LydiaSarah’s BodyBlog

So I decided to begin a twelve week transformation program, where the biggest change from what I was previously doing is that I’m not scheduling a weekly cheat day.  Instead, I’m going as long as I can without one, and if there’s a day I really feel I need it or can’t resist, I’ll have one cheat meal and go back to clean eating.  So far I’ve gone a week and a half without really feeling the desire to cheat, which is great.  I’ve been really pushing myself with my workouts as well.  I just finished up four weeks of reverse pyramids, and noticed pretty great strength gains.  I’ll be starting something new on Monday.

So, this first week I’ve lost 3 lbs, 1.5 inches from my waist, and fulfilled my goal of drinking 2 liters of water at work every day for two weeks straight.  I feel great, and the progress I’ve made in only a week is very motivating!

So when I went to the gym on the afternoon of my previous post, I ran into a new trainer who actually speaks English (I’m in Korea).  I’ve never really used a trainer before because I’ve never been able to afford it, but apparently at this gym they help out for free as part of the membership cost, they’d just never had an English speaking trainer before.  Anyways, he took an interest in what I was doing and asked if he could help me out for the rest of the week.  So far it’s been great!  I didn’t realize how sloppy my form was on many exercises, and got positive feedback on many others I had been doing well.  It felt really good to have someone there pushing me to go harder; I thought I pushed myself pretty hard at the gym, but I was wrong!  I left last night with my legs feeling like overcooked noodles.

Today I’m getting all my measurements taken, which is another nice development.  I haven’t been able to test my body fat % for over a year, and it will be interesting to see where it is now.  It’s also good to know that there is someone there who can take these measurements in the future.  All of this should make tracking my progress so much easier, as I have a hard time seeing results because I see myself everyday.

I’m also very thankful for the added level of motivation provided by having someone expect me at the gym everyday.  I also know that he’s going to ask me about what I ate for lunch and what I’ll have for dinner, so maybe this is just the thing to kick my clean eating habits into overdrive!

Well, I’ve been stuck at the 184 mark for several weeks now, and I’m sick of it.  I’ve been getting in at least 3 weight sessions a week, but my clean eating has been rather inconsistent.  At least I haven’t gained.  My biggest problem at this point is self-discipline and motivation.  I can get myself into the gym even when I don’t want to, but getting myself to cook a healthy meal instead of grabbing something not-so-healthy has proved more difficult.

This is why I’ve decided to start working out my self-discipline as well as my muscles.  I’m going to set non weight related mini-goals every two weeks, and reward myself when I stick to them.  This week I’m aiming to drink at least 2 liters of water while I’m at work; that combined with the liquids I drink pre and post workout should get me pretty close to a gallon a day.

I’m hoping that developing discipline in slightly easier areas will help develop my discipline in the tougher areas, like a clean diet.

On a good note, I can really see muscle gains in my arms, especially my biceps, since I started working out.  I can also feel progress in my abs, though I can’t see it through the fat yet!  I feel good about going to the gym, and I really enjoy my time there.  I love the feeling after a really tough workout when my muscles feel warm and exhausted!  I know that if I can develop the same consistency in my eating habits, I will start to enjoy the positive effects of a clean diet as well.

I’m beginning my fourth full week of workouts and clean eating, and I’m feeling pretty good.  I’m definitely coming down from the motivation high I had 3 weeks ago, but the lifestyle is feeling more and more doable everyday.

Last week was a bit of a train wreck.  I had to attend an end of the year dinner for my school, and school dinners in Korea involve copious ammounts of alcohol.  Unlike the U.S., if someone offers you a drink here, especially if it’s your superior, it is extremely rude to decline.  People who don’t usually drink still down whatever the principal pours them.  This all happened on a Wednesday, right smack in the middle of the week.  The available food at lunch all week wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t clean either.  I ended up eating a lot of noodles.

Despite all that, I still lost 2 lbs, and now that school is back in session, lunch should be easier and there won’t be anymore crazy teacher meals for awhile.  I think I can really fall into a routine now, and things should go smoothly.

Also, I finally got over the initial weight gain that always happens to me when I start lifting.  I’m now losing scale weight and seeing muscle definition!  I’m on the 2nd workout of my rotatation, which is moderate weight with higher and faster reps.  I have 3 more weeks of this workout before moving on to #3.

I’m beginning my second full week of workouts and clean eating, and my biggest problem right now is surprisingly not discipline, but the fact that I’m having a ton of trouble getting to sleep at night.  I feel really tired, but I can’t seem to settle down and actually sleep.  I wake up exhausted, and my the time for my afternoon lifting session, all I want to do is take a nap.  I haven’t done this, because I’m so worried it would make it even harder for me to sleep.  Ugh!

I’d rather have this issue than some issue with my diet, so I’m thankful that the hardest part of all this for me is still going smoothly.  I’m going to force myself into the gym everyday to workout hard, and hope that my sleep schedule regulates itself again soon.

The other difficulty I’ve been encountering is simply the logistics of working out and eating clean in a foreign country.  I have to get all my suppliments and protein powders shipped in, which costs a lot, and the foods I’m used to being able to find in the United States are sometimes non-existant in Korea.  It’s also much more difficult to get my hands on nutritional information for many Korean foods.  On top of all that, eating is a very culturally sensitive issue.  I work at a public school where I eat school lunch with my co-workers everyday.  It would be pretty inappropriate and rude of me to bring my own lunch, so I have very little control over what my lunch meal will be.  Luckily, Koreans eat lots of veggies, but some days the only thing I can eat at lunch is a bit of kimchi.  The Korean diet is quite healthy in comparison to other countries, so it definitely could be worse.

