The "get healthy, lift hard, play harder" diet

[galya]

Originally Posted by laurawd

Hi Galya,

Is the dairy you eat full fat or low/nonfat? You seem to eat very low kcal and low carbs for your activity level. ... Is this calorie level maintenance level for you? Do you know how many carbs you are eating, and where your "sweet spot" is? (I am curious b/c I am trying to devise this kind of diet myself)

Thanks!
Laura

Hey laura,
I eat full fat dairy when I do. Sometimes I use nonfat for some shakes or if I am cutting calories a lot.
Your calorie question: I am currently eating about 1600-1700 cals coming off the GS diet. I was hungry and miserable and my period was very late at the end of the 6 weeks of GS at 1200 cals. So I raised them a bit more than I had to and put on some weight (muscle and fat). I am not happy with that, but at least I got my period when I upped cals. I am going back to the 1300s this week, probably cycling between 1200 and 1400 on different days. I don't like being heavier than I am used to. I always lose fat and maintain leanness at less than the calories suggested for my activity level. Practice shows. I was hoping for the effects of the g-flux on a number of occasions but nothing significant happened. It seems like I don't lose fat and don't maintain leanness unless I eat under 1500. That sucks for me because I love to eat.
I am eating between 50 and 80 grams of carbs on most days, but some days I am as low as 10 grams, it depends on what and how much veggies I chose.
What do you mean when you say sweet spot? (english fails me here)

[galya]

Originally Posted by Lost Dog

Galya,

You often inspire me to eat yogurt, but whenever I do, it's like I ate nothing. Then, 30 minutes later I'm more hungry than BEFORE eating. So, basically, I don't eat yogurt unless I'm trying to gain weight.

What's the theory? Why does yogurt make me hungry. We're talking plain, unsweetened, full fat, with my own fruit added.

Yogurt has a high water content so it's not that you ate much anyways. It's just not much food in terms of quantity. If you ate a large salad and had yogurt after so something was there to fill you in, then you'd be fine. Yogurt on its own usually makes me hungry,too. If you mix it with berries, flax, bran and protein powder then it's usually filling.

[Jaho]

Originally Posted by galya

What do you mean when you say sweet spot?

I think what she is asking is if you know how many grams of carbs you can eat daily before you start smoothing out from fat gain.

[galya]

If that's the case
Grams of carbs, I don't know. Calories: above 1600 in general.

[galya]

Sunday was interesting, woke up at 3 in the afternoon have been moving things around since then. Doing good so far, seems like my evenings will be pretty full with the moving furniture and reorganizing stuff this week.
Food today:
1. shake (raspberries, greens, yogurt, peanut butter)
2. cucumbers, feta
3. tomato, dry curds
4. beef sticks, chicken and turkey ( a bit of each); cucumber

None of those were real meals, more like snacks, but it felt like it was enough. I have no cravings or desires for any specific foods. I hope it stays this way during the week. I will look at my schedule tomorrow and see how to plan workouts but most surely I will have 2 days of total body lifting and 3 bootcamps. I might do extra cardio on the 6th day and leave Sunday for domestic tranquility.
Looking forward to a full week of work at work and work at home. Hope being busy helps with hunger if it hits. I still haven't had coffee. 9 days so far; being caffeine free has tapped into my productivity and clarity of mind but I hope that will pass. If not, I can always go back to drinking moderate amounts of coffee.
Wishing everyone a wonderful week!

[ljk]

Sweet spot - that magic happy place where you eat just the right amount and stay in the right zone of leanness. (in this case). Sweet spot - generally is like that "perfect whatever"...

[galya]

Thank you
I eat the right amount anywhere under the 1500s, but I guess I mentioned that.
Looking forward to my first day of counting again. I will go back and forth between 1500 and 1300 this week and see how I feel. If I can hack it I will drop more later. One carb-up every two weeks or a refeed once a week, what do you say?

[cappuccino]

sounds like a great vacation, caves are pretty cool. Sucks to hear about your glute medius issue. Think it's related to one leg being shorter than the other and pulling funny?

[galya]

I don't think so, it is related to my stupidity. I should know better than to perform useless stupid exercises. I'll blame vacation and lack of coffee.
First coffee free day at work today, I had 4 cups of green tea and a bunch of water. Everybody can tell I weigh more, but they don't think it's bad looking, they are just weirded out by how big my legs and bum look. I am not obsessing since I know this is a stage, but I am looking on this with interest

My plan for cycling seems to be coming out fine, low day today 1200 cals with 100 left in extra for things I might have miscalculated because there was coconut cream in the dish I cooked tonight and I don't know how many grams of it I got

Food:
1. boiled egg+feta+yogurt+greens
2. beef sticks, broccoli
3. boiled egg, curds, broccoli and cauliflower
4. cottage cheese, tomato
5. beef sticks, cucumber
6. chicken stew (onion, mushrooms, carrot, chicken, coconut cream, sour cream) and broccoli

workout

mixed grip pull ups
5xBW
5xBW
5xBW

Full contact twist
5x20kg
5x25kg
5x25kg

Lat raise
8x7.5kg
6x10kg
6x10kg

Ran out of time so

Second workout few hours later

Military press
4x30kg
4x30kg
3x30 kg (damn! I should have done 4)

cable dip
5x37kg
5x37kg
5x37kg

Those are still nasty and hard

Bunch of weighted crunches with client, that was fun

Off to bed now and getting up early for bootcamp

[laurawd]

Hey Galya! Thanks for your reply about dairy fat.

Nice workout today. I am inspired by your lat raises! That's heavy weight! (for me!)

What is a full contact twist?

[CAchief]

is a "beef stick" beef jerky?

[galya]

It's like a really thick dry mix of meat, like very dry pepperoni, but not very spicy, sometimes buffalo, or beef or ostrich. They are about 300 cals per 100 grams and an easy thing to grab and chew on.

[galya]

Originally Posted by laurawd

What is a full contact twist?

Here it is:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/mm6.htm

[galya]

Bootcamp day today.
Running, stairs, iso holds of all nasty variations and more running. Total of 90 minutes. Did good, even though I was very tired at the end.
I haven't had time to get my calories in so far, I have about 550 left for the night I will try to split them in two meals+I am making some protein bars for tomorrow, that should help.
Food up to dinner:
1. cottage cheese/coconut oil/sour cream/greens
2. boiled egg+curds+tomato
four fresh walnuts: a lot of work for not much
3. broccoli+chicken+mushrooms
4. tuna+butter+carrots

I had 1/3 cup of french pressed coffee after my colleagues and clients told me I look like I was dying. I had 0 mental clarity and those 4 or 5 sips brought life back to me. I am hoping to bring back a healthy cup of coffee a day and not go back to the madness of before vacation.

[Lost Dog]

Coffee has a big psychological benefit for me. Even decaf is pretty good for me. It still has a touch of caffeine, too.

I love my french press. The best coffee!

[galya]

I did a bunch of visualizations about how I want to eat during the next few weeks. I had a long time on that vacation to work on those. It seems like my visualization choices are very strongly influencing what I choose to eat and drink. I have always loved diet coke and now I look at it and just pass and have water, no effort at all. Same with coffee, I didn't miss the taste, I had it for concentration medicine. I don't know if that makes sense.