My Fat Loss Goal (measure progress March 27 2010)
This is just my action plan and written down goals that I have listed in my previous post. I will be tracking and measuring progress to this specific goal in my comments to this post so that I can track my progress more specifically to this goal.
By the end of March, I will lose fat and build muscle. I will measure my success by:
1. weighing 122 lbs, or less
2. be at 19% body fat or less
I will focus my workouts to the basic fat loss circuit that I know has worked for me in the past, and will increase my cardio intensity during HIIT training to an 8mph work speed (I have a sprint goal of 10 mph).
I will be conscious of my food and plan my menu for the day so that I am set up for success. I will be in a calorie deficit each week. I will keep track of my food intake each day, and then view it as a "week" to help my progress.
I will measure my weight and body fat every Friday morning to measure progress.
I will reflect on each day, and journal so that I can get myself in the right frame of mind, and know that I will be and am successful, and can and will attain my goals.
I will keep my motivation by meditating on principles of Godly living. That God has not called me to a mediocre life, but a life that is Above and Beyond my expectations. That I am to Walk Worthy.
I will visualize success on a daily basis: I don't really need much of an excuse to seeing myself returning to Maui and swimming in the Pacific ocean ;)
I have other strength goals in mind, but will focus on those goals after my fat loss goals. They will be called: My Muscle Building goals.
On March 27, 2010 I am healthy and eat consciously. My clothes fit me well. I have visible musculature, and less than 19% body fat. I go to the gym 3-4 days a week. I can run a mile and a half in 12 minutes. My body is ready for the next phase, and that is to build strength and muscle so that I can do unassisted chin ups, and squat 200 pounds!
By the end of March, I will lose fat and build muscle. I will measure my success by:
1. weighing 122 lbs, or less
2. be at 19% body fat or less
I will focus my workouts to the basic fat loss circuit that I know has worked for me in the past, and will increase my cardio intensity during HIIT training to an 8mph work speed (I have a sprint goal of 10 mph).
I will be conscious of my food and plan my menu for the day so that I am set up for success. I will be in a calorie deficit each week. I will keep track of my food intake each day, and then view it as a "week" to help my progress.
I will measure my weight and body fat every Friday morning to measure progress.
I will reflect on each day, and journal so that I can get myself in the right frame of mind, and know that I will be and am successful, and can and will attain my goals.
I will keep my motivation by meditating on principles of Godly living. That God has not called me to a mediocre life, but a life that is Above and Beyond my expectations. That I am to Walk Worthy.
I will visualize success on a daily basis: I don't really need much of an excuse to seeing myself returning to Maui and swimming in the Pacific ocean ;)
I have other strength goals in mind, but will focus on those goals after my fat loss goals. They will be called: My Muscle Building goals.
On March 27, 2010 I am healthy and eat consciously. My clothes fit me well. I have visible musculature, and less than 19% body fat. I go to the gym 3-4 days a week. I can run a mile and a half in 12 minutes. My body is ready for the next phase, and that is to build strength and muscle so that I can do unassisted chin ups, and squat 200 pounds!
posted by Liza at
10:05 AM
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Tuesday February 17 2010
Yesterday, I worked out at the gym:
Bench press (75lbs) 3x8
Leg press (220lbs) 3x12
Lat Pull down (70lbs) 3x10
Seated cable row (60lbs) 3x10
DB shoulder press (15lbs) 3x10
DB Bicep curl (10lbs) 3x12
Standing triceps extension (10lbs) 3x12
Standing calf raises (own body weight) 20/30/25
This is my Monday/Friday strength training exercise with a Wednesday variation of it. I train in a circuit, and am able to do 3 circuits in 20-25 minutes. Just enough time to get in 20-30 minutes of cardio (my favorite being high intensity interval training, but I also walk or do a “fat burner” program too if my legs or feet feel a bit off. But that hardly ever happens, since I’m too addicted to running.)
I was happy that I was able to do this because the other guys working out had a different focus. On Wednesdays, I think another gym regular does his squat/deadlift/bench in the cage, so that’s perfect timing since I will be doing my variation on that day.
