P90X: "Efficient Calories" Day 44 of 90

How efficient is your calorie intake?  I need to have a talk with my nutrition coach Melissa...but the preliminary call on my diet is that it could be more nutrient dense.  I am managing my calories well, but my food should be better quality.  I am eating clean, that much I know, but I think I can make better choices.

When I heard nutrient light...I looked it up.  So there are food choices that, given equal calories, are better for you in terms of overall nutrition value.  You can have a donut at 200 calories, or a 200 calorie bowl of spinach.  Which is better for you?  That's right, the donut.  Otherwise Dunkin' Donuts would be out of business right?  Wrong.  It's spinach.

My challenge is that I don't eat junk food, so I just need to make even MORE healthy choices if I am going to try to build muscle and get lean.  So here is a list of the foods I have exposure to every day and their Nutrient Density index.

Spinach 739
Brussel Sprouts 672
Broccoli 376
Green Pepper 258
Artichoke 244
Carrots 240
Strawberry 212
Tomato 164
Iceberg lettuce 110
Orange 109
Sweet Potoato 83
Apple 76
Oatmeal 53
Cucumber 50
Corn 44
Salmon 39
Almonds 38
Skim Milk 36
Walnuts 34
Banana 30
Chicken Breast 27
Eggs 27
Whole Wheat Bread 25
Ground Beef 20

The easiest substitution that I can make is at Lunch by adding Spinach in my salad at 739 vs. Iceberg Lettuce at 110. I already go heavy on Green Pepper and Jalapeno Pepper.  The Chicken Breast is only 27, which is shocking.  I could actually go heavier on the whole tomatoes in the salad.

Breakfast is already as good as it gets with Oatmeal and Applesauce.

Dinner is Shakeology and a Protein Bar.  I am interested in knowing the suggestions there.  I eat a lot of apple and banana...and nuts.

Okay, so I need to talk to Melissa, the fitnesschic (as she calls herself), and get myself tuned up.  It's been a great weekend of working out and outdoor weather.

See you tomorrow!

P90X: "Fit to Clean the Yard" Day 43 of 90

Okay I know, it's not fall.  I know that because I have no football game to focus on and I am in the middle of sports hell, also known as March Madness.  Basketball is the sport I like least.  Including some of those weird Olympic sports like Curling.  I spent the better part of the fall writing and producing my book, A Faithful Elf.  I then came out of Christmas into the 'weekend burning' NFL Playoffs, because it also goes on Saturdays.  By the time February came, I had stated P90X.  So, you can imagine what my yard looks like.

Actually, using the word "yard" for that agricultural mess behind my house is an insult to people who actually make a half-hearted attempt to make theirs look nice.

So this morning, after a really restful nights sleep, I was, unusually, the first one up.  I made my breakfast and got into my workout.  I did Ab Ripper X, then the Chest, Shoulders and Triceps and then I did 45 minutes of speed walking on my treadmill.  Then I had my Shakeology lunch and spent the next three hours raking leaves and doing yardwork.  It was a day of real work.

The amazing thing was, unlike other years when I pick up a rake for the first time in a while, it was much easier on me physically.  I have to say 'physically' because I hate yardwork so it is always a challenge mentally.  Just ask anyone who knows me.  I don't try to hide these kinds of things...if I don't like something, I let you know.  If I could afford artificial turf, I would have it put down in a heartbeat.  The only issue would be that it gets about 20 degrees hotter than the temp, so in August my puppy would charbroil her little tootsies off.  So for now, I am stuck with grass.

I sometimes get lucky, pick up a rhythm, and then lose myself to my thoughts.  But the other half of the time is pretty miserable.  I have to say, I actually feel pretty damned good right now.  I also sit here kind of wondering how the plyometrics may have improved my skiing.

Today's blog is short.  I am kind of cruising with this P90X thing.  Every learning process has four phases, Adaptation, Execution (Once), Repetition, and Mastery.  Repetition is the part that sets you up for mastery, but it requires patience, diligence and determination.  To fend off the boredom, sometimes you just have to take your new learnings out for a spin.  That was today.

Happy St. Patricks Day...Plyometrics tomorrow!

P90X: "Dick's Actual Diet...Does Calorie Counting Work?" Day 42 of 90

I weighed myself for the first time this AM.  When I started this program, I told myself that it didn’t matter if I lost zero pounds…so long as I saw tangible results in the mirror.  I am definitely seeing results.  The new question is, after switching to P90X Classic from the P90X Lean routines, am I getting enough calories?  The Lean routine is much less strenuous from a muscle and muscle building perspective.  The Classic routine incorporates an extra day of Ab Ripper and one more hard muscle building day.

