8 Weeks to 40

I am a person who thrives on goals and loves something to work toward.  In fact, when I don’t have a goal I feel like I am just treading water.

Recently I have found myself feeling a little ho hum when it comes to my fitness and nutrition routine.  A quick look at the calendar last week made me realize that in a few days I would be 8 weeks away from 40 years old.  Bingo…new goal.

I have spent the last year working hard to add muscle to my frame (see picture comparison above).  As you saw in my last post about Reverse Dieting, when I originally began IIFYM/Flexible Dieting and got back into lifting weights (really heavy for the first time) I was able to achieve a very lean look, but there wasn’t a lot of muscle under there and I had very little “shape” to my body.  Now that I have put a lot of effort into trying to build the muscle and my metabolic capacity I am pumped to do an 8 week cut to reveal that hard-earned muscle.

Thus, my 8 Weeks to 40 plan.  Who doesn’t want to feel their best on their 40th B-Day???

I began my plan last Monday (after letting myself eat like an idiot over the Labor Day weekend…it was fun) and plan on updating all of you every Monday with progress pictures and how the last week went for me.  I know there is a lot of curiosity around macros and weight, so I will be fully open with you and share those with you.  Please understand that everyone is very different and it would not make sense for anyone to jump right in and eat my macros thinking they will get the same results.  We all start in different places metabolically, so there is no way my macros are right for anyone or everyone.

I make no judgement when it comes to what other people choose to eat (that is why flexible dieting is so great), but for the next 8 weeks I am going to be a bit more strict for myself than usual because I want to FEEL my best too.  I suffer from multiple auto-immune issues (one of which is hypothyroid) and really want to focus on eating those foods that make me feel my best…yep, that means no froyo for me.

So here are my rules for myself:

• I will stick to my macros every day
  • Will reevaluate weekly based on results
    • Don’t want to lose weight too fast
• I will post my results weekly
• No candy, processed treats (unless I make a healthy version myself at home), artificial sweeteners (yep, coffee creamer is out…I’ve been meaning to break that habit anyway)
• Will complete my planned workouts (I workout M-Sat and rest Sundays)

Now something I feel like I want to make perfectly clear is that fact that I am NOT unhappy with how I look now.  I feel like I am in pretty darn good shape for an almost 40 year old and I do not place my value in how my body looks.  I have a lot of fun with fitness and nutrition and enjoy taking care of myself.  There are worse hobbies out there.

Am I going to be any happier when I am leaner?  Nope.  Happiness does not come from how your body looks.  Sure it is fun to fit into your clothes, etc., but I have finally come to the place where I understand that my family and friends don’t love me any more or less when I am a different size.

When I am done with my 8 week plan I have every intention of Reverse Dieting again for at least 20 weeks.  It will be awesome timing (if I do say so myself) with the holidays coming up and I will make sure I take you along for the ride with weekly updates on that as well.  Like Hana DeVore mentioned in my article on Reverse Dieting, that process can actually be harder than trying to lean out since systematically increasing food actually ramps up your hunger in a major way.  I will be counting on you guys to keep me motivated and accountable throughout my Reverse Diet.

With that being said, let project 8 Weeks to 40 begin.  Below you will find my baseline pictures and stats from Day 1 (Ignore the paint samples on the wall…they’re killing me…we have decided to redo our bathroom and won’t be painting it before then).  I’ll update you on this week’s progress this coming Monday 9/14/15.

Date:  9/7/15

Height: 5’9 1/2″

Weight: 143.8 (A lot of that is water weight from my weekend of indulgence)

Macros:

Monday -Thursday & Saturday 1515 calories 120C / 135P / 55F

Friday 1736 calories 180C / 146P / 48F (heaviest weight lifting day)

Sunday 1562 calories 106C / 145P / 62F (rest day)

Click HERE to see how week 1 went for me.

Click HERE for Week 2