Daily Archives: January 11, 2012

Jan11

Project Scale Down: Day 9 & Kettlebell

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The Lose It! app also allows you to enter the exercise you do each day and accounts for the calories burned in determining one’s calorie budget. However, it doesn’t provide specific types of training, just very generic groups of exercises and varying intensities. When I do kettlebell, I enter “Weight Lifting” at a “vigorous” intensity (the only other option is light/moderate.”  Lose It! allows 50 calories burned for 10 minutes. So, I decided to try to validate that and found this article regarding a published study regarding the effectiveness of kettlebell workouts:

via WebMd.com

The study involved 10 men and women between the ages of 29-46 who performed a typical kettlebell workout by doing kettlebell swinging and lift exercises to a certain rhythm during a 20-minute period. All were experienced with the use of kettlebells.

The results showed that the average participant burned about 20 calories per minute during the kettlebell workout, which equates to 400 calories during a typical 20-minute kettlebell workout.

Researchers say that’s equivalent to running a six-minute mile or cross-country skiing uphill at a fast pace. They credit the rapid calorie burn to the interval training format of kettlebell workouts.

So, using that formula, it would seem that although I’m allowing 50 calories burned for my 12 minute kettlebell routine, I might actually be burning closer to 240? That sounds insane right? I’ll continue to err on the side of less calories burned per minute as there are sets that don’t involve swings or pulls. But I’m suspecting that I might be burning closer to 100 calories than 50. And that’s pretty awesome for 12 minutes!

Day 8:

  • 12 minute Lauren Brooks Full Body Blast kettlebell routine (warm up w/Joint Mobility). √
  • 10 minute Abs of Steel routine. √

Alright, time to eat, shower and tackle the rest of this twists take down. I’m praying that I won’t be at it another 5 1/2 hours tonight. I’ll have a recap post at some point in the next week. If you’ve missed it, check out Hairscapades on Facebook for the gory details of last night’s battle royal: Afro Puffy Twists vs. Hairscapades: The Take Down Part I. It’s not pretty.



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Jan11

December GOC Update: Jasmine aka CurlsDivine

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Jasmine aka CurlsDivine (Fifth Wave)

December is over and we are slowly approaching the finale. As I look back on my journey in 2011, I actually cannot believe my hair transitioned from a TWA to a cute, curly bob.

Day after BC (Jan. 16, 2011)

I’m sold! Natural hair is everything and more than I could have ever imagined. I regret one thing…”why in the heck did I wait so long?” Knowledge is definitely power. I feel more beautiful than I ever did before the lye!

So, let’s recap December 2011. I did a couple of different styles. My puff fell down like waterfalls; my braid-outs were crazy big and long (my favorite style); and my twist where thick and juicy. My regimen didn’t change. I’m still committed to Aubrey Organics (AO) products. I ‘ve seen major changes in my hair since I’ve decided to stick with one product line (aside from Shea moisture curl enhancing smoothie). Since Aubrey’s does not have a thick cream-based moisturizer, and my hair strives on cream-based moisturizers, and Shea Moisture is a certified organic product, I decided to use that also. I usually order AO products in bulk and I take the conditioner add some water to thin it out and use it as a leave-in conditioner. The ingredients are essentially the same in most of the conditioners, leave-ins and stylers. So I try to save money doing it that way.

I don’t really feel like I’ve been in a GOC, but it has been refreshing to drool over all of the curly heads wtih different textures than my own. I will continue to do what I need to do to grow a long head of healthy curly hair. Here I come 2012!!

My Regimen:
It works for me!

  • Shampoo bi-weekly, followed by conditioner rinse.
  • Co-wash weekly
  • Deep condition weekly
  • Spray leave-in conditioner
  • Moisturize
  • Spray extra conditioning spray
  • Seal with oil
  • Style
  • Henna once a month

Products:

  • Shampoo – AO Green Tea Clarifying
  • Conditioners – AO Green Tea Rinse, Rose Mosqueta, White Camellia, Blue Chamomile, GPB Ylang Ylang & Lavender, GPB Balancing (pretty much I will use their whole line)
  • Deep Conditioner – all the same as mentioned above)
  • Spray leave-in conditioner – AO Rose Mosqueta mixed with water
  • Moisturizer – Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie, AOB-5 Gel, AO Ginseng Moisturizer Jelly Spray
  • Extra conditioning spray – AO White Camellia & Jasmine Shine, AO Primrose on the Go
  • Oil – Grapeseed
  • Henna – Jamilia

I will also be trying Zhara’s hair rinse. Still haven’t tried it but here are some pictures of the herbs.

