No Starch and Miscellaneous Injuries

I haven't ran in a week. I feel horrible, exhausted, swollen, and out of shape.

One week of no running, and I feel like crap.

The week off from running wasn't completely voluntary. At my workout class last week, I noticed that my knee was "clicking" a little more than usual. Since then, I can barely bend my knee and it's now squishing, not just clicking. This has happened before- I just need to give it a few days and I'll be fine. In lieu of running, I'm walking about a hour a day on the walk station at work.I always forget we have it, then I give a tour to a new law clerk and rediscover this beauty of a machine. I can work, get some walking in, have calls forwarded to the station- it's nice. Plus people forget that I'm down there (despite it being on a calendar AND having a bright pink sticky note placed on my door revealing my location), so I get work DONE.

This week's other big obstacle? The doctor. I met with my PA for prescription refills and mentioned that, while the measurements are going down, the weight is not. She looked at my online food journal and simply stated, "You're eating way too much starch and refined sugar." She challenged me to try eliminating most starches and refined sugar from my diet for 2 weeks to jump start my metabolism.

The list I was asked to stay away from is this:

• bread (all)
• rice
• potatoes
• pasta
• corn
• cookies
• crackers
• chips
• sugar products (chocolate, etc)- I can have artificial sweeteners though, and the sugar in most fruit is ok (staying away from bananas and only allowed the "occasional" apple)

This plan didn't sound horrible- plus it's only 2 weeks. You can do anything for 2 weeks. And, if it worked- which I suspected that it would- I could slowly start adding *some* starch and sweet stuff into the diet, just not on the level I was eating it before.

Have you ever looked in your pantry and tried to find something without starch? Or refined sugars? I'm a woman on the go who lives with a fit man and 3 kids. Every meal consists of bread, pasta, rice or potato. I eat 100 calorie packs and granola bars like they're going out of style. And don't get me started on my breakfast of english muffin/toast and peanut butter.

I researched what I *could* eat in the alternative: most vegetables, most fruits, meat- even bacon!, cheese (no more than 4 oz/day), almonds/walnuts- I'm not going to wilt away or die. I can eat on this trial run.

But this is HARD.

I'm on day 3 with no big screw ups so far.  Apparently your body goes through starch/carb/sugar withdrawal. Thankfully I have a friend at work who explained to me the ugly withdrawal process and what to expect. I knew I was going to be tired, craving things I couldn't have, crabby- but it was all temporary. And hey, it wasn't permanent. AND, I've already dropped 4lbs. Win.

I am exhausted. I am crabby. I broke out into sweats last night while a friend of mine was eating an order of breadsticks at the bar. I twitched uncontrollably while the tables around me were being served beer-battered fries and deep fried awesomeness, and a huge slice of cheesecake was brought out for another friend of mine, doused in chocolate sauce and whipped cream. And no, I'm not exaggerating about my reaction or about the apparent awesomeness of the breadsticks and cheesecake.

Thankfully, the boy was there with me to keep me focused and from snitching breadsticks or chocolate. We ate a healthy and filling dinner before going to the bar, and I was supplied with a constant flow of Diet Coke and water.

I know, I have to lay off the Diet Coke. But you can't take breads, sweets, AND Diet Coke away from me all at once, or I will have a break down and CUT YOU.

Today, day 3, all I want to do is sleep. I want to go home, have the man make me a bunless burger, and go to bed.

Cake and Starvation Mode

It's the boy's birthday today. WOO! He's OLD! And Mother's Day was yesterday- WOO! Mom! And the Red Wings played a lot this weekend. WOO! Round 2!

This translated into a weekend filled of dining out, cakes, other sweet treats- and an inability to go for a run.

OK, I lied. Not an "inability" to run, it was more of a "I-don't-want-to."

So this morning, I sat down with my cup o' coffee and looked at my daily calorie total: 1676. One slice of Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cake (or 2 cupcakes in this scenario): 250 calories. I don't even want to talk about the calories that I probably ate in homemade chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and homemade ice cream (last night) or the Bakes N' Cakes piece I had on Saturday night. Dude. The bakery's motto is "Butter Makes it Better." Damn right it does, but I think the cake went straight to my hips.

That daily calorie number, after being used for WEEKS, seemed off. I pulled up the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) calculator, figured out some scientific method for calculating calories needed to maintain my weight, knocked off 500 calories/day for the weight loss- and I get 2302 calories a day.

What. The. Hell. I was eating over 600 calories LESS than I'm allotted?

Let me back up. I use MyFitnessPal to track my calories. When I signed up to use MyFitnessPal, it set a calorie target for me. I was talking to some friends, and they both said the number seemed kind of low. I talked to my amazing trainer, who said it seemed a little low. So I looked up the best and most accurate way to calculate daily calorie needs and read about the BMR.

BMR, in simple terms, is the energy you expend in the form of calories burned, keeping your body functioning while at a restful state. In other words, this is the bare minimum of calories to consume to keep your internal organs working. You take the BMR, factor in your activity level, and subtract 250-500 calories from that number to get a net loss of calories. Mathmatically, the BMR is a pain in the ass. Actually, for most people, it's probably basic math. I'm just a math dummy, but more on that later.

The equation looks like this:  

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - ( 6.8 x age in year )

You then take the BMR x a percentage which is determined on your activity level.

• If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
• If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
• If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
• If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
• If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

The final number is the amount of calories you need to minimally function on a daily basis. To lose weight, you need to subtract 250-500 calories from that total.

3 steps. Get BMR. Multiply by activity level. Subtract 500. DONE. Again, simple. Let's look at my math, shall we?

Me (I'm a woman): 655 + (4.35 x 235) + (4.7 x 60) - (4.7 x 32) - yeah, I just gave you a lot of personal information. Originally, I got 655 + 1022.25 + 282 + 150.4 = 2109.65- Oops.

First problem - that stupid subtraction indicator before the final parenthetical mark is NOT a plus sign!!

Second problem- my height in inches is 68 (5'8") not 60 (5'0").

Really, my number there should be 1808.25.

I'm supposed to take that number and multiply it by my activity level. I'm about moderately active, with the classes and running a few days a week.

Third problem: I was using "little or no exercise" thinking that I would just track my workouts and go with the base "sedentary" number. Your body busts up calories even when not working out, and THAT'S what the activity levels assume. 

I would take the 1808.25 x 1.55 =  2802.78 and THAT is my approximate daily calorie burn number.

Fourth problem- I used a different calculator that involved using BMR x the percentage of working out and subtracting it from another number. There was another step and I totally missed it. Too much math!

To lose weight, I would need to knock off 250-500 calories. That's 2302.78.

Today, I find out that MyFitnessPal actually uses a BMR calculator, but there are caveats all around that number, and it doesn't calculate how many calories you need when working out, etc. Oh. That explains the really low number. But when I go into MyFitnessPal, it tells me that I won't be losing any weight! WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON?!

I'm going to go with the new number (2302) for a few weeks and see how it goes. As for the calories I burn while working out, my plan for now is to eat half of those calories, as I'm usually starving when I'm done working out.

And, I'm having 2 cupcakes tonight.