#1 - Nothing says "I'm holding myself accountable" like publicly challenging yourself to get your "4-pack" back in a week's time. In that sense, it was for selfish reasons, I suppose.
#2 - Bad mojo thrives on momentum. It can be really easy to fall into the trap of saying "I've already blown my diet, I might as well just keep going and give up on it!" I've done it in the past - you feel so down about your "bad" behavior that it makes you feel like all of your hard work was for nothing and it's not worth even trying anymore. Well this is not the case. In reality 1 meal, 1 day, or even as it was in this case, a few days of poor eating habits are actually quite easily reversible. Always remember that. No one is perfect. Getting yourself together and getting right back to it is what's important after a slip-up or even an intentional "binge" for a special occasion.
#3 - Water weight can ninja your mind. It's been known to happen that someone steps on the scale and freaks because they gained 5 lbs. overnight. I've been there - as a recovering scale junkie I've seen some crazy fluctuations in my time. It's water weight - I promise. The reality is that unless you consumed 17,500 calories MORE than your maintenance calories in one day, there is NO WAY that you gained 5 lbs. of body fat overnight...so step off the scale, take a deep breath, and don't panic. As quickly as it comes on, it disappears and it honestly means nothing in terms of your progress.
#4 - If you also follow my YouTube channel, you know that this particular week I spent, either out of the gym, or doing a VERY light version of my normal routine due to a case of Pleurisy. Even once I was feeling up to working out I was not able to perform any direct ab work. The point that I want to make clear here is that this challenge was done without doing a single crunch. The saying "Abs are made in the kitchen" comes to mind. Millions of people are after the highly-coveted six pack abs and a good portion of them are going about it the wrong way. They think if they do tons of crunches and plank for 10 minutes it will give them tight, sculpted abs. The problem with this line of thinking is that, while you may have a strong core, no one will know because if your diet is not on point and you still have a layer of body fat covering your abs, they won't be visible. So my point is that I was able to reclaim my faint "4 pack" with no magic secret ab exercises - just a clean diet and lots of water!
So without further ado I give you the results of my 7 Day Post Christmas Feast Ab Challenge:
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| December 26th - Starting to feel a little like the big guy in the red suit... |
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| December 27th - Lost a little bit of water not as puffy. |
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| December 28th - Starting to see a little definition in the upper abs |
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| December 29th - Lower ab puffiness is starting to flatten out a bit |
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| December 30th - Flattened out but the little guys don't wanna come out and play today! |
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| December 31st - Just about where I was before all those Christmas cookies! |
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| January 1st - Even after my father-in-law's Shrimp Scampi New Year's Eve Dinner, the top 4 decided to stick around to say Happy New Year! Now I'm back where I was before the holidays. My plan for 2013? It's time to lean out a bit more and see if we can find the bottom 2 in there somewhere! ;) |
