Keep up the good work. Reading about your progress (and others here) progress helps me stay motivated. I am slowly creepin' towards the low 140's myself.
Hey DM - thanks for the PN snippet - that was helpful for me too!
Also YAY on the little fat lump starting to melt away - your consistency will win the battle!
Thanks, everyone, for your kind words & encouragement. It does keep me going. And, having this keeps me accountable.
Breaking News: I weighed in at 142.0 this morning. YEAH! Lowest weight since 1995, fittest body evar. So my whole week was spent around 144.2-144.4 and I was starting to wonder WTF was going on. I knew I was getting smaller - just took the scale about 4-5 days to catch up.
John was standing next to me when I weighed myself, and he said, "whoa, is that the lowest you've ever been?" and I thought he was being sarcastic (why am I so hard on myself?). I wasn't wearing my glasses/contacts so I couldn't see the number and said, "are you kidding?" and he said, "would I lie?" I thought it was funny.
Did Fat Loss I Workout B-1 yesterday
Barbell Deadlift
3x15x115 (will increase weight next time)
Incline Bench Press
1x15x25e
2x15x20e
Bulgarian Split Squat
3x15x20e (UGH!)
Mixed Grip Lat Pulldown (I always get nauseous doing these around rep 8-9. Disgusting burps arrived on the 2nd set. GAH.)
3x15x80
Romanian Deadlift
3x15x95 (increase weight next time)
Lateral Roll (these are hard and as a result my motion was very limited on these )
3x15 very sad lateral rolls
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
You have tended to extremes before. You really get into the things you're interested in and learn a lot and then you become hard on yourself for not adhering to best practices. Maybe this contributes to losing perspective and maybe some specific, realistic, achievable, measurable, time oriented goals would help. It takes dedication to be so committed and we all know that you can't get anywhere valuable in life w/o being dedicated.
I wanted to mention this because you reminded me of something - Lyle McDonald has a book titled Guide to Flexible Dieting that I found really helpful. He talks about planning and refeeds and how they provide physical and psychological breaks to help with dieting over the long haul.
I've enjoyed his stuff. I need a mental break from the fitness/nutrition/numbers stuff i've been reading lately (hence the photography) but will read his Ketogenic book next. Looks really interesting.
John's been doing Lyle's Rapid Fat Loss and I'm just so impressed at his dedication/adherence as well as results. He looks fantastic and he helps me feel inspired to keep on keepin' on. Initially I thought there was no way I'd do the rapid fat loss plan but now I'm thinking I might do it just to lose these last 5-7 pounds of fat and get it over with, so I can focus on strength. I'm still mulling it over because I have SUCH a hard time mentally on VLC diets. I don't know if I want to do that to myself. But it might be better to push through it for a few weeks rather than spend the next 2-3 months wading my way through these last few pounds of fat loss.... we'll see.
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
Breaking News: I weighed in at 142.0 this morning. YEAH! Lowest weight since 1995, fittest body evar. So my whole week was spent around 144.2-144.4 and I was starting to wonder WTF was going on. I knew I was getting smaller - just took the scale about 4-5 days to catch up.
See, that one beer didn't hurt too much. Congrats.
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Tom
No "happy hours" makes for a lot of miserable days. - Mahler
Breaking News: I weighed in at 142.0 this morning. YEAH! Lowest weight since 1995, fittest body evar. So my whole week was spent around 144.2-144.4 and I was starting to wonder WTF was going on. I knew I was getting smaller - just took the scale about 4-5 days to catch up.
WHOOOOOT!!!!
I JUST got Lyle's Flexible Dieting book in the mail yesterday - read the first 3 chapters last night... I really think it's the kind of info I need, as I tend to be "on" or "off" my diet program, and I have NO idea how to do cheat / treat meals or even take a week break from dieting without losing it (either panicking or falling completely off the wagon)...
I need to read it again (and maybe a 3rd time) to really catch everything. I really liked it though.
