allensm2 Posted April 13, 2016 Report Share Posted April 13, 2016 Long story short, it’s time for a respawn. I recently found the motivation I had lost (as chronicled in my intro post). I got offered this awesome internship with the First Tee which means I’ll be teaching golf to kids ages 5-18 all summer (woo!!!). Getting this job, and getting to set an end date for the current office job I have, gave me that spark of motivation to kick start my nutrition again. I never had problems sticking to my workout schedule, I love working out, it’s those pesky macros that have been my problem for the last two months or so. Anyway, because I got a golf job, I tried on all my old golf clothes (I have a lot of them, I’ve played golf since I was 12). By some miracle, my old size 10 shorts from high school fit! (Maybe I didn’t eat as terrible as I thought) Granted in high school I was very self-conscious, especially about my legs, so I only wore Bermuda length shorts. With the 100+ degree South Carolina summers, my recent change in fashion taste, and the rattyness of my shorts I needed some new ones. So I went shopping. To my surprise, I could get size 8s zipped and buttoned; however, they were still kinda tight so I went with the 10s because they looked like they fit better. Either way this is a major win! I don’t remember the last time I fit in 10s. I’m also so close to being in single digits! I’ve never been in single digits! I’ve come a long way since I had to buy 14s halfway through junior year of college golf (thanks alcohol and Cookout -_-). Now that I know it’s possible, I want to fit in those 8s more than ever. I know just working out won’t cut it; diet is 90% of the battle. So I came up with a plan*. *This plan is only for the month of May for two reasons: 1) The remaining weeks in April are super crazy because it’s the end of the semester for my grad school classes. I have two huge research projects due by the end of the month. For April, I’m going to continue going to the gym daily after work and try to minimize the crappy food intake. 2) I find out about an internship that runs August-May that I applied for in June. If I get it, I will be moving to NC in August, if I don’t my girlfriend will be moving here in June and we will start a workout/nutrition plan together. This plan may seem like I’m taking on a lot, but it’s not as much as it seems. I already workout 5-6 days a week as it is. It is only tweaking what I’m already doing and adding back habits that I used to do. The only major adjustment is the waking up times. The only really new thing for me will be yoga and the daily battle log. The Plan for my Personal 4 Week Challenge (May 2-29): Food – 90% of the Battle Track Macros Use MyFitnessPal again – I was very successful the first time around using this app. I was not as successful only using an Excel document to track. I think the streak count on MFP helped me stay motivated. Only eat what I track/plan Meal Prep – Crazy excited for this because I will have a normal sized kitchen with lots of counter space finally!! (I’m moving in with my parents in May, possibly the whole summer, to save money until I know what my plans for after the summer are) Plan meals 1 week in advance for shopping and meal prep Planning will include occasional dining out, however since it’s just 1 month, I don’t expect to do that very often. When I am in tracking mode, I only go to places that have their nutrition information readily available so I can plan in advance. Prep weekly meals on Sundays Eat what I have prepped Cut out the junk Stop going to the vending machines and CVS while at work to get unhealthy food Try to avoid sugar, it’s an addiction and I need to stop it Water – Part of the 90% Drink more of it – At one point I was drinking 1 gallon a day, it helped with weight loss and made workouts/cardio easier because of how hydrated I was I have a 32 oz water bottle Drink 4 bottles a day = 1 gallon Track water intake on MFP Since they only track by cups: 1 cup = 8 oz; 1 bottle = 4 cups; 1 gallon = 16 cups I don’t count the water I use to mix preworkout or protein powder towards my daily goal I also don’t count the water I drink during my workout Cut out sugary drinks Coke Zero is my weakness – allowing myself 1 a week, preferably on the weekend as a treat, but only after drinking at least ½ my water for the day Can add pure lime or lemon to water after 3rd full bottle Exercise – The other 10% Morning cardio/yoga Get up each morning before work to complete either cardio (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) or yoga (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday) Cardio will be using Couch to 5K. A few summers ago, I was doing well on this program until tendonitis in my Achilles got bad enough that the doctor told me to stop running. It’s fine now, have done a lot of strengthening exercises. I have been doing other cardio since then, mostly HIIT I tend to run rather hard so treadmills are my arch nemesis. The repeated impact isn’t good for my feet, knees, or legs in general One of the upsides of moving in with my parents is their neighborhood