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 10th 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...)
Quick day-after follow-up: Wow, I can feel every one of those squats/DLs in my glutes. It's a good thing I have sturdy arms on my desk chair, or getting up out of it would be quite a challenge.
Also, today's fast walking is reduced to slow brief amble, because I did something mysterious to my ankle yesterday -- I don't recall hurting it at all at the gym, but it's sore and touchy in a strained-ligament kind of way, and a bit swollen. Bah. I'll switch over my harder SS aerobic tomorrow to stationary bike, which shouldn't stress it much, and take it into the shop--er, doctor-- if it's not better by next week. (I swear, living with an aging body really is like driving around an older car -- you never know when something is suddenly and for no apparent reason going to break down.)
Weight this morning down to 148.6 (fist-pump! of triumph! despite knowing how fundamentally silly it is to get psyched up about less than a half-pound, which is probably all water anyway).
Hi Kata. I'm sure glad to meet another 54 year old woman, who I can share my experiences with. Not that these younger woman don't inspire me, they do. But I have found that things are just a bit different for me, once I got past 50. Like, recovery time takes longer, creaky knees, stiff hip flexors, shoulder impairment, a bit of arthritis (in my hands, effecting my grip, I'm going to get some straps for DL's) and like you said, an aging body IS like an old car! But it's great not having to deal with hormonal issues or my periods anymore.
I have also joined the challenge, to keep myself accountable. And don't think you are a klutz. I can't even balance myself sitting on a swiss ball, never mind trying to do crunches or anything else! You are far more advanced than I am! Well, good luck, and see you around the forums.
Yes, well. Um. I did actually get to the gym semi-regularly during this two-week hiatus, but I also had a nagging ankle tendonitis thing, and had to be out of town for a funeral, and yadda yadda cheap excuses. Anyway! Tomorrow is my birthday, today I posted my pix/stats for the women's challenge, and I am going to be AT LEAST 13 pounds lighter in two months (i.e., 135 lbs).
Why 135? I can easily remember being that weight, about 15 years ago. I can also remember thinking even then that I was horribly pudgy, which was likely my old friend body dysmorphia at work. But I want to see how 135 looks to me now, and retain the option to set a lower goal if it seems reasonable.
Why the focus on weight? Because I've decided that losing body fat has priority, for now, over gaining strength -- hence, I'm going with OPT for my program, rather than NROL4W or one of the strength-building-focused ones. I've decided that hitting the strength training really hard at the same time I'm cutting calories and trying to get the fat off is probably going to be counterproductive. Besides which, my lifelong track record is:
1. Decide OMG I am hideous I must get into shape Right! This! Instant!
2. Leap headlong into an intense and strenuous workout regimen.
3. Incur (entirely predictable) overuse injury.
4. Lapse back into inactivity, sulking and consoling myself with chips and beer.
Thus, spending a couple of months getting accustomed to a workout program that does not lend itself to madly overdoing it--that, in fact, appears to steer one away from such--will probably be a good idea.
Belated thanks to Terry and Jane for the kindly messages of welcome!
I've been doing some rethinking of my program; I'd said in the women's challenge thread that I was going to do OPT, but after several days I believe I'll go back to what I started doing in July--keeping calories at or slightly below 1500, doing a low-volume but (for me) somewhat more intense resistance training session twice a week--while adding in more medium-intensity cardio and also trying to kick up my daily NEAT activity levels. And accept that progress may be a bit slower.
Leigh's material has some good info, and OPT seems pretty well-structured, but what I've found is (a) the daily calorie allotment is low enough that I spend my workdays mentally fogged and snappish, which is not good, and (b) at the same time, the workouts don't feel like I'm pushing hard enough. So I think slightly upping both intake and activity levels might be better for me. Then too, prescriptive workout programs tend not to work for me--I have to make constant re-adjustments based on which of my array of damaged/creaky joints is going to be balky or cooperative on a given day.
The week thus far:
All days -- cal total at or just below 1500
8/3
squats, 2x10 at 75
pushups, 2x8
assisted dip, 2x10 at 110
assisted chin, 1x10, 1x8 at 110
deadlift, 2x10 at 70
chest press, 1x7 at 45, 1x6 at 40
row, 1x10 at 70, 1x10 at 60
overhead, 1x8 at 15
ab mach. (Nautilus) 1x10 at 65
8/4 -- long walk (~40 min.)
