Dictionary: the Only Place Where Success Comes Before Work- My Transformation Thread

[weetamclan]

Originally Posted by firemedicrr

I see today as a huge success. How awesome to be able to say no to food, no matter what. I said no to chocolate, no to pizza, no to candy, no to the Dr Pepper I really really want (the Dr Pepper is all I'm currently struggling with, lol).

Very impressive!

Dr Pepper... mmm... so good, yet so bad...

[Evaki]

hi!
Seems to me like you are doing great so far! I'm especially impressed with how you manage to get in your workouts on such a difficult schedule and how you constantly say no to unhealthy foods that are offered you or very close to you... and good on you for "getting back on the horse

Another benefit from fasting is that you learn to control your body, so it helps you to keep make good choices when you are not fasting, and apparantly fasting increases fat burning during the fast. According to a teleseminar with brad pilon it works kind of like this:

The body is good at storing fat because it needs the fat as a back up fuel for when it does not get food (think hunterers and gatherers.) So.. when you fast, after a certain amount of hours (don't remember how many) your body thinks, hey! I haven't received any new energy yet, I better use the energy I have stored up! And then it starts getting energy/fuel from your stored fatcells. you burn more and more fat until around 18 hours when this fatburning is at it's peak, and then it slows down a little again (I assume this is because then it worries it needs to save some in case it is too long until it gets more..) So even if your caloric deficit is not that great you will help your body burn off your excess fat! Doesn't that sound great? And I have to say, it does sound like it makes sense to me! So that's an extra motivation for me at least

I would advice you to read brad pilons blog, and there is also an ESE thread somewhere on the forum where brad has written quite a few posts and answered questions himself

also glad you liked the mango I love mango! But often they're too soft or too hard.. :-/ Have you tried any new fruits or veggies since?

aaand I totally get what you wrote about being trained to find faults/what's wrong and how that is transfered into how you look at your own fitness journal etc. When dancing all we did was look for faults, it's a pattern that's hard to break out of!

Hope you feel better from the cold soon!

[hal1]

The book just explains the logic behind the fasting...what benefits it has not just on fat loss but also other benefits to the body...a good read, but as someone else pointed out, Brad Pilon's ESE blog has a lot of that info in it, too. The book is an easy read, but reading it is not essential to "correctly" doing the fast. In the fat loss forum (or maybe the nutrition forum -- can't remember which) you can find many old threads on ESE that will probably answer a lot of questions.

[firemedicrr]

Hi guys,

Wayyy behind on the posts. So this is a recap of friday, day 16:

It was a crazy busy day for me at work! Woke up, ate breakfast (2 whole organic eggs, 1 cup broccoli); ran a call (didn't end up transporting the person so it didn't take too long). Got me back right in time for my 11:00 appointment with the personal trainer.

My session was great One of the first things she asked me was if I had lost weight. I told her I had, she asked how much; I told her I didn't know for sure because the gym here doesn't have a scale (how crazy?!) but I estimated around 10 lbs. (I lost 8 the first week give or take, and I don't want to overestimate because I know the first week is always the best week!). Went through TT Beginner B with her- -she loved the workout routine (however, when I got there, she did try to get me on the elliptical for warm up! To which I said, "Let me show you what I've been doing, targeting my warmup to my actual sets"). She improved my form some on my squats and step-ups, and she showed me some modifications to help with some of the problem areas I have, as well as a few to make some exercises a bit harder. This workout is pushup intensive, for those of you who don't remember- pushups in the warmup and then elevated pushups on each side for several sets. They were hard!! She commented to me toward the end of the workout that I've gotten way way stronger than I was last time she worked with me (before Thanksgiving). She also stated that I'm the only person she's worked with since after the holidays that looked better and was in better shape than before the holidays She was very interested in the fasting stuff I'd tried/read (leangains, ESE) and is going to loan me a book on eating for your blood type (something I'm very interested in as a medical person). So, it was a fantastic workout. She showed me a totally different interval routine (she said it was a japanese interval??) that totally killed me, but I loved it! So, here's a recap of the workout as it went:

weights are total weight, so 1/2 per dumbbell...

