Week 2, Day 2 (A Day of Accidental Rest)

7:00 am Breakfast
I woke up, and was really trying to break up my Special K streak. Pilsbury rolls/croissants/muffins/anything are delicious, and we had some for Mother's Day. I heated up one of the leftovers to change things up. Also, a meal of just the muffin, an apple, and milk was very bland, and lacked protein. To solve that peoblem, I melted a little bit of peanut butter in the micro wave and dipped my apples in. That's a really nice trick actually. The peanut butter goes a LOT further if you melt it and dip.

Pillsbury English Muffin
Table Spoon Peanut Butter
Red Apple
2% Milk

9:00 am- Meeting with Tara Harwood (or so I thought)
I arrived at the Cleveland Clinic in plenty of time for one. I found a great, FREE parking spot which was clutch because parking in the Clinic is really expensive and quite confusing. I came in, gave the desk my name at 9, and at 9:15 Tara came out and said, "oh Great! You're Early!" I was perplexed. Mother told me the appointment was at 9. After checking with the desk, I had been scheduled for both a 9:30 with Tara Harwood and also a 9:30 with Dr. Rome. Because of the time crunch, Tara decided to do an "abstract"--a quick little meeting that doesn't count as an appointment. She first asked me for my food log (that I was supposed to fax to her. Oops.) then she said she estimated my caloric needs at 2,300 per day. Now, I am doing a LOT of activity and that number sounded low to me. For example, I know for certain on Monday I had more than that, and it felt right to my body--I ate when I was hungry. With that question at the front of my mind, I thanked her and headed upstairs to see Dr. Ellen Rome.

9:30 am- Dr. Rome
After falling asleep in one of the rooms waiting, Doctor Rome finally came in. She asked me how I was doing and was very interested in my senior project and blog. I sent her the link a couple days before and she was still getting around to reading it. I told her how positive the feedback had been from all of my teachers and project advisers, and she was particularly interested in my review of books, especially The Diet for Teenagers Only, Which she admitted she had been worried about me reading/getting the wring ideas from. I happily told her how I had analyzed the material very carefully and picked out information that I found useful, as well as some that I found triggering. After blog discussion, I jumped right into my questions. Tara Harwood told me 2,300 calories was an amount to shoot for. Does that sound low to you? Doctor Rome reassured me by saying that the estimate was probably intended for if I was walking a college campus on a daily basis. Not exercising intensely for an hour to two hours every day. She went on to say that 2,300 calories with this amount of exercise would probably be a weight loss diet for me. That was a relief. The last thing we talked about was how my body was bouncing back quick as lightning, and I could feel my muscles coming back. That led to the question of whether I was still super conscious about my weight. The honest answer to that is I never weigh myself because I'm not allowed. But I do care. And it makes me uneasy to know that the number has definitely gone up, even though its purely because of the increase in muscle. I'm still trying to get my head around that whole concept. I know that when I look in the mirror, I look strong and more firm. My stomach especially is getting back where I want it to be. But dealing with the numbers is still something that I'm probably not quite wanting to do yet.

12:00 pm Lunch
4 oz. Pork Chop
Teriyaki Sauce
1 Mini Meatball (I saw it sitting in the fridge)
Small Bowl Butter Pecan Ice Cream
2 Rings of Pineapple

1:00 pm Snack
1 Serving Cheetos
Yoplait Light Yogurt with Special K and Light Whipped Cream

5:15 ZUMBA! gets interrupted by emotions.
All day, I was looking forward to ZUMBA!. But then, at about 4:30, I fell head first into an emotional break down. I was crying so hard that I couldn't even drive effectively, so I pulled over on the side of the road and cried it out. Basically the root of the issue was me thinking about all of the things I'm going to miss when I go to college and how I am going to manage life without them. As I sat there with my tears and my boogers running down my face, I decided I needed to take the night off. I realized this meant I got absolutely no physical activity in for the day, but sometimes, more important things come up. It is important to care about physical fitness but not to be so rigid as to not be able to give yourself a break when you need one.

5:45 pm- Dinner
1 Can Campbell's Steak and Potato Soup

Dessert- 6:15 pm
1 Small Slice Chocolate Chip Cake
1 Heinen's Chocolate Chip Cookie

Reading Material

I started a new book called Nutrition for Life by Lisa Hark and Darwin Dean. The book is very dense and it is taking me a while to get through. The beginning few chapters were very much in line with all of the other books I have looked at--trying to determine if your body and diet are correct. Interestingly enough, this book also has a BMI Chart. Although I disagree with the concept of BMI, this book places me in the middle of the "healthy" range, versus The Diet for Teenagers Only that places me in the "slightly overweight" category. I just find it interesting that there can be that much disparity between two sources claiming to be presenting the same chart. Confusing.

This book has boxes with fun facts and information on several subjects pertaining to a common theme. For example, here are some of the boxes and information that I found most interesting:

1) Fish and shellfish are healthy choices- Ok. That is pretty much common knowledge. But the book goes on to say that you should eat fish of shellfish at least once a week. Do you do that? Because I know I don't. Fish can improve your mood, reduce depression, and reduce inflammation in the joints and arteries. It can also help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by decreasing blood pressure and the levels of triglycerides in the blood.

2)Calculating Energy Requirements- I found this interesting because it actually gave me a decent idea of what I need to be eating calorically every day to meet my needs based on my activity. I estimate myself to be somewhere between moderately active (16 calories per pound of body weight) and very active (18 calories per pound of body weight)--so we'll go with 17. By this method, it is estimated that I need roughly 2635 calories per day to maintain my body weight. Interesting.

3) Apple Versus Pear- This little box was interesting to me because I couldn't figure out what I was. It says people who tend to gain weight in their abdominal region are apples, while those who gain weight on their hips and thighs are pears. When I gain weight, it usually goes three places. My belly button region, my hips, and my butt. I feel like I don't fall into any of those categories. Perhaps I'm a "Papple" (pear+apple...get it?). Basically it said those who are apple shaped are at much higher risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity. You can't help what shape you are, you can only stay healthy to prevent running into those problems.