Day 55

Had two whole days off of training and diet. Today, back at it. Did legs. And since I typically don't have cardio on legs, I didn't do the elliptical. But I did walk for 30 minutes after weights.

I have found some renewed motivation from somewhere and I am going to hit the diet hard over the next four weeks. I will be entering the final phase of the 12 week fit trainer starting Monday. Just the thought of this training regimen being over in 4 short weeks is scaring the crap out of me. I don't feel like I am anywhere near my goal body. And if I am going to make some sizable progress, I am going to have to cut calories. I have spent the last two months strictly building muscle by training as hard as I can with weights and eating as much as I can to support muscle growth. I think since there will be some carb cycling and sprinting and all that good stuff coming up, I am going to try some 1200 calorie days to see if I can't peel some of this damn fat off my thighs ONCE AND FOR ALL!!! It is still there, staring me down in the mirror day after day. Which says to me that I have to bite the bullet and get into a substantial calorie deficit week after week. I don't know what my legs would look like if I lost 4 pounds of fat but I don't think there is much fat to be lost anywhere else except the butt and thigh area. So I'm guessing it would look tons better. I do have a little cushion around my lower back, I can tell if I wear my tighter fitting jeans. So I could lose some there too, but just barely. It can't be more than a half a pound, if that. Really, it's all just guesstimating. BUT, I have got to try and get it off. 4 pounds. That's the goal I'm shooting for. If (or should I say when?) I get rid of 4 pounds, I can judge from there if I need to take off more.

Let's look at this from a mathematical standpoint. Say to maintain my weight I need 2000 calories a day (which, by my calculations, is maintenance for me). And I can truly stay at 1200 calories a day for 7 days, I will be in a 5600 calorie deficit. That is enough to lose over a pound and a half in 7 days. I know that keeping calories at 1200 a day will be a HUGE challenge for me. But if I can just maintain that for 7 days, to see if it works, and it does, I will be home free! Because I have NEVER been able to maintain that low of a calorie range for that time period. Usually after 2 days I feel it. That is when it becomes so important to fill up on veggies and water. But I've just got to try. Pissing around, not knowing how many calories I'm taking in, is just not getting me where I want to be fast enough. Drastic times call for drastic measures. I'll never know unless I try. I've got to give it my all. And if I am successful, I can reward myself with all my favorite Christmas goodies on Christmas Eve =)

So it's strict calorie counting for me. I started today. It's 3:15pm and I've got one more meal to go, and 400 calories left. I think I will have cauliflower mash and fish. And I've decided that when hunger strikes about 8pm (and it always does) I will have sliced tomatoes with salt and pepper. That is a favorite snack of mine.

I'm scared. This goal scares me. But I've read that if your goal doesn't scare you at least a little bit, you haven't aimed high enough. It's time to get serious.