Ruthie's NROLW log

[Ruthie]

Hi

I've hesitated about keeping a public log and the reason is because I know that I often fall down on the diet side of things and I don't want to have to admit it to everyone. But then I figured that I'm giving myself an excuse to get away with it if I don't post, so I'm hoping this will help to keep me on the straight and narrow.

I am pretty good at sticking to the workouts. I have been exercising regularly at home for 6 years and I am in the habit of it now and I miss it if I don't do it. For the last 2-3 years I have been doing mostly Cathe Friedrich dvds including strength training but I liked the idea of a program to follow and a less cardio-orientated approach since I enjoy lifting.

Here are my starting measurements:
Height 5ft 5 ins
Weight 149lbs
Bodyfat determined by calipers 26.7%
Neck 32.5cm
Shoulders 99cm
Chest 89cm
Bicep 29cm
Forearm 24cm
Waist 80cm
Thigh 60.5cm
Calf 38cm

Sorry that the weights are in imperial and the measurements in metric. I'm English and we do a mixture of everything here for measuring. You will also find that my dumbells are all in kg but my barbell is in pounds .

I started NROLW a couple of weeks ago so I did Workout A4 on Monday.

Here is what I did for A4:
Warm-up - intro to Cathe's Muscle Max
Squats
Warm-up set of 10 @35lbs
1 x 12 61lbs
1 x 12 66lbs

Alternating sets
Push-ups
2 x 12 bodyweight standard push-ups (although they tend to get shallower towards the end of the set)
Seated Row
1 x 12 27kg + 4lbs handweights (my machine goes up in 9kg increments which is too big a jump for me so I have been balancing handweights on top, though this is going to reach a limit soon)
1x12 27kg + 6lbs handweights

Alternating sets
Step-up
using a high step with five risers
2 x 12 (2x9kg)

Prone Jackknife
2 x 10 - I am working on turning these into pikes , I can get about halfway up at the moment

Stretch from Muscle max

Today I did an interval step workout - the first five intervals of Cathe's IMAX-2, which isn't that hard. Tbh I could have easily managed it to the end but I am being cautious about overdoing the cardio.

In terms of food, I am not specifically following the plan in the book. I try to have 5-6 small meals a day.
A good day looks like this:

Breakfast: 1 bowl porridge oats mixed with wheatgerm and wheatbran, mixed with 3 chopped dried apricots, 1 tablespoon linseeds, some sweetener and 3-4 tbsp natural yoghurt.

Post-workout (midmorning): 1 homemade wholemeal seeded roll with chicken, roasted peppers and aubergines, tomatoes.

Lunch : bowl of leek and pea soup. Piece of chicken/fish. Half and apple and some low fat hummous.

Mid-afternoon: Homemade wholemeal scone.

Dinner: something like fish and vegetables or casserole and vegetables.

Evening: cottage cheese with some chopped dried fruit.

I mostly drink water, liquorice tea, green tea and about two to three cups of ordinary tea (I'm English!!).

However I struggle with my diet. I can resist chocolate and candy quite easily. But I have two sons and I make stuff for them and I pick at it a lot. I might make them a crumble for pudding and I have a couple of spoonfuls or they don't finish their toast and I eat the leftovers. Plus I have a real weakness for butter. I am trying not to have it in the house and when I do to have cheap stuff that doesn't taste that nice. The other thing I absolutely have to have is my Saturday evening "off" with a take away and a couple of drinks.

Anyway, that's me. Thanks for listening.

Ruth

[DanceDiva]

Hi Ruth (and welcome),

I go to a gym that uses kg plates, however, since I don't calculate in metric, I use an on-line calculator and do the conversion. So to others, the weight listed in my log seems strange.

I used to live in England and would love to be eating Cadbury's chocolate on a regular basis. I also learned to enjoy tea with milk during tea break.

Your good day looks good -- does it fill you up/leave you satisfied? Looks like if you are able to reign in the additional calories from your children's meals that would make a noticeable difference. I also love butter, but I'm not willing to substitute for it. Instead, I gradually weaned myself from using salad dressing.

Tracey

[Ruthie]

Thanks for your encouragement Tracey . Yes I usually don't feel too hungry after I have eaten the above. I do tend to crave carbs after a few days of it though even though there are some included. I have a very sweet tooth for cakes / scones etc. I've realised that actually on the machine, the plates are 4.5kg which is the same as 10lbs so it would be easier to put those weights in lbs. So on the rows my weights would be 64lbs and 66lbs. Also my barbell weighs 6lbs by itself which is why my squats /deadlifts look like funny numbers. A kg = 2.2lbs for anyone wondering what my numbers mean.

