Body For Life – 5 week update
So I am about 5 weeks into the BFL – Body for Life challenge and thought it was perhaps time to drop in an update and outline my progress so far.
There have been a few changes, the weight has started to drop – 9lbs in total. I lost a bit in the first couple of weeks and then as usual I hit a plateau and then over the last few days its started to drop a bit again. Here’s the weight chart:
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There also appears to have been some change to my body composition, with a small but definate (I think) increase in muscle mass and a decrease in the body fat mass – which is what I’m in it for.
I am probably not quite on target to achieve my high weight loss goals for this challenge, so I better start making more of an effort. I am spot on with the exercise, doing more cardio than prescribed and working hard with the weight training. I am mostly ok with the diet but I am allowing myself a drink once or twice a week, which I really ought to stop.
Generally I have found the diet ok. It took a while to fathom out what I needed to eat to get a portion of protein and carb at each meal but when that was sorted I find my six meals a day amounts to about 1800 cals a day. Thats not bad – all about portion control.
A typical days food intake will be:
Breakfast – Banana and protein smoothie
AM Break – Ham slices and 3 rice cakes
Lunch – Chicken fillets, couscous and carrots
PM Break – Myoplex Diet shake
Tea – Grilled Tuna, new potatoes, cabbage
Evening – Cottage cheese and 3 rice cakes
Initially I was sceptical of the protein supplements but they are a blessing. It’s hard work preparing so many meals with 1 portion of carbs and 1 portion of protein, particularly at breakfast. The protein powder means I can have a nutritious fruit shake and still get the protein I need. The myoplex diet is useful after my gym workout as its easy and actually feeds my sweet cravings as its basically the only pudding style food I allow myself.
I think the program has proved very positive so far. It has given me a boost on the fitness front again as I’ve joined the gym and go every day. Not only does this mean that I’m lifting weights but I also use the treadmill. My running has shifted up a gear as a result. Since I’ve started BFL, I ran my first 5k, this morning I increased this to 7k and I’m registered in a 10k event for October.
First, let me say that in my 1st challenge, the weight loss accelerated at the end because all the muscle built up really starts burning up the calories. So I was not just buring from my workouts, but my metabolism also began consuming more calories. I actually have to be careful not to skip meals when I am busy or my body starts to go into hybernation mode (fat storage mode) pretty quickly.
Second, I love your website. I see it is through WordPress. Do you pay extra to have advertisements on it? I went with Blogger.com because I wanted to be able to advertise if I wanted to and am very disappointed with the templates Blogger offers. You have done a really nice job on this blogsite.
Congratulations on the 5K run and good luck on the 10K. I hope when I get my weight down enough, that I can start running again without knee pain.