Susie's Fitness Journal

S

Susie

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My prevailing goals (besides wanting to look good!) are to get strong and to also eat better and get enough nutrients. Right now I just eat very hit or miss and often don't get enough calories or enough vitamins/minerals. I don't like to cook (more like I hate to clean up afterwards) but I need to get over that.

What I've already been doing:
Lower-body strength training at home (squats, lunges, calf raises, etc) and have really seen a difference in about one month as far as having more shape to my legs and glutes but I really want to get great muscle definition all over so I need more nutrients. I've also been lifting weights for my arms and have seen some improvement there.

Some strength goals:
Today I finally started on abs. My abs are soooo weak, especially the lower abs. I have a DVD that takes you through an ab workout and I barely made it through the first set. So right now one of my short-term goals is to get through all three sets.

Another small goal of mine is to be able to do traditional pushups, 32 of them (that's my age). Right now I can only do about 10 of the bent-knee pushups.

I'd like to lose two inches off of the fattest part of my thigh (right now it's 21 inches), gain 2 inches on each of my calves (they're about 13.5 inches right now), lose 2 inches off of my waist (right now it's at 28 inches). Of course I know you can't spot reduce.

Cardio
Right now I don't do anything special for cardio, just everday walking which is actually a lot since I don't have a car and live in a very walkable city. But I really want to increase my cardiovascular fitness so I need to find a gym! I'd also like to start lifting heavier weights and a gym would come in handy for that. I don't live in the USA now and it's kind of hard to find a good gym here. One that I looked at is about the size of a closet. Literally a very tiny room with all of the equipment crammed into it. Better than nothing but it doesn't help me feel less self-conscious about working out.

Diet
I need to start actually PLANNING meals and snacks. As it is now I am pretty good with breakfast (usually oatmeal or egg-whites), plus some fruit, but after that it's really hit-or-miss. Today I ate a lot of bread with olive oil, about 8 apricots, a handful of walnuts, half a chocolate bar, some small candies someone gave me, a tiny hor-d'ouvre sandwich, and drank a lot of water. That's everything. To my credit I just returned this morning from a two-week vacation and didn't have much food in the house, and being as it's Sunday and I live in "the old country" NO STORES ARE OPEN. Tomorrow I'm going to go out and buy some chicken and salad greens etc. This meal-planning thing is actually probably my biggest goal. I want to eat clean, and I want to eat highly nutritious.

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I'm a former non-exerciser so I'm trying to ease into things. But the bottom line is I want to GET FIT and HEALTHY. I don't want to be a physical weakling forever.

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32 years old
5'8"
124 lbs
goal: strength and vitality!
(And looking hot won't hurt either)
 
Welcome to the forum and we're here if you need us.
 
Thanks She47441!

Yesterday I did relatively well food-wise-- according to Fitday it was 1565 calories. Typically I've been taking in under 1000.

The ratio was:
36% fat
31% carbs
33% protein

Gram-wise it was 60 grams of fat, 125 grams of protein.
I'd like to lower the fat intake a bit, the one really annoying thing is that they don't sell tuna packed in water here! Only in oil! I try to drain off as much as possible but still I'm ingesting who knows what kind of oil when I eat tuna now. It drives me crazy. According to fitday, tuna with oil drained has 9 grams of fat.

Then I also had eaten some chocolate (1/4 bar) and, whoops, some butter on whole wheat bread. The butter thing has got to stop.

I also need to tweak the size and pacing of the meals because yesterday I ate such a big lunch I wasn't hungry the rest of the evening. I had breakfast, snack, lunch (with the bit of chocolate for dessert), and then the bread with butter later on.

At least the calorie intake was good, but since I want to start building muscle, from what I read it's important to evenly spread out your calorie intake over the day, so I have to work on that.

One goal of mine that I achieved was I completely quit caffeine. I'd been tapering for about a month, and was down to only 1 cup of green tea in the morning. These past two days I haven't even drank that. :D

I forgot to add I did lower and upper workouts yesterday, and walked for about 1 hour.
 
Thanks Sadie. She, I put some in the before/during/after forum.

But notice I did NOT post a view from the back.:eek: That was because I was too embarrassed. Truth is *whispers* I've got some cellulite back there that I really, really hope to get rid of!

I feel like I look sorta scrawny, and generally toneless. It's my dream to get really athletic looking.

One of my main problems is I'm something of a gym-phobe, I hate working out in gyms where men are staring at you the whole time. I actually found one tiny gym here that caters to women, but you have to work with a personal trainer, and they're all men. I guess I shouldn't be sexist, but... :p
 
It's different when they are trainers, at least I think. They are there to help you unlike the other men that are there just to workout. Yes it would be easier if the trainer was a woman, but beggers can't be choosers. Since you have a little phobia about gyms, do some workout dvds at home.

Pictures look good, btw.
 
