“OMG I’m so happy I get to EAT!”

Those were the words of my 5’3” 125lb incredibly lean and beautiful friend who is currently running 6 days a week and who has been at her goal weight for a few years now. She had lost about 55 lbs following Weight Watchers a few years back and has been sticking to her maintenance POINT range of between 21 and 24 POINTS a day ever since. She’s trim and lean and looks great. But she also has never felt comfortable with eating her extra POINTS earned from exercise and occasionally would use her flex for special occasions etc. She has the willpower of a WW soldier. And did I mention that she runs about 6 days a week?

We got into the discussion of how she has decided to go back down to 21 POINTS per day in an effort to feel and look great for a special occasion coming up because she feels like she has just a little extra “bumpage” she would like to get rid of on her stomach. I looked and I pinched and I didn’t see any bumpage there, but she does, so she’s going to try to get rid of that last few “vanity pounds” as they say.

So she has been a weight watcher for a loooong time. She’s very used to counting POINTS and does it automatically. Then we started talking about Jillian Michaels (she’s a fan of the Biggest Loser too) and I have been listening to Jillian’s podcasts and lately I’m finding myself hanging on to every word she says and I was telling her about my own prolonged calorie deficit concerns and how I’ve gotten away from counting POINTS (again) because I was a little weary that my points level wasn’t enough calories for me to keep my metabolism running on high. Jillian talks a lot about the Basal Metabolic Rate and using that as a guideline to determine where you calorie intake should be with adding exercise and creating a calorie deficit etc. Jillian says that you should never be dropping below your BMR and especially if you are in that “last 10 lbs” category or you are just going to starve your body and slow down your metabolism. So just for kicks and to do a comparison with her of what her current BMR is as compared to her WW POINTS range is, we used her stats in an online BMR calculator and her BMR was 1372 and her daily caloritic needs (being moderately active which means multiplying her BMR by 1.55) ends up being 2227 calories per day. In WW, you get approximately 1 POINT for every 50 calories. Where she was sticking between 21 and 24, that was putting her daily calories between 1050 and 1200! From what I have read, women shouldn’t be dropping lower than 1200 per day. That’s HALF of what her body is capable of burning in a day!

Needless to say when I started talking about it a bit more and showing her the calculators, her eyes lit right up and she started taking notes and was like a little kid on xmas morning saying “OMG I’m so happy I get to EAT!” lol Now she is in the same boat as I am though because she’s going to have to work at getting her daily calories up little by little and allow her metabolism to catch up with the extra calories. Jillian has recommended to some people to increase it by about 100 – 150 per day for a week at a time and to keep up with the exercise.

OH and Marisa I just listened to one of her podcasts (December 21, 2008 on KFI AM 640 “Sunday” podcast on iTunes) where a person asked her how often she recommends doing the 30 Day Shred DVD and she said that she created the DVD to go along with her book “Making the Cut” which is geared toward those “last 10 lbs” people and thinks that the DVD shouldn’t be done every day, but more like 4-5 times per week as a supplement to other cardio and activity. So I feel good about committing to doing it 4-5 times a week.

Phew! Anyway, that’s what’s been on my mind lately. I’ve been watching the scale this week mainly because I’m freaked out about eating so many calories! And so far I’ve been staying the same which I’m not really happy about, but I’m going to listen to the woman and stick with it for a few weeks to allow my metabolism to catch up with the increase of calories and activity. Bottom line = I’m a girl who likes to eat and who wants a revving metabolism with it’s all said and done!

So today for Breakfast was oatmeal (big surprise) and I went easier on the ground almonds so that I could have toasted sliced almonds with a little sprinkle of the ground just for kicks. That with my coffee was a total of 407 calories:

I went a little easy on Lunch because my skinny mini buddy Brooke was coming up for the afternoon and staying for supper, so I had a hearty bowl of Campbell’s Hearty Spiced Lentil soup and an Americano from Second Cup with some whole milk and sugar free syrup for a total of 303 calories:

“Second cup” of the day:

Late afternoon, Brooke and I ventured down to Spring Garden for a little lulu perusal and she needed to get a new pair of runners, so we went to the Running Room where went spent a good hour talking with the guy there who impressed the hell out of me with the amount of running this guy does. On a regular day, he’s up at 5 and runs for 2 hours and then does it again after work! He’s done some iron mans and ultra marathons etc. Blew my friggin mind. I’m jealous and I wanna run! Although I have no desire to be running those kinds of distances. I’d be perfectly happy with a 10 k max.

We popped into Starbucks and I was feeling pretty hungry and I planned for a grande skinny cinnamon dolce latte for 130 calories:

Then we ordered pizza for Supper. But to make it a lighter fare, Brooke and I each ordered a calorie wise pizza from Pizza Town which are really healthy pizzas made on a tortilla shell and not a lot of cheese. They are thin, healthy and incredibly delicious! I’ve had them twice before and what an amazing option for pizza night. We ordered one Tex Mex (Salsa Sauce, Grilled Chicken Breast, Banana Peppers, Red Onions, Green Peppers, Shredded Mozzarella and Cheddar Blend) and one Mediterranean (Famous Pizzatown Sauce, Sliced Black Olives, Freshly Cut Tomatoes, Red Onions, Oregano, Feta and Shredded Cheddar Blend) and a big pile of salad (which I had two servings of) with a bit of feta and light balsamic vinaigrette:

Look how thin the “crust” is:

Unfortunately, they don’t have the NI on their website :-( But I was still comfortable with estimating the ingredients. I ate about one 12” tortilla, about 50g of chicken strips, about 1/4c of feta (light), about an ounce of chedder cheese, misc. veggies and a very light balsamic vinaigrette for a total of about 633 calories in total. Not TOO bad really considering it felt like I had about 6 slices of pizza even though they were super thin and small.

After that I satisfied my sweet tooth a few strawberries dipped in a bit of runny chocolate PB2 to introduce Brooke to my PB2 love in person. I didn’t take a shot, but I’m guessing it was about 50 calories in with a total for the day being 1526 calories.

And today was a day off from exercise since I had company. That means I didn’t earn any extra calories and I was a bit over by 176.

I just know though that my WI on Monday won’t be anything that will feel rewarding, so I will try not to be disappointed. I am going to stick with this with a high intensity of exercise and trust in science!