Salt Depletion and a Month Off From Weight Watchers

So I had a pretty crappy run today, but I didn't think much about it. When I first started running, my mentor told me that "about 1/4 of your runs will just suck. And of those, about half will suck for no reason. Only about half you will be able to determine why it sucks." And she was so right!

I did 5 miles today after work, so there were numerous reasons why it was so rough: 1) hot afternoon, 2) wrangled kiddos all day, 3) maybe not enough water through the day.... All I know is that I knew it'd be a rough run when I hit my first downhill. Because I wear my heart monitor every time I run, and because I often do the same paths, I have a good idea of my heartrate at any given point on the path. This first downhill is a nice, steady decline and it's shaded, great for recovery after a hill. My heartrate is usually around 168 during this stretch. Today? Today, it was 183. ONE EIGHTY THREE. ON A DOWNHILL. IN THE SHADE.

Oy vay.

I stumbled through the run, came home, and had a very scary moment. I found myself unbelievably nauseous, very dizzy, and extremely lethargic. A runner friend happened to call while I was stretched out on the floor, trying to get up the energy to get to the shower, and I told her how I was feeling. She told me it sounded like salt depletion and suggested I go look it up.

So I went to WebMD (is there any place scarier when you have a heath concern?!?) and found this:

"There are two types of heat exhaustion:

Water depletion. Signs include excessive thirst, weakness, headache, and even loss of consciousness.
Salt depletion. Signs include nausea and vomiting, frequent muscle cramps, and dizziness."

Hmmmm... The symptoms for salt depletion really do fit. And so I explored further and went to the Department of Health and Human Services, where I found this:

"Salt depletion heat exhaustion usually develops over several days; usually in people that replace the fluid loses adequately, but fail to replace salt loses."

Well, that couldn't be me, because I just felt it today. But then I went back through my food journals, which automatically keep track of my sodium, as well as other nutrients. My goal for any given day is about 2500 milligrams of sodium, and there was not one day in the last 15 days that I have had more than 1500 milligrams of sodium.

So maybe it really is that. So I designed an experiment, just hoping and praying I wouldn't throw up everywhere. The DHHS website also said this:

"Mild dehydration can be managed with oral replacement of fluids i.e. 1 tsp of NaCl mixed with 500 ml of water or a stock electrolyte solution given over 1 - 2 hours."

So I put a teaspoon of salt into a glass, added some Crystal Light to help mask the flavor (I am not really a salt fan, in case you can't tell!) and added half a liter of water. I am currently sipping it as we speak and with every sip that goes down, I feel a little more human.

Does anyone else ever have issues with salt depletion? I guess I need to find some sodium-dense foods that are good for runners!

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In another note, I have taken a step back from Weight Watchers. For all of those who don't know, I have been in the program since May of 2011. I've lost 16 pounds and (as of March 13!!) 17.5 inches. But I think Weight Watchers was helping me develop a very unhealthy relationship with food. While I know the line is that any food is allowed, I began to have very firm "can have" and "cannot have" lists. And I would spend days dwelling over how I was doing, especially leading up to a weigh-in. I would remain so on track, and Saturdays, which were my splurge days, became the ONLY day I wanted to see friends. I felt like I had to be perfect those other days and the only way I could manage perfection was to eat at home where I controlled everything.

I began to get discouraged when I saw an increase in the scale, even if it was a week with very hard workouts, or even when I was steadily losing inches. And I realized that the increase on the scale bothered me because somebody else saw the number before I did. Weighing in in front of somebody stressed me out. Now, I know it's great for accountability. And I really did need that for the longest time. But I think the downside of weighing in and the downside of Weight Watchers might be coming to light.

So I decided to try something new. I am taking a month off from Weight Watchers altogether. But not from watching what I eat! Fifteen days ago, I signed up to My Fitness Pal (www.myfitnesspal.com), and now whatever I eat gets tracked there, instead of Weight Watchers. This counts my calories, my protein, my carbs, my fiber, and my sodium (hence how I knew how much sodium I was not getting!). I'm not sure why (maybe it's just the newness of the system?), but I am more motivated now than I have been in weeks for WW.

