I can sum up my five day weekend by saying – This morning was the first time I had worked out since Tuesday, and the healthiest thing I’ve eaten in that time was probably Thanksgiving dinner – and the leftovers on Saturday Night.

Heh

Good news? I didn’t gain as much weight as I had thought( 205.8 this morning). AND even though we got in at 10:30 PM last night, and after unpacking etc didn’t get to sleep until about 11:30 -12:00, I still got up at 4:00AM this morning and hit the gym! I’m ready, I’m focused I have a DREAM and I’m going to make that dream a reality. 180 by the end of February. If I focus I can do this! I’m getting excited just thinking about it. I know I’m on the cusp of some major changes – I’m ready to push to make sure that happens. I’m going to be SEXY by summer.

The workout this morning was a little different. We met with our trainer for the first time. He’s going to be working with us twice a week for the next two weeks. This means a break from Max-OT for me. But I think I was due.

The plan he’d created for us was low(er) weight for more reps with little to no rest and some supersetting. We started with warming up and then did some ‘core’ work (crunches, planks, step-ups, leg stretch, and some strange jumping back and forth over a Frisbee thing which was the hardest of them all for me to do.) Then we did our upper body workout.

Superset – chest/back
Cable chest press: 15lbs x 20 / 12.5 x 20
Seated Row: 75lbs x 20 / 60 x 20

I was REALLY getting frustrated with these for a number of reasons
First off – I wasn’t feeling these in my chest or back at all, instead I had this burning cramping feeling in the back of my arms/shoulders.(Posterior Deltiod). Basically I wasn’t feeling the muscle working – but instead was feeling a nasty case of lactic acid buildup. And in a WEIRD muscle. I also found it was REALLY hard to focus for the amount of time it takes to do twenty reps for a 3/2 count. But, I did it.

Then I did two sets of shoulder presses on the cable machine:

15lbs x 20
10lbs x 20

Again I was feeling more lactic acid buildup then muscle fatigue. And the same thing – keeping straight form (which requires a lot of focus for me) for that LONG was hard.

The good news – the trainer was falling over himself praising my form. It’s nice to know that it’s not just in my head. I really am doing the right thing.

Going forward, I think the workouts are going to keep taking care of themselves. It’s the food that’s going to be my focus. Free days will be ONE DAY and regulated calorie wise. And I’m going to work on my water intake. I need to flush some of this crap out of my body.

Challenges this week (and today)? The holiday season is now in full force. EVERYONE is bringing their holiday goodies into the office. Homemade cookies and biscotti were on the menu today. I nibbled the biscotti and passed on the cookies. Saturday is my Company Christmas party. That’ll be my free day. I also want to make a goal to try one more crock-pot recipe this week. Eventually I’ll find something that works! :)

So – that’s it. The goal is to be 201 by 12/9 – a little aggressive but doable considering I’m carrying around some ‘thanksgiving bloat’ at the moment.

Here’s to healthy Eating!

I'm back - more to follow

I hope everyone had a GREAT Thanksgiving weekend.

I had a rather pleasant thought this morning. If my body fat % is correct… I have 140lbs of lean mass. (I’m 5’5 by the way). Do you know how many woman FIGHT to get to 140lbs of mass!? Sheesh! If I can maintain this I’ll be able to walk onto a body building stage without having to do any ‘bulking’. Not that I intend to, but the thought was there. I had to smile at that one.

Also I’ve been looking over my records – I’ve added 5 (or more) pounds to EVERY lift except bicep curls in the past month. (focus on the positive here…)

So I hit the gym this morning in a positive frame of mind. Oh yeah – I actually jumped out of bed and walked across the room before the thought ‘Man I’m tired!’ crossed my mind. It was nice not to have to fight to get up and merely fight to STAY that way. Anyway, I hit the gym (well I didn’t HIT it – I did manage to park the car in a stall, and I didn’t run into the wall or door walking in, that’s progress for me!) ;) and headed for the treadmill. It’s a training day and I needed to run. I really wasn’t feeling it, I started trying to give myself excuses why NOT to run, but I quickly threw those thoughts away and climbed on. I couldn’t remember how many miles I was supposed to run (dumb I know) so I did 2.25 just to be sure. I set the treadmill at 1.5% incline and went for it. I had to walk a few times and couldn’t maintain 5.0 MPR for very long but I did it! I finished in 30:25 minutes!

