Now that we’re 10 days into the new year, I’m actually in somewhat a groove and thought I would check in quickly to document where things are right now. I’ve finally undone the damage done over holiday eating and I’m falling back into good habits.
In other words things are the same as last I checked in, however, for some reason things feel a bit different right now.
Weight Loss Challenge
The beginning of the year means the return of the Orange Theory weight loss challenge. While the $500 prize sounds good, I decided not to participate this year. Now that I know myself better, I know that I get TOO competitive, and the challenge isn’t the best thing for me right now.
During the challenge two years ago, I didn’t go out for the 6 week period, doing that now which would contradict my non-fitness related goals mentioned in the last blog. Also, my plan of action proved to not be sustainable.
Just a little bit of busyness is all it took to make it all crash down hard. I feel approaching this time slower will lead to better long term success. A slower pace that allows me to be social with more wiggle room.
Down the line as I lose more weight and therefore have a lower Basal Metablic Rate (BMR), I will have to tighten up the food intake to those levels I did two years ago. But baby steps may be a better approach right now.
Cooking Again
How many times have I said I need to do better nutritionally then don’t do anything because I let stress and other outside factors get to me? Well, not in 2017!
So far I’ve done well with cooking, bringing back old recipes while trying some new things.
Here’s some awesome chicken quesadillas I made. Nuts how half the calories are in the tortilla and cheese, at least I used whole grain tortillas. According to MyFitnessPal they racked in not horrible calories.
Inspired by my cousin-in-law, for those really cold days here in Chicago, I made a turkey meat goulash. Also very tasty and not horrible in calories. Sodium was a bit higher than I’d like, something to try and tweak for future installments.
Finally, just tonight I experimented with tofu for the first time and made a Sriracha tofu pasta with broccoli and asparagus.
That last one I’m particularly proud of, those of you that know my intense love of BBQ and steak would never have guessed I’d ever make a tofu dish for myself ON PURPOSE.
The dish came out really well, I’ll definitely give it a go again in the future!
Training Check In
On the training side, things have actually been going very well!
The past two workouts can be considered among my best ever. I used two 35lb dumbbells on the chest press, matching my highest ever. I’ve also been able to increase squatting weight while maintaining proper form and fighting to keep my heels on the ground.
Today marked the beginning of “peek week” at Orange Theory, where instead of normal class they have challenges to determine benchmarks. Today’s challenge was the “long run.” In the 18 minutes (I was a little late, whoops!) I kept a steady pace of 4mph on the treadmill with the final minute at 5mph. Ended up around 1.3 miles!
This is very encouraging because it’s a quicker pace than I ran the last 5k. In fact, it’s just below the rate I need to run to reach that elusive 45 minute 5k timing I’ve been chasing forever. If things keep up as they’ve been, next race it’s going to happen.
I’ve reached the point where trainers are beginning to correct my form and even yell encouragement towards me, instead of what I imagine is usually keeping a cautious eye on me to make sure I don’t pass out while flailing to keep up.
Flip in Mentality/Motivation
Piggybacking off the struggles I wrote about last blog, the motivating factors in my life have kind of switched.
In the past, whether I stayed on track with my fitness goals ultimately depended on other stressors in my life. Whenever I faced adversity, I responded emotionally and the first thing to go was my fitness goals, namely nutritional discipline.
Whether it was work related, personal related, or even injury related, I broke a LOT this past year.
Conversely, so far 2017 has been rough on me personally. There’s some things going on that would have resulted in a break in nutrition last year.
Those stressors haven’t disappeared or been resolved, however, I’ve stayed going to the gym and I’ve been cooking well as shown above. I can honestly say that maintaining discipline this time has prevented any spiraling. In this situation, fitness was the rock compared to the rest of everything going on.
A lot of people talk about positive energy, and I’ve always been on the fence as to whether I subscribe to it or not. However, there’s been enough situations where seemingly unrelated things become connected that it’s hard to ignore.
For example: I eat really good for a couple days, which leads to a great workout, which makes me feel great. Piling on the good vibes that client calls or that girl texts. Things that logically don’t correlate whatsoever happen.
Again, while it doesn’t logically make sense, the “unrelated” positive waves of occurances have happened enough to where there HAS to be a connection somehow.
Maybe I’ll write next about that positive energy, visualization, and all the other things I’ve been skeptic about in the past and I might give a chance this year. Heck, I gave tofu a chance, why not more things too?