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How "The Accidental Fat Chick" Hatched...

Welcome to The Accidental Fat Chick's new online home!

During the summer 0f 2008, I woke up one morning with a drive to live a healthy lifestyle. Since then, I've made many changes and lost nearly 50 pounds. Many of my friends and family members have come to me, asking about what I'm doing & how I'm doing it. While I certainly would never claim to be an expert, I'm happy to share what I've learned along the way.

So after careful thought... "The Accidental Fat Chick" has hatched... with the hope of helping at least one person and to be the accountability I need to finish what I started. :)

Thank you for visiting!!









Tuesday, June 1, 2010

The Deployment Challenge

The Navy - and I assume the military in general - is full of acronyms, abbreviations, designations, etc. CS, AT, AE, MA, AD... and a ton more that all mean something to someone. Some are pretty easy to figure out, others a bit more of a challenge. I think sometimes that's how people feel about the process of losing weight and/or living a healthy lifestyle. Some things are easy to figure out... like calories in vs. calories out. Other things are more challenging... like weighing the nutritional benefits of one food vs. another or the benefits of one form of exercise vs. another.

For my Deployment Challenge, I'm borrowing FE, or flight engineer. FEs have the important job of operating engines and and aircraft systems - including troubleshooting and fixes - all while the aircraft is in flight. People that choose this job go through extensive training - 9 months of school, plus other requirements. This isn't my husband's job (we looked at the program, but being an FE generally wreaks havoc on family life because they live by the flight schedule).

The way I see it we are all the "flight engineers" of our own journeys - whether its to lose weight, get healthy or continue maintaining a healthy lifestyle. We "operate" the engine and systems that are our body - by the food we feed ourselves, the exercise we choose to do, and whatever we choose to do to nourish our souls or maintain good mental health. As we go about our lives, we troubleshoot to see what's working and what isn't... and we come up with "fixes" to tweak aspects that aren't giving us the results we are seeking... much like the flight engineer must do to keep the plane flying safely in the skies.

By the way, my "starting" weight for the Deployment Challenge is 198.6 lbs. UGH!!!


Now for the Challenge Details...

Some of these may change a little bit month to month... as I "troubleshoot" and tweak.

** Challenge is for six months (June-November) - but broken into one month segments. **

FOOD




  1. Eat 1,300-1,500 calories per day/six days per week

  2. Plan meals and/or keep food journal (I'll be adding a separate page to my blog with my planned meals/food journals)

  3. Enjoy restaurant food two times per week (maximum)


EXERCISE


  1. Burn 6,000-9,000 calories per week through cardio activities

  2. Do a strength training workout 3x/week

  3. Do a core workout 4x/week

Because I like to push myself at the gym, I will be incorporating the following things into my workout schedule:


  • A monthly marathon on the bike - to take place the last day of each month June-November with the goal of decreasing my time each month

  • Increasing my duration on the StairMaster - basically hop and and go for as long as I can - to take place at the middle of each month June-November (500 floors in a single session is my ultimate goal for this)

  • Start the C25K program - I'd like to build up to doing a 10K before the end of deployment

Because every good FE deserves a little dose of R&R, I will be scheduling myself 30-60 minutes of "me" time every day that has nothing to do with the topic of a healthy lifestyle.


There ya have the nuts & bolts of the challenge. If you're interested in joining me for one month - or six - please leave a comment to let me know. I'll be doing a quick daily progress post for this in addition to my regular posts... so that can be our check-in spot.


And my positive - keep me going - motto is...


Believe in yourself, as if the possibility of failure does not exist.


Next post... my planned rewards. Now who is gonna join me???

8 comments:

♥ Drazil ♥ said...

You
are
my
idol.

YOU CAN SO DO THIS.

Christine said...

I take it your deployment challenge runs for six months. That is rocking the workouts sister.
I don't do that much. Although I have recently fallen in love with thte stairmaster. Great job...let me get back to you on the deployment challenge..I may start that in July.
I can't wait to see what you accomplish just in one month.

clickmom said...

I'm down with the monthly bike marathon, already running and able to do a 5k and probably even a 7 or 8k, but confused about the stair master. Are you talking about 500 flights in one stair climbing session?
Lying in bed here, I think that might just about kill me. That's like 5 straight hours on the stair mill. But if you do it I might have to see if maybe I could. 500? Really?

Girl Bandit said...

You can do this...you have the plan and the motivation....you rock!!!!

debbie said...

Ya know, I'm going to do this with ya. Yes. I. Am.

Scuttleboose said...

I am having surgery on Tuesday, and after 6 weeks, I will be able to get back to the gym with a new attitude (and plenty of it!). I would LOVE to join your challenge at that point, so keep us posted! And as always, good luck!

P. Hentermine said...

Like your blog as it would be very informative for those who want to reduce weight and also sharing exercise to become thin.

Jeniffer said...

I'm in on everything but the Stairmaster. 500 floors? Really? Wow--makes me want to sit down and clutch my chest just thinking about it! think I'll just do our stairs at hom for as many times as I can stand (won't be anywhere near 500, though!). Also, I was planning on doing the C25K anyway, so it'd be fun to have some virtual company for it! So I'm in!