ChaLean Extreme (Again)

I began again, as I do about twice a year, a round of ChaLean Extreme today.  I love the way I feel when I have lifted all that weight.  I love watching my strength capacity grow from week to week and month to month.  In years past (yes, I’ve been doing this for years – I started working out with BeachBody long enough ago that I still have the original P90 – no X – on VHS) I have not made any efforts to change my nutrition, so I saw results for several weeks because my metabolism was increasing, but my appetite was, too.  So I found that the muscles pushed out the fat that was sticking around on my hips and below my belly button.  I always pored over the nutrition guides when they came in and when I needed some new ideas for recipes.  Counting calories was always an estimation game that I lost when it came 8 pm and I wanted a round of corn muffins or a hit of Choco-Cherry Love Blizzard. 

So I tossed my flour, sugar and butter a few weeks ago and decided that my most recent failure would not repeat itself.  I lost 10 pounds using LoseIt.com as a calorie counter, but got distracted by my emotional response to graduating and being without a job.  So many threads of good timing are coming together here to (hopefully) yield my success. 

My aim is to lose about 15 pounds of fat by several means:

1.       Planning out my eating very carefully (This is not really new).

2.       Completing a cycle of ChaLean Extreme (Not new either).

3.       Practicing alternative strategies for handling emotions that come with me feeling inadequate, uncertain and hopeless.  (Such as calling a friend, creating something artful instead of baked, cleaning instead of making a grocery store run, Never driving by Dairy Queen unless there is no other choice – have I mentioned I love a Blizzard?)

4.       Meditating daily on positive thoughts like “I am ready for a change”, “It is ok to be a little hungry”, “I can be open to new relationships while I redefine my relationship with food.”

5.       Blogging every day about either my fitness journey or my spiritual journey, which are pretty much joined into one.  Reflection is an excellent way to deepen commitment, explore what’s going right/wrong, and reinforce positive moments. 

So, we’ll see how it goes, and best of luck to me as long as Dairy Queen doesn’t beckon too strongly!