Trying the Zone

Starting Oct 1 Daniel and I are trying the Zone diet.

I have many reservations about this. My last food based experiment (the no dairy) did not go well. I already have weird OCD tendencies about my food. I get overly invested in systems that let me find excuses to strictly control what I eat. I am afraid that I'll become somewhat obsessive about weighing and measuring my food. I'm relying on Daniel to keep me 'on the level' about this aspect. In many cases I'm just going to rely on him to do the counting and measuring. It means more work for him, but this was his idea, so - he can manage ;-P. If it gets overwhelming I can stop.

I only get 11 blocks/day. Technically, I should only get 10, but I made Daniel round it up. It just seems like hardly any food at all - or at least it does if you're eating high density/high GI (glycemic index) carbs. Once you start factoring in lower GI carbs the volumes of food get kind of ridiculous. Which is the other thing about this diet that I am finding so strange. Eating large volumes of carbs - much larger than we have been.

The thing that makes me the very most sad of all is that this will really restrict my milk consumption. Since milk is a combo food, one cup of milk = a whole protein/fat/carb block. If i stuck to my normal 16oz PWO milk and 16oz with dinner, that would only leave me 7 blocks for the rest of my food for the day. The size of my daily cottage cheese snack has been cut in about half, too. After hearing repeatedly and often that the key to good performance is to 'eat more food', this feels almost as foreign as the need to eat more carbs to meet the required ratios.

If it seems at any point like it is negatively affecting my performance, or I am getting obsessive about the weighing and measuring, the diet will go, and I'll go back to the low-carb, whole food, solid portion size way I was eating before that seemed to be working just fine. All that said, though, I have heard and seen enough positive results from following this diet that I do feel it is worth trying. So - here goes.

Beginning Stats:
Weight: 125
Waist: 29"
Hips: 37"
Body Fat: 24%
LBM: 95#

Mini Cindy, and body comp check-in.

Today - due to work, and sore hips, I did not attend CFEB class, but I did manage to get in a quick little workout on my own just to get my blood pumping. I did a 10 minute Cindy, but subbed situps for squats.

in 10 minutes I got 5 rounds + 1 pushup.

1:30 | 1:47 | 1:59 | 2:07 | 2:07 | 0:30

The last couple rounds the pushups were 5+3+2

Body Measurements:

Not sure what my weight is last time i checked it was about 122 or 124 - weighing the day (or two) after Thanksgiving just isn't going to happen :-p.

Biceps: 10.5 (R & L) (+0.25)
Shoulders: 39.25 (+1.25!!!)
Chest: 33.5 (+0.25)
Waist: 30 (+0.25)
Hips: 36.5 (+0.5)
Thigh: 20.75 R (0) 21.0 L (0)
Calves: 13 R (+0.25) 13.25 L (0)

Wow - a whole 1.25" in my shoulders! And another 1/4" in both arms. I guess I'm not just imagining that my T-shirts are getting tight. I got a couple comments on my muscular arms at Thanksgiving, too :) That was gratifying.

I'm not going to read too much (anything) into my hips and waist measurement today - (2 days after thanksgiving!) But I don't think T-day can have had too much to do with my arms and shoulder measurements - and those are the really exciting ones :-)

Body Comp Analysis

Weight 124(0)

Arms: 10.25 (L&R) (+0.25)
Shoulders: 38 (-0.25)
Chest: 33.25 (-0.5)
Waist: 29.25 (-0.75)
Hips: 36 (-0.75)
Thigh: 20.75 R (+.75) 21.0 L (+.5)
Calves: 12.75 R (-0.25) 13.25 L (0)

Body fat content according to this Zone Body Fat % Calculator
BF% 22 (-2)
97# lean body mass
27# fat

Better!

