No birds, just my BEE...

One of my goals for the past week was to learn more. About anything and everything pertaining to this journey I am on. While I think I got a start on that, it is something I need to continue focusing on. (My other goal was to go on a five+ mile hike, and I did! (Yay for friends, dogs, and rivers!)

Things I have learned this week:

My love of prunes is a wonderful thing! I am proud to come out to you all as a prune-lover. Not just in tarts, but on their own. sweet, sticky, more exiting than a raisin, I learned that they contain “High Fiber and sorbitol (a sugar alcohol that the body metabolizes slowly) keep blood sugar and insulin levels in check...and five prunes have just 100 calories!” -Women’s Health Magazine

My Basal Energy Expenditure...which is not as gross as it sounds, I promise. My BEE is (as I understand it) the base amount of calories I need to get through a day. So my base BEE is 1863. Meaning if I stayed in bed all day and ate 1863 calories, I would also burn them, maintaining my weight. But I don’t just stay in bed all day. I exercise! And for those of you who don’t know, I work in a coffee shop, so about 4 days a week I am on my feet and moving for 7-8hours. Since my activity is moderate, I multiply my BEE by 1.45. So now my BEE is 2701....if I want to maintain my weight....but I want to lose, so I cut about 100ish calories from that number!

And the summary of that whole paragraph is that, if I am calculating correctly, I should be eating around 2600 calories everyday...that sounds so wrong. Doesn’t it? Don’t quote me on that info just yet, I will check it out. In the meantime, feel free to calculate yours at http://www-users.med.cornell.edu/~spon/picu/calc/beecalc.htm

Now for something discouraging. 41.15% of my body is fat....ouch. I know that as a woman, I will always have fat on my body, but 41.15%? That will be re-calculated at the end of my biggest weight-loss challenge, and I hope it is a happier number!

Speaking of the biggest weight-loss challenge (golly, is this post getting long or what?) the second week was good. We did a circuit of random exercises that included running forward with a tube around your waist that your partner was pulling back on...only fun stuff:) I tried some new things, and pushed myself to do that extra tricep curl/squat/crunch. It helps to know there is a group I am accountable to every week. So GO TEAM! And have a delightful week!

PS Just so you know, I will be doing weigh-ins on Tuesdays for the next few months, to coincide with my biggest -weight loss group. S look for new posts on Wednesdays!