A challenging challenge

So, three days in, how’s my eight-week challenge going? Really rather well, thanks. Without giving away too much of the information Kat’s providing (after all, it’s what she gets paid for), I can report that:

Protein for the win
I am eating a lot more protein than before, and a lot less in the way of non-veg-type carbs. I’m eating less at a time, but eating (much) more often. My usual style is eat a great big meal, go for hours without eating because I’m just so busy, and consequently get so hungry that I’ll eat the first thing I come across, whilst my next meal is cooking. Either that, or I’ll just eat all day long (you think I’m joking!) yet wonder why nothing really seems to fill me up.

Protein, it seems, really fills you up. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit I didn’t realise. I’m supposed to know this stuff.

Number crunching
So, yes, we’re counting numbers to do with food but calories aren’t our focus. Macros (protein, fat, carbs – in that order of importance) are. I haven’t been hungry once in three days and have had no food cravings whatsoever. People, this is a big deal to me! My sweet tooth appears to have taken an extended break. Perhaps it’s gone backpacking to find itself.

Jelly-legged in the weights room
In terms of training, Kat’s provided me with three weights-based sessions to do along with my normal cardio: one upper body, one lower body and one full-body circuit style. I didn’t do much on Monday (being a little tired from the half marathon on Sunday) but, yesterday, I hit the weights room for the full-body routine.

It didn’t look much on paper. Erm…it whupped me! It was fast, explosive and had moves in it I haven’t done in a long time. At the end, I was shaking. I had to sit down on the floor right there by the dumbells. And, today, my glutes (polite word for bum) and abs are sorer that they’ve been in a season of long-distance triathlons and endurance bike sportives.

Zapped
Tomorrow I’m getting my vital stats measured by a bioimpedance test, which zaps a current through me and tells my friend Heidi (who, by the way, runs excellent fitness bootcamps in the Wokingham area) how much of me is muscle, how much of me is fat and (I think?) how much of me is bone. I don’t know if there’s a button she can press to tell how much of me is cottage cheese, turkey breast and green vegetables. I suspect the machine wouldn’t be able to cope. But that’s OK with me!

Stay tuned for more adventures in the weights room. If there’s anything you want to know, or see, hit me up in the comments section. (I can take pictures in the gym if you really want, although I’m not sure photos of omelettes will be very exciting.)

Yours in steak and spinach,