First Time This Year!

Slowly, but Surely

Breath Nick Breath.  Haha.   I was hoping all of the water weight would have been gone by weigh-in day.   But half a pound is still a loss and I'll take it.  I'm just a little surprised because I know my body and a half pound loss at the weight I'm currently at is pretty low.  I'd expect this when I'm about 10-15 pounds from my goal weight, not 30 pounds.  

Like I said in my previous post, I'm still not going to change my plan to try and make up for these treat meals.  That's all part of making these changes into a lifestyle and not a season of dieting.  Remember my blog title is "forever" fit by 40.  I'm slowly making changes that I plan on keeping for the rest of my life.  

So let's talk about how some of the other things are going, like my workouts and devotionals.   Well, the workouts are going great.  This past week, my wife and I completed week 10 of the "fit2fat2fit"  program.  It seems like every day a part of my body is sore.  That's actually a good thing.  It means my muscles are always being "shocked" and not getting familiar with the exercises.  It's an environment for growth.... And once again, I was able to progress even further than last week in my exercises.  That's really exciting to me that I'm getting stronger physically while still continuing to drop scale weight.  That's a pretty clear indication that I'm losing fat weight and not muscle.  

One thing I did notice was that I did not find myself dedicating each day this week to God, asking and depending on Him for His help in my journey. To me, that's a clear indication of pride slowly creeping in.  The kind of pride that if not dealt with, will eventually lead me to "back sliding" into some old habits of splurges and gaining all the weight back.  So I had to repent and recognize that apart from Him I can do nothing.  For me, to be forever fit requires total dependency upon Him.  I've traveled down this road many times in my life before and have veered off course EVERY time I've tried to do it in my own strength.  I must depend upon Him. Every.  Day.  He gives us the invitation to come to Him and so I will.   

A Tasty Treat

So this was my treat meal this week.  A very tasty steak burrito from Chipotle.  It was a whopping 970 calories in the pic above.  It included a flour tortilla, steak, brown rice, black beans, cheese, fajita veggies, lettuce and hot chili salsa.  

This burrito will make my body retain close to 3 pounds of water weight for a couple days from the amount of sodium and carbohydrates. That's why it's real important I do not to base my  results strictly on scale weight  and to know how my body responds to certain foods, sodium and carbohydrates.   If I didn't have knowledge of this and based my results strictly on scale weight, my natural instinct would be to drastically restrict my calories the remainder of the week to try and "make up" for the extra scale weight, which I strongly don't recommend for maximum fat loss.   

So how do I respond after a 3 pound weight gain from a treat meal?   I return to my plan is if the scale didn't change.  As long as I stayed within my caloric boundaries on treat meal day, I really didn't "gain" weight (at least not fat weight), it's only water weight.  As long as I return to my normal workout routine and the foods I normally eat, the extra water weight will disappear within a few days.  I will not restrict my calories to make up for it, especially on weight lifting days.  If I did, it would have a very real negative impact on my metabolism and possible muscle loss, which that is a big no-no in my book.  Muscle is my friend.  It is the furnace that burns my fat.  My goal is to retain as much muscle as I can, while dropping fat weight.  

And so the journey continues...

That's What I'm Talking About

All smiles for me!!!    Not only did I lose 3 pounds this week (after a couple treat meals last weekend), I also made a huge gain.  Gain???   Yes, GAIN!  I was able to increase the weight of resistance on a couple of my exercises.  These are the kind of gains that put smilies on my face. That's a clear indication that I'm not only losing fat, I'm gaining muscle at the same time.  Woohoo!   

So how am I doing this?   Well on days that I work out with weights, I eat more calories in the form of complex carbs and lean proteins to support muscle growth.   It will range from 2800-3200 calories depending on how active I am during the day apart from my workout.  On these days my biggest meals are breakfast and lunch. My workout is usually 11am, just before lunch.  Then I usually eat 3-4 other small meals throughout the day afterwards.  

On cardio days and rest days, I cut my calories in the form of carbs.  On these days I will generally eat 2200-2400 calories.  I usually allow myself one rest day per week.  This day is also my treat meal day.  This is where discipline is needed because not only am I treating myself to a meal, I'm also not burning as many calories this day because of not working out.  

Zigzagging calories and carbs, along with short spurts of high intensity cardio and core workouts really do keep the metabolism revved on the fast track for targeting fat loss.  It's been working for me and I highly recommend it.  

Obviously I'm not gonna recommend this same calorie count for everyone, but the plan works for fat loss.  My wife Amy did it last year and she had amazing results.  She only lost about 10 pounds of scale weight but gained close to 5 pounds of muscle at the same time.   Her body transformed from a skinny fat person (skinny but high body fat percentage) to a very toned, low body fat percentage with a six pack physique.  Her calorie range was 1800-2000 on weight lifting days and about 1200-1400 on cardio days.  

