Strap Hope

I met with Kym, one of the fitness directors and water teachers, to talk about the issue with my beautiful Polar watch in the pool.  She got a different strap for me - a T31 Coded - and promised that it would work in the water.  I've got class this morning and CAN NOT WAIT to see if it works.  Fingers crossed!!

Whole Foods nutrition concept

I read this on the Whole Foods website tonight.  It is a summary of their Health Starts Here concept, and I was really interested in how much it followed along what I learned about at tonight's nutrition seminar.

Eat whole, unprocessed foods.

We believe that food in its purest state — unadulterated by artificial additives, sweeteners, colorings, and preservatives — is the best tasting and most nutritious food available.

Eat a colorful variety of plants.

No matter what type of diet you follow — including those with dairy, meat or seafood — reconfigure your plate so the majority of each meal is created from an abundance of raw and cooked vegetables, fruits, legumes and beans, nuts, seeds and whole grains.

Eat healthy fats.

Get healthy fats from whole plant sources, such as nuts, seeds and avocados. These foods are rich in micronutrients as well. Work to eliminate (or minimize) extracted oils and processed fats.

Eat nutrient dense foods.

Choose foods that are rich in micronutrients when compared to their total caloric content. Micronutrients include vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytochemicals. For guidance on this, look for Aggregate Nutrient Density Index (ANDI) scoring system in our stores.

Ouch!

The other thing I did today, which I'm quite proud of, is to go to my first core fitness class.  30 minutes of Bosu, stability, crunch, squat exercises to strengthen my glutes, lower back and abs.  I suck at it - my squats are pathetic - but it was a lot of fun.  Kate mixed up the exercises, she had some rockin' music, and I'm already hurting!  A good kind of hurt.  I'm so glad one of my aqua classmates suggested I try out something new!

Nutrition Try It Tuesday

Today was my first Try It Tuesday with Lifetime Fitness' 90 Day Challenge.  Tonight Mark, the nutrition expert at our club, gave a very interesting (and jam-packed) hour long talk about nutrition.  He really focused on the social aspect of nutrition and eating patterns, which I got a lot out of.  He likened us changing our diets to dancing - we have been dancing the tango with our partners, our friends, our families for so very long.  One leads, the other follows.  Now, all of a sudden, I want to start to dance the salsa.  I either dance alone with no partner, encourage my partner to try and dance with me, or get pressured by the other dancers to get back to the tango. He talked about parties, eating out, office/workplace pressures, family issues... I know much of my issue with food is the social side to it.

But he also talked about the biological side to it.  His general attitude towards food is JERF.  Just Eat Real Food.  By ax-ing out processed, boxed, jarred food, he claims you can eliminate cravings completely.  By eating nutritionally-dense food, your body can get all its nutrition requirements satiated, and do it with lower calories.  He issued a challenge to try and consume 1200 calories by eating only "real food." Meat, veg, fruit, nuts & grains.  He said our bodies wouldn't even be able to get to that high a calorie intake because we would be full and satisfied every day.

It totally makes sense.  I look in my own pantry at the chips, pretzels, breakfast bars, pastas and cereals.  I know that if we got down to basics, we would be healthier and happier.  I've got to start paying more attention to what my friend & nutritionist Natalie has to say!

90-Day Challenge

Well, it's really time to bring it on.  In addition to my personal MMEW challenge, I have officially signed up to be a part of the Lifetime Fitness 90-Day Challenge.  From the start of Feb to the end of May, I have the chance to meet with a personal trainer for an initial assessment/strategy planning session; take part in Try It Tuesday seminars, classes and workouts to learn more about fitness, exercise, and nutrition; take advantage of discounts on personal training sessions and metabolic testing; and compete against myself and others at the club, in the state, and nationwide.  The competition part I really don't care about at all.  I'm not going to lose 30%+ of my body weight in three months.  But I'm looking forward to weekly weigh-ins, working with a trainer and nutritionist, putting together some weightlifting programs, and learning more about making this my life and not a phase.  I'm starting at 174.8.

I did it!

Got to donate today!!   My hemoglobin was beautiful, and my actual donation only took 6 minutes.  It feels so good to save up to 3 lives with just an hour of my day, start to finish.  And I did it all by myself!