Mid-Week Check In

Today's Thursday so it's mid-week for me.   Let's talk about my new "plan", and upping my calories. Let me be clear here, I still dont understand how this is working, or how its going to turn out.  I was leary.  Honestly, I still kind of am.  I'm trying really hard NOT to get excited about this, but it seems to be working.

I stepped on the scale this morning..

Down 3.4 lbs since Monday...

That's right!  3.4 freaking pounds!!!!!   

I dont know how it happened, nor do I care.  But I'm gonna take it. 

Now I'm sure youre interested in what the hell Im eating right..??

The more appropriate question would be, what am I NOT eating..??

I can tell you this, it is REALLY hard to eat 2300-2500 calories of good, nutritious foods.   I'm allowed 10% junk, so 230-250 calories a day of crap.   Trust me, I've taken advantage of that. 

Here's just a few things I've been shoveling into my mouth. 

Love my almonds!! 

 Typical Breakfast -  Chobani or Oikos Greek Yogurt, with 1/4 cup granola

 Lunch this week has been this steak and blue cheese salad.   Romaine lettuce, 4oz sirloin, bacon pieces, onion strings topped with Bolthouse Farms Creamy Blue Cheese dressing

Dinner last night - 4 oz tequilla lime shrimp over 1/2 cup black beans, and 1/2 cup frozen corn.  Because of my "fabulous" band, I could only eat half, so the other half is lunch today with a salad.

Snacks have been the Simms Turkey Sticks from Aldi, usually 2 with 2 slices of Sargento Ultra Thin Cheese slices, clementines, small apples, more greek yogurt, almonds of course or 100 calorie bags of popcorn.

I'm eating alot!!

Some of the junk Im eating looks a little like this...

 Buffalo chicken bar bites and sweet potato fries from Dave and Buster's. NO worries, I split them with a friend and only ate half.

 Chicken club wrap and sweet potato fries from TGIFridays... again, only ate half the wrap, but ALL the fries of course.  You know I LOVE me some french fries!

Mmmmm smoked baby backs!   Ate 1/2 rack

In addition to eating 2300-2500 calories a day, Im burning 600-700 calories at the gym on those days.  Or at least I think I am, Goddamn Polar...  

Anyway - average NET calories for the week is 2,012, and Ive been to the gym Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. Plan is for the gym again tonight, tomorrow and Saturday to give me 6 days this week.

Enjoy the rest of your week, and I'll weigh in on Monday!

Make good choices, and have a great weekend!

You want me to eat HOW MUCH????

As you all know I've been so back and forth lately, it's disgusting.  When people say "life gets in the way", it couldnt be more true.  My life has been an emotional rollercoaster for the past few weeks, maybe even longer.  To be honest, I stopped keeping track because I just stopped caring.  Part of the reason why I stopped caring was because the life changes that were going on, and are still going on, but also because I've hit a wall.  I've fluctuated with the same 3-5 lbs for the past 6 months or so.  I could easily blame it on my eating habits, but I was still getting to the gym regularly 4-5 days a week.  My NET calories each day were never above my BMR of 1860, and on most days my NET intake was around 1000-1300, so I should've been actively losing.    Right? 

Well, maybe not.

I've been at this for 3 years now.   I've consumed myself with knowledge of BMR, BMI, NET intakes, Simplex vs Complex carbs, lean proteins, etc.  I've done this and managed to lose 100 lbs.   So, it works right??  Cutting your calories, working out... basically calories in vs calories out.   Everything I've researched, everything I've done has worked.   Until now.

I met this guy at the gym, and we began talking about our journey, and our struggles.  He's lost 140 lbs in a year, and looks amazing!  He too has hit a wall, and has been fluctuating with the same 5 lbs month in and month out.   He told me about this podcast...    Fit 2 Fat Radio.  I thought his theory was RIDICULOUS... He was telling me that I should increase my calories and never eat below by BMR of 1860, in fact on the days I work out, to eat MORE than that.    I've always heard of upping your calories to see the scale move, but this was a little overboard.    It just wasn't adding up. Until I visited the website and listened to a few podcasts.    This is the one that hit home for me.. #83 "Eat More, Weigh Less"  It make's complete sense!   In addition to these podcasts, they have calculators on their site.   I took my measurements and according to their calculator, my Body Fat Percentage is 29.1%, which is in a healthy range.  This boggles my mind.   I put in a goal of 24% body fat, and it said my goal weight would be 210 lbs.   210!!!???   That's only 20 lbs away from where I am.    All of this is probably making your head spin.. either that or you've lost interest by now.   I know my head was spinning when He and I were talking about it.  It seems so confusing. 

My thoughts are this..   I havent lost any weight in over 6 months, so by giving this a go what's the worst that could happen?   I dont lose weight for another month?    

Conclusion - I'm going to try this.   Yesterday was Day 1... and I ate 2381 calories, burned 678, which leaves me with a NET of 1703.   It was actually really hard to eat that many calories of good, nutritious food, which is crucial.    I'll continue to weigh in weekly, I weighed in this morning and it was NOT pretty.. 

UGHHHH

So I guess a week from now we'll see how this pans out.    The pod casts say to avoid the scale, and take measurements.  But - we all know I cant do that.   I'm going to take measurements also, but I'll be report those at the end of the month.

Sidenote - My Polar died yesterday.  For real this time.  No battery is going to fix this issue.   But - it is 5 years old, and I've worked out with it 4-5 days a week for 5 years.  So I guess I got my $120.00 worth.   Working out yesterday without it felt so weird.  I'll get a new one soon.

Have a great Monday!