Lunch Break Boot Camp

I have blogged about food choices and cutting calories but I have never given any advise on exercise other than walking, usng my eliptical, treadmill or riding my bicycle.  In one of my days of research I saw an interesting idea.  The article proposed the idea that you could get a good work-out during your lunch hour.  Actually according to the article, it only takes 20 minutes of your lunch break to torch calories and power through the rest of your day
This information is shared by The Editors of Men's Health

Fighting off a desk nap? Jump start your heart. "A high-intensity lunchtime workout can give your body the boost it needs to power through the rest of the day," says James Batey, an ACE certified personal trainer at Brooklyn's Fitness Collective. But you'll need a fast workout that you can do anywhere. That's what you'll find below.

The Lunchtime Workout

Perform these moves in order, spending 1 minute on each exercise—a total of 5 minutes for each set. Rest 2 minutes between sets, and don't do the workout 2 days in a row.

Set 1

Calf Jump with Overhead Arms 00:01

Stand on your toes with your legs shoulder-width apart, and stretch your arms over your head. Jump as if you were skipping rope. Repeat until the time expires.   

Switch Split Jump 00:02

Start in a lunge position, knees bent. Clasp your hands behind your head. Jump and switch legs midair. Allow your body to descend into the next lunge, and immediately repeat the jump, minimizing your time on the ground.           

Speed Side-Shuffle Pushup 00:03

From the pushup position, extend your right arm and leg as far to the right as possible. Bring your left arm and leg over so you're back in the starting position. Shuffle 10 times back and forth.         

Soft Jump Squat 00:04

Place a cone outside your right foot. Assume a squat position, bending your legs until they're parallel to the ground. Jump over the cone sideways, landing gently with the cone outside your left foot. Go back and forth.         

Burpees 00:05

Do one pushup. Jump into a squat position. Raise your hands overhead and jump up, bringing your knees into your chest. Land on your toes and drop back into a squat. Kick your feet back into a pushup. Repeat.

Break 1  00:05-00:07

Set 2

Bear Crawl 00:08

Assume a crawling position. Bend your elbows and knees, with your hips in the air. Pick a point and crawl toward it as fast as you can. Then move backward using the same form, until you reach your starting position.          

Pulsing Sumo Squat with Jump 00:09

Lower yourself into two consecutive squats, holding each for 1 second. As you rise out of the second squat, explode up and land while maintaining form. Repeat.

High Knees in Place 00:10

Sprint in place, driving your knees up to your chest. If you feel your legs lagging, hold your hands straight out in front and aim to connect your knees to your elbows.           

Pushup with Side Plank 00:11

Complete one pushup and then immediately puash yourself into a side plank. Align your head, neck, shoulders, core, and legs. Hold for 10 seconds. Repeat, alternating sides. 

Jump Squat/Jumping Jacks 00:12

Stand with your hands behind your head. Lower your body until your thighs are parallel to the floor, then push up so your feet leave the floor. Land with bent knees, do 5 jumping jacks, and repeat

Break 2  00:12-00:14

Set 3

Bicycle Crunches 00:15

Lie on your back with hands clasped behind your head. Lift both legs slightly off the ground. Touch your elbow to its opposite knee, alternating and moving quickly, as if you're pedaling a bike.           

Forward Distance Hop 00:16

With your feet hip-width apart, jump as far forward as you can, using your arms to propel you. Land in a low squat position and immediately jump forward again. 

Basketball Shuffle 00:17
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Bend your knees into a low squat; shuffle to your left for 10 seconds, then back to the right for 10 seconds.

Heels High 00:18

Sprint in place, bringing your heels up behind you, as if you're kicking your own butt.

Kangaroo Hops 00:19

Stand with your legs slightly apart. Extend your arms out to your sides. Jump and drive your knees to your chest, using your arms to balance. Aim for 10 to 15 jumps in a minute.

Even if you don't do all of the exercises shown here, if you did a few of them you would be making a healthy choice to "burn" some calories.  And if none of these exercises are right for you, try something really simple... take a 20 minute walk.

