If you saw my checkpoint from a few weeks ago, you’ll see that I am progressing in the general direction that I had hoped when I started out in January. I just booked a trip to Vegas with a few buds, which means pool exposure just went up 1000%.

Fortunately the trip is just over 3 months away, which is the perfect amount of time to harden down the fitness regime, set some specific goals – and focus on the prize.

Diet

I saw some results with the visceral fat diet that I was on for about a month. I shed between 5-10 lbs. This diet is not practical for the long term as it doesn’t involve any sugar (fruit included, even as strict as no root vegetables, carrots, beets, potatoes, etc). My new focus is to eat well constantly, save for 1 meal a week.

To be successful at this, I have to maintain proper portions. Generally this is only a problem at dinner, but breakfast I can get a little out of hand with the Kashi GoLean Crunch and Yogurt. I’m going to continue to measure my breakfast portions (1/3 C rolled oats before cooking and 1/4 C egg whites, or 1/2 C Kashi with enough yogurt to cover it).

My protein intake has been pretty good. I’ve been having egg whites for breakfast every morning, 2 protein shakes throughout the day, a can of tuna, and 1/2 a chicken breast. I’m not going to change anything here.

I’ve been really good with my alcohol intake. Aside from a glass of wine here and there I have only had 2 ‘drinking’ nights since New Year’s day. This will continue aside from my ‘planned cheats’.

Planned Cheats

  • March – Minneapolis. I’m heading on a small road trip at the end of the month to Minneapolis. This will be my first milestone (3 weeks) at which I’m allowing myself some Arby’s, Pizza, beer, Cheesecake Factory. This will of course be all offset by the 14 laps I’ll be doing around the Mall of America.
  • April – Birthday. My birthday coincides with my brother in law’s wedding social. This will be a drinking evening, followed by what I’m sure will be delicious social food – cold cuts on rye with pickles and mustard. MMMMMMmmmm.
  • May – 1st Camping weekend of the year. The May long weekend is Winnipeg’s first real opportunity to come out of hibernation and enjoy some 50/50 weather. This means some hot dogs, chips, booze, and monopoly. Although the monopoly isn’t a cheat, I will try and stay off beer and focus on gin and soda. We’ll see.

Fitness

Weights – I have been extremely happy with my weight lifting at the gym, and there is not much I want to change here. I am pushing myself more and more in terms of load, and only want this to increase.

  • Power lifts: I will be trying to incorporate more power lifts a la CrossFit to try and improve cardio and fat loss while lifting weights.
  • Core – I will try to incorporate more core into my routine (2x a week). These sessions will include:
    • Front Planks (2 X 1.5 minutes)
    • Site Planks (2 x 1 minute per side)
    • Decline situps
    • Medicine ball twists
    • Wood chops

Cardio – My cardio has fallen over the last month. Previously I was doing interval training 2-3 times a week. My current goal for cardio is to go 3 times in addition to my 6 day weight lifting cycle:

  • Monday I have 90 minutes of intense rugby practice (core, plyometrics, sprints, etc)
  • Wednesday/Thursday – Interval training for 25 minutes. I want to see how far I actually run in this time, and set more specific goals after that.
  • Saturday/Sunday – Interval training for 25 minutes.

Size/Weight

I’m currently floating between 225lbs and 230lbs. I want to get to 215lbs by June 7th (90 days from today). I will be posting pictures probably tonight of my current progress to date, for bi-weekly trend comparison. This should bring out the definition I’m looking for in my abs, and also get rid of excess fat on my love handles (still got ‘em) and chest.

Stay tuned!

Shendy.