March is teasing us all once again. A week or so of warm 60+ degree days and then back to around freezing. It has deterred my outdoor workouts- and those that I have done are very low impact and don't raise my heart rate very much- not to the fat burning zone that I'm shooting for. The lack of heart rate increase would explain why my weight hasn't budged. So I'm stuck between 176.8 and 178 lbs. One benefit that I have noticed from walking (when done with a stroller you burn a lot more calories! So that's always good.), is that I feel so much better mentally and emotionally.
To keep track of my heart rate, and how long my workout has been, I acquired a heart rate monitor and watch. This has been very helpful, with a regular watch or my phone I was always wondering- 'OK, what time did I start?' or 'How long have I been walking'. And of course what that meant to my caloric burn count for the day.
Yesterday, I was feeling a bit 'blah'. I wanted to go for a walk outside, but thought that might be a bit much for my son, who is only 6 months old. After I had put him to bed, I armed myself with my hr monitor and watch. Before I started my medicine ball workout, I tracked my "calories burned" for 14 minutes, it was a mere 20 calories that I had put out while I was folding and putting away laundry. I then kept my watch running while I completed my medicine ball workout, which lasted about 48 minutes. I was surprised when I checked my heart rate between sets that I was in my "fat burning zone", of 153-173, for the majority of the time. At the end of the 48 minutes, I had burned an additional 453 calories- just from working with a medicine ball! That is crazy. I had no idea that the workout was so effective. The down side of this new found knowledge was that I was excited and couldn't fall asleep afterwards.
Today, it is supposed to be 41 degrees out and sunny. Sounds like a great day to take a run/walk.
Today, I'm also going to wear my hr monitor/ calorie tracker watch all day to see how many calories I am actually using. So far, at 1 hour and 45 minutes I have burned 446 calories. That sounds like a good start.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
This morning... is this possible?
I did my morning weigh-in for myself. I lost 0.6 lbs since yesterday. Ok- so I lost this weight- but what does it mean? I took my measurements for the Shape Your body Plan and plugged them in for my "Weekly Weigh in". My old measurements told me that I had 38% body fat. Today- with just losing .6 lbs, my body fat % dropped to 34% and my lean body weight increased by 12 lbs, and my fat weight decreased by about the same. Wow- what a difference a walk can make!
In some cases, people's infatuation with weight loss and staying below a certain number on the scale is considered unhealthy. In my case, when I lose- I feel like I gain momentum and want to keep working at it- and I feel like my efforts have not been in vain.
In some cases, people's infatuation with weight loss and staying below a certain number on the scale is considered unhealthy. In my case, when I lose- I feel like I gain momentum and want to keep working at it- and I feel like my efforts have not been in vain.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Shape Your Body Plan
I decided to give the "Shape Your Body Plan" a try. The site is a bit tricky at first. When entering nutrition information- you can only use decimal places- for example: use .25 and not 1/4. This is a small thing to adjust to.
Also in regards to the food log- they don't just ask for how many calories are in a serving- they want the fats, proteins, carbs, and a barage of other informtion in regards to the foods you've eaten during the day. There's a summary box that shows up in the "meals" section:
Meal Report for ( 17, Mar 2009 )
Scheduled Calories: 1593
Current Calories: 1796
Difference: 203
Macronutients: Actual Goal
Fat: 22% 20%
Protein: 35% 16%
Carbohydrate: 43% 64%
This was my summary for St Patricks Day. I was pretty close to consuming the right amount of fat- which is a strange thing to say. My carbohydrates were completely off by their standards. It makes me wonder how much better I would be doing in hitting my goals if I adjusted to what they say I need.
When you sign up for this program- it's really interesting because they ask for your weight and body fat percentage. Now, if you're like me and you don't know your body fat percentage (because how many of us caliper ourselves at home?) they go by body measurements- neck, waist, chest, thigh, bicep, forearm, hips. They also ask for gender, DOB, what your exersize experience is (are you returning to exercise? new to exercise?.... an olympian?!) and what your goal is (maintain, lose weight, firm and tone)
Once you complete all this information they provide you with a battery of information (it actually includes a lot of charts and graphs to give you a visual representation as well which is kind of neat to look at):
-->32: -->Pounds of fat you will lose
-->More important than the total pounds you drop is the amount of fat you will lose after one year of following the shapedietplan program. As you increase your exercise, you'll be changing your ratio of body fat to lean muscle mass while you also lose inches.
-->
-->2453: -->Calories you will burn daily on the shapedietplan plan
-->As you increase your exercise, you will burn extra calories, and as you build more muscle, you'll burn even more calories.
-->
-->11: -->Number of minutes it now takes you to run or walk a mile
-->8: -->Number of minutes it will take you to run a mile after one year with shapedietplan.
A healthier diet and better exercise habits will boost your body confidence. As you lose fat, add muscle and develop your endurance, you will have more energy to work and play. Physical activities that once seemed strenuous will now seem easier.
