Sorry it’s been so long since I updated. Life has been getting in the way and I enjoyed my two weeks off during my kid-free time. It’s like a two week vacation from a full time job! She’s back now and really enjoyed her trip and adventures with Grandma. We’ve been having a blast the past couple days since she got back. She flew home alone for the very first time and is quite proud of herself. I picked her up at the airport and we went to hang out a bit at the local Barnes & Noble. I love that place just because you can actually sit, relax, and enjoy your coffee.
Afterwards we headed over to see The Killers since we’ve wanted to see it since it came out a few weeks ago. It was actually quite good and I was surprised. They could have done better with the ending, but I do recommend seeing it if you like comedy adventures. After the movie we grabbed a late lunch at Pei Wei (love me some Spicy Chicken Salad) and ended the afternoon with pedicures! Phew, I told you we were busy.
Yesterday was also quite eventful. I’ll start with the ending and I’ll work my way back to the important part. As a surprise, I took The Kid to see Wicked yesterday afternoon at the Music Hall in Fair Park. It was absolutely amazing! I can’t say enough good things about it and even The Kid was raving all evening about how wonderful it was. I think part of what helped was that we had no expectations going in as to the story. All we knew was that it was the story of the Wicked Witch and Glenda before the Wizard of Oz. The singing was perfect and the story was intriguing. The Music Hall could use a few more bathrooms though because we almost missed part of the second act due to the lines. We didn’t dilly dally either. We were on a bathroom mission, but the line was huge!
Now for the first part of my day yesterday for which you’ve all been waiting. I had a fitness consultation to start my day. You see, I’ve been struggling with being skinny fat for too long and I’m done hoping and waiting for something to change. It’s now time to take action. My goal is to burn this fat off and gain some muscle. Right now I have wimpy muscles under a layer of fat and despite the different things I’ve tried, it is not changing the way I’d like. It’s time to call in the professionals. My professional goes by the name of Adam. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll post my real numbers and be completely honest here. Completely unretouched photos and stats as I’m a real person. My journey cannot start on the river Denial! So here it is in full color. If I can do this, so can you!
Disclaimer: The information I’m going to be posting pertains to me based on my fitness level, weight, and personal data. You are a different person so your numbers and results may vary. Always talk to your doctor or other professionals to see what is recommended for you.
The consultation started with a discussion of what I hoped to get out of the program. It was nice that I was already prepared with specific goals in mind since it made this part of the meeting go faster. My main request was that I wanted to both drop in body fat and gain muscle. I found out that you can’t do both at the same time. Losing body fat requires a deficit in calories (eat less than you burn each day), while gaining muscle requires a surplus in calories (eat more). It is only possible to maintain the muscle you have while dropping body fat.
Since most people are motivated by seeing progress quickly, Adam said that I should start with losing the body fat first. Doing so, would allow me to see the definition in the muscle I currently have and would keep motivated for the second part. It’s entirely possible to reverse it and gain muscle first, however when the muscle is covered with a layer of fat it’s not quite as thrilling. I went with the first option purely for personal motivation. Next up was to find out what my initial body fat percentage actually is. He took a few quick measurements with calipers and we determined my BF% is currently 24.7. Bleah, but it’s in the ball park of my first goal of 20%.
Adam ran me through a quick session of weight lifting and cardio activities to get an idea of what my current state of health is. The weight lifting part consisted of bench presses, overhead presses, squats (hate ’em), and dead lifts. The cardio was a few combination movements like step ups with bicep curls and squats with rows. He got to see firsthand what I meant when I said I have no coordination. I think he agreed by the time we were done. If I can trip over it, I will. That’s my motto. After the fitness assessment, we came up with a plan.
Adam thinks I can reach my first goal of 20% BF in 5 – 6 weeks. Thankfully that’s pretty quickly and in my mind completely doable. Always try to set your goals in 4 – 6 weeks chunks (if not less) so that you can reach them before giving up. If you set a goal that will take you longer to reach, break it up into 4 week interim goals. And now for the numbers. I currently weigh between 138 and 141 lbs depending on the time of day, time of month, and how bad my eating has been. Adam picked 140 lbs to work with since it’s a nice round number.
To lose 5% BF, I need to lose 5% of my weight which equals 7 lbs. To guesstimate calories needed to maintain your weight with no activity at all, take your weight and multiply by 10. 140 x 10 = 1400 to maintain. Hmmm, my stomach is growling now at the thought as I usually eat 1500 – 1800 per day. I typically track my eating in FitDay, which I love for accountability, so I had print outs to show Adam what I usually eat. The good news is that what I’m eating is right on track, but I just need to eat LESS of it. Most people struggle with what they eat as well as how much they eat. So in my mind, half the battle is done.
I think most of you know that 1 lb of BF equals approximately 3500 calories. After crunching some numbers, he figured out that I need to eat 1300 calories per day and burn 650 calories per day to reach my goal in 6 weeks. I can eat more on any given day, but that requires me to increase my workouts to compensate. I can eat slightly less (not below 1200 per day) and workout less too. The great news is that this is easily accomplished with TurboFire 6 days a week! I’ve been tracking my workouts the past 3 days and I’m showing great numbers – 600 to 700 calories per workout! Another hurdle leaped and I’ve just started.
I tracked everything yesterday and I ate 1229 calories and burned 990 between Fire 45, HIIT 20, and walking Thing Two. Yes, dog walking counts (this keeps getting better and better)! I’m done today with the 5 Day Inferno plan, so my calorie burn should be closer to a reasonable 650 and not quite as extreme going forward. More is not always better, more can sometimes equal obsessive. I need to do this in a way that I can maintain going forward or it’s not going to work. Keep your fingers crossed as I aim at goal and if you have questions, let me know!
Speak Your Mind