The Booty Don't Lie, But the Scale Sure Does!

The scale is a liar! Well, not totally. But, maybe it is. I guess it just depends on how I choose to interpret what the scale is telling me. Right now, my scale is telling me that I have gained a few pounds since I started my Eating Clean and Getting Lean in 2014 journey. In the past, looking at the numbers creep up would have depressed me, especially since I have been working out and eating “really well” since I started #ECGL2014.

 

But I have been working out and eating well. And I know this, mayne! I have worked out almost every day this year so far…I am averaging 6-7 days a week. I’ve been preparing my meals and even though I have had a couple of non-clean meals, not days, for the most part, I am sticking to my guns on the eating front.

So what is going on? What is my scale really telling me when it says that I am gaining weight? Well, to its credit, the scale also tells me other things, like body fat, muscle, and water composition. It also gives me my BMI and the amount of calories I should eat to maintain my current size, or something like that (I obviously don’t pay too much attention to that feature).

The big thing for me is the body fat composition. Two weeks into this journey (notice I am calling it a journey now, not a challenge) the scale tells me that my body fat composition has gone down from 33.6% to 31.0%. I’m sure that there is a corresponding gain in muscle, but I don’t remember the number offhand (I’m supposed to be recording this weekly, but I gotta get consistent with it).

So I am losing fat…I’m getting less fat and more lean! Even if the scale is a liar, which I am not so sure it is now, my booty, or rather, my upper body, isn’t. My upper abs are definitely becoming more defined, and my shoulders are as well. I know from experience that my shoulders build muscle rather quickly, so I expect that I will be looking like Xena, Warrior Princess in the next month or so.

My booty I am not sure about, I just like that line from Janelle Monae and Erykah Badu’s song, Queen.  But my legs are also getting firmer and less jiggly. And my dresses ain’t telling no tales either. Today, I wore a dress that I wore about three and a half years ago when I first interviewed for my job. It was so tight then, and I remember being uncomfortable in it. It was very loose today, and I may have to give it away, if it can’t be altered. Another dress that I used to only wear as a tunic cause it was so tight actually fits well now; I will be wearing it to work tomorrow. So I am definitely getting smaller, tighter, and leaner, even if I am getting heavier.

I needed to write this, cause I need to remember to trust the process, trust the work, trust the practice. Like I said, this is not a challenge, it’s a journey. The metrics, my body, my mindset, and so many other tangibles and intangibles are going to change along the way. I have to decide in the midst of all of this which truths I’m going to listen to and believe. Ase.

New Challenge: Eating Clean and Getting Lean in 2014

Happy New Year! I am extra hyped right now cause not only is it the start of a great year, but I also finished the holiday running streak of running 35 days in a row from Thanksgiving 2013 to New Year's Day 2014, AND my beloved Michigan State University Spartans just won the 100th Rose Bowl!!!! Go Green! Go White!

I am also hyped because this is the "official" first day of my Eating Clean and Getting Lean in 2014 #ECGL2014 challenge. It is a personal challenge/experiment to see what transformations I can make if I commit to eating a mostly clean diet and focusing more on lifting weights and getting lean. I will be chronicling my progress on this blog as a way to document what works and what doesn't. I also hope that it can serve as a bit of inspiration for anyone who comes across it.

Last week, I started my planning process by collecting all of the reference materials that I wanted to use to help me make a plan. I have a number of books and magazines already, but I also purchased a couple of new things that I thought might be helpful.

Tools of the trade

I came up with a meal plan for the month,  finding 3 entrees and 2 lunches that I was willing to make each week, along with my standard dishes that I have, like curried chick peas with tofu and spinach salad with shredded chicken and tomatoes. I also decided on the types of snacks I would eat, like nuts, fruit, and tea. I will give more detail about my meal planning and prepping process in a future post, but basically I come up with a monthly plan, then shop and prepare weekly, making adjustments as I need to.

My workout plan is going to be pretty basic for this month. I will get up early on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to go to the gym and lift. I am using the New Rules of Lifting for Women program. I used it before and definitely got stronger. I did not incorporate the diet portion though, which led to less than satisfying results. This time, I will keep my diet tight!

 On Tuesdays and Thursdays I will get up and do yoga and meditation. I have been saying that I really want to develop a yoga practice. Now is the time to do it. I have a lot of books and videos at my disposal, so I will make use of them. I do want to take an actual class, but for now, a home practice will have to do.

