I had the meeting with my 12-week challenge trainer today. That meant a weigh-in and body fat analysis, as well as an intense and rather humbling training session. (Nothing like 40 minutes of pure torture from the Mr. Olympia-esque fitness director of your local Gold’s Gym to remind you how far you need to go.) But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Here are the results:
weight lost: 5 1/2 pounds.
At first I was a little bummed out by this because when I did my weigh in before I broke my fast from seven days of juicing I had lost a little over seven pounds. But I guess I expected it to bump up a bit since I had returned to normal eating for a day and a half. Surely some of the weight lost was from water and waste products leaving the body, and I actually worried for a moment that I was just going to gain it all back. But my fears were quickly put to rest when I got the results of my body fat reading!
body fat lost: 2% (which translated to FOUR pounds of fat lost)
Honestly I didn’t know exactly what to expect here. I was hoping that the percentage at least stayed the same, so I was thrilled with the results! When you lose body fat you don’t have to worry about gaining it back right away. You only gain a pound of fat if you take in 3,500 calories above your needs. So, I consider that weight to be gone. Sayonara! (side note: since I was torching four pounds of body fat last week – and having to metabolize all the toxins and yuckiness contained therein, no wonder I felt so awful!)
You may wonder why I don’t post my actual numbers, and instead only share pounds and percentages lost. I actually thought long and hard about this. I could have made the blog very fun and reminiscent of Bridget Jones. (i.e. January 15. Weight = ___, # cigarettes = ___, alcohol units = ___. Except for the cigarettes, of course – my Paris days being looong behind me. And we all know there are no alcohol units this month as per the Norwegian rules.) In the end I realized that the exact numbers were beside the point. Every woman is different and has her own numbers that reflect her perfect picture of health and fitness, and I want us all to be able to relate to one another. Obviously the extremity of the goal will vary depending on whether you are a mom or an olympic athlete, but everyone has a point where they feel really great in their own skin (or should). I’m not saying that I am currently dissatisfied with myself. True, I was in a pretty dark place shortly after being diagnosed with hypothyroidism, having all this extra weight on my frame that was used to running half marathons and adventure races. But now, I see it as a blessing. It forced me to slow down, reassess and be kind to myself.
I took care of my health first, and now I’m ready to get my body back. And here’s how far I have to get back to my goal “fighting shape.”
17 pounds left to lose
8% body fat to lose
This is even 8 pounds heavier and 4% more body fat than at my lowest, most “extreme” fit, which I don’t aspire to at all. It’s not like I’m giving up on myself or cutting myself a break because I’m a mom. I look back at pictures at that weight, and it’s not especially attractive. Skinny is not sexy. Period.
So, there! I’ve put my goals out there, and I’ll be checking in regularly to share my progress. I think it’s really going to help having to go get weighed in every seven days during the challenge. One week down – eleven more to go!
xoxo,
CA
p.s. I know I promised juicing tips today, but this post has gone a little longer than I expected! And when bébé wakes up from her nap, she is a hungry bear cub in need of snacks and attention. I have some décor inspiration to share tomorrow, but before the week is out I’ll have that post for y’all.
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Do you have any tips for losing body fat, as opposed to just losing weight?
That’s a great question! Here are some guidelines that I try to follow:
- Make sure you don’t go into starvation mode, where your body will try to “protect” its fat stores. You can do this by eating about every 3 hours (small meals) and making sure your foods are very nutritionally dense (lots of produce, no processed junk.) I think this is why even on a juice fast I was able to shed a good amount of pure body fat because green juice is a huge dose of vitamins, minerals and oxygen.
- Do strength training 2-3 times a week to develop your lean body mass (muscle), and then reward those muscles by including lean protein with every meal and snack. Here’s a good guideline: breakfast = fruit smoothie with vegan protein*, am snack = apple with almond butter, lunch = green veggie salad with grilled chicken, pm snack = baby carrots and hummus, dinner = sautéed veggies and baked salmon. (*I like vegan protein, because whey protein is very acidic. Speaking of which. . .
- Try to make your body as alkaline as possible. Acidic food and drinks create something in your body known as metabolic acidosis. Your body will hold on to visceral stores of fat to protect your organs. There are charts online that will show you where foods fall on the acidity scale, but you don’t have to stress over it too much. Just remember that processed foods, sugar, coffee, and animal products are acidic. You don’t have to give up all coffee or animal products if your diet is heavy with plant-based goodness. One little switch that can make a difference –> peanut products are very acidic. Almond products are alkaline. :)
- Give your body a chance to completely digest your dinner before you go to bed (about 3 hours is ideal). That way your body can focus on repair and fat metabolism.
- A supplement I really like is CLA (conjugated linoleic acid). CLA is typically found in beef and dairy (from grass-fed cattle) and encourages the development of lean muscle and the metabolism of body fat. If you avoid beef or dairy, this is a great thing to take!
Hope that helps!
Super helpful! I need to print this out :)
Thank you!