On January 31, 2012, I will reveal my growth with a blow-out and flat iron. I will treat myself to a new flat-iron and get my hair done professionally! My 1 year natural anniversary is January 16, 2012. My goal was to be APL, the same length I was before the Big Chop. To be continued … !!

Jan11

A Balanced Diet

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As I mentioned in PSD Day 3, I downloaded and started using the App, Lose It! last Thursday. It’s not perfect for a couple of reasons (which I won’t go into now), but it does have some really cool features. One of them is the Nutrients Tracker. It allows you to track the amount of Fat, Saturated Fat, Cholesterol, Sodium, Carbohydrates, Fiber, Sugars and/or Protein in your diet each day. I set-up this preference yesterday and realized that this feature not only provides a daily break-down of my nutrient intake, it also provides the percentages of my daily caloric intake that are attributable to fat, carbs and protein. The tracker also provides a weekly average for the selected nutrients.

However, this data can be useless if you don’t know what the proper balance of these nutrients is. I had an idea that my balance was decent (Avg: 13% fat; 67% carbs; 19% fat), but decided to do a quick search to validate that belief.

via LiveStrong.com

[T]he Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine provides a range of your total caloric intake that is acceptable for each nutrient. Known as the acceptable macronutrient distribution range, this guideline can help you plan your diet.

Carbohydrates and Sugar
According to the IOM, carbohydrates should comprise 45 to 65 percent of your total caloric intake. … Sugar, is a simple carbohydrate that can be both bad and good for the diet. Natural fruit and plant sugars are beneficial, but added sugars, such as those found in soft drinks, can increase the risk of diabetes and weight gain. Added sugars should be restricted to 5 to 15 percent of total caloric intake, according to MayoClinic.com.s

Protein
Protein should comprise 10 to 35 percent of your total caloric intake, according to the IOM. … Athletes and other highly active individuals should consume a greater amount of protein to restore damaged muscular tissue and promote the synthesis of new tissue, erring on the higher end of the AMDR.

Fat
According to the IOM, fat should account for 20 to 35 percent of your total caloric intake. … Like the other two macronutrients, fat is essential to the diet and helps store vitamins, protect organs and provide energy. Extreme low-fat diets are unhealthy and can lead to decreased hormone production and damage to vital organs.

Fiber
I also wanted to validate that my fiber intake was sufficient. According to LiveStrong.com, women should consume at least 25 grams of fiber a day, whereas men should consume at least 38 grams (source). The amount of fiber is based upon caloric intake, which is why the amount recommended for men is greater than women. A simple formula for determining the appropriate fiber intake is 14 grams of fiber for every 1000 calories (source www.health.gov). This equates to 1 gram of fiber for every 71.43 calories.

Based upon my starting weight of 127 lbs, goal weight of 120 lbs and plan to lose approximately 1 lb a week, Lose It! calculated that my daily intake should be 1227 calories. I don’t entirely agree with this and will probably range my calories from 1200 to 1500 a day. In my opinion, varying my daily caloric intake works to “confuse” my metabolism, so that it doesn’t acclimate my energy expenditure to a set number of calories. Based upon my plan, my fiber intake should be at least 17- 21 grams a day. Thus far, my nutrient tracker indicates that my average daily fiber intake is 29.5 grams.

So, a little bit of research validated that I’ve been doing pretty well with my “Lazy Woman’s Diet,” which I developed intuitively years ago. However, let me clarify that that to say that my intuition is based upon a foundation of knowledge gained during my years of bodybuilding and reading tons of information about nutrition and diet.

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Are you eating a balanced diet?