Marty's Training Log

[marthand99]

I started lifting weights about two months ago. My goal was to maintain my weight while trying to get over an issue with compulsive exercise. I've been an obsessive runner for two years, and kept having to run more and more to maintain my weight. I was hoping weight lifting could be a more efficient form of exercise that would allow me to maintain my weight without spending two hours a day running.

When I started lifting, I already liked my body. I didn't want to change anything, just maintain - just more efficiently. This has been a real struggle for me. Now I realize that if I build muscle I'm going to get bigger. (Duh.) If I don't want that to happen I have to cut, too. I've really struggled with this and am just sort of going with the flow now. I like seeing my new muscles, but I don't like my pants not fitting.

I am following NRL4W, but I fell on my ass on some ice a week and a half ago and bruised my tailbone. As it's painful to deadlift my dog's poop off the sidewalk right now, I've had to come up with the best gimped-out version of an Alwyn Cosgrove workout that I can. Basically, I can't pick stuff up off the ground. Lower body work not involving weights or jarring seems fine - I can squat without weight, but not lunge (if that makes sense). Hopefully I won't have to do this for much longer and can start Stage 2 like a normal person.

Yesterday's workout:

Cardio at lunch - 20 minutes HIIT on treadmill/elliptical (treadmill until my ass starting hurting, then I finished up on the elliptical); 25 minutes steady-state on elliptical

Weights after work (Gimped-Out Workout B):

A1 - One-Armed Dumbbell Snatch 10/15 10/15 10/15 (was to failure)

B1 - Dumbell Shoulder Press - 8/30 9/30 9/30 (was to failure)
B2 - YTWL (hate!) - 10/10 10/10 10/10

C1 - One-Legged Squat 10/BW 10/BW 10/BW
C2 - Long-armed Swiss Ball Crunch - 12/BW 12/BW 15/BW

D1 - Dumbbell Incline Bench Press 10/30 10/30 10/30
D2 - Plank 45 sec 55 sec 45 sec

And then I literally scraped myself up off the floor.

Food:

I eat a lot. Yesterday I clocked in at 2,650 calories (47%C/29%P/24%F), but I'm freaking hungry all the time. I tend to stare psychotically at the clock and count down the minutes until I can eat again.

7:30am - Morningstar fake sausage pattie, cottage cheese
10am - Fage 0% Yogurt, cup of mixed fruit (grapes, strawberries, pineapple)
1:30pm - Salad w/lots of veggies, a half egg and some tofu, whole wheat tortilla and 2 fake meat deli slices, cottage cheese, orange
4:00pm - Tuna cup, carrots and hummus, pear
6:30pm - half banana and Myloplex Lite shake (pre- and during-workout)
7:30pm - exact same thing (post-workout)
8:00pm - peanut butter and jelly sandwich on an English muffin, balance bar, couple of walnuts
10:30pm - apple, zone bar
1:30am (woke up starving, could not get back to sleep without food) - Atkins bar, cottage cheese, grapes and blueberries, tbsp of peanut butter

Clearly I need to work on the later part of the day. I don't know what to do about the nighttime eating thing; this never really happened until I started lifting. I generally only make it through one or two nights a week without having to get up and eat something. (And I'm already on Rozerum for an unrelated problem.)

I'm working on gradually adopting the Precision Nutrition 7 habits. I've got the eating every 2-3 hours down, and protein at every meal. I just got more or less on board with starchy carbs only post-workout, and now I'm working on veggies every meal. After this I will try to drop most processed foods (good-bye, Zone bars).

Progress:

I'm using a couple of things to monitor progress (or lack thereof) - currently waist measurement, Omron, and calipers. I do these every day to track trends. The scale still scares me, but I just realized that I need to weigh myself to get an accurate Omron measurement. (The Omron has been dropping but I realized I'm not factoring in any possible weight increases in water/lean mass/fat/whatever in it. I feel puffy and huge today so the drop didn't make sense to me.) Perhaps I can bring myself to weigh in one of these mornings.

Today -
Age - 30
Height - 5'3.5"
Weight - 135 I think
Waist - 29
Omron - 22.5%
Calipers - 10mm (whatever that is, I just don't want it to go up)

[marthand99]

Last night I finally got up the courage to weigh myself. Bad. Very bad. Even I can't convince myself that the ten pounds I've gained in the past two months are all muscle. Time to go on a goddamned diet. God, I feel like an idiot.

