10,000 Hits

Yesterday was a landmark for the BBG blog as I reached 10,000 hits! Thank you all for taking the time to check in on me and I hope you have enjoyed the site.

Not much in the way of news. Daily weigh-in shows my weight is holding steady after coming off the 2-week detox. Workouts are mostly on schedule (although I had an unscheduled day off yesterday), and eating is going well. Sticking to my WW points allowance, except today when chocolate cake at work took me around half a point over. Doubt I’ll have much difficulty making that up tomorrow.

I didn’t get home from work today till around 7 and I had a nap for about an hour. Obviously my workout was on my mind since I dreamed that I was doing it. I woke up at 8.30, hot, bothered, dry mouthed, and sluggish, and was quite put out to find that I had to do it AGAIN! I wonder if you burn extra calories when you dream you’re exercising. Anyhow, that’s all for now. ‘night all.

Shattered

Had a completely sleepless night on Monday nights, followed by about 5 hours last night. Got home from work today and fell into bed. I didn’t make it to belly dancing and, to be honest, wasn’t that bothered. I didn’t enjoy it all that much the first time but thought I should give it a second chance. I have a Bhangra workout DVD that I haven’t tried yet so I’ll do that instead.

Wow, the Bhangra DVD was pretty hard – lots of jumping around and quick changing choreography. I’m learning that this is the difference between dance fitness DVDs created by dancers and those created by fitness professionals. The latter have better cueing, better camera work, and better breakdown of the moves. Still, it was kind of fun, although what I was doing wasn’t necessarily a good approximation of what the dancers were up to. I will give this one another go. Not for the Amazon marketplace scrap heap just yet.

Nutrition Tip of the Week no. 18

Tip #18
Protein/Carbs Before Exercise to Burn Fat?
by Dr. John Berardi

While nearly everyone nowadays knows that pre, during, and post exercise nutritional intake is critical for improving protein status and glycogen synthesis, most people fear that the ingestion of protein and carbohydrates during these times will decrease fat oxidation (burning).

Well, put simply, they’re wrong (sticking out tongue).

Studies have demonstrated that even in the presence of a relatively high carbohydrate intake (and large insulin response), the addition of protein to a carbohydrate meal can increase fat burning during exercise.

So it looks like a well-designed pre, during, and post exercise intake will not only improve protein status and glycogen resynthesis but it may actually increase fat burning. Bigger and leaner? Say it ain’t so.

SEE ALSO:
This tip is sponsored by Precision Nutrition – our pick for the best nutrition and supplement resource currently available. Containing system manuals, gourmet cookbook, digital audio/video library, online membership, and more, Precision Nutrition will teach you everything you need to know to get the body you want — guaranteed.

Order Precision Nutrition now and get $50 off!

To see an amazing transformation and to get an idea of what Precision Nutrition could do for you, click here.

For food compositions, check out the USDA nutrient database. To keep track of your daily intake, try out free online software like FitDay.com.

Look out for another nutrition tip next week.

10 in a row

This is now my third post about that damn Chairmaster. Today I did 10 in a row for the first time, without having to stop in the middle. I just thought I’d share that with you. Now, enough already.

After a day back on ‘proper’ food, my weight and body fat % held pretty steady this morning. So far so good. Cereal with milk is gooood, but oddly, I haven’t enjoyed tea as much as I thought I would. I’m sorry about this because I’m not a big tea drinker (and didn’t have any caffeine withdrawal symptoms on detox) but like a nice situational cup of tea – that aaaahhh moment.

Big news is, I’m back to work tomorrow after 3 weeks off (1 week holiday, 2 weeks sick). My primary concern at the moment is not stress, it’s staying awake throughout the day, which I haven’t done in ages. The last week I’ve been sleeping as much as 16 hours a day. Whether that was coming off my meds, or detoxing, or a combination, I don’t know. Guess I just need to suck it and see.

