So, Spring Forward isn’t going so well thus far. I stopped tracking post-weigh-in and have been making a series of poor food choices since then. I am not looking forward to my upcoming weigh-in. But, no need to write a week off! This is Spring Forward people. Summer is on it’s way. I got my head out of my ass yesterday getting-back-into-activity-wise and tracked for like half of today.

I bought one of those 3 month trackers from my WW a while ago. It’s handy. It gives you like little advice tips and whatnot at the bottom. One of the things it said was to: “Write down 10 reasons why you joined WW” or something to that effect. You know what my #1 reason is? I want to be able to bike to the beach, play volleyball with my friends and bike home. Without dying from exhaustion. Without dragging ass. And dropping 8-10lbs this month will totally help me be more spry on the sand. Sure losing weight means SO much more to me than that, but keeping that goal in mind is going to make me pick up the pencil tomorrow.

Alas, March Madness is coming to a conclusion. But alack not! Success has been had! I am down 3 lbs from last week. Grand total March Madness loss = 9.5 lbs in 4 weeks. Woot! March Madness was an excellent way to re-invigorate my commitment to WW, stay motivated and inch my way closer to a healthy BMI.

But March Madness wasn’t just about weight loss - the madness helped me re-discover myself, become slightly less reclusive, make my apartment marginally less disgusting (I totally cleaned the other day), stop crushing on a boy, push through my plateau and turn up my cardio routine by way of interval (fartlek) training for both running and biking.

Now that the end is upon us (read: Shanny, myself and other MM participants) the only lucid course of action is to SPRING FORWARD. That’s right folks, it’s time for another challenge. New name, same rules: lose 8-10 lbs by way of healthy and intelligent means in a month (my weigh-in day will be April 3oth). Losing 8-10 more will get me palpably close to my healthy BMI. Very exciting shit. It’s not going to be easy. Stay tuned for results and other musings.

I came across this article that I thought mgiht be of interest. Here is a selection from it…

The Best Strategy for Fat Loss

So where are we at with our fat burning project? Here is a summary.

Increase muscle with weight training. Extra muscle helps to burn more energy at rest, even if only a little. This is called the resting metabolic rate of muscle or RMR. Extra muscle will also burn more fat in active phase, the active metabolic rate if you like, or the AMR, so having more muscle will definitely help burn more energy and fat.

Lift heavier weights. What I suggest is that the weights workout should be vigorous, with the number of repetitions kept at the low to medium end of the scale between 8 and 12 RM. To remind you, the RM is the repetition maximum, which means the most weight you can lift for this number of reps before fatigue. The 8-12 is within a range that should provide strength and bigger muscle growth, which is called hypertrophy.

If you go higher than this, say 15 to 20 repetitions to a set, or more, you are getting into the range where you would probably be better off doing cardio because the return on effort, the energy burn, is better spent jogging, cycling, stepping or rowing. At that number of repetitions you won’t build much muscle either, so very high-repetition training with weights has minimum value in my view.

Do aerobic exercise. Considering how much energy you would use in an hour of either type of exercise, weights or cardio, you must do some consistent aerobic or cardio work to burn fat.

Try high-intensity cardio. Remember the study from the University of New South Wales that we started with? High-intensity exercise, even if only in short bursts, may rev up the metabolism and get that fat mobilized. Do some high intensity as well, but don’t overdo it, because burning the fat is a long-term project and you don’t want to get ‘burned out’. A group exercise program such as a solid cycle spin class might match this requirement. In fact, I highly recommend group cycle spin classes where you are encouraged to go fast, yet with the option to slow down if you need to.

The Weights and Cardio Circuit Training Program

Combining weights and cardio in a circuit interval session may be the best approach of all. The weights circuit I propose is based on the idea of mixing high and low-intensity weights and cardio in a circuit. This idea is not new, but what I’ve designed uses simple equipment: one set of dumbbells, an exercise step platform and five carefully chosen basic exercises.

