My 80/20 Rule

When trying to loose weight, 80% comes from nutrition. The other 20% comes from everything else. This of course is a general rule and there are always exceptions. Like when I was young. Because then I could loose weight eating a bunch of stuff, but then I was doing about an hour of cardio a day (mostly intervals) and weight lifting like crazy. I was playing a ton of DDR, running miles (never more than 3, but daily it adds up), and biking lots and lots. Oh, yeah, and swimming a ton of laps (trying to help my back). Most of that was all on the same day.

So, now that I’m not doing hours of cardio, I’m starting to see the light that nutrition does matter. Who would have thought!

So I've been reading around about nutrition and the general consensus is that 80% of weight loss is nutritionally related. That not eating enough can slow you down just as much as eating too much as well. Not eating enough slows us down, less twitching, less miscellaneous movements… And of course eating too much just gives us excess calories.
Then also about calories and weight loss… If a person is eating double the calories they should be (sort of an exaggeration here), and cut down their calories by 25%, they are still in a caloric surplus. For anyone math inclined, say I’m eating 4000 cals a day, I’d gain weight steadily. Now if I cut that by 25% I’d be eating 3000 per day. I’d still be gaining steadily even though I dropped my caloric intake.

It is important to know what your maintenance level is to be able to eat the right amount of calories. Just cutting calories doesn’t really do much if you don’t know if it’s enough or too much. There are online calculators for this on pretty much any food tracking site. I personally like the daily plate.

So, if nutrition is our 80%, the rest of weight loss is everything else. It’s how much exercise we do. It’s whether we choose to sit or stand, walk or run, sleep or play a game with the kids. All those random choices in a day to take the easy way out or to take those few extra movements do add up. Taking the far spot at the grocery store might only burn an extra five calories, not nearly as much as a mile run, but it does beat burning zero extra calories. Toe tapping during lectures, being fidgety, all those things add up. Of course, some of us who do crazy amounts of intervals, cardio, and other stuff might bump this 20% category to 30%, and those of us with desk jobs and who do a mere 30 min workout here and there- well then nutrition might play a larger role and the “extra’s” might only add up to a measly 10%.

I'm so getting old if I have to worry so much about nutrition! I remember the good days when I ate everything in sight and lost weight :(.

Do more, be active, live life :)

University of Wisconsin Trail at Dusk

We've been to the UWGB trail before. It's quite pretty. As before, this trail is stroller friendly for walking or slow jogging, not so sure about if you're running. It's a bit over 4 miles and is quite pretty. It goes along the water and through the forested area as well as along a more prairie area with a nice field of clovers (which are edible!). This was a gorgeous trail in the afternoon and beautiful again nearing dusk.  

I wandered this trail around dusk a weekend or so ago. The trail closes at dusk according to the sign so I barely made it in time, not that I saw any officers around. 

This is the picnic area where there is a nice parking lot. I plan to come back to watch the sunset before it gets too cold out here in this weather! 

Food, Inc

A really LOOOOONNNNGGGG time ago I watched this movie. This past weekend, I rewatched it. It just makes me angry!

I feel so bad for the soybean farmer whose crops are being contaminated by GMO soybeans grown by nearby farmers and then he gets sued! Well, then make GMO soybeans that don't contaminate other farms, don't blame the guy who didn't do anything wrong! Monstanto patenting a food... and not expecting that food to reproduce by itself... weird.

And I feel horrible for the chickens. Though I know I've watched another movie that I can't remember the name of where they show how "free range" the free range chickens are. A tiny door for them to walk out and it's not even opened until they're to the point that they wouldn't walk out the doorway anyway and the beak clipping because they can't be caged and still be considered free range. But even in Food, Inc, you see how huge these chickens get so fast and they can't barely move. I can't imagine eating obese chicken is good for us.

And the cows who stand in their own poo all day long being fed corn, a product that the cow is not designed to digest. And how the runoff from those farms contaminates vegetable farms, such as our spinach :(.

If you haven't watched it, it is available on Netflix streaming.

I almost wish I lived next to Polyface Farms. I would purchase all my meats from there if that were the case. And soon winter will be over and the farmers markets will be open again near me. Right now, everything is frozen over. There are some free range cattle farms, but nothing like Polyface nearby.

Eat healthy and enjoy your food!

Liftin' those weights!

I've been doing three weight lifting workouts a week. All with dumb bells.

Each workout is exactly the same except more weight as I get stronger and more pull ups.

All are 2 sets of 10 reps. Rest between super sets is as long as I need. Anywhere from a few seconds to a couple minutes depending on the day and if Baby Muddy let me sleep the night before.

Superset One:
Clean and press from the floor.
Straight Leg Deadlift

Superset Two:
Upright Rows
Squats

Superset Three:
Chest press without incline
Lat pull-downs

Last- as many pull ups as I can do. Currently I'm doing three assisted pull-ups in a row.

I'm pretty weak right now. My pregnancy and back problems have really limited my workouts this past year and a half. It's sad to see what I'm lifting now compared to two years ago. I used to be able to squat at least my body weight, now it's only about half my body weight :(. I'll get there though.

