Monday, December 21st, 2009 - Sunday, December 27th, 2009

Light week.  They closed the gym on me on Christmas (Jewish here for anyone who's about to throw a humbug, and the gym was opened on Hannukah).  And the day before is light.

MONDAY morning before classes:  I'm reading the book Ultrametabolism and I think I'm a convert.  It's not the amount we eat and not even the macros (carbs/protein/fat percentages), but where the calories come from; slow-absorbing or fast-absorbing.  Just getting into the book so I'll be writing a lot about it.  I had decided a couple of days ago to go from 1600 calories to 1700-1800 calories and the book suggests that your basal metabolic rate is weight with a zero at the end.  That means don't go below that.  And right now I'm 170.5-173, so 1700-1800 was actually perfect.

The topic of the day is mistakes.  I've been thinking about mistakes a lot lately.  And this is what I decided about the topic:  None of us want to make mistakes.  We have a decision to make and sometimes it's the wrong one.  Or maybe we weren't brave enough to do something.  But do we really ever want to fail?  Do you wake up in the morning and go, "Gee, I want to screw up my life today."  (and if you did, e-mail me or call 911!)  No, we don't.  We don't want to make mistakes, but sometimes we do.  And sometimes we fail to act.  I want to address both of those separately.

Making mistakes - since you didn't set out to make a mistake, why would you beat yourself up about it?  Are you a bad person because you made a mistake?  I don't think so.  Sometimes we just make the wrong choice, but we don't want to make the wrong choice, it just works out that way.  So why beat yourself up over something that you didn't mean to happen or at least happen in that way or for something you didn't mean to do?  Learn from it, regroup, move on.  Accept where you are at that point in time.

That last sentence ties into failing to act.  Sometimes we wish we could do something but we don't.  Maybe we're scared or anxious or think we can't do it.  Don't beat yourself up over that either.  I had a chance to do something back in 2006 and I didn't.  And I wish I had.  And I try not to beat myself up about it because I recognize that I wasn't ready and I didn't have the necessary experiences to take action.  Sometimes we just can't.  And that's ok.  Allow yourself to Can't sometimes.  Maybe it's something you'll never be able to do.  In that case, are there alternatives?  Maybe it's something you just can't do right now but may be able to do later.  I have another chance now to do what I didn't back in 2006.  And it's terrifying.  But by now so many things have happened in the last six months and a half or so that really leave no alternative but to brave up and do it (and it's a good thing to do).  Sometimes you just go through so many experiences and events that make you realize you can never go back to who you were back then.  Not even because you don't want to, but because that person is not there any longer.  Sometimes events change you irreversible (and depending on the changes this may be a good thing).

So allow yourself mistakes and indecisiveness.  Sometimes it's just who you are and what you have and where you are at the time.  And sometimes it changes and sometimes it doesn't.  But if you didn't specifically set out to do the wrong thing, there's really no point in dwelling on it after learning as much as you can from it.



MONDAY 9a Sahara TurboKick Janet (first time) 54/641/30, 181/96, 161/85 (Six Turbos, good start for the week)
MONDAY Noon Agassi Lift Janine (spelling?) 54/357/60, 139/74, 118/62


Lift was TOUGH.  Hardest class of any format I have taken at 24 Hour Fitness so far, even counting my first one.  90% of the exercises I had never done in Lift before and every other exercise involved upper AND lower body.  And for some reason TurboKick wiped me out more than usual.  I normally only have 200-250 calories between classes and this time I had 440 calories, and it took me 180 more after Lift to finally feel full.  4:23p and I've had about 1250 calories out of my allotted 1800.  Egg wrap, 2 bananas, and an apple to go for today.

I just noticed yesterday that a health issue that, while not life-threatening, was annoying, is completely gone after pretty much a decade of existence.  Multiple doctors provided no explanation of solution.  Just poof, gone.  Who knew it could be health-related?  Quality Of Life + 10.

