Winter has swept into Chicago in a big way. After all those unseasonably warm days we enjoyed we've been hit with the double whammy. It rained incessantly all day yesterday and then around rush hour it turned very cold and the snow came. Taking the dog out this morning was a challenge due to the layer of ice on the sidewalks and driveways around my complex. I really really do not like ice because I really really do not like falling down. This weather puts a crimp in my walking schedule, which I kind of figured would happen at some point. I need to either look for an alternative I can do at home or start going to the gym every day so I get my cardio in. I hesitate to use the Air-Dyne exclusively because it tends to mess up my knees if I do too much. Maybe a kettlebell/bodyweight circuit could be devised. Hmm....
I've pretty much given up trying to maintain a deficit at this point. My son came home from Michigan Wednesday night and we are almost completely in Christmas mode full swing. Funny thing though, I haven't had any cravings to overeat or eat sugary treats. And I'm not going to question it but just go with what feels right. Maybe I am learning to prefer healthy foods over junk. I haven't weighed myself recently. My plan is to weigh and take pictures on New Years Day and dive back into the good fight after that. Chris and I are going up to Wisconsin to visit friends over the weekend before coming home to put up the tree and celebrate Christmas. I have one more workout tomorrow before we go so I'll post an update when I get back on Sunday.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Another quick update
I don't have much new to say so I'll just make a few quick points before I'm off to my busy day.
1. I'm feeling very good today.
2. I realized yesterday that the workout I'm doing makes me an anomaly in my gym. I'm the only woman there that works out as hard as I do. And I don't care.
3. I made the healthy brownie recipe on Sunday. It's just ok. Better than the last recipe I tried (using sweet potatoes. Really??) I need to keep looking because the holy grail is out there.
4. My son is coming home tomorrow night and I'm very excited to see him. I hope to get him to my gym this time to work out with me.
5. Work is about to get much busier and I need to get prepared.
6. Today is walk day so I need to get my butt out the door right now.
buh bye!
1. I'm feeling very good today.
2. I realized yesterday that the workout I'm doing makes me an anomaly in my gym. I'm the only woman there that works out as hard as I do. And I don't care.
3. I made the healthy brownie recipe on Sunday. It's just ok. Better than the last recipe I tried (using sweet potatoes. Really??) I need to keep looking because the holy grail is out there.
4. My son is coming home tomorrow night and I'm very excited to see him. I hope to get him to my gym this time to work out with me.
5. Work is about to get much busier and I need to get prepared.
6. Today is walk day so I need to get my butt out the door right now.
buh bye!
Sunday, December 16, 2012
The Week in Review - December 16
I should do one of these every Sunday.
Workouts:
Fantastic. I did all three again. I've made time the last two weeks to go to the gym three times a week so I must love these new workouts. It's because I so want to hit the performance goals I set. That's going well. I've added reps every workout and haven't felt I've been pushing up to my boundaries. I've stuck with the rep limit on all the other exercises which have been getting easier but still challenging. So no change for that for at least another week. Soreness is still there but better. I'm doing more rehab and stretching work for the areas where I feel sore.
Diet:
Not so good but not so bad either. I'm hovering around 230 lbs. because I had a couple of episodes of caving to my hunger and/or cravings this week. I've been exploring the sensation of delaying food longer than 3 hours and it's been interesting to say the least. Some days it was ok and some days really difficult. Since this seems to be such a big issue for me, I think it needs to be a focus and goal. I'd like it not to be such a big deal. I've also been trying recipes for healthy treats in an effort to provide myself choices that scratch the treat itch but aren't full of sugar and chemical crap. Today I'm going to make a brownie recipe I found which is very low sugar (just whatever is in the dark chocolate chips I'll use). Hopefully it is tasty enough that I can use it for party situations. Report to follow...if the world doesn't end on Friday. LOL
Workouts:
Fantastic. I did all three again. I've made time the last two weeks to go to the gym three times a week so I must love these new workouts. It's because I so want to hit the performance goals I set. That's going well. I've added reps every workout and haven't felt I've been pushing up to my boundaries. I've stuck with the rep limit on all the other exercises which have been getting easier but still challenging. So no change for that for at least another week. Soreness is still there but better. I'm doing more rehab and stretching work for the areas where I feel sore.