I haven't missed one weight workout yet but I have missed a lot of my cardio workouts. I spun on my pole the other day and barely made it 15 minutes and did ride my bike one day. But I should be doing cardio 2-3 times a week too. I'm hoping the ground outside will get clear of ice soon so I can get running. I have some catching up to do. My other two team members (who run together) are already doing 10k without rest breaks. Since I don't start running for the year till the ground is clear of ice, it might be a couple more months for me before I start running. Our first run is in May. I just hope I can keep up with them!

Pole Fitness

I have a fitness pole in my house (pictured above).

Pole dancing and pole fitness are not just for mens clubs.

There's a whole world of pole fitness. There are competitions (men and womens) and fitness facilities. We have an amazing pole fitness studio near where I live.

I'm not sure how I initially got interested in trying pole fitness. Maybe it was the idea of it. It looks neat. Look up some pole videos, it's amazing the moves those people can do! Pole is awesome for overall fitness. Strength... arms, abs, legs, everything. And it also gets your heart going. It gives you a great cardio workout at the same time.

I have this pole in my formal living room. I have no other furniture in there (besides a piano and currently a Christmas tree). When people walk in my home this is one of the first things they see. People who know me well know it takes a lot for me to be embarrassed. And I am NOT embarrassed that I love to dance using this pole. When people come over I'm more than happy to show a move or two if they're curious.

And I'm glad to have people come over and use it themselves if they want, which is exactly what happened this Christmas! My brother in law... OMG!!! Who knew he had those moves? He was able to do a couple awesome inverted moves, while wearing pants!! If you've done pole, you know that skin to pole contact is extremely helpful. He wasn't able to let go with both hands because of the pants (and he did refuse to take them off). I'm certain if he would have had good skin to pole contact with the legs he would have been able to go hands free no problem.

Even the kids had a great time spinning on the pole. And even Grandpa -my 60 year old dad- got a good spin in too! He did a pretty good fireman!

One hell of a Christmas was had at my place :).

Soda Addiction

Along with being all raw for January other than some taco sauce on my salad (sorry, it's processed, I'm just not going to make my own), I have one other thing that is very processed that I must give up.

Soda.

Yes, Soda. I drink A LOT of soda every day. I don't particularly want withdraw headaches. So, along with this Monday starting my own mini pull-up challenge I have on other thing I must do. For every soda I drink this week I will also have one glass of water.

The following week will be two glasses of water for each soda.

And the final week will be three glasses of water for each soda.

Doing it this way hopefully will help me stay more hydrated to make the withdrawal from soda much less uncomfortable. As it is, switching to raw will cause me some issues. All the processed toxins leave the body and yes, we are addicted to many of those too. I'll have my own processed food withdrawal so I'd much rather not double up and also have caffeine withdrawal at the same time.

Though I know soda is bad for me in general, it has been much harder for me to quit than when I quit smoking. One day I decided to stop smoking after being a smoker for about 5 years, so really not very long. I was in my early 20's. I just stopped then and there. Put it down after one drag and never finished it or the pack I had.

I had it easy. I know many people struggle like crazy to get away from smoking. And I'm having that same struggle repeated year after year with caffeine. Ridiculous I know, but true. I'd really like to be able to give up soda and then if I have one out to dinner sometime this year not go back to it like I do now.

T minus 4 weeks

Till training time!

Then the countdown to the Tough Mudder begins.

Well, as I've said in a prior post, my January is a raw vegan 8/1/1 style diet.

But did I mention my training? I do have a plan. 3 days a week of weight training consisting of only two joint exercises. Which means I'm not wasting time on bicep curls (sorry to you guys who worship the bicep curl). I find that I get much better muscle building and functional strength from doing pull ups instead of bicep curls. and pull ups DO work your biceps. And shoulders, and forearms, and even grip strength.

Pull ups actually wont be in my weight lifting routine though since technically I don't lift weights with that. But I will be doing press/pull exercises for the upper and lower body. The pull ups are more of a random incorporation. I have a pull up bar that pops into a doorway. I don't have a door going from my bedroom to a small hallway to the attached bathroom.

Don't worry, my bathroom has a door. Otherwise it would make living with a man sharing my bathroom just about impossible...

Anyway, I digress, the pull up bar is to be used every time I pass by it. How many times a day do I use my bathroom? A LOT. Before work multiple times... bathroom, brushing my teeth, to shower, to go back and brush my hair, to go back because I'm so sleep deprived I forgot deodorant :). Yes, I have to go back lots for that. And to check to make sure I didn't put lipstick on for eyeshadow and vice versa.

I can already to one full pull up and most of the time two full pull ups. Just as of right now it's not very consistent that I do this. I'm starting now to get more into the habit so that by January it wont seem like I'm adding everything at once.

Also for cardio I plan three days of that as well. This month will be 10-20 minute sessions of bike riding (indoors), pole dancing, and kickboxing with my awesome heavy bag. Yes, I have a heavy bag. And it's all mine. Though my boyfriend does sometimes put on my super sexy pink boxing gloves and hit the bag a bit too. He does look awesome in pink ;).

And yeah, I said pole dancing and no I'm not an exotic dancer. It's for fitness people!! Seriously, the way some of you think just surprises me. Okay, no it doesn't :).

I hope you all love the smileys today. I maybe used a few of them here n there.