{"id":14672,"date":"2020-08-31T13:55:25","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T13:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yogakitchen.be\/en\/?p=14672"},"modified":"2021-04-30T18:38:09","modified_gmt":"2021-04-30T18:38:09","slug":"halfway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogakitchen.be\/en\/2020\/08\/31\/halfway\/","title":{"rendered":"Halfway through"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>Four out of eight weeks of fat loss challenge are already a thing of the past.<br \/>\nAnd, how are things going?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h4>What I&#8217;m actually doing<\/h4>\n<p>(What is it all about?)<br \/>\nI want to make a conscious change to my body.<br \/>\nTo do so, I am stepping out of my comfort zone.<br \/>\nI put myself into <strong>a conscious calorie deficiency of about 20% for a period of 8 weeks.<br \/>\nIn addition, I am following a progressive power training programme.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h4>The first experiences<\/h4>\n<p>The centimetres are disappearing, slowly but surely.<br \/>\nI was not overweight in the classic sense of the term, and yet I saw and felt that I was walking around with too much fat. Even in places where I would rather not see it. For me these are the legs and in the waist.<\/p>\n<p>In <strong> figures<\/strong> there is little spectacular to report compared to those who really want to get rid of a lot of overweight or centimetres. And then: that&#8217;s the way it should be. Every body is unique. Comparing with others often marks the end of joy. So it is better to look at what\u2019s on your own plate.<br \/>\n<strong>Each Monday I can take off with a lower starting weight.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Physically speaking, it was not easy at first:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There were days when I felt weaker and my voice sounded weaker too<\/li>\n<li>The first weeks my sleep was significantly worse in quality<\/li>\n<li>The higher protein intake did not feel completely OK during the first weeks. Now it does.<\/li>\n<li>The power training sometimes felt heavy, especially in combination with eating less<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Forward &#8230; march !<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Mentally<\/strong> I feel strengthened. The challenge, together with the corresponding assignments, diagrams and tables:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>help me to structure<\/li>\n<li>challenge me to be more thorough<\/li>\n<li>confront me with my inferior sides, such as laziness, procrastination, lack of consistency<\/li>\n<li>Inspire me to clean up and get along with business in other areas of my life, just like &#8220;cleaning up&#8221; my body<\/li>\n<li>challenge me and make me curious to learn more and understand more<\/li>\n<li>ensure that I also make commitments in other areas of my life<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Emotionally<\/strong> it is sometimes a bit difficult:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For the first few weeks I was often in a bad mood, I was walking on the tips of my toes<\/li>\n<li>A couple of times I succumbed to the temptation of eating more than I was allowed that day, and then I was disappointed and a little angry with myself<\/li>\n<li>Some existential doubts are still gnawing at me. Like: Why am I doing this? Isn&#8217;t this just belly-button staring?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>The first benefits show up and let them feel<\/h4>\n<p>There is a clear visual result and from the inside it feels very different.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Round my waist and on my belly the underlying muscles become visible<\/li>\n<li>I get more strength in my legs and mobility in my hip joints<\/li>\n<li>I am more stable<\/li>\n<li>In my yoga practice I feel the extra space and the lightness around my belly<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There is, physically speaking, less &#8216;stuff in the way&#8217;.<\/p>\n<h4>The most important learning points<\/h4>\n<p>What I have learnt about myself going through this process:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The power of calorie management and monitoring the ratio of the three macro-nutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats)<\/li>\n<li>All excess weight and fat can be traced back to &#8220;too much&#8221;. Systematically eating too much than you need in relation to your activity level<\/li>\n<li>Even with a full stomach, just after a meal, I am still hungry for &#8220;something extra&#8221;. At that moment it is neither physical hunger nor a necessity. So what is it? What do I do with it?<\/li>\n<li>I understand now that I generally drank too little water. <strong>Drinking more water is more beneficial than I thought<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>What I am not yet on good terms with<\/h4>\n<p>The whole protein story is still dubious. As part of these eight weeks of conscious fat loss, with the combination of calorie calculation and moderation plus the strength training, I am also expected to eat a lot of extra protein.<br \/>\nIs that really necessary? Or is that part of the famous <strong>protein myth<\/strong>? The myth that protein deficiency lurks around every corner. While the reality is, that the majority of westerners take in far too much protein &#8230; . To be continued.<br \/>\nI now play the game according to the rules of the challenge.<\/p>\n<h4>What the real challenge will be<\/h4>\n<p>Maintaining this beautiful result (which will only be better in 4 weeks) and to stay ahead of the seemingly random fluctuations of the past.<br \/>\nCounting the calories requires work and discipline. I find it very useful. It pushes you with your nose upon the facts, it&#8217;s done with guessing, fantasizing and wet fingerwork.<br \/>\nBut maybe I won&#8217;t always be able to make time for it. So maybe I would like to evolve to a slightly more intuitive way of eating.<br \/>\nAnd still be able to maintain and master body weight and body constitution, without daily food tracking. <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I realize this is about much more than just making a selfie of progress. It\u2019s a picture of the inside as well as the outside. Changing your body equals changing your mind and vice versa.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Four out of eight weeks of fat loss challenge are already a thing of the past. And, how are things going? What I&#8217;m actually doing (What is it all about?) I want to make a conscious change to my body. To do so, I am stepping out of my comfort zone. I put myself into &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/yogakitchen.be\/en\/2020\/08\/31\/halfway\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Halfway through<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14673,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[77,78,66,67],"class_list":["post-14672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-challenge","tag-fat-loss","tag-power-training","tag-protein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogakitchen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogakitchen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogakitchen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogakitchen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogakitchen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14672"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/yogakitchen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14680,"href":"https:\/\/yogakitchen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14672\/revisions\/14680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogakitchen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogakitchen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogakitchen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogakitchen.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}