Preface

Several of my friends have told me I should start a blog and since I'm going to be starting my own personal 12 week challenge tomorrow I figure now's as good a time as any. Here's a little preface to my upcoming journey.

When I first started working out at Wardance Training Center a little over three years ago I weighed 282 pounds...pretty sad. It's hard to look back at pictures of me then and think about the fact that I thought I looked good at the time. I mean I knew I was big I guess I just never realized exactly how bad it was.

 

 

 

 

I lost about 12lbs through kick boxing classes and trying to eat better but then my work started a weight loss challenge and I really wanted to lose weight and win the challenge so I started doing bootcamp workouts every weekday. That combined with kickboxing, softball, and a stricter diet helped me lose 55lbs in three months and I won the challenge weighing in at 215lbs.

 

 

 

Right after that I started having severe back pain. I went to a massage therapist, a chiropractor, my regular physician, a deep tissue therapist, a spine specialist, an acupuncturist...I had xrays done, a CT scan, and MRI...you name it, I did it. The pain kept me from working out like I had been (like I wanted to) and the frustration from not being able to workout mixed with the pain caused me to start slacking on my diet and in the end I ended up gaining a lot of the weight back. Over the next summer I lost it back but then come winter I gained it again. At the start of 2013 I was 250lbs which was really close to where I had been to start off. Between January and Sept lost and gained again which left me at 236lbs...not a whole hell of a lot better than I had been at the beginning of the year. I knew things had to change. I decided I was going to have what I called a "Fit Fall" instead of gaining weight like I had done the past two winters I decided I was going to rally against the nonstop pain that worsened in the cold months and I was in fact going to lose weight. Well I did just that. With a mixture of a better diet and working out once again at Wardance Training Center I am down to 180.4 pounds which officially puts me at 100lbs lost since my first endeavor into fitness (or 55lbs if you only want to count from my re-dedication in September). I no longer had to buy clothes from the plus size section and I even ran a half marathon!!! Who would have EVERRR believed that I would go from 282lbs to running a half marathon and with a time under 2.5hrs?!?! Certainly not me!

 

 

 

 

 

Initially I had told myself my goal weight was 160lbs. Being that I'd never been small I had literally no idea what that looked like, I just knew that I still felt too big and didn't have that toned muscle look that athletic girls had that I covet so. I started doing a lot of research on the best way to lean out and in my research I've found that the best way to do that is through weight training and focusing more on my macronutrients than specifically on a super limited number of calories. I want to lose fat but I don't want to lose my lean muscle mass with it which is what happens when you focus solely on cardio and limit your caloric intake too much. Your body needs fuel but it also needs food to repair the damage that is done to muscles through exercise. Talking to my cousin Brett has been super helpful. He knows a lot about being a lean mean machine (because he is!) and has shared a lot of his knowledge as well as an overwhelming amount of support and encouragement.

 

 

Through his suggestion I decided I am going to do a personal 12 week challenge. I am going to focus on weights and HIIT (with a little half marathon training thrown in, my next race day challenge is coming up at the end of August) as well as following a macronutrient profile that he helped set up for me. The first step was going to have a hydrostatic body fat test done. This would tell me my lean muscle mass vs the amount of fat I had.





 

 

I was absolutely in shock when she read me the results! I for sure thought I was at least at about 38% body fat (which all of my friends disagreed with wholeheartedly but hey they gotta be nice right?) but apparently it's true when they say you're your own worst critic because I am at 24.5% body fat (which is in the average range). So after more talking with my cousin I decided that I would shoot to make the goal of my 12 week challenge to get to 18% body fat (which would put me in the athletic category). I only need to lose 14.4 lbs of fat (which would put me at 166lbs) to get there if my lean body mass stays the same. Obviously if I gain muscle mass I'll have less fat but it doesn't necessarily mean that my weight will fluctuate as much as any girl would hope. So tomorrow starts day 1. I will follow the macro profile he put together for me and I will be following the weight training program found at www.bodybuilding.com/fun/womans_lean_sexy_bible.htm  I will include a couple HIIT cardio sessions (which stands for High Intensity Interval Training) as well as a couple longer runs for half marathon prep. In 6 weeks I will have the hydrostatic body fat test again to see where I'm at and then once more at the 12 week mark.

 

Here begins the journey of going from 24.5% body fat to 18%

Losing fat but gaining lean muscle mass

Becoming the person I never thought I was capable of being

 

You're welcome to follow the journey with me if you're interested. You can also follow me on instagram my username is JBuckle87 most of my meal photos will probably be put on there but I will try to keep this blog as updated as I can (Two jobs plus a full college course load does not make for a lot of free time lol)

 

Thanks for tuning in ; )