This Morning's Exercise: Strength Training - see below
Yesterday's Exercise: 25 mile (2 hour - avg 12.5mph) bike ride & 70 minutes racquetball with Jack
Saturday's Exercise: 6.5 mile (79 minutes) run
Yesterday's Calories: 1685
Saturday's Calories: 1609
Friday's Calories: 1532
Vitamins: 1-A-Day, D, B-Complex, Calcium, Glucosamine
This week's strength training routine:
--Repeat 3 times
------30 walking lunges, walk back to starting point
--Repeat 4 times
------16 dumbbell flys/leg lifts with 12.5lb dumbbells: With a dumbbell in each hand lay flat on back on mat, with arms (elbows slightly bent) and legs raised in air. Lower arms and legs to almost touching mat at the same time. Arms go out to the side so that they are perpindicular to the body and legs lower straight down staying straight with body. Lift legs and arms and repeat.
------16 squat to press with 30 pound straightbar: Holding straight bar in close to and in front of chest, rock weight back onto heals, press butt back and lower to squat position, stand back up and while standing press straight bar above head until arms are straight. Lower arms until straight bar is in close to and in front of chest and repeat.
------20 push-up rows with 12.5lb dumbbells: Get in pushup postion with toes on floor and hands resting on dumbbells instead of floor. Arms are straight. Alternate lifting each dumbbell up by bending elbow and lifting dumbbell to arm pit, while holding body in pushup position with the other hand on dumbbell. Lower weight so both weights are on the floor and lift other weight. Repeat 20 times (10 each arm)
--Run @ 5mph on treadmill for 5 minutes
--Repeat 5 times
------30 seconds of leg extensions, 55lbs, on leg extension machine. Can you say, "Ouch!"?
------15 second rest
--Run at 6mph on treadmill for 5 minutes
--Repeat 3 times
------Medium ball (10lb) side throw, 45 seconds (15 on each side): Stand up and hold weighted ball in front of you, turn to the side and throw ball down to ground with as much force as possible. When ball bounces back up, catch it, lift arms above head, turn to the other side, and throw ball down again. Catch ball, lift arms above head, turn, throw and repeat. Arms should make big arc over your head
------Plank on ball, 30 seconds: With elbows on mat, toes on 10lb ball, and body straight, hold plank position for 30 second.
--Repeat once
------30 walking lunges
The above routine (minus the two 5 minute runs) was the strength training routine I did with Jeremy Walters on Friday morning, our first session together since he left 24Hour Fitness about 6 weeks ago. It kicked my butt!!! I was very sore most of the weekend. Once again he found muscles I didn't know I had. My rear end was sore and so were my sides and my lower chest. So was everything else, really, but those were the two areas that hurt the most. It feels good, in a some strange way, to feel sore after my strength training workouts, again. I know I'm working hard if I am sore afterwards.
The other thing that was great about my workout with Jeremy Walters is that he is as committed to me reaching my 150lbs by December 31st goal as I am, though that goal looks more elusive every day longer that I weigh 158.6 lbs. When we talked about my weight and my goal and I suggested that it make take longer than year end to reach it and I was prepared to accept that, he shook his head and said, "No way! You can make it and you know you can." In fact, that is where the 5 minute runs on the treadmill came from in the above workout. We were half way through the training session when he told me to add the runs between sets in order to work the cardio into my workout to stimulate the weight loss. I hope by the time I see him on Friday I see some results on the scale. I hope I see some results on the scale by tomorrow!!
I am starting to get very frustrated. This has been a solid two week plateau. In fact, over the weekend my weight crept up to 159.6 on Saturday, was 159.0 yesterday morning and was 158.6 again this morning. This is driving me nuts. I've been working hard, exercising a lot, and have not lost any weight in what feels like way too long. I can be a little more disciplined with my food, which is what I know I need to do, but that is frustrating, too. When I run 6.5 miles or ride my bike 25 miles and then play racquetball for over an hour, I feel like I should be able to afford an extra 50 calories or so. I know this is just a plateau...I still don't understand why I have plateaus, but that is what this is. I do think I will keep my calories right at 1500 for this week and see if that helps. Will 100 - 150 calories make a difference? I guess we'll find out!!!
Here is my Week 40 Photo:
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| 12/3/2012, End of Week 40, 158.6 pounds, 65.4 pounds lost |
I am re-dedicating myself to weight loss this week. Come on!! 8.6 pounds!! Let's get it done!!!!
You look amazing, my friend! You'll get past the plateau and reach your goal. You're the most focused, goal-oriented person I've ever known. Just keep being you and you'll hit your target!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lisa! I know I'll get there. It just gets hard when there is no change day after day after day. Today I was super careful about recording calories as I was eating instead of relying on my memory. Maybe that will help.
DeleteHere is my advice. Don't change anything. Don't eat fewer calories. Don't add workouts. If you do those two things you will get to goal faster, but fewer calories and more workouts are not sustainable, and you will gain weight after you reach your goal. Stick with the plan. It might take a while, but your plan will get you in ideal condition at ideal weight. If, however, you are drinking alcohol, you could quit that, which is a sustainable change.
ReplyDeleteRuth, what you say makes sense. It is sound advice and at the same time I just want to be done with losing weight. Working towards this goal is one of the things that has motivated me to come this far and I believe the goal is reasonable and realistic. Whether or not I can get there by year-end is another question. My original goal was 48 weeks, which is more than enough time. It is safe to say that my emotions are all over the place with this right now. Goal feels attainable - 8lbs away as of this morning - and there is a month left in the year. Emotionally I want to connect the two of those together. Also, the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas is a bad time of year for me. I get depressed this time of year, every year. As I found myself slipping into depression and wanting to eat my way through it, I got a little panicked and decided to recommit to my goal as a way of fending off the slippery slope of eating to self-medicate. We established a calorie goal of 1500 - 1600 several months ago and I have been pushing 1600+ recently. My plan isn't to go below 1500 but to stay closer to 1500 than 1600. Also, I am going to be more diligent about recording all calories when I eat them. I have relied more on my memory the last few weeks, and have only been entering calories a couple times a day. My exercise plan will stay the same, but I am going to be more diligent about my 15 - 30 minutes of evening exercise. The goal will be to do something after work on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. On Wednesdays I bowl and on Fridays Jack and I try to go out, so exercising after work is difficult on Fridays. On Saturdays and Sundays my workouts usually happen mid-day and are longer. I have had two drinks since August 1st. One was a Mike's hard limeade at a party we had and the other was a glass of wine on Thanksgiving day. Other than that, I have not even been tempted to drink. That part has not been difficult at all. I consider myself a non-drinker, now. I may have a glass of wine once in a blue moon, but I may not. I doubt that 2 drinks in 4 months has had any impact on my weight loss. So I do agree with you that I need to keep doing what I've been doing. And I also know that if I cut calories it will backfire long term. I even told Jack that the other day. It'd be easy to just undereat for a few weeks to get this done, but in the long run that will make maintaining a healthy weight difficult. So, my plan is to stick to my plan, but to not let myself be sloppy about counting calories or missing evening workouts.
DeleteGood plan. Christmas is depressing without little kids around, in my experience. What we need are some grandchildren.
ReplyDeleteTrue enough. We have 5 now, and none of them will be here. We could go to Utah or Oregon, but we're not. Next year I'll be more settled into my new job and we may plan to travel for Christmas if we can't get the kids to come out here. Steve was planning on bringing his family out, but they don't have the financial means to do that. By next year I'll have so many frequent flyer miles I will probably be able to fly them out without it costing me anything!
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