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I haven’t been eating well this week, in fact, I’ve hardly been eating at all. You see, my family is coming to town for a week over Christmas and my wife and I have been working on the house to get it ready. I’ve been painting my ass off, maybe literally!
- Weight: 212.6 lbs. (down 8.4 pounds since day 1)
- Body Fat %: 31.0 (up 1 % since day 1)
I’ve been using my fitday food journal more actively, but if you check it out, you’ll see that there are still some days missing. It’s hard to use when I’m out and about during the day, and I have no idea how to estimate calories from meals that I eat in a restaurant. For example, last night we went out to our favorite restaurant. I had a green salad with pears, feta cheese, candied nuts, and balsamic vinegar to start. I finished with gnocchi with panceta in a tomato cream sauce with wilted spinach. Both of these plates were from the appetizer menu–but appetizer doesn’t mean low calorie, it just means small. Even so, I’m sure there were way more calories in that gnocchi than I care to count.
Also, I did spend a little time looking at the crossfit workout program and decided it wasn’t for me. I’m not a member of a gym yet and it seems like you need to be (or have an amazing home gym) in order to do many of their workouts. I do love the idea of workouts being planned for me, however. I will continue to investigate and see if there are other internet workouts that might work for me and my home equipment (a treadmill and a set of 15 pound dumbbells). I haven’t spent much time on the hackers diet workout program yet, but it seems really simple. Maybe I’ll give it a shot.
Thanks a lot for the great positive words of encouragement you all have been giving J.D. and me. We really appreciate them.
J.D.
9 responses so far ↓
1 Tom // Dec 19, 2007 at 8:42 am
I haven’t tried crossfit either, and I actually prefer to come up with my own workouts (usually using some kind of template).
However, I used to subscribe to one of the fitness magazines (Men’s Health or Fitness, I can’t remember which). In the back they usually had a couple different workout regimens available, depending on what your goals are.
I haven’t tried any of these, and I’m not sure what the quality is, or how “gym dependent” they are. But a resource like that may be worth looking into if you prefer not to make up your own workout.
Another resource that may be useful is the Men’s Health Home Workout Bible. I haven’t followed the workouts, but find the exercises they offer are pretty good, and have incorporated a few into my workout in the past. They’re also very helpful if you workout at home, and have a limited collection of workout equipment. I tend to use them when I have weeks I won’t be able to make it to the gym.
2 TosaJen // Dec 19, 2007 at 8:57 am
Heh — we’re buying a duplex that needs updating and then selling our house, which also needs updating, so I hope that painting weight-loss plan works for us, too!
Regarding food/exercise tracking software: I used a Palm/Windows/Web program for YEARS, for the same reason you explained — because I could record and track my food and exercise on the go, then sync things up when I got home. Unfortunately, the company folded a few years ago without anyone else picking up the technology.
I haven’t found anything else I like as well. I’ll be watching for advice on other options. In the meantime, may I suggest a notebook? Yeah, you’ll look like a dork, but you’ll be showing commitment to your goals, too.
I didn’t find crossfit appealing either, but everyone requires different inspiration. Since you’re starting at “I don’t exercise”, finding exercise that appeals to you is more important than how hard-core it is; otherwise, you’ll do it until you find an excuse not to. I now habitually collect exercise options and ideas wherever I am, even ones I “don’t like” or “would never do”. I can’t ever be sure which ones will or won’t work for me now, or in the future. I experiment. Sometimes I confirm that I still don’t like or can’t do something (swimming gives me chronic ear infections — drat!), but I sometimes create or discover an activity or routine that makes me want to work up a sweat. Now that I’m back in 4-season unpredictable-weather country, the list rotates according to the season, and I have to be flexible with my daily workout plans, and ever-vigilant to avoid getting bored when my options are limited.
3 MS // Dec 19, 2007 at 10:02 am
8.4 pounds - is that one week? Any way you slice it - congratulations!
4 Eric Nagel // Dec 19, 2007 at 10:14 am
What are you using to measure your body fat? Is it body fat, or BMI?
5 Brooke // Dec 19, 2007 at 10:17 am
I love Italian food. That sounds delicious.
Just thought I’d pass on these very helpful links:
Calorie chart for fast food
http://www.foodanddiet.com/NewFiles/fastfood.html
Calories for food in all kinds of restaurants
(this is the best site I have found for this)
http://www.dwlz.com/restaurants.html
6 Eden // Dec 19, 2007 at 11:43 am
I like using FitDay too, but I run into the same problems figuring out calories for foods that I make or food at a restaurant. I found I was taking too much time to figure out the numbers so now I just keep track on paper of what I eat a couple of days a week (my meals don’t change much day to day).
7 Lucas // Dec 19, 2007 at 2:37 pm
If your only objection to Crossfit is the equipment demands, you should check out simplefit:
http://www.simplefit.org/
It’s similar to Crossfit in that it’s based on the idea of functional exercises done at high intensity, but the only piece of equipment you need is a pull-up bar. (~$20 at a sporting goods store)
8 macdaddy // Dec 19, 2007 at 3:47 pm
9 metroknow // Dec 19, 2007 at 7:54 pm
I second the thanks on SimpleFit.org — I am definitely going to try that.
Keep up the great work guys. Definitely inspiring me to get up off of my computer chair and at least make a few simple changes for the positive, healthwise.
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