Get Fit Not Fat

A while back my brother decided he was going to work out and pack on some muscle. So I put together a spreadsheet where he could plan a diet high in protein and track his caloric intake. I got the details of his necessary dietary intakes, upped them for a high protein/active lifestyle and started planning foods that would help him get there. It was kind of fun actually. It’s analytical, which I like, and gave me some perspective to the composition of certain foods.

Well last month I dug up that spreadsheet and adjusted all the data to apply to me. I kept track of my meal consumption for 3 weeks and took a look at how all my decisions added up. Did I meet my daily recommended caloric intake? Did I go over? (haha yes, but cake is so delicious!) Was I meeting my protein, fat, and carb needs?

I wasn’t exact on my numbers because the effort would not have been worth the result, but I tried to get close to the actual based on what I know. Example – I might have had a ham sandwich one day with mayo and then a roast beef two days later with mustard, but on my chart they both have the same dietary properties.

If you’re looking to try this exercise out, I would highly recommend it. I found my recommended daily intake (RDI) values from the Mayo Clinic and my nutrition book. I got most of my food composition data from www.FitDay.com and nutrition labels. There are multiple websites that offer a calorie counter so you don’t have to create your own spreadsheet. I just did cause I’m a nerd. The government also has a website if you’re looking for dependable data (www.mypyramid.com).

Here are the results compared to my RDI represented by the red lines.


Range: 1215 Calories – 2980 Calories; Mean: 2006 Calories; RDI: 1900 Calories;

I did alright sticking to the recommended value for someone of my height, weight, age, and activity level. There were about 4 days out of 21 where it looks like I had an extra meal. And the days following were typically lower showing that I was conscientious of my previous day’s decisions. Alright, I’m not perfect but at least I’m hitting the mark 2 times out of 3.


Range: 124 g – 343 g; Mean: 230 g; RDI: 261 g;

Regarding carbohydrate intake, I was typically below the recommended value. Only on days where I ate too much did I manage to meet or exceed that value.


Range: 37 g – 132 g; Mean: 76 g; RDI: 58 g;

OUCHIES. There were only 3 days out of 21 where I was below and 11 days where I was over by more than 12 grams of fat. Although the downward trend towards the end looks promising...maybe?...=D.


Range: 42 g – 154 g; Mean: 97 g; RDI: 107 g

I had trouble hitting my recommended protein values too. Probably not good for someone who needs to build the muscles to swim/bike/run.

Ok this is where I decide to eat more beans, less fatty meat, more fish, and more wheat bread.

Ah…
Ok fine.
I like being healthy anyway.

30 Day Sugar Challenge

So 30 days ago my friend Chris gathered a bunch of us and challenged us to stay away from all things with sugar for 30 days. Today was the end of that 30 day challenge, and I have to say for me it was a pretty annoying burden. Every breakfast bar, energy bar, chocolate craving, dessert opportunity, etc was avoided for the past 30 days. I even had to think of condiments, like sweet and sour sauce or typical juice drinks which are loaded with sugars.

I do have to say I allowed myself organic juice, which I usually water down - 4 parts water to 1 part juice. And if I was going on the long bike ride I would have powerade mix.

Also desserts and sugar aren't a huge part of my diet in the first place, so it wasn't too drastic of a change for me. For instance I usually prefer the savory crepe to the dessert one, so avoiding dessert wasn't hard. What changed in my diet was the cutting out of breakfast bars - which usually have a lot of sugar (I didn't realize that actually), no more soda, and the addition of more fruit.

Overall I am a little better, but I think the unhappiness of it outweighed the health satisfaction. I said I don't usually eat dessert, but once every few weeks when I want one it was really frustrating that I was forbidding myself that tasty treat. Now I'll probably pick up more fruit, but I'll still have the occasional frozen custard.

I'll have to do another challenge soon. I used to do one a year, but stopped about 4 yrs ago. It's a good way to change things up and make you think about the food you put in your body.

The Chinese Diet

Yesterday was Papa Yu's birthday, so we do our simple celebration of going out to dinner. Of course my dad picks a little place in Chinatown because he can't go a meal without rice. Now I grew up on a Chinese Diet, but after countless nutrition talks from a guy I once dated and hours on WebMD, NY Times and the like...I am enlightened. Don't get me wrong, I love Chinese food. I was pretty excited to get to go to Chinatown and devour all those delicious meats, but now I know just what an unbalanced diet my culture perpetuates.

So what did we order last night? 2 meat appetizers, green beans, the house special tofu dish, ribs, shrimp and white rice - which translates to 1 Starch, 5 Protein and 1 Veggie. But actually the green beens were even stir fried with ground pork, so the more acurate translation might be - 5.5 Protein and 0.5 Veggies. haha. YUM. Basically what I'm getting at is there is a major tip towards eating meats in this diet. Which mean's we're all going to get atherosclerosis and have heart attacks at the age of 45.

I'm not even going to talk about how much oil we use and the ratio of fried/stir fried to steamed dishes. lol.

Also, theres little to no fiber in much of the food we eat. Veggies have fiber - yes, but the largest source of fiber in someone's diet is grain and we don't eat that. So one might ask when do Chinese people Poop? And the answer is maybe once every week when our Colon's get backed up. (This statistic is based on 4 months of living in Hong Kong. Also there is only one data point in this statistic so please comment to add more.) Once every week? This sucks considering a person should poop at least once a day. You don't want to be carrying around a weeks worth of food waste in your body. Thats probably 2 lbs of crap in your colon depending on your size. Gross.

I'm sure the Chinese health commision or whatever government department that monitors public health was aware of this as Digestive Crackers were sold everywhere. These babies were like fiber and sugar pressed into cracker form. Worked really well, but you had to remember to eat them...

So moral of the story? Papa Yu needs to eat Digestives.

Food Tastes Good

Ugh. I just did the typical and ate myself into an impending food coma. Since I moved home I've found it hard to keep up a healthy and happy diet.

First I don't do the grocery shopping and do almost no cooking now. Bad bad bad. My mom doesn't know what's healthy, what's not, what's more healthy or just ok, etc. She doesn't balance the meats and veggies well. And of course, in a traditionally Asian home, we always have rice for dinner. Pure starch. I try to cut down on the amount I eat, but that just means I'm still hungry and fill myself up with the loads of meat my mom cooks. She doesn't always buy the veggies I like, so more often than not I skip those. Result? Probably a little bit of weight gain; probably a little bit of wear on my performance, and mostly a lack of the vitamins I need. I'm already feeling anemic again, and I've been taking my daily multivite.

What's more, my mom doesn't always cook the food I want to eat at the time I feel like eating. So I will snack or starve. When dinner finally comes around I will eat too much or not that much and feel bad after. And if it's not food I particularly like, I'm not satisfied despite my being full. Maybe I'm complaining too much, I mean having my mom cook dinner really gives me more time to work out or do other things, but I live to eat; I love to cook. I love everything about food. And I hate doing dishes. Not being able to do eat or cook what I want is wearing on my physical and emotional health. I need to find a good medium or I will eventually hate this situation and steer myself down a path of unhappiness.

First I need to find a way to get out of doing dishes...