MONDAY 6.30p Craig SET Donalin 53/510/45, 165/87, 143/76


Great end to the day.  Awesome Monday.  I was really hungry today and really ate throughout the day.  One banana and apple to go today and it's almost 9p.  1862 calories today.  First day of seeing how 1800 calories works.  Going to really study the glycemic index at work tonight.  I think I figured out the key to nutrition.  1.  Never eat below your weight * 10 (in my case 1700-1800) and eat foods that have slow-absorbing calories instead of fast-absorbing calories (and I think this correlates with the glycemic index (GI) in that those foods with a low GI number are absorbed slower (better).  So eat at least your weight with a zero at the end end eat foods low in GI.  Easy peasy.  Now to see if it works.

I want to talk a bit about the non-aesthetic changes that losing weight brings.  A huge one was the health condition disappearing, something that has taken time, money, and peace of mind away from me for about a decade.  Poof, just like that, gone one day.  That is a quality of life issue. There's length of life and there's quality of life, and my quality of life just increased by leaps and bounds. I had no idea losing weight would help me with that.

And then there's all the little changes. Being able to cross my legs at the knees. Having an easier time crossing my arms. Folding my legs into myself while laying down in bed. And just moving. I can move better. And I am so grateful that I can move better that sometimes I have to keep myself from crying during class. And it sounds corny but it is such a wonderful feeling to feel yourself moving in ways you haven't felt before.

I'm also just full of energy now, all the time. I'm barely tired anymore, and I work an overnight shift. Before I used to be tired all the time no matter how much I slept, and now I have energy to spare. Then there's just the general well-being. It's like I was city air before, and now I'm mountain air. I'm cleaner, purer, fresher, better.

There are so many many many benefits that have come from losing weight that I wasn't counting on, that they overshadow a small waist. And it's all interconnected, i.e. the small waist is part of what brings on the other changes, but your mindset changes in that looking good is suddenly not that important at all when you compare it with everything else.

Oh, and all the inside changes I've been blogging about also.

Just for the record I have been shedding more hair than usual lately but I have such thick hair it's not noticeable and I researched it and when you exercise your testosterone goes up (yes, even for women) and a side effect is hair loss. Just for the record.

So even though I can't really tell the physical changes (i.e. because I see myself all the time and because I always go all out in class so that I don't notice if I'm getting better), I can certainly see these other changes. And all of a sudden you start looking around at your entire life and realize you are in a very good place.

TUESDAY Morning:  Lowest yet is 170.5 and right now at 173, which I'll take... a 2.5lbs fluctuation isn't bad. If I can stay the same weight and build muscle I'll be happy because sooner or later the muscle tops out and the weight starts going down again. Work food was bananas, morning food was pasta, in-between workouts is chocolate (protein barand drink), and apples and peaches at night. Wonder how the pasta will do as a pre-workout meal. Get to find out soon enough. It has 7g of protein per serving and I ate about 1.5 servings. 5g of fiber, 1.5 of fat, 20's carbs.


TUESDAY 9a TurboKick Kathy 59/661/30, 174/92, 157/83
TUESDAY 10a Pilates Stephanie 52/260/60, 125/66, 106/56


I wasn't hungry in-between classes but my energy was completely zapped, so I will try wheat pasta before class one more time but will take a protein drink for afterwards.

TUESDAY 5.30p Ann Lift Kathy 55/414/55, 146/77, 126/67

The word of the day is baby steps.  I did something today I hadn't really done before.  But I didn't go as much as I was wishing to do.  But I'm going to try my hardest to allow myself baby steps on it.  Maybe the small little bit was good enough, and there's always next time.  Maybe it doesn't have to be all at once, and maybe it doesn't have to be perfect the first time around.  Still wish it had been more, but going to work on being happy on the little that was.

Who are we, really?  Are we set in a certain way or are we fluid?  Can we be whoever we say we are?  Lately I'm trying to get away from shoulds.  Started at the gym and now I'm trying to port it over to other aspects of my life.  Whenever I wonder whether to do something or not, I'm trying to shift from whether that's what should be done or not to am I the kind of person who does that or not.  I.e. doesn't matter if anyone else would, would I?  What kind of person do I want to be?  Even if no one else did something, would I like to be the kind of person who does?

WEDNESDAY 8a Ann Cycle Dallas 59/590/40, 163/86, 148/78
WEDNESDAY 10a Sahara Zumba Michelle 58/583/40, 165/87, 147/78

Had good numbers this morning.  I am very close to breaking 600 in cycle.  Hopefully that means I'm getting better.  And I'm starting to near 600 again in Zumba.

