Body fat tests and Greek yogurt substitutes....

I keep meaning to get back on the sensitivity diet, but I've not restarted, so there's that.... :)

At the same time, I am really feeling unrepentant. I've been having a grand old time enjoying life and foods and friends since the Texas Bar Exam, and I haven't gained much weight back (just three pounds), so I've been sitting pretty at about 110. This is a good, comfortable weight for me, but I WOULD like to check and see if I'm sensitive to any more foods and thus will probably dedicate another month of my life to it in the near future. (It won't be as bad as the first go-round, since I know that I can eat eggs and rice and chicken and pretty much any other meat.)

I've also introduced Lactaid into my life, and I.LOVE.IT. It's lactose-free milk and milk products, and they're keeping me sane. I was so unhappy when I discovered I had a lactose intolerance (although I was thankful, because the gas and accompanying cramps could have been attributed to many other things, so narrowing it down and honing in on this sensitivity was a big deal). Now? It's like old times!

Which brings me to my experiment of the day--I know I'm sensitive to sugars. When I'm not eating it, I FEEL better, and after eating it again after a month of having not, I was shocked at how sluggish it made me feel, and how disgustingly SWEET it was. I tried Truvia in its place, but it gave me a headache, so I swapped to honey and agave because they're much less processed alternatives. That being said, sugar seems to be added to EVERYTHING, and you never know what kind of sugar it is (as in, it says 11 grams of sugars--aside from the label telling you what's in the product, you don't know if the product derives most of its sugars naturally, like fruit, or from additions of sweeteners). Particularly, there is a LOT of sugar in Greek yogurt. This product is like the trifecta of awesomeness and stuff I'm not supposed to eat, since it contains both sugar AND lactose.

Today, I got irritated with the fact that a 100 calorie portion of Greek yogurt contains ELEVEN grams of sugar. That's absurd, in my opinion. So I got out my Lactaid cottage cheese (I hate the texture of cottage cheese, but it's good for you) and decided to try to make something similar to Greek yogurt. I put 1/4 cup of it into a food processor, added 1 tablespoon of Lactaid milk, spooned in 1 teaspoon of organic honey, then sprinkled a pinch of cinnamon and cocoa powder in it and put it in motion. I topped it with 1/4 cup Kashi cinnamon crumbles (yes, it has sugars, but I'm looking for some awesometastic alternatives and considering making my own granola because it's not really *that* difficult). And do you know what? IT TASTED A LOT LIKE GREEK YOGURT. And I was able to control the type of sugars that went into it. :) And with the Kashi on top, it had 10 grams of protein and 130 calories. I'm going to count that as a win.

Monday, I also had the opportunity to get my body fat tested at my gym. They used a 3-spot test, and measured me as between 19 and 20 percent body fat! Because I know that about three months ago, I would have been AT LEAST 28% body fat, I was both shocked and excited. I've also started a new work out regimen in the gym to increase strength, so I'm going to see how that impacts my body and am going to try to stick to it as closely as I can (aside from adding more cardio than is recommended--I'm not a bodybuilder and I think that the cardio recommendations were made with bodybuilding in mind).

So, do *you* have any "healthy" food substitutions that you like to make or any recipes that can double as a deliciously decadent counterpart?

Progress (measurements)

Lately I've been adding foods in no particular order, although I'm definitely still following the "rules": I don't add anything that's in the same food family within five days of the other, I still space them out, and I monitor my weight religiously to make sure I'm not sensitive to the food. The past 24 hours, I've added in black pepper and strawberries. Neither caused a reaction, and I'm happy to be able to add them to my "safe" foods list, although they're not absolutely necessary. Tonight I ate ONE STEM of broccoli (which didn't make me gain weight last time) and got terrible gas--I recall having gas last time, and apparently that's not a normal reaction to broccoli (which is just what I wrote it off as). :) That makes several foods that I really can't eat without gastric distress. These foods are:

1) Caffeine
2) Wheat
3) Sweet potatoes (but not normal potatoes--weird, huh?)
4) Broccoli
5) Cashews (I'm allergic to peanuts, so I guess it stands to reason)
6) Milk (although I think I'm going to introduce lactose-free milk tomorrow and see what happens)

Some foods I'm not necessarily SENSITIVE to but that I like to stay away from are butter and onions, because I don't like how they make me feel.

As far as weights, this morning I weighed in at 108.2 and this evening I weighed 108.6 lbs. I also finally took some measurements of my body this morning, and my progress looks like this:

Obviously this is a huge difference, and great progress in such a small period of time. At this point, I'm not even TRYING to lose weight. I'm just following my diet and working my ass off in the gym, and the weight just keeps coming off. I've decided to revamp my program to focus on really gaining muscle and cutting fat (rather than focusing on weight like I've been), so I'm going to be researching how to do that.

