Thou shalt not whine.

Well, I am knee deep in week numero cuatro of my metabolic plan. A quick recap of last week: I almost gave up. Yes ladies and {those very few} gentlemen who read my blog, I was one more "Oh mom, your belly is kinda big!" comment away from quitting. Choking. Giving up. Surrendering. White flaggin' it. Abandon ship! Abandon ship! Then, the more and more and more I thought about quitting, I realized that I've never really quit anything in my life. And I wasn't ready to start now.

See, I told myself that I wouldn't step on the scale for the twelve weeks of my metabolic training plan. I just didn't want to play that mental game with myself. But three weeks into my program and my jeans didn't fit, then my jacket was getting tight around my arms, then my second-oldest daughter says to me the other night with her hand on my stomach, "Mom, I'm so excited. I just love babies!" Hold up. Stop. The. Train. "Momma's not having another baby, sweetheart." "Well," she said, "It's just getting bigger." I let that brutally honest conversation sink in for approximately three seconds before I jumped up off the couch, grabbed the AA batteries I had taken out of my scale a few weeks earlier, popped them in and stepped on. What I saw next kinda freaked me out. I really had nowhere to go. My husband already told me, "If you are in, be in. 100%. No complaining. No whining. No matter what happens." Hmmmm. Can't talk to him about gaining 12 pounds in 3 1/2 weeks. Who's next? Oh right. My boss. He's the one that took my tests. He's the one that also told me that I might gain weight at the start of the program. He can help me! So, here's what filled up his inbox a few minutes later. {I remember my mom telling me over and over again in high school, "Never, ever ever act or speak when you are emotional about something! You will make bad even worse!" I don't know if it's just a chick problem, but when the heck am I going to learn this lesson?}

O.k. Dan. When you started this whole metabolic thing, I bet you weren't expecting all of these crybaby e-mails. Well, here comes another one!!!!!! I did the unthinkable this morning. I stepped on the scale. Now, before you roll your eyes or start laughing, I went an entire three weeks without weighing myself. That's a first. But after this week, I got really scared. Well, last night was the tip of the iceberg when my second oldest looked at me, put her hand on my belly and said, "Ahhhh, I love babies." That's when I knew I was in trouble. So, 172. That puts me up 12-13 pounds in 3 1/2 short weeks. That is totally unheard of! What the heck is going on? I mean 6-7 pounds maybe, but close to 15 is making it quite hard to get the jeans on in the morning. I understand the science and totally get it, I just don't get what my body is doing. I think it mostly scares me....I've shed 100+ pounds by not doing any of the things I am doing now. I've never counted calories, never spent anytime below a 150 heart rate. So there is 1/2 of me who wonders how the heck is this weight going to come off? My 30 minute run yesterday felt like I was a load. Carrying alot of baggage. I'm not a visionary woman, but that extra baggage will make it quite difficult for me to run faster than I was last year. And then I start to think, I was just fine last year! I don't need to get faster, especially if I have to add 15 pounds in order to accomplish it. So, I really, really appreciate all of your help but please help me stay motivated!

I whined. I whined like the best of them. I may have even whined better than my own kids! Ahhhh...I hate when my kids whine. Well, my pity party didn't last long. Here's my butt kickin'!

I’m really tired of hearing about people who don’t see results in their workouts and their nutrition stinks. So I started to push this {metabolic training} because if you do things right, results are guaranteed 100%. What you are experiencing is NOT totally unheard of. It means that you are not tracking your intake correctly or that you are eating the wrong things – I haven’t even gotten in to that part yet (the what to eat part).The other thing is that you don’t understand the science behind it. I haven’t even begun to explain it to people yet, I have only explained about one tenth of what I know. You think that the presentations that I did was a lot of information? That’s only the beginning of what I know. If you understood it then you would know exactly why you have gained weight and exactly what kind of weight it is and exactly how to take it off properly. You should be Netting somewhere around your RMR, and 85-90% of your caloric intake for the day should take place before dinner. You can’t “save” calories for the end of the day, that’s one of the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard (I say that because I heard people talking about that the other day and that’s NOT how it works).That means that if you KNOW you are going to burn 800 calories in a workout that you need to PLAN to eat 1850 (or whatever your RMR is) plus about 700-800 more so about 2600 or so. People do see initial weight gain from this but if weight gain is excessive which it seems in your case, then in my experience, 100% of the time it is the person not tracking correctly or they don’t know what portions are and are having two or three portions but only counting calories for one portion.You won’t be the weight you are now in the competition phase of the training plan, we’re in the base phase (another thing that people don’t understand). So you’re right, I don’t need another email or message from someone because people have to be PATIENT!!!! Do you think that 3 1/2 weeks is patience as far as this goes? Everyone is different – for some people it takes well over a year for their body to adapt. It initially took me 10 months. So you have to be PATIENT!!!!!!!! I will help motivate you but you have to keep going and you have to figure out if you are truly tracking your intake correctly or not and then take a good look at what it is that you are choosing to eat. I’ll help with that if you want. Let me know. End of story.

There is something about brutal honestly that gets me fired up. It kinda takes me back to my college basketball playing days when I would mess up, get benched, get yelled at for my obvious dumb mistake, then get thrown back into the fight. I never really remember going back on the court feeling sheepish. I was ready to try again. I never gave up. So, with all the whining aside, I am ready to be patient. Oh, but my jeans are fitting pretty nicely today. And, I took the batteries back out of my scale. Those two things alone will help me get through these last eight weeks. And there isn't a white flag in sight.