The first thing I read by him was something Phaedrus linked to a while back and I thought it was really interesting. So my first impression of (or, introduction to) Lyle was that he was the guy who made me feel a little better about steady-state. He knocked some sense into me regarding the "all or nothing" mentality with cardio - I felt like if I was going to do cardio, it should be intervals or nothing at all.
Anyway... I did NROL Fat Loss I A2 today Barbell Squats - 3x15x95
Ever so close to triple digits. Next time.
Seated Row - 3x15x80
Hard. I tried going to 85, lasted 3 reps and had to move back down to 80.
Supine Hip Extension - 3x15xBW
The first set is always like "why am I doing this?" and by the 3rd set everything between my waist and my knees is screaming at me.
Dumbbell Push Press - 3x15x20e
PR on the set/rep combo. The most I've done before is 2 sets of 10 reps (x25e)
Rotated Lunge - 3x15x20e
Swiss Ball Crunch - 3x15x15e
Focused on slightly slower tempo.
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
Breaking News: I weighed in at 142.0 this morning. YEAH! Lowest weight since 1995, fittest body evar. So my whole week was spent around 144.2-144.4 and I was starting to wonder WTF was going on. I knew I was getting smaller - just took the scale about 4-5 days to catch up.
Sometimes it's just a shock when you get up on the scale. I've seen that before, like you're retaining water, and then boom it's gone. Anyway, congrats!
I felt like if I was going to do cardio, it should be intervals or nothing at all.
Heh. For some people, just getting off the couch and walking is important. The BC gov't has a slogan to get people active that "Any move is a good move."
I think it's important to do what you like. If you don't like intervals and avoid exercising because of it, then you should do something else. You can change your intervals to chasing people around. When Chris and I throw the disc around, I chase him and he runs away from me. He's fast; I rarely catch him. I suppose people naturally do "interval training."
Hey that's not a bad idea. John's extremely fast and I've always been the slow, lumbering one. I'm kind of curious now, actually, how much better I'd be at kickball compared to last year. I considered joining again this year, but it's more a sport of drinking with some kickball thrown in and I KNOW I would be tempted to drink a LOT in that environment. But we live near a park & some grassy areas, which would be good for kicking around hte soccer ball. I get so bored doing that but I dunno. Maybe being better at it would make me enjoy it more.
Anyway. I'm at a hotel in Dallas and was able to reasonably adapt my workout to make it a good one:
NROL Fat Loss I, B2
Dumbbell Deadlift
3x15x50e
Incline Bench Press
1x15x25e
2x15x20e
Bulgarian Split Squat
3x15x20e (still love/hate these)
Mixed Grip Lat Pulldown
3x15x40 (given I recently did 80 on our home stack, I'm assuming 40 is about equivalent)
Romanian Deadlift
1x15x45e
2x15x40e
Weight Bench Crunches (instead of lateral roll; no swiss ball)
3x15
I have a new visible vein on my left arm - this time it's on my bicep. YEAH! That baby was really sticking out in my workout today. I love it.
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
I'm in the Dallas area the next 3 days for work and headed out by myself for lunch today. I wasn't sure where to go, so I used my little GPS unit to take me to some deli place down the road. I couldn't find the deli (it wasn't "on the right" as the Garmin said it was) BUT as I was looking for it I saw this place and went there instead:
Healthy Me Marketplace was founded by concerned parents of a two year old. As busy professional parents, they couldn't find the time to prepare healthy meals at home, or the meal service to ensure the family was eating healthy. They were convinced that other families were struggling with this issue as well, and decided to open a business with the mission of providing healthy, tasty food to busy people.
The founding leadership team consisted of people about healthy, including business professionals, educators, and cullinary and nutrition experts. This group helped evolve the concept that extended the business concept beyond prepared foods to go, into healthy cooking classes, a healthy in-store "experience," and healthy grocery.
Didn't disappoint!! I was so excited. It was just what I was looking for - a place with a quick salad. The salad I got was mixed greens with chickens, almond, blue cheese, and a homemade dressing (made with ff sour cream, ff yogurt, dill, and hot sauce - interesting and good!). And I got a Metro Mint water - cherry mint, which I've never seen before. Tasty.
