What I going to do

Where to start?! There is so much that goes into getting healthy and losing weight. I'm no expert, but I know a lot from ready, trying, failing. Conviction and "stick-with-it-ness" is where I have failed before. But, I know what works for me to lose weight, and I know what DOESN'T work for me to keep it off.

What works - lifting weights, keeping my heart rate up (especially for weight circuits), lower carbs, no less than 1400 calories daily, Also, SNACKS.

What doesn't work - total restriction, excuses for giving in, especially low sugar, less than 1400 calories a day, going too hard all at once.

Here is what I am going to try, and I will adjust as necessary as I learn how my body is reacting.

Workout:
TURBO FIRE! (By Beach Body)

This should help me ease into everything. I'll get to burn fat without losing muscle!

Here is the hard part. I have a LOT of fat to lose. My scale is actually pretty accurate (when compared to calipers and even a "bodpod") when estimating body fat. I'm up around 44%!! How does that happen?!?! I don't want to sacrifice my muscles (they are often ate up when trying to lose weight), but everything I have read says that it is really inefficient to try and burn fat AND put on muscle (eventually I want have build muscle and maybe compete in ifbb or something!). Also, many of my friends and acquaintances have had success with first losing the fat and getting to a healthy body fat percentage (about 22% for women), and THEN they got into the muscle building.

There is no denying the benefit of having muscle: it helps prevent injuries and keeps your body metabolically active for a longer period of time throughout the day (and even when sleeping!) - so you burn more fat. There is always the option of "carb cycling," where I could have more carbs (about 50-60% of my diet) 2-3 days a week with lower fat and REALLY hard workouts, and then lower carbs the other days. However, I do not think that I have the endurance yet for workouts that would be able to burn up so many carbs.

So, I think the workout above will help me build muscle endurance and start to stabilize my joints, while not requiring the higher carb load required to bulk- at least until I get to a healthier body fat percentage and can handle going hard in the gym.

I am going to start with LOW carb - not quite South Beach, and surely not Atkins. Every time I have tried SBD in the past, I have seen great initial response, but then I cannot take the prolonged and extreme lack of sugar (my addiction). So, this time, I will allow myself one fruit a day and a few sweet potatoes a week (GI of 48, with just 6 g of sugar in 133 g).

The fruit has to be under 50 GI: (from http://www.the-gi-diet.org/lowgifoods/)

Diet:

For starters, I have my macros set as 20% carbs (75 g), 45% protein (169 g), and 35% fats (58 g) with a 1500 calorie diet. Here is my meal structure (approximate).

I understand that you are supposed to eat more of your sugars earlier in the day so that your body has time to use them. However, with the schedule that I will have when I start teaching, my workouts will be in the evening. Also, now that I work second shift, I get really tired and have cravings later at night. Regardless of when I workout, my fruit will be consumed around the time I do the workout with nuts or natural peanut butter or in a smoothie with some protein powder (I've got low carb, stuff). I will start out having that after my workouts as like a reward for accomplishing them. I might find that it is better to have it before to fuel me though, but that is part of where I need to experiment a little.

Aside from the fruit, all other higher carb foods will go into lunch or one of the 2 snacks. No eating after 7 PM. Lots of water. No soda (except maybe one can of diet a week socially).

Keeping accountable:
I'm going to be using myfitnesspal.com as well as twitter and the Do it for YOU!!! FB page. Also, I will try to write a reflection every day to start keeping a record of what was good, what didn't go so well, and how I feel (mentally and physically) so that I can look for patterns and keep improving.

My sites:
On Facebook
MyFitnessPal
Blog (this site)
Twitter
Endomondo (for outdoor cardio)

Time to really take care of business. Time to work the PROCESS. Time to go in for life! and why?! FOR ME!