Feeling better is a good thing! Give it some time, and that vacation weight will be gone soon.
Thanks! I'm telling you I look better. Even though my weight has been up and down over the last three months (since my daughter was born) I look more lean....despite only losing about 4 pounds over that time. I can't complain to much.
I'm a bit concerned about copping out. I feel very confident that 165lbs. is where I need to get to get below 12% BF. But, every once in a while my mind starts trying to talk myself out of the diet and into a bulk. It's hard to keep that singular focus when you really want to start eating more to put up bigger numbers. But, I know that I need to lose those last 9 pounds even if it takes another 6 months.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheWookie
Welcome back from vacation! Did you include the spiders in the gym makeover?
I decided to leave them in the basement....but I think a few have tracked me and are making their way upstairs.
With football season upon us I felt inspired today......inspired to punt! As in, I totally punted my diet today.
I'm already at over 2200 calories. If I keep dinner reasonable (which I will) then I'll still be slightly below maintenance. So, not a huge gut busting binge. But, I'm sort of shocked at how it happened. I was driving around for work. I'd eaten my breakfast at 6am. I ate an apple at about 10am, and finished my salad with chicken breast around 11:30am. And at about 11:35am I became super hungry. Pains in the gut hungry. So, I reached for my water bottle and finished my first liter of water for the day. I was still hungry. At about 12:15pm had to stop to get gas. I went inside looking for candy, ice cream, etc. I was finding it hard to control my hunger. I decided to compromise and got two sausages from the hotdog warmer. I ate those knowing that they'd be fairly high in calories but they would be filling. At that point I was outside of my goal calories for the day, but I hadn't done any real damage. I got back in the car and ate my two sausage links and drank a diet coke. Thirty minutes later I was still hungry. I felt like a crack addict! I ended up in the parking lot of a McDonalds at around 1pm eating ice cream and chocolate chip cookies!
It's 4:30pm and I'm still hungry, but not as hungry as before.
I don't know if its because of the changes in my program, or because I'm not getting enough sleep. But, today has been a tough diet day.
I get it. I've been craving a lot of food today, too. But I haven't yet dug into the cookies, just huge hamburgers from Carl's Jr.
Oh, Carl's Jr. and Jack in the Box are the only reasons why I'm glad I live on the east coast. Seriously I'd be three hundred pounds if I still lived in California.
OK... We've got similar goals. Only difference is that my kids are all 10 to 16 years old, so I have a slight advantage in the "finding the time to train" department.
Well, last week didn't end well. I really dropped the ball on the diet end. I also overslept Friday morning. I forgot to set me alarm. I told myself I get to the session later on Friday or Saturday, but I didn't.
I think I figured out part of the reason why I was having so much trouble maintaining my diet last week. I think that I was shooting for too low a daily total of calories. See, I was used to training three days per week and I was in a good rhythm. So, I was able to get a few days per week with super low calories and it didn't phase me. I was becoming accustomed to eating at a 1,000 to 1,500 calorie deficit for four or five days per week. When I came back from vacation (where I didn't diet at all) and started a new routine that has me up at 4:40am, five days per week I expected to go right back to that kind of dieting. But, I couldn't do it. So, I pigged out because my body was in revolt.
So, I'll go back to a more modest deficit for the next few weeks.
I hurt my back/shoulder this morning doing super sets of high pulls and push press. Towards the end of the first super set my left shoulder was on fire. I didn't complete the set. I put the bar down and doubled over. My buddy completed his sets while I watched. Afterwards I tried to do sets of front squats, but it was too painful. So, I stopped the session.
I've taken 1,000mg of Ibuprofren and a hot shower. I'm sitting with a cold pack on the spot now. It's feeling better. I'll see how it feels as the day goes on.
Weight: 173.2 (Getting back to normal after vacation....and post vacation) Water: About 2 liters. Sleep: 8 hours! Whoo Hoo! First time in a couple of weeks!
Exercise
Track Intervals
400m sprint + 400m walk x 4
Notes
We had a power outage last night. So, I was in bed by 8:30pm and asleep by 9pm. Apparently thats what it takes for me to get eight hours of sleep.
