Macronutrients

Just like your car, your body needs fuel.  And just like fuel, there are different grades of food. For example,  a Fiber One bar would be unleaded, a homemade granola bar would be mid-grade and a bowl of oats and berries would be premium.  The less additives in your food, the more nutrition it will retain.

Macronutrients are the main components of our diet.  They are broken down into three groups: Protein, fat, and carbohydrates.  In my previous post, Clean Eating: When, How much and What to Eat, I listed example of these three categories.  

These Macronutrients can be broken down further as described the Wikipedia's list of Macronutrients. 

Protein: Amino Acids; Fats: saturated, polysaturated, monosaturated, and essential fatty acids; Carbohydrates: Glucose, fructose, sucrose, etc.

Why are Macronutrients important?  Just like in the example of putting the best fuel in your car for optimal performance, putting the right ratio of nutritious foods in your body will also assist you to look, feel and perform better.

Haha!  So I just liked this photo, but it is just a tad bit over simplified.  Not all protein and fat sources are from animals.  A good general rule is to divide your calories into these percentages: 30% protein, 15-20% fat, 50-55% carbohydrates.  

I like to fill 50% of my plate with a rainbow of colors: tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, kale, carrots, etc.  Heap on those vegetables.  They will help to fill you up with Premium fuel!!!

I have heard many fitness buffs refer to their nutrition break down as "macros."   When they use the term macros, they usually aren't referring just to carbs, proteins and fats, but they are also breaking these down even further to key minerals and vitamins (these are micronutrients).  Unless you are taking a multivitamin or drinking a meal replacement shake, like Shakeology, you are probably missing out on some these essential nutrients.     

 

I didn't start worrying about my "macros" very much, until I found out that my iron levels were lower than they should be.  I usually workout in the morning and evening- cardio for one workout and strength training for the other- and I have to be careful that I'm getting enough protein.  Not only just protein, but also iron and branch chain amino acids.  I have quit throwing away my egg yolks and started adding spinach to my smoothies. I feel so much better when I keep my sugars low, my protein around 100 grams and focus on eating foods that are a good source of iron.

If you aren't seeing the results that you want or you feel run down a lot, it might be beneficial to track your food.  Apps, such as My Fitness Pal, are easy to use.  My Fitness Pal provides a breakdown of fats, cholesterol, sodium, potassium, carbs, protein, Vitamins A & C, Calcium and Iron.  You don't have to do this forever.  Tracking your normal diet for a few days will give you an idea of where you might be needing to add or subtract certain foods. 

Also consider adding a multivitamin and/or Shakeology to provide the "macros" that your diet may be lacking. Putting a little bit of time and effort into your nutrition will pay off in the end when you look, feel and perform better than you ever have before.

Here's some more information on Macronutrients. 

Calculate your Macronutrient Needs

Macronutrients (Wikipedia definition)
How to count your macronutrients (a guide for beginners)

Clean Eating: When, How Much, and What to eat

When 

I was brought up to eat 3 meals a day and this was a hard habit for me to break.  It takes 21 days to break a habit, so for the next 3 weeks set a timer on your phone or watch to remind you when to eat.  For instance, I usually eat my meals at 7 am, 10 am, 12:30 pm, 3 pm and 6 pm.   Set your timer for similar times (depending on when you wake up) and plan your meals for these times.

I like to eat my Starchy Complex Carbohydrates earlier in the day when I'm more active.  I usually have oatmeal for breakfast and then rice, quinoa, or pasta with lunch.  Occasionally, I will eat a SCC with my dinner, but often I will opt for a vegetable instead and then save the SCC for lunch the next day.   This is one of the ways that I adapt what I make for my family to meet my requirements.  Also if I'm going to workout in the evening, I might eat another SCC for my afternoon snack.  

How Much

Remember portion size too!  Here's a great video by the Clean Eating Queen, Tosca Reno.

 

What to eat

One of the Clean Eating Rules is to pair lean proteins with complex carbohydrates.   

When you combine LP and CC every three hours, 

you are encouraging your body to burn fat and boost your metabolism.  