I was a happy camper. I mean, how on earth did I just happen to stumble across this place?!
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
Dumbbell Squats - 2x15x40e, 1x12x40e
I forgot I was supposed to reduce reps.
Seated Row - 2x15x80, 1x12x70 (tiiiiired)
The water cooler was right behind me & I kept bumping it with my elbow. Really annoying when trying to exert force but not hit things.
Not bad, but a little limiting given the "gym" in the hotel. At least they had one, however, and the dumbbells went all the way up to 50 pounds.
I had a dream last night I was under 20% body fat and my stomach was super flat. I kept feeling my stomach because it was just skin then muscle and felt so cool. :p
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
Here are my comparisons from Feb 10 to Aug 2.
Pretty dramatic changes in my midsection.
I'm not sure I took measurements correctly in February (I'm pretty sure I didn't at my waist since I was doing it at the narrowest point instead of at my navel)
Feb:
Weight: 150.6
Bust - 36"
Natural waist - 29.5"
Hip - 38"
Right thigh - 21.5"
Aug:
Weight: 142.0
Bust - 35"
Natural waist - 28.5"
Hip - 37.5"
Right thigh - 20"
I know I've lost more than a half inch on my hips and more than an inch on my waist. Oh well - I think the pictures speak for themselves anyway.
First picture is about 3 weeks into NR4W. 2nd picture is after NR4W and two weeks into NROL Fat Loss I.
sorry about the shadows on this one. I was in a hurry this morning and will fix that next time. And I need to work on my side shot, as you can see my left arm as well, preventing an accurate profile of my torso.
here's one for future reference. I've noticed an increase in the imbalance between my right & left sides, especially in my delts. So, I'm going to work on this through the rest of the year.
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
I thought, shortly after posting those, that these pictures reflect an eight pound difference. It really hit me then that all this time I've been focusing on probably the LEAST effective mechanism for tracking my progress and bodily changes - my weight!
I'm too lazy to measure circumference all the time, and my accuracy isn't that great either. I need to just focus on my healthy eating and my workouts and I'll make progress. When I started this, I never would have thought that 142 pounds looked like that.
I feel a little better now about not being as close to 135 as I am, given that it'd be another 7 pounds from where I am and it took a damn long time to lose those 8. So if by Christmas I'm down to 135, I would be around 20% body fat maybe, and probably a size 4-6. That's small enough for me.
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
Hey DM - you look awesome! I think the back shot shows a LOT of improvement (as do all of them)...
I know what you mean about the weight... I have to note in my log that the changes in my pics are only 7#... Hmmmmm... Even DH said it looks like more than that. I'd say your pics also look like a lot more than 8# difference!
Wow, those changes are huge. that really inspires me. I need to go back and read everything here. I read the first few pages and then jumped to the end.
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Vickie
Momma to Joel (6) and Sean (5)
Wife to John for 10 years
I am going to stop myself from feeling bad about slow progress on the scale but celebrate any movement downward. This morning I weighed in at 141.8 pounds. *celebrate*
138 pounds is the lowest I've ever seen on the scale in my adult lifetime, during my 6 month starving-college-student-diet when I was 20 (hell, for as long as I can remember - I was 145 in 7th grade).
I'm confident I can get to 140 by my birthday, which would be a *fabulous* birthday present to myself. I was thinking about buying myself a new bikini to celebrate (the pink one I have is now a little big in the top) but 1) the bikinis on the racks now suck pretty hardcore, and 2) I never go to the pool so what am I going to do with 2 bikinis?
I may do a beer-related tank top, or maybe a red Lacrosse polo shirt. oooh. So many decisions.
I need a couple more work shirts, since about 2/3 of the ones I do have are too big for me now and look silly. I'm thinking about going shopping today... I dunno. None of my bras fit anymore, though my most recent two are close. There is a bunch of room at the top of the cups, though, so I suspect I've gone down in cup size. SAY IT AINT SO. If only I could take some of my thigh fat and move it up to my chest.
