For me, the primary appeal of the 12-week fitness challenge format that most programs utilize is the fact that for three whole months I don’t have to concern myself with figuring out my next moves in nutrition and exercise. I just have to check out the plan at the beginning to make sure the numbers add up to a caloric deficit each day if I’m cutting or a slight surplus if I’m bulking, and then I just cruise along on autopilot for the next three months eating what I’m supposed to eat when I’m supposed to eat it and checking off my prescribed workouts each day.

That was what my first Body-for-Life challenge was like–pure, blind faith in the program. There was no second-guessing the diet or workout routines. I just followed instructions and lo and behold, the results came along on their own.

I really miss those days of simplicity sometimes when I’m reading all of the diet and fitness advice and tweaks that abound on the web. I don’t have any thyroid or metabolism-related issues, so fat loss for me is a simple matter of Calories Eaten - Calories Burned Through Exercise.

This being the case, ANY diet that adds up to 1200-1600 calories a day will cause me to drop body fat as long as I am working out approximately 30-60 minutes a day, whether it is 40/40/20, 50/30/20, 40/30/30, or any other macronutrient ratio you want to name.

The problem comes when the portion of my brain that houses my power-gaming, efficiency-maximizing compulsion starts making a pest of itself. That part of me won’t be content until it learns exactly WHICH combination of macros, which daily calorie target, how much cardio, what type of lifting split, and how much sleep produce the optimum results in my body.

It’s been nearly two years since I started my first BFL challenge, and I’m still in search of my own perfect formula for maximum results in 12 weeks. I like the freedom of tweaking things myself, but I also enjoy just sitting back and letting a trusted expert handle the details of planning while I simply execute my orders. (This is probably a leftover bit of brainwashing from the Army days.)

With my fitness motivation flagging in the past few months as my art motivation picked up, I knew I needed to go back into mindless drone mode for a while. For the next 12 weeks I’ll be following the training, diet, and supplement recommendations of a trainer so I can put my energy into some other areas of my life. As with Swolegenix, I agreed not to post details of my program in my blog, but I will post measurements and progress photos on a monthly basis as well as my thoughts and reactions to the program.

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Nutrition:
1: 2 T. peanuts, 1/2 c. Kashi GoLean cereal
2: 3×1 spinach omelette, 1/3 c. (dry) oatmeal, 1 T. raisins, 1 T. wheat bran
3: 3 oz. tuna, 1 c. raw zucchini and squash slices, 2 c. Smart Pop popcorn
4: 2/3 c. yogurt cheese, 2 T. sugar free strawberry preserves
5: 4 oz. sauteed tilapia, 3/4 c. cooked brown rice, 1 c. broccoli and B. sprouts
6: 4.5 oz. turkey patty wrapped in Romaine lettuce, 2 T. ketchup

Daily Supplements: multivitamin with iron, calcium 600 + D, 1 T. flaxseed oil or natural peanut butter

Water: 16 cups minimum

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Workout:
8:00 AM Chest/shoulders/abs with trainer (30 minutes)
8:00 PM Yourself Fitness Cardio (15 minutes)
8:15 PM SGX UBWO (35 minutes)

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The Awful Truth:
1. Missed meal 6 yesterday due to evening drawing group. Got home too late for another meal.
2. Only drank 10 cups of water.

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Brownie Points:
1. Down to 138.8 today
2. Stuck with 2 brownie free meal plan instead of munching on *just* one more.
3. Was semi-social–talked to high school friend Heather to plan Saturday outing and dragged myself away from Dancing With The Stars to go to the Sketchsouth session at B&N.
4. Fixed name/online status display issue on Pinkdumbbells.com.
5. Upgraded Joomla installation to 1.07.

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Short-term Goals:
1. Work on paper doll sketches.
2. Fix remaining issues with Joomla migration at Pinkdumbbells.com.
3. Locate new Events module for PDB.
4. Upgrade Community Builder component at PDB.
5. Set up archived version of The Training Journal forum at PDB from Hershey Girl’s backup.
6. Plant spring veggie garden; find organic solution for powdery stuff on eggplant leaves.
7. Create workout mix based on fave songs from Guitar Hero….yes, I’m that addicted.