I did Workout B4 today. Warm-up and stretch from Muscle Max again.

Deadlift
W-up 8 x 30lbs
2 x 12 61lbs

Alternating sets
Dumbell shoulder press
W-up 8 x 5lbs
2 x 12 5kg

Wide grip lat pulldown
1 x 12 66lbs
1 x 12 64lbs

Alternating sets
Lunge
2x 12 (2x9kg)

Swiss ball crunch
1 x 10 6kg dumbell held over head and with feet on high step (4 risers)
1 x 10 7kg dumbell held over head and with feet on high step (4 risers)

I am having trouble making the Swiss ball crunch feel like hard work. I don't know if it's because my form is poor or what.

I have stuck to my "good day" diet format so far today.

Ruth

[Ruthie]

Today I didn't do any "formal" exercise, but went for a longish walk (about 6 miles) as my husband has the week off work and it was nice to go out somewhere while the kids were at school. About halfway round I started to really feel my glutes and hamstrings probably from all those deadlifts.


Didn't take much food with us so only had an apple as midmorning snack but managed to prevent myself pigging out on toast or something as soon as I got home and have done pretty well foodwise today again.

I think I will probably have tomorrow off completely and let my legs recover ready for lifting on Saturday.

Ruth

[gregl515]

Welcome Ruthie!

[Ruthie]

Thanks Greg.

I have taken today off, although traipsed round the shops buying clothes with my husband. That feels harder than a lot of exercise sometimes .

[mel]

HI Ruthie,

Welcome to logging! The accountability is Such a great thing, as is the encouragement.

One comment about the nutrition. Have you thought about tracking your calories and macros on a program like fitday.com? A lifting program like this is going to be more beneficial if the nutrition is on point. It's just nice to know, sometimes, exactly what is going in.

mel

[Ruthie]

Hi Mel

I have tried tracking my calories in the past but I find it takes so much time. However I haven't tried Fitday, I just did it myself in Excel. A lot of what I eat is home-made so it takes longer working out the ingredients all separately and then when I cook it again, I have to remember to measure all the ingredients the same etc. Perhaps I am making heavy weather of it though - I will look at Fitday and see if it helps.

The other thing is that I get quite easily discouraged when I don't see results and do the classic thing of "well it doesn't work when I eat properly so I might as well eat what I want." I'm not making excuses - I know that's not good reasoning and a mentality that I need to get out of.
Again I hope the accountability will help me with this because it looks stupid when I write it down and isn't going to fool anyone on here .

Ruth

[Ruthie]

Today I did Workout 5A in stage 1.

Warm-up and stretch from Muscle Max.

Squats
warm-up set 8 reps at 30lbs
warm-up set 6 reps at 45lbs
3 x 10 sets at 60lbs

Alternating sets of:
Push-ups
3 x 10 full push-ups

and

Seated row
set 1: 10 at 60lbs
set 2: 10 at 68lbs
set 3: 10 at 72lbs

Alternating sets of:
Step-up
set 1: 10 with 2x 9kg dumbells
sets2&3: 10 with 2 x 9kg dumbells + 1lbs wrist weights

and

Prone jackknife
3 x 12 (though middle set might have been 10 because I forgot I was doing 12!)
These were a mixture of sort of half pikes, and standard jackknifes. I found them a bit of a struggle today, especially the last set.

I am always better with the step-ups on my left leg, balance seems a lot better.

I had planned to go higher in weight with the squats but it all seemed a bit hard today.

Still doing okay with the food, but tonight my husband and I always get a take-away, it's our evening "off". I don't know if I can really get away with it or if it is undoing all my good work for the week, but I will see.

I had a look at Fitday. I think it looks quite good, although being English a lot of the brands etc are likely to be different. Plus you all measure everything in cups! I need grams or at least pounds and oz! But I have got a lot of my own data on excel spreadsheets so I think I could adapt it when I get time.

Ruth

[Ruthie]

Yesterday was a rest day. I had thought of squeezing half an hour of cardio in evening but there wasn't enough time.

This morning I did workout B5.

Warm-up and stretch was Muscle Max again.

Deadlift
Warm-up 8x 36lbs, 5x 51lbs.

1 x 10 61lbs.
2 x 10 66lbs.

