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They call me Amanda, that being my real name, and "They" being people who know me in person as I don't go around introducing myself in real life as "scribess." 'Cause that would just be strange.
I want to concentrate on some positive changes I've made this past month, to be able to look back at this when I'm perhaps feeling it's all a waste of time.
Booze - The biggest, healthiest change of all is my decrease in alcohol consumption. I went to a half bottle + a night to 1-2 drinks a week max, and only 2 glasses of that was wine the entire month. I think it's probably best for me to stay away from wine (at home.) I will allow myself some when out for dinner on occasion, but only if I'm "strong" and not in a stressed out wimpy mood.
Exercise - I told my husband to drag my ass back into the gym, and he did. That's all it took to remind me that I like to exercise. I've been keeping it easy, but regular and often....but easy is important right now. I did do a killer (for me) bike ride yesterday.
Diet - Back to a diet and tracking. Though I hate to track, it's the answer, without a doubt. I've switched to weighing in grams as much as possible and that's really helpful too. No more exact half cups and whatever. Just dump in the amount I want and weigh. I'm taking vitamins regularly too.
Massage - went back for weekly massages.
GoWearFit - best purchase, besides my HRM and ipod
I will aim for a high burn day, 1 hr easy walk this morning, cardio and easy weights later in the day (gym,) and dancing tonight.
I'll be in the 3300 calories burned range.
If possible I will try to eat in a low range, just under 1500.
For some reason that kind of combo feels good to me. And then tomorrow have another low eats day, a bit lower burn, and enjoy Sunday (party and little exercise.)
I'm staying off the scale again as I've been craving my salted sunflower seeds like you can't believe.
I've been working on the 1 - 1.5 gallons of water a day, and I think I'm craving the salt. So I'm allowing myself to have a bit more. I can't agonize over things like sodium, calories are more than enough to focus on.
First semi-real weight workout in 1.5+ years. Yea for me
I'm not going to post my workouts on any regular basis (I don't think, I might change my mind,) they aren't very exciting, plus my weights are kind of wimpy. But this is what I did for today, plus remember, I'm working around a "neck" issue.
Deadlifts 2 sets of 10 at 45lbs
Leg press 2 sets of 12 at 70
Leg curls 2 sets of 10 at 55
Leg ext 2 sets of 10 at 40?
butt lifts on ball 2 sets of 10
seated rows 2 sets of 10 at 55
lat pulldowns 2 sets of 10 at 30something
tricep pushdown 2 sets of 10 at 20
lots of chest stretches
flat flies 2 sets of 10 with 5lb dbs
shoulder press (my no no) 1 set of 10 with 5lb dbs
shoulder thingies to side (flies?) 1 set of 10 with 5lb
bicep curls 2 sets of 10 with 12lb dbs
25 min cardio on ArcTrainer, plus I did a few crunches and stretches too
Yea...that's big for me.
Now I'm happily munching on my salted sunflower seeds. Life is good. And we'll see if my back/neck twist up tonight.
Tonight is dancing too....like I said, big burn day for me.
Thanks, Soh. My energy level is definitely high. When I feel a slump, I eat more.
So far this past week my burn is averaging around 2900 cals and I'm consuming around 1680.
I've also been drinking my 1.5+ gallons of water for about the past 5 days and as of this morning see a 3 lb drop in weight from Monday. Whether or not it still is that low on Monday (official weigh in day) I don't know, but I'm happy to see the 169.8 lbs (under 170.)
I'm cool with the up and downs of weightloss.
Dancing last night showed about 700 cals burned in 2.5 hours. Not too shabby.
Not sure my goals for the day yet. I will go for my hour long walk in a bit. That might be it for the day. I want to bike but it's rainy. Since yesterday was a high burn day, 3500 cals, I think today needs to be a much lower burn day.
And I'm back to eating my salted sunflower seeds...so yummy.
