Dumping The Fat

I finally got my new training routine created and just finished up my first day a while ago.  I am training full body (maybe) Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with cardio on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  Sunday is rest and/or stretch/yoga day.

I wanted to finish up my workout in an hour, so I am circuit training, but still ran over the “allotted” time I gave myself, so I may have to do split workouts and work my upper body one day and my lower the next day.  I will see how things go and adjust from there. I am using no machines right now, just a bench and free weights. I like free weights better, but at some point, I know I will have to start using the machine.

Here is what I am doing for weeks 1 and 2:

2 sets of 15 reps for each
Chest press
Pec Fly
One arm dumbbell row
Dumbbell pullover
Dumbbell front raise
Lateral raise
Chair dip
Tricep kickback
Stationary lunge
Single leg bench squat
Reverse lunge
Ball crunch
Cross body crunch

Now, I have way more written down to do, but I ran out of time. This is definitely a good start, though.

My stats are pretty much the same as they were here; however, my weight is up 2 lbs., my BF% is down by 0.5%, and my hips are actually down by 0.25 inches. Don’t ask me how that happened because I haven’t a clue. So here they are again:

Day #1 stats:
Left arm: 11.5″
Right arm: 11.5″
Chest: 38″
Waist: 29.75″
Hips: 40″ (OUCH!!!)
Left thigh: 24.75″
Right thigh: 24.5″
Left calf: 14.25″
Right calf: 14″
Body Fat %: 30.4% (Yikes!)
Height (in case it matters): 5′8″
Weight: 165 lbs.
Lean Body Mass: 114.87 lbs.
Fat: 50.16 lbs.

So in the past three weeks, I have increased my lean body mass by 2.24 lbs. and decreased my body fat by 0.21 lbs. My body is so weird!

It’s becoming more and more clear that P90X is just too much for my body at this point.  One would think I would have realized that sooner, right?   I mean I started the program 4 times and 4 times I became sick with one illness or another.  How much clearer could it have been?  I did find a really interesting article on overtraining and I think that is exactly what happened to me.  So, much to my disappointment, I am giving up on P90X…for now. 

I am not giving up on weight training.  I love, love, love weight training.  It is one of my most favorite things to do and so I have a new plan for myself.  I am going to design my own program and go from there.  I’ve been weight training since 1998, so I know what to do.  I will post my exact routine and schedule some time later today or tomorrow morning.

My clean eating is going pretty well.  When I first started it a couple weeks ago, the first three days were…well, I’ll just be honest - they were hell!  I had sugar withdrawal from not having any soda.  Needless to say, I was miserable and I made sure that everyone around me knew exactly how miserable I was.  But after those first three days, I can’t explain how much better I felt both mentally and physically.  It’s like some type of mental fog lifted and I could think clearly.  I could stay focused on whatever I was doing.  It was just amazing what eating nothing but good-for-you food can do for a body.  The sad part is - I went through something extremely stressful two weeks ago and I drank some soda and wasn’t eating at all.  It wasn’t that I wasn’t eating well (aside from drinking soda), I just wasn’t eating period.  That isn’t a good thing.

Anyway, I’m moving forward.  I refuse to beat myself up over it.  My next project is coming up with a plan for what I can do during stressful times so that I don’t stop eating and/or reach for a soda.  If anyone has any advice on how to handle stress without self-destructing, please feel free to let me know.

Well, it looks like, even though
I just restarted P90X for the fourth time this past Monday, that I will again be starting over.  Starting this program over frustrates me to no end!
I started P90X over on Monday, the 7th.  On Thursday morning, just a mere 4 days later, I started feeling just….blah, like I was starting to get a cold.  I started taking Echinacea, thinking I would head off this funk, whatever it was.  Nope, by Thursday afternoon, I could barely move, and by Friday morning, I was in really bad shape.  My husband got home from work Friday morning, took one look at me and said, “You’re going to the doctor.”  Needless to say, I have pneumonia (or so the doctor thought because he heard wheezing in my lungs, but didn’t send me for an x-ray) and an ear infection and had to be put on a “strong” (doc’s word) antibiotic.  Blech!  So I’ve spent much of the last few days on the couch (i.e., no working out).

Since I had only gotten in 3 workouts, I have decided just to start over again - for the fourth time since last summer.  Last summer and early fall, every time I started P90X, I got sick about 5 weeks in and would have to stop for a couple weeks and then restart.  When I had my sinus surgery this past November, I thought these issues were over.  Well, I guess the sinus issues are over, just not the getting sick part.  *sigh*  This really, really frustrates me.  I am now researching to see if there is some connection between weight training (stress on the body) weakening the immune system and what I can do about.  In just doing a cursory search, I have found that “over training” does, in fact, weaken the immune system.  I need to find some way to get around that issue.

Other than that, my eating is going well.  I’m really proud of myself.  I stopped eating all junk/processed foods last Monday and also quit drinking soda on the same day.  The first three days I was pretty miserable, and definitely horrible to be around, but it got easier.  I didn’t miss the junk food at all, but I sure did miss having a Pepsi every day….at first.  Now I don’t even think about it, so I guess that’s something to be grateful about.

If anyone knows of a good way to keep myself from getting sick every time I start an intense weight training program such as P90X, please let me know.