Yesterday's exercise:
30 minutes interval training on treadmill (not HIIT, but I wouldn't call it low intensity, either) - this sucked. My ass really hurt (tailbone issue) and my calves were tight.
20 minutes on bike, the last 4 minutes of which were 12/8 Tabatas intervals

Yesterday's food:
7:30am - Fake sausage pattie, 1/2 cup cottage cheese
10am - Greek yogurt, mixed blueberries and grapes, carrots
1:30pm - Spinach salad, 1/2 cup cottage cheese, small apple, whole wheat tortilla and 2 fake deli slices
4:30pm - Tuna cup, broccoli and cauliflower and hummus, medium apple
8pm - Egg/egg white omlette with spinach and mushrooms, 1/2 cube TJ's baked tofu, frozen banana, tbsp peanut butter
9:30pm - Zone bar

No night eating as I had just had the horrible experience of weighing myself and perferred to stay awake and starve.

1689 calories (34% P/41% C/24% F)

Progress Tracking:

Age: 30
Height: 5'3.5"
Weight: 143.6 (eek)
Omron: 25.1%
Waist: 29
Calipers: 10mm

[Waittz]

you should give Adam's Diet a try. Its a great way to not really diet or count calories and im not the only one who has had results that include fat loss while being able to slowly add muscle.

[Waittz]

n stop being so hard on yourself!

[marthand99]

Thanks Steve! I'll check out Adam's diet. I saw it in a bookstore and now I need to pick it up!

[Willie]

Yes, stop being so hard on yourself! Your body is going through a lot of changes right now, and it might take some time to iron everything out. You're hungry because you're doing A LOT of (new) lifting, with an every-other-day session of intervals. That's not bad, just... different.

I'm (becoming) a reformed cardio-queen (and I do a sport that requires a lot of cardio!), and experience has shown me that more lifting / less cardio is more effective at changing my body comp.-- for the better. Be patient.

Finally, I broke my tailbone a few years ago; it was awful! Sorry you're in so much pain... can you ice, or sit on a donut?

[marthand99]

Yesterday's exercise:

Morning - about 5.5 miles on the treadmill, 10 minutes of which were HIIT. (Did the warmup/HIIT/cool-down/sit on ass for 5 minutes/steady-state combo)

Afternoon - weights with personal trainer
Step-ups (6 inserts on the Reebok step) 15/20 15/20 (my ass hurt more than my leg did, perhaps not the best exercise for the tailbone impaired)
Incline flys 10/8 10/8
Twisting Shoulder Press (don't know official name) 20/8 20/8
Upright flys 10/7 10/7
Tricep dips (straight leg - hate!) 10/BW 10/BW
Bicep curls (I know, I know, her idea) 10/Bar 10/Bar
Assisted Chin-Ups 10/88 10/88 (88 is the assisted weight? So really about 50 pounds)
Long-arm crunch 10/BW 10/BW (trainer showed me how to do these properly - much harder)
Back curls
Plank

Food:
7:30am - Fake veggie sausage pattie, hardboiled egg
10:30am - Greek yogurt, grapes and blueberries, baby carrots
1:30pm - Salad, TJ's baked tofu
5pm - Post workout shake (Myloplex Lite), red pepper and hummus, cottage cheese
8pm - Baked salmon with roasted cherry tomatoes, 1/2 cup lentils, brussels sprouts, apple and 1/2 tbsp peanut butter

1517 cals (40% C/35%P/25% F)

I started 20-hour intermittent fast at 8:26pm. (Read about this on Skwigg and decided to give it a try.) I am planning on having a small meal at 4:30pm before I leave work. I cannot believe how non-homicidal I am. It's 11am and I'm slightly hungry, but overall I feel fine and have a ton of energy. I guess we'll see how the next 5 hours go before I call it a success. Today's a rest day, so I don't have to do anything except sit at my desk anyway. Then I will have normal food tonight and tomorrow and hopefully have enough energy for HIIT and lifting. We'll see. Just an experiment.

Progress:

Age: 30
Height: 5'3.5"
Weight: 141.6
Waist: 28
Omron: 23.9%
Calipers: 10mm

[marthand99]

Originally Posted by Willie

Yes, stop being so hard on yourself! Your body is going through a lot of changes right now, and it might take some time to iron everything out. You're hungry because you're doing A LOT of (new) lifting, with an every-other-day session of intervals. That's not bad, just... different.

