Calories

My post titles are getting really annoying. The idea was that someone doing their own 30-Day Shred would be able to easily see where I was in the program without having to read through every post. But it's annoying me now, so I'm ditching the 'Day 7' title but will include the information in the post.

I got up early to Shred today. (Shred Day 7, Calendar Day 12) It went very well. I am doing the full versions of every exercise except those darn pushups!! They completely kill me. Kill. There are 2 sets of pushups in the workout. Each lasts 30 seconds. On the first one, I did 12 modified pushups. The first 8 or so were very good pushups. I only got to 4 in the second set! My arms were about to collapse/die.

This time I paused the video for about 45 seconds to stretch out my quads before starting the stationary lunges. And I started with the opposite leg I usually do. When I switched over to the leg that has given me trouble, it was fine.

The only other exercise that really does me in is the lateral lunges with shoulder raise. You are holding dumbbells and as you go down into a lateral lunge, you keep both arms straight and raise the dumbbells out in front of you to eye height. My arms/shoulders are dying by the end of that one, but I'm able to do the full (non-modified) lunge.

As for food -- I usually don't count calories. I've had an account at FitDay.com since 2002ish. I have tracked my food probably 20 times since then. And some days I apparently left off after lunch and didn't even finish tracking the whole day. So I'm not really obsessed with calories. But seeing that yesterday I only ate 1900 calories, and 1/3 of it was sugary treats makes me think I need to be eating more food! If I ate more good-quality foods, I probably wouldn't have such strong sugar cravings. I've always tied my cravings to the types of food I was lacking (not enough protein or not enough fat), but maybe it's simply not enough calories.

I also think that counting calories could get pretty dangerous for me. I was already a little freaked out that 1 date had 66 calories. My Hot Pink Smoothies have 1/4 cup dates in them. This is about 4 pitted dates. That is 264 calories, over half the calories in the entire quart-sized smoothie, just from the tiny amount of dates. I just thought the concept was ridiculous. I didn't realize dates were a calorically dense food. My other struggle is worrying about the calories in sugar. I love my sugar! I don't want to go crazy worrying because I ate a 500-calorie treat. I do want to 'get off' sugar, but not in a crazy-making way.

Back to eating more food. I am not able to eat a lot at one meal without feeling uncomfortably full. Oh, I can pack it in if I want/need to (mostly on holidays, if the food is free, at Chipotle, or at Tucanos/Rodizio Grill), but if I actually pay attention to how I am feeling, my body doesn't want me to eat a lot at once. But I don't want to be a grazer either. I think there is something to the idea of only eating 3 times per day. Supposedly your leptin levels get all messed up if you're constantly eating.

To help add more calories today, I had a homemade tortilla with about 2 ounces of cream cheese on it. I heated it up and ate it as an appetizer to my lunch of rice + beans/tomatoes/corn/onions/garlic/chilies. Usually I would have just had the rice stuff. For breakfast I had the leftover 1/3 of my Hot Pink Smoothie and 1 pint (half) of a Green Smoothie. Today's green smoothie had lettuce, spinach, chard, flax oil, bananas, and peaches. If I get hungry again this afternoon I'll have the rest of the green smoothie or another tortilla + cream cheese. I brought 1/4 cup M&M's to work, so I may end up eating those at some point.

Dinner tonight will probably be salmon, a potato, and vegetables. I'm trying to get my kids to like quinoa, but they are hating it so far. Maybe if I give it to them every single day they'll eventually give in and realize they won't die if they eat it. It really does sting when I carefully plan and cook a healthy dinner and they come to the table and their faces fall, or they burst out crying. I guess it's my fault for not feeding them this way all along! We are all sugar addicts together.