Gemme, no I am just using a simple spreadsheet. I am signed up for a few of those online trackers, and I know they have apps for phones, but I just never seem to log my stuff into those and never really learned how to use them to plan ahead like I can with my spreadsheet. I am sure the online and app trackers would work better for almost everyone.

Thanks for the tip Kelt. If I want to go to something more extensive later I will definitely consider it.

So I just have a simple spreadsheet. The first sheet is a master list of foods that I have on hand to eat, with serving size, number of calories, and grams of protein, carbs and fat. I am going with a 40-40-20 (protein, carbs, fat) which is a high protein diet but only eating lean forms of protein like turkey and chicken breast.

Then the other tabs are just each day where I plan out my meals and snacks. I am eating 5 to 6 times per day. I just copy items from the master list or meals/snacks from a different day and have running totals at the bottom of the spreadsheet and tweak it until my numbers come out right. It took a while to get all the info, but now it is mostly copy and paste, and adding a few new food items a week to the master list. I like just opening up my spreadsheet and planning my food that way. It's like making a to do list.

Once I have some food combinations that I like and that work well with my calories and ratios, I can just use them again on a different day. I really don't mind eating a lot of the same stuff over and over, so it works fine for me.

Now I just have to see how my body adjusts- if I am losing as much weight as I want and still getting stronger and able to do my weight lifting and other exercise. And yes, Kelt that is why I am tracking. I want to know how my body responds to what I eat and exercise so that I can meet my goals and develop good long term habits. So far it is working and I feel great!

Sorry can't edit my prior post. On 40-40-20 I am talking about percentages.

Ha, ha Gemme, well I used to be an accountant, so I do indeed know how to massage numbers and tweak them to my liking!

However, in the end I do actually eat what the spreadsheet tells me to. :D

Happy exercising all!

I think I know where you're going with this: setting up the plan on "paper" up front, looking at how the macronutrient ratios line up and then massaging what you actually eat a little bit to tweak the ratios into optimal form. If that's it, I gotta tell you it works amazingly well. That's what I did some time ago, and once you find your sweet spot, the weight just falls off (if that's your goal) and you feel good too! :cheesy:

I have a busy day on tap but am going to head out now and squeak in some cardio time for sanities sake, if I'm lucky with the weather, it'll be off to the river this afternoon too. Happy exercising everyone!

:weightlifter: << Not an accountant, but scientist is good enough on the geek front. :)

I got out of bed. There, that puts all you regular exercisers to shame. :|

CCB, it all adds up!

Yes, Kelt exactly. I know you speak from experience so that is great to hear. I've only been tracking for a couple of weeks now.

You definitely don't need to be an accountant to tweak numbers. Anyway, I'm not one anymore either, lol.

Scientists rock!

I just HAD to come and see why CCB was posting.in here... ;)

As for me...I ckeaned a difficult house for 4 hours, walked Jacques down by the French Broad (river) and hefted over my paycheck to the car dealership..

Then came home and ckeaned some more. Once everything is tidy I may do yoga. Or I may just collapse.

Gemme, age and health related issues has forced me into rethinking my workouts,I still can hit the max for a couple of days with not much of a problem but after that if I don't do something else the price I pay in deep soreness isn't worth it. My work outs were built around three exercises legs, core work and upper body. The abb cruncher dose work and well it just doesn't work if I do the recommended amount of work it says to do, I mean it's like I didn't do a thing.. so I added the same weight but nearly doubled the work. Well that works fine but the deep soreness is a bi4ch,the only way to get around it was to only do the exercise twice a week four days a part, it just doesn't seem like it is enough. The time on the bike and the upper body is fine so I find other ways to get core work. At the moment I am blinking away with my new cordless tens unit hoping to get the sciatica pain to quit messing with my left leg to I can have better use of it so I can do a decent workout later today. Age sucks.

Jacques and I TRIED to hike graveyard fields today...but the road was closed still...sad face..

We did somewhere else on the parkway: Beaver dam gap. The hike was uphill from the get go. We got to the top of a rocky knob and omg the view...the cars on the parkway looked like toys lol
,
As usual, the descent is what kicked my butt. There were muddy spots to boot. But we did ok and met only two other sets of hikers on the way down. Til then, we had the place entirely to ourselves :)

I finaallllyyyy went to the gym. First I did 30 minutes stairmaster (always kicks my ass in a good way). Then, trying to stay away from the bike and the treadmill, due to still having some back problems, I returned to the Arc Trainer which I did for an hour. However, I just could not get my heart rate up on it, making it very unsatisfying. Then I did an hour of weight lifting, yoga, stretching, and abs. That was nice :)

I worked out, got stinky sweaty, my fur kids and I had a blast. When it was over I just sweated it out and walked to cool off sipping on s big bottle of sugar free lemon aid I made myself. Now for a late supper of half a large apple and tuna sandwich on whole wheat bread. The worst thing was I had to stop and catch my breath a few times, felt like a sissy but gotta breath to live.

I cleaned the crap out of the kitchen and definitely worked up a sweat doing it!

My god! You are a brute :weightlifter:

I can say I never have a problem getting HR up on the arc. Careful on the back though missy. :cheesy:

I've been doing pretty well this last week, I only missed the gym once although one other time I had to go short. Mostly 90 min a day cardio.

Most afternoons have featured a nice walk along the river banks too. My weird leg/foot goes numb for a few hours and then aches like crazy thing is back, not pushing it. Gettin' old ain't for sissies!

Repost from body image thread
 

Awesome work-out today! My back, which continues to act up on and off, has not been acting up, and I did not do anything to aggravate it today. What a victory.

First I did 30 minutes on the stairmaster, random program. Then I did 45 minutes on the treadmill. I kept it light with minimal jogging/running so as not to hurt my back, and thankfully it worked. I did intervals of 4 minutes at 4mph with no incline, and 4 minutes at 3.5 mph with an incline of 5. Before, I had been doing an incline of 12 at 4mph, so this made a very positive difference, at least for today. I had actually decided not to do the treadmill. But some of you probably know how that is- you have an exercise you just love and you can't pull yourself away from finding some way to do it. Anyway, then I did 45 minutes of weight lifting, abs, stretching, and yoga. I am still down 3 lbs per hand weight from what I was at before. It's frustrating but better to be cautious and build up again.

I am on Spring break from school so I'm trying to use that time to get back into a healthy routine.

Boy oh boy, the abb cruncher is now in the do not use pile. Yes, it dose work very well on the core, better then anything I have used yet, it also strengthens
the back and sides. Trouble is if you have any kind of spinal issues it will wreck you back bad as it has mine...again. No where in any of the instructions dose it say a thing about this sort of thing so after three times messing up my back with very deep muscle soreness that turned into me having another set of injections next Thursday...I give it up and will do other things even though they don't work as well. Lesson learned. I am still doing lite workouts that won't strain my back so I will stay in the work out groove I am using a back brace that is restrictive but doable. Cary on you all I gain strength from reading about your adventures.

25,000 Fitbit steps! Hit a trail this morning and a light jog this evening. Feeling good!