Eating Healthy and Exercising Regularly
This will be a short blog post, as I am out of town on business in DC. Yesterday I increased my interval running again by .1 to 1.4 inbetween each interval. I am now doing four reps of one minute each on 5 — 6.4 — 7.8 — 9.2 with 10.0 power burn on the final rep after then last 9.2 . I’ll do this for two weeks, then I’ll do my final increase and will be at my goal.
While preparing to take a business trip, I went to the grocery store and picked up a few items to pack with me in my suitcase. This will help make it easier to eat healthy while on the road.
If you haven’t tried the Emerald Cocoa Roast Almonds, they are excellent. Next – a couple of apples – packed in a tupperware dish to keep them from getting bruised.
And two pears – also packed in tupperware to prevent them from getting smashed. But, a mushy pear is better than a mushy apple. Apples need to be crips. Mushy apple = yuck. In any case, I’d rather neither of them get smushed 😉
I’m really excited for this week’s pictures. Before we get to that, though, I gained a pound this week – woohoo!
I gained a pound – woohoo? Yeah, that’s right – I’m excited. I’m actually trying to gain weight now. I really don’t need to lose any more weight. I started at 170, lost down to 157, then over the last 2 weeks have gained 2 pounds. Overall I’ve probably burned off 15 pounds of fat and am replacing it with muscle. The last two weeks I still followed the Body For Life meal plan, but I ate slightly larger portions at each meal. Now that I’ve trimmed most of the fat off, I want to start gaining weight now — but have it be muscle weight. Check out this guy’s before and after pictures from Body For Life:
He went from 165 to 200 pounds and gained 35 pounds of muscle. Good thing he shaved that beard off too…heh heh. He seriously looks like a different person. You can read his story here if you want to.
Crazy, huh? My guess is that was over more than just the initial 90 days. The Body For Life challenge says in “as little as 90 days”. Still, though, to gain 35 pounds and go from that to that? Motivating, right?
For my pictures this week, I went outside to get some better lighting. You can really see the definition in my muscles in the better light. Seeing the pictures this week really helped me feel like all of my hard work is paying off. I didn’t get a good one from the back, so you just get one from the front this week.
On Week 3 I posted a flex picture:
Check out the difference now just 6 weeks later:
And my day off wouldn’t be complete without enjoying something….like a brisket that my dad made in his smoker….mmmmmmmm.
I’m 2/3 the way through Body For Life. Man, time sure flies. A while back I did a post with a recipe for healthy turkey chili. I was at the grocery store the other day and noticed that they started carrying an even leaner cut of ground turkey – 99/1!
Last time I used 93/7 ground turkey. I had to try out the new 99/1 ground turkey, which has only 1% fat. Instead of 8g of fat per serving, it only has 1.5g of fat. On a side note, if you get the extra lean hamburger – either 96/4 or 97/3, it will have around 4 or 5g of fat. My dad made the chili with that and said it was really good. If you prefer the taste of hamburger, that is a great option as well.
So, how was the 99/1 turkey chili? Allison said she liked it even better than the first batch I made with the 93/7 meat. The leaner cut of meat was quite good. I followed the recipe the same as before, but bought 2 of the 20 oz packages of ground turkey (that’s all they came in). So, instead of 3 pounds of meat in the pot, it was 2.5. It still was plenty for the batch. 1 cup of chili went from 272 calories and just under 6.85g of fat to 208 calories and, as Barney would say…wait for it…only 1.2g of fat! And, Allison and I agree the leaner cut of meat tastes better. Winning!
Now, for some pictures of the chili.
Nutritional Information for the 99/1 Ground Turkey:
On Body For Life, you are supposed to take one day off as your “free day” each week. I read an excellent article on the Body For Life website today that goes into detail about your free day and has some good pointers. I’ll give a quick summary here, but you should click over and read the entire article – it is a good read. Click here to read the article.
On your free day, you are allowed to indulge in all of the “unauthorized” food of your choice. The BFL website even has a picture of a donut with the article. The idea behind it is that if you have one day off, it is easier to withstand temptation during the week. I’ve definitely found this to be the case. If I am tempted with something, I just think to myself, “well, I can have that on my day off this week”. Another benefit is that after eating healthy all week, that splurge food may not be as good as we remember when we used to eat it all the time. It helps remind us how good we feel when we eat healthy. It’s not meant to be a binge day like a binge drinker, but rather a day to reward and treat ourselves. One thing that the BFL website mentioned is that if we’re going to treat ourselves, treat ourselves right. If you’re going to get a burger and fries, enjoy a high quality one, not a quick drive through. Here in Austin, TX, we have Mighty Fine Burgers, which grinds their own beef onsite and hand forms their patties right there in front of you.
If you’re ever in Austin, you have to check them out. For me, having the day off really helps make it easier to stay committed to healthy eating during the week. It has been a couple of years since I did Body For Life the first time. When I finished it last time, I tried to keep up the same habits, but gradually over time it became more difficult to say “no” to a cookie at the office, or a cupcake. Another reason why I did Body For Life this time around was to get myself back in the habit of eating healthy regularly. It definitely has helped me so far, and I’m seeing the rewards from it already.
