Hiccups in the Plan

I rebooted this challenge on Monday with much optimism but the rest of my week went south very quickly!

Monday was also a day that I donated blood,  I use the apheresis method which takes out blood and returns everything but the red blood cells.

By the next day I had a cough which turned into something worse and then something worse. 

So I was in bed all week.

When I was able to eat it was a banana and almond butter sandwich or a Vega One protein shake.

I'm still on course as I haven't had any dairy but I think I may not be ready to resume the blogging just yet.

2014 - A New, New New Years Resolution

Happy New Year!

Yes, I'm a few days late at that start of my resolution, but I will tell you that I rarely ever do them - which means I rarely have something to regret when I quit.

If you have read the previous posts and the journey of the 28 Day Challenge, you will know that I had successes and failures. More failures than not, but I think I figured out why...

Our bodies are machines that run better when they have the correct fuel mixtures. If you put the wrong fuel type in your car, you notice a performance difference. Same goes with our bodies. After a year of research and a resolution to change my eating habits "by the math", I have rediscovered things that I did remember back in my nutrition class from 17 years ago. My diet has been all over the place, protein heavy, fat heavy, carb deficient. It's crazy how quickly an ounce of cheese can flip the scales to fat heavy.

Basically, we need to have carbohydrates (as not all carbs are bad), protein, and fat. The importance is the percentage of each that can make or break your eating habits and goals.

Here is a good source I found: http://weighing-success.com/NutritionalNeeds.html

If you go down toward Step 3, you will see a chart that shows the percentages of the popular diets and meal plan services. The average is almost all carb heavy, with the exception of Atkins and South Beach... which are just not good for you... I had to look up Ornish, it looks to be some new fad diet.

My goal is going to be 50%-Carbs, 30%-Protein, 20%-Fat AND maintaining a plant based diet for ONE YEAR! Keep in mind, that it isn't just percentages, but the grams of each that are important. On an 1,800 calorie/day plan, I am allowed:

Type	%	grams	calories
Carbs	50%	225	900
Protein	30%	135	540
Fat	20%	40	360

For example, the breakfast listed below has 34g (38%) / 17g (19%) / 17g (43%)... that's C/P/F. This means that I only have 23 grams of fat left for the day which would have gone WAY over the balance if I were consuming dairy... sad, because I do love cheese... and that explains the 40+ lbs I intend on losing.

This may be beyond the scope of an Engine 2 Challenge, but I will continue to post here until I come up with a name for my new blog. Besides, I'm getting visitors and I like seeing numbers.

Day 1 - Breakfast

Tofu breakfast sandwich - 34g (38%) / 17g (19%) / 17g (43%)

3oz. Broiled tofu slice seasoned with cumin and smoked paprika

2 slices of Milton's whole grain bread

1/2 avocado

1 cup cooked kale