Day 10 - The end of prep phase

Well here I am at the end of what I am now calling my "prep phase" where I broke my food obsession and lost the first few pounds to get me motivated to do more. I am glad to be moving on to something else, however, for several reasons. First of all, I get bored easily, so changing what I eat often will help me stick to a plan. Which is why I am so excited about MS - I get to switch what I am eating every 5 days! Secondly, the calorie deprivation from being on slim fast sucks. In the beginning I was doing well but now I think my metabolism is starting to slow down and that's partially why I felt so crappy last night. Thankfully today I am feeling better and although I had a shake for breakfast, I had a normal lunch and dinner. I still am able to eat a lot less than I was eating before I started all of this so I am thankful for that going into this next challenge. Lastly, I am glad to be moving on simply because I like food and not having anything real until dinner every day would really start to get old in the near future. For now it was okay because I was getting results but I know that before long my body would be eating it's own muscle and that's not what I want. So on to MS where I am very hopeful that I can gain muscle and lose fat at the same time.
So I guess I am going with Adam's verbage and calling this first go-through on the MS plan "Mission One". It will begin tomorrow and end in 46 days on December 9th, the day after my birthday. But really the last 10 days are recovery so I should have the results in by the morning of November 30. That's a pretty good timeline I think! The goal is the same as I stated on an earlier post - to be 150 pounds and I think I will add to that to be down 15" overall from the first measurements. Then I am planning on starting the plan over again, probably the regular version, for the next 46 days after that (Mission 2) to lose the last 10 pounds, putting me at 140, and to fit into my 30" jeans. And one of my dresses that's a size 6. And have tone back to all parts of my body. Will work more on all that later. For now, it's on to Mission One.
Also, Friday is when the group shred begins on Adam's blog so I am excited to be able to take part in that while doing a program where it's reasonable to expect visible results after the first 14 days. Since I have already lost 6 pounds I am ahead on my schedule of goals but I know that it won't be like that all the time. In the next two weeks my goals are:
1) See a visible difference in my photos - actually, have someone else be able to see a visible difference because I can analyze forever and maybe see something but I want someone to see something easily and clearly. Is that too much to ask? Mostly I want the difference to be in the lower body because that is the worst but I'll take a loss anywhere. Maybe even hope for my clothes feeling looser.
2) Lose 4 more pounds, putting my total loss at 10 lbs. in 24 days. With the program sounding as tough as it does, I don't think that's unrealistic. But you hear everywhere that losing more than 2 lbs a week is unhealthy unless you are morbidly obese and I am not that so I won't expect more than that but of course would be happy if it was! I know that if I am putting on muscle I shouldn't be upset if the scale doesn't move as much because I am still losing fat, but the reality is that when I was at 17% bf I was 140 lbs so I am sure that I will need to drop more weight even with muscle. But that's also why my #1 goal is to see a difference because it is more important. I will be happy with losing some weight and if it's not all 4 lbs then I won't be too upset as long as I can see (and feel!) the difference.
3) Lose 4 more inches anywhere on the body. As the pounds go, so should the inches as far as I'm concerned, and since my bf meter is unreliable, I am using measurements to better gauge whether my loss is fat or muscle. Same goes for this as the weight, I'll be happy if it's less but I don't think this is unreasonable.
4) Finish all of the workouts as stated in the Level 1 MS program. I think that I am reasonably in shape but still wanted to start with the lower level just in case I am fooling myself, plus they are still supposed to be challenging and hopefully they don't totally kill me because I'd be really disappointed if I am wiped the first day. I want to be able to do them all but want them to be good enough, you know?

So I think that's everything so far. I guess all that qualifies as a "shred" I'm not really sure but I am definately trying to increase muscle while decreasing fat and that's what I think of as shredding. Hopefully the accountablity of this site and the increased visibility from Adam's site will work together to keep me on the right track and make sure I am working out hard. I did my best work when I had a PT to report back my progress to every week so in a way this is the best thing I can do to keep that kind of mentality going. I need to know someone is watching, though! Please feel free to comment and I'll send you one back!

P.S. Hello to James, my first (as far as I know) visitor. Thanks for the comments and hopefully this won't bore you to death so you'll keep me on my toes. Good luck in your MS work as well!

P.P.S. Here's today's pics!