Week 12 – Day 84 of 84 (Results of C1)

Today was my final weigh-in for Challenge 1.  My weight was down 2 pounds for this week!! That has NOT happened to me in, I dunno, YEARS.  That comes to a total of 7 1/2 pounds lost in Challenge 1.  I didn’t make my 10 pound goal, but I’m pretty happy with the 7 1/2 lbs. that I did lose.  They were hard fought.

I also took measurements, which I hadn’t done in 4 weeks.  Here are my overall results.

• Scale weight – down 7.5 pounds
• Chest – down 1/2”
• Waist – down 3/4”
• Abdomen (at naval) – down 1”
• Hips (at hip bone) – down 1 1/4”
• Hips (at fullest part) – down 1”
• Thigh – down 1”
• Knee – down 3/4”
• Calf – down 1/4”
• Ankle – down 1/4”
• Bicep – down 1/2”
• Forearm – down 1/4”
• Wrist – down 1/8”

My next challenge, I am planning to track cycle days and plan my workouts based on where I’m at during my cycles.  (It will be a mini science experiment for me to see if my body responds to this type of training.)

I will also be posting my weight/measurement stats in numbers from here on out.  Just keepin’ it real.

On to a week of rest and recovery and eating at maintenance or more.  Then back to business – Challenge 2!

Week 12 – Day 83 of 84

Well, this is the final day of LOW carbs!!! And I did it.  Other than Free Days, I’ve stayed within 100 of my calorie range since week 9 (except for one day and I was low on calories more than 100).  As a matter of fact, I went back and checked my blog and I only count 6 days that my eating was off +/-  more than 100 calories in the whole 12 weeks (there was a hiccup during the ice storm/power outage and I really don’t know where I was at calorie-wise).  I feel really good at my efforts during this 12 weeks.

Today’s Eats:

Goal = 1262 calories (50%p/30%c/20%f)

Actual = 1271 (+9)

Ratio = 38% protein/38% carbs/24% fat

Tomorrow I’ll weigh and measure, then enjoy a Free Day and a rest/recovery week where we won’t be counting calories and refeeding while I decide what we’ll do for the next 12 week challenge (start date of April 6).

And there are some grand biscuits on the breakfast menu tomorrow!!

Week 12 – Day 82 of 84

I was feeling a bit hungry today (cycle day 22), but stayed on track.

Today’s Eats:

Goal = 1262 calories (50%p/30%c/20%f)

Actual = 1282 (+20)

Ratio = 38% protein/42% carbs/20% fat

Jodi and Gary came for supper – I made chili… hence the higher carb count.  Those beans add up!  Still craving some bread.  SOMEONE get this girl a biscuit!

Today’s Workout: C1

Last weight workout of the challenge.  Woo Hoo!! On to something different in the next challenge.

Week 12 – Day 81 of 84

Today, I was missing a big old biscuit!! Terrible, I know.  But, I stayed on course with my eating and we did our hour long walk.  Tomorrow is the last weight workout for this challenge.

Today’s Eats:

Goal = 1262 calories (50%p/30%c/20%f)

Actual = 1268 (+6)

Ratio = 41% protein/40% carbs/19% fat

Week 12 – Day 80 of 84

I was a little weak at our workout today. Not typical of me.  I’m charting, so this may be expected as I see my cycle trends.

Today’s Eats:

Goal = 1262 calories (50%p/30%c/20%f)

Actual = 1263 (+1)

Ratio = 39% protein/39% carbs/22% fat

Today’s Workout: C2

This was our last C2 workout.

Week 12 – Day 79 of 84

Counting down the days til my last weigh-in of this challenge!!