Check it out and let me know if it works for you.

http://weighttraining.about.com/od/fatlossweighttraining/a/fat_burn.htm

“p4p?! When did you come out of retirement??”

I played in a volleyball tourney yesterday with some people I haven’t seen for like 2 years. Two years! It’s not like I dislike these people. I just stopped being around. For 2 years! I think the being overweight thing (in combination with the rut which contributed to my overweightness) made me turn down my socialability and turn up my hermitdom. I have been being more social lately like going out for drinks or movies and just generally doing what 20 somethings do - and it’s been great! I think I was embarrassed about my size, and just generally down for a long time, so I made excuses not to go out with people - people whose company I thoroughly enjoy.

Post-tourney I ended up hanging out with a cute boy, and could have invited him to my place for a couple of pints if my apartment wasn’t ridiculously messy and so obviously rarely visited by anyone besides myself. It’s time to clean up my act. If I’m going to stop being a hermit (or, more accurately, turn down my hermit tendencies slightly…I’m not about to be ultra social to the max people, it’s not the way I roll…) it’s entirely possible that I am going to have to put my clothes away and not have half-read books strewn everywhere and the floor littered with unopened mail.

Switching to Flex has helped me push through my 5 week plateau - I am down 3 lbs from last weigh-in, and am back in the 160s. Woot! But, one weigh-in does not a plateau break. To keep pushing through that plateau I have my March Madness goal of losing 1.5 - 3.5 lbs more by next weigh-in, which is totally in the realm of the doable.

I am committing to Flex again this week as I am still trying to re-make tracking a habit. Tracking is still a bit of an afterthought, some days, but for the most part this week I looked up points values before or whilst eating. Going back to my week 1 book and back to basics has been very useful - especially reminding myself of the points values of things and being more aware of my intake than I am on Core. I feel very in control of my food choices and am enjoying the freedom of choice with Flex. I totally recommend switching from or to Core or Flex if you have reached the dreaded p-word on either program.

Warning: Non-Weight Watcher Content

For the last few months I have been binging pretty hard on daydreaming. For the last few years, really. A bit of fantasy is good from time to time, but spending too much time in your head is probably a bad thing.

The DOWNLOW on the cause of my lowdowns…

I get crushes on my guyfriends. Then, I daydream about what could happen, all the while ignoring the reality that I am securely situated in the friendzone and that it’s sooo no going to happen. THEN, I get disappointed when they start seeing someone they are actually attracted to.

I set myself up to be knocked down. Then, I get knocked down. Repeat.

Why the fuck do I do this? Self esteemy issues, probably.

Given that I am the Creator of this fantasyland I am pretty sure I have the authority to shut ‘er down. So, Current Crush, I shall no longer fantasize about you. Have you seen love, actually? You know that scene with the dude who had a thing for Kiera Knightly holding up the post-its? Yeah, just like that.

Enough. Enough now.

WOoooooooooooooooooooooooooOOT! I’m a Medium.

Just got in from pants shopping - my jeans that I bought last time around no longer fit, so I figured it was time get some new ones (and a pair of work pants) to avoid saggy crotch syndrome. I am down a couple of inches in the waistline so I picked up a medium-sized belt. I don’t think I have owned a medium belt since like high school.

In other news, I tried fartleking for a different type of cardio activity: biking. That is, I went to my first spinning class ever this morning. MAN was it ever hard! It is basically an hour of interval training on a stationary bike lead by a boot camp like instructor and you sweat out every bit of moisture in your body until your legs feel like burning and or you fall off your bike. Okay, so it totally isn’t nearly that scary, but I enjoy being melodramatic. Anyways, it was awesome, despite the fact that I was easily the heaviest person in the room (including the boys), its a good change from running. I like running, but I think I should throw in some lower impact cardio in my life so my knees last past 40.