8/5 -- nothing (too damn HOT)
8/6
squat, 2x10 at 75
pushup, 2x10
assisted dip, 1x10, 1x9 at 110
assisted chin, 1x10, 1x6 at 110
deadlift -- attempt aborted due to weird knee pain, subbed in:
leg press, 2x10 at 180
chest press, 1x10 at 40, 1x8 at 45
row 1x9 at 70, 1x9 at 60
ab machine, 1x10 at 70
8/7 -- 30 min steady state aerobics (elliptical and bike), HR 140-150
A couple of notes: I've decided to discontinue overhead pressing, since it's just too hard on my shoulder joints, even at pathetically low weights. (I've had chronic impingement issues in both.) And I'm going to need to keep swapping around lower-body stuff as my knees permit--there's no real consistency in which exercises cause pain. (Weirdly, I've had no knee pain with squats, even though that's what my old PT told me I'd never be able to do. My big issue--with back barbell squats, at least--is shoulder pain from the angle of holding the bar. I think this is just a flexibility problem, because it's slowly improving with practice and gentle stretching.)
Eating at ~1500 cal is proving to be not at all a problem; few or no cravings or episodes of crazed hunger, and weight seems to be slowly moving off (although I've just discovered my goddamn cheap scale is giving me measurements that vary by up to two pounds, when taken several seconds apart. Back to the store it goes...).
Hi Kat, welcome to the forums and to the challenge! I just caught up on your log and want to say I love your sense of humor and your no-nonsense approach to life (at least from what I can tell from 4 posts)! Good luck on your goals, I'm sure our paths will cross again...
Thanks so much! After a lifetime of ridiculously overdramatic self-loathing about my body, I've decided the only way to succeed in actually making the changes I want (rather than endlessly moaning about my failures) is to lighten up, in every sense of the phrase. That's my current training/living motto. I'm very impressed by the women taking part in this challenge (and by these boards generally), and really look forward to charging through the next few months alongside you and the others!
Today I weighed in at 146.2, which means a loss of almost 7 lbs. from the 153 I started at on July 15. Some of this is probably water rather than fat, but overall I am very pleased. Eating at right around 1500 cal/day seems to be optimal for me; that's about a 500-600 deficit from what I estimate my current maintenance to be, and is a level that leaves me feeling in general well-nourished, non-deprived, and energetic. I'm also pleased that some of the lifts/weights that left me flattened three weeks ago are now much easier--I can tell I'm gaining strength as well.
I spent parts of yesterday reading a huge-ass discussion thread on the Body Recomposition forums about the Bodybugg and am now awfully tempted to pick one up, despite the fact that they are preposterously expensive. It would be great to have a more precise idea of my actual energy/calorie expenditures (both BMR and at various activities). The most fascinating thing to me in the whole thread is Bodybugg users finding over and over that they appear to be burning way more calories than anticipated through NEAT--just basic life activities like housecleaning and yardwork--and fewer than anticipated through heavy workouts (resistance or SS aerobic or intervals). And that getting some regular brisk walking into one's day has very significant effects on overall daily calorie burn.
Yesterday's activity:
Squat: 85, 1x10, 1x6 (stopped when I had a weird back twinge; I really strained my back squatting with poor form last year and am hyper-vigilant about it now)
Assisted dip/chin: 110, 2x10 of each (couldn't handle this weight at all two weeks ago. Yay!)
Deadlift: 70, 2x10 (haven't increased weight here in several sessions because 70 is still kicking my ass.)
Chest press: 45, 1x10, 1x9
Row: 60, 2x10
Leg press: 180, 2x10
Ab machine: 70, 1x10
Then 20 min. of moderate work on the elliptical (HR 140-150).
hi kat, love your sense of humor! hope you'll share your experience with the bodybugg if you go that route - i've been tempted too. keep those posts coming - you don't want to miss out on the support of all the terrific people here.
Wow, do I suck at keeping this log going. I guess that's in large part because my current workouts are so very unexciting; I've taken inspiration from this heartening post by Power Man DL, and his prescription for someone in the midst of a diet -- "2-3 sets of 6 reps for a press (bench press, incline bench, etc), a pull (barbell/dumbbell row, chinup/pulldown) and a lower body lift (squat, deadlift, leg press, whatever) 1-2x a week" -- is pretty much what I'm doing, with only modest ventures into weight progression. It seems to be working fine in terms of retaining lean mass while losing fat, but is not particularly inspirational to type up week after week.
