It all sounds perfect! Yay!
I’m sorry it had to end before you were ready.
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Isn’t that the case with all vacations? It was so good for the mind though.
Monday 12/2
JN Essentials, W11D1
Leg Press (Narrow Stance, knees over toes, quad focus)
10 x 245, 10, 10, 10x 290
Slight Incline DB Press
4 x 55, 6 x 50, 10 x 45
Lat Pulldown
12, 12 x 100, 10 x 90
OH Machine tricep ext
3 x 15 x 40
SS
Machine Lat Raise
3 x 15 x 20
Preacher Curl
10, 10, 8 x 35
Seated Hip Abductor
3 x 15 x 60
10 minute treadmill walk, 5.0 incline, 3.2mph
Felt great all the way around. Last week’s vacation was also a handy deload, and I came back ready to hit it hard.
Legs were still a little tired, but did well on the press.
Added a rep on the pulldowns. Those are so hard for me, probably just mental.
Weigh-In
140.4, +0.2 from 11/18
Macros from last week. Mostly cooked, but some of this is a WAG with going out to eat.
This goal was to eat at maintenance, and not like an asshole. Just eat to fuel biking. I think I did pretty well. Maintained weight, only ate like and ass 1.5 times.
Once was sushi/Japanese. Ordered two rolls and two bento boxes after 4 hours of biking in the rain and cold. It was 1500 by then and I went into lunch way too hungry. Hubby didn’t like the sushi rolls, and I can’t leave food on the table. So I ate 14 pieces of sushi, teriyaki chicken, beef and a salad.
The other time we went into a chocolate shop and I got that Unicorn truffle above and a dark chocolate turtle. I always go to chocolate shops on trips, definitely a weakness.
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Tuesday 12/3
Running, Hill Intervals
5 minute jog
5x:
:45 @ 9:00/mi pace
1:15 Recovery
:15 Sprint
:45 Recovery
.8 mile easy jog, 2.1 miles total.
28 this morning. I snagged some Merino Wool base layers for the trip and they are now one of my favorite things to run in.
The 9/mi pace felt pretty easy, I think I need to increase that for this workout. Feeling good about the running progress.
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Wednesday 12/4
Easy run, 20 minutes
1.8 miles
Moving slow this morning. Still felt nice to run, but didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I have been.
Getting back on the low calories has been rough the last few days. I think my body got a taste of maintenance and it’s fighting back. Went to bed hungry, and my stomach was growling during the run. Here I thought exercise was supposed to suppress hunger.
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Thursday 12/5
JN Essentials, W11D2
Machine Squat (Pendulum style)
6, 6 x M+125, 10 x M+90
Machine Incline Press
10, 9, 9 x 60
Leg Ext
12, 10, 10 x 105
SS
Seated Ham Curl
12, 11, 10 x 90
Cable Row
11, 10 x 110, 10 x 105
Cable Bi Curl
3 x 12 x 60
Cable Tri Pushdown
3 x 12 x 70
Checking the boxes kind of day. I was feeling low on energy and nauseous hungry so I had a Nature Valley bar before this and made peace with the extra calories. It helped for a bit, but energy still tanked about halfway through.
Friday 12/6
Long, easy run, 3.75 miles
42 minutes
Edit, wanted to share this:
39BPM?! Low HR PR?
Cold morning, 26F. Freezing fog in patches, that was pretty.
Had to work from the HQ office today, which is about an hour drive. Alarm was set for 4:00, woke up naturally at 3:50. I have been very consistently waking up before my alarm on run days. As in, 9/10 times I wake up just before the alarm, wired and ready to go. My body and brain just get excited on those days I guess. Sure feels better than getting up and going right to work.
Just a touch over two weeks left on the cut. This week has me counting down. I’m ready to eat, but also want to finish strong. Ill be calling it at 11 weeks because hubby and I will be traveling for 12 days, Christmas through New Years.
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Monday 12/9
Weigh-In
139.8, -0.6
Woo, under 140! Not a full pound down, but hey, let’s just focus on the fact that the dang scale went down. I did go over on calories a few days though, so I really wasn’t expecting a pound. I was struggling with hunger last week. Hoping I can stick to it better, two more weeks.
I have a holiday feast with the in-laws planned this weekend. I just picked a random weekend since we’ll be out of town on the actual holidays. I am doing all the planning and cooking, so it’s 70% healthy, heavy on meats and vegetable sides.
Plan is to wake up early, start the brisket, go for my long run, have a protein shake, then fast until the feast. Also doing random sets of things with the home DBs and KB between cooking. Strategizing to make those extra calories work for me!
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You are CRUSHING this! I hope you can just bring more of the same! It’s so much fun to watch you make these changes and thrive.
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Thank you! I needed that encouragement. More and more days are feeling like calories are too low. Like today. Getting more symptoms like nausea, lightheadedness and heavy/weak feeling limbs. I wonder if part of this is food intake, or just getting used to a lower body fat percentage.
Pardon the instant monologue. I am chatty today!
Given the nausea and lightheadedness - I suspect low blood sugar. If you know someone with a monitor, check it. If it’s that, be careful, passing out is entirely within the realm of possibility.
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Interesting. I do not know anyone with a monitor. I do feel better after I eat a meal, but those symptoms have been increasing the last couple of weeks.
I might be calling an audiable and slowly increasing intake 100-200 calories on workout days. See if that helps. I am so close to my goal, but I guess it’s better to reach it slower and not rebound then be miserable and fall back into bad habits.
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Monday 12/9
JN Essentials, W12D1
Leg Press (Narrow Stance, knees over toes, quad focus)
10, 10 x 290, 10 x 315
Slight Incline DB Press
4, 6 x 50, 10 x 45
SS
Preacher Curl
10, 9, 8 x 35
Lat Pulldown
12, 12 x 100, 11 x 90
OH Machine tricep ext
3 x 15 x 50
SS
Machine Lat Raise
3 x 15 x 20
Cable Hip Abductor
3 x 15 x 30
Heavy gravity day.
