Friday, June 24, 2011

Sports Parents

After last night, I just HAD to make this post. I love being a sports mom. I really enjoy watching my kids play and seeing how they have improved year after year. It is amazing to me to watch them grow and change. Sometimes it is funny because recent growth spurts make them seem awkward until the get used to it.

I am an INTENSE mom. I watch everything my kids do. I offer helpful suggestions. I praise good work. I can whistle (loudly) through my teeth. If I see one of my children goofing off or not paying attention, I whistle. They KNOW that whistle. One can see their heads snap up and look straight at me. I point, they nod, then get into position. Other parents have learned my method and it doesn't even phase them. They do, however, look to see which kid is getting corrected. It is especially useful with my older two. They always play on the same team, so, sometimes, BOTH heads snap up! It also helps when one is hit by a pitch, receives a hard tackle, or fouled in basketball. I whistle, the child looks, I raise an eyebrow or do a thumbs up and the child either gives me a thumbs up, nods, or shakes the head. Silent communication from the playing field. They ALWAYS know Mama is watching and paying attention.

What I don't like about being a sports parent is other sports parents. I don't mean the ones like me. I mean the ones who have to coach EVERY child on the team from their camp chairs or the bleachers. I mean the ones who scream at their kids for a bad play or striking out. I am talking about the ones who will stretch or break rules just to WIN. The ones who try to live vicariously through their children. THOSE parents make angry. You cannot expect a 12-year-old boy to hit like Babe Ruth! A ten-year-old girl is NOT normally going to hit a home run. A seven-year-old boy is NOT going to catch every fly ball hit near him.

The kids need to have fun. Intensity and competitiveness comes later. I will admit that there is quite a big difference watching my older two compared to my younger two. They are reaching an age where they are hard on themselves and want to win every game. That is ok with me. I want them to WANT to be good at what they do. I don't want them to think that they have to do it for me or for their daddy.

Last night was a prime example of why I don't like other sports parents. Many of these people coach. I am glad for that. I don't think I could do it. I truly don't think I have the skill to do it. However, the cocky, cheating coaches are the ones that irritate me. At my daughter's game, the other team came out with attitude. I know that may sound silly to some, but, it is true. You can see it in the arrogance of the coach and the way he talks to his team. It was also in the way he showed his team how to rejoice over the missteps of ours. He also started off the game in my bad graces by saying his team hadn't lost a game. Which was not true. They lost to us. Our girls were the only undefeated team this season. Why did he say this? So they could be the home team and have last at bat.

I watched the girls on the other team. They were so VERY hard on themselves. One of their pitchers was in tears because of the runs she had allowed. I lay all of this on her parents and her coach. I was turned off immediately because of how he questioned the rules. He then argued with a run that we got because our girl was hit by the ball thanks to one of his girls. There was no one keeping the scoreboard. I heard him say to the umpire at the end of one inning, "I don't know, we have eight or NINE, I think." The score was 8-5. He knew this, he was just trying to pad his lead. Our girls scored two and held them in the bottom of the next inning.

The top of the last inning comes up. I leaned over to Chris and said, "Watch, he's going to try to call time on the game." Sure enough. He got his girls in the dugout and had them start lining up like they were going to shake hands. Thankfully, the umpire, though he was but a 14-year-old kid, told him there was one inning to go after he said, "Isn't that time?" Happily, our girls came back, scored 9 runs and won the game 16-8 by holding the other team in the bottom of the last inning. I am VERY proud of how gracious our girls were. They cheered for the other girls, they clapped for them as they were handed their medals for second place, and showed NO attitude.

These types of coaches are the ones who ruin sports for kids. By not teaching them to be gracious, good sports, the kids learn ugliness. They feel at an early age that they must win at all costs or they feel like failures. They don't learn to ENJOY what they are doing for fear of some type of retribution for failure, whether it be verbal or in the form of extra practices, running, etc. We have been fairly lucky with our kids coaches. So far, there has only been ONE I have come close to having words with and it was a good thing I missed one game, in particular! However, should the day come where I see a coach causing my kids to cry, hate what they are doing, or learn to cheat, you better believe MAMA will make sure Coach is informed...

Thursday, June 23, 2011

What Are You Doing? Part II

I was asked yesterday to explain a little bit about how I used what I know of science to help myself lose weight. Once again, I have to say, I am by no means an expert. I probably know just enough to get myself into trouble :) However, I will endeavor to explain some here.

First of all, I will address calories. Calories are basically a unit of energy. Certain foods contain more calories than others. EVERYTHING you eat has calories. Of course, your higher in sugar and higher in fat foods have more calories than your fruits and vegetables. The key is to get calories from foods that are good for you while not feeling deprived or hungry.

Most foods are made up of calories from three sources, protein, carbohydrates, and fat. It is always better to get your calories from protein and carbs than from fat. However, you do need a certain amount if fat for your body. There are some vitamins that are only fat-soluble and your body can only absorb them in the presence of fat. One still needs to be careful with fat. Gram for gram, fat packs more than twice the calories of protein and carbs. I try to avoid foods that get more than half of their calories from fat. Basically, how I figure that is if a serving is 1 cup, the calories is 100, and the fat grams is 5.5, I multiply the grams of fat by 10, which gives me 55. If that number is more than half of the calories, I avoid it, unless I am just CRAVING it :) You should always listen to your body. Sometimes a craving is something you actually need.

