I just picked up NROL4W, and I'm starting next week (due to a vacation in between). I've been browsing the other training logs and posts over on NROL4W and I'm a bit intimidated - I seem to be starting from a much worse position than most, but we'll see.
Basics: 42, female, about 100 pounds overweight, have been active before but never particularly athletic. Desk job + grad school part time = not much getting to the gym. Time to change that.
Hello and welcome! You must be a pretty busy person working and going to grad school I know my head almost exploded going to school taking 2/3 classes while working full time! Hope to hear from ya.
__________________ "Create like a God, Command like a King, and Work like a Slave"-Constantin Brancusi
Look at it this way - your end results are going to be that much more spectacular than the women that start out in a "better" position. It'll be awesome!!
I know that it's really hard to do, however, when you start NROL4W the important thing is that you improve on your own performance. Don't worry about matching someone else's. I started NROL4W about 200 pounds of where I'd like to be (and still have a significant amount to go), so it definitely can be done. Good luck, and have a good vacation.
I know what grad school can do! I wasn't fit when I started, but managed to put on an extra 40 lbs or so while getting my Ph.D. Good for you for getting on top of it before you graduate instead of waiting until after, like I did.
It's amazing what good nutrition and exercise can do, so don't get discouraged. Stick to it and you WILL see results!
Thanks for the many welcomes! I've been really interested to read everyone's logs and comments, looks like y'all are a great bunch!
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Originally Posted by realcdn
I know that it's really hard to do, however, when you start NROL4W the important thing is that you improve on your own performance. Don't worry about matching someone else's.
Thanks Anne. This is going to be a hard one for me - thanks for reminding me of where to focus. I get very impatient with myself sometimes.
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Originally Posted by ZeeSparrow
Look at it this way - your end results are going to be that much more spectacular than the women that start out in a "better" position. It'll be awesome!!
After I wrote that original note, I started thinking about it the way you did. Good call! Today I'm going to get "Before" pictures taken, and we'll see in a couple months how much change there has been!
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Originally Posted by hazel2009
You must be a pretty busy person working and going to grad school I know my head almost exploded going to school taking 2/3 classes while working full time! Hope to hear from ya.
It's busy, but with a little better focus, it's manageable. I've been taking one class a term (forever, it seems like), although I'm going to take two this fall to finish up my first degree. Next year will be a bear (intense seminars) and then I'll have the second degree done. After that? Massage Therapy certification!!!
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Originally Posted by Snarlla
I know what grad school can do! I wasn't fit when I started, but managed to put on an extra 40 lbs or so while getting my Ph.D. Good for you for getting on top of it before you graduate instead of waiting until after, like I did.
I sorta wish I'd gotten into this *before* grad school, so that I'd have better habits now. But I have nearly 18 months til graduation, plenty of time to get into the best shape of my life!
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Originally Posted by LancelotsLover
Welcome. You're on to a good thing with these forums. Plenty of people are or have been in your situation. Good luck, you can do it!
Thank you! I've been very impressed with the support and assistance I've seen in the forums so far.
I've been reading & thinking a lot about food, macronutrient ratios, etc.
I've done WW pretty successfully in the past, but I wasn't as good about balancing my macronutrients - you can spend a lot of points on wine and cheese and junk on there and still lose, but it doesn't give you the fuel you need to do what needs doing. I also had moderate success low-carbing, although I was unable to repeat that loss the second or third time around.
Based on NROL4W, I should be shooting for 2000 cals(ish) on non-workout days, and 2300 on workout days. As is mentioned in the book, this seems like a *lot*. Using a 30/30/40 ratio, that works out to:
(Assuming I can do math/program a spreadsheet....)
Over on ZeeSparrow's log (which I co-opted to ask a couple of questions - sorry Zee!) MissJane wrote:
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If you are very overweight, shoot for 1g per pound of lean body mass instead of total weight.
I found three different formulae online for calculating LBM, and they returned different results. :-( However, two are fairly close together, and match the top end of the protein range above, so I'm going to guess, for now, it's close. Perhaps on my To Do list is actually get my body fat checked by a pro. I'm guessing my gym has calipers.