Thanks, Soh. My energy level is definitely high. When I feel a slump, I eat more.
So far this past week my burn is averaging around 2900 cals and I'm consuming around 1680.
I've also been drinking my 1.5+ gallons of water for about the past 5 days and as of this morning see a 3 lb drop in weight from Monday. Whether or not it still is that low on Monday (official weigh in day) I don't know, but I'm happy to see the 169.8 lbs (under 170.)
I'm cool with the up and downs of weightloss.
Dancing last night showed about 700 cals burned in 2.5 hours. Not too shabby.
Not sure my goals for the day yet. I will go for my hour long walk in a bit. That might be it for the day. I want to bike but it's rainy. Since yesterday was a high burn day, 3500 cals, I think today needs to be a much lower burn day.
And I'm back to eating my salted sunflower seeds...so yummy.
Congrats on being under 170!
Inspiring to ready your activity! nice way to be able to eat more
So this morning I've been reading different training logs, and the feeling started coming over me that I have to work harder, diet harder, etc. I'm literally forcing my emotional side to pull back and tell myself I'm doing what's right for my body right now.
Just lose weight and not overtax my body.
In fact, I think today is a good day to take a total break. I haven't done that yet. I've "pretended" I have, but I've still gone out for an hour long walk. For me, that walk is still exercise, not part of my daily activity.
Yesterday's only activity was a 50 min walk, and then a short walk later down to where I could see fireworks, about 1/2 mile from my house.
I had a 2500 calorie burn day. I thought I'd be around 2300. I also took a 1.5 hour nap yesterday. I NEVER nap, unless I'm sick or overworked. I ate 1300 cals so still had a high deficit.
My body is sore, definite DOMS from working out on Friday.
So today I'll work on some stretching and butt sitting...lol.
Tomorrow is official weigh in day. I was so happy to see 169.8 yesterday, that I'm considering some way of only tracking my lowest weights, not the ups AND downs, just the downs. I can see that being a very positive thing emotionally, and it will work just fine unless I start gaining or at maintenance.
I think I'll try working with the concept though, because the trend is once the "lowest" weight is seen, it goes back up about 1/2 lb over the next few days, then back down.
Okay, it's time for my official weekly results. I had decided (playing mind games here) that the lowest weight of the week before would be my official weightloss weight of the week. I try not to step on the scale all the time, but when I do I sometimes skip tracking the highs and only track the lows. Now, obviously it only works if in diet mode.
So two days ago I had my low of 169.8. It did go up 0.4 yesterday, but I'm happy to report it WAS officially 169.8 this morning again. Phew....I didn't even have to trick myself this week.
The best part of my graph to me is the averages over the prior 7 days. These numbers show me that it's not any single day that makes or breaks the diet. In fact, it's the highs and the lows that help keep things moving on.
As of yesterday my deficits were averaging 1000 cals. I'm super cool with that. I can't keep extra high ones for more than a couple days, and too low, well, that doesn't help either.
I do think the extra extra water is helping. I don't like it though, and it has made me crave more salt (is that supposed to happen?)
I lost 3 lbs this week. For the past 4 weeks GWF calculates a 10.8 lb loss, and I lost 10.2 lbs. Add in my 2 lbs from the week before and I've lost 12.2 lbs since the first of June. I'm pleased.
No new goals for the week. I'll continue with what I'm doing.
very very nice! I'm joining you with a 1000 deficit / day goal.
Yes, I think if you drink more water you should have more salt: how do you know you're craving it?
The GWF says I should have lost 13 lbs in 9 weeks on my 750cal/day deficit and I've lost 4. We'll see what comes in the next weeks. But I'm also close to breaking below 170; hoping for it to happen this week.
I know I crave salt when I want potato chips (something I'm not even crazy about) and end up eating salted sunflower seeds....my most favorite treat.
Did my morning walk yesterday and a weight workout in the afternoon. Even walk was just a saunter. Nice burn day, and big calorie day too.
