It's now been over one hundred days since I decided to reclaim my health and fitness through consistent dieting and exercise.
Over one hundred days of tracking everything that I eat and drink, every minute of exercise, every hour of sleep. I've made significant progress, and I feel better about myself than I have in a long time - better than I did at any point during last year's journey.
I've introduced a few more higher-calorie days to my nutrition plan in order to help my metabolism stay high. It's a tricky balance to get that right; I do my best to listen to my body my instincts - so far that formula seems to be working.
Last Friday I weighed 249 lbs; that's an 81 lb weight loss! I've decided that I won't weigh in again until June 11th, and that my target weight at that time will be 230 lbs. It's an aggressive plan to try and lose that much weight at this point, given how progress is bound to be that much harder now. Still, nothing venture, nothing gained; if nothing else, having that as a goal will push me to give my all into making it happen.
When I came up with the weightlifting regimen that I've been using throughout this process, I only plotted out 16 weeks worth of workouts. And, seeing as how I'm now in the midst of week 15, I find that I'm undecided as to how I'll proceed after next week.
The question is, do I just reset and start the whole thing all over, or do I blow the whole thing up and try something completely different? Considering that I'm already doing a new routine with each subsequent phase (4 week stretches), I would likely continue to make steady gains in musculature and strength by doing the former.
Doing something entirely different is intriguing, but I have concerns about moving away from circuit training due to the fact that it's super-efficient, and gives me an extra cardio and fat-burning boost - both of those are paramount to my fat-burning efforts.
I've become somewhat addicted to running as my primary means of cardio. I get in an average of 45 minutes a day, split between morning and nightly sessions. It really burns fat like nothing else, but it's definitely more stress on my body. The mobility training that I do helps (as does ibuprofen), but there are still days where I have to slow it down a bit to allow myself some extra recovery time. I'm also toying with the thought of regularly competing in 5k races. It would definitely provide some added motivation to reach my fitness goals; but truthfully, motivation hasn't really been an issue at this point.
Someone asked me the other day if I can ever see myself relaxing my diet and exercise efforts at some point after I reach my target weight. The answer to that is an emphatic 'no'. I know that this is how I should have been eating and training all along; had I never have gotten lazy all those years ago, I wouldn't even be in the predicament that I find myself in now!
The life changes that I've made feel sustainable; I'm eating a wide variety of delicious food, I have the energy to do just about anything that I wish to do, I still have ample time to spend with my loved ones, and I avidly pursue several hobbies in my 'me' time. Were my life out of balance, I might think differently; as it is, though, I can't imagine life without the pursuit of better health and fitness.
Even if I'm doing the exact same things 10 years from now that I am today, by my estimation I'd be happy, healthy, and perfectly content.
No comments:
Post a Comment