January Interim Update – Getting There…

So, to recap, here was January’s fitness plan:

-Day 1 and 3: 30 mins interval run, 15 minutes on Cybil, full body strength.

-Day 2: 60 minute run, yoga session

-Day 4: 60 minute DDR session, yoga session

The food plan was just to cut back on calories and track all my food – I didn’t have anything specific in mind yet.  I just knew that nightly jelly bean sessions and mowing from the popcorn tin mindlessly needed to be put to a halt.

How am I doing?

Exercise:

Haven’t missed a day yet.  That’s a lot easier to do when it’s only 4 days per week!  However, I haven’t really stuck with my exact plan well.  One week I just couldn’t be buggered to leave the house and did 2 days of serious DDR’ing instead.  Not knowing how my legs would take the outside running, I didn’t know if I was just going to have to start with a mile and work my way up slowly or what.  I guess I earned my right to run because while my legs talk back to me a bit more after a jaunt around the neighborhood, I’m not having any ankle, knee, or heel trouble.

My plan has been looking more like this (though it’s varied a bit each week):

-Day 1 : Intervals, cybil, and full body weights

-Day 2: Long run and yoga

-Day 3: Outside Run (about 3-4 miles), either DDR or cybil, and full body weights

-Day 4: DDR and yoga

So far, it still feels challenging, but not too challenging.  I’ve increased a lot of my weights and reps, but haven’t made much more in the way of progress.  However, that’s fine – this month is about maintaining my fitness level while lowering my intake, so as long as I’m completing my workouts without falling over dead at the end of them, I’m a-ok.

Eating:

I started with a vague idea of just reducing calories.  After a week, I settled into a specific plan of 1300-ish on the weekdays and under 2000 on the weekends.  The reality has been 130o calories 4 days per week, about 1500 calories 2 days per week, and just under 2000 one day.   It works out to approximately 1450 calories per day, which should net me about 1.5 lbs loss per week, that is, if my body worked like a math formula.  While I can’t say I am completely comfortable with every 1300 calorie day, it’s more than adequate to keep me functioning for the time being.

The one thing I’d like to improve is that it’s hard for me to get all the servings of fruit/veggies some days.  It’s a constant fight.  Now that I’ve rekindled my love for fruit, I could eat it all day, and I love the natural sugar buzz.  There is no better snack than frozen veggies with some garlic, seasoning, and a little spray butter, or snow peas and lite sesame ginger dressing, like I’m eating now.  However, they still have calories, and sometimes, if I am craving something unhealthy and have already eaten enough – it’s better for me to do something else besides eat to take my mind off my id trying to sabotage my waistline.

Weight loss:

Well, the first week was stellar.  I was literally bopping around feeling groovy, wondering when the other shoe would drop.  Well, drop it did, I’ve actually GAINED 2 lbs since 2 weeks ago while still being a good girl.  While it’s a little concerning, I’m not too worried – this is actually quite reminiscent of the cycle I was on most of last year.  As long as I drop the 2 extra lbs plus a little bit within the next week or so, I’m actually on pace for where I want to be by the end of the month (158).  At the very least, I’ve lost 2.6 lbs this month.***  That’s nothing to sneeze at, unless you have allergies, like me, in which case, you sneeze at anything and everything.

The rest of the month:

I wish to continue to eat how I have been calorie-wise.  Anything less, and I think I’d be a little more uncomfortable than I’m willing to be.  I can always strive to be better by converting not-so-great choices (like Saturday’s enchilada and taco plate which was a whopping 900 calories) to better ones (I could have probably eaten like 8 of our homemade fish tacos instead), but the quantity is fine.  If I can’t lose weight on this intake – I am done here.

My schedule is looking to be interesting, so with that and the fact that I’m slightly underfueled (and I’ve been fighting some wicked allergies), my goal is just to complete my 4 workouts per week.  If I do exactly what I had planned – bonus.  If I have to change it up because of the weather, work, or not wanting to blow snot over everyone on the treadmills next to me, then so be it.

I know weight is something I cannot control (I can influence my body to lose weight by doing the right things, but I cannot make it actually drop the weight unless it wants to) – but I really want to see 158.0 or under by February 1st.***  It’s been since August that I’ve actually had a significant drop in weight, and I’ve really been doing my best!

I also don’t have a plan yet for next month…I guess I’ll have to do some thinking!

***So, I thought I’d be all slick and get some posts done early.  Saturday, I weighed in at 160.4 and was feeling all grumpers about it.  Today, I actually met my January goal and am at exactly 158.0!  So, while I love the encouragement, I am no longer even .01% bummed about my progress, so no need to tell me it will all be ok. =)  This should also be a good guide on how weight can fluctuate.  I actually weighed in one day at 162.8 one day in the thick of TOM (time of month) time last week.

This posts pictures brought to you by www.fukung.com, which you should never go to or it will eat your free time (not setting it as a link, I will not be responsible for that much wasted productivity in the world).  The theme is internet ettiquite, just because it’s much easier to understand than wedding ettiquite.