I was disappointed last night that some other guy got my favorite treadmill (which has the fan over it, so it makes running more delightful) but I still walked at 4 mph for 20 minutes. Today, I’ll be HIITing, but resting in terms of weights. Wednesday, I’ll do my alternate workout and running again. Thursday, complete rest. Friday, above workout with HIIT and Saturday: Squats, deadlifts, chins and dips. And more running. Last Saturday, Terminator 2:Judgment Day was playing at the same time I was on the treadmill. Nothing like Arnold and running from killer robots to help fuel my intensity!
My Wednesday variation:
DB lunges
Machine Bench press
Bent over two DB row
Side lateral raise
Front DB raise
Plie DB squats
Pullups
Alternate hammer curl
Bench dips
Seated calf raise
This will be my routine for another two weeks (not counting this week). Throughout which, I will be adjusting my weight if my sets are getting easier. After March 6, I will progress to more advance moves/weights, because I will eventually get myself to “muscle building” workouts and grow from there rather than “fat loss” which is what I’m focusing on right now.
With my calorie tracking, I have discovered that even though I really should be eating around 1700-1800 calories for “loss” I have been eating more like 1500 calories, and some days barely getting over 1100-1200 calories. I blame my work schedule, and not being able to get meal breaks when I really need it (like every 3 hours). I’ve discovered that I’m more of an ectomorph body type, so it will be more difficult for me to gain muscle, especially when I don’t eat, so I need to set myself up better for success. At least I try to eat more for breakfasts and more high quality food, so I’m happy with that progress (oatmeal, berries, eggs, grapefruit, etc). I just need to bring more food with me so that I can eat throughout the day. Protein shakes help me to supplement protein after workout. But I eventually just want to sustain my healthy body weight with real food.
For now, I am happy with my course and action plan. Friday will be my measure for success.
Wednesday February 17 2010
Yesterday was my cardio day, and so I did 40 minutes of running walking. This was less structured than my standard 1:1 HIIT since I just wanted to relieve some stress and overcome my “it’s too cold, I’m too tired” dialogue that I had that morning. I was willing to go to the gym later or use my treadmill later, but I knew at that moment that I was lying to myself. And, since I hate lying in general, lying to myself seemed really heinous, so I got over myself, and ran for 3 miles, walking intermittently. Overall, it was whatever song was playing on my play list that dictated my speed/intensity. I felt like having a little fun and changing things up a little bit.
I supposedly burned 210 calories based on my calorie-tracking app that I use for consistency.
For meals, I quickly drank a whey protein drink before heading out to work. Then, I didn’t eat until 5pm, at which point I gladly ate a small Mediterranean salad with a cup of chicken noodle soup (it was a combo meal) and sipped half of my large coffee throughout the rest of the day. Oh, since I was still hungry, I didn’t feel guilty eating a brownie with my coffee. For dinner, I picked up a small Wendy’s chili and 5-piece chicken nuggets for Mark and me. Overall, my calorie tracker told me I ate 1400 calories, and yes, I included little things like sauces and condiments that I used.
I realize more and more that I’m not eating enough fuel for my body’s caloric and nutrition needs, and that’s mainly due to not having enough staple foods in my house due to budget constraints. Mark thinks I’m underreporting, but I don’t think I’m consistently underreporting 500 calories a day. Even as I’m typing, I realize that I haven’t eaten anything yet, and it’s already 2:45pm. Well, he basically did the math, and said that with the amount of physical activity I do, and the amount of calories I reported, I would be losing 2 pounds a week. I then replied, well, since we’ve been back from California (where I really binged!) and got back on course, I’ve lost approximately 7 pounds. And, from 02/05 to 02/12, I lost 1% of body fat, too, which is a good measure of progress, I feel. (It’s been 3 full weeks since vacation and I went from 135 pounds right after my vacation back down to 128 pounds. I probably would be a lot closer to my weight loss goals without that vacation, but I did appreciate the mental and emotional relaxation that came with it).
I need to set myself up for success better so that I can build my muscle while burning fat. It doesn’t help me overall to do this much weight training only to have my own starving body eat my muscle. I want it to eat up the fat! Thankfully, I have some good lean protein sources and green food here at home so that I can help preserve muscle, and turn my body into a fat burning machine. I just need to be able to prepare my foods so that I can take it with me to work. Some portable foods that I think are nice are: tuna, pitas, salads, turkey breast, etc, but I’ve not been very financially able the last few weeks to stock up on items like that. With my next paycheck, I will be able to, so that makes me happy. I think I would benefit even from just stocking up on frozen chicken breasts and cooking them the night before to take to work with me…I can eat it with rice and broccoli. Or, shred it and stuff it in a pita with lettuce and seasonings. Or, garnish it on salad. I probably should eat something because that’s all I can think about right now.