I had a Lift scheduled right before Donalin but I think I'm going to skip it.  I had Lift on Monday and Tuesday.  I want to rest up a bit and go hard in Zumba.  Going to skip the half hour Zumba on Thursday also and leave this week at 13 classes, recuperate a bit.

Since I go all out on Wednesdays cycle, Wednesday morning Zumba is hard.  But I'm not about to skip either of them, so I'll just have to keep trudging through the pain until I can take both properly.

Hungry Monday, hungry today also.  All I have left are two egg wraps for today (just ate 3 servings of pasta and a cheese wrap in the last two hours).  But I haven't slept yet.  So one wrap before Zumba and one after, then bed.  I upped the calories 100-200 and I'm now hungrier!!  But I've been eating low glycemic (LG), I wonder if that has anything to do with it.  I shudder to look at the scale.  Will do so tomorrow after I wake up.

I've been feeling fat lately.  For some reason the more weight I lose the more self-conscious I get over my weight.  The more I notice it.  Now I hate looking at myself at the gym mirrors.  I seem huge.  But I didn't notice it when I was 230 lbs.  And it didn't really bother me when I started the group classes in September.  Just this past week, it started.  I go to new classes with people I don't take regularly (not the instructors, the other gym-goers) and it's almost like I have to prove that I'm not a hopeless fat person.  At first I went mostly to the Cheyenne location, and eventually got to know people there who I took class with all the time.  Then went a couple of times to other locations and hated it because I didn't know anybody and almost stopped going to other locations.  But I wanted to take more instructors and specific instructors and so I hover between five different locations.  But I much rather prefer when I know people in class than when I don't.  I started eating 1800 calories a day and LG and I hope that wasn't a horrible idea.  If tomorrow I'm anywhere less than 174 I'll be happy (lowest weight 170.5).  What I hate about muscle-building is that it's not easily quantifiable.  You THINK you are building muscle, but you don't really know.  And I haven't found an accurate way to measure body fat.  Last time I measured I was 173.  So a week went by, and I gained 2.5 lbs.  And it's easy to say it's water weight or muscle, but it could always be fat.  Weight loss is not an exact science and I'm finding lately that there's a lot of faith involved in it.   You do something because you think it will work but you don't really know if it will or not, and sometimes you go through periods of non-movement or even movement backwards and you just hope you're still in the right path.

I've found lately that the thinner I get the more self-conscious I get.  I've never really had to worry about my body.  When I started I was fat, out of shape, could barely move, and didn't know any of the moves, but I was front and center.  I find it that the better I know the moves and the better I can do the moves and the better I move and look period, the more I want to go hide in the back.  The shift back has started in one class where I like to just hide out in the sea of people.  It's just kind of hard to move because if for almost four months you've been in the front, people notice you moving back.  But I definitely noticed that, the better I get at knowing and doing the classes, the more I want to hide out.  Maybe it goes hand and in hand with the thinner I get the more self-conscious I get.

At the risk of sounding conceited, I've been thinking that once I get to my goal weight of a muscular 110 lbs at 5'4", men could start looking.  And I'm not sure how I feel about that.  I don't think I like it.  I've always been overweight/obese (mostly obese) so I haven't really have had to deal with that "problem" before.  I'm not necessarily a shy person but I have shy moments.  And I look at other people at the gym and think "they look GOOD" but I wouldn't want somebody to look at me and think the same thing, because that would necessitate them looking at me.  I'm not sure I want to enter the meat market.  And as I change sizes I wear comfortable-fitting clothes, so I don't think I'll be hiding behind oversized sweats (the sweater doesn't count).  So all of this has been on my mind lately.  And I want this blog to be a record of the journey, both the good and the bad, the positive and the negative.  I want to show the progression in thoughts, feelings, and actions as someone goes from highly obese to Fit (the chunk below normal, athletes and such).