Much thanks to God for His grace and wisdom.  Apart from Him I can do nothing, but He gives me the assurance that all things are possible to do exceedingly, abundantly more than I could ever ask or think.  Yay God.  

Oh My Treat Meals

Every celebration seems to revolve around food!  LOL  Well this weekend was no exception. For me it involved the obvious July 4th bbq/sweet sixteen birthday party and a church pot luck dinner, which by the way I was asked to make my famous bbq ribs.  All of which are usually high fat, high sugar, and high calorie foods.   Not a good combination for fat loss.  Haha

I praise God for making it through this weekend with self-control and staying within my caloric boundaries that I set beforehand. So how did I do?   Well here's some pics of my food choices and 

portion sizes that I chose this weekend.  The calories shown above each picture display my total calories for the day, including all meals, not just the treat meals pictured.  

Saturday's treat meal...

 I started off with a salad with Ken's lite dressing.  Then I had one Popeyes fried chicken thigh.  Normally I would have chosen a chicken breast but there was none left.  I also had a slice of honey baked ham.  Yummy!   There was other carb choices available like baked beans, macaroni and cheese, and potato salad but they did not look that appetizing so I chose to go with fresh fruit.  Then comes dessert.  I was actually looking forward to the cake and ice cream but I actually didn't like the cake that much.  I took 2 small bites and then instead of finishing it, I chose to have more fresh fruit with cool whip.  This was not my typical high calorie treat meal.  It was actually pretty healthy besides the fried chicken.  Overall, I was very happy with the amount of self-control I had and not continually grazing and snacking on food which I normally would have done at parties in the past.  But this is a new day, a new season to be forever fit.  :)

And this is today's (Sunday) treat meal...

I started the day with a 28 minute, high intensity, chest and back circuit training because I thought today I would enjoy a larger variety of foods since we were going to a church pot luck.  I'm glad I did!   I had some yummy bbq ribs, bbq pulled pork, a couple Swedish meatballs, some lasagna and to make it a little healthy, a side salad.  lol. NOT PICTURED, that I also ate was a small 2" sliced Cuban sandwich, half of a fried chicken breast and half of a chocolate chip cookie.  Those foods were spur of the moment, "dad you want to share with me" decisions.  Since yesterday's treat meal was fairly healthy, I chose to say yes and limit my calories for the remainder of the day. 

Overall I am very, very happy with the self control I had.  I recognize it truly is a gift from God.  I went into this weekend with prayer beforehand because I knew I needed His help.  He didn't fail me.  His grace was strong and I am thankful for it. You may not understand this, but I know me and I know my past.  Last year on holidays or treat meal days I would very easily slip out of control and have 7000 calorie days.  There was definitely a difference today and I am thankful for transformation within me. Yay God. :)

Ahead of the Plan.

Down 3.6 pounds!   So it looks like I'm already ahead of the plan to meet this month's goal.  I'm very happy about that considering its July 4th weekend and I have 2 treat meals planned, one today and another tomorrow.  

My goal this week is to lose 1-2 pounds. Even though I have 2 treat meals planned, I really don't want to cut a crazy amount of calories this week while I'm training hard with the weights.  I want to retain as much muscle and strength as I can.  Cutting too many calories will have a negative effect on my goals.

I did some reflecting this past week and I've noticed how much grace I've had to make the right decisions to reach my goals.  It truly is a gift from God of supernatural strength and discipline that almost makes things effortless.  Not only effortless, but there's even a joy in doing the things that I struggled with before.  Thank you God.  😊

Got a busy day ahead but I plan writing another post on Monday.  I'll try to take some pics of my treat meals and disclose how much I stayed on track with my caloric goals.  On these treat meal days, I do not restrict myself on food choices, but I try to limit the quantity of food I eat.  

His grace is all I need to be successful.  😊

A Little Taste of Legs

So here's a little, and I mean little taste of what a typical leg day consists of.  Dumbbell squats with a 3 second count on the way down.   Then use that same technique with multiple sets for more squats, lunges, military press, side raises, step ups and a lot of different variations of plank for core.  INTENSE and leaves me drenched with sweat and a whole lot of calories burned.

My typical caloric intake on a day like this is about 2800 calories.   My end goal is not a scale weight, it's a body fat percentage.  I could always eat less and drop weight quickly, but I would be sacrificing muscle mass at the same time and would not achieve the muscular physique I'm working for.  So I typically eat more on days that I lift weights and cut more calories on cardio and rest days.  It takes A LOT of discipline to do this.  I thank God for His grace giving me the strength each day.   

So cheers (recovery protein shake) to working hard and eating right. :)