So... I've read NR4W and lurked here for a couple of weeks at least and have discovered that there are a couple of things about me:
- I don't know nearly as much about nutrition as I thought I did
- Holy crap, my calories are too low for what I'm doing and I'm sabotaging myself
So after going back & forth for a couple of days on whether I should do a log (do I create a thread that's ALL ABOUT ME!! or do I just kinda read through what others are posting and cower in their impressive achievements), I decided to go ahead.
About me:
Moved out to KC in July '07 from Portland OR and love it out here (as an ex-vegetarian, I have learned the joys of KC BBQ). I'm 32, 5'6", and have struggled with my weight pretty much since puberty. Went through high school around 165-170, college around 175 with a drop to 135 and back up to ~185 at graduation...
At my max, I weighed 215. That was around Christmas of 2001. Over the next couple of years I lost a bunch of weight (cardio + weight machines at the gym) and got down to about 155... I've maintained a 148 - 160 weight since then and am now around 150. I ran two half-marathons in 2007 and loved it. But I'm not as strong as I'd like to be.
I love beer and I miss it (I used to have about 2 per day and today I'm having my first beer of the year, and drink #5 of the year). I love Belgian and craft beer and still miss the taste of it. I don't even care about the alcohol. If only I could get a "Beer Zero" that tasted like a Rogue Juniper Ale or a Stone Arrogant Bastard, I'd be set. I've been subbing Crystal Light in my evenings instead. Not the same, but it's something to drink. But, my health and strength is more important to me than a beer so... here I am.
Stuff I'm excited about:
Well, that's related to the forum anyway.
I bought a Sports Nutrition book that seems to agree with NR4W and explains in depth stuff I've never really understood or had a chance to learn. Things like glycogen storage and ATP/ADP and what sodium & potassium do to water with your muscle cells, etc. It's pretty interesting.
In ummm (counting...) 4 NR4W workouts, I can visually see a difference in my arms, pecs, and shoulders. I can't wait to see what happens in June. I keep telling myself I should take a before picture... Last summer, I was in decent shape and bought (and wore!!) a bikini for the first time. I have had 2 dreams about wearing that bikini since starting NR4W. I wonder what's on my mind.
Workouts:
My boyfriend turned me on to NR4W and I've been a convert. At home, we have power blocks and TODAY just bought an olympic weight set. Squats just with the bar are SO much easier! I immediately felt a difference in how much more limited my right side (which frequently tries to dominate) was in comparison to my left. And how much more weight I could lift.
After Christmas, I weighed in at 155 and am now at 150.6 (and 2% BF lighter) after a month of cycling (indoor) and my-own-program weight lifting. I started NR4W recently and do my lifting on MWF, with cycle intervals on TRSa. Sundays off. Tomorrow I do Stage 1 A3.
Purpose:
I have two purposes in maintaining a log:
Track my nutrition. Right now, I take in about 1500 calories a day and get full doing so. It seems like so much food going more than that, and I feel "wrong" eating when I'm not hungry. So I have to figure out ways to up my caloric intake, especially since I'm working out 6 days a week. I get pretty good ratios on the macros, though, and my protein tends to be around 125g per day. I could probably up that a bit. I would love any input in this arena. I get bored with food quickly... for example, eating cottage cheese every day for a snack gets tiring after a week or so.
Track my progress. I feel pretty good when I look back and see something I've written that looks like "wow I ran 2 miles today without stopping!" when I can run 10 miles without stopping. I keep paper logs of my workouts but those don't track the context or mood or emotions of the day/workout.
As usual, I'm being extremely verbose so I'll stop here.
Currently, my scale says I'm 32.5% body fat which I'm not sure I believe. But, let's go by my scale since it's at least consistent between my weekly weigh-ins. I'd like to get down to maybe 135 pounds ish, and about 20-22% body fat.
Workout: Phase I, A3
Squats: 2x12 @ 45lbs (PR!)
Pushups: 2x10 @ 25% angle or so. I completely suck at pushups so I'm looking forward to being able to do these from the floor! (I could at one time...)
Bent-over rows: 2x12 @ 50lbs (25lbs each hand and a PR!)
Step-ups: 2x12 @ 40lbs (20lbs each hand and a PR!)
Prone Jackknife: 2x10... my first set felt kind of easy so I should have done an alteration to it (someone linked to one where you basically put your butt up in the air with toes on the ball). Come the 2nd set, not so easy.