I'm (becoming) a reformed cardio-queen (and I do a sport that requires a lot of cardio!), and experience has shown me that more lifting / less cardio is more effective at changing my body comp.-- for the better. Be patient.

Finally, I broke my tailbone a few years ago; it was awful! Sorry you're in so much pain... can you ice, or sit on a donut?

Thanks Kate! I really appreciate the support. I'm becoming a reformed cardio queen too. I'll try to be patient.

I think I got lucky in that it's just bruised - I can't imagine breaking it!! I usually ice it at night. It gets better every day - once again, just have to be patient!

[marthand99]

Yesterday's intermittent fast experiment went remarkably well. I won't say it was easy, because I was hungry all afternoon, but I'm hungry EVERY afternoon, so whatevs. I was in a great mood and was the most productive I've been at work in a long time. I had plenty of energy, didn't get the shakes or anything, and was able to walk around the city no problem.

I went back to eating normally when the 20 hours was over and wasn't ravenous and stuffing my face as feared. A couple of things I noticed - one, that I got extremely cold after eating that first meal as all my blood went to go digest it. Must make sure to be someplace warm for the first meal after a fast. Also, my HIIT/steady state run this morning was pretty normal. I skipped my pre-run Gu, which maybe wasn't the best choice given the fast, but I wasn't lacking in energy. Finally, other than the apple I had pre-bed, it was a pretty low-carb day for me. I was surprised how good it felt. I would like to give the TNT diet a try, but being vegetarian + fish would be quite a challenge, I think. For now I think I will stick with Precision Nutrition.

Yesterday's Exercise:
Rest day

Yesterday's Food:
4:30pm - Spinach salad, 1/2 TJ's baked tofu, hardboiled egg
8:30pm - Stuffed orange roughy, leftover lentils and brussels sprouts
10:30pm - Cottage cheese, apple, tbsp walnuts (I forgot the veggies! Crap, that makes it a 10% meal)

1001 calories (36% C/30% P/34% F)

Progress:

Age:30
Height: 5'3.5"
Weight: 139.8 (I'm sure the four pounds I lost in the past two days are all water, but I'm not denying it's reassuring to see the 130s again)
Omron: 24.1%
Waist: 28.5
Calipers: 10mm

[marthand99]

So, when I started this weight lifting biznass, I had no goal other than to get over my little compulsive exercise problem. Now, things have been pretty good. I've had the help of meds and therapy and I've managed to break free of the obsessive part of it. I like exercise again, and am having a lot of fun with weight training.

But now I have a goal! Like everyone else already had. So, as previously noted, I've gained some weight since I started eating more and stopped exercising 3 hours a day, every day. That was probably inevitable, but if possible, I'd like to fit into my pants again. Also, I tested out some deadlifts a bit last night after I finished lifting, and I think my tailbone issue is finally to the point where I can ditch my Gimped-Out Workouts(TM) and go back to the book.

In seven weeks, I'm running a half-marathon and then going on vacation for a week. (The half-marathon is actually part of the vacation. Yes, I know the crazy.) I'm planning on switching to NROL and doing Fat Loss II and III in those seven weeks and hopefully getting in bikini-style shape for vacay. Then I will take that vacation week off to recover. For food, I'm planning on doing Precision Nutrition and experimenting with the intermittent fasts. We'll see how it goes.

Yesterday's exercise:
Cardio (am):
5.5 miles on the treadmill, 10 of which was HIIT intervals.

Weights (afternoon):
This would be Gimped-Out Workout A:
A1 - Front Squat/Push Press 30 (dumbbells)/15 Bar/15 Bar/15

B1 - Pushups 12/BW 12/BW 13/BW (to failure, then dropped to knees for 12 more)
B2 - Cable Rows 12/70 12/70 12/75

C1 - Bulgarian Split Squat 15/BW 17/BW 23/BW
C2 - Horizontal Wood Chop 15/4 plates 15/4 10/5

D1 - Prone Dumbbell Snatch 10/8 10/8 10/10 (pretty shitty form at the end, there)
D2 - Prone Jacknifes - 17/BW 17/BW 17/BW

Food:
7:30am - Apple, 2 veggie breakfast sausages, hardboiled egg
11am - Greek yogurt, grapes and blueberries, carrot sticks
2pm - Salad, TJ's baked tofu, hardboiled egg
4:30pm (post-workout) - Myoplex Lite Shake, carrot sticks, salmon cup
7:30pm - Halibut, couscous, roasted broccoli, 2 glasses of red wine, chocolate protein bar (10% meal due to wine and couscous)
10:30pm - Apple, cottage cheese, handful of broccoli, 2 tbsp walnuts
2:30am - Chocolate protein bar (forgot the veggies! crap! 10% meal)

2635 calories (32% P/30% C/31% F/7% booze)

That's a lot, but I was pretty active. In addition to the cardio and weights, I ended up walking about 3 miles around the city running errands and stuff.