Today’s Eats:

B = 1/2 c Fiber One Original, EAS AdvantEdge RTD

L = Double meat Subway salad (same as yesterday)

S = Myoplex light bar and 1/2 bottle of FUZE

D = Chicken fajita meat, green peppers, onions, tomatoes, salsa and fat free sour cream on a Joseph’s pita with 4 oz. skim milk and 1/4 serving protein powder

S = Protein pudding with Cool Whip

Goal = 1262 calories (50%p/30%c/20%f)

Actual = 1257 (-5)

Ratio = 42% protein/41% carbs/17% fat

Today’s Workout: Slow and Steady Cardio (1 Hour)

Week 12 – Day 78 of 84

It may sound crazy to you, but I was happy to be up only a pound this morning from Free Day… it’s not unusual to be up 2 to 2 1/2 pounds from a Free Day.  I weigh every day and this month I began charting my weight and symptoms with my cycle days.  I’ll be watching for trends so that I can see the role hormones play and expect them when they arise.  By being up only slightly on the scale, I’ll have less to have to recover from throughout this week.

Today’s Eats:

Goal = 1262 calories (50%p/30%c/20%f)

Actual = 1256 (-6)

Ratio = 40% protein/40% carbs/20% fat

 

B = 1/2 cup Fiber One Original, EAS AdvantEdge RTD shake

L = Subway salad with double meat chicken breast, spinach, tomatoes, carrots, green peppers, onions, and cucumbers with fat free vinaigrette and a lowfat cheese stick

S = Myoplex lite protein bar and 1/2 bottle of FUZE

D = 1 whole egg + 3 egg white omelet with onions, green peppers, mushrooms, tomato, turkey and lowfat cheese and 6 oz. skim milk with 1/4 serving protein powder

S = Protein pudding with 18g Cool Whip

Today’s Workout: C1

Week 11 – Day 77 of 84

The scale was unkind this morning… but I’m going to chock it up to hormones.  It’s cycle day 17.  I’m going to keep forging ahead.  But, I was UP one pound this week… and you can see what kind of calories I’ve been taking in and very low carb.

Today is Free Day, though.  Which is a welcome relief.

On to our final week… #12.

Week 11 – Day 76 of 84

Seventy-six days – Done! Only 1 week left and then we’ll begin again with another challenge… another goal.

Today’s Eats:

Goal = 1262 calories (50%p/30%c/20%f)

Actual = 1264 (+2)

Ratio = 39% protein/32% carbs/28% fat

I’m feeling a little thinner than I have in a LONG time.  I don’t know if the scale will equate that, but at least it seems my clothes are a little looser and I don’t feel as “lumpy”.  Tomorrow, I’ll weigh.  I won’t measure until the end of next week.

Week 11 – Day 75 of 84

Today’s Eats:

Goal = 1262 calories (50%p/30%c/20%f)

Actual = 1291 (+29)

Ratio = 24% protein/44% carbs/32% fat

Jodi and I had hair appointments this afternoon, so we were low on calories going in to supper.  Kale is in for a visit… so I cratered and went to eat at our favorite pizza place.  I had 3 medium/small slices of taco pizza and no breadsticks or dessert pizza… that was hard. But, that also explains the high carb, low protein figures.

Today’s Workout: C2

Jodi’s daughter, Jessica, was in today, too… so she joined us for our circuit workout.  Lots of fun.  Jess has just started a blog and is journaling her goal toward running a full marathon.  I can’t imagine even dreaming of doing that.

Week 11 – Day 74 of 84

I started my day at the dentist’s office today.  I’m boosting his economic plan by letting him do a crown on me!!  It made it a little hard to eat today, but here are my numbers:

Today’s Eats:

Goal = 1262 calories (50%p/30%c/20%f)

Actual = 1207 (-55)

Ratio = 39% protein/41% carbs/20% fat

Today’s Workout: Cardio

Week 11 – Day 73 of 84

Today’s Eats:

Goal = 1262 calories (50%p/30%c/20%f)

Actual = 1263 (+1)

Ratio = 40% protein/36% carbs/24% fat

Today’s Workout: C1

We’re halfway through Week 11, one and a half to go.  The low carb aspect of this phase is tough for me.  I haven’t had a slice of bread in weeks!!  But, I’m trying to go by the book.

Week 11 – Day 72 of 84

Today’s Eats:

Goal = 1262 calories (50%p/30%c/20%f)

Actual = 1206 (-56)

Ratio = 45% protein/38% carbs/16% fat

Today’s Workout: Cardio (Slow and Steady – 1 hour)

Just slow enough to thoroughly embarrass Jodi! Ha. It cracks me up.

