Thursday 20 October 2011

Thursday 20th October 2011 (Week 6, Round 3)

Well weigh in was up this week from last week, by 1.1kg and that's cool as I did have a munchy boozy weekend (I actually weighed in 3kg heavier on Monday and lost over 2kg in 2 days so ???). My little weight graph certainly looks like a roller coaster, but I keep reminding myself that I'm in maintenance mode, I don't want to lose weight and my weight will fluctuate with my lifestyle. I'm not going to sit exactly on a specific weight every single week. And this round, for me, is about setting it up for life. Yes I will have beer, meat pies, a slice of cake.... every now and then not all the time but I'm consistently healthy all the other times so it doesn't matter and I shouldn't let it matter to me. I'm happy with how I am and I still train to my absolute full potential so **shrugs** meh.... Live a little... Body for Life, not Life for Body....


Anyway... enough of that

Protein

Of late I’ve been asked about protein !! Now I’m assuming they aren’t talking about protein already in the body and what atoms, amino acids, bonds and chains there are, but protein shakes etc so here are my interpretations and ramblings about the mystical protein……

Basically protein is a key nutrient for the body. Without going into the nitty gritty of breaking down amino acids and polypeptides, it provides growth, building new tissue and also maintenance like repairing damaged tissues, organs (post surgery peeps may be asked to up their protein intake), and it does a lot more. It is a key to sports success as usually someone training heavily wants muscle growth and also the muscles are torn (microscopically of course) during training sessions and need continual repair and that’s where our friendly protein steps in. It is not really a “fuel” source for the body (as it has a small output) and carbs and fats are burned first but can be used if other fuel is low, like if you’re not eating enough !!!!

I hear nearly daily people will say that “you are training therefore you need to have protein shakes”

False !!!

Protein shakes, bars, cookies, puddings and god knows what else are all SUPPLEMENTS. They supplement where your diet (or lifestyle) cannot.

You can find many different sources of protein from whole foods such as milk, eggs, fish, meat, lentils and even veggies.

Now the recommended intake for protein is debatable… It depends on many variables. The recommended dietary intake (RDI) in Australia is roughly 1 gram per kilo of body weight.. EASY.. If you weigh 70kg then you have 70 gram of protein. Of course everyone has different needs and this is for a normal sedentary adult. See below for other recommended intakes.

Activity Level (Body weight/Day)
Gram of Protein/kg
Recreational Exerciser (adult)
1.0-1.4
Resistance – Trained (maintenance)
1.2-1.4
Resistance – Trained (gain muscle)
1.4-1.8
Endurance Trained
1.2-1.4
Intermittent, High Intensity Training
1.2-1.8
Weight Restricted Sports
1.4-2.0



Now it’s actually easy to get to these amounts when something as simple as an egg for breakfast has nearly 6 grams of protein… a small omelette of say and egg and 2 egg whites will give you a minimum of 12 grams of protein… that’s not including any other cheeses, milk, veggies added to your omelette. Say for lunch you have a chicken breast (with salad, on a sandwich, whatever) Just ½ a chicken breast is over 25 grams of protein… Dinner… Steak anyone?… a small/med 100g steak will have about 33gm of protein…. so what’s that just adding some basics up? 70gm of protein without even trying !!! Not including any drinks with milk, a yoghurt snack, cheese on that sandwich, some veggies with dinner etc etc…Geez even 2 x tablespoons of peanut butter will give you 8grams of protein !!!!

Now with all that said… I personally DO have a protein shake every intense training day !!! Why you ask when I would definitely have more than enough to cover my recommended intake…. One other great thing about protein is it helps you feel fuller for longer. After training I am RAVENOUS !!! Without that shake by the time I get home from the gym and prepare dinner I would have picked my way through a million extra calories not needed and my dinner portions will be rather over the top. So it’s my post workout snack and does the same job as my morning snack so I don’t go nuts for lunch :) The fact that it is a protein shake is because I can pop the powder in my gym bag and leave it in the car for the day and it will still be fine hours later for use after wrecking myself…. chicken fillet and broccoli would not fair as well :)

Now in saying protein shakes… Remember they do add onto your overall calories (if you’re counting)… And some add on a hell of a lot !!! The same as a full meal such as dinner !!!.... I recommend going to a health shop, talking to nutritionists, talking to basically any people truly in the know and deciding on one suitable for you as they can all be different. Protein powders can be casein, whey, egg, soy, rice and even pea. They react differently to your body. Something that works for someone else may not work for you !! Some have added stuff like caffeine and stimulants…..There are MANY different drinks out there !!!! I took about 4 years to find that perfect powder for me and now hope to god the company stays afloat, keeps making it, and doesn’t “upgrade” it…. Would be nice if the chocolate did actually taste like chocolate though….. :)

Protein bars, cookies etc etc also have their place !! A quick snack or maybe a treat, some of those bars are pretty yummy. I always pop a bar into my bag if I think I may just get held up at a do or going shopping, whatever… yes it’s processed crap at the end of the day, but to me it’s better than picking up a sausage on bread or something….. at least I’ll know I’m getting at least a little nutritional benefit along with the other preservatives….

