Nutrition

Through my Food and Nutrition class I have found a really helpful website for anyone trying to keep track of their diet.  If you go to Mypyramid.gov, there is a place where you can track your diet.  They have a huge database of foods where you simply search for everything you ate and then enter the amount that you ate.  After doing so, you have multiple options for analyzing the food you ate.  For instance, you can see all the different nutrients, how much you ate and how much they recommend that you have for the day.  I found this to be very interesting because a couple of days I had really balanced meals without even really trying, while other days I found that I did not get nearly the recommended amounts of certain nutrients.  I have posted below my diet from Monday of this week... For whatever reason I cannot get it to show the reccomended amounts... only what my intake was.  Anyways, I thought this was cool and would really recommend trying it out!

Nutrient	Your Intake	Recommendation or Acceptable Range
Food Energy/Total Calories (kcals)	1950	2760
Protein (gm)	53	56
Carbohydrate (gm)	270	130
Total Fiber (gm)	14	38
Total Fat (gm)	74.3	43.3 - 75.8
Saturated Fat (gm)	19.5	< 21.7
Monounsaturated Fat (gm)	28	**
Polyunsaturated Fat (gm)	22	**
Linoleic (omega 6) (gm)	19.3	17
Alpha Linolenic (omega 3) (gm)	2.2	1.6
Cholesterol (mg)	79	<>
Vitamin A (mcg RAE)	897.6	900
Vitamin C (mg)	151.1	90
Vitamin E (mg a-TE)	7.3	15
Thiamin (mg)	1.5	1.2
Riboflavin (mg)	1.4	1.3
Niacin (mg)	16.6	16
Folate (mcg, DFE)	357.4	400
Vitamin B6 (mg)	1.6	1.3
Vitamin B12 (mcg)	1.4	2.4
Calcium (mg)	530.2	1000
Phosphorus (mg)	953.8	700
Magnesium (mg)	283.5	400
Iron (mg)	11.3	8
Zinc (mg)	7	11
Selenium (mcg)	105.9	55
Potassium (mg)	2517	4700
Sodium (mg)	4163	1500 - 2300

Workout Update

Last week was the first week so far that I did not go to the MMA gym at all and that was simply because it was a really busy week.  I did, however, workout on my own on the punching bag 2 times during this week and these were both excellent workouts.

The following is the workout that I did last week on Tuesday and Thursday

5 Minute round on the bag in the following intervals

1:30 Fighting

0:30 Power Punches (As hard as you can)

1:30 Fighting

0:30 Fluster Punches (As fast as you can)

0:30 All kicking

0:30 Finish (Everything you have left)

Although 5 minutes does not sounds like a lot, it is a long time and it is extremely exhausting.

I did three 5 minute rounds with about a 5 minute break in between.

I plan on working out boxing/sanshou/mma at least 3 times a week. This can be going to a class at the gym or working out on my own on the punching bag.

This week I plan on working out Monday, Wednesday, Thurday, and possibly Saturday.

I worked out yesterday and it was an extremely good workout.  I actually went with two friends of mine and we did the following circuit.

One person resting

One person on the bag

One person doing situps and pushups

Each round is 5 minutes and we did that circuit 3 times.  So, each person was on the bag for three 5 minutes rounds as described earlier with the same intervals,  three 5 minute rounds of pushups and situps and three 5 minutes rounds of rest.  We were all extremely exhausted at the end of that but I felt good because I was recovering fast and I am not sore today.

I have decided that boxing on the punching bag is one of the best workouts you can do.  After doing it for 3 or 4 weeks I can already feel and see improvements in my body.  I feel stronger.  I think I may need to start adding a little more cardio into the workout.  Although there is some already, I do not want to simply gain endurance in my upper body and lose everything I have from soccer in my cardio and legs.

Thats all for now.