Every day, after you input all of your food, you click "save" and you will see a statement at the bottom of the page that looks something like this:
"If every day were like this, you would weigh ___________ in 5 weeks." I LOVE that statement. It's never the same, because my exact calories are never the same. Sometimes I'm down by a couple hundred, sometimes I'm up by a couple hundred, but I love to know what it says. It's also helping me realize that I AM allowed to eat whatever I want, within moderation. The other day, I had wings and a beer for lunch, and I put it into the tracker. It told me that in 5 weeks, I would weigh 142 pounds, which is about 2 pounds less than I weigh now.

Hold up. Wait... I could eat badly for one meal, and STILL LOSE WEIGHT over the long run?!?!

I know. It's a concept most of you already know, but it's a concept that I never really embraced until now. So I ate my wings and beer, went back to my lean proteins and veggies, and am doing great. And the best part? It wasn't even a Saturday when I had the wings for lunch! I met my friends for lunch on a TUESDAY and splurged. And then jumped right back on.

I think if this is going to be a lifetime deal, I need to have that flexibility. I need to know that if I have a bad week, it's okay. I need to know that if my best friend's birthday is on a Friday, it's okay to celebrate, even if weigh-in is the next day. And I never felt that on Weight Watchers.

So here I go...! I will continue my Saturday weigh-ins. And I will post them here, to help me stay accountable. And at the end of the month, I will figure out what I want to do about Weight Watchers.

Food Tracker for the day:
Breakfast: Cold oatmeal (my new obsession!), coffee, 3 tbs organic half & half
AM Snack: Yoplait Greek yogurt, pear
Lunch: roasted veggie pasta, 1 tbs Ken's Light Ranch, sliced cucumbers, strawberries
PM Snack: Pink Lady apple, 12 almonds
Dinner: 2 oz left over Honeybaked turkey breast, 1 deviled egg, roasted zucchini, 1/2 avocado, Kroger lowfat vanilla ice cream sandwich

And oh yeah, my salt water! :)

Today's run... As craptastic as it was, it was 5 miles and it took me a ridiculous 1:06:33. I am going to pretend this run never happened.

My notes from MyFitnessPal (first time in 15 days that I have been "in the red" for sodium!):

As you can see, today was one of my better days. Here's hoping that extra sodium doesn't jack me up tomorrow! :)

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What 'diet plan', if any, do you guys follow? Weight Watchers? Good common sense? Anything else in particular?

Frustration

Why is it so hard to get back on track with food???

I've been on Weight Watchers for ten months. I did great with consistently watching what I ate. Saturday was always my splurge day, so any mad cravings I had usually waited until then. And it worked.

I gave myself last week off for my birthday. BIG mistake. While I didn't go crazy with food every day, I definitely ate differently than I normally do. Every meal didn't include some form of lean protein, a fruit or a veggie. I had more carbs than normal (including cereal for dinner a couple times), and definitely more sweets (I'd swing by the candy basket at work a couple times a day and I did so gleefully).

But now, I am trying to get back on track and it is SO HARD. I feel like I am way more hungry than normal. I guess I just need to get myself back into a schedule with my eating? And also, ALL I WANT is carbs. I had to fight with myself not to make a biscuit to have with my lean beef and green beans for dinner tonight. And I had a York peppermint patty, but that wasn't enough. So I ripped open a bag of the tiny size Reese's cups and ate half before pouring the rest out into the trash.

I guess I just have to go cold turkey. Back to my normal diet, with absolutely zero slip-ups for a couple days to get the taste of peanut butter and chocolate out of my mind, huh?

Why does it have to be so hard?

So here's the deal. I'm going to make myself tell you guys EVERYTHING I eat from now until Friday night. Hopefully, three days of detoxing will help me. I also think I need to weigh in on Saturday. I was debating it, because I know I'll be up, but I think I might need the jolt of SEEING the number on the scale higher than it has been.

