Motivation Proclamtion

~ Good Charlotte ~

I'm 3 days into my new eating plan & I've realized again that I'm not that big a fan of change.  I have to keep track of everything I eat, I have keep track of whether it's an active or work day and most days I can't even keep track of what day of the week it is.  I feel rushed & out of sorts & a bit sorry for myself. But I also know it's what I normally do just before I bail. When stuff gets to hard let's go back to the old & known ways.  

So I went a bit mad with the pinning of motivational images today to keep me on track.  I don't know if looking at posters of motivational sayings actually work, but every now and again you stumble onto a really funny one, and I do this "snort water through my nose thing" (because I'm trying to force down that glass of water)...and that makes me feel a bit better about life.

At the moment I'm still eating very basic (read: boring). With chicken you know what you get, but with chicken stew there are so many more variables you have to keep track off. I think as soon as I'm comfortable with the basics I'll experiment a bit more. I've also reach the end-year slump - I'm tired & moody and could happily spend the whole day in bed, with ice cream, sour worms, liquorice, nachos & series.

One thing that I realized by taking photies of everything that goes into my face is that I'm drinking way to little water during the day.  I have decided to make that my one thing that I focus on for the next couple of days. If I don't have the water in front of me, in a bottle, cooled with a glass you can forget about it. And don't even let it taste funny... How do you get your 8 glasses in? 

I have to just remember I'm doing this for myself: I want to be fit & strong. And I won't get it without a bit of work. So if it keeps my on the straight & narrow I'll recite these suckers of by heart!

Today was a nice & chilled rest day. Up early tomorrow morning for a 5:30 am WOD - looking forward to it!  Going to focus on getting my water in this weekend & to not go off on the normal weekend binge ringers.

Have a good one peeps!

PS:  A big-ass creepy see-through/white gecko just ran across the floor & is now sitting there staring at me...I might be spending the night on the couch...

[Bi]cycle Race

~ Queen ~

I couldn't find any cool photos about calorie cycling, so opted for the next best thing...

There are so many methods of dieting to loose fat without losing muscle and calorie cycling is just one of them. Instead of just eating less constantly every day, you have a mix of high calorie days (normally in conjunction with exercise) and low calorie (or rest) days.

It is said to speed up fat loss, helps reset your hunger hormones, improves insulin sensitivity and gives you a mental boost.  However, this requires a fair amount of self-discipline, as well as a willingness to measure food and count calories with a great deal of precision. 

An example that is used is the following.  Let's take 1500 calories per day, 7 days a week. So a sample week will look like this:

M - 1400  / T - 1400  / W - 1650  / TH - 1450  / F - 1450  / S - 1650  / S - 1500

That equals 10 500 calories for the week.  10 500 / 7 days = 1500 calories. So effectively you are still getting the same amount of calories in for the week, you're just shaking things up a bit.

Normally you'd have your high calorie days when you need more energy for your workout and recovery & you're lower calorie days on “rest” days. It's a pain in the ass to keep track of everything you eat, but it forces you to take a hard look at what you put into your body.

If you want to lose fat you basically have to force your body into tapping your stores of energy and the only way to do this is to put yourself in a calorie-deficit. If you reduce your calories enough you’ll start losing fat, eat more calories than your body needs, and it will start to store the excess energy as fat. There are two challenges tho, when you reduce your calories below your maintenance level for any extended period of time:

Catabolism:  The body doesn't always just burn fat, it also burns carbs & sometimes lean tissue. So you might be losing weight, but it may be muscle along with the fat.  

Homeostatis: Eventually your body will catch on that you’re eating less food than you need, and it will interpret this as a sign that it might be in for an extended period of food scarcity.  So it will start to slow down your metabolism in order to conserve energy, since it interprets your calorie deficit as a sign of “famine.”

Calorie cycling tries to trick the body into thinking that you are not actually dieting.  And because you are alternating between higher calorie days and lower calorie days, you may be less likely to lose lean tissue and less prone to developing fat loss plateaus. 

That's the theory anyway. Apparently most of the evidence around the effectiveness of calorie cycling is anecdotal, although calorie cycling devotees often swear by the results. You can have a further read here.

It's still early days, and a hell of a lot of food, but I'm sure in a couple of days I'll be back into the swing of things.

Food good, water bad.

