The past month was probably the hardest for me to feel motivated to workout. I had a ton of excuses to keep me from going with the program, but I still have been plugging along and haven't missed a day yet. There have been a few adjustments to my schedule, but I have kept moving. The past two weeks I have started working out in the afternoon rather than the morning. This started because of my cold. I wanted to make sure that I ate food to give me the necessary energy to actually survive the craziness. Last Monday and Tuesday, I actually had to take breaks to eat some orange to help me power through the tiredness (By the way, plyometrics with a cold is not fun. I nearly killed myself this morning trying to work through it again.). The afternoon workouts have continued because it has been blasted cold here, and it just doesn't sound too fun to me to workout in a basement with sub-zero temperatures outside.
Thanksgiving brought a big change in my diet. For the past four months, I have gone without eating any sugary/junk food. The only sugars I've eaten were natural sugars found in fruit, the little bit of added to sugar to bread and other such products, and a little honey here and there. That streak ended, within my plan, on Thanksgiving when I ate a piece of pumpkin pie with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. After my little experiment, I can honestly say that sugary foods aren't something I need. My cravings for them are pretty much gone, and my sweet tooth can be easily satisfied with fruit. It is quite a nice feeling to have. Having said that though my plan was to hold out until Thanksgiving, and now that it has come and gone, I will allow myself to enjoy some of those things once in a while. After all what will a little bit of ice cream hurt?
Another big change happened for me starting Thanksgiving day. Since I began this latest surge of transformation back in May, I have dutifully counted calories, measured out portions, and stuck pretty dang close to all of my macros. Although, I really didn't mind doing this, I stopped keeping track of everything that went into my mouth beginning on Thanksgiving. For awhile I still ate the same, just without tracking every detail. Now I am learning to listen to my body trying to figure out what my body really needs at the moment within the framework I have already set up. Hello more fruit! It has honestly been quite liberating to not worry about hitting my macros.
Look what arrived in the mail:
Without further ado, here are my updated photos. These were actually taken on day 27, and I am now posting them on day 37.
It's kind of a fun thing for me because I could see quite a big change start taking place in the last month. I started to really see abs start peeking out, and not just in the right light at the right angle. The last picture is probably my favorite because I finally have started to see some muscles developing in my back. I kind of have a love/hate relationship with pull-ups so it's nice to see that they are working. Since these pictures were taken, I have seen a bit more definition in my abdominal area too, so good things are definitely happening!
I just wanted to thank everyone who has been following my journey. I've had a few conversations in the past few weeks with people who have taken some kind of inspiration from my journey. I think that that is really cool because that is really why I started doing this. Those who really know me know how much I hate being in the spotlight. Talking about and posting pictures of myself really aren't part of my natural character. It just tickles me greatly when I hear about those whom I love to begin their own journeys in better living. So, again thank you to all of you who follow me and to those who have been joining with me!
