The Preggers Diet

I almost didn't even bother posting since I'm preggers. HOWEVER, you can diet while pregnant--just have to be careful. I have been reading a lot of blogs on babycenter.com and ivillage for healthy eating options. Fit Pregnancy magazine also helps. Three things I'm focused on are sugar, overall calories, and quality of food. On my first pregnancy I gained 60 pounds. It was horrible. And it took forever to lose the weight. This pregnancy I want to be better at my dieting. This has been my plan so far.

Sugar: Instead of consuming regular soda, I do diet and I limit my intake to one a day.

Overall Calories: With past pregnancies I would eat whatever I wanted, and whenever. Now, I try to limit my portions and stop BEFORE I feel full. I try to substitute fatty food by drinking more skim milk, which makes me feel full, and is good for me and the baby.

Quality of Food: I have always been picky and concerned about food being organic. It is difficult for me to eat low quality food. I rather eat oatmeal.

Overall: The only way I can really lose weight is to run. I can't do that now and it shows. I could walk, but just haven't made the time. Being pregnant is too much of an excuse to not exercise. That's bad, I know. But maybe if I didn't work, wasn't in school, etc...

Rick’s Diet – Week 1 Report

As expected, sticking with the new diet hasn’t been easy.  I’ve probably been about 60% compliant this week.  Lunch during the work week has proven to be the biggest problem.  With very little effort, my friends successfully convinced me to abandon the diet in favor of more enjoyable meals.  My lunches this week have included Pepperoni Pizza, Fettuccini Alfredo, BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich & French Fries, and one very large Italian Submarine Sandwich. 

It has become clear to me that dieting takes great discipline (which I clearly don’t have).  Further, in order to be successful, I may be forced to isolate myself from those that are not supportive.  Unfortunately, this is much easier said than done.  First, I enjoy the work day lunch camaraderie.   I particularly appreciate being able to make a personal connection with my co-workers.  Further, it has proven to be a great opportunity for professional networking.  As such, I am struggling with the notion of giving up the “lunch club” in favor of the new diet. 

Starting this week, I am going to try and cut down on the number of group lunch outings.  I figure two days a week should be sufficient to keep my status as a member of the lunch club.  In addition, when I do go out to lunch, I am going to target the healthiest choices on the menu.  Unfortunately, I suspect this will lead to relentless ridicule.  Hopefully, I won't cave under pressure this time...

The evolution of our CI question...

... appears to have migrated from how to improve one's diet to who can most colorfully express the tribulations of attempting to do so.  In other words, who's got the best 'fat rant'.  (Thanks for that term, Joel, I'll have to remember that...).

For real, here's where I'm at:

+  Have completed eleven days on myfitnesspal, and thus far have focused on changing portion sizes.  The diet that I inputed is less bad than my rant would have indicated, but I kill myself being the family garbage can.  Two-plus hours sequestered in the study tends to lead to random snacking as well.  All said, my caloric surplus is a manageable +300, which I've been handling via a few extra aerobic minutes.  The other dietary measures are OK because I eat a largely Asian-influenced meal that doesn't have a lot of bad stuff except for the occasional coconut milk dishes that are bad on cholesterol.

+  In terms of the three measures -- affordability will be a wash (not really changing the diet so much but perhaps increasing leftovers), my challenge measures will be satisfying and sustainable (can I cut the portions, avoid a bad catch-up meal, and not fall asleep at my desk while reading workplace learning ... oh, that's right, I'm doing that now).

Regards, Neo

Post vacation blues

Hello all,

Well, there is good and bad news.  First, the good.  I signed up for a My Fitness Pal account tonight and will begin tracking tomorrow.  Now the bad...after an extended week (was supposed to be 4 days, turned into 7) in the Florida Keys, I am back home and staring reality in the face.  Perhaps nightly sunset viewing cocktail hour, stone crabs and our mission to find the best Key Lime Pie in the Keys was not such a good idea after all.