Alternating sets of:
Dumbell shoulder press
Warm-up 8 x 3kg.
1 x 8 6kg dumbells. (couldn't finish this set)
2 x 10 6kg dumbells.

and

Wide grip lat pulldown
Warm-up 8 x 40lbs
1 x 10 68lbs
1 x 10 72lbs
1 x 10 76lbs

Alternating sets of:
Lunges
1 x 10 (9kgx2)
2 x 10 (10kgx2)

and

Swiss ball crunch
feet on high step, arms out over head holding dumbell
12 x 7kg
12 x 7kg
12 x 8kg

I have always found shoulder presses really difficult and seem to need to go much lighter than everyone else compared to the other weights I am using. I have done many of these following dvds over the last couple of years so it's not as if I haven't had plenty of practice, but I never seem to gain strength. So I am trying to push myself further with this one, hence the incomplete first set. It actually felt easier on the last two sets, whether it was because I was properly warmed up or because I wasn't fatigued from warming up I'm not sure.

Still don't feel happy with my Swiss ball crunches. Just don't really feel like I am working that hard.

10kg (22lbs) is the biggest dumbell I have, so not really sure to go with lunges from here. I have 2lb and 1lb wrist weights so I suppose I can add a bit on there. What does anyone think about doing the lunges with a barbell?

[Ruthie]

Yesterday was a rest day, well sort of - I spent a good deal of it working out how to build a living willow dome in the garden. More mental energy than physical .

Today I did Workout 6A from Stage 1.

Usual warm up and stretch.

Squat
3 x 10 71lbs

Alternating sets of
Push-up
3 x 10 full push-up

and

Seated row
1 x 10 68lbs
1 x 10 72lbs
1 x 10 76lbs

Alternating sets of
Step-up
Increased step height by 2in to 16in
1 x 10 (2 x 7kg)
2 x 10 (2 x 8kg)

and

Prone jackknife
3 x 12 - "half pikes", still working on this...

Slight nutrition blip in that my oldest son's school invited parents to have school dinner with them today, so I had to eat what I was given. There was quite a lot of carbohydrate, but the rice was brown and it was directly after my workout so I think it shouldn't be a problem.

[marygrace]

Hey Ruth, it looks like your workouts are going great! Don't sweat some brown rice once in a while, especially if you had it right after a workout! The carbs will help you recover. Keep it up!

[Ruthie]

Thanks MaryGrace. It was quite a nice dinner especially considering it was a school one!

[Ruthie]

Today I did a half hour step workout which had three "intensity blasts" in it. Then I was back out in the garden shifting compost from the front to the back of the house which involved quite a lot of shovelling (felt that in my abs!) and wheelbarrow pushing, so hopefully burned off a few calories there also.

[Ruthie]

Today I did 30min of HIIT on the exercise bike. I did 7 x 1min intervals with 2min in between.

I am pleased with myself that I have been sticking pretty well to "clean" eating since I started this log (with the exception of Sat night), although I am not tracking my food intake yet. I keep meaning to, but never get round to it. I am still hoping I can get by without it I think.

[kfisherx]

Welcome to the log Ruthie and your workouts look pretty good. I second the advice that you get a better knowledge on your food intake by using a program to help you track. You may find some things that will help you conquer the food issue.

[Ruthie]

Yes I know that once I get the information entered then it should be reasonably straightforward to keep a food log. It's just getting round to that first bit. Also sometimes I just think life's too short!

Today I did Workout B6.

Deadlift
2 x 10 at 66lbs
1 x 10 at 71lbs

Alternating sets of
Dumbell shoulder press
1 x 8 at 6kg
2 x 10 at 6kg

and

Wide grip lat pulldown
3 x 10 at 76lbs

Alternating sets of
Lunges
3 x 10 10kg in each hand

and

Swiss ball crunch
feet on step
3 x 10 8kg dumbell behind head


I tried doing a lighter warm-up (8x 5lbs) on the shoulder press but it still seems to fatigue me so that I can't manage the first full set. Next time I might skip the warm up altogether.

I think I might drop the weights slightly next time on the lat pulldown, I don't think my form was that good and I was struggling.

Ruth

[MuscleMom23]

Hi Ruthie, I log in a little monthly calender book. I write down everything. At least I know and can go back and say BAH! That is why I wasn't getting anywhere LOL! I am going to start logging in a program tho. So many of my things are recipes. Sparkpeople has a recipe calculator. I had to measure better but then I have it. I am FINALLY getting everything logged after here and there attempts.

I relate to the food issue tho. This really helps me!