Detox weight loss

Well, the results are in: hubby lost 10.6 pounds and 2.1% body fat; I lost 11.2 pounds and gained 1.3% body fat. It will be interesting to see what a return to eating regular food does for my hydration levels and body fat. I thought about adding the detox book to my books page, with links to amazon, but with a few really yummy exceptions, I was a bit disappointed with it. Despite all the recipes sounding and looking fantastic, many of them were really boring and we were quite sick of the book by the end. Some of the things that sounded boring though were actually really tasty, and we will make a few of them again. As for now, I am back counting Weight Watchers points. I have an allowance of 23 a day, and I will limit my exercise bonus points to a maximum 2 a day, no matter how much I exercise, and then only if I really need them.

Workout plan for this weeks looks much like last weeks but I’ve upped the pilates to 2 hours and added an extra five minutes on the bike. I didn’t do my 10 min bike ride last week, so I might try and sneak that in too.

Sunday	20′ pilates, 25′ Self 08 Challenge month 1 cardio 1
Monday	20′ Latin Rhythm, 20 mins Self 08 Challenge month 1 resistance workout 1
Tuesday	20′ pilates, 25′ S08C cardio workout 2
Wednesday	20′ S08C resistance workout 2, 60′ belly dancing class
Thursday	20′ pilates, 25′ S08C cardio workout 3
Friday	15′ bike, 60′ pilates lesson
Saturday	Walk

Yummy prunes and last day of detox

Today is the last day of our 2 week detox. We’re both completely sick of it but I think quite proud of ourselves for sticking to it. Thoughts of extending the detox have been shelved for now, but I may do a shorter one, maybe a weekend, once a month or so.

I have been a bit bunged up the last week so was delighted to find a yummy super easy stewed prunes recipe on the schedule. I have added it to my recipe page. Check it out here.

Weigh day tomorrow, the moment of truth. And then, you know what I’m really looking forward to? A nice cup of tea. I just don’t feel English without it!

The Chairmaster

Here it is, the Chairmaster. Check out the post from May 17 (2008 Self Challenge) for a description on how to do it. The girl in the magazine looked a darn sight more elegant than me whilst doing this, but I can’t put up her pic for copyright reasons, so you’re stuck with sweaty, not perfectly straight ol’ BBG.

In other news, been a bit down the last few days. Currently switching meds under Doc’s supervision, so it’s starting to get a bit rocky. Didn’t make it to belly dancing yesterday, but did do a bit extra Latin Rhythm at home, and will try and do a bit more over the next few days to make up the 60 minutes I’d planned.

Day 12 of detox. No longer feeling quite so wonderful and am a bit bunged up again. Poor hubby has the opposite problem. He’s been dreaming of cheeseburgers. For me, it’s been cereal with milk. Mmmmm…..cereal with milk….drooool. Funny what you crave when you can’t have it. Yesterday was particularly hard as I finally managed to deal with something that I’d been putting off for ages due to stress, and it didn’t go all that smoothly, and in the middle of talking to them on the phone, the specialist called and rescheduled our first appointment for the second time. I got quite weepy, and it seemed that nothing other than a rack of ribs and an ice cream sundae would make me feel better. But hubby kept me strong. This has been tough for both of us, but so long as neither of us is wavering at the same time, we will make it through. Some days I even think about extending it to a month. Haven’t mentioned this to my poor long-suffering hubby yet. On the plus side, my weight continues to drop and body fat is holding about steady. Still finding it hard to drink enough water.

Nutrition Tip of the Week no. 17

Tip #17
The Ratio Diet
by Dr. John Berardi

Want to improve body composition, increase the ratio of fat lost to muscle lost during a diet, improve blood lipids (cholesterol and triglycerides), prevent wild fluctuations in blood glucose and insulin, and improve satiety when on a diet? Well, you’re not alone. In fact, Dr Layman and colleagues at the University of Illinois are also interested in helping you accomplish these goals.

