139.4 again today. Meals 5 and 6 were a bit carbier than usual, though. I am going to chug water and stick to a late evening meal of a peanut butter protein shake tonight and see what happens in the morning.

I swapped out my Friday and Saturday workouts to give my chest and back a rest after yesterday’s pushup blitz. My ARMPITS are sore after those 225 pushups, if you can believe it! I did do forza this morning with some semblance of competence after a creaky start (who knew you needed muscles in your armpits to raise a wooden bokken over and over?), I am happy to report. I love swinging that sword around!

Meals are packed and there is enough bulk-prepped roasted chicken breast, veggies, and brown rice to get me through the whole weekend.

No major plans this weekend besides the UCF 2-miler on Sunday (one of my goals) and a lot of reading. I have a huge stack of books from the library waiting for me! About 6 of them are fiction (I’m on a dark fantasy kick right now with Laurell K. Hamilton, Lilith Saintcrow, Charlaine Harris, and Simon R. Green, and I also have Terry Pratchett’s latest Discworld novel, Making Money), but the other two are fitness/diet related: The New Rules of Lifting by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgove and You: On a Diet by the authors of You: The Owner’s Manual.

Oh, and I need to finish sewing the two dresses I am planning to wear in LA next weekend. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we won’t have to work this Saturday or Sunday.

While I am on the topic of sewing, I have to own up to a minor slip in my 1-year ban on purchasing any new clothing-related items. I picked up Vogue pattern V8465 from the VoguePatterns.com free pattern promotion for $3.18 (s/h) this week. It’s an extremely dashing asymmetrical coat pattern that would be perfect for one of those two bolts of garishly pink boucle’ suitings I got on clearance earlier this year.

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WORKOUT
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– Forza (60 min)
– Walk (15 min)

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NUTRITION
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M1: 30 g raisins, 30 g oats, 2.5 oz. chicken breast
M2: French toast and scrambled eggs (2 slices Nature’s Own Wheat ‘n’ Fiber bread, 1 whole egg, 3 egg whites, about 2 T. of light soy milk), 1/2 c. sauteed spinach, and 1 T. honey
M3: Pineapple soy protein smoothie
M4: 3 oz. lime and honey roasted chicken breast, 1/4 c. (dry measure) brown rice, 1 c. mixed veggies
M5: TBD (Might be cheat meal)
M6: Chocolate peanut butter protein shake (Optional. This meal may be skipped if M5 is larger than expected.)

139.6 lbs this morning again! This may be my new set point, LOL.

What’s really great is having the scale barely move at all but still feeling and seeing your body getting firmer, smaller, and leaner in clothes and photos. Realistically, I know I will need to be in the 130-134 range to achieve my body composition goal of 15% bf, but I would much rather hit goal at a higher scale weight just because that would mean I have more lean mass overall.

I seem to be losing at a very gradual rate of 0.5-0.75 lbs per week during this challenge, but that’s all right. I am eating more than I have in previous cuts (probably between 1600-1700/day, honestly), but they are clean, filling calories from foods I enjoy, so I don’t feel deprived, restricted, or resentful. When I feel like I need extra carbs, I let myself have them while adjusting calories elsewhere to keep my deficit around the same place every day. I don’t use my 5k run training as an excuse to blow my deficit every other day. The Runner’s World beginner’s 5k schedule is NOT that strenuous — Workouts are only 30 minutes long — so there is no justification for more calories.

Confession: I don’t *want* dramatic 2 lb drops every week. I want REAL fat loss with as much lean mass retention as possible, not the instant gratification of “losing” 2 pounds of temporary water weight. This sort of fat loss doesn’t always follow a -1 lb/week schedule, especially when I am already pretty fit beneath these few pounds of post-wedding fluff.

(Mind you, SLOW fat loss is not the same as NO fat loss. If you are stuck at the same scale weight but NOT seeing any reductions in body fat percentage or girth measurements, you need to reassess your program.)

My left knee was feeling a bit odd yesterday before and during my run, so I opted out of the planned morning FGX leg workout today and did 30 minutes of Plyo X instead. With my genetics, even walking, running, and jumping produces hypertrophy in my leg muscles, so I feel that plyometrics is a fair substitute for heavy weight training on occasion. I’ll get in the remaining 30 minutes when I get home tonight.

Breakfast is down the hatch along with 4 cups of water. I’ve got the rest of my meals packed, including a new lunch entree–WW French Toast with scrambled eggs and spinach–that I cannot wait to inhale at 1 pm.

Depending on whether or not I have to work late tonight, I may be having a cheat meal at Crazy Buffet with DH and my parents. We’ll see….

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WORKOUT
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– Plyo X (60 min)
– Walk (15 min)