So (gulp), here we go:
Breakfast: 1/2 cup Fiber One cereal, 1/2 cup skim milk, blueberries
AM Snack: 12 almonds, pear
Lunch: Gorton's tilapia, sweet potato pinwheels, cucumbers, tomatoes, 1/2 boiled egg, and 2 tbs Ken's Light Ranch dressing. After that came some random stress eating, where I popped two Baby Ruth bars and three Butterfinger bars, but not the normal sized ones. The teeny tiniest ones. But STILL!
PM Snack: Apple, protein drink
Dinner: Lean beef, green beans, grape tomatoes, York peppermint patty, 1/2 snack bag of Reese's peanut butter cup minis.

See? A lot of what I eat is decent. I just have to somehow avoid the chocolate. Any ideas to help?

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What do you find so hard to refrain from eating in your daily life?

Weekly Weight In, Dirt Cake, and Cherry Blossoms!

Normally, I weigh in on Saturday mornings. I wake up ridiculously early, weigh in at 7:00 AM, then head for a yummy breakfast somewhere, before returning for the WW meeting. (Don't tell my leader!).

However, tonight was a little bit different. I weighed in after work, because my mom was making dinner for my early birthday celebration. I was up a pound at the weigh-in, but I'm not letting it bother me. For one, I weighed in the afternoon, when I usually weigh in first thing in morning. That can cause a good one to three pound weight fluctuation. For another, I took my measurements the other down, a reassurance that I was headed in the right direction. Thirteen pounds left to go!

So I headed to the parentals', and had the yummiest dinner. There was cheesy baked ziti (with fresh mozzarella!) and homemade cheesy garlic bread, but the BEST part of the dinner was Dirt Cake. For anyone who has never had it, it's this amazing layered concoction of a cream cheese/Cool Whip/pudding/powdered sugar layer with layers of crushed Oreos. SO GOOD.

Like the three candles? Apparently, I am three years old!

"Oh the weather outside is frightful..."
Tornado warnings, tornado watches, hook echoes, oh my! It's a typical spring evening in Georgia, if a little early i the year. So as I sit in my bed and watch the weather (I'm a bit of a weather nerd and am totally obsessed with knowing the weather at any given point of the day!), I realize I won't be able to get my 4 miles running outside tomorrow. It's supposed to storm most of the day. So, with a reluctant little sigh, I acknowledge that I will be back on the dreadmill. But alas! All is not lost! I have my mom's iPad, and I fully intend on watching Friends or something else equally amusing on there while I run my 4 miles. Woot woot!

I had made a decision a few weeks ago to run a race a month in 2012, from February to December. February 2012 was the Berry College Half Marathon, and I just registered for March's race - The Cherry Blossom 10K in Macon, GA. I was born and raised in Macon before moving to Atlanta, and every March, my family and I go back to Macon for the Cherry Blossom Festival. It's one of my favoritest weekends in all the land. And now, there's a reason to make it even more fun - 6.2 more reasons to be exact!

Food Today:
Breakfast - 1/2 cup Fiber One cereal, 1/2 cup Horizon Fat Free Organic milk, 1/2 cup blueberries
AM Snack: apple, almonds
Lunch: lean ground beef, cucumbers, tomatoes, hardboiled egg
PM Snack: protein drink
Dinner: Baked ziti, cheesy garlic bread, dirt cake

No workout today. Tomorrow is a "short" long run day. Yay!

Monthly Measurement Check!

Since July 2011, I have been taking my measurements on the last day of every month. It has helped me determine whether I am actually losing weight. With my strength-training causing my weight itself to go up and down, I was finding myself getting discouraged -- until I started measuring myself.

I was down 1.15 inches in the month of February. That brings my total to 16.15 inches total. That is insanity to me.... Almost a foot and a half of fat GONE from my body. I love it!

