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Well, after posting to this board for a couple of weeks I’ve decided I’m going to introduce myself ROLF, but I honestly had no idea how long this would turn out to be when I started -- what can I say, I'm just a wordy bitch, that's all there is to it, I swear I'm not normally self-centered ... it all comes from typing for a living! I'm a full time medical transcriptionist who works from home, happy married to my second husband, mom to a 20 year old son who's serving in the U.S. Air Force, stepmom to two teenagers ... Sorry I didn’t do this sooner folks, but I needed a few things to gel a little bit (specifically, what was I doing, where was I going, how often I was going to do things and how much of everything I was going to do).
Background: This year I turned 40 and essentially I got totally grossed out. I’ve been trying to lose 50 pounds and after 7 months I’d lost half of it but had been stalled for three months since that. What to do, what to do???
So, I turn the big 4-0 and started really thinking about what crappy shape I’m in. Okay, I was walking, maybe haphazardly doing the elliptical a few times a week, but really, truth be told, I’m in generally cruddy shape. Point blank, I was REALLY SQUISHY, and I carry the majority of my excess weight in my abdomen, how totally attractive.
I’ve never belonged to a gym, but many years ago my (now ex) husband bought me an inexpensive home gym with three stations (there’s a long story about what happened with that, posted on another thread). About three or four years ago I had gotten back into the weights but back trouble and general rotten health, which caused an overall lack of stamina, caused me to fall off the exercise wagon (but not before I had picked up an olympic weight set, including dumbells, and an okay bench). I had bought myself an elliptical trainer a year or so after that, so I had the equipment, hell, actually had the stuff IN the house (I had NO excuse for being in such sad shape) the question was, what did I really want to do? How do you work out if you’re not SURE what you want to do?
What I wanted to bench press my body weight, or rather, what I once considered to be my ideal body weight (about 150 to 160) I wanted to do chinups, and I wanted to do proper military pushups. Weird as it sounds, those are my general goals, in addition to losing body fat. I’ll never be able to compete, injuries that have created permanent muscle damage (aesthetic only) and the fact that I was a FAT child (no flat belly for me without lipo) have pretty much ruled that out. I admired the look of a fitness competitor, and I also admired the look of bodybuilders ... but the simple truth was, what I really wanted was to be in good shape, be physically strong, feel good about myself, get reasonably cut, oh, yeah, and be able to EAT.
You guys want stats, don’t you ... oh man. Alright, but don’t ask me for my BF%, I don’t belong to a gym, I don’t have a trainer, and trust me, the stupid electrical impedence scale I bought at the warehouse store doesn’t work. Nobody laugh at me, okay ... and forget pictures, I'm still to squishy for that!
As of the end of February these are my stats (I intend to retake these on June 21):
Height: 5'8-1/2"
Weight: 191 (+/-)
Neck: 13-3/4"
Chest (under arms): 38-1/4"
L. Bicep (unflexed): 12-3/4"
Bust: 41-3/4"
Waist: 33-1/2"
Hips: 41-3/4"
L. Thigh: 22"
L. Calf: 14-3/4"
I’ve got a big frame, wide shoulders, thick waist, carry most fat around the old equator ... God I’m a lard ass (you should have seen my stats BEFORE I lost weight!!!)
So I started shoving heavy things around, started doing crunches, started reading stuff ... I was already drinking a lot of water (I came to this having, most recently, been on Atkin’s then eating a diet to eliminate systemic yeast), I’d been eating an unrefined carb diet for years (I’m celiac, so refined flours are off my list of foods for life), I had been logging my food intake since I’d started dieting, so I just started paying closer attention to my protein numbers and I tweaked things, I logged everything and kept on chugging ...
Now almost three months later I have a basic routine I’m pretty happy with, I’m seeing pretty much steady progress, I think I’m ready to share and if anyone feels like commenting, that’s okay, otherwise, at least y’all know who I am, where I came from, what I’m doing and why.
