2 week challenge
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Hi All!
Ashley - sounds like you're really keeping good track of what's going on - I think that's great! Honestly, my weekend was not very keep trackable (too many drinks Friday, LOTS of beer at a tailgate Saturday...yikes). The new plan sounds good! Don't sweat the weight til mid week - I always retain water on Mondays! Oh and a standard weight bench is perfect to start. as I moved down I was used one of those step things that builds up or down but really any household surface will do!
Shander - I hope MI was fun! I'm sorry you're bummed about the weight...I know what you mean! I am up quite a bit (almost 10 lbs since my lowest weight in April). You can get back on track. Small things, one at a time
Reeese - Happy (belated) birthday! I'm glad you let loose a bit and enjoyed yourself! Well worth it on such an occasion On the article, yeah its just a PDF since you have to pay online for her material but if you to DM me your email I am happy to pass the material along (shhh!)
Jen - I'll be thinking about you! Good for you for not ignoring the problem and trying to get to root of the problem. We'll be here!
So now onto my new plan - I read Leigh Peele's Fat Loss Troubleshooter and her Optimal Fat Loss Program. I am taking elements from the OPT and using the new rules workout. Basically, I am doing 3 lifting days a week with 2-3 cardio sessions and 4-5 recovery sessions. The type of cardio varies based on where you are in the cut. Weeks 1-3 they are longer steady state work outs So do macros (always high protein, sometimes lower or higher on fat and carbs. Macros vary from 50 p/30 f/20 c to 30 p/20 f/50 c. It's 12 weeks total with 2 weeks that involve nothing but recovery. The deficits are pretty aggressive based on what I had been doing - 30-40% of TDEE. It's going to be tough but I want this and I want to follow through. I know i won't be perfect but I need to institute my 1 day splurge which will be super hard with the holiday weekend next week. Limiting drinking is KEY to this seeing as hungover Kate doesn't care about calories or macros....0 -
I laughed at "hungover Kate doesn't care about macros or calories".....neither does a hungover Ashley. Although I definitely could have been worse yesterday. I just was mostly lazy; watched 2 movies and about 2 hours of TV. I did walk to the coffee shop first thing. It was a little bit of a stumble really......sheesh.0
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I wasn't even hung-over this weekend and I ended up not caring about calories or macros. Harumph. Then again, TOM appeared today, so at LEAST I have the reason as to my NON-STOP hunger and HUGE carb cravings.
I want to forgive myself, but it's pretty tough. I put in a LOT of hard work this month, and I can feel it ALL draining away....just as the end-of-month measurements/photos are due. Blast it.
I do want to have an enjoyable summer, though. I've been in "competition" mode since December 24th and I think I need a break from that. (and, by "competition", I don't mean bodybuilding competition, I mean fitness competition for body fat loss on a different forum) I want to get to a point where I 'trust my body' and only eat when I'm hungry, etc., etc. I'm not sure if this will ever happen for me. But, it is what I want.
I did work-out a TON this weekend. Long cardio on Saturday. And I biked 6 km and walked 4 km on Sunday. So, it isn't that I didn't get the exercise in. It's just that my body was craving fat and carbs and TONS of food....I really hate TOM.
Anyway, I'm back-on-track, today. Will lift heavy. Will eat less. Will avoid ALL BAD CARBS all week long to have ANY chance of getting in good measurements/photos this week.
Grrrrrrrr.............
I'm so sick of "starting over" that I can just FEEL the anger-stress welling up inside me.0 -
jen - wanted to send a note that we went through similar testing, last year, for my son (then coming 10). He doesn't have any "disorder", that they can tell, but he is HIGHLY ANXIOUS and we've been working, for a year, on several strategies to help him work through various stressors.
It ALL came to a screeching halt last week when his school had a "practice" lock-down exercise. He didn't know it was "practice" - he thought it was "real" and he went spiraling downward - not in a good way. :sad: So, it's been a really tough week trying to help him get back up on the horse and ride. The boy turns 11 on Sunday. It makes me SO sad to see how ANXIOUS he is, about crazy things (he thinks somebody is going to break into our house and attack/kill him!!!), and my heart bleeds for him.
Lucky for us, he is incredibly bright, athletic, and he has all the makings of a person who can resolve the anxiety without medication. So, we soldier on....0 -
To add to what Beeps said, Jen, I've actually struggled with anxiety and have since I was a kid too. I don't have a diagnosed disorder but mostly a "tendency" as my doctor calls it or I'm "high strung" as mother say.s As I got older and I was able to recognize symptoms in my myself and channel my energies in things that helped me address it I was able to remain mostly non medicated. It was until some very stressful life situations when I was in college or so I ever did medication and now only take it as needed (most I don't). It sounds like I never struggled as much as Beep's son or even yours but I have been to be mostly healthy and happy and non medicated. (I do think I 'self medicated' in high school with an ED but that's neither here nor there). My heart just goes out to you both!0
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Beeps and Jen, that is tough. I so wish little kids could be carefree like we imagine-thinking they don't have a job and a mortgage, but their worries are just as big to them, and bigger, than ours are to us adults!
