Everyone who wants to lose weight has their reasons...some, it's a question of health, for others, it's a question of looks. And we all have ways to make it happen that suits each person and their needs...their lifestyle and what is possible and realistic for them...but this is the challenging part. Present company included, we create goals too high to achieve right away, super motivated in the beginning of the journey, then crash...why is that?
What's important to know is what you want to achieve in the long run...then establish the steps in between. Smaller goals between where you are now and where you want to be. If you want to lose 10 lbs, great! So, what's next? Ok, aim to lose between 1 and 2 lbs a week. But it could take 10 weeks to achieve this 10 lbs loss....some of you may be thinking....YES! It may take up to 10 weeks...but odds are, if you hit things to hard, you'll stop after a few weeks and then you would not have even achieved this 10 lbs loss...
OK, I don't want to sound negative, so let me explain what I mean. You normally train about twice a week. Eating habits are ok, but you eat out often...then you schedule 6 training days, a SUPER restrictive diet....motivated, happy to start...THEN things get hard. We say we get lazy...but is it laziness? I don't think so in this specific case. It's just we went from 1 extreme to the other...you train way more than you're used to physically and emotionally and all of the sudden, due to the extreme restrictive nature of your diet you crave everything in the planet you never wanted before...Planning is important. You need to plan something and gradually adjust if needed as the weeks progress.
So what am I getting at and how is all this relating to me? I've been tough on myself emotionally and inconsistent physically...I even asked a trainer for some guidance..yes, I did that. And why? I know what to do...as the trainer questioned, as well...but as any athlete or former athlete could tell you, it's good to have an extra eye on things...an other opinion and perspective...But I finally decided to guide myself and use you as my extra eye...I'll owe you an explanation if I haven't followed my schedule or my nutritional plan. To show my seriousness, here is my training plan for the month and a half:
Excuse my writing...so this is my training calender...where it says weights, I'm not specifying what exactly I'm working because I'm working on something now...will give more details at a later time.
For my nutritional plan, I'm getting back to basics...but basics for me...this is not basic at all for most people. As you may have noticed, on the training calender there is "HIGH", "MED", "LOW" in the boxes. This represents my carb intake for the day. I'll be carb-cycling for the next month and a half. Needless to say, where is says "HIGH" is where my intake is highest...and so on....I used to apply this sort of plan when I was competing...only difference here, is the number of calories I'll be taking in is more than what it was when I was getting ready for the stage. I got amazing results, so doing it on a different degree...higher calories, less restrictive, I expect to see results.
Sounds good but what's the catch? Well, this takes planning to a whole different level. I wouldn't recommend this for most people because it very specific and weighing food comes into play...YUCK! I hate that and I don't preach it...but it's effective if you don't mind doing the math and planning ahead.
Here are my nutritional stats: With my body and activity level, my body needs about 2,290 calories a day...good if I only wanted to maintain.
To lose weight I deducted 20% of those calories...leaving me at 1,832...but let's round off to 1,800 calories...this will be my approx. calorie intake for the "MED" days. "HIGH" days, we add 25% and "LOW" days we remove 25%.
I'll spare you the detailed math on how I get how many proteins, carbs and fats I need to take in a day but the bottom line is that this type of plan will keep my body guessing. I'm planning 2 High days, 2 Med days and 3 Low days....I'll be looking forward to those "HIGH" days...
As for the Random stuff I like to post, this big yellow blob is Jason, my cutie boyfriend prepping to be goalie at a family hockey game...very prepared...and very cute...
Rowaida