Yup, I do have some DVDs, I have Tammilee Webb's "I Want that Body" which has seperate workouts for upper, lower and abs. It's really challenging and I've seen results from doing it consistenly over the past month (well, the lower and arms, I only just started the abs a few days ago). I highly recommend it. Each section, upper, lower, abs etc, has two workouts for it, the second is supposed to be more challenging than the first. Basically it's my goal to be able to get through all of the sets in all of the workouts, and after that I'll get my butt to the gym. I figure I'll be motivated to take it to the next level after that.

I don't have any cardio DVDs though, and living where I live it is near impossible to buy any. Actually now that I think of it I can order off of Amazon in the US, although they charge an arm and a leg for shipping. Hm...

Thanks for your comments, She I've been following your diary as well and it's encouraging to see you stick with it!
 
See what Ebay has for dvd's. People on here like Gilad, so look into them too. I have couple tapes but I'm looking for more. I got my 2 at dollar general, so look there too, if they have them where you are.

I'm trying to stick with it, but it's hard. I'm getting better on my workouts, but need to work in some cardio. Lately it's been so hot w/the heat index over 100, so I don't want to go outside. I'll have to do those tapes for my cardio.
 
I've never seen an exercise video for sale here, anywhere. And no, no dollar stores. I'm living in a post-communist country and it is sloooooow getting up to speed with things, I'll tell ya.

However I did end up ordering a Billy Blanks Tai-bo Cardio DVD on Amazon. They say his cardio workouts are intense, but that this one isn't as super-intense as some of his other ones, which sounds good for me as a cardio-beginner. And the best part is: it was free! Turns out I have a gift credit with them that I didn't know about.

Today I did do some cardio, I was wrong when I said I have no cardio DVDs, I have one I bought a long time ago but haven't used-- I didn't think to use it because it seems sooooo low-impact. It's Leslie Sansome's "Walk Away the Pounds" and it kind of feels like pointless marching in place, but with some handweights it did get my heart-rate up a bit. I figure I may as well try to condition myself in prep for the Billy Blanks DVD which will take a few weeks to get here.

I hear ya on the heat, it's scorching here, too! I got in about 1/2 hour of walking outside.

Now onto the food subject:
According to Fitday, I took in 1738 calories today. :eek: That was a shocker. The percentages are awful: 44% fat, 32% carbs, 24% protein. I attribute the high fat percentage to a handful of walnuts that I had for a snack, 20 grams of fat were in that! At least it's "good fat" but it's fat all the same.

I went to a website that said for my weight, gender and activity level I would need 1788 cals to maintain my current weight, so 1738 isn't so bad in that respect. But it just seems like a darned lot and I'm afraid I'll start packing on the pounds. I guess I'll just keep an eye on the measuring tape and see how it goes. And try not to eat that many walnuts in one day again. :cool:
 
You're doing VERY nicely!

BTW I GAVE AWAY a LOT of exercise videos over the time I've been here......

check out half.com too
 
Hey alright LiveFromNY, I'll have to keep a lookout in the future. :)

Sadie I'm giving myself 6 months to try to completely get rid of it (or as much as is possible). I'm just trying to view it as any other fat, we'll see! Who knows, if I make much progress maybe I'll post the before-and-after backview eventually. Dare to dream. :D

Today is only the third day of focusing on my food intake, and I already got off track. I ate at someone else's place and I have no idea of the ingredients or calorie amounts. Also I ate some local candy which I doubt is on Fitday. Boo hoo. And the scary thing is that I'm on vacation from work now and will start again next week, then I'm REALLY going to be in trouble. I'm just really horrible with schedules and routine in my personal life. Bleh. I guess I'll go over to fitday and see what I can figure out.

In other news, I did my arms and abs workout today.
 
Don't worry about what happened today food wise. Just get back on track tomorrow. Everybody messes up time and time again, just consider that your cheat meal.
 
susie,go to

ther is a workout plan,Power90,there is a forum associated to that workout too,its by tony horton
the kind of body u want is achievable but it is hard work ,u can see before/after section on forum too..i am working on slim in 6 by debbie seibers,
give it a look
Tc
 
So far today:

Total Cals: 1295
Fat: 31%
Carbs: 47%
Protein: 22%

The carb/fat/protein ratios are the result of eating pizza! But I was surprised that my calorie count is still low considering I ate pizza today (according to Fitday).

I may whip myself up an egg-white omelet later to get some more protein.

Exercise was walking by the river for about an hour. I wanted to do my leg routine today but didn't. Bleh. I'll try to get it in before bed. I really need to set up a time schedule for workouts and not just a "which day" schedule.

Thanks for the link-- I'm going to hold off on buying anymore videos for a while, I did just order that Tae-Bo one online. I'll keep it in mind for the future though, for sure.

There is a gym near my place that says it offers "speening" classes which I assume is "spinning" :) I just have to get myself over there to check it out one of these days. I just hope it's not another tiny hole-in-the-wall.
 
Tae bo is cool too
when i am done with slim in 6 i will buy billy blanks
 
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