Took my walk this morning then later we went on an hour long bike ride. Totally kicked my ass. One long hill had me off the bike at the top, and my heart was going crazy (a HRM would most likely had me at my max.) I started to hear a funky noise in my ears, and promptly got on my butt on the groung, as that's a sign of fainting for me. Eventually I could ride again.
It wasn't a fun ride though.
I have a massage scheduled in 2 hours, and hope to saunter again this evening a bit.
It will be a high burn day. I did already treat myself to chocolate, which I rarely eat, and which now freaks me out as I only crave chocolate when my period is about to start, and I'm so messed up right now. I've had the last 3, two weeks apart, and this is yet another week. Please....NOOOOOO.
Yesterday did turn out to be a high burn day of just over 3000, and I ate just over 1500, so I'm satisfied. The scale has only showed a 0.2 lb drop since Monday....why do I care? It's going down, not up, and I'm doing everything right. I keep telling myself to just trust myself.
I don't want anyone to laugh, but I'm going to buy the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred exercise DVD. It's supposedly a very intense 20 min cardio workout with weights. You are also supposed to do it daily, as far as I can tell from reading my other "girly-weightloss" forums. But seriously, everyone raves about it. Even the comments on Amazon are almost all 5 stars. I've only just decided to do weights 2x a week at the gym, and truly my weights aren't that intense. I don't know if this will be added in, or in place of. I do have to get some light dbs, like 2 lbs, since all I have is 5 lbs ones. I don't want to hurt my neck/back if there is a lot of pressing repetition, which I'll guess there is.
We'll see what happens. Plus my daughter thinks it will be fun and she has a few inches to lose as she gained some while off at her first year in college. She has started C25K but that's the only exercise she's getting so far, and she still sits on her butt a lot and eats out with friends.
Today's exercise will be only a walk and dancing tonight. I'll try to take it easy, eat my 1500 cals, and keep stress down.
I've been reading the book Cortisol Connection and have to consider if I want to try some of the supplements. I don't think I have a lot of stress, though I do have a lot of belly fat. I do blame that mostly on alcohol though over the past years (since hitting 40 I'd say) and I am going through menopause (my doctor says, though my body can't make up its mind.)
I'm so curious to know how much slimmer my abdomen can get. I haven't done much in the way of crunches or anything as I do have that separated abdomen issue from having children. I've had one umbilical hernia repaired, and I know I have another since baby 3 16 years ago.
It makes me contemplate the possibility of a tummy tuck someday. Though I've always vowed I would have NO surgeries until I had maintained my weight for a full year, and that would be at what I consider a dream weight, which is currently 130 lbs. My daughter is ready to send me in for a boob job as it's most noticeable right now where the weight has come off....lovely child that she is....little tact.
I don't want anyone to laugh, but I'm going to buy the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred exercise DVD. It's supposedly a very intense 20 min cardio workout with weights. You are also supposed to do it daily, as far as I can tell from reading my other "girly-weightloss" forums. But seriously, everyone raves about it. Even the comments on Amazon are almost all 5 stars. I've only just decided to do weights 2x a week at the gym, and truly my weights aren't that intense. I don't know if this will be added in, or in place of. I do have to get some light dbs, like 2 lbs, since all I have is 5 lbs ones. I don't want to hurt my neck/back if there is a lot of pressing repetition, which I'll guess there is.
...............
I've been reading the book Cortisol Connection and have to consider if I want to try some of the supplements. I don't think I have a lot of stress, though I do have a lot of belly fat. I do blame that mostly on alcohol though over the past years (since hitting 40 I'd say) and I am going through menopause (my doctor says, though my body can't make up its mind.)
I'm so curious to know how much slimmer my abdomen can get. I haven't done much in the way of crunches or anything as I do have that separated abdomen issue from having children. I've had one umbilical hernia repaired, and I know I have another since baby 3 16 years ago.
