Follow along as I spend the next 100 days building muscle and losing fat. My diet plans, recipes, and workouts will all be included, as well as my body fat scan & measurements! (Click this 100 Day recomp tag to follow along)
I have learned more about improving my fitness, health, and physique in the last 6 years of actually doing it, than I learned in the first 46 years years “trying” to lose weight. I was addicted to gathering information about weight loss, and very slow to take action. I was so good at doing the research, watching other people succeed, and evaluating new plans, but once it came to implementation, I let myself give up on the plan, in favor of a new one, before I saw any progress. Acquiring info to find just the “right plan for me” gave me the feeling of being productive towards my goals, even though information alone never got me there. It was honestly, just my way of delaying and procrastinating doing the hard work.
My brain loves to use procrastinating to let myself eat a cookie today, and start my diet tomorrow… because, as my self talk famously tells me, “one more day won’t matter if I’m trying to achieve long term results.
But even though I’ve been able to get the leanest physique possible on my 5’0 frame, 5 times now in the last 6 years, I’m ready to step up my results and build more muscle, without gaining fat, and losing what I’ve gained since December!
Defining the muscle growth, fat loss goal
Muscle building was never a priority for me before I turned 46. Luckily, as I got smarter, understood more about healthy aging, muscle preservation, bone loss, etc. it also became trendier to see STRONG girls online, rather than just SKINNY. I finally felt like the body shape that was in vogue, is also the one that is going to help me get older without becoming fragile! I’m so glad the “skinny look” is out, and the STRONG woman is ‘in!’
Since 46, I’ve tested my body fat & muscle at least once a year. In that first 6 months of strength training, I was able to lose weight AND put on 4 lbs of muscle. However, since then, I’ve only added another 4 lbs of muscle (over the next 5 years). 8 total pounds of muscle since starting this journey. So, the goal for the next 100 days is to break through that plateau. and see if I can gain 2-3 lbs more of muscle over the next 100 days. And I want to do that while losing fat. My ideal weight (at 5’0) is 110 lbs. Currently, I keep pushing the scale above 120, and it’s not comfortable.
The goal: Lose fat while gaining muscle, as measured by a Dexa scan.
The Plan!
- The mindset
- The food
- The workouts
1. The Mindset
I just read through my most recent bikini show reflection write up, and it’s unbelievable the things I “learned” during my last bikini prep ( just 4 months ago) that I’ve stopped doing!
I stopped doing so many things that got me to show day, Most importantly,
- Stopped deciding every crumb mattered, and instead said, “one more tortilla doesn’t matter”
- I stopped resisting every single craving, and promptly give in every time I even THINK about a certain food.
These next 14 weeks, I want to practice SUSTAINABLE habits that won’t reverse all my hard work of weight loss. a 20% weight gain is beyond just returning to a normal healthy- post fitness show weight. 20% is excessive.
I also find myself blaming events, parties, vacations, etc. for “not staying on my plan”, but the truth is, 99% of my extra calories are all eaten when I’m home alone with no social eating to be seen. If I truly only overate in social situations, I would probably be just fine!
I also have known in the past that limiting carbs helps the food noise quiet down. But yet, I seem to love to push the limits of this. I eat more and more carbs every day. I tell myself: As long as I can keep my calories in check, I can eat as many carbs as I want! WHICH IS TRUE. I will die on that hill. BUT, little by little, carb by carb, I gain one pound after another and then I find myself elbow deep in a box of cereal.
More than anything, I need to remember WHY I even care about exercising discipline over my eating. Because at the end of the day, when I tell myself it doesn’t matter, my goals go out the window. I tell myself, I LIKE to eat, so why not just enjoy life. Eat, drink, and be happy! But if I’m honest, I’m the MOST happy, when I practice discipline.
A recent book I bought (*The Way to Will-Power) outlines beautifully how “will-power” is whatever you desire in a given moment. (I’m going to do a full review on this book soon!) Your will to eat the box of cereal wins sometimes. And your will to lose weight wins sometimes. Which one are we going to let win? Can we desire our future goals MORE than our instant cravings?! That’s the question!
So, I’m really trying to get to the bottom of the question: Why would I rather be at my goal weight than eat a box of cereal? THIS NEEDS SOME ANSWERS! And just because I’ve answered it 500 times already in my past, makes no difference. Seasons in life change, and my “why” is always evolving. So, you can’t say to me: But Amy! I thought your “why” was because you wanted to “Live your best life, Have no regrets, get on with new goals and stop re-setting the same goal over and over”. Haha. Yes. those I’ve all said in the past. But for some reason, it’s not working for me now. For some reason I justify the box of cereal with: I don’t really care about those things. I just want a snack!
So, for today: Why I want to reach my goal weight MORE than I want to eat a box of cereal in a short window of time, or eat 4 tortillas just because they are “low calorie”.
and perhaps the problem all along has been that because my “why” has been aesthetics based, it makes it hard to not eat a full box of cereal when I can justify it with “I really don’t need to lose weight.”
But the Why could be more about:
- I don’t want to let food (an inanimate, object) run my life! (post about that here!)
- I don’t want to think about food
- I don’t want to use food to distract myself from living full out!
- I don’t want to feel sick from overeating.
- I don’t want to have my workouts compromised because I ate too much food.
- Because I only live once, and I want to make the most of my life and reach all my goals.
- Because I feel proud of myself when I exercise a little discipline and boundaries.
- Because I don’t want brittle bones as I age- I want to age with strength.
The next 100 days I’m going to journal on this blog more about my mindset than about the food. I know what to eat, and how to workout, so why is it so easy to talk ourselves out of it? I’m getting to the bottom of it, to plan strategies that will last BEYOND the 100 days. The mindset around discipline and will-power.