Warmup:
Prisoner Squat X10
Pushup X8
Stability Ball Leg Curl X8
(repeat X1)

Warmup Superset:
DB Chest Press 20X8
DB Step Up 20X8

Superset 1:
DB Chest Press 30X10
DB Step Up 30X10
(Repeat X1)

Superset 2:
Elevated Pushup 6/side
1 Leg Hip Extension 10/side
(repeat X1)

Superset 3:
Plank X30sec
Bird Dog X6/side

Intervals:
High Knees, drop to ground on chest, stand up, repeat- 20 sec on, 10 sec rest for 3 minute total
Burpees minus end jump- 20 sec on, 10 sec rest for 3 minute total
1 leg bench side dips (not sure how to describe this one, I can't find a technical name for it) 3 20 sec sets with 10 sec rest on right side, switch to left and repeat- total 3 minutes
Standing side crunches, 3 20 sec sets with 10 set rest on right, switch to left and repeat- total 3 minutes

this interval workout killed me, but I enjoyed it. I did a lot more than I thought I was capable of.

In the end, Andrea (trainer) was very complimentary to me, saying that she was impressed that I had a plan that I was sticking to so well, including my diet, and that she chouldn't believe that I was doing it by myself with no workout partner. I feel like I work out better that way- I go, I do my thing, I focus on the exercises and I push myself.

I got back to the station, took a quick shower, made my salad and right as I was about to eat we got a call. I took my salad with me because it was going to take us 20 minutes to get there. This was around 1:15pm. It was a really ill patient, so we didn't end up back in our building until about 5pm. Went right back out, I got back around 8pm to eat a quick dinner, then went right out again and didn't get back until midnight. Busy day! Let me tell you though, I slept like a rock.

So, all in all, an awesome day. Rather hectic, but I got in an awesome workout and ate all my planned meals I feel like it's finally becoming a pattern and I'm really starting to get it.

[firemedicrr]

So day 17 was Saturday...

Got home from work around 9:30am (I ended up working a 27 hour shift Friday into Saturday as they were short staffed at work; I'm looking forward to my overtime check, hehe). Picked up my dog from my mom's house, went home and ate breakfast (Eggs and broccoli again). Opted to take a nap (a long, 3 hour one, lol). Woke up, went to ride my horse, stopped at subway and got a salad before. It was big, so it was lunch and dinner for me. It was oven roasted chicken breast (I estimate around 4-5 oz). Lettuce, tomato, onion, green pepper, olive oil and vinegar dressing. It was 140 calories per the menu guide before dressing. Oil and vinegar dressing, around 2tbsp, I would estimate to be no more than 150 cal. It was an excellent salad though! Rode my horse, who was really good other than trying to find things to pretend to be scared of, lol.

Got home with my boyfriend, who was with me for the weekend. It was our 8 month dating anniversary but we were both beat so we opted to get a treat Sunday. He's been really supported after I talked to him last time he was down, and he suggested we research what we were going to get to get the most bang for my calorie buck. We did a little research and then watched Batman Begins. This ended the evening for us, and we headed to bed.


So, my 30 min of activity was riding my horse. I ate good meals, but I am sure I was well below my 1200 cal/day I've been targeting as my salad maybe only had around 300 cal. and my eggs and broccoli between 250-300.... but that's okay, I guess it's a bit of natural calorie cycling as tomorrow I will have our anniversary treat

[firemedicrr]

Sunday, Day 18

Woke up to my lovely boyfriend starting a pot of chili. He let me sleep in, how sweet. He told me he bought things that he thought were acceptable to my diet so that I could at least have a bowl of it (again, sweet). Black beans, lentils, garbanzo beans, red pepper, green pepper, chili beans, and boneless skinless organic chicken. Yummmmmmmmmo. I steamed some veggies and had lunch (3 oz ground beef, mixed veggies in a stir fry fasion). We went to the barn and I rode my horse- just some exercise to get her going but no intense workout for her today.

My right calf has been bothering me some since training the other day, I guess I tweaked it a bit. Nothing too horrible but it's worst when I stop moving for a while then attempt to go again.

Sunday is TT Workout A day this week, and my understanding boyfriend said he'd stay home and tend to his chili and play hearts while I was gone.

TT Workout A:
Prioner Squat X10
Pushup X8
SBLC X8
(repeat x 1)

Warmup superset:
DB squat 20lbsX8
Pushup X5

Superset 1
DB Squat 30lbsX10
Pushup X10
(repeat X1)

Superset 2
DB Row 20lbsX10/side
SBLC X12
(repeat X1)

Superset 3
Ab Curl up X10
Side Plank 15sec/side
(repeat X1)

For intervals, I did the bike
3 min 3/10
1 min 8/10 X 4 with 90 sec rest
4 min 3/10 cooldown

Weighed myself (talk about nervous!) so at this point, 2.5 weeks in, my total weight loss is.... (drumroll please) alllmost 12 pounds. I was 138 lbs on the nose! So that's down 11.7 lbs from starting weight (woooohoo!). I'm glad that in week 2 (since I weighed myself the first time a few days after week 1 was over) I lost 4 pounds. I think that's great weight loss for a second week, considering a lot of my initial weight loss was probably water weight. I'm not sure how many inches I've lost, but I know my pants are looser, especially in the hips (thank the Lord!)