Lean protein: 5-6 servings daily

Starchy Complex Carbs: 2-3 servings daily

Complex Carbs from fruits and vegetables: 5-6 servings daily

Healthy Fats: 2-3 servings daily

Lean Protein:  

• Boneless, skinless chicken or turkey breast
• Egg (I eat the whole egg, because those yolks are packed with nutrients)
• Fish such as salmon and tuna
• Shakeology
• Tofu
• *Nuts such as unsalted cashews, peanuts, almonds, walnuts
• *Hummus
• Cottage Cheese
• Greek Yogurt (plain with no fruit on the bottom)
• *Nut butters
• *seeds such as pumpkin, sunflower, chia
• Beans of all kinds
• *Avocado

*Healthy fats.  These can be confusing- are they a protein or a fat???  I count nuts, seeds, avocados as both a fat and a protein.  What does that mean?  It means that if I eat almonds and an apple for a snack then I count that as my LP+CC, but it's also uses up one of my servings of fat for the day.  

Other healthy fats include olive oil and coconut oil.

Complex Carbs from fruits and vegetables:  

• Carrots
• Cucumbers
• Zucchini
• Celery
• Tomatoes
• Green Beans
  
• Peas
• Asparagus
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Apples
• Cherries
• Grapes
• Peaches
• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Oranges
• Pineapple
• Pears
• Raspberries and blackberries
• Mushrooms
• Peppers
• Brussels Sprouts
• Leafy Greens
• Spinach

Starchy Complex Carbs:  

• whole grain bread
• oatmeal
• whole grain pasta
  
• brown rice
• couscous
• *quinoa
• whole grain tortilla
• *teff
• bananas
• potatoes

*Also tricky.  Some SCC are also high in protein, such as quinoa and teff.  I do the same with these as fats.  I may have quinoa(LP) and blueberries(CC) as a pre-workout snack, but I count the quinoa as one of my SCC for the day and add in some nuts for a little more protein.  

Here's some more info 

Carbohydrates.

What I Eat

What is Clean Eating

Clean Eating Basics

What I eat

Recently my friend Libby (co-host of KPVI More and fellow participant in 6 Figures) asked me how I am able to eat over 1600 calories per day since I am eating clean.  Actually, my problem is trying not to eat over that each day.  Just because a food is clean, it doesn't mean it is low in calories.  Sure, you can eat mounds of spinach, kale, broccoli, asparagus, etc. for very few calories, but nuts, dried foods, oils and the like are very high in calories.  That's probably why I have an addiction to Adam's natural peanut butter and prunes (not together).  I decided to break down what I eat during the day, just to show how easy it is to eat clean and get the proper nutrition.  These are my very favorite meals.  I'm not a nutritionist and if one looked over my meals, they would probably see a lot of things that I am doing wrong.  However, this is what seems to be working for me.  I have been able to keep up a high level of fitness and energy.

Breakfast 
4 squares of Jamie Eason's Carrot Cake Protein Bars covered in 1 cup almond milk and microwaved for about 1 minute.  I top with 1 TBSP chopped walnuts
or
4 egg whites and Everyday Oatmeal

My "Everyday oatmeal"
1/3 cup oats
2/3 cup water
1 TBSP chia seeds
cinnamon to taste
1/2 cup fruit: apples or blueberries are my favorite add ins
I microwave everything for 2 minutes, then I add 1 packet of stevia and almond milk to desired consistency.

Post workout snack
4 eggs whites scrambled with kale or spinach and chopped peppers (pretty much whatever veggies I have)
or
Berry Smoothie:  1/2 banana, 1/2 cup berries (fresh or frozen), scoop of protein powder, water

Lunch
Jamie Eason's Turkey Meatloaf Meatballs, sauteed peppers, salsa, cholula
or
4 oz chicken, sweet potato, veggies (I usually used some kind of frozen mixed veggies)
or
last night's leftovers

Mid afternoon snack
1 oz nuts and apple
or
1 rice cake, 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1 TBSP raisins, 1 TBSP pecans and cherry tomatoes or cucumbers

Dinner
Salmon and spinach- I line a baking dish with aluminum foil and then lay down a bed of spinach (a couple of handfuls) then I place the salmon on top and sprinkle on a little bit of sea salt and cracked pepper.  I fold the foil around the salmon and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.  Salmon is such a nice, fatty fish that the oils seep into the spinach and make it oh, so yummy!!!
or
4 oz chicken and salad (whatever is chopped up, so I can just throw it all together) and Newman's Own Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing (Lite)

PM Snack
If I'm really hungry then I will make a protein smoothie with lots of ice, a little water and chocolate protein powder.  If I'm really, really hungry and a little bit naughty (so almost every night) I'll add in a little all natural peanut butter.  My goal is to only eat 1 serving of nuts a day, so often I will divide the 1 oz serving between breakfast and my mid afternoon snack.

