my personal experiment for the next 9 months.....

C

Cbelle

Cathlete
I have been floundering alot lately with what works best for my body i.e. more cardio or less, strength or endurance, not to mention what kind of eating. I'm tired of guessing so I'm taking the next 9 months to experiment with myself. Here's the plan as of now but if anyone has any suggestions to add I'm open to anything!

December: Body Blast series (an endurance focus) plus hte South Beach Diet
January: Slow and Heavy series plus 3 hour long cardios (a strength focus) plus Zigzag dieting ( alternating my calories per day). IF I don't receive the BB DVDs by Dec 1 I will switch these two months up
February: Bodymax, Circuitmax, Bootcamp plus 3 hour long cardios (a circuit style endurance focus) plus 1800/calories per day. Lots of people ahve told me to up to this level
March: Intensity Series (endurance with less cardio) plus 1200/calories, the only thing that seems to have worked with me to lose weight is to lower to the bare minimum
April: Firm (hopefully the new workouts will be out, otherwise classes as I live in Columbia and in fact work at the Firm) Everyone knows the Firm is in a class all itself and can't really be compared to other tapes. AT least thats my thought.
This month I've also run out of "diets" to do. Course, by then who knows what new and exciting way of eating will be out there! I also might consider Weight Watchers at this point. Or better still, maybe by then I will know which is the best plan for me!
May: Pure Strength plus 3 hour long cardio (strength again)
June: Power Hour plus 4 hr long cardio (endurance)
July; MIS plus 4 hr long cardio. (strength)

If nothing else my body won't know what the heck is coming next and I'll never get bored!

I will be keeping a journal and weigh myself at the beginning and end of each month and measuring body parts as well. Hopefully I will finally find the answer!

Any suggestions? Oh yeah, totally forgot that somewhere in this will follow the new P90x which sounds awesome but I don't know when it comes out. Anyone else know?
 
The worry wort in me emerges...

First off, I think the exercise variations you've put down on the various months are fantastic. You're right, your body will continually be going 'what's going on here?'.:)

Now for the worry wort part of me. I think rotating diets could wind up doing more damage than good. Eating (and not eating) effects your metabolism, and my concern is that by changing it up so frequently, you could mess up your metabolism. A co-worker of mine that I've shared an office with for the past 4 years has been on at least 10 different diet plans during this time and a) hasn't lost a stitch of weight and b) is now convinced that she's damaged her metabolism. I would suggest meeting with a registered dietician (see if your insurance would cover a visit) and talk with him/her about your goals, your fitness plans, your lifestyle and see what they recommend. Or take a few months to really investigate some of the weight management/loss plans you mentioned and see what one seems that it will intuitively fit into your lifestyle. If you can incorporate something for the long haul, then you will see the results.

Just my two cents. Good luck!
 
RE: The worry wort in me emerges...

Alrighty, I see your point. My problem is that I don't know what would be the best plan for me? Anyone else got ideas?
 
RE: The worry wort in me emerges...

I haven't tried this, but Physiquetransformation.com may be something that you could try. I keep hearing great things about it. Just a thought. You definately made my laugh with your determintion, that's very cute. I know your not trying to be funny, but your comments at the end are what made me giggle.
Good luck to you!

Kathy
 
RE: The worry wort in me emerges...

Hey, always happy to make someone else laugh! Its gotten downright comical my dogged determination and no success.
 
RE: The worry wort in me emerges...

I hear ya. Total determination, but no success. That's the name of my game, too. I love your variety of workouts and that will give you awesome results I bet. Good luck with sticking to it. Keep us posted.

Marcia
 
RE: The worry wort in me emerges...

CBelle- I have also tried EVERY diet available to man. I have skipped around so much this year, it is a joke. I have done BFL, South Beach, Atkins, and WW's. For me, I have decided WW's is the best. With the Flex Points you can zig zag your calories, you can eat a treat without ruining your whole day....I also am a fan of BFL. The only drawback I have found with that is the free day. I feel like I have to eat everything out there all in one day. The point is you have to find what works best for you. I believe in all ways of eating, I think all the diets work for certain people, even the hated Atkins, it just has to be the best plan for YOU, and your body. I wish you well, your note so reminded myself of me, I just had to write. Best of luck to you.....
Lori S.
 
Hi Cbelle! You've already rec'd very sound advice here but I'll just add too to NOT do different weight loss plans each month. You should, however, zig zag your calories due to the heavy lifting one day & cardio the next you would eat less on that day. As for your workouts they're AWESOME! I wouldn't change up anything. Just listen to your body each day & see if you would need to change anything due to some fatigue setting in, etc. And yes certainly weigh yourself at the beginning of each month & take measurements. Good luck! Kathy;-)

PS: I may just "steal" }( your rotations.:7
 
I hear you guys on the advice on the dieting. I'm thinking I'll just do a sorta modified BFL plan since I think it is perfectly sensible and doable. Something like this:

B- egg whites and toast
S- cottage cheese and apple
L- chicken breast, brown rice, veggeis
S- bar
D- chicken breast, br rice and veggies
S- shake

I'm the type that feels better eating hte same thing day in and day out. Plus then I'll give myself one free meal a week. How does that sound? I'm hoping to really simplify my days and quit thinking so much about this stuff. I figure if I just need to keep everything as simple as possible. I like the concept of zigzagging but I thought I would have to think and plan too much
 
I have heard, and I could be wrong, so please correct me if I am. But your body gets used to eating the same things and so you should switch it up just a little. Like I said I could be wrong, so if I am I'm terribly sorry. But I know that having a variety in your diet makes sure that you are getting all the nutrients that you need.
I hope I'm helping here, and not frustrating you.

Take care!

Kathy
 
I think your exercise rotation looks great - very challenging. Just make sure to give yourself some time off if you start to get burned out!

I'll second the recommendation for Physiquetransformation.com. Check out the site and read the e-book - the founders of the program advocate MORE food, not less, to gear up your metabolism, then a structured "fatburning" program of 12 weeks where your calorie range varies from week to week. It's healthy eating too - like the Body For Life program but much more structured in terms of how much to eat and percentages of protein/carbs/fat.

I'm in my third week of the program now, so I'm still in the "conditioning" (metabolism-boosting) phase, eating 2250 calories per day, working up to 2650 per day. I have the strength to train heavy and I'm not gaining any weight. Hard to believe, but it's true.

Don't want to sound too much like an infomercial, but it's worth checking out.


Allison
 
Hi Cbelle! Don't eat the same things every day your weight will stay the same no changes. You should zig zag the calories & get rid of that BAR!! Its loaded w/sugar & really no nutritional value. You could do this:

Meal 1: 1 egg + 2 egg white omelet w/veggies + salsa or oatmeal & omelet or high protein/high fiber cereal
Meal 2: string cheese w/apple
Meal 3: large salad w/chicken/turkey or tuna + fruit
Meal 4: beef w/string beans
Meal 5: chicken stir fry or something else or the shake

I like to put veggies into my cottage cheese too.
Once a week you could have the toast & once a week pasta but no more than that.

Plenty of water of course! HTH, Kathy:D
 
What a coincidence...I have been thinking about doing something like this for a while now. I might have to start my own experiment and maybe we could compare notes? The only thing is that I am not sure if I am capable of doing the diet and the exercise at the same time. Two huge changes in my life at the same time might not be realistic for me.

I thought I could focus on the exercise portion and just make tiny changes on the diet side. For example, more water and less diet coke. That might not seem like much of a change, but I am addicted! Another issue I have is that I get bored with exercise rotations very quickly and an entire month doing the same workouts might be like torture to me.

Are you starting on Dec 1 or thereabouts?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top