Breaking Records and Getting Results

The biggest lesson I've learned about weight loss in the last 5 years is there are stages. Everyone has to change their lifestyle gradually and embrace each part before they can move on to the next part. Detoxification of your habits, if you will. Here's how I see those stages:

1. Embracing Portion Control: The first stage of weight loss has really nothing to do with WHAT you eat, but how much of it you eat. It's where you learn what a human sized plate of food is and you are slowly taking out junk food. You notice that you can eat more healthy food and satisfy your hunger, but you only do that every once in a while. You will have more instances of overeating in this stage which either convinces you to quit or teaches you a lesson. You also drink a ton of water during this stage.

2. Minimum Movement: Once you have portion control down and have dropped a few pounds, then you start moving. It could be walking or an aerobics class. You do it to keep up the losses you've obtained from the first stage. Many times you reward your good behavior with bad food: “I walked 3 miles today, let's go to Dairy Queen!” But it's something you have to go through. At least now when you do eat the wrong things, the principles of portion control are there. You may order a large, but you may not finish it. You may try a kid's meal at a fast food restaurant.

3. Knowledge of your Body: You're moving regularly (I'm not ready to call it exercising) and you only have one helping at dinner, now you're starting to learn that some things won't be tolerated anymore, not by your calorie count, but by your digestive system. Since you're eating more healthy foods and less solid fats, you sneak that donut during the morning meeting at work and find that you end up with stomach cramps. I think this is a pivetal stage. This is when your body punishes you for changing your mind. It wants to be healthy and is enjoying the good treatment. You may not mind the pain of overindulging on junk food, but for most of us, this is where we really start to not go back.

3a. The Plateau: I call this a subsection of stage 3, but really this is a subsection of every stage. The dreaded plateau. These are the times when your knowledge of your body is shaken and when moving turns to exercise. You're tired of the scale standing still so you change walking to running on the treadmill or moving to the elliptical. You might even start some light weight lifting. Anything to get that number to go down again, the way you were accustomed. You may also learn in this stage that your “trigger foods” are probably unnecessary and you may try to give them up completely. You'll go through this stage a few times. I had a plateau for every 20 pounds. That's at least 4 plateaus. It's a normal process.

4. Nutrition: Once you've lost enough weight and you've gotten many of the things that you used to eat out of your system, you get to the point where overeating and eating the things that make your stomach turn just aren't worth it anymore. You'll have more little produce baggies in your cart than cardboard boxes and you don't miss processed sugar because you have enough natural sweetness to enjoy until your heart's content. It's not that you never have a cupcake, but you've learned that this is a treat and not a meal. You feel better.

5. Fitness: You put your good diet to good use. The Nutrition stage and the Fitness stage are interchangable. They work together. You work out harder, not just 45 minutes on the treadmill, but you really push yourself and you sweat and you eat well not because you know you should, but because you worked out so hard you don't want to hurt it with bad food. You seek out new challenges and you try to make it all interesting.

6. Maintenance: The final stage, once you've reached your ideal weight, you have to try to keep it there. It's the easiest hard thing in the world. Nutrition and Fitness work together to make your body work like it should. You eat very few processed foods and you sometimes forget how it started. It's hard for you to remember how you ever ate what you used to. It's hard for you to watch other people going through steps 1 and 2. You want to smack that Special K chip out of their hand, but it's the start of their journey.

I'm somewhere between steps 5 and 6. Technically I haven't turned my calorie count onto “Maintenance” mode because I secretly would like to see 129. The thing I'm forgetting is that many of you are still caught in steps 1 and 2. You're going to eat the bad stuff. You've got to get it out of your system. I don't buy bread anymore, but judging from the gigantic aisle at the grocery, some people still do.

I think the main reason I started today's post like this is to remind myself that there are stages. Remind myself that it took me 5 years to get here. I've been below my goal weight since September and my fitness stage has really taken me to new and more awesome places.

On Thursday night I did my last workout in Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. I didn't have the same visual changes that I had when I was finished with Ripped in 30, but my abilities have increased. For reference, today is the 30^th day, however I am a runner so I couldn't spend all of my time inside doing a DVD when there was sunshine and pavement outside. I did each Level a total of 6 times.