I have set a date for the 24 Turbos in a row.  Sunday.  That's getting its own blog post.  Going to ask to borrow a TurboKick DVD.  I pretty much know the routine already:  Freezing alternating lunges, then swing arms with opposite leg, then double arms, repeat last two, then skate X 4, skate right, 2 airs, skate X 4, skate left, 2 airs, jumping squats, then I believe comes the double-jab/speed/jab/jack X 4 alternating, then skate X 4, jack around to the back, skate X 4, jack around to the front, then run up, then jack right, jack left, jack both, air, run up, jack right/left/both, air, then hee-haw X 4, throws X 4, then single knee slaps then single single double, then lunge up then down X 3, air X 2, lunge up then down X 3, air X 2.  If I don't have it down as it is, at the most it'll be 1-2 tweaks.  So I have the routine already, all I need is the music.  And if I mess up I'll just keep on going through that Turbo as long as I just keep moving I'll count it as a Turbo, and just start fresh the next one.  So this Sunday it happens.  Me and the iPod Nano recording.  Thinking it'll take an hour.  So all I really need is the DVD to make sure I got the sequence right and then all I need is to just go and do it.  Going to go to my home gym after Zumba tonight and ask to borrow the exercise room for a couple of hours on Sunday.  It really is as simple as looping the music over and over again and just pressing record and doing it.  No practicing.  Just doing it (of course a bit of stretching beforehand).  So on Monday you will be able to know and see the aftermath.

WEDNESDAY 6.30 Craig Zumba Donalin 55/563/40, 163/86, 148/78


Weighed myself before class.  171!!  Half a pound over lowest weight, and into my third day of 1800+ calories a day.  I am pleased.  I THINK my pants may be getting a little looser.  I don't look good in Medium anymore.  I won't wear anything bigger than Small nowadays, I hate the baggy look.

I don't know what scares me more about the 24 Turbos... that I'll be able to do them or that I won't.  I won't collapse over it and I won't push beyond my limit, but I have every intention to push to my limit.  There's part of me that hopes that if I can do that, it'll show people what the human spirit is capable of and will maybe motivate people to do something they didn't think possible.  I feel it's my duty to use this body I've been given and push it so that others can see what a person can do.

Someone narrated the following to me the other day:  When foals are young, they are tied to a post and they fight against it but are not strong enough to break free.  When they grow up they ARE strong enough to break free but after spending their whole childhood unable to break from the post, they don't think they can do it anymore, so they don't even try.  They are defeated, they give up.  What is your post called?

There's another story that when lions are young they are powerful and strong but have a weak roar because they haven't perfected it.  Old lions are sickly and thin and weak but have a powerful roar based on a lifetime of practice.  So they send the old sickly lion to stand in front of prey and growl and the prey turns around and runs... right into the rest of the lions.  That which scares you the most may be the easiest thing to accomplish.

I think I sleep better nowadays.

THURSDAY 5:15a.  Went to sleep around 9 and got a good 7.5 hours of sleep.  I rarely did that before I started exercising.  Went up a lb to 172 so a little deflated but still 1.5 lbs away from lowest weight.  Just one class today.

THURSDAY 9a Agassi TurboKick Rachel 67/622/45, 165/87, 141/75


FRIDAY -- OFF!!  May bike a little around home.


FRIDAY MORNING - Ever since I started eating Low Glycemic, I am hungry all the time.  Not even 3a and I've already eaten 140 calories (2 tangerines).

What is LG?  It's eating foods that have a low-glycemic index value.  People equate that with low-carb but it isn't.  I don't take a look at my carbs and I usually have a 50-30-20 carbs/protein/fat ratio, so about half my calories come from carbs.  But I try to eat 4-5 things throughout the day that are LG.  The whole concept behind LG is how energy enters your body.  Something that is HG releases all its energy at once, and anything you don't use up right away gets converted into fat.  Something that is LG releases its energy slowly over time, giving you more of a chance of using all up.  That's the whole science behind LG.  Insulin plays a role but I haven't found out what it is yet.

LG food effects carry over into meals.  It's like a highway.  If someone is going slow, others behind get bottlenecked.  "Fast" foods get slowed down also and turned into kind of LG when they follow LG meals, and they recommend doing at least one LG item per meal.  I think I may switch to full LG by the next couple of weeks.  Anything below 55 is LG.  Here are some fruit examples:

Cherries Low 22

Grapefruit Low 25
Apricots  (dried) Low 31
Apples Low 38
Pears Low 38
Plums Low 39
Peaches Low 42
Oranges Low 44
Grapes Low 46
Kiwi fruit Low 53
Bananas Low 54


Nectarines in particular seem to stop the hunger.

