Book 17: Making the Cut

Making The Cut by Jillian Michaels. I kind of dislike Jillian (she is one of the trainers of the show Biggest Loser, which I like a little, because it is inspiring, but I dislike how they pretend that it is healthy to work out for several hours a day and only eat 1000 calories -- if you're hungry, just chew some Extra gum or eat a mini bag of popcorn or view one of the other product placements), but I kind of like her no-nonsense attitude, and that she says "ass," AND you never know what will click with you to inspire you TODAY, and IS THIS THE LONGEST SENTENCE YOU'VE EVER READ?

Anyway, it is about what you should do to lose the last 10-20 vanity pounds, which is what I'm trying to do. I don't know how many it is going to take, but I have a clear picture of myself in my mind. I want to see the muscles that I have built up over the last 5 or so years and have a bodyfat percentage around 15-18%. I used to weigh 132, from 7th grade through 12th grade. I was thin, but I had nowhere near the muscles that I have now. I don't know what I would look like at 132 with muscles, but I might like to find out. That would mean losing about 14 pounds, but that seems like it might be too much. I don't want to look too much like Arnold Schwarzenegger, or like a skeleton. So, I'm focused on how I look more than on a certain number. Hey, I already said it is about VANITY POUNDS, so I can think about how I look.

First of all, she divides people into groups based on your metabolic oxidation levels. It just seems like bullshit. But, I took the quiz and I am a Balanced Oxidizer. Yay, me! That means that I should eat similarly to The Zone Diet: 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat. Well, that is a very comfortable way for me to eat, so I guess that's okay. I feel like I should be eating more like 40% protein for fat loss, but it is definitely easier to eat 40-30-30 than 30-40-30.

She advises hard workouts with weight circuits (no rests in between exercises; just moving quickly from one to the next, so you get a cardio effect while strength training) and plyometric cardio training (jumping cardio, to get your heartrate really high), and mixing up your routine so you work every muscle and your body has no chance to adapt. No problem. I like to work hard. I'm doing that already, and I'm sore every day. And in the right lighting, I can see the striations in my anterior and medial delts. It's working. But I want to see more muscle definition in the middle of my body, not just my shoulders, arms, and calves.

But, here's where she loses me: for 30 days, I'm supposed to eat 1464 calories a day! Jillian, You Are Killing Me! Working that hard, it is tough for me to keep under 1700! She says it's *only* for 30 days. She says we're not going to drastically reduce our calories. To me, that is a drastic reduction and I'm not mentally prepared to do it. I'd honestly rather lose weight more slowly than eat only 1400 calories a day! I would be so sad. I love food, and I already ask Jason to regale me with tales of all the junk he ate all day long, so I can live vicariously through him. If only he were a foodie, so he could give me more detailed descriptions of the flavors!

So, it's not a very useful book for me right at the moment, but it is helpful to lower my expectations of how much I should be eating every day -- if I were to eat 1400 calories of truly healthy food, with NO junk, maybe I could do it. Not today, but maybe in a couple of months. It's something I'd have to work up to.