A 50 year old housewife’s tale of trashing her fat, getting fit and enjoying life on the lean side.
More holiday sales!
If you like the idea of having a TRX trainer, Fitness Anywhere is offering a special where everything on their site is 20% off and free ground shipping!
Coupon code is: SAVEBIG08.
Good from November 27th to December 1st.
I couldn't resist getting a couple of the newer DVDs.
For those who have been wanting a high performance blender, Vita-Mix is offering reconditioned 5200 models with an 8 year warranty! Yeah, expensive, but less so than a non-reconditioned machine. Basically, you save $70 PLUS get an extra year of warranty. Got the email this morning.
I made whole grain bread (flour freshly ground from wheat berries) with my Vita-Mix over the weekend! It's a low rising loaf, about half as high as a normal sandwich loaf, but was sure tasty! Monday I used the small slices to make a grilled cheese sandwich as a treat for my cheat day. Best darned grilled cheese sandwich of my life!
Take crumbly whole wheat bread goodness, add a lovely Kerrygold Dubliner cheese from Ireland and grill to perfection with a Cuisinart Griddler. Heaven!
I feel like my body could use a bit of recharge after the challenge. My metabolism was slowing dramatically! I mean, NO energy, pounding headaches, feeling like I was freezing with the thermostat ramped up to over 75F (While wearing double layers!) and sleeping HOURS more than normal. My body was trying to tell me something... I can take a hint!
So I'm doing full bore Cheat To Lose this week. The first low carb days came in at 1700 calories, so that's my baseline. From there, I added the required fruit and starchy veggies/legumes for the next two days, bringing those in at 2000 calories per day. We'll see how the calories work with the high GI/GL portion shortly!
I'm naturally worried if the calorie increase will hinder progress. I do feel like I need give my body at least a couple weeks to re-adapt to a slightly higher calorie level and find out. The good news is that I feel my metabolism and energy levels ramping back up. Now when I am hungry, I have the energy to fix my planned meal! Nor have I been a lethargic lump laying on the couch nights or sleeping for hours more than normal. All good signs!
As for progress... I'm down .2 pounds from last Friday, but it remains to be seen how things will be by Monday with the increase in carbs over the weekend. Next set of girth measures comes end of the month.
Meanwhile... I ran into Julie at the bank this afternoon... she has been sick with pneumonia! She said she feels that she is somewhat on the mend, but won't push herself to get back to teaching next week because she doesn't want to relapse. I can sure understand that! I knew it couldn't be good that she was MIA for over a week!
| 11-19-2008 Pull Ups | 11-21-2008 Pull Ups |
| 1st set = 14 | 1st set = 15 |
| 2nd set = 11 | 2nd set = 15 |
| 3rd set = 5 | 3rd set = 8 |
| Total reps = 30 |
Total reps = 38 |
| 11-18-2008 Push Ups | 11-20-2008 Push Ups |
| 1st set = 8 | 1st set = 10 |
| 2nd set = 5 | 2nd set = 10 |
| 3rd set = 4 | 3rd set = 7 |
| Total reps = 17 |
Total reps = 27 |
Leaving y'all here to go EAT! Dinner is grilled cod w/spinach, cashew and feta pesto on a bed of spinach and red bell pepper with kidney beans. And a baby apple with peanut butter. Water is on target for a gallon and a half.
My water aerobics instructor has been uncharacteristically sick for the past week. I don't think she reads this blog, but I think everyone missed her.
And it made me think about our class instructors, personal trainers, well, really anyone who helps us along on our fitness goals. I know I sure appreciate Julie, she teaches a good class and keeps coming up with ways to keep it fresh! So folks, if you've got someone like this in your life, let them know how much you appreciate their help and support!
I had a MOMENT on the assisted pull-up machine today!
OK, let's face it, at my weight, a real pull-up is kind of in that realm of never, never land. I've never actually done one in my ENTIRE LIFE!
Last fall, I got a trainer and she had me try the assisted pull-up machine. I was so weak we had to set the counterweight at my bodyweight before I could do any. I could barely pull up ZERO POUNDS of my weight! She had me doing the overhand grip and the neutral grip. After about a month of me working with it, my bad shoulder just got worse and worse and I had to stop. Mind you, she had me doing a lot of other upper body stuff at the time. So it may not all have been the pull-up machine's fault.
