Last week was challenging in terms of daily life, training and nutrition. Which is reflected in my food diary! Even with forward planning, my calorie intake was too low on certain days. This saw a slight weight loss – nothing major but I could tell I was back to 48.5-49kg.
Maintaining a certain body weight that allows you to feel ‘happy in your own skin’ is just as hard for someone not looking to ‘lose’ weight as it is for someone who is trying to lose. I’ve said in my previous blogs about how I don’t like the ‘skinny’ look on me. Well this was brought home to me again this weekend! I went to put a top on that I’ve had for years and have always worn with no problem. Well it no longer fits lol!
My body shape is changing through my strength work and as part of this process, my torso (ok, my chest!) is shrinking – muscle takes up less room than fat. I can’t do much about this at the moment but what I must do, is make sure I’m eating enough to not lose any more ‘weight’ as I continue to work on developing the muscles of my upper chest, deltoids and pec areas. It will take time and proves that body shape changes are not always for the better – it’s a journey!
I’ve made a conscious effort to ensure I eat enough and this week I have managed an average of around 2400 per day (although I did have one low calorie day). Over the week, I included some higher calorie options such as chicken pasta and a beef steak burger plus a few treats – a triple chocolate cookie and some dairy milk (not nutritious but high calorie!), used in my case purely to get easy calories in when I’ve not much of an appetite!
I also kept ahead with my ‘snack pots’ – including making a stash of spiced chick peas. Really simple – rinse a tin of chickpeas, dry them and spread on a baking tray. Spray with cooking oil, sprinkle with seasoning of choice and put in oven on high for approx. 30mins until they go crispy.
Training is going well – managing an average of 4 strength sessions per week, some shorter than others but I make sure I get my bigger compound exercises done in these sessions. Running is back on track – I’m not back to off road/hilly yet but flat is going ok with no more knee niggles. The true test will be this weekend when I take on the Lilleshall Monumental 10k which I’ve not done since 2012 (when I completed an extra mile lol!).
So into Week 11…not long left!
Thanks for reading, L.