As RedWifey would put it, I felt vomitastic after my workout. bleh! I mean, YAY!
Oh! Another goal I have is to be able to squat my bodyweight by the end of the year. So I'm thinking, if I'm down to 135 and pretty strong (which I will be!), I should be able to squat an oly bar with 2 45lb weights.
I'm right there with you on the beer. Usually, the time to drink a beer or two is a time when I'd interfere with a workout or something else fun, so I just pass. I love beer for the taste.
I struggled with my weight all my life, until 5 years ago. Something clicked and here I am. Weights and eating right are the tools for me, trying to stay happy is the way for me. Hand in hand.
Yeah, I need to get a body tape measure, and we've talked about getting some calipers (the BF is also working out, but waiting until our power rack comes before he starts NROL).
LD, the book is "The Complete Guide to Sports Nutrition" by Anita Bean. It's British but there isn't much in there that is different or foreign (she does mention kilojoules but sticks to kcal).
I'm at about 1150 calories today so far and already had dinner. Maaaaaaaan. I had the oatmeal for breakfast, almonds for a snack, chicken breast + ww roll + salad for lunch, plum for a snack (small, I know), and a big bowl of chicken black bean soup for dinner. I told myself I'd strive for 2000 cals on my lifting days and today was a lifting day so I have 850 calories to go. *cry* I think I'll make myself a protein smoothie or something for my evening snack. I've already had 109g of protein today though...
... for someone with ~30% body fat and 150 pounds, how much protein should I be getting? If I go by body weight, 150g - but I assume my fat doesn't need protein, so shouldn't I be getting about 100g (since 100# of my body weight is non-fat)?
This whole "eating healthy" thing has really made it hard to get my calories in. Beer and pub fries and potato chips would be really helpful in this arena if they weren't so damn bad for me.
... for someone with ~30% body fat and 150 pounds, how much protein should I be getting? If I go by body weight, 150g - but I assume my fat doesn't need protein, so shouldn't I be getting about 100g (since 100# of my body weight is non-fat)?
I don't think there's any magic number that's perfect. 100 to 136g of protein all will work. That's about 144 calories of slop calories to pull from elsewhere. "Empty" carbs would be my choice. For me, anyway, I'd rather have 144 calories of chicken or something and skip a portion of bread. But, it shouldn't make or break you, either way.
So yesterday I had 1570 calories and tonight I'm up to 1544 before my evening snack. Getting better...
My breakdown for today so far looks like...
Fat 23.45%
Carbs 44.93%
Protein 31.62%
Probably need to up the fat....?
Yesterday I did HIIT on the bike - 20 minutes total - 3 minute warmup, 30s @ 90%, 90s rest.
I did P1 B3 today and upped my weights for every single exercise. Yay!
deadlifts - 2x12 @ 65lbs
shoulder press - 2x12 @ 15e
pullover (instead of the lat pulldown) - 2 x 12 @ 10e (even a week ago, I was dying at 5lbs in each hand, so yay!)
lunges - 2x12 @ 15e (I really want to improve this by quite a bit - 15lb dumbbells seems so... puny!)
swiss ball crunches 2x10
Slowly but surely... and all PRs (well, minus the crunches)
Last edited by DirtyMartini : 02-06-2008 at 06:57 PM.
my intervals sucked this morning! After my 1st interval I couldn't catch my breath & got all dizzy... I calmed down after about 2 minutes & did the rest of my workout a little less "high intensity" than I normally do, and cut my time by 5 minutes. So disappointing, but I've been tired lately and I didn't want to over-do it.
Weighed in this morning (thursday ritual). .2 pounds less but half a % less body fat (.8 pounds of fat) so I guess that's a good thing. Sometimes I feel like I'll never get rid of this little lump of belly fat (who, me, impatient?!!).
I wanted to say hi as I'm also from KC. I live in Roeland Park and workout at the Golds Gym off of I35 and Shawnee Mission Pkwy. I'm sure you know where it is.
Sounds like you are workout out at home though.
I'm enjoying NROL4W myself. Good luck with your workouts.
Weighed in this morning (thursday ritual). .2 pounds less but half a % less body fat (.8 pounds of fat) so I guess that's a good thing. Sometimes I feel like I'll never get rid of this little lump of belly fat (who, me, impatient?!!).
