I bought a bodymedia CORE armband.
But first.
My family loves oatmeal. I’m not just talking likes or tolerates, but loves. The other day, in the afternoon, we were in the car, driving home and I asked my kids what they wanted for dinner. We actually have a rotating weekly theme night (Monday is American, Tuesday Asian, Wednesday Mexican, Thursday breakfast, and so on). That night it was Asian night. I asked my kids what they wanted for Asian night. My oldest replied, “We have too many Asian nights!” (we actually only have it once a week, I guess we’ve been eating a lot of rice lately). So I said, “Okay, what would you like for dinner?” This by no means meant I would make whatever they wanted, but I was curious to know what they would like. One said, “Oatmeal!” Then the others chimed in, “Yay, oatmeal!” I said okay and then they all started cheering, “woo-hoo, mom’s making us oatmeal for dinner!” And this is coming from kids who eat oatmeal for breakfast nearly every day of the week (Saturdays & Sundays are often waffles or pancakes). Yes, I guess you could say we love oatmeal.
On a different topic, I’m a confessed fitness junkie. I’m addicted to movement, hyper-energized, and teaching exercise classes is an awesome element to channel my creativity and energy.
Over the years I’ve learned some lessons as I’ve made some observations. Like, you can actually gain weight (I’m not talking just muscle) once you start an exercise program. In fact, exercise, in the strict definition of lacing up your shoes and pounding out a run, or sweating it out on your yoga mat, is a bit of hoax. I think the fitness industry wants us to believe that we need fancy machines, regimens. To spend hours of hours of grueling workouts a week to get the body we want. Perhaps that’s true if want to look like Adonis. But, if you just want a healthy, strong heart, nice muscle tone, and a lean look, it takes much less exercise than you might suspect. I can say this with confidence, because I know, I exercise a lot, but it’s not the exercise that keeps me thin (it does help, and is important, but as you shall see, it’s not the ONLY, or even the most important thing).
The thing is, we can easily eat back any calories we’ve burned from exercise (as I’ve mentioned many times before). So you work your tushy off like a madwoman/man for an hour, and you burn 500 calories. What’s 500 calories? A burger; a large fry; or a Cliff bar & a small smoothie. So if your purpose is to burn fat, well you’re not going to do it if you just eat back those calories, which is so easy to do. Which is why paying attention to your diet is imperative if you want to change your body composition (lower body fat %). If you want more muscle tone, you’re not going to do it running, walking, or by doing any cardio exercise. It’s only until you add some consistent resistance training to your exercise program that you’ll see some muscle definition (that is, if there’s not too much fat in the way to see it).
I used to wonder why I still had a large derriere even though I exercised daily, with the fervor of a religious zealot while friends or family were thin and trim without ever going to the gym. Now I might have had the upper hand in terms of cardiovascular strength (heart is strong from all the cardio), but I was still stuck with the fat. Why? Because I didn’t pay attention to CALORIES. I’m not thrilled about the idea of journaling what I eat for the rest of my life, but it’s only until I realized that it’s all about calories that I lost weight (lost the fat). Switching to a plant based helped me lose weight, but unless I’m eating only vegetables and other low calorie foods, it’s easy to go overboard and eat too many calories from the many delicious calorie-rich foods out there (coconut milk? Dreena Burton’s desserts? avocado? flour products? smoothies? Cliff Bars? nuts? the list goes on and on).
So about the armband. I recently purchased a CORE armband from Bodymedia, which tracks a number of things, one of which is calories burned on a daily basis. I’ve been wanting one for awhile. After all, with all of the fitness classes I teach I’ve always been curious to know just how many calories I’ve burned during each class. This device is apparently one of the most accurate ones on the market, so I’m trusting that the numbers it’s given me are accurate (website says it’s 90-100% accurate, which is good enough for me). It’s been eyeopening to see just how many calories I’m really burning through each day. The biggest surprise of all is just how little I burn exercising. For example, teaching a 40 minute Pilates class (working hard, breaking a sweat, granted, it’s not cardio, but I’m working hard, my muscles are feeling it) for me, burns a paltry 120-140 calories! I burn that many calories doing dishes or laundry! In an intense 30 minute session of cardio (plyometrics, jump rope, getting winded, etc.) I burn 230-250 calories. Not bad, but I’m working hard!! 3 hours of house cleaning, spread over the day though, will burn me about 800 calories (I do have some steep, long stairs, so this does give me an advantage, especially when I’m putting away laundry & toys). I’ve realized since using the armband, that while exercise is important, going to a class is not the only way to get a calorie burn. In fact the majority of my daily calorie burn comes from other activities other than formal exercise. Here’s a rough breakdown using my CORE bodymedia armband (FYI, this is essentially the same thing as the bodybugg device, same company, different brand within the company). I range from 3200-3800 calories a day (I’ve been wearing it for a little over a week, and my average burn is about 3450).
My basal metabolic rate (what I burn just to keep my heart pumping, brain functioning, etc.): 1580
If I calculate it using a BMR calculator it puts me at about 100 calories lower; I attribute this difference to the fact that I have great muscle mass, thanks to adding muscular resistance training to my workouts, which as we know, muscle requires a bit more calories than fat to maintain).
Nursing: 600-800, depending on baby’s needs for the day
Exercise (keep in mind this is 2-3 classes a day, 60-120 minutes of a variety of cardio and strength exercise): 500-700
Daily small movements (showering, eating, brushing teeth): 300
Other (dishes, laundry, chasing after baby, preschoolers, and 1st grader, playing with kids at the park, etc.): 600-800
You can see, I burn just as many calories taking care of my kids and home as I do doing formal exercise!
Ahh, I’d love to share more about the bodymedia armband, but for now, I have some pics of quick food ideas to share. These are some of the foods I’ve been eating lately.
All of these recipes took less than 20 minutes to throw together. Let me know if you want me to post the recipes (really just ingredients, I didn’t go off any recipe, it was more like throwing a bunch of ingredients together).
Italian Soup
I used 2 bags of frozen Italian Blend mixed veggies for part of this soup. Helped cut out time washing and chopping vegetables.
Cabbage slaw I, one of the many variations
I LOVE raw cabbage. I should dedicate a whole post it’s many uses. It has to be cut right (no big chunks please) and have a good vinegar or dressing, but it hits the spot so many times. Tossed with some clementines, grapes, and carrots, this was part of my lunch today.
Bananas Over Brown Rice
Crunchy, sweet, and satisfying. Just a brown rice cake with smashed banana, cinnamon, & stevia (or a little more sweetness).
Cauliflower Lentil Soup
I added a bag of frozen cauliflower (1 pound) & a can of diced tomatoes to some leftover lentil soup. Served over some leftover brown rice.
Romaine Salad I
Miso, Miso Soup
That’s it for now, I need to take my baby and preschooler for a walk. More on the bodymedia armband & my wheat free diet coming up. Let me know if you have any specific questions about the armband and I’ll try to address them in the post.
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