UltraIronJen's Club - FULL (Page 2)

Food questions: Eating is very personal. The right amount of calories for me might not be the right amount of calories for you. That said, this is what has helped me lose the 20 lbs this fall.

The key key key key to all of this is tracking your meals. I use www.calorieking.com and have for 4 years now. I find when I don't track I eat way too much and put on weight. It is an incredible site with foods in there that suprise me all the time. When I eat pre-packaged food I eat organic choices such as Seeds of Change or Amy's. They have all of them in the database.

Whole grains, fruits, veggies, lean protein, good fats. I know, no one wants to hear that but it is the truth. And, total of 1400 calories a day. For days I work out more than an hour, I give myself an extra 250 calories per hour.

Losing weight is about the little choices you make every minute of every day. Every time I think about food, which is alot, I have a choice about how I react to it. Do I give in and eat it or not? Can I find a healthier option than the bag of chips I'm thinking about? Celebrate the little victories. Congratulate yourself for every good decision you make. Forgive yourself if you make a bad one. I still work on this every day. Unfortunately I'm not getting any younger and as I get closer to 40 my body is less and less interested in losing weight.

Listen to your body. If you are always hungry you might not be getting enough protein and fat. Or, you might not be eating enough calories. If you are training more than 5 hours a week you need to be eating more than most of the current diets suggest. Start by adding 100 calories a day for a week and see if that helps.  Experiment!

Geez. I could go on and on about this so I'll be quiet now.

First off - Jen 8 miles in hail - are you crazy - Oh wait we're triathletes so that's yes you're nuts....  Kudos for the run in such miserable weather. 

As for WW - I like it.  I'm given a set amount of points and when I'm at that number - which is usually by 5pm - I go to bed... but given that 3 kids are up till 7 I somehow manage not to nibble on everything in site and then promptly go to bed at 730 (now) for the first 2 weeks - this seems to be the time it takes my body to adjust to fewer calories and hunger pains.  Once I'm past this 2 week stage it's much easier and I don't feel like I am starving myself - plus I can make it till 9 or so without feeling the need to nibble all night and be tempted with the kitchen right beside the family room.   It is a change in behavior and my relationship with food.  Yes there are days when I eat those chips - but with WW I offer myself forgiveness for those weaknesses and re-start the next day.  Obviously though you can't fall off daily.  I believe there is a WW group in the nutritional forum if you want advise on the other WW program - I only use WW points.  My only concern will be hard core training and nutrition coem February when I'm ramping up on distance and times... I'll have to figure it out as i go and hope I feed my body correctly for training.

I suggest you pick the all women's one. Yes, it will be busy, but they will start everyone in waves so you aren't swamped. This will be a much less competative field, supportive and the organization will be well done since it is a national group behind it. Smaller races are great once you have some experience. They tend to have a more competative/aggressive field.

A short morning drive is huge too.  You don't need the stress of travelling the morning before the race. Make this as stress free as possible.  If you want to do a smaller race, do one later in the season when you are more comfortable with the process.

I second Jen's advice. The all women field will offer you more encouragement as you swim/bike/run.  Just place yourself in the correct wave - sometimes it's based on age sometimes on swim time it depends on the race director - found on your application form.  I think an all women race will do wonders for your confidence in later races.

Cathleen

Hi ladies,  I took the day off - had myself a nice little massage...AHHHHHH my back feels much better.  But my baby (2yr) had a rough day - we were at baby gym and she was so happy to be there (1st time) but she needed the bathroom so we go and come back and she gets ahead of herself and her foot is under the door and well - the door riped her skin off her big toe and the toe beside it.... Needless to say she was torn between crying and sucking it up and going back to baby gym... she chose baby gym but Mama here was traumatized.  her trauma started after i dragged her out of baby gym and she started to realize she really hurt herself!  a little motrin and a nap took care of us both!

my advice for swimming is unless you do it correctly 1) you could injure your shoulder rotator cuffs and 2)not build the stamina.  There is a swim video - "total immersion" (I think that's the name) that many people here at BT reccommend - especially if you can't get with a coach.  Start with that and see if that helps with the technique/stamina.  As for running - I just suck air to try and get thru my times... I'm using the BT 16 week 3x balanced program... having been off for 2 months, gaining a few pounds during the holiday - i'm back to square 1 sucking air... arhgggg i hate running!

Off to bed... see you all tomorrow night!

