Healthy Body Fat Percentage

On my initial meeting with my trainer, she measured my body fat percentage. Needless to say, it was WAY too high. And if I remember correctly, I had 116 pounds of lean body mass, i.e. muscle, bones, organs, etc. I didn't think too much of it at the time, but lately I have been trying to set a realistic and healthy "goal weight" for myself.

I was 120 in high school, but I've come to the realization that that ship has sailed. So I was thinking maybe 130 would be more realistic.

I couldn't remember what my trainer had said a healthy body fat percentage was, so I googled it and several different sources said for women age 20-40 the range is 21%-33%. I was stunned! That seems like a TON of body fat. I took out my little calculator and figured that with my 116 pounds of lean body mass I have now, adding 21% body fat, I would weigh 146 pounds. That doesn't seem like the weight of a fit, healthy 25-year-old.

Then on top of that, I calculated what my BMI would be if I were 146 and it's 25.1, which would put me in the overweight category. But at 130, I would be at 22.3, which is right in the middle of the normal range.

So now I'm totally stressed out and confused. Does this mean that 130 pounds is unhealthy even though the BMI says it's good? Or does it mean that 130 is completely out of reach for me since it would put me below the healthy body fat percentage? WTF!

Chocolate Cupcakes

I was in a baking sort of mood today. Seeing as I'm not an avid baker in any sense of the word, I need simple recipes. This chocolate cupcake recipe from Soup of the Day is not only super easy, but makes the most amazingly moist cupcakes EVER!

Some of you may be thinking that desserts and diets don't exactly go hand in hand. I think with normal diets, this can be true. I view it a little differently, though.

I generally don't deprive myself. If I did more often, I'm sure this weight would come off faster. But I really don't believe in diets. Diets aren't usually something you can stick with forever. I'm going for more of a change of lifestyle. I imagine there will be many cupcakes in my future and rather than avoiding them all completely, I want to develop a healthy relationship with them so I can enjoy them and still stay healthy.

Of course, giving most of them to family and friends helps stave off temptation as well.

Whole wheat pita bread from scratch

As some of you may now, last week I was unable to find pita bread in any of the grocery stores in my little town. One more thing to add to my list of things I can't get in Brigham City.

Anyway, I was prompted by Two Peas and Their Pod to make my own pita bread from scratch. She claimed it was easy. So I figured I'd give it a whirl. I found this recipe that seemed relatively easy and adapted it to use my whole wheat flour I already had.

They turned out OK. Not great. I seem to have a problem with getting bread to rise. I at least think I know what I did wrong. It didn't say to cover the dough while rising, but I think I should have anyway. Nonetheless, they taste just fine. Of course, the whole reason I wanted to have whole wheat pita bread was to go with falafels I was all sorts of excited to try. But my food processor is broken, so I haven't been able to try that yet.

Moral of the story: Whole wheat pita bread was easy to make, just a little time consuming. But I don't think I'll bother buying from the store anymore.

Orange cranberry oatmeal bran cookies

Yes, you read that right. I love oatmeal cookies. I think they're my favorite because they aren't overwhelmingly sweet. And I can just about trick myself into thinking they're healthy.

I also love bran muffins. Orange-cranberry bran muffins, to be exact. I've been trying to find a good recipe, but all of my attempts have ended up very dry. So, I thought I'd combine these too. I looked up several recipes and found this oatmeal cookie recipe. But, instead of 3 cups of oatmeal, I used 2 1/2 and added 1/4 cup each oat bran and wheat bran, substituted the raisins with about a cup of dried cranberries and added the grated peel of one orange.

I made these yesterday. I don't generally consider myself a cook on any level, but these turned out phenomenally! Too good, in fact. I ate two. Clearly this doesn't bode well for my diet, but I've refrained from overindulging today. Besides, my evening-sweets craving has been calmed by a soda and a Twinkie up to now, so an oatmeal bran cookie made from scratch is, at the very least, a step up. Wouldn't you agree?