A personal training & food journal. Read about our weight loss progress at Train With Ron in Chicago, our nutritional habits and the life changes we're making to get in shape and stay healthy!

	When Goals Collide
	Posted by Daniel Arturi | 6 Comments

Get Stronger... Lose Weight... Both?

After benching 270 pounds this summer, I set a goal for myself to get to 300 lbs by next June. Right around the same time, I set a goal for myself to lose that last stubborn 40 lbs that I have been wanting to lose since I got started. Guess what… these two goals don’t lend themselves very well to each other. What I have found is that I’m not making much progress on either side.

In June I started taking Wing Chun martial arts classes, thinking that would replace some of my cardio workouts at Train with Ron. I’m finding that, at least at this early stage, I’m not burning as many calories doing it as I thought I would. That, plus my less than disciplined eating habits over the last two months, has resulted in my not feeling very good about how I look. Now, I haven’t gained any weight since I started the weight loss goal – in fact, I’ve lost about 5 lbs since I started it – but after seeing myself in pictures lately, I have noticed that I’ve lost ground in the battle for control of my waistline.

I also finished my most recent round of Pure Steel by failing to bench 275 lbs… I was very disappointed there too.

I have also found myself strapped for time in terms of working out, so I need to rearrange some things in my busy life to accommodate for all the exercise, rest, Wing Chun, and music that I want to squeeze in and still make time for Monika and I to have some fun together.

So, all that said, it is time to press the ‘reset’ button. I will not give up on my goals, but I must recommit to them and I think I need to revise the weight loss goal to make it more manageable.

I am going to start with a weight loss goal of an AVERAGE of losing 2 lbs per week for the next 12 weeks (so, 24 lbs off by end of January), and over that same period I am looking to AT LEAST maintain my current strength level by benching 270 at the end of my current Pure Steel round. If I can get stronger while losing the weight, that’d be fantastic but I’ll have to be satisfied with maintaining for now. At the end of January, I’ll still have 5 months to build up the strength to bench those last 30 lbs and I am pretty sure that Matt will be able to help get me there, as long as I stay committed to it!