Week 1 Update!

Ryan & I survived the first week of our meal plan!!
Having completed the plan before, I went in knowing what to expect and handled the first week as well as can be expected. Ryan, however, is new to the system so he definitely went through an adjustment period during the first few days of following the meal plan.  First, he isn't used to eating so many meals a day. Prior to starting the plan, he was eating three larger meals a day and he is now eating five smaller meals a day.  He has figured out how to time them to his schedule and has done a good job of eating all his meals.  Second, it was the second day of the meal plan before I realized that different portion sizes are suggested for men & women so poor Ryan didn't eat enough food during the first day! As soon as I figured out the information about portion sizes I adjusted his serving sizes accordingly.  Even then, Ryan's body is used to fewer but larger meals so his body was adjusting for about three days before it was accepting that it would receive the smaller more frequent meals.

Although we have followed the plan for the vast majority of our meals, we have made some exceptions.  The meal plan Allows for "cheat meals" so we used one of those for a mother's day celebration but we had an additional sushi cheat (not bad for a cheat) for our other mother's day celebration (we can't just celebrate one mom!) and Ryan enjoyed a small cheat for his birthday celebration at work.  Overall we stuck to the plan & we're already seeing some results.  Without even stepping on the scale, we noticed that Ryan's body was changing because he went in a notch on his belt!  Our body fat stats are as follows:

Ryan:
Day 1: Weight- 188.4 / Body Fat- 17.1
Day 7: Weight- 181.8 / Body Fat- 15.8

Rocio:
Day 1: Weight- 130.0 / Body Fat- 23.2
Day 7: Weight- 126.2 / Body Fat- 22.3

Ryan tells me he hasn't weighed 180 since "highschool maybe freshman year in college" so we might be going back in time here.  WE WILL NOT SEE RESULTS LIKE THESE EVERY WEEK.  The results the first week are more dramatic than other weeks in part because of loss of water weight (due mostly to inflammation from eating processed food) & in part because your metabolism responds to the change in diet.  Of course, this isn't all diet either - Ryan & are back on track with workouts which include multiple cardio sessions and strength training sessions each week.  I suspect that some weeks we may even put on some weight because of increased muscle mass - this is one of the reasons I like having a scale that tracks body fat -  body fat can definitely go down while the number on the scale goes up!  It is difficult to lose weight without losing significant muscle mass but it can be done.  I don't have a target weight or target body fat that I am working towards, instead, I'm just focusing on my overall health.  I hadn't had abdominal pain in a long time but definitely started experiencing some after my two week binge.  Thankfully, that pain has faded away & I'm feeling great again!

Some of the food we ate:
Top left: Daily mid-morning snack- green smoothie- two new recipes per week.
Bottom left: Breakfast usually includes eggs with toast or french toast (wheat/gluten-free) plus bacon.
Top & bottom right: Dinners are always high protein- here we have salmon plus asparagus & some fire roasted tomato turkey soup.

I'm really excited to be taking on this meal plan with my Hubby.  I love that he consistently pushes himself harder.  Earlier this week he approached me with a serious face & for a moment I was worried about what he was about to say...but then he said he wants to increase the number of times we hit the gym each week.  What?!  He wants to go up beyond his usual three strength training sessions per week!  I love it!  I love that he's getting something positive out of having an active healthy lifestyle and that he wants to push himself even harder!  It definitely helps me stay on track when I can rely on him to eat well & work out consistently with me.