I started my 10 week challenge one week ago. The week has flown by and it is time to share my progress! If you are doing the challenge with me, let me know in the comments how you did!
To start with, I will go ahead and recap quickly what the 10 week challenge is. There are 4 basic parts. Food, water, cardio and a few strength moves to be done 5 days a week with two days of rest built in (or two days with extra opportunity to get more movement). The strength moves are easy and focus on functional movement.(you can download the chart here)
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I totally nailed the cardio aspect of this challenge. I got my cardio and completed each of the five 'required' week days cardio workouts. On the weekend I didn't do any formal exercise routine but rather stayed busy with life and yard work and other manual labor things. (I used the push mower and did all the trim work, I weeded a LOT, I moved downed tree branches to the burn pile, took mulch from our big pile and mulched a complete path, etc. )
Admittedly, there was a one day (Day one actually) were the cardio just about killed me. OK, killed is rather dramatic! But seriously, that day I was NOT feeling it and wanted to quit every one of those 20 minutes! But I stayed consistent and completed it. The only thing that kept me from quitting was this 10 week challenge!
While I did have my day of struggle, I also had some victorious days where I went above and beyond to complete 40-50 minutes of cardio. Some in one sitting and once with a double workout! (Once before work and once after work, for 20 minutes a piece.)
Water
I nailed my water consumption also! Totally nailed it. I did so well on this that toward the end of the week I went from 64 ounces of water consumption to 80 ounces. I did have a few issues with bathroom trips in the middle of the night on one day when I didn't get my water done early enough in the day. My typical plan for water is to drink the bulk of my water during the day and to be done heavy drinking by 5PM. I still drink in the evening, but not as much. This has historically always been the trick to keep me from getting up a gazillion times in the night for a potty break. I didn't do that one night this week and I lived to regret it with multiple bathroom trips that interrupted my sleep. But I learned my lesson and didn't do that again!
Strength
As you can see from the above chart the strength stuff is really just functional movements. I am embarrassed to admit how difficult these have become for me. There was a day just a few short years ago that these movements were NOTHING. I remember when Jason and I were talking about planks one day in our early days of dating. We did a plank challenge to see who could hold it the longest. I lowered to a plank and held it....and held it....and held it. Minutes upon minutes. No shaking, no quaking no struggle. I just held that plank. This week I discovered that my plank ability has disappeared. 5-10 seconds was a struggle. How sobering is that?
It wasn't just the plank that was difficult. The sit ups and crunches were tough and the wall sits were murder. I don't know why I was so shocked at how difficult they had really become. If I am being honest with myself, simple functional movement in life has become quite difficult for me in the last year. It was seemingly overnight that it became difficult for me to kneel and then stand again. Even sitting down and standing again has felt like a lumbering chore. It has freaked me out. It happened overnight. I'm only 51! I'm too young for that! This challenge is a place to start to regain that movement!
It was difficult, but I completed my week of movement for this aspect of the 10 week challenge. I may have had to do my planks in 5 second intervals. My push-ups may have been the sissy version and barely a push up at that. I may have been shaking and struggling on the wall sits and my sit ups and crunches may have not been perfect or even correct. But I did them!
Food and the Scales
I did great with my eating! I kept my calories within the proper range each and every day. I had a few struggles through the week, but I kept it under control. I was so super proud of myself! So how in the world did I manage to only maintain my weight? I was sure that I was going to show a loss! How could it be anything else? Yet, the weight didn't budge. (In fairness, it didn't go up either, which is a good thing!)
How disappointing! How demoralizing! How utterly horrible!
On to week Two of the 10 Week Challenge
I'm not letting it get to me though. I made great first steps toward regaining some of the mobility that has been slowly slipping away. I have been drinking my water. I've been exercising. And my food has been controlled. What I did would have been enough to see BIG losses in past years. However, it's not working for me now. My body and hormones are adjusting, so that means I need to adjust also. I just need to tweak one or two things to start losing. I can't blame it on anything other than my food this time because I've gotten all the components for success in place. So food is where I am focusing.
My first thought was to up my protein. I've heard protein is huge for a woman of my age. So I did my research to see how much a 51 year old woman should be eating. I then went to Myfitnesspal to see what my recommended daily amount was. (It was the same.) I then looked at my past week to find out where my stats lay. I was pretty spot on with my protein. There may have been one day that was a bit lower. But for the most part I was spot on. So I knew that protein was not the issue. (However, I will continue to monitor and try to increase wherever I can.)
So that left me with my second thought. Calories. I have long kept my calories at a low level. 1200-1500 is my range (and honestly, I prefer to keep them 1200-1300 for weight loss). Now immediately, I know that some people will be like 'well that is your problem, it's too low". BUT, I have long tried to hold on to some semblance of normalcy. I am already hyper focused on tracking my food, I wanted to retain some sense of freedom by not weighing and measuring every bite of food I eat. So for me, the lower calorie count is my way or allowing myself to not measure everything and to not worry about counting that squirt of ketchup or drizzle of chocolate syrup. It has historically worked for me, so I had no thoughts that it wasn't working. But clearly SOMETHING is not working. So, the goal for this upcoming week is to measure, weigh and count EVERYTHING. It's possible I will need to do this long term. However, it is possible that I just need a reset of my mental judgement for measurements and portion sizes.
Honestly, I am NOT looking forward to this. I have always resisted losing this last piece of freedom. But it is what it is! I want change to occur, so that means I need to change. Crazy that that thought of change came to me a few days ago.....and this disappointment on the scale that has forced me to look at myself and forced ME to change. I don't like the view of where my life is going without change.......so I will change myself to change my future!
