RealCdn - NROL4W Training Log

[kfisherx]

Make sure that you ice those sore parts as you get them. This is something my trainer makes me do and it always helps. About 20 min is all you need a night until it isn't sore anymore. The knee thing sounds almost like an IT Band being a bit tight. If it persists you may want to foam roll that sucker. It hurts like hell to do it but that is the only way I know to make the IT band be good.

Nice workouts btw and I see your cals are up a bit. Do you feel better now?

[realcdn]

Originally Posted by MuscleMom23

My garden is awaiting me LOL. The weather has been so beautiful it is nice to get out into the fresh air.

Good job. Your menus always look so good!

I understand we're going to get a rainy cold snap next week (ie. back to seasonal). We've been so spoiled with the beautiful weather so far. The cherry trees started blooming yesterday so I'm hoping that the cold snap won't be so cold as to affect the bloom or the fruit. We have a pussy willow (well trimmed into a bush) in the yard to attract early bees. It's done its job so pollination shouldn't be a problem.

The good thing is that I like to cook, so I can change things around. The bad thing is that I batch cook and sometimes get tired of things before I'm out of them. With enough variety it's not too bad though. I've got some soups left for lunch which I need to use up, and then I'm going to work on better lunches. Right now I break down and buy cooked meats from Costco. They're not bad as lunch meats go, but they're just not that tasty. I just looked at my list, and yes, I've got 26 portions of soup, so I've got a month before I need to worry about it.

Originally Posted by kfisherx

Make sure that you ice those sore parts as you get them. This is something my trainer makes me do and it always helps. About 20 min is all you need a night until it isn't sore anymore. The knee thing sounds almost like an IT Band being a bit tight. If it persists you may want to foam roll that sucker. It hurts like hell to do it but that is the only way I know to make the IT band be good.

Nice workouts btw and I see your cals are up a bit. Do you feel better now?

Most of the soreness comes later, at which point I tend to use heat. I'll try ice though. I took a quick look online, and you're right, the pain behind my knee earlier was likely IT Band. It's gone though, now I'm just left with the usual nagging pain on the one knee. I make it sound worse than it is. I suspect it's more of a result of carrying around way too much weight for decades. It's actually better than it used to be, so I'm hoping that when the rest of the weight is gone that it will be better. It's the type of thing that bothers me at the end of the day, but is almost nonexistent in the morning.

I bought my mother a foam roller recently, so I might steal it back and try it. She's 80, and pretty active (although finally I can outwalk her speed-wise, but probably not endurance), but complains a lot about random pains. She's quite impressed by the roller (I called it an early Mother's Day gift), and uses it daily.

The energy levels are better, so for now I'll keep the food levels where they are. I'll have to balance it with the weight loss though, as I'm way to early in my weight loss to let it slow down too much. I'll give it another couple of weeks and see how it affects both energy and weight loss. Thanks.

Now... to the treadmill. I've pushed off the baking until tomorrow, but I still have a couple of things I'd like to do in the garden. It does look like rain isn't too far off, so I may end up cutting 30-mins out of the treadmill this morning. I can always do it tomorrow if I need to.

[realcdn]

I did 30 mins on the treadmill, and blew off the 2nd set to go work outside. For my troubles I got rained on, and didn't get my work in the yard completed either. So, I did some prep stuff for my baking and had an early lunch. I'll probably throw in the missed 30 mins tomorrow morning. In the afternoon I did a 15-min warm-up on the treadmill, followed by:

A: Barbell Squat - 60/8, 60/8, 65/8
B1: Push-up (mixed knees/toes) - 0&8, 0&8, 4&4
B2: Bent-over Row - 65/8, 65/8, 70/8
C1: Step-up - 17.5e/8, 17.5e/8, 20e/8
C2: Prone Jackknife - 15, 15, 15

Followed with another 15 mins on the treadmill. Today the problem with the squat was getting that 65lbs over my head to start the squat. I've found a very inelegant way to get the bar down after though. And no, I don't mean dropping it. I thought I might get all the push-ups done on my toes, but I had to split the last set. I have one more shot next week so we'll see how that goes. It won't be until the week after that I'll do the AMRAPs, but I'm thinking about what weights to use. If I remember, the book suggests going back to starting weights, but I think for some it just doesn't make sense. ie. I started with bodyweight squats, so that wouldn't really tell me anything. Same thing with push-ups (started with 60-degree). The truly sad thing is that I'll be lucky to do 15 of the prone jackknife although I did manage all three sets of 15 today without falling off once.

