Just a few more data points…

November 6, 2012 § 23 Comments

I don’t if it’s true that nothing tastes as good as skinny feels, but I know this: Nothing makes the pedals feel lighter. I’ve ridden better in the last couple of months than, like, in twenty years. Not faster…just better. Legs feel light, recovery comes sooner rather than later, big gears don’t feel so big, that sort of magical, dreamy thing.

Several friends have gently steered me out of the death spiral of manorexic dietmania. MM, Tink, and Laurie have all gently reminded me that the point of all this is not to die from malnutrition, or to become so wasted that the only major achievement of the day is “getting out of bed.”

The starvation + coffee mode was highly effective to rid me of the ostrich girdle, but as a long term approach, after about nine weeks I began to crumble. Fortunately, there is a maintenance method I’m discoverying, or at least that’s my hope.

The maintenance approach is this: Figure out about how much I’m going to burn each day, and adjust my intake accordingly. I’m five days into it, and the main problem is all the time it takes to actually figure out the caloric value to all the different kinds of food and varying quantities, and to estimate the caloric expenditure before the day begins. I suppose that’s why Dog invented 5:00 AM.

There are lots of apps for calorie tracking, but the apps don’t really drill the calorie count into your head, and you end up depending on the smartphone. Needless to say, as soon as you stop tapping and tracking, the diet goes out the window. Just like the breakaway, out of sight is out of mind.

A pencil and paper, a calculator, “how many calories are in…” Google searches on the smartphone, and use of the iPhone’s notepad are letting me create a foodbase, and more importantly are teaching me that I can build a basic diet and then expand or diminish (or totally wreck) it as circumstances require.

Here’s what today looked like, which is a riff on yesterday:

.25 cup oatmeal 150 cal
.25 cup raisins 130 cal
1tsp brown sugar 11 cal
Coffee w/1 tbsp 0% milk 6 cal
.25 cup Greek yogurt 32 cal
3 strawberries 15 cal
1/2 banana 53 cal
Coffee w/1 tbsp nonfat milk 6 cal
1 small Fuji apple 60
Morning total: 463 cal

2cans tuna 240 cal
2corn tortillas 120 cal
2 large eggs 180 cal
.25 cup nonfat milk for eggs 22 cal
4 tbsp salsa 20 cal
.25 cup Greek yogurt 33 cal
Small Fuji apple 60 cal
Coffee w/1 tbsp nonfat milk 6 cal
Coffee w/1 tbsp nonfat milk 6 cal
2 tbsp trail mix 75 cal
Afternoon total: 762 cal

4 oz spaghetti 400 cal
2 tbsp olive oil 240 cal
1 tbsp Parmesan cheese 27 cal
1 egg 90 cal
2 tbsp dressing 256 cal
4 tbsp dried tomatoes 70 cal
1 cup diced tomatoes 50 cal
1 cup sliced cucumber 16 cal
.25 large avocado 83 cal
1 tbsp Feta cheese 40 cal
2 cups green salad 18 cal
.25 cup nonfat Greek yogurt 33 cal
.5 large banana 55 cal
.25 cup blackberries 16 cal
Evening total: 1,394 cal

BMR: 1,800 cal
Ride: 1,367 cal
Gym: 610 cal

Calories out: 3,777
Calories in: 2,619
Deficit: 1,158
Weight: 152.5 lbs

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§ 23 Responses to Just a few more data points…

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