Tag: weight loss

I won’t take it back!

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Hello, internet.

So, I’ve been conflicted. A couple days ago when I posted that guide to building a workout I thought I was so smart. Well, about 3 hours after posting I already wanted to make an amendment.

I read an article shortly after posting that blog about the difference between weight loss and fat loss and realized that I hadn’t specified that my guide was geared towards losing fat and gaining small amounts of muscle. Losing fat is the only thing I personally have focused on so far so it slipped my mind to mention that my current workouts aren’t geared towards body building or long distance running or sport training.

But alas, no amendment was written. I decided that I had stated that my goal was to lose fat enough times in that post and my blog in general that readers should understand the point I was trying to make.

Then I found a new YouTube channel…

It was all about fitness and they were short informative videos, so like any rational millennial would do: I binged watched them for three hours.

And they started saying things like:

“Static stretching isn’t necessary and may even be harmful”

“You don’t need to do any cardio on your lifting days”

“Warm-ups are stupid”

“Picking a handful of random exercises isn’t the right way to plan a workout”

“Sets of 3×10 aren’t the best”

This YouTube channel single-handedly debunked my entire post.

Again I reiterate, I don’t blindly trust strangers on the internet. However, this person gave a plethora of accredited sources with each video and has uploaded informational fitness videos weekly since 2015. I’d say at least some of their videos are accurate.

All day yesterday and all morning at the gym I was thinking about taking the post down altogether.

But then I realized that this isn’t the first time I’ve heard blatant contradictions to fitness matters. The reason that I knew all of the stuff I put in that long blog was because I’d learned it from a reputable source. And the reason that YouTube channel knew all of their information is because they learned it from reputable sources.

So no, I won’t take it back.

This exact plan has worked for me and maybe it’ll work for you too, but decide that for yourself and your own body. That’s what I did. Listen to your own self, don’t trust the internet to know how you feel. (*cough cough* Web MD people I’m talking to you.)

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Went Christmas Tree picking with the in-laws yesterday! This has nothing to do with anything, but how cool is this picture?

Track Your Data!

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Good morning, internet!

It’s been 2 weeks!

I’m not going to do an update of all my measurements until a month in, but I will say this for today: Get you a Body Fat Scale.

I know a lot of people are opposed to weighing themselves every day, but for me, it keeps me accountable and knowledgeable about my own body. I started weighing myself (almost) every morning back when I initially started this in February, partially to track weight loss but also to track bloating.

Like I said yesterday, I used to drink virtually no water at all and I started to notice that when I would eat certain foods and drink less water I’d weigh more the next morning. So I started weighing myself to figure out what foods made me bloat, how much water I should be drinking for my particular body, and ultimately how to make my weight loss steady and consistent.

But now my scale sends to my phone the specific percentage of water weight on my body on any given morning!

What?!

My husband was skeptical of this purchase of mine for a lot of different reasons…

To quote the princess Ariana herself: “think retail therapy my new addiction”

… but mainly because how on Earth can a $20 scale, running on AA batteries, with some metal plates “scan” a person’s body?

Listen, I have no idea how this thing works; I have a studio art degree. But you best believe I googled it and told him all the big words.

Babe, it uses Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) technology. Duh.

In all reality, I read the reviews on Amazon and found several that said the data from this scale was corroborated by the numbers given to them at the doctor’s office. I trusted strangers on the internet. Don’t tell Babe, please.

Now obviously I take the stats this scale give me with a grain of salt. I may be an impulse purchase, but I’m as much of an idiot as this scale is a licensed medical professional. Even so, if it’s giving me the wrong Body Fat number, but that number is decreasing over time, then what’s the problem? I personally don’t need to know to the tenth decimal place what my measurements are, I only need to know that whatever I’m doing is making those measurements shrink.

It’s also fun to look at the charts of my Body Fat percentage going down while my Muscle Mass goes up. Even little gains are gaaaiiinnnsss, baby!

My point is

If you can strip away the emotional attachment to the numbers you’ll realize that it’s only data. The more data you collect, the more you’ll be able to learn. Weighing myself every day keeps me informed about what’s going on in my body. And I’m a sucker for a good line graph.

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Even if the numbers are not 100% accurate, I like the look of that line.