I’ve Gone Insane!

I have officially started the Insanity Program…it is the end of Day 1 and I have already made mistakes lol 😛

I already knew when starting the program the hardest part for me would be the food, sigh. According to the eating plan you have to eat five times a day, FIVE!! The meals are to be spaced out throughout the day and don’t forget the snaaaacks, oy!

The plus side to the eating plan is I am allowed to eat carbs, not crazy amounts of them, but they are there, and that I looooove!

The book gives you specific meals to make and they are labelled for Meal 1, Meal 2…through to Meal 5. I spent so much time figuring out my meals for the first week it was ridonkulous! You can’t just randomly pick what you want, you have to pick meals that create a diverse menu (they don’t want you eating the same things day after day, otherwise you will miss out on various nutrients as well as get bored) and you have to pick meals that add up to the amount of calories you are supposed to be eating daily.

I figured I’d probably need 1200 calories or so, that seems to be the standard amount for a woman my age but you have to do this math formula called The Harris Benedict Equation, then multiply it by the level of exercise you will be doing then subtract 500 from the results if you want to lose weight (which, duh, of course I do lol). The Harris Benedict Equation determines how many calories you need to maintain your current weight without exercise…ah math, knew it’d become useful at some point in my life lol 😉

The end result was I am apparently supposed to eat, get ready for this…1927 calories per day! PER DAY!! That CAN NOT be right! That is ridiculous! Right??

Admittedly, I don’t know my exact weight, the battery in my scale died and I haven’t replaced it yet, but I know what I weighed last time I stood on a scale and even though I gained a bit of weight I still fit in all my clothes so I can’t of gained that much weight…that’s my logic anyways lol. I calculated my numbers with a weight ten pounds higher then my last confirmed weight just to play it safe, and calculated my activity level as very active since (1) that is what the Insanity Program recommends and (2) I’m also going to be attending my dragon boat practices and racing so some days I’ll be doing double the exercise…to me that sounds like “very active”…

I still don’t believe the numbers though, I will be rechecking them tomorrow…

For today however, I used them as my guideline for what to eat, and I still messed up lol

Here is what I was supposed to eat:

Meal 1

1 C Kashi Go Lean Cereal

1 tbsp Flax Seed

2/3 C skim milk

1/2 banana, sliced

Meal 2

Vanilla Berry Protein Shake

1 C Almond Milk

1 scoop protein powder

1 C frozen berries

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 banana

ice to thicken

Meal 3

1 6″ whole grain tortilla

3oz grilled chicken breast

tomato, sliced, for toppings

lettuce, for toppings

Red bell peppers, sliced

Celery sticks

1 tbsp light ranch dressing

Meal 4

2 slices whole grain bread

1 tbsp light peanut butter

1 tbsp all fruit preserves OR 1/2 sliced banana

1/2 C 1% cottage cheese

Meal 5

4oz lean ground turkey

2 tbsp salsa

2 tbsp red onion, chopped

1 whole grain hamburger OR english muffin

green beans, steamed

1 slice reduced fat cheese

Snack

1/2 C oatmeal, cooked with water

top with 1tbsp slivered almonds or chopped walnuts

Now, I swear I tried, I really really tried to follow this plan! I did fairly good up to a point…I ate Meal 1, and Meal 2. Meal 3 I ate the wrap but had no room for the pepper slices or celery so I saved them for later. Meal 4 I ate, and also had the sliced pepper and celery sticks.

So far so good, right?

I got super busy after work, and made the mistake of sitting down, lol, from there I was doomed, doooooomed! I totally ended up napping, oops! When I woke up I took a bit of time to actually properly wake up lol did the Fitness test and made dinner buuuut it was way too late to be making a turkey burger from scratch so I swapped out for a different meal labelled for Meal 5 that is roughly the same amount of calories, I ended up eating…

Meal 5 – Dinner Omelet

1 whole egg

2 egg whites

1/4 C feta cheese

1 C baby spinach

1 slice of whole wheat bread or whole grain english muffin

a fresh pear

I modified it though…I forgot to buy spinach so I used lettuce, oh, and nowhere near 1 Cup of it, I had cherries instead of a pear,  I added dill to the eggs for flavour, and I made the eggs scrambled instead of an omelet. I layered the lettuce, cheese and egg on the open english muffin and chowed down. It was yum. I figure the spirit of the dish was still intact. 🙂

I also modified the protein shake that was for Meal 2. I put yogurt in it, I always put yogurt in mine for thickening and since I had yogurt in the fridge I used it because I don’t want it to go to waste. Also, I added my vege powder, and instead of using mixed berries I used a fruit combo of peaches, pineapple, strawberries and mango. Again, it was the fruit combo I had been using lately, it was already in my freezer, and I wasn’t not going to use it and have it go to waste. shrug.

Oh, and uh, I totally didn’t eat the snack…if I hadn’t had that nap I might have been able to fit that in but no way it is happening now! It’s way to late for more food, and I’m not hungry. Those calculations have got to be off…

The Fit Test I mentioned above is the exercise for Day 1 and it is exactly what it sounds like. You do a series of exercises, for a minute each, as fast as you can while maintaining the correct form. There is a tracking sheet so you can write down your results then in two weeks I’ll be doing it again, and then again in another two weeks, and then again another two weeks from then and then again on the last day. The Fit Test was harder than I expected, I sorta thought I’d breeze through it…some exercises I did, others I didn’t do as well as I’d thought I would. But oh well, just means I have room for improvement!

So that is my Day 1 of Insanity. I didn’t manage the food quite as well as I was supposed to and I didn’t do as well on the Fit Test as I thought I would. But that’s ok, it’ll just be a learning curve for me lol 😛

This is the exercise calendar for Insanity, my next 60 days all planned out…eek!

Here is what the tracking sheet for your Fitness Tests looks like.

Tags: calories, eating, Fit Test, Harris Benedict Equation, Insanity Program, weight loss