I’ve been sitting here sipping my morning coffee, debating whether I was even going to post my stats this morning.  As you can guess, after measuring earlier this morning, I am not happy.  Not happy at all.  Even though the scale shows I have lost 6 of those pesky holiday pounds I put on, my inches are nowhere near what they were before I gained 9 lbs.  I don’t get it; 3 lbs. cannot make that big of a difference in inches on my hips!  Plus, I havn’t been using my calipers to measure my body fat, but going by my scale which also measures body fat percentage in addition to pounds.  Obviously it is totally wrong.  See what I hate my scale?!

My husband does my measuring because I found before that if I measure myself, the numbers are slightly lower than when he does it and mine are not right because I’m bent over trying to measure my thighs and I can’t exactly measure my arms correctly one-handed.  He really, really dislikes measuring me because if the numbers aren’t what I expect or *want* them to be, he gets the blame.  And, of course, this morning was no different.  He was still bent down in front of me when he told me my hip measurements - big mistake!  I started breathing fire and his eyebrows got singed.  Poor guy, I hope he’s okay with the way his eyebrows look now.

While I was did my first P90X workout this morning, I really couldn’t stay focused, but I gave it my all and that’s all I can do.  So I do feel good about my workout and I think I got rid of some of that negative energy I was carrying around about my measurements.  That’s always a good thing.

To be honest, I wasn’t going to post my measurements this morning, but I have decided to go ahead and do it.  There’s no way I can be held accountable by my friends and readers of this blog if I withhold information, right?  Plus, how can I help anyone else by journaling about my fat loss if I’m not upfront about where I began?  So here goes:

Day #1 stats:
Left arm: 11.5″
Right arm: 11.5″
Chest: 38″
Waist: 29.75″
Hips: 40.25″ (OUCH!!!)
Left thigh: 24.75″
Right thigh: 24.5″
Left calf: 14.25″
Right calf: 14″
Body Fat %: 30.9% (Yikes!)
Height (in case it matters): 5′8″
Weight: 163 lbs.
Lean Body Mass: 112.63 lbs.
Fat: 50.37 lbs.

So that’s it with the measurements. Today is technically day #1 of eating clean, but I really kind of started over the weekend because I wanted to get a head start on getting off the junk, which I did successfully.

Want to get an estimate of your body fat percentage? Here is an online calculator that will give you a good idea: Body Fat Calculator.  It’s only .123% off from my calipers and it’s one of the most accurate I have found online.

I threw this smoothie together today. I have to say that out of all the smoothies I’ve made (and I’ve made a lot of ‘em!), this one is the best. It tastes like cake batter - yum!  Since there are no fruits in season right now in this area, I use frozen fruits.  If you want to use fresh fruit, just remember to add ice for thickness.

Ingredients:
1 cup Light Silk Soymilk
1 scoop vanilla flavored protein powder*                            
1/4 c. frozen blackberries
1 tbs. wheat germ
1 tbs. ground flax seed

Directions:
Put all ingredients together in blender and blend on high until desired thickness. * I only use soy protein powder because I do not like the taste of whey protein, so for this particular smoothie I used EAS Advant Edge Soy Protein. If you prefer whey protein, then use whey.

Wow!  Time flies!  (Like who didn’t know that?)

So I’ve been MIA.  I had surgery in November, then had to recuperate from that, and I just got cleared to start weight training again just 2 weeks ago.  Woo-hoo!  P90x, here I come!  I had decided to wait until after the holidays to start, though, so Monday, January 7th will be day 1 of my 90 days to a new bod!

Over the holidays, I gained a little weight.  Not surprising since I ate like a pig and ate all the wrong foods.  Well, I didn’t gain just “a little.”  I gained 9 lbs.  I didn’t freak out, though, like most women would.  Starting a couple days ago (I am thinking it was Tuesday, but not sure now), I just got rid of the junk and started eating better.  As of this morning, I have lost 5 lbs. of it, so only 4 more to go and I’m sure that won’t take long.  Oh, and I had gained 0.9% body fat as well.  That upset me a tad bit more than the weight gain, which I knew was a lot of water/fluid, so I’m happy to see and report it’s back down and only 0.3% to go in that area.

In the meantime, a dear friend of mine (she’s a Jennifer too!) received the new
Eat Clean Diet book authored by Tosca Reno.  I had wanted to get the book a while back, but didn’t for whatever reason.  So, anyway, since I was wanting to learn more about eating 100% clean, I decided to get it after such rave reviews from Jennifer.  What an awesome book!  Since Jennifer and I have decided to start our ‘new way of life’ together, we are going to “officially start” our new lives on Monday, January 7th as well.  So while I do intend to read the whole book, page for page, I had to read it really quickly and skip certain sections since I just got the book yesterday and had to do some grocery shopping today.  I intend to finish reading it with the rest of my free weekend. I’m sure some people would be surprised to hear that I am going on a “diet” since I am definitely anti-diet in regards to myself.  But I’m not going on a “diet.”  The Eat Clean Diet is a misleading name because it’s not a diet at all.  It’s a healthy way of life.  It’s not restrictive, I don’t have to count calories, I am not deprived, I am not hungry, and no food groups are off limits (unless you count Doritos as a food group!).  It’s a lifestyle and incorporates principles that can be followed for life.   It’s so easy that I have already kind of started by weaning off the junk and putting better things in my body.

So that’s how I’m going to change my body:  eating clean + P90X = perfect combo! There will be stats posted tomorrow or early Monday morning, and a before pic as soon as I get my digital camera back.  It died a week or two before Christmas, but it’s been repaired and is on its way back to me. 

Get ready fat because you’re about to be dumped!