There is no scienfic study of the glycemic index of nectarines. It is often assumed to be similar to peaches. Study results for peaches ranged between 28 to 56, with an average of 42.

FRIDAY later that morning.

560 calories and it's only 6a.  Why am I so hungry?  Trying to stick to 1700 calories a day.  At least I'm finally full.  Going to try to hit 850 calories by noon so I got an egg wrap and an apple to go in the next six hours, but I feel the rest of my good night's sleep coming.  And I work tonight, so part of today will be spent sleeping.

SATURDAY did some weights on my own.  About 25 minutes.  The class is definitely the way to go.

SATURDAY 10a Agassi Cycle Daniela 62/578/45, 158/84, 143/76

SUNDAY morning.  Someone asked me to give them my thoughts on food, and I wanted to write about it here also, so here's what I wrote her. 

Here's the bottom line: Eat foods that are low in the Glycemic Index (nothing over 55). You can Google Glycemic Index and find it easily.


Here's the longish explanation:

There are foods that when you eat them, release all their energy at once, spiking your blood sugar. This has a two-fold result. First, if you have all that energy coming out at once, whatever you don't use, you store. If you have a food that releases the energy slower, there's more of a chance of using it all and not storing it (and guess what it's stored as... F A T).

The second result is that a spike in blood sugar promotes the creation of insulin. Insulin stops the body from using stored fat and converts over to glucose (which I believe is mostly carbs) for fuel. Diabetes is what happens when this mechanism doesn't work anymore. I'm still trying to figure out in more detail the whole deal about insulin but let's just say it's bad.

The lower the GI, the slower the energy is released, the less gets stored as fat. And I find that foods that are LG (low glycemic) fill me up more.

By the way, I think everybody should love food. Food is good. I've heard at the gym that some people train themselves to derive no pleasure from food and instead think of it as just fuel. I think that's depressing, and as disordered eating as emotional eating (both ends of the scale). Food lets you manipulate your body and do things with it you never thought possible. Food is your friend. I've learned just the tiniest bit about food so far and I'm already impressed (and overwhelmed).

Here's the equation to figure out what and how much of each of the foods to eat: There is none.


In my opinion here's the "secret" to losing weight which is not highly commercialized because it would make for a very short book: There is none. You should eat what your body needs. You should exercise what your body needs. Only YOU can decide how many calories YOU need for your GOALS. We could both be 100 lbs and eat the same exact thing and you could gain 5 lbs and I could lose 5 lbs and then go in reverse the following week. I can't tell you how much per day or cups or restrictions because there are none and it all depends on you.

Here's what I do. And this is not to tell you what you should do, but it illustrates the thought process that I go through.

I go to http://www.24hourfitness.com/resources/fitness_tools/ and use the last one, daily calorie calculator. My lowest weight has been 170.5 lbs (attained Friday the 18th) and now I'm at 171, so I "gained" half a lb in over a week and haven't lost (and trust me, I have to work as hard as anyone else not to freak out over something like that). I personally use the lowest attained weight because usually I don't fluctuate too much away from it. So if I plug in 170 5'4" 31-year-old female with the LOWEST amount of physical activity, I get that I burn 2044 calories a day, or 14308 a week. This has been one of my lightest weeks at the gym with 12 classes and I usually do around 18-20, so why put Light activity? Because I keep track of my exercise calories manually so I don't count them as part of this.

I used to strive for a 7k caloric deficit but I'm leaning away from caloric deficits and just paying attention to two things: What should I eat and how much. So I still do the equation but it's more for my records than anything else.

The equation is pretty much
caloric deficit = calories burned at rest + net calories exercised - food consumed

Let's say I burn 500 calories in a one-hour Zumba class. If I had stayed home and posted on Facebook, I would have still burned SOMEthing. So Zumba didn't really make me burn 500 calories. If you take 2044/24, that's about 85.17 calories burned an hour. So I really burned 414.83 BECAUSE of Zumba. That's net calories. If you use calories burned at rest, using net calories burned at exercise will help you not to double count those calories.

