'll cut to the chase as to how things are going. I just finished up my first month of training for a fitness competition with my bikini coaches.. So far I've lost about 5 pounds, 1% body fat, and an inch off of my waist, hips, and thighs. I've also increased all the weights on my lifts. So far, so good!

Have you heard of the WhatKateWore blog? It's a fashion blog that chronicles Kate Middleton's fashion - what she wore, where to get it, affordable knock-offs (RepliKates), etc. With all of The Crown hype (Season 4 really was amazing) my social media feeds have been flooded with news of the Royals - what they eat at the holidays, what the grandchildren call Camilla, which outfits have been repeated, how often they go to the bathroom, etc.

I chose this headline because it makes me laugh. We see this sort of all-or-nothing thinking all over social media: carbs are evil, bananas are the devil, cardio will ruin your life, jog yourself thin, eat this magical fruit/seed and you'll never have to step foot in a gym again, etc. It's so confusing it will make your head spin! WTH are we supposed to be doing to care for our bodies?

Last week marked 12 weeks since I began reverse dieting in preparation for training for a fitness competition. For the last 12 weeks my protocol has been as follows: reverse diet - eat between 1800 and 1900 calories/100 grams of protein per day; consistent resistance training - lift weights at least three times a week and focus on progressive overload; and do cardio at least two to three times a week.

If you've read my earlier posts, you know that I’m reverse dieting and trying to increase my calories by about 300 calories a day (from 1500 to 1800 calories). For about five years I've somewhat regularly tracked my daily food intake on the free version of My Fitness Pal. But when I read that other fitness competitors are eating 1500, 1800, or 2000 calories a day, I sometimes still can't guess what that looks like.

Time for a check-in! It has been nine weeks since I started my reverse diet from 1500 to 1800 calories and started strength training 3-4 times a week in preparation for doing a fitness competition next spring.

For so many, the holy grail of fitness is having “great abs”. And as a fitness professional, I think this makes complete sense! Having visible ab definition is a sure sign that you are physically fit. No one gets good abs from sitting around watching TV and over-eating.
However, HOW you get good abs is not the way many think. I often get asked “what exercises can I do to have better abs?”.

For the past two weeks my family was on a road trip to Colorado and Utah.   We spent three days in Denver, four days in Beaver Creek, four days in Park City, and about four days driving.   One challenge of travelling during the Pandemic is that I had no access to gyms  or weights on the trip. 

I’m four weeks into a reverse diet and here’s where things stand:

As you know, to prepare for another fitness competition, one of my first goals is increasing my daily caloric intake. Say what? Calories up? Yes. My good friend and colleague Allison, has convinced me this is the way to go for this prep. In her twenties, Allison destroyed her metabolism eating too little (~1200 calories a day) and doing endless hours of cardio.

I just finished up  my first week of reverse dieting.  Below is a recap of the  current protocol I’m  following and the results. 

For my first 12 week cycle (July to September) of preparing to diet for a fitness competition, I’m going to prime my body for weight loss by doing a reverse diet (intentionally increasing calories). When I set the goal of doing another fitness competition, I was only eating 1500 calories a day, and that was simply too low to diet on and expect to have any results.

Exactly five years ago, at age 42, I competed in my first (and only) fitness competition. Recently, in a goal setting session with my new life coach, I somewhat flippantly jotted down that among other things, ideal Jo would like to be doing fitness competitions on the regular. Isn’t this something everyone lists as a goal? Apparently not, because my coach commented that she found it intriguing that I put that down, and we should explore it.

Yes, absolutely! But in moderation. Just like most things in life, a little bit of something not-so-healthy is fine in moderation. If you are going out having multiple drinks a night, several nights a week, this will definitely hinder your fat loss progress. However, having a small glass of wine with dinner every night or even having several drinks one night a week shouldn’t really set you back.

Don’t waste time doing these 10 things when trying to lose fat

When it comes to fat loss, there is so much information available telling us the “best” way to go about this goal. Sadly, most of this information is downright misleading. Much of it is created to try to sell a product.

The term “reverse dieting” probably sounds very odd if you aren’t part of the bodybuilding world! This phrase means exactly like you might guess it means – the opposite of dieting! When you think of going on a “diet”, you tend to think of eating less or restricting your calories or food in some way. The term reverse dieting is often used to refer to the process of INCREASING your calories.