Week Three, 2014: The Good and The Bad

Today begins my 3rd week of diet & training.

The exercise front has been SOLID.  I've stuck to my game plan, and things have gone swimmingly.  I had intended to play volleyball this weekend but a set of unfortunate circumstances kept me from playing.  So on Saturday, I cruised to the gym and did the following workout, and it was great! Left me exhausted, a little sore, and a LOT hungry :D

1) 45-lb dumbbell curls (4 sets of 8-10 reps). During rest, I did a 45-minute plank between each set

2) 7.5-lb free weight shoulder flys (4 sets of 8 reps). In between sets I did a 10 reps of tricep dips on the bench.

3) 15-lb Single arm tricep extensions (4 sets of 10 reps). While one arm was resting, I did the other arm.

4) 40-lb shoulder press (4 sets of 8 reps). In between sets, I did 5 box jumps.

5) HIIT on the elliptical. Level 10 cross ramp, 30 seconds at a level 10 resistance, 30 seconds of sprinting at level 15 resistance. Repeated for 20 minutes with a 5 minute warm-up and cool-down after.

Yesterday I allowed to be a rest day.  I told myself that I would be generous in allowing my body to heal to avoid wrecking it again, so I had no guilt or qualms about it.

Diet has been a different story. I have felt awfully heavy and bloated the past couple weeks which has been a big blow to my motivation considering as how I feel heavier now than I did when I started 3 weeks ago.  I think it's mostly water weight gain from my birth control (my doc prescribed me the wrong kind, it always messes me up!), but still -- on Sunday afternoon, I was driving home and realized that diet is the only thing between me and my goals.  I write-up meal plans but I find myself improvising FAR too often, especially on the weekends.  It's like being on a budget, but still using the credit card when I run out of cash.

The good thing and bad thing about my journey this time is that I am in a serious relationship.  The good thing is that he is a Crossfitter and former physique builder himself, who understands every component of what is required to lean out and then build up.  He is a great cook, very supportive, and we've decided to do this together -- he's going to get back into true competition shape alongside me.  The bad thing is that we are complete opposites.  He is a very lean guy who maintains a constant state of lean muscle despite having taken the past 4 months off of working out because of work travel demands and the holidays.  I, on the other hand, find it unjustly difficult to shed body fat, even when rigorously following a diet protocol.  We have different dietary needs, and considering as how I really like him and want to make him happy and impress him, the meals I cook tend to suit his need to bulk instead of my need to cut.  Case in point? Dinner last night:

While this looks healthy, it was entirely too much food.  I didn't finish it, But the baked potato should have been halved (and it should have been a sweet potato) and plain, not with sour cream on it.  Veggies were delicious but I admittedly was a little over zealous with the use of coconut oil to saute the mushrooms and broccolini.  The thing that kills me is that I could have easily just steamed my veggies and sauteed his, but alas, I chose not to.

I thought that diet would be the easiest part of this 2nd stab at my fitness journey because I was so successful with it in 2012.  Then again, it took me about 6 weeks to really figure it all out.  Suffice it to say, my grace period expired the second I woke up this morning.  I need to stick to my meal plan, have it well-thought out, use Sunday to prep meals (my boyfriend is gonna do it, too!), and not deviate except for my every-other-week cheat meal.

In better news, I bought a new heart rate monitor!  I replaced my Polar FT4 with a new one of the same model.  I'm going to wear it to gauge my workout tonight, then I'm going to put it on at bed time and not take it off for 24-hours.  Gonna see what the approximate caloric burn will be for me.  Traditional RMR calculators suggest I burn 1,426 calories a day at rest.  That is about 59 calories an hour.  When I multiply this by a factor of  1.62 (which is between "Moderately Active" and "Very Active", considering as I workout 4 days a week at the gym and then play pretty competitive volleyball consistently on the weekends), it suggests I burn 2,310 calories in total in a day, with exercise included.  If my experiment succeeds, my heart rate monitor will indicate this many calories after 24 hours.  Based on that number, I will subtract 500 calories to create a gentle deficit, and will build a final meal plan around that number.  I don't expect my diet to deviate much from 1700-1800 calories.

I know talking about calories drives people mad because often times we over think things and replace common sense with obsessive mania.  But the truth is, diet is a necessity in obtaining results.  And I inherently know I am doing my diet wrong.  And I am the type that needs black-and-white guidelines.  Just tell me what to do or not do, and I will get it done.

At the end of week 4, I plan on posting my first series of progress photos and stats.  Stay tuned!