Tools

At the beginning of the year, I used a combination of tools to give me a better understanding of my calorie intake vs burn throughout the day.  I thought someone out there might benefit from this info as to not waste time trying to figure it out.

The first tool I began using this year is an app called Calorie Counter.  This app was instrumental in teaching me my calorie intake. It's one thing to think that you are eating a minimum number of calories, and quite another to see it add up all day long!  I learned that I can stay pretty comfortable consuming between 1600-1800 calories per day.  With a Shakeology breakfast, salad lunch, yogurt and/or protein bar snacks and a well balanced dinner it's a satisfying day.  The less artificial foods you eat, the less cravings for them you have.  Seriously, the only way a healthy diet will work is to cut out artificial processed foods completely.

After a while eating this way and using the app, I have gained a pretty good understanding of serving sizes and high calorie/carb/fat foods.  I don't use the app much anymore but it gave me the building blocks of knowledge to really analyze my day.

The second must have tool is the BodyBugg.  This thing is amazing!  It calculates the users calorie burn by measuring your weight, heart rate, and perspiration rate.  I wore the BodyBugg for about a month.  It gave me a great understanding of how many calories I burn while doing different activities.  I was able to determine that on average, without any kind of exercise, I burn about 2000-2200 calories.  This is just in every day housework, shopping etc.  That's a good number to know when you are trying to lose weight.  Generally speaking...for every 3500 calories burned, you lose one pound of fat so knowing how many calories you take in is vital to knowing how many you need to burn.

Important tid bits of info I learned from BodyBugg: an hour at Curves burns about about 576 calories.  An hour walking burns about 335 calories.  It takes about 20 minutes of walking to raise your heart rate to a fat burning level.  So, for all of you out there who walk for 20 minutes at a time...you're stopping before your burning fat!  It's good for your overall health to walk so it's not necessarily a waste of time, it's just not an effective fat burning work out to walk...more like a good way to get in the habit of exercising as a routine and to maintain basic health. On the elliptical, I burn about 550 calories in an hour.

The difference between Curves and the elliptical is that I don't actually spend an hour at Curves. It takes about 25 minutes to complete the circuit.  Even when I round the circle three times (which I do regularly), it's a total of 37 1/2 minutes.  So that's about.. 360 calories for the work out.  It's about the same as an hour walk but in less time.  Less time is good!  Less time means more burn for your effort.

So..taking the two important tools information into account, I can see that on an elliptical day, I burn about 2850 (2200 daily burn + 550 workout) calories.  I'm eating about 1800 calories in a day giving me an surplus of about 900 calories on that day.  If I do that three times a week, that's 2700 extra calories right there.  A Curves day, I will burn about 2560 (2200 daily burn + 360 workout) calories.  2560-1800 intake of calories is a surplus of 760.  If I do that twice a week, that's 1520 calories added to my weekly burn, now at 4220. One more day to account for: yoga day.  I do not know how much calories I will burn doing yoga because I haven't done it yet with the BodyBugg.  However, giving it a guess...I would say it should be about the same as a one hour  walk.  I calculated that to be about 335 calories in an hour.  2200 + 335=2535 daily calorie burn.  2535-1800=735 surplus.

SO...adding up the total surplus of calories for a week in my new schedule effective this week: Monday-735 + Tuesday-760 + Wednesday-900 + Thursday-760 + Friday-900 + Saturday-900=4955 surplus per week. 3500/4955 or about 1.42 lbs per week.  That gives me a total poundage loss prediction over my current 8 week schedule of: 11.36 lbs.  This is just a rough estimate but is my best guess.

More tools!  A good heart rate monitor is essential to planning a fat burning specific workout!  You can get them pretty much anywhere...you want the chest strap! It will usually be compatible with gym equipment to give you a constant monitor during your hardest workouts.  My target heart rate for burning fat is 120-156.  I can work out harder than that, but would start burning calorie from muscle, increasing my endurance but burning less fat.

There can also be variations in calorie burn based on body type, metabolism and diet, i.e., eat a high in fat diet, you will have more new fat to burn before you can get around to the excess fat in your body.  Although I have some "hard data" figures here..it's really just an educated guess.  Of course less calorie intake means more surplus/poundage loss as well.  Since I did not account for the three weekly interval training sessions in my schedule as part of this calculation or the laps I swim after every work out.. I may lose even more, and so might you using the same schedule!  Everyone is different!  These tools allow you to figure out what works for you!  Ahh.. the beauty of tools.

Anyhoo... if you are interested in checking out the Bodybugg click the link.  For the Calorie counter app, just search for it in the app store.  It's the one with the green apple logo.  Questions/Comments?  See below!  And stay tuned to see if my weight loss prediction proves correct :)

"Go Me" 10K Results Are In

The "Go Me" Greenlake, WA 10K was a complete success!  Everyone who registered showed up and completed the race :)  I came in Elite #1 with my trusty pacer right beside.  Our final finish time was 2:24, not too shabby for 6.2 miles!  

SBF surprised me with bib's in celebration of the event.  He is so inspiring I almost cried!  Although I previously said I was looking forward to walking this race with my trusty head phones, I am very pleased to say I was wrong.  It was great to have SBF at my side, in the final tough moments, having him there made all the difference!

The feeling of accomplishment reached in setting a goal and then meeting it is unmeasurable!  I made medals to commemorate our accomplishment.  But this isn't the end for me. I am inspired to press on, set new goals and meet them.  For the next 8 weeks, I am going to focus on fat burn as planned without any official races.  My main goal for this year is to get off another 30 lbs and the best way to do that in the quickest amount of time is to spend more time doing cardio and less time walking.  So, distance is on hold for now and fat burning is a go Go GO!!

