You can't always get what you want (Athala's diary).

Thanks everybody for stopping by. :)
Cloudy, you became a Junior Member 67* posts ago! :biggrinjester:


Thursday, September 26, 2013.

I had a nice exercise session today. Instead of trying to do everything non-stop, I did take some breaks and kept going. The exercises were;
10 minutes of low impact exercises > (rest) > 13:30 minutes of interval training (3 intervals of shadow boxing [4:00] and 3 intervals of full body extensions* [0:30] > (rest) > another 13:30 minutes of interval training > (rest) > Pyramidal schedule with bodyweight squats, windmill steps and lunges. From 1 squat - 1 wind. step - 1 lunge to 9 squats - 9 wind. steps - 9 lunges and all the way back > (rest) > A few sets of push-ups until failure > a few stretches to finish.

I was going to do crunches but I was already too tired for that.

*My first interval started with squat thrusts, but even without jumping my knee isn't happy while doing part of that motion. Second interval was mountain climbers, but even on a yoga mat, my hands slide so I can't do that. I ended up doing full body extensions for the rest of the intervals.

Full body extensions are similar to squat jumps: stand up with hands extended over head, squat down and put hands at the side of the hips, and go back to standing up with hands overhead. Repeat as fast as possible for added intensity.

Weighed at 97.8 Kg again. I also drank around 1 lt of water (my usual intake is around 0.5 for the entire day) while doing this.

Food log: 1g above fat limit, 8g over Fiber goal.

First meal: 124g of red meat, 126g of avocado, 105g of lettuce.

Second meal: 421g of orange, 229g of banana.

Third meal: 130g of orange, 50g of banana.

Fourth meal: 226g of chicken, 200g of brown rice, 60g of lettuce.

Fifth meal: 65g of brown rice, 104g of lettuce, 166g of celery, 25g of chia seeds.

1602.75 Calories, 215.57g of Carbohydrates, 97.06g of Protein, 39.14g of Fat and 48.37g of Fiber.

First day of experiment.

I ate the first and second meal with only a few minutes between them. I was a bit sleepy after that, I think it was either because I ate too much, or for the sugar since that was a fair amount of fruit. I went above my fiber goal by 8g, and that was a mistake. I should stick with 40 from now on.

There were no hunger or cravings that I can recall. I did a lot more on today's exercise session than usual, but that could be attributable to either the energy from the high carbohydrates intake, my belief that a higher intake (of carbohydrates) should allow me to exercise with more intensity, or because I was more determined than usual, since I must "pay" for that higher intake.

Due to an argument I had (And the effect that arguments have on my frame of mind), I failed to accurately keep track of mood, water intake and energy in general.


Friday, September 27, 2013.

I was still affected by the argument. Didn't exercise. Weighed at 97.4 Kg.

Food log: 11g above protein limit, 1 below fiber goal.

First meal: 235g of chicken, 150g of brown rice, 83g of celery, 113g of lettuce, 25g of chia seeds.

Second meal: 165g of apple, 120g of banana.

Third meal: 90g of brown rice, 136g of banana.

Fourth meal: 134g of banana.

Fifth meal: 248g of chicken, 208g of onion.

Sixth meal: 239g of potatoes, 96g of lettuce.

1670.53 Calories; 246.51g of Carbohydrates, 121.3g of Protein, 22.14g of Fat and 38.27g of Fiber.

Second day of experiment.


I have failed to accurately keep track of things, since my frame of mind wasn't at his best.

There where no hunger or cravings that I recall. I didn't drank too much water today. at night I had 3.5 cups of herbal tea, but "pure" water should have been around 0.5 lt or less.
I delayed exercising all day until it was too late. Surprisingly I was barely sore (almost impossible to notice) from yesterday. My mood was disastrous, and I can't tell about energy levels.
 
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Athala, if your joints are giving you some trouble, you should try a supplement called Osteo Biflex or something similar for joints. Before I started using this I had such trouble with my hips hurting and my knees did as well but not as bad. Now I can jog 20 straight minutes without my hips or knees hurting afterward. My husband uses this, too; he dislocated his right knee over a decade ago and this really helps him out. I rarely hear him complain about his knee and he's gotten to be pretty active as well.
 
