Return

It's been a long, strange almost-year.  A lot has changed about my life; I'm now living with family.  Still doing yoga, occasionally.  I found a studio that offers a morning Mysore-style class where you don't have to commit to 3-4 days a week in the studio.  I keep hoping that this will translate into getting back into a home practice, but now I'm even having trouble getting out to class on Sunday mornings.  I'm going again tomorrow.  I'm training for a half marathon, which is a week from Sunday.

And I've gained 10 lbs. since last I wrote.  Intuitive eating isn't working so well because I'm not sticking to healthy foods.  I'm torn because I know that CRON triggers my OCD tendencies (or enables them? I'm not sure), but something has to change.  I'm less than a year from 30 and I feel like my body is starting to show it.

I have a new friend, too.  A special friend.  And yoga is one of the things we do together.  And running.  And a lot of dancing.  I think that's good for me, just physically, but he's also good for me emotionally.  So I'm going to try to improve myself, and I think that improving my body will help my mental state, at least a little.  So maybe I'll start just logging my calories.  I won't be fanatical about it (I don't have a scale here), but I'll just try to get an idea of what I eat and try to make it a little healthier.  I've already started taking a food-sourced multivitamin and a vitamin D3 supplement, so maybe I won't have as many issues with hunger since I'm already getting decent micronutrients.  We'll see.

The End

I realized this evening that I was really, truly hungry.  I had already eaten my calories for the day, coming really close to 2000 without going over.  I simply think that my priorities are not in a place that allows for CRON, even moderately.  I've learned a lot over the last few weeks (I've been charting calories for almost 2 months) and I'm going to continue to eat nutrient-rich meals, including epic salads and try to eat less meat.  And I'm going to keep up with my yoga.

While I will try to continue the idea of moderation and avoiding gluttony, I cannot force myself to keep charting calories.  I'm confident that my diet is rich in vitamins, with minimal supplementation, and I'm going to see if I can maintain a satisfactory body type with intuitive eating of healthy foods alone.

Revelation

I'm still all new to this Ashtanga yoga thing, but I realized that part of the vinyasa sequence that I found on ashtangayoga.info is greyed out.  Oh, I'm not actually supposed to do the full vinyasa between every posture in the primary and finishing sequences?  Cool.  So I guess I'm in the process of refining my personal practice.  I'm doing primary series (should I capitalize that?) up to Purvottanasana, along with all the warm-up and finish postures.  I love the flow and connection to the breath on which Ashtanga focuses, and I definitely stronger and more limber.

After my morning practice, I had a sticky bun that I brought back from my dad's yesterday, along with some fruit salad that my step-mother sent home with us.  It was a good sticky bun.  I have a long tango lesson this afternoon, so I'll just have a grilled cheese for lunch and then I'm planning a nice chicken dinner since the meat farmer at the market has fresh chickens today.  I hope we get a chicken.  Might not be the absolute best day nutritionally, but I should stay under calories.

30 July and Weekly Overview

Damage for today: 2147.2kcal, 99.3g protein, short on B5(99%), B6(90%), and E(76%); iron(78%), magnesium(75%), and potassium(56%).  Omega 6:3 5.3:1.  I could have stayed under calories, but I chose to have a post-yoga snack as well as dinner.  Anyway, it still comes out to 2000kcal on average this week:


===========================================
Nutrition Summary
July 24, 2011 to July 30, 2011
Daily Averages over 7 days
Report generated by CRON-o-Meter v0.9.7
===========================================

General (78%)
===========================================
Energy               |  1992.5 kcal   100%
Protein              |    93.8 g       94%
Carbs                |   199.4 g      100%
  Fiber              |    26.9 g      108%
Fat                  |    94.3 g       94%
Alcohol              |     5.5 g       34%
Caffeine             |   119.8 mg      40%
Water                |  1653.0 g       61%

Vitamins (100%)
===========================================
Vitamin A            | 24567.4 IU    1053%
Folate               |   523.7 µg     131%
B1 (Thiamine)        |     1.4 mg     124%
B2 (Riboflavin)      |     2.6 mg     236%
B3 (Niacin)          |    14.6 mg     104%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid)|     6.7 mg     134%
B6 (Pyridoxine)      |     1.9 mg     146%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) |     4.8 µg     198%
Vitamin C            |   232.9 mg     311%
Vitamin D            |  1228.4 IU     123%
Vitamin E            |    14.3 mg      95%
Vitamin K            |   871.2 µg     968%

Minerals (96%)
===========================================
Calcium              |  1237.3 mg     124%
Copper               |     1.9 mg     207%
Iron                 |    14.2 mg      79%
Magnesium            |   418.5 mg     105%
Manganese            |     5.6 mg     312%
Phosphorus           |  1616.2 mg     231%
Potassium            |  3896.0 mg      83%
Selenium             |    88.0 µg     160%
Sodium               |  2165.5 mg     144%
Zinc                 |    10.0 mg     125%

Lipids (100%)
===========================================
  Omega-3            |     2.7 g      244%
  Omega-6            |    11.5 g      105%

I still tend to be chronically low in iron and potassium.  Iron doesn't concern me, but I might start thinking about ways to up the potassium, especially since I tend to eat quite a bit of sodium, it seems.

Family Get-Together

I spent the day with my dad and step-mom at their place today.  We went over at 9am (I went running first) and had breakfast, followed by my husband teaching my stepmother to bake bread and then spending time outside with my dad installing a new stereo in his truck.  I was a little concerned because they said they were going to pick up "some fruit and muffins for breakfast."  Ugh.  Carb central.  But they had lots of stuff, including Greek yogurt and some cheese.

And I even convinced my stepmother to make a salad bar for lunch!  I did have a big blueberry muffin and a croissant, but it wasn't too bad nutritionally, especially considering that I ate two full meals there.  Also, I've mostly stayed far enough under calories this week that, even if I go over 2000 today, I'll still average out under that for the week.

Dinner is soup with kale and an egg, though.  I don't need much after such beautiful breakfast and lunch.

Weekend Biomarkers 25-30 July

Avg. weight: 133.1 lbs.
Avg. temp: 98.4 F
Avg. heart rate: 54

29 July Overview

1992.5 calories, 108.9g protein, short on vitamin E (94%), iron (83%), and potassium (88%).  Omega 6:3 3.2:1.

Wow, those lunchtime salads really up my nutrition.  That'll be good because tomorrow might be hard, nutritionally.  We're going to my dad's for brunch and he said he's going to pick up fruit, bread, and muffins.  I'm going to drink a whey protein shake before I go, since it promises to be carb-heavy, but otherwise, just eat what I need and use dinner to make up nutrition without too many calories.  We pretty much only have kale, eggs, and a cucumber left in the fridge anyway.