I Don't Run Enough...

I don’t run enough to outrun a bad diet.

Here is an example of what I mean by that.

I run 4, sometimes 5 days, a week while training for half marathons. That’s approximately 20-25 miles per week. I also meet with a trainer twice a week for strength training-two one-hour sessions.

An approximation of my calories burned through activity would look something like this:

25 miles x 100 calories burned per mile = 2500 calories burned

2 trainer sessions x 500 calories burned per session = 1000 calories burned

Total calories burned through exercise = 3,500  

As far as my diet go I stick to mainly a whole foods, plant-based diet but I do allow myself what some would consider indulgences. I follow the 80/20 rule.  I drink beer once or twice a week, eat a cupcake now and again, and go out for dinner- sometimes it’s pizza, sometimes it’s burgers, and sometimes it’s something wholesome.

My nutritionist tells me to aim for a caloric intake of 1600-1800 calories a day regardless of my activity levels. This looks like about 350 calories for breakfast, 400-500 calories for lunch, and 400-500 calories for dinner plus another 400 calories in snacks (3) spread throughout the day.

But that is not what my day looks like most days. When I run I fuel before and after and for long runs, during too. For my strength training sessions I fuel before and after as well. This is a necessity for me/my body. I need energy to run and sustain my workouts and I need protein and other nutrients after to help with recovery, muscle growth, etc. Plus there are weekends and we all know life is different on the weekend than during the week.

So on average I would say I take in anywhere from 300-500 additional calories for fueling my workouts. And on the weekend I would say I intake maybe 500 calories additional due to beer and eating out.

Seven days a week x 500 calories consumed = 3,500 additional calories consumed

As you can see my calories burned just barely negates those additional calories consumed. Yes, I know this is all an approximation. And yes, I know you burn calories in other ways. But this is an easy way to show that at this point I am maintaining, not losing.

And for me that’s ok.

I think.

I haven’t weighed myself in forever. I don’t see a reason why. My clothes fit, actually my pants are getting looser and my tops are getting tighter in the sleeves because I actually have arm muscles for the first time. But I feel great. My body recovers quickly. I don’t feel deprived. I am happy.

BUT….if I wanted to lose weight I would have to do so through my diet. I have no additional free time in my life to workout more than I already do. I have a FT job, I am a grad student, I am a girlfriend and furbaby mama and I have a life. I don’t want to spend more time, more than I already do, in the gym.So, to lose weight I would need to eat less. I would need to cut out beer. And pizza. And burgers. I would have to stick to making every meal and start re-evaluating each ingredient. I wouldn't cut out the calories consumed to help fuel my workouts but I would have to rethink what I eat. It would suck. I would feel deprived and possibly feel hungry most of the time.

OR I would have to be ok with making teeny tiny almost unnoticeable changes that will help me to lose, but at a very slow rate. Maybe this time just one beer instead of two. Maybe a salad with my burger instead of fries. Maybe find a balance that allows me to tweak my diet and not feel deprived. If I wanted to lose weight, this is the way I would do it.

I don’t ever want to be the girl that denies herself a cupcake. But I can definitely be the girl that only allows it once in a while, not every week.

Because I know that no matter what I do, there is not enough free time in my day to allow me to try and outrun a bad diet. 

Four Fun Facts

This post is inspired from Rennay AKA the Vegetarian in the Ville. I saw her post today and thought it looked like a fun thing to write about so here it goes...

Four names that people call me other than my real name

1.    Dae Dae (Mission Meltdown AKA Dre Dre)

2.    Daysh

3.    Button (my dad)

4.    Kitty Boo (Erick)

Four jobs I've had

1.    Industrial Engineer

2.    Supply Chain Analyst

3.    Business Operations Analyst

4.    Data Analyst

Four movies I've watched more than once

1.    The Usual Suspects

2.    Life is Beautiful

3.    Pitch Perfect

4.    Love Actually

Four books I'd recommend

1.    Bitter is the New Black (actually, anything by Jen Lancaster)

2.    Eat and Run- Scott Jurek

3.    Yes Please- Amy Poehler

4.    To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee

Four places I've lived

1.    Philadelphia

2.    San Antonio

3.    Daytona Beach

4.    Akron, OH

Four places I've visited

1.    London

2.    Edinburgh

3.    Toronto

4.    Montreal

Four places I'd rather be right now

1.    Home with Gordie and Erick

2.    At the beach

3.    On vacation….anywhere

4.    With my family

Four things I don't eat

1.    Meat/Fish

2.    Dairy

3.    Eggs

4.    Water Chestnuts (YUCK!)

Four of my favorite foods

1.    Vegan nachos (tie between Sluggos and Vegeria)

2.    PIZZA!

3.    Pho

4.    Curry- any kind

Four TV shows I watch

I don’t watch much TV, usually just one show at a time on Netflix. Here is what I have watched recently

1.    Homeland

2.    Orange is the New Black

3.    House of Cards

4.    *Fargo (I’m about to start this series next)

Four things I'm looking forward to this year

Does this mean in the next 12 months or 2015? Not sure, so I am just going to answer 2015.

1.    Ragnar Relay Cape Cod (check out our Facebook page!)

2.    Déjà vu Half in Baton Rouge

3.    ACL Festival

4.    Mardi Gras

Four things I'm always saying

1.    Just sayin’

2.    It is what it is

3.    Gordie! No biting!

4.    You’re lucky you’re so cute

Four people I tag to answer these questions

1.    Don from Half the Mass I Used to Be

2.    Dani from Weight Off My Shoulders

3.    Ashley from The Emotional Ride of Losing It

4.    Jen from Such a Funny Fat

 

And, in case this is my last post before the holiday- which it probably will be, Happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones. I hope you are able to spend some time with the people that matter most.

