Day 2 - Food

Wanna know something really awesome about my wife? She makes me breakfast every morning. Well, almost every morning. But especially when I'm exercising, she'll make a special effort to do that sweet act of service for me.

I get out of bed around 7 a.m., then stumble around getting my socks and shoes on (nope - don't bother with workout clothes - sorry if that puts an unpleasant image of me in your mind, but it's the truth), get a glass of water ready, and turn on the day's DVD. At some point, I come back in the bedroom to wake up Kristen (usually during a "rest" period) and go back to exercising. She'll get ready while I work out, and then when I'm done and getting ready for the day, she'll make breakfast for me, as well as my "second meal" to take with me to work. Isn't she sweet? :)

I thought I'd take a moment to detail a little of what I eat. Based on the calculations they give you in the little Insanity food guide thingy, to lose weight I need to eat around 1500 calories a day along with doing the Insanity workout. And in addition to the number of calories, it's certain types of foods (a lot of protein and fruits/veggies, some complex carbohydrates, and no sugar/processed foods), and on a certain schedule. I eat five 300-calorie meals a day, spaced about 2.5-3 hours apart. So I typically eat at 8, 10:45, 1, 3:30, and 6. Surprisingly, the food I get to eat is pretty good. I got rid of some of the stuff I tried and hated (like the proatcake - protein powder, oatmeal, egg, and a little water - nasty), and added in a few things I liked from P90X. Check back for pictures later of some of the foods I eat.

Breakfast is probably my favorite meal on the program, because it has the most variety of meals from that I like. Breakfast gets your metabolism going for the rest of the day - it also makes you more alert. You've seen those Jimmy Dean commercials, right? And did you know that people who skip breakfast are much more likely to be overweight than those who don't? The reason is that your metabolism slows down because your body thinks it won't get much food. Then, when it does get food, it's already gone into starvation mode, so it stores that extra food as fat.

So you can get an idea of what I eat, here was my meal plan for today:

Breakfast: 1 piece of whole wheat toast with almond butter, and 1 cup of cottage cheese

Meal 2: I was supposed to have a deli sandwich - 1 piece of wheat bread, 3 oz. turkey, lettuce, 1 slice of cheese (I forgot and missed it, so I had some animal crackers instead)

Lunch: chicken salad sandwich (two toasted pieces wheat bread, 4 oz. chicken, cooked and shredded, then mixed with a dollop of mayo and a dollop of dijon mustard

Meal 4: brown rice bowl (half cup cooked brown rice, 2 oz. cooked chicken, 1/3 C. peas, 1/3 C. corn

Dinner: baked citrus chicken (4 oz. chicken breast cooked with paprika and lemon juice, 1 C. cooked broccoli

I add a little here and there to jazz things up, but not too much. I try to stick to the plan the best I can. Down to 162.4 lbs. after exercising today. Probably just the natural fluctuation, though, so the big test will be where I am after the first week is up.