Do What You "Know" Not What You "Think"

Last Thursday evening I had my fourth appointment with my nutritionist and trainer, Stacy.  When I arrived at her business, Be Fit, I was as anxious as can be.  On week one I dropped  an amazing 11 pounds and 3 inches, and that was with no exercise and continuing with my 1400 calories per day and adding protein to my food intake.  Week Two I did everything that I was supposed to do including exercise but the scale only reported one pound of weight loss.  But the measuring tape showed 4-3/4" for a total of 12 pounds lost and 7-3/4 inches removed from my body.

This week I had really stepped up my game.  I ate right every day, drank my two protein drinks per day.  The biggest difference was that I exercised not once but twice every day!  This was going to be my week, I just knew it!  When we sat down at the table to discuss my week I could hardly wait to get to the good stuff.  Stacy explained that she had taken my file with my weight loss and inches lost chart home and did not have it for our meeting.  Well that did not sound too good to me.  I should have known that this was a sign of things to come.

She took all of my measurements and wrote them down on a new chart and we walked over to the Ironman Scale.  She again entered my age and height and I stepped up on the scale.  On my journey to a new me I have learned that the scale can be my friend, but today was an exception to this rule.  As the display changed from one thing to the next, I concentrated on the weight loss and could not believe what I was seeing.  One Pound!  Please tell me there must be a mistake!  One Pound?  Really?  This is not the results that I had worked so hard to acheive.  It felt a little bit like Bill Murphy in the movie, Ground Hog Day!  In case you have never seen it the premise of the movie is that he keeps repeating Ground Hog Day, every day.  It is like a broken record or something.  This was a total unacceptable weight loss result.  To say that I was a little upset with myself would be a huge understatement.

Stacy had me go back over to the table so that she could talk to me and I just felt myself shutting down.  If what I had done last week was only good for one pound, then I wasn't sure what else that I could do.  She began to look at my food journal for the week and scanned all the data in the nutritional section for every day.  She went back three days and stopped and asked me "What is this?"  "Why did you eat so much sugar this day?"  I looked her in disbelief and told her that I wasn't eating any sugar, and I did not know what she was referring to?   I also told her that in all the previous meetings she had only given me guidelines for protein, carbohydrates, fat and sodium.  She never mentioned sugar!  Plus, I knew that sugar was something that I really had been staying clear of since beginning my journey to a new me over 18 months ago!  So I asked her to explain what it was that she was looking at?  (I mean it wasn't like I was pulling a "Bill Cosby" and eating chocolate cake for breakfast every day!  I was eating healthy and well-balanced meals and snacks!)

Here is the Breakfast that she was studying so closely.  See if you can figure out what the "Red Flag" was on this food entry.

Breakfast	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sugar	Sodium
Champion Nutrition - Pure Whey Protein Stack-Chocolate, 1 scoop (32g)	130	4	2	23	2	160
Nature's Own - Double Fiber Wheat Bread With Omega-3, 2 slices	100	26	1	6	1	270
Strawberries - Raw, 1 cup, halves	49	12	0	1	7	2
Smuckers - Blackberry Jam Sugar Free Seedless , 1 Tbsp	15	5	0	0	0	0
Quick add calories Remember meal Copy from date Copy to today Copy to date Copy from which date? Thursday, August 23 Wednesday, August 22 Tuesday, August 21 Monday, August 20 Sunday, August 19 Saturday, August 18 Friday, August 17 Copy to which date? Friday, September 7 Thursday, September 6 Tomorrow Today Yesterday Sunday, September 2 Saturday, September 1 Totals For Breakfast	294	47	3	30	10	432

The first thing that I noticed was that my entire meal was under 300 calories.  Not to mention that by including a protein shake I had acheived a 30 for total protein at this meal.  She began to explain that the carbs were shown as 47 and when you add the sugar of 10 the total could be looked at as 57!  Oh no, when you look at it this way I am WAY over my goal for my breakfast.  Who said counting calories and allocating them into the correct catergories would be easy?   Certainly not me.  No wonder I only lost One Pound this week again.

The best way to look at the nutrition in food is to look at it the way your body breaks it down.  All carbohydrates and sugars are broken down into the body as sugar.  So even though I am not drinking sweet tea, or regular Coca Cola, the other healthy items that I am eating have sugar of some sort even if it is natural, and natural sugar counts too! 

