Whole Grain Pasta

I always thought that whole wheat pasta was a food for health food fanatics. I mean what is the point, right? Well, since BFL requires me to have whole grain carbohydrates, I decided to give whole grain pasta a try and it was surprisingly good. I tried a couple different brands and thought they were delicious. I do not see the point in actually going back to processed flour pasta since the whole grain is so much better for me. I made angel hair pasta with a sauce of Roma tomatoes and fresh basil that I ate with a chicken breast.

Tomorrow I am going to have a frittata for breakfast to use up the rest of the pasta. Get this, two ounces of the Barilla multi-grain pasta has seventeen grams of protein. Amazing! Give it a try and you will love it.

Day 40 -- Loving My Gold's Gym Membership

I am lovin' the Gold's Gym membership. They have everything! I feel like my workouts are so much more effective with all the tools there. Today was the last day of my 7-day VIP membership. So next week I will have to start paying the daily fee on my weight lifting days. I hit some very cool lifting milestones this week. On Thursday, I benched 175lbs three times on my own and three more times with help from a guy who agree to spot me. On that same day I also reached a new high by preacher curling a 90lb curling barbell 6 times. I am definitely gettin stronger and can push myself more at Gold's. The back of my neck hurt after I did actual squats so I have been using a machine now to do the squats, but I have been squating around 200lb six times for my max. I also upped my wieght for my calves today to 150lbs. I could barley lift the weight, but I have to do something to make my chicken little calves grow. I have also been working on some more videos of meals that work under BFL guidelines and as soon as I edit them, I will post them. I made them with my nine-year-old son as camera man and main helper -- so it was tons of fun. I am really hoping that I break under 180lbs tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Day 37 -- Body for Life -- Update

I have been traveling so much lately that I have had to rely on a lot of protein bars and shakes to fit in all my meals, but I feel like my body does not respond the same to the meal replacements as well as to real food. Today I had egg whites with vegetables and a bunch of red grapes for breakfast. I think my body was very happy to know that I had not gone on some astronaut-type replacement food diet. I also sign up for a temporary membership at Gold's Gym. The weights set I have was no longer enough, and I did not want to invest in more weights that I will have to haul around with me. The first day I did upper body and I had forgot that the barbell weighs 45lb and I calculated all my weights as if it was 25lbs. The amazing thing is that I did the whole planned work out with an extra 20lbs. I can bench press 155lb 6 reps now. Not bad! On the second day, after I did my interval training on the elliptical, I decided to put some extra time on the treadmill. I felt really good so I decided to jog. I ended up jogging an entire mile with no knee pain. Given it was a 15 minute mile, but hey, I completed it. I was not going to start jogging until I had lost more weight, but I was really warmed up and stretched out so it seemed the right time. Yesterday for lower body, I used the squatting rack and could squat 205lb six times. I expected my thighs to be really sore today, but instead my hamstrings are really sore. I also upped the weights for my calves, but no matter what I do, I do not seem to be able to work out my calves so they are sore the next day. If anyone knows a good calve work out, please let me know. Today I did my interval training on the rowing machine and then walked an extra mile on the tread mill. I am enjoying my membership at Gold's and I see more of the Olympics while I am there.

Day 36 - Body for Life -- Challenge Measurements

I know we all hate taking the "before picture." It's painful because I am already not happy with the way I look and now I am suppose to memorialize it. And share the photo? Ouch! But I am learning the extreme value of my before picture. You see, I still feel like a big fat slob, until I look at my before and after photos. I have only lost 5lbs, but check out my week 1 through 5 photos at the body-for-life tracker link. It is already an amazing change.

I have also been charting my measurements at BFL tracker. And while I have only lost 5 lbs, I have also dropped 5% in body-fat. That is 9lbs of fat and that means I have put on 4lb of lean muscle. If I can drop only another 5% body fat by week 12, I will have dropped 10% body fat.

I also could not see my muscle gains from my measurements at first. My arms and chest actually were shrinking. But now I can tell that they were shrinking because I was burning off the layer of fat on them. This week my biceps are finally 15 inches, up from 14.5 at the beginning and my chest has gone up to 42.75" from 41". With the reductions for the loss of fat, those are some pretty good gains.

Without my before photo and weekly measurements, I think I would feel like my 5lb loss was a failure after 5 weeks of hard work and sacrifice. Instead, I am excited about losing another 5% body fat and putting on another 4lbs of muscle over the next 5 weeks.

Wahoo! Go Body-for-LIFErs!!