Thursday February 18 2010
Well, Mark was too sleepy to go to the gym, and I’ve never seen him pass out like that before, so I let him sleep. Which is fine since Wednesday Thursday are interchangeable days for me, so that just means I’ll be going to the gym tonight. It makes more sense anyway, since I’ll be driving in from work rather than being home all day yesterday catching up on chores and reading. Since I started my eating day so late, I still only consumed around 1400 calories even though I have 2 slices of pizza last night. The rest of the day I had chicken breast, asparagus, hummus with half a pita, one and a half cups of coffee, romaine lettuce with oil and vinegar and two slices of pizza. If I was thinking about it, I would have forced myself to eat some oatmeal or eggs or something for breakfast, but I was too busy reading and lost track of time.
At any rate, I planned my day today before even stepping out of bed this morning in an effort to eat more nutrient dense calories to fuel my body and help me progress on my journey. I am currently drinking my coffee black, though I much prefer milk and sugar in it. I will then do HIIT cardio for 30 minutes. Shower and then eat a breakfast of oatmeal with berries. I will cook up a batch of quinoa so that I can take it to work along with chicken breast and asparagus. Before I leave, I will probably take some protein with me in a shaker bottle so that I can have some protein as I’m going to the gym from work tonight. I always work better with some fuel in me rather than on an empty stomach. Then, the gym for my Wednesday variation circuit training. If I have some time, I’ll finish it off with walking and stretching, but if not, that’s ok, since I will have done my cardio already.
Friday February 19 2010
Measure day!
Weight: 126.4 lbs
Waist: 28 inches
Hips: 36
Height: 66 inches
Neck 14 inches
The Navy Calculator has calculated that I’m 21% body fat, and that I’m on the border of “fitness” and “athletic” category. Go me!
I will continue to follow my fat loss routine of all over circuit training for three days a week, and on Saturday, to do my compound exercises of squats, deadlifts, and chinups. I will continue to run HIIT 4 times a week, and to walk for enjoyment/at low intensity on other times. One full day off on Sundays.
Of course, since I can’t out train a bad diet, I will continue to strive for more nutrient dense foods that will give me the most results within my financial and caloric budget. I think I will need to buy more frozen vegetables so that I can have more variety without it going to waste so quickly. Towards the end of my lettuce cycle, I just end up eating it straight out of the bag so that I won’t have to throw it away.
Yesterday, I had a great meal plan, and wish to repeat it, but unfortunately, I am out of almost all of my lean protein. For my mid morning meal, I will have eggs and broccoli with my leftover quinoa. Then I will have a foot long sub from Subway, so that for $5, I can have two meals (6 inch at a time!). Then, I will have a protein drink after the gym. I may also want some cottage cheese with a pita. That was yummy yesterday.
Overall, I consumed about 1500 calories and “burned” 300 calories yesterday. Once I am at my ideal weight of 120 pounds and body fat % of less than 19%, I will modify and focus on strength training and muscle building, because then I won’t have to think about the number on the scale necessarily, but on what my reflection is telling me in the mirror: do I see my muscles? Do I see more veins? Can I wear my bathing suit again without being self-conscious? (well, at least not anymore self-conscious than normal?)
Now, time to go running. I would love to acquire more Linkin Park, but I feel dumb asking Mark to set up my iPod/iTunes for iPhone. That way I can get “Bleed it Out” without bothering with the other songs on Minutes to Midnight.
Tuesday February 23 2010
So, the past two days revolved around rest. I don’t like to workout on Sundays anyway, but Monday, I really needed to prepare for my meeting for work this morning. I think it went well, plus I have a written out prospectus of what I am gearing my store towards this year.
At any rate, because of my lack of finances on Monday, and my reading coma on Sunday, I can honestly say that I was severely calorie-restricted the past two days, and that my weigh in of 125 pounds is setting me up for failure, psychologically. Sure, that’s something to celebrate, but the slow and steady progress is successful for a reason: it ensures that there aren’t any built-in expectations of rapid weight loss, and the ability to maintain that weight loss and thus a healthy weight, is easier in the short term because it is in correlation with the “normal” eating. Eating 1000 calories (and less) each day for the past two days is not a normal thing for me, and I should not have stepped on the scale knowing that I will be measuring my progress in a couple days (Friday morning!).