On the eating front, I triumphed last weekend, when I went to an annual get-together with a whole bunch of my closest friends, which usually involves Consuming Mass Quantities. Thankfully, we meet up at a suites hotel with small fridges in the rooms, so I was able to mostly feed myself with lean protein, vegetables, nonfat dairy, and a stash of my beloved Siljans rye crackers. I *did* consume a rather startling amount of gin and tonic at the Friday night dance party, but then I also danced my ass off for about three hours, so I'm hoping some degree of parity was attained. (Note to self: dancing ass off = really excellent steady-state-with-some-intervals cardio. Plus, more fun than the elliptical.)
Full stats will be entered in the Sept. 1 Progress thread, but so far -- I was at 144 this morning, which is down 9 pounds from early July. This is exactly halfway through my planned weightloss (my goal is 135), and having such heartening progress to date leaves me very confident I can hit my goal by, say, the end of October, which was my original plan. Yay! (*fist-pump of provisional TRIUMPH*)
Just posted the one-month pictures and stats in the Women's Challenge update thread, and I have to say -- I am very surprised and pleased by the changes in measurements. The last few days have seen a depressing weight rebound--after getting down to 143.5 on 8/25, I was back up to 145 today, for no apparent reason (have kept intake consistently below 1600, have not eaten any different/unusual types of food [e.g., salty stuff], am past menopause so no time-of-month stuff). I'd been very peeved with my body, but the fact that the measurements have shown solid decreases makes me feel a whole lot better. (And I don't think it's just that my measuring is sloppy/inaccurate; I'm also seeing a very significant change in the way my clothes fit, as in, I am wearing comfortably the jeans I haven't fit into in months HALLELUJAH!!)
Round-up of month's exercise goals/attainments: After some initial dithering around, I've settled into a consistent three-day rotation:
--Day two: 25-35 min. of moderate intensity (HR 145-155) aerobic exercise;
--Day three: rest.
As noted above, I'm aiming mostly to maintain existing muscle/fitness at this point, rather than make gains.
Food goals/progress: I've kept calorie intake consistently at or below 1600/day. I've decided not to obsess with macronutrients at this point; I'm merely trying to get at least 100 g. of protein each day, and keep intake of vegetables as high as I can put up with.
Evaluation of progress:
Needless to say, I still have a long way to go [*looking again at pictures, wincing*], but this month has been extremely encouraging, and I am SO grateful to have had the motivation of this group endeavor. Onward! Excelsior!
So, I'm still somewhat stuck, right around 144 lbs. The Labor Day weekend involved a whole lot more alcohol consumption than I'd intended (ahem), which didn't help things at all, but there shouldn't be any more social-situations-involving-food-and-drink until the holidays, and I've kept my eating on track. I think Jane's challenge (1 to 1.5 lbs/wk for Sept.) is eminently do-able.
I'm *really* tempted to plunge for the Bodybugg -- the company is apparently coming out with a new model this month, so they're clearing out the old ones at $200 a pop, which still isn't *cheap*, exactly, but not as bad as regular price. I would love to have a better sense of my calorie expenditure during all those many hours I spend sitting on my ass and plunking on the computer, so I have a better idea of where I should peg my intake to hit desired deficit.
I'm also going to be getting a dog sometime in October (adopting a greyhound), and am anticipating that this will lead to a marked increase in daily activity, what with all the walks. But, y'know, there's no actual reason I couldn't start walking more right NOW.
Current lifting:
Squat: 95 lbs, 2 x 10
Assisted dip and chin: 110 lbs, 2 x 10
Deadlift: 60 lbs, 2 x 10
Chest press: 45 lbs, 2 x 10
Row: 60 lbs, 2 x 10
Plus -- depending on energy levels, state of knees, configuration of the planets, etc.--some mix of ball crunches, planks, weighted step-ups or lunges, and/or leg press. I can tell I'm slowly gaining strength, and will probably up the weights pretty soon, but I'm not focusing on that right now.
I'm also going to be getting a dog sometime in October (adopting a greyhound), and am anticipating that this will lead to a marked increase in daily activity, what with all the walks. But, y'know, there's no actual reason I couldn't start walking more right NOW.
RIGHT!!! Get ready for that greyhound so you can keep up lol! (That's wonderful btw that you're adopting one--I REALLY want a doggie but I'm so allergic. )
Kat vs. the Flab Monster!
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