So instead of beating myself up over the one pound weight loss, I looked at the whole picture.  When I added this pound to my previous 12 pounds I had reached a 13 pound weight loss in just three weeks, not to mention I am now down a total of 10 inches!  This week I dropped another pound of fat.  On this new path on my journey to a new me,  I am building lean musle that will be able to burn more fat.  I have learned that muscle always weighs more than fluffy fat.  Think about it like this, one pound of lean muscle could be equivalent to a very small, tight cylinder vs. a one pound bag of fluffy marshmellows.  Which one looks better on me?  The lean muscle of course!  So this week I have decided to continue on the course that my nutritionist has set me on and I am really paying close attention to the carbohydrates and sugar counts at each meal. Stacy had explained to me earlier that I need to stay at 40  carbs or lower per meal for a 120 carb count and then 10 carbs per snack, which will give me 140 total carbohydrates per day.  I have also changed my next meeting from Thursday evening at 7:00 pm to Friday morning at 6:45 am.  Who knows this may just be the week that I drop some serious weight.  But I am also learning that those inches are just as important as the numbers on the scale.  Stacy made a simple statement to me that has stuck, "Kathy, you look for a result on the scale, but others can see the results on the measuring tape.  You are really trimming down and that is the number that I am most concerned with."

Important Steps For Correcting Your Diet For Weight Loss

 If you have not had a chance to read my last few blog post you may want to do so before reading this one.  My journey to a new me has taken a recent detour when I met my nutritionist, Stacy, who is also a trainer.  She has given me permission to include some of the valuable information from her Be Fit Program in my blog post.

The first step in correcting your diet for weight loss is to understand how much protein you need at each meal.  Your daily menu needs to focus on getting protein at every meal with emphasis on increasing protein at breakfast and lunch.  The effect of protein on appetite or "satiety" is something you have probably already experienced when you had a high protein breakfast with eggs, meat or dairy.  It's not a feeling of being stuffed, but one of feeling satisfied.  More important, you realize that the meal seems to "stick with you".  When you include protein in your breakfast in the correct amounts you don't feel hungry in two hours.

The research is clear that when you eat protein at meals early in the day, your desire for food changes for the rest of the day.  This can result in your desire to eat less total food for the entire day.  The facts prove that protein distribution throughout the day have the greatest effect on weight loss.  Let's face it, most adults consume most of their protein at dinner time.  The problem with this is that the amount of protein in each meal is how your body "uses" the protein.  It takes 30 grams of protein at a meal to fully stimulate healthy muscles.  With a skewed protein distribution, only the dinner meal has enough protein to get into the range to stimulate protein synthesis and protect muscles.

To fully understand protein needs in your diet, you need to understand a little more about the roles of protein in your body.  Generally, when people think about protein needs they think about building muscles.  The proteins you eat and the proteins in your body are actually long chains of small parts or molecules called amino acids.  There are 20 different amino acids required to make all of the different proteins in our bodies.  The proteins you eat are digested in your intestines and then absorbed into your body as the individual amino acids.  These individual amino acids are then used to form the millions of proteins that make up your body.  The process of building new proteins in the body is called protein synthesis.

A  rule of thumb is that you need to get 25 to 30 grams of protein at every meal.  Including protein at your snacks containing a range from 15 to 30 grams of protein.  (based on your activity level) will also help rev up your metabolism and lose body fat.

In conclusion:
Protein helps you stay full, aiding in weight loss, keeping you from the munchies.
Protein repairs and rebuilds muscles.
Protein revs up your metabolism.
Protein is IMPORTANT!

Here are some great choices for Protein
Lean Beef - Flank Steak, Eye of Round, London Broil, Tenderloin, Top Sirloin, New York Strip, 2% or 4% Fat Lean Beef
Fish - Tilapia, Salmon, Tuna, Cod, Grouper, Halibut, Macheral, Mahimahi, Sea Bass, Red Snapper, Swordfish, Lobster and Shrimp
Chicken Breast (canned is ok if there is no salt added)
Turkey Breast
Canned Tuna (low sodium, in water)
Boar's Head low-sodium (Turkey or Roast Beef - limit intake since it's processed)
Pork Tenderloin
Egg Whites
Low Fat Cottage Cheese (watch for sodium)
Tofu (watch for sodium)
Veggie Burger (watch for sodium)
Legumes (They provide protein and carbohydrates so measure accordingly)

I hope that this blog post has clarified any remaining questions that you may have had concerning the importance of having enough protein in your daily food choices.  Without the proper amount of protein you will not be able to burn off the fat that is keeping you from being the healthiest that you can be!

