Final thoughts on meal panning, competition prep and experience!
WHEW!!!! Participating in the Beachbody Classic was an AMAZING experience. I am so torn as to whether I will do it again next year or not. Part of me feels like "wow! I've caught the bug - I've done it once, I can do it again - next year lets go for top 10 or even winner!". The other part of me says "You will have your team with you next year and it will be way more fun to eat, and hang out with them than to be cranky and carb deprived for the first half of the trip!" haha
True. So true. If I do it again I think I will change my strategy....this year, if you read my last post about the meal prep experience you'll know that I chose to follow the 21 day fix extreme meal plan and then switch over the countdown to competition meal plan. This was a beachbody competition and I wanted to follow their meal plan to see how it went. To me it was a big experiment! Unfortunately, once I lowered my calorie bracket, doubled up my workouts, and switched to countdown to competition (where you carb and fat cycle....) my body went into self preservation mode and I plataued big time! I stopped losing weight and i couldn't really budge. My theory is that I needed more fat in my diet than was allowed in the meal plan. I also don't think I was eating enough calories for the amount of exercise was was doing!
Long story short, I still felt great about the effort I put in. Hitting the top 20 was a SHOCK and I was so proud of myself. And honestly just thrilled to have my hard work recognized and rewarded in that way!
The week of the competition was TOUGH - super tough. I did start to tweak the competition plan the week before because I KNEW I wasn't getting enough fat. So occasionally I'd add some into my day. I also started using some juices as greens. The last 3 days I did sort of a combo of 3 day refresh+C2C + my fitness pal app to track everything. It ended up being a pretty good strategy because it was lots of liquids to avoid bloating, fruit, and some meat. We pre-packed a bunch of things to be able to take to the hotel with us!
True. So true. If I do it again I think I will change my strategy....this year, if you read my last post about the meal prep experience you'll know that I chose to follow the 21 day fix extreme meal plan and then switch over the countdown to competition meal plan. This was a beachbody competition and I wanted to follow their meal plan to see how it went. To me it was a big experiment! Unfortunately, once I lowered my calorie bracket, doubled up my workouts, and switched to countdown to competition (where you carb and fat cycle....) my body went into self preservation mode and I plataued big time! I stopped losing weight and i couldn't really budge. My theory is that I needed more fat in my diet than was allowed in the meal plan. I also don't think I was eating enough calories for the amount of exercise was was doing!
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| super tan!!! |
Long story short, I still felt great about the effort I put in. Hitting the top 20 was a SHOCK and I was so proud of myself. And honestly just thrilled to have my hard work recognized and rewarded in that way!
My OVERALL view of the meal plan for anyone who wants to know:
The REGULAR meal plan ( not countdown to competition) is relatively good. I actually don't think it should be used permanently because the fat levels are way too low, and it's difficult to find enough variety when following the recipes provided. BUT this can be an amazing tool for someone who struggles with knowing how much to eat in a day, correct portion sizes, is very overweight and/or needs an idea of how many veggies/fruits/ meat servings to get into their day. For those things it can be very helpful and provide great guidelines!
For someone who eats paleo, doesn't struggle with weight and already has a sense of portion sizes it ends up feeling restrictive after more than about 1-2 weeks. One thing I did like was how many greens it told me to eat. Something I need to prioritize more going forward for sure!!!
I'm REALLY glad I did this - it was as much mental as it was physical and I am really happy to have pushed through. I'm also glad because now I can talk to my challengers about meal planning since I've been through it myself!
My goals now:
NOW I am happily back to my paleo eating ways :) I (and my body) am thrilled to be eating a lot more fat on a daily basis, and I will have to say my mood has gotten increasingly more positive the past few days as a side effect :)
Also, my husband and I will be going through a strength program together this month. Just because the competition is over doesn't mean I don't want to continue pushing hard! I don't think my competition body is as far as I can go - I still want to build muscle and progress even further!
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| Competition DAY!!!!! |
A HUGE HUGE thank you to everyone who posted supportive comments! I TRULY appreciated al the kind words and encouragement. It meant a lot - particularly for those of you who said watching my journey was inspirational was a great encouragement to me because that's the whole reason I do what I do!!! Thanks for letting me share this journey with you and for being super awesome friends :) xoxo