Alas, they pack my schedule even more, so EGN is still on the back burner, but no matter because I am blogging, just like I did here, same style and fashion, in two new places.

My studio is starting a boot camp, and I’m running the blog, which means EGN, only a different name: www.myrevolutionblog.wordpress.com. What’s it all about? Click the link to find out! (and if you are in the Bellevue/Seattle area, you can come workout with me, as Ill be helping instruct the camp!)

I am also guest blogging on the always informative, sometimes confusing www.the bodyfirm.biz/blog in Texas. Maybe if you guys hassle Dave, the owner, enough, he’ll watch his punctuation. (Kidding, Dave, if you read this. But seriously….)

Like I said, I will be blogging non-stop at My Revolution, so if you sent me a question that I never answered on EGN, resend it to me and I’ll answer it on My Revolution asap. And don’t forget to check me out at The Body Firm!

The main reason for the hiatus is my move coming up (Dec 16th- woot!) into a big ol’ house with two friends of mine. Amidst the stress has emerged a little ray of sunshine: I was asked to inform you all about the Myspace/Walmart holiday guide widget, for which I will get a $100 gift card to Walmart. Woot!

As you know, I normally don’t do this stuff on here, but I am moving, which is expensive, so cut me some slack. At least I’m telling you up front- that should earn me some karma points back.

So here it is: Myspace teamed up with Walmart and produced The Holiday Wishlist- a widget where you can choose some of your greedy little wants for Christmas, and add them to a list which is then added to your profile, so all your Myspace friends can see what you want for Christmas or whatever you happen to celebrate.

To be honest, I haven’t used my Myspace in literally about a year, but when I signed in to add the widget to my profile, I was pretty surprised how many people still use it on the regular. I have been missing out, apparently.

Not surprisingly, my wishlist is mostly all electronics, but its a wishlist, right? If someone who loved me very much happened to stumble upon it and buy me something shiny and metal, it would be fine, because I didn’t technically ask them for something so expensive. And Walmart’s about the cheapest you can find of that stuff, so its really like I’m doing them a favor.

In reality, the actual gift card I get for all this hard work I’m putting in right now this will go towards necessities, like toilet paper, dishwasher soap (I’m going to have a dishwasher!) and a chew toy to keep Porkchop from eating the little Chihuahua that will also be living with us. For their prices, though, I’m sure I can find something fun to toss into the mix for me, too.

Hope everyone had a great holiday, and I’ll be back after things calm down a bit to answer the back log of questions you guys are waiting on. Thanks for being patient! It’s a virtue!

If you’ve noticed, I haven’t been posting much. I have a lot of stuff going on that makes for little free time, and of course, the blog suffers first (which I think is healthy, as opposed to letting real life fall to the back burner like hard core bloggers. I just dont have it in me.)

I’m moving, into a house (!!! real windows !!!) with two girl friends of mine (saying “girlfriends” makes me sound like an old lady) which is closer to my work, my parents and my boyfriend and a yard for PorkChop, so its definitely an improvement- it just happened really fast, so I’m trying to get out of my place by December 16. Plus, I have about 4 Thanksgivings, Im doing my continuing education classes to keep my training certificate valid, vacations, hour and a half workouts everyday plus more writing that I’ve ever had to do before- so Ill be in and out. Things should calm down soon, but I just wanted to let you guys know I didn’t forget about you, I know a ton of you have Q and A’s I haven’t gotten to you yet, and I’ll be back intermittently to answer them for you.

In the mean time, you can keep up with all my articles by following me on Twitter. Or, you can come to Costa Rica with me for my fitness retreat!

Thanks so much! By the way, I love your blog!
Bekah

Yeah, this is a hard one, because obviously your trainer has a better idea of what you are doing than I do, and if she’s stumped, I’m probably not going to be much help.

To have your body fat go down 8% (which is huge- congrats!) and there be little weight loss is odd, but not unheard of (and definitly frustrating.) 6 pounds is still a loss, though. I’m not going to be able to give you definite answer, but your weight for your height is quite high, and being at that weight, for what I assume is an extended period of time cause do some damage to your body and your metabolism. It might just take a while for your body to adapt to the changes, or there might be something going on.

The only things I can think of are:

- Are you weighing at the same time everyday- on an empty stomach?

- The calories (as long as they are within reason) aren’t as important as what you are eating. If you are eating a lot of starchy carbs- those stick with you for a while, or salt, which can cause water retention (which is usually in processed foods as opposed to the salt you are putting on top of you food- but that has a big effect, too)

- If you have any medical conditions, those may be a factor

- If you are on any medications, those may be a factor

Like I said, 6 pounds is still a loss. Its only been since October that you have upped your calories to 1500 (good job, 1300 is pretty low) so perhaps the switch will kick up your weight loss a bit. It takes a while for your body to adjust to a calorie change, but I would expect you should see some results soon.

If you trust your trainer, (that’s not a dig at her, some people really don’t think their trainers know what they are talking about, but stay with them anyway) I would go see a doctor just to make sure their aren’t any problems, but if you think your routine might not be intense enough, or the focus you are looking for, then see a different trainer to look over your routine and diet to make sure that its the right program for you.

Don’t beat yourself up,- you are probably doing most everything right, and by picking up an exercise habit, you are already way ahead of the game. Be happy you are making improvements on your body and try and focus on the other positive things that are changing, even if it might not be the fast weight loss you are looking for. Sometimes it takes a while for your body to respond.

I have a follow-up question to my over training. Since my body is used to working out so much how does it adjust when I start a more normal routine? By this I mean if my body was in a constant state of over training how does it know when to slow down. I have cutback on my workouts and even take a rest day. How should I adjust my caloric intake to offset my body adjusting? My goal is to loose about 10lbs.

thanks,
Jenny

To read Jenny’s first Q and A she is referring to, head to Q and A: Over Doing It

your body IS slowed- you dont want it to slow down, you want it to speed back up. over trained means it stopped working on you to protect itself, so even if you force it to workout, you arent going to get any of the benefits from it because it has slowed and stopped all of your body processes.

when it is able to rest- ie. not made to work out, it will start to trust you again, and start your body processes back up (burning calories, building muscle, etc.) Your bodies job is not to die, so if you make it work too hard, it thinks you re trying to kill it, and will do everything in its power not to let you. So it holds on to calories to preserve the energy (fat, calories) you are so desperately trying to burn off it.

Id keep your calories the same, because once your body kicks back in, its going to need them (you arent burning as many calories when you are over training, but when your body starts to work again, it will need those calories because it will be burning them) so you might lose weight by eating the same. If you find you arent, then I would lower them slightly, because you may be working out at such a high intensity/frequency, that even your slowed state is burning a lot of calories.

That was confusing.

Leave your calories alone, because you will need them when your body kicks in, but if you dont notice loss, I would re-do The Harris Benedict Formula and then figure out how many you need for your activity level. It takes a bit for your body to respond to rest, but not too long, so you should be able to do the equation and have it be accurate, because your body will be responding fully to the level of exercise you are doing.