On Excessive Ballast and Bullshit

Took my kids and a couple of their friends to check out the Rock Jungle today - it's a brand new rock-climbing gym in Edmonton with a CrossFit gym and yoga studio...and it was awesome. Even though the facility isn't fully operational yet, we had a blast playing on all the smaller bouldering walls. But you know what? I was amazed at how much I sucked at it!

I don't know why I expected to be better at it; it was my first time out so I was starting at square one. I usually consider myself to be fairly strong and in decent shape, but, as with most physical endeavors, I have more enthusiasm than natural ability for climbing...

...and (sigh, here we go again) an over-abundance of ballast in my ass. It occurred to me today that everything I really love to do would be WAY easier if I was lighter. Everything.

So with that in mind, it's time to start a new science project on my poor tortured metabolism! 


How do I say this nicely?

I'm not a member of the Jillian Michaels fan club. For a whole host of reasons; really, I could go on and on and I won't be able to stop...so I won't start. Suffice it to say that when I saw that her lame-ass app: "Slim Down with Jillian Michaels" hit the market yesterday (for FREE), I thought HEY! Here's one I have to check out and use for a little while so that I can DESTROY her on my blog!! Whoohee!

So I downloaded the app, set it up this morning, and started using it. It's not without its problems. First of all, it gives you a weight goal solely based on your height, which for me was 146lbs. Now, if I figure that out based on my lean body mass right now, that would put me at 8% body fat: WELL below the healthy range of 18-26%. Seriously, I think I was 146lbs at birth. Really what I would like to weigh is about 160lbs (which would put me at about 18-20% body fat based on a little bit of a loss of lean tissue with that kind of volume of weight loss), which is at the low end of the healthy body fat range and would make me very, very happy. So I manually re-set my weight goal. No points for Jillian yet.

Next you have to decide whether you are a fast, slow, or balanced oxidizer. This kind of metabolic typing drives me crazy, because it flies in the face of everything I have ever learned, practiced on myself, or applied with my clients. Now, if you look at the profiles of each (you can look at them all here) I am a slow oxidizer. As such, according to that wisdom and according to the app, I require a high percentage of carbohydrates (60% - sixty percent - SIXTY PERCENT) and lower protein, and very, very little fat. Almost to where it's a throwback to the 1980's low-fat fad.

This is bullshit. I know from experience that my body functions much better on higher protein and fat and very few carbohydrates. Actually, most people do. This is another subject that I could rant on and on about so I won't start...not today, anyway.

So I put myself down as a balanced oxidizer. Not really the case but it's closer to the macronutrient breakdown that my body will work best on.

Calories! Next you get to set your "Calorie Level" - basically you choose one of three plans based on your goals and body size. I chose 1400-1600/day; this is described as "appropriate for larger women who want to lose weight or petite-to-average women who want to maintain weight."

So you log all your food in the journal section of the app, which is not unlike MyPlate or FitDay or any of those other food-logging apps out there, except that...wait for it...

It's better. Score a point for Jillian, ladies and gentlemen! The food journal resource is great because it actually has healthy, basic foods in it. The one thing that most of those food logs doesn't have is a good index of clean food - everything has a brand name on it and you can't usually find things like plain oats, or chicken breast. This one has it all.

And the workouts in the app? Oh...the workouts. I actually do have to rant on and on about those, so I'm going to save it for tomorrow. Until then!