**Updated: Note: Biking after not having done so in a long time hurts you in your lady parts a few hours later. 

Impromptu trip home did indeed damper my March Madness efforts, but wasn’t a complete disaster, weight-wise: I maintained. I maintained whilst surrounded by food pushers, wings, beer, pie and family. I count this as a success. (Especially considering my period came into town the day before weigh-in.) But, this little success leaves me with the same 4.5 - 6.5 lbs to drop in 2 weeks time for the March Madness challenge. Is this achievable? Perhaps, but perhaps not; it certainly won’t be easy.

Upon reviewing my membership book I have noticed a pattern. It is the sort of pattern that many of us in WW dread: the plateau.

Reader, for the last 5 weeks I have been hovering on or around 170 lbs, plus or minus 5 (i.e., 172.5, 169, 174, 170.5, 170.5). Getting here has been difficult, and I am proud to have lost 25 lbs. I have always said that numbers aren’t that important to me, but they are one source of feedback. As a woman of 5′5″ a healthy weight for me, according to the BMI scale, falls between 120 and 138 lbs. I know I can try harder and push through this plateau. It is going to take some forserious change. It’s time to get back to basics.

When I first joined WW I diligently tracked everything I ate using the Flex plan. Over time, I switched to Core, mainly from irritation with the tracking required on Flex. For the first few weeks on Core I diligently meal planned and also tracked things on my one-pager, but that has stopped. No matter how much I tell myself to track while on Core I stop a few days following weigh-in (just in time for the weekend!). So, to push through this m-f*ing plateau I am switching back to Flex. I need to monitor what I take in and Flex is the plan most conducive to maintaining monitoring (for me). It takes a couple of weeks to form a habit so I am plan to be on Flex for at least 2 weeks. This is an ultra long weekend (4 days off) so I am going to have a cooking-palooza: I am going to make a pot of chili and a pot of morrocan-inspired lentil/veggie stuff, measure it out, write points values on the bags and freeze individual portions so I have food good to go in the freezer on days when I am running late and haven’t packed a lunch or for when I don’t feel like cooking. I am also going to be diligent about getting to the gym. Usually when flo is in town I prefer spending any and all free time in a drug-induced coma, as I get terrible cramps. Like, today for instance. I woke up 15 minutes before having to attend my meeting, neglecting to pack a breakfast, lunch or gym bag. Actually, it’s amazing I managed to put on pants. Let alone a bra. Kind of astounded that I showed up to the meeting at all. Damn you flo! DAMN YOU.
*cough*
In light of my uselessness this morning, I am going home for lunch to snag my gym bag and am going to my f*ing weight-lifting class no matter how much I would prefer to curl up in a ball and sleep for the next 3-7 days.

In other news, I picked up a whole grain cookbook over the weekend which has some pretty interesting breakfast options. I am going to try some recipes out over the next couple of weeks; in the event they are not gross I will share some easy-to-make crockpot whole grain breakfast options with you.

I randomly decided it was a good idea to go home and visit the family because I hadn’t seen them in awhile and didn’t really have any solid plans with my friends this weekend. Being spontaneous doesn’t mean I have to go off program…right??? Life happens, and I should be able to eat well AND hang with my folks. Yeah that all sounds good in principle and theory, but the practice part is where it gets difficult.

This is the second time I have seen my folks since I started WW. First time around was Xmas, and I wasn’t up to double-digit weight loss yet (so it wasnt noticable in the same way it is now), but I was making a point to go to the gym during my stay and was eating well. I had a whole plan worked about before coming home for Xmas to ensure my success.

This time around I didn’t come armed with a plan. I did, however, run outside for the first time in 2008 today (there is considerably less snow here than where I live) and I made dinner for everyone today which was both delicious and healthy. These were both probably awesome things to do. What I should have done (at some point) was to mentally prepare for the food pushing. In the intervening time (between morning run and dinner) there was a full-on SHIT TON of food pushing. (Like, holy fuck back off people.) And, they give me these bambi faces whenever I say no like it pains them when I do not snack or something. We all know I am trying to lose weight so cool it! AHHH!

