Sticking to the Plan

On May 6, all of a sudden I found that I was 2 kg heavier than what I weighed in on May 1st. Ok. I knew that my food wasn't as good as it should have been while my dad was here, but I thought that as soon as I cleaned up my act the number would start going down.

On May 7th, I was 1/2 kg. down.
May 8th same weight.
May 9th same weight.

I don't remember the last time I weighed exactly the same 3 days in a row. It felt strange.

I started to panic.

I started to think of all those excuses that I know do have some influence but are not explanations to fall back on (e.g muscle gain, stress, lack of sleep - yes I know they all are related, but to me it's about looking at the basics - how is my exercise going and what am I eating).

Keeping this photo journal of my food has been good for me. I know I've been writing things down, but this added bit of vigilance has been good. I know I've been eating well. I know I've been exercising well.

My gut reaction was to make some sort of drastic change or look for a firm explanation of why I was stuck.

Again. Panic. Am I at a plateau? What can I do to get out of this rut?

That's when I had to mentally slap myself and say -- Just stick to the plan. 

I think my plan is good. My food is good. My workouts are good. I just need to focus on being patient and sticking this out before thinking about what else to do. Three days at the same weight is not a crisis. While I do realize that to see changes you have to make changes, I also think that once you have a plan, you need to stick to it for a while and really give it 100% before trying to find an alternative plan.

So right now I'm just sticking to the plan. Eat Clean. Train Dirty.

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Aside from my panic this morning, I had a relatively good day. I had a great weights workout.
My students took their final exam. I really hope they did well. I won't find out their results until Sunday (it's marked by the computer - at least there's nothing to grade!)

Then in the evening I went to my first Kajukenbo class. Kajukenbo is a mixed martial art that combines karate, judo, jiujitsu, kenpo, and boxing. It was just me an the instructor today which was good for my first class. It should be interesting. Although I'm not interested in earning belts, and I'm really not too excited about having to wear a gi, I hope that I'll be able to stick to this and not have to move around looking for some sort of MMA training. It's really been an annoying and frustrating struggle finding a place to train in this area!

Me in my new Kajukenbo t-shirt

My food for the day didn't look particularly appealing & I'm not very happy with my lunch choice. Here's what it all came down to.

Breakfast #1: Pre-workout - I ran out of bananas so I only had a date and some peanut butter (yes, I know, not a very pretty picture)

Breakfast #2: Post-workout - My usual 3 omelet muffins + 1/2 avocado

Lunch: I was absolutely famished when I got home. I hadn't eaten for 5 hours and I was feeling really cranky. There was nothing prepared at home, so I reached into the freezer and pulled out these 3 fish fingers. I peeled most of the breading off, but 

Dinner: Tuna fish salad (tuna, lettuce, tomatoes, yellow bell pepper, 1/2 roasted sweet potato, sprinkling of walnuts, and a balsamic vinegar + olive oil mix for dressing) This was by far my favorite meal of the day. It was so delicious and tasty. I normally would not have had the sweet potato, but I wanted something warm and it really gave the salad an extra yummy factor. 

Snacks: After my 2nd breakfast, I had some grapes. I didn't take a picture of them, so here's the old one. However, I had something more like 20-25 grapes, not just 10. 

After dinner I had 3 strawberries. 

Today:
- Workouts:

• Weights at the gym (1.5 hours) - only 5 minutes of skipping as my warm-up
• Kajukenbo at KOK (45 minutes)
• Burpees: 10 {total: 3,620/20,130}
• Squats Day 5: 70

- Food:

• Breakfast: date & peanut butter; 3 egg omelets plus 1/2 avocado
• Lunch: 3 fish fingers
• Dinner: tuna salad
• Snacks: grapes & strawberries

- Other: While my students were working on their final exam I managed to finish some reading and one of my quizzes in my Personal Trainer certification course