I'm strong to the finish, cause I eats me spinach.

[BeesKnees]

Goal: Lose 20lbs
End Date: June 24th 2012 - 10 weeks.
Weekly Target Weight Loss: 2lbs

Current Weight: 167lbs - 11st 13lbs
Expected Finish Weight: 147lbs

Height: 70" - 5ft 10"

Sex: Female
Age: 26

Mission Statement;
To lower my body weight by 20lbs in 10 weeks whilst maintaining strength.

Cardio:

High intensity kickboxing training 2 - 3 times per week, that's 2 - 3 hours of cardio.

15 minutes of intense skipping each morning before work. It's unlikely I'd be able to sustain 15 minutes of skipping at my current fitness level so there's likely to be an element of 'stop/start'. If within the next 10 weeks I can easily achieve 15 minutes I will strive to increase the duration.

Weight Training:

Three day split.

Day One - Chest & Back

• Floor Press
• Girl Pushups
• Dumbbell Fly
• Bent Over Barbell Row
• Deadlift

Day Two - Shoulder & Arms

• Barbell Shrug
• Standing Upright Row
• DB Shoulder Press
• Alternate Bicep Curl
• Tricep Press I can't find the technical name of
• Plate Pinch

Day Three - Legs & Abs

• Squats
• Sumo Deadlift
• Lunges
• Weighted Calf Raises
• Plank
• Crunches

I'll be playing around with the split somewhat. I've got a thrown left knee at the moment so my squats and lunges are likely to be un-weighted for the time being. Hopefully my knee will improve and in that instance I'm likely to up my squats to twice a week.

I'm going for 3 sets of 8 - 15 reps, I'll increase the weight as I feel fit to do so. Whether that is at a successful 3 x 15 or before hand will depend on experience and research.

I'll keep a record of my lifts in this journal.

I'm always open to comments and suggestions regarding weight training, well anything to do with fitness really .

Nutrition:

Daily Target Calories: 1175.5kcal.
This figure will give me a 7000kcal deficit from maintenance calories, this in theory should equate to a 2lb weekly loss. I appreciate that with exercise/life in the equation I may need to up these calories to compensate.

I'm currently compiling a database of healthy foods which includes brands, price and nutritional content. This will continue to grow! My diet is not currently optimum as I'm emptying the fridge and I've only compiled a small list of foods in my database

Tomorrows food plan looks like this:

• 1 salmon fishcake (135g)
• Broccoli (100g)
• Tuna (260g)
• Large Eggs (2)
• Cherry Tomatoes (100g)
• Banana (235g)
• Whole Milk (300ml)
• Spinach (42g)
  
• Kcal: 1103 (72kcal below target)
• Protein: 116g
• Carbohydrate: 86g
• Fat: 45g

I'm unhappy with the 72kcal deficit and the carbohydrate/fat number is a little high. I've got to eat up the fish cake though (no waste!), and the milk is an attempt to up the calorie levels.

I'll be researching protein shakes, they seem like an ideal solution to upping calories and getting protein down me.

Everything/Nothing

Toot toot, lets get this show on the road.

[FetteredApe]

Best of luck to you, looks like you have a great plan in place!

[FatLenny]

Throw an extra egg in there and you've got your 70 kcal... or I suppose you could do 2 egg whites if you didn't want the fat.

Good luck!

[BeesKnees]

My diet today has been tip-top, I'm about to plan for tomorrow.

Exercise today = 15 minutes skipping and lifting for arms/shoulders.

Nothing else to report because I am tired and cranky.

[BeesKnees]

Everything/Nothing

What a difference a training session makes, my mood has improved vastly. Who'd have thunk what a bit of exercise could do.

I've just completed my second weights session of this ten week stretch. I always find the first few sessions after a training hiatus somewhat frustrating. I find the rigmorale of determining how heavy to go tedious and it always leaves me feeling like I haven't trained 'properly'. Countless times this attitude has defeated me and I've stopped lifting weights before I've even started. How strange to give up so easily.

This time however I'll crack on and forgo being a numpty.

[Shamie]

This time however I'll crack on and forgo being a numpty.

Had to look that one up.

Meaning: An idiot or fool.

Good luck.

[BeesKnees]

Thanks for the good luck wishes guys, but I think it was Thomas Jefferson that said "I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it" ; ).

Diet: Tuesday 17th April

• Large Eggs (2)
• Cherry Tomatoes (200g)
• Banana (1)
• Spinach (84g)
• Turkey (200g)
• Cabbage (50g)
• Smoked Mackerel (75g)
• Smoked Salmon (50g)

• Kcal: 1016
• Fat: 61g
• Protein: 91g
• Carbs: 37g

Exercise:

One hour of kick boxing, high intensity. Good stuff, except my hands smell like the old sweat of one thousand men because I had to use the gloves provided in class (I forgot mine, won't be doing that again).

Everything/Nothing:

I've been strongly considering a Ketogenic diet for the next ten weeks. I think it would help bring on my weight loss. I have reservations about taking the majority of my calories from fat but I'll put some research in and decide for sure.

Yesterday I didn't even think of junk food but today I had my first thoughts, not cravings, just thoughts. I had no problems walking past the doughnuts in Tesco's though, I left with a massive broccoli and 400g of ripe plum tomatoes.