I feel that way all the time. It's been about 5 years of losing weight, over here.
My advice is to not let yourself get too frustrated and to set long term goals that allow you to have short term breaks. You might want to take a dieting break and work on strength or endurance events, for instance. Guys want to get bigger, but not all women want that.
It's been something of a roller coaster over the past three years, in particular. All in all, I'm heavier now (185 vs 160) than three years back, yet I'm a lot leaner than I was three years ago, too.
Thanks. Yeah, about 3 years ago I was about 145-148 pounds, but I panted just to lift my bike over a small fence. I much prefer being stronger. And, at work, I was pretty proud of myself to go up 4 flights of stairs without losing my breath. I know it's because of my training.
Yesterday I had a pretty good workout. I did A4 in phase 1 and did squats with 25lb dumbbells - my best yet. I think we're going to switch to the evenings because working out at 6am isn't the best. I know that I shouldn't be working out on an empty stomach but I am. And I'm sure that is affecting the quality of my workouts as well as the amount of progress I'm able to make. Plus I'm cranky in the mornings.
Today I'm going to take all my measurements & some pictures. It's early enough in the workout still to do my "before" pictures I think.
I wanted to say hi as I'm also from KC. I live in Roeland Park and workout at the Golds Gym off of I35 and Shawnee Mission Pkwy. I'm sure you know where it is.
Sounds like you are workout out at home though.
I'm enjoying NROL4W myself. Good luck with your workouts.
Thanks, and you too! I know where that gym is, roughly. I work out in Shawnee & take S-M parkway back & forth every day (I live in waldo).
John (bf) and I were just talking tonight about how one goes about making "fitness friends" and I thought about Golds gym maybe being less of a cardio-bunny hangout and more of people into weights. Or, maybe I am too persuaded by logo marketing. Anyway, so then I thought of your post.
We do work out at home - we've got quite the setup going now ... a home gym is something John has wanted to do for a while, and now that we're out of apartment life we finally can.
Today was 25 minutes of intervals on the bike, bookended by 3 minutes of warmup/meltdown I pushed myself harder today on the bike than usual and as a result my body was gasping for oxygen. I guess one good thing about working from home is that I don't look like a complete lame-ass in public.
We tracked our diets pretty tediously this week, making sure we're on target as well as curiosity and keeping the macros where they should be. My fiber intake needs improvement (this is the not-so-fun part of increasing protein intake, I guess) but otherwise I think I'm ok.
Our giant bags of trueprotein came today and I *love* the french vanilla flavor. I can't wait until the cake batter flavor comes out.
My weekly averages (sun - sat) look like this:
Calories 1664.23
Fat 23.92%
Carbs 42.74%
Protein 31.18%
Still low on calories, but I did hit a 1900 calorie day on Thursday which was cause for celebration. I STILL have that little voice in my head telling me to cut calories and that I'm going to get fat again, but I am learning that peanut butter usually makes it shut up pretty quickly.
OK Finally! Here are my measurements:
Bust - 36"
Natural waist - 29.5"
Hip - 38"
Right thigh - 21.5"
Right arm - 11"
When I started this, I was 150.4 pounds and (according to my scale, which I think is wrong) 33.5% body fat. It now says I'm 150.4 pounds and 32% body fat. The change in % means more to me than actual percent, and we got some body fat calipers to help measure progress.
I should have made a really sad face, like you typically see on those "before" pictures. LOL @ thighs. Still have runners' tan there.
Anyway, this is me on 2/10/08. I look thinner in these pictures than I feel, which is always a weird feeling. This is my $7 Nike bikini I bought last summer. I wore it briefly, when I was in pretty good shape after training for a half. Then I pigged out on beer & burgers all summer and went back to my ill-fitting 1-piece. pff! So by this summer, I plan to look damn sexy in this little number again.
I hate that roll of belly fat! It grosses me out and is the LAST place I lose weight, and the first place it goes when I gain. My breasts are the first place I lose weight in, and the last place I gain. I'd much rather have it the other way around, kthx.
I did my B4 workout yesterday and DAMNIT i think I must have lost my concentration for a teeny tiny second while doing deadlifts. I was lifting 30lb dumbbells, my heaviest yet, and all seemed well. I woke up this morning & my lower back hurt. I focus pretty heavily when I do squats & deadlifts because I'm so nervous about my form & my back. Apparently I spaced out or something. It's a tiny bit sore tonight but not very much. We moved books & bookcases over the weekend, so that could have been it. I don't know.
