So glad I found this forum. So tired of the whining women on other sites who don’t exercise worth a hoot, have a zillion excuses, eat 1300 calories a day (or so they say) and don’t lose fat. If you don’t want to look like the average American 50+ woman, then you can’t act like the average American 50+ woman. You guys seem to be a cut above. You won’t think I’m strange (hopefully). Hello, everyone!
I work out with a trainer once a week, but I don’t know the names of all the exercises, let alone the abbreviations, I’m lost when I try to read the journals with the NROLFW workouts. So I’ll be playing catch-up and bugging you all to fill me in when I don’t know something. I understand DOMS but I don’t know what DOH is – anyone?
I’m not sure how to list my workout but I’ll try – here’s today’s lunch hour with the trainer.
Bent-over DB Rows 2x15, 15 lb, 20 lb
DB Alt Chest Press on Ball 1x15, 15 lb 1x12, 20 lb
Med OH Grip Pulldown 1x15, 60 lb 1x12, 70 lb
Tube Chop 2 tubes lt & med 2x15
Tube Trunk Rot (level) 1 heavy 2x15
Sngl Arm DB Clean to Press 1x15, 15 lb
DB Stiff-Leg Deadlift 2x15, 20 lb, 25 lb
Squeeze Bridges 2x30
Sky Diver 2x 1 min
Ball Roll Outs 2x20
Stretching
We didn’t do legs because I rolled my left ankle 4 times last Saturday coming down the trail, and also because I need very fresh legs to climb Mt. Whitney on Sunday. This workout didn’t stress me very much – I’ll see if I’m at all sore tomorrow. Recently my body has seemed to get stronger all of a sudden, and we talked about that today. Maybe it is time to bump it up a notch. But I really don’t want bigger arms and legs – I want to get slimmer and lose pounds, and I don’t care if I lose some muscle in the process. I’m not exactly the thin, lithe type, and I need to be more like that if I want to keep up on the weekend hikes.
I have a damaged right knee (cartilage on outside of femur) and basically sucky joints which are prone to osteoarthritis. My right elbow can flare up. I gobble glucosamine and it helps a lot.
My weekday world is this: extremely sedentary desk job, 1 hr drive in each direction. Walk or do stairs on 15 min breaks. On lunch hours I have 1 hr spin class on Mondays, trainer on Tuesdays, cardio/strength for 45 min Wed & Thurs, sometimes I go food shopping or do more cardio on Fri. When I get home I have about 1 hour of outside chores to do, including walking, some moderate weight lifting and throwing (hay), and sometimes sheep wrangling.
Weekends go like this: Saturdays (usually) – big hard dayhike, usually 12-17 miles (sometimes over 20), up to 14 hours, and lots of elevation gain. Sunday is rest day and get stuff done around the house or veg out. I am not too shabby on the hikes, at least for my age (54), and I’m usually the oldest in the group. I can outhike any 20-something who is not in very good shape, especially in the afternoon. I can keep up with most anyone on the flat and downhill (unless they run which I won’t do), but I can’t climb or go uphill as fast as the younger, lighter hikers, and I want to get better at it to the extent that it’s possible. I think that means some serious behavior modification about my eating. I also have to be careful about my training during the week. If I do any kind of leg work after Wednesday, I’m toast on the hike. My legs just don’t recover very fast, and I’m guessing it is partly my age.
My GoWear Fit should arrive this week. I think I will be able to keep my calorie intake lower than my output once I really know what that is. A big fairly accurate number staring me in the face will get my attention! And if I get the GWF tomorrow (hope, hope) I can wear it this Sunday when I hike Mt.Whitney.
More to follow …. glad to be here!!
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Moondust The older I get, the older old gets.
Thanks for all the nice welcomes, you guys! I can't wait to find time to read everyone's logs and get to know you all.
I'm a native of NYC as well- grew up on Staten Island but moved to Long Island in 1971. Now I'm in central California, out in the sticks with the hicks!
The only muscle soreness I'm feeling right now is my upper back. Yesterday's pulldowns, no doubt. It was already too hot to walk when I got to work, so I did stairs on my break and I'll go to my little gym at lunch.
Maybe the GWF will be here today. Or tomorrow for sure. I just LOVE all the graphs I am seeing. I am nervous to see if I will be like Annette and stay on schedule for weight loss, or more like Etana, whose deficits are awesome but who loses very slowly. And the scientist in me wants to know - why does this happen??? Are some people photosynthesizers, able to create energy out of the sunlight? Or is the GWF not accurate for some people? Maybe we can get enough of us together and do a study!
