Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Dani, Doubles, and Dieting!

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Day 0 vs. Day 30
Would you believe there is not a single pound lost between these two photos?!



So I have been neglecting this blog a little bit, and for that I am sorry. The reason is, I got DAMN frustrated about a week and a half ago! 2 1/2 weeks of dieting hard, and training harder, and I hadn't lost a single pound. Not. One. Pound. I didn't think I had set a very lofty goal to lose 12 pounds in 13 weeks, but apparently, my body disagrees. I mean, I am a personal trainer. This is what I do for people! Help them reach their goals. So why was I so stuck with reaching my own?

There were a couple things I believe to be the reason:

1. Diet. Man, I'm just going to say it. That p90x diet sucks. I see what they're doing, and I think it's a valiant attempt at universalizing a basic "cutting" diet so that anyone can figure it out, but I don't think it is a one-size-fits-all kind of deal. The problem for me personally is that this diet has very very very few carbs, but theyre all in one serving, so for one meal of the day, I feel bloated and heavy and uncomfortable, and the rest of the day I am starved. The other thing is that they push so many of their products into the diet (i.e bars, recovery drink, shakeology etc) that don't line up with the food groups they are otherwise telling you to eat....it's kind of confusing. And overall, I found it to be too low of a calorie diet.

2. I've been getting stronger. With few exceptions, you can't get stronger without gaining muscle. So I've been GAINING muscle, which means I must be losing fat in order for the scales to stay the same. To say how much or how little is too hard, but it explains the scale not moving.


Now the scale is not my number one concern, my bodyfat percentage is, so overall, I have moved closer to my goal. Huzzah! But I still have a ways to go, and here's how I am going to do it:

I can't keep doing the p90x diet. Although it is working really well for giacomo, it was making me really uncomfortable, and leaving me with no energy to workout. I know what works for me, I've done this before. So I have changed my diet to roughly a 40/30/30 diet (carbs/fat/protein) and it is at roughly 1600 calories. All of this is divided up into 3 meals and 2 snacks, and every meal has a little carbs, protein, and fat. The fat, overall, is a little bit higher than it is when I'm not dieting, but fat allows me to feel more satiated (think PB&J Smoothie...mmmm) and makes it feel like I'm less hungry in between meals. My last meal of the day is just veggies and protein, and if I'm really hungry later in the evening, I have a piece of fruit. Oh and I'm drinking a ton of water. I record everything I eat religiously into the Sparkpeople App on my iphone, but they also have a website that is even more awesome, but less portable ;-)

The other thing that I am doing differently is that I have decided to do p90x doubles instead of p90x classic. This means that on lifting days, I am doing TWO workouts--lifting and also doing the CardioX workout, which I actually really like. The biggest pain so far has just been the amount of time it takes since cardio is in the am and lifting is in the pm. I feel like I live in sweaty gym clothes on those days, but I can feel my cardiovascular capacity increasing which is a HUGE deal to me! But I am constantly sore ;-)


Giacomo and I are flying to NY next week and we'll be visiting his family in Brooklyn, and then going to Massachusetts to visit my family for a total of 14 days (I think), so traveling and keeping this up is going to be damn tricky. We did buy a good set of fitness bands on ebay, and we're both looking into getting passes to our old gyms, but we likely won't have the best transportation, or the ability to do laundry and will have to rely on the food we are served more than we'd like to, AHHHHH!


So, we have to go into this with a plan! And that we will!

3 comments:

  1. Dani - you look awesome! Those pictures totally show how much firmer you've become - very inspiring! I also agree that women and men are very different in achieving fitness results. Our bodies need different things at different times of the day. Dan and I experience different results all the time. Working out energizes and focuses Dan, plus he gets LESS hungry. For me, it makes me sleepy, exhausted and super hungry. Good luck at moving forward.

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  2. You look awesome girl... I am a bit torn right now between all the workout "advice" I am getting... you are picking up your cardio and you look awesome and other people are telling me to reduce my cardio and up the number of lifting days... I realize different things work for different people and there is no one size fits all, but it has been a bit frustrating for me too. I feel like last time I did this program I did not hit a plateau so early in the routine.

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  3. Yeah Sara, I noticed that on your blog yesterday. There is some truth to the fact that cardio can burn muscle if you do it too much or too hard, and if you don't keep your protein up.

    On the other hand, and more importantly i think, is that muscles NEED rest to recover and become stronger. On top of the p90x lifting regime, if you're going as hard as they want you to go. I wouldn't add any more lifting. Lifting heavier makes sense, but then you have to let them recover. It's during recovery that muscles grow.

    But there is no cookie cutter, and everyone's path is different. I got my best best BEST results in my life lifting 5 days a week, and doing 1 hour of low intensity cardio (i.e walking briskly) nearly everyday. Butit took up a huge chunk of my life and didnt really feel sustainable.


    And thank you Siobhan!!!

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