Don't get me started about the weekend, it was Polo Prom, as my SIL calls it, and Friday night was dinner and open bar, the buffet was awesome, jalepeno mac n cheese? yes please.
Saturday was recovery day, but I did get in my 50 burpees (had to make up Friday). Ate at chipotle and should have called it a day but hubby got brats at the store so I had that and popcorn, while watching Breaking Bad for several hours.
Sunday was back at the Polo grounds for the championship game, open bar and small plates from many restaurants but I don't think I ate very much. We got burgers and rootbeer floats on the way home for dinner. I am not stepping on the scale. Vegas is in 8 days, so I need be really good this week and weekend!
I will post some pics of the weekend, just need to get them off the camera...0 -
Sounds like LOTS of us completely fell off the wagon this weekend.....well, at least we all have each other!
Time for a "new" 2-week-challenge:
1. Get my heavy lifting in;
2. Get my protein in;
3. No bad snacking....it really just is NOT worth it (to me);
4. Make sure there's lots of good and healthy snacks in the house to grab-and-run with.
the end.0 -
Is it time for anohter set of goals? Okay, mine will be similar to last weeks:
1. HIIT 1x
2. A, B, C, and D lifting circuits
3. 2+ mile run
4. 3 other "cardio" days
5. Remain in control of my booze!
(I hesitate at this time to assign a limit as in number on my drinks as I am getting together with my family this weekend and we tend to put away the wine and I am realistic. However, I am giving serious thought to assigning a weekday and weekend maximum number of drinks I will allow myself, because we all know how common sense goes out the window after some glasses of wine and I've let my drinking creep back up to a point where I feel guilty about it the next day.)
6. Roll my IT's and back/glutes 5 days
I have lots of social activities this week so hopefully I can keep myself in check.0 -
Oh boy am I with all of you on the totally falling off the wagon this weekend!! But, I have to say I got in my 3 Chalean strengths last week and 3 good runs. Did GREAT Monday-Thursday. Friday- Sunday was a totally different story. I didn't eat too bad, but the drinks were just ridiculous. But, I also did a lot of manual labor I didn't track. We had a "Baby BBQ" for our friends Saturday and Friday was all setting up and cleaning and doing yardwork. And Sunday was taking everything down and cleaning up. So I don't feel too bad about it. But, summer is just really rough when it comes to the drinks. And tonight I am going to dinner for my best friends bday at a Mexican restaurant. So I know I will have a margarita, I'm not even going to kid myself. And I wont have time to get a workout in. Uggh I have a feeling I'm just going to do the best I can until we get through the holiday. I hate to set myself up for failure.
Anyways sorry for the rant. Everybody's goals sound great!!! I hope you all have more discipline with yourselves than I do!!!0 -
Oops, forgot it was a new 2 week challenge...
1. Concentrate on keeping control of my eating/drinking on weekends
2. Work out at least 4 days
3. No night snacks Sun-Thurs (will try for full week, but I'm trying to be reasonable)0 -
I did some lifting last night and boy could I tell I indulged over the weekend! Despite the 8 glasses of water I had prior to working out, my first set of squats, I "pulled" a different muscle in each leg. They both feel almost fine today, but I'm pretty sure its because I was dehydrated from the weekend. Sheesh. Here's to another healthy day!0
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Ashley- OUCH!! :noway: Hope all is feeling better with your legs today! Rough night girl! We all will get our weekends under control, some how...some day! We have to!!
Shander- Still loving CF? Do you still have a gym membership too?
Chloe- We know weekends are many of our downslides. But, and this is my whispered 'but', I know I' rather admit to myself on Monday that the upcoming holiday weekend won't be stellar and try to push harder and eat better though out the week. Than to simply, as you said 'kid myself' that I'll be well behaved in the face of some alcohol and brownies. I would love to get to a point where I'm mentally strong enough to say 'I'll try that brownie...but I'm done after that' (since I know I'll never completely GIVE UP these things). But I hope to one day be able to really just have a treat and not a dereailing weekend/holiday. However, at this point, I've come to the conclusion that for now I want to get to a point that I can look at the bigger picture which in this scenario is the whole week. Look ahead and say okay...I'm going to go out, I'm going to indulge more than I should so what can I do to prepare. Can I cut out my pre-bedtime snack, be a little more aggressive about my calorie deficit during the week, etc. so that I can have a little indulgence on the weekend and not come in on Monday thinking 'holy hell what did I do?' Honestly, I'm not at that point yet. I'm a complete 80/20 person right now. If I let myself have a brownie, I'll go back for another, or another. If I have a drink, I'll have 3. I'm just not mentally there yet. Which is why, I am going to go the 'diet' route right now and really cut off somethings. Not long term, but just until I can get my head on right.
