Jackies progress thread

jackielou867

I think this is a good idea. I will now really have to hold myself accountable each week.
Starting stats I copied from last week here.

Name: Jackie
Location: Near Sydney, Australia
Sex: Female
Age: 47
Height: 172cm
Starting Weight: 61kg
Starting Date: 20/1/14 Ok I may have cheated a bit and started on Thursday!
Goal Weight: 63kg OMG it sounds scary to say out loud but I am actually gonna try for a bulk!

Starting Measurements:
Bicep: 26
Chest:87
Waist: 77
Hips: 92
Thigh: 46

Starting Body Fat 25%
Goal Body Fat %: will raise no more than 2% I hope
Personal goal 12 weeks of building muscle. then 12 weeks to get body fat back down, hopefully to 22%

“Before” photo (optional): No Idea how to link but my real before pic is on profile. Eww. And one from 3 months ago, I will add a more recent one soon

jackielou867

Starting Weight: 61kg
Todays weight 61.5kg

body fat 25%
Now 25.5%

I am only going to take measurements every 4 weeks as I don't expect great variance on a weekly basis

I did however buy new scales and I now have a LBM of 34.7.
This is the number I really want to see change.

I have a lot to work on, getting more sleep, getting the diet right, I am high on protein, just need to improve the carbs and reduce the sugar and sodium. Also going to reduce coffee just a little :-)

jackielou867

Well not technically a good week.
Early nights 3. Well that's 3 more than last week.
Coffee reduced. Yes :-)
Working out hard. Yes.
Eating over maintenance to rebuild that muscle. Nope. Not as easy as it sounds. This week was better than last week, until Sunday, where I dropped a whole 900 calories. So today I started big, was not remotely hungry during the day, practically force fed my lunch and afternoon snack. Then at dinner time I was ravenous and ate loads of rice and noodles, and went over by 700, ouch. I guess I just needed to make up for yesterday. Lets see how the rest of the week goes.

Results for the week
was 61.5
still 61.5

body fat 25.9% up 0.4%
LBM 34.5% down 0 .1%

All a bit disappointing really.

Ah well lets see what happens next week

:-)

jackielou867

Bit late posting this week as I am not on the computer often and I can't type much from my phone.

Results for the week as of Monday 10/2/14
was 61.5 kilo previous 2 weeks

now 62 kilo
body fat was 25.9% up 0.4% now back to 25%
LBM was 34.5% down 0 .1% now 34.9%

Better results than last week, but I am not convinced on the accuracy of my scales. Weighing in again tomorrow so we will see.

Still not getting to bed early enough. Going to really concentrate on this from tomorrow.

Still not eating enough and finding rubbish at the end of the day to pad out the calories. I tried eating breakfast later in the morning, but this has me snacking at 11 and not wanting lunch till 3pm and not wanting dinner at all. It feels like I am forcing food in. All except the ice cream and crap I eat in the evening.
Next week I will eat 2400 calories per day. That's 6 x 400 calorie meals, and all before 8pm. I will start early and start big :-)

jackielou867

Bit late posting again this week.

Results for the week as of Monday 17/2/14
was 62 kilo still 62 kilo

body fat back up to 25.5%
Lbm back down to 34.5%

Seems basically to have gone back a week :-(

Proper weigh in and stats update at gym on Wednesday but I am not really expecting a different outcome. I thought I was training hard, but not eating over and not getting enough sleep = exhausted all week. I have had 2 days off gym and 3 x early nights to try to reset.

I am not struggling so much to fit in more eating. Getting a bigger breakfast and a bigger mid morning snack :-)

Cut down on coffee to 2 or 3 a day. Check

Getting more sleep. Check.

Weigh in tomorrow. Not going to be much change I think. Hoping for better the following week
Going to carry on with the bulk. for the next 6 weeks. At the moment I will be happy with even small gains!.

jackielou867

Results for the week as of Monday 24/2/14
was 62 kilo now 62.1kilo

body fat up to 25.6%
Lbm back down to 34.6%

0.1kg weight gain, 0.1% body fat gain, 0.1% lbm gain.
Small gains, but I will take them :-)

Proper weigh in and stats update at gym tomorrow but I am not really expecting a different outcome.
So after my weekend reset I had a reasonable day at the gym. I still felt a bit weaker, but my form was better and my muscles felt tight by the end of the workout. Overall much happier with my performance :-)
I discovered summer porridge so bigger breakfast is now easy and delicious.
Still cutting coffee right down, although interestingly, after a late night on Sunday, I devoured 3 coffees on Monday before noon!

My sleep pattern would be better is I were not spending so much time on MFP :-)

I have just been given a full time contract at work. More hours will make gym time harder but I will commit to 7 days a fortnight, which is enough. Trying to fit 10 days a fortnight was wearing me out.

jackielou867

Results for the week as of Monday 03/03/14
was 62 kilo now 62.3kilo

body up to 25.5%
Lbm back down to 34.7%

0.2kg weight gain, 0.1% body fat drop, 0.1% lbm gain.
Actually quite impressed with this result.
I managed to eat about 600 calories extra last week, which is about 800 less than I wanted, but the results if they can be believed are what I wanted.

My sleep pattern has been a lot better. Aiming for 10pm and getting there most nights.

Interestingly my weigh in at the gym had me a 1.6kg muscle gain (they rounded up to 2 which I was very excited about till I realised) in about 10 weeks. Now I know that might not be completely accurate, but even if it is only half that I will be happy. They will recheck at the end of this programme so at the end of this challenge which is good timing :-)

Work was a drain this last week, I will work 7 days straight, weekend off, day on day off 2 days on day off weekend on. (I did an extra shift on Sunday)
This is my 2 weekly roster. I have made a timetable to fit in gym 4 times a week, and I have 4 different programmes to do. I also did a yoga class on Friday. I need to be more stretchy.