has a nice grassy running area throughout the entire thing…and their neighborhood is huge. I don’t have a set plan for yoga yet. I’ve done it a few times for the golf team workouts in undergrad. It was okay. Mainly want to do it to a) improve balance, improve flexibility, and c) so I continue to get up and be productive in the mornings. After work lifting I’m going to modify the workout program I completed with Evan Childs Fitness while I was part of her Alpha Female program a few months back. The program is 12 weeks, split into 4 phases, each phase lasting 3 weeks. Because I only have 4 weeks to work with, each phase will last one week. I’m super excited for this, because I like the variety of switching up my workouts that frequently. Even with the 3 week phases I would get bored. Each phase has slightly different exercises for each of the muscle groups. I have also decided to use lower weights this time through and focus on form This is mainly because I’m tired of being forced to lifts in a Smith machine (right now Planet Fitness is all I can afford gym wise). I will only be using the preloaded 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60lb barbells to complete the major lifts I will be switching around the muscle groups for weeks 2 and 3 because those week have 2 leg days and I don’t want the second Leg/Ab day to fall on a cardio day. I’m basically worthless if that happens. For weeks 2 and 3, second Leg/Ab day will be on Saturday and Bicep/Tricep day will be on Friday Rest days - Just as important as the workouts Active Rest Days - Saturdays during Weeks 1 and 4 Not meant to be a full blown workout day, but need to do something to be active Yoga will happen in the mornings Will either play 9 holes of golf (walking and carrying my bag) or will hit on the range/work on short game for 2-3 hours Could also be taking little cousins to Skyzone and playing dodgeball for the full hour Macros are not altered during active rest days because I am still doing some kind of activity that will burn calories Full Rest Days – Sundays during all weeks Not meant to be a full blown workout or active rest Golf might creep into the day depending on if my dad wants to go play – will probably get a cart and play 18, so doesn’t really count Macros are altered by subtracting 20g of Carbs on full rest days to account for lack of physical activity Step Tracking – This is mainly just for fun I finally was able to track down the Fitbit model I wanted, since they released the two new trackers, it was next to impossible to find the regular Charge I want to get 10,000 steps a day while still at my office job Will finally be able to count my cardio as steps My phone tracks steps, but because I don’t wear it on an arm band while working out (found that it restricts whichever arm I wear it on), the steps I would accumulate while on the treadmill weren’t counted. Accountability – Super important for success Daily Battle Log Overview of how I’m sticking to the plan Mostly will be used as a checklist Will post start of month pictures and stats as well as end of month pictures and stats WIll go into more deatil about what each week will look like workout wise MyFitnessPal I am not a huge fan of MFP because I don’t want to pay $10 a month to set the macros to my actual numbers, not just the closeted they have percentage wise. They have a decent food database I like the steak feature, getting higher streaks keeps me motivated to log my food I want to use MyMacros+ but it's only avaliable for iPhone and I have an Andriod (I refuse to switch back though!) FitNotes Used to track workouts, I like the digital feedback (graphs, estimated one rep max, etc.) stuff it provides that paper tracking doesn’t Fitbit Used to track steps – again, just for fun, not going to take it super seriously Used to track sleep – this will be more important to me. I have issues sleeping without sleep aids, I would like to eventually not need them, so sleep tracking will be helpful Short term goals for May: Macro track 28/28 days Cardio 12/12 days Yoga 12/12 days Play golf at least 2 times – walking and carrying my bag Meet water goal 28/28 days Get back into 150s weight wise (currently at 163) – these numbers may change/become more specific based on how the rest of April goes Lift 22/22 days Meal prep on Sundays 4/4 times Wake up on time 28/28 times Barriers I believe will affect challenge: Having to work all three graduation ceremonies on the weekend of May 6th and 7th - will alter workout/meal times because of the extra hours I will be working (at least I get overtime pay!) I have a hard time getting up in the mornings - the 5:15 AM wake ups will be a struggle (I already go to bed around 10:00 PM every night anyway so that part won't be hard) Stress from waiting to hear if I get an interview for the internship I applied for If I do get an interview: the interview itself, having to travel to NC for the interview, and then waiting to hear if I got the internship (Most of these ones are ifs, so I'm not too worried at the moment) Quote Link to comment
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