Home    |    About TASG    |    Before and After     |     Weekly Meals & Exercise     |    TASG Goes Hiking  

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Plan of Attack

So it's been three and a half weeks since I started seeing my PT/dietician. Don't get me wrong... he is AWESOME... but I haven't lost any weight yet. Still tittering around 140: usually ranging from 138 - 142. And I totally understand that it takes time, but it's kind of frustrating. Since I joined the gym at the beginning of the month, I've added in pretty intense cardio sessions at least 3x a week and weight training 2 - 3x a week. Previous to me being a gymie (like tech-ie) I was doing P90X. The P90X program is limited on the cardio sessions and focuses more on weight resistance, so I thought the weight-loss would be automatic once cardio was added in again. So NOT the case. Anyway, I've talked to my PT about my concerns and we're taking stats and measurements again next week so hopefully there's a difference... if there isn't, my PT is planning on changing up some things in my diet to see if that helps.

Since seeing him, I've also upped my cals from 1400 - 1500 to 1800 - 2000. I feel a lot better with the added cals, energy wise, and am pleasantly surprised to see no weight-gain... but bummed that there hasn't been a weight lost either.

So I've decided to reevaluate my health and fitness goals and create a plan of attack!

New Goals
- Labor Day weight: 129 lbs. - that gives me exactly 75 days to lose about 10 lbs. which = 1 lb./week
- Labor Day BF%: 28% - need to lose 9% more to get to 28%
- Fit into a size 4/6 comfortable - now I fit in an 8 comfortably but can wear big size 6's
- Maintain (or gain!) lean muscle mass - ties in with a decrease in body fat %
- Steadily increase weights I use for weight resistance
- Steadily increase seconds I can hold strength poses (ie. wall squat, chair pose, etc.)

My Plan of Attack!!
- continue with exercise 6x/week - 3 cardio days and 3 weight resistance days
- keep calories at a steady 1800 - 2000 calories/day - increasing my calorie intake should help b/c I was eating too little bit before
- limit eating out to 1x/week - currently I eat out about 2 or 3x/week
- include a serving of veggies/fruit with EVERY meal and snack = 6 servings - right now I do about half that
- up water intake to a minimum of 80 oz./day - already do a minimum of 64 oz.
- blog daily - to keep me accountable on my goals

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Annie, I hate when the scale doesn't move but a lot of times the tape measure does! Maybe you've just been replacing fat with muscle. That is what happened to me at one point, I remember the first time that happened to me it was a very frustrating month until I saw the measurements!

Steak_n_Katsu said...

And do less Overlord II playing!

Deuce said...

Annie, I'm glad to know you are working hard. I know you have a weight goal (so do I), but as Tony Horton's latest blog article states: Looking good is not good enough. I'm certain you are getting tremendous rest in improving you fitness. However, we all have self image goals and you are working for yours the right way.

I recently began wearing a heart rate monitor during all of my workouts, walks, hikes, or any concerted fitness effort. I do this to get an accurate account of my calories burned. I use the Polar FT80, but there are many that accurately track calories. If you don’t already have one and decide to get one, just make sure is has continuous heart monitoring (this usually means chest strap).

I use these calories burned to balance against calories consumed. Knowing that I need a 3500 calorie deficit to lose 1 pound per week, tracking my workout and my food calories, I can dial in on my true metabolic rate. If I’m burning 3500 extra calories per week and not losing 1 pound, then I’m consuming too many calories, so I either need to work harder or cut back on food.

Monitoring my heart rate zones also encourages me to work harder when I need to, but without over doing it.

You are wise to reduce the eating out. Even when you think you are ordering healthy, you may not be. Restaurants can stuff a bunch calories into healthy looking dishes. Keep “bringing it” in whatever activity you are doing and you’ll get there.

Deuce said...

Correction to my first paragraph, should read: "...I'm certain you are getting tremendous results..." not "rest"