Have You Seen My Metabolism?

I’ve been looking for my metabolism and I can’t find it anywhere!

I’m pretty sure that when 2012 left, it took my metabolism with it.

Another theory is that I am now 30 and that could mean that my metabolism has slowed down a bit. I am NOT excited about this!

I know something is different because my eating is the same (although could be improved – as always), I’m working out 3-5 days per week like I always have and the scale has just been creepin up and up and up and my clothes are getting tighter in all the wrong spots.

Just to put everything into perspective, I weighed in at 125 after completing the Paleo challenge in October 2012 and this past Monday I weighed in at 146.6. (Accountability is what this blog is all about!) Sure, it’s not a terrible number, but it is a net gain of 21.6 pounds. This tells me that something has been slipping. I just don’t think it has been my effort! (And just for the record, 125 is not necessarily my ideal weight standing at 5' 7? tall, I’m happy being a strong 130-135. I really try not to focus on numbers, but after trying on clothes that no longer fit, I needed to slap myself with the scale – it doesn’t lie.) I know a good amount of that weight gain was muscle, but looking at my backside and my belly…it aint all muscle!

To determine if either of my theories were correct, I decided to visit Google.

Turns out, I’m not alone.

Check these out:

Thread on MyFitnessPal:

I’m going with the turning 30 theory.

I really don’t think it’s fair that I’m working out as hard as I was before and yet, I seem to be sliding backwards.

You know what that means…. time to STEP IT UP!

I received a bunch of awesome gifts for my birthday, which I will definitely be sharing on the blog when I get a minute, but one of them was this:

I can’t WAIT to use this thing! I’m just waiting on the hand wraps I ordered from Amazon so I don’t tear my hands apart. My five-year-old keeps asking, “When are the wraps gonna BE here?!” I guess he’s excited to use it too!

*****

My Kick More Butt (because there’s nothing else I can do at this point) Plan

In an effort to get back to a better level of fitness, I have developed a plan of sorts. One that may need to be tweaked now and then, but here’s what I’m starting with:

Clean up my diet. This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while anyway. My diet is not terrible right now, but I need to incorporate more fruits and vegetables and less simple carbs.Add extra cardio. I’ve been doing a lot of CrossFit workouts lately but I have decided that I should definitely add in some extra cardio. I’m going to do  more Les Mills Combat using my bag AND/OR run at least ONE MILE PER DAY – 5x per week. This will net me 5 miles more than I have been getting in each week. It’s a slow, but fair start.

So there ya go.

I’m 30.

My metabolism is lost.

But I got a plan.

Q. For those who are no longer twenty-somethings, can you relate to experiencing fitness or weigh-related struggles after turning 30? Or any other age? How did you overcome it?