I will post a bikini pic Saturday so you can see what I mean. I have really been focused and it is seriously visible! I have calipers again tomorrow- anticipate the mid 25 percent which is very close to the 23-24 that I want to be
scale 151.75 WTF!!! running makes me retain fluid!! I have calipers today, so will report in then.
burned 2340
eaten 1902
deficit 438
feeling superfantastic. I just know that a big whoosh is on tap.
on sunday with my husband, I am going to attempt a one rep max and will report in. here is my bench press workout from wednesday-this was alone without a spotter, so I didn't want to try any challenging weights that would get me stuck!
45 x 8
45 x 8
70 x 8
70 x 9
65 x 8
60 x 12
45 x 23
seriously had a lot leftover at the end. I have really good muscular endurance. am working on explosive strength over the next several weeks prior to arnold.
I suspect a one rep max in the 95 or 100. with my husband last sunday, I got 3 of 85 and one of 90, but seemed to have more in me.
I haven't learned how to explode out of the bottom yet (ie when the bar is on your chest). similar to how I had to learn how to explode out of the hole when harvey was teaching me to squat. explosive power is a new skill for me. the gains I made in this regard have really helped my running--I can feel it these days as I am attempting to maximize my leg turnover (cadence) and maintain a faster speed over longer distances.
and I feel the upper body power in my swimming, which I am getting ready to do right now!! it is wonderful to be putting all of this newly built strength and power to use in my endurance sports. I really like weightlifting, but I LOVE what it is doing for my sports. (and I admit, love what it does for my shape, lol)
thanks chloe and tracey!
Tom I am on a time crunch Sunday morning. We have to get our workout in early so we can do our mall stuff prior to Sunday afternoon at my parents who live an hour away. Ed has to spot me so he can't video and I don't have the time this sun to screw around with setting up shots on the tripod. NEXT Sunday I will video my bench so yall can see how much better my form is since training with Harvey.
Wendy!
Screw the scale and the retaining fluid! I hate that! Your calipers will show a good change, I just know it. I also feel leaner before the weight drop!
Keep up the great work!!
__________________
Ginger
"The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start." ~ John Bingham
(((thanks everyone)))) trying to stay positive. and I AM positive, despite a bit of sadness at the calipers today!!!
ok, so this is only 2 weeks worth of data:
body fat went from 26.1 to 26.0%
scale dropped 1.75 pounds
0.6 of that was fat
1.15 of that was lean
my gowearfit data during this time predicted a 1.4 pound loss based on the average daily deficit--I actually think scale weight is artificially high, so I probably have in reality, lost a bit more lean or fat or both. so either gowearfit underestimates my burn by a bit, or I have overestimated my calories eaten by a bit. either way, I am thrilled that the gowearfit is pretty damn accurate for me.
average daily grams of protein was 138, which for my current weight is right at the top of the range of what lyle mcdonald recommends for dieting endurance athletes.
so there you have it. I am obviously not lifting like I was--from 3 times a week heavier to twice a week, legs now more running focused. I am running between 10-15 miles per week now. that is only going to ramp up significantly in june when marathon training starts.
now I know why rachel cosgrove liked her body better before ironman triathlon, lol!
as long as the body fat percentage continues to drop, even a little, I am going to hold steady with what I am doing for another month. I am not losing scale weight at a rate that will get me to 142 by arnold (march 7).
I really DO NOT want to feel any more deficit than I already feel. I think this level of deficit is enough, because even though my running mileage isn't that high, and my hours of exercise per week are only about 5 or 6 total, including running, swimming and lifting, when I do exercise, I am exercising very intensely, and I am very effective in my workouts right now. cranking anything down lower would compromise my training and my recovery. and getting down to 142 by arnold just isn't that important. but I want to continue meticulously tracking and get to whatever low weight I can get to by then. I can already do one rep of 90 on the bench. that is all I need even at this weight to be officially counted. my main goal is to PR the hell out of the 5k, and I can do that, even at the weight I am at now.
ummmmm nekkid at the arnold as a formerly obese woman with 26% body fat? yeah, that would be a NO. there's a rule that you have to weigh with running shoes. being nekkid except for running shoes would look even more ridiculous.
ummmmm nekkid at the arnold as a formerly obese woman with 26% body fat? yeah, that would be a NO. there's a rule that you have to weigh with running shoes. being nekkid except for running shoes would look even more ridiculous.
unless you're in one of those kinds of movies...
