CHANGES IN DIET

Food has always been the trap for any weight loss program I have tried. When I first started with Workshop Fitness I was afraid that the diet would be too hard to follow and I would just fail yet again. Thankfully, I loved the plan of a very simple diet of 4-5 meals a day consisting of six ounces of protein at every meal and at least one cup of vegetables. You add a couple things here and there but that is the basic structure of the diet. This was working really well for about the first 90 pounds, but recently my weight hasn’t been dropping. Some this was that I have been eating pretty much the same amount of food the whole time. The only problem with that is when you lose 90+ pounds your body begins to burn way less calories. A rough estimate of how many calories my body burned at my starting weight was about 3200 calories a day. At my weight now it's around 2600 calories. These are both rough estimates, but since I have lost the ability to burn about 600 calories a day over the course of six months, I really had to figure out something different to do with my diet, or else I felt I would be stuck at my same weight.

 

So I went to my head trainer, Thomas, to ask him what I should do. He suggested that instead of having a diet that was high in protein all the time we switch up the diet. I was a little hesitant because what we had been doing was working pretty well in my book. What Thomas wanted to do was lower the amount of protein I was getting three days a week and on those days increase the amount of carbohydrates. I would do this by eating oatmeal in the mornings, and then having some brown rice with one of my later meals. I would also have to cut the ounces in each protein for that day in half (3 oz. instead of 6 oz.).

 

The change in the diet has resulted in a steady loss in weight again. I have lost about 8 pounds in the past two weeks.  This probably isn’t the last time my diet will change, and I am just going to have to take the changes in stride because I am closer to my goal weight than I really have ever been in my entire life. Here is to using food as fuel!

TAKING THE GOOD WITH THE BAD

There is some good news and some bad news that has surfaced in the past couple of days that I would like to share with everyone. I will start with the bad news, but it will lead into some pretty awesome news. 

 

This past week I was asked to go meet with my trainer Diana after our workout. We walked over to the coffee shop right next to the gym and that is where she told me she would no longer be training at Workshop Fitness. I did not see that coming. Diana was the first trainer I worked out with, and she does all my measurements at the end of the month to chart my progress. I was acting tough because that is what a man is supposed to do, but I was not handling it very well inside. It has been almost five months with her, and losing such a key part of my training team was a crushing blow.  That is until she hit me up with the good news.

 

Diana and Thomas (The trainer that heads this project) have a company called Physique Foods that I have mentioned a couple times on my blog before. They offer food based on the diet they created, a diet that I am currently on. This is when Diana offered to begin supplying me with my food starting in January. Her title would change from “Ricky’s Trainer” to “Ricky’s Nutrionist."  I could not believe what I was hearing…Free food to go along with the training? I no longer have to worry about cooking? What about my beloved Shake ‘n Bake? After the initial shock wore off I gave her a huge hug and told here this is great news. Getting supplied food only makes the goal of 180 pounds in one year that much easier and obtainable. The best part is that their food is great!

 

I am so pumped to spread the word on Physique Foods and to practice my photo skills as I take some pictures of typical meals they provide me with.  This really couldn’t have come at a better time, because my eating habits were beginning to slide. Earlier this month I had peas taken out of my meals (They are too starchy). This really threw me off because I was eating peas 3-4 times a day (I think I was going to turn into something green eventually-- but would that really have been that bad?)

 

When the trainers took that off my meal plan, I was having a hard time substituting for the ease of making peas. Recently I have been eating bags of spinach like they are chips but I can see that getting old real fast. The shredded carrots were also being treated like pretzel sticks. However, Physique Foods will offer me an array of vegetables to pick from, and the variety will get my taste buds on full alert. So thank you, Physique Foods for joining the party!