I just enter what I eat into fitday - it calculates all the percentages for me.
We cut up meat & veggies on Sundays and Wednesday evenings:
- ham & turkey breast
- bell peppers
- onions
- romaine lettuce
I usually make a giant salad of some sort to last through most of the week as snacks. Tabouli or cuke/tomato or something like that. It sits in a big bowl in the fridge and I scoop out a cup or so and put into little containers to take to work.
I also frequently make a giant tuna/veggie mixture to put on top of lettuce for salads to take to work for lunch. I'll mix 8 cans of albacore with pickles, jalapenos, bell peppers, onions, capers, mustard, pepper, and about 1/4 cup of mayo. Mix it all together and it makes about 8 cups of salad mixture. 1 cup per salad is pretty filling, so doing that on sunday lasts us almost the entire workweek.
breakfast, I toss in a bunch of veggies & ham into a skillet, cook, put on a plate, then add my egg whites (from a carton - we buy cartons 6 at a time at costco), flip it, and make an omelet. Takes about 10 minutes to make in the morning.
On saturday, I made a pot of brown rice (1 cup raw) and a big pan of kung pao chicken - 6 servings. I eat 1/2 cup of rice at a time with a cup of the kung pao so that lasts me several dinners. It's great - after my workout, I just get into the fridge & measure out my food into a container, heat it in the microwave, and voila - dinner in 2 minutes.
I've also bought a package of frozen 92% lean burgers (Laura's Lean from Target, it's very good) and frozen brussel sprouts, which is also super-quick. Just cook up the burger in a pan & nuke the sprouts in the microwave for 1 minute. Dinner's done in about 4-5 minutes tops.
Cutting things up and making big batches makes a HUGE difference in the amount of time I spend cooking & doing dishes during the week. And, of course, a big difference in whether or not I stick to my eating plan.
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
Oh, another thing I've done is cook up a bunch of chicken breasts at once and cut them into slices or cubes then put the pieces into containers in the fridge. That way they're easy to use for salad, stir fry, scrambled eggs, whatever. And it lasts about a week or so.
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
oh and btw my fat on my belly is very loose. I was entertaining myself during my workout - usually when I do my pushups, my little fat "pouch" hangs down over the top of my shorts, just over my bellybutton. I had my feet & hands on the floor and brought my feet up toward my hands to put myself in sort of a "downward dog" type position. My fat rolled up to the bottom of my rib cage. :p So of course I went back down to the pushup "up" position and watched the fat roll down, then back up as I moved my feet closer to my hands.
It's probably a good thing I work out at home. lol.
ROTFL!!!
How's the leg feeling? Sounds pretty ouchy
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Bytsi Hamster training log A lot of NEAT one day is NOT "useless" if the next day the scale doesn't move. -- Aoife Be careful about reading health books - you may die of a misprint -- Mark Twain
I also frequently make a giant tuna/veggie mixture to put on top of lettuce for salads to take to work for lunch. I'll mix 8 cans of albacore with pickles, jalapenos, bell peppers, onions, capers, mustard, pepper, and about 1/4 cup of mayo. Mix it all together and it makes about 8 cups of salad mixture. 1 cup per salad is pretty filling, so doing that on sunday lasts us almost the entire workweek.
I like all of your preparing ideas. I do some of this but need to get better at it. Especially with chicken.
Yeah, we almost have it down to a science! I love that I don't have to cook after a strenuous workout. Just throw stuff together, heat it up, and EAT.
I can't remember if I mentioned this or not but we go to costco every weekend and this is pretty much in our cart every time:
- bag of 6 heads of romaine lettuce
- 1-2 bags of bell peppers
- bag of 2.5 pounds of spinach
- box of 6 cartons of egg whites
- large package of sliced mushrooms
- large package of berries or cherries
- large tub of cottage cheese
- 12 cans of albacore if we're out
And then some random things. Last week I bought a big pack of turkey lunchmeat for snacks and a package of kiwi fruit. Sometimes I'll buy celery stalks, so I can chop them up & put them in baggies to take to work. I also bought a big bag of baby carrots for munching, too. I need lots of snacky things - and the more it's veggies or lean meat (like turkey breast) the better! Otherwise I want to eat stuff like cookies or scones. And there's always SOMETHING like that here at work.
My leg is better today but still sore. My entire hip joint feels tender.
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
Thank you for taking the time to type out all your food prep ideas and grocery list. This will help me, tremendously.
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Ginger
"Suck it up for a week or two and you'll be used to it. Part of the problem is the somewhat recent line that goes something like this... "If you're hungry, you're eating too little." Total bullshit. We're hungry because we're on diets." - Roland
"Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." - Lou Holtz
No prob! We've been working on figuring this stuff out for all of 2008 now and I think I'm finally finding things that work. The key for me really is making sure I have enough to eat that will still fit into my diet. I keep a small tub of fat-free cream cheese and a baggie of the lunchmeat at work, so all I need to do is bring a baggie of celery and - voila - instant low-calorie, protein-rich snack.
Oh and I forgot to mention that the reason I'm doing all the tracking now (I just started up again last week) is because the scale has been stuck at 145-146 for about a month now. It went down to 144.4 right before vacation but went right back up again of course. So I really need to hammer down on my calories if I want to lose the rest of this fat (about 7-8 pounds I think). And if I'm eating 1300-1400 calories a day, I want it to be nutritionally balanced. I don't want to be too low in carbs or fat, because I know myself - I will STARVE and be obsessive and really unhappy and end up cramming my face with a 500-calorie starbucks scone on a lunchbreak. I haven't done that yet, but I certainly daydreamed about it.
Once I get to my desired weight, though, I really hope to get away from tracking and just eat healthfully. Every so often I might weigh myself just to make sure i'm not creeping up. The whole tracking thing, IMO, should be temporary. I don't think I can live by the numbers long term!
