Skip to main content

Carb-cycling and Countdown to Competition

Alright, what's Nicole doing next???

Well, you gotta keep moving forward to go somewhere right? 

My next goal is to move past my mindset that I can eat whatever I want and still maintain my weight. While that's true, I have goals that push me further than where I'm at currently. 

In order to do that, I've decided to give the Countdown to Competition track of the 21 Day Fix Extreme a shot. It lasts for 21 days but I'm not stressing out about that. I'm simply taking it one day at a time, and one workout at a time (as Autumn would say!). 

This track has the challenger carb-cycle. I have looked into carb cycling before but tracking my macros had always been a little challenging for me and I was looking for something easier. Basically you have two super low carb days and then a re-feed day. This is a day when you are eating more carbs and fruit is added in too. But don't confuse this with a cheat day; meals are still clean and portions are controlled (we don't want to ruin all the hard work of the two previous days!!)

I am on the 1500-1800 calorie track so my days look like this:: 2 days of 7 Red (protein), 1 yellow (carb), 4 green (veggie) and 3 tsp (coconut oil for me). Then 1 day of 4 reds, 3 yellows, 4 greens, 4 tsps (more lenient), 1 blue (healthy fat like avocado), 1 orange (dressing or seeds), 3 purples (fruits, whoop whoop!!). 

The fact that I get a break from the strictness has been very nice and makes it do-able for me. I've been through my first three day rotation and I've got to say that I'm feeling REALLY GOOD!!  My energy level is pretty normal and I don't feel sluggish in the morning anymore!  
I know now that if I eat some rich or especially with dairy that the next morning I'll wake up nauseous. With this program, I don't worry about that at all, because dairy is hardly in the program. 

I've been meal prepping A LOT!!!!!  My kitchen has been constantly on go. That's mainly by choice though. I prefer my food as fresh as possible so I've been meal prepping the night before for the following day if I have to work. You can certainly prep a few days worth at a time, but I know that I tend to waste food when I do that. 

The other factor that can be challenging is that it's A LOT of food!!  Trying to fit in 7 reds (proteins) for those two days is hard!!  The standard plan sticks with animal protein; however, I choose to incorporate Greek yogurt and my shakeology to cut down on the amount of meat I need to eat. 

So here's to Day 4!!! My mindset is strong so far and I'm hoping that will continue!!  I attribute that strength to how my perspective changed after completing the 3-Day-Refresh. It was the confidence booster that I needed to know I was capable of accomplishing more!!






Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Happy 3rd Blog-aversary!!

It's been three (3) years to the day since I began blogging.  I've taken a LONG break lately as I have had many transitions in my life.  But in the past few weeks, I've been considering sharing more about the next stage of this journey called life with you all. In three short years, I have gone from motivating others to experiencing weight gain and depression.  Being delivered from said depression and fighting to lose the weight.  I'd say sometimes in life, motivation shows up in the difficult times and then sometimes it's no where to be found-- a bit of a roller coaster really. And about a year ago, I was tired.  Tired of not getting enough sleep, tired of the structure and I needed a break.  This break cost me about 20 lbs and goodness has it been tough to get my mind right again.  But I'm experiencing life!!  Enjoying the moment!  And making memories with my family and friends that have been so good for my soul. And in this season, ...

The Summit...Would You Start Over?

So as most of you know, I went to Nashville last month for Beachbody's national convention called Summit.  It is the most amazing event where people who's purpose is to help others get together, share wonderful ideas/trainings and completely refill your cup before you go back home. This year one of the speakers was talking about completing a workout program in it's entirety when we returned home.  And they were telling us not to start over if we hit some bumps in the road.  Now, I for one, am a habitual "starter over" so I probably turned a little red (those who know me know how a can get flushed in a split second).  In a room of about 14k people, I was feeling like they were talking right to me. But then the best example was given...when you begin a hike/climb up a mountain, if you didn't like how fast you went or your progress in the first few hours, would you start over??? Um...NO way!!  That seems like a no-brainer.  There's no way that you would ...

Big Barrel Souvenir

This past weekend I experienced my first music festival, Big Barrel in Dover, Delaware.  We were able to see Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, Lynrd Skynrd and many others.  It was a super fun and a much needed get-away.  Get-Away was the key word!!  I got away from all of my healthy eating habits too!! If following the 21 Day Fix eating plan, it would have been a weekend full of cheats and yellows.  I had loaded baked potato, pulled pork sandwiches, fries and Olive Garden Pasta.  I'm coming clean!  I don't feel guilty because it doesn't happen all the time, but I don't feel GOOD!  My body is mad at me and I can feel it.  I stepped on the scale this morning and saw a 5lb weight gain!!!  Ahhhh!!  Five pounds of bloat and crap in just three days!  Not exactly the souvenir I was hoping for... So, now what do I do???  I hop right back on my routine.  I'm beginning the 21 Day Fix Extreme today along with...