I also had a great workout this morning. I did the Glad You Came workout from BodyRock. Six exercises, done twice through.

I set my interval timer for 12 rounds of 10 seconds rest interval and 50 seconds work interval. (All exercise descriptions are on the workout's page. Just click the title here: Glad You Came.

Exercise 1: High Knees
Exercise 2: Squat Lunge into a Side Lunge (both legs): 6 // 7
Exercise 3: High Knees
Exercise 4: Monkey Push-Up and Jump: 8 // 8
Exercise 5: High Knees
Exercise 6: Push-Up with V-Plank Jump: 6 // 7

Twelve minutes, and I was super sweaty! I love, love, LOVE BodyRock workouts. Also, on facebook, if you friend Zuzana Light, she does a ZWOW (Zuzana Workout of the Week) that are totally amazing. Check them out if you need some motivation for strength-training!

The plan my nutritionist worked up for me had me eating shrimp tonight with asparagus, but I was just not in a shrimpish kind of mood. So I got some help from Chik-Fil-A in the form of their new grilled nuggets. They are SO GOOD. Love that Chik-Fil-A has options to help me be healthy!

Today's Food:
Breakfast: Fiber One cereal, 1/2 cup of Horizon organic fat-free milk, 1/2 cup blueberries
AM Snack: 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 green pepper cut into sticks (and also a fun-sized Snickers)
Lunch: grilled tilapia, a slice of Ezekiel cinnamon-raisin toast, strawberries
PM Snack: cottage cheese, protein drink
Dinner: grilled chicken nuggets, asparagus, strawberries (and there may or may not have been a few handfuls of Cape Cod cheddar and sour cream potato chips).

Now, super excited for tomorrow for many reasons. 1) It's FRIDAY! 2) No workout in morning, so I can sleep in thirty minutes longer! 3) No workout in afternoon, so I don't need to worry about remembering my clothes! 4) Early birthday celebration with the family, where I get to eat baked ziti, cheesy garlic bread, and DIRT cake!

Might be the greatest Friday known to man.

Rewarding with Food -- For the Dogs?

I saw this image on Pinterest today:

And it really got me thinking. I am one who has always rewarded (or comforted, or celebrated!) myself with food. If I had a great day at work, I felt like I deserved Cheetos and a cupcake. If I had a terrible day at work, I felt like I deserved Cheetos and a cupcake with some tears. On a Friday, I felt I needed to celebrate my survival through another work week with some Cheetos and a cupcake.

But since beginning Weight Watchers again, I have tried to change that mentality. Just the other day, I was going through some stressful times, and I told my friend Jenni that I wanted "wings and beer" just to make it through. And Jenni's response was just what I needed to hear:

"At the end of the meal, Amanda, is your stress still going to be there, or will wings and beer truly take care of it?"

And she was right, of course. The food would make me feel better for all of 20 minutes, but then, once the plates were cleaned and the smoke cleared, I'd still be left with the stress hanging over my head, only now it would be compounded with guilt over giving in to a compulsion I knew I shouldn't.

So instead, I began to make a list of rewards and/or comforts that were not food-related:

1) Work out -- on a bad day, nothing can turn my mood around better than a good sweat. Even a bad run on a bad day can make me feel so much better.

2) Give myself permission to laze -- There are times where I feel like I SHOULD be doing something "useful" -- laundry, cleaning, etc. But I have learned to let myself lay on the couch with a good book on my Kindle or a recorded show on my DVR, and let THAT be a treat.

3) Quality time with friends and/or family -- If I'm in a bad mood, it's a surefire thing that my friends can cheer me up. They make me laugh, and they will cajole me out of my mood. My parents are much the same way. I can go and vent to them about my problem or stresses, and then, the magical healing properties of a parent's presence takes over and I feel better.

4) Read a good book -- My Kindle is the most amazing thing I've ever gotten. I love that I can pull it out of my purse, regardless of where I am. If I want to reward myself or comfort myself, I will often find myself buying new books. My newest reads have been either 1) geared to the young adult section of the bookstore, or 2) running related.

