We’ve been getting a taste of cooler weather out my way, so I decided it was time to pull out a few things from my fall wardrobe. I was pretty horrified to realize that none (none!) of those clothes fit me anymore – as in they are all too tight. They fit fine when I put them away in March, but here we are 6 months later and I look like a sausage wearing them.
So a bit of background – I have been into CrossFit on and off for about two years and since I found an awesome local affiliate this April, I’ve been doing the WOD’s faithfully 3x a week, and have just gone to 5 days on, 2 off in the last two weeks. I’ve been making great gains – my times and strength are all improving, and I even have a couple of dead-hang pull-ups, which I had been working towards for a long time. I’ve been really happy with my performance and want to keep improving, and didn’t really have any complaints about my body composition. I was hoping to gain muscle and lean out gradually, that is until I realized that I had gained enough weight for my clothes not to fit!
I’m 31, 5’6 and about 145lbs. I eat really clean, don’t touch gluten and dairy due to intolerances and pretty much only eat fresh, unprocessed foods. I was vegan for the first few months of the year, which I soon reconsidered after becoming a regular Crossfitter and I now eat meat, fish or eggs with lunch and dinner and with about half of my breakfasts. The only grain I eat is quinoa, and I’m not too keen on giving it up. I also eat very little sugar – what I do get comes from fruit and an occasional spoonful of honey in my coffee as a treat. I’ve cracked open my Zone info again and have been trying it out for the past few days. For my size, 11 blocks are recommended. After preparing a few zone meals, I see that I’ve perhaps been eating too much fat since what Zone is recommending is about 1/4 of what I’ve been eating. My question is about the carbs: the stuff I eat is pretty much all from the favorable carb section, and when I prepare a meal that sticks to the 3 block recommendation, it works out to a huge amount of veggies! I feel full after, but I burn it off fast and am ready for another meal 3-4 hours later, which is all cool with me. But it just feels like so much food!
I’ve just been used to cutting back on food to lose weight in the past, and these huge plates of veggie & chicken stir-fries and monster omelets make me a little nervous!
And since I’d like to avoid having to buy a whole new wardrobe, I’d like to shed this extra weight fast. Should I consider adding in a 5k run or row a few times a week to burn a little extra? I promise to stick to my 2 rest days on the weekend! And no, I don’t think the tight pants and jackets are due muscle gain (although I know I have more muscle now than in March), and if they were, I would proudly donate them and go find some new duds! Most importantly though, I don’t want any of my attempts to drop the fat to have a negative impact on my performance – I fought hard for those improvements and won’t give them up.
Any advice or ideas?
