So this is me at 143 pounds…In both pictures.

What a difference body fat percentage makes, eh?

I was almost 27% body fat in the picture on the left, and I’m closer to 21% on the right. It’s not about the scale weight, it’s about what’s happening underneath the skin and how that is affecting your shape and volume.

It always takes me three weeks of clean eating and steady workouts to start seeing changes on the scale, but I usually start to see and feel changes in my body before then:

• sports bras and undies don’t cut in as much
• pants ride lower on my hips
• pant legs are looser
• top two abs start showing
• biceps and quads feel harder under the skin and fat
• face looks leaner
• tummy looks flatter from the side
• belt needs to be tightened up another notch or two

So keep the faith and press on with your program if you notice any of the above signs of progress… even if the scale seems to be stuck on the same three digits. Do some nutritional housecleaning if you haven’t been at least 90% compliant with your diet and make sure you are getting in all of your workouts. Between PMS week, TOM week, and TOM recovery week, we women really only have ONE week per month during which we are NOT somehow affected by water retention. That’s why I always give a program at least 4 weeks of consistent effort before I start to make changes.

And yes, it’s true: 8 lbs of muscle (the amount of lean mass I have put on since the 2004 picture) DOES take up less space than 8 lbs of fat.

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TODAY’S EATS
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1. Green Pre-workout smoothie (1 c. light soy milk, 3/4 scoop protein powder, 1 handful raw spinach, 1/2 nectarine, 1/2 banana, 4 ice cubes)
2. 3 egg white omelette with 1/3 c. French cut green beans, 60g oats and raisins, 5 pieces chili radish
3. 1/6 chicken pot pie with veggies, 1 c. green beans, 1/2 c. natural apple sauce
4. 10 almonds, 20 g raisins, 1/2 peach
5. 6 oz. sauteed tofu, 1/2 peach, 1 t. chili paste, 5 baby carrots, 2 T. raisins
6. 3.5 oz. beef in broth with 1 c. daikon radish and 2/3 c. green beans

Water: 16 cups
Supplements: multivitamin, calcium 600+D, 6 fish oil capsules

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TODAY’S WORKOUT
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* RCR Circuit B-1 (55 min)
* PDB walk (15 min)
* YF Flexibility (15 min)

No workout today; I am reviewing the exercises from the Red Carpet Ready program so I’ll be ready for tomorrow. Up until Friday I was still wavering on whether I’d join the RCR 6-Week contest since my training preferences and physique goals are so different from Val’s program, but based on a purely objective analysis of the photos I took Friday morning, I really need to burn off the surface fat over my muscles at this point and see what I actually have already, not attempt to put on more while I’m still (for me) so annoyingly fluffypants. Let’s be honest–it’s not nearly as fun to watch yourself shoulder press 27.5 lb dumbbells when all of your muscles are obscured by a 1/2″ layer of fat. I believe that RCR’s circuit-style workouts might just do the trick, and I’m curious to see if the program really can lean out someone with my body type–not just firm up a naturally skinny ectomorph–in just six weeks. I don’t actually care if I get a longer, lighter look or not after 6 weeks; I am 100% focused on body fat reduction. From prior experience, I know that is the real key for me.

So me and my little blue (not really pink, sorry!) 5 lb paperweight dumbbells and adjustable Powerblocks will indeed be taking on this challenge. I will do my best not to sneak my weights upward too often, but I’m going to complete the Hundred Push Ups challenge no matter what. I have three more weeks to go on it, and I’m already up to 70 reps. I refuse to give up on it when I’m so close to hitting 100! And lest you all fear that the effective Muscle & Fitness Hers program will be forgotten, don’t worry–I am going to pick it up right where I left off in Month 2 right after the RCR challenge ends on November 3.

I don’t actually have the Valslide or Valband needed for some of the exercises in the RCR program, but I think I can make do with my lightest green resistance tube tied into a 24″ circumference loop and (How frugally ghetto is this?) some plastic grocery bags over my shoes in lieu of the Valslides until I have a chance to get the real deals. 😉

Food has been pretty decent today though not as clean as it tends to be on weekdays. I might actually be under my target because I’ve been so busy. My friend Colleen came over today at 10 to do a trial once a month shopping and cooking session–a sort of DIY Dream Dinners experiment with healthier recipes and ingredient choices. We each brought $25 to spend on ingredients, and after checking for the best deals on protein sources in the grocery flyers and browsing through the Don’t Panic, Dinner’s in the Freezer cookbook, we decided to go with three different chicken entrees based on the super duper $1.49/lb boneless, skinless chicken breast deal at Albertsons.

