Body fat testing machine

Today I used a body fat testing machine at the gym that looks like this. This girl at the front desk had been telling be about it but I had never heard of it before. Today I asked if I could use it. You have to be there the same time that a personal trainer is there because its in his office. Anyways this guy at the front desk weighed me on the scale at 188.5 ( that was with my clothes and my shoes on in the middle of the day). He entered that into the machine + my age. Then he told me to hold this machine in front of me and press on the handles of it until my results popped up. It says that I have 132.2 pounds of lean mass and that I have 30.2 % body fat. I was wondering what a healthy body fat percentage is for me. I found this on about.com...

What is a Healthy Body Fat Percentage?

Age-Adjusted Body Fat Charts for Men and Women If you look around the Internet, you will see a lot of different recommendations for body fat percentages. As far as I can tell, this is the most authoritative, as it is based on World Health Organization and National Institutes of Health recommendations, and takes age into account. Please do not confuse these numbers with the BMI (Body Mass Index) scores, which are not the same thing.
Age-Adusted Body Fat Percentage Recommendations


Women

Age	Underfat	Healthy Range	Overweight	Obese
20-40 yrs	Under 21%	21-33%	33-39%	Over 39%
41-60 yrs	Under 23%	23-35%	35-40%	Over 40%
61-79 yrs	Under 24%	24-36%	36-42%	Over 42%

According to this I am in a healthy range but other websites give different numbers. All I know is that I'm going to keep going until I reach my goal weight. I thought that it was really interesting. When I get to my goal weight I will ask to use it again to see my progress. He also sat down with me and said that based on my lean body mass that I need to eat 78-108 grams of protein MINIMUM. That seems like a lot! He also told me that I need to stop doing the same exercises and weight lifting routines because my body will get used to it and then I will hit a wall. When I told him " Hey I have been doing this for 9 months and I'm still getting the results I want" He was like " Yeah but you could be getting them faster if you had a personal trainer telling you how to do it differently". All I know is that I really am into my routine right now and I can't afford a personal trainer. I feel like I'm just ranting at this point. Lol. I just get so annoyed when people tell me I need to lose weight in a different way because I like how I'm doing it now.

My Sunday, new dress, and inches lost.

I need to re-determine myself on my workout situation. My boyfriend asks me why I don't cut my calories to compensate for my lack of working out. I'm like "No Way!". I hate cutting my calories because it means less snacks and I love my chocolate. I know if I just stick to my workout plan that I'll lose the weight. I only want to cut them when It's necessary. Since I just cut them to 1600 I don't think it's time yet. Maybe 10 more pounds from now. This week I only worked out 3 days. No wonder I only lost .4 pounds...at least that brings my total loss over 70 pounds (70.2 to be exact). So I'm 187.8. I'm so close to my boyfriends weight. It's gonna be weird when I'm smaller than him because I never have been. The other day he actually picked me up while I was trying to make lunch in the kitchen. I was like "doesn't that hurt?" Sometimes I forget that I'm smaller now. This morning I woke up early and did my workout routine. I also went up 10 pounds for each machine for lower body weights. The squats were so hard to do with 20 pound free weights! But then again that's what I said when I was using the 15 pound ones. I've just noticed how strong I have been getting and how I actually have triceps! I don't think I have ever had visible muscles that you could feel on my arms before. I wish I had more time Sundays to spend relaxing. Sundays are pretty much days were I just wake up, weigh in, work-out, go to Buddhist meetings, then go to sleep. Don't get me wrong It's a very productive day...I just wish that I had more time with my boyfriend. This morning after my workout my friend Gretchen from my Buddhist practice took me to my first Byakuren meeting. The Byakuren are a group of SGI young women's division who take care of the members behind the scenes and make sure that events run smoothly. It was a great meeting and I met some women that were very inspirational. After the meeting Gretchen and I told ghost stories in the car and then went to Value Village. Byakuren need to wear white blouses and I don't own one. None of the white blouses there were in my size!! So I bought a really cute Roxy dress in a size large for $6.00 and a vintage looking black blouse to go with it for only $4.00. Not too shabby for some frivolous attire.

Last week I forgot to post the inches that I have lost in the past (about) 9 months. So here ya go!
       Before               Now            Lost
Arms: 15''            Arms: 13''      (-2)
Bust: 48''             Bust: 40"       (-8)
Waist: 52''          Waist: 41"      (-11)
Hips: 51''             Hips: 44"       (-7)

Things I've learned and the 180's.

This morning my boyfriend came home from graveyard shift. Right after we chanted I decided to take a 2 hour nap,wake up, and then go to the gym. Well 2 hours turned into 4 and now It's too late to go to the gym because my whole routine takes almost 3 hours. I still have to make dinner and be at my SGI Buddhist group meeting by 6pm. I guess I will go straight to the gym after my meeting but the gym closes at 9pm. I'll have to hoof it! Good thing my group meeting is only a 10 minute jog away from my gym. Gym I will get to you one way or another!

I have been thinking about what people have been saying to me since I began calorie counting. “So are you going to calorie count for the rest of your life?” I honestly don’t think that I'm going to calorie count for the rest of my life but it does it help me keep track of what I eat everyday. I don’t want to go back to what I used to do. I used to eat and eat and pretend those extra snacks or meals didn’t count. I've learned It all counts! I think if calorie-counting reminds me of that it's a good thing. Plus it seriously only takes like 15 minutes out of my day. Especially with the calorie-count website I use or a phone app.

