G’s Driver’s License Weight Challenge – Nutrition Plan Breakdown Part 2 and Day 8 Results

“You can’t out-train a bad diet.” – Unknown (but lots of people)

Nutrition Plan Breakdown Part 2

Well, #food is certainly another one of my favorite F words. I am always thinking of food. I love eating food. And I generally have a very unhealthy relationship with food – I am a classic yo-yo dieter. If I am not tracking what I eat, I am eating too much, plain and simple. Ironically, the stricter the diet, the easier it is for me to follow. The key for me is to keep it simple, or my brain will think of all sorts of ways to sneak in what I shouldn’t eat.

The bottom line for losing weight is you need to burn more calories than you consume. So, the first thing I did was calculate how much calories I need in order to be in a calorie deficit. Most often, I’ve seen that this would be your body weight in pounds times 10 to 13. I’m using 10 because working from home means very little physical activity, and I want to be as aggressive as possible without eating too little. This means that I should eat about 1,400 calories.

Because I want to lose fat and not just weight, I am eating a high-protein diet. Being toned is not the same as being skinny – it’s having muscle that you can see because you also lost fat, and protein is important for this. Most often, I’ve seen that you should eat at least 1 g of protein per 1 lb of your target body weight. Since my goal is to weigh 115 pounds, then I should eat at least 115 g of protein daily. Four ounces of meat or one serving of the protein shake I drink is generally 25 g of protein. So with having 5 meals a day, I am consuming more than enough.

You can eat as many or as little meals a day if you want to lose weight, as long as you are in a calorie deficit. For me, eating 5 meals a day serves two purposes. One, I read somewhere that it helps to spread your protein consumption evenly throughout the day. Secondly, as I said before, I am always thinking about food, whether I am actually hungry or not. As you saw throughout Week 1, I actually have a hard time eating all 5 meals, so I am definitely not feeling like I am on a diet with this plan – no starving!

Protein is the only macro I really calculate. After making sure I eat enough of it, I just use up the remaining calories I have between carbs and vegetables (I’ll talk about the tools I use to calculate/track on a later post). For me, this makes for a balanced diet. According to my doctor, my genetics have me at a very high chance of having high cholesterol. However, the only time I had high levels is when I cut carbs, so I won’t do it again.

Lastly, I consume an additional serving of protein on the days that I do strength training. When you lift weights, you are tearing your muscles, and your body needs protein to repair them.

Day 8 Results

• Weight: 138.2 pounds (23.2 to go!)
• Steps: 10,265 (as of 11:13pm)
• Lows: None!
• Highs: Hit all of my marks in exercising this weekend – because work is extremely busy at the moment, I rearranged my workout schedule to take advantage of the weekend time. Nikolas crushed leg day with me. It rained today, but I still got my steps in using my air climber!
• Nutrition:
  • Breakfast – .5 c steamed white Jasmine rice, 1 whole egg and .5 c egg whites scrambled
  • Meals 2 and 3 – .5 c steamed white Jasmine rice, 4 oz boneless, skinless, chicken breast, .5 c onions (chicken and onions boiled in water, lemon juice, salt, garlic powder, ginger powder)
  • Meal 4 – 1 serving protein shake
  • Meal 5 – salad with 4 oz grilled chicken breast, lettuce, 2 tbsp croutons, 1 tbsp cranberries and pecans, zero-everything raspberry vinaigrette
• Exercise: (1st number is the number of reps, 2nd number is the weight on each side, 0 means bar only for curl/barbell moves or body weight for others)
  • Barbell squats – 20-0, 15-2.5, 12-5, 10-7.5
  • Barbell hack squats – 15-0, 12-2.5, 10-5, 8-7.5
  • Stationary lunges with dumbbells – 10-10, 10-12, 10-15
  • Standing calf raises – 15-12, 15-15, 15-20
  • LISS – air climber for 76 minutes
  • HIIT – rowing machine for 45 minutes
• All other markers checked.

Don’t forget to recognize and deliver love today! ❤ G