For $25 apiece, we each made:

(2) 9″ Chicken Pot Pies (8 total servings)
(4) 4-serving bags of Cranberry Chicken (16 total servings)
(4) 4-serving bags of Oriental Sesame Chicken Strips (16 total servings)

Altogether it was around $0.63 per serving, which I think is pretty darn good for lean protein portions fancier than the basic nuked chicken breast. We would still have to add a carb and a veggie to the cranberry and Oriental chicken, but that stuff is a lot faster and cheaper to prep.

Assuming 30 days per month and two servings needed per day per person (lunch and dinner), DH and I would need 120 servings each month, or three times the amount we made up today.

I figure that would be $75 for those entrees, and then we’d only have to buy veggies, fruits, oats, grains, eggs, and a few incidentals on our weekly grocery trips–maybe $20 per week.

Right now I’m just waiting for a whole chicken to finish roasting and my first chicken pot pie (ever!) to finish baking. My weekly batch of 21 steam boiled eggs is already chilling in the fridge. I am sticking to my resolve to cut out dairy and wheat as much as possible in my diet, too, so I’ll need to come up with some alternatives to two of the snacks I’ve been relying on for the past month: WW turkey and pepper jack pita and 1/2 c. cottage cheese with fruit or cocoa powder. I did place an order on Friday for 5 lbs of Dymatize Elite whey in Rich Chocolate (the BEST tasting protein I’ve ever found when mixed with just water, and trust me, I’ve tried a LOT of them due to my lactose intolerance and sensitivity to artificial ingredients and flavorings) from Bodybuilding.com, and according to FedEx, it should be waiting for me at the office tomorrow. If my imagination fails me, I can always go with the old Fruit + Whey combo on Monday.

Oh, and my Internet has been repaired at last! The cable guy gave us a new modem (which the last one should have done), and now things are zipping along quite speedily. No more lost posts due to random connection drops!

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TODAY’S EATS
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M1: 2 slices turkey bacon, 3 white/1 whole egg scramble, 2 buttermilk pancakes, 1/2 T. honey
M2: 1.5 c. shrimp and veggie rice noodle stir-fry
M3: Fiber One Bar
M4: 4 oz. lean sirloin, 1 T. ketchup, 3/4 c. shrimp and veggie rice noodles
M5: 12 almonds, 2 t. raisins, 1 c. light soy milk
M6: 2 boiled eggs, 1 egg white

As you can see from the table above, I have been slowly but surely making progress in my spring cut. Of course it would be nice to see more dramatic numbers, but I console myself with the fact that although I have lost 2″ in both my chest and waist, my shoulder and relaxed bicep measurements are unchanged and my strength is still increasing steadily, which indicates that I am not losing any lean mass from my upper body on this program. I am nursing the hopeful dream that I may actually NOT have Skeletor’s bony chest when I reach 17% body fat this time around.

W00T!

I didn’t have time to take pics due to yesterday’s late night at work, but I’ll get some up by Sunday.

Diet and workouts were both 100% yesterday, but sleep was a bit on the low end at only 6 hours. I attempted to do my run intervals outside this morning, but my lower back just wasn’t having any of it. I had to stop after only 6 minutes and take a rain check on the workout. I’ll be doing today’s workouts after work (when my body and back in particular should be warmed up) at the gym and at home, then hitting the sack with something exceptionally boring to knock me out — like the final Harry Potter novel, upon which I had previously given up around page 118 due to its gratuitous surplus of words combined with a noticeable shortage of action.

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WORKOUT
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– Interval Run (20 min)
– Incline Walk (10 min)
– Hip Hop Abs Total Body Burn (40 min)

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NUTRITION
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M1: 2 whole egg/3 egg white omelette with 1/2 c. mixed veggies
M2: 1/2 c. light soy milk, 3/4 scoop protein powder, 1/2 T. cocoa powder, 3/4 oz. walnuts
M3: 1 c. chicken and veggie in red sauce stir fry, 1 double-size granola chocolate chip protein cookie
M4: 1/2 c. light soy milk, 3/4 scoop protein powder, 1/2 T. cocoa powder, 1 T. Naturally More ANPB
M5: 1.5 c. chicken and veggie in red sauce, 3/4 oz. walnuts
M6: 1 scoop protein powder, 1/2 T. Naturally More ANPB

Supplements: 1 multivitamin, 1 vitamin C, 1 vitamin D + 500 mg Calcium, 6 fish oil caps

141.0 lbs, 20.4% bf according to the Omron at work.

I am confident that I am actually in the 140.x range, but yesterday was pancake breakfast day with DH, and we also went out to Bahama Breeze for dinner with his mother. I ordered the Red Pepper grilled chicken breast with crispy yucca and veggies, which wasn’t that bad, especially since I only ate half of it, but I also had some of the after-dinner Publix mint choco chip ice cream and coffee with half and half, which WAS bad since it totally bloated me up with lactose. Blargh. No more ice cream or dairy creamer for the next 5 weeks. It’s not worth the recovery time.

