Yesterday was the first day of my Six-Week Body Makeover (and also the first day of my marathon training plan). I decided to do the 6WBMO after reading about it at The Fit Shack. I’m not really trying to lose a lot of weight, but I wanted a structured program to help me transition away from my current (not so healthy) eating and exercise habits and toward a more consistent nutritional & fitness plan. My goals from the program are to (1) replace fat with muscle; (2) reduce the amount of junk/processed food I’m eating; and (3) minimize my emotional attachment to food.

To achieve #1, 6WBMO recommends 5-6 sessions of low-ish intensity cardio–think fast walking or slow jogging instead of all-out running. Since I’m training for a marathon, this is precisely the type of cardio I need to be doing. The program also includes resistance bands and a twice-weekly strength training workout. As a long-time hater of strength training, this is probably a good place for me to start. My marathon training program calls for four runs per week, so I’m supplementing that with one long (45-60 minute) walk and the two weekly strength training sessions to meet the program recommendations.

Regarding #2, 6WBMO calls for you to omit (or at least greatly reduce) sugar and salt from your diet. This pretty much requires you to make food from scratch. I’m not cutting out salt entirely because I tend to have lower blood pressure and don’t really need to, but I’m making an effort with the sugar. I cooked a huge pot roast with potatoes and carrots on Sunday to use for my meals this week. I’m already tired of it. I can see that I’m going to need to make sure I get more variety in my diet.

Working on #3 is trickier. I have a long history of disordered eating, so I tend to use food as a soothing mechanism. I also get very panicky about food–I’ve seen this in pretty much every recovering EDer I know. It’s kind of embarassing to talk about, but what the hell. Recovering anorexics and bulimics tend to be very controlled in their eating. If someone asks me for a bite of my food, I get so anxious and upset. What if there isn’t enough??? What if they take more than I want them to?? How will I know exactly how much I’ve had if they eat some of my premeasured portion???? Needless to say, it can be difficult to explain to others.

It’s not logical, but it’s real and that means I have to deal with it. What I like about 6WBMO is that it encourages you to make all of your meals in advance and carry them with you. It sounds silly, but having all of my food for the day in my lunchbox is a real emotional security blanket for me. If I start to feel worried about what I’m going to eat next, I can just unzip my cooler and look at it. Sounds ridiculous, but it really does help me.

6WBMO also requires that you eat every 2-3 hours, which is perfect for me. Hunger can be a very distressing feeling to a recovering EDer. Bulimics don’t really know what it feels like, and it can be very triggering for anorexics. Eating often enough to keep me from getting really hungry helps keep me on a more even keel overall.

I ate pretty much on plan yesterday, and I did my walk for the week. I’ve got all my meals for today in my trusty cooler, and I’m planning to do a 3-mile jog after work. So far, so good! I’ll probably do a few 6WBMO updates each week to let you know how I’m progressing. If you have any questions about the program, don’t hesitate to ask!