It's such a weird feeling knowing that all I have to do it stick to my plan and in ten weeks I'll most likely have dropped twenty pounds. It sounds so simple.

[scohen158]

Originally Posted by BeesKnees

Thanks for the good luck wishes guys, but I think it was Thomas Jefferson that said "I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it" ; ).

Diet: Tuesday 17th April

• Large Eggs (2)
• Cherry Tomatoes (200g)
• Banana (1)
• Spinach (84g)
• Turkey (200g)
• Cabbage (50g)
• Smoked Mackerel (75g)
• Smoked Salmon (50g)

• Kcal: 1016
• Fat: 61g
• Protein: 91g
• Carbs: 37g

Exercise:

One hour of kick boxing, high intensity. Good stuff, except my hands smell like the old sweat of one thousand men because I had to use the gloves provided in class (I forgot mine, won't be doing that again).

Everything/Nothing:

I've been strongly considering a Ketogenic diet for the next ten weeks. I think it would help bring on my weight loss. I have reservations about taking the majority of my calories from fat but I'll put some research in and decide for sure.

Yesterday I didn't even think of junk food but today I had my first thoughts, not cravings, just thoughts. I had no problems walking past the doughnuts in Tesco's though, I left with a massive broccoli and 400g of ripe plum tomatoes.

It's such a weird feeling knowing that all I have to do it stick to my plan and in ten weeks I'll most likely have dropped twenty pounds. It sounds so simple.

It sounds simple and when I am in a routine like I am now it is simple but then you talk to someone else and realize that for most it's not simple as it takes truly making it a priority in your life, willpower, planning ahead and being focused. So it's easy to make excuses while trying and before you know it everyday they have 1 or more things off the plan as they didn't have enough time for this or forgot they ran out of that (typically where the planning comes as well as truly making it a priority).

Once you get into the routine it becomes second nature as I proved once and am doing again but it is also easy if you fall out of it to realize that it is a certain amount of work and picking the easy fast and sometimes cheap ways seem so much easier as I have proven before as well.

For me I will have to make this sort of a lifetime routine sure once I lose all the weight I am and plan to I will up calories but I have learned through my failure that I have to have a plan in place whether it's a cutting plan to drop fat, maintaining plan to stay roughly the same weight, bulking plan when I want to add muscle. If I don't have a plan then it becomes easy to stray off the healthy path and for me it sort of becomes exponential 1-2 times I eat this or that at first becomes 3-4 etc etc.

You are right stick with it for 10 weeks and you will hit your goal but my best advice is have another goal and have a plan in place to achieve the next one so you stay on the healthy lifestyle plan. Sorry for the rant.

[BeesKnees]

Saturday 21st April: Weigh-in Day!


Everything/Nothing:

Originally Posted by scohen158

It sounds simple and when I am in a routine like I am now it is simple but then you talk to someone else and realize that for most it's not simple as it takes truly making it a priority in your life, willpower, planning ahead and being focused. So it's easy to make excuses while trying and before you know it everyday they have 1 or more things off the plan as they didn't have enough time for this or forgot they ran out of that (typically where the planning comes as well as truly making it a priority).

Once you get into the routine it becomes second nature as I proved once and am doing again but it is also easy if you fall out of it to realize that it is a certain amount of work and picking the easy fast and sometimes cheap ways seem so much easier as I have proven before as well.

For me I will have to make this sort of a lifetime routine sure once I lose all the weight I am and plan to I will up calories but I have learned through my failure that I have to have a plan in place whether it's a cutting plan to drop fat, maintaining plan to stay roughly the same weight, bulking plan when I want to add muscle. If I don't have a plan then it becomes easy to stray off the healthy path and for me it sort of becomes exponential 1-2 times I eat this or that at first becomes 3-4 etc etc.

You are right stick with it for 10 weeks and you will hit your goal but my best advice is have another goal and have a plan in place to achieve the next one so you stay on the healthy lifestyle plan. Sorry for the rant.

Yes, it's only been the first week and it's been difficult to stick to my exact plan. The idea has been to write the following days food out the night before, however I've fallen on this and consequently I've had to make up my meals on the fly. I'm in two minds about this;

• Firstly my plan isn't really 'just' about weightloss, it has much wider implications than that. This short project is about sitting down, writing a well thought out plan, sticking to it and achiveing a goal. Yes I might lose weight after 10 weeks but it some ways it'll be hollow.
• Secondly, no I've just talked my way out of secondly. Just refer to firstly .

I need to set aside a few hours on a Sunday and write a food plan for the following week. I also need to make sure I have purchased the foods needed to fulfil that food plan.

Like you say schoen; I need to make creating goals and achieving them second nature. And for the purposes of momentum I need to write a plan for when my ten weeks are up.

Weight Training:

Still feeling a bit 'meh' with regards to weight training, it's all so bitty while everything is coming together. I haven't been able to work lower body (crappy knee) either and I love squats.

Good news it that after 4 weeks my knee feels close to 100% recovery.

Cardio:

Cardio is awesome, still loving kickboxing.

Current Weight:

• 163lbs/11st 9lbs.

That's a 4lb drop in the first week, a relief to say the least. I was feeling some trepidation about what the scales would say today but needless to say, on the whole: below maintenance calories + exercise = weight loss.

[buffedstuff]

It's your time to shine stand strong. Enjoy the adventure.