20 Healthy Zero-Calorie Foods

Check out this information that I found recently on www.msn.com Healthy Lifestyle.   There are some amazing truths in this post.  Who knew there were "Zero Calorie" foods out there?

These eats may be ridiculously low in calories, but they’re loaded with nutrients that can help speed up weight loss and boost your immunity So-called “zero-calorie” foods, like celery and cucumbers, contain fewer calories than the body uses to break them down. And although nutritionists account for the energy it takes to chew and digest them when they calculate how many calories we need, these eats deserve prime spots on our plates. You can eat them in large quantities without busting your gut, and low-calorie doesn’t mean low nutrients. “And, obviously, if eating very low calorie foods keeps you from eating higher calorie foods, that's a says Monica Reinagel, licensed nutritionist and creator of the Nutrition Diva podcast. So fill up your fridge with the following 20 foods that are loaded with vitamins and minerals—not calories.

Cucumbers

If you’re tired of fending off hunger by guzzling glass after glass of H2O, snack on cucumber slices instead. “Eating foods that are high in water can help you feel full at least temporarily by taking up a lot of space in your stomach,” notes Reinagel. Cucumbers also pack vitamins K and C, potassium, and a compound called silica, which helps to build and maintain connective tissue, like muscle, tendons, ligaments, and bone.

Citrus Fruit

Don’t wait until cold season to fill up on oranges, tangerines, and grapefruit–they may help whittle your middle. People with higher vitamin C levels have lower waist-to-hip ratios than those whose bodies contain less of the antioxidant, according to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. What’s more, University of Arizona researchers found that those with higher levels of vitamin C oxidized 25 percent more fat during treadmill sessions than those with lower levels of the vitamin.
Celery

Celery delivers serious crunch for next to no calories—each medium stalk has about 6—but it’s not shy on nutrients. One cup has a third of your recommended daily intake of vitamin K, along with vitamin A, fiber, folate, and potassium. Celery also contains compounds called phthalides, which can relax muscle tissue in artery walls and increase blood flow, thereby helping to lower blood pressure.

Apples

An apple a day keeps your weight at bay! Just make sure to eat the skin. The peel contains most of the fruit’s metabolism-boosting fiber, as well as ursolic acid, a compound that may prevent the pounds from piling on, according to a new study from University of Iowa.

Kelp

Don’t be squeamish about eating your sea vegetables. Kelp is loaded with vitamin K, which helps keep bones strong, along with a natural fiber called alginate, which may help block fat absorption, according to research from Newcastle University in the UK. For only 6 calories per 4-ounce serving, try mixing Sea Tangle Kelp Noodles into salads, soups, and stir-fries.

Asparagus

A half-cup of cooked asparagus will set you back only 20 calories. Plus, you’ll get hefty doses of vitamins K and A, and B vitamins such as folic acid. Since B vitamins play a role in breaking down sugars and starches, eating asparagus may help regulate blood sugar and fend off type 2 diabetes.

Apricots

Brimming with beta-carotene, apricots can help fight cancer and heart disease as well as protect your eyesight. Eating three or more daily servings of fruit rich in vitamins A, C, and E and carotenoids like beta-carotene may lower your risk of macular degeneration, the dominant cause of age-related vision loss. When participants in a study published in the Archives of Ophthalmology ate this much fruit they were 36 percent less likely to suffer from the disease compared to  those who consumed 1.5 servings or less of fruit daily.

Watermelon

This summertime fruit is loaded with arginine, an amino acid that may aid weight loss. Researchers found that obese mice that were fed arginine supplements burned more fat and gained more lean muscle than those that did not receive them, according to a Journal of Nutrition study.

Tomatoes

The lycopene in tomatoes can protect against prostate cancer and help keep skin looking young by eliminating free radicals that build up when you’re exposed to ultraviolet rays. Tip: Cooking tomatoes spikes levels of lycopene and makes it easier for your body to absorb the nutrients, according to a Cornell University study.