Oh well. A goal of mine would also be to acquire a set of accu-measure body fat calipers for skin fold testing, because I think the circumference measure for the Navy Body fat test that I’m using now is great to measure progress, but after a certain point, I know is not the best measure for me because my body fat is not distributed like a normal girl (hips and thighs).
Anyway, I’m going to hit the gym tonight and do my “Monday” variation, followed by 20 minutes of HIIT. I did a varied intensity for my morning cardio (20 minutes), but because I woke up a lot earlier than I’m used to with 4 hours of sleep, I didn’t have a lot of motivation to even get on the treadmill so my more flexible varied-intensity run/walk was a lot more for motivation and fun than anything else. But, I definitely need to hit the weights hard tonight. I don’t want my body thinking that it can eat up my muscle…I want it to gobble up the fat!!
This is what I ate Sunday and Monday; not my best decisions ever:
Sunday:
Morning coffee, the usual way: 92 calories
Lunch: a bowl of jasmine rice, fried in a little coconut oil with seasoning: 170 calories
Snack: two sugar cookies:150 calories
Monday:
Breakfast: Coffee 92 calories
Oatmeal with blueberries: 170 calories
Lunch: Large Caramel Mocha: 530 calories
Dinner: Rice with vegetables: 270 calorie
This morning, I ate my oatmeal and blueberries, and my coffee black with 3 sugars. I had a protein drink after my run. I’m about to forage for some more food like cottage cheese with croutons or eat a grapefruit. I really need to go grocery shopping; we plan on doing that tonight after the gym.
Friday February 26, 2010
So proud of myself: I paid off my Express Credit Card! I have my emergency fund in the bank, and I’m starting the debt snowball on my credit card! (That’s step two in Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover, which I will probably be in for the next 5 years, but I’m dedicated to it!) It will require lots of patience and prudent planning on my part to keep my gazelle focus on the primary categories of my life so that I can achieve all these goals concurrently, but that’s why I’ve decided to get my act together with my body because I want the discipline and focus to reach all aspects of my life: financial, career, personal, and physical. Speaking of physical, today is measure progress day!
Weight: 125
Waist: 27.75
Hip: 35.5
Neck: 14
20% body fat! Oh boy! Let me calculate and see if I lost any lean mass along with the body fat because I hadn’t been eating optimally and have been doing mostly cardio for workouts this week.
So, today, I measure at 25 pounds of fat, and therefore, 100 pounds of LBM. Let me measure progress from last week. Last week, I calculate 26.46 pounds of fat and 99.94 pounds of lean mass. Awesome! Compared to last week, I have dropped 1.46 pounds of fat and gained .06 pound of lean mass. So, basically, with a calorie deficit so far this week, I lost fat pounds but not lean pounds! Woohoo! Now, I won’t go out of my way to be so strict with my diet, because that was due to lack of funds, but at least I’m not losing “lean” weight so I’m so happy! All I can say is “Let your results dictate your approach”…calorie restriction is a lot more important than training in terms of losing fat. I will still continue to train because I want optimal results and the weight training definitely supports healthy fat loss. I just needed to say that because there are times when people deliberately overcompensate the calories they would eat because they feel justified with all the training they’re doing. But, just imagine the results with a disciplined nutrition routine along with that training schedule. The fat loss would be unstoppable!
So, keep the focus guys! It’s amazing how much success you feel because you have reached your goals, and how much that will translate into all other aspects of your life. Focus and prioritize. It’s a beautiful thing.
I believe that I met my benchmark for February, and so have se myself up for success in March! I will be training hard at the gym today and tomorrow!
P.S.
I have one more thought to leave. I carry this quote around my head because it also crosses into multiple areas of my life. But it’s from Chariots of Fire, spoken by Eric Liddell: “God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast…and when I run, I feel His pleasure.” You can apply it however you need to, and I hope it gives you inspiration, like it does for me.