How much should you eat per day? Simple: What you need. I ate 1836 calories today (and trust me, I'm trying hard not to freak out about THAT). And I didn't particularly exercise too much, just one class and 25 minutes of weights on my own. I personally subscribe to weight+0. So at 170 I should be capping out at 1700 a day. At 110 I should be capping out at 1100 per day. Someone at 200 should be capping out at 2000 per day. Is this a hard and fast rule? Nope. Is this a guideline? Not even. That's just a shot in the dark. Try it, if it works, great, if it doesn't, change it!! A lot of times I'll start the week with one goal and end it with another, having changed it in the middle of the week (like this week, goal went from 1800 to 1700). 1710 or 1770? Doesn't really matter. Even 1650 might work one day.

Also adjust to what you are doing. If you're doing a Triathlon, you're going to eat. A lot. Eat enough to sustain what you're doing that day.

So if I eat 1700 a day that's 11900 a week.

14308 - 11900 = 2408. 7000 - 2408 = 4592 for exercise to "make up." I usually do more than that. And remember that's NET exercise calories. So at 12 classes this week, I needed 4592 + (11*85.17) calories if I were eating 1700 calories a day. But don't get hung up on caloric deficits. Three apples have the same calories as a slice of cheese pizza but their effect on your body is night and day. It matters WHAT you eat and WHEN you eat it and HOW MUCH you eat. WHEN you eat it is crucial. I'm still trying to optimize my before- and post-workout meals and still get confused in the whole carbs vs. protein before or after. For myself I've found I don't really like solid food before working out, so I drink protein shakes that are low in fat. Fills me up for a couple of hours and allows me to move during class. I eat/drink something before EVERY class and 99% of the time after the class, but 100% of the time after every weights class.

So how do you figure out how much to eat? Weight+0 for a few days. Going up, going down, the same? And for G-d's sake, if you're hungry, EAT!! There's nothing worse than going hungry. Love your food, communicate with it, listen to your body and what it needs, nourish it. Food should feel like a blessing, not a curse. I've been trying to give in to cravings. One day I was craving fat and nuts so I had TWO servings of nuts which for the day was almost twice the recommended daily value. I recorded it and moved on. Weight stayed the same. Today I craved turkey footlongs on wheat, so I had that. I eat what I crave. I want a carb-heavy day, I'll have a carb-heavy day. I try to do 20% fat (fat is like water in that it lubricates your insides (I think)). You NEED FAT. Fat is good for you. In the right amount. Then I try to do 50% carbs and 30% protein. Carbs are what fuel your brain and your workouts. You NEED carbs. The right amount of carbs. The same goes for protein.

The glycemic effect works in tandem. If you eat cherries for breakfast and something high-glycemic for lunch, the cherries are still on the highway and will bottleneck the HG food. That's why they recommend and I agree that one LG food per meal is optimal to have the fat-burning effect going on all the time.

You also have to take into consideration your goals. My goal is to lose fat AND gain muscle. Let's pretend you are 100 lbs and have found that eating 1000 calories a day maintains you. How much should eat beyond the 1000 calories? 1000+however many calories you want to turn into muscle and however many classes you take.

Start listening to your body. When do you get hungry? Why? What do you eat? Does it fit your goals? Did that apple make your body happy? How do you know when you're hungry? What does hunger feel like to you? Pick any random number between 1000 and 2000 and eat that many calories, and adjust daily until you find YOUR range.

A note on food planning. I use http://www.myapex.com (the BodyBugg site) which I pay $80 a year for, and gladly, because for me it's the easiest to use. You can even create your own items and meals. I plan what I will eat the following day the night before taking into account what, how much, and when I'll be at the gym. If I'm going to go ... See Morestraight from work to the gym not only do I have to take enough food to sustain me throughout the night, but I also have to take shakes*classes taken and a protein bar if I'm doing my weights. But most days I change what I eat throughout the day. I can pretty much tell calorie and nutrient-wise how I'm doing even while not at the front of the computer. Plan ahead so that you're equipped to deal with the day ahead.
 
So that's that for my thoughts on food right now.
 
I've been feeling out of sorts this week.  I'm still burning about the same amount of calories in the classes but I don't feel it like I usually do.  I've been sniffling so maybe I have a cold.  I don't really feel a cold, though.  I just don't feel like I'm exerting enough even though the numbers have not changed downward.  Even the day off didn't change that.  Hopefully taking just one class today and then the rest of the day helps me recuperate.
 
