Finally some good news! It was skinfold analysis day-- which is a pretty horrible experience when you aren't where you want to be. But this time wasn't nearly so horrible as the last time. Maybe because I had survived it once and knew what to expect. Or maaaaaybe because I lost 7% body fat since the last time! He-who-trains showed me how to calculate the numbers, and had me do it. When I looked at the number, I thought I had done something wrong. I was expecting 1-2%. I'm beyond thrilled! Especially with this four month plateau nonsense. But maybe that isn't as bad as I thought it was either, because despite being in a calorie reduced state, I've actually gained four pounds of muscle. (Which is crazy weird... that's only supposed to happen when you eat more calories than your body needs to maintain...confirmed by He-who-trains and the gignormous-book-of-all-things-training. Also weird because I'm not really shrinking in size.) So even though it feels like nothing has happened, apparently my body hasn't been totally uncooperative.
I've been away from gluten and sugar (seriously... even surviving drinking my coffee black... I'm kinda proud of that one!) for four days now. I'm not keeping a pure Whole30 because I'm still counting calories and weighing myself, but I'm keeping the food rules. (Except my protein powder which is made from Whey, but there's are a few good reasons to keeping it in.) My belly has shrunk, my knees and back are feeling much better (even with the running that's become part of my life), and I'm down four pounds in a few days. I'm not craving sugar, which is surprising given how few carbs I'm eating and how much exercise I've been doing. Prior to skin fold analysis day's learnings, I whined about this plateau to He-who-trains and we both kind of agreed that it seemed like we had tried most everything. But he came up with a last ditch effort to wake my body up that involves 1200 calories a day, and two workouts a day. In the mornings, it's run a lap, then walk a lap with burpees and pushups at intervals throughout each lap. And I do that for an hour. Then in the afternoon, it'll be my regular weight training routine. I've not had a 1200 calorie day with both workouts, but I've had a day with each one. I'm sure he's right when he tells me it's going to be brutally hard. After all, this is pretty much what he did when he was in the cut-a-palooza phase for the final weeks leading up to bodybuilding competitions. He keeps telling me how mean I will be, but that it is the only way he knows to help me break through this sticking point. Right now though, aside from a few minutes of feeling kinda blah, I actually feel pretty good. After the initial few days, I seem to always feel less hungry when I eat less, so I am hoping that pattern keeps up. In all the times I've dropped calories like this, I've never trained like I am now. We'll see how chipper I am in a couple of days!
But hey, even if it's pretty horrible, I'm encouraged-- that my body isn't pitching as bad of a temper tantrum as I thought, that my injuries are starting to feel better. Besides, every day I make it kind of makes me feel like a rockstar in the "Yes, I really, really, really, do want this" department. I feel like the boss of my body when I don't give into cravings or mental whining. Oh, I want the rock hard body-- but I won't lie. Feeling like, at least for right now, I have a rock hard spirit that refuses to quit is kind of awesome too.
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