Diet:
Not so good but not so bad either. I'm hovering around 230 lbs. because I had a couple of episodes of caving to my hunger and/or cravings this week. I've been exploring the sensation of delaying food longer than 3 hours and it's been interesting to say the least. Some days it was ok and some days really difficult. Since this seems to be such a big issue for me, I think it needs to be a focus and goal. I'd like it not to be such a big deal. I've also been trying recipes for healthy treats in an effort to provide myself choices that scratch the treat itch but aren't full of sugar and chemical crap. Today I'm going to make a brownie recipe I found which is very low sugar (just whatever is in the dark chocolate chips I'll use). Hopefully it is tasty enough that I can use it for party situations. Report to follow...if the world doesn't end on Friday. LOL
Thursday, December 13, 2012
It Baffles Me
First, the update on my workouts...they are going great! The day after every workout I have soreness right in the glute muscle, which tells me I'm doing all the glute exercises right. My butt has never looked so good. Still on the big side (diet!) but nicely shaped and firm. I think my legs are starting to look firmer too. So I'm very pleased with the new workout and enjoying the hard work very much.
I wish I were as pleased with the diet. Not that it's going badly but it's still a struggle. I had another overeating episode Tuesday night. I know I could have done something about it but didn't. As soon as my stomach started growling too much it was off to the kitchen for me. For some reason that baffles me, the physical signs of hunger seem to trigger an almost panicked response in my brain. As soon as I feel stomach pain or lightheadedness, I want to fix it so it stops. Instead of just waiting it out, I want to put food in my mouth.
I've decided I need to train my brain just like I train my muscles. I need to train my brain not to panic at the first sign of hunger. I need to train my brain to stay calm, breathe, use a non-food coping mechanism and wait it out. Yesterday and today I skipped my planned afternoon snack. Well, not skipped so much as delayed it. I'm working on extending the time between two meals from 3 hours to 6 hours. Yesterday and today it was between lunch and dinner. I'm taking the snack I planned in the afternoon, moving it to after dinner and working on dealing with the longer period between the meals. Yesterday I had a couple of moments of panic and had to breathe to calm myself. Once I relaxed I was able to move past it. But I'll tell you I was looking at the clock pretty regularly until dinner!
I want to get to the point where I can do this between any two meals that I decide. Once I'm able to delay my food without going into terrors then I'll be better able to reduce my calories a little further without worrying about it all collapsing. I can see this is going to take some time and isn't helped by beating myself up. It's going to take as long as it takes.
I wish I were as pleased with the diet. Not that it's going badly but it's still a struggle. I had another overeating episode Tuesday night. I know I could have done something about it but didn't. As soon as my stomach started growling too much it was off to the kitchen for me. For some reason that baffles me, the physical signs of hunger seem to trigger an almost panicked response in my brain. As soon as I feel stomach pain or lightheadedness, I want to fix it so it stops. Instead of just waiting it out, I want to put food in my mouth.
I've decided I need to train my brain just like I train my muscles. I need to train my brain not to panic at the first sign of hunger. I need to train my brain to stay calm, breathe, use a non-food coping mechanism and wait it out. Yesterday and today I skipped my planned afternoon snack. Well, not skipped so much as delayed it. I'm working on extending the time between two meals from 3 hours to 6 hours. Yesterday and today it was between lunch and dinner. I'm taking the snack I planned in the afternoon, moving it to after dinner and working on dealing with the longer period between the meals. Yesterday I had a couple of moments of panic and had to breathe to calm myself. Once I relaxed I was able to move past it. But I'll tell you I was looking at the clock pretty regularly until dinner!
I want to get to the point where I can do this between any two meals that I decide. Once I'm able to delay my food without going into terrors then I'll be better able to reduce my calories a little further without worrying about it all collapsing. I can see this is going to take some time and isn't helped by beating myself up. It's going to take as long as it takes.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Pity Party
The pity party struck on Saturday night. As I mentioned, we had friends over for dinner and socializing. I made it through dinner just fine. However, as the night wore on I got hungrier and hungrier. So when we broke out the desserts later in the evening my internal pity party kicked in and I caved to the brownies that someone brought. Brownies are my kryptonite. As a result I gained a pound, so it's lots of water and back to the deficit today to get the bloat out.