Tomorrow is another day, as they say.  Now the really good news is that I got lots of reading done (err, poolside, of course!)

Jor-el's Weekly Fat Rant

On the heels of Neo's confessional, I will have to echo his sentiment. The amount of caloric disparity in my estimations of my food intake is staggering. How in the world can my 1550 calorie diet in reality be 3000+! How does that happen?! How can fatless foods taste so bad!? Why can't I have a job that causes me to burn 4000-6000 extra calories a day!?And why is it that clothing manufacturers seemingly have engineered a shrinking fabric? I have it on good authority (experiential, that is), that clothing I have been wearing has been shrinking an average of 10% over a 4-6 month period...even if erroneously labeled "pre-shrunk". I am actually thinking of following Christ's model of a 40 day water only fast....but who am I kidding, I can't stand missing lunch!!
Ah well, not sure where this all fits into the CI project, but thought I'd write something.
I gotta go each some moose rouladen leftovers with a side of mashed potatos....I'm guessing 300 calories, tops.

Neo's progress as of 9 Nov

Teammates,

After getting over myself and posting my diet and exercise profile in myfitnesspal.com, I have the following observations.

1.  I am an unsuccessful liar.  My wife prepares this wonderful Javanese dish called rendang which is a spicy boiled beef cooked in a chili coconut milk sauce.  (You probably already see where I'm going with this.)  I have always thought, {hmm.  Boiled beef = no fat.  I'm eatin' healthfully!}  I then plug it into myfitnesspal.com, discovering to my pleasure that rendang exists in the database, and thereby registering my honest, typical nice and hefty portion.  KABAM!  The calories, fat, and cholesterol accounted for that entree alone counted for 45% of my recommended daily intake.  So, I reduce the size of the portion and moved on.  ...  Then once my conscience quickly got to me, I re-registered the truth and allowed the software to inform me (almost with the smugness of a typical GPS system) that if I were to consume that day's diet over 5 months, I would risk turning spherical.  Darn.

2.  My daily runs only account for a 1/2 meal.  I sat at the table with my boys this evening and counted my dinner in miles.  I have a bag of Sun Chips in my home office where I am typing this.  ...  Must resist  ...  Must resist  ...  ok, I feel better now, but hmmm, my eldest didn't eat that last chocolate chip c--- Must Resist!

3.  There are no calories, none whatsoever, in my nightly post-study reward beer.

4.  And finally, the worst thing in the world is packaged salad dressing.  We doth kiddeth ourselves that salads are part of the path to a healthier life.  Apart from the rendang, the dressings are a gotcha waiting to happen. (On a similar note, I thank heaven that six months ago I stopped taking cream and sugar in my daily seven cups of coffee and have learned to take it black.)

So, I guess you can say that my personal sign of learning through the CI project is the need to be more circumspect about things I treat with benign neglect.

Good luck, y'all.

Regards, Neo

Joel's Caloric Monitoring Diet

Joel’s Caloric intake modification

Using myfitnesspal.com, (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/) I have undertaken the method of weight loss based on caloric intake only.

This website allows you to input your meals throughout the day, and include any exercise you accomplish to offset any extra caloric intake. I have used the tool to map out my desired weight, and using the factors of age, sex, and type of work I do, and the fitness goals you have, I have established a maximum caloric intake to achieve that goal.

This tool will allow me to measure the changes to my body composition based on a radical change to caloric intake, which, up until know has been largely (and I mean LARGELY) ignored.

You can also form teams on this site and monitor and encourage each other, which might be something to discuss as well.

As you input your food throughout the day, it updates your intake to include carbs fats and proteins, which may be helpful; to those of you tracking these specific intakes.

With my goal is a lofty 2 pounds weight loss per week, my daily caloric intake is 1580. If I want to eat more than that, I simply need to increase the output through exercise.

	0		0		0		0
Your Daily Goal	1,580		217		53		59
Remaining	1,580		217		53		59
Calories		Carbs		Fat		Protein