I'm always excited for Mondays because there's a whole new fresh week.  By Sunday it feels like I already used up that week.

SUNDAY 9:00a Ann TurboKick Michelle 53/555/40, 169/89, 151/80


FINALLY felt like a good workout.  Calories are pretty much the same but I felt it today after a week of feeling out of sorts.  Maybe it's just a cold.

Food:  (going to try to hit 1800 daily)

Monday: 61 cherries (244, work), 3 SK shakes (570), cheese wrap (250), SK bar (180, after lift), 2 bananas (210), 2 egg wraps (420, afternoon, before work), total 1874. Really hungry today.  Burned around 1250 netcals through exercise.
Tuesday:  2 bananas (210), 2 SK shake (380), SK protein bar (180), Cheese wrap (250), Kroger Penne 1/2 box (630), 2 peaches (160), total 1810
Wednesday:  1.5 apples (142), 3 servings whole wheat pasta (630), 2 SK protein shakes (380), 2 egg rolls (420), cheese wrap (250), total 1822
***GOING DOWN TO 1700***
Thursday:  I hate food today.  Macros, indexes, calories, grams, healthy.  Sometimes I like writing down what to eat because after a few minutes of planning in the morning, there's no more thinking about it the rest of the day, just eating.  4 nectarines (280), cheese wrap (250), 2 egg wraps (420), SK shake (190), footlong roast beef sandwich (580), total 1720
Friday: Apple (95), Cheese wrap (250), 26 cherries (104), 2 Nectarines (140), 2 servings Pistacchios (340), 2 Special K bars (360), 2 protein shakes (380), total 1669
Saturday: 2 protein shakes (380), protein bar (180), 22 cherries (88), 7 strawberries (49), 2 turkey breast footlongs (1120), 14 cherries (56), total 1892
Sunday: 18 cherries (72), 2 banana (210), cheese wrap (250), egg wrap (210), shake (190), 2 apples (190), 2 pistacchios (340), protein bar (190), 23 cherries (92), 1744
Sunday:  Still have left 3 egg wraps

1874, 1810, 1822. 1720, 1669, 1892, 1744
Food intake:  12531

Taking a weight of 170lbs, that's 2044 calories burned a day, 14308 burned a week.

14307 - 12531 = 1776
This week:  12 classes, 6334 gross cals, 675 mins, 5348 net cals
5348 +1776 = 7124

My first Zumba routine (post started 12/17/2009)

I'll chronicle here the makings of my first Zumba routine.  My second Zumba routine's existence depends on how this first one turns out.

I have the song picked out:  Evanescence's Bring Me To Life (which if you read the 24 classes post sounds very appropriate).  It's kind of a dark song but it's catchy and people don't listen that closely to lyrics and I wanted to try something different.

I found out today there's all kind of rules to making a Zumba routine, and someone's going to let me borrow an instruction manual.  First step is to learn the manual backwards and forwards.

12/20 update:  Waiting for the handbook.  This may be delayed a few weeks, but all systems are a go.

24 Turbos in a row at 24 Hour Fitness (Planning stages/idea: 12/17/09)

Not going into what a Turbo is, so this is mostly for 24HF folks who are familiar with the terminology or other people who want to Google.

Going to attempt to do 24 Turbos in a row.  I don't know if I can do it.  The plan is to learn the current round 38 Turbo, practice it until it's second nature, press play on the stereo, press record on the camcorder, and start with one.  Then two.  Then three.  So on and so forth.  I will keep going until I give out or until I do all 24.

If you read my posts in order you know my mantra by now.  Safety first.  Know your body, know your limits, live your body.

Going to ask to make a video of an instructor on Sunday doing the Turbo so that I can learn it the exact same way we do it at the gym and then see if I can borrow the music for this experiment.  Going to ask the folks at my home location to borrow the Group X room for a couple of hours to do this (it should take about an hour for the Turbos plus some preparation and clean-up).  So this is just the beginning/planning stages.  Will keep updating this as I prepare for it.  Will videotape it and put it on YouTube and link here and on Facebook.

Why?  Because I can.