My own worst enemy

[lost180]

I did my circuit routine again today and as I suspected it wasn't as bad this time around. I'm going to finish out the week and see how things go. By next week sometime I may start to bump up the circuit lengths by 10 seconds or something.

[lost180]

Scales show I'm down a little over a pound but it's my first loss in 2 months so I'm back in my let's wait til next week to see if it's a fluke state of mind. But it was nice to see a change and it's motivation to stick with the routines I've been doing. I actually didn't run outside last week because of weather and I just made up a cardio circuit. It kept my heart rate up for almost 30 minutes. And I actually missed a workout last week so we'll see what happens this week when I get my full 5 days.

[lost180]

Been messing around with new routines. I did a routine today with one minute intervals with 30 seconds rest of squat thrust two count push ups, mountain climbers, jumping jacks and flutter kicks. I did that twice and then I did another routine I made up after it. I wanted to do it twice too cause I was going for 25 minutes minimum in my heart rate zone but I had really bad stomach cramps so I had to stop. So I only had 21 minutes. I'm gonna go for a big work out tomorrow though. The squat thrusts were a little hard on my wrists though. I definitely land too hard on them. I'll have to work on that.

[lost180]

Ran my first "mile" ever yesterday. It was just a smidge under a full mile actually. Not sure how accurate my plotting was on google but close enough. But I'm just going to go ahead and say mile. It wasn't so bad and I could have gone further except that I got a KILLER stitch with about 2/10s left to go so it was pretty painful and I walked the last little bit home hunched over. Definitely didn't have enough to drink that day but whatever. I'm happy about it. And I've cut the running down to one day a week and I'm doing my circuits the other 4. So far my hip has been okay and my new sneakers are pretty comfortable.

I tried some burpees again. This time I cut out the push up portion cause I figure I get enough push ups in with my other routines that I should just focus on the other part of the movement instead of getting ahead of myself. And I slowed myself down so that I didn't slam so hard on my hands. Even going slower my heart rate got pretty high so that's good and my wrists thank me. I did 2 circuits today and I did them both twice. First one was burpees, mountain climbers, jumping jacks and flutter kicks. I did each exercise for a minute with 30 seconds rest. I did that back to back with a little longer rest in between the circuit. Then I did another routine twice that was 40 seconds on 30 seconds rest. High knees, jumping jacks again, push ups, Russian twists with 15 pound dumbbell and then jump rope. Got my heart rate in the zone for a little over 30 minutes tonight and worked up a good sweat.

Other than that everything's been fine. Lost one pound exactly this week. Went a little overboard with the junky food this weekend but I didn't jack up my calories or anything.

[lost180]

I was bored at work today so I made up a new routine that I anticipated maybe being too ambitious but it was fine and it got my heart rate up for 40 minutes this time. It was a "power" circuit. I did weight training at a faster pace. I did 20 exercises using all my weights and equipment. A few exercises per body part. I did one minute sets with 30 seconds rest. What got my heart rate up the most were those kettlebell squat presses. That and doing the flexed arm hang on my pull up bar since I still can't do pull ups. It's nice to feel that muscle fatigue after a good strength training set again. Though I haven't done any weighted exercises since you advised me to change up my work outs so we'll see how I feel tomorrow. But I spiked my heart rate and got some weights in. Finished it off with a banana and a protein shake.

I feel like I'm burning through my food these days. My low calorie days suck ass. But even today I had 2000 calories and I felt after dinner. It got better when I worked out. Maybe I just needed to drink some more. I dunno. I bring a snack with me to work and I eat it about an hour before I go home so I can work out right away but lately I come home and I'm already so I say screw it and just eat dinner and work out later. Maybe I need to eat different things. I've been eating fruit and almonds usually. Today though it was almonds and a granola bar.

Anyway we'll see how I do on the scale this week. I was out all day Wednesday running errands and developed a bad headache so I skipped my work out yesterday. I may try and get a run in Friday or Saturday just to compensate but I don't know cause it's going to be busy with my nephews birthday party. I'm not too worried about it though.

Sixteen hundred calories tomorrow.

[Brian Ayers, CSCS]

Sounds like a sweet workout. Also sounds like your metabolism is crankin up. Good job, keep it up.

[lost180]

I'm definitely feeling it. I'm rather sore. I may do this work out twice a week and my other ones 3 times. Just so I don't lose the strength that I had built during the last few months.

Today will be another test because it's my nephews birthday so there will be junk. It's also my highest calorie day so I'm going to allow SOME bad foods but I will control myself.

[lost180]

Yeah, weekend didn't go as I'd hoped and I'm quite annoyed at myself. The day was crazy getting everything ready so my eating was all off and when I did eat I ate mostly sweets and I'm sure I was above my calorie allowance. I'm not happy with what I saw on the scale Sunday. I'm hoping maybe some of it was water retention because I hear sugar can cause that but even so it's no good. So for all those reasons I'm going to go back to my "roots". As in how I did things when I first started posting here. I was super strict with my eating (i.e. no junk or sweets at all)and doing 2000 calories a day and losing consistently. I spent part of the day being annoyed with myself but then decided to make a list of goals to aim for to help me get back to how I was doing.

They're as follows:

1. No more junk. Super strict eating. Only whole foods. I can indulge myself on occasion when I actually reach my goal. And I'm going to go with 2000 calories a day and give the cycling a break for now because the low and high days were kinda messing with my head.

2. Drink at least 80 ounces of water a day.

3. Get my heart rate up for no less than 40 minutes a day. Five days a week. That power circuit I made the other day I plan to do twice a week (once I actually stop being sore)because I don't want to completely give up strength training. And I plan to stick with my cardio circuit training.