After that I headed to the weight room to do arms. After three warm up sets I did:

EZ Bar Curl: 55 x 6 / 55 x 6

Now, remember how I said I had gone up on every lift but curls? I thought today might be a good day to change that so I grabbed the 30 lb dumbbells. Much to my frustration it wasn’t happening. I could do TWO and that was it :( So I went back to the 25 lb ones and did my sets.

Alt Dumbbell Curls: 25 x 6 / 25 x 6
Cable Curl: 85 x 6

I then went over to the cable pull down station, loaded on my weight and clipped on the rope. I put my back to the machine and tried an overhead pulldown… I couldn’t believe how hard it was! After trying and failing at 30 lb curls I was starting to get a little frustrated. I pulled the five pound rubber weight off the top of the stack and tried again. Still couldn’t do it. I start thinking “What’s wrong with me? Am I overtraining? I did 55 lbs last week and now I can’t even do 50! Am I eating too little now and losing my strength?” I turned around to set the pin lower and that’s when I noticed – I had set it at 60 – NOT 50… DUH. I think I need to wear my glasses while working out!

Overhead Tri PullDown: 50 x 6 / 55 x 6
Tri Pushdown: 105 x 6 / 110 x 6 (up another five pounds on this one!)
Tri Kickbacks: 30 x 6 (yes – five pounds here too)

One thing I’ve noticed that got me wondering. I can lift more weight with my Tri’s then my Bi’s… is that normal?

So, workout was done and I hit the showers. While I was in the shower I realized something. It’s time to change my program. I’ve been doing Max-OT since October 10.. that’ll be 7 weeks at the end of this week. I think it’s long enough. I’m starting to notice I’m sore and achy in my wrists elbows and knees instead of my muscles. I think it’s time to let my ligaments, joints and tendons some time to recovery and strengthen. So starting Monday I’m going to change things up… MAJORLY. The 24hour fitness guy wants me to do a full body workout three days a week and cardio three days a week. Since we’re meeting with him two days a week for the next two weeks I think I’ll do that. I think the recovery time will do me good – with full days of rests built in. Once those two days are over… I’m not sure what I’ll do. I think by that time I’ll be itching to load up a 45 lb plate… heheheh. I don’t know – give me some suggestions folks – I’m open.

I just wanted to note that I input my food for the day into fitday

2053 Calories

31% Fat/ 35% Carbs/ 31% Protein

Exactly where I want it

I'll try this for a few days and see what's up. Maybe I really am eating more then I think I am, but interestingly enough I came out EXACTLY where I expected today.

Thank you to everyone for your suggestions. I think what frustrats me more then anything is that things like restricting carbs and zig-zag ing calories are supposed to be 'advanced'weight loss techniques. You know, for those people who've been doing this for a while and have hit a wall. Me, I STARTED at a wall - what's up with that!? I didn't even get the 10 pound water weight 'gimme'. And no, this isn't the 'eight week freekout'. It's been 19 weeks!

Sorry - I happened to pull up my tracking worksheet tonight and realized that in 19 weeks I haven't even hit my FOUR WEEK GOAL yet! I wanted to just sit here and CRY.

but now I've vented I'm over it. I could sit here and whine about it or I could make a plan and take action. I'll take action!

I promise - no more posts about my lack of progress for another month ok! But if something positive happens - you'll be the first to know about it. Deal? Deal!

I didn't walk tonight - just WAY too much to do (and not enough time). As it is I'm up past my bedtime. If I want to be able to get up tomorrow and do my workout. (The most important one as far as I'm concerned) then I have to make choices and tonight the choice was to cook and not walk for 30 minutes.

See you all on the flip side!

Ok - let me answer a few questions here :)

First off: Pink Dumbbells is a fitness forum... you can check it out at www.pinkdumbbells.com

Next: Metabolism testing - it's easy - it's painless. Bascially You have a mouthpiece that connects to this little machine called a "Body Gem" and you spend about 7 minutes breathing into the thing... here's a more indepth explination.


The Body Gem is a device that is capable of measuring an individuals' own resting metabolic rate with startling clinical accuracy, and present the results in a simple daily caloric requirement. The compact device is non-invasive, lightweight, and it provides a true measurement of how many calories the individuals' body requires to maintain proper metabolic function.

