Ya Might Learn Somethin!

Well, back to the gym this morning.  I’ll be honest, it was disappointing.  It felt good to be back in the fitness environment, but my knee made it difficult to really enjoy my workout.  I did the following:

TIME	EXERCISE	REPS	LBS	SETS
13 MIN (1 MILE)	ELLIPTICAL	MEDIUM	N/A	1
	LEG CURLS	12 EA LEG	20	4
	LEG EXTENSIONS	12 EA LEG	20	4
	LEG PRESS	12	90	4
	CALF PRESSES	12	90	4
28 MIN (10 MILES)	BIKE	MED/FAST	N/A	1

Both cardio sessions were performed with a resistance level of 1, I was mostly testing today.  Looks like I’ll be staying at 1 for a while.  The elliptical proved to be both challenging and a bit painful.  The location and focus of the pain leads me to believe even further that I’ve f’d up my lateral meniscus, which I’ve previously torn.  Oh joy.  BUT we’ll never know, considering I can’t afford an MRI and insurance blows. (I’m in a really great mood today, can ya tell?)

SO based on today’s workout I believe I will continue to do the elliptical for around the same amount of time and at the same resistance and continue to build on the bike distance/time.  I was able to pedal pretty fast and got a decent sweat going while I was biking, unlike the elliptical where I wasn’t able to go fast enough to take my breath away at all, really.  It’s just so frustrating because I’m used to going in there, bustin ass, and being drenched with sweat when I leave.  I know that I will eventually get back to the point where I’m able to do that… but I’m not a very patient person. 

Oh well, at least I did something today!  It does feel good to be back to a disciplined routine of sorts.

I didn’t end up walking to Nora’s music class last night.  As I said, that walk was dependent upon the weather and the clouds were looking quite threatening of rain when it was time to leave… so we drove.  Before leaving, I made dinner so we could eat as soon as we got home.  I made a yummy and easy salad:

Salad

4 Chicken tenderloins, seasoned w/ S&P, oregano and garlic

Baby Spinach Leaves

Mushrooms, chopped

Bell Pepper, chopped

Green Onion, chopped

Grape Tomatoes, chopped

Fat Free Feta

A few Raisins

Light Balsamic Vinaigrette

I grilled the chicken on the George Forman and just tossed it all together!  Yummy and light. 

Food Today

Breakfast:

½ banana w/ natural crunchy pnut butter

Chocolate Protein Shake w/ Skim Milk

Snack:

Low Carb Yogurt

Lunch:

Leftover Salad

Protein Mousse

Snack:

Weight Watchers String Cheese

8 Raw Almonds

Dinner:

Turkey Meatloaf

Veggies of some sort

I’ve been doing some reading and I’m going to be incorporating a ‘cheat day’ into my diet.  After reading an article in Muscle & Fitness Hers, I now understand how a ‘cheat day’ can actually benefit your progress and results.  Here’s a reader’s digest version of what I got from the article:

When you’re on a low-carb or low-calorie diet for a prolonged period of time, it causes your Leptin levels to drop.  Leptin is basically a hormone that keeps your metabolic rate up and hunger down – so if it drops, your metabolic rate drops and hunger rises… which is the opposite of what we want.  To prevent this from happening, you should have 1 high-carb/high-calorie day once a week to keep things regulated. 

It says in the article that if you’re eating less that .5g of carbs per pound of body weight, your cheat day should contain about 2g of carbs per body weight.  Quite an increase!  If you are a fellow loser but on a moderate-carb (as opposed to low-carb) diet, then you should have 1 cheat meal per week, as opposed to a cheat day.  Honestly, being granted an entire ‘cheat day’ is motivating me even more to not eat carbs the rest of the week lol.

Going by their guidelines, as long as I’m eating 135g of carbs or less per day, I’m granted an entire day.  I just Tallied my total carbs for today and I’ll be eating approximately 60-70 carbs. (almost 20 of those are from the ½ banana and peanut butter I threw in this morning!) I win J

Along with aiding in the Leptin levels, this ‘cheat day’ should help to keep me better on track throughout the week, knowing that all of those foods that I want aren’t completely out of reach… I just have to work to get to them. J

A lot of people are hesitant to go on the low-carb diet… and honestly, I can understand why.  I find that it’s very easy to take this ‘diet’ to the EXTREME – as I did the first time I did this.  Round 1 of low-carb (about 4 years ago ha!) I was focused solely on not eating carbs… so basically I ate eggs, meat and cheese. WOW that’s healthy! (not) I ended up losing about 20lbs the first month, and then as soon as I started eating carbs again, I gained the weight back plus more.  Now, I’m doing it in a more healthy way; I’m not cutting carbs COMPLETELY, just limiting them, I’m also focused on calorie/fat/protein/sodium content and I’m working out.  I honestly like my body better when I’m not eating carbs, I feel less puffy and just a little lighter… which is always a good thing. J

Okay, I think I’ve talked your face off about carbs ENOUGH for one day… so, until tomorrow. J

Funny… I’m in a much better mood now than when I started this post!

Happy Hump Day!