It really is all about nutrition...

There was once a time when I HAD to have a Diet Coke a day.  And that was limiting myself.  I genuinely was addicted to it.  Before I got pregnant, I would have one every day for lunch.  I had to drink 150 ounces of water a day to have it, so I had 150 ounces of water a day so I could have a Diet Coke.  Then I got pregnant and anything with artificial sweeteners in them made me very ill.  I have had one Diet Coke...no...make that two Diet Cokes since I was about 6 weeks pregnant.  I look back on that and wonder how I ever drank it constantly.  And I can't imagine life without water.  I literally drink 150+ ounces of water per day.  And that is a conservative estimate.  I LOVE water.  I literally cannot live without it.  I feel like a slug on the days I don't drink much.  Which is one lesson I have learned.  Water is an essential element to include for my body to perform optimally.

Another lesson I have learned is that eating too much of even the good stuff is still too much.  Over time, my house has become the house I always hated.  Little to no processed foods.  Fresh, organic (as much as possible, anyway) fruits and vegetables.  Lean meats.  Green juicing and smoothies.  No sweets and crappy snacks.  I even puree all of Jenna's baby food and take water from our specialized cooler to day care for her.  In spite of all of this, I still couldn't lose weight.  It was driving me crazy (and JP, too).  I kept my head in the sand, telling myself that eating like this in and of itself was enough.  And for the vast majority of the population, it is.  But not for me.  

I was at a loss as to why I couldn't lose weight (or inches, as a scale weight really isn't a measure of anything but loss of mass).  I was very specific about what I would eat, even timing my meals (I even schedule clients at work around my meal timing).  I was doing so many things that so many people don't do and I still wasn't seeing results.  I started feeling frustrated.  I told JP over and over that something had to be wrong.  Back in the day, I used to eat out almost every meal (seriously) and when I wanted to lose weight, I would do a little cardio and find myself back where I wanted to be (or on the road to it).  I had tests run by my doctor.  All normal.  People kept telling me to give myself time - that maybe I was being too hard on myself after having a baby.  I don't I have unrealistic expectations - not having results proportional to the work being done would frustrate anyone.

So....when I finally sat down and entered all of my food into a daily food log, accounting for every little thing, including oils I used to cook with, I was shocked at how many calories I was taking in.  I was good about weighing out portions - as stated in the last post - based on a past eating plan (that was more appropriate to my then heavily muscular frame rather than my now...ummmm...not as muscular frame).  I was diligent about eating what I had planned and not varying outside of that.  I guess what I am trying to say is that I have the discipline.  And I am committed to the lifesytle.  I don't white knuckle my way through clean eating like a lot of people do.  I feel it when I have a cheat meal.  And feeling it isn't a good thing. 

What am I doing now that is working?  Honestly, it's a combination of things.  I want to eat in a way that allows me to continue to put on lean muscle mass while losing fat.  When doing this, all calories are NOT created equally.  What we finally did was:

• Calculate my basal metabolic rate.  Basal metabolic rate is the amount of calories you would expend just doing nothing.  Here is a BMR calculator: BMR Calculator
• Applied the Harris Benedict Equation to determine my daily caloric needs.  Here is the Harris Benedict Equation formulation chart: Harris Benedict Equation Chart
• From there we determined a nutrition caloric deficit amount, which would be the total amount of calories I would take in daily.  My caloric needs are around 2600, so I went for 2000 calories per day.

For most people this would be enough, especially if their goal is just weight loss.  Mine is not, so it is also essential that I pay attention to my macronutrient breakdown to make sure I am taking in the appropriate amount of carbs, proteins and healthy fats to sustain lean muscle growth while simultaneously sustaining fat loss (I have only been meeting part of that equation until now - packing on muscle, but not losing any fat).  To do this we followed this formulation:

• First, I had to decide what percentage I wanted for my macronutrient breakdown.  I decided to go 40/30/30 with protein/carbs/fat.
• Then we determined 40% of 2000 (800) and 30% of 2000 (600).
• Carbs and proteins are worth 4 calories each, so we divided 600/4 to determine my maximum carb intake for the day (150) and 800/4 to determine my maximum protein intake for the day  (200)
• Fats are worth 9 calorie, so we divided 600/9 to determine my maximum fate intake per day (66)

A note about macronutrient breakdowns: they are not one size fits all.  An industry accepted standard for body building is 0.5-1 grams of carbohydrates per pound of weight, 0.5 grams of fat per pound of weight and 1-1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight.  This would have had me eating way too much fat to keep my caloric intake to what I need it to be, so we went with the formulation above. 

The final result of the above formulation is a maximum of 2000 calories, 150 grams of carbs, 200 grams of protein and 66 grams of fat per day.  Note: this is a maximum amount.  To monitor this, I reactivated a SparkPeople account and started on there.  It really is a good way of tracking your nutrition and fitness and it's free.  To check it out, go to: SparkPeople

I determined a minimum for each and set a min/max scale on my SparkPeople account, and it tells me how I fall within that scale as I enter food in.  I plan my entire day ahead of time, as I have found that meal planning ahead of time prevents pitfalls later.  As a result, I determine my meals for the next day and prep all of my food/meals the night before. 

I started my new breakdown this past Monday, and for the first time since Jenna was 2 months old, the scale dropped this week!  With everything else I have done, the scale has literally stayed within 4 ounces (no kidding).  Talk about frustrating.  Of course, I am in my first week of this, so we will see what will happen over time, but I am very encouraged by this.  Of course, at the end of each week I will need to do a new BMR calculation and adjust my breakdowns accordingly, but still, imagine my excitement when I saw the number drop....for the first time in months...after all of this work...and tweeking of my diet!  Woohoo!

A final note: I get most carbohydrates through fibrous vegetables.  I alternate eating a half of an Ezekial Raisin Muffin for breakfast one morning and 1/2 cup of rolled oats the next, as well as have one piece of Ezekiel Low-Sodium Bread with lunch.  The only processed foods we have in our diet is Greek yogurt and Truvia with coffee (and coffee, I guess), as well as our supplements and protein powder.  We use almond milk in place of real dairy and no more than one full egg for any recipe.  No processed egg whites - we decided to pay the money for real eggs and use the whites from those.  All of these decisions have a huge impact in terms of long-term health.  And it also makes it very difficult to meet the caloric and macronutrient breakdowns without eating tons of food.  Who doesn't like that?!?