Week 11 – Day 71 of 84

Today’s Eats:

Goal = 1262 calories (50%p/30%c/20%f)

Actual = 1261 (-1)

Ratio = 36% protein/36% carbs/28% fat

I didn’t do so well on my macronutrient ratios.  The protein bars are throwing me off.

Today’s Workout: C2

Those leg lift planks are feeling a little more do-able.

Week 10 – Day 70 of 84

Two weeks left of this fat loss program.  Today was weigh-in day and I was down 1 1/2 pounds.  Happy with that number.  That’s a total of 6 1/2 pounds so far… 3 1/2 left to reach my goal for this challenge.

The eating was TOUGH this week, but we’ve got two more weeks, then we’ll take a week to rest and refeed and then begin our second challenge in 2009.

On to Week 11!!

Week 10 – Day 69 of 84

I’ve been gone to (my son) Kale’s since Thursday afternoon.  Let me tell you… I made a HUGE sacrifice and tried very hard to stay on diet for the past 3 days - there are SO many awesome restaurants to choose from where he lives (verses my small town).  Thursday evening, we ate at TGI Fridays and I had the sirloin and broccoli (yay me!) and Friday night we ate at Noodles (I have to have ONE Italian meal when I go).  I had the manicotti and a salad with raspberry vinaigrette dressing… and a LITTLE bit of their wonderful bread.  I didn’t clean my plate – which I could’ve very well done… I also ate VERY well all day long and stayed on track, so I didn’t feel so so bad about the manicotti.  I didn’t get to weigh this morning, so I’ll weigh tomorrow morning and report.

Today’s Eats:

Goal = 1262 calories (50%p/30%c/20%f)

Actual = 1131 (-131)

Ratio = 38% protein/36% carbs/26% fat

I didn’t get a workout in today… but I was on my feet almost all day long… so that counts for something!

Week 10 – Day 66 of 84

I’m struggling with the macronutrient ratios still.  Low carb feels more like NO carb!!! There are carbs in everything.  I’ll certainly be glad to get back to BFL (or similar) style eating.  Twelve weeks of counting/weighing EVERY morsel that goes in your mouth gets a little old.  I do think the scale will reflect the lower carbs, though!  Here’s what today looked like:

Today’s Eats:

Goal = 1262 calories (50%p/30%c/20%f)

Actual = 1238 (-24)

Ratio = 40% protein/41% carbs/19% fat

B – 3 hard boiled eggs (only 1 yolk) and 1/2 c dry Fiber One cereal

MM – Myoplex Lite Bar

L – Subway salad with double chicken breast, 1/2 serving of red wine vinaigrette

MM – 1/2 Myoplex Deluxe protein bar

S – 1 Tuna pouch with 1/2 tablespoon Miracle Whip light, salad with red wine spritzer, Protein shake

MM – Protein pudding and dollop of Cool Whip

Today’s Workout: C2

The workouts for this 3rd phase are circuits.  We did the following circuit (3x – 10 reps each):

Overhead Squats

Kettlebell swings

Neutral Grip Shoulder press

Low to High Wood chops

Triceps Extension

Swiss ball crunches

Plank Progressions (normal - 30s, sides - 30s, and one legged (yow!) – 15s each)

Week 10 – Day 65 of 84

Today’s Eats:

Goal = 1262 calories (50%p/30%c/20%f)

Actual = 1219 (-43)

Ratio = 44% protein/36% carbs/20% fat

Once again, that 50% is tough! Just check out how few carbs I ate:

B – Protein shake, 1/2c Fiber One Original Cereal (170 cal)

MM – 1/2 Myoplex Deluxe bar (165 cal)

L – Subway salad with double chicken breast, 1/2 serving of red wine vinaigrette (269 cal)

MM – 1/2 Myoplex Deluxe protein bar (165 cal)

S – Lean pork chops and green beans (280 cal)

MM – Protein pudding and dollop of Cool Whip (165 cal)

Today’s Workout: Cardio (1 hour)

The cardio for this phase is VERY slow (55% MHR).  We aren’t used to going at a slow pace and to be honest – it KILLS Jodi.  We walked at the park and she was SO EMBARRASSED when people passed us.

