Topspin's Journal

Well, that night snack didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped... those "vegan snacks" were chips and stuff... I had some pretzels and lemonade, probably more than I needed, but it was the healthiest available. (In retrospect, though, I probably should've just not eaten.) I also had a Special K bar and a little red bean jelly, but I don't think those are too bad.

Today was a tennis day, so no workout to report. I think that my cardiovascular system is already improving, because the conditioning today didn't feel as hard as it usually does (although my cardio gains probably aren't going to be reflected in fat loss, considering my diet). Not the best tennis today, but I still worked pretty hard.

Diet was definitely over-proportioned today, or at least my evening was. Breakfast was eggs and two slices of french toast with milk. Lunch was mixed vegetables and a chicken caesar salad (a bit heavy on the dressing, but not my fault - that's the way the caf served it) with water and a bit of milk. Pre-tennis snack was a few pretzels and another Special K bar. Then it got bad - dinner was a Chipotle burrito (I usually only eat half a bowl, but for some reason I just couldn't stop until like 3/4, and I wasn't even hungry) and another Special K bar. Of course, I've had lots of water all day, and right now I'm drinking a mug of aloe. (Yes, it can be a drink too.)

Peace :D I think the aloe's putting me in a better mood.
 
Today's workout has been a bunch of little failures that are, in my mind, okay.

Started off with lat pulldowns at 70lbs, which I did this weekend just fine. Today, however, after the 5th rep, 3rd set, I was really struggling so I set it back to 60lbs, which I still struggled with the finish the set. Then, when I went to bent-over rows, the 20lbs I did this weekend were too tough after the first set, probably because I already went all the way with lat pulldowns, so I scaled back to 15 lbs which were a little easy, but alright.

Lunges were fine, 20lbs in each hand, no problems. Abs - I still haven't figured out what sort of exercise I want to do. I tried some twists where you hold a plate, at 10 and then 25, but it didn't seem like it was very effective so I think I did something wrong. Next time I'll try something else; I remember back in freshman year I liked barbell oblique twists, so maybe I'll do that.

The elliptical that I usually like (the only one with a regular interval program) was taken, so I hopped on a random one. Man, it was hard! I definitely "rested" (with slow rest sections of jogging) way more than I thought I would, but at the same time it was mostly a muscular struggle, not a cardiovascular one. Hmmm...

All this brought up a question at the beginning of my workout. What should I do as my warmup? I can't help but think I'd be more effective if I did something, but jogging or something doesn't really activate the upper body, does it?

Diet today has been okay, but probably not good. I need to figure out some way to cut back a little, consistently. Breakfast was eggs and a english muffin with cheese and more eggs, and orange juice that tasted a little sweeter than it should've. Banana for mid-morning snack. Lunch was a chicken fajita, with lettuce, cheese, and a bit of sour cream, and some mixed veggies with water. After school, I had pretzels (more than I needed) and a Nature Valley bar. And that brings us to now... I'll make another post after dinner.
 
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Jogging uses your upper body quite a bit and will get the blood flowing throughout your body. You can also do a set or multiple sets of your lift at a lighter weight as a warm up.
 
Thanks, I'll just hop on the treadmill for a few minutes next time I'm working out, see how that works.

Dinner today was another turkey tom from Jimmy John's, although I'll admit that I also ate more pretzels and some beef jerky after dinner. Probably not the best choices. I have no idea how I'm going to eat tomorrow, though, because I lost my ID that I need to get into the cafe.
 
Good news and bad news. Unfortunately, I'll start with the bad news, because the good news doesn't make sense unless you know the bad news.

Obviously, I haven't posted in a few days. Suffice it to say that I completely fell off the horse and when I weighed myself yesterday morning, I was at 149.2, and then kept falling more or less all day Saturday. 149.2 lbs is actually closer to what I usually weigh, but that doesn't change the fact that it represents the culmination of a week's worth of poor dieting and mismanaging proportions. Not to mention that I skipped my workout yesterday, because I was exhausted from an all-day convention I went to. So when it comes to my "physique changes," I'm back to square one. Great.

I felt horrible after all this, of course, so I started off today a little better. I went to bed early last night and woke up at 2:30am to watch the men's singles Australian Open final live, which I accompanied with a bowl of Raisin Bran and a wedge of brie. After the match, I went to the gym and doubled my routine - doing yesterday's and today's workout, with a 40 minute run instead of 20min.

After a short 2.5 min jog on the treadmill, I did dumbbell bench with 20lbs for my first set. I wanted to move up to 25lbs, which worked for the second set, but had to revert to 20 for the third.