In their recent studies, they have demonstrated a myriad of benefits associated with reducing the ratio of carbohydrate to protein in the diet from 3.5g of carbohydrate to every 1g of protein to 1.4g of carbohydrate to every 1g of protein. What does this mean in terms of food intake? Well, check out this handy little chart.

kcal/day Fat grams* Carbohydrate grams Protein grams

4500 kcal 150g 450g 338g
3500 kcal 117g 350g 263g
2500 kcal 83g 250g 188g
1500 kcal 50g 150g 113g

*These numbers assume a diet that contains 30% fat.

SEE ALSO:
This tip is sponsored by Precision Nutrition – our pick for the best nutrition and supplement resource currently available. Containing system manuals, gourmet cookbook, digital audio/video library, online membership, and more, Precision Nutrition will teach you everything you need to know to get the body you want — guaranteed.

Order Precision Nutrition now and get $50 off!

To see an amazing transformation and to get an idea of what Precision Nutrition could do for you, click here.

For food compositions, check out the USDA nutrient database. To keep track of your daily intake, try out free online software like FitDay.com.

Look out for another nutrition tip next week.

End of detox week 1

End of week 1 (actually 2 days pre-detox plus 5 days actual detox, but to be honest, it all seemed pretty intense to me) and here are the results:

Hubby: Down 6.8 lbs and 0.8% body fat
Me: Down 8.2 lbs and up 2% body fat!

WTF!!! I did a bit of research and discovered that your hydration levels are completely incorporated in your lean body mass. So if you’re dehydrated, you have an apparent loss of LBM. As I’ve noted over the last week, I’ve seen a gradual decline in my hydration levels according to my trusty Tanita readings each morning, and I’ve done 2 weights sessions and nearly 2 hours of pilates on the Reformer this week, so I won’t worry too much about catabolising my muscle. I’m more worried that a huge chunk of my 8 pound weight loss is just water. I guess we’ll see in a couple of weeks after we go back to eating regular food. In the meantime, I will make a bigger effort to drink more water throughout the day.

Workout plan for the coming week looks like this:

Sunday	15′ pilates, 25′ Self 08 Challenge month 1 cardio 1
Monday	20′ Latin Rhythm, 20 mins Self 08 Challenge month 1 resistance workout 1
Tuesday	20′ pilates, 25′ S08C cardio workout 2
Wednesday	20′ S08C resistance workout 2, 60′ belly dancing class
Thursday	15′ pilates, 25′ S08C cardio workout 3
Friday	10′ bike, 60′ pilates lesson
Saturday	Walk

2008 Self Challenge

Just finished the exercise portion of month 1 week 1 of the 2008 Self Challenge (3 cardio and 2 resistance sessions). The resistance is a circuit of 8 exercises, most of which look pretty simple but aren’t really. Here’s a freebie for you: kneel on the floor in front of an open-sided chair or stool, extend legs out behind you one at a time and rest toes on chair so that you are in a plank position with your feet raised. Contract your abs. Lift your right foot off the chair and bring it down to the side tapping your toes on the ground before replacing it. Repeat on other side for one rep. Do 10 reps, maintaining your nice aligned plank throughout. It’s called the Chairmaster and it works your arms, abs, back and legs. Enjoy. For more, visit Self.com and check out the challenge. If you live in North America, you can win some great prizes too. Three more weeks to go then the month 2 workout comes into play.

In other news, I’m also on track with all of the rest of my scheduled exercise, apart from two 15′ minute pilates sessions which I will make up tomorrow. The detox is going pretty well. Today (day six of eighteen) I had a mad craving for chocolate but didn’t give in. Settled for a cuddle and a pep talk from hubby. I wanted it soooo badly. I haven’t enjoyed all the meals, and unlike hubby, I find I can’t eat something if I don’t like it. This meant I just wasn’t eating enough. This was leading to cravings for FOOOOOD…NOW!!! but more importantly, is also starting to show in reductions in my lean body mass. I am going to start supplementing with extra fruit, nuts and seeds. And get those pilates sessions in for some additional muscle stimulation.