Did full body, moderate to heavy (for me) weights, came home and had a whey/milk/blueberry shake.
Finally did my squats at 65 lbs (3 sets of 10) and deadlifts the same.
Cable rows at 75 lbs
pushups
shoulder presses 30 lb bb
lateral raises 8 then 5 lbs
and a few other odds and ends
I also bought some electrolyte paks and had one before I got to the gym and one during my workout.
I hope those electrolyte packs do help! My mom is sensitive to heat and fainted quite a bit when she was younger and still lived in Texas. She's told me stories about passing out in the bathroom and nearly hitting her head on the edge of the sink, so it's definitely not a minor thing!
Anyway, congrats on the workout! Glad it went well.
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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 thought I would have burned more yesterday as I worked out and danced. This drop in burn is driving me bonkers to be honest. I have a chart with my rolling burn averages (7 days) and I've finally dropped below the 2500 mark. I guess that also has my sick weekend still in it, so as of tomorrow I might pop back up. I know I'm sitting on my butt more though, it's so damn hot outside I don't want to do anything.
I have a little bit of DOMS today from my workout yesterday, that's good as I don't want to feel trashed after workouts. My goal is to work hard enough to feel it but still be able to function the next few days.
I started rereading "The Flexible Diet" last night to start preparing myself mentally for my 2 week maintenance. I think I have the concept down, keep my protein up, my carbs at 100g+, cals at maintenance, and let the chips fall where they may. Since it's not true maintenance (as in I haven't lost my weight yet) I will keep exercise low, though I won't stop it all. I want to do 2 weeks of maintenance, so I think continuing my exercise for the 1st half of the 1st week (ease down,) then stop for 1 week, then start up towards the end of the 2nd week, ease up. Seems like a good plan to me.
I think sometimes that's the basic problem with NEAT. For some people it's a natural way of moving around, for others they need to really pay attention and try and move more. However, that doesn't always feel natural, which means that you eventually slip back into more natural feeling habits. Well, at least that's how I feel some days. I can only go up and down the stairs so often before I feel like I'm just running around for the sake of it. My mother, who is almost always moving, doesn't think about it.
I think sometimes that's the basic problem with NEAT. For some people it's a natural way of moving around, for others they need to really pay attention and try and move more. However, that doesn't always feel natural, which means that you eventually slip back into more natural feeling habits. Well, at least that's how I feel some days. I can only go up and down the stairs so often before I feel like I'm just running around for the sake of it. My mother, who is almost always moving, doesn't think about it.
I feel like I'm somewhere in the middle. I'll often find myself fidgeting while sitting (usually leg jiggling), but if I'm at work and having to work on hard copy, that's not too conducive to bouncing around, so I stay pretty still. I do usually take stairs unless I have to go up more than 3-4 flights, but that's very, very rare. And I am sure my NEAT's decreased from the deficit--less energetic movements, that kind of thing. I'm really curious to see what my burn will be like once I'm in maintenance again but at a lower BW.
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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'm just wiped out today to be honest. The heat is truly killing me, the house is at 80 degrees and can't cool down anymore. It's in the high 90's, feels over 100. I don't take heat well.
I did my walk/run this morning, and I wore my HRM and I've determined it's still too intense for me to be running. Darn. I will cut back down though, that's fine. It's more important for me to feel good and not overstress my body as that's what causes pain issues.
And my DOMS is now hurting really badly too, so I just need to accept that I just have to do lighter weights. Another Darn for that too.
I want to do more than my body is capable of doing at this time.
I will take it easy tomorrow, do a nice walk in the morning, no weights, and just recover.
Today I'm moving all my sewing stuff from the sunroom (where I moved down to this summer when my daughter was home from school) back upstairs. She's hopefully out of the house permanently at this point, so the room is officially mine.
It was a lot of lugging heavy machines, computer (first thing to set up) and tables up here (husband did help) in the hot hot house. But I have a separate AC in here, no sun, and it's my cozy hideaway.
I'm looking forward to sewing and shopping for my slimmer body, but first I have 2 armchairs to finish reupholstering.
