macros

Macro Tracking Month 1 Update and Discount for the NJ Perfect10Miler!

~ loveandlunge ~ Leave a comment

I’ve officially been tracking macros for over a month!  Time flies, guys.  Seriously, I am loving this new diet change.  I’ll detail it a little further in a second, but first here’s a recap of life and such.

Injury update:  Hi there, still injured.  My ankle had been feeling good and I was 100% stoked that things were seemingly moving forward, but these past couple of days have been a complete 180.  Womp womp.  New pain has started appearing higher up in my calf, so I have no idea what’s going on, but if it could stop, that’d be great.  That’s not stopping me from signing up for races though.  I’m teaming up with CGI Racing for ThePerfect10 10 Miler and I’m stoked.  I loved their Love Run and am excited to take on this more manageable challenge.  If you want a discount on your entry use my code:

PERFECT10STEPHANIEJ 

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Life update: Things have been all kinds of go, go, go over here.  With the weather picking up, I’ve been enjoying having some friends over and taking Boo on epically long walks around the preserve.  It’s crazy how fast stuff is growing over here.  At least the rain is good for something.

Now to Macro World:

It’s no secret that I haven’t always had the healthiest relationship with food.  In high school and at the beginning of college, I ate whatever I wanted whenever I felt like it and exercised occasionally, but didn’t think twice about what was going into my mouth for the most part.  By my sophomore year, I can’t say that mentality was the same.  I forwent food in favor of getting stuff done.  I can’t count the amount of times I grabbed something small for lunch in a cup and ran off to my room to practice or to work on school work.  The same could be said for dinner, which I usually had to eat at odd times because of my grueling rehearsal and class schedules.  There would even be times when I would have back to back classes that required me to eat a Velvetta instant mac and cheese while walking across campus at night.  Things were awesome and I was the epitome of health and wellness.

College ended and I ended up on my own for the first time truly in charge of my own meals.  No parents or servery to make me anything.  Just me and some shopping bags full of ingredients that I had no idea what to do with.  I lived on majority cereal for almost and entire year, I’d say.  That probably contributed heavily to some of my health issues, but who cares when you’ve got the sugary goodness of Special K Vanilla Almond (which will forever and always be my favorite cereal of all time) to keep you satiated.  I had a lot of eating disorder like tendencies at this time as well and went through some pretty extreme times at the end of college and the beginning of my adulting career.  Things just weren’t going well and I was wasting away to more or less nothing.  I started losing energy, hair, and friendships all over my lack of ability to maintain a healthy relationship with food.

Fast forward to moving up to New Jersey with my boyfriend.  My relationship with food became a lot healthier because I was forced to actually cook real meals for me and a real other person.  A person who didn’t feel like eating two bowls of cereal and calling it a meal.  He may have been on to something.  And he also starting teaching me about appropriately fueling following a workout.  I took this to heart and ate pretty much anything anytime I wanted, but I wasn’t really happy with my choices.  I felt very out of control and I never knew appropriate portions of food to eat.  I would have massive dinners and tiny breakfasts and I could never figure out why I was always so hungry by the end of the day and eating the pantry bare.

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When I started tracking macros with a coach, a lightbulb went off in me.  There’s a happy balance between tracking too strictly and not fueling your workouts and going overboard.  I honestly don’t think I would have been able to find this balance on my own.  Here are the highlights I’ve experienced thus far:

  • Being able to go out to eat with friends and actually have fun.  I have gone out for drinks and meals a handful of times over this past month and I’m really proud of myself.  Going out to meals used to stress me out because I had no control.  Now, I make sure to try and plan out what I’m going to have the day before and leave a lot of wiggle room.  For instance, the other day I went out for my friend’s graduation dinner and I didn’t know what the plan was.  So, I tracked my normal meals a little lighter and left a lot of protein and fats for dinner, so when the menu came and it had chicken on it, I was set and good to go.  Plus, I even had macros for a couple of glasses of wine.  Win/win.
  • I am waking up feeling awesome.  I no longer feel over-stuffed or underfed when I wake up or go to sleep and it is an A+ feeling.  I feel healthy.
  • My workouts are showing off.  Finally.  I’ve been working out for years, but I have never felt as defined as I do now.  It’s nice to see your hard work paying off.
  • I no longer have “fear foods”.  If I want something, I’ll eat it and work around it later.  I used to not allow peanut butter in the house and now I eat 2+ servings on the daily.

I also want to be very clear, this is not a weight loss method for me.  I am already a small girl, I just want two things: to be happy with the body that I work so hard for and to have a healthy relationship with food.  So far, I am moving very nicely towards these goals and I couldn’t be happier.

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I’m sure you’re wondering if there have been any downsides thus far?  The answer: Of course.  Starting out was really hard.  I had a hard time grasping that balance.  There were somedays when I didn’t space out my meals appropriately and I was starving by the time I went to bed.  There were other times where I just snacked incessantly on top of my macros for no reason at all.  And there have even been a couple days when I’ve just said, Nope, not today and declared a cheat meal.  But I know that when I get back on track the next day, I’m solid.  I’ve got a good foundation and I’m seeing progress that I’ve wanted for so long.  I’ll continue to provide macro updates as this journey continues, but so far I’m pretty proud of myself and actually happy with my nutrition for the first time in a long time.

