Discouraged

So, Ryan and I have been doing this new workout routine for about two weeks now. We've been on our new diet for almost 3 weeks. There was a time where even cutting out soda for a week would make me drop 5 pounds automatically. 

I have officially lost no weight in the past 2-3 weeks. 

I can feel my body changing, for example my pants are fitting lovely today with almost nothing hanging over the top, even though I've been up for 4 hours already AND have eaten something. I think I'm even beginning to look thinner from the side, and a friend even said to me that I'm looking better. 

But that number on the scale bothers me. I know it shouldn't. I've always been one to say "the number doesn't matter -- it's how you FEEL that counts!" But for some reason, it's bothering me. I keep stepping on the scale to see some wonderful dropping happening, but it always lands within the 3-pound window that I just can't seem to escape from. 

Ryan says, Come on, it's only been two weeks! And on the inside I'm thinking, It's already been two weeks! What the flip!

Anyway, there's where I'm at. Overall. I'm feeling good though (or rather my body is feeling good). We did an intense 1-hour weight lifting session last night on our backs. It feels awesome :) 

First Week summary

We've completed the first week.

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm still exhausted to get up in the morning, but I find that it's not so much of a fight anymore. I'm usually grumpy all the way to the gym, but once I'm done there and on my way to work, I feel much better. It's been good.

I don't see much results in myself. My weight fluctuates by about 2 lbs on any given day normally, so to see it bounce between 149 and 151 really doesn't tell me much. But according to my scale at home, I've lost an itty-bitty bit of fat and gained an itty-bitty bit of muscle. That's something :) I also don't feel like my stomach hangs out as much. Perhaps the abs are holding things in??

I can tell Ryan is looking better though, jerk. His stomach is flatter and his weight is more stable. He's lost about 4 lbs.

Coming soon: Potato Chili Bowl recipe!!

Workout Day 4 -- oh the pain!!

I hurt so bad. But it's a good kind of hurt (I need to keep telling myself that :). My legs (particularly my calfs) are feeling the most pain, followed closely by my back. I can feel my abs beginning to feel the pain as well, but since we only just worked them out yesterday, I don't expect to feel real pain from them until tomorrow.

It was the worst ever getting up this morning. We had to get up an hour earlier than usual (4am) so we can leave work early today, which just added to the horror. My whole body was stiff and the lack of sleep made me a very, VERY grumpy person. I can truly say it was worst this whole week. Fortunately, Ryan is stronger than I and forced us out of bed. Stretching at the gym was awful. It felt like all my muscles were tearing apart. But the one thing I couldn't ignore -- despite my grumpiness -- was that after stretching I did feel much more mobile.

We did the StairMaster, as if this morning wasn't already bad enough.

After all the horribleness and pain, once I had showered and was in the car on the way to work, when Ryan asked how I was feeling, I could honestly say that I felt good. I felt awake (though sleepy), stretched out, and generally good about my workout. I was thinking "well, that wasn't soooo bad."

All of this is to say that when you feel at your worst, like you just can't do it anymore and you just want to fall back asleep, do it anyway. You'll feel better in the end.

Workout day 3

We're on day three of this double-cardio workout. It's killer. I pass out so quickly as soon as I lay in bed. My muscles are killing me, particularly my legs right now. But it hurts so good!! Here's the run-down of what we've done:

Day 1: StairMaster in the AM. Running then legs (weights) in the PM. 

Day 2: Bike in the AM. Back and shoulders in the PM (we ran out of time for cardio before Ryan's class)

Day 3 (today): Elliptical this morning. This afternoon will be abs and an undetermined form of cardio. 

Results thus far:

> Ryan has dropped about 3 lbs. I have dropped 1. But I'm very proud of that 1 lb. In 2.5 days?? Heck yes! :) :)

Food: We're still doing the Happy Herbivore meal plan set-up. I just bought this week's meal plan. I'm going to customize it a bit though with meals from last week.

Workout

I'm trying out this new style of working out, inspired by this girl. She talks about the different ways she trains for a competition, and I thought I would give some of it a try, as well as trying out some of her tricks for controlling food binges. There are two stages to her prep for competitions: a cardio-intensive workout season and an "improvement season". The cardio-focused workout involves her doing double cardio sessions a day in addition to her weight lifting, which consists of several lower-weight reps/sets one right after another to keep the heart rate up during lifting. This is the time to lose fat. During her improvement season, she focuses less on cardio (although still does it once a day) but shifts her focus on lifting more weight. This is the time to build muscle and sculpt.

