Skinny Pants Chick: How I Did It

For those of you who know GeekChick in the flesh, you know that I have recently shed many pounds in a short time period.  I was asked to share how I accomplished this feat, and I am more than  happy to do so!!!

First, a little back story.  Upon the birth of my second child, I was very strong and in shape.  Mind you, "in shape" does not in any way refer to washboard abs or minimalist butts.  I had my curves, but I was strong as an ox and hotter than the sun side of Mercury.  However, somewhere over the next couple of years I felt all my strength sapped.  Then began the not-so-slow descent into fathood.

It got to a point where I said, NO MORE!!!  I refused to by yet another pair of fat pants.  I decided it was time to go all out, and I sprung for a trainer at my gym.  Yeah, it's pricey, but so is buying a new fat pants wardrobe every six months!  (not to mention the health bills for being overweight).  Ok, so long story short, here is what I have learned and done......

First and foremost: it is NOT about "turning 40" and your metabolism slowing, perimenopause, or any of that shit.  It's about your fat-to-muscle ratio.  What happens when you're around mid-life?  You have kids, you maybe change to more of a desk job, your life in general becomes more sedentary.  You have less time, as you focus on career and childrearing or whatever.  So, let's keep activity level in mind as we proceed through the steps here....

Having a less active life is only step one......the second part is how you eat.  Did you know that eating less frequently is detrimental?  Yep that's right -- eating MORE often is actually better for you. Most of us have heard about grazing vs. meal time....and it's true.  For me, there is a HUGE difference between eating every 2 hrs and every 4 !!! 

And then of course, there's activity.  It's not enough to do cardio.  It may seem like it burns fat, but in and of itself, it doesn't.  You need to increase your muscle mass, because muscle burns more calories than fat does.  So, you can cardio all you want, but if you have no muscle mass, you're just gonna stay fat. 

Got the basics?  Ok, so here's the program that has worked for me.  And by "worked" I mean, I have shed two sizes in the course of one summer, without feeling deprived in any way.....I feel good about myself and am getting compliments on how I look (which I wasn't when I was in Fat Soccer Mom Mode).......

• Eat only a palm-sized portion.  At first you will feel like you are eating all the freaking time...but after a few weeks you will adapt.  By only eating what your body needs at the time, you will not put on fat.
• Eat frequently.  When you go too long between eating, your body takes the energy it needs from your muscles, not fat.  So, fasting only compounds the problem!  Twice in my life I have shed mass pounds simply by eating small amounts every 1 or 2 hours. 
• Eat responsibly.  You don't want to Atkins-out, but you do want to be aware of your carb-to-protein ratio.  Eat both in every meal, in a healthy balance.  Personally, I try to aim for more protein than carbs in each "feeding," and of course the carbs are healthy carbs like veggies and fiber.  For myself, I aim for no less than a 50/50 ratio of carbs/protein, though I do not always make it, and each person's optimum balance will be different.  Yeah, I miss having toast once in a while, but being in my skinny pants makes up for it!!!
• Do resistance workouts.  Resistance = weight training, but it doesn't have to be with weights.  It can include things like pushups and ab work....The point is to build up muscle mass and strength.  More muscle burns more calories! 
• Do cardio in harmony with resistance.  I started with an elliptical regimen after my resistance workouts, but over time I find that I prefer the more kinetic workout of cardio kickboxing.   No matter what cardio you do, it's best to do it in conjunction with resistance, to maximize your fat burning!
• Stay motivated, set reasonable goals.  It's a hell of a lot easier to stay on track if you set attainable goals.  Then, once you reach them, you have automatic positive feedback to carry one.  Force yourself to go to the gym or class even if you don't feel like it.  Case in point: recently, I was extremely tired and didn't think I'd be able to do my kickboxing class.  I gave myself permission to skip if I really felt I couldn't do it, but in the end, I did it and it was GREAT!!!! 
• Toot your horn.  A key motivator is to have folks compliment you on all your hard work -- so prance around the office bragging about how much you've lost!

In the end, I work out probably 3-5 times/week for resistance and 3x/week for cardio kickboxing.  Some days I do both, for a total of 2 hours/day.  This, plus the eating every two hours, does the trick.  I've lost tons of fat, gotten toned up and in better shape, gotten stronger, and I feel and look great. 

The bottom line is twofold: One, that each of us will have a different regimen that works for us, and Two, that we need to accept ourselves with REALISTIC woman bodies and not hold ourselves to some stupid standard of size 0 heroin model in  Cosmo ....but that's for another post.....

Sunday with Foucault

Lately I've been getting a lot of comments about how much I've changed.  When I inquire as to what the speaker means, he will inevitably refer to how my Facebook posts or blog topics have changed in the last year.  Which is fine and dandy and observant to notice -- but the comments seem to be made from the perspective that this is some sort of grand change in my philosophy.  I was a bit perplexed at first, because in my world a change in Facebook posting pattern doesn't really mean much.  Then I realized that the people who remarked on the change were folks who'd only known me a year or so.  To them, the me they saw when we met was an Immutable Me that had always been;  therefore, a change, to them, would indeed reflect something deeper. 

Well let me tell you folks, it doesn't. 

I'm still stark raving angry about Tea Baggers, still pissed off at the Dems for not having any balls, still sick of the likes of Sarah Palin.  It's just time to stop making that my number one focus -- for now.  Seriously, if that's all I posted about, this blog would be a pretty boring read, don't you think?

Here's the secret: life is not a spectrum, wherein you occupy a single point at a single time.  For some of us, it's a pendulum, and we can swing from feeling extroverted and intense to introspective and pensive.  (Oo, I just had a great image of a pendulum intersecting a point on a spectrum.....but it's too complex to explain here).  I am simply feeling more thoughtful these days and prefer to indulge my inner philosophizing than outer ranting about the obvious sins of the Baggers. 

I suspect that if you bother to read this blog, you experience the same thing from time to time.  No one is unidimensional;  it's just a matter of how much we express our various facets.  Most people, I suspect, keep much of it under wraps for one reason or another.  A vast ocean of people aren't even self aware enough to recognize this in themselves.  Many people know exactly what I'm talking about, but keep it private.  Me, I've learned to put it all out there.  I'm tired of facades and trying to fit in. 

What continually surprises me, though, is the notion that people are, in fact, unidimensional.  Now, I realize that I may be more multifaceted than the average bear, but I refuse to believe that I am unique.  I know for a fact that I am not (again, you dear reader!).  I suppose the penchant for single-categorization harkens back to some primal "us and them" mentality -- but come on people.  We are capable of more subtlety than that.  Some of us can, in fact, hold opposing ideas in our minds simultaneously.  Categorization and lableing is fine and handy when it comes to politics and other discussions -- but we should not extend it to labeling ourselves as a whole.  Each of us deserves better than that, to have all our various aspects recognized and valued. 

So, for those of you who miss the fiery, revolutionary, anti-Tea Bagger GeekChick, fear not -- she is still here.  She is just resting while Philosophizing GeekChick takes over.  Besides, I'm sick of hearing about the elections anyway -- aren't you?  ; )