DB bench dropped, I couldn’t even get the 55s up. Overall, just lack luster energy and umf.
Tuesday 12/10
Running, Intervals
5:00 easy jog w/ drills
8 x 1:00 @ 8:00/mi pace
1:00 Rest
5:00 easy jog/cool down
Went great, some of those intervals were closer to a 7:00/mi pace and I didn’t realize it until have way through the minute when checked my Garmin. I might just be getting faster.
I have been focusing on making the easy runs easy and hard runs hard. Before with endurance training, everything ended up being moderate, and I got aggressively below-average results because of it.
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Wednesday 12/11
Easy run, 1.5 miles, 16 minutes
Getting those easy miles in. Cold morning, 26F, I still have the chills.
Trying to determine if I want to wait until Sunday to do my long run for this week, or do it Friday and do speed work Sunday. Sunday is the early holiday feast with the in-laws. Strategizing for extra calories. Picking up the brisket tonight.
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Don’t start running to eat. Run to run faster, run to keep your metabolism chugging, run to increase fitness. Ideally run for the joy of it! But don’t run for food. Trouble comes from that.
So whatever schedule would normally suit you, that’s the one to do. It’s all the things you do over time, not what you do the day of.
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That hit hard, in a good way. I started running again for the shear enjoyment of the movement. I have been springing out of bed excited to run, even at 430.
I am creating an obligation to “use the calories” when it doesn’t need to be there. I was turning the run schedule this week into an extra food punishment. All should be is an amazing meal, shared with family.
I do not need to “earn” anything. Part of not eating like an arsehole and having a diet exit strategy, is not thinking of things like this. My food fixation got to me and I was so excited to overeat, but not going into that meal starved is a way better plan.
I needed to hear that. Hopefully that wasn’t too much self-reflection to throw back!
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No! Not at all, because I’m a similar sort of weirdo. And we both know others (hello @QuadQueen!) and we need to remind ourselves and each other. Your reflection reinforces me.
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Thursday 12/12
Home Session
Incline DB Press
12, 12, 9 x 37
3-Point Row
3 x 10 x 45
Goblet Squat
3 x 10 x 53
DB RDL
3 x 20 x 35
SS
Zottman Curls
12, 10, 9 x 20
DB Lunges
2 x 10 x 35s
SS
DB OH Tri Ext
2 x 12 x 20
DB Rear Delt Flye
3 x 12 x 12
Drop in motivation lately, called it and went home and re-created the planned workout as best I could with DBs.
I know there are cycles in life, and right now I am having low lifting give a craps. I’ll need to get my butt in gear come bulk time though.
For tonight, we’ll just say this is better than nothing.
Friday 12/13
Long run, 5.3 miles, 1:01
It was snowing this morning, so peaceful. The sidewalk was cushioned. It was awesome. I wanted closer to six miles, but I ran out of time to squeeze this in before work.
Getting to the point that long runs will be happening on weekends for time. Tomorrow is a bit of a cluster, possible important flight test for hubby, depending on weather. That will take up the day of it happens. It’s already been rescheduled twice, third try is a charm?
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Monday 12/16
Weight: 139.2, -0.6
Even after my holiday feast yesterday. Fantastic.
Between cooking, something done every 10 minutes or so:
5 x 50KBS
4 x 20 Goblet Squats
3 x 10 x 12 Lateral Raises
3 x 10 x 21 Bicep curls
2 x 10 x 21 DB skullcrusher
Holiday adjacent feast was a success. Had apps/lunch then the in-laws helped with the rest of the prep.
Called and audible and smoked two Tri-tips instead of brisket. Hubby and I couldn’t find a small enough brisket for the Ninja, and we frankly weren’t interested in a super fatty cut of meat.
Tri-tip, smoked turkey legs, all the sides amazing. I had one plate, load up with veggies first (I had 4 different veg sides @QuadQueen), meat and went light on the scalloped potatoes and mashed sweet potatoes. Plus one slice of homemade French silk pie, with a hazelnut, Oreo cookie crust.
Walked away just shy of uncomfortably full. Still wasn’t hungry this morning, even cooking pancakes for hubby they didn’t sound good. So I had a protein shake, we’ll see how long my appetite is gone.
Oh, and I set the fire alarm off reverse searing one of the tri-tips. The whole apartment building’s fire alarm. The fire department had to come to shut it off. Is it even a holiday feast if the fire alarm doesn’t go off?
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I absolutely experience this training during fat loss phases. The ennui hits hard. When you’re not actually “building” anything with the training, it’s hard to get motivated for it. Whereas lifting in a gaining phase is awesome, because you can see and feel the results with each session.
Congrats on the continued victories with the scale AND the feast. I also very much approve the tri-tip, being a California native. It’s our gift to the BBQ world. And that experience of no appetite in the morning post feast is pretty awesome: realizing you don’t HAVE to eat, just because it’s “breakfast time”
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That makes a lot of of sense. I have kept the goal the goal and made amazing progress with the scale. Now, I am ready to get back any muscle I may have lost and pack on more. Also have energy, that sounds steamy.
My taste-buds thank you.
It was so weird. I almost made myself pancakes too, and then I stopped and told myself. “You aren’t hungry, just got with a PSMF until you are. Just because it’s morning, AND hubby is eating, doesn’t mean you have to.”
Then I made a compromise, made a “protein pudding” and ate it with him. It was quite freeing.
Baby steps- my goal for next year is to get off tracking and delete my calorie apps - without going back to old habits or portions of course. As someone that does not track, I’m sure you get it.
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