I’m going to be honest. Week three has not been fun, and saying that after the week in which I had a chronic ear infection is saying something! This is the first week I have found sticking to the diet plan to be hard work and mentally draining. There haven’t been any points when I’ve nearly cracked, but I have been craving loads of different foods, and becoming generally really food obsessed. When I realise I can’t have the foods I am craving I feel a resigned acceptance. I know in the long run it’s for the best, but it won’t stop me staring at the chocolate trolley when it trundles past on the train. Or wanting to inhale the whole lot.
I have also learned an important lesson about preparation this week. I’ve been all over the place with long train stints and relying on clients to provide lunches (pre-ordered chicken salads). This has meant long periods of hunger, not being quite sure what to track, and struggling to pick appropriate snacks at the endless train stations. I had thought that throughout this process I would be able to take quite a strict approach to what I eat, a relaxed approach to planning my eating, but as time goes on, it’s becoming clearer that everything needs to be planned down to the final detail when I’m not somewhere I can access food easily. Sunday afternoons will now have the extra fun job of planning meals as well as food prep!
In the last two weeks I have lost 4.1% body fat, which I am absolutely blown away by and really pleased with as a start. However, since my 1kg drop in the first week, my scale weight has stayed resolutely put. Now, there are many potential reasons for this: my body has been ill and therefore stressed, I could be holding onto excess water weight. But on a 12 week plan we don’t have time for any bad weeks, and if my scale weight stays the same over the weekend, there’s every chance my body fat won’t have dropped again on Monday, which is a delay I just can’t afford! To reach my target I need to lose an average of 1% every week until the end of the plan, which is a tall order.
This means that next week it’s more cardio, and less food. The thought of this isn’t doing my mood much good at the moment, but as long as I can fit a Grenade bar in my macros most days (these are manna from heaven and Jamie Alderton is a demi-God for inventing them/having those abs) then I think I will cope.
Saying this, my training has been great. I have managed to fit in a lunchtime cardio session (just 30 minutes) on one of the only days I’ve been in the office, and I’ve really enjoyed all my sessions. I’m training harder than ever, and this morning managed to get my hip thrusters up to 100kg (for 12 reps, after 3 sets of 8). So there are positives! I have one more weight training session to do this weekend, and am aiming to get 1 hr 30 of cardio in on top, plus a potential wintery walk somewhere!
I think it being Halloween this week is very apt for my doomy and gloomy blog post, but when I started this I knew it wasn’t going to be plain sailing. For now, I am just happy that my body fat has continued to drop, that my training is going really well, and that I am managing to resist temptation (even if it makes me sad inside).
Next week I am looking forwards to trying to hit the cardio a bit harder, hoping to get a slide on my scale weight and easing back on the weight training slightly to let my body recover! Fingers crossed it’ll be a good one!
Until then…