Which leads me in to the Leigh Peele stuff that Kate mentioned. I read through that, and plan to read through it again (all but the Metabolism Repair Manual since let's be honest, my metabolism is probably fine...I just miss the boat with calorie deficit) I felt like a college student reading through that, absorbing it all. Half of the stuff I was like 'duh...you know that, just put it into action'. Some other stuff, I thought 'wow, yep that's probably 1/4 of my problem. For instance, I measure a lot of things. However, I use a measure cup. I have a scale but only ever thought to use it with chicken or meats. But she makes excellent points about measuring in grams rather than by cups. I've always wondered why fitness comp girls use the 'gram' counts in their food journals. Now I know. Like I said, I'm looking for balance but I'm a little too good at getting comfortable. And for now, I need to be uncomfortable and aggressive. I need to see how far I can push myself and see how my body responds. And that really is my goal for the next 2 months.0 -
Oh yes, two week challenge...point of this group....(which makes me wonder...how does the normal NTHG thread go?)
1. Stick to the workout plan. That is, 3 days of NROL, 3 days of cardio for 40 minutes this week at 70% if max heart rate. 4 recovery sessions.
2. Stick to the eating plan. That is macro/calorie adherence for 6 days. I get 1 go crazy meal where I don't need to worry about fitting it in. The rest of the meal (or booze, ahem) needs to be logged and it needs to fit. This means I have to count calories on the weekends. No way around it.
3. Think of how cut I'll look after this and why it's worth it everytime I was to say eff it.
Doing the raw calculations I would lose roughly 16.6 lbs based on pure calorie level. Obvious that probably won't happen. But say I lose 10-12 and 90%+ is fat...that means I would get to my under 20% goal. Everyone says Leigh Peele is THE fat loss guru so I'm giving her 100%. Or at least 90% 0 -
Kate or Mama- do you have a link to her Leigh Peele's info? Or did you buy something?0
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Ladies, you have some great goals! I need some help with protein shake/meal replacement ideas. I have been working a lot and some days I only have 30 minutes to eat. I really don't want to be eating crappy food at the restaurant everyday. I've been taking Lara Bars and fruit with me, but I need to get more protein in.
2 Week Challenge
1. 3 days of strength - this week I will do 2 P90X and 1 Spartacus
2. get back to logging and make sure there is enough protein!!!!
3. Swim with my girls :-)
I'm not worried about cardio since i'm walking around all day and have been losing. If I get to it, I get to it.
I want to know more about Leigh Peele too!0 -
Kate, what are these recovery sessions you speak of?0
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After workout (or alone) -
Sets: 2
Reps: 20 or hold 20 seconds
Rest: 30 seconds or less
Stretches: Seated Levator Down/Side (alternate sides) [google]
Doorway chest stretch [arm out, lean on doorway]
arm stretch (alternative sides) [arm across chest]
flexor stretch (alt sides) [pigeon in yoga]
ham stretch [standing up reach to toes, feet together]
cat flex [like in yoga]
calf stretch (alt sides) [push against wall]
Foam Rolling:
calf
IT band
hip flexors0 -
So I think my two week challenge is really just 8 days cuz them I am in Vegas and it's a free for all. But I think I am just doing burpies and keeping cals low.
Last night I did a modified circuit like someone shared earlier. I did full burpees so I got those in...
I didn't drink any alcohol but my cals were pretty high for the day. But today is a new day!
Thanks for the stretches Kate, I could stand to do a better job with stretching.
After Vegas I am going to get serious about training for warrior dash, I want to get back to strength training too.
I also liked the plan and instruction for bodybuilding.com, I need to create something so I have a plan!0 -
20 IT band rolls? Wow. I am good to get up to 10 they hurt so bad. That sounds like a great plan.0
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This starting back is hard. I've got a lot of excuses, legit ones, too. I am late, but I'll start my 2 week goals now.
1. eat clean 80% of the time
2. ST 3 times a week, as P90X or Spartacus
3. Cardio 2 times a week, Hiit or ZWOW (although ZWOW's are a lot of ST)
4. log my foods, even if I'm embarrassed about what I've eaten
5. take before pics and measurements0