It makes me contemplate the possibility of a tummy tuck someday.
I thought it looked fun, and I like the idea of an extra 20 min squeezed in espec if I'm feeling lethargic plopped/glued to the couch. But the are you doing TOO much exercise? It's a lot like the toning work I do at the last 20 min of my Jazzercise class.
Are you taking weekly measurement of your belly? That was the surprise for me, to see the 4.5 inch drop in my belly; I'd never measured that before...
Like you I've thought about maybe a tummy tuck (or arm lipo) but not until I have maintained goal weight for a year. I'm less sure about that tummy tuck idea. I saw a woman's blog who had had one (at far too young of an age, IMO). It took her well over a year for the healing/sweeling to go down. She was thrilled with the results, but I'm not so sure< I want something that invasive - but that's just me. I suspect if I need one it will be to remove excess skin only, not muscle. As I'm losing weight, and doing core work, I can tell that I have a pretty good, fairly firm muscle base, with a yucky squishy, belly pooch of fat. It can tell it's getting smaller, but I wonder if it will ever go away. I'm hoping I'm losing weight slow enough, and the skin seems to be more or less shrinking along. We'll see....I've read you really do need to wait a year for the skin and muscles to catch up to the fat loss.
Now the jiggly, batwing fat stuff on my arms, I'm envisioning having these great muscly arms, and still a big pouch of fat on the bottom....if that happens, I may consider some work. I so want to have tank top arms. I figure a little jiggle/extra skin in the belly I can live with....visible on the arms, not so much. It has been maybe 15 years since I've been comfortable in sleeveless tops. I will NOT wear them in public.
Um, I have to admit I have the Jillian Michaels 30-day shred DVD. Yes, it is TOUGH. I've never progessed beyond the Intermediate level, and even on that there are some things where I just had to stop in the middle of it before continuing. I might be a little better now that I've been doing more plank work, but still.
Jillian herself is annoying, but the workouts (or at least the two I've done so far) are great. I don't think I'd recommend doing it every day, however, as with all your other activity I genuinely think that may be too much.
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They call me Amanda, that being my real name, and "They" being people who know me in person as I don't go around introducing myself in real life as "scribess." 'Cause that would just be strange.
Dang, you all caught me. You're exactly right, it's the "doing too much" syndrome we are all familiar with. It's so hard to get the concept through my head that I don't want to overexercise. And honestly, I know I'm doing a bit more already than I should.
But I did buy the DVD and a set of 3 lb dbs. I will give it a try, but not everyday. I promise, cross my heart.
Truthfully, I probably wouldn't get a tummy tuck anyway. I once asked my doctor about it when I was getting abdominal surgery, and his nurse came in who had recently had one and showed me her results (and scars) and I was a bit shocked.
I've lost lots of weight before and the tummy was gone afterwards. It just might never be as flat as I'd like.
And I just had 3 hours of flatlining (on my GWF) while driving. And now I'm too tired (from doing nothing...go figure) to do anything.
Dancing tonight, that is a lot of exercise. Up to 700 cals in 2.5 hours.
Oh, and I'm starting to relax on the diet eats. I had chocolate both yesterday and today, and it makes me happy.
Annette, I am so guilty of the overexercise syndrome too. I feel like such a sloth to the point where I think I have to compensate for it through all this activity. And of course, it's led me to some pretty bad places in the past, in terms of energy and overall well-being. I've gotten sick from "doing too much." Rest and recovery are just as important.
I'm glad that you're now leaning against the tummy tuck. Any kind of surgery is very traumatic on the body, and would take a long time to heal. Not to be morbidly curious, but how bad were the scars on the nurse who got the procedure done?
Okay, so I mentioned in poppypixie's log the term "croquis" and how in sewing or fashion it is an outline of one's body, where you can draw on clothes to see how the style looks on your shape.
