Jurnal erin74kr

So guys, I have a confession to make..

I love stats.. LOVE THEM. More than I love charts. That's secretly the reason I've kept my food and exercise diary as complete as humanly possible. For this day, the 50th day of my new life, a nice even number to split my results and compare and contrast them. 25 days in August, and 25 days in September. And so, here is my in-depth analysis of two months of healthy eating, and the differences between Month 1 and Month 2! (Yep, sorta crazy, I'm a math person, what can I say!?) The pic sorta cuts off at the side so to see the whole thing, theres a link underneath it



Link to full image

So, here are the interesting parts for me.

1.) I was still eating a lot of canned food, like soups etc. in July. Cutting that out and making my own and only using fresh ingredients only (besides canned tuna) in August cut my sodium by 40%, which is pretty significant I'd say! Plus adding a lot of dark green veggies like spinach and zucchini boosted my potassium by 33%, which is pretty cool, supposed to be good for your brain, they say!

2.) Even though my carbs in August went down by 28%, my fiber went up by 55%! Which likely means I've been eating a lot of fiber-rich vegetables instead of processed or added sugar. I think that's pretty cool how I cut that much carbs out of my diet while raising the level of fibre at the same time! Didn't even notice I was doing it, really!

3.) Same sort of phenomenon with fat. My fat intake went up by 12%, but my saturated fat intake went down by 25%. This is probably because I've begun a love affair with Avocado. ;)

4.) Protein went up to compensate for the lower carbs, and to supplement my increased activity (which sadly doesn't show much in the amount burned for the month, which I think is due in part to my shoulder injury in the first week of August, and the lower levels of RMR that Fatsecret calculates based on my decreasing weight).

5.) Even though I increased my minimum level of calories for most of August, it doesn't seem to reflect in the total number of calories consumed. I guess I didn't have any 'binge days' this month to raise the avg number up much higher than the usual amount.

6.) I have read many times that losing 10% of your weight, when overweight, can have a lot of health benefits. So I'm really happy to have surpassed that in my first two months of changing my lifestyle! I think a good goal to shoot for would be 25% of my weight lost in total. I'll probably be satisfied with that.

That was so much fun, I know it's totally nerdy but I adore playing with numbers. That said, if any of my buddies have detailed food diaries and want me to do something like this for you so you can look at your changing eating habits, let me know! It was really interesting for me to see how my increasing commitment to health showed in my diary. Hope everyone's having a really great day, and I just realized I forgot to eat lunch so, off I go! :)

Dear body, you are So weird. You hold out on me for ten days of suspense then put me exactly where i want to be for the end of august. That said, im SO happy we've come to this agreement that 183 is a boring number and not worth our time anymore.

I have to stop talking to myself! Also, yay, this will be the last time i see the 180s for good (except perhaps during a pregnancy later on in life!). Making salsa and guacamole right now, feeling super wonderful! Hope you are too, buddies! :) :) :)

So the scale came down a pound, hooray!!

I went on livestrong.com today, which is what I had used last year when I lost 40 pounds, and discovered that my lowest weight since 2006 was 174. My measurement recordings were also on there, and I'm about an inch away in my waist from being the same measurements in the bust, waist and hips as at 174, but at 182. Which means my body composition must have changed this year. I'm not really surprised, as these past few months have been the first time in my entire life that I've ever kept up a strength training regimen for longer than a week. I was afraid to go back to work being heavier than I was when I left, but from the measurements, I probably look exactly the same even with 8 added pounds. Except likely healthier as starvation dieting and diet pills were involved last time.

It frustrates me that I spent the last 10 months, where I could have been transitioning from unhealthy weight loss to healthy weight loss and losing 40 more pounds, eating things that were bad for me and not exercising. I guess that could be said for the 50 other times I've attempted to gain control of my eating, though. What a horrible pattern to see in the graphs over the past 4 years. Low, high, low, high. I never considered myself a yo-yo dieter but that's exactly what I've been. I think I'm strong enough to shed that habit though. it always comes back to social pressure for me, and these past two months, I've been too busy to have any. Now, I feel so good, I doubt 'fitting in' is a good enough reason for me to stop eating healthily and mindfully.

I became a bit worried today, about the long, cold, dark winter of the Northwest Territories, and how I'll combat not being able to exercise outdoors for much of the winter. Not only is it dark almost 24 hours a day in the wintertime, but as staff, we aren't allowed to wander too far outside of camp by ourselves in the winter because of the wolves. Eek!

I won't have any cardio machines(there is a gazelle in the gym, but it's broken!) and I'll be on a upper floor of the sleeping quarters so any jumping around is sure to piss off my neighbours. I can bring my wii and do those boring runs. There is some weight equipment in the gymnasium (which will also be -40C in the wintertime as there's no heat there!) that I might be able to pilfer and bring to my room. I plan to do a lot of yoga during the evening as it's the quietest exercise I can imagine. Does anyone have any advice on exercises that are considerate to the poor tenant beneath me?

IN OTHER pat myself on the back news, I can now do a crunch. Not a pathetic, sort of lift my shoulders off the ground crunch, a real one! and a reverse crunch, not a sort of lift my bum off the ground for a quarter of a second crunch. !!! That's probably the first time I've ever been able to do them, they are so much easier to do than last month. Next hurdle: lunges. Uggghhhh...

Finally, some movement!