Then, I moved to lat pulldowns, which I did at 70, but I couldn't do the last rep of the last set - my left side was so much weaker that the bar wasn't anywhere near straight as I pulled and I just couldn't make it come all the way down. (I also got nice and sore after my pull day on Thursday, which I thought was a good sign.) Kept everything nice and easy on the bent over row, at 15lbs each side.

Lateral and forward raises, I managed to eke out 10lbs on each, because my gym at home doesn't have 8lb weights. Squats were easy enough at 95 lbs, but I didn't want to risk hurting myself by going up more in weight. Tried to do barbell oblique twists for abs, but I didn't feel like it was doing anything so just did 3x12 decline crunches.

The run was good. 40 minutes wasn't difficult, which means that my cardiovascular system has vastly improved in the past two weeks or so. I'm really proud of myself for that, even if I've effectively "undone" all the work, calorie-wise. I mean, the fact remains that I can go for longer. The interval program that I do on the elliptical switches every 2 min, so I do 2 min easy, low incline, and then 2min harder, higher incline. The last 30 seconds of the hard interval, I also sprint harder to get a bit more effort in there. Is there another, more effective way to do cardio?

(Sorry for the long post, but there's more...)

After the workout, I think I ate too much again, which is kind of depressing, but at least it wasn't the unhealthy trash that I stuffed my face with on Fri/Sat. The meal was a turkey panini from the gym, a "Pure Protein" bar, a wedge of brie, and a pine-nut-covered piece of marzipan. And water, of course.

I need to figure out a way to prevent myself from eating every time I get bored or depressed. Especially the latter. I mean, yesterday, I even stopped at Subway to pick up... no, not a healthy sub, but a pair of cookies and a Fanta. And I don't even like soda. But I was really bothered by something and felt really out-of-control, so... I don't know, it's complicated I guess. But anyone have any advice for me? I feel like I'm committed to this and I know I'll at least get stronger by working out, but there's definitely some self-sabotage going on.
 
Didn't eat a "real" lunch today... more like slowly snacked on things for a period of about two hours. Included a small bowl of Raisin Bran, marzipan, cheese, and crackers.

Dinner was sushi. Ate a lot, but it was good and hopefully that's okay. I don't know anymore.

I'm a little sore, but most noticeably, my left forearms is extremely sore, right where it connects to the elbow. I'm thinking I'm fine, but it's kind of annoying nonetheless.
 
Your cardio sounds fine. Your weight training needs to be formalized into a regimen, and planned out. Sounds like you're just going in there and winging it. That is a recipe for fail, at your level of training knowledge.

I think, miss spin, that what you need is more fundamentals. Take some time out and connect with yourself and what you really want. I mean, I don't really know what to tell you. I'm sitting here on this wicked high, and believe me, I know what really low feels like, but try to to give it to you... well, I think it's almost always lost in the translation. Especially when you're dealing with a text box - I don't know how you work, I can't possibly know the right things to say to you to effect the required paradigm shift.

But I can say this... the world is teeming with love and positivity. You were born of it, and are a part of it. Everything you think is bad, is not. It simply is. The world, as it is now, is the way it is meant to be. There can be no other interpretation. There are no could's or would's or should's, there is only the now. It is in the now that your future is decided.

And so, it follows, that the only recipe for success (happiness, getting what you want, whatever you want to call it) is control over this "now". Each time you are about to do something you know isn't enabling your pursuit of happiness, or contributing to it directly, ask yourself, "Is this what I really want?" (In your head would probably be a good idea, if anyone else is around. ;) ) Scream it, if you have to. Demand an answer. Ask hard enough and you'll almost always get the truth. Which is really what it comes down to. I think the Bard said it best with, "To thine own self be true." Be the someone that waits for you.

Light a fire inside! What has always worked for me is sitting down and really focusing on what's important, creating a solid, measurable behavioral goals. Then really driving home why it matters. It's great to talk about it, but it's something else entirely to be about it.

How bad do you want it? :D
 
I do actually have a training regimen, which is in the first post of this thread. I tried to organize it into push/pull days, though I don't know how good it is considering I only ever do 3-4 exercises a day. I deviated from it (obviously) when I skipped Saturday, and then tried to make up for it yesterday.

Thanks for your thoughtful words. They did actually help. Of course, we'll see if I can really stick to it, but I think I'll keep trying - even after falling off, I've got to always get back on, right?

As for what I want, I think that's harder. I started this journal saying that I want to be a better athlete - true; I'm a junior, so next tennis season is my last chance and I have to be able to beat one of my teammates and friends if I want the first singles spot (which I do). And of course, I'm affected by our societal desire for thinness or whatever. The exercising is easy, I've started to look forward to my workouts as "me time" and I like being active. Trouble is, I like eating too :(

What kind of behavioral goals are you talking about?
 
topspin said:
What kind of behavioral goals are you talking about?
Click to expand...