Double Unders are getting easier - my new record is 22! And handstands away from wall is up to 4 seconds...whoo, yeah...small steps. I still suck at the overhead squat press.

Remember to follow K&C on Google+ | Facebook | Pinterest | Bloglovin. Night all!

Everything Counts

~ Depeche Mode ~

Tonight's post is gonna be a short one, because I still have to go do homework on macro's & calorie cycling. And like any change in your lifestyle it takes a bit of getting use too...

I've been following IF for the last 4 months & apart from really suiting my lifestyle (I'm lazy as f*ck in the morning & not at all hungry) it's really helped with my strength performance in the gym.  And it was not IF alone - I've also been on a high protein, high fat, low carbs (only veggies) eating plan.  

Recently (i.e. Friday) I had a bit of a feedback session with David/Evo Fitness & it was suggested that I re-introduce carbs into my diet, before & after workouts & at night, as well as cycle calories between rest days & work days.

Now, looking at the amount of calories that I have to consume on a work day is quite frankly terrifying. But David said it is "over the allotted calories for extra lean mass growth, recovery and keeping the metabolism firing". So I will give it a try.

Calorie cycling is but it’s pretty much what it sounds like - adjusting your caloric intake per day while maintaining a desired weekly caloric intake average. I.e. it's the daily adjustment of total calories (one day higher the other lower).  It is supposedly good for losing weight, but it is especially good for busting through weight-loss plateaus.  

Friday night we got our anniversary tattoo - love it, love it, love it :)

Steampunk Minions :)

I started introducing carbs in the form of dextrose in my PWO shake, as well as some wild rice. The world didn't come to an end.

Crossfit was super amazing tonight.  Full squat cleans with split jerks for sets, then a round for as many as you can unbroken - this girl did 30 on 27kg's...quite chuffed. Then we did a Tabata that came straight from hell. 20 seconds on 10 seconds rest. 8 Rounds Double Unders, 8 Rounds Burpees, 8 Rounds Sumo Squat High Pulls, 8 Rounds Double Unders.  It was a sweaty, heaving, gasping for breath mess of fun.

 

For the ladies who follow a couple of blogs - do yourself a favor and create a Bloglovin profile.  You can add the blogs you want to follow and you'll get all of their new posts in a feed or via email! And yes, you can add any blog, since there are quite a number of SleekGirls blogging about at the moment. You create a profile, and then just copy the link of the blog that you read into "Search Blogs", and follow. Easy peasy.

Plateau

~ Nirvana ~

One of our Sleek Girls (and Winter Warrior Winner), Nicola Davidson, recently broke through her weight loss plateau - haven't we all been there? [Nicola - something for you at the bottom of this post] Apparently being stuck eventually happens to everyone who is trying to lose weight. And the only way to get through it is to persevere.

My weight "loss" over the last 11 months can be seen on the graph below.  This doesn't take into account any water retention or muscle gain - purely weight.

4.8kg (since November 2012) / 4.6% body fat (since January 2013).

In April 2013 I weighed the lowest over the entire period.  I just finished my first Sleek Geek challenge (Feb - April) and I only focused on clean eating and cardio (running). Since then I have learned so much more about my body, and this time around I'm focusing on strength rather then weight.  It came as quite a shock when I realized that the weight I lost during that time was most likely muscle and not fat.  

About 3 months ago I started with the new eating & exercise plan. We were eating quite healthy before this, and have always been active, so it wasn't a major change, just minor adjustments here & there and eating & exercising with a goal in mind. I have gained so much strength in the last 3 months, lifting weights that my April'13 body wouldn't even dream off.  

That is why I have forsaken the scale (I'll pop on every now and again, but only take note of it once or twice a month) and rely on measurements & photos. 

The plateau over the last 4-6 weeks have been excruciating. Every now & again I'll have a good day, ask Boyfriend to take photos or measurements, look at it in disbelieve because I am sure it should be looking better then that & then get mad at Boyfriend, because somehow it's his fault. But then I just remember my body is getting stronger, just be patient - that bitch is gonna budge at some point....

Another Sleek Girl, Lindy Noel Diamond, posted this handy article on how to ascend your weight loss plateau.

Food for today...think I ate way to little.

Tomorrow night is Crossfit (yay!) & we'll also be joining them for a nutritional talk afterwards - will give all the deets tomorrow.

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Night all!

For Nicola :)