Exercise is confusing.

I've been struggling lately, not going to lie, and it's almost entirely mental.  I've finally gotten to the point where I am working out regularly and actually enjoying it.  I've worked up to five-plus miles of running intervals, which is something I am really proud of, but lately the scale has not been cooperating or reflecting my effort.  The month of June was basically a wash - maintained both weight and inches.  Even when things are slow week to week, I have usually still been able to see an overall downward trend in a month, so not having that is very disheartening and discouraging.

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Someone posted an article on the WW message boards recently that blew my mind a little.  It's not something that's been discussed in meetings or widely on the boards since the new plan was rolled out, but the article (written by WW) discussed activity points and a 6-point cap per day.  Considering my 5-mile runs and hour-long kickboxing classes typically net me 10 APs each (based on my heart rate monitor and an 80/calorie per AP conversion), I was taken aback.  Since P+ came out, I have been earning anywhere from 30 to 50 APs per week, and eating most of them, on top of my weeklies.  This was what I did on the old plan, and until recently, it was working with the new plan.

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But if there is now a potential AP cap (something that has not been in existence on WW in years), it made me rethink the whole game I've been playing.  I've had consistent losses since January, yes, but painfully slow and easily undone.  Last month was crap, and it's opened my eyes to some tweaking I need to do in order to get the ball rolling downward again.

Losing weight happens 80% in the kitchen, 20% in the gym.

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Like it or not, I have just been plain old eating too much.  That's the thing about exercising a lot at a high intensity, it makes you fracking hungry.  I fully believe (along with lots of scientists and health professionals) that regular exercise is key to a healthy lifestyle, and I by no means intend to quit ... but what about weightloss?  In the past few months of working out more than I ever have in my life, I've really only been maintaining.  So it is a toss up?  Can I not have both?  How do you strike a balance between the two?

On the bright side, I am excellent at maintaining.  That should come in handy later.

In the meantime (I would like to get to goal first please), I have some tweaks to make.  I am still going to work out.  Hell, I still plan to workout every day, but I won't be exchanging nearly the same number of APs as I was before.  I am adopting a tapering-style workout schedule as well - higher intensity AP earners in the beginning of the week, moving towards lower impact workouts closer to WI-day.  I feel like I am back at week one figuring out exactly how much to eat every day, but I'm headed into uncharted territory for me for now:  I'm only eating my dailies.

*dun dun dunnnnnnnnn!*

That's right. After years of eating every single point I could get my grubby little paws on, I'm cutting back.  I don't think that I have been creating enough of a calorie deficit this this methodology on P+, so I am getting back to basics here.  I'll eat my (31) daily points and use the 49 weeklies as needed for extra power foods and covering the GHG.  If I want to swap APs, it will only be on the day I earn them (old school!) and only up to six.

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So we'll see how this works.  Don't worry, I'll be reporting back.  And for the record, I think it's going to be great.  POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE, BITCHES!

See you at 10 pounds down, for realsies.

*EDIT: Cleck here for the WW article I was referencing!*