I've already discussed my training this morning, but here are my charts with regard to exercise and diet, respectively:

Also, today I did something big: I registered for a 5K. It's only my second one, and the first time, I was an undiagnosed asthmatic, ran with bronchitis, and wanted to die. My time was around 33 minutes, if I recall correctly. This time, I'd REALLY love to run a 27 minute 5K, but I'll settle for under 30. :) I'm going to be training for this in the gym and outside too, and I'm really excited--but I don't have much time! It's going to be on March 9! (Wish me luck.)

Elimination Diet, Beef + Yeast

So I'm not allergic to beef, and SHOCKINGLY not allergic to yeast (which I choked down last night, and which sucked, lol). My weight last night was 112.0, and my weight this morning was 110.4.

Yesterday was a good workout day, and a great food day as well. I ate responsibly, hit my back and lats REALLY hard, and have the residual lactic acid/muscle soreness to prove it. Today I worked out my legs, and I *know* they're going to be screaming tomorrow. My workouts from the past two days looked like this:

Feb 6, 2013: Shoulders/Lats Workout

Feb 2, 2013: Leg Workout Day

Yesterday's food intake looked like this:

Yesterday, I scheduled interviews for two jobs next week, and while I'm excited, I'm also kinda bummed. This means that I'm going to have to plan REAALLLLY far in advance so I can square away my diet, and it also means that I'm going to have to spend time driving rather than studying to get to those interviews (they're far away, for the record). However, I REALLY need a job, so I'm sucking it up, and would really appreciate some good thoughts sent my way!

Safe food days

Yesterday I wrote a blog expressing how annoyed I was about having to wait until my body normalized again, but then I decided to bellyache to one of my good friends and not post such a negative post on blogspot. It has officially been three days since I broke my diet--not entire days, but about 55 hours, and my weights the past few days have looked like this:

I've yet to weigh myself for tonight, but I anticipate being back to normal tomorrow and being able to reintroduce onion powder and pork. :) (Or so I hope.) The past few days, I've been eating a LOT of chicken and rice, apples, grapes, bananas, and pistachios. And you know...it hasn't been that bad! I've mostly been irritated at how long it took for my body to return to normal, but considering the extent of my reaction, I guess I shouldn't be surprised (I also discovered blood in my stool the day following my food binge, so I'm not quite sure how I should take that). 

Yesterday and today I hit the gym hard. Despite my time constraint in the gym yesterday, I hit my biceps hard enough in a 15 minute weights workout that they are SCREAMING today. I think the fact that I really hit it as hard as I did and didn't allow for rests are what caused the great workout, and I hope to do that again sometimes, particularly for small muscle group days. 

Today I opted to do some interval training with my weights, and started the sets with some cardio. I burn a lot more calories when I do interval training with my weights, but it REALLY takes a lot out of me, and I prefer to do it only once or so a week. 

I want to focus on getting better at doing pushup burpees and mountain-climbers in the future. I'm not able to sustain them continuously like I am for my up-and-overs and my jump roping, and I know that it's due to lack of practice. 

Tonight I'm eating more chicken over rice, and might make a chicken and rice soup to "mix" things up a little bit. We shall see--hopefully pork will be on the menu from now on too, but it's *really* hard finding unadulterated pork, so probably not as often as chicken.

Elimination Diet, Day 9

So today I did it. I ate tons of dehydrated bananas. TONS. I dehydrated three of them, and I got better at dehydrating the more I did it. :) (I only ate them in the morning though, until I could gauge whether I'm sensitive to them or not.) And the verdict is in...I'M NOT. I'm also not sensitive to chicken, which I ate the heck out of yesterday.

As for my weight--today I weighed 111.8 (morning) and 111.0 (evening). I'm thinking the decrease in weight over the day is probably because I hit the gym so hard this afternoon. :) It was a legs day, which means I worked my pahookus off and burned some serious calories. I think today's workout  was a lot easier, since I had some protein in my belly (I ate some chicken before I went) and since I had the promise of brown rice for dinner tonight. I'm reeealllly hoping I'm not sensitive to rice, because I lurve it. It would be a sad day if I could no longer eat it.

Here is my chart from the gym today:

Today also kinda sucked, even though I was in food bliss. I had a falling out with my boyfriend, and it made me feel horrible. Here's to hoping tomorrow is a better day! I figure my butt is gonna throb like a sore tooth in the morning, which means I'm going to have to give my arms a great workout to go with it.

Tomorrow, I've got to go to the grocery store, since my dad forgot to get my dogs their food, and I also need to pick up some apples (I've been eating them frequently), some more nuts, and some more bananas. I reckon I'll dehydrate TONS just to keep around for when I need something crunchy. One good thing I can say about this diet is it is teaching me how to do new things in the kitchen--first roasting a chicken, then using the oven as a dehydrator! I don't know what's next, but I don't think I'll mind a bit. :)

Elimination Diet: Day 7 (AND BROCCOLI)

Today, I weighed in at 112.8 in the morning (although I reweighed after a BM, which I had been doing, and it was down a pound at 111.8). My evening weight was 113.8.

I've already discussed yesterday, which was much like the day before, and almost exactly like today. 

Did that make any sense? (I'm guessing not.)