 On Saturdays and Sundays I will run with my BGR running group. I am not focusing on time or distance for January, just as long as I get the runs in. This will be a way to reconnect with the joy of running, since all of 2013 was about achieving running goals. This month, there is no goal, just the run. That does not mean that I won't push myself during my runs...I just am not going to wear my GPS watch or even put my mileage into my Daily Mile profile. I am pretty religious about tracking my mileage, so this will be a "challenge" haha. But I think this bit of a "running break" will be good for me.

I am also going to be really brave and post my numbers and progress pictures on this blog. I ask that you don't copy or publish these without permission...I can't see why anyone would, but I figure I better state that.

So, for January 2014, here are my stats:

Height: 5'5
Weight: 165.2 lbs
Body Fat Percentage: 33.6
Muscle Percentage: 32.5
BMI: 27.5
Waist (at belly button): 31 in.
Waist (bellow belly button, aka, my pooch): 33.5 in.
Hips: 42.5 in.
Chest: 36 in.
Thighs: 24 in.
Arms: 11.5 in.

And here are my January 2014 pictures:



Mimi 1-2014 Front

Mimi 1-2014 Side



Mimi 1-2014 Back

I know that I have made a lot of progress in the past year, but I am ready to take it to the next level. I am looking forward to slimming down, leaning out, and getting that super fit body that I have always desired. Wish me luck!!!

The Home Stretch...Surviving the Holidays

I'm trying, but the holiday festivities, the cold weather, and post-marathon lack of direction is making it hard to keep on track. Not impossible, but it is challenging. Since my last post, I have completed another half-marathon, the Richmond Half, which will be my final race for the year. At this point, I am more interested in getting faster and stronger than in racing long distances. In order to do that, I am taking on shorter distances and interval training. My new goal is to get to between a 9-9:30 min. mile for 5Ks and 10Ks. I am close (at about a 10:00) but I still have lots of work to do.

To jump start that, I am participating in the Runner's World Holiday Running Streak. Basically, I will be running at least a mile every day from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day. I plan on running my three regular runs and in addition, 1-2 miles on the other four days. During two of those days, I am supposed to be in the gym (or at least working out at home) so I will complete the runs prior to doing my gym workouts. The other two days I will have to get feet on pavement or a treadmill...that will be a challenge, but there are a number of women in my running group ( I will write more about them in a later post) who are also doing the challenge and can provide support.

My other goal for the rest of 2013 is to run 1,000 miles. I am at 913 or something like that. I can make it to 1,000 if I run all of my runs plus do about 10 extra miles. Hopefully, I won't put my back to a wall and have to finish the rest of the miles during the last week of the year...

I am currently finishing up a core challenge (planks, leg lifts, and crunches). Once it is done, I will start a plank challenge. I'm hoping the planks will help with my core and my upper body.

I also am gearing myself up to create my goals for 2014. Stay tuned for those...

Find Your Balance

I spend a lot of my time discussing how to live a healthy and fit lifestyle. Whether it is on-line or in person, I am surrounded by women and men who are trying to "get they life" when it comes to improving their health. One of the common themes is how to manage all the myriad responsibilities one has while trying to make health a priority.

I cannot say that I have the end all be all method for integrating health and wellness into your life. But I have learned a lot over the years, and I find that those lessons are finally starting to come together. So here are a few of the things that I try to do consistently.

1. Take baby steps. So often we read testimonials on how so and so lost 75 lbs and kept it off by working out twice a day, 6 days a week and eliminating all sugar and unhealthy carbs or becoming a raw food vegan. We may think to ourselves, wow, that really worked well for her. Dang it, if only I had her willpower! Some of us may even go buckwild and throw out all of our favorite junk foods or start buying up all new exercise DVDs and accessories. Be honest now, how long has that lasted? After some time, those things sneak right back into our cabinets and our daily meals, while the exercise gadgets collect dust, and we are right back where we started, but with the added guilt and shame of having failed to have the willpower that others seem to exhibit.

I've discovered that for me, it is much better to make incremental changes in my eating and fitness habits.  One of my favorite things to eat is french fries. I realized that they can be a dangerous gateway drug to eating all types of fast food crap, so I had to put a moratorium on eating french fries at fast food restaurants. What I allowed myself instead was a weekly purchase of frozen french fries. I put those mugs in the oven and season them with (a little) salt, pepper, and garlic, and dip them in some ketchup...sometimes I even drizzle cheese over them. They taste much better than the ones I can get in the drive-through, and I am not tempted to then buy other things, like 1,000 calorie burgers and sugary pop.