It was no fun when the power came back on at 1am and all the light in the house came on. My four year old got up like it was morning time and was about to go downstairs before we caught her. But, we all got back to sleep pretty quickly.
You may notice that I haven't reported calories. I'm trying something a little bit different. I've been overly focused on the daily calorie numbers. I've been trying to stay below certain calorie benchmark by a given time of the day. I think its actually been counter productive for me. Somewhat related I've been trying to mix up my food options so that I'm not eating the same things everyday. But, I find that the days when I deviate from my standard meals are the days that I end up having compliance issues.
Because of this I've decided that I'm not going to track my calories on a day to day basis. I'm simply going to stick to my routine foods and the stuff that I know that works. Instead I'll focus on the areas where I'm having trouble like sleep, drinking water, and keeping my weekends in check. Depending on how this weekend goes, I may actually record on Weekends, but not Mon-Friday.
When I eat my standard meals and foods I stay in a 1700-2000 calorie range. I'm doing some sort of exercise six days per week (4 days lifting two days cardio). I burn about 2600-2800 calories per day. So, with a Sunday refeed I should post about a 3000 to 4000 calorie deficit each week. As long as the scale is moving downward with each Saturday morning weigh in I'm not going to count calories Mon-Friday.
I've been keeping a food journal for well over six months....I know what I'm eating.
I lost a lot of weight at first with very little in the way of a plan. I agreed with a buddy of mine to not eat sugar for Lent in 2008. I'm not even Catholic. But, I lost like 20 pounds in 40 days. So, to keep it going I swore off fast food. Another ten pounds later I vowed to pack my lunch everyday.
It seems like I get a plan, if you can call it that, and ride it out until the weight loss stalls. And then I find that I need to retool my "plan."
I've been between 175 and 170 for quite a while now. So, I tried lowering the calories. That didn't work. So, this is my new one....lets see how it goes.
I can stick to the workouts (love them!) but dietwise, I can be easily tempted. A bit at a time like you did with the sugar, then the fast food, then packed lunches sounds like a good way to do it. I may have to do it a week at a time.
I think it was Naive who said in her log, Keep you eyes on the prize. I keep trying to remember that.
I'll tell you, nothing worked for me until I put the "one habit at a time" plan into place. I didn't realize at the beginning what I was doing. But, once I became aware of it I was able to consistently make progress and keep the weight off. So, I'd definitely recommend it. Get one positive habit down, and don't stress the rest. Then once that habit is ingrained add the next positive habit.
This isn't the first time that I've tried to lose weight. But, its the first time that it worked and stuck.
Diamond Pushups, Feet Elevated: 1x10, 3x10 with 10lb. DB.
Front Plank - 1x60 sec.
Side Plank - 30 sec. each side.
Notes
I realized this morning that I've been weighing myself after going to the gym and drinking a crap ton of water. So, I'm not too upset about the 175lb. weigh in this morning.
Weight: 176.2 (Moving the wrong direction) Water: 2.5 liters Sleep: 6 hours without interruption. Dietary Compliance: Today: Good Yesterday: Horrible!
Exercise
Yesterday Evening
DB High Pull - 4x5 at 45lbs.
Bulg. Split Squat - 4x10 each side at 45lbs.
One Arm Overhead Press: 4x10 each side at 35lbs.
Dips - 4x10
Hanging Leg Raises - 4x15
This Morning
High Pull - 4x5 at 105lbs.
Romanian Deadlift - 4x10 at 225lbs.
One Arm Row - 10 at 75lbs. 10 at 80lbs. 2x10 at 85lbs.
Chin ups - 1x5.....ran out of time. I'll have to finish tonight or tommorrow.
Notes
Yesterday was a major diet blunder. I forgot to take my lunch when I left and I just ate like a pig. I'm sure that I ended the day somewhere around 4000 calories. I tried to compensate by adding some extra exercise to burn off as many calories as possible. So, I came home from work and duplicated my morning session. So, instead ot 16 working sets, I ended up doing 32 working sets yesterday. When that was over I took the kids outside and we ran around for about an hour in the heat. We played tag, and raced from one side of the yard to the other. I tried to really keep moving and burn off as much as I could. I may have come close to burning 3500 or so calories for the day. But, I'm sure that I still had a caloric surplus.
