No working out yesterday, felt very tired and headachey. There is a bug going around the office and I thought I might be catching it, but I feel fine today. Also, I've been staying near my calorie goals for the most part, but yesterday I had a little piece of of fanastic-looking chocolate coffee cake at my morning meeting. It was a bad day for willpower, not catastrophic, but I kind of fall off the wagon whenever I feel a little sick. Maybe it is a comfort food thing? chocolate coffee cake = chicken soup?? Maybe.
Today I woke up on time, and got to the gym. My workout:
It was a bad day for willpower, not catastrophic, but I kind of fall off the wagon whenever I feel a little sick. Maybe it is a comfort food thing? chocolate coffee cake = chicken soup?? Maybe.
Definitely, it's hard to keep focused on eating "right" when you're feeling so lousy. Usually my appetite goes down when I'm sick, or I crave a very narrow set of foods (i.e., chicken broth, tea and plain toast), but during the recovery phase, when my appetite is coming back, I want the junkiest stuff.
Anyway, giving into those cravings while sick by a little isn't a big deal, because I think it also makes you feel better, and feeling better is half the battle sometimes, right?
Thanks everyone for the encouragement! I feel fine now. Well, actually I feel bloated and disgusting after a weekend trip with old college friends and too many treats and booze. But health-wise, I'm just fine. I feel even more motivated to eat well now, after this reminder of how awful I feel after a day of not eating well. Let me catch up on my workout logging:
Maybe I shouldn't have been so eager to be finished with stage 2--stage 3 is hard! I don't know if its actually so much harder than stage 2, but its definitely longer. I'm going to have to get out of bed earlier now on lifting days. Oh and body matrix? ouch.
For various reasons (excuses? maybe) I didn't work out yesterday. But I made up for it today. In the AM I did my lifting:
1-armed dumbell snatch 6/12 6/15 6/15
dumbell single leg rom DL 6/50 6/40 6/40--had to lower weight on this bc form was crazy bad. Still doesn't look perfect, but I think that is more a balance issue.
barbell bent over row 6/45 6/45 6/45
dumbell single arm overhead squat 6/15&8 6/15&8 6/15&8
dumbell incline bench press 6/40 6/40 6/40
plank 3x 90sec
reverse wood chop 6/40 6/40 6/40
body matrix
Then tonight I went for a run (about 3 miles). And now I am tired. I think I may need a snack and an early bedtime tonight. I'm going to be sore tomorrow!
While I read through all the stages a couple times, therefore knew what was coming at the time, I believe I had blocked it out of my mind. I was looking forward to finishing Stage 2, in the hopes that planks would be a thing of the past (for a few weeks anyway). Alas...
Now I just need to digest a bit more of my dinner and head downstairs to my stage 2B workout. I'll be in Stage 3 next week!
This morning I did some lifting:
barbell romanian DL/row 6/55 6/55 6/55
partial single leg squat 3x6 body weight--I got some serious "what are you trying to do" looks during this..balance was a mess
wide grip lat pull down 6/62.5 6/62.5 6/62.5
back extension 3x6
YTWL 6/10 6/10 6/10--thats 10 lbs total, so 5 lbs dumbells. and it was really hard.
swiss ball crunch 6/20 6/20 6/20
reverse crunch 3x6
lateral flexion 3x6
prone cobra 3x90sec
10 min intervals
Tonight I went for a 35 min run with my husband. It looked like an okay evening (even though it was way cold), but once we got out into the park it started to rain. So it was a cold and rainy run. Ahhh, fall! I'm glad I went though, because I am running a 5k this weekend and it makes me feel better to know I have done some running this week.
5k today. It was pretty cold (40s) when we started. Not my favorite running temps. It went okay. I got fourth in my age group and husband got first in his (yet we ran it together.....lotsa ladies in their 20s running this one!) We are not very fast, though. I'm going to just relax and have fun for the rest of the weekend, but I'm going to try to control the calories. Really, I am.