-sj

what I learned from tracking my macros week 1

~ loveandlunge ~ 1 Comment

Just casually sitting here an injured girl.  I finally got my ankle checked out by a podiatrist and my suspicions of tendonitis were confirmed, but so was something else.  Turns out I have Haglund’s Deformity in my ankle, which sounds gross but apparently is relatively normal.  It’s genetic and it involves extra bone build up in the back of my ankle, which leads to extra pulling on my Achilles.  So I’m off running for four weeks and heading to physical therapy to learn how to deal with this.  It’s actually really interesting to look back at my half pictures and notice my foot turning in because my tendon is too short.  The more you know.

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So what’s a poor, injured girl to do while she’s side lined?  Focus on building some muscle and working on nutrition.

Enter counting macros.

Nutrition had always kind of been my downfall.  I have trouble eating for my goals and some times that means eating too much or too little.  That’s why I decided to hire a nutrition coach for a couple months.  We started this week focusing on macros.

So, what are macros?
There are three major macronutrients that make up all food: carbohydrates, fat, and protein.  When you count macros, you’re focusing on just counting the amount of each you are getting.  Calories don’t matter because technically, your macros should line up.  A gram of carbs and a gram of protein both have 4 calories each.  A gram of fat has 9.  This all gets factored in to your counting in the long run.

What did I learn week 1?

I had tried counting macros on my own in the past using what MyFitnessPal recommended, using what IIFYM.com recommended, and literally just trying whatever I could find to give me a number to count, but it never really worked out and I never felt any different.  This time around, I was given numbers that involved a little bit less carbs than I had been eating before and more protein and fat.  It’s about a 40:30:35 split between carbs, fat, and protein (I am aware this doesn’t equal 100%, I said around haha).  Before, it was closer to 50:15:35 for reference.

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Less carbs and more fat meant I had to start getting creative.  I introduced peanut butter back into my diet, which had been something I steered clear of because I was always weak in the face of the jar.  No will power.  But now, because I want to be exact with the grams I’m consuming, I know I can split the 32g serving size into 4 smaller portions, which means more peanut butter for me in a controlled amount.  But that’s not the only thing I’ve learned.  Here we go:

  • Measuring things is shocking.  Turns out what I was using to measure a half cup of oatmeal was WAYYY off.  Like painfully off.  Like I was probably eating 2 plus servings every time off.  The more you know.  Also, two tablespoons of peanut butter can go really far if you split up the grams.  4 8g servings is a lot more than you’d think.
  • Sure you can eat anything you want as long as it fits, but that’s not always your best option.  One of the greatest things about counting macros and IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros) is the flexibility it allows you.  My boyfriend and I went out to sushi yesterday and I was able to plan a feast for myself as long as I worked out some of my other meals for the day.  And you’ll see people posting things on instagram about epic amounts of donuts and cake they fit in to your macros, which is awesome, but you quickly learn the value of those tiny grams.  If you blow 30g of carbs on a donut with a high glycemic index (basically how long something will last in your stomach until your blood sugar dips), you’re going to regret it 20 minutes later when you’re ravenous and out of macros.  You live and you learn.
  • Volume, volume, volume.  The egg scramble I’ve been eating religiously for lunch is amazing.  It’s 5 egg whites (I don’t like yolks, don’t ask), 150g broccoli, 117g onions, and 1/5 cup of sliced mushrooms.  Top it with salsa and it’s this overflowing bowl of goodness for 21c, 1f, and 23p.  To put it in perspective, one pack of gum has 30g of carbs…would you rather eat 21g of carbs overflowing out of a huge bowl or chew on some sticks of nothing.  You know my answer.  I’ve been adding in more veggies to my meals because they just boost everything up and make it seem like you’re eating wayyy more than you actually are and it’s like magic.  Highly recommended.
  • Fail to plan, plan to fail.  I’m a planner.  Always have been, always will be.  So, every night, I’ve opened up my MyFitnessPal app and mathed my way into trying to hit 0g of carbs, protein, and fat left.  So far, it’s gone pretty well.  But there have been a couple days (I’m looking at you, weekend) where I’ve really struggled and wanted to just throw it all away because I ate something I didn’t track.
  • You don’t live or die by your macros. Nope.  You don’t.  In fact, I freaked out for like 10 seconds earlier today when I started mindlessly snacking on something I hadn’t planned.  I was like OH NO THIS RUINS EVERYTHING.  Spoiler alert: it did not.  In fact, I realized I could just move around some of my dinner macros and I was good to go.  Non-crisis averted.
  • Many meals is everything.  Since I have to eat a lot of food (specifically protein and fats) I eat often.  I have breakfast, second breakfast, lunch, second lunch, snack, dinner, and dessert.  All spread out throughout the day, which I’m loving because it never feels like that long until I eat again and I’m not ravenous.  In fact, I’ve somehow magically been able to kick my gum habit I’ve had for 5+ years because I don’t feel the need to be mindlessly chewing on nothing.  Seriously, it’s been over a week and I don’t know who I am anymore.

Here’s a sample of my dinner 10c/7f/35p:
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  •  And so is dessert.  I used to avoid dessert because it’s not the greatest for you and I’d feel guilty eating it.  But, you know what, if I can end the day with something to look forward to, it’s awesome.  Just a little sweet treat and I’m good to go for the rest of the night.  Lately, I’ve been OBSESSED with Enlightened’s Ice Cream.  It’s 100 cals in a half cup 18c/3f/7p and it’s delicious.  The Oatmeal Caramel Crunch flavor is my go to.

Results so far?  It’s odd to think I’d see results from just one week, but I am.  My clothes are fitting a little looser and my abs and arms and showing more definition than they have in awhile.  Most of all, I’m just excited that even though I’m sidelined from working out, I am still making progress in other areas.  When one door closes, another opens.

 

-sj