One major struggle I’ve had with weight is zig-zagging. For those that don’t know, to zig zag is to fluctuate in weight. 150, 160, 155, 165 and it’s a cycle. For the last few months, I’ve had an issue where I get to 185 pounds, and my weight starts climbing back up. I don’t really go past 190, but I’ve had a goal weight in 2011 of 180, and I get close, see it, and slip away. I feel like the Fitness version of Sisyphus. I try to analyze why this occurs, and I came up with the following:

Stopping Cardio

I usually ease up on cardio when I get to 185. Maybe that’s it. I don’t think that my calories increase when I don’t run, but maybe my body is used to the extra calories burned? I know with my body type, I need to do some cardio in order to at least maintain. So at minimum 3 days a week si necessary.

Diet

This is the easiest to point out. I know the last time I jumped up in weight was after a holiday, smh. I get bored with what I eat a lot, and need to compensate for changes in caloric intake. When I get to 185, that’s the time to really watch what I eat, lockdown, and make sure that’s not a factor.

Plateau

I thought about this as well. may be I hit a wall when I get that low, and my body reacts and pushes back. Is this the time to work twice as hard? Monitoring my progress is key more than ever.

My one fear is that when I do a maintenance diet/workout plan, my body will get comfy and go back once I reach my goal. I can’t let it happen. I know now that I have to go under 180 to maintain it (giving myself a 5lb buffer between 175 and 180 with 180 being the ceiling). Hopefully I can end the zig zag, and make constant progress in my workouts.

Any of you deal with weight fluctuations? Did you defeat it? Let me know!

I’ve been doing completely different exercise routines for the last 3 weeks. The main reason is because I’ve been getting bored. As you know, I’ve done the P90X and Insanity programs, which are awesome. I graduated from those and got great results. I wanted more variety, and loved the gym, so for this year I’ve been weight training. My biggest challenge is getting cardio sessions. I haven’t been able to get up in the morning in time to do AM cardio the past couple of weeks (yes excuses), so I do it after weight lifting. Then I get to the gym, do a grueling superset/triset workout, look at the cardio machines, and say “F*ck School”.

I have a lot fo nagging little injuries that I need to rest as well. There was a point where I wanted to do 2 a day cardio (and still do), but my body is getting super fatigued, which can be counter productive to my fitness goals. The contest is going well, but I fear my weight zig zag is rearing its ugly head once again. Consistency is key.

What I decided to do is to pace myself. Give myself overall fitness goals, and give myself a week to reach them. If I say cardio 4x a week, I meet that goal in however way possible. Anything after that is extra credit. If I have to go to a lower impact weight workout to give myself more energy for the cardio after, so be it. My workout and fitness logs have shown me that overexertion doesn’t pay off. I want quick results but forget about the work it takes. Slow and steady, but it’s time to end excuses and make it happen. Think of every cliché in the book and I mean that, lol. Seriously, in my mind there’s no way that after 6 weeks of my current program I havent reached my 180 goal. 185 is like my floor and then I go back up. Once I hit the 185 number it’ll be time to seriously buckle down and push through plateaus and to 180. I can’t wait.

What’s good everyone,

My fitness journey this year has been inspiring and insightful. I have a wide array of data that I collected from my food and fitness journals. I see trends and patterns and I finally have a better grasp on what works for me and what doesn’t. I haven’t recorded my workout log in a few weeks, but I plan to do it in 2 weeks, purposely taking a month off to see how applying these methods to my fitness plan work for me. I notice a few things when reviewing all my data over the past few months that will help me with my goals moving forward:

I Have to do cardio in order to maintain/lose weight

This is something I suspected already but after the past few weeks it’s confirmed. I have to do at least the minimum 3 days a week of cardio for maintenance purposes. My body is used to being very active, and for whatever reason, I gain weight easily, especially when lifting weights. So, to minimize that effect, I have to do cardio. No getting around this fact.

The less calories I eat, I may gain weight

This is the effect of starving myself. Not on purpose, but there will be days when I don’t eat even the minimum amount of calories I need to function. Insert any excuse you want, but on days where I workout twice a day, I have to make sure that I get a certain amount of calories, so I’m not placing my body into starvation mode and retaining unnecessary fat.

I have to eat and train consistently

I look at the weeks where I made the most progress, and I ate consistently. I had breakfast every day. I cut carbs in the evening. I accounted for heavier calorie foods throughout my nutrition plan. It was balanced. I also worked out at least 4 times a week also, with equal amounts of cardio and weight training.

I also looked at the weeks where I “failed”. There were more “bad foods” those weeks, less working out (or lighter loads of exercise), and no balance. The nutrition is VERY important and without balance, there will be no progress

I have to drink more water

This is self-explanatory. Water flushes out the toxins in your body, hydrates you, satiates you (which helps you to resist overeating), and is good for you overall. Isn’t the body like 70% water or something like that (too lazy to google it)? I want to drink at least 3.5 liters (almost a gallon) a day.

I have to do double the cardio

Reviewing my notes from years ago when I first started doing heavy cardio and got all the way down to 170 (which I never want to be again), I saw that my cardio was ridiculous. You would’ve thought I was training for a marathon! I ran like 7-9 times a week, sometimes 2 a days, and lifted weights! I did this for a few months, hence the massive weight loss. I definitely lost lean muscle mass along the way as well, which is a no-no for me. For the next six weeks, I’m going to commit to at least 6 days a week of cardio. Between my Insanity Max workouts, treadmill, stairmaster, elliptical, row machine, and basketball, I will have my fill of workouts! I will also weight train at least 4 days a week (some weeks 5) and do ab exercises 3 times a week. I want to get maximum results over this 6 week push.

We have 3 weeks until Memorial Day, and six weeks until June 21 (the official start of summer). I have talked about doing some of this stuff before, but life happens, and I’ve slacked somewhat. No more excuses and no more expectation pitfalls! I have all my journals modified for these goals, and I’m more focused than ever.

See you on the right side of success!

What’s good everyone,

I just wanted to share a quick story about my ongoing fitness battle to be the best I can. So I was at an event last night and saw friends I haven’t seen in a few months. The usual jokes and catching up ensued. During the course of the conversation, my fitness regimen was discussed, asking if I was still doing P90X. Of course I let them know that while I completed P90X, I was still in the gym and doing a whole bunch of other craziness that my body curses me for daily.

So when I mentioned that, one person said “I can tell you lost weight”. 0_0 really? I couldn’t tell (as usual). She asked if I lost about 5 pounds, and she was spot on! It was uncanny really, because I hadn’t seen her since December, and I’ve lost 5-7lbs since that time. My friends wow me hahaha!

That just goes to show that sometimes we make progress and see it on a piece of paper, but need other ways to measure our results. This is why I take pictures, measure my body fat, do waist measurements, and check a scale. I try to get a comprehensive look at my results. Nothing beats commentary from people though, because they can always tell whether you shifted in the positive or negative direction. Shoot, it was my frat brothers who initially pushed me to my current fitness focus years ago when they said that I was getting a gut and need to get in order, smh.

Use all avenues to measure fitness. Sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised!