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 :)

Wimpy Arms Part Two

Beginning of August I had some wimpy arms and my goal was to not have such wimpy arms. 

I'm keeping my arm goal for yet another month doing the 30/30, 20/20, 10/10 push-ups/tricep dips on the counter top here at work. 

Here it is after a month:

August Goals

1- Run 10 miles every weekend

Generally met this one. I ended up doing closer to 8-10 miles and this past weekend only four miles but another few with Grandpa Muddy walking. Hip pain got the best of me but we'll keep it up for this month too. 

2- Pictures and posting three trails

I made this :). Sunset, Thousand Islands Upper Woods, and a random third which was the trestle trail all made it into my blog in August. As well as yet again the East River trail. 

3-Pull ups and Amazing Arms

Check! My pull up bar will likely be returning upstairs soon but it was well used this month in the hallway downstairs. Kind of an eyesore though right off the kitchen like that. 

4-nutritional goal was a complete loss. 

5- Carpet

My hallway carpet is down. I need to get the transition strips in but otherwise, it's all set and I can finally stop getting irritated every time I walk through my hallway. It was more of a pain than I expected but it's so much nicer to have it out of the way. 

6- Family Time

I didn't get to spend as much time as I'd like with my daughter since she spent  a lot of time camping and out and about this month. And Mr Muddy and I didn't even get a night out :(. But we did some running and biking together which is just as good to me :). 

So for September:

1- Tough Mudder the first weekend and continue to run as close to 10 miles per weekend as I can. Adding in a 2 mile run every Wednesday or Thursday after my call night.

2- Three more trails. Heesacker Park and Doty Park in Menasha/Neenah on the same day since apparently they are quite close to each other. Memorial Park in Appleton. And a third to be determined close to home. I'm thinking Pamprin Park might be a good one or possibly Humbolt.

3- Continuing the Arm plan from last month while I'm at work as well as the 30 Day Ab Challenge I'm doing with some friends on facebook. 

4- Really got to get a bit better on the whole nutrition aspect and damn it... I'll do it. This month, writing down everything I eat and drinking at least 3 glasses of water a day. 

5- A full top to bottom house cleaning is in order.

6- More family time driving with my teen and a night out watching the sunset with Mr Muddy would be very nice. 

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!

First Few Days of Raw

I'm feeling pretty good. I was expecting flu like symptoms by now and I don't have that at all. I had headaches from caffeine withdrawal at first but still feeling pretty good :).

Yesterday, not everything I ate because I didn't write it as I went, but I did have a whole personal watermelon, a few oranges, a huge salad again with some seeds. Apparently they sell raw sunflower seeds at a store near me so I'm going to try to find them next time I'm there. Otherwise for now, I've been pretending seeds are raw ;).

What else? I can't remember but I  know that's not all I ate.

Today I had half a melon and a couple oranges. I have a pineapple set up for dinner and soon I'll be having my salad for lunch. I work second shift so breakfast is noonish, lunch is around 4 and dinner is closer to 7 or 8 and then I usually eat again before bed around 11 or midnight.

I'm pretty excited for tomorrow though. I've a few kiwi's that I'm planning on for breakfast with some bananas. Hopefully the acidity of the pineapple tonight and kiwi's tomorrow wont kill my mouth. I was planning to separate them by at least a day but Grandma Muddy bought me a pineapple and now I have two so figure I'll get one done tonight and the other one in a couple days before it goes bad.

Just in case anyone is wondering what the benefits of a raw fruit diet are...
In no particular order...

1. No food preparation time. Just rinse and eat.
2. No artificial flavors and preservatives. All natural.
3. Very little dishes and certainly no dishes to prepare the fruit unless you like to chop everything up.
4. My body feels clean on the inside.
5. No waiting for dinner to cook.
6. So very simple to do!

What I miss most? The first couple days it was soda. Today, bread is probably topping my list. After January is done and I go to a 6 out of 7 day Paleo lifestyle, I still will be rarely having bread. I also have done intermittent fasting in the past with paleo. I will likely either do that or do a three day fruit feast every couple weeks or so.