One thing I should mention is you can have TOO MUCH protein… It puts a lot of stress on the ole kidneys and increases the formation of kidney stones (unfun). It also binds you…. yep… no number 2’s….and there is also research of the excretion of calcium through urine correlating with high protein diets so watch out for your bones people. Of course like all research tests will always continue so just be nice to your body and normal.

I hope this helps a bit and please keep in mind, this is MY PERSONAL interpretation. If you are truly puzzled over protein seek professional advice !!!

References




Wednesday 12 October 2011

Wednesday 12th October 2011, (Week 5, Round 3)

Well it's been a long while since I've posted so here goes,

Firstly the binging continued for the first 4 weekends of this round and slowly started to get worse as I wouldn't just over eat the healthy stuff in the house, I'd actually go out and buy stuff as well. So I made a secondary commitment to not binge for the rest of this round with the thought that I can set up better habits again that I can take with me over Christmas... I have come to grips with the fact that I may binge again and "relapse", but all in all I CAN stop this from being a part of my regular life. I've done it before and can do it again. So far so good. It's been a week and although I've had a few extra snacks here and there, I've stayed accountable and not gone into a full blown eat the contents of the fridge binge. Happy days.

Secondly - Weight has been a bit up and down due to binges but now it's evening back out again and I'm within my 2kg swing allowance around that 56kg mark. So very happy I've got off the weight I gained through the binging. Today's weigh in was 56.4kg which is down 500g from last week. Happy days again.. as I have thrown the food diary and calorie counting out the window.. The way I see it at the moment is that I CANNOT expect to keep this up for the rest of my life. I don't know many people that are of healthy weight that will write down and count everything they eat. They just know when they've had enough and just eat within a healthy range. So I'm just eating all the planned meals still and just snacking when I'm hungry. Seems so easy to write it down, but with all the weight training my body is constantly telling me I'm hungry so I do have to be more mindful of what is true hunger and what is boredom, emotional and habit eating... My system isn't perfect, but I feel a weight has been lifted from my shoulders as I was putting too much pressure on myself to make everything perfect and be within exactly such and such amount of calories and only eating such and such..... I think putting myself under so much pressure may be what was causing the weekend food fests...... I am having dessert every night though which although is fine going by my body, I don't want to set up a habit. So will nip that in the bud starting tonight.

Last week was measure up and fitness test week (full results are under "Statistics" page), but generally my measurements stayed around the same which I expect as there isn't anything else for me to lose and in fact I'm expecting things to start going up a little with some muscle growth. My fitness test was super surprising as I was so so sore from the weeks worth of workouts.... Yes silly me didn't do the fitness test at the start of the week..... so even though I felt "broken" and sore and tired, on the Friday AFTER doing chest and back I pulled out the "JFDI" card and freaking gave it all I had. It was the closest to throwing up from training I've ever felt.... the fact that it was like 100 degrees as well didn't help.... but ALL tests showed improvements !!! I was one very happy camper.... VERY happy..... Biggest surprise I had was my flexibility test. Gained 3cm on my reach..... I honestly thought I was at my limit with that one, but looks like I'm not...

Now that we've touched on the program it's time for the mind food...... And this has been rolling around in my head since last round....

Last round my neighbour said "Kerri you've lost heaps of weight, what are you doing?, You look anorexic"... at the time it didn't bother me as I walked away thinking "so what, I can do 40 odd push ups off my toes and run 10km, what can you do?".... BUT

Why does it seem socially acceptable to say to someone "Wow, you've lost weight, what have you been doing, you look so thin"...

when if it was the opposite scenario NO ONE would come up to me and say "Wow, Kerri, what have you been doing you've got so fat"......

WHY !!!! What is this phenomenon that makes it ok to call someone thin, but not fat...??? I find being called "skinny", "thin", and especially "tiny" and of course "anorexic" really unnacceptable and I find on those days that it happens they are the days that I do tend to eat a lot more than I normally would..... and I spend more time worrying "am I too thin?".... So why is this socially acceptable to say ??? Is it due to the unnatural and incomprehensible media push that to be "beautiful" that you need to be model, stick thin, and therefore if you are in fact thin then it's ok to comment on such because that's what you must want? or is it the fact that every second ad on TV or in the media generally is yet another weight loss program, powder, pill, procedure or OMG so many to say.... therefore EVERYONE MUST want to be thin, and again therefore it must be ok to say you are thin....... ???

Yes, I'm smaller now than ever due to being healthy. BUT I'm the healthiest, fittest, fastest and strongest I've ever been in my life (even teens) and I do like the fact that I know I will find something off the rack that will fit and I can by something online and it too will fit..... but truly.... if I could be this fit and healthy and I'm a few dress sizes larger.... I think I would still be a happy camper.... I was unhappy as a size 12/14 when I first started 12wbt back in May 2011, but the unhappiness was because I was soft, hail damaged, and although I was of a healthy weight... I wasn't actually healthy.... I knew that.... I wasn't a worse case scenario, but I was far far far from the best version of myself, physically and mentally.....

So for this weeks food for thought maybe truly think over the next time you want to call someone skinny, thin, or tiny..... is it really what they want to hear ????

And also.... why is it socially acceptable to say someone is thin compared to saying someone has gained weight ???