Yup you read that right. I started a mini cut. What is a mini cut? Why am I doing it? What do I hope to get out of it? Will it work?
I will try to answer all those questions and maybe more. I will you updated on my mini cut cycle in my following blog posts. I don’t know how it will be structured but there will be a little blurb about how I am doing and what I am feeling etc. I will put it somewhere in the following blog posts.
Note: You should see a professional for nutritional and dieting help. I am not that. I am just your average Jill learning as I go along. I am telling you what I am doing, so you can come along with me on my crazy journey adventures.
You may also be wondering why this is late. I normally post on Monday of every week. I got my second covid shot and it wiped me out yesterday. So I am attempting to do this post today.
I don’t have a great relationship with food. Well with food and it going into me. I am a chef and love to make other people food, but normally I feel guilty when I eat food. Especially when I eat food that I deem is bad for me. So with that said I am sure you can guess I have had up and down relationships with food, dieting, and trying to monitor my ever fluctuating weight.
I have been super extream in the early years during my time in high school and college, keeping a ledger of all the things I ate and how many calories were in them. Till a coach got ahold of me and told me I needed to not cut any more weight and to go eat.
I tried many diets that were popular, and had success and then failures.
I went to school so I can learn about food, and I have to be careful when doing a cut so as not to become obsessed.
I don’t normally talk about weight loss cause I am still learning and trying to figure it out myself. There is so much information out there that it has taken years and years to sift through and I am still sifting. I don’t have all the answers, but I can tell you what I know and what I am doing.
Here is what I know:
- Food should have no power on a person. It is just fuel for your biological machine.
- What you put in will either be burned or saved in the form of fat because your body is amazing and always trying to keep you alive.
- Your body is adaptive, and will adapt to anything you do to it. That is why diets don’t often work.
- Your body is a homeostasis machine and will try to maintain your body weight to keep you healthy and alive.
- Because of points 4 and 5 you metabolism will slowly slow down if you are in a constant or to steep a cut to account for the limited amount of calories you are taking in.
- This means that then your body will only burn that limited amount and your weight loss will plateau, and you will slow your metabolism down.
- This will cause you to have to stay at that cut amount of calories for ever to avoid adding body weight.
- Then you will have to cut more calories to lose more weight and then you are in a dangerous spiral.
- This is unhealthy and can get you dangerously low on calorie intake if you are not careful.
- Not all calories are created equal – you need to eat nutrient dense foods, and figure out what
- Understanding macros helps a great deal.
- Your body runs on averages. So if you indulge one night you are not going to ruin an entire week. (note: I believe other countries socially understand this better.
“The French are also less anxious about food than Americans … Americans trend to associate food with health, not with pleasure, and worry more about food than people in any other nation surveyed. When shown a picture of a chocolate cake, the most frequent responses from Americans were ‘guilt’, and ‘calories’. The French response: ‘celebration’ and ‘pleasure’. The French associated a picture of ‘heavy cream’ with the word ‘whipped’, whereas the Americans described it as ‘unhealthy’.”
Karenlebillon.com
What is a mini cut? A mini cut is a short term 2 to 3 week 20% deficit or cut in my maintenance calorie intake. Meaning the maintenance calories that I have to eat to maintain the current weight I am at, I cut 20% of. So for lets say a 2500 calorie diet you would cut 500 calories. But there is the kicker… the change in what I have normally done. Wait let me back it up…
I had to “reverse diet” or repair my metabolism from all the restrictions and crap I threw at it. That is a whole other post and whole other discussion I could go into. But suffice to say I let myself intuitively eat, try to eat healthfully and indulged as well. I did not count, and did not track. I had to reset my system.
Ok back to what I was discussing before… the change in what I would have normally done… is do 2 to 3 week cut, then 1 to 2 week eat at maintenance. Normally I would have just, cut loose, then plateau, cut somer more, loose, then plateau, lather rinse and repeat. That would slow my metabolism down and I would get frustrated and just be fighting the tide.
Imagine trying to throw buckets of water back into the ocean when the tide is coming in. It is futile and so was the way I was doing things before.
I am doing this mini cut and trying to meet my macros at the same time. To find my maintenance calories, my macros and TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). I used this site.
https://tdeecalculator.net/
Why am I doing it? While I am exercising, training and performing where I want to be. I want cut to extra fat. I want to tone up, and I want my body to be the best it can be.
What do I hope to get out of it? I want learn and keep understanding my biological machine. I want to cut working with my body and not fighting it.
Will it work? I have hope it will. Only time will tell.
Here are some youtube videos I have been watching, and trying to learn from.
Do your own research, and figure out works best for you. This is what I am trying am about 1 week into a three week cut. Anyway on to my training for the week.