Things I've learned since calorie-counting...

• How not to over eat.
• What a single portion of food should look like.
• What a BMI is and what a healthy weight range for me is. Of course it doesn't take into account muscle mass so to be really accurate you'd have to do a dunk test or a caliper test.
• That It’s OK to give yourself some days where you don’t calorie count as long as you are determined and can get right back to it.
• The bigger you are the more calories you can eat to lose the same amount each week. When I was 258 I could eat 2,000 calories and lose 2 pounds a week. Now that I'm down to 188 I have to eat 1600 to lose the same amount with the same amount of exercise. Every time you lose a good chunk of weight you should re-check your calories.
• It inspired me to create a better diet plan for myself with healthier meals.
• There are reasons for so called “plateaus”. They happen if you aren’t sticking to your calories or your work out plan.
• That I had to start exercising and strength training to reach my healthy goals.

I'm sure there is more that I've learned that I can't think of right now. When I get to the weight I want to be then I will worry about when I want to ween myself off of calorie-counting. I might even wait til I’ve maintained for a good while. Please read Krista Bergs blog if you want a more thorough explanation of calorie counting. She does it so well!

On another note this morning I weighed in and I'm in the 180's!! I feel like I had been in the 190's forever! I lost 3.4 pounds this week which brings me to 188.2 lbs.

Tofu sloppy joes recipe and calorie count.

                             Tofu Sloppy Joes 

                  Fills 6 large Hamburger buns
          (225 calories + whatever bun you use)

These sloppy jo's are the best! I had it for dinner tonight. I like how they aren't all greasy like sloppy joes you normally might have. I got this recipe from a book called "101 Things To Do With Tofu". I revised it a bit because I like extra seasonings. Remember to buy the tofu and freeze it ahead of time. Freezing and thawing tofu makes it tough and crumbly (like mock ground beef). After it's frozen I'll just leave in on the counter to thaw over night to make sure it's ready for the next day.
   
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced green bell pepper
1/4 cup butter or margarine ( I used Earth Balance)
14 oz. extra firm tofu ( frozen and thawed)
(1) 6 oz. can tomato paste
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tsp garlic powder
1 cup water
2 tsp onion powder
2-4 tsp Tabasco sauce (4 If you like it SPICY)
2 Tbsp chili powder

       +6 large hamburger buns for serving

In a large frying pan, saute onion and bell pepper in butter over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Press tofu with paper towels until most of the moisture is out. Crumble into pan with the onion and bell pepper, cooking another 5 minutes and stirring constantly. Add remaining ingredients and simmer 8-10 minutes more, stirring constantly to remove moisture. Serve over buns. Enjoy.


 Here is my calorie count for today. I did really good! Even if I did sneak in some ice cream. I'm glad I went to grocery outlet... its hard to resist ice cream when It's only $1.99.

 

I have been looking at pics of me lately comparing them to before and dang my arms are skinny! This is one of me a couple days ago. I wasn't really planning on posting it because I look kinda funny...o'well. Excuse the tiredness and the unkempt hair. I was up late blogging.

 

Well good night my peeps! Now that I'm full from dinner I think it's time for bed.

What 1600 calories looks like...

The past couple days I've had to wake up at 4:30 am because I started work at 7am. I bus it to work and I live a good 1.5 hours away from work. It has been so hot and muggy the last couple days (in the 80's). For Seattle that's hot! When I got off work today I just took the bus straight to the gym and skipped the jog to the gym. I didn't feel like melting in the sun. My gym finally decided to turn it's air conditioning on today so it felt really nice while I was sweatin' my butt off doing cardio. I decided to do extra at the gym to make up for the lack of jogging...

• 15 minutes on tall bike.
• 40+5 minute cool down on the elliptical.
• 30 minutes strength training (upper body).

 I've been sticking to my 1600 calories pretty good this week. Here is what they look like today.

I'm pretty sure that that was the best peach that I've ever had. It was so ripe and yummy. I needed a little caffeine today after work and before my work out so I went to Starbuck's and ordered a frappuccino. I don't drink coffee too often. Only every couple weeks when I'm feeling out of it.

Size 14!

I've been feeling a little blaa this week about writing my blog so this ones gonna be short...

Today I did my usual 30 minute jog to the gym. When I got to Gold's Gym it was closed (duh Labor Day!).  I had to go the the bathroom so bad by then. Thankfully there is an Albertson's right next to the gym! I realized that I needed to get more cardio in. So after Albertson's I then jogged the rest of the way home (60 minutes total of jogging). When I finally got home I was so freakin thirsty. Nothing makes me crave water more than a good work out.

 When I went to Forever 21 last week to check out their jeans I picked up a couple pairs of 14's!!! Here's a pic of me in my new skinny jeans. Next week I'm hoping to be in the 180's + post more recipes and pics of food.

 

 Oh yeah, here is something I forgot to post last week. I hope my sister comes over next week to go blackberry picking with me again because the day after the 5k she made this at my house. She was just like "Really you have all these free berries by your house and you just ignore them?". It was probably my favorite part of last week besides the 5k and Buddhist family picnic =). My sister has all the pics of the picnic on her camera so I hope to share them with everyone when she comes over next time.

 

Seriously, the best blackberry pie ever!