Progress:

Age: 30
Height: 5'3.5"
Weight: 139.2
Waist: 29
Omron: 24.3% (I'm assuming since this is going up, this means I've lost all water, which obviously is what I'd expect)
Calipers: 10mm

[gregl515]

It looks like you have a good plan. Good luck!

[marthand99]

Yesterday's exercise:
Was supposed to run 7 miles, but ran 8.5 and walked another one and a half (half-marathon training). I was watching the movie Zodiac while I ran and was trying to finish it. That movie? Is really long. And sort of boring.

Yesterday's food:
7am - GU pre- and during-run (I don't count this in the calories total, cost of doing business)
10:00am - Apple, omlette with broccoli, onions, and garlic, veggie breakfast pattie, Atkins bar
1pm - Greek yogurt, ants on a log (celery with peanut butter and raisins, though tragically, I had to use dried cranberries instead), couple of deli slices and a baby bell (cheese)
4:30pm - Mediterranean Salad (cucumbers and tomatoes in olive oil), chocolate soy milk protein shake, JP's peanut butter cookie
7:30pm - Dinner at a Greek restaurant. Small serving of saganaki (v. small), some beets, steamed broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, cooked string beans, and fish. Took half of it home. Oh, and a glass of red wine. (10% meal. That's my last one of the week. Thank god it's Saturday!)

1732 cals (32% P/21% C/41% F/6% booze)

After the dinner out, I tried another IF experiment. This one did not go so well. Around 1:30 today, I started to get the shakes and had to quit. I have a couple of theories about this, but will go into that tomorrow.

Didn't weigh myself first thing this morning, so I won't report it. Waist 28.5.

[marthand99]

Originally Posted by gregl515

It looks like you have a good plan. Good luck!

Thanks Greg! I appreciate the support!

[marthand99]

So, yeah. The fasting yesterday did not go so well. I woke up starving at about 5am and couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up around 6. (ON A SUNDAY.) I watched some TV and played around on my computer and then realized that holy shit! We had sprung forward at it was really 7 am! Only 9.5 hours to go!

Yeah. So, not a promising start. At 1:30 I started to get the shakes and I called things off. Not worth it. I'm not sure why I had such a different experience from last time, though I suspect running 9 miles and then eating low-carb for the rest of that day, followed by a fast, might have had something to do with it. Methinks my muscles were totally empty at the end of the run (I hit the "wall" and had run out of GU), and then I didn't really refill them, and then I tried to fast, which is, obviously, no carb. I've heard that your body can be pretty unhappy the first couple of days of a low-carb diet, which is essentially what I gave it.

On the other hand, so much of fasting is mental. Being at home versus being at work I think made a big difference. I won't be trying this at home again for awhile.

Anyway, I rebounded and had a good start to the Fat Loss II program.

Yesterday's exercise:
Fat Loss II, Workout A/1

A1 - Front squat (using dumbbells, struggled with grip) 12/30 12/30 12/30
A2 - One point dumbbell row (sub for wide-grip cable pull, no cable machine) 12/20 (10#e) 12/25 12/30

B1 - Supine leg curl 12/BW 12/BW 12/BW
B2 - Dumbbell press (sub for barbell, no barbell) 12/30 (15#e) 10/30&2/25 10/30&4/25

C1 - Dynamic Lunge 12/25 (12.5#e) 12/25 12/25
C2 - Upper-body Russian Twist 12/BW 12/BW 12/BW

Then four minutes of Tabatas kettleball swings.

So freaking excited to be able to play with my kettleball! I got it the day before I busted my tailbone.

