Thoughts: Another day of cardio done. I MUCH prefer weight training days, even though they take longer, and I still wind up having to do 50-60 minutes of cardio on top of the lifting anyway. I have been feeling burned out on treadmill HIIT. Running is so incredibly efficient at burning calories that I keep doing my HIIT on the treadmill, but I’m starting to resent every minute of my BFL cardio runs. I suspect that it’s time to switch to elliptical before I actually consider something as lame and pathetically weak as reducing my speeds or quitting after 3 sets of intervals.

The contrast between my easy moderate steady state cardio (split between treadmill and bike) is also messing with my perception of HIIT. When HIIT was my ONLY cardio, I didn’t mind the intervals at all. My brain, lungs, and legs didn’t have any other context for running with which they could compare the difficulty of high intensity intervals. Now, though, they get to take it easy on 5.2 and 6.0 mph steady state runs for 20-30 minutes almost every day, and they flat out do NOT want to participate when it’s time to do those tough intervals. Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle recommends switching between high impact and low impact cardio activities in any case, partly to address the burnout issue, and party to stave off any overuse/training injuries. When I started this challenge, I said I was going to alternate my cardio, but I didn’t really follow through. Now, I think I won’t have much choice if I plan to keep up my momentum through the holidays and onward to my birthday in mid-January.

My weigh-in this morning showed a drop of 0.6 pounds since Tuesday to 129.0 lbs flat. I’m now only a pound away from my estimated scale weight goal from the beginning of this challenge. I’m still increasing my weight load on strength training days, so I am pretty sure I’m not losing lean body mass. I’ll do a full measurement, Accu-measure caliper, photo, and Tanita scale weight check Saturday morning before breakfast and exercise to confirm, but I’m pretty confident that most of the recent weight loss has been limited to body fat. I’m still averaging around 1500-1600 calories a day, so the additional cardio and challenge exercises seem to be the catalysts for my fat loss after many weeks of stalled (scale-weight) progress.

I don’t think that extra cardio is the answer for everyone out there, but I do believe that Tom Venuto makes a good point in BFFM regarding adaptation. Beginners, people who haven’t been active in a while, and genetically-gifted ectomorphs and mesomorphs might see some very good results initially by just doing their 20 minutes of HIIT three times a week, but if your progress is stalled after a few months of this regimen while your nutrition is still clean and your weight training keeps on progressing, it just makes sense to bump up your deficit a little bit with some additional cardio. And really, it’s not a permanent increase. Once you hit goal body fat/weight, you cut back to a normal 3-4 days of cardio a week for maintenance.

It’s working for me so far, but you can BET I wish I were one of the lucky ones who could get away with just the 20 minute cardio solution, LOL.

Pardon the lame menu for the day. I tried to go home for lunch to grab my homemade strawberry protein bars, whip up an omelette, and pick up some spiced apples to go with my cottage cheese stash at work, but it turns out that the apartment complex’s maintenance staff is repainting the landings on my building today, and I wasn’t allowed to go inside! One-third of a Subway sub with 1/2 c. of cottage cheese is just about perfect for a BFL meal, though, so I guess it’s sandwich day for me.

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Nutrition (1200-1400 calorie low day with carb tapering)
1: Strawberry oatmeal
2: 1/3 Subway roast beef on WW; 1/2 c. cottage cheese
3: 1/3 Subway roast beef on WW; 1/2 c. cottage cheese
4: 1/3 Subway roast beef on WW; 1/2 c. cottage cheese
5: Thai chicken salad
6: 3×1 veggie omelette

Supplements:
Multivitamin with iron
Calcium 500 + D
1 T. flax seed oil

Calories eaten and deficit for yesterday = 1716 / -912 (target -700)
Water: 14 cups
Ratios: 41% carb / 40% protein / 19% fat

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Workout:
7:00 am HIIT cardio–treadmill run
Warm up- 4 mph / 0% incline / 7 minutes
HIIT - 4.5, 6, 7, and 8 mph / 0% incline / 4 sets
Max - 9 mph / 0% incline / 1 minute
Cooldown - 4.0 mph / 0% incline / 5 minutes

7:30 am Tai chi class (60 minutes)
8:30 am steady-state cardio - recumbent bike / levels 5-7 / 30 minutes
8:00 pm Holiday challenge (20 push-ups, crunches, squats, and jumping jacks plus 80 push-ups for LL challenge)

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The Awful Truth:
1. Subbed chicken with a bit of fruit for my salad last night. Just wasn’t up to prepping the dressing!

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Brownie Points:
1. 100% workout attendance!
2. Finished extra cardio and BFL core cardio this morning.
3. Went to tai chi class and didn’t look like a complete dork.
4. Still haven’t had any Halloween candy.

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Short-term Goals:
1. Cook the rest of the chicken in the fridge.
2. Do the laundry.
3. Take some more progress photos.
4. Make shopping list for potluck dinner on Saturday.