Just a little bit more to go ...

It's a book a buddy of mine wrote on breaking myths about muscle growth. He covers critical thinking/logic pertaining to fitness, the science of muscle growth, myth breaking and application.

He's been working on it for years and I've been anxiously awaiting its release since I've always enjoyed talking to him and reading his articles. Very bright guy.

Well, the kicker is, he decided to release it for free as an ebook pretty much to spite the crooks in the fitness industry.

Here's a link to a thread I made here letting people know about the book. It also has the link for download.

http://weight-loss.fitness.com/topic/32558-im-going-spam-you-now.html

It's a very good read.

Oh, and good morning Kara :)
 
Morning Steve! :)

5lb Challenge: Day #17

SW: 177.4
CW: 178.2 (+1.0)
GW: 172.4

Food
Breakfast: blueberries and protein powder in a smoothie
Lunch: tuna salad on wasa cracker, spinach leaves, v8
Dinner: too much + beer.
Calories: not even bothering to count

Exercise
None

Uh huh. As I mentioned in a reply to Blancita yesterday, this is my downfall. Accountability. I know better. But I promised I'd post everything here, so here I am.

We had friends over for dinner last night and I wound up skipping the gym in order to get home on time. Overall, it's a good thing I did, because I forgot what time I told them to get there and when they arrived I still wasn't really ready. I made do ....

We did burgers on the grill, veggies, watermelon, and slaw. I ate reasonably although I know I went over my calories. My downfall was the beer. He brews his own beer and it's GOOD. And I'm a huge beer snob. I had .. um ... four. *blush*

However, today is going to be a good day.
 
Ok, so I did go back and enter all my food from yesterday evening (and the beer) into my daily plate log. As best I can estimate, I ate a little over 3000 calories yesterday. 3006, to be exact.

Yes, this is exactly why I am stalling out. I will eat really well for 4-5 days at at time and then allow myself a "treat" - which becomes totally out of control. Gotta work on this.
 
I have no idea where I am. The battery in my scale died on Saturday and wouldn't you know it's the one type of Lithium battery that I can't find anywhere here. I finally ordered one (actually 3) from amazon.com, but it'll be a few days before it gets here. So no weighing in for this week, probably.

The battery on my food scale is also going - so I ordered 3 of those as well in the same shipment. When it rains, it pours, right?

And overall this was a f'd up weekend. I argued with my housemate. I argued with my sorta-current-sorta-former guy. I got 2 emails that I just didn't want to deal with and had to. It cost me $180 to transfer the title on my dad's van (He passed away a few years ago and I only just got the replacement title from the state of TX, and then the freakin' state of GA made me pay back taxes on it because I didn't register it immediately. I wanted to scream at the woman behind the counter that they could freakin' bill Texas for the back taxes, but it wouldn't have done any good.). I loaned my housemate $70 to register his vehicle and wound up bouncing a check before I could transfer money from my savings account. And, on top of that, I think the transmission in my car is going and it's going to cost me around $1200 to fix.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon in bed, with the covers pulled over my head, wishing the world would go away.

Today I ate 1650 calories, did workout A of the Stronglifts 5x5 program, and did 20 mins of medium intensity ss-cardio after.

I'm going to bed at 11, come hell or high water. And dear god please let tomorrow be better.
 
Thanks DW. Yesterday was better and I got to bed early enough that I got a good nights sleep.

Still don't know what I weigh - batteries are supposed to come in on Thurs or Fri. I thought about using the gym scale, but I'm pretty sure it weighs differently from mine and I don't want to set myself up for disappointment.

I got up this morning and did 15 mins of yoga stretches - a nice little routine that I found online. I've noticed since I started running that my calf muscles have gotten tighter and I *really* felt it when I did the yoga this morning. I used to be able to hold a downward dog with my heels on the floor, and I couldn't this morning - and I could really feel the strain in my calves. So I think getting up 10 mins early and doing this yoga routine is going to become a regular thing.

Nothing much else to report. Hopefully today will be as quiet as yesterday!
 
Man oh man did that entry above sound hellish. Glad to hear things are a bit better, Kara.
 
wow, sorry to hear about the bad day! I guess we all have to have them to appreciate the good days, but still....I'm glad today was better!!!

WTG on the early yoga routine! I love stretching, it feels so good! I think I'll incorporate that into my morning as well. Nothing complicated or long..but a nice stretching to get me fired up and ready for the day!!!
 