Tuesday March 2 2010
I’m procrastinating getting my workout gear on to run on the treadmill. Sometimes I hate Tuesdays for that. I’m also not happy about needing to do squats on Saturday. I always feel like I do them wrong, or at least like chump change because I can only squat the bar with perfect form. I definitely need to get over myself, I know, but I feel self-conscious doing squats in the gym. It would be cool if I had a rack/cage in my basement. Hm…
Yesterday, I thought I would die in the gym because it was so hot and humid. On top of that, a guy rolled in reeking of cheap Axe-like cologne. Blech! I wanted to add a few more moves into my sets, but after the first one, I just finished the other two like I always did (see Monday/Friday gym variations.)
Running was definitely out the window. In fact, I could barely do my “fat burning” program on 4 mph. Now, that’s just sad.
My nutrition was a little better because I ate a bit more, but still far from optimal:
Oatmeal with blueberries and half a grapefruit
Microwave pasta meal
Two Samoa girl-scout cookies (evil coworkers!)
2 cups of coffee (with breakfast, then at 4pm with conference call/lunch)
Then, my workout at 10pm. After which, I was so starving, that I drank the last bits of my protein drink and got some chicken cooking while in the shower. Then, for dinner (I know, people don’t usually eat at midnight, but I do) I had chicken breast and rice. Hit the spot! Oh, and I had to taste test my “So Delicious” Vanilla Bean (soy and dairy-free) Ice Cream. I had a spoonful, and I must say, it definitely lived up to its name!
Overall, I supposedly consumed 1251 calories and exercised 195 calories, for a net of 1056. I plan on bringing apple slices and multiple chicken breasts with me to work so that I’m not so hungry before working out. I’m sure the lack of good food before the gym helped to make me feel weak and useless. And a hot and humid gym with cologne-reek guy suffocating me didn’t help either.
Procrastinated enough. Time to run.
Thursday March 4 2010
I just finished Tom Venuto’s The Holy Grail for Body Fat Transformation, and will definitely experiment with some of the principles written there. For example: I knew that I haven't been timing my meals very effectively (sometimes am on the floor for 8 hours straight without a break), but didn't think too much about it, so long as I was within my calorie intake for the day/week. Of course, that meant sometimes going to the gym starving and feeling like chump change lifting weights wondering what happened to all the progress I was making (don't get me wrong, I always feel accomplished AFTER training).
What a great feeling to know that I will probably make more gains with a simple tweak. I had a goal to measure progress by March 27, and even though it’s approximately 3 weeks away, I think it’s worth recognizing that I need to have more effective workouts and achieve optimal results, and little things like timing and cycling my foods, will only help my progress (since I’m seeking to lose fat and also build muscle). I had a goal to separate them because I always thought it was counter-productive to have two goals (which is why I had differentiated between my fat loss goal, by March 27, and from then have a muscle-building goal). I’ll effectively start Monday, and see the progress made within three weeks. For the last three weeks, my goal won’t be too different, but it will be “Fat Loss First Priority, Muscle Gain Secondary Goal” and then on March 29, my new goal for the 8-12 weeks beyond that will be “Muscle Gain First Priority, Fat Loss Secondary Goal.” Depending on the progress that I make by the end of March, I will plan out when I will measure progress and meal plans, training plans, planplanplan for the next phase.
Yesterday, I did go to the gym and felt like chump change doing some sets (e.g., lateral raises: didn’t realize my shoulders were so weak!), but overall, I had a grand ole time. Even busted out some high-intensity interval training for 20 minutes. It was a 1:1 interval with 8mph working speed (bumped down to 7 mph after the 5th interval) and 4mph rest speed. Usually it’s too hot in the gym for me to do anything other than walk briskly, but I was feeling it.
For nutrition, I was still in the mood to eat lots, so I ate more calories, and since it was my day off, I was able to eat at more regular intervals than normal, which I appreciated. For today, I will be cooking lots of chicken breasts and bringing rice and spinach with me to work so that I won’t worry about going to the gym starving tonight like I did in the past.
Specifically, what I ate yesterday was:
Eggs, rice, coffee for breakfast
Cheesy pita pockets for lunch
Coconut milk vanilla ice cream with two Samoa cookies for snack
Gym
Then, naan dipped in tikka masala for post workout dinner.