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Moondust The older I get, the older old gets.
Thanks, Tom! The creator of this acronym has confirmed my guess - it means Delayed Onset of Hunger, or Delayed Onset Hungries. I didn't know anyone paid enough attention to Shakespeare to quote him Are you an English lit guru?
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Moondust The older I get, the older old gets.
Yep, seems like I'm the only one consistently using that acronym DOH. Catchy, eh?
Interesting explanation of where your name Moondust comes from.. the soil on your farm.
I used to read when I could stay awake while doing it and could devote the time. Currently I subscribe to Recorded Books Unlimited and receive a never-ending supply of unabridged books to listen to as I do my household and animal chores. Right now I'm "reading" The Fortune Teller's Daughter by Lila Shaara. Before that it was The Aran Island by J.M Synge (non-fiction). I love everything by Alexander McCall Smith.
I have eaten about 520 calories so far today, and I am ravenous. Time to go out in the 105 degree heat and get a McD salad. Southwest is my fave.
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Moondust The older I get, the older old gets.
how do you like the Recorded Books Unlimited? I used to have a subscription with another outfit but they sort of folded up and stopped their rental side and I've been looking for a replacement for a long time. Cassettes or CD or MP3?
I'm a native of NYC as well- grew up on Staten Island but moved to Long Island in 1971. Now I'm in central California, out in the sticks with the hicks!
My dh is originally from Staten Island, too! He spent part of his childhood in the Stapleton section, and he still has family living there. His grandma is one of them, and is a real hoot. She's 85 years old, still volunteers twice a week in the local schools, serves on the board of a local nonprofit, and has more of a social life than most, including me.
Recorded Books is a great outfit! I think they have the best narrators and a quality selection. I believe they only have CDs and cassettes, not MP3s. When I first subscribed several years ago it was $20 per month. They just notified me they are increasing me to $30 per month, which still is so worth it because there is no shipping.
I was a toddler in New Dorp, a grade-schooler in Bay Terrace, and a high-schooler in Dongan Hills (on Staten Island, or Stat Nilan, as we say). My mother worked in Stapleton, so I knew that area well. We didn't have a car - took the train mostly and sometimes a bus, and a lot of times I just walked. When I was 5, my mother would put me on the city bus and tell the bus driver where I needed to get off to walk 2 blocks to my grandmother's. Those were the days.
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Moondust The older I get, the older old gets.
Yippee!! and hooray! My GoWear Fit arrived today! Jumping up and down (oops, stop that, bad for the knee). I have charged it up and installed the SW. Tomorrow morning I will actually have to own up to my real weight so I can enter it. Thinking it is around 153-154. I have been kind of logging my food. Today was around 2500, yesterday about 2000 and Tuesday probably 2200. I know my intake has to come down A LOT to make progress.
Exercise yesterday was 480 stairs, then at the gym I did
2 x 30 walking lunges with db, 12.5 lb each
15 pushups on incline bar w/5 sec hold each one
ball pass off abs
1 x 15, 12, 10, 8 db squats on the TechnoGym system. About 70 lb each hand, but did I really do that much weight? Next time I'll try real dumbells
1 x 15, 12, 10 chest fly, shoulder press, tricep kickback w/ 7.5 lb, 7.5 lb, 10 lb
15 min HIIT on elliptical
Today I wanted to leave my legs alone:
500 stairs
30 min cardio, 10 min HIIT on treadmill, 4.0 mph between 2 and 11 incline
pushups
bicep curls
straight legged deadlift 1 x 15, 55 lb
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Moondust The older I get, the older old gets.
A pleasant surprise this morning. My weight is 150.0. That's a couple of pounds less than last time I weighed, probably 5 or 6 weeks ago. My maintenance calorie level must be over 2000 per day, which is wonderful news for me! That doesn't mean I won't have to restrict myself in order to get to my goals, but at least I know can coast here when my emotional and mental mettle is not quite up to snuff.
I did my measurements too. They are 40.0 bust, 31.5 waist, 38.5 hips. Body fat scale said 28.9 but I never trust it very much.