The lesson here is that I need to keep on working on my hunger management strategies and specifically about those times when I'm up past my bedtime with no extra calories to use until morning. Maybe I need to work on extending the time between meals so I get used to not eating for longer than 4 hours. That has been a tough one for me. But it's a work in progress and something I can work on.
The lesson here is that I need to keep on working on my hunger management strategies and specifically about those times when I'm up past my bedtime with no extra calories to use until morning. Maybe I need to work on extending the time between meals so I get used to not eating for longer than 4 hours. That has been a tough one for me. But it's a work in progress and something I can work on.
Friday, December 7, 2012
Going Into The Weekend Update
That workout yesterday kicked my ass. I was really sore this morning so I skipped my scheduled walk. I did walk the dog a bit farther than usual to make up for it and have been doing a lot of stretching and movement to keep the glutes and hammies from tightening up. I hit it again tomorrow. I'll have enough time to soak in the whirlpool afterwards, so I'm hoping to be over the soreness by the Tuesday workout.
We have people coming over Saturday night. Since I used last night's dinner for my "cheat" meal (we had Popeye's chicken) there will be no deviation from the plan tomorrow. I'm still at 228 so I need more deficit days and another weight drop before I consider any more treats.
We have people coming over Saturday night. Since I used last night's dinner for my "cheat" meal (we had Popeye's chicken) there will be no deviation from the plan tomorrow. I'm still at 228 so I need more deficit days and another weight drop before I consider any more treats.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
My Trainer is An Evil Evil Man
After I did my first set of split squats, holding the down position for two seconds, for 8 reps, the title of this post was going to be "My Trainer is an Evil Man". But after doing the second set, I knew it needed more than that. So Rog gets two "evils".
My butt and upper hammies are so sore right now. I never fully got over the next-day soreness from the first workout and now this. I haven't been this sore from workouts in quite a while. And it's perfectly alright. It's the good kind that tells me that improvement is going to happen. It's just that it's been so long since I've felt that teeth grinding pain from cranking out tough reps that I just have to whine a bit.
I was able to handle 95# for the 5-rep sets of hip thrusts. I've decided I want to focus my improvement efforts on the rack pulls and low rep hip thrusts. I outlined my goal for the rack pulls in the last post. My goal for the hip thrusts is also to add 20# over the next two months, up to 115#. I'm not going to add any reps to any of the other exercises unless they get so stupid easy that I'm just going through the motions. I'm doing so much more effort in these workouts that I'd be in danger of overtraining fairly quickly if I try to add to every exercise I'm doing. Adding just 3-4 reps per workout should keep me improving while letting me recover sufficiently to keep going through the next two months.
My butt and upper hammies are so sore right now. I never fully got over the next-day soreness from the first workout and now this. I haven't been this sore from workouts in quite a while. And it's perfectly alright. It's the good kind that tells me that improvement is going to happen. It's just that it's been so long since I've felt that teeth grinding pain from cranking out tough reps that I just have to whine a bit.
I was able to handle 95# for the 5-rep sets of hip thrusts. I've decided I want to focus my improvement efforts on the rack pulls and low rep hip thrusts. I outlined my goal for the rack pulls in the last post. My goal for the hip thrusts is also to add 20# over the next two months, up to 115#. I'm not going to add any reps to any of the other exercises unless they get so stupid easy that I'm just going through the motions. I'm doing so much more effort in these workouts that I'd be in danger of overtraining fairly quickly if I try to add to every exercise I'm doing. Adding just 3-4 reps per workout should keep me improving while letting me recover sufficiently to keep going through the next two months.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Finding a Happy Medium
I just got back from the gym, having done Day A of my new workout. Things went very well (except for one thing which I will get to shortly).
