Hi, I am new here and joined the August women's challenge. Been lifting 7 years but have spent the last 3-4 years focused on endurance training, i.e., sprint tri's and longer distance running. After dealing with chronic knee pain, foot pain, and just feeling tired, I decided to focus again on lifting (which I love) with moderate cardio.
I had used a trainer for years and loved the accountability and extra motivation. However, financially, it's time for me to train on own, so I cut the ties last month. During the summer, my gym time is pretty limited, so I've been working out at home. In two weeks, the kids go back to school and I'm starting the NROLW
Nutrition wise, generally I've loosely used a "eat healthy and be active" plan. Mostly good food choices but all things in moderation, etc. I wasn't counting calories and inevitably my weight would creep up. When my clothes start getting tight, I'd add on extra cardio done at 5:30 in the morning, which meant I was only sleeping about 5 hours a night.
I was tired of running myself into the ground and found this site. I like Leigh Peele's keep it simple strategy and learned why counting calories never had worked for me in the past...I wasn't counting right. Her lighter workouts and emphasis on NEAT works for me lifestyle wise right now. So I've been counting calories and following the OPT for workouts for the last two weeks. I'll continue for two more weeks, til I start NROLW.
Goals for the challenge:
1. Drink 1.5 gallons of water a day. I take Aldactone for hormonal acne and it's a diuretic and I get really thirsty. As a side note, the acne virtually disappears when I lighten up my training load and returns when I start to hit on overtraining...and I like to be clean, it's not a hygiene problem
2. Get 7-8 hours sleep a night. Stays hydrated helps or I wake up at night thirsty. Melatonin really helps too, love that stuff.
3. Nutrition wise, continue to track calories. Mostly I eat at home, which helps. Once I start NROLW, I plan on eating at the maintenance level recommended in the book. I have flab to lose but it's been there so long, I'm used to it. So my goal is to add some muscle.
4. Emphasis NEAT, working in yard, walking dog, etc.
5. Cardio, once a week, I run for 4-5 miles with a friend at a slow pace. Also like walking on an incline on the treadmill too. At the moment, I'm doing 3 times a week.
If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!