Two Weeks Left! Tips to Drop Those Last Few Pounds - Dianne's Challenge Week 14

I’m approximately two weeks away from my wedding day and my weight has been teetering around 147 pounds and it’s been frustrating. 

Every day gets us just a little bit closer to our big day and time feels like it’s flying so fast.  Don’t get me wrong, I am super pumped and very much looking forward to walking down that aisle, but with the scale not deviating very far from the 147 pound mark, I’m scared that I’m not going to make it to my goal weight of 144.  I’m afraid of being disappointed, and of disappointing everyone that has helped and supported me throughout this journey.

When I expressed my frustrations to Holly, she suggested we try a little something different with our workout.  We went to the beach and I knew then and there that I was in for it!

Working out on the sand adds an element of resistance that makes you really have to dig deep within to push through.  I did our usual warm-up drills: side shuffle, high knees, and crab walks.  The crab walk was so hard to complete. I hate those anyway, but on the sand took it to an insane level of difficulty.  I wanted to give up so many times and the workout hadn’t even begun yet! Here's what the rest of it entailed:

My Intense Santa Monica Beach Workout

• 20 Russian twists with a 10-lb dumbbell
• 10 Squats with a 20-pound medicine ball throws and sprint
• 10 Step-ups (each leg) on a bench with a bicep curl (boy was that step high!)
• 10 Triceps dips on the bench
• 30-second Medicine ball run
• 20-second Bear crawls

I felt every single muscle in my body working on overdrive that day.  I felt very proud and accomplished after, but I really had to push myself hard to get through it.

Now I have to continue to push myself to get my cardio in from here on out!  I just have to schedule it in to my days as if it was an appointment that I cannot miss. However, I find myself with some extra time now because I was recently laid off from my job (which is a total bummer - but that’s a whole other blog in itself). There’s really no excuse now.

A Plan to Drop Those Last Few Pounds FAST!

Holly and I had a talk about what needs to change during the next few weeks leading up to the wedding in order to get these last three pounds off. She gave me the following instructions:

• 5-6 days of cardio – (Two 40-minute steady-state cardio sessions, and three 20-minute HIIT sessions where I cycle 1-minute of light jogging followed by 30-second sprints). 
• 4 weight-training sessions (including 2 training sessions with Holly) 
• Cut out sugar and any processed food
• NO alcohol
• Cut calories to 1400 and reduce carbohydrates to just over 100 grams daily
• Stop eating at 7pm
• Drink plenty of water – up to 1 gallon a day—until the week of the wedding
• Reduce sodium consumption and even more so the week of the wedding 

Getting Stricter With My Diet

Diet will take center stage in this last phase.  Holly put me on a low calorie, high protein diet.  Luckily, ProTrainF3 was kind enough to send me another round of ready-to-eat, healthy meals, this time with lower carbohydrates. This is a huge life saver!  These prepared meals are fantastic as the calories and macronutrients have been taken into account, all ready to pop in the microwave or oven - and they are delicious!

So far I’m doing well, but I’m not going to lie, I’m getting a bit bored of veggie and egg scrambles in the morning. Sometimes I make mini egg white "muffins" from egg whites and chopped veggies and a sprinkle of parmesan and bake in a muffin pan for a quick bite.

Typically, my day mainly consists of the following: veggie egg white scramble for breakfast (sometimes I’ll throw in some extra protein like an ounce of roast chicken breast), ProTrain frozen meals for lunch, and baked salmon or tilapia with a salad (low calorie dressing) or boiled veggies for dinner.  My snacks consist of rice cakes and almond butter or hummus and tuna for extra protein.

Holly also said that I could experiment with intermittent fasting techniques to see how my body responds. I stop eating at 7pm and don’t have breakfast until about 10am or 11-ish.  I’ve tried this a couple times throughout the week, and it has helped with making me feel a bit lighter. 

So, I’ve been following Holly’s guidelines, but it is TOUGH!  It really does take a lot of determination to get there.  Some days are definitely better than others, but I am doing the best I can to follow through.  Sometimes I crave the sugar that I’m supposed to cut out, and on those days, I’ll have fruit.  Sometimes I’ll also crave more carbohydrates and on these days I’ll add 1/3 cup of brown rice to my diet, or I’ll sprinkle some couscous or quinoa on my dinner salad. 

I am still struggling to get all the workouts in.  I’ve been splitting my time between house, wedding planning, and job searching and all these things take a lot of time.  I need to stop excusing this behavior, however.  When I wonder why that number isn’t dropping, my mind always goes back to this point.  I need to step up the workouts – there’s not much time left!

Current Stats:

Weight: 147.4

Body Fat: 26%

What do you think?