I made one of my body a few months ago, definitely not a pretty site. It very very clearly shows the protruding abdomen, the gut full of unhealthy fat and other garbage. It also very clearly shows that my body puts on weight evening all over (okay, so a lot more in the stomach) as you can see the weight under my chin, over my shoulders, etc. I don't have large hips, and no saddlebags, not even at over 180 lbs.
What else you can see is the rounded upper back, something I'm continuing to work on. My ears do not line up with my shoulders, hips, ankles.
Annette, I wish you lived near me and could tailor all my clothes! That's the one thing I would do if I could afford it; have a proper fitting and clothes made just for me. I almost never find ready made clothes that I think look right and feel good. People's bodies are too diverse for that.
I would have liked to have continued with the sewing I took in high school, but it was one of the things I dropped as I got older, and I wish I hadn't. I have a book called "Pattern Drafting and Dressmaking" by Dorothy Moore (really old), and someday I want to study it and learn. There are just too many things I want to do!
Okay, so I mentioned in poppypixie's log the term "croquis" and how in sewing or fashion it is an outline of one's body, where you can draw on clothes to see how the style looks on your shape.
I made one of my body a few months ago, definitely not a pretty site. It very very clearly shows the protruding abdomen, the gut full of unhealthy fat and other garbage. It also very clearly shows that my body puts on weight evening all over (okay, so a lot more in the stomach) as you can see the weight under my chin, over my shoulders, etc. I don't have large hips, and no saddlebags, not even at over 180 lbs.
What else you can see is the rounded upper back, something I'm continuing to work on. My ears do not line up with my shoulders, hips, ankles.
at 5'5" 182 lbs
Annette, I am a sewer (used to be, before thrift stores and now Chico's on eBay...); how do I make one of these of myself? I've never heard this term...
Oh, I could take a photo of myself (nekked?) and trace it in Photoshop... How do you make it?
I'll bet you could set up a little business for yourself here on JP Fitness, making "befores" and then later "afters" for people!!!
http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-...iew.pl?ID=1635 How to make a croquis (outline of yourself) (Tip/Technique)
A croquis is used to try different garments and gauge if they suit your shape. I use the line/technical drawings of patterns superimposed on my croquis like this.
Just did my very first 30 day shred workout, and I thought I would die. That is close to the hardest thing I've done...in other words, it's what I need to do right now.
I need to do lots of different things, I'm so out of shape.
Subscribed.
Got to run (or rather drive) to gym, but.. just saying a few words.. gah, I'm turning 46 next week! Really wished you weren't 'bogged' down with that terrible neck problem. Will come back and check out if you followed up on the leg work.. having said this.. boy you really *are* active! Lots & lots of NEAT, girl! You make me crave a GWF.. yet will probably go for the cheaper Polar (and take a % of it to make it work with real mtn)
Love your Excel sheets and analytic mind (the body type thing) and now am reading up on lots of interesting stuff.
When I clicked on the pic I saw a Dutch sentence.. "Dit vind ik leuk" ("this is what I enjoy"). Are you Dutch? Annette is really a very typical Dutch name.. Pips & Juleske are Dutch too in case you didn't know.
Julske, though the advantage of just following a "tracing of one's body" could be helpful to the person who obsesses about little trouble spots. Aren't they what derail us at times? It depends on the type of person you are.
Like I said though, those were done for sewing, and I will continue to do new ones for each 20 lb loss I've decided. In other words, I do have the photos me me in the undies.
Actually, I realized I didn't. I've done photos of me before in a swimsuit, but the ones in undies I immediately deleted. Heaven forbid they are seen by others...lol.
I look already so much better than the tracing above, my stomach is much flatter, but still big and round, pregnant looking. Obviously that is going to be my sore spot.
Espi, I don't know which pic you clicked on when you saw the dutch stuff. No, I'm not dutch. The analytical stuff is fun, I'll so agree with you there. Though at the same time, sometimes we have to rein it in.