I also got some of my planned baking for tomorrow done today. Yes, more mini loaves from that damn Amish starter. Today it was pecan/raisin and pecan/chocolate (used cocoa powder) with two of the pecan/raisin ones going away tomorrow. Although that leaves me with 8 now in the freezer. The chocolate one probably could have used some sugar, but toasted with a little jam on it should work. So tomorrow it's maybe just a little more of the cracked wheat oatmeal bread and that should keep me going for a little while. If the weather is nice I likely won't be doing any baking but so far the weather report is poor. Might as well do the baking on a poor day and spend the nicer ones outside.

Also, after talking about maybe doing my own cooking for my lunch meat the local grocery store has two good specials this week. So, glutton for punishment that I am, I might go shopping tomorrow or Sunday and have a shot at some lunch roast meats (turkey / beef). I am slightly nuts. However, I know that once the weather gets nicer it will be better to have things put away since I won't feel like cooking much. We tend to go pretty fast to summer here sometimes. Most of the daffodils are out, the tulips are starting, and the cherry tree is in bloom. The cherry tree is at least a couple of weeks early. Here it's a May blooming tree.

That's enough rambling for the evening.

From the HRM:

Exercise	Time	Cals	Max HR	Avg HR	Max %	Avg %
Treadmill	0:30:00	310	172	138	97	78
Strength Training	1:00:00	620	155	139	87	78
Totals	1:30:00	930

Food for the day:

Food: 2816 (33% fat, 36% carbs, 30% protein)

Breakfast: egg white/egg omelet with cheese, pecan cherry bread, jam, grapefruit (474)
AM Snack: almonds (164)
Lunch: 2 whole wheat tortillas, mustard, smoked turkey, cheese, apple (528)
PM Snack: protein shake, fruit salad, soy nuts, tiny piece of chocolate pecan bread (475)
Dinner: hamburgers (2), whole wheat roll (1), condiments, salad w/dressing (867)
Late Snack: protein shake, fruit salad, biscotti (309)

[realcdn]

The evening meal was supposed to just be the shrimp and the snow peas, but sometime in the late afternoon I decided it needed a little pasta with it. So I dropped part of my afternoon snack and added that pasta. It’s funny, but I added 2 oz for two servings and it really was enough. So I actually ended up a little light on calories for the day so I added an apple to my evening snack. That’s what I like about FitDay (the PC version). I can copy/paste things in and planning the day’s meals are quick and easy. I took a few minutes and planned tomorrow’s meals (even though I haven’t had the last of my snack today). And like today, a last minute change can be quickly figured out.

I know, I know, I should be able to do these things without the software. I’m willing to admit that I need the software. It keeps me on track, and that’s a good thing. I’ve also decided not to work on the new lunches until I’m closer to having the soups used up. I also think it’s probably a good idea to make sure I have room in the freezer for things that I purchase, so I think I’ll let it empty out for a bit first. I didn’t do the baking today either for the same reason. There’s lots of the small sweet breads for breakfast, as well as a half loaf of the cracked wheat oatmeal bread. It can wait until next weekend (at least).

Also, the last boysenberry clump is out. Hooray! I’ll send them off to their new home tomorrow. I tied up the ones we’re keeping today, as well as the raspberries. I also took great big hunks off the grape vine even though it’s not the best time to prune it. It was in three feet of snow when I wanted to do it and it was just far to overgrown to leave. When I was finished the male cardinal came down and sat on the vine and chirped at me. I think he was concerned. The cardinals sometimes get more grapes than we do. I think it was a couple of years ago, but I was checking the fruit and found the mother cardinal in the vine with the baby. It was like ’see, here’s the yummy fruit we can eat in a week or so’. And I found the gooseberry bush behind the boysenberries. It’s actually in pretty good shape, although I need to go look out my pruning book and prune it back. It’s been fighting for survival and it’s huge, so I’ll likely trim it back. Since we don’t plan to put much into the bed that was cleaned out I suspect we’ll add another gooseberry bush.

From the HRM (just showing that I did make up my 30 mins from yesterday):

Exercise	Time	Cals	Max HR	Avg HR	Max %	Avg %
Treadmill	0:30:00	296	147	135	83	76

Food for the day:

Food: 2412 (31% fat, 37% carbs, 30% protein)

Breakfast: egg white/egg omelet with cheese, pecan cherry bread, jam, grapefruit (476)
AM Snack: almonds (164)
Lunch: onion soup with whole wheat baguette and cheese, smoked turkey, apple (563)
PM Snack: soy nuts (134)
Dinner: shrimp with citrus/wine sauce, snow peas, whole wheat pasta, salad w/dressing (692)
Late Snack: protein shake, apple, fruit salad, biscotti (383)

[LWilson212]

Hey Anne-

It looks like you are doing well! I love reading about your garden and baking too.

