Well this week has certainly been the toughest week so far on my new lifestyle. I know that you shouldn't allow the scales to define you, your self worth or your moods but this is something I've never been able to do. I know there are other indicators of
losing weight and becoming a smaller person but I can't help but get frustrated, annoyed and slightly demotivated when I see a poor result on the scales.
I have been clean eating and going to the gym for 7 weeks now and I lose anything from 2-4lbs a week which I am quite happy with and being a girl there are weeks where it's not going to be a great result because of water retention and other things associated with a monthly cycle. However Monday morning was a different story and my 7th weigh in was a 1lb loss.
'Still a loss!' I hear you cry and yes, it is still a loss but after seeing such good losses so far every week, this one took me by surprise and made me question this change in lifestyle for the rest of the day and I must say Monday was not a good mood day for me! Apologies to my colleagues who had to put up with me on Monday!
Upon reflection of this poor result, I knew that I had to accept it, move on and above all, take into consideration my total loss in 7 weeks, 19lbs. 2lbs away from a stone and a half and in 7 weeks, that's pretty good going and I knew that I mustn't lose sight of the end goal.
I always post my weekly weigh in results on Facebook so I can keep my friends updated on my progress and it's also a good motivational tool, as no one wants to post a bad result online! So of course, I took to Facebook Monday morning to vent my frustration at my poor weigh in. I was contacted by an ex colleague, friend and my life mentor by Facebook message and we ended up having a very interesting 2.5 hour phone conversation on Tuesday evening. We talked through what I was eating and drinking and my workout routine and he raised the question of was I counting my calories. I wasn't, I was just making sure that my portions were controlled and that the foods I was eating were clean and unprocessed and reducing my carb intake. He talked me through the theory of calorie deficit and he thought that maybe I was consuming too many calories to lose weight at a higher pace. Upon quick glance it seemed that the brown rice I was consuming was high in calories as was the beef mince I was using in my Lettuce Taco's and Chilli meals. It seems that most days I am consuming close to 1500 calories. However I have sent him my meal plan and recipes for him to analyse some more.
So armed with this information, I have cut out mince and brown rice from next week's meal plan so we'll see how I get on.
The next thing to look at was my gym routine. So far I have been spending 30 mins in the gym, 3-4 times a week (social calendar permitting!). I have been completely focusing on non impact cardio to get the bulk of my weight off. This consists of 3 x 10 min stints, 1 on the rower, 1 on the bike and 1 on the cross trainer. I record the distance on each machine and each day I try and beat the previous days achievement so I'm constantly pushing myself to work abit harder each day, and sweating more!
My friend suggested that I try a new method of 'Every minute on' where I target myself on reaching a specific distance within each minute and once I have reached it, then I can rest for the rest of the minute. My last gym session this week was on Thursday so I gave it a go. The rower was pretty easy and I completed 100 metres within 24-27 seconds each time but the cross trainer was a killer and I couldn't complete it, barely reaching 0.2km before a minute was up and leaving no rest time. I finished with a 4k bike ride after. Enlightening I must say and definitely something I want to continue with, I feel the distances need tweaking alittle and then I can work on improving them as I get fitter.
My friend is kindly going to draw me up a 2 week Meal and Gym plan for me and should be ready for 8th December for and his aim is for me to lose 7lbs. I am still going to eat clean and drink water and green tea but just adjust what I am eating slightly (bulking meals out with veggies instead of brown rice mainly!) to decrease my calorie intake.
So.... that is my week so far lifestyle wise. I'm looking forward to a relatively chilled out weekend of food shopping (Asda Click and Collect has been ordered!), seeing family, cooking and visiting the Winchester Christmas Market.
So on that note I shall leave you with a motivational tip... Each week I change the wallpaper on my phone to a quote/meme that inspires me so every time I look at my phone, I read it and it reminds me of the journey that I'm on and that giving up isn't an option anymore. This one really did keep me going this week...
Until Sunday!
Much Love
Just Ems
Start Date: 7th October 2014
Start Weight: 15 stone 8lbs
Current Weight: 14 Stone 3lbs
Total Weight Lost: 19lbs
Height 5'2
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