I'm excited that my arms and my thighs are bigger - less excited that my shoulders and chest are smaller, but a 3# gain in lean body mass is cool :)

body comp analysis

Weight 124(+1)

Arms: 10 (L&R) (0)
Shoulders: 38.25 (0)
Chest: 33.25 (0)
Waist: 30 (+1)
Hips: 36.75 (+.75)
Thigh: 20 R 20.5 L (-0.25)
Calves: 13 R 13.25 L (0)

Body fat content according to this Zone Body Fat % Calculator
BF% 24 - back to where I was in June.
94# lean body mass
30# fat

Seems a little strange to me that so many of my measurements haven't changed at all, but I guess this is about what I expected after the past month of unclean eating and limited workouts. Just glad the 'damage' wasn't worse :)

Fitness Status Report

Ugh. I am really ready for the summer travels to be over and to get back to a regular schedule of working out, and a cleaner diet. I can definitely feel the effects of 'dirty' diet. Reduced energy, more weight :-p

Turns out the tight muscle on my right side that I thought was my hamstring is actually my hip. It was pretty tight before I left for Florida, and instead of getting better with a week of nothing (except burpees) it actually got worse. It loosens up with exercise, but as soon as I spend any time siting down, it tightens right back up. The only exercise I've done that it bothered my WHILE exercising (after loosening up) is running.

The drive up to Portland was made even less comfortable by my aching hip. Every time I got out of the car I had to limp around until it loosened up.

I've asked my friend Jeremy - who is an EXCELLENT body worker to take a stab at making it loosen up. Pretty sure that will happen Sunday.

In other news, I have also decided to drop out of the burpee challenge. :(

I was so sore after Murph that I couldn't do burpees for two days (46 & 47) I tried to pick them back up while I was in Portland and I got day 48 done+ 10 'make-up' burpees and then on day 49 I only got 35 done. We went to a (SUPER FUN) square dance on day 49, but that was also really hard on my hips, and arms - which in reality were still not quite fully recovered from Murph, and day 50 - our 13 hour drive back from Portland - burpees just were not going to happen. I had really hoped to make it at least to day 50, but as of yesterday, I was 147 burpees behind, and I'm pretty sure they're aggravating my hip issue, so ... between the devastation that was muph and the full weekend of long traveling, I lost my rhythm, and think it's probably just best to let them go. I got an awful lot out of it.

Looking forward I am excited to work on getting healthy(er) with a combination of body work, better diet, and some focused training with Max to work on trying to iron our my particular proprioception issues so that I can work out and get stronger without injuring myself.

Here comes year # 32. Bring it on.

Measurement Check-in

Weight: 123 (+2)

Shoulders: 38.25 (+0.25)
Waist: 29 (-1)
Hips: 36 (+1)
Thighs: R: 20.25(-0.25) L 20.75 (-3/8)
Biceps: 10 L & R (0)

Body fat content according to this Zone Body Fat % Calculator
Percent Body Fat: 22% - Down 2% Woohoo!
Total Body Fat: 27
Lean body Mass: 96

Huh - lost a whole inch in my waist, but gained it in my hips. Weird? Psyched about the reduced BF%, and a gain of .25 in my shoulders is nice. I wonder if we just measured my thighs in a different spot since it doesn't make sense to me that they would be smaller, but after following daniel's progress it's clear that what the body does doesn't always make intuitive sense.

Weekly Measurments

Weight 121

Waist: 30
Hips: 37
Bicep: R: 10 L:10
Forearm: R: 8 L: 8
Thigh: R: 20.5 L: 21 1/8

Body fat content according to this: Zone Body Fat % Calculator (I like this one better) 24%

Benchmark Measurements

Weight 121

Neck: 13.75
Shoulders: 38
Chest: 33.25
Bicep R: 9.75 L: 9.75
Forearms R: 7.5 L: 8.0
Wrist: 5.5
Waist: 30.25
Hips: 36.5
Thighs R: 19.75 L: 20.5
Calves R: 13 L: 13.25

Body fat content according to this: Body Fat % Calculator 25.28%

These are my Benchmarks. I wish I had taken measurements before i started CF, but this is where I am working from as of today ;-) Actually I wish I had taken measurements 2 years ago - I've come a long way since then, and it'd be nice to be able to see the progress since then. Oh well - hindsight :p