I mean that a good goal holds you accountable for your behavior, rather than your results. For example, rather than saying I will lose 4 lbs of fat in 1 month, say, I will do 45 mins of weight training 3 times a week and eat clean, tracking my calories and maintaining an average deficit of 500 calories. Results-oriented goal setting is demoralizing, because whatever metric you may use, it is usually out of your hands, and not really a metric anyway, as what you get out of it will be specific to the individual.

There's nothing wrong with enjoying food, but maybe aim to slowly clean up your diet? :)
 
All right, that sounds good. I can definitely make it a goal to make it to the gym 4x a week, which is what I'm doing (or trying to) now. Diet wise, I don't know - I've always felt a little out of control when it comes to diet, probably because I usually have a specific, uncontrollable range of choices (although I'll admit that I don't always make the best of it).

Anyway, about today - tennis was excellent. Fortunately or unfortunately, the drills (we always do just under an hour of drilling) was extremely heavy on running because we had fewer people than usual and we have to run up and touch the net after every little set. So basically I'd be running for maybe just over 10 min straight, including lots of bursts of energy and all the while trying to have some control and power in each of my shots, which is a lot harder than it sounds. My quads were absolutely burning through most of it. We did some jump rope - 1, 1, 1.5, and 4 minutes - and then finished off with match play as usual.

Diet has been okay, except the fact that I've eaten a total of four Special K bars today. Breakfast was eggs, french toast, a banana, and milk. Lunch - two beef caesar wraps, with more Ranch dressing than I would've liked, but oh well. Plus water. At about 2pm I had three Special K bars, then another one at about 4pm, before I left to tennis. After tennis, I had a Chipotle burrito (and I'd usually feel guilty about eating all of one, not to mention extremely stuffed, but I feel like I worked hard enough that my body needs it.)

Hopefully I won't break tonight and eat like 20 more bars, but I've been drinking water and feeling pretty good so I don't think I will.



Slightly off topic - I eat out a lot, mostly because my family's kind of busy when I'm at home so I usually go out and buy my own lunches and dinners. Any suggestions on good places to go? Recently I've been getting chicken caesar salads from Go Roma, and I usually grab Potbelly turkey sandwich, half a Chipotle bowl, or a soup and sandwich combo from Panera.
 
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I really can't decide if today was a good day or a bad day. You be the judge.

The workout was, for the first time, bland. I would have liked trying dumbbell bench at 25, but the fitness center at school only as 20 and 30. Next time, I'll try 3x8 at 30. With the lunges (20lb/hand), I tried to focus on having my weight on the forward foot as I went down, but I think I need to do a more quad-intensive leg exercise. The raises (10 lb) felt boring, probably because I spent next to nothing on my dumbbell bench. All the ellipticals were taken again, so I was stuck on the bike for a 20min steady-state instead of intervals.

Diet has been okay, but - as always, it seems - over-proportioned. Breakfast was eggs and two chocolate chip pancakes (I know, I probably should've just gone with cereal) with milk. Lunch was a sandwich - wheat bread, turkey, a bit of lettuce, tomato, and cheese, accompanied with water. Before my workout, I managed to stuff my face with two Special K bars. Unfortunately, after my workout, I was delayed to dinner by a meeting which also provided cookies, and I ended up eating fig newtons and imitation Oreos. Not good. When I did get to dinner, I had half a (ground) beef burrito, half a turkey wrap, and some corn and rice. Finished it off with an apple, which brings me to now. I feel stuffed, but I don't know... I need to find a way to stop myself from unconsciously, casually eating - whenever I have to make the decision, I choose correctly, but it sneaks up on me when I'm not paying attention.

Anyway. Question about restaurant food still stands.
 
Fell off the boat again. I think this is starting to get ridiculous. Tonight, it was half a bagel and some bread from Panera. I don't know if it's "that bad" but I know I'm not going to get anywhere if I keep this up. Again, it was something that I barely even realized until I was like halfway through - once a week, the RCs in one of the halls gets the leftover bread and stuff from Panera and everyone mobs them for it... I guess I just jumped on the bandwagon. I need to figure this out, make myself stop and think before everything.
 
Another day that isn't moving me forward.

Honestly, I don't think that there's really a point in recounting my diet for today, but I guess I'll try anyway. A bagel from Panera, four pieces of sushi, and a Special K bar were breakfast. More Special K for a morning snack. Lunch was a chicken and pear salad from Go Roma. Brie, a pure protein bar, and some chocolate later in the afternoon. Dinner of a subway sandwich, unfortunately followed by a cookie and later in the night, a bit of cake and a few Reese's Puffs.