Broccoli

Broccoli may be the nation’s most hated upon veggie, but it doesn’t deserve that reputation. One cup raw contains as much fiber and vitamin C as an orange.

Cauliflower

Counting your carbs? Try boiling, mashing, and seasoning cauliflower to get a mashed potato substitute that tastes almost like the real thing. A half-cup of boiled cauliflower contains only 14 calories, but nearly half your daily recommended intake of vitamin C.

Strawberries

One cup of the summertime staple packs more than 100 percent of our daily recommended intake of vitamin C. Strawberries are also one of the most antioxidant-rich fruits you can eat. Compounds called polyphenols may protect your body from the type of cell and tissue damage that’s linked to heart disease and certain cancers.

Leafy Greens

Whatever variety you pick, you can’t go wrong with piling a plate with salad greens. At 4 calories per cup, watercress is loaded with vitamins A, C and K, and a study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that eating 3 ounces of the peppery green daily increases levels of the cancer-fighting antioxidants lutein and beta-carotene. Spinach (7 calories per cup) is brimming with vitamin K, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, and selenium and contains a hormone that allows muscle tissue to repair itself faster, according to research from Rutgers University.

Red Chili Peppers
Add a little spice to your cooking and slim down while you’re at it. Capsaicin, the compound that gives red chili peppers its kick, has been shown to help your body burn more calories. Plus, research shows that we tend to eat smaller portions of spicy foods because of the heat.

Mushrooms

Whether you sauté them or eat them raw, mushrooms are an often-overlooked superfood. Dutch researchers found that when you digest mushrooms, your body produces cancer-fighting, immunity-boosting metabolites.

Red Bell Pepper

Any way you slice it, red bell peppers are a great source of nutrients. A medium sized one delivers 250 percent of your daily recommended intake of vitamin C, 75 percent of your daily vitamin A needs, and 10 percent of your fiber goals. Chop them up and pair with hummus for a healthy snack.

Summer Squash

Whether you love zucchini, butternut, or acorn, all squashes are chockfull of vitamins and belly-filling fiber. But summer squash has one advantage: you can eat more of it without gaining weight. In fact, you can have two times more summer squash than winter squash for the same number of calories.

Turnip

The turnip sometimes takes a backseat to more popular root vegetables, like carrots and potatoes, but its nutritional benefits shouldn’t be overlooked. The root contains cancer-fighting glucosinolates and is a good source of fiber, calcium, and potassium.

Green Tea

Whether you prefer it hot or iced, unsweetened green tea is calorie-free and high in an antioxidant called ECGC, which may reduce the risk of heart disease and some cancers while revving up your metabolism. Participants in a Tufts University study who drank the equivalent of three cups of green tea each day lost twice as much weight as those who did not drink the tea. Green tea drinkers also lost significantly more belly fat than non-tea drinkers.

Water

The importance of water can’t be overstated. Staying hydrated keeps your metabolism humming, and can keep you alert and energized throughout the day. Drinking two glasses before a meal can also help you keep control over your portions.

The Battle of Pounds vs. Inches Has Begun

If you have been reading my blog over the past week you already know that I have begun a new adventure on my journey to a new me.  On Thursday August 9^th I met with a nutritionist, Stacy who is the owner of Be Fit in Hoshton, GA for the first time.  She gave me so much information during our first meeting that it is just now starting to “sink in” all that she shared with me.

Tonight was my third meeting with her and my second weigh-in.  Just in case you did not read my blog post from 8/21/2011    “The Power of Protein – A New Day Has Dawned”  let me cut to the chase.    It was during my first “weigh-in” last week that I became a believer in the power of protein.  Without doing any exercise, elliptical trainer or treadmill, I successfully lost 11 Pounds!  Not to mention I went down 5% in body fat and shed 3 inches from my body.  Now that was the power boost that I had been looking for.

This week I began exercising every day, eating the protein that she had prescribed (105 g. per day) and did my best to hit my daily goals for carbs, fat and sodium.  But to be honest I struggled the most with that sodium.  I don’t know what it is about sodium but EVERYTHING you eat has sodium in it!

