Help for the Wife!!!

[Sassy69]

I was going to say... here's a REALLY good exercise to do -- put that meal plan into a food counts program like www.fitday.com (its free, takes a few minutes to set up but very easy) -- it will show you the total cals, the macronutrient breakdown - %protein, fats & carbs. That really goes a long way to show you what you are eating & where it needs to be tweaked.

Your body reflects your lifestyle - so the easiest place is to tweak the diet. A "clean" or "good" diet is fine but it usually is can be optimized,. That's the essence of competition prep -- optimizing the diet for the goal. Competition diet just means you have a tight schedule to do it on. Competition diet starts when you are down to the final steps of prepping your body - sort of like the last 10 lbs - so to get past that sticking point you need to review your diet & optimize it some.

Since we don't know the portions in the meal plan , can you put it into fitday.com w/ the right portions and post the total cals & macro breakdown? I bet we can come up w/ some easy changes to make the fuel match the energy demands!

 

[bgdaddy123]

In your opinion what would be some good solid food ( ideal meals ) that she should be eating??

 

[gymmum]

Excellent point Sassy & Shorty. Diet is pretty much everything when it come to weight control.

 

[Daisy_Girl]

Check out the threads at the top - especially LINKS TO TOP THREADS. It has tons of sample diets for her to look though.

 

[the-short-one]

In your opinion what would be some good solid food ( ideal meals ) that she should be eating??

idealy, less processed foods and more whole foods. I know this can sometimes be hard when a person is on the go all the time, tho.

I see her diet has a lot of simple carbs in it. She could replace those with complex carbs. Sweet potato, brown rice, wheat bread, old fashioned oats, etc. Also - I don't see a whole lot of protein in her diet. She really should get protein with every meal she eats.

examples:

oatmeal + eggs
brown rice + lean steak
wheat bread + lean ground turkey
sweet potato + chicken

add some vegis like a salad, brocolli, etc and you have a winner diet.

she's just trying to lose 10 pounds, right? She's not losing for a competition, so doesn't have to eat a competition diet. She just needs to eat more frequently, eat more protein, and healthier carbs. She'll have more energy and weight will start dropping again. I think the calorie level is a little low. 131 x 12 = 1572 calories. IMO, with her activity level - this is the minimum calories she should be eating per day.

 

[Sassy69]

I was going to say... here's a REALLY good exercise to do -- put that meal plan into a food counts program like www.fitday.com (its free, takes a few minutes to set up but very easy) -- it will show you the total cals, the macronutrient breakdown - %protein, fats & carbs. That really goes a long way to show you what you are eating & where it needs to be tweaked.

Your body reflects your lifestyle - so the easiest place is to tweak the diet. A "clean" or "good" diet is fine but it usually is can be optimized,. That's the essence of competition prep -- optimizing the diet for the goal. Competition diet just means you have a tight schedule to do it on. Competition diet starts when you are down to the final steps of prepping your body - sort of like the last 10 lbs - so to get past that sticking point you need to review your diet & optimize it some.

Since we don't know the portions in the meal plan , can you put it into fitday.com w/ the right portions and post the total cals & macro breakdown? I bet we can come up w/ some easy changes to make the fuel match the energy demands!

BTW I'm not implying an extreme competition diet is needed here - just using that as an example of the power of diet.

 

[T-Cake]

I can add those calories in my head with all my past WeightWatchers, and now FitDay, experiences... it doesn't look like she's eating nearly enough calories for all that activity, and I am totally with the girls: Get protein in there, add some weight training (it'll help her for her marathon too if her legs are stronger, but some runners have a hard time believing that) and that should do it if she can't cut back on cardio.

And I also agree that the diet needs to accomodate the lifestyle -- clean is best but I go out to eat daily so I work that in as well. With some online research to websites of restaurants and take-out places, you can see the nutrition and find the options that best suit the dietary needs you want to fulfill.

Me, I cook every Sunday two huge meals and pack it into containers for the week for both Ulter and myself so we have enough good, clean, healthy, filling food to eat. Works for us.

 

[Daisy_Girl]

Me, I cook every Sunday two huge meals and pack it into containers for the week for both Ulter and myself so we have enough good, clean, healthy, filling food to eat. Works for us.

Can I come live with you guys?

 

[bgdaddy123]

I have told her that she does need to eat more protien. Really the only time in the day she gets a good source is dinner, B/c I usually cook it.. It is hard to convince her to cut down on cardio due to the fact that she is trying to train for this marathon. She keeps track of her cals, fats , and points on her weight watchers card ( she used them 4 years ago). Ive told her before that she needs more weigtlifting but she is afraid of being bulky ( why I dont know). Her legs and but are thick mainly due to all the running and dance she has done in the years past. It is hard for her to sitdown and eat 6 meals due to the fact that she is always on the go. Between teaching morning classes at the gym , her job as a school teacher, a 5 month old, and training for this race, she is a busy person. And yes she is run down alot. I hope that she does take your advice on the diet. Lord knows we can all clean our diets up..
Thanks for all the help....

 

[Sassy69]

I guess that's the catch - we all are in the state we are in because of our goals, our time constraints, our habits... and then can't figure out why we can't accomplish our goals....

If she is a cardio / aerobics instructor and training for a marathon, then she needs to eat like that's her goal. If she doesn't I can guarantee she won't be prepared for her marathon in the way she could be, she will always be exhausted and will never change her shape if she doesn't change her diet. Period. How do you get around it? Other than change your expectations to match your lifestyle.

Daisy_Girl can speak to the 'how do i do this while teaching & have a baby" -- she does it every day as well. The cardio classes - fine - but fuel for them. The marathon - fine - but then fuel for it. Not to beat the subject to death, but is there any reason that makes it a good enough reason to spend a few minutes figuring out a way to get in an optimal diet if what you are doing isn't working?

That's why I said -- it APPEARS that her diet could use a lot of tweaking - its not bad - its clean, but but its not optimal and obviously she's not getting the results she wants from it. Since we don't know the portion sizes, can you either list the portion sizes for me or load up www.fitday.com w/ that meal plan and run the numbers so we can see REALLY where the diet is right now? Then we can probably help make a few really easy tweaks so she has some options vs getting caught up in the whole "she does this and this and this and this and this and doesn't have time for all that eating". Let's see what she CAN do.