dianaschnuth

I don’t recall exactly when I decided that I was going to start the Body for Life program today. It was before the Japan Trip, at any rate, because I packed the Body for Life book in our carry-on (even if I didn’t end up reading it on the plane). I knew I would take a “diet vacation” while we were in Japan — when we came back, after the Memorial Day holiday and the Super Crazy Japan Party™, I would attack my own fitness with vigor. Being that I have just a little longer than three months to find a new job, it seemed that taking 12 weeks to do the BFL Challenge made sense, too.

I hadn’t started out with the intention of doing The Challenge. I just so happened to remember that it existed after I decided to get with the BFL program. Not that I think I’ll win any big prizes, mind you… but officially entering the challenge is a form of accountability, and I’m all about that.

Another major form of accountability? The “before” picture. I realized last week that I didn’t have any appropriate workout clothes in which to take a midriff-baring before picture. So, while we were out running errands yesterday, I drug Aaron into Target and I bought something I never EVER thought I would buy.

A bikini. A two-piece, completely midriff-baring swimsuit. In size extra-large.

Dear God.

…but, actually, I’m looking forward to wearing it in public someday. Not today, probably not anytime this summer, but someday.

I took my before photos today, after work — which was a challenge, since the tripod that I was using broke a while back, and I had to resort to setting the camera on furniture of appropriate heights that faced blank walls that were big enough to serve as a backdrop. (Note to self: a light stand, an umbrella, and a cheap backdrop will really come in handy in about 12 weeks.)

OK, friends: if you want to see the before picture, here it is. I’m not posting it in the body of the entry because, well, I’m not THAT much of a masochist. I will be posting the after picture on or around… *checking calendar* …August 21st.

As for my first day… I think it went well. I planned out my meals and exercise yesterday, and followed them fairly well, for the most part. I did some decent interval training on the mini-trampoline this evening, and broke a decent sweat. I always forget how GOOD it feels to sweat during and after a workout. Tomorrow is a lower-body workout, I think, and I’ll have to plan that one out this evening, while I’m planning tomorrow’s meals.

My starting point? 201 lbs (yes, I gained five back in Japan) and 31% body fat.
My goal? 180 lbs (not necessarily in 12 weeks) and/or 20% body fat.

I think this is a completely reasonable goal. It involves me losing 25 pounds of fat and gaining only five pounds of muscle, by my calculations. Would I like to see 170? Sure. But we’ll see how I’m feeling once I get to my first goal. It’s entirely possible that I’ll be happy enough with my new body composition that I’ll have reached a good stopping point. For the time being.

Day one was a success. Only 83 more days to go…

I guess I never realized that I’m one of only 5% of dieters who have kept off the weight long-term. (Does three to four years count as long-term?) Sure, I gained back 10 of my 50; but I lost it again, plus more.

Check out the article 5 Secrets of the 5% at SparkPeople to find out how I did it. Apparently.

Actually, they’re not far off the mark. I just hadn’t thought about it.

P.S. – If anyone’s interested, I’m down to 197 lbs.

Heck, yeah! Eat that, you damn one-month plateau! Ungh! *bitchslap*

*ahem* Sorry.

This week, as I mentioned earlier, I’ve been watching my carbohydrate intake more diligently. I’ve been shooting for 125g of carbs and at least 25g of fiber, for a total of 100g of net carbs (since fiber isn’t digestible, y’know). I’ve been going a little over, but it’s apparently the intent that counts. I’ve continued to track my food on SparkPeople, but I’ve been manually tabulating my sugar, as SparkPeople has issue with letting people see how much sugar they’ve eaten. Can’t have people avoiding fruit, after all, since fruit has sugar in it.

At any rate, I’ve kept my protein above 140g daily, my total carbohydrates below 160g, and my fiber above 23g (except yesterday, which only made it to 18g). My sugar intake has been pretty decent, too, staying in the 20g-30g range. Now, most hard-core low-carbers would scoff at these numbers, since Atkins Induction limits you to 20g of carbohydrate per day total, and NO sugar, period. All my sugars have been… let’s see… OK, one day I had some low-cal ice cream that had 16g of sugar, but the rest is mostly my organic breakfast cereal, South Beach Diet snack bars, Splenda Brown Sugar Blend, stuff like that. I feel pretty positive about my food intake, considering this week’s results.

Remember how I said I’d try this for a couple weeks, and see if I lost three pounds in two weeks?

I just lost four and a half pounds in one week.

I weigh 197.5 lbs this morning, in contrast to the 202 I weighed this past Sunday.

Tomorrow’s Easter in Westlake, with Aaron’s family, so I expect I won’t be monitoring my carbs quite as well as I have been. I’ll still make a concerted effort to be good, stock up on the meat, go easy on the starchy goodness, and only eat one small dessert. (Believe me, at Uncle Pete’s, dessert is a course unto itself. We’re responsible for bringing a cake, and I know Pete’s wife Dee will likely be making something scrumptious, too.) I may gain back a little weight, stabilize at a slightly higher number — and I’m OK with that.

I have no intention of getting back up to 200, though.

Looks like James owes me ten bucks.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have much success following the SparkDiet this month. Well, I had success in *following* it, but not in losing weight because of it. My weight on March 1st was 202.5 lbs; my weight today, on April 1st, is 202 lbs. After the losses and the gains over the past month, I’m only half a pound below where I started.

Time for a new strategy.

Starting this week, I’m going to be monitoring my carbohydrate intake more closely, and to hell with calories. Well, calories are a good judge of portion size in general, so not entirely to hell with them. They just won’t be my be-all end-all, man-I-fucked-up gauge.

If this doesn’t do something for me, maybe I ought to go back on a “real” diet. One that’s published in a book, and that I follow properly, instead of this grow-your-own bullshit I’ve been trying to do lately. It’s obviously not as successful, and I’m obviously not a medical professional or nutritionist or personal trainer. I don’t know.

I’m not going to beat myself up over it, though. I’m going to give my grow-your-own SparkDiet another, oh, two weeks or so. If I haven’t lost at least three pounds by the end of two weeks — I think that’s a reasonable expectation — I’m going to go back on a structured low-carb diet. Probably not Atkins, but maybe Sugar Busters or another related diet. I certainly have enough books that I’ve never read and reviewed for my now abandoned podcast. We’ll see.