All day today I was excited to meet with Stacy to see the “Fruit of my labor” and all day I logged everything that went into my mouth.   All food, water and exercise was  recorded.  I knew that she would be analyzing everything in my favorite online tool, www.myfitnesspal.com  (Just a word to the wise, be careful who you give your  log on and password to, they might be able to see more than you wanted them to.)

I arrived for the appointment and told her that I had a great week.  We chatted briefly and I quickly asked her could we get on with the good stuff.  I just knew that the results would be amazing,  after all I had put in all the hard work and effort.  And didn’t my parents raise me to believe that with hard work comes  great rewards?  So I was ready to collect on some of those rewards.

Just as before, she became a fast little “squirrel” as she whipped out her  trusty measuring tape and began the process of measuring me from head to toe, not leaving any area unmeasured.  She just as quickly jotted down the results on the log sheet.  When she was done she was grinning from ear to ear.  During the past week I had lost another 4-3/4 inches from my body!  She then asked me to step over to “Mr. Iron Man Scale”.   Now this was the part that I had been waiting to do all day.

I slid my sandals off and waited what seemed forever for her to program in my age and height.  Then the computerized scale began its calculations.  The other two times that I weighed I did not look down to watch the progression of numbers as they displayed across the black screen, but today I wanted to know.

When the scale stopped on my current weight I felt my heart drop from my chest.  Actually my whole countenance just fell.  Who would have guessed that all that hard work and effort would have resulted in just one lonely pound?    I was not so unrealistic as to think that I was going to have a second week with a 10 or 11 pound weight loss, but honestly I was hoping for more than One Pound!  Come on, this just did not seem fair to me.  This had to be a trick or something, but as I stepped off the scale and made my way back to the table I could not hide my disappointment.  Stacy was still smiling like crazy and my disposition was that of a defeated person.

I immediately started expressing to her that this wasn’t fair.  What did I do wrong?  Why did I have such success last week when all I did was add protein to my diet and this week I did all of that plus added back my daily exercise?  Not to mention we ate at home almost every night and  I had been taking my lunch to work to keep from having to eat out so much and take in too much sodium.

This was when the nutritionist did what she can do best.  She taught me a very valuable lesson.  All the information that I had been reading was actually happening in my own body and I needed to give it a chance to work!  She said that she was not disappointed in me at all.  On the contrary, she was very pleased with all of my progress.  She said “Don’t just look at the One Pound, you need to look at the TWELVE POUNDS that you have lost in just two weeks!  And don’t forget about that 5% body fat!  But do you know what she said was the absolute most important result to her?

The part of the equation that everyone can see, and that is the  7-3/4 inches that I had lost from my body during the past two weeks.  I wasn’t sure about that statement.  I was still trying to absorb the fact that all my effort had only resulted in one pound and what did I need to do differently to accomplish a better result (and in my mind, more pounds) the next week.

The reason I called her my “Coach” is because she sat this player down on the bench and told me what it was really all about.  She said “Kathy it is not about weight.  It is about “Balance”.  We are in the beginning stages of training your body.  When you put more protein in your body then you are helping the muscles develop more.  As the muscles develop into greater muscle mass you need to know that muscle always weighs more than fat!  (At this point I was about to turn off the volume because this is NOT what I wanted to hear.  Hadn’t I told my husband before I met the nutritionist that by her identifying my plateau in weight loss as a nutritional problem that she was going to change my diet to a protein based one, and therefore I was going to gain weight)   But she continued, “Once you build the larger muscle mass and you continue to feed that internal furnace with protein – which is what it craves, you will begin to burn off all that fat!   Remember your Muscle is your metabolic furnace!”

She said that she would rather me re-train my brain to love the inches coming off and don’t worry about the weight.  She said that the inches coming off are what others are going to notice.  The number on the scale is what I would notice, and wouldn’t I rather be losing something that everyone else can see?

So after that pep talk, she  revamped my allocations again.  I still have the same daily nutritional goals, but after reviewing all of my daily food logs for calories, protein, carbs, fats and sodium she gave me the following guidelines.  Breakfast and lunch try to eat no more than 40 carbs, both mid-morning shake & mid-afternoon shake will give me another 4 carbs each, and try to stay at 30-40 carbs for dinner.  She said that unless I am going to work-out in the evening that those carbs at dinner would not be burned off and my body would “store” those as fat.  And I don’t know about you, but I don’t need my body storing any more fat than it already has!

