Denver - The city of Seafood

Since I re-committed to eating better and exercising more consistently I've lost 3.2 pounds!  It was a slow start but as the Chicago weather brightens, so does my progress.  On a recent business trip to Denver, I stuck with my exercise goals and maintained my weight while there.  This is SUPER since normally domestic travel adds 3+ pound gain.

Over the 4-day trip I walked for a combined total of about 60 minutes and a completed a 2.52-mile run, all without stepping foot in a gym. I'm not sure how well I stayed within my 1,416 calories/day range considering I ate out 95% of my meals. Even though I didn't count a single calorie, I made relatively good food choices (not including Denver’s amazing brewery beverages). I avoided fast food, went to bed earlier than I do at home and also managed to fit a lot of activities in – Wynkoop Brewery twice, a Rockies game and a concert featuring The Cars.


After a run through downtown Denver.  Huffed and puffed through 2.52 mils.



Denver trip = lots of seafood and coffee = I want to return!  In 4 days I consumed clam, shrimp, crab, octopus, lobster and muscles. I think that’s a personal seafood record.



Day one

Dinner
Shared shrimp fajitas, chips and queso
Day two

Breakfast
Seafood Eggs: My friend made a protein rich breakfast – A blend of eggs, feta, shrimp, imitation crab, Spinach and Sriracha hot chili sauce

Snacks
Pastry, Fruit, Guacamole and Chips, Tea, Coffee, Water

Lunch
Jimmy John’s Pepe Sandwich (ham, cheese, tomato, mayo, lettuce, avocado, sprouts) with BBQ Chips

Dinner
Shared Calamari appetizer, Sausage Plate appetizer and ordered a Lobster Tacos appetizer for my meal

Day three

Breakfast
Shared huevos rancheros and Sweet Potato Pancakes. Side of coffee. <-- Best meal of the trip, courtesy of Snooze, an AM eatery.

Lunch
Snacked on a pastry, Yogurt covered pretzels, tea, coffee, water

Dinner
Shared Spanish Paella (muscles, shrimp and sausage yumminess), Grilled shrimp, bread

Day four
Breakfast
½ Huevos Rancheros breakfast wrap, grande Soy White Chocolate Mocha

Lunch
½ Huevos Rahceros breakfast wrap, ½ grande soy caramel macchiato (Starbuck’s messed up my order and gave me a free drink!)

Dinner
Shared shrimp sushi. Meal was Clam Chowder soup with a Caesar Salad.

Snack
Pastry, Frozen yogurt with chocolate chips, water

.: 
Dear Denver, 

I'll be back!

~Cyn
:.

A Lovely May

"Saying you don't have enough time is a bad reason to not run.
There's always time for a run."

-Kathleen Sebelius, Health and Human Services Secretary

*          *         *         *        *        *
MAY FITNESS GOALS

-1,416 CALORIES/DAY
-RUN 20 MILES
-WATER - At least 64 oz/day
-WEEKLY EXERCISE - At least 150 mins/week

Keeping the above quote in mind as I keep plugging away at running this month. It's been 63 days since I committed myself to losing 55 pounds.  Moving forward little by little, day by day.   May calorie goal: 1,416 cals/day. Last month I overshot my running goal by saying I'd run 100 miles and I didn't make it. This month I've trimmed it down to 20 miles. That's doable for easing back into running.

Also, drinking enough water is very important.  Somehow, after months of absence, Diet Soda and juices crept into my January thru April 2011 diet.  One of the main reasons - my water was only coming from water 16.9 oz bottles.   I was buying 24-packs of bottled water every other week, grabbing a bottle a day, re-filling that same bottle throughout the day with fountain water and not getting as much water as I think I was.  In March I made note that I needed a Brita filter and I finally got one!  I found a $4 off coupon online for Target and ended up paying $20 which I thought was a good deal, only to later discover that Walgreens has a basic Brita pitcher for only $10!   Since I like to refill so much (it makes me feel like I'm conserving resources) I also dug out my aluminum water bottle from last summer and fill it up several times at work.  End result - more water drinking during my work and home life!

I've incorporated Yoga into weekly fitness routine which is easy to do since my office provides free Yoga classes every Tuesday until the beginning of July.  Yoga is no joke.   Not as easy as it looks.  I've also dusted off home fitness videos from my DVD collection and sampled some from Netflix. A week ago I streamed Crunch: Cardio Dance Blast via Netflix. It was super fun and seemed more like I was re-incarnating dance moves from Genie In a Bottle and Hit Me Baby One More Time. When I finished my whole back was wet from the constant hip-hopping and I was in a fabulous mood. It's great when workouts don't really feel like workouts. I will have to explore more Netflix videos. I've also been doing Wii Sports which burn more calories than watching tv online.