So far the last 2 days have been better. Thank god, because I didn't think they could get worse. Although I probably should shut up before I jinx myself. ;)

Eating is going well, exercise is going well. Today is Week 5, Day 3 of the C2K plan. I may stay on this week for a while. It's a good interval workout and I like it.
 
hey kara :seeya: its been a couple of weeks, so I wanted to stop by and say hi. i know all about stalling out... i have been living off soup and crackers for the past two weeks and probably negated any sort of progress i could have made in the past month and half!

how are you staying motivated when results are coming in sooo slow? im starting to lose motivation... how long does your body take to respond typically?
 
Heya Josie! Good to see you again!

Motivation is one of those things that I gave up on a long time ago. :D No seriously, I sort of developed this mantra about motivation vs. commitment: I get up and go to work every morning not because I want to, but because I have to. I do the dishes, wash laundry, clean the toilets, etc. for the same reason. I don't want to do it - it's just a part of my life. So that's how I try to look at the whole eating healthy and exercising thing - I don't necessarily want to, especially when I'm not seeing the results I want, but I do it anyway.

It kinda helps me when I'm in this situation. In fact it's what was going through my head yesterday as I went to the gym ... I don't want to, I want to go home, I want to drink a couple of beers, I want to just chill ... but I went to the gym anyway.

I think for me it's a mindset I've had to develop because I do lose weight and see results in fits and starts. I've always envied those people who steadily lost weight because for me, even when I do everything right, I"ll go weeks w/out a result and then ... boom ... 5lbs gone. Or a pants size down. Or something.

I have to admit that I'm more than frustrated with this latest lull, but I also know that part of it has been my fault. I'm an emotional eater and I know I haven't been as strict with myself as I could be. Last week was the first week that I stuck 100% to my plan in a long time. This week is also on target, so I'm hopeful for a nice "whoosh" of loss here soon. :)
 
Hi Kara - just wanted to say that I checked out your food blog - very impressive!!! Love the photography - made me hungry. Just wanted to say that reading you journal and blog has been motivating for me and I need all the motivation I can get. Congratulations on your weight loss.

Sallybean
 
KaraCooks said:
Heya Josie! Good to see you again!


It kinda helps me when I'm in this situation. In fact it's what was going through my head yesterday as I went to the gym ... I don't want to, I want to go home, I want to drink a couple of beers, I want to just chill ... but I went to the gym anyway.

I think for me it's a mindset I've had to develop because I do lose weight and see results in fits and starts. I've always envied those people who steadily lost weight because for me, even when I do everything right, I"ll go weeks w/out a result and then ... boom ... 5lbs gone. Or a pants size down. Or something.
Click to expand...

i hear you... im the same way.. especially watching the steady weight losers.. talk about discouraging for oneself :(

so i guess the question should be rephrased.... :D how do you resist the no-no's????? how do you increase willpower!? hahaa
 
how do you resist the no-no's????? how do you increase willpower!? hahaa
Click to expand...
Lordy I wish I knew the answer to that one. Some days it's so easy to say no ... and some days it's just a struggle. And I'll be honest ... I don't always succeed.

One thing that really helps me is removing temptation. This is a big one. I have certain trigger foods that, if they're in the house, I'll eat them. I can resist a container of ice cream. It's no biggie. I'll think "oh, I might have some of that later" and then if i have calories available, I will. But if I don't have calories available, then it's no biggie to just say "well tomorrow then". But chips? And especially Lay's Sour Cream & Onion chips? I could have just eaten a 12 course meal and be so full I can't move - but I will eat those damned chips anyway. They're my crack - and I'm only kinda joking. So I don't buy them. I don't have them in my home. And if, for some reason, I feel like I *must* get some, I will buy the smallest bag I can. Sometimes that's hard - especially when you live with someone who likes the same foods you do. :) But in general it works ok for me.

The other is just getting in the habit of asking myself "do I really want this". I will make myself stop and feel the fat around my belly and seriously ask myself "is eating this worth not losing weight this week". Sometimes the answer is yes and sometimes it's no. But the act of actually feeling my stomach sometimes gives me willpower when I don't have it otherwise.

And other times, I just give in, even though I know better. And when I'm done I sometimes get angry at myself ... but I try not to dwell on it. I dunno. It's just hard and I accept that it's always going to be an inner struggle for me.
 
Ok, I'm back again. Batteries are in the scale and the food scale. The week has been emotionally hellish again, but I'm dealing.

I wish I could figure out what was up with my commitment here. I'm having a really tough time with this lately. I'm still maintaining .. I seem to have a lock on that ... but I can't seem to get my ass in gear to get back into losing mode.