Well, I lost two pounds my first week, and I’m well on my way to reach my short-term goal of ten pounds off by March 7.  If I lose a bit more than two per week, I’ll be there.  I’m already seeing gains in the muscles in my arms and legs which is very encouraging.

So I’m wrapping up my first full week of eating clean and working out since I left the United States.  The last time I tried to change my diet, it was incredibly difficult for me, and I would find myself wanting to cheat halfway through the first week.  I’d justify things I knew I shouldn’t have, and basically cut a lot of corners.  I think I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to stick to it, so I gave up before I began.

This time, I’m coming into it more determined than I’ve ever felt before.  I simply made the decision that I will succeed and that nothing is going to stop me.  I am in control of my body, not the other way around.  I control what I put in my mouth.  Nobody forces food on me.  These seemingly obvious realizations have made all the difference this week.  Tomorrow is supposed to be my first official ‘cheat day’ and I don’t know if I even want to cheat!  My body feels good for the first time in awhile, and I can already feel results, even if I can’t see them yet.

I guess I never took the time to explore motivation before, and what a world of difference it makes.  So far this week my coteachers have given me pieces of chocolate three times and a piece of cake once, and I easily tucked them into a drawer each time.  At lunch I’ve been able to turn down some of my favorite foods in favor of ones I don’t particularly like, but I know are much better for my body.

I know the first week probably isn’t the most difficult, and I still have a battle ahead, but this week has nevertheless been a big victory for me.

Whew!  The last 6 months have been a whirlwind.  I’ve relocated across the world and have started a new job.  I didn’t do a very good job of keeping up with all this for the past 2-3 months, but now that I’m here and settled it is getting easier.  I’m almost halfway to my target weight from when I started.  Unfortunately, since I haven’t lifted in awhile, I’m in that period of gaining scale weight before it falls off again.  I hate seeing the scale go up!  I just finished my first full week of workouts of the new year (I was traveling all of January) and am hoping to reach my target weight by summer.  I feel like I’m starting to get a feel for clean Korean foods as well as good old American stuff.

Well, it’s been four weeks now and I’ve lost almost ten pounds.  It doesn’t sound like much to me, but I keep reminding myself that I’m supposed to be losing 1-3 per week, and that is exactly what I’m doing.  This past week was particularly tough; I didn’t work out very much and my eating wasn’t great at all, but I still lost over two pounds which was good motivation to pick it up this next week.  The thought of being 30 pounds lighter by September is really exciting!

Surprisingly, one of the hardest things about the diet plan I’m using is eating enough during the day.  I often find myself skipping parts of some of my meals either because I am in a hurry or I am simply not that hungry.  The AMP 2 I’m taking has an AMAZING appetite suppressant in it, so until dinner time I’m never really that hungry.  I have noticed a huge difference in my energy level when I don’t eat everything I’m supposed to be eating.  I’ll try and do better this month.

Well, so far so good.  The strict diet I’m on hasn’t been as hard to keep up as I thought it would be.  In fact, I find that there is more food on my schedule than I am able to eat, and the appetite suppressant in AMP 2 is amazing!  I’ve lost about 4 pounds since last week, which is encouraging.  I just hope it is fat and/or water and not muscle mass.

I hit a minor road block this week when I sprained my foot on Wednesday, but I went to the gym and did upper body workouts anyways.  I didn’t get in as much cardio as I would have liked, but I did something at least.  I’m ready for week two!

So last week was my transition week into my new lifestyle.  I start my new job tomorrow and will finally have regular hours, which means I can finally establish an eating and training routine.  I began taking suppliments and sticking to a loose diet last week, and will really kick into high gear tomorrow.  Currently I weigh nearly 200 pounds and hate it!  I have steadily gained weight ever since the end of soccer season in my senior year of high school.  My metabolism dropped and I haven’t been very active ever since then.  Six years later and I’ve gained about 70 pounds.  I am moving overseas in three months to teach English, and I really want to lose about 30 pounds before then.  I will be taking a month long class in Thailand in September and want to be in good enough shape to go on a three-day trek in the mountains in the north.  I would also like to be at a weight where I can enjoy the beaches in southern Thailand without too much embarrassment.  I am hoping that a healthy diet and exercise become habits in my life so that when I transition to a foreign lifestyle, these elements remain.

Right now I feel like I have so far to go.  I’ve tried a few  different plans to lose weight before, but I always suffered from lack of discipline.  I think now that I have a date in mind for leaving the country, I feel a little more motivated.  I am very scared that I’m never going to succeed, that I’m just going to fail at this plan too.  I am hoping this blog will keep me motivated and accountable for my actions.

I am also overwhelmed by the amount of information out there on weight loss.  I am concerned about whether the plan I’m on now has too many calories, but I’m afraid if I cut it down, I’ll lose muscle.  For me this is a huge leap of faith.  I am following a slightly modified version of the plan at www.bodybuilding.com/fun/mercedes1.htm.  I’m hoping I see some results quickly so I know it is working and I’m not eating too much.