I don’t know about the rest of you athletes….but I have this problem with self image.  I recently got my pictures from Ironman Cozumel and when I looked at them all I could see is where I was “fat”. 

Granted I also focus on the fact that my body has carried me through 100’s of miles swimming, biking and running.  For that I thank my body tremendously.  But I still end up feeling betrayed.  Why can’t I have one of those ripped, lean athletic type bodies? 

Basically for the 4 months leading up to Ironman I ditched my scale.  No matter how much I trained the scale always read 130 lbs.  “So, that’s not bad”,  you might say-but you see, I’m only 5′2″.  I would get depressed any time I stood on a scale and end up feeling like a fat cow.  Therefore I ditched my scale for many months.  This was helpful as I could feel my body composition change, but I knew I was not losing weight.

And then there was the taper to  Ironman….and then the recovery after Ironman.  Well, you read about watching your food intake during the taper- and I did that….But then you find yourself  lying on the beach in Mexico for a few days post Ironman, finally enjoying the local cuisine….and BLAMO….the weight starts creeping up on ya.  Plus- you’re taking it easy on training and enjoying a month of leisure and “down time”.   So what’s a girl (athlete) to do?????

Go on a one month weightloss program!  Yeap, that’s what I decided to do.  I am currently 2 days into the Medifast Program.   

I have been wanting to lose 5-8 lbs for one year now and never had any luck.  There is that whole thing of making sure you are giving your body what it needs to complete the next workout. So, after talking with my coach and a nutritionist who helped me with dialing in my Ironman nutrition- both of them gave me the green light to go ahead and take the next month to focus on losing some weight (fat).  And I couldn’t agree more!

After training for almost 2 years straight with out any real “down time” I am gamed for taking 1 month of some lighter training and focusing on cutting back on calories.  I have not been very successful at limiting my calories on my own…plus doing it in a way that I don’t lose muscle.  After hearing from a few friends who have done Medifast and how successful they were with it, I decided to give Terry  from Medifast  a call.  After a discussion of goals and how this program would work given my athletic endeavours we decided that Medifast would be a fit for me.  Especially because this program focuses on losing fat and keeping your muscle!

So far I’m liking the program….OK…kinda liking it.  I mean who really wants to limit their caloric intake and types of food  :)   Terry warned me the first 3 days would be tough and I may not feel great, but by the 4th day when my body switches to burning fat, I will feel good again!  As you can imagine day 2 was all about the headache….today- day 3 is better but not great yet.

I’m in this for the month.  No cheating, slacking or quiting.  I really want to go into next season lighter as I am hoping to place in some events for qualifying positions in 2010.  From what I’ve heard being 5 lbs lighter can make a big difference.  I’ve taken some before pictures and if all goes well I might actually post them with the after pictures…..

Weighting and Recovery…..that what’s my recovery period post Ironman is going to be…weighting!  Any one else gamed?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 2:04 pm and is filed under Eating, Food, Recovery, Weight. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.