So, I liked the idea of just focusing on TWO exercises during the challenge. I thought that might be do-able without killing off my shoulder and it was.
I didn't really focus hard on the pull-ups, because I was afraid of getting my shoulder irate. I do sometimes feel this weird sensation, kind of like a rubber band snapping over something. And it doesn't feel right. So I like to play things very safe... I only did pull-ups about once a week... and only with the neutral grip which is MUCH easier on my shoulder.
I hadn't done any since 11/8, so no reason to expect much today. More so, because I was doing them after a fairly rigorous water aerobics class and my arms felt tired.
After I showered and dressed, I trotted over the the assisted pull-up machine. I normally set it at my bodyweight (220 pounds of counterweight) to warm up for a few reps, then I set the counterweight at 200 pounds, so that I am really pulling a little of my weight up. Only, I *thought* I had set it at 220 pounds, and I was cranking out more reps than I ever managed before and suddenly I realized that it WAS at 200 pounds!
| 11-8-2008 Pull Ups | 11-18-2008 Pull Ups |
| 1st set = 9 | 1st set = 14 |
| 2nd set = 8 | 2nd set = 11 |
| 3rd set = 6 | 3rd set = 5 |
| Total reps = 23 |
Total reps = 30 |
Yeah! 7 more reps! It felt unbelievably good!
I was doing counter push-ups for the 30 Day Challenge I just finished, but, well, I can't ALWAYS make it to the gym. The gym has a nice window in the cable stack area with lovely rounded edges to the windowsill... that's where I like to do my counter push-ups.
At home, options are less nice, my kitchen counters have a sharp edge and even with a folded towel to protect my hands, it just plain hurts, even for a few push-ups. So today, when I realized that I probably would not make it to the gym after doing my Nordic Track intervals in the morning, I decided to trot out ye olde TRX trainer and try a few stability push-ups.
I set the TRX trainer to its fully shortened length. That might be a touch higher than my counters, but I am pushing against an unstable, suspended surface, so it is TOUGH! I'll list what I did and update as I improve.
One minute rest between sets
Set 1 = 8 reps
Set 2 = 5 reps
Set 3 = 4 reps
I can't tell you how tricky it was to try and photograph this! My camera remote gives me TWO SECONDS to get in position before it fires the camera! I captured myself in the down position... that's the harder for me to hold than the up position! Feet are together, which makes it less stable than if I had them apart. (The latter is difficult to do in my doorway corner anyway.)
Whew! I was TIRED after getting the final challenge post done!
Eating was pretty marginal on both Saturday and Sunday. I ate too little Saturday. Sunday I ate at maintenance level of 2500 calories, but my macros weren't great. Monday was my cheat day... most of that was clean eating, except for a little fast food. Had a craving for egg rolls and a pumpkin pie shake and hubby obliged by bringing it home! Now that I've seen how many calories were in that, it may dampen future cravings!
Sunday, my head was just pounding and I was freezing cold all day. Monday was a bit better. Today, Tuesday, I feel pretty normal.
I'll need to roll and ice my feet tonight... they've been a bit neglected. Haven't been on them too much, but Friday's leaf raking got them a bit irritated. That's the tough part of the plantar fasciitis, you may not feel pain DURING whatever you are doing, but later, it comes and bites you.
Back on track today... low carb for the first part of the week as per usual. I have a meal plan set, and I'm hitting the Nordic Track shortly.
As for the future... I'm planning to continue. Only with a few more calories. I'll be following Cheat To Lose, which is low carb for a couple days, then moderate carb (fruits and legumes added) then high carb/low fat (starchy carbs added and fat minimized). Calories will be right around challenge levels for the low carb days... but then go up as the week progresses. Hopefully that will keep the headaches and assorted other body reactions from coming back to haunt me.
Progress pictures and measurements probably won't be posted weekly though. Monthly sounds more reasonable to me, but we'll see. I have to confess to some curiosity, especially with measurements.
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