I hope everyone is starting off their New Year in good health!

Living the Raw Life

At least for this month.

I was planning on banana's and a pomegranate for breakfast but was unable to locate a pomegranate. So bananas it was. And a couple pears for lunch. Followed by a big salad with pico for dinner. And as I've said I do "cheat" on my raw with a small amount of salad dressing or taco sauce as salad dressing. I left my taco sauce at home so had my salad with a bit of fat free ranch from the cafeteria. 

Yesterday was a huge HUGE headache. My first fully caffeine free day and it was punctuated by lots of advil. I couldn't just ride that one out yesterday. Today, only two Advil. Better day :). Mild headache only. Though I know by the end of day five I'll probably have flu-like symptoms as all the chemicals leave my body. 

I am not primarily doing this for weight loss, more for health, but even when I did the paleo diet for the month of January before I started doing raw instead, I'd lose about 10-15 lbs that first month. I am currently up 15.6 lbs from my "norm". and about 19.6 from my lowest weight. My lowest weight isn't my goal at all. I prefer my norm and maybe I'll head back to that sometime in the upcoming months. 

I was supposed to start my workout plan yesterday as well. The traumatic headache that bordered on a migraine (I used to get those frequently) killed me yesterday. I don't plan to "make up" the day. I will just continue onward. Sort of just jumping back in rather than trying to play catch up when I haven't even started yet. 

Tonights workout for when I get home and after I get groceries is to ride my bike for 20 minutes. 

Tomorrow's meal plan... 

Breakfast- Oranges about 4 or 5. Maybe more

Lunch- Cantaloupe. The WHOLE cantaloupe. Maybe half in one sitting and the other half later. 

Diner- Huge salad with veggies on it. 

Before bed- Some more oranges and a banana or leftover melon.

Snack food- Carrots and nuts.

Planned caloric intake for tomorrow is about 1200. 

Today, day two, I'm not feeling particularly well, probably due to lack of caffeine. But I've been within my goal so far. I still have one more meal left after I get home from work. I'm at about 680 calories now and I'll have at least half a melon when I get home, so another 250-300 calories. A little low for my goal, but really feeling crappy. Hard to eat when I just want to shove an ice pick through my head... Currently I'm at 78% carbs, 11% protein and fats.

After the first couple days it becomes much easier to eat large quantities of fruit and the calories I'll be eating then are about 1500 or more. 

Is Your Food Really Food?

I hate mayo. Reallly hate it, but LOVE fat free ranch dressing. Now I know why, thanks to Mark at Mark’s Daily Apple.

Fat free dressing is basically just corn syrup and modified food starch. The one I had earlier today- a lowfat version- had actual buttermilk in it (though it was in the less than 2% category) and instead of modified food starch had whey protein powder in it.

So apparently I only like fake ranch dressing but now that I have analyzed the content of what I’m eating, I don’t want to eat it. It’s not really food. How much of what we eat isn't  really food? A lot of it. A really whole lot of it.

Fake food is even put into our real food. You get something like applesauce. You expect your applesauce to be apples, some water (or it’d be real chunky applesauce), and maybe a bit of sugar. Then you find out they put all sorts of crap in your applesauce and modify it from something that was food (your applesauce) into something that is filled with chemicals.

Why all this corn syrup? I don’t mind the whole “corn syrup movement” really, but, okay, yeah I do. The more processed it is, the more it loses if what is once was. You certainly can’t call it corn, eh? Isn't plain old table sugar a bit less processed than corn syrup? I don't know, but I’m not a big fan of either.

These “fruit snacks” we feed our kids- what the hell are they? They’re certainly not food if you actually take the time to read the labels.

Even in our dried raisins, dried cranberries, and other dried fruits you’ll find a bunch of additives and chemicals. We are doing ourselves (and more importantly) our children a huge dis-service by purchasing and continuing the growth of companies that feed us chemicals.

Real food lives and dies.
Real food goes bad and rots.
Real food is fruits, vegetables, and animals.

Anyway, make sure the food you’re eating is really food.

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.