5k today. It was pretty cold (40s) when we started. Not my favorite running temps. It went okay. I got fourth in my age group and husband got first in his (yet we ran it together.....lotsa ladies in their 20s running this one!) We are not very fast, though. I'm going to just relax and have fun for the rest of the weekend, but I'm going to try to control the calories. Really, I am.
It's nice that you and your hubby run together. That's something that's never going to happen here. It's hard to control cals after a race, isn't it? Between the activity and the adrenaline, I just want to carb up...
Have a good weekend!
5k today. It was pretty cold (40s) when we started. Not my favorite running temps. It went okay. I got fourth in my age group and husband got first in his (yet we ran it together.....lotsa ladies in their 20s running this one!) We are not very fast, though. I'm going to just relax and have fun for the rest of the weekend, but I'm going to try to control the calories. Really, I am.
Congrats on the ranking, and on running the 5K together! It is true - you do get that runner's high afterward.
No workout yesterday. Spent a lot of time being active out in the chilly weather this weekend, and I was still wheezy. Not sick, just wheezy. So I made Monday my rest day. Today's workout:
1-armed dumbell snatch 6/15 6/15 6/15
barbell bent over row 6/50 6/50 6/50
dumbell single arm overhead squat 6/15&8 6/15&8 6/15&8
dumbell incline bench press 6/40 6/40 6/40
plank 3x 90sec
reverse wood chop 6/25 6/25 6/25
body matrix x 2
Also, I posted my progress pictures and stats on the challenge picture post last night. Essentially there has been no progress. I still weigh 146. I weighed 144 at one point this month, but then my period started and the weight never recovered.
I am pretty unhappy with the lack of progress, and I've been feeling pretty defeated about it. I have been very consistent with my workouts, so it is obviously my diet that is the problem. I'm going to try to drop calories to 1400 on non-lifting weekdays (ugh), and stay around 1500-1600 on lifting days and weekends. I can't imagine eating less than this. I am also going to weigh myself weekly and post it here.
Unfortunately, I am traveling for work a lot this month and have a lot of social things going on. But I can't use those things as excuses--I need to get serious about my diet. I hope to see a lot more (er, some) weight loss in October.
Don't feel defeated! There's a lot more going on inside your body than you realize by looking at the scale. But if weight loss is your goal, it is all about diet. I remember when I had that "ah ha" moment a couple months back. The 23 hours of the day you are not at the gym are always going to have greater effects on you than the 1 hour you are at the gym. How are you tracking your food?
Also, thanks for the post on my log about my kitty.
Thanks for the encouragement, Evie I'm feeling better about it today. I try to stay active during the day, but it is hard on weekdays when I'm stuck at my desk. But, when I am home or on weekends I am usually doing something-cooking, walking, etc. I log my food. I have a scale, but I honestly don't use it anymore. I measure stuff a lot, and I know that is not as accurate as weighing. I've been calorie counting for a few years and I was getting really obsessive with the weighing and freaking out about food so I'm trying to relax. I eat the same things a lot though, so it is easy to track. I really don't think the problem is that I don't realize how many calories I am eating. My counting isn't perfect, but I usually have a pretty good idea. I think the problem is that (1) I can't handle being hungry so I can't stand having a huge deficit (2) my weekends just get out of hand and eat up my deficit. I'm not exactly surprised at the lack of weight loss, I'm just upset that I didn't have more self-control. This month I'm keeping it to one treat MEAL per week...not a treat evening, or a treat day, or a treat weekend.
I know I could scale back the lifting workouts and maybe be less hungry, too....but, I think I would really miss lifting!
yesterday's weight: 145.2 (-.2)
today's weight: 146.8 (+1.4)--umm, had cheat meal last night. Only about 400 more cals than normal, but a lot of sodium. I'm assuming this is the result of that sodium. Yikes.