Food: shooting for 1800 to 2000 calories a day, averaging 110 gm protein daily (much more than that seems to do something weird to my kidneys I pee my brains out, like every 20 minutes) ... carbs, fats??? Oh who knows, I hate FitDay, but that’s me, I do everything on a Lotus spreadsheet ... under 40 gm give or take of added fat in the form of EFAs, butter or EVOO, couple of hard boiled eggs a day, some cheese, some nuts (not much, not every day) lots of veggies, some fruits, some added protein powders, high protein oatmeal in the morning, gallon or two of water a day. I try to mix it up, I’m more worried about keeping the calories and the protein in the right range for my body, and getting a good mix of foods. I have dietary allergies, and a propensity for food intolerances so I simply can’t eat tuna and chicken every day (God I wish I could though, less thinking). I'm averaging three meals of real food, two of shakes a day. PWO shake is critical, I get wishy-washy otherwise.
Workouts ... you guys will love this. Bear in mind, I have chronic spine problems, degenerative discs, screwed up lower back, neck is too straight and too much curve in my lower back, hips are out of line (my chiropractor just LUUUUVVVVS me). Plus I had a rough life, I have some other problems, shoulders have both been injured and my deltoids are weak, knees have been injured and like to complain occasionally. So there are certain exercises that I just can’t do right now, may never be able to do for that matter, either, and I work out from home, so there’s some equipment I don’t have access to.
Elliptical, about 30 min (or one mile, whichever comes first) 5 days a week, first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, keeping heart rate in 60% to 80% range, kicking it up higher for 30 second intervals.
On the two days I don’t do the elliptical I do trap bar deadlifts, (five days apart) currently 20 reps at 135 lbs. (I just got the bar one month ago so that’s how long I’ve been doing deadlifts). Trap bar deads may be “wuss” exercises, but my priority is getting my back strong SAFELY, I also work biceps after the deads (some sort of curl, either preacher, DB or BB or hammer) and do an abbreviated ab workout as a warmup for the deads. Oh, I have a chinup bar in the kitchen door, that I try to do “negatives” (which currently consists of me hanging from the bar like a wet pair of jeans and slowly lowering myself until I can’t hang any more), every other day or so, depending on how the arms feel.
This past week’s routine worked out like this:
Friday 6/3:
- 34 min. elliptical in the a.m.
In the evening:
Weighted crunch: 100 x 40 (2 sets)
Hanging leg lift: 25/15/10
Crunch: 30 x 2 (w/10 lb. DB behind my head)
Standing Calf Raise (barbell behind neck): 48.5 x 20 (3 sets)
Quad. Extensions: 140 x 8 (4 sets) / 160 x 8 (2 sets)
Bench Press (machine, my spotter was picking up our kids): 80 x 7 (6 sets) / 100 x 6
Triceps kickbacks: 16.5 x 10 (2 sets) / 18.5 x 10 (2 sets)
DB Bent Over Row: 33.5 x 8 (6 sets)
Saturday 6/6, elliptical only.
Sunday, 6/5, No Elliptical:
Weighted crunch: 100 x 30
Hanging leg lift: 20/10
Crunch: 45 (w/10 lb. DB behind my head)
Deadlifts: 125 x 10 / 130 x 15
BB Curls: 48 x 8 (6 sets)
Monday Nothing at all, went to the shore.
Tuesday, elliptical only.
Wednesday, 6/8:
- 34 min. elliptical in the a.m.
In the evening:
Weighted crunch: 120 x 30 (2 sets)
Quad. Extensions: 140 x 6 (6 sets)
Lat Press: Rear - 100 x 8 (6 sets) / Front - 80 x 15 (3 sets)
DB Incline Flyes: 16.5 x 10 (6 sets)
Barbell Shoulder Press: 38.5 x 6 (6 sets, alternating front and rear)
Overhead Tri. Extension: 33.5 x 8 (6 sets)
Thursday, 6/9, 32 min elliptical.
Friday, 6/10, No Elliptical:
Weighted crunch: 120 x 40
Hanging leg lift: 20
Crunch: 15 (w/10 lb. DB behind my head)
Deadlifts: 130 x 15 / 135 x 6
BB Curls: 51 x 6 (6 sets)
God how long this ran ... I’m really sorry about that. I guess I should have done it as a training journal, but I won’t keep that up, I know myself, so I figured I’d just mix it all together and if anybody made it this far, good on ya!!!
Any comments? Am I missing anything, overdoing anything? Did anybody even make it this far? Do I even have the right to be posting here?!?!
Thanks for listening,
All my best, Harriet