I've made another lifestyle decision recently, which is to quit drinking except on special occasions (and no, "Because it's Wednesday" doesn't usually count as a special occasion.) I am hoping this will help kick my system into gear as well.
Today I have updated my SparkPeople nutrition plans to include 6 meals (5 + PWO) and roughed in my macronutrient numbers. I definitely need to shop for Protein Powder and experiment with adding even more protein to my diet. I'm also starting to work up to doing my first NROL4W workout by doing some body-weight lunges & squats. They worry me the most, because my knees are a little tired of carrying around this extra weight.
I started NROL4W on fairly high calories, although lower than they recommended. I eventually pushed them up to pretty much what they suggested and then slowly brought them down again. I suggest starting at the levels suggested, then bring them down slightly if looking for weight loss.
Over on ZeeSparrow's log (which I co-opted to ask a couple of questions - sorry Zee!) .
No worries! I think that's one of the greatest things about having a log where people can comment: we get to interact and learn things together.
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Originally Posted by btinternet
I've made another lifestyle decision recently, which is to quit drinking except on special occasions (and no, "Because it's Wednesday" doesn't usually count as a special occasion.) I am hoping this will help kick my system into gear as well.
That's a great idea (though one I've not quite put into practice). Definitely reduced my intake in that department lately, for the most part....
Based on NROL4W, I should be shooting for 2000 cals(ish) on non-workout days, and 2300 on workout days. As is mentioned in the book, this seems like a *lot*.
Hello and welcome. The calorie and macros calculations on NROLFW will seem like a lot, but as Anne pointed out, and others such as myself will, too, they are necessary for fueling the body while you're on the program. It looks deceptively easy, but it'll work you like you've never worked before, especially if you have never done total body workouts or semi-serious lifting.
Also, I've been there in doing the FT job & grad school thing. How I didn't lose it during that time is totally beyond me, so I'm giving you kudos for embarking on this while you have a full plate. But NROLFW is terrific - you'll love it, or at least love the results!!
The calorie and macros calculations on NROLFW will seem like a lot, but as Anne pointed out, and others such as myself will, too, they are necessary for fueling the body while you're on the program. It looks deceptively easy, but it'll work you like you've never worked before, especially if you have never done total body workouts or semi-serious lifting.
Also, I've been there in doing the FT job & grad school thing. How I didn't lose it during that time is totally beyond me, so I'm giving you kudos for embarking on this while you have a full plate. But NROLFW is terrific - you'll love it, or at least love the results!!
Thanks for the welcome - I'm looking forward to results! :-) I think (as was being discussed elsewhere) that I just need to work up to the calorie/macro levels.
Food for today:
1673 cals (50% carb, 30% fat, 20% protein)
Breakfast: 2 eggs, spinach, feta, kalamata olives, wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla
Lunch: brown rice, spinach, chicken, mushrooms (leftovers, thus the higher-than-normal carb count)
Dinner: turkey kielbasa, sauerkraut, mini-pierogies, low-fat sour cream
Snack: Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich
Not great, but trying to use up leftovers before leaving town, and kind of a disorganized day.
Busy day. I tripped on the sidewalk and fell, managed to scrape up one hand and cut my toe on the other foot. *sigh*
And my eating today has been... less than ideal. I wasn't hungry at lunchtime, and I had an afternoon nap, so lunch was late, and then dinner was even later, and I grabbed the wrong salad dressing and and and...
Food for today:
1644 cals (38% carb, 43% fat, 19% protein)
Breakfast: small frozen bagel, sausage patty, neufchatel, 2 pieces string cheese
Lunch: chicken chili verde
Dinner: Falafel with tzatziki sauce and a big salad with balsamic vinaigrette
You mentioned that you were working on some body weight exercises. How are those going? How are your knees liking it?
Thank you - I think my pride was hurt more than anything. And maybe the co-worker I tried to take out as I fell.
The body-weight work is going well, actually. I guess I should record them, although I'm not being super-organized about them. I'm doing about 3-5 sets of 8-ish body-weight squats, and about the same of pushups off the edge of the counter (so 45degree-ish), and I started adding lunges today. And while I'm feeling it in my glutes & quads mostly, the knees (thus far, knock on wood) are not complaining!!! (Basically I'm doing a set when I think of it during the course of the day, not an organized "workout", thus my approximations above). My goal is to get my body used to the motion in good form, without joint pain, so when I start really working the program, I'm prepped.
