Week 5 and 6: Done!

Alright, week 5 and 6 are complete. I did not journal at all during these weeks. Time was just not on my side. But I stuck to the plan as best I could and tracked things a little anal retentively. Cause I am like that.

Let’s start by comparing my start and finish for these weeks.

Be sure to check out my reflections at the end of this recap.

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Movement:

Karate Training:

My personal karate training took a little bit of a backburner these last two weeks. Less so in the first week. School was kicking my *ss with assignments and exams, and my time management skills are really not up to where I need them to be currently. However, I did manage to get in at least 15 minutes every day, plus my teaching. So it is not like I completely neglected my training. For next goal, I will strive to add more time.

Steps:

These are second nature now. It is actually working out really well. I find this objective very helpful to remain active during the day and not just the evenings when I do my most active work.

Walking, Jogging:

I did not increase my intervals at a steady rate like I had planned. In fact, especially in this last week, I barely got in more than one walk-jog treadmill session. And that’s okay.

Outdoor walking was good. I managed it a few times and my walking partner and I are back to twice a week. So that is exciting. My average was a little lower than I was hoping. Again looking at my poor time management skills as the culprit. But 10,000 steps everyday minimum held true and that to me is the most important part of this journey.

Strength Training:

I am enjoying my new routine. Successfully accomplished my goal of 3 workouts a week. We are starting to run out of weights heavy enough for my routines ;). Okay, no, not really. I have been focused on progressive overload for the majority of the workout and it has been great. It’s funny how for some exercises I have like this brain block where I “cannot” do any more weight. For example, lunges. I have been doing dumbbell lunges. Not the easiest or funnest exercise, I know. I have this sort of brain block where I automatically assume I cannot use more than 8 lbs dumbbells. Who knows why? And it is definitely not true, however I have to have a talk with myself every, single, time. Remind myself, yes, Nic, you are stronger than you think you are, and you can do this. For contrast, I have been doing goblet squat with 70 lbs. So the 8 lbs really does not make any sense, it is just a number stuck inside my brain. No idea why or how it got there.

Anyway, I digress. I am enjoying my strength training. I do find, and I felt the same way about my previous training, that 3 days a week is not enough. I like to do things on a more daily schedule. But I will be continuing with this one until it’s completion (4 weeks) and we’ll go from there.

Cardiovascular Training:

So I did really well with following my tabata routine the first week. Then the busy struck and it got pushed a little to the side lines. Like my karate, and the jogging… However, for the week that I did do it, it was amazing. I felt great. It was so nice to get a good sweat on at home.

For my jogging intervals, I managed to increase the time spent jogging a few times. 90 seconds of jogging rather than 60. But my main increase was with the speed of the treadmill. It was interesting playing with all the variables. I also increased my speed significantly when I was “only” walking. My heart rate was being far too relaxed during my walks. Which is a good thing, but I wanted to get at least a little bit into the fat burn zone. So I needed to increase the speed. (This is not for outdoor walks. The outdoor ones are all about distance and company, and making movement symbiotic with socialising.)

Flexibility, Stretching and Yoga:

Well, I am starting to get it. I had a few struggles in the beginning with my new routine. My shoulders were on fire for days. The big takeaway: I was holding some of the positions for far too long. I have since adjusted and am finding that whole zen like feeling following a good yoga session.

Another big lesson, yoga was burning just as many calories as the tabata. How? What? Seriously? Yeah, seriously. I tracked everything. Now, granted I was doing the yoga following the tabata, so perhaps there was some residual cardiovascular stuffs happening. Sciency this and that. I have no clue. But this was a huge eye opener for me. Don’t get my wrong. Prior to this, there was no part of me that thought yoga was easy, or did not have serious health benefits. I just did not realise the extent. So it was an interesting surprise to me. I did manage to stretch out fairly frequently. Definitely more than previous weeks. Still not a daily thing though 🙁 I am working on it.

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Fuel:

Water:

F*cking water… My scale measures my water as well. I am just really not very good at watering myself. (Plants too for that matter.) So with the numbers in hand, and the “ideal” water for the scale, I am hoping the data will get things through my brain. It’s so weird that I have such a mental block with it. Seriously, I have alarms that would go off for me to drink and I would snooze them, not even dismiss them… IDK, what a cluster water and I’s relationship is. Even worse, I stopped logging it… That’s never a good thing for me. My need to log things, to have spreadsheets, visible representations of what I am doing is important. So what to do? Keep working on it. It’s not like I drink other things in place of it. The only things I drink are water, black coffee, and sometimes a protein shake with my meal. So how does this make sense?

Fasting:

Success, love it, never stopping this intermittent fasting thing.

Macronutrients:

Proteins:

The goal was 35% which is just fine with me, actually I think I may have found the perfect amount of protein for me.

Fats:

40% fat was difficult. I found myself adding things to my food, that I would not consider healthy… Think lots of cheese, not just single servings of cheese. Lots of saturated fats. Now, this could easily be my lack of experience with fats and oils. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I am plenty experienced with the “bad” ones, but the healthier ones, less so.

I did enjoy the chance to focus on fats and I think, given a bit more time, I could definitely manage to work the fats into my diet a little more effectively.

Carbohydrates:

The goal of 25% was surprisingly easy. What I took away from it was that vegetables are totally your friend and rich, complex carbohydrates are much easier to cook in smaller quantities. I thought it would be a struggle, it really wasn’t. That being said, I have never been a huge pasta eater, I can survive without bread easily. And most important, it’s all about the portion size. Not, like some people claim, about cutting an entire food group out.

Calories:

They were eaten and enjoyed!

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Full Recap Table:

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Final Thoughts

So obviously this is the biggest weight drop I have had thus far. I am aware that this surpasses the whole 2lbs/week thing. I have been researching it, and the concern is the idea of yo yo weight gain-loss-gain-loss because the changes are not sustainable. Will I be eating like this the rest of my existence? Most likely not. Are the changes to my food something that can be long term, absolutely. Counting calories and macros can be sustained, and yeah, a few meals out can survive being really good the rest of the week. I will start dissecting the maintenance aspect of weight loss when I get there. I am under no illusions that it is not any less work than weight loss. And that’s okay. My biggest takeaway is really the need for mindful and conscious eating.

My energy level was much better these last two weeks, especially when compared to the previous goals. I truly believe that if I am going to continue with OMAD, low fat is just not the way to go. I need it for fuel especially with the amount of exercise I do on a daily basis. It is actually really satisfying to know how my body is responding to each change that is happening, specifically with the macro distribution. Getting better acquainted with fats, the healthier fats has been a great experience for me and I plan to continue to look at all the macronutrients under my proverbial microscope. I think this is easier with OMAD eating. It is very clear when something is off and easy to see where it might be off. At least for the time being. I am still in the “you have lots to lose so it’ll be easier” honeymoon period of my journey I think.

I am not getting the increased heart rate during my walks that I used to. And while this is great, I have been struggling to find ways to bring it back. When walking outside, in the winter, this just does not seem possible as I am constantly looking where I am stepping. On the treadmill I just increase the speed and/or the incline and that seems to be going well, however I may as well be jogging at the speed I am moving. Mentioning this as something to play with in the future. Maybe I just need to suck it the f*ck up for my walks and speed it up, walk more in the middle of the street where the roads tend to be dryer. Or I need a new playlist… Both are worth trying!

And now we are off on to another adventure, well, actually more akin to this one, but that’s perfect!