The device has been tested to offer repeatable accuracy within a 1% margin of error when compared to the medical standard Douglas Bag. By detecting changes in air quality regarding temperature increase, oxygen content reduction, humidity and moisture change, and pressure change, an exact, scientific measurement can be made of the amount of heat energy required to create that specific change in air volume. This data is calculated into a number of calories representing the amount of energy required for an individual to maintain their body for a 24-hour period (assuming 16 hours of rest, and 8 hours of sleep). This number, representing RMR (resting metabolic rate), is the minimum number of calories required to keep the body functioning correctly for 24-hours. Factored into an equation with energy requirements for exercise and activity level reveals a scientifically based number of calories required for body maintenance.


That being said, let me tell you about saturday and the tailspin of confusion it's put me into...

I got two numbers Saturday that SHOULD be useful. My BMR and my body fat %.

So, my BMR - that's Basel Metobolic Rate, the number of calories I burn just sitting still and breathing and stuff is 1788.

My body fat% based on being 'pinched' in four places: Bicep, tricep, Back and hip. the total (are you ready cause I wasn't?) 31%

Now to say that both these numbers surprised me is an understatement. Let's start with the BMR. In a way it makes sence. It explains why I struggle to get my calories down to what they say a 'woman' should eat (somewhere in the 1400 range is what I always hear). And it's competely supported by my updated Body Fat % - 31% Body fat at my current weight of 203 is about 140 pounds of lean mass - an amount very much capable of supporting a BMR of over 1700. But, what it doesn't explain is why in the HELL I struggle to lose a single pound. Even when I say 'Eff it' and go hungry I can barely scape together a 1 lb loss. Everyone say it with me.. "Arrrrrrgggg!" And before you came at me with the 'evils of scale use' let me just say - I take my measurements, I measure body fat, I take progress pictures. NOTHING is changing people...

Then there's this 'new' body fat %. I was well aware that my scale was probably wrong, but I verified it with the navy measurement site and other then wanting to watch the numbers go DOWN I wasn't that concerned about the actual number. HOWEVER - my body fat % has an effect on my goals. I'm not interested in starving myself. I want to maintain my lean mass, but according to this new number my LEAN MASS is already 10 pounds over my goal of 130. Ok, I'm willing to deal with that - BUT, according to these numbers - if I was to reach my goal of 18% Body fat I would weigh 170. People, I've BEEN to 175 before and that is NOT 5 pounds from goal. And I highly doubt I've managed to put on THAT MUCH muscle over the past few years.

So - here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to ignore the new body fat % and continue to measure in my old way. Just watch that I'm not dropping lean mass to the best of my ability. As for my goal. I'm not going to change it - yet. About 160 I'm going to start to analyze my visual appearance and go from there. I suspect my goal is still very close to what I originally predicted - between 130 and 135. But, I could be surprised.

As for calories. I'm going to go on the assumption that the reading was right. Perhaps I'm WAY overdoing it on my free day (or having too many three day free 'days') I'm going to spend a solid week recording calories and see how it goes (probably three days this week - and then the entire week next week). Keeping my calories around 2100 and my free day around 2500 SHOULD show results with the amount of exercising I'm doing...

And so onto other things.

Didn't run yesterday. I got involved in other things. I DID however do 40 minutes of cardio on Saturday. My food for the two days was good. I was proud of how I controlled myself. No alcohol while we were out Saturday night - and good eats when we went out to dinner!

This morning I was up and at’em at the normal time. Hit the gym. did some quick cardio and then hit the weights:

Chest:

Flat BB Press (plus bar): 80 x 6 / 80 x 7 / 80 x 6
Incline DB Press: 50 x 6 / 50 x 6 / 50 x 6
Cable flye: 30 x 6 / 30 x 6

Abs:

Cable Crunches: 190 x 15 / 190 x 15
Leg lifts: 15 / 15
Incline Crunches: Highest Level x 25

And that was that. The plan for today is to do so LISS walking when I get home, and a training run tomorrow morning.

Have a great Monday everyone.

Going to the gym! Going to get my metabolism tested. This could be good! After that we're going to San Francisco and maybe I'll get to sing.

I really didn't have anything to say here. I just wanted to get that last post off the top because it just seemed to bum people out and that's HARDLY my goal.

Anyway, have a great weekend everyone! As they say at Pink Dumbbells: Lift Heavy, Run Fast, Live Healthy.

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