I am currently trying to strategize for tomorrow. It’s difficult to plan without structure. I know we are going out to eat somewhere and I have points to allow for that. But, we are eating at a stupid time (mid-afternoon) which there is nothing I can do about and we are probably going to go to a wing place despite all my efforts trying to get us to go somewhere with choices that aren’t deep fried chicken wings and or beer. So, I know I am probably going to be stuck eating at a stupid time in a place with relatively few healthy choices. Great. This spontaneous trip home thing is putting a damper on my March Madness efforts. ugh.

Here is my strategy for tomorrow: run in the morning, followed by a light, healthy breakfast. Eat veggies or yogurt or something in that vein a bit before we go out for stupid-time-lunch so I am not starving when we get to the wing shack. If we do go to the wing place (and I still intend to try to change that) I will order a salad or some sort of veggie tray and stick to a numeric limit wing-wise. Not sure what to do dinner-wise because we will be eating lateish in the afternoon.

The fam messed up my eating schedule today, too.

Must….prioritize….self….and….health….to…succeed.

Any tips?

(I can’t do the just blow all your points on one meal thing becaue I am here till Tuesday…)

I have added fartlek to my diet. Sure, it sounds like it has to do with flatulence, or possibly beano, but it’s actually a Swedish term meaning “speed play”. I am using fartlek to spice up my running routine (because I am surrounded by snow and am currently training on a treadmill which is booooooooorrrrrrrrrrriiiiiinnnnnnnnnngggg), which could make me ultimately run faster and may result in more fat burning than straight up distance running.

Fartlek is a fancy Sweedish way of saying interval training (although it does refer to a specific method of interval training). What the shit is interval training? Interval training is when you change up what you are doing for certain amounts of time, distance or other “intervals”. Running fast for 2 minutes then walking for 2 minutes, then running again is an example of something you might do if you are interval training.

Fartlek, as I understand it*, is different inasmuch as you don’t necessarily run for a set time, you let your body decide when it’s time to stop and go. People who are on Core will have practice with this sort of concept as they check-in with their hunger signals on a regular basis to discern when to stop and go food-wise.

The following italicized bit is from the second link provided below, and explains fartlek better than I…

Here’s how a typical fartlek session would work. After a steady warm-up, simply pick a landmark – for example a tree, lamp-post, or phone box – and run to it hard, then jog until you’ve recovered. Then pick another landmark, run hard to that, recover and so on.

There doesn’t need to be a set structure to the run. For your first quick burst you might choose a target that’s just 100m away and sprint to it flat out. Then for the next hard run you’ll see something 800m away and stride towards it at your 5K race pace.

So, how did my first fartlek session go? It went well! I wasn’t as bored as I can be when I do 5 k on the treadmill, worked up quite the sweat and feel all rejuvenated and relaxed right now (which could also be from the sauna I sat in for 20 minutes following fartlek).

What did I do? I did a slow warm-up run for ten minutes (warming up is integral to avoiding injury). Then, I ran hella-fast for 2ish minutes, followed by a normal pace run for 3-5 minutesish, walked for 1-3 minutesish, then started up with the fast running again. I did this set 4 times and then walked it out for like 10 minutesish. Yesterday I kinda fartleked, I ran fast 2 out of every 5 minutes for 5 k. Both runs were enjoyable, albeit challenging. I do this sort of stuff because my main WW goal isn’t a number, it’s about getting to a fitness level where I can do the things I love with my friends and family.

Fartlek doesn’t have to involve full-out running. It’s about knowing your body and challenging yourself in an healthy and intelligent fashion. So, if you try this set achievable goals for whatever level of runner you are, ensuring you challenge yourself a bit.

Anyways, the point: if you are experimenting with running fartlek is a good way to challenge yourself, burn fat and improve your speed!

*Note: I work in statistical analysis and have no training on how to run or train for distance running or any of that jazz - this is just my $0.02.

Links:

What is fartlek?

How do I fartlek?