Team Beachbody ¡preestreno!Español Guest

Hi pfc27- the recovery/rest weeks are supposed to be lower in intensity than the regular weeks. Plyo and Interval X are not workouts that I would consider to fit the bill of recovery workouts (light cardio, light resistance or stretch/yoga), and would definitely not do plyo 2 x's a week, even in a regular intensive week. Have you considered using a walk/jog or cardio on a gym machine (bike, elliptical, rowing machine, step mill)? Where is the yoga or stretching in your recovery week? Rest/recovery provides your body w/ activation of different muscle fibers because of the different intensity & workouts that you are doing, it is a positive event, used to prevent overtraining, injury & burn-out. Don't view them as a limitation on your gains & progress, as recovery makes you stronger, mentally and physically. In a recovery/rest week, you can stand to consume less calories because the workouts are not as taxing on the body, but 1300 seems a bit low. Have you tried to maintain your weight w/ a caloric intake of 1400-1600 calories per day (vary it in your recovery weeks/less cals vs. intensive weeks/more cals)?

You could complete a few workouts in a recovery week, but it would be good to mix up the workouts, so it was not Cardio X all week. Maybe complete, kenpo, cardio X, yoga or X Stretch, once a week. But you could complete Cardio X everyday, if you wanted to. About the caloric intake, 1800-2000 is an appropriate amount for the regularly intensive weeks (w/ resistance & plyo workouts), but you could eat much less for the recovery weeks because the intensity is much lower during that week.

It sounds like you are aware of the issues you have w/ eating out of boredom or for feelings other than hunger, not for fueling the body. Maybe trying to chew sugarless gum or drinking a glass of water, when you feel like having something in your mouth (it could be thirst or just wanting to chew on something, not hunger). Or eat a few bites of whatever you are craving, so that you have the taste of what you want, but not a full serving to really increase your caloric intake for the day. And if you eat more cleanly, you will feel better and have better results because the body functions more optimally when fueled properly. But the changes in eating and viewing food as fuel take time, you should enjoy eating food, just not an excess of any one type of food. You just have to experiment w/ consuming different types of food, serving sizes and zone in on what affects you feel from the food consumption. That way, you can be aware of when you are just eating to stave off boredom or subtitute for something else, and you can plan appropriately for that. Or when the hunger really hits you, make sure to have something healthy in your bag to eat, so that you can make a better choice. Eating consistently every 2-4 hours can help w/ staying less hungry, so you won't overeat (waiting 6+ hours to eat, you may feel really hungry and overeat). But just work on it everyday to make better food choices and experiment w/ the caloric intake to see what works for you during intensive days vs. recovery days. Every time you make a better choice is a step in the right direction, don't forget that and feel badly about it. Focus on what you can do & will do and it gets easier to accomplish what you want to.