Today is my first day wearing my new GoWear Fit, and I'm really excited to download the data when I get home! But the more I say the name, the more I wonder what marketing idiot came up with it. I think I'm going to be embarrassed saying it to my friends who will want to know what I'm wearing. They will quickly think of some uncomplimentary substitutes to call it, I'm afraid
I'm leaving for the eastern Sierras early tomorrow. It's about a 3.5 hour drive to Lone Pine. We'll go up to Horseshoe Meadow to acclimate at 10K, but I don't want to do anything that will tire out my legs for Sunday. I know I'll make it up and down Mt. Whitney okay, but it's a matter of how well I can keep up with the speedier ones. We are starting in the dark with headlamps, and I don't know the route well enough to enjoy trying to find it by myself. There is a trail for a short way, then we'll be on the Mountaineer's Route with a lot of places where you don't want to go the wrong way. Just remembered that I need to check my batteries tonight!
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Moondust The older I get, the older old gets.
Have a fun time on your hike tomorrow. And I forgot to add this in my log, but you'll enjoy doing barbell DL's. They're probably one of the most functional exercises out there, and I cannot imagine ever going without them.
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Originally Posted by Moondust
A pleasant surprise this morning. My weight is 150.0. That's a couple of pounds less than last time I weighed, probably 5 or 6 weeks ago. My maintenance calorie level must be over 2000 per day, which is wonderful news for me! That doesn't mean I won't have to restrict myself in order to get to my goals, but at least I know can coast here when my emotional and mental mettle is not quite up to snuff.
Isn't it such a relief knowing that? Seriously, when I calculated my fat loss and maintenance cals for NROLFW using their guidelines, I was so thrilled to bits. I'm sure my hubby was also thrilled, because it spared him my bitchiness that comes with fat-loss mode, LOL.
There are so many calories to burn and so little time! I am inserting the GWF calorie burn graph from yesterday just to practice.
Okay, that seems to work!
Except for the thin plastic GWF holder completely breaking in half, I love my GWF! Thank goodness for superglue. I can clearly see the almost 1 hour sitting in the car each way. Same as other GWF users, I see that getting up from my desk at work as much as possible really adds to the burn.
I have a brand new attitude about my eating. I have always been a little ashamed that I was still hungry on 2000 calories a day when my fellow dieters were eating 1200 or 1400 calories. Now I can see why! My avg daily burn this week has been over 3000 per day. Granted, Sunday was an extra long hike day, but my appetite has not exceeded my burn, and I'm beginning to think I can actually trust it most of the time. Heck, I'm not the average dainty lass in any other respect, so why should I think my appetite would be average?
I need to work on my sleep habits. If I can get myself to bed at a decent hour, I think my fat percentage will go down. A lot of times what I do is get too tired to function at 8:30 or 9 pm, lie down and sleep for a while, then have to get back up to finish necessary chores. I'm taking the week off from work next week, and it will be a good time to start a better habit.
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Moondust The older I get, the older old gets.
As Annette so helpfully let me know when I had the yippees over my high GWF burn the first few days, sometimes it records really high burns at the beginning, but as it "learns" you, they tend to drop.
Sorry to burst your bubble!
(No offense, Annette, and you were right, it's just that it was so exciting to think I was burning that much!)
I have the same problem as you, I was always hungry with under 17 or 1800 calories, and GWF showed me I usually burn over 2000. At first it was showing me 2500 or more, but it does seem to have settled some lower over time. But I still love it, and wear it almost all the time.
Thanks for the heads up, LL. (I like your cats!) It's always good to be prepared for possible disappointment. Ultimately I will have to go by the weight loss, if any. It seems like many people seem to lose on the GWF schedule. Then there are the photosynthesizers, who seem to create energy from the sunlight and fail to lose weight from their calorie deficit. Time will tell!
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Moondust The older I get, the older old gets.
It is hard to post every day. Now I see it's been 6 days. Part of that is because I am home this week - taking a week off to get stuff done around the house. It is giving me a break from my regular exercise routine, which may or may not be a good thing.
I am hoping that the NEAT from working around the house will counterbalance the noontime workouts. That was true on Sunday - I actually burned 2800 - but yesterday was my lowest burn since I started wearing the GWF - about 2250. I think it may be from staying in bed longer. I am trying to get a normal amount of sleep this week, instead of my usual 5 to 6 hours. Of course, more time in bed definitely means less time moving around.
