Metabolic Efficiency - Day 21 - Three Weeks

WOW. Really hard to believe I've been taking pictures of my food every day for the last three weeks! Today was the last official day of my Metabolic Efficiency Study. I'll post a more detailed summary of the experience tomorrow night (12/22).
Before I get to the food for today, some closing remarks:

• I have noticed a change in how my jeans fit (and my belt). There are some slight changes in the mirror as well, which appear to be confirmed in the skin fold test from tonight (will detail all that tomorrow).
• I enjoy what I'm eating and eat when I'm hungry. 
• Although my workouts are not intense or too long (yet!), I have energy for them.
• I did not find this hard to do. Shop the produce, dairy, and meat section, and you've pretty much got all your food. Maybe hit up the frozen section for frozen fruit and some vegetables, and add some nuts and you're good to go. When I cooked, the meals were quick and easy. 

I'm going to keep on this protocol, and when my training starts to add more intensity, then I'll add the whole grains back in per Bob's Periodization Plates. I'm finding it interesting to monitor the macronutrient content in foods through TrainingPeaks, so I will continue to do that. And TrainingPeaks is the platform my coach and I use for workouts, so all the exercise data will be there anyway. I'm going to be a bit "detail-oriented" (there might be another term for that) this year gathering data on how my body responds to food and ironman training - really out of curiosity and to learn things that I might be able to apply to the athletes I coach. I do have a Master's degree in Chemistry...so data collection and analysis is something I do enjoy.

OK, now on to the food. I finally remembered to take a picture of the smoothie I made today! Not shown is the whey protein and the cocoa. I actually skipped the banana and peanut butter (used milled flax seed and 1T of almond butter). Still yummy, though I guess I like the banana and peanut butter flavor a little better.

Can't go wrong with fruit, yogurt, whey protein, cocoa, and some nut butter!

makes quite a bit - made a little too much and needed a 2nd cup.

I "saved" the banana and peanut butter for my pre-swim/mid-morning snack. That's a cup of Pike Place roast. ...I added a small amount of half and half to mellow it a bit.

My workout for today was a 45 minute swim where I got in 1800yds. I don't want to swim too much too fast while I'm "re-training" my shoulder and back muscles. More PT tomorrow! After the workout I had a fruit salad with cottage cheese (just like yesterday).

Later in the afternoon it was time to eat again so I had this egg & veggie mixture I scrambled up the night before. Sauted onion and green pepper, then added radishes (the pink things) and kale and black beans. Scrambled in eggs and egg whites, then topped it with some shredded cheese.

eggs with veggies and cheese is just plain gooooood.

After work I headed to the UCCS Peak Nutrition Clinic where Kelly Ping, RD, did another ISAK skin fold test. The results were good, I'll share them tomorrow in my final wrap-up. She also did a DXA scan. It'll be interesting to compare these results to those I got 10 months ago when I participated in a female athlete study. It's not really a part of this, but it's interesting so I'll share in another post. When I got home I munched on some survival mix (not shown) and a few veggies while my salmon was in the oven.

I ate about half of this.

 LOVE baked salmon! It's under there, I promise!

baked salmon topped with corn, tomatoes, green chilies, and avocado

So I told you my in-laws are visiting. I go into the pantry to get the can of diced tomatoes and I find this. No worries, I won't eat it.  Not that I really bought these or ate many packaged cookies before, but I'm really less likely to eat this now. I suppose since eating mostly unprocessed foods, I really would like to have quality everything. If I'm going to eat cookies I want GOOD cookies. :)

hrrmmmm.

 Oh, and this book came in the mail today. NICE!

Getting ready for Ironman in several different ways!

I hope you enjoyed the beginning of my metabolic efficiency journey, and the start of my Ironman journey. I'll report back tomorrow with my official weigh in and the summary post will be on my NEO Endurance Sports & Fitness blog. But now that the study is "over" these blog posts will not go away. I will keep posting my training and nutrition progress. I plan to do the Metabolic efficiency testing with Bob some time in early 2011 (fingers crossed it's a christmas present from my husband), so you can be sure of an update on that!

Thanks for following and I hope to see you back here often!