Progress Pictures.....

Week1 and Week13

Here are the progress pictures that I stated I would post. I have been at this for 13 weeks but before you look at the photos and say...hey, there is not much difference here, please note that 7 weeks of this progress was to just maintain the initial 10 pounds that I lost within the first 4 weeks of semi watching my calories.

I started back in mid March with a goal to start losing some of the weight I put on a year prior. A new job and new responsibilities replaced my great gym habits and I stopped training and eating clean for about a year. I gained weight...about 17 pounds and looked like shit. I decided to get back on track but with the travel and the job responsibilities still front and center in my life, I knew I could not do an extreme cutting routine like I have done in the past. That takes too much time and effort....and God knows I did not have the time nor the energy to put in an intensive training effort and diet plan to get the weight off. 

So instead of diving into an extreme plan, I opted to start slow. I did he following:

1) Hired a coach for accountability

2) Started eating cleaner, but not counting my calories

3) Started doing 2 full body strength training routines a week

I took progress pictures weekly and sent them to my coach and we discussed my progress every week via Skype. That in itself kept me halfway on track at least. My coach is not just a strength coach but a life coach as well and we always discussed issues outside of eating and training that may be affecting my results such as increased stressors at work and home, changes in my normal life routines, etc. and we planned the next week accordingly. Amazing coach. 

We coasted for about 8 weeks and then about 4 weeks ago, I felt I was FINALLY in a position where I could train more and concentrate on my diet more. So I have been in diet and training mode for only 4 weeks. 

I figured that once I upped my training and nailed down my nutrition more, the pounds would just effortlessly fall off. Disappointedly, I was wrong. The scale has not budged for over 4 weeks..until 2 days ago when I finally saw 1 pound less on the damn scale. 147.... WTF!!! 

I am not in the mood to do a REAL cutting diet!! I just don't want to go there right now, but I need to go there if I want to see the rapid changes that I want to see. OR, I need to stop whining, take it slow and watch the fat come off little by little. I can't have it both ways. So, I am working to get the fat off little by little, I guess because I don't want to be hungry, hungry, hungry. I am too busy for that and I just don't want that kind of stress in my life.

So I suppose, I will keep training, and eating clean....around 1600 calories a day.  When I do everything my coach tells me to do, I lose....when I follow through. If only I would stop having those cheat days or meals perhaps the scale would budge a bit faster. I only had 1/13 weeks of staying on the diet 100%. That was last week. All the rest of the time, I had a cheat day or a couple of cheat meals. BUT I LIKE TO EAT!!!!!!! Grrrr......

So, I am increasing my cardio just a little. No pressure. I am going to step on the scale ONCE A WEEK when I do my progress pictures for my coach. I will post progress pictures on my blog end of July sometime.

I like doing videos now, so MAYBE I will post more videos as well. I will have to post day 4 of my training next week. My hubby was not in the mood to video tape me today, lol.  Time to go shopping with my daughter. I can fit my shorts now...without a muffin top disgusting belly overhang!