Progress – December 2018

Hey loves! Happy January and welcome to my December progress post. If you haven’t checked my November post, make sure to read it here.

December is always such a hard time of the year to stay on track and honestly, this is the first year I actually made some smart decisions. It took me this whole year to realize that I feel so much better when I work out and eat good food, it’s not just a physical thing. Also, it took me a lot of time and effort to get where I am today, and I know it can all go away in one month.

Regardless of what your December was like, this post is not to make you feel bad. When you punish yourself and feel guilty all the time, it makes it really hard to make permanent changes. If you didn’t take care of yourself this December, move on and start today. That’s all you need to do. Get over it!

So, I basically spent the whole month in Florida which I though was going to represent a huge challenge for me to stay on track, but it really wasn’t. I had a gym to go to and I worked out 4-5 times a week. The weather was perfect and I spent a lot of time active outside and playing tennis. Plus, G’s family is super healthy, so eating good food wasn’t hard at all. I had a few cheat meals and drinks, yes, but overall and all things considered, I think I was really good. (Compared to last year)

I did my best to keep track of my foods with My Fitness Pal, but I didn’t have a kitchen scale so I just used my eyes to estimate quantities, and I think it worked! You have no idea how happy that makes me. I feel like I’m one step closer to start eating intuitively.

We ate out a lot. I ordered salads most of the time and added some extra protein and always always always with the dressing on the side. Those yummy restaurant dressings have so much sugar and calories so it defeats the purpose of eating a salad. I did drink alcohol more than usual, but I always add it to My Fitness Pal and it rarely was more than a glass or two of wine or a beer.

Those little things did affect me. I didn’t have any progress. In fact I gained 0.8 lbs. I don’t know how I feel about that. I had fun and I am proud of myself for being away from home for 3 weeks and maintaining a healthy routine, but it does feel as a setback and I’m a little bit disappointed. However, what’s done it’s done, and I’m here reporting you the truth and that I’m back on track now.

I started this lifestyle seeking for balance and to improve my health. My results have been slow, but it’s important for me to also enjoy myself, the constant dates I have with G and my life in general. That being said, I’ll accept that 0.8 lbs I gained, BUT, I’m already back on track!!

Changes I made this month: (compared to November 2018)

* I also kept doing all the things I changed last month. Read them here.

• I moved every day. Meaning I did over 10,000 steps daily!! This really helps. What you do outside the gym has a much bigger impact than what you do at the gym. If you can do both, then it’s a WIN WIN! (Shout out to my girl @lesleyslifestylehabits for being so pushy about the 10k steps, but she’s right!!!!)
• I did my cardio first thing in the morning right after waking up. (This was only possible in Florida). I think it helped a lot, and I enjoyed those morning walks in nature SO MUCH!! This type of cardio is not for everyone, but you can do your research and see if it’s a right fit for you.
• I played tennis 2-3 times a week on top of my workouts.

Things I failed at:

• I was a lot more flexible than usual with certain meals and alcohol. I don’t feel THAT bad about it though. I t was good to realize that I can have a glass of wine here and there or a slice of pizza, as long as I track it and be more careful with the rest of my meals that day. This is very useful to know while on vacation. It’s not how I normally eat.
• We ate out a lot and that makes it really hard to know exactly how many calories you are actually eating, but whatever, we had so many fun dates and I didn’t feel like being a pain the ass every time we were placing an order. We love buying ice cream and walking after a meal, so instead of buying one for each, we would share a small one. This of course adds up, but when you are on vacation for 3 weeks, sharing is a nice way to eat less calories. (Still, don’t do this every day LOL).

Macros and calories: 

Daily calories: 1750 (This is the ideal number I ate most days, but some days were over 2000 calories and I had like 3 real cheat meals).

My macros were all over the place, but this is my ideal distribution:

45% carbs

30% protein

25% fat

Weight, fat percentage and measurements: (I’m 5 ft 4 for reference)

December 7th:

123.7 lbs – 19.3% body fat

Chest: 83 cm – Waist: 65 cm – Hips: 92 cm

January 7th:

124.5 lbs – 19.5% body fat

Chest:  83 cm – Waist:  66 cm – Hips:  93 cm

Photos:

December 7th (left) – January 7th (right)

Gosh I hate these photos… Also, I don’t have a tan. That’s sad.

As you can see I kind of look the same, I honestly don’t feel any different, but ever since I got back from vacation I’ve been eating super healthy again and back to my normal life and routine. Hopefully January will be better in terms of progress.

My goal is to reduce my body fat to 14-15% by Summer, and my guess is that my weight will be around 118 lbs. I’m going again to Florida in March (for around 3 weeks again), so I’d love to be at 17% body fat and around 120 lbs by then, which means I have a little over 2 months to do it. It feels doable!!

My current workout routine (more or less because it varies by week)

Mondays: Hamstrings & glutes + 25 minute intense interval cardio

Tuesdays: Triceps & shoulders + 45 minute cardio (hard but not super intense like the 25 min session)

Wednesdays: Back & abs + 25 min intense interval cardio

Thursdays: Quadriceps & hips + 25 min intense interval cardio

Fridays: Off (but it varies. I usually take off a weekday. I still go on the weekends, especially during winter because there’s not much to do LOL)

Saturdays: Biceps & abs + 45 minute cardio

Sundays: I repeat whatever I did on Monday or Tuesday. That’s why my workout days change every week.

Next month changes and challenges. I’m already taking care of the December damage, but some of the changes I’m making are:

• I started taking BCAA during my workouts (I use the Sascha Fitness brand)
• I’m trying to burn 100 extra calories at the gym. I usually burn 500, but I’ll try to burn 600 from now on.
• Since my last week in Florida was kind of terrible in terms of food, I decided to increase my calories to 1800, which is an increase compared to what I ate most of December (1750 calories), but a decrease compared to how I ate that last week (Around 2300 calories). I don’t know if I’m explaining myself.
• I set up a new goal for daily calorie burn of 2300. According to my Fitbit my daily average is 2100. I want to keep eating the same for as long as possible LOL, so I want to see if I can burn some extra calories everyday at the gym and by moving more outside of the gym.

Here are the things I will add to my routine in January:

• Increase the weight on most of my workouts, even if that means doing 10 reps instead of the 12 I usually do.
• Push harder during cardio time. Same time, but more intensity. I know I can do better.
• Do a little bit of cardio or planks in between reps to keep my heart rate up the whole time and also to make sure I burn those extra 100 calories I mentioned before. I feel really happy eating 1800 calories a day and I will only bring this number down if I don’t see results by the end of January.

You can read more about how and why I started here.

I’ve been posting healthy breakfast recipes, so make sure to check them out here. Very soon I’ll start posting what I eat in one day, but I’m still trying to figure out how I will do it, so stay tuned. I don’t want you to copy what I eat, but I do want to provide you with healthy recipes and ideas so you can start living your best life too! Also, to show you how much food you can actually eat if you eat good food!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Let me know your thoughts in the comment below.

XO,