We’re officially over a week into the new year now. I can ALREADY feel that “new year magic energy” kind of dimming!!! Despite my best efforts, something always happens to me around Day 8 of any new plan, etc. that I try to follow.
(A couple years ago, I tried repeatedly to do the #75Hard Challenge, and would always get to Day 7-8 before failing. Over and over again!)
That being said, the New Year Energy has not disappeared, so don’t worry.
I still am feeling pretty good about everything so far. There’s just this always this magically light and effortless feeling in the air in the very first days of the year that tends to slowly fade away, sadly (for me anyway). WHY IS THAT?!?!
2023 so far (Days 1-9):
- Read every day (5/9)
- Walk (7/9)
- Gym workouts (7/9) *This has been going great!!
- Drink more water (Yep! Have had between 1-4 big water bottles everyday)
- Read with boys (1/9. 😦 )
- Work on photo project (3/9)
- Meal plan! (1/9, but that’s fine- haven’t need another yet)
- A.m. shower- (5/9)
- Boys cook- (1/9- but ingredients in house for 2 more meals!)
*My goal is not to hit these perfectly all every day! These are just things I want to do often.
On the plus side, I just started another “new” endeavor yesterday, 1/9. So the new energy has been a bit revived, at least in this area… 😉
January Shred
I started the January Shred from Macros with Em. Basically, she gives you custom macros to follow for a month, plus a workout plan (same style of workouts I was already doing, but new ones= 5 strength, 3 short cardio sessions per week). Also, she provides a bunch of support and an online community and an e-book and some other stuff.
I probably really did not need to pay for this (I think I have the knowledge to do this on my own), but I’m wanting to do a little mini-cut/ tighten up in January and February before our March Costa Rica trip. (I’m not overweight, but my weight has been creeping for the last couple years. I am sitting a good solid 5 lbs over where I traditionally prefer to be, and I just feel a bit squishy in some places.) I figured paying for something would likely increase my adherence. The online community piece has been motivating, too.
If you recall, I talked a BUNCH about macro tracking in May, when I last dabbled in it. (See those posts here, here, here, and one on the very legit negative sides to macro tracking here. )
As I’ve openly admitted, I have mixed feelings about it, but it does seem to be effective for me. (The only times I have ever intentionally lost any weight/fat in my entire life, I have macro tracked. Not saying it cannot be done in other, more intuitive ways!! It most certainly can be. But I am not the most self-disciplined person about food apparently, so I think macro tracking just helps to take some of the guesswork out of the equation for me.)
Not sure how much I’ll share about this this time around! Feel free to leave a comment if you DO want to hear more about it, or if you DON’T! I feel like this kind of talk can be triggering for some people who struggle with food/body image issues or dieting, etc. So I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable. Or completely bore you if reading about what someone else eats makes you want to poke your eyes out. 😛
Some food pics from Day 1:
Breakfast
Lunch:
Dinner:
(Not shown, Snacks= 1 hard boiled egg, a reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese stick, 1 bag 100 butter calorie popcorn, 10 chocolate chips, collagen green/mint tea, 10 BBQ Habanero almonds and, a Dr. Pepper 😬…. Full transparency here! But it all fit my macros, I promise. 😉 )
It always blows my mind how much food I end up eating when I track macros… all the higher volume/ higher protein foods/ higher quality foods!! It’s honestly crazy how much I can eat when I’m eating mostly good stuff.
Current goal macros per day= 1,725 calories, 125 protein, 160 carbs, 65 fats.
These macros are a bit higher than I’ve done in the past, so I’m curious what the results will look like. But hey, I suppose it’s better to start higher and see if that works first! Can always decrease if needed, but it’s generally best to keep calories as high as possible while still (hopefully) getting results.
Also- I decided to pause on my “no dairy” experiment while macro tracking. Want to see what happens first just eating normally, but within a controlled calorie/ macro setting. After a month, I will then see about cutting food groups. I don’t want to attempt to make too many changes at once.
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for this new fitness journal my mom got me for Christmas! I saved it and first opened it yesterday, for this round of this Shred. It’s the perfect place to track what I’m doing and eating (although I am tracking actual macros in MFP), and I love all the space to take random notes on the side page about how things are going.
GRATEFUL KAE 
Those meals look incredible!
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You do you boo! Way to commit to your goals in a way that works for you.
Macros always crack me up: combining weight loss and icky math is my personal hell.
