My monthly fatloss progress report....

Today's Post: Monday, 7-18-2011

Since last month, I lost two pounds! That’s the first progress in a while!

This past month my waist remained the same. So did my hips. But my chest went up by half an inch.

I now need to lose 3 pounds total to return to my goal weight. And, I still need to lose at least two to 4 inches off my waist.

According to pictures I’ve seen, I’m now at about 20 % bodyfat or a bit more, perhaps 22%. To remove my abdominal fat, according to those same pictures, I also need to add enough muscle to stay at or just slightly below my goal weight AND lose about 12% of my current bodyweight as fat.

Roughly, from today on, I plan to lose 18 pounds of fat and gain 15 pounds of muscle to be at 8 to 10% fat and lose the 4 or more inches off my waist. (I’ll also be at my goal weight.)

Last month, I left everything the same except two things

My drinks per week had gone up a bit since I was at my goal weight and I clearly had been eating far too much almond butter. So this past month, I had a plan to try to fix each of those problems.

This time though it worked.

1. I cut more than I planned last month on my alcoholic drinks. (I went from one a week over my goal to half a drink a week under.)

That was almost certainly most of what lost me the two pounds.

2. And, instead of eating more than one serving of almond butter most nights a week, I tried only one serving every other day.

This time, I wound up doing that again but may have stuck to one serving a time better than the month before.

I had also planned to eat a few thawed frozen Brussels sprouts in place of the almond butter. (I had found before that adding nonstarchy vegetables is effective.) I did not find the frozen Brussels sprouts but did try frozen, organic broccoli florets a few a day that I’d thawed.

I did that but found I got out of the habit in just a few days.

So my goal for food and drink for next time is to do as well as last month on alcoholic drinks and a bit better on almond butter AND become consistent every day with the few thawed, frozen, organic broccoli florets.

The package only costs about two dollars. And all I need to do is to remember to take a few florets a couple times a week from the package in the freezer in put them in the small glass container in the refrigerator to thaw. That’s the hard part.

If they are in the glass container and thawed, I find I do remember to eat a few each day.

3. I’m almost 100% recovered from my left arm injury and am close to adding some muscle and may have done so in the past month since I’ve been able to resume doing my kettlebell exercises.

My left arm is almost back to where I was before I injured it. It no longer “feels” funny or causes any pains – even mild ones when I do my exercises.

I have made some progress recently on my jump rope and Nordic Track in my cardio work since last month. And, I’ve made a bit of progress doing my kettlebell work. I even made some small progress on my dumbbell work.

That certainly helped me lose the 2 pounds. And, it may have helped me to gain the half inch on my chest.

My near term plan is to keep up making small progress on each of these exercises.

Wish me luck for next month!