It's that time of year around here where every day someone is calling into work sick with some snotty, coughy thing. I was feeling pretty good about the superior abilities of my immune system and my habit of wiping the phones with disinfecting wipes (what? doesn't everyone do that?) And then, just as I was about to really get cocky about it all, I woke up yesterday morning all sweaty and lethargic and feeling like I must have swallowed my spiky butt ball during the night. I dragged myself out of bed just long enough to cancel my Salsa lesson and lunch date and then, pretty much, it's all been about sleeping it off and taking my vitamin C.
Of course I just couldn't help myself and I did get on the scales and see how March shaped up, weight-wise. Maintenance. I've been bringing up my calories slowly after reaching the 5kg 'lard off' mark because my body is remarkable at adjusting to a hypo-caloric diet and needs to be at maintenance for a few weeks every couple of months. Currently, my maintenance is at 'about' 2000 calories, which is nice. I say 'about' because you can never be sure about calorie counts for foods and also I don't count them every day. At one point, less than 18 months ago, I know for sure that my maintenance calories were lower than 1500 and I was gaining weight quickly on 1700. Now I lose fat on 1700-1800 calories and this makes me nearly delerious with happiness (or perhaps that's the flu medication kicking in). The plain fact is, eating and moving is the only way. Cutting calories, and then cutting then again when fatloss stalls, is a nasty business that will never get you lean and hard. Once you get to the point where you only lose fat at a low caloric intake that leaves so hungry that you want to eat your own hand off, then there is only one way out. You have to slowly eat more and let your metabolism recover. Or you can take drugs - that might work for a while, but it will only come along to bite you in the ass later with a metabolism crash and almost inevitable regain.
It sucks that we have to learn this the hard way. I'm going through something similar and finding that I can maintain on a pleasantly surprising number of calories. I am loving it! Not only that, but my energy level is through the roof, and my muslces are GROWING. I never thought I'd find a balance between an ice cream sundae on random Friday afternoon (ahem, yesterday) and then look forward to sweating my ass off with an hour long weight workout that same evening. My whole life it's been "Crap, I ate ice cream so might as well eat pizza for dinner and skip my workout". But when you find that awesome, happy, healthy middle ground, it's amazing what your body will do. I still struggle with that pesky all or nothing mindset from time to time, but lately I've been feeling strong and confident, eating well and eating lots, and training hard. It's awesome. No guilt here! I'm really happy to hear that you're doing things the right way. You're my inspiration Sara! (Along with Maggie, Skwigg and Kek.)
ReplyDeleteHope the snot-bug goes away FAST. Eeeuww! Betcha still look cute, even with a red drippy nose. :)
ReplyDeleteYes, I was just thinking how cute I looked at 3am when I was in the bathroom peering at myself in the mirror, taking my cough meds, wondering when the hell I'd be able to get to sleep... ;)
ReplyDeleteThe 'all or nothing' mentality seems to be something that occurs so often in people that have issues with food. I've noticed recently that it's not just eating that I do this with. Like, with achieving anything, daily tasks, I can be FULL ON and getting heaps done or I can be SLACKING and unmotivated, but the happy middle ground of getting something done, but not necessarily EVERYTHING, is taking some work. With training, I've mentally separated it from fat gain/loss. I have made it about performance, unrelated to what I might weight or what I might have eaten. I learned that when I did my BFL challenge. I wanted to win and that meant training even if I'd really, really screwed up with food. And, it meant eating well, even if I'd skipped training. Training is about fitness, eating is about health. yes, the two together affect how my body looks and feels, but I can't let my dedication to training be affected by how well I've eaten, or vice versa. It's hardly ever that I go a whole week without having an 'off' day one way or another. The trick to staying on track is to only let that one thing slide and keep everything else tight. :)
Can relate to that too Sara. All or nothing for me is my natural die hard way!!! With spending, organisation, work etc as well as the training/yo-yoing weight thing.
ReplyDeleteI'm such a hardcore committed person at work ALL the time. Prob too much so. But commitment in other areas of my life fluctuates!
Training is about performance for me too. I get encouraged when I get faster/stronger/meet new targets or come closer/beat an opponent/other team. The satisfaction of pushing self to the max shows this.
Different to a few years ago when I used to just go for 40 min runs but never measure distance covered, or spent 30 mins on the stepper with no real purpose other than hoping for some fat/weight loss by end of week. Actually I only started recording PB's down when I first read about Body For Life in 2004 so beating any of them since then is a thrill.