Preparing for My 12 Week Weight Loss Journey

Posted in: Getting Ready for the Challenge, July to October 2009, Suzanne's Weight Loss Journey | 3 comments

Hey there! Thanks for joining me on this little journey! I’m going to share with you everything that I go through when I set to mind to losing a bit of fat and get more in shape.

I’ve never been athletic and I love eating — not a very good combination, obviously. I’ve weighed as much as 165lbs and as low as 120lbs through adulthood. My most perfect weight — where I was lean and strong and full of energy — was when I first got into weight training. I was a lean 135lbs and I loved it. Much better than being 120lbs and flabby!

But I’m not perfect. Life (excuses) get in the way: too tired, too busy, too stressed, got things to do, need to work instead of exercising. Believe me, the irony is not lost on me that running a weight loss website has caused me to gain some weight because I’m sitting down all the time. Like a lot of people, I know what to do but I don’t always do it.

And then I get fed up — and I get real serious. This is one of those times. I set a date and then get ready…

Pick A Method
I start by picking a method. Is there a particular diet I want to follow? Do I want to count calories? Go by number of servings? For me, I seem to work best with counting calories, so that’s what I’m going to do.

It doesn’t need to be complicated. You might want to do something a simple as cleaning up your food or cutting down on portions. I swear, sometimes it’s a simple as cutting your food intake by 20% or getting rid of the junk food in your diet and replacing it with healthy foods. Keep in mind, you want to get good nutrition. Cutting out 20% of the calories from a crappy diet will still leave you with a crappy diet!

Some FitWatch Resources
How To Count Calories
How to Set a Weight Loss Goal
How to Find the Right Weight Loss Program For You

I’m going to use my calorie deficit calculator to figure out a calorie deficit that’s not too aggressive. From past experience, I know I usually do well eating 1600 to 1700 calories a day. Typically, a ratio of 50/30/20 works well for me — that’s carbs/protein/fat percentages.

I’m 138lbs, 5′5″, 44 years old and I’m moderately active, so, using the calculator, I get 1669 for a 20% calorie deficit of what is estimated I would need to maintain my weight. I’m going to set my target goal as 1700 calories a day.

For now, I’m not going to get too particular about high calorie/low calorie days. (That’s an advanced method to use, especially when you’re getting to lower body fat percentages.) When I’m starting out with a 12 week challenge, I stick to simple things to get into a groove. Then I take weekly measurements to see how I’m doing. From there, I decide whether I need to make any changes.

I’m Going to Burn Fat Faster by Adding Exercise
Nutrition is key when losing weight/fat, but, boy, does exercise speed things up! Not only that, but you improve your overall health and energy by building muscle and making your heart healthy and strong.

I like weight training and cardio, so that’s what I’m going to be doing. I’m going to follow the workouts in New Rules of Lifting For Women. Even though the author strongly believes in not eating less and he makes some pretty good arguments for it, I’m still going to be creating a calorie deficit. But, as always, I’m going to put myself into a feedback loop by taking measurements every week and then seeing if there’s a pattern for fat loss or not.

Monday-Wednesday-Friday: weight training. Tuesday-Thursday: cardio. Active physical exercise at other times: walking the dogs, walking on my own, hiking, gardening.

If exercise bores you to tears, John Sifferman has a great solution to exercise boredom. You can exercise at home without any equipment, but make sure you play it safe when starting to exercise.

Goal Setting and Affirmations
One thing I finally got through my thick skull because of Tom Venuto is the need to set some goals and use positive affirmations. Not woo-woo new-agey stuff, but basically telling yourself what you want and visualizing yourself at that point in time. He also taught me it’s okay to dream big and set high goals. (You still need to be realistic but don’t underestimate yourself either!)

My 12 week goal is going to be a 5% or more body fat percentage loss. I’m going to use my Accu-Measure calipers. If you want to track your body fat percentage but don’t have the calipers, you can use my body fat percentage calculator.

Once I take my measurements, I’m going to write out my goals and set them up using a positive affirmation. Here’s an example:

On October 5th, I am so happy to be at XX% body fat or less. I have a lot more energy — and I’m looking and feeling great!

Meal Planning
This is one of my weak points. If I don’t plan what I’m going to eat ahead of time, I end up making poor choices if I get too hungry (because, say, I’m working and suddenly realize how hungry I am).

I’m going to try to whip up an article with an easy method of meal planning that anybody can use, no matter what kinds of foods you eat. It won’t help you if I tell you I’m eating scrambled eggs with spinach and mushrooms for breakfast if you can’t stand to eat that! With any kind of diet, you need to eat what YOU like. Otherwise, you’re just setting yourself up for failure.

But I will log what I’m eating using my calorie tracker and post it here for everybody to see. That way, you can get an idea of what I’m doing and adapt it to your own food.

If you want to stay up-to-date on what I’m doing, you can follow me a few ways:

Bookmark: Go to this blog’s main page and then bookmark that page.
RSS Feed: Get the RSS Feed
By e-mail: Subscribe to Suzanne’s Weight Loss Journey by Email
Facebook: Become a fan of FitWatch on Facebook

That’s it for now!