Ran dark laundry, picked up a lot of the little scraps of trash around the yard. Just because it's po' dun mean it has to be dirty.
Finally got my Googles lined up to identify the winter flowers that give the impression of snow here: Richardia grandiflora, aka largeflower pusley, or largeflower mexican clover.
Having tracked my protein and calorie intake for some weeks now, as well as building a spreadsheet-table of protein, kcal and index values of stuff I eat or consider eating... I think I have a much more meaningful context for the recommendation of .36g protein per pound of body weight for a sedentary adult. At my weight, let's call it 200# today for roundness' sake, that's 72 grams daily.
Yesterday I ran a bit protein-light at 50g. Generally for the past couple weeks I've been meeting and often well exceeding the 72g target. But running 5-6 days a week is not sedentary. And considering what I was eating, in retrospect, it's no wonder I had such slow progress on the Cybex circuit.
I don't kid myself that I'm anywhere near the protein needs of athletes who train for hours every day. Let's posit that on an "off" day I need only a sedentary 72g, but on a "training" day, my protein needs bump up by 25% of the difference between sedentary and pro athlete, and a pro athlete needs 1g per pound of body weight. Ergo, 72+((200-72)*.25) = 104 on a "training day".
That's a 32g difference, and my latest treadmill sessions have been burning around 550 kcal. So on a training day, I need 550 extra kcal of food with an index value of at least .0582 to be assured of enough protein without closing the calorie deficit gap. That's above "mediocre" (.0392) but below "optimum" (.0647). McD's grilled chx ranch or chipotle snack wraps, a Chipotle chx salad (single meat, blk beans, whatever salsa, guac and even dressing), and scramble dog wraps fit the bill just fine.
I think looking forward, I'm not doing rice in the chili-beans combo anymore. It drags down the protein index, but more than that, it's simply more food than I want to eat at one sitting. I'm getting tired of the dish before I finish a nominal portion.
I've been toying with the idea of a new bean dish anyway. Of the 5 types of dry beans I've been working with, all selected for superior nutrition value, black beans are the pinnacle. They provide the most complete protein spectrum, and are especially antioxidant-rich (folate).