The new programme I am liking much better than the old one. The last 2 days, I had time to spare, so I did 5 sets of everything instead of 4. Really felt like I had done some good. Time will tell :-)

jackielou867

Always a bit late posting.
Stats for Monday 10th

Age: 47
Height: 172cm
Starting Weight: 61kg
Now 62.4 kg


Starting Body Fat 25%
Now 25.6%

Eating more this week, but I feel stuffed all the time. Feeling a bit fatter too rather than fitter or more muscular. Decided to take a week off from trying to eat more and just stick around maintenance.

Had another good week at the gym, so decided to increase my weights even if I have to lower reps. Will check in on Monday and let you know how that went.

Still not sleeping enough. All my fault, getting to bed too late :-(

jackielou867

Weigh in for Monday17th.
Late as usual, next time I must weigh in on Sunday as this is the day I get on computer to Skype home.

Weight went up shockingly as I was not eating extra this week, by .4kilo. This makes me body fat stable
lbm stable

Actually I weigh most days, I know I shouldn't, and the figures go up or down a little each time.

62.8 and is so close to my goal that I think I am going to call it here and I am going to stick with maintenance for a couple more weeks.

The good news is, despite what the scales say, I feel less puffy and bloated.

Weights are all on track. Even did a workout at home yesterday as I missed the gym, improvised a couple of exercises but pretty good considering.

Missed yoga 2 weeks in a row due to overtime at work. Will be back next week. I was enjoying the stretches there.

Still not getting enough sleep. My worst bad habit these days :-(

jackielou867

Once again a late post. I don't get onto the computer a lot. Mostly just checking in from my phone.

So for Monday24th March, really nothing to report. Everything was stable to this point. I had a good week at the gym. Eating was on track. healthy foods, maintenance calories pretty much adhered to.

Then I decided to do something silly, which you can read about in next weeks weigh in :-)

jackielou867

Sunday March 31st.

So I decided to change weigh in to a Sunday, as I am always online and can share results more up to date.

Something astonishing happened this week. I got sick, for the first time since I started the whole healthy eating thing. I messed with my diet and made myself ill. I had not realised how much of a routine I had gotten into. Regular similar meals, every day, all healthy and balanced with high protein. Then I read an article on bullet proof coffee, basically made with margarine and coconut oil, sounds gross, doesn't taste too bad. You are supposed to drink it first thing and it keeps you carb free and not hungry till lunch.
So I barged right in and gave it a go. Of course I forgot to realise that this is a trick used by those people on the very low carb diets, which I am not, who eat a fair bit of fat rather than carb, which I don't. The coffee effectively cut out my first 2 meals, has 400 calories, and left me in turmoil as to how to get the rest of my nutrition plus enough protein, into my remaining 4 meals. I failed miserably and by Tuesday of this week was so sick I had to go home early.
On Wednesday, I was booked on a progressive dinner with my hubby, 3 courses, 3 restaurants, lovely. Except it wasn't. Starters were fine, but by mains I was feeling decidedly queasy. I did manage the chocolate deserts, but only had one drink out of the cocktail jug they provided. I was pretty messed up the next day. It took me 48 hours to recover.
I did manage the gym 2 days so not all was lost.
Anyway as a result I lost about 2 kilo, water of course, during Wednesday night and Thursday day. By Friday morning I weighed in at 59.8 kilos not good.
This morning I am back to 60.2 kilos, although interestingly I was 24.5% body fat and 35% lbm which are the best results I have had since we started. Although I don't trust the scales at the best of times, and obviously this week I really will have to take with a pinch of salt.

Anyway all back on track now. two pretty good gym sessions this weekend. Food back to fabulous. Tomorrows food pre prepped and entered.
I have just read a very interesting article and I am really inspired right now.
http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

Looking forward to seeing what happens next Sunday.

jackielou867

6 weeks after my challenge I am still at it. Trying to cut some excess fat after my bulk. I only gained 2 kilo which I now want to lose. I am only eating a small deficit as I want to lose fat not muscle. Also I want to keep improving my lifts. I am making very tiny gains with the lifting, which is OK since I am not power eating any more. Holidays in 3 weeks and I might go back to a bulk phase so I can eat more :-)

jackielou867

Thought I would update. Found it quite interesting reading my thoughts of a few weeks back.
Cut was going ok. One thing I discovered is that my scales are using a formulae, weight goes up bf% goes up, weight goes down, bf% goes down. But I had a really good laugh at myself when I stepped on my sons setting, he is 17, if I weighed what I weigh and was a 17 year old boy I would be at 12% bf. If I was 30, 18%. So I stopped using them, well just every couple of weeks for weight.

I went on holiday to UK. It was a 3 week diet disaster. I had good intentions, but staying with so many different friends and family who all wanted to spoil me, it was just too hard to keep saying no :-(
I did manage to find a gym though so I did lift quite hard. Although I came back 2kg heavier I have to believe that a little of this was muscle.
Good news though. I had my gym assesment and they had me at 18% bf. I think that's off probably about 22% but better than the 25% I thought I was. Did a 2 week diet when I got back then decided, the hell with it, I keep changing direction, just like all those years of yo yo dieting, so I carried on lifting heavy and eating at maintenance. Stayed the same for 6 weeks so I now know my maintenance is correct.
So, still lifting, going to tentatively lift my calories over the next few weeks and see how we go.
Currently 65kg. 5kg heavier than I was last year. Same clothes, same fit. Finally accepting that I am putting on a little muscle, and that I will get heavier but not fatter, and am comfortable with this.
I will check back in a few weeks :-)