I did cycling intervals this morning and my A5 workout is tomorrow morning. I'm nervous about my back, but am going to listen to it and heed its warnings. Hopefully it's nothing and my workout will be just fine.
I've been doing better on my calories!! I got around 1900 the other day and got I think about 1800 today. I know it's still low but it's better than the 1400-1500 I was eating just a couple of weeks ago. I've been working on upping my fiber.
Sunday I made some oat bran banana muffins which turned out FANTASTIC. Cooks.com - Recipe - Banana Oat Bran Muffins (I omitted the nuts & only used 1Tbsp of oil instead of 2). They've got I think about 11g of fiber each.
I'm getting kind of bored with the workouts. They're still TOUGH and I keep upping the weight, I am just looking forward to learning/doing some new exercises
I've also been kinda tired lately (which I'm sure has an impact on form). I started a new job last week (which I LOVE) so I'm sure that has some effect on me. I've been extra cranky lately (vs mildly cranky, lol) which is an indication of being tired...
One more thing - I NEVER thought I would ever post pictures of myself in a bikini on the internet. :p
I forgot we went to 3 sets with w/o #5 so I was in for a bit of a surprise this morning when I looked at my paper log. D'oh.
Didn't feel any pain in my back at all so maybe I slept on it weird the other night.
squats: 3x10 @ 30lbs each
pushups: 3x10 @ 30deg (off the weights bench)
bent over row: 1x8 @ 35lbs each, 2x10 @30lbs each (I'll try 35 again next time!)
step-up: 3x10 @ 25lbs each (what's amazing to me is that I used to walk around with more than this amount of weight on me - good lord!)
prone jackknife: 3x12
Our power rack is coming some time soon; it'll be nice to do squats with a bar instead of dumbbells. 30lb dumbbells are hard to hold up by my shoulders; I find I get arm fatigue as well as hamstring & quad fatigue...
Weekly weigh-in today. Same bf% and lost .2 pounds. So, the next step is to look at calories... I'm eating around 1800-1900 per day lately thinking that the NROL4W book suggested I eat around 2000 or so and I was getting close.
That'll teach me to run the numbers in my head.
My RMR is 1285. According to NROL4W on page 65, I'm burning about 2313 calories on my workout days (which are 6 times per week). And if I want to eat about 30% protein, that's about 173g of protein per day...
...That's a lot of fiber.
OK so... time to really change the diet. I should be eating at least 2300 calories 6 days a week, and 2050 on my days off. It's a lot harder to get all these macro requirements than I thought it would be.
Yesterday I pigged out and had baby back ribs for dinner, and a beer (Duchesse de Bourgogne - one of my all-time favorites). No calorie concerns yesterday.
The man and I are talking about doing TNT and will likely start next week. I think that will help me out a little bit. I'm still a little carbalicious in my diet (about 45% of my calories) and even though I try to avoid all heavily processed foods, I still like things like beans and potatoes and carrots and yogurt. (well, and beer of course, but that's mostly been put aside for the next several months.)
Workout this morning: Phase I, B5
deadlifts - 3x10lbs @ 35e (PR). I think these will be my last deadlifts with dumbbells. shoulder press - 1x9 @ 25e, 1x6 @25e (more like 1x5.5), 1x10 @20e ... obviously started out w too much weight. pullover - 3 x 10 @ 10e ... I thought I might try 15lb dumbbells this morning. When I laid down on the weights bench and put my arms up/back, my left arm just kept going down down down... totally cracked myself up. I'll try 12.5lbs next time. lunges - 3x10 @ 25e. I thought I was going to puke. swiss ball crunches - 3x12. I did my 2nd set & thought it was too easy and that I should add weights, but by the time it was time for my 3rd set, my abs were so tired that I decided to do it for B6.
So far, I think squats are my favorites. Step-ups are my least favorite, blech.
Tenacious DM and the Log of Destiny
for thematic elements, some sensuality, brief language and incidental smoking
I focus pretty heavily when I do squats & deadlifts because I'm so nervous about my form & my back. Apparently I spaced out or something. It's a tiny bit sore tonight but not very much. We moved books & bookcases over the weekend, so that could have been it. I don't know.
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