P90X, Day 28-29: Rest Day; Shoulders, Chest, Triceps + Ab Ripper X

My rest day yesterday consisted of me going pretty far off my norm:

1.  Apple
2. Banana
3. 2 pcs mung bean cake
4. Egg white veggie omelet with 3 1/2 slices of sourdough bread and some pieces of potatoes
5. Yogurtland
6. Vegetarian chili w/ veggie sausage
7. Sweet potato chips

Okay, maybe it was just #3 that was the farthest from my norm. It felt good to finally eat normally! But I woke up this morning with some new pimples... I don't know if it's the #3 for sure but once I finish off this bag of #6 (the ingredients of which are just sweet potatoes, oil, and salt) I'll be back to normal boring plain ol' fruits, veggies, and tofu.

Today I ate a banana, protein smoothie, apple, part of a nasty asian pear, some nuts, mung bean cake, salad, veggie chili w/ sausage, banana w/ pb, swt potato chips. I ate a lot today!

This morning I did my first day of Month 2. Started with Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps (and the normal Ab Ripper X). The push ups were TOUGH. There were 3 exercises that I didn't even do: the first was the tricep side raise and the other two were push-up variations. Every move was different, as opposed to Month 1's chest/arm/back work outs where you do 3-4 moves and you repeat. No pull-up bar today either. I chose weights that were too heavy usually, oops -- getting overachievy here! I feel shitty that I can't do push ups. They just discourage me from the very beginning. And OMG, the clap / plyo / airborne push ups? (And I totally saw the Asian guy laugh when Tony said "the clap.") Tony does a push up, then pushes all of his limbs off the floor and does a clap while his body is airborne. I can't even clap at the top of my push up!!!! And the push ups on my knees are hard because of the weight it puts on my accident knee. I guess that's the reason I'm doing this, though... so I can at some point be able to clap at the top of my push up.

My mom pointed me to an article in the LA Times' Health section today about the resting metabolic rate (RMR) and exactly what the difference is with the addition of more muscle vs. fat. I found it really interesting because the popular notion is that one pound of muscle burns a butt-ton of more calories than a pound of fat; this article says that while one pound of muscle burns more calories than the same amount of fat does, it's not nearly as much as we've been told.

An excerpt from the article quotes Claude Bouchard of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., who has authored several books and hundreds of scientific papers on the subject of obesity and metabolism:

"Brain function makes up close to 20% of RMR," he said. "Next is the heart, which is beating all the time and accounts for another 15-20%. The liver, which also functions at rest, contributes another 15-20%. Then you have the kidneys and lungs and other tissues, so what remains is muscle, contributing only 20-25% of total resting metabolism."

 This explains why you're exhausted after a test! :) Now, for the actual hard numbers:

So, if you slave at weightlifting and increase your muscle mass by an ambitious 20%, this translates into only a 4% to 5% increase in RMR. Since a 200-pound man has an RMR of roughly 2,000 calories, a 20% increase in muscle mass equals only an 80- to 100-calorie increase.

For fun, let's run the numbers in even more detail, adding the role played by body fat. Bouchard sent me a follow-up email explaining that — based on the biochemical and metabolic literature — a pound of muscle burns six calories a day at rest and a pound of fat burns about two calories a day, contrary to what the myth states. So, muscle is three times more metabolically active at rest than fat, not 50 times.

Then the author of the article quotes a few studies that show that more muscle doesn't translate to higher RMR. The end of the article had an extremely important point that I wish was brought up closer to the beginning: DIET plays the most important role in weight loss. I always thought that, based on my personal experience, that eating less is 75-80% of the formula for weight loss. The obesity researcher estimates that diet plays a whopping 90% emphasis on weight loss.

Speaking of being overweight, I just skimmed through a story about ob-gyns in South Florida turning away women who are obese (I got the link while I was on the above story's page: http://www.latimes.com/health/fl-hk-no-obesity-doc-20110516,0,7972289.story). The article quotes a number of reasons, but the main reason was that these medical offices are afraid of getting sued and being responsible for an obese woman's health (and her baby's health if she is preggers). Apparently it's harder to read an ultrasound as clearly in obese women and.. harder to deliver a baby? And the risk of complication is apparently higher? Oigh.. I think it sucks, but if it makes their job harder and a higher risk of getting sued, then I don't know if I can blame them. That is, if the reasons the article cited are true.

P90X, Day 27: Yoga X

Last night:
56.5% tbw
18.1% bf

WOW, I made it through  45 min without stopping!! I actually made it through all the billion warrior poses. The vinyasas are freakin hard and I get sloppy towards the end. I stopped after the poses where you stand on one leg and do different things w/ your hands.

I was badly yesterday: I ate an Odwalla bar. They are vegan, but the first ingredient in this one was brown rice syrup and the second was organic rolled oats. Tons of carbs. I ate it slowly, but I was starving, and I figured it was better than nothing. I left for work at 8:10am and I got home at 9pm; I had 1 banana, an asian pear, 42g protein smoothie, an apple, nuts, lunch was a salad of spinach, veggies, tofu, and fruit, and that Odwalla bar later that afternoon. When I was going home I was really hungry but I was so tired and for me, tired usually wins. Now this pisses me off: during the week I become so tired I can't wait for the weekend, but when Friday night rolls around I'm in bed by 9:30 and I can't sleep until 11. I woke up this morning at 7:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. That was way not enough to make up for the 6-7 hours of sleep a night I've been getting this week. So annoyed. I really really need to work on getting to bed on time next week.