I have already been lifting weights with Ryan at the gym, but I know that I need more cardio in my life. Since Ryan has mentioned that he'd like to focus more on losing fat right now than bulking up, I thought this routine might work. So, I convinced Ryan to give it a try. He seemed a little hesitant because he had been told that this kind of weight lifting results in those skinny but slightly toned guys in the gym, which is not necessarily his goal. But I reminded him that he wanted to focus on the fat first anyway, so why not give this a try for a few weeks, just until we lose enough fat for him to start wanting to focus on bulking up? He eventually agreed.

So here's our routine:

> 5am: Wake up, have breakfast, and go to the gym for cardio (this morning we did the stairmaster for 20 min -- ah!!! I was dripping with sweat).
> 7am-4pm: Work (Lunch).
> 4pm-6pm: Back at the gym for cardio focused weight-lifting and another cardio session. We will be doing legs today, so we'll pick lower weights and do twice as many reps as usual, while switching between other exercises immediately to keep the heart rate up. I haven't decided what cardio I'll do. Perhaps the bike since I might not be able to stand after leg lifts... (Ideally, we'd have protein shakes after, but I think we forgot to pack them this morning.)
>6pm-9pm: Ryan is in class, and I'll be making lunch and dinner for the next day. I need to get better about prepping meals ahead of time.
>9:30pm: Dinner. It's not ideal to be eating so late, but it'll be a smaller meal, and we'll likely stay up for a couple hours anyway.
>11pm: Bed. Again, ideally we'd be going to bed earlier, but you work with what you've got, and we've got little time.

I'll let you know how this goes!! I've heard the first week is the hardest and we are only on day one...

As a side note, I  love how the girl mentioned above emphasizes that food is not the enemy. It is necessary for a healthy and beautiful body. But she also talks about how it has to be clean, which seems to work well with our goals for food as well :) check it out!

We're back!!!

Okay, so I suck at blogging, apparently. But I'm giving it another go, especially now that Ryan and I are on a set food routine.

We have recently starting working out: my goal is to lose the fat, Ryan's is to lose fat and bulk up. In order to achieve our goals, we've set-up a system for our food and workouts.

Food:
4 meals a day, plus a snack. We're still trying to make this work with our jobs (he's in the cleanroom), but this is the plan anyway.
1) Breakfast (few/no carbs) -- fiber/granola cereal with fruit, or omlet with with spinach and fruit, or yogurt and fruit with granola, or oatmeal.
2) Snack -- nuts, fruit, etc
3) Lunch (few/no carbs) --  salad with toppings like chicken (or some other protein like tuna, steak, etc), fruit, veggies.
4) Recovery Shake (after our workouts) -- includes whey protein
5) Dinner (carby) -- pasta with sauce and veggies and protein (chicken, clams, etc) stirred in, or meat with rice and veggies, etc.

I'm still trying to not eat a whole lot of meat (by American standards), just the topping for salad and a normal size portion for dinner. We are getting our proteins from things like eggs, beans and such as well as the meat (in addition to whey protein, although I may switch to something without lactose since my stomach has been unhappy with dairy since we cut back on it).


Workouts:
We start by stretching and doing some minor things like sit-ups, toe-touches, etc. Then we choose a muscle group to work on: abs, legs, arms/shoulders,or back. We spend almost an hour lifting weights that will work whichever group we picked for the day. Ryan is trying to go in order from the top of the body down, but seeing as I have missed our workouts frequently these last two weeks, I have messed with his schedule a bit.... It takes about 4 days of the week to hit every muscle group. We spend a fifth day doing cardio (so important for bulking up, as you don't want to starve the muscles of blood from not having a strong enough heart, and also to drop the belly fat :). Then we usually end up going 2 days without working out, but I think we are going to try and cut that back to one day. Or at the very least do something active one of those days (hike, bike ride, whatever).

Today's food:
> Oatmeal with blueberries for breakfast (plus a piece of cake at a work mtg -- I had to! I swear!!)
> Lunch with co-workers (I haven't gone yet, but I'm planning on either a salad or veggie-intensive entree)
> Pecans and green tea (iced) as my snack
> Recovery shake after the workout
> Pasta with clams, zucchini, tomatoes, and avocado (I may switch the clams out for chicken, depending on when we get home...)

That is all for now. I shall keep you posted.