Protein is found in all of your meats. However, there are other sources of protein that many don't realize are there. Diary products contain protein. Cheese, milk, ice cream, yogurt, cottage cheese, etc all have protein. Eggs are a good source of protein. Eggs are controversial to many people because of the cholesterol. However, the body also needs some cholesterol to function. Other sources of protein include beans, nuts, and legumes. Protein is very important when exercising because it helps your body build muscle. My protein intake is pretty high right now and I am building muscle. I can see it and feel it. I have to remind myself not to get frustrated when that number on the scale doesn't go down because muscle does weigh more than fat.

Carbohydrates are probably the most difficult thing to cut back on because they are found in practically EVERYTHING you eat except some of your meats. Carbohydrates are essentially sugars in various forms. Anything you eat that has sugar has carbohydrates. By sugar, I don't mean just sucrose (table sugar). I also mean fructose (fruit sugar), lactose (milk sugar), maltose (grain sugar), and various other sources. Basically, if it ends in "-ose", it is a type of sugar. These sugars come mainly from plant products. Once again, you MUST have some of these sugars daily in order for your body to function. I am currently trying to get less than half of my energy from carbs because of how easily they can turn into fat.

Taking in too many carbohydrates can cause weight gain. When carbohydrates are not burned, they turn into sugars and get stored in the body as fat. An excess of 3,500 calories can turn into 1 lb. of fat. Conversely, burning an extra 3,500 calories will reduce your fat or weight by 1 lb. The difficulty here is figuring out if you are actually burning extra calories. Most people don't realize that your body needs a certain amount of calories just to function normally in an average day. It takes calories to breathe, have your heart beat, your kidneys function, and digest food. So, anything you burn over that amount can burn off fat and lead to weight loss. That amount is called your BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate. It is the bottom line number of calories your body needs in order to function. There is a formula used for calculating this number.
  • Adult male: 66 + (6.3 x body weight in lbs.) + (12.9 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)

  • Adult female: 655 + (4.3 x weight in lbs.) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)
However, if you take in fewer than that amount of calories, your body will burn stored fat to continue functioning. While it is possible to lose weight by taking in less than your BMR recommends, it is a slower process than it would be if you were to add exercise. My BMR is a little over 1,500. I am averaging around 1,200 calories per day consumed. Keeping in mind the 3,500 rule, it would take nearly two weeks to lose one pound. As it is, I am averaging burning around 1,000 calories a day more than I take in. This is the reason why I have been averaging around a 2 lb. per week weight loss.

I really recommend a person add a good multi-vitamin when embarking on a weight loss routine. It is important to ensure your body is still getting the nutrition you need. If you start without one and add it later, you will notice a difference in how you feel. Cutting down on food also cuts down on some essential nutrients, so, a vitamin is very important. Be sure to listen to your body. If it says "enough" let that be enough. I have made it as much as five miles running, and then had to cut down to three the next day. It really makes a difference when you let your body tell you what it needs.

I hope this helps. I will be happy to answer any more questions anyone has. However, my experience and advice are not to be taken in the place of a licensed nutritionist or physician. These are just the things that I have learned personally. :D Happy weight loss!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

What Are You Doing?

That has been the question "du jour" for me lately. I have to admit, I am very proud of my weight loss. It hasn't been easy and it actually gets harder. Harder? Yep. The more weight I lose, the fewer calories are burned with the same activities. That REALLY sucks! However, the cool thing is, I can now run for FIVE miles!

Now to the question. I am the last person to be giving advice. I am just as lazy as the next couch potato. However, I had reached a point in my life where it was, lose the weight or keep getting bigger. I certainly wasn't losing much by not changing anything I was doing except eating salads for lunch! I knew that if I were going to do it, it would HAVE to be a lifestyle change. Not just a diet.

I couldn't fathom the thought of joining a group, a club, a gym, or a diet plan. Those things cost money! Money I don't have to blow on special things like that. Not with four children. So, I decided to take my degree in biology and my knowledge of human anatomy and put it to use.

I am using www.livestrong.com to track things. I track the foods I eat and the activities I do. I noticed that half of my food lately is made up of carbs, so, I am trying to cut down on that. It is HARD to do. I usually go over on my daily recommended protein, but, that's ok because I can SEE that I am building muscle.

The most important thing I have done for myself is NOT deprive myself. I have cut down on sweets and empty calorie foods. I rarely eat things like chips or cookies, but, I DO allow myself to have them. I try to eat a good breakfast every day. I make sure I have a good protein source, usually an egg. Lunch is usually very light. Maybe a salad or some raw veggies. For dinner, I eat what the rest of the family is eating, only a smaller portion than I used to eat. I even allow myself NOT to clean my plate :)

Working out is NOT easy, but, I have made it bearable for myself. I use our Wii Fit. When I started, I would do one round of Advanced Step Aerobics, then, try to run, and another round of aerobics. The aerobics I would use for warm up and cool down. I have reached the point now where I can do ten minutes of aerobics and five miles of running followed by another ten of aerobics. Some days are harder than others, trust me!

I was not able to do this until I wanted to do it for myself. I have dieted before, but, I tried to do it just by food. That really doesn't help. I felt deprived and hungry. Now, I am truly trying to make it a part of my life. The rewards are great! My daughter put her arms around me a few days ago. She said, "Mama, I used to only be able to get my arms around you like this" and held her arms out further, grabbing her wrists, "now, I can do this!" and she hugged me tightly grabbing her elbows. That felt so good! The kids are noticing, too! The best part, has been getting to shop in the LADIES section! When I started this journey, I was wearing a 20-22 or XXL in Women's clothing. I am now buying shirts in a 12-14 or a Large. I did get to buy my first shirt in a MEDIUM a few days ago! The first time I tried on a shirt from the Ladies section, I stood in the dressing room and cried. Trust me, if I can do it, so can you :)