First things first: Why the meltdown? Few reasons. Firstly, I realised that even if I wasn't starving myself physically, I was psychologically. There's only so long someone can survive on 1200 calories and having to count everything that goes in your mouth. It was draining me in more ways than one.
Secondly, I've been looking at starting up work again soon due to money running out. The thought of starting work again after an extended break is scary enough as it is but I really thought I would have achieved my goals before I had to go back to work. The anxiety attack showed me that I'm not yet ready to return to work full-time. I need to know that my head is well and truly in the game before I do that (habits locked in, emotional eating a thing of the past, weight at a place where I can maintain rather than still be losing). This may sound extreme (and un-realistic), but the thing is, we moved to NZ to further our acting careers and a huge part of that for me is looking the part which will in turn help me with my self-confidence when it comes to auditions etc.
Anyway, the biggest discovery of the weekend was a book I stumbled across on the net called "Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle". I think I'd heard of it before, but with all the research I've been doing over the past week, the name kept coming up and I decided to look into it. Some health/fitness websites score it as the top diet/exercise plan in existence above all the books out there as well as Weight Watchers etc - high praise! The website for the book, www.burnthefat.com looked pretty cheesy and like a lot of other websites out there offering fad diets etc, but I decided to trust the reviews and buy the book. It's about $40AUD but I chose to buy the deluxe version with heaps of extras for $60AUD. Best $60 I've ever spent.
The author is a fitness trainer (25 years in the industry) and bodybuilder who has read every diet, exercise and motivational book around. He HATES fad diets and "quick fix" scams and is all about the science. He combined all his practical & "book" knowledge over the past 25 years to put together a book that covers EVERYTHING. Seriously - it was 340 pages of the hard facts and science (and no mean feat to read in one weekend) and he guarantees if you follow his plan (that is as "un-fad-like" as it gets) you can transform your body in 7 weeks. That said, this plan is for life - it is a maintainable food & exercise plan that you should do until you die. No major calorie cutting, no pills or supplements... Just clean food and a lot of exercise.
If you seriously want to change your body and I mean SERIOUSLY - as in it is the top of your priority list - PLEASE buy this book and read it from cover to cover. Yes, it's a big read and the plan does not claim to be easy (it isn't!) but it will, without doubt, change your body and your life. www.burnthefat.com - do it.
As for me, I've been crunching numbers and writing up food & exercise guides all weekend. I'm happy to say I'm on a higher calorie plan now (approx 1600 cal) and even get to have a higher day every 4 days (approx 2000 cal) which will keep my metabolism on fire. I am going to be working out like a maniac but you can do it at your own level... I personally want to reach my goals by Christmas (7 weeks from now) so that 2012 is a year of maintaining that and enjoying myself more. I will be doing a lot of things the same... The exercise plan I recently posted is basically what I'll be doing with some minor tweaks and my diet includes a lot of the same foods I was eating but I'm paying a lot more attention to what kind of macronutrients I'm taking in (carbs/proteins/fats) and instead of counting calories will just follow a pre-made plan instead.
As earlier stated, I'll do a weekly progress report (weight, body fat, measurements, photos) but the focus is really going to be on lean mass vs body fat. I'll post my specific goals later today when I put up my starting statistics. I won't lie... This plan scares me a little. But they say if your goals don't scare you then you're not aiming high enough.
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