Food:
1:30pm - Spinach salad, Greek yogurt, apple, Atkins bar
4:30pm - Leftover fish and string beans from Saturday night, string cheese, carrots
5:30-6:30pm - Pre-, during- and post-workout shakes (A strawberry Myoplex - yum!, some protein powder mixed with water - blah, and an apple)
9-11pm (grazing) - Roasted eggplant and zucchini with a tomato and fake meat sauce, string cheese, baby bell, tbsp of cashews, Pure Protein bar, handful of blueberries

1764 cals (39% P/41% C/20% F)
Isn't it sort of wrong that on fasting days, I eat the same as a lot of women do normally?

Progress:

Weight: 138.6
Omron: 24.4% (I did this five or six times and got readings from 24.0-24.5%. I decided to just report the first one.)
Waist: 27.75 (hells yeah, bitches)
Calipers: 10mm (I'm thinking this will never change. Also, I don't know what I'm doing.)

[marthand99]

Good, uneventful day yesterday.

Exercise:
20 minutes (attempt) HIIT on elliptical (tried hard; was not feeling it)
3 Tabatas exercises (rowing, squats, bike) back to back, no rest except set up - this was fun!

Food:
7:30am - Fake veggie sausage, hardboiled egg
10:30am - Greek yogurt, cup of mixed fruit, carrots
1:30pm - Spinach salad, cottage cheese, hardboiled egg
4:30pm - Broccoli and hummus, can of tuna
8:30pm - Lemon and dill salmon, roasted eggplant and zucchini with a tomato and fake meat sauce, soy chocolate protein shake
10:30pm - Leftover beets, string cheese, baby bell, tbsp of cashews, apple
1:30am (ugh! could not sleep) - baby bell, disgusting handful of broccoli, can of tuna

1942 cals (39% P/29% C/32% F)

Progress:

Weight: 140.4
Omron: 24.4%
Waist: 28.5
Calipers: 10mm

[marthand99]

I kicked my own ass yesterday. Seriously I think the best weight workout I've had since starting. Fun!

Two other things to report - first, this morning I tried on a skirt that I had decided would be considered obscene if worn by me to work, as it had gotten a bit tight. Maybe I'm smoking crack, but it seems looser. I would now reclassify it as Probably Wouldn't Get Me Fired If Everything Else in My Closet Had Cat Pee On It And I Had To Wear It To Work. Hopefully it will be wearable soon and I can move back into maintenance mode. All I'm looking for is to fit back into my clothes.

Second, I am in the middle of my third fasting attempt. This one is going as well as the first one did. Much better to do this at work! I'll starting eating again around 4:30 or 5. Today is a rest day, which is good, especially after yesterday.

Exercise:
AM - 5 miles on treadmill: warmup, 10 minutes of craptastic HIIT, 4 minutes of craptastic jump roping, 5 minutes sitting on ass, then some actually pretty good lower-intensity intervals
PM - Weight training!

Fat Loss II, Workout B

A1 - Snatch-grip deadlift 12/65 12/65 12/65 (try for 70 next time)
A2 - Pushups 12/BW 12/BW 14/BW & 10 more on knees (Working on getting the form better before attempting a T)

(This B superset was by far the hardest I've ever done)
B1 - Bulgarian Split Squat w/ Overhead Press 12/8s 12/5s 12/5s
B2 - Assisted Chin-Ups 12/16 plate (88lbs assist) 12/16 12/16

C1 - Romanian Deadlift/Bent Over Row (fun!) 12/55 12/60 12/60
C2 - Lower-body Russian Twist 12/BW 12/BW 12/BW

Then, just for kicks, I attempted the BW matrix (24 squats/24 alt lunges/24 jumping lunges/24 jump squats) from NROL4W. Holy fuck. I clocked in at 4 minutes 20 seconds and hobbled out of the gym. I had planned to do it twice, but no freaking way.

Food:
7:30am - Apple, fake veggie sausages, hardboiled egg
10:30am - Greek yogurt, cucumber and tomato salad
1:30pm - Spinach salad, cottage cheese, 1/2 oz cashews
5pm (post-workout) - Myoplex strawberry shake, leftover roasted eggplant and zucchini w/fake meat tomato sauce
8:30pm - Salmon w/sauteed spinach, mushrooms, garlic, and chickpeas; apple, tbsp peanut butter, Myoplex bar

1793 cals (32% P/41% C/28% F)

Progress:
Weight: 138.2
Omron: 23.6%
Waist: just a bit under 28
Calipers: 10mm