I think my husband was going to have a cow when he saw me weighing my iceberg lettuce for a taco salad last night, after I had gone out for a big juicy burger and fries earlier that day....one's I actually had to guess on caloriewise.
You know what...I really don't like TGI Fridays. They are one of the few chain restaurants that do not have calories online. Oh, you can find a few unofficial ones, but they contradict themselves by 100's of calories.
From now on I'll stick to restaurants I can track at.
Oh, but back to the annoyed husband...I just said I have to track as accurately as possible to compensate for the times I can't.
Today's exercise plan is my morning walk and listening to Leigh's new podcast.
Later today I want to do that dreaded "Shred" DVD again.
It's dance night, but I have to encourage my husband not to want to go. He took a bad tumble from his bike yesterday and I know he's hurting. He just likes to dance though. I want him to rest. Need to keep him out of the gym too.
Annette still is a totally Dutch name.. realized later on the Dutch phrase was made by the website itself which recognizes my IP-range as Dutch and comes up with a catchy phrase. When you click on it, it encourages you to register..
I'm admiring your people-watching skills or rather.. body-type watching skills. I can see how being so much into sewing makes you look that way. Very very slowly I'm starting to see those things too, but then as someone who is watching others semi-nude and trying to see differences in bf%.
Did you see missjane's pix? I hadn't seen very large differences in her bf% yet did see changes. But then Wendy pointed out how much she lost near her kidneys and I was like .. doh!
As for being OCD/obsessive with tracking.. I'm eye-balling or counting the veggies where I can. Lettuce (or what I prefer as salad, chicory) really has virtually no calories so weighing is almost pointless. I'm using the Dutch version of Fitday and just select '1 head' even though it generally is slightly heavier.
Other veggies do add up, among which quite surprisingly peppersweets (they are sweet peppers from S Africa that are quite popular here). Olives I've weighed out one time per 10, then made a custom entry for both 100g and 10 pcx and now count them out , like 10 or 15 or just 8.
Same for apples or pears... but bananas I do weigh, they vary too much.
Berries I also weigh, not because it really matters for the calories but they are so expensive I'm limiting those to 50g per serving (there's 6 servings in 1 box of frozen raspberries or 5 servings in a box of blueberries or blackberries). Hmm lately I've been eye-balling those too.. like grabbing 2 handfuls of them = approx. 50g too.
As for meat & chicken.. those are portioned out per 100g (meat) or per piece (chicken). Then I just weigh what it was when selecting the frozen stuff. A whole chicken would be cooked, weighed before & after eating the prepared chicken so I can subtract the bones & skin+fats & know how much of the meat I ate..
Just had to pop in and say that a damn day 2 of Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred is over and complete. I total suck doing it, but that means I really must need it.
I'm going to upload my GWF just to see the lovely spikes, nothing better than spikes these days.
Then hit a shower and hopefully not sit on my ass the rest of the day.
At least that's the plan.
Oh, and a good healthy breakfast has been consumed and 2 quarts of water has been in me (and out) already.
I did Shred Level 1.. once.. it was the hardest 20m. Good job going back for more punishment!
I'm also obsessively weighing everything. I got a new scale that measures grams and it is amazing what a difference it makes as opposed to measuring a tbsp or 1/2 a cup.
I hope hubby recovers quickly. Have a good weekend!
Hi Annette. You are getting fabulous results!! Congrats. I found you when I was searching for information about the GoWear Fit. You have convinced me to order one, which I will do next week. Meanwhile, this site looked so good I have joined and I will be logging my progress regularly.
I am 54, so a bit older than you, but I'm still seeing great improvement in my fitness level with regular workouts and long hikes. The main impediment to realizing the body and fitness level I want to have is osteoarthritis, esp in my right knee and elbow. I have to be careful to not overuse them or they flare up and I know they will eventually wear out.
Oh, I just edited this because the other impediment to reaching my goals is that I eat too much.
I will be checking back on your progress!
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