[realcdn]

Originally Posted by LWilson212

It looks like you are doing well! I love reading about your garden and baking too.

It's funny because I've quite often defined myself by my job. Now that I'm not working I seem to have become domestic. Although to be fair I always cooking, baking and gardening. It's just now that plus my exercising is my entire focus.

Not that this is a bad thing. In the fall when I'm in school I suppose I'll miss the freedom of letting my exercise routine determine my schedule.

[realcdn]

I was posting these elsewhere for someone and thought I'd add them here. I know I managed to link in pictures from Flickr before, so we'll see if I remember. These were all taken today. You can click on any of the pictures to see a bigger version if you wish.

The cherry tree:


The daffodils in the back:


The side border in the front with mainly daffodils, but a few tulips coming:


And my favourite - snake head lily (fritillaria meleagris):

[realcdn]

Chocolate Pecan Bread:


Pecan Raisin Bread

[Bytsi]

I'm not a garden / flower person, but those pics are beautiful! (And no comment on showing us chocolate!!!!)

[LWilson212]

Just beautiful! And a nice sunny day to showcase your flowers!

[foodfromafar]

Beautiful flowers and loaves!!!

[realcdn]

Thanks ladies. As it happens it was a lovely day. Our weather has been so nice, but tomorrow it's going to stop. Back to cold and rainy weather. This is our usual weather at this time of year.

Oh, and about the chocolate loaves. Each loaf is about 9.6 ounces (I divide the raw dough by weight so they do end up at about the same after) and I cut them into 8 or 9 slices. Each slice ends up being 83 calories, although I usually weigh them and add them to my log that way. It's a nice little touch of sweet some mornings with a little homemade jam. It's all about finding things I enjoy eating, since if I don't I'll likely not stick it.

[realcdn]

Today was a nice sunny day (our last warm one for at least a week). Finished cleaning up the few small tasks in the back yard. Now it's just a case of prepping the pots for planting. Although that won't happen for close to a month so it's not a big rush. So I suppose I should do some dusting and cleaning this week.

Food for the day:

Food: 2384 (29% fat, 35% carbs, 35% protein)

Breakfast: protein shake, cracked wheat oatmeal bread, peanut butter, jam, grapefruit (409)
AM Snack: almonds (164)
Lunch: beef mushroom barley soup, smoked turkey, apple (400)
PM Snack: soy nuts, cheese spread with rice crackers (313)
Dinner: sirloin steak, corn, snow peas, butter, salad w/dressing (727)
Late Snack: protein shake, fruit salad, biscotti (370)

[realcdn]

It was one of those gray miserable mornings which made it hard to get moving. I did some walk/jog intervals in 3×20 min sets. In the afternoon I did a 15-min warm-up on the treadmill, followed by:

A: Deadlift - 65/8, 65/8, 70/8
B1: Dumbbell Shoulder Press - 27.5e/8, 27.5e/8, 30e/8
B2: Pullover - 20e/8, 20e/8, 22e/8
C1: Lunge - 22e/8, 22e/8, 25e/8
C2: Swiss-ball Crunch - 15, 15, 15

Followed by another 15 mins on the treadmill. That 30lb dumbbell shoulder press was the tough one today. I don’t think much else went on. I was really just in the mood to climb back into bed and not do anything this morning, but I didn’t. The weather was cold and miserable in the afternoon so we skipped the swim today.

From the HRM today:

Exercise	Time	Cals	Max HR	Avg HR	Max %	Avg %
Treadmill	0:20:00	200	145	137	81	77
Treadmill	0:20:00	212	150	141	84	79
Treadmill	0:20:00	216	150	142	84	80
Strength Training	1:00:00	584	150	134	84	75
Totals	2:00:00	1212

Food for the day:

Food: 2804 (27% fat, 37% carbs, 33% protein)

Breakfast: egg/egg white omelet, cracked wheat oatmeal bread, jam, grapefruit (450)
AM Snack: protein shake, almonds (299)
Lunch: lentil soup, smoked turkey, apple (431)
PM Snack: soy nuts, protein shake, fruit salad (465)
Dinner: szechwan beef with stir-fried veg, rice, salad w/dressing (685)
Late Snack: protein shake, apple, fruit salad, biscotti (474)