I like to make what I consider to be clean-ish meals. They are not 100% clean, but they are not overly processed either. Over time, I swap out the not so healthy things for healthier alternatives. Sometimes, the unhealthy things make a temporary comeback. For years, I made my own salad dressing mix of sometime of oil and some type of acidic, like vinegar or lime juice.  Then, for a little bit, I bought a bottled vinaigrette. I even recently got some bottled blue cheese dressing. I meticulously read the labels in the store first, and found one that was a close to natural as possible. I used it in a pasta salad that I made and my son, my boyfriend, and I ate off of for a week. Even though the store dressing wasn't the healthiest in the world, I know that allowing a small amount of wiggle room in my food habits won't derail me completely.

Likewise for exercising. When training for my October marathon, I started pre-training in January. I committed to three days a week of running, and made sure that those three days worked well for me. Once I got used to doing three days a week, I gradually added in a fourth day. That was in June. At some point in late July to early August, I even had a few five-day weeks of running. That was a really rough time for me, and I could not keep it up for too long, so I went back to four days. Toward the end of my training, I was running 16-20 miles during my Sunday long runs, and there were a few weeks that I "only" ran three days. It wasn't perfect training, but I allowed myself to take those baby steps forward and backward as I needed to. Now that I have finished my marathon, I am back to a three days a week running schedule, and I am gradually adding in yoga and strength training.

2. Plan your work and work your plan. In order to have a healthy and fit life, you need to eat well, exercise, and get adequate rest. This is in no way easy to do, but it is nearly impossible to do if you don't plan for it.  I go to bed by midnight (usually earlier) and am up by six every day. This works for me so that I can function throughout the day. This means that I don't stay up watching t.v. and that I am not out partying on the weekends (most of the time...I am occasionally in the streets until early in the morning).

I am not a fan of eating out at restaurants a whole lot. Its expensive, the food is not really that tasty, and most restaurant meals are way too caloric and full of unhealthy fats and sodium. But still, if I have not prepped meals ahead of time, I can find myself at some random food spot, hungry and disgusted at the meals and how much I have to pay. So I work hard at prepping and preparing meals ahead of time. Currently, my meal prep schedule is as follows:

Friday: Decide what the two entrees and the sides will be for the next week. I go to Pinterest, Google, and cookbooks and magazines for ideas.

Friday or Saturday: Go grocery shopping. I tend to buy a easy treat or a restaurant meal to eat for dinner on my grocery shopping day because I don't like to go shopping, then come home and cook.

Sunday: Meal prep day one. One this day, I typically make the dish that I plan on packing for lunch for the week. I also make about half of what I plan on cooking for the week, typically a dish that my son will eat (meat-based) as well as the "grain" (rice, couscous, pasta, or quinoa) and one of the vegetable dishes.

Tuesday: Meal prep day two. I work from home on Tuesdays, so I am able to pop into the kitchen from time to time or right after my work day is complete to make another main dish and any additional vegetable sides. I am quite fond of roasting vegetables. It is quick, easy, and tasty!!! I often roast potatoes (white and sweet), different types of squashes (and their seeds...yummy), eggplant, and carrots.

That's it! I don't like to cook once I come home from work, and I know this, so I make sure that there is food in the fridge for my son and I to eat during the week. I can survive on beans and rice if things get lean, and my son can survive on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, so I make sure that we have those staples in the house at all times just in case I fall off of my prep schedule. I also keep fresh and frozen fruit in the house for smoothies and snacks.


My beyond the marathon exercise regimen is currently underway. Right now it is as follows:

Sunday: Morning run 8-10 miles

Monday: Evening upper body strength training at home or at the gym (I find that I am not being that intense at home, so I may try to get to the gym more); Treadmill speed-work 1-3 miles (this has not started yet, but will be incorporated by mid-November)

Tuesday: Morning yoga and core work (I work from home, so I just get it in before I start my work day); Evening treadmill speed-work 1-3 miles (if not done on Monday)

Wednesday: Evening lower body strength training at the gym

Thursday: Evening run 3-7 miles (it depends on who I am running with and what I am training for)

Friday: rest

Saturday: Morning run 3.5-5 miles (it depends on the loop that I run)

Currently, my strength routines are pretty unplanned. I use machines and free weights to hit all the major areas, but I don't really track what I'm doing. In the next few months, I will make them more structured, but right now, I am taking baby steps to get myself used to going to the gym consistently.

My yoga is kind of loosey-goosey right now too. I do yoga videos that I find online or on-demand through Comcast. I plan to start visiting a few yoga studios and taking classes here and there until I find one that I want to go to regularly. I also try to practice yoga throughout the day, focusing on breathing and a few poses. 

I have found throughout my years of striving to be fit and healthy, that taking baby steps and making plans (and following through on them) while being flexible, has served me well. I have a life that is ordered around being fit and healthy, which makes me happy. I hope you can take something from this that will help you to find your balance!




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