Calories, Protein & Carbs, Exercise & Weight Loss in the first year

People are always asking "how many calories/how much carbs/protein did you eat while losing/when on liquids/now". Since I have all these spreadsheets with all my daily intake and monthly totals, I figured I'd turn it all into a handy-dandy chart instead of relying on memory. So here it is:

Time Period	Calorie	Protein	Carbs	Weight Lost	Exercise
Week 1	441.40	78.16	26.50	1 lb.	Light Walking
Week 2	474.57	88.61	20.41	4 lb.	Light Walking
--- started soft foods
Weeks 3-6:	489.13	79.24	23.89	9 lb.	2 hr / week
--- started regular food
Week 7-9:	633.12	90.76	32.52	9 lb.	1.5 hr / week
Weeks 10-13:	706.25	87.53	42.33	5 lb.	3 hr. / week
Weeks 14-17:	791.64	97.40	42.48	7 lb.	4.5 hr / week
Month 5:	862.96	98.34	43.35	7 lb.	5.5 hr / week
Month 6:	887.13	89.70	47.17	10 lb.	6 hr / week
---- normal BMI achieved
Month 7:	1085	114	65.00	8 lb.	6.25 hr / week
Month 8:	1209	114	90	6 lb.	6.5 hr / week
Month 9:	1428	120	133	6 lb.	9 hr / week
Month 10:	1829	121	169	3 lb.	9 hr / week
---- goal weight achieved
Month 11:	1935	127	190	N/A	9.25 hr / week
Month 12:	2017	137	194	N/A	9.5 hr / week

At some point in my second year, I started keeping track of calories burned in exercise so I could see if my net calories were changing as my weight fluctuated. My total calories tend to run between 1950 and 2150 while my net calories run between 1450 and 1650.

Off the PPI?

I've been hesitating to post this because I didn't want to jinx it. But I haven't taken Prilosec in four weeks! I didn't have any issues at all until about 1.5 weeks out when I did get a case of continuous heartburn for a few days. When I had worked my way up to 2 Pepcid's a day, I did wonder if I should just go back to the Prilosec.

But before I could get around to buying any, everything evened out. I now get heartburn without taking the PPI as much as I did when I was taking it. Which means some mild symptoms in the evening a couple of times a week. Nothing that can't be managed.

I am hopeful that not being on an acid blocker will help me absorb protein better. I guess I'll find out next month when I get my labs done.

Catfish Crawl Report

I signed up for the Catfish Crawl out at UVAS reservoir on a whim earlier in the week. I knew I wanted to finish off this week with a 2.0 mile swim and I was pretty sure if I just made plans to meet people for a casual OWS, like I normally do, that I'd end up blowing it off while I wouldn't blow off a race I paid for.

This turned out to be really smart on my part as I had a lot of trouble convincing myself to get out of bed this morning and I definitely would have skipped something free.

You can't drop me!

Today is my normal Thurs. night bike ride. And, for the first time since I started doing this ride back in March of '09, I did NOT. GET. DROPPED!

I could see people on the ride the entire way and even rode most of the way back with one of them. During that time we passed two of our group who went the wrong way, then they came back and passed us. Then, I decided we needed to catch up with them.

So we did. (A short offering to the Traffic Light fairy helped with that.)

The four of us rode into the parking lot together. What a great feeling.

I have to say, it's a lot more fun on a group ride if you actually have someone to ride with. One of the reasons I like our new hill route so much is that it has lots of optional loops so I get to see people throughout most of the ride as they come from an optional section and pass me, even if I am riding alone most of the time.

Maybe next time I do the hill route, I won't get dropped either!

Oh and, not only did I not get dropped, but we got back in enough time that I'm thinking I may do one of the optional parts of the route in a few weeks. I already go all the way out to Portolla, which is the Group 3-4 route and not the Group 5-6 route. Dare I work my way up to the Group 1-2 route by season end? We'll see!

It's all about the bike, babee!

Lance Armstrong says "It's not the bike, it's the engine" and he has a point. It's not like all I have to do to ride like Lance is buy his bike. On the other hand, if it really isn't about the bike, then why does he have such an expensive one?

I'd even offer to trade to see if he'd say it's the engine then, but I like my bike. She rides like butter and I'm definitely faster on her than I am on my trainer bike. I also get a lot of complements on her when I'm out and about. She's definitely pretty and I'm liking the new blue bar tape better than the white. It definitely doesn't show the dirt as well.


My new aero bars are cute too. They remind me of the horns on a steer, mostly because they are so short (like me). I'm finding them pretty comfortable and fairly stable. I like having an extra position in my back pocket, particularly one that seems to go easy on my back. When I'm particularly tired, I can rest a bit without losing power. I like that.

Clean living

Everywhere I go, people are talking about eating "clean." What this basically means is no processed foods. It sounds so healthy ... eating lean protein, vegetables and fruits with some unprocessed grains thrown in. It's definitely more the way I want to eat on a day-to-day basis.

So what's the catch?

The catch is that it's almost impossible to do. Even many so-called "healthy" foods are full of added sugar or other chemicals. To avoid adding sugar, some add artificial sweeteners. Alternatively, they add sugar but use "organic" sugar and tout their products as "all natural". But they are still full of sugar.

The other catch I've found is that foods that you think of as being unprocessed -- cheeses, cottage cheese -- often have a lot of extra "crap" thrown into them. This is usually done to give them a longer shelf life or to make them appear closer to our own ideas of perfection.