As a Ripped in 30 graduate, Level 1 was nearly a cake walk the first workout. I added weights to my cardio just because it was so much easier. Of course, that made it harder. I stopped doing any of the modifications (except abs...) and I did all of my push up moves and plank moves on my toes. Level 2 was tough because of the number of reps. I'd increased my weights for a challenge, but adding weight and doing 1 minute worth of reps makes for a difficult go. Level 3, just like the 3^rd Week of Ripped in 30, that's where I noticed a real change. Traveling Push-Ups and Walking Planks are FANTASIC. I moan and groan the whole time, but the more I did it, the more I could do.

Here's some comparison pictures:

Before 30 Day Shred

After 30 Day Shred

Before 30 Day Shred

After 30 Day Shred

I feel like the biggest changes this time as far as my physical form have been my arms and my shoulders. My legs are pretty boss too, but it's hard to take pictures of your own legs...

I've lost ½ inch in my hips, my waist is the same, though I feel like I have a little more definition in my obliques. According to the little caliper I have, I'm now 19% body fat and in the “lean” category. I started 30 Day Shred at 132.9 lbs and I'm 131.9 as of this morning, so one pound gone. That means I only have 25 lbs of fat, right? I won't pretend to be good at math.

What about changes you can't see? I do all of my push-ups on my toes now. I can do 12 push-ups before “failure.” I can run an under 9 minute mile, which leads me to my next topic of the St. Patrick's Day 5k I ran yesterday. I was smashing personal records left and right.

I wish I could run a 5k every weekend. It's so much fun. I love being in the big group of people. I love hearing the thundering of footsteps and the breathing of the other runners and virtually no other sound. I train with music, but I don't wear headphones during races mainly for safety and because music tends to change my pace and can sometimes make me run slower. The core work in 30 Day Shred has really made me feel stronger and running has become much easier now that I have a stronger core (I don't stay it's strong... but I'm getting there). I finished this 5k with a net time of 27:47. They were calling out split times, so if my focused brain remembers correctly, my first mile was 8:15 or so and I reached mile 2 in 17:10. I didn't just run the first two miles in less than 20 minutes, I smoked those first two miles. Now I understand how those girls in Cross Country can finish those races so fast.

I'd really like to find one to run in April, but with two races in May I'm not sure I will. With every race I feel more and more like a runner. I met some nice people afterward who were kind enough to take my picture and we chatted about running and it feels so good that even though I've only got a year of it under my belt, I'm accepted as if I've been able to do it forever. The beer afterward was awesome.

Progress is awesome, but I know you're really here for the food. I tried a couple variations on my morning oatmeal this week that were DELICIOUS. First was honey and banana. The honey melts and you can taste it in every bite. Was inspired by the Chobani Flips with the banana and honey mix in. Also had “peanut butter and jelly” oatmeal with some strawberry. That was pretty good and it was just because I was out of bananas. I eat a banana and a Tbsp of peanut butter every day pretty much.

I took some pictures of some of the other foods I ate this week just because they looked so delicious. 

I also started working on cleaning out my closet and my drawers of all of the clothes that don't fit anymore.  I went to Old Navy yesterday with a coupon and got three new pair of shorts (among other things).  I bought size 4 where last year at this time, I was in a size 10 pair of the same shorts there.  Here's what I look like in those shorts now:

I also played fashion show with some of the clothes I wasn't sure I could wear.  Of course I have two pair of size 8 jeans that fit perfectly.  It's funny how different sizes can be.  I think maybe Old Navy just wants me to feel good about myself because I'm in size 4 and extra small tops there.  

 

So what's my next challenge? So glad you asked. I'm taking a trip “back home” to Kentucky over Easter weekend, so I don't want to start another program until I get back. Going to do some Jillian ab workouts, some yoga and some running until I get back and then start ChaLEAN Extreme. Next Sunday I'm going to do the fitness test you're supposed to do beforehand to see your progress. I'll post the results here so that I'll have a place to keep the data to see how far I come in 90 days. This'll be my first 90 day program. I'll also be working my way up to 12k running for my race at the end of May.

NEARLY forgot to mention... in the spirit of last week's post of getting what you want... I purchased my ticket to go to Jillian Michaels' motivational talk in Lowell, Massachusetts on May 1st.  I bought the VIP tickets, where you get to go to a 30 minute Q&A with Jillian afterward.  I'm going to take my Ripped in 30 DVD in hopes that I can have a signed copy :)  I'm so stoked.

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! Drink a bunch of beer. That's my main source of carbs ;)