Had my weigh-in today and just KNEW that I had rocked it. Last week I had a very disappointing weigh-in, one I wasn't about to repeat, so this past week I really tried to change things up. I knew where I had gone wrong too -- the frequency and consistency of my meals was the problem.
Precooking all my meals for work meant the consistency and my frequency improved so greatly. No more missed meals and no more scrambling to put a meal together in between training members. I really can't give this one fact enough due credit for the success of this week, seriously. I honestly didn't think I'd enjoy my prepared meals because I do really like fresh cooked meals but let me tell you, it was such a lifesaver having meals available because we were so busy. The lack of stress with meal time was so worth it!!!
2. Dumped counting my calories.
I wasn't eating enough, that was a fact, and counting calories certainly revealed this. Using the calorie counting app was helpful in that I didn't know just how little I was eating in comparison to how much I needed to sustain the active life I lead. Eating too little is just as much as a problem as eating too much and up until using the app, I estimated that I was only eating about 70% of my daily calorie requirements. I used the app for two weeks, to figure out the trends in my eating. As it turned out, my protein intake was definitely not a problem but I needed to increase my carbs (both my starchy and fibrous carbs) and decrease my healthy fats. I think the fact that I now precook all my at-club meals definitely erases the need for me to count my calories because I have prepared my week's worth of meals according to my body's needs.
3. Stopped using that water tracking app.
Became a bit too preoccupied with getting in my water and consequently missed a couple of meals here or there because I felt full. However, I wasn't full of the much-need fuel (food) I needed, I was full of water. I used to try to drink a cup of water before every meal but found it lead to me eating less -- eating too little WAS my problem though. Now I drink water after my meal.
4. Took a mini break from my running.
I don't know when I will do a full marathon so there isn't the present need to rack up my mileage so I took a mini holiday from my morning running. I missed a couple of my runs and decided not to do my long run last week. It was nice to give my body a break because I did feel like I was suffering from over training and for someone that does professional boxing and coaches others, it's a problem that I am sure will reoccur.
5. Incorporated a little bit of carb-cycling.
My biggest problem lately is actually following through with my cheat meals. I have two cheat meals a week but lately I've been finding that I no longer really enjoy them so I've been skipping out on them. There's definitely a sense of obsession, a desire and push for more, many feel when they start to feel their body changing and all their hard training and clean eating coming into effect and I am no different. I used to have ice cream for my cheat meal on Wednesday and a dinner out for my Sunday meal but this past month my cheat meals have become very infrequent. I think the last cheat meal I had was when WOW took me out for Indian food. I overate and then felt so guilty about it, hence the change from a 15km run to 20kms later that night. It's not really that I feel guilty about eating such foods that aren't exactly regarded as "clean eating" but instead it's in the fact that I am just not interested in killing all my hard work. I think I've come up with a solution though and the solution has been to follow my cheat meal with a no-carb meal. Usually my cheat meals are meal #5 or meal #6 of my day and I find that if I make my next day meal 1 (breakfast) a no-carb meal, I can mentally enjoy my cheat meal and not feel like my efforts leading up to it have gone wasted or have been all done so I can eat this one meal. Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels but a good shock in the body to keep it guessing and to jump start it is a much needed thing.
....And my results for this week were as follows...
Decrease in body fat by 1.7kgs ( %)
Increase in body muscle by 2.3kgs ( %)
I was very pleased with the results from today's weigh-in, as was my coach. It was such a relief but I knew that I had really taken control of the situation instead of just talking about it or wishing for it. They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. I don't care to be the poster child for insanity but I definitely do plan on continually changing things up so that I can improve even more. And that's one of the beauties of training hard and eating clean -- I am responsible for the way my body looks, feels and works. It is whatever I make it to be. "Better than yesterday"?! Yes, and I am definitely better than last week, that's for sure!!!
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