Me. Yesterday.

When you check your starting body fat percentage.

 

 

The Struggle is Real

I saw Magic Mike XXL last night and thanks to this scene, all I took away from the movie was that I wanted to eat an entire red velvet cake a la Amber Heard.

Dieting is awesome.

Week One is Done!

My Week One is done, ladies and gentlemen. Some ups; some downs; who knew how often people ate on TV? Here is my update:

Hey guess what I hate the stepmill.

I will not lie about this. I was definitely on the smug side when approaching the cardio aspect this challenge.  Shit, I spent two years running at 4 AM multiple mornings a week. And not just any runs. We’re talking six miles thrice a week along with two other 10-12 mile runs, one of which was an interval or a tempo. Add to that a tempo-pace run of 15 or more miles, and boom – I was so badass. What the hell was a maximum of 30 minutes of cardio at a time going to bring to the table, amiright?

I don’t know if it wasn’t taking into account the afternoon lifts and post-lift cardio bursts, but come Wednesday’s interval workout through Saturday’s morning hills, my legs felt like 1,000-year-old petrified Redwoods. I laugh now, but it was incredibly disheartening at the time.

Come this morning (Monday, Day One of Week Two), my legs felt a little lighter, although this run was still a lot harder than I remember the first 30 minutes of my runs being.

In the afternoon, my trainer suggested the Stepmill, to which I say it can go fuck itself. Heading into the first Stepmill attempt, I was all, “Self, this is going to be so easy.” Finishing it, I had to sit down on one of the stairs. Long gone are the days on which I judge people for how slowly they appeared to be going.

There was nothing easy about this machine whatsoever. I stayed between level 6 and level 10. And I’m pretty sure that I got motion sickness from staring at what my feet were doing so that I didn’t trip and fall. By Friday it was easier, but not by much.

I Ehat You, Incline Crunches (bonus points to Everybody Loves Raymond fans)

Me vs. The Other Guy

Lifting this week was simply a reality check regarding how weak I am (see photo). I lifted heavily. For me, anyway, although adjusting to reps of 15-20 is difficult when choosing the weight that will challenge you properly. This will be my exploration during Week Two. By that I mean I’ll be asking my trainer what her suggestion is. I trust this chick’s knowledge more than anything (you should, too).

Also, sets of 30 incline crunches get really awkward when you realize halfway through that your underwear is showing for the whole of the gym to see.

The Diet Will Not be Broken When I'm Not Breaking It

I was well aware heading into this competition that eating properly would be my biggest challenge. My boyfriend makes the greatest rice and beans I’ve ever eaten and he makes them semi-nightly. He also eats sweets like a five-year-old. Luckily, though, he’s been incredibly supportive and tries to eat his fatty, sweet, delicious foods away from me. H also helped me immensely while grocery shopping and cooking on the last two Sundays – probably saving me an extra hour that it would have taken solo.

Logistically, the largest problem was not having enough containers in which to store the food for the week. Sounds lame, but it’s really annoying when you want to get everything settled before you head into the week. Also, the amount of dishes sucks as well, thanks to my not having a dishwasher.

 

As far as the actual eating goes, I was great right up until my first social challenge: my nephew’s 5^th birthday party. I’ve spent the majority of my life excusing my eating habits with some variation of “I’ll pick it back up tomorrow.” The problem with this mentality is that if you’re constantly on the last day of your non-diet, you’re constantly unconcerned with how much you eat, therefore the likelihood of binging is at about 100 percent. At least, with me it is. To recap: I was constantly overeating and a birthday party would be a prime situation during which I’d fall into my “pick the diet back up tomorrow.”

Full disclosure: I cheated. I brought meals with me and I still cheated. I ate my meals and I still cheated. I’m not happy about this, and neither was my trainer. However – and I’m aware that this may make me look weak and not make me not sound like I’m serious about competing – I’m proud of myself because my cheat was a salad with extra tomatoes (like a lot) and balsamic vinaigrette plus three pickles. I did not touch the calzones (heaven), the chicken tenders (also heaven), the tortellini salad (bliss), the chips and doritos (mouth salivating) or the pepperoni, cheese and crackers plate (so hungry) that sat in front of me the entire day. In order to not get down on myself and quit, I need to be proud of this. I am still aware, though, that even cheating with healthier foods is no good. I do not plan to do it again.

All that said, I made progress this week! Nothing to scream and shout about, but progress just the same.

 Weekly Check-in:

                    Starting:                End of Week One:

Weight:       171lbs                    165.8

Calf:            14”                         14"

Thigh          24.2”                      22.5"

Hips:           42”                         40.5"

Waist:         34”                         32.5"

Chest:         39”                         37.5"

Bicep:         13”                         12.75"

Just think: only 103 days left!