Eating is going fine today, lots of protein, lots of water, tonight is Arroz con Pollo for dinner and I'm eating the chicken and just a small portion of the rice. I might splurge on a beer, it sounds so tasty, or maybe a G&T. Dang, I'd like one of those right now.
Hi Annette! CONGRATULATIONS on the weight loss!! And HOW do you burn so many calories a day?
Cool, found someone else who posts spreadsheets Only yours look so much neater, I was trying to figure out how to capture the spreadsheet in a jpg form or something so I could just insert it as a picture or something...how did you get your spreadsheet in your post so neat and clean like that? I c/p from excel but had to do a bit of editing.
Anyway, for what its worth, I have on more than one occasion put on 25+ pounds in a year. I also had a neck injury and disc damage in 2007 and over time b/n that and some other things and not being able to workout and not having much control over my diet and just generally letting myself go (unintentionally), and I went from ~120 something to 145 to 150 now. Everytime my weight gets up there I ask myself the same question, how did this happen? I also carry my weight similarly to you, actually I was looking at your beginning measurements from June and we're very similar. I'm going to try to get mine up on my log tomorrow so you can drop by and see if you want
do you get cortisone shots for the disc pain? I did cortisone and botox (for discs and torticollis) and after several months it got a lot better. Maybe they can't treat DDD with cortisone if its a progressive thing but was just curious.
Anyway, you're doing great work and I hope you're really proud of yourself!
When I read Lyle's comments on NEAT vs. the comments here , it almost seems we are talking about 2 different 'universes'.
Lyle stresses how NEAT is subconscious, while everyone here is hell-bent on consciously increasing non-exercise activity. He recently wrote an energy balance article and renamed NEAT into SPA, so maybe the 2 things have merged?
Everything we here consciously do is just activity, except it's not done within a gym but either with a different purpose or just for the sake of 'increasing output' . The latter requires extra effort. I've always tried to avoid doing those things as over time it will fall by the wayside.
Instead .. in the years when I had to train for cycling, I just forced myself to go on longer cycling trips by not buying a car. This wasn't always convenient but it sure as hell made me cover a LOT of extra distance.
Now I no longer cycle long distance I've made a similar decision 2-3 years ago to not use the bicycle for shorter inner-city errands, even when I'm expecting to carry a lot of groceries or parcels. The result of it is that I don't even need to remind myself to do this, it has become a habit. Only when there's a time crunch I'll fetch the bicycle and do it faster..
Oh, actually I thought to comment on your macros.. just do whatever you feel best on. If you feel better on say 40% fats, by all means go ahead! Just make sure you get in approx. 100g of carbs on average (during maintenance that would be a minimum intake) & get your minimum of 1 gram P per lbs LBM (if possible, make that BW).
I'm just wiped out today to be honest. The heat is truly killing me, the house is at 80 degrees and can't cool down anymore. It's in the high 90's, feels over 100. I don't take heat well.
I know the feeling of wanting to do so much more, but not being physically able to do it. An interesting observation I've made is that when I spend a few hours outside in the intense sun/heat, even with doing very little activity (like at last Saturday's picnic), I find it to be even more energy-draining than, say, running for only a half hour in the same temps. So I'd definitely stick to the walk/run intervals for the time being - the longer you're out there, the more conservative you have to be in intensity.
Espi, this guy (the NEAT guy, James Levine, http://mayoresearch.mayo.edu/levine_lab/about.cfm) talks about NEAT as more than just subconscious movement, he does put occupation and such into the picture.
Quote:
NEAT has an enormous variety of constituents including occupation, leisure and fidgeting.
I did read his book awhile back, and though I don't recommend buying it, it's a fine read from the library.
I do consider my work around the house NEAT, though I can also choose to sit on my butt (especially right now.) And he does specifically talk about choosing to get up and walk and move as a way to increase NEAT.
Yesterday when I was moving my sewing stuff from downstairs to an upstairs room I was wondering if more trips with less items (light weight,) or less trips with more items (heavier weight) would be more beneficial.
That's what this kind of forum and the GWF does to us now....lol. Hey, wasn't it you arguing about who gets to carry in the heavy bags. Gosh, we are all insane.