5) Blog! -- I have already found, in just a week and a half, that writing down my thoughts and emotions go a long way towards validating my thoughts, be they happy, sad, or stressed. Whether you want others to read it or not, write down your thoughts. It can help clear up potentially cloudy situations and it can provide a way to remember those happy events in your life!

Is there a good way to reward/comfort/celebrate yourself that does not involve food that I missed? Let me know!

Kelly Clarkson, 4 miles, and heading back to the gym!

How nerdy is it that I got geekily excited about 1) running again tomorrow (4 easy miles!) and 2) beginning speedwork and tempo runs? I'm not sure at the moment how to gauge my runs, so I'm going to be doing most of my tempo and speed runs initially on the dreadmill. Hopefully, I'll be able to become a little more better acquainted with my levels of exertion. Right now, my levels go from approximately "Hey, this isn't too bad" to "HOLY CRAP, I'M GOING TO DIE RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW, HELP ME" in a fraction of a second. I think I may be running too hard, even as slow as my mileage is. My easy runs according to SmartCoach are supposed to be run WAY slowly - 13:48 a mile tomorrow! I'm hoping that by slowing it down, I will also be able to run the entire way.

Here is my week according to SmartCoach:

I'm not sure why my dates are a little bit off. I typed my information into the plan on February 20, so I don't know why it's telling me my first week is February 13 - unless SmartCoach thinks I should've been psychic and anticipated this ahead of time! I'm using the times as rough estimates for my traveling, but I am also following a training plan that a super awesome friend created for me. Deanna works for Mizuno and is probably one of the most amazing runners on the planet. So I'm following her plans while keeping to suggested times from SmartCoach. It's good to mix and mingle, right?


I am doing the 4 mile run tomorrow, then starting off with the posted weekly schedule on Monday. My cross-training days will come from BodyRock.TV. I did a workout on Thursday of this past week that included burpees and reverse push-ups on a dip station and my back muscles are totally feeling it today. Love that feeling!

In other news, went to the Kelly Clarkson concert in Atlanta last night. LOVE that girl. She just always seems so comfortable with who she is and by God, she is not changing to fit what the media or what society feels she should be. I admire that a lot, and sometimes I feel so hypocritical, because part of the reason I go to Weight Watchers and workout like I do is because I want to fit into all these cute clothes, and I want to look cute, according to society standards. I envy that she could not care less.

But forget her appearance (because she's beautiful as anything, no matter her weight!), let's discuss her VOICE. The girl can sing. I would love to have the ability to sing well. I can be best described as a cross between a dying bullfrog and the squeaky sounds coming from a hamster's spinning wheel. It's so not pretty, and yet, I will sing loud and proud. I figure, if I know I'm terrible, I might as well own up to it.

Hope everyone is having a happy Friday!

A Weight Loss Journey - The Food

I have always, as long as I can remember, been self-conscious of my weight. And my entire life, it feels like I have been on one diet or another. And what is amusing to me now is that I really thought I knew how to eat the right foods. Lean Cuisines, canned soups, and Crystal Light... it works, right?

It did work for a while. But for ME, the sodium levels and the chemicals in the foods just didn't mesh well with my body. I would lose three pounds, then gain six the minute I ate something other than Lean Cuisines or Campbell's. I went from a size 10 to a size 12, and at one point, even those size 12s were getting a big snug. I remember shopping for shirts that would be loose around my belly, so my muffin top wouldn't be as noticeable. New clothes, getting dressed up to go out... all of it would be so stressful! I was weighing in at 159, and at 5'1", it was far too much for my frame.

May 23, 2011, I made a decision. I was heading to meet a friend at the park to run and I made a pitstop on my way there - at Weight Watchers! I weighed in, cried at the number on the scale, and signed right up.

