I think I weigh myself to a fault, but I like to know what is going on with my body at all times. Kind of like...."If I eat this, this will happen". It always freaks me out when I see a big jump. I calculate all of my calories, even the bad ones, because I don't won't to fall off track with my routine. On a bad day I might eat 1,000-1,500 calories over my recommended daily intake (Cookout milkshakes add up quick). The important thing is I don't do that every day. So over a week's time, my net calories (calorie intake-calories burned) never add up to 3,500 calories (one pound). Now when the scale tips in the wrong direction, a few days of heavy water consumption and getting back on track with my eating and exercise, bring my weight right back down to 140lbs (where I want to stay).
Learning (and more importantly absorbing) this information makes having a milkshake much less of a dramatic event for me. I've heard that the stress and guilt you put on yourself just for eating something bad has worse effects than what you are actually consuming.There are so many mental games one has to overcome when trying to accomplish a fitness goal. Having a minor in Psychology I enjoy looking at fitness and health from this angle.
Here are a few things I've learned in the past 6 weeks that have helped me stay on track:
- Drink as much water as you can stomach. When you eat something bad for you or high in fat (which usually also means high in sodium), make sure you are flushing your system out with water.
- Find the right calorie balance for your goals. If you want to lose weight, gain weight, or stay the same, there is a specific calorie intake for you. I had mine too low and constantly felt hungry or overshot the calories. This took a toll on my psyche and I thought I was constantly failing. I'm glad my body knew better than to trust my math skills.
- Get creative with your protein powder. Eating at least 140 grams of protein a day is tough when you are not used to it. The protein shakes alone began to get boring and just the smell of the powder made me want to hurl at times. There are a ton of different concoctions you can make with your protein powder if you search online and get creative. A lot of them call for very similar ingredients and are just cooked in different ways. I've made shakes, muffins, cakes, ice cream, pudding, etc. I have a huge container of Optimum Health - Ultimate Whey Protein in Vanilla Ice Cream, and it's proved to be a very versatile flavor. I'd like to get smaller containers of other flavors; Chocolate at the very least.
- You have to push yourself. If you workout alone like I do, certainly no one else is going to push you. There are many times I want to scale my cardio down to 25 minutes or I want to cut out on the last 5 minutes of running. Maybe I've committed to lifting two sets of twelve reps and want to give up on my tenth rep on my third set. I have to let that inner dialogue beat me up and force myself to give it my all and finish strong. Let's face it, I let it beat me up for eating something bad, why not put it to good use and let it run wild when it comes to the exercise end of things.
Finally, I calculated my body fat percentage. I started 6 weeks ago at like 18.6-19% based off the skinfold measurements I took (I bought the little claw thing and everything). When I calculated this past week I was closer to 16-17%. Not a huge jump, but I'll take it. The biggest difference was in my thighs and triceps. I don't know if I'm doing the measurements 100% accurate, but I think I'm close.
 |
| Week 6 Front and Back |
No comments:
Post a Comment