A healthier diet and better exercise habits will boost your body confidence. As you lose fat, add
muscle and develop your endurance, you will have more energy to work and play. Physical activities
that once seemed strenuous will now seem easier.
Also in regards to the food log- they don't just ask for how many calories are in a serving- they want the fats, proteins, carbs, and a barage of other informtion in regards to the foods you've eaten during the day. There's a summary box that shows up in the "meals" section:
Meal Report for ( 17, Mar 2009 )
Scheduled Calories: 1593
Current Calories: 1796
Difference: 203
Macronutients: Actual Goal
Fat: 22% 20%
Protein: 35% 16%
Carbohydrate: 43% 64%
This was my summary for St Patricks Day. I was pretty close to consuming the right amount of fat- which is a strange thing to say. My carbohydrates were completely off by their standards. It makes me wonder how much better I would be doing in hitting my goals if I adjusted to what they say I need.
When you sign up for this program- it's really interesting because they ask for your weight and body fat percentage. Now, if you're like me and you don't know your body fat percentage (because how many of us caliper ourselves at home?) they go by body measurements- neck, waist, chest, thigh, bicep, forearm, hips. They also ask for gender, DOB, what your exersize experience is (are you returning to exercise? new to exercise?.... an olympian?!) and what your goal is (maintain, lose weight, firm and tone)
Once you complete all this information they provide you with a battery of information (it actually includes a lot of charts and graphs to give you a visual representation as well which is kind of neat to look at):
-->32: -->Pounds of fat you will lose
-->More important than the total pounds you drop is the amount of fat you will lose after one year of following the shapedietplan program. As you increase your exercise, you'll be changing your ratio of body fat to lean muscle mass while you also lose inches.
-->
-->2453: -->Calories you will burn daily on the shapedietplan plan
-->As you increase your exercise, you will burn extra calories, and as you build more muscle, you'll burn even more calories.
-->
-->11: -->Number of minutes it now takes you to run or walk a mile
-->8: -->Number of minutes it will take you to run a mile after one year with shapedietplan.
A healthier diet and better exercise habits will boost your body confidence. As you lose fat, add muscle and develop your endurance, you will have more energy to work and play. Physical activities that once seemed strenuous will now seem easier.
A healthier diet and better exercise habits will boost your body confidence. As you lose fat, add
muscle and develop your endurance, you will have more energy to work and play. Physical activities
that once seemed strenuous will now seem easier.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Medicine Ball Workout
As I mentioned in a preceeding post- I invested in a medicine ball. Most of my "moves" are those from fitness magazines. It has definitely helped to streamline my magazine collection by putting the workouts in a binder.... or two.
Here are the moves I'm doing for my medicine ball workout:
Here are the moves I'm doing for my medicine ball workout:
- Side Chop
- Figure Eight
- Knee Lift with pull Down
- Wood Chop
- Chop and Twist
- Kneeling Side Chop
- Lying Overhead Pullover
- Ab Curl and Chest Press
- Ball Push Up
- Seated Torso Rotation
- Medicine Ball Crunches
- Ball Twists
- Triceps Extention
- Pisao Kick
- Balanca
- Dead Lift to Hip Opener
- Squat Thrust and Row
- Single Leg Skater Squat
There are some others but I can't seem to find any examples for them online.
Fitness Tracking
With all the fitness options out there- especially online- how do we really know what is the best option? I've decided to look into the workout / fitness tracker tools out there and give my take on them. They change a lot and its hard to keep up. Since I'm at home right now, I figure I have time.
To update everyone, I've hit a plateau and stayed at about 177. This was primarily because my nose was broken while I was reffing hockey two weeks ago (Saturday 2/28/09) and because of all the bruising ( didn't want to explain to everyone I saw) in addition to the wonderful painkillers that I was perscribed by the ER doc which prohibited me from driving anywhere. So I fell like I'm back at square one... but I'm really not- I have not seen my peak weight of 184 since it happened.
Today, I'm walking around the lakes. Hello beautiful spring weather! Armed with my pedometer I've been tracking the number of steps I've taken today (so far its 864- which is over 200 more than yesterday. Now if we can just keep it up.
To update everyone, I've hit a plateau and stayed at about 177. This was primarily because my nose was broken while I was reffing hockey two weeks ago (Saturday 2/28/09) and because of all the bruising ( didn't want to explain to everyone I saw) in addition to the wonderful painkillers that I was perscribed by the ER doc which prohibited me from driving anywhere. So I fell like I'm back at square one... but I'm really not- I have not seen my peak weight of 184 since it happened.
Today, I'm walking around the lakes. Hello beautiful spring weather! Armed with my pedometer I've been tracking the number of steps I've taken today (so far its 864- which is over 200 more than yesterday. Now if we can just keep it up.
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