Week 10 – Day 64 0f 84

Today’s Eats:

Goal = 1262 calories (50%p/30%c/20%f)

Actual = 1266 (+4)

Ratio = 45% protein/33% carbs/22% fat

It is so hard for me to get 50% protein.  Here’s what the menu for today looked like:

B – 2 hard boiled eggs (only one yolk) (91 cal)

MM – Hummus and broccoli, protein shake (164 cal)

L – Subway salad with double chicken breast, 1/2 serving of red wine vinaigrette (269 cal)

MM – 1/2 Myoplex Deluxe protein bar (165 cal)

S – Pita pizza (made with turkey, mushrooms, 2% mozzarella, onion and a little pizza sauce), Skim milk (4 oz) and Optimum Nutrition protein powder (412 cal)

MM – Protein pudding and dollop of Cool Whip (165 cal)

Today’s Workout: C1

The workouts for this 3rd phase are circuits.  We did the following circuit (3x – 10 reps each):

Walking lunges

Swiss Ball Flyes

Dumbbell windmills

Lateral Raises

Bent over dumbbell rows

Hammer curls

Plank Progressions (normal - 30s, sides - 30s, and one legged (yow!) – 15s each)

Week 9 – Day 63 of 84

Tomorrow is the beginning of the final phase of this 12-week challenge.  We’ll be eating at a 40% caloric deficit these 3 weeks and our cardio portion will be slow and easy.  An hour (3 days a week) at 55% MHR.  We’ll be doing circuit style weight workouts (3 days a week) as well.

40% caloric deficit for me is – 1262 calories.  I’ll be striving for lower carbs (30%) and higher protein (50%) and low fat (20%).  50% carbs is HIGH for me… so I’ll see how well I can do. For those of you watching my menu… I can’t promise I’ll be eating a lot of WHOLE foods to try and get my protein in.  I’ll be supplementing with bars and powders… I’m not a HUGE meat eater.

I weighed in yesterday morning and was the exact same as last week.  Yesterday was Cycle Day 2, so I was okay with staying even for the week – even though I was on VERY LOW calories all week long.  It’s JUST the hormones.

On to Week 10…

Week 9 – Day 62 of 84

It all comes down to choices.

I can eat nearly PERFECT when I’m at work.  I take all my food for the day (except supper) and since I have no other options in front of me, sticking to that is rather easy.  Then I usually can stick to a healthy supper pretty easy with a little planning.  Now, the weekends, they seem to be a bit more tempting to veer off diet.  When my kids were younger, and I was chasing them around at ballgames and practices and such, I would bring a cooler with me in my car wherever we went.  I had it packed with safe foods that I could eat easily, such as yogurt and Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal; protein bars and RTDs; nuts; tuna packets and pita; etc.  People got really used to seeing me eat my mini meals at ballgames.

Anyway, weekends tend to be a little tougher for me, but when I’m “in the zone”, I usually do really well with my choices.  Eating at Chili’s for supper last night, for instance.  I knew I could eat well off of the Guiltless menu.  Today, I had a baby shower to attend (for my new grandniece), so I ate before I went, and made up my mind before going in that I would NOT be eating.  Dave’s sister invited us to supper (to be able to visit the new baby some more before they make the trip back home).  She cooks very southern and I knew that I might have to make “choices” there, so I ate something before I left and ate small portions of the healthy options she had before us.  But, I did choose to have a little of the “Velveeta shells and cheese” and a sliver of a piece of her birthday cake as well.  So, after saying all that, here’s how today went.

Today’s Eats:

Goal = 1058 calories (30p/50c/20f)

Actual = 1113 (+55)

Ratio = 24% protein/52% carbs/24% fat

I’ll be re-evaluating my calories and getting our workouts ready for the final phase tomorrow.  AND it’s Free Day!!