Not feeling so great anymore... Had a little argument with family... which means that my frame of mind is not the best right now.

I don't really feel like writing right now. I will post the rest of today's update tomorrow.
 
I'm sorry about that Athala. I think we all understand that some days we are just not up to it. Big hug, xo Cate
 
I wasn't feeling so great yesterday either, but I'm better today.

Hello Belinda (And Cate), thanks for stopping by.

I usually have no pain when exercising, but on a specific motion of a burpee and squat thrust (Squat down, bend over and put hands on ground, extend legs backwards and get into push-up position) is when I feel a slight discomfort on my knee.

I'm assuming that it's for all my years of being sedentary, and I'm expecting it to get better with time and (Hopefully) not worse.

I still need to be careful... Thanks for reading this diary. Have a great weekend everybody. :)
 
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Sorry for whatever you are going through with your family.

Nice job on the exercise. Burpees are hard on the joints. Take a break from them or find other exercises if they cause you any pain.
 
Hi Athala, I certainly don't judge others, especially when it comes to family. One thing I find really hard with families is that instead of offering unconditional love & support, many family members think they have a right to criticise, often cruelly. Now that is wrong. My own immediate family (husband & 2 adult sons) is very loving & supportive, but my older brother & my husbands 2 sisters can be very critical & mean.
We are your forum friends Athala & you can say exactly what you like & express your feelings freely. We are in this together & are here to support one another.
Take care, xo Cate
 
Thanks for stopping by, Quercus and Cate.

Quercus, I did stopped doing burpees. For the moment, I have replaced them with full/total body extensions, which are similar to squat jumps or kettle-bell swings. Only difference is that there is no kettle-bell, and arms are on the sides instead of the center.

Cate, I must admit that I've been guilty of that, too... As for the "Comments" about me, most of them are made when they think I'm not listening... Which just saddens me sometimes...
 
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Saturday, September 28, 2013.

Two exercise sessions today;
First one was 10 minutes of low impact exercises > (rest) > 2 intervals of shadow boxing (4:00) and two intervals of full body extensions (0:30).
Second one was 25 minutes of low impact exercises. No circuits, intervals nor ladders, just old fashioned steady state cardio. Weighed at 97.9 Kg, But I've started to drink a lot of herbal tea at night, and hopefully is only water.

Food Log: 14g over carbohydrates limit (which is already high), but I had barely any fat. only 2g below fiber goal.

First meal: 183g of chicken, 203g of potatoes.

Second meal: 388g of apple, 193g of banana.

Third meal: 127g of chicken, 203g of carrot, 155g of potatoes.

Fourth meal: 200g of potatoes, 317g of onion, 199g of celery.

1483.66 Calories; 268.18g of Carbohydrates, 81.96g of Protein, 9.23g of Fat and 37.68g of Fiber.

Third day of experiment.


I think I will need to make a list of the things I need to pay attention. No hunger, no cravings. However, those are very, very rare for me. Water intake wasn't so bad today. It is over 1 Lt if we count herbal teas.

I don't recall feeling tired today, but that's it. Couldn't say about energy since I don't move much. Frame of mind (Aka mood) has been mostly neutral. I'm using to that, and I can't complain.

I've been switching to low impact options for cardio. I wish I could just come up with new moves by myself instead of having to see them first, but I'm working on that.
I'm using too much intensity with the shadow boxing. That doesn't let me do the 30 sec. interval with max effort, since the boxing is already highly intense. Thus, the lower duration of my (first) exercise session.


Sunday, September 29, 2013.

No exercise today. Weighed at 97.9 Kg. See my post below this one for more details.

Food log: Didn't ate too much today. 14g below fiber goal.

First meal: 113g of red meat, 307g of orange.

Second meal: 189g of orange, 101g of banana.

Third meal: 91g of avocado.

Fourth meal: 290g of potatoes, 75g of red meat, 1 tbs of olive oil.

1103.22 Calories; 147.58g of Carbohydrates, 52.39g of Protein, 33.71g of Fat and 25.85g of fiber.

Fourth day of experiment.


I can't remember the details really well anymore... I allowed myself to do nothing the whole day. Therefore, I didn't exercise and, apparently, I was lacking on the nutrition department too.

As usual, no hunger or cravings that I can remember.
 
