A Mid-Week Post!

This post is for those of you who keep giving me grief about only posting once a week. LOL!

The pity party is over, y'all! And I haven't even weighed in yet. =) I just had to spend a little bit of extra time this past week in prayer and the living and active Word to get a spiritual, emotional and physical boost from the Lord. I also have changed a few things after praying and reading through a weight loss book that I recently got. It is designed and written specifically for people trying to lose the last 15-20 pounds ( that's me!). So I grabbed it and started slowly reading through it again. Right after I bought it, I kind of skimmed it and looked at the interesting stuff. But now is no time for skimming! I need some answers.

I took a long quiz and found out that my metabolic type is a "balanced oxidizer", which in layman's terms means that my body needs an equal amount of carbohydrates, protein, and fat at each meal and that I have the capacity to do well on the widest variety of foods. Just as I suspected. My sister Rachel and I were having a discussion about this a few weeks ago. She is most definitely a "fast oxidizer" which means she needs more fats and proteins than carbs with each meal. She described herself by saying, "I HAVE to eat some kind of protein with each meal. You can do just fine with a salad, slice of bread, and a piece of fruit. But I need some kind of meat to keep me going." And it's true - we're all different. I needed to figure out exactly how to fuel my body properly, because I think I've gotten a little off track of what my body really needs.

I also calculated my BMR again, (basal metabolic rate - the number of calories my body needs in order to function at it's most basic levels) just to be sure. At the Mercy Fitness Center their test put me at 1,600 calories. And what do you know? It was the same when I re-crunched the numbers. What this means is that my calorie allowance for each day is 1,600. If I eat that amount, it's enough to keep my body going strong and the extra calories I burn through exercising will cause weight loss. That's actually more than I think I've been eating. I began recording my meals again on Monday and keeping the calories balanced at every meal - 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat. I quickly realized that I was under-eating in the carb and protein department. In some respects, eating more calorie-dense foods goes against what my brain is telling me. You'd think that eating less food would be better. But it's not! It's never right to deprive your body of the fuel it needs, whether my brain thinks so or not. The approach of eating less might be okay, if I wasn't exercising 6 hours a week. But I think I've been lax on giving myself the proper mixture of fuel, and that is going to change.

So, with these little changes we'll see what the scale says this week. I'm not expecting a miracle after only a few days of change, but I'm curious to see what the next month turns out like. I contacted a local fitness center in Monticello to see if they offer any classes. I don't have time to be driving to a gym every day, but I thought it might be fun to take a kick-boxing class or something. Something different to get some different muscles moving! On Tuesday, I was on the treadmill for an hour and it felt good. I did interval training and went almost 5 miles, which was pretty good for me! Today I did Levels 2 and 3 on my workout DVD back to back. That was tough. My body did not want to cooperate as I got closer to the end! I really had to focus (especially on my breathing - it's amazing how much breathing properly during exercising helps!) and I pushed myself hard. I made it through with only a few 5 second breaks, and now I just have to wean myself away from those. Progress comes when you push!

Holding onto Jesus ~Bekah