Tennis wasn't the best today either. Slacked off a little too much, except maybe the last forty-five minutes.

I know that there isn't anything I can read that will motivate me to change, but I need to figure out something soon.
 
Again with the pointlessness of reiterating my diet. It sucks, and obviously all I need to do is crack down.

Breakfast was an omelet, which was fine, but it somehow resulted in me eating six Special K bars at about 9pm. So that's 560 calories right there, fantastic. Lunch was some beef stir fry and too much rice with an unnecessary scoop of ice cream. And then later (even though it's only 1:45 right now...) I had a chicken patty sandwich when I revisited (stupid) the cafe with friends. And two apples. My guess is that I've already had like 1500 calories or something ridiculous today.

I think a lot of the problem is hydration. During the day, I usually don't have water (if I carry a water bottle, I finish it in no time at all) so I feel extremely dehydrated, which results in me eating more. Because personally, I don't trust the water at school - it tastes really weird and last year in science class we proved that it had an unsafe copper content. Great.

Hopefully my workout later today will be good. Since the gym opens at 3:30 and I've got a meeting at 4:15, I'm going to just do the lifting before the meeting and then cardio after. I'll post again later.
 
Okay. I think that my problem has been that I'm "trying to get in shape." Not good enough. From now on, I'm "in training." I believe that I must take action now to be the best I can be, come fall. This weekend, I'll boil some eggs to have healthy egg-whites for snacks and I'll get some more fruit for the room as well.

My workout today felt sub-par. On the lat pulldown, I struggled with 70 lbs, dropped it to 60 for the 2nd set, and 50 for the third. Didn't challenge myself enough with 15lb rows. Lunges were normal (though boring). Squeezed in cardio, 10min on bikes and 10min on an elliptical. Forgot all about abs - but I'll see if I can do some with my roommate tonight.

Dinner wasn't too great either. The cafe only had oily meatloaf, burnt potatoes, hamburgers, and a pizza-like concoction on white bread.. I ended up trying the meatloaf and potatoes, only to discover that I really just couldn't eat them about halfway through. I had a bowl of Complete, and then a piece of pizza and an apple. Another apple later in the evening. I think I'll turn in early today, so I doubt I'll eat any more tonight. Besides, I'm in training now.
 
Thanks, Focus. What's the ketogenic diet?

Today, I'll admit that I still ate a lot, but I think I ate better. Breakfast was relatively small, consisting only of some eggs (real eggs, though! As opposed to the cube-shaped powdered egg stuff they usually give us) and a biscuit. Lunch was considerably larger as I ate with my mom; we had a bit of salmon, beef, chicken, mashed potatoes, shrimp, salad, and other greens. Small indulgence with a chocolate. Snacked on some yogurt and a bowl of Raisin Bran between meals. Dinner was a Lean Cuisine sandwich, a three finger-sized bananas, and an egg white (I was cooking them up for next week, and I cracked one open to make sure that it was done).

I'm feeling pretty good about it, I guess. Plus the fact that I changed my computer wallpaper to a picture of Marat Safin serving makes me want to go run or something every time I see it.
 
Tried a few new things today. After breakfast of a lean cuisine and a finger-banana, I headed to the gym to try doing 3x5 or something instead of 3x10 for my lifts.

Dumbbell bench was interesting. Started with 1x10, 20lbs out of habit, then did 2x5 30, 1x5, 25. Didn't really have a plan and still kind of want to figure things out. Raises, did 1x10 10, and then don't really remember but was working with 12.5 for a while. Squats, 1x10 95, 1x10 105, 1x5 135. Think I'll stick with 3x5 135 from now on.

Cardio, did 10min on the elliptical before deciding I needed to do a different kind of machine, because I always feel like I'm going to break it when I'm doing the hard part of my hard interval. So, I switched to 20 min on the bike, which was okay.

Afterwards, I had some muscle milk. Tastes kind of good, but kind of disgusting too. I think I'll stick to the turkey paninis.
 
Come on girl, take the guess work out of it. I used to really think I could just "wing it" with my diet. WRONG!!! You gotta know what you are taking in to know where you are for the day, what you can/should eat at night etc. If you will make the commitment for 1 week to use to track your food intake every day you will be amazed. You can identify trouble spots, foods that work really well for you etc. Commit to it for 1 week. Then, let us know what a difference it makes.

It sounds like your training is pretty consistent so I don't think that is a whole lot of your problem. It seems that it all boils down to your food intake. Fitday will help you. It's fun and rewarding to know that you've stayed within your limits. It's even more fun to be able to adjust your intake and incorporate your favorite foods without feeling guilty. It is said around here a lot but "Knowledge is power". The more you know, the more successful you'll be. Good luck and let us know how it goes. Greg
 
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