So in the Pounds vs. Inches Competition here are the current standings:

Pounds 12

Inches 7-3/4”

Watch for my next blog post as I give more nutritional information regarding not only protein but the importance of healthy carbs.  Everyone needs the right balance to lose weight and get healthy!

Breaking Down The Facts On Protein

As promised I am sharing some important nutritional information from the new BE FIT Program that I have begun two weeks ago.  With the permission of my nutritionist I would like to begin sharing some of the most important information that I have ever read regarding the importance of Protein.

  Protein must always be a central part of your diet.  Unfortunately, for years you have probably  heard statements like "Americans eat too much protein" or "Avoid animal protein because the cholesterol and saturated fatty acids are bad for your heart" or "Too much protein is bad for your kidneys".  Guess what?  All three of these statements are False.

As a child you learned that protein is important to build muscles and strong bodies.  It seems logical that when your growing, you need protein.  So we often think that protein is only important for children or guys wanting to build big muscles.  Protein is extremely important for growing children but it is just as important for adults.  This is because every day your body needs to make nearly 250 grams of new proteins to replace old proteins, to repair tissue damage and to adapt to new activities.  During the course of a year, virtually every protein in our body gets replaced.  Now compare this to growth needs which only account for 3 to 5 grams of new protein each day.  (Growth really is not a very big part of daily protein needs.)

   Also, as we get older, we become less efficient at making new proteins.  After age 30, we begin to lose body proteins at a rate of about 5% each decade.  The proteins you lose come from you muscle and bone strength.  (Think about the elderly people in your life and the condition of their appearance in both their muscle tone and bones.)  By the time you reach age 60, you may have lost significant muscle and bone strength.  With each passing year you lose mobility and become more likely to be injured with a fall.  Equally important, each year you also have less msucle to burn the calories you eat.  So habits that seem okay at age 30 can make you fat by age 50.

(Now I wanted to share this next part because during our first meeting my nutritionist expressed that because I was only averaging between 60-65 grams of protein per day before meeting with her and gaining a new perspective, that I may have sustained muscle and bone loss.  Please continue reading this important information as provided by my nutritionist.)
   
     Loss of muscle and bone becomes even more dangerous during weight loss.  Why?  If you lose weight simply by restricting what you eat, then you will lose weight from every part of your body.  You will lose body fat (which you want to lose) but you will also lose weight from your muscles, bones, heart, liver, intestines and kidneys. (Which you don't want to lose).  These muscles and organs (called "lean tissue") are obviously important to keep your body running, and these "lean tissues" are the parts of your body that burn calories!  (I think that bears repeating.  Please stop and re-read that last sentence)  If you lose weight with the wrong type of diet, you will lose "lean tissues" and reduce your ability to burn calories.  This makes it more and more difficult to lose weight or to keep weight off.  (Now you can understand they "Why you can't lose the weight or keep it off yo-yo"  that we have all been on) The longer you use a bad diet, the fewer calories you can eat.  If you can do the right things duing weight loss and just lose fat while you protect your muscles, then you can keep losing weight , and prevent it from coming back!

Wow!  I wish I had thought of that back when I first stated my journey to a new me!  I just concentrated so much on the 1400 calories and making sure  that I got to pick and choose what food that I wanted to "Spend it on" that I did not stop to consider what was going on inside of my body.  I guess because I could see results on the outside I never stopped to consider what kind of "results" I was causing on the inside.  Tomorrow I will share a little bit more about this powerful nutritional fact about protein.  But until then, don't delay, Eat More Protein Today and Every Day!

The Power Of Protein - A New Day Has Dawned

This blog post is a continuation of my previous four  blog post. If you did not read the last four blog post:   What Does Protein Have To Do With Anything?”   "A Lesson In Nutrtition 101", "Meeting With The Mystery Nutritionist", and  "Just When I Thought I Had It Figured Out..." please stop reading this blog entry and catch yourself up. I will pick up the story where I last left off.

The next day I began to wonder if this was really the answer?  What would getting 105 grams of protein do for me?  Would I lose weight?  Would I feel different?  Well this blog post is about my week and what changes I made and the first week’s weigh-in.

