Over the weekend I indulged in a rather large quantity of carbohydrates at a certain Thanksgiving party to celebrate Bootcamps second birthday. The food all tasted amazing!
…and it left me feeling sick, bloated and lethargic that night and all the next day. I was even falling asleep on the couch by 830, and the party only started at 630!
As promised I’m gonna share my week’s food diary with you later, so you will see just how overboard I can go with a rather large feed.
I’m also going to point out what effect each meal has over the course of a day and the week as a whole.
Now today we are looking at Carbs and what effect they have on the body in Habit # 3.
Eat other carbs only after exercise. By other carbs we are referring to energy dense carbs such as bread, rice, pasta, sugars, potatoes, etc. So reward yourself with a carb dense meal directly after a workout because that’s when your body can use them.
Eat other carbs only after exercise.
Why?
Because after a workout the muscles are depleted of Glycogen and need to be ‘rebuilt’.
The muscles run on Glycogen for energy.
Glycogen is energy stored for use in the muscles.
A small amount of carbohydrate is changed into Glycogen for use in the muscles.
The body can only store so much Glycogen in the muscles.
Any excess carbohydrate that isn’t used by the body for that day’s energy or not converted to Glycogen is stored in the body as fat.
We don’t want this to happen any day if we are trying to lose body fat.
I guarantee you that on the day of the Thanksgiving party, my body converted the excess carbohydrates to body fat.
Now if you went to a party and overindulged in food or had a few too many drinks on a fun night out, then it’s highly likely your body converted the excess carbohydrates to body fat.
What if this happened a few days a week?
What would the net effect be at the end of a whole week?
Well let’s go through my food diary and see what likely happened in my body during the last week.
I’m not taking into account exercise, just roughly estimating if I ate enough calories to lose, maintain or gain current body fat levels. If no drinks are listed, then I only drank water or green tea. Supplements are not listed, but I take 5 fish oil capsules are my 3 main meals. My specific diet is also geared around meat 3 times a day, so it doesn’t mean you have to do that.
SUNDAY
Breakfast – 1 rasher of bacon, 2 scrambled eggs, 2 sprouted grain toast, 1 whole stick of celery, 1 medium carrot.
Lunch – Grilled steak with two cups of steamed veggies.
Snack – Junk food. 10 or so chocolate dipped strawberries, caramel slice, mars bar slice, 4 party sausage rolls.
Dinner – Chicken Treat roast chicken dinner. Quarter chicken, 3 small roast potatoes, carrots, peas, gravy.
VERDICT – Definitely gained body fat.
MONDAY
Breakfast – 1 rasher of bacon, 2 scrambled eggs, 2 sprouted grain toast, 1 medium apple.
Lunch – Beef and vegetable curry, 1 medium apple.
Dinner – Beef and vegetable curry with extra peas.
VERDICT – Good food day. Either maintained or burned body fat. If I ate no bread, then would have been better.
TUESDAY
Breakfast – Grilled steak sandwich with two cups of green beans and peas
Snack – 2 Stewed apples with coconut, 5 crushed macadamias and cinnamon.
Lunch – 2 grilled lamb chops with two cups of steamed veggies.
Dinner – Beef and vegetable curry with extra corn and apple.
VERDICT – Good food day. Either maintained or burned body fat. If I ate no bread, then would have been better.
WEDNESDAY
Breakfast – 1 rasher of bacon, 2 scrambled eggs, spinach, 2 sprouted grain toast, 1 medium carrot.
Lunch – Beef and vegetable curry with peas and beans.
Dinner – Lamb and vegetable curry.
Snack – 500ml ice cream.
VERDICT – Definitely gained body fat.
THURSDAY
Breakfast – 1 rasher of bacon, 2 scrambled eggs, spinach, 2 sprouted grain toast, 1 medium apple.
Lunch – Lamb and veg curry with extra peas and beans.
Dinner – Grilled salmon with corn and green beans.
Snack – 3 marshmallows.
VERDICT – Good food day. Either maintained or burned body fat. If I ate no bread, then would have been better.
FRIDAY
Breakfast – Grilled steak sandwich with spinach, 1 medium apple.
Snack – 3 slices of Domino’s Hawaiian pizza
Drink – Hot chocolate with no milk
Lunch – Lamb and veg curry with extra beans.
Snack – 5 macadamias
Dinner – 2 chicken drumsticks, two cups of veg, bowl of oven baked chips, 400ml Cookies & Cream ice cream.
VERDICT – Definitely gained body fat.
SATURDAY
Breakfast – Lamb and veg curry with extra peas and beans.
Lunch – 2 chicken drumsticks, one cup of veg, 2 Stewed apples with coconut, 5 crushed macadamias and cinnamon.
Dinner – Thanksgiving Dinner – plenty of turkey with gravy and cranberry sauce, small slice of beef, 2 small slices of garlic bread, green beans, carrot and celery sticks, a few smiths chips, few strawberries, a tim tam, half slice of pumpkin pie, half slice of raspberry custard tart, slice of lemon meringue, 2 small chocolate brownies, slice of apple pie.
VERDICT – No comment.
My week’s Eating in review:
SUNDAY – Definitely gained body fat.
MONDAY – Either maintained or burned body fat.
TUESDAY – Either maintained or burned body fat.
WEDNESDAY – Definitely gained body fat.
THURSDAY – Either maintained or burned body fat.
FRIDAY – Definitely gained body fat.
SATURDAY – Definitely gained body fat.
Overall outcome. I gained body fat this week! Surprise, surprise, the scales tell me the same thing.
What if I also drank alcohol, fruit juice or soft drinks with my meals? Can you imagine how many extra calories I’d be taking in each day?
What could I have done different? It’s easy to say, hard to do.
1. Don’t give in to the temptation of junk food at a party. It’s never ‘I’ll just have one’. The sugar will always make you want more!
2. Cut the bread at breakfast time unless after exercise.
3. Swap the ice cream for stewed apples.
4. Just say no to the marshmallows. I don’t even like them and only ate them cos they were in front of me. 3 marshmallows isn’t gonna ruin my week, but what if I kept going and ate the whole bag?
5. When your mate comes round with pizza on Friday lunchtime, get him to eat in the other room and go and eat your lunch immediately. It’ll keep you occupied while he’s eating in front of you, and by the time you’re done, hopefully the pizza will be gone.
6. Don’t eat the chips. I ate them cos they were there.
7. Don’t be a glutton like I was. If I didn’t eat dessert or one of everything, then I would have been satisfied and NOT BLOWN OUT MY WEEK.
REMEMBER THE 90% RULE!
If you eat right 90% of the time and cheat no more than 10% of the time, you’ll still get 90% of the results. Plus it’s way more manageable than stopping eating junk food like I did in January and February this year.
Now after gaining some body fat over winter due to very undisciplined eating habits, I have a short term goal.
I am going to aim to drop 2% body fat over the course of a month.
It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s easily achievable and 2% over a year is 24%. I don’t have that much to lose as I’m only at 16% but I’ll notice a difference when I drop below 14%! If you drop 2% body fat you’ll notice the difference too.
I put the challenge back to you and want you to email me or let me know on facebook if you’ll take up the challenge. Stick to the first 3 habits of fish oil, 2 fruit and 5 veg and other carbs after exercise. Make your meals consist of protein plus good fats and plenty of veg and don’t overeat, you’ll be full and on your way to the results you want.
Throw in some cardio strength training like we do at Bootcamp and some intervals a few days a week and you’ll be there real fast. If you want more, walk fast for 30-60 minutes before breakfast 4-7 days a week.
