Alright, the time to hesitate is through.    Come on baby, light my fire (the one under my ass).  Starting today, it’s all about operation: get back to maintenance weight.  For the last… since I can remember, it’s been about 90% awesome healthy food during the week, and then it all goes to crap over the weekend.  Which… honestly?  Is fine and keeps me at a steady weight.  Could it be better?  Sure.  But as long as it keeps me both sane and able to maintain my weight, I’m ok with it.

However, I need to run a tight ship to actually take off the weight.  It’s not fun.  I definitely don’t miss that period of my life where I spent 2 years constantly in loss mode, but I kinda miss that feeling being normal.  Because it’s a lot easier to coast with inertia then start something anew.  I am totally and completely rusty at losing weight.  But hey, I did it once, I can do it again.  And the time is now.

Week #1 workouts:

Monday: 30 mins arc trainer and weights after work (80 mins)

Tuesday: 30 mins DDR in the morning

Wednesday: 5k run in the morning

Thursday: 30 mins resistance band workout in the morning

Friday: run/weight intervals at the gym after work (80 mins)

Saturday:  30 mins DDR OR equivalent outside happy fun cardio

Sunday: rest

Lotsa days, but super relaxed (minus today/Fri).  The goal is to get back into morning workouts, but the tradeoff is they can be short… I don’t need to do epic workouts every day if I do them more consistently.  Also, 3 days of weights.  I might not keep that up every week, but I’d like to start squeezing it in when I can.  (Charlotte – I’m meaning to look into core performance but I’ve had very little internet time – I might try to work it in too!)  I’m also working long days Wed – Fri, and have events both on Wed AND Fri nights (as well as Tues lunch for work, and I’m *sure* something will come up on Sat).  So the plan?  Cardio calorie burning those days so I can have a few extra consumables, but manageable enough I can still not have to get up too early to do ’em.  Yeah, it’s a hell of a week to start, but y’know?  If I can get through this week I can get through them all.

Week #1 consumables:

Monday: 1200 + 600 workout = 1800

Tuesday: 1200 + 300 workout = 1500

Wednesday: 1200 + 400 workout = 1600

Thursday: 1200 + 150 workout = 1350

Friday: 1200 + 600 workout = 1800

Saturday:  1200 + 300 workout = 1500

Sunday: 1200

So, I’ll leave Saturday up in the air for a bit, as I’m not sure of our plans for the day.  I still plan on working on keeping myself under control no matter what, but it might be nice to burn 600 calories that day and have 1800 to work with instead.

My goal with all this as well is to make it as non-impactful as possible on Zliten and my friends.  I need practice being masochistic with my food intake in social situations again.  I’ve gotten really, really bad about saying no to myself and said no to other people instead.  I’m going to put myself in said situations, make the good choices, and keep the grumbling internal as much as I can.  Why, yes, I am truly happy with this grilled chicken while y’all eat hamburgers and fries in front of me *teeth grit*.  Sure, let’s go out this weekday evening, even though it means I have to get up at 7am to get my full workout in *zzzz*.

Hopefully it won’t be *THIS* bad.  I mean, I’m not going to accept *every* invite, but I’ve been getting razzed a bit about being so antisocial.  It’s been for various reasons, but one probably has been avoiding social situations where it is not a proper day to drink/eat restaurant food (I mean, seriously people, I have to plan for this shit) and we get invited out – so I’d rather just not deal with it.  I know the nice and noble thing to do is to go out, order a glass of wine and sip it slowly, and find the ONE thing on the menu I can eat without going into calorie overdrive, but really?   Rather enjoy my own cooking and my couch.  But – since it’s go time, why not throw one more thing into April’s experiment, right?  Because sadly, it’s not working.  I’m gaining weight, and not getting to be social.  So it’s like a lose/lose situation (minus saving the money, so I guess it’s lose/lose/win, which still isn’t very good).   So, I’ll practice grinning and bearing it for a while and maybe I’ll start to enjoy it again.  I was getting good at operating on about 1000 calories if it was a drinking night…  Fake it ’til you make it, right?

I just have to remember, like half training, it’s just something I’m doing.  I’ve set May 1 as the last day of this for a reason – a) I have the warrior dash that next day and damned if I’m not going to celebrate with my big ol’ turkey leg and brew, wearing my finisher’s horns and b) It’s a finish line.  I can re-evaluate progress and effort on May 3rd and see if I’m in for another month of it or it’s just NOT WORTH IT or NOT WORKING.  I think my biggest fear is putting myself through hell for no progress – but I can give it a good college try for a month.  This is just as important and just as noble as training for a race.  It’s just a different measure of success.

As for my starting weight – let’s not talk about that until Wednesday, my normal weigh in day.  The scale and I had some disagreement this morning and I need a few days to cool down.  I think it was calling me fat, but I can’t be sure… anyhoo… in summary…

-Reduced calories, 1200 + whatever I burn per day

-Fully tracking every bite at www.dailyburn.com

-Keeping a log of my feelings/motivations each time I eat (more on this after I’m a few days in)

-Putting exercise for athletic gain on the back burner, back to exercise for the purpose of weight loss.

…bleh.  I know.  I hate saying it too.  But it’s temporary.  I can live with this.  What’s your April plan look like?  Am I crazy?  Think I can do it?  Hit me up below.