The day after that first meeting with my nutritionist was a Friday.  Normally this would be my “let’s don’t’ take my journey to a new me so serious and get ready to enjoy the weekend.”  Which means I would go out to lunch with my friends and have a nice dinner out with my husband.  But instead I woke up with a new found desire to see if either a.)  The nutritionist has it all figured out.  Or b.) This is a bunch of junk and there is no way that protein can make that much difference.

Just like with everything else that I have done on my journey to a new me, I decided to really test the waters first before declaring to other’s “Hey follow me as I define my 1400 calories in an attempt to start the scale moving back down.”  There was no written guarantee that this was going to work and I made a decision on Day One of this path that I would do everything in my power to hit the targets of 105 g. of protein, 140 g. carbs, 40 g. fat, and 1700 mg sodium and stay at 1400  calories.  The only tool that I knew that I could trust to help me do this was my favorite, my fitness pal.com

My normal routine in the morning is to get up and start my day on the elliptical trainer, but if I was going to place my trust in the “protein thing” I decided to just change my eating for this first week.  That was probably the hardest decision that I had made so far.  Exercise has become a very important part of my day and to not exercise was going to be strange.  But to be honest I was excited to see if the nutritionist was right in her assessment. 
I kept my daily food journal with all of my meals and I drank two protein shakes that I had purchased from her at my first meeting.  I began to look forward to those chocolate drinks as a treat.  She had told me that it is important to keep my metabolism moving and about every three hours I need to put something in my system.  (I knew she was not talking about a Snickers Bar here)  So I ate breakfast and 3 hours later I had my protein shake then when lunch time rolled around I had to make myself eat because I was not really that hungry.  And I found that when I wasn’t really that hungry I ate less than I normally would and by the end of the day after eating three healthy meals getting in the ratios that she had advised I often had calories left over!!!!  Now that was amazing to me.  Remember my concerns about having to give up 260 calories because she wante me to drink those two 130 calorie protein drinks?   Well I did not miss those 260 calories!  The protein shakes were a great investment of calories and so healthy too!

The next week my husband had to meet with his client (my new nutritionist) and deliver some artwork.  She asked him how I was doing and he said "She is doing great!"  My wife said she is really doing it and she feels like she is losing weight and she is not even exercising!  With that the nutritionist said, “What?  What do you mean she’s not exercising?”  He said  "I don’t know, you will have to ask her tomorrow when she comes back to her next appointment."

The next evening I arrived at my appointment and eagerly told her about my week.  We looked at my food entries and she said that the only problem area seemed to be the sodium.  Because even though I was not adding salt to any of my food that I was eating, most foods that you eat at a restaurant is prepared with some sort of sodium or sodium product.  So that is something that I will still need to be more aware of.

Then came the fun part!  She pulled out her trusty measuring tape and took all of my measurements quickly moving from one area of my body to the next.  Stopping only to write down the results on the log sheet that she had started the week before.  So with everything else behind me it was time to face “Mr. Iron Man Scale”.  With butterflies in my stomach I waited for her to program in my height and age before I stepped onto the platform.  The numbers started flashing and making their calculations and it was with great surprise that my nutritionist made the big announcement.  "Kathy you’ve lost 11 pounds in one week!”  You could have knocked me off the scale with a feather.  I couldn’t believe it!  I knew that I had lost weight, I could feel it, but to hear her say it and the big loss at that was so unbelievable!!  Then she said something that came as almost just as big of a surprise, and she stated "You’ve lost 5% body fat!

My response?  "Holy Cow!"  I said “Wow, that is incredible!”  and she replied, no you’re the one that is incredible!   I was so happy with both of those results from the scale that I did ot even think about all of those body measurements and she then showed me that I had lost several inches as well.  I was so glad that I had not messed myself up by not exercising and I promised her that this week I would make good protein rich food choices to meet my new nutrition goals but I would also add my exercise back to my daily routine.

With permission from my nutritionist I will be sharing more details and information about the "Be Fit Program" and the “Why” and "How" this formula is working for me.

I go back to my nutritionist on Thursday and I can’t wait to see what this week’s results will be.  I am not so unrealistic that I think that every week will result in an eleven pound weight loss, but with this new strategy in place the results will at least be moving in the right direction.