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Tom
No "happy hours" makes for a lot of miserable days. - Mahler
true tom, but I am well past the age where those movies would be an option, lmao.
ok so as I expected, the whoosh fairy visited, but you aren't going to believe this!!!
scale 150 on the nose!!!!!! couldn't I even get a quarter pound, lol! I tried 149.75. nope. not yet. but I am thrilled to be at the lowest scale weight in decades, particularly proud of this scale weight with the amount of muscle I have. so as long as I don't burn off too much of it with this running obsession, I am good, lol
burned 2108
eaten 2165
deficit -57
oh well, a maintenance day. today will be a big deficit, because I am getting ready right now to run 7 miles at my long run pace.
my wish for all overweight runners is that for just one run they could feel how it feels to run in a leaner body. you know that saying "nothing tastes as good as thin feels"? I never really identified with that, because, as a true foodie, I can think of hundreds of things that taste as good as how I feel in a leaner body. but I didn't get fat because of the tastes. I got fat because I was taking in too many "tastes", and in portions that were too large for my body.
so I guess my new motto would be "running this well and this effortlessly feels WAY better than eating whatever I want, whenever I want, in whatever quantities I want!"--- but that is just not very catchy, and it would take up too much space on a tshirt.
so very busy day today, but luckily, part of my day includes a massage, which my running muscles very desperately need right now.
yep, tom. the exercise physiologist who does caliper readings does measurements every time. my waist is down to the lowest it has been in a long time, 30.5. I started in june of 08 with 33. I find that measurements actually change very slowly, even slower than the millimeter readings on the calipers and much slower than the scale. I think it is all useful, but I am impressed with the amount of effort it requires to see very small changes. no wonder why the numbers are so abyssmal with people losing a large amount of weight and keeping it off. the changes take SOOOO long to see, it seems. this is definitely a case of being into the process of it all instead of just results.
speaking of results, I just ran 7 continuous miles at 9:53 average pace with 159 average heart rate (aerobic for me). still can't wrap my brain around the fact that sub 10 minute miles are now my easy pace. this is the longest and fastest run I have ever done! it is cold cold cold here in florida.
Great run report Wendy. Your running times make me realize how really sloooooowwww I run! But that's okay, just the fact that I can run 3 continues miles slowly and fairly confortably makes me proud! I'm pretty sure my nephew and I will be running the Arnold 5k. I hope to see you there.
Congrats on the 150 mark. I'm sure you'll be posting 140s in the very near future.
Hey Wendy - I am so with you on the "nothing tastes as good as thin feels." I would always read that on the wall at weight watchers and think, whatever. Whoever wrote that doesn't love food the way I love food. I love your modified version!
chloe, ANY running is good running!! and I used to be one of the last people to finish, lol
thanks bytsi, cold is anything approaching the 30's!
hey greg, have another 3 muskateer
thanks leah, I hated that saying in weight watchers too.
ok, bikini pic today, me at 150. ignore the fright makeup, it looked great with the right lighting earlier!oh, and no fake tan, eeek. I want my tan back. I went to the place after work, and it had GONE out of BUSINESS!! my package transfers to the new owners, who of course, moved the location. and they DON"T have late hours.
but wow, you look GREAT! Congrats on hitting 150 on the nose
As for the 'saying' nothing tastes as good as ... .. see my sig.
It's really not interesting to be lean for aesthetic reasons, especially not if you love food.
But if being lean means you can have better performance, I'm all for it
Though not a runner, I had a taste of what it was like to be lighter, when after having lost quite a bit of weight really fast with a ketodiet, I had to run to catch a train.. whoah! It felt as if I was flying. Such a magical feeling!