Today's workout:
1-armed dumbell snatch 6/20 6/20 6/20
barbell bent over row 6/50 6/50 6/50
dumbell single arm overhead squat 6/15&8 6/15&8 6/15&8
Sminchie - Nice job on the 5K. I want to echo Evie's comment about changes are taking place that aren't being reflected in the scale. I became more consistent with exercise in April of this year but was frustrated with lack of results in terms of weight and inches. I had to go back to tracking my food and measuring as time-consuming as it was. As soon as I did, my weight loss got back on track.
Weekends have been a PITA for me for years. I'm a weekend binger and the only thing that seems to help is for me to have a controlled splurge (not a whole day) on either Saturday and Sunday. But for me to get the splurge, I have to had worked out that morning and I really don't count those calories burned as part of my weekly deficit totals. So if I want a piece of cheesecake that is 500 calories, I have to burn off 500 calories that morning in order to indulge. I just can trust myself to stop inhaling otherwise.
Thanks for the suggestions, Donna and Evie. This weekend wasn't perfect, but I think it was better. I tried to eat a normal/small breakfast and lunch on Saturday so that I would have more cals for dinner. Yesterday we went to a fall festival, but I just had a few bites of each treat instead of eating it all. I felt satisfied, but I ate less. Small steps, I guess
Today I had a great workout. I have today off for Columbus Day so I had all the time I needed at the gym, which was a nice change. The workout:
dumbell single-leg romanian DL 6/40 6/40 6/40
barbell romanian DL/bent-over row 6/50 6/50 6/60
partial single leg squat 6/10 6/10 6/10
wide grip lat pull down 6/62.5 6/62.5 6/62.5
back extension 6/10 6/10 6/10
YTWL 6/16 6/16 6/16
swiss ball crunch 6/20 6/20 6/20
reverse crunch 3x6
lateral flexion 3x6
prone cobra 3x90 sec
15 min intervals
20 min steady state cardio
lots of stretching!
Sorry for disappearing for a week. I somehow ended up taking the week off and only worked out once last week. Eek! It was one of those weeks--I traveled for work for a few days and wasn't feeling well for a few days. But really, I'm having the worst time getting to sleep lately. I don't know what to do about it. Even if I go to bed early, I can't fall asleep. Last night I went to bed at 1030-1100, fell asleep at 1am, woke up at 4am, 5am, and 6am. aaahhhhhhhh!!!! It was like this ALL week last week. I had no energy for working out. If anyone has any tips for turning your brain off and going to sleep, I would love to hear them.
I am back on the wagon (but still sleepy) this week. I went for a walk on Sunday. And I did manage to get a (shortened) lifting workout in this morning:
1-armed dumbell snatch 6/20 6/20 6/20
barbell bent over row 6/50 6/50 6/50
dumbell single arm overhead squat 6/20&10 6/20&10 6/20&10
dumbell incline bench press 6/40 6/40 6/40
reverse wood chop 6/25 6/25 6/25
I plan to do the planks and the body matrix after my cardio tomorrow.
I'm generally brutally bad about getting sleep. The mind just won't shut off. Lately I've been taking melatonin about 30 mins before going to sleep. It doesn't work every night, but it seems to help most of the time.
Can totally relate to you on the sleep issue. Normally I have a hard time falling asleep, though the last week or so, it's staying asleep that is vexing me at the moment.
I'm generally brutally bad about getting sleep. The mind just won't shut off. Lately I've been taking melatonin about 30 mins before going to sleep. It doesn't work every night, but it seems to help most of the time.
melatonin doesn't necessarily help me go to sleep, but it sure makes the quality of my sleep better!
I can take it and wake up in 6 hours or so feeling very refreshed
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Agreed - the first time I bought it that's pretty much what the guy selling it to me told me. However, since I usually would drop off for 15-20 mins, then wake up, it does seem to do the trick for me.
I didn't even know you could buy melatonin! Where do you buy it?? I've been having both trouble falling asleep and trouble staying asleep lately. Usually I have more trouble falling asleep though. Both problems are no fun.
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