Saying “Goodbye” to the Last 10 Lbs.

Hello Abs, Are you there? It’s me, Gretchen

As I mentioned in my 2021 Resolutions post, this is the year I’m kicking my fitness goals up a notch. This year I’m sticking to a workout plan of 45-90 minutes of Pilates/Cardio/HIIT for 6 days a week, with yoga on my rest days. This February I also started a Whole 30 challenge. I’ll be posting a recap of how I’m doing with everything and what I’ve learned, but before that, I wanted to take a moment to delve into what my goals are and why:

Back in 2015, when I was plucky 28-year-old, I was in the best shape of my life—and I wasn’t even aiming for it. I’d been regularly practicing yoga and running for a decade when I had an urge to add Thai boxing into the mix. I’d wanted to learn to box for a while, so three days a week I’d spend 1-2 hours sweating it out at my local boxing gym. With a move to China happening at the end of that summer, I had a deadline to pass my levels tests if I wanted to move up before leaving the country—extra motivation! By the time September rolled around, I was at my skinniest and fittest I’d been since I was 23. I felt strong, I felt healthy, I felt confident enough to workout in booty shorts!

One year later I found myself in the worse shape of my life. I’d gotten sick with a lung infection while in China that decimated my cardiovascular system. I went from winning my division at half marathons to working my way back up to a three-mile run. I decided to move back home because the pollution levels and my inability to run for stress relief was leaving me feeling unhealthy and unhappy. I was at my heaviest weight ever. I felt like I’d undone 10 years of progress in my fitness journey, and it was heartbreaking for me.

(From this summer when I discovered I really do like leggings.)

This is about where I’m starting from in my current goals

A Slow Road Back

I never thought I would magically transform back into my former physical shape just by moving stateside, but I also never anticipated how much of a struggle it would end up being. The first year back was the hardest—no matter how much improvement I made with running, no matter how frequently I exercised, no matter my eating, the extra weight wasn’t going anywhere. Feeling frustrated and still uncomfortable in my body, I started looking into why this could be such a struggle and found a really interesting article about the impact of higher cortisol levels and the body’s insistence on holding onto fat. I never got my levels tested, but I’d been experiencing high levels of chronic stress for a little more than two years at that point—so high levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) didn’t seem far fetched.

I made two big changes after that: First, I added herbal supplements to my daily routine that help counter the negative impact stress can take on your body (specifically I take Ashwagandha and Rhodiola). Second, I started my 100 Days Sober Challenge. This one I didn’t do specifically for weight loss, but cutting the empty calories and sugar probably had an impact. I lost 20 pounds in one month. It felt great. I started to feel healthier, more comfortable, and more like my old self again. Even after I brought alcohol back into my diet, in moderation, I kept that weight off. While I was very grateful I dropped back to a healthy weight for myself, I still wasn’t in my “28-year-old-pre-China” shape. Energized by my progress, I was sure if I kept up with my workouts and runs I’d get back to that physical shape again. But instead, I hit a plateau.

Getting after my fitness goals

They say losing those “last 10 pounds” is the hardest. They are not wrong. Since I lost those 20 pounds in the fall of 2017 my body has felt stuck in that “plateau”… until recently.

Between the pandemic and a devastating wildfire that clouded the Portland skies in smoke, I found myself in need of a workout routine that I could safely do inside my apartment. This is when I got into Pilates. I discovered the Blogilates YouTube channel with its mixture of indoor cardio/HIIT/Pilates and it saved the day. A lot of her workouts actually remind me of boxing—something I’d been missing. I could get enough cardio to make up for not running and was working on strength training in a way I hadn’t been doing. I enjoyed it so much during the “fire season” that I challenged myself to follow her workout calendar every day until the end of the year (around 100 days). Five months later, I’m still at it for my primary workouts. I’m feeling stronger and a bit toner but my body still doesn’t want to drop those “last 10 pounds.”

It’s odd feeling stronger but still “squishy.” I ended the year feeling proud that I hit my goals to complete every workout on the workout calendar (45-60 minutes of workouts, 6 days a week), encouraged that I was feeling stronger, but disappointed that the actual changes to my physical body have been minimal. I toned a bit but saw no change at all to the most stubborn areas of my body (arms, lower belly, thighs). That’s when I decided that if I really want to make progress, I’ll need to tweak my diet to help my workouts go further. But how???

Going Whole30

I’ve always eaten generically healthy. I cook most of my meals, I drink a lot of water, I like veggies, I don’t drink soda or eat processed foods. I also don’t believe in “dieting” or diet culture in general. If you want to make lasting change and avoid the yo-yo effect, I think it truly needs to be a part of your lifestyle. So on the one hand changing how I eat could help with my fitness goals but on the other, I don’t want to do a “diet.” I know that I need to find those areas where I can make tweaks, maintain it, and still enjoy eating. In my search to find the best way to optimally eat for my body and fitness goals in a sustainable way, I finally landed on Whole30.

Instead of a diet, like Keto, it’s more of an exploration into what your body is negatively reacting to. You spend 30 days not consuming grains, dairy, legumes, sugar, or alcohol—or in other words, you avoid any food that is inflammatory or a common allergy. After the 30-day period, your body has essentially returned to a more natural state and you do a gradual reintroduction of food groups you cut out, allowing yourself to gain a better awareness of how your body reacts to that food. My goal? Identify what foods I’m eating aren’t benefiting my body so I can focus on eating foods that help me feel good, healthy, and increase the impact of my workout routine. And with a little luck, get out of the plateau and say “goodbye” to that stubborn last 10 pounds.