Starting Over

164.6

That's where I was 5 years ago in 2010, when I thought I needed to lose weight. Man, things sure change in a few years. I'd love to be 164.6 at this point. Right now, I'm sitting at 182.6 lbs, which is actually down about 10-12 pounds from my high of I think 194.8 (I don't know for sure, because I was disgusted and didn't want to think about it).

As a side note, I've probably lost weight because I've been eating less lately - not a lot of second servings, and not eating dessert each night. I've also been working a lot around the house, so I'm fairly active. Usually on weekends I end up not eating much at all, which isn't a great strategy . I've probably lost muscle mass as opposed to fat mass. My man boobs certainly haven't diminished. :P Some men get a big gut when they gain weight. I don't - mine is kind of all over, especially in my face/neck and my love handles (and apparently my chest - gross).

Since moving to Minneapolis, between starting a new job (where I end up sitting at my desk and in meetings a lot), and traveling a lot (where I eat a lot of delicious food on the company dime), I've gained about 20-30 pounds. Not all (or any?) of it muscle, let me tell you. I've slacked off in working out, with the exception of a week or two here and there, and I eat a lot of cookies.

But that ends today. Kristen and I both decided that we want to change, and the times I've been really successful, we've supported each other. So this morning we woke up at 6:30 a.m. and exercised. I'm doing another Beachbody workout: T25. Kristen is dancing to "Just Dance 4" on the Wii. For the next 12 days we will also be eating low carb, and over the next three months will periodically do so (we have some trips, people visiting, and the holidays coming up, so won't be doing it the whole time). It is what gets the best results. Hopefully in conjunction with working out, we'll get feeling better about our bodies soon. Also, we'll get ready for our cruise to Cozumel on January 16!

I don't care a ton about weight - it's about losing fat. If I were 182.6, but all muscle, I'd be completely fine with it. However, I'm not a body builder, so around 150-155 while exercising and getting toned is probably a healthy weight for me. So that's what I'm shooting for.

Atkins Day One

So...it's been a while since I've done Insanity. Let's be honest - I despise Shaun T, and I mute him when I do his workouts. But I joined a gym (Planet Fitness) in November, and was doing really well for a bit, but then A Christmas Carol happened. And so...I haven't been doing much working out for a while.

I keep telling myself I'm going to get back exercising, but I haven't. And my body has suffered as a result. My current weight is...gulp...172.6 lbs., 19.9% body fat. That's more than I've ever weighed - sheesh. Now in my defense, once you get past a certain age (early 20s-ish), your body stops producing muscle naturally. Because muscle helps burn fat, that means that if you do the same thing you've always done, you'll naturally gain weight. It's just a fact of life. You have to do even MORE than you used to in order to stay in shape.

So looking at my stats from October 2010, I was at 159.8 lbs., 14.9% body fat. Using some good old-fashioned math, that means 23.8 lbs. of my body were fat. Now, at 172.6 lbs. and 19.9% body fat, 34.26 lbs. of my body are fat. Now, ignoring that there have been some fluctuations in the past 14 months, that means that I've gained 12.8 lbs. since October 2010, 10.5 lbs. of which were fat. I've also gained 2 pounds of muscle as well (that's good news). :)

So I'm doing something I did before - the Atkins diet. I've had some contentions with people about this - people even saying it's "of the devil" because it doesn't go along with the Word of Wisdom. But I'm sure eating dessert with every meal and eating tons of pasta and bread wasn't what the Lord had in mind either.

But anyway, I don't want to get into any other debates about it. The point is, I did the Phase 1 of Atkins for two weeks and lost 10 pounds. For those of you unfamiliar with the program, you eat a TON of vegetables (at least 6 cups of raw veggies a day), and about 4-6 oz. of protein (even vegans can do Atkins - it doesn't have to be meat) with each meal. The idea is to reprogram your body from burning and storing carbs to burning stored fat (called ketosis).

I was inspired by the documentary Fat Head (watch it on Netflix), which is a response to Super Size Me. The guy eats at fast food for a month and actually loses weight, body fat, and increases his overall health stats by limiting his carbohydrate intake to less than 100 g per day. I'll be limiting mine to less than 20 g per day, and drastically increasing my vegetable intake.

Phase 1 (where you limit your carbs this much) only usually lasts 2-3 weeks, but can go longer if desired. I'm going to try to stick with it until I'm down to 150 lbs. My guess is it will take about a month - hopefully I can withstand the temptation of delicious breads, pasta, rice, and desserts during that time. You might think eating only meat is a dream come true, but really, all you want during that time is french fries, or a baked potato, or some pasta, or a cookie...