The one big mistake I made, or “thing I should have done,” was weigh myself on day one.  I have a guess that I was at about 220, maybe a little more.  It was the highest I had been at since losing my weight in 2008.  The lowest I have been is 198 when I was running every day.  I know the number because I memorized it as the first time I had been below 200 since I was 21.  198 was the result of staying on the low calorie intake and running like crazy.  Because of the lack of a well-rounded routine, and having just come off of what amounted to a starvation diet, I was very light on muscle mass.

P90X is different.  This is designed to have you lose fat but also build muscle.  While you will lose weight, the goal is not precisely ‘weight loss.’

That said, I weighed myself this morning.  205.  By my count, in forty two days, I have lost about 15 lbs.  It probably seems like a lot.  On the Optifast Diet I lost about 5 lbs per week routinely…but I was obese.  I also was not building muscle, which means I was losing both fat and muscle mass.

I have begun to feel exhausted on the Classic routines.  I have been questioning all week whether or not I am taking in enough calories.  On my Beachbody team, in addition to our Coach/Leader Lisa Barker, we have a Coach who specializes in Nutrition, Melissa Binkley.  She has volunteered to do a nutritional analysis of my diet, in order to answer my concerns.

You may follow along!  This is a curious experiment because, if you have followed my blog, you know by now that I eat an insanely consistent diet.  This makes the diagnosis easier.  If you are doing Beachbody, or are a dietician, or are interested in the math of weight loss, I think you will find this interesting!

Breakfast

½ cup of oatmeal                                        150 cals

½ cup of natural applesauce                          50 cals

Palmful of Raisins                                             ?

Coffee, 4 oz 1% milk                                       ?

One scoop of Protein Powder                    130 cals

Lunch

1 lb of salad greens mostly lettuce.  Green Pepper, Olives    ?

1 Hard Boiled Egg                                             ?

3 oz lean Chicken or Fish                                   ?

1 piece of Fruit                                                    60 cals

Afternoon Snack

1 NutriGrain Bar                                                120 cals

Dinner

Shakeology                                                         150 cals

½ Fruit blended in                                                 40 cals

1 Protein Bar                                                      200 cals

Evening Snack

¾ cup of mixed nuts                                               ?

2 pieces of fruit                                                 150 cals

When I look at the calorie count.  It looks low.  I weigh 205 and work a fairly sedentary daily job on a computer.  I probably burn a normal amount of about 2200 calories per day.  On top of that is P90X and the Treadmill.  With that, I am maybe burning another 800-1000 calories per day.  I can call it an even 3000 calories per day used.  Without knowing the calories for several things on my list, I have counted at least 1080 calories and estimate about 500 calories for the missing items.  I am probably between 1600 and 1700 calories per day.

The calorie deficit would be about 1300 calories per day or 9100 calorie deficit per week.  3500 calories approximately equals one pound of weight.  Divide 9100 by 3500 and that puts me at 2.5 lbs per week of weight loss.  It’s been about 6 weeks now….which totals to…wow…15 lbs.  On the dime.

If you ever wondered if weight loss math works…just reread this.  I didn’t expect it to be that accurate.  But it is!

I am very familiar with diet math after the medical diet program I was on four years ago.

Now, the big nutrition question is, based on this routine, am I taking in enough calories to build muscle and do the physical exertion?  Let’s face it, I can’t run this calorie deficit forever.  When you run the deficit, the energy being depleted comes from carbohydrates first.  When they are used up, and on my diet that happens fast, your body then pulls the calories from your fat and protein stores.  At this point, your body will pull from fat and protein in an uneven ratio but depends on your level of fitness and your exercise regimen.  It gets the fat calories from, well, your fat.  It gets the protein, however from ingested protein and then from the protein stores in your muscles...which defeats the purpose of a muscle building program.  So there is a balance here to be maintained as well as a point where the calorie deficit may be hurting the physical fitness goal.

This is where Melissa comes in.  I want to build the muscle as well as lose the weight and she will tell me whether I have the right formula for this or not.  If I don’t, I will change to whatever she says.  Why?

Go check out her pictures on Facebook.  That’s why.

Many who read my blog and look at the weight loss I have had will listen to my advice because I have actually done it.  If that is the case, then you have to listen to Melissa when you are trying to sculpt a more muscular body…because she has done it.

Thanks for following and I will keep you plugged In to her response!