All in all, I ate 1800 calories and burned 200ish through exercise. The next three days, I’ll be back on my more conservative calorie intake of 1400 calories followed by another increase on Sunday. This cycling of food is a principle I learned in that Holy Grail book, and makes perfect sense since I cycle up and down like that anyway, but this way, it’s a more specific, consistent cycle of 3 days low calorie followed by 1-2 days TDEE. Physically and psychologically refreshing if you ask me!
Friday March 5 2010
Measure day!
Weight: 125.6 pounds
Height: 66 inches
Neck: 13.75 inches
Waist: 27.5 inches
Hips: 35 inches
Results: 19.3 % body fat woohoo!
Based on my current weight, that equates to 24.24 fat pounds with 101.36 lean mass. Very exciting! Compared to last week, where I had 25 fat pounds and 100 lean pounds, I lost .76 fat pounds and gained 1.36 lean pounds. Pretty cool!
Originally, I was a little disheartened when I stepped on the scale this morning for my official weigh in, because I not only didn’t lose weight from last week, but I gained weight (and significant weight since Tuesday, since Tuesday morning I weighed 124 pounds). But, that’s why I force myself to only measure on Friday so that I can have the most similar conditions as possible. Plus, if I tracked every increase and decrease day after day, I think it would drive me crazy!
My results today (for the past week) are a great reminder to not focus on the weight, but body composition. I’m happy to gain lean mass, and I don’t want to lose that, but for the last three weeks of my fat loss goal, which I’ll be renaming “Fat Loss First Priority, concurrent Muscle Gain as a Second Goal” I will still need to focus on fat loss primarily. The difference though will be for me to not be at a strict caloric deficit all the time, but to tweak my timing that I’m in a deficit throughout the day (my usual 300 calorie meals) with higher calories (in the form of carbs like rice or quinoa, mmm) bracketed around my workouts so that I can have a slight caloric surplus, which is what I need to feed more poor measly muscles.
That was also a good realization: my caloric deficit may help me to lose fat but, with my ectomorph body type, I need to eat properly (good nutrition, timing, etc) to gain/keep my muscle. The only real difference between last week and this week is eating more food, not necessarily junk foods or anything like that, just that I ate more (because I could, with food in the house!), and I ended up gaining muscle! So, I’m encouraged that I will reach my goals this week, and I am excited to almost attain my benchmark of 19% (or less) body fat by March 27. I would like to attain the 122 pounds (or less) because that will just make my day, but I’m content with the body composition goal, being more important than a number on a scale.
I will be posting my new workout variations that I will start tonight to get used to the movements, but will be my workout for the last three weeks on a M, T, Th, Sat schedule.
Thursday March 11 2010
DOMS: Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness
Nothing makes me feel like both productive and wimpy than DOMS. I feel like I’ve worked hard and knowing where I hurt (hamstring, glutes), I’m happy that I did my exercises correctly. I also feel like a wimp (or wuss) because I am so sore. And, I can’t help feeling that I eeded to warm up more and stretch for longer, and then sleep better nights, so that I won’t feel like a cripple.
Today I work out again, but it will be a variation of the upper body routine, followed by HIIT. I would really like to do some hill sprints, so we’ll see if that’s available on my treadmill’s program.
Yesterday, I had a meeting for work so I was able to prepare a different kind of breakfast that I wanted to try: oatmeal pancakes. Although, since I didn’t have many eggs left, it ended up looking like an oatmeal omelet. I really liked it, though for next time, I will chop onions into it and put the parmesan cheese in the mixture as I stir it rather than just sprinkle it on. The original recipe called for apples and cinnamon and vanilla protein and more egg whites than whole eggs, so I guess if I made it as intended it would have looked more pancake like (although I’m not interested in “sweet” foods in the morning, so I would have modified it anyway). It was so filling, I ate half for “breakfast” (11am) and then the other half three hours later. For dinner, however, it was definitely a burger day, so went to Culver’s for cookout-like meals. Plus it was an excuse to use the convertible while it was ohso pretty. Too bad the people put cheese on my burger, otherwise it would have been delightful. With everything I ate yesterday, I was still at my 1500 calorie intake for that day. Really happy about that. Normally, I wouldn’t have had the burger, but like I said, we wanted the experience of convertibling and cookout, and so there we are. Plus, Culver’s onion rings are the best. (keep in mind, that dinner was around 800 calories, and I stretched it out).