Monday 2/22/2021: Workout: 1 hour – HIIT rowing, HIIT Plyometrics, and #shefit30 boot band challenge
It’s cold outside and was snowing actively when I started my workout. So I decided to do a intermediate rowing workout.
Glad I got it done today!
20 min Rowing HIIT info: intervals from stroke rate to stroke rate (SR), 4x 1 minute all out sprints.
Interval 1
2 min @ SR 16
1 min @ SR 24
2 min @ SR 16
Interval 2
2 min @ SR 18
1 min @ SR 26
2 min @ SR 18
Interval 3
2 min @ SR 20
1 min @ SR 28
2 min @ SR 20
Interval 4
2 min @ SR 22
1 min @ SR 30
2 min @ SR 22
20 min Plyometric HIIT: 55 second hard push intervals, 45 seconds rest
1) x4 lunge + shoot a basket ball, x4 lunge + jack, 4x uppercuts, burpee, 4x uppercuts, burpee, 4x uppercuts, burpee, 4x uppercuts, burpee, 4x lunge side + lunge side + tap floor+ tap floor
2) same as above
3) quick feet, 2x 180 jumps + 2x jacks, 2x 180 jumps + 2x jacks, 3x squat + high jump, 3x jack, 3x squat + high jump, 3x jack, 4x jacks + 4x sumo squat and touch, 4x jacks + 4x sumo squat and touch
4) do the same as above
5) 2x jacks + run in place, 2x jacks + run in place, 4x side to side lunge with floor tap + 4x lunges reaching high, 4x side to side lunge with floor tap + 4x lunges reaching high, 4x jump lunges, 2x high knee lunges + run in place, 2x high knee lunges + run in place
4) do the same as above
5) do the same as above
Shefit30 Challenge: with bands 3x sets
1) lateral Groucho walks x 15 on each side
2) bridges knee abductors x 30
3) fire hydrants x 15
4) squared side steps x 10 each side
5) plank jacks x 30
Tuesday 2/23/2021: Training: 1 hour of Muay Thai training and #shefit30 boot band challenge Day 21 of the challenge.
The words of the day are COMMIT TO YOU.
I ran out of time today. I have all the mom stuff to do, gotta check kids school work, and I worked early in the morning. So I got done what I could. Only 2 x through. Man those back to back hip dips are rough though.
My friends get out there and do what you can. Man I need a nap. Lol
2x through
C. 20 High Knees
O. 30 Sit-Ups + press with a weight
M. 30 Plank Jacks
M. 30 Plank Jacks
I. 25 Knee Crunches
T. 30 Hip Dips – 30 each side
T. 30 Hip Dips – 30 each side
O. 30 Sit-Ups + press with a weight
Y. 100 Flutter Kicks
O. 30 Sit-Ups + press with a weight
U. 30 Bicycle Crunches
I thought about not writing this up but F*%k it. Often throughout my life (in the before H times), I have had to downplay my hormonal swings due to fear of being teased or called out for how weak a girl is. My instinct was to just ignore it but I write theses posts and want to be transparent about my fitness/martial arts journey. So here it is, the nitty gritty…
You know what it’s like being a woman practicing martial arts? It’s just like the guys doing it but oh wait you have aunt flow coming to town and all the hormones that go long with it. ( sore breast’s, bloating, bleeding if you still do that) This one today is a dosey, no warning, and you are not prepared for it. The uterus, my uterus was yeeted 4 years ago with a tumor and all its misery.
Today was a busy stressful day. Kind of a usual day for me. But what is unusual is the flood of hormones and and reaction to a friend saying something so kind to me. That I was not expecting it. And brain says nah you are not that, and you instantly want to cry. Even if it makes you look week.
Throughout my training today I felt off. My foot was in the bucket all night and while I have been working on ignoring my mistakes and pushing through these got to me. Because you see after training for 4 months in south paw, switching to my orthodox fighting felt like poop!
I did not realize it might also be hormones till that one friend said that really nice compliment and that reaction was so disproportionate. I will say I avoided crying in front of them. But when Khun Kru Krysta saw me and asked well it took all my fight to hold the dam. She said, “it’s ok go drink water, eat a tiny piece of dark chocolate and get some rest.”
So yeah this day of training was very similar to Saturday’s and this post is already long enough. I am not going to put the details here. I should reward you for reading through it if you are still here.
Yep ya girl had a stress day and hormones are making it seem much much worse. I had a ridiculous cry in the car over who knows what. Everything!?! H is so supportive and my friends are too.
Wednesday 2/24/2021: Workout: 54 minute workout, HIIT Rowing and #shefit30 Booty Band Challenge Day 22
I got a great night of sleep. My core and upper body is sore from yesterday. Woke up and did this workout.
Man my flutes, hamstrings, and quads are going to be sore tomorrow.