I'm content with my diet at this time and don't plan on changing it till it doesn't work. Even then, I'm not aiming to be super lean or super buff. I want to be at a good bodyweight and bodyfat and have enough muscle that when someone looks at me they know I put a little effort into my workouts.
NYC_Native, I do think the heat has a lot to do with my dragginess right now. I popped my head out at 8 am this morning and the air is hot and heavy, not very motivating for wanting to take a walk. I think I'll take it easy today or maybe go to the gym.
Miss Jupiter, I do a print screen from Excel, trim up in my graphics program and upload to Picassa. That's basically it. I also remove all the lines in Excel though as they just bother me. I don't really do anything fancy though. Just keep working on your spreadsheet till it's how you like it. Mine continue to change.
And I'll be posting my new one and my weekly comments in my next post.
A solid pound lost, wish it were more, but I'm not complaining. This was a bit of an "off" week, though nothing too off.
Yesterday I had a good burn day of over 2700 calories, I kept busy. I also noticed my sleep burn increased from 1.1 to 1.3 cals/min. Not sure why, I'll watch that though. On one hand it's good, on another I don't know if it means something, like I'm overworked or what have you.
I have to stick to my rule of alcohol only when out, as yesterday a vodka tonic sounded good....after 3 of them (diet tonic at least, but 300 cals of vodka total) ice cream sounded good, and I don't even eat ice cream. I was good though and had 1/2 cup, or 65 grams......okay, so then I went back and had another 1/2 cup. That splurge of drinking and icecream had me eating over 500 extra calories yesterday, something I've been really good about watching.
Fine fine fine.....
Then I woke up to yet another period. Excuse me, but this is getting silly. I'm having them about every 1.5 to 2 weeks right now. I think the alcohol/ice cream feast might have been a bit of a subconscious hormone craving thing going on, seriously. Sometimes we women don't know why we're eating what we're eating, and then bam, the period starts and we go "ahhhhhh, now I know."
I will suffer through this awhile longer, keep tracking for a few more months before I worry about it. I'm not worrying about it, just wish it wasn't happening.
Same goals for the upcoming week, I have to pull back on exercise just a bit, not work as hard (I hate being a wuss, but I hate hurting.) My back is pretty knotted up, so I know I overworked it. I have a massage on Tuesday evening, and I'll do some self work on it too.
I think I'll increase the walking to daily, but knock out most the running portions of it. I feel I had a better weight loss with more easy cardio. I'm not ready for the heavy weights less cardio combo.
I want to get back on the ArcTrainer, as I really enjoy that, it's a great way to burn lots of calories, and it makes my legs feel really tight.
Weights will have to drop back in weight a bit, do a couple easy sets and just let it be. I keep telling myself to just accept my limitations, and I do that fine when I don't feel good, but once I feel good again I OD on it. It will be a few days before I'm ready to lift anything again anyways.
Dietwise I'm going to aim for a solid 1500-1600 calorie range. I was up and down a lot last week, and I don't think that helps me.
Funny, I see that I want to do is more cardio, less weights, and lowish cals....I'll obviously never be a bodybuilder. Cardio bunny, here I come
Heh, I think my natural inclinations are also toward the carido bunny bent.
In FLTS, Leigh also refers to NEAT as something we can be conscious of. She includes graphs of a person pre-NEAT and then "after becoming aware of NEAT," with the implication that the person made deliberate choices to get in more general activity.
Haven't read Lyle's stuff on NEAT/SPA, but maybe that SPA is specifically meant to be the unconscious movement?
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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.
Everything we here consciously do is just activity, except it's not done within a gym but either with a different purpose or just for the sake of 'increasing output' . The latter requires extra effort. I've always tried to avoid doing those things as over time it will fall by the wayside.
...
The result of it is that I don't even need to remind myself to do this, it has become a habit.
I saw this when I was on Weight Watchers. People (friend and hubby)
would change things that I knew they were not going to do for life. Then soon as they lost the weight they went back to "normal" eating. But both of them changed a few things that stuck.