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:iagree:
Don't get discouraged. As for the family, I know it's easier said than done but try to ignore it. I don't want to bad mouth your family but then talking behind your back says more about them and you shouldn't take it to heart.
 
Thanks both for the support. :)

Weight was 97.9 this morning (again). But I really don't know about this one... I did increased my carb intake a lot, and I've eating a few of them at night... On the other hand, I've been on a deficit, and I've started to drink a lot (herbal tea) at night...

This one really puzzles me... I'm going to continue with the experiment, but the "seed" of doubt is already planted, and if my weight goes up again (I weighed 97.4 on Friday), then we got a problem.

My fat % went up on the scale a bit as well, but digital scales aren't famous for being accurate. it still only makes me doubt further... I'll have to wait a bit and see. IF, and only IF my weight continues to go up, I will put the experiment "on-hold" and resume when I'm more comfortable with my weight.

Probably* I won't be exercising today. I still have a few hours left to decide myself, but I don't know.
 
I'm sorry for disappearing like that. Weight has been fluctuating a bit. The last number was a small drop, but I've stayed on the same number (97 Kg) for a while now. I might change my eating plan again.
I had a few mood swings in the last few days, but other than that, nothing has changed.


Monday, September 30, 2013.

I took a break from my shadow-boxing intervals. I followed a new low impact workout from Fitness Blender, which was perfect for my purposes here.

10 minutes low impact exercises > (rest) > .

I weighed at 97.5 Kg.

Food log: 11g over fat limit. 14g above fiber goal.

First meal: 81g of red meat. 222g of potatoes.

Second meal: 270g of orange, 120g of banana, 106g of celery, 152g of lettuce.

Third meal: 111g of avocado, 112g of lettuce.

Fourth meal: 92g of avocado, 137g of chicken.

Fifth meal: 269g of apple, 257g of orange, 115g of lettuce, 25g of chia seeds, 1 tsp of marigold oil.

1542.79 Calories; 205.03g of Carbohydrates, 68.51g of Protein, 49.85g of Fat and 54.87g of Fiber.

Today was my fifth day with the experiment, but I have no comments than the usual ones.

Tuesday, October 01, 2013.

I did got some exercise in, but nothing exceptional.

10 minutes of low impact exercises > (rest) > 3 intervals of shadow boxing [4:00] and 3 intervals of full body extensions [0:30] > (rest) > 10 minutes of low impact exercises.

I was jumping around and almost fell here... Luckily for me, I didn't. I could have hurt my right ankle really bad here, since I twisted it a bit on landing. Other than a little pain, no damage was done, but I'll be more careful now.

I weighed at 97.5 Kg again.

Food log: 7g over fat limit, 11g above fiber goal.

First meal: 131g of lettuce, 180g of avocado, 119g of banana, 263g of orange.

Second meal: 128g of chicken, 101g of banana.

Third meal: 100g of red meat, 235g of brown rice.

Fourth meal: 150g of brown rice, 2 tomatoes, 153g of onion, 1/2 tsp of sugar*.

Fifth meal: 100g of lettuce, 25g of chia seeds, 120g of carrot.

*I usually cook the onion (on a pan, with no oil, and I add a bit of water from time to time [very little, just to keep it from sticking]), so I can eat it, but this time I tried to soften it, so I used a little sugar (I rinsed it off afterwards). It didn't work so well, so I had to cook it anyways at the end.

1647.01 Calories, 232.95g of Carbohydrates, 76.58g of Protein, 45.43g of Fat and 51.1g of Fiber.

Sixth day of experiment, no other comments than the usual ones.
 
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Wednesday, October 02, 2013.

No exercise today. Weighed at 97.1 Kg.

Food log: 13g over fat limit, 2g above fiber goal.

First meal: 215g of brown rice, 133g of orange, 130g of banana.

Second meal: 112g of orange, 113g of banana.

Third meal: 183g of red meat, 68g of brown rice, 172g of avocado.

Fourth meal: 1 cup of ice-cream. :monster:

Fifth meal: 154g of orange, 115g of lettuce, 25g of chia seeds.

1567.17 Calories; 212.05g of Carbohydrates, 63.73g of Protein, 51.56g of Fat and 42.69g of Fiber.

Seventh and last* (see the post below this one for details) day of experiment.
 