Looking forward to my measure day tomorrow. I didn’t really follow the principles of gaining muscle and fat loss concurrently, but I was definitely more conscious about when I ate, and am following a different weight training variation, so I’ll change or sustain the course depending on my progress.
Friday March 12 2010
Measure Day!
Height: 66
Neck: 13.5
Waist: 27.5
Hips: 34.5
Body Fat %: 18.9% (I will round up to 19%) :)
Weight: 125
23.75 lbs fat
101.25 lbs lean muscle mass
Well, I’ve achieved my body fat percent goal, so let’s see how much lower I can go. I am at least losing some body fat, a .5 lb decrease from the week before. Not as aggressive as in the past when I was solely focused on fat loss. Some reasons for that: I didn’t do any HIIT training this week, because I was so sore from new squat and dead lift moves. But, honestly, I can see visible changes in my body, and I’m moving in the right direction, so I will take it as a success, and know that from now on I will incorporate HIIT back into my routine. I did it in the morning, so I’ll do that again, but this time, I will do my HIIT 1 hour after eating some oatmeal and coffee. If I do fasted cardio, it will just be low intensity.
Again, this past week is a testament that measurements and body composition and other type of visible feedback like that is a lot better psychological in maintaining a focus on fitness goals because the weighing scale will lie to me. What’s the point in being 120 pounds when my body fat % is high and I have no muscle definition?
Yesterday, I had lots of chicken breast because I knew that I would do well with that in terms of satiety. I had oatmeal with a dash of sugar and cinnamon in the morning, and then heated up 12 ounces of chicken breasts (they were already in 2-3 ounces strips) so I can munch on them through out the day. I ate 6 ounces throughout work, and had a big green salad broken up in two meals as well (just a green salad with tomato, olives, banana peppers, fresh mozzarella, balsamic vinaigrette). After my workout, I had my protein drink in the car so that I could drink it as I drove home, and not completely starving when I got home. I ate the last 6 ounces with 1 ½ cups of rice for dinner. All in all, my calorie intake was 1400.
My training session was for higher reps:
DB rows (supinated grip) 3 x 8 x 20 lb
Straight-arm pull downs 3 x 10 x 60 lb
DB bench press 3 x 10 x 25 lb
Incline DB flyes 3 x 10 x 10 lb
Superset: DB bent over lateral raise 2 x 10 x 10 lb
DB standing lateral raise 2 x 8 x 10 lb
Superset: Narrow grip tricep dip 2 x 10 x bodyweight
Incline DB bicep curl 2 x 10 x 10 lb
The gym was a lot cooler yesterday, so my workout was a lot easier feeling than when it’s hot and humid. But believe me when I say that I was still working for every rep, especially towards the end of a set. Good deal. I wanted to work on my stretching since my hamstrings were still so tight from Sunday or Tuesday so my walking was just a mile so that I could stretch out and still be out of the gym within an hour. (I have this thing against staying at the gym over an hour.)
Wednesday March 17 2010
St. Patty’s Day (and Lance’s Birthday!)
Well, I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I weighed myself (I’ve been avoiding the scale). Here is my “midweek update” to see how I’m faring:
Weight: 122.4 lbs
Height: 66
Neck: 13.5
Waist: 27.25
Hips: 34.25
Pretty cool, I think! That’s about 18% body fat! Woohoo!
Ok, so to crunch the numbers, that means I have 22 pounds of fat (I rounded my weight up to 122.5) and 100.5 pounds of lean muscle. Cool.
Compared to Friday, I seem to have lost about a pound of lean muscle but nearly 2 pounds of fat, so that’s awesome. By this Friday, I hope to have swung back up to 101 pounds of lean muscle. I think a lot of what I see at this point is my lack of good calories on Sunday and Monday because of work events and such, so that I barely ate 1000 calories those days. Tuesday was a moderate day, and I ate around 1400 calories. Another factor with losing some lean mass so far along with the body fat, would be that I didn’t train on Monday, and I had been on a Mon/Tuesday schedule with Wednesday off. But because of work things, I had to shift to Tuesday, Wednesday, off Thursday, then Friday, Saturday for this week. When I train, like yesterday, I target my calories closer to my workouts so that even though I stay within my calorie intake for the day, I create more for muscles before the work out. Actually, today is supposed to be my reefed day where I eat more calories at maintenance (1800-2000 calories) but I will have to do that tomorrow, since I had plans to go out with friends for sushi for lunch and one of my nephews has a birthday party in the evening. I will still need to push my calories later, like at 6pm then at 9pm because today is heavy squat day, and I don’t want to limp around for 2-3 days like I did last week!
