime, my fiance got me Jillian Michael's Making The Cut book, cuz he knows I want to look like her!  It's targeted for people who want to lose the last 10 pounds or whatever.  So I read it and find her exercises at the end of the book pretty good but there's no way I can do her diet part - she requires that you not deviate from it at all for 30 days and a lot of her food require tons of preparation, and you'd have to go to the store like everyday and spend $$$ buying stuff like sword fish.  I just don't have that kind of time, and we have a full kitchen staff making food for us at work everyday.

Though in the beginning of her book, she talks about food and there is a metabolic test.  I've heard of metabolic tests before and have taken them - you can google it and find one easily.  But her book made me think more about it.  Basically they break people down into 3 categories - the protein types, carb types, or a mixed type.  Every test I take, I am undoubtedly a protein type, which means I need to eat more often throughout the day, and need more protein in my meals and snacks in proportion to the other two macro-nutrients (carb and fat).  I guess the ideal proportion is to have about 30% of the calories come from fat, 30-40% protein and 30-40% carb.  The best protein choices for me are actually the type of protein with more fat in them such as red meat or dark chicken meat, nuts, and regular cheese, milk, etc.  Basically no "non-fat" anything.  This really goes against anything I normally hear, but then again a lot of what we hear is propaganda from food manufacturers.  The best carb choices for me are very low GI type of carb.  Protein metabolic types really need to keep the blood sugar level from spiking in order to lose or maintain weight - more so than carb types or mixed types.  This will exclude a lot of tropical fruits from my diet which happen to be my favorites, such as mango, papaya, banana, peach, etc.  I should be eating a lot of legumes, beans, potatoes, and brown rice or pasta.

Bye bye tropical fruits...

I decided to give this thing a try and eat based on my metabolic type for a couple weeks just to see what happens.  At the same time, keep up my workouts, especially interval training where I mix cardio and weights like Jillian suggests.  I've been doing it for about 2 weeks now.  It's so different from what I've been eating the past few years.  The first couple days of doing this, I think I really threw my body a curve ball.  I felt bloated and I almost completely stopped it.  But after the 3rd day (that always seems to be the magic number for me), I really started to feel a difference.  I feel more satisfied after each meal so I don't even get any cravings for sweets or junk food.  I have 3 meals and 2 snacks a day, same as before.  My food choices have opened up a lot so it makes me happy mentally, like I don't have to watch my food as closely.  All I have to worry about each meal is to get a combination of protein, carb and fat in the correct proportion.  Of course I'm still eating within my calorie allowance, which is really anywhere from 1200-1400 a day.  I got back to using my Livestrong / Dailyplate food tracker which is a great website and they also have an iPhone app.  I like that they show you the macro-nutrient breakdowns.  This is what mine looks like one day last week - apparently I should have eaten more protein and carbs and less fat - those nuts really get me on their fat %.

I also noticed that I've started to feel more hungry right around the time for my next meal, and I knew that my metabolism had started kicking up.  I don't feel bloated at all anymore.  I have also noticed that my stomach and arms look more defined already.  I'm a natural apple shape, any time I gain weight, it shows around my middle first.  So I know it is also the last place to go.  To be able to see a difference when I'm doing crunches is the best!  I now can get my belly much flatter without the unsightly rolls!

Bye bye belly rolls!  (Weird picture I know, but it was one of the first on google when you search "belly rolls")

Also since I've changed up my food, I have noticed a HUGE difference in my endurance when I work out!  It's really quite shocking actually because it's only been 2 weeks!  It is true what they say that food and exercise go hand in hand.  Last weekend I went out to the park around my house and ran about 5 miles super easily.  After I was done, I felt like I had only ran a mile to warm up!  I could have gone on forever.  That was only a week after doing the new eating thing.  When I did my interval training during the week last week, I was sprinting at 10 mph speed and holding for a minute or so, which is a definite improvement from my 8.5 - 9 mph sprint speed before.  I even did 15% incline on the treadmill and sprinted at 7 mph.

Yesterday I did an interval training and then ran about 3.5 miles on the beach.  It was so nice, gotta love southern California for this.  I finished the run in about a little over 20 minutes and was not even phased.  That includes time waiting at the intersections for lights to turn.  I'm actually starting to scare myself a little!  My new food combined with much interval training and hills training makes it much easier now for me to go fast.  I've never been one to care too much about my speed before.  In fact, a few years ago I was running with the Nike run group and was happy being in the 10 min per mile group.  Sometimes even 11 or 12!  I always thought that since I wasn't one of those people who could naturally run fast, that I shouldn't even care to try.  Well what a big difference it is now.  I'm not training towards anything in particular, but I have so much more energy and it's very encouraging knowing that I can change my body and push myself to do better and better!

My fiance took an action shot of me!  He made me jump like 10 times before he got a good shot... Those things look higher in real life  =)

Aside from running and other interval training, I'm still doing yoga and barre workouts!  Just got done with a barre class this morning actually.  They help me build different muscles and work on my balance.  My goal is to be able to jump onto one of these balls with my feet instead of just balancing on my knees!  Saw a trainer at Equinox do it, and I want to do it too!

P.S. I'm wearing my Run: Energy SL that Lululemon gave to me.  And the Run Fast Shorts.  I love these, and hope they both make a come back!