Love and hugs,

Dacia

xoxoxoxox

Oh yeah, I still owe you a recap don't I???

What I Wish I Knew All Along....

I had this random thought pop in my head today…

It’s probably because I read soooo many weight loss blogs and associate with so many weight losers/maintainers that weight loss, or some associated topic, is always up for discussion. No matter what, it seems to stick at the forefront of my mind- whether I want it there or not.

And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Most days it helps keep me accountable and in check. Most days it keeps me from eating the entire pizza. Most days. At the same time it has become something I must learn to live with, because it is something I need. That constant reminder of why I am active and why I (try) to eat good, whole-foods and why I try to take care of myself. Not to lose weight or to maintain but to be healthy. The problem is weight loss/maintenance is always (always, always, always) tied to health.

Even when it’s not.

Even when I don’t believe it should be.

Anyway, I was thinking back on my days on Weight Watchers. It’s been awhile since I left the program. I am not sure how long but at least two years is my best guess. Probably longer. (and I am not here to knock WW, it was what I needed in the beginning- it just wasn’t enough for me towards the end, you know?) I remember my weekly weigh ins and sharing the results on my blog. Posting pictures of each five pound lost star I earned and feeling so good about my progress….when I lost.

See, early on (and this may just be a Dacia thing and not something directly correlated to me being on WW) I treated every loss on the scale as a victory and every gain as a defeat.

And that worked….for awhile.

It kept me in that heightened state of always needing to be “perfect” or “on plan” and when I “failed” on a week I did everything “right”….cue the emotional breakdown.

I may have had the gumption to keep that mindset going for awhile but I honestly feel if I hadn’t changed that mindset I would not be where I am now- in a much healthier headspace regarding weight.

Yes, weight loss is a good thing (for the most part) and you are completely ok to celebrate it.

But is it still a victory when that loss comes from sacrificing more than the calories on your plate or hours to the gym?

And weight gain….is that a failure? Do you deserve to feel like shit and mentally tear yourself apart just because you gained a pound or two?

I wish someone told me early on to not take the results on the scale so seriously.

Yes, I was morbidly obese. And yes, I needed to change A LOT of things about myself in order to become a healthy person- weight included. But I think I could have done so, and still been successful, without the extreme impact the scale had on my mental wellbeing.

We think (and maybe that is a generalization and I should say I here) so often about what being healthy means and instantly jump to eating right and exercising. I envision someone in a gym lifting weights or one of the marathoners that passed me at the finish line of my half marathoner. I think of the person eating their grilled chicken (no skin) and a side of steamed broccoli. I think about that person that says no to cake. Or no to beer. And I think that is a healthy person.

But am I naïve to think that health boils down to only food and activity? YES!!!!

Our mental health is equally important. Personal satisfaction, care and self-love come in so many forms. More than just what we eat and the things we do. And that piece- that piece of how we are- is also a key to health and wellness.

So my point, I do have one I swear, is this.

I wish someone told me to be kinder to myself. Not every loss is a victory nor is every gain a failure. Wake up every day and try to do your best. Make the best choices you can. Take care of yourself, regardless of what ‘taking care of yourself’ looks like. Every decision you make that leads you to a healthier and happier you is good enough. You are already good enough.

I was always good enough (actually, far better than good enough) I was just sick and unhealthy and I needed to change that. And I did. I just wish I hadn’t had to fight the horrible mental scale battle so much along the way.

Lesson learned….

 

 

Love and hugs,

Dacia

xoxoxox

Two More Days!!!

Yep, just two more days until the half marathon....

I am sorry for the fact that it is really the only thing I've talked/written about these past few months. I know it may not seem like a big deal to most but to me has felt like a huge undertaking. Having taken so much time off from running and having two surgeries over the past 11ish months I never thought this is where I would be.  But I felt good enough in the spring/early summer to start running again and then with some added motivation by being asked to be on a Ragnar relay team (check out our FB page and team website) ...well, somehow I ended up here.

Two days away from my fourth half marathon.

And 10 weeks and two days away from my fifth...

That's right,  I am signed up for half marathon number five (the Louisiana half marathon in Baton Rouge on January 18th) as well as the Gulf Coast half marathon in April (which I ran in 2013) for number six. All helping me train up for Ragnar Cape Cod on the weekend of May 8th.

So, for the next 6 months I will do my best to not make this an all-running-all-the-time blog. Because honestly, that really isn't what my life is all about. It's just that most days it is the easiest/fastest thing to write about. I promise, I will try harder to do something else- something more interesting- that I can discuss here on the blog.

One would think that having a puppy would make my life interesting, which it does, but not in a blog content kind of way. At least not yet. Life right now is middle of the night walks and battling with the teething, hyper puppy. It's overwhelming but at least only for like 20 minutes at a time. Then he is exhausted and passes out. For like 20 minutes. And the cycle continues...

On a completely unrelated note, is anyone else feeling ready for the holidays? I cannot wait. We have family spending Thanksgiving with us and then a nice two week break for the winter holiday and in between a 6 day trip to Ft. Lauderdale. Oh, and I forgot- technically half marathon 5 will be in December when I go to St. Pete to walk a half with my friend Heather. I am super excited about being able to walk with her! It will definitely be the most fun half marathon EVER!

Well, that's about all I have time for today. I am a ball of nerves and excitement. Cannot wait for Sunday morning!!!

The force is strong...still standing a week past Halloween!

Love and hugs,
Dacia
xoxoxoxox