It would seem that I hit a few bumps in the road in maintaining my workout schedule and food diary during my recent 2-week road trip. Now at the end of month 3 of my fitness journey, I’m reflecting on the difficulties I encountered and how I might avoid them in the future.

In Fitness Journey: Month 1, Slow And Measured, I shared about the hows and whys of the start of this journey, and in Fitness Journey: Month 2, A Notch Tighter, I shared my elation of continued progress towards my goals. Because I’ve given myself an extra week for month 3 (taking advantage of a necessary timeframe adjustment), I’ve been able to recoup the ground I lost while traveling.

All three of the key tools I’ve been using for this journey were compromised to one degree or another while I was away from home. The primary reason I ran afoul was that I didn’t adequately plan on how I would continue to use those tools while on the road. My key tools are Intermittent Fasting (IF), maintaining a food diary, and resistance training. I know (and knew then) that sticking to my plan perfectly would’ve been an unrealistic expectation but with better preparation, I could’ve done better.

The first mistake I made was believing that I could do it on my own. What I mean is that I should have had a conversation with The Husband about how he could “help” me. With IF, I limit my timeframe for eating to about 7 hours (sometimes stretching it to 8 hours) and typically not eating breakfast until well past 11am. At home, this isn’t a problem because we’re liking doing separate things during the day and typically, we’re on our own for breakfast with dinner usually between 5:30 and 6pm. While traveling, we’re mostly together 24/7 and we usually stay at hotels that offer breakfast. Breakfast that’s served until only 10am. Fortunately, we’re not the “get up early and go” kind of people but eating at 10am means that we either need to have dinner before 5pm or my eating timeframe is expanded to 8 hours or more. Understandably this isn’t a problem if it occurs only once in a while; however, it’s kind of easy to just say f*** it when you don’t want to be a difficult traveling partner.

The challenge with IF aside, I had mentioned to The Husband that I wanted to bring a small ice chest with us so that we could more easily have on hand a few healthy food options like greek yogurt and fruit. We’d been on the road for an hour or so when I realized that we didn’t have said ice chest with us. My mistake here was that when I weighed the cost of buying an ice chest against the benefit of having it on hand, I decided to just let it go and hope for the best. I reasoned that I could make do with the hotel-provided breakfasts and, if I made smart choices at other meals, all would be fine. I made an attempt to focus on protein and minimize carbs but without a food scale, I wasn’t able to accurately log my food. Live and learn.

Lastly, I found the fitness rooms in most of the places where we stayed to be minimally equipped. All had at least a treadmill, an elliptical machine, and a seated cycle machine as well as mats and weighted balls but most lacked dumbbells or any type of stacked weight machines. The gym I belong to has locations throughout the US though none in the areas where we were staying. In my current gym workout, I use 8 different muscle group-specific machines (no handheld weights) and none of the cardio machines. I’ve typically been walking outdoors for that part of my fitness routine. Not knowing what the fitness room options would be ahead of time, I had done a little bit of looking for bodyweight exercises that I might do but nothing else. Walking outdoors (as a cardio exercise) in most of the areas we were in wasn’t advisable due to the smoky air so I reluctantly decided to try a treadmill because I needed the “pump”. Surprisingly, I liked it and I intend to continue to use one at my gym now that I’m home.

Onto the latest stats. As is evident, there is little change from last month other than 1/2″ on my waist and 1/4″ on my calves. Although that 1/4″ did help to make the boots I wore in Recycle-Reclaim-Reuse: Sustainable Fashion fit just a bit less snug.

 

June 11 July 15 August 12 Sept 16 total change
Weight 177.1 175.0 172.2 172.0 -5.1
Body Fat % 35.1% 34.6% 33.6% 34.0% -1.1%
Chest 39″ 38.5″ 38.5″ 38.5″ -0.5″
Bust 44.5″ 44″ 43.25″ 43.25″ -1.25″
Waist 39″ 38.5″ 37.5″ 37.0″ -1.5″
Abdomen 45″ 44.5″ 44.5″ 44.5″ -0.5″
Hips 46″ 45.5″ 45.0″ 45.0″ -1.0″
Thighs 25.5″ 25.5″ 25″ 25″ -0.5″
Calves 15.5″ 15.5″ 15.5″ 15.25″ -0.25

 

As for the progress photos, I’ve switched it up to show each view side-by-side instead of grouping the monthly views together. Another switch-up I’m making is what I’m wearing in my photos. A couple of weeks ago, I came across Skechers GoWalk Pants (similar) at Costco for $20. I LOOOOOOVE them! I have two in this gray and two in black. If you’re looking for workout pants, go now before they’re sold out. Anyway, since my measurements didn’t really change much from last month, I figured now would be a good time to “reset” my photo outfit. Isn’t interesting to see how different my body appears between the last two photos?

Moving forward, I’ll be switching up a few other things in my action plan. First, I’ve made an incremental increase in the weights I’m using. I’d been ready to do so last month but I thought it best to wait until I was back from my trip since I knew I might not be doing much resistance training while I was gone. The second change, as I said previously, will be incorporating treadmill workouts into my weekly routine and taking advantage of the added benefit of the incline feature (there are no hills in my neighborhood). And third, I’m going to focus on increasing my protein intake which has only been at about 25%.

One more thing to mention, the jeans I’m wearing in the first and last photos. I bought them in early Summer of 2018 and shared them in Trending Style: Side Stripe a month or so later. I so liked the side-zip detail that I got them in two sizes; one “to wear now” and one for “when/if I lost weight”. This might seem wasteful but I have worn the jeans a lot since. However, now I’m quite delighted to tell you that the pair in today’s photos are the smaller size. 🥳

That’s my fitness journey status report for month 3. This post is part of a recurring series published at about this point each month as I track my progress for becoming fitter and losing weight. Do you have any helpful tips you can share or resources that you’ve used in your own fitness journey?

Stay well and let’s keep in touch! Subscribe, tweet, follow, friend, pin … all options are available. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

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Note: This is an unsponsored post; however, some or all of the links to clothing items are associated with an affiliate program where I earned a few cents for each click.

Feature and final photos: MMPerez

3 Comments

  1. I think you are doing a fantastic job! It’s so important to give yourself grace some days/weeks/months and just get back to your routine.

  2. mummabstylish

    Well done girl, you’re doing well and looking fabulous. I’ve started my Keto diet again. I lost 2 stone before lockdown and then put it all back on again. I hope to lose it again now I’ve started. Have a super week. Jacqui x

  3. Wow, your journey is so similar to mine although I started early last year. I do intermittent fasting (8 hr window) with an emphasis on fiber and lean protein, lots of fruits and veg (I try not to have a forbidden list). I do the elliptical and use dumbbells regularly. I have lost 63 lbs this past year. For me, upping my cardio game was a real game changer (of course, everyone is different). I do the elliptical 7 days a week for 30-40 minutes (last year I couldn’t do a minute!) and try to incorporate high intensity intervals. I motivate myself with tv series or movies that I only allow myself to watch when I’m on the machine. At any rate, good luck to you, you seem to be doing great!