[Kata]

So, I'm going to be doing the women's August challenge, but since I've already started working out and changing my eating habits, I figured I'd begin logging activities, progress notes, moments of despondency, goofy-assed victory dances, etc., associated therewith. I’ll post measurements and photos when the challenge starts.

A few quick data points: 54 years old, 5’6”, now 149 (down from 152 ten days ago—this is an occasion of major rejoicing, and I have sworn a mighty oath that So help me god, I will never weigh above 150 again).

I'm not on any planned-out diet at this point -- just striving to eat <1500 cal/day of lean protein, veggies, fruits, legumes, and whole grains.

Right now I'm doing weights every third day, a not-particularly-structured whole-body routine. (Structure will probably arrive in my workout as soon as NROL4W arrives in my mailbox, later this month.)

Today's adventures:

Ten each prisoner squats and wall push-ups, by way of warm-up. Then:

Back squats: 65, 1x10; 75, 1x10
[People, I am so freaking proud of doing actual honest-to-god squats, no matter how puny the weight. I avoided them for years, due to my messed-up arthritic knees, and then when I finally did give them a try, I was so obsessed with whether my patellas were about to explode that I failed to pay any attention to other aspects of form, and I torqued the bejayzus out of my lower back and it was weeks before I could walk without pain again. Avoidance Of Self-Damaging Stupidity is a big goal of my current program.]

These were alternated with:
Semi-push-ups: 2 sets of 10
[That is, full-body pushups with hands resting on a bar on the squat cage that's about 18 inches off the ground. I'm not quite up to full-body pushups on the floor yet, but I'm working toward them. I hate knee push-ups; they make me feel like I’m back in my horrible 10^th grade girl’s phy ed class, in which it was implied that doing full-body pushups would make our nascent ovaries fall out, or something.]

Thence, without resting, to:
Deadlifts: 60, 1x10; 70, 1x10
[These are sort of Phony Deadlifts, using the Freemotion Lift machine which I dearly love on account of how, unlike my attempts to do DLs with a bar, these do NOT result in my whacking the crap outta my knees/shins. See: Self-Damaging Stupidity above, also: I Am A Klutz. Using this machine, with the bars lowered down to floor level, is actually very much like doing trap bar DLs except you get free rotation of the hands/wrists, which works better for me biomechanically.]

From there I tottered, wheezing, to:
Nautilus Gravitron, dips alternating with chins: 110, 1x10 each, 125, 1x10 each.
[This is the assisted chin/dip machine, in which lower weight = greater challenge. Someday I shall do a full bodyweight chinup, but today is not that day, nor tomorrow either.]

Followed by:
25 crunches on Swiss ball while trying to catch my breath.

Then, in rotation, on the Freemotion pulley machines:
Row: 70, 1x9; 60,1x10
Chest: 40, 1x10, 1x6
Shoulder press: 15, 2x10
[Yes, the shoulder press is pathetic. I have a long history of wrecking my rotator cuffs by getting all frisky with hoisting excessive weight above shoulder level, and my old phys therapist would smack me if he knew I was doing even this much. So I am being *very* cautious here.]

And then some brief stretching, and home for a lovely protein shake. Tomorrow will be low-intensity cardio--maybe just a fast walk--and the day after will be medium/higher intensity (BPM 145-160 for 30-40 min.), and then the day after that, weights again. Rest days get tossed in roughly once a week, and at some point I'm going to start working in some intervals. (Hill running, perhaps. I live on top of a hill, so there are many opportunities for this...)