Wednesday, March 21, 2012

WIAW (after a 20 miler)

Happy Wednesday!  I am dead tired today after my Tuesday night run club workout and then an easy run this morning.  The morning run was beautiful though with the clear sky and the stars shining bright.  Plus I was in shorts because we are still having some awesome weather!

Here is another week of What I ate Wednesday by Peas and Crayons with a special "What I are last Saturday after my 20 mile long run!"  Saturday also happened to be St. Patrick's Day so I made corned beef and cabbage for dinner in the crock pot - it turned out really well!







Pre-Run Breakfast: Instant Oatmeal with raisins and cup of coffee
Mid-Run Snack: Jet Blackberry Gu, water and Strawberry Gu Chomps.
Post-Run Breakfast: Leftover Stuffed Peppers, orange and Pretzel Goldfish
Lunch: Flour Tortilla (heated in microwave) with pesto, mozzarella and salsa
Afternoon Snack: Cadberry egg, animal crackers and chewy granola bar
Dinner: Corned Beef and Cabbage with potatoes and carrots and onions and Italian bread with butter
Dessert: Handful of rollos

I have been using My Fitness Pal to track my food and exercise because I have been wanting to know how much I actually need to eat based off how much I exercise.  Normally without any exercise I would need 1400 calories a day.  From there I add on my exercise and on Saturday after my long run it increased my desired daily calorie intake to 3600 (2200 calories burned from 20 mile long run).


I found it hard to eat 3600 calories in one day because honestly that is a lot of food!  Although it is good to keep track of my calories, I am finding that I don't necessarily follow it 100%.  If I am feeling hungry, then I eat a little bit more but if I am not then I don't.  On Saturday after my 20 miler, I ended the day eating 2700 calories total and I wasn't starving without eating the extra 900 calories.  Sunday though I ended up eating more than my 1700 daily calorie goal (300 extra from exercise) so I think it all evens out in the end.

Anyone else use My Fitness Pal online or on their phone?  Do you keep track of your calories or just go by if you feel hungry or not??

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have tracked calories in the past, but I find it pretty tedious. Nowadays I know enough about the caloric content in most foods I eat that I can mentally tally up my calories on a given day, but for the most part I don't. I can usually tell by how I feel when I've had one cookie too many, or when I need to eat more. :)

Anonymous said...

I do use My fitness Pal. i dont use it all the time, but from time to time i have good weeks where I track my calories just to see.

great job on your 20 miler and yay to all the yummy food you ate.

misszippy said...

Those stuffed peppers look really good! And wow, 3600 calories is a ton. I think maybe I could do it, though! ; )

Taffi said...

I had great success with the myfitnesspal app on my phone. Scanning food barcodes, tracking meals, and so on worked really well for quite some time (my inner geek absolutely loved it). I have fallen out of the habit at the moment, and haven't found I can dip in and out. Overall, it works, it was an easy habit to get into, and moreover it really provided benefits weight control wise (I used to have no clue about calorie values of foods).

I really do think I'll have to go dust it off and get going with it again... after singing its praises just now it seems like a good idea.

Anonymous said...

I use My Fitness Pal! Username The4stairs

Marlene said...

When I looked at the pictures at first, I thought 'how was she not hungrier???' Then I saw more foods listed below... PHEW! haha.

I generally use MFP as a rough guide and try to follow my hunger also. Plus, if I have a big workout the next day, I might eat more than is "recommended" for the day before. Saturdays, for example, I would almost always go over with my long run the next day since I know I need the fuel.

Jamie said...

I don't track my calorie intake, although I probably should. I agree with you, I'm sure that everything even out in the end!

RunToTheFinish said...

totally agree with spreading it out over the week. then you don't have to worry on rest days about in take so much. even old Bob harper says that's ok :)

MyFitnesspal is what I was using for sure, it's so easy

Lisa from Lisa's Yarns said...

I used to use MFP last summer. I wanted to get a handle on the breakdown of my carbs/protein/fat. I did it for about a month and then after that I just went off of how I felt.

Lauren @ Sassy Molassy said...

I haven't done it in a while and prefer not to just because I think I could get obsessed with the number it shoes. But it is really interesting to compare hard days w/ easier days in terms of calories needed.

Carilyn said...

My personality is way to obsessive. I would be entering my toothpaste in my count :) I just have to keep it simple and not pay too much attention to my calorie count.