GrayDragon's Diary

graydragon10

graydragon10

New member
Thought I'd start a diary to keep track of my permanent lifestyle change. A little about me: I'm 22, female, and am at a height of 5'3". I've tried dieting over and over again with little success due to "yo-yoing" to an even heavier weight. This time around I've decided it's best to take it slow and steady and accept a new, permanent diet and exercise plan.

According to an calorie calculator I use, I should aim for a daily 1200-calorie limit (maintain amount is almost 1700). Thankfully my body feels fine with that amount of food. For exercise, I've been using EA Sports Active 2. I used to try jogging, but that got boring very fast, even with music. Most of the last 2 months I've been trying to exercise every other day, but sometimes the game pushes me pretty hard, and I have to take a 1-3 day break so my body stops aching. And this is on easy mode! Regardless, I think I'm on the right track because I've slowly been losing cms from my body areas :)

As for food, my main course consists of Chunky Soup. Yeah, it's not the healthiest thing in the world due to the sodium content, but it keeps me filled, and I rarely ate any vegetables before so at least it provides that :) Side items include low-calorie ice cream bars (helps me from avoiding high-calorie ones!), fruit, Nature Valley bars, and other low-calorie snacks. My focus is on calories and not on nutrition for the time being.

My first goal is to reach 120 lbs from my starting weight of 152 lbs (8 lbs lost so far!). From there, I want to firm up! It will take approximately 8 months to complete my first goal, but I'm sure it'll be worth it. Also, I'm hoping I can cut some of that time by doing more challenging exercises as my body gets used to it.

I'll probably update this just every now and then when something significant occurs. Until then, I'll be going through the same routine :)
 
Two days ago was really rough for me! I didn't have access to much food due to a snowstorm, so my body was very unhappy and craving for food. All I could think of for the next day was stuffing myself with lots of food.

Thankfully that's not what happened. Instead I ate well - 1300 calories worth. Also I managed to convince myself to exercise and pushed myself to complete the day's workout in the game, despite being tempted to stop midway through.

Now it's almost 2 months since my lifestyle change, and I'm generally happy with the results so far. I'm looking forward to next month with continued weight loss and muscle gain :)
 
Good morning "GreyDragon". Nice screen name. :D

Welcome back to WLF.

Sounds like a pretty decent workout. I only have one question. What are you doing for Cardio? I seen in your post from Jan that you stopped running but was playing the video games. Are you still doing this? If not, then you should consider some sort of cardio to go along with your workout. It doesn't have to be running, it could be anything as long as it gets your heart rate up for a period of time. This will help greatly with your weight loss.
 
Hey Grey :) Thanks :p I'm actually purposely not doing cardio due to my hatred for it, and I'm willing to accept that it'll take longer for me to lose weight. I actually posted about it not too long ago, so you can learn more about how I feel about it and my new workout over here.

Oh and about the video game. After working so hard on it and pushing myself to the point where I couldn't exercise for days, the dang thing locked me out of any exercises I missed at the end of the "program". Needless to say, I was pretty annoyed about it as it was hard enough to go that long doing so much cardio. It might be something I'm willing to re-visit after I get to a certain point. Right now I'm happy that my current plan is working out great in terms of the desire to stay consistent about it. I think a successful plan is something in which you can do for the rest of your life, ya know?
 
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Friday - Exercise Day

Diet and exercise still going well. Increasing improvement with my exercises :hurray: My arms were getting very weak at the end of my plank hold, but I pushed through and did the full 90 secs. I think I'll be able to upgrade to lvl 3 workouts in a couple more weeks at this pace.

I'm a bit worried about July 3rd. I'll be spending time with the bf's family, and there won't be anything but high-calorie food. I know one day won't be a big deal, but it sucks a bit to break outta my normal routine. Oh well, just gotta get right back to it on Monday!

July 1 Food
  • 1 granola bar = 140
  • 1 large banana = 120
  • fish and crackers = 340
  • 1 white nectarine = 70
  • 1 chicken sandwich = 160
  • SMALL fruit juice drink = 240
  • 1 chicken sandwich w/ cheese = 190
TOTAL = 1260
 
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Well it sounds like you know what you want and looks to be pretty good. (minus the cardio.......:toetap05: j/k).

I really hope it works out for you and that you make it to your goal. Keep up the good work. I believe you can do it.

And when you feel that your falling just think about the motto I have set for myself to help me keep going.

"Failure is not an Option"

Good Luck. Hope to keep talking with you in the future.
 
Thanks, haha :) I'm really hoping it turns out well and I end up with plenty of lean muscle in a couple months. Then I can brag about the lack of cardio ;) I already found some higher-intensity stuff I wanna check out much later in my development.