Congrats on reducing the booze. For me that was super important. I will admit that I was drinking 3/4 a bottle of wine most evenings, and I will also admit I was doing it to numb pain in my body (it helped.) But it didn't make me feel better.
Now I only drink if/when I go out, and only 1. Though I've had the occasional g&t at home, the "need" for that has subsided.
Congrats on reducing the booze. For me that was super important. I will admit that I was drinking 3/4 a bottle of wine most evenings, and I will also admit I was doing it to numb pain in my body (it helped.) But it didn't make me feel better.
Thanks. Yeah, self-medicating is really only a temporary "fix".
It's been hard, but not as hard as I thought, so we'll see how it continues. I confess, I was hoping for a "whoosh" since I had been dumping all those empty calories in, but nothing so far. Watch this space. :-)
I was going to say "it's been nice to wake up feeling less groggy" but then this morning I woke up with a champion hangover-headache, but that might just be allergies or sleeping poorly or something.
Thanks for the encouragement. My current plan is special occasions only, but we'll see how it goes.
Hi! Welcome to the forums! I've heard lots of good things about NROL4W, though I'd recommend taking Anne's advice of beginning calories at the book's recommended levels, then taking them down. I've heard that those with sensitive systems can get their hormones out of whack with the program (which is why I haven't done it yet myself--I've had past issues w/ amenorrhea and don't want to start it up again), so yeah, the calories are definitely important! Your body needs the fuel.
__________________
They call me Amanda, that being my real name, and "They" being people who know me in person as I don't go around introducing myself in real life as "scribess." 'Cause that would just be strange.
Okies, I can't figure out how to post my clever little SparkPeople food chart in here, and it's too late and I'm too tired to figure it out. And annoying Sparkness reset all my macronutrient goal numbers *again* So...
Food for today:
1624 cals (38% carb, 37% fat, 26% protein)
Breakfast: lowfat cottage cheese
Snack 1: lowfat cottage cheese (I see a trend)
Lunch: whole wheat tortilla, turkey, lettuce, tomato, mayo (should have skipped the mayo)
Snack 2: small piece of cheese, 5 crackers, blackberries
Dinner: lamb kebab, eggplant curry, rice
Did a little stretching to work out the kinks from yesterday, otherwise mostly busted buns on work. *sigh* Takeaway probably wasn't the best for dinner, but even rounding up on portions I did okay counts wise.
The only real issue with takeout is that you're likely not going to get the amount of protein that you think you are, and you're likely getting more fat than you think. Although since it was a kebab maybe you did get a measurable amount of meat.
The only real issue with takeout is that you're likely not going to get the amount of protein that you think you are, and you're likely getting more fat than you think. Although since it was a kebab maybe you did get a measurable amount of meat.
Yeah, that was my concern and why I picked kebabs. It was 6 good-sized (maybe 3cm on a side?) cubes of meat, so not a huge amount but certainly a decent amount and very lean.
Tired today, was awakened early by the lovely gentlemen sawing paving outside my window with a wetsaw. Work is crazy and I'm going away this weekend so frantically finishing things.
Food for today:
1761 cals (45% carb, 31% fat, 25% protein)
Breakfast: lowfat cottage cheese, pretzels, coffee with Mini Moo's & Splenda
Lunch: Subway turkey breast sub with light mayo & veggies, packet of Baked Lays
Dinner: Chicken & mozzarella ravioli with homemade pesto, Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich
Obviously I need to work on the ratios more, but I had "help" today.
And that's probably me until next week sometime! Everyone stay safe, have a great weekend, and I'll be back Wednesday-ish. Cheers!
__________________
They call me Amanda, that being my real name, and "They" being people who know me in person as I don't go around introducing myself in real life as "scribess." 'Cause that would just be strange.
Towards a Smaller, Fitter Human
I know my head almost exploded going to school taking 2/3 classes while working full time! Hope to hear from ya.
But I have nearly 18 months til graduation, plenty of time to get into the best shape of my life!
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