I will post some of the weights that I’ve been using, etc, and the new workout routine that I’m trying. My favorite part is that I’m so spent from the weights that I just walk for like 10-20 minutes, and on Saturday, I didn’t do any cardio at all, and I lost more fat in terms of pounds then any other time since I’ve been tracking my fat loss. I usually lose a conservative 1 pound or less of fat per week, and it’s midweek, and I’ve lost nearly 2 pounds of fat so far. It will probably stay there by Friday (measure day), but still, I just thought it was an interesting observation. I don’t have to feel guilty that I didn’t do my HIIT at all last week, but just stayed at low intensity for 10-20 minutes.
On the flip side, that means you don’t have to do “cardio” for fat loss, and in fact, for me, I will always do strength training/lift heavy over cardio since I can see the obvious difference in my body composition. Walking and running are great, and I will always incorporate them into my routine somewhere, but in terms of focused fat loss and time efficiency, lifting weights is the best type of HIIT there is.
Since I’ve gotten used to my workout routine over the last week, this week, I will be reincorporating steady-state cardio in the morning and give HIIT a rest for one more week. I didn’t want to wear out my knees. In terms of my fitness goals, I think I’ve decided to let go of being a fast runner. I still like to run, but overall, I have discovered that I prefer to increase my strength rather than my ability to run a mile and a half in 12 minutes. My goal is to be able to squat 200 pounds, bench press 120 pounds, and do 10 chin ups. Those will be my goals during my “build muscle” first priority journey starting March 30.
Until then, I like knowing that I’ve reached my fat loss goals about 10 days early, and I’m eager to see my results for my official measure day on March 27.
Friday March 19 2010
Official measure day!
Weight: 122.5
Height: 66
Neck: 13.5
Waist: 27
Hips: 34
Body Fat %: 17.5% (I totally thought it would be 18%…I’ll need to check my Wednesday measurements)
Well, that’s awesome, especially since yesterday was my maintenance day, so I ate approximately 2000 calories (I measured less, but I like to round up, since I don’t really know for sure how accurate I am in judging serving size).
So, let’s do the math: 21.44 pounds of body fat and 101.06 pounds of lean mass. Woohoo! Compared to last Friday the changes are: decrease of 2.31 pounds of fat and barely a difference in lean mass, loss or gain. I’m still happy with that!
So, one more week before my last weigh-in for my fat loss journey. I can’t wait to start figuring out my goals, and what I may need to tweak to continue gaining lean mass and cutting fat.
I realize that I haven’t posted my training plan. I’ll do that as a separate post.
March 26 2010
Measure day!
120.8 pounds
Neck 13.5 inches
Waist 27 inches
Hips 34 inches
I know that my Fat Loss Journey is supposed to be through March 27, but for consistency, I am measuring my progress through today, and continue my routine through tomorrow and will start my muscle building as my first priority on Monday, with new goals in my body composition, and not weight, along with other physical achievements, like a weight goal for my squats or how many chin ups I can do. But, all that will come along later.
Analysis of my numbers leads me to: 17.5% body fat (not likely a true number, but for a measure of progress, I like it J )
That means I have 21.14 pounds of body fat and 99.66 pounds of lean mass.
My change from last week: I lost .3 pounds of fat and 1.4 pound of lean mass. Not really the way I wanted to go, but that makes sense since this past week, I haven’t eaten to support my lean muscle growth, and I only went to the gym Tuesday and Wednesday so far, and still have to incorporate my Friday and Saturday workouts. Usually, I would have gone to the gym Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at this point, following the workout that I’ve been doing since March 8. Well, my perspective: I have lost the fat that I wanted, so now my primary focus will be to build muscle, so my nutrition is more my focus and weights rather than just calorie restriction. Though, I still need to worry about that a little, since I’ve been incorporating more junk food into my diet this past week because of my long weekend to catch up. I’ll write up my more definitive “Muscle building Journey” with goals and objectives and dates in another entry.
For now, I am pleased to say that my Fat Loss journey is accomplished and complete, and I have met my goals.
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