Time to get serious...

I am a "healthy" weight.  5 ft tall and 117 lbs.

I thought if I could lose 5 lbs or so all would be good.  Then I made a mistake.

I bought a body fat scale.  Even giving room for error my body fat is pretty close to 30%.  They have a name for people like me.  (NOT "mom").  It's called normal weight obesity.  Basically it means that I have the same risks for type 2 diabetes and heart disease as your typically obese person.   This realization has caused me to become a little more serious about changing my body composition for the better.  I am not really focusing on weight as much as getting my body fat in the healthy range.

So as soon as we moved to our new house I got a gym membership.  I worked out often for 6 weeks and didn't lose a pound.  You see, I love to work out, but I hate to diet.  I hate the rules, the preparing, the figuring the shoulds and should nots.   I want to have the occasional "BAD" food without being led to believe that I am eating toxic waste.  I don't really want to think about food a whole lot at all.

I started researching how I could lose body fat without being obsessive compulsive about my diet.  (Don't get me wrong... I know that healthy choices NEED to make up the majority of my diet... I just don't buy the bunk that we need to eat perfectly all the time to be healthy.)  I came up with a plan of exercise and eating that I think is going to be the answer for ME.  This is the plan that I feel can work as it suits MY personality, and what I believe I can maintain as a lifestyle.

I am planning to do High Intensity Interval training workouts on the elliptical every 4-5 days along with weight training 2-3 times a week.  I am also going to adopt an eating lifestyle called Intermittent Fasting. I first learned about it from a guy named Brad Pilon who wrote a book called Eat Stop Eat.  He has a blog and some youtube videos too.  The plan is to fast for 24 hours (over 2 days) once or twice a week.  I will do twice a week at first and cut back to once a week as I get closer to my health goal.  You can pick any 24 hour block you want, but for me dinner to dinner works best.

I am currently on hour 22 of my first 24 hour fast.  I even went to the gym today for some light aerobic exercise and a half hour of yoga/pilates.   I felt GREAT working out and my hunger has not been too crazy.  I have a slight headache which I attribute to no caffeine yet today.

I hope to use my blog to chart my progress and keep me focused and accountable.  NEXT POST... beginning stats and measurements.