Thursday, August 20, 2009

Taking things up a notch?

Brief re-cap of last night's dinner: Tuna salad sandwich on an Arnold's Sandwich Thin. Those are definitely becoming a favorite of mine. Had a baked potato on the side w/ some light sour cream and chives. Topped it off with a deep chocolate vitatop and a glass of chocolate almond milk. I love vitatops so much. Unfortunately, they're pretty damn expensive, whether you buy them in the store or online, so I usually only order them when they have some sort of special promotion going on that includes free shipping. Although, I recently discovered that Amazon sells them as well, with the "free shipping on $25 or more" deal, so my addiction may just go on...

Moving on for today...

FOOD

breakfast:
thomas light english muffin- 1
cheese single- 1
egg beaters- 1
boca sausage links- 1

snack:
9 almonds- 1
baby carrots- 0
PB2- 1

lunch:
kashi pesto pasta- 6

snack:
lightfull smoothie- 1

dinner:
salmon fillet- 3
corn tortillas- 1
salsa- 0
fat-free cheddar- 1
light sour cream- 1
green beans- 0

post-dinner:
fudge bar- 1
frozen sliced peaches/strawberries- 1
chocolate almond milk- 1

total points used: 22/22
activity points*: P90X- Plyometrics- 5
WAPs**: 23/35 remaining

*Activity points are also part of the WW program. I wear a heart rate monitor when I work out and award myself one activity point for every 100 calories burned. APs can be used to swap out food points on the days I eat a little extra and go over my daily food points.

**WAPs stands for Weekly Allowance Points. These are like extra back-up points that I can use during the week. I get 35 each week and only use them if I go over my daily food points, which includes days where I swap out all of my activity points and am still over (i.e., days where I'm feeling a little on the piggy side).


Breakfast this morning was the same as yesterday, because it's good. I have some salmon in the fridge for dinner and am still debating on what I want to do with it. I can either make salmon tacos or simmer the fillet with some spinach, tomatoes, garlic and white wine. Both of those options turned out pretty awesome last time I made them.

As for the Kashi dish, I'll have to report on that tomorrow, as it's my first time trying it. I love Kashi; they're one of my favorite food brands. Love, love, love their TLC granola bars, Go Lean Crunch cereal and their flax waffles. I don't buy their products that often because they can be pretty pricey, but if I catch them on sale and/or with a coupon, it's definitely worth it.

EXERCISE

My usual routine on Thursdays is to go to the gym and run or do some incline training. But last night, my boyfriend informed me that he acquired a copy of the new P90X DVD set that I've been eying for a couple of months now. Yes, it's an infomercial product, BUT, I've been hearing reviews from people both online and in-person and I'm more than ready to give it a shot. My mom's boyfriend's son, who is a personal trainer, says it's a pretty kick-ass system and will definitely bring on a challenge. I actually used to have Tony Horton's older system, Power 90, on VHS back in the day. I remember it being a good workout, but of course I wasn't nearly as dedicated back then, so I never stuck with it all the way through to really experience the benefit.

Well Tony, I'm ready to give you another shot, you handsome tiger, you. Ideally, I want to dive in head first, stick with it and become totally ripped, but there's also the possibility that I will completely wuss out. At the same time though, I've been able to bust through all of Jillian Michaels' DVDs pretty well for the last few months, and her workouts are pretty brutal. So at the very least, P90X will give me a better idea of where my current level of fitness is; it may be considerably higher or lower than I think.


That's all for now. Tomorrow (Friday) is my weigh-in day. I'll also share a recap of tonight's impending dinner and of course, my first P90x workout.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

DELETE LAST COMMENT - It didn't format well!

LOVE Arnold's thins - unfortunately we don't have them in Canada, so when I go to ND in September, I'll have to buy a few bags and freeze them. Seriously - 1 pt?! Awesome. Vita tops are SO expensive wow. Like $6 for 4 of them here... and we only have 2 flavours. Again, I wil check them out when I am in the US. I think I may have mentioned once or twice how much I love grocery shopping in North Dakota. OMG, I cannot wait!

Interesting about the 100 cals burn = 1pt.. is that an actual "WW rule" or a "Tamara rule"? :)

I've downloaded the P90X videos, but have yet to watch them. I've also downloaded the 10 minute trainer videos too. I love the internetz! I am excited to try and do pull-ups at the gym. I am so intimidated by that right now. Let me know how it goes. Maybe I will watch the videos this weekend and give it a shot. I need something different in my routine. It is become a little stale, but I love getting all strong!

I'm going to try and get to this blog of yours as often as I can. I am an LJ girl and usually forget to check out blogs.. but for you, I will try!!

Tamara said...

I don't have an official WW source I can point to on activity points, but I remember reading somewhere (article? discussion board?) that since a food point is roughly 50 calories, an activity point needed to burn at least twice that amount before it could be counted. Another WW LJer mentioned she uses the same calculation too, so I just go with it.

I think it's a decent rule to go by, especially with my heart rate monitor. I noticed that after I got it, the results were still consistent with what I would have estimated for APs (without the hear rate monitor) anyway. At the same time though, it exposed which workouts I was previously under/over estimating in terms of APs earned.

And vitatops in the stores are still super-expensive in the states... Over $6 for a 4 pack as well. That's why I'm going to start going through Amazon; the shipping costs can get so crazy!