4. Get at least 8 hours of sleep a night. I've been slacking some in that department.

5. Run outside at least once a week.

6. Stretch more and do my hip mobility drills to increase flexibility and mobility.

I'm just the type that if I give a little I let things get out of hand. Hence why I'm my own worst enemy. So I'm going back to being super regimented. I need the structure and to know what I can and can't do.

[lost180]

Okay I didn't get those 40 minutes in unfortunately but not for lack of desire or trying. I had another case of terrible stomach cramps. They went away for a while and I'm thinking it might have to do with the cherries I've been eating. I didn't eat them for a few weeks and I had like 30 today around 4:30 for a snack and the cramps are back. It's the only thing I can think of. I googled and it says fruits like cherries can cause intestinal issues because of the amount of sugar in them so I'm going to cut them out of my food tomorrow and shoot for those 40 minutes again. I made it to 30 minutes though and worked up a good sweat. Gonna finish off the night with a banana and some protein powder.

[Brian Ayers, CSCS]

u ate 30 cherries!! They are one of nature's laxitives

1) If u are really looking to cut weight then getting rid of sugar in your diet is the way to go. What people forget is that fruit also = sugar. If you are going to eat fruit stick to the low glycemic fruits like berries and grapefruit.

2) Never step on the scale right after a cheat day!! Its never going to be good news and the water retention will just mess with your head (ask kathy).

3) Never set goals when you are pissed off after stepping on a scale the day after a cheat. There is a science to achieving fitness and weight loss goals and if there is one thing that can cloud science it is emotion. I'm not saying that your goals are wrong, but if you are comiting to them out of anger or frustration then you could be setting yourself up for failure which is a motivation killer.

[lost180]

I will no longer be eating cherries on a day I have to work out. Learned that lesson the hard way.

In regards to sugar. Cutting sugar completely won't happen but is there a certain guideline you like to follow or tell clients to follow? I know we don't need any kind of refined sugar but sugar is in most everything and I'd never last not eating any at all so a general guide line would be helpful. Is there a certain number of grams you suggest not going over? For example the other day I was shopping and wanted to mix up what I had been eating for breakfast so I see these organic sprouted grain bagels so I bought them. Go to check out the calories and find out they had 29 freakin grams of sugar. I was annoyed about that so I won't be getting those again and I'll remember to check my labels BEFORE I leave the store next time.

And in regards to water retention how long does it generally take to flush out of your system? I figured by this morning after drinking 80 plus ounces of water the day before that I'd be good but there was no change. Either way I'll just move on and get them off one way or the other.

Some of those goals were already things I'd had wanted to do regardless so instead of berating myself for getting crazy I figured I'd write down what I wanted to accomplish. I'm not going to kill myself for not following it to a T. The biggest one I want to follow is the stricter eating cause that's when I was doing my best weight loss wise.

[kathyskor]

Brian is spot on about the water retention! For me it was not so much cheat meals but more foods with a higher sodium content. It took me 3-4 days before I started to return to normal but I am sure everyone is different.
As for sugar I haven't completely cut it out of my diet but the intake is definitely lower.
Have you ever considered monitoring your macro nutrient intake rather than focusing on the calories? I typically eat 6 times per day and each meal will consist of 41 grams of protein, 28 grams of carbs and 10 grams of fat. It comes out to 2200 calories per day. I had been steadily loosing about a pound a week for 3 weeks and then started to level out. My activity level increased and I started boxing again so I am sure my system is just really confused. At some point we will be adjusting the carbs and I would expect to see more weight loss. In doing so the calorie count will go down as well. It can be a lot of food if you make the right choices.

[lost180]

That's a lot of meal planning. I don't follow it down to grams but I try to always keep it somewhat even with carbs and protein. Fat is in everything so I don't worry too much about that.

What do you keep your sugar intake at? I don't eat candy or anything but the past 2 weekends I've been to parties where I've splurged. But on a regular basis I wouldn't know what to try and keep it at. We don't need refined sugar so I haven't really read any guidelines as to what to keep it under. I think I may have read once to keep it under like 30 grams a day or something.

[kathyskor]

I went back and looked at my daily counts from a couple of weeks ago and it looks like I was anywhere from 30-50 grams depending on what fruit I ate to makeup the carbs I needed for the meal. Looks like mango has a lot of sugar.
I haven't been religious about writing down every meal but I know what to put together to make up my counts and I have been really good about that.
Salty things are my big vice so as long as I stay away from that type of food I am OK.
Talked to my coach about nutrition today and he wants me to start mixing in more starch like rice or sweet potato rather than fruit to make up the carb. That will take down the sugar grams. Once he's comfortable that my blood sugar has leveled out we will start cutting the carbs which should show some weight loss.
I've also started, or gotten back into ;D, a very high cardio workout once a week, boxing. I just started up 2 weeks ago and am anxious to see what that does for the scale without adjusting anything else yet.

[lost180]

I've cut back on the fruits and haven't had any cherries and my stomach pain is gone. I'm still going to eat fruit though cause I love it. I may switch to grapes and keep with bananas and apples when they're actually in season. My cherries have been kinda disappointing lately anyway.

I've just been mixing up my work outs and coming up with new routines. Same exercises just mixed up. And I added a few more exercises to my strength workout because I didn't feel like I was hitting legs enough so I added some step ups which I'll probably do weighted and then I threw in some bent over rows and some cleans to even things out. I'll be doing this routine tomorrow.