So it’s been interesting to not blog about my fitness journey for a whole entire week. But rather than bore you (or myself) with all of the details of food and exercise (I track all of this daily anyway), I thought I would give some general thoughts about each day.

Exercise

So far I have managed to exercise every day this week. I plan on exercising today (Saturday), but Sunday might be a challenge because I will attend a birthday today and I have to travel tomorrow. I will try to fit in a good workout before I leave for my trip, but if I can’t, I will have to exercise at the hotel gym.

This week’s exercise is a continuation of the same as last week: 3-4x cardio and 2-3x weights. Being on Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet, I am not overly concerned about weights at the moment. I am planning that from February, I will shift the focus from cardio to weights. My mind is playing a psychological trick on me, as well as this is probably one of the drawbacks of a various digital measuring devices. Because my fitness tracker clearly shows me that I burn more calories in the same 50 minute workout doing cardio instead of weights, my thoughts instinctively track towards “spend more time on what burns more calories.” But from what I am reading, I understand that weight training will help me burn more calories throughout the day consistently whilst building muscle. And given that my lean mass has decreased on Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet, maybe that is not such a bad thing.

But generally, I enjoy exercising and whilst hitting the gym 7 days a week might be too much of a stretch, 4 days a week seems like something I can manage if I make the time for it (might be harder while travelling, but I won’t let that get in the way).

Diet

So far this week, I have stayed true to the South Beach Diet Phase 1 principles. I have eaten some really delicious food this week so far. Perhaps my only complaint as such is that breakfast is now becoming boring. It’s always eggs and something else. When I plan properly, food generally isn’t a problem, because cooking produces servings for 4-6 people, so there is always leftovers for lunch and dinner the next day. Luckily I can eat the same thing for a few days (not a few weeks though…like eggs) and not feel bored, mostly because you can always cook something else and introduce variety.

I do have to say that I am supposed to be on Phase 1 of the diet for today and tomorrow, but given that I am attending a birthday party, I will have a few glasses of wine. They are also serving food, but I plan to eat my meal before heading over there in order to be less hungry when I get there. I will do my best to enter in the food in MyFitnessPal, but I expect it to yell at me tomorrow and I will try not to let it derail me for Sunday and Monday when I am travelling. Given I jumped off the wagon for 2 meals last week (3 if you count the tandoori chicken soup), I said that I would extend my Phase 1 for an additional day. I am tempted to extend it to Wednesday next week, but after reading a lot of post and experiences from other South Beach Dieters, I will likely just move to ‘Phase 1.5’ for a couple of weeks…blending between Phases 1 and the more generous Phase 2. My plan is that one days when I workout hard, I can ‘treat’ myself to Phase 2. If I don’t work out, or work out poorly, then Phase 1 it is for me. Besides, I am looking forward to adding back in some of the stuff I missed the most – fruit being chief amongst them!

Overall, I can’t complain with how this Phase 1 has gone so far. I managed to lose 6,5 kg (14lbs) since the New Year, and 4kg of that was since I started tracking and measuring. So since I started tracking and measuring, I have achieved 15% of my goal of losing 24kg in 26 weeks! So this means that I have 24 weeks and 21kg to go in order to achieve my target. I am a bit ahead of ‘schedule’, but I can’t afford to take anything for granted. Now I need more determination and discipline than ever before.