I've started calorie counting again, inspire by my cousins (check them out here and here). I'm using good old My Plate which is now part of the Lance Armstrong Livestrong website. It's a great little tool and I believe that even have iPhone/Droid apps for those of you with fancy smartphones. :) I'm allotting myself 2'000 calories/day. I'm hoping to be able to lose about a pound a week if I can stick to this and my near-daily workouts burning between 350-500 calories per workout.
Okay, so stats for yesterday:
- whole wheat english muffin w/ earth balance spread and strawberry jam for breakfast, apples with vanilla yogurt for snack, Taco Bell crunch wrap and taco (SO BAD I KNOW) for lunch, giant salad w/ carrots, cucumbers, radishes and shredded cheese for post-workout dinner with one slice (1/8th of the whole pie) of red baron pepperoni pizza, handful of chex mix for snack and an Edy's lemon frozen fruit bar. Total calories: 1935
- 30 minutes of fast-paced resistance training (gotta get a little cardio in whenever you can). Total calories burned: 381
- 3 cigarettes
- another late bedtime - 11:30pm, read until 12:15am.
- money spent: $5 on Taco Bell
So - my ah-ha moment. I think I know why I'm so freaking fat... SUGAR INTAKE. Oh geez. It's so bad. The "average" person on a 2000 calorie diet is suppose to consumer
Jackie Warner (from BravoTV fame in "Work Out" and now "Thintervention", two shows I'm not a big fan of, but the lady is in SUPER shape) says this:
Sugar is the devil
Sugar throws our body into an immune suppressed, non-working state of chronic fatigue, depression, and hormonal imbalance. It is the leading cause of disease and depression in this country. To break the sugar addiction, get rid of refined sugar (anything that isn’t fruit or veggies) for 5 days in a row, then allow yourself to have one cheat meal on Saturday and one on Sunday. You will have curbed the chemical addiction for sugar and your brain will desire less.
I may try this "sugar detox" at some point here in the next couple weeks.. but it definitely won't be easy. She recommends not eating anything with more than 9g of sugar per serving as part of just your regular diet (again, unless it's sugars from fruits or veggies). That even cuts out milk. :-\
Okay so goals for the rest of this week (normally I will set these on Sunday or Monday):
- keep my sugar intake at or under
60g/day40g/day as advised for my DRA (Daily Recommended Allowance) - workout 5 days/week for at least 30 minutes
- 10 cigarettes or less on weekend nights
- continuing focusing on my budget - $50/week for things other than groceries/household needs (ie, toilet paper, cleaning products, etc.)/special occasions (birthdays, etc.)
Does anyone think those are unrealistic goals? I guess we'll see, won't we? heh.
I probably need to start monitoring the sugar thing as well. Usually when I'm dieting, I pretty much just look at calories, fat, and sodium. But I don't think about how much sugar can be in things that don't even seem bad!
ReplyDeleteAs for your lunch at Taco Bell - the crunch wrap is probably the best thing ever invented! haha. And you still stayed under your calorie limit, so good for you! :)
I know, crunch wraps are SOOOOO delicious... and all things considered not too terrible for you - a little high in fat, but they have a 16g of protein and 6g of fiber! Taco Bell is actually the "best" fast food you can get -- it's significantly lower in sodium than anywhere else (shocking, right?!) and almost everything on their menu has 4g of fiber or more. The 7-layer burrito it super nutritious, plus you get the added bonus of omega-3s with that delicious guacamole. I think I'm gonna have to start getting that instead of the crunch wrap.. lol :)
ReplyDeleteSouth Beach is really good for a two week sugar purge. It doesn't allow you to have basically any sugar for like two weeks, reducing her bodies taste and desire for it.
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