My Nutrition and Exercise Plan

My nutrition guidelines:

The emphasis is on whole, fresh, organic, clean foods (meaning as little processed and artificial foods as possible). I found the most useful books to get this information from was The Eat-Clean Diet by Tosca Reno (I’m now reading her Eat Clean Diet Recharged! Book and I LOVE IT!) and Body For Life by Bill Phillips. In addition to this I am a Weight Watchers member and I keep my portions under control by following the points system in addition to eating clean. So, I eat clean first and then apply points to be sure my portions are correct. The more active I am the more I use the flex and activity points fully. I let my body guide me in terms of hunger and energy. You shouldn’t be physically hungry unless it’s just before your next meal time.

I eat 5 - 6 small meals per day spaced 2 to 3-3.5 hours apart (I try not to exceed 4 hours)

I eat a protein, complex carb and fruit or veggie with each meal. I limit complex carbs at night and try to eat my last meal of the day at least 2 hours before I go to bed.

Typical foods I eat:

Chicken tenders - free range when possible
Fish - tilapia, tuna, cod
Lean pork loin roast
Lean ground turkey
Turkey breast roasted
Lean cuts of steak
Hard boiled eggs/egg whites
Scrambled eggs/egg white combo
Omelets
Non-fat Maple Greek Organic yogurt
2% swiss or provolone occasionally
Non-fat sour cream
Protein powder
Soy Milk
Natural Organic Peanut Butter
Almonds
Sunflower Seeds
Vegan Boca Burgers ( I love these!!)



Apples, Bananas, Papaya, Blueberries, Strawberries, Rasberries, Blackberries, Oranges, Avocado, melons, nectarines, peaches, etc.

(My favorite is organic blueberries! They have such great flavor compared to regular berries!)

Spinach, Chard, Artichokes, Squash, Zucchini, Onions, Carrots, Cherry or Grape Tomatoes, Cucumbers, etc.

(Acorn squash is new for me, I bake it, then mix a little soy milk, small amount of brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice into it…delish!)

All fruits and vegetables are organic, the flavor is much better and I believe the nutrients are as well.

Oatmeal, Brown Rice Cereal, Brown Rice Pasta, Whole Wheat Pasta, Ezekiel Bread, Organic low cal whole wheat bread, Organic corn tortillas, Wild Rice, Brown Rice, Sweet Potatoes, Flax Seed, Wheat Germ, Bee Pollen.

Other things I use:
half n half, organic brown sugar or sucanat, spices, olive & canola oil, real butter, garlic, low sodium soy sauce, spice packets and marinades that are organic or don’t have additives in them, dark chocolate, coffee, teas, organic low cal mayo, mustard, organic pasta sauces measured in small amounts, pure vanilla.

Sample of a typical Day:

Meal 1: ½ cup oats, splash of soymilk, sprinkle of brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice,
flax/wheatgerm/bee pollen mix and ¼ - ½ cup blueberries
3-5 egg whites, water and vitamins. 3.5 to 4 points

Coffee with 1 tsp brown sugar and half and half .
1.5 points

Meal 2: Shredded left over chicken in 2 small corn tortillas with ¼ avocado spread on each, stuffed with spinach. Handful of grape tomatoes, 1 small orange, water. 6 points

Meal 3: ½ cup nonfat organic maple greek yogurt with flax/wheat germ/bee pollen mix, ½ banana, 3 egg whites, water or tea. 4 points

Meal 4: Apple with natural peanut butter and I might snag a chicken tender (small piece) from leftovers. 5-6 points

Meal 5: ½ cup whole wheat pasta, 1 TBS organic alfredo sauce, 1 portion of ground turkey sauted in canola oil, green beans and a few grape tomatoes. 7-8 points

Meal 6: 1 egg, 2 whites, ½ banana (if I’m staying up late and it’s been 2-3 hours since my last meal but 2 hours before bed still…) 3.5 points

My points value is 25 per day…this meal is 32 points. I use flex and activity points throughout my week ever since I started working out with weights. I need the fuel, I listen to my body and feed it accordingly. Points help me track individual portions better. When I was just eating clean, I’d eat way too much. For some reason this combination works for me very well. I don’t stress over rules. If I want a piece of dark chocolate I’ll have one as long as I haven’t already had 4 in the day…I limit it to one square of a whole bar once a day or spread it out about one every 3 days if I’m just not in the mood for it every day. I listen to my body.