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
And, I know I shouldn't be so tied to the # on the scale. My stomach is actually so lean now that the middle of my rib cage sticks out over my abs when I just stand normally. Makes me realize just how big my rib cage really is. And it's that time of the month so it's likely that in a few days my weight will be back down.
OH and speaking of girly stuff - I put on my shiny toy guns tank top last night without a bra and noticed how GREAT it looked.. hm! So I jumped up & down and didn't flop all over the place. Yes, ladies and gents, I now have perky, non-bouncy breasts. First time in my life and it was awesome. I had to show John. lol. My 2 bras I bought this spring are both too big for me now so I've certainly ventured into the land of the B-cup... it's bittersweet - yay for losing fat, boo for it being from the chesticle area. I'm still thrilled about being perky & non-bouncy though.
(and as I am writing this wondering if this is appropriate content for my log, I'm thinking about The Todd on Scrubs, the surgeon who suddenly appears whenever people talk about boobs or girl-on-girl action... lol)
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
And, I know I shouldn't be so tied to the # on the scale. My stomach is actually so lean now that the middle of my rib cage sticks out over my abs when I just stand normally. Makes me realize just how big my rib cage really is. And it's that time of the month so it's likely that in a few days my weight will be back down.
OH and speaking of girly stuff - I put on my shiny toy guns tank top last night without a bra and noticed how GREAT it looked.. hm! So I jumped up & down and didn't flop all over the place. Yes, ladies and gents, I now have perky, non-bouncy breasts. First time in my life and it was awesome. I had to show John. lol. My 2 bras I bought this spring are both too big for me now so I've certainly ventured into the land of the B-cup... it's bittersweet - yay for losing fat, boo for it being from the chesticle area. I'm still thrilled about being perky & non-bouncy though.
(and as I am writing this wondering if this is appropriate content for my log, I'm thinking about The Todd on Scrubs, the surgeon who suddenly appears whenever people talk about boobs or girl-on-girl action... lol)
Yay for perkies! I think I may have to order me a STG tank. It can be a tank club. Loving the "Rainy Monday" song, to be honest.
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Ginger
"Suck it up for a week or two and you'll be used to it. Part of the problem is the somewhat recent line that goes something like this... "If you're hungry, you're eating too little." Total bullshit. We're hungry because we're on diets." - Roland
"Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." - Lou Holtz
I'm impressed. I left the land of perky years ago, never to return...
At least I don't look like my gf who described what's left of her chest to me (no, I didn't see 'em - this was just her description): Two tube socks with pebbles in the bottom. Yikes!!!
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Bytsi Hamster training log A lot of NEAT one day is NOT "useless" if the next day the scale doesn't move. -- Aoife Be careful about reading health books - you may die of a misprint -- Mark Twain
Woo hoo! I distinctly remember being in my early teens and seeing Carrie, thinking that all the breasts of all the women in the high school shower were completely different from mine. I remember seeing breasts in other shows & movies and always thinking mine were deformed (this was before I ever saw any other average woman’s breasts, which was in college… living in the dorms fixed that). Mine, even in my early teens, seemed saggy and decidedly not-perky … They’ve always been that way, ever since I can remember – even when I was in the high 130s for a few months (back in college thanks to poverty-induced starvation). I thought that’s just the way it was. NOW I KNOW. My pecs are bigger than they’ve ever been and I’m sure that has everything to do with it. Stronger pecs + lower body fat = perky titties
All these new things I’m discovering after a lifetime under a layer of chub. I love it.
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
All these new things I’m discovering after a lifetime under a layer of chub. I love it.
Yay! Can't wait to visit you and see how you look. But you know I like you no matter how you look.
God, perky titties? Are those a reality? I thought you had those only if you had a boob job. Did I tell you I was diagnosed as a 30DD? I was a 32D, but 32 was too big and now they make 30, but if you go down in the circumference, you go up in the cup... Go figure... That must be a new invention. Over the shoulder bolder holders must have been invented by a non-woman...
WOW! If you're really curious about changes to your breasts have Chris take a "now" picture then take one as you progress through your workouts!
I weighed in at 144.0 today - hurrah! I'm 6 pounds away from my lowest evar adult weight (and I was 20 and starving, does that count?). Best shape of my life and tracking my food for a while is making a huge difference. As is having some carbs. I just didn't enjoy being on a very low-carb diet after a while and obsessed about the weirdest things (oreos, anyone?).
Now I eat fruit every day and my carb obsessions are gone. I don't sit at my desk & fixate on going to starbucks to buy a dried out scone, which is nice. I really like precision nutrition - I eat vegetables & protein at every meal EXCEPT my afternoon snack, when I eat fruit & protein. That's still compliant and works really well for me. and the 30/30/40 recommendation of f/c/p seems to work really well too. yay! I always forget to take my fish oil though. oops.
Workout 4 in stage 7 is today. I think I'm going to do stage 7 again; I don't want it to be over so quickly. After that, I'm moving on to starting strength. I am going to TX the last week of July, which is also when I'll finish the 2nd round of stage 7 and when I'll take my monthly pictures. So, it'll be a perfect time to move on to another program. I'm looking forward to it!
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
WOW! If you're really curious about changes to your breasts have Chris take a "now" picture then take one as you progress through your workouts!
Now there's an idea for a challenge pics thread, assuming the server doesn't go down from all the hits.
Also remember that cutting out alcohol not only removes 7 cals/gram from your diet it also keeps your metabolism going at a healthy rate.
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Tom
Infirma nostris corporis virtute firmans perpeti (Strengthen our weak body with eternal power)
- Mahler: Symphony No. 8; Text attributed to Hrabanus Maurus