Things do get tricky when you're still in the process of leaning out by means of eating less than you need, as it limits performance as well. So, for people that are very performance-oriented, the trick is to find the level of calories & macros you can be happy with, while still performing well & losing fat. You are on the right track!
as for leaning out for aesthetics, I disagree with you. for me, performance goals are a better motivator to get and stay lean, something I only recently learned about myself this year on this forum. but getting lean for appearance is a perfectly reasonable and interesting goal to me, in and of itself. I have watched many people transform their bodies for aesthetic reasons, and then transform their whole lives in response to their physical transformation. performance just happens to light *me* up. but it doesn't do that for everyone. and because I get lean for a performance goal doesn't make my leanness any more worthy than someone who is getting lean for an aesthetic goal.
and as far as your saying, again, it just doesn't resonate with me. go take a look at my marathon picture from 2000. In that photo, no one could deny that I was fit. I had just walked 26.2 miles! I was certainly happy-it was the very first time that I truly believed I was an athlete. strong, well there is a reason why weightlifters compete within a weight class--I was definitely strong then, it takes a lot of leg strength to haul around 228 pounds!
of course, most anything is better than being weak--weak to me means frail, unfit. but weak isn't always associated with skinny. I have seen very overweight people who are also very weak, because they are unfit and have difficulty with even the most basic of everyday tasks. and then we get to hungry. hungry is one of the biggest lessons I learned in 2008. when you are trying to live in the healthiest, leanest body for you, and you have a history of overfeeding yourself and you have excess body fat, the truth is, hunger can be a good thing!! now, I'm not talking about starving, gnaw-your-own-finger-for-sustenance hunger, I'm talking about mild hunger. Hunger is the body's way of telling you that you are starting to repair the damage that you have done from previous episodes of eating too much.
so I would argue that it isn't a choice between fit, happy, and strong versus skinny weak and hungry. again, this won't fit nicely on a tshirt, or a saying, but
My goal is to live my life in a body that is fit, happy, lean, and strong, while simultaneously enjoying wonderful, nutritious, delicious food. Naturally, there will be times when I will enjoy food a bit too much, but I have numerous tools in place to help me maintain my fit, happy, lean, strong, self. Tools such as
1. protecting daily exercise with my life. exercise is like bathing, showering, brushing your teeth. a daily necessity.
2. some form of consistent body measurement. the best way to detect a bit of overfeeding is by consistent monitoring. it is much easier to lose 5 pounds instead of 85 pounds.
3. continuing to embrace a slightly hungry feeling when you need to be in a calorie deficit for a short period of time. hunger really isn't the end of the world. think about it, maintenance really is a lifelong series of gains and losses. of course, your body is happier if the gains and losses are reasonably small. but small gains and losses are called MAINTENANCE. and hunger is part of MAINTENANCE.
so there are my random sunday morning thoughts on hunger.
Wendy, I think you read too fast.. I said, leaning out for aesthetic reasons wasn't a good (enough) motivator for me either. Leaning out for better performance IS.
Unless (and that's why I referred to the sig), it means that performance would suffer too much. In that case, I'd rather be fit & fat than lean & weak.
The trouble with both of these goals is that they can be there one day & gone another if you get sick or injured. Since you probably have never been critically ill, it's difficult to transfer that fear.. you however must have seen a lot of ill people.
But then there's yet another motivator. It may not be strong, but it's always there: curiosity about what will happen if I do X or Y. Loving to experiment with diet & training and being your own lab rat/guinea pig is really a wonderful thing.
It's really not interesting to be lean for aesthetic reasons, especially not if you love food.
It wasn't clear to me from this post that you were referring to just yourself.
I think a lot of people on this board find it really interesting to get lean for aesthetic reasons, and I admire them! I have a good friend locally who is lean as part of her career and she LOVES food. she has a very nice balance to her relationship with food and can outeat me anyday.
It's not considered PC to write about personal experiences w/o constantly using 'I" but 'you' isn't correct either..
Aesthetic reasons alone are good enough, it's just very confronting and when you (I) are not in love with the mirror and have bad judgment, that's a difficult gauge. A major reason for just looking at (long-term) X calories, Y wt, Z bf% (Omron) as well as a kg lifted for y reps.
That is actually something which makes Olympic lifting very challenging to do as aesthetics or rather technically correct lifts are probably even more important than the actual weight.
Someone can lift something up but if it was done the wrong way, you don't 'score'.
oh, and no fake tan, eeek. I want my tan back. I went to the place after work, and it had GONE out of BUSINESS!! my package transfers to the new owners, who of course, moved the location. and they DON"T have late hours.
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