Diet and Exercise Progress in May

Since it is the end of May, it is time for me to check in on my diet and exercise progress this month.
I continued the basic routine from last month.

So far, I am generally holding my weight with this eating pattern which is the good news! The bad news is that since I have switched to this new pattern, I eat far fewer vegetables than I did on my official diet. I am still a very carb-addicted person. The other downside is that since I don’t eat after 6, my family occasionally has to remind me that they are still eating and that they need me to fix something for them to eat. I always feel terrible when this happens.

The big exercise change in May was to change up my exercise tapes. I now rotate every day between DDPYoga, Jilian Michael’s 30-day shred and Tracy Anderson’s Post-Pregnancy Workout. Each one of these workouts stresses different muscles. When I come back to each one 3-days later I always feel like I should be doing just that workout. Over time, though, I think my body is really benefitting from the variety.

The Jillian Michaels and Tracy Anderson workouts are significantly more challenging to start with than DDPYoga. DDPYoga is probably the best workout to transition from a poor level of fitness to a baseline level of strength. The commentary and cues in DDPYoga are also the most clear. I added Jillian’s workout back in first and I had none of the aches and pains I had when I started the workout the first time around.

DDPYoga pushes my flexibility and strength training the most. Jillian Michaels pushes killer cardio segments that stress the heart as well as strength training. She also gets the entire workout done in 20 minutes, which is a great timesaver. Tracy Anderson picks a problem area and works it to exhaustion with hundreds of crunches and leg lifts. It’s exhausting but if you stick with it, it does provide real results. I have started to enjoy the muscle burn after her workouts. Tracy always preaches that you can “get your skin back to the muscle” without a tummy tuck but that you have to give your abs “daily attention” to make this work. I can’t yet find a scientific explanation about why this would work but I have to say that I am starting to see some results!

I keep doing the same workouts over and over and over. Generally, I would find this extremely boring but for some reason, I entertain myself trying to perfect the routines and do them EXACTLY like the workout instructors. I still have things to work on in each tape. For DDP Yoga, I need stronger push-up muscles and am still working on straight legs for the “scissors” ab exercise. For Jillian and Tracy, I need to add in arm weights like they use. I tried using some 3 pound weights with their workouts. It made the workouts significantly harder but 3 pounds was just too heavy for my current level of fitness. (I lift my 20 pound plus son daily but can’t lift 6 pounds of arm weights! Crazy!) The next day I felt like I pulled a muscle in one of my arms. I backed off the weights to avoid injury and even though I was still working out daily, my injury healed almost immediately. My husband suggested I start with a very light weight in each hand, like a roll of coins, and then increase the weight gradually.

Results for May

The Scale

I weigh myself every morning and have come to accept that it is normal for my weight to shift up to 4 pounds throughout the course of a month. It is an unrealistic expectation for most women that you can be the same weight every day during the entire month because of the cocktail of female hormones. When I was dieting, I happened to lose an extra 4 pounds from my goal weight and that coincidence has served me extremely well. I don’t mind the daily ups and downs so long as I stay at or below my goal weight, which I have been able to do. In general, I am up about one pound from last month, though, so I need to watch my carbs a little better this month.

I also note that it seems to me that losing belly fat is the absolute hardest. It seems to be the first fat to go on and the last fat to come off. Before I began losing belly fat, I lost fat in every other part of my body. As an experiment, I want to try the trendy practice of belly binding for one month to see if it makes any difference at all.

I have compression garments left over from my previous experiment. I will wear them as much as possible for 30 days and see what happens. My guess is that they won’t help much, except for the fact that they are hot and in a Washington summer I might sweat off a few pounds.

The Public
I attended my daughter’s school concert and was shocked to receive several positive comments on my weight loss and appearance. I didn’t think anyone would much notice. “Whatever you are doing, keep it up!” they encouraged. It was tremendously motivating and kind.

The Fitness Scorecard
Portia de Rossi’s book gave the very helpful tip to gauge your exercise progress based on skills acquired not just on appearance. This month, my big skill acquisition is that I am “very close” to being able to bend forward and touch my toes with both palms flat on the ground. I still have some work to do to get those muscles more relaxed but this was a big accomplishment for me!

I also was finally able to do the “double jump rope” sequence on Jillian Michaels’ workout. It took weeks of practice to get my heart conditioned for it as well as some mental conditioning (removing all “This is too hard.” thoughts).

I continue on and am tweaking my system for June.

Anyone else experimenting with exercise and diet? What are your fitness goals for June? Please share in the comments.