Tag: diets

Last Week’s Workouts

I was going to start a completely separate blog to write about this stuff, but I decided against it because I don’t want to have 7 million blogs on the internet. So, click the “read more” link to hold me accountable and see how I did.

My plan was:

Monday: Ashtanga/Iyengar Yoga
Tuesday: Running + sit ups
Wednesday: Running + sit ups + Ashtanga/Iyengar yoga
Thursday: Running + sit ups
Friday: Rest?
Saturday: Vinyasa
Sunday: Rest or Run?

It turned out like this:

Monday: Ashtanga/Iyengar Yoga (75 minutes)
Tuesday: Running (22 minutes) + abs + hand weights
Wednesday: Running (20 minutes)
Thursday: Pilates (60 minutes) + abs
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Vinyasa (95 minutes)
Sunday: Running (20 minutes or 2 miles) – this killed because we started with running up a hill. 

I’ve been doing pretty good with eating. I’m really trying to limit my snack and eat as many vegetables as possible. I realized that eating chopped veggies and guac instead of tortilla chips leaves me feeling a lot better. Duh. 

How were your workouts last week?

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Weighty

I began a month or so back to give my weight a little bit of… weight in my mission to tone up for the spring, summer, fall… and for life. I talked about how I gained a few pounds over the winter and it was annoying me. To track my progress (or lack of progress), I began to weigh myself once a week on Wednesday mornings after my workout before beginning my day. I found that my weight fluctuates a lot:

  • 4/20: 159.1
  • 4/27: 158
  • 5/4: 156.6
  • 5/11: 159
  • 5/18: 156.8

Before the brutally, painfully cold winter, I was hovering between 151-154. 

What I forgot to recognize was that this weight gain could be partially from muscle gain. I do the elliptical and now use weights 3-4 times per week. Does anyone know if that could result in muscle gain? (The elliptical use, I mean, as using weights definitely causes muscle gain.) An as aside, I’m currently eating around 1300 calories/day. I know I need to up my protein and fiber intake, for sure. 

I know my weight doesn’t make me a good or bad person and it’s not even a particularly good indicator of general health if you’re in a safe range (obviously if you’re 300lbs and 5′4″, there’s an issue), but it’d be nice loose 5 or so pounds which shouldn’t be all that hard because I lost around 40 initially.

Am I about to give up peanut butter and cupcakes? No. Peanut butter is a food group to me. That’s probably why weighing 147 again will never be possible (which is what I weighed at my lowest when I first lost all of my weight, in a healthy way, in 2011-2012). And overall, I generally like how I look so I’m not willing to purge or starve myself. Please, I like food way too much to not eat it or waste it by regurgitating it. I might try to stop eating so much Italian bread though (the kind you get at restaurants). That shit is great but it’s mostly empty calories.

There probably isn’t really any advice that anyone could give because I like what I like, but i just thought I’d put it out there. 

Inspiralized @ Whole Foods

J bought the Inspiralizer for me a few months ago and I use it in over 50% of my cooking now. I haven’t made actual pasta in months. And aside from when I had penne vodka over the weekend at a restaurant, I haven’t eaten it. When I did, it made me feel gross. Anyways, when it was announced that Ali Malfucci, founder of Inspiralized, was doing a demo at the Upper West Side Whole Foods, I was super stoked.

She demo’ed how to to inspiralize a plethora of vegetables, showed how to clean the Inspiralizer, talked about how she got started, answered questions, and then made a pesto dish with zucchini noodles. It was so good.

I bought her first cook book and she was super sweet – exactly the same as how she comes across in her videos. She clarified how to stabilize my Inspiralizer to my granite countertop; which was something that I’d had a load of trouble with.

I can’t recommend this kitchen tool enough! It’s changed my life and my palette. 

New York Times’ Turkey Chili

Last Saturday, after yoga, I went to Trader Joe’s and then headed home and immediately began to make turkey chili, for the first time. For some reason I’d always thought that chili seemed like a lot of work, but that night I just said fuck it and hunkered down with Netflix and made it.

As the weather is getting colder (kind of, sort of, sometimes), I turned to my book on Ayurveda and knew I had to change my diet, somewhat. When the weather gets colder, it’s recommended that you eat warmer foods that are easier to digest since your system slows down (we haven’t really evolved completely past the days of hibernating cave men). So that meant no more cold yogurts and salads for me and many more soups and stews.

After chopping up an insane amount of vegetables, I sautéed them, added some broth and tomatoes, let it simmer, and then it was done. Seriously, it was so easy. My life will never be the same again – neither will my diet. In the recipe it was served with sour cream and cheese, but to be honest, I don’t really like sour cream on my chili. It makes it very watery. Ew.

This recipe is so easy and it makes, like, at least a half-dozen servings. Cook it, seriously. 

MyFitnessPal-ing is back!

So I’ve decided to start using MyFitnessPal again. It’s almost summertime and I feel like my snacking has been out of control lately.

Even though I run up and down the stairs in between our two offices dozens of times a day, I also sit at my desk a lot. And I think about food WAY too much. I feel like I’m always thinking about my next meal. And I’m snacking at my desk all the time.

Don’t get me wrong: I really like how I look right now. I think I look great. But I’d like it to stay that way too. Dropping 5-10 more pounds wouldn’t hurt either but it’s not that important to me.

I still go to yoga 3-4 times every week and run maybe once a week. I also find myself walking a LOT now that the weather is nice. I’ll walk 35 blocks to my 9:15am yoga class on Saturday mornings and if I’m not in a rush to be anywhere, I’ll walk the 35 blocks home.

I love walking. Especially in the city.

I guess I’m starting with MFP again to start eating (and snacking on) the foods that keep me full and feeling good again.

But in the meantime: does anyone have any tips to keep my mind off food while I’m at my desk?