The challenge begins: my strategy

Posted on January 14, 2016

This is my first DietBet so I won't know exactly how it is going to be, but the fight over the scale is an old one. I felt that the motivation behind the DietBet (that means $$$$ of course) would help where I've failed before: the diet.

I have a very active exercise plan, but I've never managed to get to the weight and body image I dream about, and the only possible explanation is that I'm doing something very wrong with my diet. Exercise-wise I do workouts almost every day, twice a day. My workout plan is as follows:

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: Insanity at 6 am, Running at 6 pm (indoor 45 min + 15 min walk)

Wednesday: Insanity at 6 pm (recovery day)

Saturday: Rest day

Sunday: Running at 8 am (outdoor - 10 km + 1 km walk), Insanity at 4 pm

So you can see that my exercise routine is actually pretty advanced. I'm a runner over 10 km and 21 km (half marathon) distances. My personal record on half-marathon is about 2 hours and 3 minutes.

But still I'm pretty overweight. I'm currently at 85 kg with a height of 1,73m, which puts me on an overweight range considering the IMC.

My long term objective is to have a normal range IMC, ideally at 22 or 23.

So, doing all these exercises what is my problem? Diet, there is no other explanation. In order to win the DietBet I must make some radical changes on my diet.

I'm vegetarian and my personal feeling tells me that I'm missing my protein intake on a daily basis. For a vegetarian is kind of easy to get stuffed on carbs while missing the protein target. I'm probably eating less than half the protein that I need.

My first objective is to supplement protein and see how it goes. I'm going to use a protein shake and some high protein supplements in order to do that.

Secondly, I've been studying the effects of carbs and fats on the diet and I'm starting to replace the carbs in my diet with fats. Thanks to Abel from the "My Diet is Better Than Yours" TV Show for this insight. Also, complimentary to that I've started to follow the MAF training (Maffetone's) of low speed training to keep the heart rate in the fat burning zone.

These are my first thoughs about strategy. Probably this plan will need corrections on the fly. Let's see how it goes!

Comment Now!

Lauren M.

01/15/2016 6:22AM

Advocare offers a vegetarian meal replacement shake with 24 grams of protein... Just suggesting because I've tried a few different flavors of their shakes (not vegetarian) and they're pretty tasty so it wouldn't be hard to incorporate it into your current diet. Just a suggestion!

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danicat

Thanks for the tip Lauren. I saw their site and looks interesting, but I'm not sure if I will be able to find it here (I live in Brazil). I'm currently placing my bet on a protein shake from Black Skull called Whey Zero that's somewhat easy to find here. Since it has only protein I try to making it more nutricious blending some type of fruit with it.

Dee

01/15/2016 4:11AM

Danicat, it sounds like you have a lot on your plate. I wish you luck getting the diet figured out. That's something I'm struggling with, too.About your workout plan. If it's something you've already been doing then perhaps you're over-training. I noticed that you have a lot of cardio and impacting in your plan but little if any slower strength/resistance work and stretching. I would strongly recommend you put one of each into your week. A couple days of PiYo could be enough to break the rhythm. Remember that to break through a plateau were never broken through, we need to do something we've never done.I wish you luck danicat.

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danicat

I have a garmin forerunner 920xt sports watch. I use it to track my workouts, runs and daily activities. It's a bit expensive but I like to see it as an investment in my health. :)

Dee

Sorry I lost track of this till now. Thank you for answering. I use my LG Watch R basically as a pedometer since the heart rate is flimsy at best. I'm really looking forward to getting the Under Armour Health Box, though. That looks exciting.