----
I am starting to see now that my stubborn fat is NOT in my midsection. I have fat there, but it is going away and I'm getting quite a bit of definition in my upper abdomen and my back. I've lost 1.5" on my thighs, but there's still relatively NO definition on my thighs. NONE! Sometimes after my workouts my quads are bulging, but there's still no definition.
Oh well. Soon enough. Here is what I'm thinking in the coming year:
1. finish up NROL fat loss (all stages) while doing a diet closer to precision nutrition than I've been doing.
2. Do Ultimate Diet 2.0 or intermittent fasting to get to a bf% of 18-20%
3. Once I'm pretty lean, up my calories tremendously and do Starting Strength to build muscle and strength.
I reserve the right to change this at any time.
It should be a fun experiment. Frustrating and hard, yes. But interesting as well.
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
Thank you thank you!! I'm feeling pretty good about those deads. I was aware of my form on every lift to make sure I wasn't lifting too much, but I did well - my form was great (as far as I could tell). I had to pause about 2/3 of the way through my 3rd set, for maybe 15 seconds or so, to catch my breath. Felt good, though, and my hams are a bit tight today as a result.
I bought myself a new bra yesterday and wore it today. WHAT a difference when you're wearing the right cup size. It feels so much better.
Weighed in at 141.0 this morning. So.... I was 144.4 one week ago... 3.4 pounds in one week? I guess I was retaining water like a mo fo. Started my period Friday so I guess that explains the big drop. If only that happened every time! :-P
Today's eats:
1. egg white omelet, veg, ham
2. Can of tuna with veggies & lettuce & mustard and 3oz sugar snap peas
3. 3oz baby carrots and 1/2 cup cottage cheese with 1/4 cup wild blueberries
4. my own creation - 3.5oz chicken breast (diced) with 1/2 can diced tomatoes, 2/3 cup frozen green beans, 1/4 cup diced onion, some oregano + basil + garlic. Presto, dinner. And a gin & diet tonic. BECAUSE I WANTED ONE.
I will likely have a delicious protein shake for an evening snack, maybe with real peanut butter (instead of PB2) since my fat intake was pretty low today.
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
I’ve been feeling worn out ever since I went to Texas. I also think I’ve got some sort of allergy/sinus/virus type thing going on, as I’ve been mildly congested and sniffly since my flight to Dallas. The heat probably has something to do with it as well – it’s been in the 90s - 100s for the past week and around 105-110 with the heat index. So, I’m taking an exercise break. I’ve gone on a few walks the past few days and my most recent workout was Sunday. I’ll probably just resume next week.
I’m feeling worn out & tired and I think my body’s telling me to get some rest – I went to bed at 9:30 last night and when I woke up this morning, I was STILL tired. After I got home from work last night, all I did was sit in front of the TV… for three hours. I also realized yesterday that I haven’t had a full exercise break in months and have been neglecting my need to do so. I didn’t take a break between NR4W and NROL – not a real one anyway. An extra day off doesn’t count.
Still eating healthy, though. Just resting my body. I think it needs it.
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
I’m feeling worn out & tired and I think my body’s telling me to get some rest – I went to bed at 9:30 last night and when I woke up this morning, I was STILL tired. After I got home from work last night, all I did was sit in front of the TV… for three hours. I also realized yesterday that I haven’t had a full exercise break in months and have been neglecting my need to do so. I didn’t take a break between NR4W and NROL – not a real one anyway. An extra day off doesn’t count.
Still eating healthy, though. Just resting my body. I think it needs it.
I think it probably does too. These are signs I sometimes miss and tend to ignore as well. If your workouts are keeping you from doing other things in life then it probably is time for a break. Enjoy your break, NROL will be there once you're nice and rested!
And, having this keeps me accountable. 
)
You really get into the things you're interested in and learn a lot and then you become hard on yourself for not adhering to best practices. Maybe this contributes to losing perspective and maybe some specific, realistic, achievable, measurable, time oriented goals would help. It takes dedication to be so committed and we all know that you can't get anywhere valuable in life w/o being dedicated.
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