Week 9 – Day 61 of 84

Today Jodi and I are were “on the road” for the biggest part of the day, so eating was tricky.  I went over my calories just a bit.  We were doing great with calories, but we were tempted a bit when we knew we were eating out for supper.  So, we chose Chili’s and both of us ate off the Guiltless Grill.  I had the Black Bean burger, which is YUMMO, and Jodi had the Grilled Chicken platter.

Today’s Eats:

Goal = 1058 calories (30p/50c/20f)

Actual = 1298 (+240)

Ratio = 30% protein/55% carbs/16% fat

Week 9 – Day 60 of 84

Day 60! That’s hard to believe.

Today’s Eats:

Goal = 1058 calories (30p/50c/20f)

Actual = 1027 (-31)

Ratio = 27% protein/50% carbs/23% fat

One of our co-workers had a birthday today and Judy brought a cake!! I had a piece that was about 1 1/2” square.  I did figure it into the calories above.  That was my only “cheat” this week!! Only two more days of this low calorie misery. (I’m not a believer in this low of calories… I’m only doing it to try to stay within this program.)

Week 9 – Day 59 of 84

Today was busy.  But, my eats are still right on target.

Today’s Eats:

Goal = 1058 calories (30p/50c/20f)

Actual = 1069 (+11)

Ratio = 30% protein/50% carbs/20% fat

AND I got 45 grams of fiber!!

Today is cycle day 25 – and I noticed the “need” for chocolate hit me a bit today… I DID NOT cave!

Week 9 – Day 58 of 84

More rest and recovery.  I did well with my eats today!!

Today’s Eats:

Goal = 1058 calories (30p/50c/20f)

Actual = 1066 (+8)

Ratio = 30% protein/50% carbs/20% fat (Right on target!!)

B = Protein shake, 1/2c Fiber One Original, small banana

MM = Hummus and carrots (YUM!!)

L = Subway salad with chicken breast and red wine vinaigrette

MM = Joseph’s pita (toasted) and salsa and fat free sour cream

D = Pita pizza (Can bacon, mushrooms, onion, and 2% mozzarella cheese)

MM = Protein pudding and dollop of Cool Whip

Today is cycle day 24, so even though I’m eating LOW calorie this week, I fear hormones may affect my scale weight.  We’ll see how it all plays out.

Week 9 – Day 57 of 84

Today was a rest/recovery day.  I did a series of stretches and three foam roller exercises.  That’s about all I’ll do each day this week.

Today’s Eats:

Goal = 1058 calories (30p/50c/20f)

Actual = 1097 (+37)

Ratio = 31% protein/47% carbs/22% fat

Week 8 – Day 56 of 84

End of Week 8.  Tomorrow begins a rest/recovery week where we will spend our workout time doing intentional stretching and foam rolling.  There’s a little learning curve to using the foam roller… and they are not without some pain!  We get a few laughs doing it, though.

Because we will NOT be working out, our calories will be very low for us.  We’ll be at a 35% deficit of our TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure), which is your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) plus your activity level.  It’s the same thing as “Maintenance Calories”.  Simply put, if you ate your TDEE daily, you would maintain your weight at your current activity level.  Eat above your TDEE, and you pack on the pounds.  To lose weight, one must be at a deficit.  Calories in, calories out.

We’ll be shooting for 30% protein, 50% carbs (YES!!), and 20% fat.  Very doable. 

So, 35% deficit of my TDEE is equal to 1058 calories.  This is for ONE WEEK only at a very low activity (rest) level.  I would not recommend this for an extended period of time.  In Weeks 10-12, we’ll be at a 40% deficit, but our activity level will be higher, so we’ll be allowed a few more calories… but this will be the final attempt to shed some FAT during our 12 week challenge.

Speaking of shedding fat… I read the Hormonal Timing book and beginning with my next 12-week challenge, I AM so going to start tracking my cycle and symptoms and adjusting my eating/workouts around my cycle days!!! The thought is that two weeks out of the month women are in a fat loss mode and the other two weeks they’re in a muscle building/strength mode.  Diet is adjusted with the two cycles and so are the workout principals. This should be INTERESTING.

On another note, look what I got this weekend…

 

I LOVE ab work!!! Can’t wait!!