Starting Level 3/Photos

First and foremost - check out my new kicks:

Hells yeah! They're Reebok RealFlex Scream's - and I love them. I have a pair of RealFlex Transitions I bought shortly after Nolan was born, but my feet were still so fat and swollen from, well... being fat and swollen... that I had to buy an 11 at the time. Now that I've lost the babyweight and then-some, I'm back to my normal size 10.

Last Wednesday night I began Level 3 of 30 Day Shred - almost a week ago now (it's taken me SO LONG TO DRAFT THIS!). It's intense! 100% more intense than Level 2. I don't know what to do with myself. My first run through I couldn't finish more than 4 or 5 reps of some of the exercises. Day 2? Much better. But doing 30 squat-jumps in 30 seconds is hard. Renegade rows with leg raises? Also freaking HARD. Doing 20 of them? Nearly impossible. I took two rest days over the weekend, as this Level has really been hurting the muscles - especially the abs. Better to rest than to rip your abdominals - that's what I always say! (okay, not really. This is actually the first time.) So I'm currently on Day 5.

Here are my End Level 2/Begin Level 3 photos:

 

 Now please enjoy this picture of my lady muscles:

I'm pretty proud looking at these pictures. Especially the definition in my arms. Want. More.

Right now I'm trying to lay out my plan of action for post-30 Day Shred. I had originally wanted to move right into Ripped In 30 (this is what I said in my prior post, actually). But now I'm reconsidering. Even though my fitness level has increased quite a bit since starting 30DS and I had an initial big change in measurements - my stats are disappointing me. I originally had thought Ripped in 30 was more strength oriented, but it isn't. It's basically just a revved up version of 30DS. While 30DS has been an excellent workout and aspects have been challenging, I'm not seeing as much change in my body as I'd like to.

I picked up The New Rules of Lifting for Women back in November. I'm re-reading it currently, and thinking I may really want to give that a try. The whole program is a 6 month commitment, but Stage 1 is just 8 weeks. It may be worth giving it 8 weeks and seeing the difference between heavy weight circuit training vs "barbie weight"/high rep circuit training. I would definitely throw some HIIT in there, too, which the plan allows for. I hate cardio in general, but I'm learning to love HIIT. I mostly love that it only takes 15-20 minutes, creates an insane after-burn and has more benefits than traditional steady-state cardio.

Part of this stall/plateau with my weight loss is my diet, and I fully understand that. I also understand that I can only tackle one thing at time right now with my personal and professional stress level. Last year it was easier for me to focus on calorie intakes, this year it's easier to focus on exercise. Once I'm officially addicted to getting a near-daily training session in, we'll focus more intently on that whole "clean eating" deal. I've been doing much better the last couple weeks. But don't expect to see any kind of VLCD (Very Low Calorie Diet) or even what most people would consider a "low calorie diet" from this girl. After much research and reading, I've found that regularly eating below your BMR/RMR (basal/resting metabolic rate) can destroy your current lean muscle mass - add a ridiculous amount of cardio to that? Well, you can say bye-bye to your resting metabolism. Occasionally having a day here or there where you eat below your BMR/RMR isn't going to kill you - obviously. People do it every day. For years, even. It's essentially our modern standard of a "diet". But doing it regularly can cause long-term, and sometimes permanent damage to the way your metabolism operates due to the decrease in lean muscle mass. Sure, you'll be skinny. Skinny and soft and flabby.

I'd much rather my weight loss/fat loss take me another year following the TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) minus 15-20% method while regularly lifting heavy things, than drop 30 lbs in 2 months only to gain back the moment I go back to eating "normally". And honestly? If I could just break the indoctrination of thinking the scale is what matters, I'd be good. If I could be at 22% body fat and weigh 191.2 lbs, I'm just going to go out on a limb and say: I'd be totally okay with that. The possibility that I would still weigh that much at 22% body fat? Not likely. But it is likely that I might weigh 175 lbs at that percentage, which right now is quite a bit higher than my current "goal weight" ideal.

I feel like I'm getting there. Slowly, but surely. Part of me thinks this plateau has been a good thing. It's forced me to look at how the shape of my body is changing instead of just the number on that stupid scale.  ...if I'm still seeing "191.2" in another month, it may be time to think about replacing my scale battery lol!

I have had some encouraging milestones. I've had a number of non-scale victories over the last couple weeks - a major one has been feeling more comfortable in my clothes. I don't stress out nearly as much over what I'm going to wear for work. I just pull something out of my closet and go! That's huge for me.

I'm really looking forward to wrapping 30 Day Shred and moving on to something different, whether that be Ripped In 30 or NROLFW. I'm also really proud of myself for sticking with a routine for the last 5 weeks! I definitely recommend the Jillian Michaels' DVDs for anyone who has a tendency to get bored with workouts. The moment you start getting that glazed-over look, it's time to start a new workout! It's helped me stay on track, for sure.

Well, this post sort of petered out since it took me nearly a week to draft and I continually was interrupted by life. I guess I may need to start sacrificing some of that TV time for blogging time... soon it will be May and all the shows will be over for the season. Part of me is pretty excited about that. Ha.

I have this brilliant idea of coming up with a blog "schedule", if you will - where I update about specific things on specific days... for example: Wine Wednesday - where I shall review a wine for you every week! Fat Fridays - weigh-in days and updates! ...maybe not "fat" Friday... maybe "fit" Friday would be better... etc, etc. You get the idea. I'm brainstorming it right now. Don't get your hopes up too high. We all know how long it takes me to get it together with this damn thing.

Hope you all are doing well out there in Reader Land! Stay tuned, don't abandon me!!