Day 19

Well folks, the diet has begun to take it's mental toll on us. The good news is that in a week we get to switch it up a little bit, although I think calorically it stays about the same. I was feeling particularly starved a couple of days ago, so I decided to log into fitday.com and punch in all of my numbers to get a good idea of where I was at. This is what I got.



Now it's not even the ratio of protein:carbs:fats that is upsetting. It's the sheer number of calories. If I am 140 pounds, one could assume that my basal metabolic rate is roughly 1400 calories per day. That means that my body requires 1400 calories per day to breathe, blink, sweat, digest, you know, all that boring stuff. So if I'm a pretty active person ANYWAY....AND I'm working out hard for 90 minutes every day.....this diet is probably doing me more harm than good. :-(

When you consistently eat near or below your basal metabolic rate, you send your body into a sort of emergency mode, where it starts slowing down the metabolism in an effort of self preservation. Basically, your body thinks there is a famine and starts hanging on to everything you give it, just in case you never see food again. This is kind of the OPPOSITE of what we're trying to do here.

I know that this is partly my own fault because the diet is so damn boring that I sometimes just skip a snack or something, not because I'm not hungry (believe me, I AM!), but because if I have to look at another piece of tofu, I am going to punch it. yeah, I said it. I'm going to punch the tofu.

So, NOW I am making sure to not skip those snacks, and have even added about 100-150 calories worth of an extra fat serving (i.e Sunflower seed butter, avacado, salad dressing, blah blah). ALSO, since Giacomo and I only get 1 serving of carbs a day, we had both been sort of "saving" them for dinner, since it is the meal that we share with each other consistently and we wanted to have it seem like a real dinner. In practice however, by dinnertime (which is usually about 9:30 at night thanks to giacomo's AWESOME work schedule ::rolls eyes::) I have been completely famished. So I started having my carb serving in about mid afternoon, when people tend to hit a slump, and it has helped out a lot. :-)

Giacomo, super hero that he is, barely has a complaint about the way we have been eating. I honestly do not understand this man. If I put him on a sand and ketchup diet, he'd be happy as a pig in mud and have 9% bodyfat in 5 days. I swear to god....alien. he must be. Of course the fact that he's down about 13 pounds in 20 days probably has something to do with the pep in his step, while I angrily sit at my starting weight counting my food out like a looney. Sheesh.

Here are some photos we snapped in cognito at 24 hour fitness on chest/back day!


Heavy Pants


Wide Pushups


Wide Grip Pullups


Boo Yah! ...I'll get there!



PS, we are very much looking forward to our "rest week", although I've heard it's not really a rest at all! Somehow I am not surprised...