It's not about motivation - I've talked about my philosophy on motivation often enough. It's not about giving up because I'm still eating healthily and exercising 3x a week or so. But I'm not pushing myself the way I should. I'm doing just enough to maintain and not enough to ramp back up into losing.

I started reading up on IF the other day and I'm thinking about trying it for a while. Not specifically to lose weight, but to shake up my routine. I'm thinking that part of the problem is that I've gotten into a rut over the last year and I need a change of scene (so to speak) to refresh myself.

I'm finding that the time I'm having the hardest with is in the evenings at home. I don't eat unhealthy foods, but I find myself nibbling all night and winding up eating very close to maintenance calories by doing so. So I'm thinking about a 19/5 IF schedule - that would mean all of my daily food intake would be during that evening period that I find so hard anyway. I'm going to have to plan carefully to get a full 1600-1700 calories in during a 5 hour period, but I think I can do it and I think by having to plan around my evening workout, I'll actually be eating healthier than when I just nibble the evening away.

We'll see. I just need something different to get me out of my rut.

On other news, I'm now running a full 5k .. it takes me nearly 45 mins of very slow running, but I do run the whole thing. The next step is to slowly start increasing the speed. I really want to be able to run it in under 30 mins.
 
did you read that article that steve posted about the diet break?? maybe you could use something like that, I know that for every 6 weeks that I train, I usually take a week off in between and just eat maintenance calories and not train at all, but I go into it with the mind set that next week, im back at the gym, no questions asked....people burn out from time to time :)
 
Yeah ... but I've been on a break for about a year now. :)

I lost my first 80 lbs over a course of a year and then really had to stop and reframe. Mentally and emotionally I was having a hard time with the whole "not fat anymore" thing. So I spent the last year maintaining at around 170-175 lbs. This past spring I realized that it was time to work on those final 30-35 lbs - I was ready again. Unfortunately I managed to handle maintaining so well that I've not been able to shift back into weight loss. :D

(Everyone should have such problems, right?)

So I'm good with the break and the maintenance. I think I just need a psychological shake up. I'm on Day 2 of my 19/5 eating plan and so far I feel really good. I went to bed last night for the first time in weeks not feeling hungry and not having snacked my way back up to my maintenance calories.

We'll give it a few weeks and see how it pans out.
 
KaraCooks said:
Yeah ... but I've been on a break for about a year now. :)

I lost my first 80 lbs over a course of a year and then really had to stop and reframe. Mentally and emotionally I was having a hard time with the whole "not fat anymore" thing. So I spent the last year maintaining at around 170-175 lbs. This past spring I realized that it was time to work on those final 30-35 lbs - I was ready again. Unfortunately I managed to handle maintaining so well that I've not been able to shift back into weight loss. :D

(Everyone should have such problems, right?)

So I'm good with the break and the maintenance. I think I just need a psychological shake up. I'm on Day 2 of my 19/5 eating plan and so far I feel really good. I went to bed last night for the first time in weeks not feeling hungry and not having snacked my way back up to my maintenance calories.

We'll give it a few weeks and see how it pans out.
Click to expand...

I completely feel your pain on this Kara. I've been focused on losing weight for 7 months now, and finding the drive to move forward and lose the last 20 pounds has been SO hard. I've done really bad for the last week or so.... I need to get my butt in gear!

I think I may need a 'diet' break... not the 1 week kind, but the several months kind. I need to find that long term motivation again.

Do you ever get tired of thinking about food, feeling guilty about food, feeling guilty about exercise... I need a break from the obsession, ya know!?
 
Well, I'm a "foodie" to begin with .. I cook all the time, I run a food blog (although I've slacked lately), I have foodie friends ... so for me being obsessed with food is nothing new. I never get tired of thinking about food! :) Even in "normal" circumstances, I subscribe to 3 food magazines and try new recipes all the time - so moving from unhealthy to healthy was just a matter of reframing, rather than changing everything.

I actually don't feel bad or guilty about food at all - and I realize that I'm pretty lucky about that.

I dunno ... today is day 3 of the 19/5 thing and weekends are going to be more difficult. I'm more active on weekends and I found myself getting kinda hungry around 2:30. I dunno. We'll see how it goes.
 
hey killer

I hear ya about the foodie thing, lol, I love to cook although lately it's been difficult, hard to use clarified butter and be healthy ya know :) watch rocky 4, that'll get you motivated again! The other thing that I always do when I need motivation, is to buy new running shoes...I usually slack off about every six months real bad, and at that time it's usually ok to replace my running shoes and give the old ones to a kid who's less fortunate than me or something...but when I spend money on my body transformation, I feel more obliged to do something about it. it's "food for though" lol.
 
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