In clean eating you don’t use as much brown sugar as I do or half n half…but this plan is customized to me. My consumption of those things are small and my losses are still good and it makes eating this way more livable for me. Could I add a bag of potato chips daily? Maybe…but I would never do that because nutritionally it’s junk…processed, high fat, salty. No, thanks, I’ll take my less destructive coffee with half n half and brown sugar. I make my own rules up, but I pay attention to the Quality of my foods and watch my pitfalls (baked goods, high fat foods) and I don’t sabotage myself or live in denial about how a donut just doesn’t fit into my plan, but a small amount of dark chocolate does. Dark chocolate doesn’t cause my sugar cravings to go nuts and dark chocolate has some health properties to it that I like. I listen to my body and don’t eat what doesn’t agree with it or that I know full well is bad for it.

For me this is not a diet…this is how I live, how I eat and I don’t feel like I’m on a diet. I feel like I am making very serious choices about the care of my body and I take it very seriously now. I don’t poo-poo a cookie here or slice of cake there or a binge episode of KFC…I don’t go and eat those things and then either ignore it or make an excuse for why it was ok to eat it “that one time”. It’s not okay…so I either don’t do it or I do it and understand that my body will suffer for it, I will likely not see the results I want and it didn’t happen to me because I had a bad hair day, or cuz I was sick or cuz I’m stressed at work…I chose the action and suffered the consequences…and sometimes I do that. Like on Thanksgiving or Christmas or during vacation. Or sometimes I just really want something and if I can’t fit it into my plan then I weigh the consequences…if I indulge in a butterfinger bar right now…is it worth not seeing my best possible result at the end of the week. If it is, then I eat it…sometimes I eat it and then I work out more to make up for it or sometimes I choose not to eat it at all. Most of the time it’s a no brainer and I don’t eat it. I don’t want to get caught up in the unhealthy cycle of exercising in order to reverse bad food choices. That’s a lot of running in place in my opinion.

Exercise:

I find that if I stay active throughout my day it helps me have more energy in my day, digest my food better and keeps me motivated. I look for opportunities to get activity or stretching in throughout my whole day.

I start out my week packing a cooler to take to work (or packing my backpack if riding my bike to work) with a week’s worth of staple foods. I cook hard boiled eggs, and some other protein source like chicken or turkey or fish on Sunday night. I walk to the bus stop.

At work I make breakfast and head to my desk.

On my break I take the stairs up to the breakroom and go up and down a few extra times (I work in a 3 story building so I go up and down 3 flights 3-5 times…then I head to the kitchen for my coffee and then sit in the women’s lounge, kick my shoes off and do some floor stretches while I sip on my coffee. I take my coffee downstairs with me and finish it at my desk.

At lunch I head back up to the break room, taking the stairs (just once this time) and make my lunch, eat it, drink my water and then head out for a 30 minute power walk.

I take another break in the afternoon and my husband and I walk around the downtown area together. I also eat my next meal at this time or just before or just after our walk.

If it’s not raining and I’ve ridden my bike I will ride home. If I’ve taken the bus (in the winter it’s too cold to ride even when it’s not raining) I will often walk home.

Once home I eat my next meal and change into gym clothes. I do chores, check emails, get online and then grab my gym key and head to the bus stop. I take the bus to my husband’s work and we walk to the gym together. We workout - I usually do 20 minutes of cardio and then one major body area.

Weights:

I work Back and Biceps on the first training day, Chest, Shoulders and Triceps on the next training day and Legs and Abs on the next. I am trying to get a routine down right now that follows the Body for Life training method. I lift 3 days a week, every other day and rotate 2 upper body workouts and one lower body.

Cardio:
Eliptical, Treadmill (inclined) and Stationary Bike and I make my 20 minutes count! No fluffy workouts here. I also train Abs on my Cardio days, 3 days a week.

I stretch after my workouts.

Sometimes after our workout we walk home, depends on how patient we are feeling…the bus is SLOW (we live 2 - 2.5 miles from the gym and work…it’s about a 35 minute fast walk for me).

Home, shower and WATER and the next meal!

So, that’s basically my plan. I didn’t just jump into this…I did it slowly and built up to this. When I first started I was eating clean only…did that for a month and a half then added weight watchers…then slowly added some light cardio, mostly walking, then added some heavier cardio and then added more activity all throughout my day and now I’m working in some serious weight lifting. I want to focus more on cleaner eating and even more body sculpting with weights in 2010.