I feel very strong on the rack pulls. I used my top weight of 115# for the 3 rep set and then down 5# each set from there on. I can definitely see making a progress goal of 135# for the 3 rep set by the end of January. For the next superset, I started with the 45# fat bar for the hip thrust which felt fairly easy so I went up to 55# for the next two. The cable pulldowns felt really good, and I went with 45# for those.
The problem came with the stability ball plank. I couldn't for the life of me balance on one arm to do the sword stab motion. Not even with my feet really wide. So I did it in a regular plank which was definitely hard enough. I'll email Rog to make sure this is an ok regression to do. Floor presses were good and I used 20# for those. The kettlebell sumo deadlifts were awesome. I used a 24 kg kettlebell for 2 sets. The trick with those is keeping my concentration to stay tight in my upper back and core, while making sure to use my glutes instead of my lower back to lift the weight. This will be good training for eventually going back to sumo deadlifts with the bar.
I took Rog's advice about eating more pre-workout. I had one of my healthy pumpkin muffins and a Quest bar with two cups of coffee before I left the house and it was plenty of fuel for the entire workout. So, as I see it, the most important thing for me to focus on in the coming weeks is to push myself enough with pushing too much. I can see I wasn't pushing myself hard enough the last couple of months, but now that I'm feeling better I can't let my eyes be bigger than my stomach, so to speak. I can't let my ego push me to try to lift heavier than what I can safely recover from. I'll need to carefully evaluate how I feel between workouts so that I can make a good judgement about whether I'm ready to increase reps or weight at the next workout. I really don't want to injure myself again and go back to square one.
I feel very strong on the rack pulls. I used my top weight of 115# for the 3 rep set and then down 5# each set from there on. I can definitely see making a progress goal of 135# for the 3 rep set by the end of January. For the next superset, I started with the 45# fat bar for the hip thrust which felt fairly easy so I went up to 55# for the next two. The cable pulldowns felt really good, and I went with 45# for those.
The problem came with the stability ball plank. I couldn't for the life of me balance on one arm to do the sword stab motion. Not even with my feet really wide. So I did it in a regular plank which was definitely hard enough. I'll email Rog to make sure this is an ok regression to do. Floor presses were good and I used 20# for those. The kettlebell sumo deadlifts were awesome. I used a 24 kg kettlebell for 2 sets. The trick with those is keeping my concentration to stay tight in my upper back and core, while making sure to use my glutes instead of my lower back to lift the weight. This will be good training for eventually going back to sumo deadlifts with the bar.
I took Rog's advice about eating more pre-workout. I had one of my healthy pumpkin muffins and a Quest bar with two cups of coffee before I left the house and it was plenty of fuel for the entire workout. So, as I see it, the most important thing for me to focus on in the coming weeks is to push myself enough with pushing too much. I can see I wasn't pushing myself hard enough the last couple of months, but now that I'm feeling better I can't let my eyes be bigger than my stomach, so to speak. I can't let my ego push me to try to lift heavier than what I can safely recover from. I'll need to carefully evaluate how I feel between workouts so that I can make a good judgement about whether I'm ready to increase reps or weight at the next workout. I really don't want to injure myself again and go back to square one.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Sleepy Sunday
Just a quick update today. Gotta take the dog out and then watch the Bears beat the Seahawks.
Bad news first: I missed my workout yesterday because I just got too busy and we decided to go see Skyfall at an early show. (Go see it. Serious fun.) I'm looking forward to the new workout Rog will be sending and am ready to hit it with a vengeance.
Good news: Diet is going well. I haven't been terribly hungry and I have dropped weight two days in a row. I was down to 229 Saturday morning and 227.8 this morning. Since I don't really feel any different I figure it's just bloat finally coming off from the Thanksgiving feast day. But it's good to see things moving in the right direction.
Bad news first: I missed my workout yesterday because I just got too busy and we decided to go see Skyfall at an early show. (Go see it. Serious fun.) I'm looking forward to the new workout Rog will be sending and am ready to hit it with a vengeance.
Good news: Diet is going well. I haven't been terribly hungry and I have dropped weight two days in a row. I was down to 229 Saturday morning and 227.8 this morning. Since I don't really feel any different I figure it's just bloat finally coming off from the Thanksgiving feast day. But it's good to see things moving in the right direction.
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