P90X, Day 26: Core Synergistics. + Food, Stats

Yesterday food: banana, 42g protein smoothie, banana w/ pb, asian pear, 2 servings of chili w/ veg sausage, chewed on a Trident, veggie juice, soy protein shake

Last night:
55.8% tbw, 18.8% bf

This morn:
120.0 lbs on the money

My chance at performing better at Core Synergistics was today. Haunted by the bad memories of not doing well when I did it earlier this week, I vowed to perform better. I worked up quite a sweat. Pretty tired near the end. I'm glad I did better though!!!

Tomorrow: Yoga

P90X, Day 25: X Stretch

I stretched this morning. Okay, this video is an hour, and I don't get how you can stretch for a full freaking hour. I stopped after 0:35; I would start complaining to myself about Yoga after about 5 minutes but the stretching one wasn't as bad. But omg -- Tony is SO pervy. The Dreya arm stretch or whatever is, first of all, completely useless for me, and second of all, having everyone stick his/her arms out in front and "imagine squeezing something"??? Ew. I was unable to do the stretch where you lie on your neck with your legs in the air; the farthest I can go is my upper back. My neck does not bend down that far!

Ok, work time. been very busy lately. and sleepy...

Food.

food today: banana, 42g protein smoothie, nuts, apple, gazpacho soup, raw salad, banana w/ peanut butter, tofu, meatless meatballs, veggie juice. stayed away from the chocolate layer cake. also decided to include veggie juice in this list from now on. today i ate, drank, and slurped a lot of vegetables. yummers.

so, since i started needing to be at work at 9AM, my schedule has been:

5AM wake up
5:15 or so get out of bed
5:30 or so start working out after brushing my teeth and throwing water onto my face
6:30 finish working out (this will be a problem after I get to 1.5-hr long workouts); make protein smoothie
7 get in shower, clothes, make up, hair
8:00-8:15 drive to work
9 get to work
6-7 leave work
6:45-8 get home, make veggie juice, eat something
10 bed

areas that need improvement: I NEED TO BE IN BED BY 9. like 0:45 ago. I need to get out of bed and working out more quickly so I won't be late to work next week when I have 1.5-hr long workouts.

i know this started off as an exercise blog, but that morphed into an overall health blog, and i started writing about food on here, and i found out exactly what i've been eating that's been causing my acne, so in a roundabout way the relationship between food and acne fits on this blog. since I should have been in bed 0:45 ago, the quick run down of food to acne is as follows:

1. foods that break down into glucose (including glucose itself, duh) will cause your pancreas to release insulin to stabilize your blood sugar.
2. the fast release of insulin causes an increase in androgens. (also it causes an increase in serotonin in your brain, which is what the "sugar crash" is.)
3. increase in androgens means more sebum excreted through your facial pores.
4. hello acne.

well, that's the thought behind it. it's obviously not agreed upon everyone yet. i just hate people who say diet and acne aren't related. they say acne is caused by hormones. well what causes changes in hormones?!??! gee, i wonder. FOOD, maybe!? anyway, this completely explains why my low-refined-carb diet is clearing up my skin; i thought it was just the sugar i was refraining from that made my skin clear up, but i think it's all of it: eggs, dairy, carbs (including the sugar). processed foods in general. i just need to eat food that is low on the glycemic index. it's been two days strong.

i am so, so, so excited to have clear skin. and abs. but really, clear skin. that is my motivator.

P90X, Day 24: Kenpo X

This morning I felt much better than yesterday. No headaches. I had a hard time balancing though; I don't remember toppling over this much. And I'm wondering if my back kicks are side kicks... however, I have finally gotten the hang of Star Punches. Anyway, nothing much new here, tomorrow is stretching and then Kenpo again on friday.

Hmm what I ate yesterday was in last night's post... It definitely gets easier to refrain from the food you want after time. Cravings are also easier to handle after the initial transition. I've been off eggs and dairy and I've been minimizing my refined carbs (especially sugar) close to nil except for two occasions in the past two weeks with the last week being more strict and where I want to be for the rest of my life. I still want sweets after lunch, but I don't keep any sweets at work and the sweets that ARE at work have milk in them. OH, that reminds me -- I haven't updated you guys on what I've found out with regards to refined carbohydrates and acne. I'll update you later when I can type with 10 fingers (as opposed to just one on my phone), but the short story is that it looks like I have another motivator to continue eating only fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans tofu, and air.

Food Today

I was really good today. Banana w/ pb, 42g protein smoothie, baked tofu in tomato sauce, another banana w/ pb, asian pear, nuts, raw vegetables in hummus, veggie juice, TJ's meatless meatballs. ~75g protein, no refined carbs, no refined sugars.