Why has Christina (the coffee girl!) given up coffee???

If you've known me for any length of time, you know my great love for coffee. I love the smell, I love the look, I love the mugs (oh HOW I love the MUGS!), I love the memories it brings to mind each and every time I drink it *sigh*. I have finally decided that on a day to day basis, coffee will not be a part of my daily routine any longer. Here are my reasons, as succinctly as I could put them.

1). Calories & nutrition were definitely a factor. I like my coffee heavy on the cream and sugar. Too much sugar is not good for our body in general and causes us to hang on to and gain fat more so than other macro-nutrients in general. Also, I could be using my calorie allotment for the day on much more beneficial things.

2.) Caffeine (not just coffee per say) is hard on the digestive system and coffee's acidic nature can also be stressful on the digestive system as well. A healthy digestive system or "gut" for short, is vital for overall health and well being. The gut is one of the first lines of defense in our immune system and if our gut isn't healthy, we can't fight off disease well and we can't properly digest and absorb all the good things in the good foods we eat!

3.) Lastly, and it's so hard to admit this part... coffee is mood altering and addictive and when I don't get it at regular intervals, I don't like the cranky, unmotivated, tired person I become. I want my choices and the power of God's Holy Spirit living within me to control my behavior, not some outside substance that I am choosing to consume, knowing that it's my little "cheerleader in a cup" as the comedian Anita Renfroe so eloquently puts it.

I hope that explains it well enough and I admit I will use coffee when in dire need, but as far as it becoming a regular part of my daily routines again, it's so long and farewell, my good coffee friend.

Warmest Regards,

Christina

12/09/2010

Beverages:

3.5 cups organic whole milk

12 cups of water

1 cup ginger ale

Breakfast:

1 cup oatmeal

1 tbsp sugar

2 teas butter

Lunch:

A delicious concoction that I made from leftovers, it involved mushrooms, cheese, tuna salad, leftover pasta & white balsamic vinegar

Snack:

p90x recovery drink

Dinner:

Baked Ham

Roasted Potatoes

3/4 cup green beans

Approximate Nutritional Breakdown:

1711 Calories

90 g Protein

70 g fat

180g carbs

Approximate calorie burn:

1660 resting metabolic rate

400 avg. from breastfeeding

250 from moderate daily activity

400 from turbofire tone 30 workout

Approximate calorie deficit:

2710 - 1711 = 999 (waaaaaaaa!)

My Thoughts:

I'm on my first day of officially not drinking coffee anymore... it's been rough. Technically I started not drinking coffee when I started getting sick 2 1/2 days ago approximately, but today is my first concerted effort towards not drinking it anymore. I've said many times how I wanted to stop drinking it, and even tried for a day.... lol or less. But this time, I'd like to make it stick. I'm not swearing off it entirely, just on a day to day basis. I'll post more about my reasons why in another post.

I felt good today. I got a headache and started feeling sleep right before dinner time, but I usually feel that way, coffee or no, so I just took some Ibuprofen for the head ache and pressed on. I didn't really *try* very hard as far as what kinds of foods I took in today and that's probably why I didn't do a great job on my protein intake and my carb count was a little higher than I would like it to be. I did manage to get in a good strength building workout this afternoon and it KICKED MY BUTT. Gotta love TurboFire :D

12/08/2010

All still recovering, much like the day before - I'll be back in action tomorrow!

Regards,

Christina

12/07/2010

The kids and I were sick sick sick with a fast moving stomach bug :P nothing in the way of exercise and little in the way of eating happened today.

I'll be back tomorrow!

Blessings,

Christina

Turbofire

If you haven't heard of Turbofire, you need to know! :D

It's not your average workout plan and it comes with so much more than just the work outs themselves. They give you guidance on how to get started, no matter what fitness level you are at (mine being low, lol). They give you guidance on how and what to eat. You can also find motivation and advice from experienced folks at Team Beach Body (my coach is Bob, go say hi to Bob!)

I will be following what Turbofire calls the "prep schedule" which involves less high intensity work outs until my body is conditioned to handle the more intense stuff (it's about 9 weeks long). I some how managed to completely MISS that this schedule existed first time around, which explains why I dealt with Achilles tendon issues from doing too much too fast when we tried Turbofire the first time; we being me and my awesome husband (also on facebook).

I am on day two of my schedule and I'll be doing the "Stretch 40" workout - what are you gonna do today?

Warmest Regards,

Christina

12/06/2010

Beverages:

3 1/4 cups whole milk

30 oz coffee with 6 1/2tbsp half and half, 2tbsp sugar (total)

12oz mother's milk herbal nursing tea

9 cups of water

Breakfast:

1.5 cups soaked oatmeal

2 tea sugar

2 tea butter

Lunch:

1 medium bell pepper - sauteed

2 eggs

2 sliced turkey

Snack:

1 med. banana

2tbsp sun butter

Dinner:

3 cups spring mix

7oz tuna salad from scratch

Dessert:

nothing!

Approximate nutritional breakdown:

2273 calories

144g protein

122g fat

143g carb

Approximate calorie burn:

1660 resting metabolic rate

400 avg. from breastfeeding

250 from moderate daily activity

500 from turbofire 30 workout

Approximate calorie deficit:

2810 burned - 2273 eaten = 537 (not toooo shabby)

5425 calories to burn this week - 537 = 4888

814 calories a day left to burn daily, to meet my weekly goal of 1.5lbs lost... means I need to burn more or eat less! According to Kellymom.com I shouldn't consume any less that 1800 or it might put my milk supply at risk.

My Thoughts:

I was pretty close to my calorie intake goals today and I feel good about that, although I wish it would have been a smidge lower. I worked out with Turbofire for the first time since July and I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't kill me as badly as I thought it would, but it certainly was hard and I can feel lots of room for improvement. I'm not doing much of the jumping (I'm following the lower impact gal) this time around because of Achilles tendon issues last time, but that may change with time! I'm also experimenting with working out barefoot after reading a lot about the benefits of going barefoot during fitness activities. It requires an extra bit of thought to keep my feet positioned correctly, but I've been relatively pain free for once (experienced quite a bit of foot pain when working out to Turbofire before).

I experienced some low blood sugar symptoms (shaky, lightheaded, a little disoriented) about an hour after working out, only 30 minutes after my afternoon snack, so I plan on closely monitoring that issue. Check in ya'll tomorrow!

Warmest Regards,

Christina

Weekly Weigh In 12/06/2010

Last week's morning weight: 168.6lbs

Today's morning weight was: 166.5lbs

Lost last week: 2.1lbs

Goal weight: 135lbs

Deadline: April 25th, 2011

Weekly weight loss to meet my goal: 1.55lbs a week