Schedules are Good M'Kay

This has been a very long week, and it's only Wednesday!  I am getting to a place where I look forward to hitting the gym and giving it all I got after work.  I think my favorite piece of equipment so far is the elliptical.  I use the one with the hand swingy thingies.  I have a heart rate monitor that works with the machine so it displays my heart rate non stop.  This allows me to stay in the target zone for the most fat burn my entire work out.  Love it!

Schedules, I feel, are a very good thing.  They are a good way to hold yourself accountable for getting the exercises in to reach your goal.  I started out with just going to Curves three times a week.  That was the spark that began the journey.  My second schedule was a novice program created by Hal Higdon (a well known runner and author) that got me into walking with a goal of reaching the 5K distance.  I never faltered from my schedule.  Every day, I had to take time for myself and get the exercise in.  I completed this goal with SBF during the Cupcake Fun Run March 24, 2012.  Onward to the next schedule.

The next schedule for me is the one I am currently following.  My goal is a 10K walk which I intend to complete on 5/25/12.  I'm feeling like this will happen around Greenlake.  Just a nice 6.2 mile walk, two laps around the beautiful lake, all by myself...just me and my headphones.  Yeah, I'm excited for it.  :)

My next schedule is done and ready to begin 5/28/12!  I'm excited about it!  Not only am I excited about the newness there, but of the additions I have made and the calories I shall burn..I can almost feel it already!  It's gonna go a little something like this...

Mon: Cross Train: 30 min equipment, Yoga Fusion 6pm at the gym

Tues:  Strength & Stretch: Morning interval training, Curves, P90X arms

Wed: Walk: 3-5 miles walk Langus

Thurs: Cross Train:  Morning interval training, 45 min equipment gym 

Fri: Strength & Stretch: Curves, 2 mile walk, P90X yoga

Sat: cross train: 60 min equipment gym, evening interval training

Sun: Rest

It's important to get a variety during the week and to not let anything keep you from it!  The only way a training program works is if you work it!  The only day I have missed so far this entire year is my birthday.  Even when I wasn't feeling all that great, I got out there and walked the distance.  Funny thing is, the more I exercise, the less days I feel sick anyway.

Cross train, followed by strength & stretch is a good way to go for a schedule... and SBF approved!  :) Today, I added the morning interval training to my current schedule.  Even though it wasn't in the original plan, due to the result of the training, it will be a great thing!  It takes just 10 minutes a day but will help me to burn calories all day long.. around 12 hours.  That gives me time to do the work thing and hit the gym in the afternoon and keep the calorie burn going till the next morning!  10 minutes...wow!  Gotta love that man of mine who told me about this training tip that will help me burn baby burn.  :)

This week, I went to Curves on Monday, walked three miles with my daughter on Tuesday, 10 minute interval training Wednesday morning followed by 45 minutes on the elliptical and about 10 minutes doing laps in the pool.  Then, the best part of all..the jacuzzi.  Spent about 15 minutes stretching in the jacuzzi...that alone is worth all the sweat, money and glory lol.  Ahhhhh.  Tomorrow I will be visiting Curves followed by a 2 mile walk.  Friday, 5.5 miles around Langus park and then Saturday is back at the gym for 60 minutes on the elliptical.  Come to me Saturday!!

Arms or Wings?

I've decided to add a section of P90X to my routine this week.  I've added the section that targets arms- specifically triceps.  I'm not real happy with the shape of my triceps at the moment.  They are flabby like wings and have always bugged me.  Luckily, SBF is doing P90X so I have the opportunity to join him!

Another "join" opportunity that happened recently is my ability to join SBF's gym!  He works out at Emerald City Athletic Club and has agreed to add me to his membership! This will allow me to do my cross train work outs on something other than the same ole glider twice a week.  Believe me when I say that the glider gets extremely boring. It would be nice to try out new equipment and..best of all...the gym has a pool and jacuzzi! Yeah.. that's right, I can soak after my work outs..ahh.. I can hardly wait!

I am excited to use the elliptical machine as my first cross train work out on Thursday and to have the opportunity to go to the gym for soaks whenever I feel like I need one.  Also, I can do work outs with SBF!  This Thursday,  it will be a 40 minute routine followed by the aforementioned soak.  Yeah..talk about a nice routine!  I am totally looking forward to it!

I can't believe I just said that I am looking forward to a work out! Ha!  So much has changed in my mentality toward exercise and fitness.  This machine of mine is getting a much needed tune up!  During my 5 mile walk today, I reflected on a moment, not too long ago, when I was exhausted after walking about a mile to have lunch with my daughter.  I have come so far since then!  I am proud of the accomplishments I have made so far and look forward to see how much more I can do!  I want this body to stick around for a while...and I don't mean sticking to the couch!  hehe.

I have to give a much deserved shout out to SBF for being my inspiration, encouragement and all around loving boyfriend!  Yes, the changes I've made I have done for myself and without his ever mentioning a need for it... however his mere presence and persistence in reaching his goals has been enough for me to want to change me.  Without a word, he has changed my life.

Coming up this week: Inspiring Hope Run on Saturday, followed by my 10K two Friday's after!  Then..who knows!  I will definitely incorporate some classes at my new gym, keep up my curves routine, get these wings of mine back to the shape of arms.. and get my walk on.. but what else?  Hmmm!