Thoughts: I’m incredibly relieved to be back on plan today. This weekend was a lot of fun between my Challenge 2 ten week progress photos, the Karaoke Revolution potluck dinner party at my apartment on Saturday and movie time yesterday (I saw The Incredibles….loved it!), but it is time to return to regular life again. Isn’t it strange to call 6 meals and 60-150 minutes of hardcore exercise a day “regular life”? If you asked most of my co-workers, they’d tell you that I was absolutely abnormal.

My weigh-in today was another milestone low for me–128.0 lbs. I also took some caliper measurements and calculated my body fat at 17.26%. To hit my soft target of 16% in two weeks, I’ll need to drop another 2 lbs while maintaing my lean body mass. As long as I keep my nutrition solid and my current level of physical activity up, that shouldn’t be a problem.

I know this matter is still open to debate, but I’m really leaning toward the BFFM and LL philosophies on cardio for fat loss in women these days, particularly for those of us with sedentary jobs and hobbies, long-term resident body fat (i.e. I’ve been a consistent 140 lbs-156 lbs for nearly 15 years…my body did NOT want to let go of some of those familiar fat stores), and a decent level of cardiovascular fitness. I did 20 minutes of HIIT as prescribed by the BFL book for 18 weeks, eventually building up to a very decent interval speeds of 4.5, 6.0, 7.0, and 8.0 mph with a level 10 max of 9.0-9.5 mph. Trust me, I do NOT slack on my HIIT. It’s not as if I were just half-assing my 20 minutes of cardio with some brisk walking speeds.

Still, despite maintaining an average caloric intake of 1500-1600 calories a day, enough to give me 0.5 lbs of fat loss a week, my weight pretty much stalled at 134 lbs during the first 6 weeks of this second challenge. I did put on a little more muscle (big thanks to Renee/Skwigg, Stasia, and Mandi from the BodyforlifeWomensClub2 Yahoo group for their advice about this at the start of my challenge!) and lose a bit of fat, but generally speaking, I think my body had adapted to BFL too well and was going to lock in permanently at 134 lbs and 19%-20% body fat unless I kicked things up a few notches. I did the equivalent of BFL workouts in the Army for 4 years, and became fit but not lean or toned. The same thing was happening to me after the initial spurt of changes that came with my first BFL challenge. I was noticeably leaner than I was in the Army, but I was still not really cut yet. I feel like the Army got me 33% to my goal, BFL to 66%, and now this extra cardio is needed to get me to 100%. I’m just not willing to settle for being merely somewhat toned and normal. Call me an overachiever, but I figure if I’ve overhauled my entire lifestyle from the ground up–giving up most of my favorite Asian dishes in their original forms, setting myself apart diet-wise from the majority of the American population, ignoring the temptations of office candy, and taking my butt to the gym 6 days a week–I should shoot for something a little more spectacular.

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Nutrition (1200-1400 calorie low zigzag day)
1: Chocolate peanut butter banana shake with Creastack
2: Chinese chicken salad
3: Chocolate peanut butter banana shake
4: Cottage cheese with strawberries
5: Strawberry raisin bar
6: 3×1 veggie omelette and broccoli with oyster sauce

Supplements:
Multivitamin with iron
Calcium 500 + D
1 T. flax seed oil
1/2 t. GNC Creastack

Calories eaten and deficit for yesterday = 2103 / +438 (target -700)
Water: 12 cups
Ratios: 49% carb / 21% protein / 30% fat

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Workout:
7:20 am steady state run (6.0 mph / 0% incline / 10 minutes)
7:30 am UBWO + LL push-ups
8:30 am steady state elliptical (30 minutes)
3:00 pm walk (4 mph / 15 minutes)
11:00 pm steady state bike (30 minutes)

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The Awful Truth:
1. Yesterday turned into a quasi-free day. I had 6 holiday cookies leftover from the potluck dinner, some movie theater popcorn and some Terra veggie chips. Oh well.

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Brownie Points:
1. 100% workout attendance since May 31, 2004!
2. Did my LL 100 push-ups between back exercise sets.

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Short-term Goals:
1. Fold leftover laundry.
2. Pay bills.
3. Prep a bunch of tuna oatmeal snacks.