My hips have bothered me on the last two hikes. Sure hope it is something that will go away instead of the doom and gloom of arthritis. Only time will tell. The pain slows me down, which I don't like, since I'm usually the slowest one in the group anyway. On the Whitney hike I took a scrip Motrin 800 mg about 3 hours into the hike. It seemed to help. It was the first time I had taken something in a couple of years. This weekend I am going to try back-to-back hikes, both fairly tough, and I'll bring plenty of Motrin.
My 15.5 yo son hiked with me on Saturday. He was faster than I was on the uphill. I can tell myself it's because he is getting taller and stronger, not because I am getting older and more arthritic. But he teases me about it anyway. We hiked in Mineral King to Franklin Lakes. I was hoping to climb Rainbow Mtn but our start was too late and my son was getting pretty tired. He may be faster uphill, but he doesn't have the stamina I have We hiked about 14 miles in 8 hours, going from 7500 to 10700 feet. I actually gave him a Motrin on the way back because his legs were hurting pretty bad. It takes quite a while to build up the right muscles for long downhill treks.
I've been eating a little less this week, but soon it will be time to crack down and get to 1800 average. I have been maintaining a small deficit overall, but I think water fluctuation trumps fat loss at this point, and the scale hasn't shown a loss.
Thursday we are doing our one "family vacation" day of the year - sea kayaking near Pismo Beach. I know it will be wonderful fun but I'm bummed I can't wear my GWF.
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Moondust The older I get, the older old gets.
Thursday we are doing our one "family vacation" day of the year - sea kayaking near Pismo Beach. I know it will be wonderful fun but I'm bummed I can't wear my GWF.
You are quite an active woman! Hiking, then kayaking for a trip... That's really cool.
Even if you can't wear your GWF there, I'm sure you'll be keeping a steady pace of activity on Thursday. Enjoy yourself!
Kayaking was awesome! I think I'd do it every day if I had the chance. DH and I talked about getting our own kayaks when we retire - I think it's something he would actually do with me. I couldn't wear the GWF so I have no idea what I burned, but I was plenty hungry after the 4 hours of paddling.
I have decided that Friday will be my weekly weigh in. So far:
7/17 150.0 lb, 28.9% bf
7/24 151.2 lb, 28.4% bf
7/31 149.6 lb, 27.5% bf
I love being under 150 again. And the body fat appears to be going down, if the Taylor scale can be trusted at all. Thanks to the GWF, I feel like I'm hardly trying at all! I just have to stay below my burn.
I'll be gone all weekend - back-to-back hikes Saturday and Sunday. My left hip has been bothering me, so I packed plenty of 800 mg in case I need it. Something is always getting out of whack. Just when my knees are feeling good, there goes the left hip and the right elbow But that's getting old for ya.
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Moondust The older I get, the older old gets.
Time for just a quick update. Back-to-back hikes/climbs last weekend left my quads really sore. Going up or down stairs was painful on Monday. I burned almost 9000 calories over the two days! I skipped spin class on Monday, too (no point in beating up my body), but I did my regular hour workout on Tuesday. On Saturday my left hip was still bothering me just a little. I took one 800 mg Motrin on Saturday around 4 pm, with two trail miles left in the first hike. On Sunday my hip felt okay, and my knees help up remarkably well over the two days. I just had some expected stiffness in my joints after over-using them as I did. I wonder what kind of training it would take to be able to hike and climb two days in a row without any soreness anywhere.
I had a big calorie deficit both days. Saturday night I ate as much spaghetti and meatballs as I could, but I was still under 3000 calories for the day. Sunday I was too tired to eat much after we were done. Monday I was very hungry and ate about 3500 calories. Now my appetite has calmed down and I’m back to normal.
I was glad I took a one-week hiatus from my daily routine, including both weight workouts and 2 days of cardio. I think my knees appreciated the break. I fear that I am walking a tightrope – need to do the weights, step-ups and lunges, but all those exercises negatively affect my arthritic knees and they need to have a break once in a while. You can’t exercise muscles without involving joints. It’s a constant worry when I feel it in my joints.
Can’t remember what else I was going to say – my mind is somewhat of a blank and I’m almost ready to drive home.
The stomach jiggle test and underarm jiggle test tells me I am slowly getting leaner. Yes!
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Moondust The older I get, the older old gets.
You've been engaging in a LOT of activity recently, so I applaud the fact that you're listening to your body and reigning in activity when you feel like it. I'm still working on that part, by the way, LOL.
Moondust's Quest - Fitness, Fat Loss & Life
But I still love it, and wear it almost all the time.
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