So I guess what I am saying is that even if you don't keep all the NEAT, if you just make a habit of a few then it is a good thing. And by constantly trying to improve NEAT over the years you might become a naturally higher NEAT than you were to start with.
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Peaches
The journey to health and fitness
Should be taken
Because you love yourself,
Not because you hate your body
I know the feeling of wanting to do so much more, but not being physically able to do it. An interesting observation I've made is that when I spend a few hours outside in the intense sun/heat, even with doing very little activity (like at last Saturday's picnic), I find it to be even more energy-draining than, say, running for only a half hour in the same temps. So I'd definitely stick to the walk/run intervals for the time being - the longer you're out there, the more conservative you have to be in intensity.
This is very very true. Its been a relatively hot summer this year and its taken a toll on my energy levels for sure. Its too hot to work out really until the evening.
Just a few rambles as I have nothing important to say
My weight workout from a few days ago beat up my neck, so I'm mad at myself for going too heavy. Later today I have my massage scheduled and I'll take my muscle relaxants at bedtime too. I've been pretty sore the last 3 days now.
Only walked this morning, which was kind of nice.
EASY EXERCISE EASY EXERCISE EASY EXERCISE
I just have to keep telling myself that.
Didn't step on the scale this morning, though it was probably just fine. These messed up female hormones don't make a girl very happy.
Diet is a bit screwy today. I decided I was sick of eggs and I really don't like oatmeal that much. So I ate a bowl of cereal. Well, that, and an apple and my soymilk totally whacked out the carb limit.
Then I did the sunflower seed thing.
Then......I felt guilty for not eating any protein. I totally wasn't hungry, but ate 4 egg whites.
Tonight I'll make a taco salad, and it will be a low calorie day which is fine as I'm not putting out today. I will probably still have a 1000 cal deficit or close to it.
Exercise plans for the next few days are nothing for my upper body until my neck is 100% happy again. At which point I really have to figure out a simple light workout I can do, major pisser.
I might just walk again tomorrow and we go dancing tomorrow night too.
It's a bit cooler outside too, which is definitely nice.
So basically just plugging along.
When I have my refeed/maintenance in a few weeks I will probably just base it off my GWF numbers, perhaps I'll just take a rolling average (say 3 days) and aim for that number.
I'm really not looking forward to possibly gaining any weight (be it water or fat.) But I know the reasoning behind it.
Diet is a bit screwy today. I decided I was sick of eggs and I really don't like oatmeal that much. So I ate a bowl of cereal. Well, that, and an apple and my soymilk totally whacked out the carb limit.
Then I did the sunflower seed thing.
Then......I felt guilty for not eating any protein. I totally wasn't hungry, but ate 4 egg whites.
Hehe I do things like that. You did fine. 1000 calorie deficit it really good!
And when you do get to maintenence week, enjoy it rather than dread it!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lost Dog
Plus, my desire to remain stunningly attractive outweighs the call of the cheesecake. mostly...
Gen, I'm sure I'll enjoy my maintenance week. Still isn't till September though, so I hope to drop a few more pounds.
Today, so far, has just been one of those days. My neck issues are causing "discomfort" and I've had a headache. Took a muscle relaxant last night, slept well. Took aleve today, I finally feel okay.
I've been feeling a food craving for awhile now, and was so ready to go up to McDonalds. I'm working on reupholstering some armchairs and it's hard work and frustrating, add some physical discomfort to the picture and yes, I was feeling stress induced food cravings.
I ate a cup of sunflower seeds, but that didn't cut it.
So I went up to the store with the intent to buy frozen hamburger patties.
Yowzers, the calorie count on those things is so high, since it's not the leanest meat.
I was good, bought 1 pound of extra lean ground beef. At home I measured out 4 4oz burgers, froze up three, cooked up one. Ate a burger on a junky white roll with ketchup and mustard, and a large red pepper.
I feel almost virtuous
Seriously....this is what it's all about, making the choices. I guided myself away from two not so good choices, the McD's burger, and the fattier frozen burgers.
I'm truly pleased with my accomplishment. It might seem like a small one, but it's monumental. Ha ha.