I don't know whats up with me lately. I'm having trouble sticking to my diet. Until the last couple of weeks this hasn't been an issue. I'm assuming that I'm stil getting accustomed to my new routine, and the reduced sleep. Sleep is a big part of it I'm sure. The night before the binge I got about 5.5 hours of sleep. But, I had to get up a couple of times to deal with the children. Last night I slept for six hours in a row, and I feel fine today. I've had no issues with dietary compliance.
I'm going to try not to beat myself up about it. I'll consider yesterday to be my cheat day for the week and will eat around 2000 cals. on Sunday.
Weight: 173.8 Water: nil Sleep: 6.5 hours Dietary Compliance: OK, Good for a weekend.
Exercise
Yesterday
Chin ups - 3x8 and 3x7
90 mins. walking moderate pace.
Notes
Today is my first non-cheat Sunday in quite a while. It hasn't been too difficult so far. I've had two very small meals and I'm about to eat a burger off the grill with some fruit!
I've been crazy active this weekend. I've been chasing kids, helped a friend move a couch, cleaned the house like a sweaty-toothed mad man!
a famous recipe! Do you microwave or cook the pumpkin, or is it straight from a can?
Nope, straight from the can. I usually make it the night before and keep it in the fridge. I take a couple of bites before I work out and eat the rest after.
Weight: 173 even Water: 1 liter Sleep: 7 hours with a couple of interruptions Dietary Compliance: Pretty good. Probably a 500-700 calorie deficit depending on activity.
Exercise
Track Intervals - 400m Sprint x 4 - 400m Walk x4 plus two warm up laps and cool down lap.
Notes
Was exhausted yesterday but managed to keep a good grasp on the diet. Was hungry but didn't cave.
I was a bit curious about how my mental caloric estimations compared to actually logging my food. So, I figured out in my head what the calories would be and then later logged the food. I was off by less than forty calories. Not bad! I still weigh my food....I just don't log it.
Weight: 171.6 even Water: about half a liter....been dropping the ball. Sleep: 7 hours...only because I overslept. Dietary Compliance: Good! Probably a 1000+ deficit.
Exercise
Overslept this morning. I missed my morning workout. I'm going to try to make it up later in the day. But, I'm super busy today so I don't know if that will happen.
Weight: 173...I'm a little surprised. Water: ? Sleep: 5 hours broken up. Dietary Compliance: Good. Especially, considering the lack of sleep.
Exercise
I didn't do my normal morning session since my partner wasn't able to make it and I ended up spending alot of the night awake. There was a horrible thunderstorm in our area last night. It lasted for almost three hours, and my sons is very frightened of thunder. So, I was up from about 2:30am til past 5am with him.
I did a session tonight. It was all lower body. And I'll do my upper body tomorrow.
Hang Cleans - 3x5 at 105 lbs.
Front Squats - 3x10 at 105 lbs.
RDL's - 4x10 at 255 lbs.
Bul. Split Squats - 5x10 each side at body weight.
After doing cleans, squats, and deads, those split squats burned even at body weight.
Tomorrow there is a huge Pig Roast happening at the family compound. I'll be incredibly active. I'll be cutting the grass, putting up tents, cleaning, hoisting around a 180lbs pig, etc. Plus, I'll do my upper body session. And, I'll be chasing kids around. It'll be a day where I'll burn 3,500 calories....but, how much will I eat?
Whoo! Hoo! That's been a barrier that I haven't been able to get past. Unfortunately, I have a pig roast at my house today. But, I'll also be super active. My goal is to eat at maintenance or slightly below. That will allow me to eat 3000-3500 calories and not go into a surplus. So, If I keep my head I'll be fine.
I'm a little surprised that 135lbs. was my 10RM on bench press. But, perhaps I shouldn't be. I haven't done bench press in years. And despite the numerous one arm push ups I do, they aren't the same movement.
I've consumed about 1200 calories so far, and burned about 600-800 through exercise! I'll burn well over 3000 total calories today.
Getting 8 hours is great.
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