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🤣 I get it!! I will say, I try to keep it as simple as humanly possible and let the app do any and all math for me!! I also don’t worry too much about it all being “perfect”… I was reading an article about people who track big family meals with many ingredients as a Recipe in MFP, and they enter every ingredient in separately and like weigh the entire meal at the end and then portion theirs out… My eyes were crossing just reading it and I was like, omg no. In those cases, good enough is going to have to be good enough, because that is way too unsustainable for me. I just estimate or choose a generic entry that seems close enough and call it good! Progress over perfection, lol.
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Looks like a very successful first week! Way to go! I never mind hearing about other people’s exercise/eating strategies. And I love food, so I love knowing what people eat. 🙂
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Thanks! I do feel more motivated with the tracking this time I think in part because I paid $$… haha…. and also to be honest, there is a vanity component of wanting to look decent in my swimsuit!
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Tracking is the best way for me to lose weight, too. I’ve done weight watchers so many times and while it’s not really macros, it’s kind of macro-adjacent because the points are calculated in a way that you are encouraged to eat more protein/less sugar. I just find tracking to be kind of soul sucking… so I am trying to just watch what I eat without paying for weight watchers. So we will see how these first few weeks go.
You are doing great on your goals! It’s tough as some are more weekly things, like meal planning or having the boys make meals. I think I’d be kind of sad looking at the x/x when I know it’s going to be like 52/365 for some of those things! 😛 So far 2023 is off to a really good start for me. I’ve worked out 7/10, 10/10 for 23 in ’23, and 9/10 for 10k steps. Turns out the 23 in ’23 is resulting in hitting 10k steps more often! We’ll see how long those numbers stay correlated like that.
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Wow on the 10k steps!! That’s awesome!! I actually made my step goal only 7,000 for now (forgot to include that in my post). 10,000 just sometimes feels impossible for me, if I have a busy meetings day or just otherwise. I felt like 7k is more doable for me, and I feel like it’s better to consistently get 7k versus just giving up. Sometimes with 10k if I saw by 4 pm I was only at 2,500 steps, I would basically say “oh forget it!!” and not even try, because 10k just seemed so far away. So far I am 9/10 on the 7k steps. (One day I forgot to check it toward the end of the day!)
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I love seeing meal ideas that focus on protein…something I am not good at intuitively. I love the journal you had. what’s the name?
I find tracking informative about the times that I would snack/eat because I am bored… to me, cut out snacks to minimal, eat a lighter dinner helps to cut down weight (mostly water retention) after few days of indulgence.
I’m curious to know how all this protein affect your GI/bloating.
I haven’t found a good mind/gut book yet to share. I’ll do if I find a good one.
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I am curious about the GI stuff too. I feel like when I have macro tracked in the past (and eaten higher protein), I have been amazed by how GREAT I feel, how good my skin looks, and how flat my stomach will be, despite the fact that I feel like I’m actually eating MORE than usual in many cases. It’s very interesting. I do wonder if maybe there is something for me about eating a controlled amount of carbs/ fewer carbs than normal (or maybe less wheat/ gluten?), or if my body just really responds well to the higher protein/ more moderate carb-fat diet? I’ll keep you posted, and we’ll see how it goes this time… 🙂 I still feel like I’m eating quite a lot of carbs (160 grams). I’m only a couple days in right now so it’s too early to really draw any conclusions.
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I’m right there with you in trying to drop a few lb’s…well actually 20 but I’m taking it a few pounds at a time. So thanks for sharing!
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Yes, slow and steady wins the race. 🙂 Are you following any certain plan/method for weight loss, or just generally trying to be in a caloric deficit?
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This is my first new year – in DECADES – where I’m *not* looking to lose weight. I’m a bit scared to know what the scale would say (I haven’t weighed myself in over 6 months), but I was tired of living with a weight loss goal. While I prefer to be slimmer/have more muscle, I don’t “prefer” it enough to put up with the cyclical responsibility of always monitoring what I eat and feeling obligated to exercise every single day. I’d say I’m 8-10 lbs heavier than I have been at my lowest level, but I spend a FRACTION of the mental energy on thinking about food.
I don’t find these posts triggering. They do make me feel a bit bad that I’m NOT trying to lose weight (a weird version of FOMO)…but also make me feel happy that I’m NOT tracking things. I may do it again in the future but for now it is such a nice reprieve to just…eat!
And this made me laugh: “I can ALREADY feel that “new year magic energy” kind of dimming!!!” I SO get this!
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I think that it’s great that you’ve purchased a plan to follow … I have no doubt that you could do it on your own, but sometimes a community aspect and the fact that you paid for something does help with accountability. I personally have been interested in macros, but have never ever really “committed” to try and follow a plan… so I am definitely curious to read more about your experience, if you want to share.
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