Got home from riding the horse, did some odds and ends around the house, and the chili was ready. I only ate one bowl because I don't have beans on my diet plan yet- but it tasted amazing so when I do have them, I will definitely make this again! only about 13 dollars for all the ingredients, and one person could eat for a week off of one bowl I bet! I commended and kissed the chef, haha.

We went out for our 8 month treat- we decided to go to Applebees and get the triple chocolate meltdown to split. This is one of my favorite desserts, and total for the whole dessert is around 749 calories and 40 grams of sugar.... so split that and it was 375ish calories each, 20 g of sugar each. It was ahhhmazing. I have had no sugar this week except the negligible amt in my salad dressing (no fruit either, per DSP) so this was sooo heavenly. Ultimately I ate a little less than half. Even though this dessert is not big, I was unable to eat any more- it was so rich after nothing like it for 2 and a half weeks and no sugar for a week that I just couldn't finish it. My boyfriend was very impressed, considering I've eaten one of these on my own in the past. I think it was enough to ward off my sweets craving for a bit....

We went to walmart and got a few things; I didn't grocery shop as I plan to do that Tuesday- because of my fast, I got a bit longer out of my food this week, and I realized I overbought on some items (ground beef, turkey) so luckily some of my meats will last a bit longer, which will greatly improve my cost for grocery shopping this week.

Went home and watched the second batman movie (whatever it was called; I had never seen them but they were actually very good movies). Went to bed, as it was up bright and early for me for work....

So, all in all a wonderful weekend too. I resisted cravings at subway (dang Dr Pepper, I think I dream about it now, lol) and stuck to my meal plan all weekend (I consider the bowl of chili to be within dietary limitations). I didn't pig out on the dessert (great to know that I'm in control of portion sizes and can have a treat every once in a while!) and I fit my workouts in.

This week will be a good one. I hope to lose 3 pounds this week (being by the end of week 3, which starts on Wednesday). My other short term goal is to not overindulge on my birthday Wednesday, but my birthday only comes once a year, so I'm going to eat what I want to eat... I'm sure it won't be near as bad as it has been in the past, but if my family wants to go to dinner, then I'm going to get whatever my favorite is at that restraunt. There's no point in being skinny and fit if you don't indulge on occasion- the key is to not overindulge.

Okay, so Presently it is day 19, but I will write my update for today later in the day. I do plan on doing a mini-workout; perhaps just some bodyweight stuff and some planks.

Happy Monday Everbody

[firemedicrr]

Originally Posted by Evaki

hi!
Seems to me like you are doing great so far! I'm especially impressed with how you manage to get in your workouts on such a difficult schedule and how you constantly say no to unhealthy foods that are offered you or very close to you... and good on you for "getting back on the horse

Thanks for stopping by, and thank you for the kind words and support!

Originally Posted by Evaki

also glad you liked the mango I love mango! But often they're too soft or too hard.. :-/ Have you tried any new fruits or veggies since?

I hear you with the mango. I think the last day it was too soft. I haven't tried any new things this week, as I only had time to buy staples when I was at the store last. I also haven't had any fruit in my diet this week, so no room for experimentation there. I'm looking forward to adding fruit back very much.

Originally Posted by Evaki

aaand I totally get what you wrote about being trained to find faults/what's wrong and how that is transfered into how you look at your own fitness journal etc. When dancing all we did was look for faults, it's a pattern that's hard to break out of!

Hope you feel better from the cold soon!

It's funny how that works, isn't it? It's one thing I dislike about my job is that it teaches me to look for negatives, and I would much rather find positives. Ah well, so's the cost of helping people.

I'm feeling almost fully recovered from my cold as of today, thanks I hope you have a good week in your fat loss/fitness journey.

[firemedicrr]

Originally Posted by weetamclan

Very impressive!

Dr Pepper... mmm... so good, yet so bad...

Ugh, you have no idea. It's like my nemesis or something!

[weetamclan]

Oh it's just good news all round!

[hal1]

That is amazing on the weight loss! Woo-hoo!