Now to fill up my big quart cup with water and get back to my chairs.
Congrats! And yes it is an accomplishment! I felt the same way when I ate a few pieces of thin crust veggie pizza instead of regular crust pepperoni pizza. Hahaha! It's not perfect but it's a better choice so it feels good.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lost Dog
Plus, my desire to remain stunningly attractive outweighs the call of the cheesecake. mostly...
I was good, bought 1 pound of extra lean ground beef. At home I measured out 4 4oz burgers, froze up three, cooked up one. Ate a burger on a junky white roll with ketchup and mustard, and a large red pepper.
I feel almost virtuous
Seriously....this is what it's all about, making the choices. I guided myself away from two not so good choices, the McD's burger, and the fattier frozen burgers.
I'm truly pleased with my accomplishment. It might seem like a small one, but it's monumental. Ha ha.
That isn't small at all. It is the action tense of 'changing a lifestyle'. We all know it isn't the 'big' decisions that make you unhealthy. It's those day-to-day on the spot poor choices that add up to put us in an unhealthy situation.
Putting thought and planning into satisfying a craving is awesome. It what we all study to do, and then fail all to often.
Go YOU!
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If you weren't born drop dead gorgeous, be thankful for the opportunity to develop character first.
Thanks all for supporting my food accomplishment yesterday.
Today's a new day, I took a quick peek at the scale, it's up a tad.
Now, I know not to get worried, at least not yet, but I know my body is at it's "happy weight," a place it's sat for many years. The low 160's was my high weight once, then later it was a maintenance weight (for a couple years.) Right now it's my low.
I really want to get under 160 so I can keep my head mentally strong.
I looked back over my charts, and I can see my deficit percentage is lower (still in 30's) vs when I had bigger losses (in 40's.) Of course, I also know some of it is due to me slowing down lately. Those high deficit percentages show up when I have really high burns, and I haven't had 3000+ caloric burns in weeks now.
I will continue to aim for a 1000+ caloric deficit, which means I have to move more, and drop cals low a couple times a week perhaps.
Just a couple more weeks before my 2 weeks of maintenance.
Goal today is a 1200 caloric deficit (oh my...) and I will do 2 walks and weights at the gym, and try to stay off my fat ass.
Oh, and I have an appointment for a new haircut today. Well, my hair is short already, not much you can do with short hair but go shorter. I'm just excited to have the last of the color cut off, there's just a smidge hiding in my ends. I'm now an "all natural" girl, gray and all.
I can't wait to be slim and fit....it's all I think about now. I want to wear cute clothes (age appropriate) and have people look at me and think wow, she looks amazing for her age. I'm so sick and tired of feeling like an ugly fat frumpy hausfrau. I'm getting there and feel better all the time.
Enjoy your haircut! Good luck on getting below 160--you're so compliant, I'm sure you'll get there!
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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.
isn't that too personal info to share with us, Annette?
What's funny is that after I wrote that, I was thinking exactly what you were thinking....left it in there anyway.
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Did my long walk this morning (longer than normal,) have eaten well so far and dinner is being cooked, and did a great weight workout.
Weights...I felt good going in, the gym was very hot though. I started with deadlifts, only 45 lb bar. Did cable rows, pushups, and bw squats for a couple sets, then lat pulldowns and db shoulder press. Then to the fly machine where I alternated regular flyes and back ones, then did lunges in between.
At that point I had had enough of the heat and decided to leave before I over did anything.
I felt good with the lighter weights, and now to see if my neck/back stays unkinked. That's the goal.
I think sometimes that's the basic problem with NEAT. For some people it's a natural way of moving around, for others they need to really pay attention and try and move more. However, that doesn't always feel natural, which means that you eventually slip back into more natural feeling habits. Well, at least that's how I feel some days. I can only go up and down the stairs so often before I feel like I'm just running around for the sake of it. My mother, who is almost always moving, doesn't think about it.
I agree. Trying to increase NEAT requires a change in mindset and I find myself slipping back into my normal M.O. Lately I've been doing more activities with the kids. Even when I don't feel like it, I make myself do it by telling myself it will increase my NEAT for the day.
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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.