Rest Day | An Honest Check-in
Today is Day 7 of my 6-week cutting program. Every part of me is sore. I think this is a good thing, surely it means I'm getting lean and buff at the same time..... Or it just means I'm doing what I should be and pushing myself. There is a lot of cardio and a lot of lifting. A LOT. Yesterday's workout was a lower body circuit and OH. MY. GOODNESS. My legs were legitimately shaking afterwards just trying to walk. Who the heck put two flights of stairs in the house!? I actually videoed the workout yesterday to check on my form and I must say, I can not do jump squats to save my life. In fact, I really just can't jump. I get maybe 2 inches off the ground. But that's OK, that means there is plenty of progress I can make and come Week 6, maybe I can make it to at least 4 inches off the ground.
I meant to take a Day 1 photo so that I could show my progress. I put this task off until yesterday, Day 6, because honestly, I didn't want to see the picture. I've been looking back at my progress pictures from last year, and to put that side-by-side with one from Day 1 of this program would just be too depressing. Here's where the "honest" part of this post's title comes into play. I am 9 pounds heavier than I was at the end of last summer and it is sadly not due to my extreme muscle building. I was listening to an old episode of The Skinny Confidential yesterday (I cannot stop binge listening) and they were answering a fan's email question. Her question was how she could get her boyfriend to go to the gym with her. Their response was that it is bull$h!t that once people get into a couple they "let themselves go." There were some harsh comments in the answer, but they weren't wrong. People get into relationships with one another because they like the whole package, personality and appearance. Yes, people are vain and visual, let's move on. So to be honest, I think I did "let myself go" a little once I started dating my boyfriend. I lost focus on the gym and macros and routine because I was so enjoying my time with him. And still am :) But I am NINE POUNDS HEAVIER. NINE. That's not okay. Not by me. (Don't worry, my bf has never said a thing about it). I was making such good progress last year and I'm sooo mad at myself for not keeping that up. So now that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to get back to where I was, then keep going and getting better and better and leaner and stronger.
Ok, so I've confessed to my weight gain. Shwew. I'm glad that's over with. But here's an interesting tidbit - my body fat percentage has gone down, according to the Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis scale at Gold's. My BMI has remained about the same. So, if I know I haven't gained much muscle in the past year and I have gained 9 lbs. How is this possible? Seriously, I'm asking. If you have an answer, please go to my contact section and shoot me a message. Perhaps it's just due to using a different scale/machine than I used last year at another gym. But hey, at least it didn't say it went up, so that's a good mental boost, whether its real or not.
My coach, Melanie, has given me macros to follow. I've upgraded my MyFitnessPal account back to Premium so that I have an easy was to track them. But I've not been eating clean this go around. I think I need to do that. I know that it was certainly effective for my body last year and that it offered a great mood and energy boost. I think I'm going to shoot for the 80/20 ratio of clean eating. I'm also going to try intermittent fasting. I didn't do it for week one, because let's face it, I've been so "off the wagon" I figured I could take it one step at a time to ease back into a gym/macro routine. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to start pushing back the time I eat breakfast (normally I eat when I get to work around 7:30). My goal will be to get to where I eat just three meals within an 8 hour window. This means if I want to eat dinner with my boyfriend or ever go out with friends for dinner, I'll need to push my breakfast back until about 11a or 12p - I haven't decided, but I'll figure it out as I go and learn what works for me. Melanie shared a YouTube video about why intermittent fasting works. It was actually really interesting; you should give it a Google and learn about how insulin works and why this type of dieting works for fat loss. (Note: Dieting doesn't mean starving or depriving yourself in this context. It means a specific routine of eating.) Or check back on my blog in the next week or so. I oddly love doing research, so I think I'll do a post on it once I have all the info I can get. And of course, I'll post about it as I experience it hands on.
One last bit of honesty before I log off - I don't have it in me to share the photos I took yesterday. I'll save it for the end of Week 2, when I can see progress and feel good about it. I'm off to enjoy rest day - though I actually can't wait to hit the gym tomorrow.