I'll be keeping track of ya in your diary, so keep up the great work :coolgleamA:
 
Sunday - Weight Update Day

I'm now 150lbs woohoo! considering I'm gaining muscle, losing 1lb a week works fine with me :) hopefully I'll see 149 next week despite eating who-knows-what today. oh well, might as well enjoy it :D

Here's my calorie intake for the past week:
Sun - 1280
Monday - 1280
Tues - 1290
Wed - 1305
Thurs - 1255
Fri - 1260
Sat - 1290
 
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I guess you can call this a blessing in disguise for me. Since I work nights and sleep all day I'll miss all the BBQ on post and will be working during the celebrations so I won't be tempted to much.

Wait........Is this a bad thing or good thing.....:rolleyes:

Oh well, have a happy 4th :patriot:, and have a cold one for me....:beerchug:
 
Thanks Grey :D I had a fun time. In fact, a little too much fun lol. We ended up staying until after lunch time, so unfortunately I'll have to count that as two bad eating days. On the bright side, I'm fine and willing to go back to my usual diet routine. Anyway, lucky you on missing BBQ, but I gotta say the BBQ ribs I had were pretty dang tasty ;)

Also, I'm excited to say that I'll be doing a trial run of an isotonic strength training routine that's made to be pretty intense on the body and therefore recommends a week-long break. I'm going to see how I feel after doing it a couple times and compare it to the progress I made doing isometric exercises for a month. I'll be getting the equipment I need on Wednesday, so I'll be checking it out then.

Program details below:
- 5 different exercises, each supposed to be done slowly (suggested 10 secs on positive movement and 10 secs on negative)
- Do each exercise until muscle failure, which probably won't be any longer than 90 secs until I get much stronger
- Originally done with gym equipment, but I'm adapting it to be used with variable resistance bands

"Power of 5" Exercises List
1) Seated Row
2) Chest Press
3) Pulldown
4) Overhead Press
5) Leg Press
 
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Well some very stressful stuff has happened lately, and since my resistance was already weakened due to the holidays, I went back to my favorite stress reliever = junk food :( My exercise equipment is late and didn't arrive yesterday, so I didn't do any of that either.

But! Today is a brand new day, and I plan on eating well. My equipment is out for delivery today, so I'll be getting them for sure this time. Just gotta keep chugging along :)
 
Thursday - Exercise Day

Well, that was interesting! Did my first day of Power of 5. I'd say it was mostly an experimentation this time around as I tried different resistance bands and tried to maintain proper form. I think next time will go much faster.
While my arms are feeling decently sore, I'm not sure how I feel about only 1 exercise for lower body as my legs are feeling just fine. I might look at the booklet that was included with my resistance band set for some additional lower body exercises to try next time.

Also, I ate well today as planned :D The food was great and filling, so it shouldn't be a problem to get back into the routine now.

July 7 Food
  • 1 granola bar = 140
  • fish and crackers = 340
  • 1 white nectarine = 70
  • 1 roast beef sandwich = 170
  • (1/2 milk) fruit juice/banana smoothie = 285
  • 1 MEDIUM corn = 80
  • 2 LARGE eggs = 140
TOTAL = 1225
 
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I'm so proud of myself! And also happy to have a bf to help me out. Since it had only been a day of good-eating, I was tempted to buy and bake some yummy cookies the day after. Thankfully it turned out fine, and I can count it as 2 days of good-eating :D

Looks like my new workout plan was a good choice. My muscles are still pretty sore! Can't wait to lean up more and more.
 
Thursday - Early Exercise

Muscles felt fully healed so decided to try exercising a day early yesterday. Went well, but I think I will have to use a higher intensity rubber tube next time. I was able to do each exercises for 5+ minutes before muscle exhaustion, but I need to last no more than 90 seconds. However, I must have done a decent job since my muscles are sore today.

Also, I'm going to do some research on the best lower body exercises I can do using resistance bands and try it out today. Might have a second day to focus on lower-body exercises or just do both upper and lower on the same day.

Diet has been a bit bumpy but overall going good :)
 
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Saturday - Added More Exercises

Built a lower body routine today and decided to try it together with an upper body routine. Time passed really fast, and about 40 mins later, I was feeling exhausted and sweaty but in a good way. I didn't push myself as hard as I could, so I might do the routine again on Wednesday.

Noticing some changes in my arms. Some new muscle popping out, and it's easier to lift my dumbbells. Still can't beat the bf at arm wrestling though, boo!
 
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Hey GD,
Where you at? It's about time you post up. Been to long since we heard from you.

How are things going with the routines? I hope all is well and you are still on track.
 
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