I'm still here gals!  I just had a brief time of not feeling very whippy.  I don't know if it was something I ate, but I was down for the count for a day.  Tomorrow I'll get back into it!  I did read the posts about the eating.  Well, I'm an expert at eating.  I love to eat--even when I am really not truly hungry, but think I am.  Usually I'm really thirsty and need to drink water.  I have also found that using the nutrition log on this website helps me to get honest about what I really am putting into my mouth rather than what I would like to think I eat.  It keeps me honest.  When I am faithful to log what I have actually eaten, I am surprised at the amount of calories I'm actually consuming.  I don't know if that would help anyone else, but I am committed to keeping track of my consumption of calories to get some control over it.  Now, excuse me, I am really wanting to eat some popcorn....

teresa I too log what i eat w/ WW... unfortunately some days it would take a page or 2 to write it all down LOL...

happy weekend to everyone... I'm a weekend widow this weekend and will be busy taking care of 3 kids and house... catch all you Monday or in the late hours this weekend.

cathleen

Hi ladies -

Checking in on everyone. I hope you are all getting in a workout even if you aren't writing about it. 

We got a new treadmill at the house and I got in a great 6 mile run in on it yesterday. My husband has decided he wants to finally get in shape. We are both turning 29 in a month and a half and I think his mortality is sneaking up on him. We are working on getting him to run a 5k and I'm really excited to have some company.

Tomorrow I'll be watching football all afternoon after brunch with my gfriends so my 2 hour run will be on the treadmill so it will get a good test. I have a 60 minute easy spin on my bike trainer after the run so I get to eat pancakes to fuel that workout! Yippee!

Sunday is a 4 hour snowshoe followed by pancakes.  Can you tell I like pancakes?

Have a great weekend everyone.

Quick tip: For those of you who don't always have time for a workout, instead of worrying about getting in an hour, get in a high intensity 30 minutes at your house.  Do a hard run, a hill climbing session on the trainer or jump rope, whatever works. Something is better than nothing!

Happy Saturday morning to everyone.  I got a sick son on my hands today - just tending to him today and not much else planned.  But tomorrow I hope to get a ride in the actually saddle completed!!!  Yeah....  Happy training everyone.

cathleen

I listen to whatever is on TV at Y... and radio channel on earphones on home treadmill.  Be careful though - you can not wear earphones/ipods etc.. during USAT sanctioned races.  You will be DQ'd.  use music for now to get a pace going or to help pass the time - but in the weeks leading up to a race go without so you can learn to pace yourself on your own.

cathleen

I managed to get in 2 hours on the treadmill during the Patriots game tonight. Yay Pats!!  I'm a transplanted New Englander so my heart belongs to Tom Brady.

I try not to listen to music unless I'm at the gym. For me, it is a a sfety issue.  I want to know what or who is coming at me when I'm running or on the bike.  There is a local trail that is well travelled that I will use it on but I always am sure to have the volume down low enough that I can hear my own footsteps.  When I do listen, I vary my listening.  I'm into Elvis right now but also listen to The Killers, Fountains of Wayne, Green Day. I'm also big into women singers such as Brandi Carlile, the Indigo Girls and KT Tunstall. My standard pre-race mix includes Black Eyed Peas, Eminem and a few other odd people.

As far as suppliments. I'm terrible about taking mine but when I'm good I take flaxseed oil, vitamin C, a multivitamin and B complex. 

I'm snowshoeing in the morning and need to get packed up. I hope everyone's workouts go well!

Didn't get any workouts in yesterday at all.  We had to go out of town to a funeral and it took the entire day.  And they had one of those "big lunches" that all those cute little old ladies serve at a church when there is a service.  I ate quite well.  But, I did not eat any of the desserts.  A big deal for me to do!  Today I woke up and was having a bit of vertigo (sometimes I get that with my MS) so I will wait until later today and see if I can get in some kind of workout.  If not, I will at least do some stretching exercises. I'm supposed to go to the Y tomorrow and swim.  Hope I can get that in...I'm actually ready to get in the water and see how I'm doing.  I haven't been swimming since last November so I will have to start all over again.  

 As for the supplement question....my husband and I get ours from Hammer Nutrition.  We both take the multi-vitamin/mineral supplement.  We add to that a fish oil supplement.  I am thinking about adding another supplement that Hammer has (which I can't think of the name of it right now) but it helps with ammonia.  I know it sounds weird, but if I work out more than 45 minutes or so, I can actually smell ammonia when I am done.  Apparently it has something to do with your body not breaking something down and it's not getting rid of the ammonia.  I thought I was crazy until I actually read that it was an actual thing that happens.  Other than that I don't take anything else.  I probably should take calcium since I'm considered an "older adult" now.  

wear a swim cap so your hair isn't wet... as for other attire... go to the Ohio forum and ask there - they'll have a good idea of what to wear without freezing.... or ask on Cup of joe... those folks can scare you but a harmless non-political questions won't get you any grief and they do come up with good suggestions....

Good Monday morning to everyone!  Had a rough weekend with ill son and girl scout cookie sales starting (5 hours of walking door to door)... so didn't get the ride in. and didn't start today off well either - son is home still recovering so no Y - but I  figured I'd run on home treadmill only it didn't work - but after perservering I got the tread to work and I got my run in for today.  Missed the first swim workout of the season but can only do what i can do.

Hope everyone is off to a good start for the week!

Cathleen