End of Experiment.

The original plan was to do this for two weeks, but I'm getting impatient already. The objective of this experiment was to see if a regime high on carbohydrates (I used an allowance of 55%) and fiber, and low on fat represented an advantage over my old eating plan. In theory, a higher intake of carbohydrates should have allowed me to exercise with a higher intensity.

Now, keep in mind that I didn't went over any recommendation, I was actually under the "recommended" allowance. It did felt like a lot to me, but apparently, it isn't.

All of the carbohydrates consumed were either from fruit, vegetables, brown rice or potatoes. There were no fries (I did roasted potatoes with 1 tbs of olive oil, once, but that was it), no sugars*, soda, cakes, pasta, bread, oats or sweets. With a few exceptions, the fiber intake was 40g or above on most days.

* Only yesterday I had 1 cup of ice-cream, but I already decided to stop the experiment.

I did had one exceptional (Compared to previous days) exercise session the first day, but I couldn't keep that pace for the rest of the experiment. I didn't experience any hunger or cravings, however, I rarely have those.

My weight during the experiment was: (Compared to lowest weight-in so far; Neutral, Bad, Good)

  • Two days before: 97.8 Kg.
  • First day: 97.8 Kg.
  • Second day: 97.4 Kg.
  • Third day: 97.9 Kg.
  • Fourth day: 97.9 Kg.
  • Fifth day: 97.5 Kg.
  • Sixth day: 97.5 Kg.
  • Seventh day: 97.1 Kg.
  • Day after: 97.6 Kg.

The only way I used to measure progress was weight, but there was way too much fluctuation to even know if the "good" numbers are even good.

The experiment was not a success. I cannot declare it a failure, since I would need to be sure I didn't made any progress on it. However, I don't feel like I'm making progress, and therefore, I must leave it up to here.
 
Just don't forget that as you workout more, you're going to be gaining muscle too which will cancel out any weight loss. If you lost 5lb of fat, but gained 5lb of muscle, that's definitely an improvement. That's one of the reasons we need not rely solely on the scale. Are you feeling better or have you noticed your clothes are looser? Those are good ways to tell if you're losing weight. :)
 
Hello Mandy. Thanks for stopping by. :)

I did notice a few clothes a bit looser.
I also have a tape measure lying around, which I will start to use eventually. I'm going again to low-carb eating for the moment, since this method I was using doesn't seem to be working with me very well.

P.S: + rep for being the 200th reply! (without counting first post). :)

I already posted this on my other thread on the off-topic section, but I wanted to post it here too.

I just found this song today, but it's my new favorite... It's also so heartbreakingly sad... :(

AthalaRanger said:
This one is really really sad. Probably the saddest one I've heard... Not even the saddest songs make me cry, but this one did. :(

[video=youtube;RJKsZ3Y5xJU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJKsZ3Y5xJU[/video]
 
So, if your clothes are fitting looser than you have proof that your efforts are starting to pay off. Keep on chipping away. It's not going to happen overnight, but gradually you'll start to see and feel your body is changing. :)

I LOVE that song! I listen to a lot of country and that's actually one of my favorites. They sound great together.
 
I will try to make the updates shorter and more relevant...

Thursday, October 03, 2013.


I didn't exercise today. Weight was 97.6 Kg.

Food choices; orange, banana, chicken, avocado, lettuce, chia seeds, red meat.

1448.91 Calories; 66.9g of Carbohydrates, 123.58g of Protein, 62.58g of Fat, 41.26g of Fiber.

Not much to say about today. I'm starting a new regime very low on carbohydrates (50g). I'll adjust depending on how hard is to stick to that number, and how I perform on that number.

Since low-carb eating and intense exercise don't go along very well, I'll be mostly doing either circuits or reverse ladders of low impact exercises, shadow boxing (Without jumping, and on a steady fashion) and possibly yoga.

Friday, October 4, 2013.

I was going to skip today's exercise session as well, but I didn't. :)

10 minutes low impact exercises > (rest) > .
My weight was 97.2 Kg today.

Food choices: lettuce, avocado, carrot, chia seeds, chicken, celery, walnuts.

1345.9 Calories; 50.91g of Carbohydrates, 86.09g of Protein, 74.38g of Fat, 42.82g of Fiber.
 
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