Besides, I only really like Breyer’s ice cream anyway.

I didn’t quite make it up at 6 AM for my workout, but I was at the gym by 7 AM, and got everything in. I started the TT Mass Fusion program today with a heavy chest and back workout. I have decided to flip flop the order of the sets a bit in this workout to get in BB bench and wide-grip seated rows first instead of in the third non-competing superset so I can push more weight. I know I can go heavier with dumbbells–probably up to 50 pounders–but not without a spotter to help me get them up into position.

The best part about being back at the gym was looking over to the left and seeing two regular-size guys (e.g. not super skinny or unfit looking) doing many of the same exercises that I was…using 5-10 pounds LESS weight in each hand. I LOVE that.

I also found out why they moved my precious squat racks into the dim, unventilated corner and fenced off 1/4 of the weight room floor: my Planet Fitness now has a Curves-style “PF Express” 30-minute workout circuit set up over there. I saw three people use the area this morning, and I admit to being a bit curious. I might explore it myself this Saturday after my intervals on the treadmill. I didn’t really look at the shiny new purple and yellow machines, so I don’t know if they are real cable/weight equipment or those lame hydraulic ones used at Curves. There ARE some nice 1.5′ – 2′ tall boxes set up there that would rock for step ups, elevated pushups, and box jumps, though.

Anyway, I did 16 minutes of bike sprints after the weights, then went home and hit 30 minutes of HHA Fat Burning Cardio. And now I am all set for workouts for the day and can just chill when I get home tonight…

Oh wait. Never mind. I just remembered that I am working late tonight until at least 9 PM.

I guess I will just be passing out when I get home, with no chill time prior to getting my zzzzzzz’s.

I’m officially only 4 weeks out from completing this challenge, and after some experimentation with the 4-day splits in the Get Lean, Gain Mass and TT Ultimate Mass programs as my work, gardening, and social schedule have gotten busier, I’ve decided to go back to a 3-day TT program to allow for more interval work and shorter workouts on Tues/Thurs/Sat. There’s also the issue of nutrition–I’m going to be carb cycling for the next 28 days, and weightlifting gives me such raging carb hungries that I’ll blow my 90% compliance within 2 days if I try to stick with 4 days of lifting. 🙂

I have Week 8 stats and will take pics tomorrow morning to post. Despite taking a full week and a half off and only hitting workouts about 75% last week, I still lost some girth in various spots and strength levels are actually BETTER than before. I guess there IS something to be said for giving the body a rest while still eating clean.

4-week plan for the final 28 days of my challenge:

Program: TT 8-Week Mass Fusion (Weeks 1-4)
Nutrition: Swolegenix

MON: Mass Fusion Workout A + Bike Intervals
TUE: Run Intervals + my choice light activity (30 min of yoga, Yourself Fitness, Hip Hop Abs, Forza, or skate)
WED: Mass Fusion Workout B + Bike Intervals
THU: Run Intervals + my choice light activity (30 min)
FRI: Mass Fusion Workout C + Bike Intervals
SAT: Run Intervals + my choice light activity (30 min)
SUN: Rest

And most of my team is still kicking ASS in the office fitness challenge!

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WORKOUT
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– Mass Fusion Workout A
C1) Bench Press (3×6 @ 105, 110, 110 lbs)
C2) Wide-grip Seated Row (3×6 @ 97.5, 97.5, 105 lbs)
B1) DB Incline Press (2×8 @ 35, 40 lbs)
B2) DB Fly (2×10 @ 20 lbs)
A1) DB Flat Press (3×6 @ 40, 45 lbs)
A2) DB Row (3×6 @ 35, 40 lbs)

– Bike Intervals (16 min, Level 15-16 hard/Level 8 recovery)

– Hip Hop Abs Fat Burning Cardio (30 min)

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NUTRITION
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M1: Granola chocolate chip cookie (PWO)
M2: 30g oats, 30g raisins, 1/2 c. veggies, 3 oz. marinated chicken breast
M3: 2 corn tortillas, 3 T. salsa, 3 oz. chicken breast, 1/2 oz. part-skim mozzarella
M4: 1 scoop protein, 3/4 oz. walnuts
M5: 3.5 oz. marinated chicken breast, 1 c. veggies, 3/4 oz. walnuts
M6: 1 scoop protein, 1 T. Naturally More ANPB with flax seed and flax oil

Supplements: 1 multivitamin, 1 vitamin C, 1 vitamin D + 500 mg Calcium, 6 fish oil caps