Lee’s Faith & Fitness: Thinking Outside the Box

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So much has been going on since my last column. I had the opportunity to share my weight loss story before more than 1,000 attendees at the National CPC+ conference in Baltimore, MD. I have had 2 cycling events. Both were firsts for me. I rode 35 miles last month in Arkansas Heart Hospital’s Cardiac Classic, on terrain that I’ve never ridden. Last week, I did my first 50-mile ride in Carti’s Tour De Rock. I’ve also been putting more focus on strength training, and I achieved my 200-pound goal. That’s right, I am now 253 pounds and it feels amazing.

All this leads to the subject of this edition of Lee’s Faith & Fitness – Thinking Outside The Box. One thing I have learned with weight loss is there will be times when you hit a plateau and you have to consider changing things up. What does that mean? There are three things in my opinion can be done to help you get back on track and overcome that plateau. First, find someone who does RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate) tests. This helps you to understand how many calories you burn at a resting state. That will help you determine how many calories you should consume daily to either lose weight or maintain.

Secondly, nutrition can be broken into two phases. First is proper supplements. Nutritional supplements involve vitamins, protein, fish oils, and amino acids, just to name a few. Supplements help fill the gaps. The key with proper supplements is making sure you’re eating right, which leads to phase two of nutrition. I personally do meal prep. To some, that can seem boring eating the same thing throughout the week so what I’ve learned to do is stick to meal prepping for Monday through Friday and change things up on the weekends. Changing up your food may also mean increasing or decreasing your caloric intake.

Keep in mind that if you’re eating right and using proper supplements, the final thing you can do to help get back on track is change up your exercise. Move your focus off cardio and look at increasing your strength training. One thing I’ve learned the last couple months is if you’re doing it right, you can still

burn a lot of calories just by doing strength training. Since I’ve changed my routine, I started dropping a few more pounds and will get where I want to be in no time. I’ve also seen improvements with my cycling since I’ve started doing more strength training.

Understanding your metabolism and making the right changes in your nutrition and exercise will go a long way toward helping you get back on track.

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