30 minutes of Rowing:
10 minutes fast no resistance row warm up, 20 minutes Ramp HIIT row.
20 min ramp HIIT, 4 intervals total
3 intervals of:
1 min @ SR 18
1 min @ SR 22
1 min @ SR 26
1 min @ SR 30
1 min recovery
Last interval:
1 min @ SR 18
1 min @ SR 22
1 min @ SR 26
1 min @ SR as fast as you can (35 for me today)
1 min recovery
Shefit30 Challenge: 3x this set all with resistance band
1) squat hops x 15 reps
2) alternating Groucho x 20 reps
3) split squats + rear leg lift x 15 reps each side
4) wide stance good mornings x 20
5) side step and squat x 20 each side
Thursday 2/25/2021: Training: 1 hour 20 minutes #shefit30 challenge
Today was another busy day so I got the challenge in and done right before Muay Thai class.
In Muay Thai I was tired and kept dropping my hands. Need to work on that and my footwork was messy. But I put the time in. Just gotta keep chugging along.
Challenge:
Today is day 23, and the word for today is INVINCIBLE. I only got 2x through before class started.
I also did mule kicks the entire time because I misread donkey kicks as mule kicks.
I. 25 Knee Crunches
N. 15 Jump Lunges
V. 20 Donkey Kicks (did mule kicks)
I. 25 Knee Crunches
N. 15 Jump Lunges
C. 40 High Knees
I. 25 Knee Crunches
B. 20. Squat Jumps
L. 15 Mule Kicks
E. 15 Push Ups
Muay Thai Training:
1) jab, catch, return a jab (to work on footwork and distance management)
2) held pads/parried defended against his turn
3) jab, cross, hook, lead kick
4) held pads/parried defended against his turn
5) fake the jab, cross, hook, cross, inside leg kick (nao tek), get out
6) held pads/parried defended against his turn
7) fake high jab, hit low jab, bing choy gua choy, cross, hook, lead kick
8 ) held pads/parried defended against his turn
9) jab, cross, traveling/sliding Teep, box drill
Friday 2/26/2021: Workout: 1 hour – mile run, 20 minute HIIT ramp rowing, #shefit30 Booty Band challenge
I got my workout all done before maintenance came to fix our constantly running tub faucet.
Yeah…it was just a drip for days and then started just running yesterday when at fully turned off. Fun fun… I had all windows open, entire family in masks and I re-sanitized all surfaces they touched or might have touched. They were perfect gentleman but my anxiety about COVID coming into my house, my safe place was high!
Anyway here is what I did:
1 mile run outside
20 minutes Ramp HIIT row:
20 min ramp HIIT, 4 intervals total
3 intervals of:
1 min @ SR 18
1 min @ SR 22
1 min @ SR 26
1 min @ SR 30
1 min recovery
Last interval:
1 min @ SR 18
1 min @ SR 22
1 min @ SR 26
1 min @ SR as fast as you can (35 for me today)
1 min recovery
#shefit30 challenge: 3x through this set
1) arm rows 12 x reps each arm
2) 90- degree lateral elbow raises 15 x reps
3) rear delt pulls 15x reps
4) in and out push ups 10x reps
5) v-up leg lifts 15x reps
Woot I got my workout done though!
Saturday 2/27/2021: Training: 2 hours of Muay Thai practice
We worked the pads, and sparred today.
We worked on shielding and the kicking right away with the same leg we shielded on.
I worked on keeping my hands up. Did an ok job of keeping them up. But I still need to work on keeping my hands up. After about an hour of straight training they start dropping. Lol
Also need to work on when I am teeped to just eat it and keep advancing or crashing in. So I can get into range.
Woot a great day of training. Also look at my new sweatshirt crop top. I love it. It says Dangerous Woman. From the company No Prince Charming. That company sends some of the sale to help at risk women learn self defense and Martial Arts. My pants are one of my favorite pairs Grrrl.com brick house pants! Love love ❤️
I am showered, fed, dead tired and now may take a nap.
Thank you Khun Kru Krysta for working us hard.
So today is Tuesday. I am a day late with my blog post, but I did it. Yes I am in a mini cut right now. I am not expecting magic. I just want to better understand, and treat my body better. Instead of fight it, work with it.
What are you doing? How is it working for you?
Does your biological machine run better on protein, fats or carbs? Protein is hard for me to eat enough of. Carbs? I am a champion carbs eater.
As always thank you for reading my blog. If you liked this post please let me know and hit the like button so I know. If you want to see more please subscribe, and if you are feeling chatty please feel free to comment. Hello to all the old and new viewers. I hope you have a happy wonderful week.
If you want to see day to day stuff, and sometimes my food, I put that on my instagram account @sharpcupcake . And don’t forget: Don’t photo edit, just go get it.
Thinks with Spinks 