The total for all of this, including the PM snack is around 1600 calories.  I still need to work on increasing my  intake of carbohydrates from veggies because this breaks down to about 40% protein, 30% carbs, and 30% fats.  Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays are my high calorie burn days so I usually eat more on those days.  Now that my mileage is up to 18 miles and increasing for my Saturday long runs, I'm letting myself have that be a freebie day.  I usually use that as my day to go out to eat and get dessert too.  Sundays are my most difficult day because they are notoriously days of gluttony in my home and extended family dinners.  Now that the weather is warmer I am using this day to take my dog for a walk in an attempt to stay out of the kitchen. I'm also keeping my portions smaller, but still eating my 5-6 meals. It hasn't really helped that much, but I'm working on it.  As for the other days, I have good days and bad days too.  I still love and crave chocolate every single minute of each day.  I haven't been buying dark chocolate and I make my kids hide all sweets from me.  My daughter has become the sweets police with me and since she is a lot like me, I'm kind of scared of crossing her.  I guess whatever works!  I love popcorn and I will either make it clean or else eat Jolly Time Healthy Pop-kettle corn.  It's probably not the cleanest choice, but it helps to curb my sweet tooth.

Calorie counting

I have to admit that over the last 15 years or so, I have been a yo-yo calorie counter. I really don't like to "diet," but whenever I started to get over a certain weight, I would start to be more conscience about what I was eating and either start counting calories or keep a food journal. I have used The Daily Plate app, but I didn't love it. However, after a few days or weeks of counting calories, I would get sick of it and quit. When I started eating clean I totally changed my whole relationship with food. I started to eat to live, not live to eat. I continually reminded myself that this is a lifestyle, not a diet. As a result, the weight just fell off. I lost over 10 pounds in about 6 weeks. Then I hit the inevitable weight loss wall that it seems everyone eventually runs into. My weight has stabilized these past few months and although I'm still seeing changes in my body, I have had to really be more conscientious of everything that I put into my mouth. Now, I don't want to be a liar. I still have days that I make poor choices. On Saturday, for instance, I was at my daughter's gymnastics competition for 13 hours. I packed veggies, homemade trail mix, fruit, cottage cheese, protein powder, Greek yogurt, and carrot protein bars. I made really good choices until about 5 pm, when I broke down and ate chocolate covered pretzels. Was it worth it? Nope, it never is. Although, I made this poor choice, I feel that I made some other excellent choices, such as packing my own food.

This is the dinner that I packed for myself. I have a bag that looks like a black purse but is actually a cooler. My daughter and I went shopping at the Gateway mall in Salt Lake City the night before the competition and we ate our dinner at the food court. Being prepared allows me to eat healthy no matter where I am.








I knew when I started this fitness challenge, 6 figures, that the main focus would be what I ate. I have been using the fitness pal app for a few months now. I like Fitness Pal so much better than TDP. It is so easy to use and since it's an app on my phone, I can track my calories anywhere. So far, the trainer working with me (Evelyn) hasn't been super specific about what to eat or what not to eat. This last week she gave me some guidance on my calorie intake. The other 5 participants have a set number of daily calories, but I do not. This is from a text that she sent me:

"If you get asked about your calories, you are unique in the sense that you don't have a set daily amount. Yours depends on the demands of your workout. Long days require more fuel for energy reserves, and more nutrition to catalyze recovery. HIIT days also require a little more nutrition and calories. Recovery and cross days should be around basal metabolic rate. That is why you have a weekly deficit goal, rather than a daily target, and also why a body bugg would be really useful. Anyhow, if you have to explain yourself thats why. Looking for around 3500 calorie deficit/week. The [bodybugg] display is nice to see your calories accruing throughout the day. Plus a good way to know how to plan your higher cal days. I.e. You burn 1000 calories. You can plan to eat 500 above basal by 200 post workout, 200 during workout, and 100 more onto your breakfast. Helps to plan your future workouts and meals."

Since I had to buy a new washer and dryer this month, I didn't feel like I wanted to fork out another $150 for the body bugg. However, I am the kind of person that once I get it into my head that I need something, I obsess about it. Which is why I recently bid on a body bugg on eBay at 2 am. At 2 am my decisions are never stellar. So now I am the owner of a body bugg v3. It isn't the newest model and not what I would have picked had a done some more research at a more reasonable hour. I'm going to start wearing it this week. I'm really excited to see what I'm burning each workout and day. Hopefully it will be useful and I won't regret my 2 am decision. I'll report back on it next week.