Hoping the weather stays warm so I can get back to outdoor running. Call me a wimp, but it's still too cold for my liking. I can walk for 5 - 30 mins, but I ain't so keen on running in this chilly wind quite yet. Overall, I'm just trying to stay as active as possible - walking one el stop instead of taking the el, walking 10-30 mins during my lunch break, taking the stairs up/down at work. :)

This year has proven to be difficult weight loss-wise. Too much eating out and too much dessert!   Last week I had 3 scheduled lunches/dinners with friends, all of whom I hadn't seen in quite a while, some years. It was easy to plan to meet up at a restaurant. This lead me to eat cheeseburgers. One a half to be exact. What happened to my one cow a week rule?

Being good with a lunchtime salad at work.

Mother's Day dinner was a healthier choice.  I'm used to going out to eat but this year my family stayed in and cooked healthy foods - grilled chicken, crab cakes w/o the filler, salad and a fresh-picked green bean/carrot medley.  It was a nice change of pace from the cow and much needed.  Day-to-day I'm trying to eat as much greenery at work as I can!  I found a bag of Turnip Greens Medley at Jewel and a yummy receipe that involves garlic and a turkey leg.  That's what I'm making tonight.  :)


Despite slight weight gain, I'm staying motivated by hearing friends/family talk about their own weight loss efforts -- Weight Watchers, Elliptical Training, Calorie Counting, P90X or whatever.   Seeing before and after pics is amazing.   I stumbled across a workout contest for Venus Index.   Before/After pics of this Mother = AMAZING!

The first ever Venus Index Transformation contest was a huge success and Alisha McGinn took it to the house, her transformation was amazing.  See more photos at:  http://www.venusindex.com/takin-it-to-the-house-vi-contest-winner-alisha-mcginn/

New song of the moment:  Lovely by Sara Haze

1.5 pounds a week

My favorite online calorie counting tool is Calorie Count.  I stumbled across the website while interning with the Illinois government summer of 2006.  I had one of those coupons for a free any size coffee drink at Caribiou Coffee and googled "Turtle Mocha" to see if it was acceptable to my calorie-counting-self.

Holy 90 grams of sugar!  16 oz of that mid-day snack had 587 cals, 15 gs of fat, 98 carbs, and did I mention - 90 gs of sugar.  The sugar alone lead me to abandon that free ride to a diabetes.  I don't remember what I got that day, but I do know it didn't have the words Turtle or Mocha in it.

A lot of times foods are so misleading, especially when it comes to eating out.  Yesterday I spent time comparing the calories in different tortillas at Jewel-Osco (or is it just Jewel now?).   A corn tortilla the size of my palm somehow managed to squeeze in 250 cals whilst a multigrain tortilla as big as my head was only 100 cals.

What about a Bagel vs. donut?

Test your calorie-counting skills here

I'm still working towards my weight loss goals so I can someday say, "I used to weigh 30 pounds more".  Ok, so that's not as dramatic as MTV's "I used to be fat", where kids lose 80-100+ lbs and then parade around saying "I used to be fat"...but I watched an episode yesterday and wanted my own mantra to picture saying.

Motivated by the desire to slim down and MTV's show, I created some personalized calorie-burning analysis to meet my weight loss goals:

My general calorie analysis (from Calorie Count )
You should consume about 1,209 calories a day to reach your goal weight. This is at a reasonable weight loss average of 1.5 lbs per week, which should be reached by July 19, 2011.

My Daily Caloric Expenditure
You burn 1960 calories during a typical day.  (Remember that this estimate is based on your body weight, height, age, gender, and your average level of activity.)

*These analysises was based on my age, height and activity lifestyle. I characterize myself as having a "sedentary" activity lifestyle since I met the following: At work - you work in an office; At home - you're usually sitting, reading, typing or working at a computer; Exercise - you don't exercise regularly (As of last week, I do exercise regularly...sometimes turning until always)

So here's what I did today.  I counted out all my calories, which involved some planning ahead of meals, i.e. no brainless snacking today.   Then I subtracted the calories I ate from my daily caloric expenditure.  Re: Calorie Expenditure, normally I'd add the estimated calories burned during exercise to the caloric expenditure, but today I did a light balance/flexibility class so I left it out.  I took this number and divided it by 3,500 (the amount of calories a body needs to burn to lose 1 lb).

MY STATS for 1/18/2011
Today's workout: light 30 min. Balance and Flexibility Class
Today's food:  Breakfast - Slim Fast (190 cals), Lunch -Tortilla and mozzerella (275), tomato soup (320), Snack - Dannon's light and fit strawberry yogurt (80), 100-cal kettlekorn (100) dinner:  mashed potatoes (100), green beans with olive oil (100), boneless pork loin (122); Zero calorie items:  Water, Berry La Croix, Diet Coke = Total cals: 1287 

Deficit: 673 calories = 0.19 lbs

Today I lost (will lose) 0.19 pounds.  I like the sound of that more than, "Today I burned xyz calories."
1.5 lbs per week. 30 pounds lighter by July 19, 2011. Do it to it.