My weight began to drop right away. In fact, I went down six pounds the first week! By June 8th, I was at 149 and ecstatic. Definitely motivation to keep it up. From July 2 - July 30th, I continued to drop weight - slowly, but surely. By the end of July, I was sitting at 146, down 13 pounds. I was also in my size 10 jeans, and even those were a tad baggy in the waist and thighs! Since July 2011, however, my weight has gone back and forth between 142 and 145, and I am comfortably in size 8 jeans. My ultimate goal is 130, however, so I've still got a ways to go.

There were many things that helped me lose weight and continue to lose weight. Exercise is a big part of that - both running and strength-training -- but that is another blog entry for another day. ;) For today, I'm focusing just on my food and how it has changed.

I have always been a Southern girl. While my Weight Watcher leader would tell us to "eat to live, not live to eat," I grew up in a household that did, in fact, live to eat. Pound cake, cheese grits, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, white bread with butter... YUM. Food just makes me happy. I eat when I'm stressed about something, I eat to celebrate great news, I eat when I'm sad about something... Overall, lots of eating. As you can imagine, this didn't bode well for my waistline!

When I first started WW, I was able to eat 29 points per day, with 49 weekly points. I would be great all week, staying within my points and eating low point foods. Then on Saturday, I would go crazy and eat all my weeklies at one time! Breakfast at Waffle House after weighing in (I know, don't tell my WW leader!), Mexican food and margaritas at lunch, and wings (and beer!) for dinner. I LIVED for Saturdays!

But my weight began to slow down. I would gain two pounds, then lose one. Then I'd gain a half pound and lose two pounds. I wavered back and forth between gaining and losing the same 3 pounds from September 2011 to January 2012. So I took a deep breath, said goodbye to my endless food Saturdays, and tried something new.

I had never really tracked before on Saturdays. I didn't write down my food, didn't figure out point values... I just assumed I had used all my weeklies and called it a day. But I was running 10-15 miles per week, and I wasn't eating back any of my calories to fuel my body appropriately. So I discovered a plan for WW called the Wendie Plan. I'm not sure why it is named that, but it varies the number of points I eat each day by spreading out my 49 weekly points.

Before, my weeks looked like this:
Saturday (weigh-in day): 26 daily + 49 weekly = 75 points
Sunday - 26 points
Monday - 26 points
Tuesday - 26 points
Wednesday - 26 points
Thursday - 26 points
Friday - 26 points

Now, on the Wendie plan, my weeks look more like this:
Saturday (weigh-in day): 46 - 48 points
Sunday - 26 points
Monday - 33 - 35 points
Tuesday - 26 points
Wednesday - 33-35 points
Thursday - 29 points
Friday - 26 points

I happen to run on Saturdays (long runs), Mondays and Wednesdays, so it works out great!

Since I've made the decision to not only switch to the Wendie plan and start tracking my Saturdays, I've also gone to a nutritionist, who has helped me create meal plans that will help me reach my goal of 130 pounds. I've been on the plans for a few days and they aren't so bad at all!

Because food is such an important part of my life, and it's such an important part of fueling my body for running and working out, it will be an important part of this blog. You will read most days what I have eaten, so be prepared!

Today's food:
Breakfast - 1/2 cup Fiber One cereal, 1/2 cup blueberries, 1/2 cup Horizon Organic fat free milk
AM Snack - cottage cheese, green pepper sticks
Lunch - homemade vegetable soup (complete with homemade chicken broth!), peanut butter pretzels
PM Snack - protein shake (I have a fabulous protein powder I use, so I add some water and a little bit of Crystal Light powder to mask the taste!), pear
Dinner - shrimp, quinoa, asparagus
Night Snack - hardboiled egg, 5 baby carrots, 5 strawberries

I have developed a weird tendency to take pictures of my food, so here are some of my favorite meals that I have consistently:

This is rotisserie chicken, "jazzy" broccoli (olive oil, parmesan cheese, garlic powder), tomatoes, and a glass of milk.

Tuna fish and quinoa, roasted Brussel sprouts, and clementine oranges.