Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Trying to lose weight with the zone

So I've been on the zone diet since mid May, so that's roughly two months now. At the time I started I weighed about 195-198 lbs. Since then, after strictly following the diet for two months (except for those weddings and that cake) I now weigh... 197.2 lbs. This is really frustrating, it's not like I've been half-assing this, I measure everything and make every meal and snack, and I don't cheat because I don't have anything in the house except the ingredients for my zone meals. Hell, I haven't even gone out to the bars since I went on the zone. I figured I wasn't losing weight because I was inactive with the torn rotator cuff, but I've been cross fitting for 2.5 weeks now and according to Jerry I should be seeing the weight fall off with this diet.

I've been doing the 5 block meal, 2 block snack since I'm 6'2" (and Jerry recommended it). Now I've dropped to the 4 meal, 2 snack, and I've definitely noticed a difference with regard to my sense of hunger. With the 5 block meal, I always felt a little stuffed after eating it. With the 4 block, I feel hungry again after 3 hours. I figure I'll give this 4 block plan a week, but after that if I don't see results I'm not sure what I should do.

Back in the day when I was lifting weights with a trainer I didn't really see any results until I started taking protein shakes. However, the result was gaining weight, and from what I understand in crossfit you first get ripped, then you go for muscle. I have no problem with this, I just want to start seeing some type of change. Has anyone else out there experienced something like this, sticking to the zone but not seeing any results?

Since Friday I've been weighing myself, so here's the results:
11-Jul 196.8
12-Jul 195
13-Jul (forgot)
14-Jul 197
15-Jul 196.4
16-Jul 197.2


On another note here was the workout today:
2 rounds of 25 of each
jump lunge (30 lbs)
boxjumps
wallball
kb swings (did like 10 on the second set with the shoulder)
Jumping pullups
burpees (my triceps hate me)

did it in 31:25. I know that this should bother me, but I would be lying if I didn't say that I'm getting tired of being one of the last people to finish. I think it really is mental, and as I get used to crossfit I find more and better ways to push myself. Today I thought about how I always seem to have some energy after these workouts, how my inclination is to conserve. I then thought about how that is the wrong way to do this, how I need to have nothing, absolutely nothing, left in the tank by the time I finish. That helped some, and I have to admit, I haven't felt that worn out since I was on the wrestling team. I also need to keep realizing that they have a six week head start on me and I'm still getting the rust off with technique. Just have to keep positive, and focus on my improvements. Now if you excuse me, I have to go make a smoothie :)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Adam - I am a fellow Crossfit junkie and wanna be Zone girl. Mostly I am good - but I have my days. I want to share a really cool site that my friend is writing. It might give you some great simple recipe ideas for the Zone happy person.
http://cfscceat.blogspot.com/

Katie said...

Adam, my advice is to give it time. I know Jerry says two weeks, but for me it didn't happen that way. I felt a difference in my energy levels and noticed that I was feeling better in the blue room, but aside from that, I think I lost a pound in the first two weeks. After about week 4 was when I felt a noticeable difference. Just stick with it.

Adam said...

Thanks Katie, I just felt a little frustrated after zoning for 8 weeks and not really seeing any noticeable results. I figure I'll give the 4-4-2-4-2 another week or two and then go from there.

Thanks for the resource Kim, so far I haven't experienced any boredom with the food but when I do I'll definitely use that site.