When last we saw our intrepid heroine airforcewife, she was stuck on a nasty weight loss plateau that was driving her batty. Despite 6 boxing/kickboxing workouts a week and additional cardio three to four times a week; despite severely limiting types of food and sticking to a 1700 calorie a day diet, airforcewife was stuck.
And she was frustrated.
Airforcewife wanted a Twinkie, and she wanted a Quarter Pounder with cheese even more. And airforcewife was also very worried, because she was about to embark on a plane trip to SpouseBUZZ Live in Fort Hood - and lets face it, such trips usually don't help a weight loss regimen at all.
Okay, I'm being a little silly here, but there's a reason. It's because I'm absolutely giddy. Nothing feels better than kicking a weight loss plateau's ass. AND I DID IT! My weigh in today brought me in four pounds down and I feel like I'm back in the game with five days left to go until the Feather Weight Challenge's final weigh in. This brings my total thus far to 24 pounds in nine weeks. Woot!
So what worked? A combination of things. First of all, I switched up my non-boxing workouts. Boxing training itself is a circuit training workout, so it was frustrating for me to hear people telling me to try circuit training to break the plateau. However, the extra cardio I was doing tended to be pretty much either elliptical or treadmill, I figured that had to change. I switched it up and spent the last week doing stationary bike (11 miles at random interval/12!) for half an hour and then about 12 minutes of rowing (2000 meters, but I'm working on getting better at that).
Then diet. My diet guru, another attendee at my gym who has lost about 70 pounds herself advised me to "shake up" what I eat, try something my body wasn't used to. My body is not used to Fiber1 cereal, and it's pretty filling. I added that in, and aside from learning that you should not, under any circumstances, eat Fiber1 for breakfast if you are working out at lunch (learn from my mistakes, people), it seems to help.
Coach Ricardo, whom I will be sparring with tomorrow (and no, I don't think I'm ready for it, but coaches don't tend to listen to that argument), advised me to also switch up the amount I eat at different times of day. My kids' activities generally keep us out until 8:30 or 9 at night, and Coach Ricardo said I was eating too late for my metabolism to rev up like I wanted it to. I switched my big meal of the day from dinner to lunch.
And all of this seems to be getting results! Yay!
I also have to throw in a picture here - you KNOW that you have a devoted boss when they are willing to hold your target mitts for you so you don't miss a workout while traveling. Our awesome Vince Patton, from military.com did just that for me in our cramped hotel workout room last weekend. So I think Vince deserves a shout-out for helping me crack that plateau as well! And, really, not everyone gets a retired Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard to hold mitts for them! I think I'm going to start a photo album of people who have held mitts for me at this point - I can add Riddick Bowe to that list as well! He's an instructor at my gym!
Here's a shot that Andi took of Vince helping me work out last weekend:
Last week of 10 weeks - 24 pounds down!
follow my progress on Twitter @afwiferuthie