Anyway, today is day one of my journey. Once I hit 150 (or level out on weight loss), I'm going to increase my carbohydrate intake, and head back to the gym. Today's menu:

Breakfast: 3 strips of bacon, 1/2 C. mushrooms, 2 eggs, 1 T. parmesan cheese (291 calories, 3.1 net carbs)

Snack: 24 roasted almonds (166 calories, 2.3 net carbs)

Lunch: 2 oz. ham, 2 oz. turkey, 2 C. lettuce, 1 oz. mozarella cheese, 1/2 C. mushrooms, 1 T. balsalmic vinegar, 1 t. olive oil (441 calories, 5.1 net carbs)

Snack: 1/2 C. shredded cheddar cheese, 1 T. coconut oil (347.5 calories, .7 carbs)

Dinner: hambuger patty, lettuce, 3 strips bacon, 1 T. low carb ketchup (424 calories, 1.6 carbs)

To drink: Water!

Total: 1669.5 calories, 12.8 carbs (about 4 C. vegetables - going to need to increase that for tomorrow)

Recovery Week - Halfway!

Even though I haven't been so great at blogging about it, I have been pretty dang good about working out! I'm now on week five: "Recovery Week." It's the same workout every day this week (Core Cardio and Balance). After the workout this morning, I'm not sure how it's supposed to help me recover, but whatever. I actually missed yesterday's workout, but I've only missed four workouts (total) so far - one yesterday, one on Saturday because of play rehearsal, then two the week before, partly because we went out of town.

But overall, things have been going good. And today, a breakthrough! I'm below 160 lbs. AND below 15% body fat!!! Yay! 14.9% and 159.8 lbs, but still! :) I'm happy. And I'm almost halfway through the program. Just another 4.5 weeks!

End of Week Two

Part of the reason I haven't posted this week is because I was bummed that I dropped the ball last weekend in my eating habits. I ate ribs and fries, cinnamon rolls, chocolate cake (with this frosting), etc. Absolutely delicious, but not very healthy. And I was basically back up to my starting weight after the weekend of splurging. :)

Oh well. Now I'm back to about where I was at the end of the first week: 162.4 lbs. and 15.4% body fat. Not too bad. And I think I'm starting to see a difference when I look in the mirror, which is a good thing, right?

Let me tell you about my favorite workout. It's the one where Shaun T is too tired to talk much towards the end. I love that. :)

Day 5 - Crazy Cardio

This morning was killer. Boo. I did the "Pure Cardio" workout, which is basically the usual warm up, then 20 minutes of cardio with no stops (at least, they don't stop on the video - I definitely took some breaks). It was fairly ridiculous.

And let me tell you about the trainer on this ("Shaun T"). He bugs me. No, for real - he really bugs me. I've resorted to muting the sound unless we're stretching (and I can't look at the TV to see what they're doing). That's how obnoxious he is. All he says are things like "Go go go go go," "Push it!" "Come on, you can do it, come on, come on, come on," "Dig dig dig dig," "Dig deeper," "Push push push." Seriously, it's like he's leading a Lamaze class.

Not exactly an eloquent guy.

Oh well - I'm not doing too bad. At weigh-in today, I was actually down to 161.2 lbs., 15.8% body fat. That's the lowest weight I've been since I bought a scale. :)

Day 4 - Recovery

Every Thursday is a "recovery day" on the Insanity workouts. That is, that you do mostly stretching and some yoga-type moves, but no cardio. It was actually nice, because it helped work out some of the soreness in my hamstrings. Because you do so much jumping and running, Insanity is very leg-intensive. The last time I did it, my calves killed for DAYS in the first week.

Still at 162.0 lbs. Down to 16.1% body fat.

Day 3 - Still Chugging Along

3 days down - 60 more to go.

I almost joined in on my friend Carmen's weight loss competition group, but realized it would cost money to join, so I said meh. I think I can keep myself motivated without the incentive of money. Which is why I decided to do this blog, to hold myself accountable to you, my (18 or so) readers! My friend Mont still thinks I'll drop out. I'll show him!

I was at 162.0 lbs. at weigh-in this morning. Body fat percentage fluctuated up to 16.2%. Like I said before, though, we'll see where I am after a week.

The end.