Anyways, what that means is that I'm pseudo-starving myself, not because I am not hungry or want to lose weight, but because I am SO SICK OF THE FOODS. Fortunately, tonight I was able to introduce broccoli back into my palate, and ate an entire crown of the stuff. This followed an ENTIRE BAG of pistachios, which amounted to about 800 calories and about which I don't feel guilty at all.

On the other hand, today's workout went surprisingly well. I was able to hit cardio hard, and I also got in a good delts/lats/biceps workout, as evidenced by my Sparkpeople's record: 

Tomorrow is going to be even better, because I'm roasting a chicken. :)

Elimination Diet, Day 4/My Day at the Gym

Yesterday was more of the same diet foods. My morning weigh-in was at 113.8 and my evening weigh-in was 115.2. So far, my chart looks like this:

	Morning Weight	Evening Weight
Night before	---	118.8
Day 1	117.8	114.4
Day 2	114.4	115.4
Day 3	114.4	115.8 (after din)
Day 4	113.8	115.2

My weight is holding pretty steady, and I managed to drink 8 glasses of water yesterday. The corners of my mouth are healing nicely, and I hope that in a couple of days, the cracking will be a distant nightmare. 

So, I alluded to a horrible incident in the gym yesterday. Let me explain....

I already knew it was going to be a shitty day. My littlest brother was running late for school (I drop him off in the morning to ensure that I get up and get my pahookis to the gym), I forgot my breakfast (sliced pineapple) on my way out of the door, and I was starving come gym time. 

Then I get on the only open treadmill to start my fitness test and the woman on the one beside it had the worst imaginable breath ever. I'm talking....rank. It made me want to throw up, except, well, I didn't have anything in my darn stomach to heave! 

I managed to get through my upright bike, my AMT, and my running cardio (my fitness test was better than the last time, so that's a plus!); then I headed to the weight room. Since I had done pecs and lower back the day before, I figured I could do some triceps and abs to balance it out and focus on legs during the latter part of the week. So I grab my bosu ball and I'm heading to set up my station when I hear a guy kinda yell/grunt really loudly by the leg press machine. I figure he smushed his finger between two plates (haven't we all?) and I didn't give it much thought....until he did it again, much louder, and remained hunched by the machine. 

I cautiously approached him from the other side, asking if he was okay (because I thought maybe he had somehow gotten caught under the machine--I had no idea how I was going to help, but I HAD to offer). That's when I notice his hands were curled into claws and that he was seizing. 

At that moment, he fell down and began to convulse. I've seen someone have a seizure before, and luckily there was someone else in the weight room at that time who ran to help assist me. We rolled him over, and then realized this was no normal seizure. He was bleeding from his mouth and his eyes. His eyes actually looked black around the edges because of the blood vessels, and I saw blood coming from them. It wasn't just broken blood vessels, but ACTUAL blood. Now, had it just been coming from his mouth, I would have figured he had bitten his tongue. As it was, we knew something was very VERY wrong. 

I told the guy who was holding him to stay with him, then SPRINTED to the main desk to tell the person to call 911; that a man was having a seizure. Being as she was from another country, I guess she didn't understand me or why I was shouting. I shouted to the rest of the gym that if a medical professional was there, that they needed to come fast, because he needed a doctor or a nurse. By that time, I had already grabbed my phone and started dialing 911. They answered immediately, and after I calmed down, I explained where I was, what was happening, and to send help. A few minutes later, the managers of the facility also came downstairs and attempted to help. There was nothing I could do, and he was having large muscle contractions by this time, and lapsing in and out of consciousness. The police chief arrived, and about ten minutes after making the call, the paramedics (FINALLY) showed up. 

It turns out that this guy (who couldn't have been older than 21 or 22) had a preexisting condition; he wasn't wearing a medical bracelet indicating his propensity for seizures (which I know can be difficult and burdensome to wear in a gym). The medics got him in the bus and started an IV, and he suffered a gash to the head as well when he seized. I gave the police a report, and then went cut my workout short and went home. 

The rest of the day was pretty much wasted. I didn't feel better until I called the hospital, explained who I was (to three separate people), and just asked if he was okay. They told me they couldn't give me a report (which I was okay with and understood, due to HIIPA), but that he was being released (it was noon at that time).

However, it got me thinking....the emergency procedures in this gym were sorely lacking. No one covered this guy to keep him from going into shock (and the weight room was cold). The people behind the front desk were not equipped to handle such an emergency. They didn't even call the ambulance, but instead opted to phone the police, which could have wasted PRECIOUS minutes had this been something worse (not that this wasn't God-awful) and had I not called 911 instead. No one brought a defib in case this guy's heart stopped, and I'm not sure they even had one. It seems to me that every single gym should have an emergency plan in place, particularly at a university. No alarm was raised, no intercom system was used, and no one seemed to be in much of a hurry. 

It also made me think about how fragile life is, how unpredictable your day may be, and how much I hold on to trivial details when I should be thinking about the larger picture. 

Just food for thought....