Not a bad week, all things considered. Most people would be very happy with a gain in lean body mass. And I am happy about it, believe me! But I need to keep an eye on the fat gain. Granted, a gain of .1lbs is tinyl — it’s the pattern it could represent that’s the problem. If bad eating habits are creeping in, I need to nip it in the bud. Bad eating habits tend to grow — along with your waistline! That’s why a feedback loop is so important.

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I’m sitting here, early Monday morning, a little flabbergasted. When I woke up this morning and realized it was a weigh-in day, I started composing my blog post in my head while I was still in bed trying to wake up. Meaning, before I even weighed-in! Even though I did well food-wise last week, I knew the results would be off because we had friends over for supper on Saturday night. And, well, you know how that goes, right? Wine, appetizer, wine, meat and vegetables, dessert, another small slice of dessert, coffee. I was motivated to eat well and exercise hard on Sunday, believe me. (Cardio Coach 7 was brutal…but in a good way… heh heh.)

I know how my body usually reacts to a week-end like that, but it surprised me this morning. I do believe my body is turning into a fat-burning machine. It finally “gets” what I want it do!

Here are my starting measurements, plus last week’s and this morning’s weigh-in:

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Had some great results this week! And I reached my body fat goal from my last challenge (where I missed by just a small percentage). One thing about goals and deadlines: I’m reading The Body Fat Solution by Tom Venuto (review coming once I finish the book). In it, he talks about setting your goals in pen and your deadline in pencil. In other words, your goal is fixed but the deadline can be a bit more flexible. Not that you shouldn’t be focused on the deadline, but sometimes we underestimate how long something will take.

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I took a break from exercise and calorie counting after ending my last 12 week challenge (see the final results here). I didn’t go overboard and overindulge myself. I found I kept pretty much to plan, except for a bit of extra chocolate and bit of extra wine. The big difference was no exercise. But I did walk, got in 1 heavy Cardio Coach session (Volume 6) and one 7.7 (4.75 mile) hike.

As for my fat loss goal, it’s harder to lose the fat as you get lower down in body fat. I’m assuming I may not be able to achieve a .5% average of body fat percentage loss per week, so I’m going to be a bit conservative in my goal. But I could be wrong and make my way down even further!

So, without further ado, my fat loss goals and starting measurements for this 9 week challenge:

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This is the start of a brand new challenge after finishing my last 12 week challenge (from July 12th to October 5th). I’ve got a lot of momentum now, so I have a bit less preparation to do. If you want to read a more detailed post on getting ready for a weight loss challenge, read this post.

Some of you may note, I’m calling it a “fat loss” challenge. I know a lot of people focus on weight, but, to me, it’s all about losing body fat. I don’t want to lose weight, if it means losing muscle. But I’ll kiss that fat good-bye without a second thought!

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It seems I’m lapsing back into some bad blogging habits! I only logged 2 days of food for Week 8. Now, I’m pretty sure I did okay food-wise — but the thing is, I know myself: it’s so easy to stop logging but then old habits might creep back. I find I do so much better when I log the majority of time. One week might not make a big difference, but I know, for myself, if I were to go several weeks without logging in my fitness tracker, I’ll most likely start underestimating how much food I’m eating.

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This one’s going to be short and sweet! I did very well on Friday during the day — and then had two bowls of pasta, plus some wine on Friday night. I didn’t even bother to log it! Ha! Saturday was a catered supper (fancy food!), so there was no way I was going to pooh-pooh any of the courses. But what I did was go for a 1 hour bike ride Saturday morning and I made sure I ate healthy, small meals more frequently during the day so that I wouldn’t be ravenous by suppertime. Luckily, the portions were small for supper, but the dessert did me in!

Sunday was a recovery day after the night before, but we did go to my in-laws who ordered pizza — and bought a rhubarb/strawberry pie. They insisted we take it home, but I’m glad to say I haven’t touched it.

Just a quick aside: if you have problems with week-end weight gain, read this - Weekend Weight Gain: How to Avoid It.

After this week-end, I almost moved my Monday weigh-in to Tuesday. But I’m glad I didn’t. You can see why here: End of Week 7 - Weigh-in & Measurements.

In so many ways, it’s been a really good week. But I’m not eating 100% clean and I seem to have forgotten that there are such things as vegetables! And I seem to be paying for it, unfortunately…

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The beginning of the week went pretty well, even though I didn’t post any updates. (Sorry about that!) But I just kept putting some things off and then by mid-week things got pretty busy up until the end of the week. Problem is, when I’m feeling stressed, I stop eating properly — usually by eating larger meals less frequently and/or by grabbing some unhealthy snacks. And then, by the end of the day, wine or beer seems like such a “right.” A “right” as in, “Heck, yes, I deserve some wine after the day I’ve had!” Why can’t I just say, “Heck, yes, I’ll take a protein smoothie after the day I’ve had!” LOL!

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Since things weren’t too crazy, except for Saturday, I thought I’d put all 3 days into one blog post. Haven’t been doing too badly, but had a weird experience on Saturday. I went for a long bike ride (1 hour 20 minutes). I felt great during most of it but got a bit tired near the end. Nothing to worry about; pretty normal — especially considering it was longer than I usually do. I was really pumped that I had done it!

I got home and had a second meal (having had a first breakfast about an hour before heading out for the ride). Not long after I was completely drained! No energy at all! When I look back, I had a couple of lower calorie days — and when I look at one of my macronutrient (carbs, protein, fat) reports from my fitness tracker for the past few weeks, my carbs seem to averaging about 40%. Makes me wonder
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