Breaking the Cycle: Katangerine's Journal

[katangerine]

Hello, everyone. I'm new here, but I thought this would be a good way to keep up with my workouts and my nutrition and to document my progress among people who know and care about fitness.

About me:
I'm a 22 year old graduate student. I've always been overweight, and I've struggled with losing weight and staying healthy. I played sports growing up and didn't think I ate poorly, but now that I know more about nutrition, I see where I erred. In September of last year, I made a conscious decision to get my health under control. My family has a history of medical problems; my own father has high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes. I know if I don't get healthy, that could be my medical chart one day. And y'know, it would be nice to feel comfortable in a two-piece swimsuit, I guess.

I've been working out since September with a personal trainer through my gym. In January, I started to be more careful about nutrition, and I've seen more results since. To give you an idea of my progress from September to May (I should have another assessment on Aug. 1):

Sept. 2012 --> May 2013
BF: 39% --> 32%
LM: 107.56 --> 121.72
FM: 68.64 --> 57.28

So things are definitely working, but I want to get to a healthy BF% and will be journaling to keep track of my progress and help keep me accountable!

Stats:
Height: 5'0"
Weight: 178lbs (give or take)
BF, LM, and FM given above. Will update in August.
Measurements -
Arms: 13.4"
Thighs: 23.5
Calves: 15.5
Chest: 40
Waist: 36
Hips: 42.9

Exercise:
I meet with my trainer every other week, and she provides me with a weight training routine that I do until I see her again. I've been doing my weight training 4 times a week with 15 minutes of sprint intervals on the treadmill afterwards to help with metabolism. I do cardio 2-3 times a week, and I generally rest one day.

Nutrition:
As I said, I've been trying to do better with this, but thanks to the nutrition forum here, I understand more about what I'm eating! I'm doing about 1600 cal diet (20% deficit), and I'm working on counting macros. This is all new to me.

Anyway, thanks for reading! I'm willing to take any kind of advice you all may have to offer.

TL;DR - I'm just trying to get healthy, and I'm pretty much a noob when it comes to all this stuff.

[poisonivvy]

From one newbie to another--welcome! I am also struggling with diet and nutrition, but tracking using MFP makes me accountable for what I shove in my pie-hole...well, fruit and oatmeal hole now! I hate having to log on my rest days and I make better choices just knowing I don't *really* want to log that yummy looking dark chocolate candy bar into the system.

[Samiam2007]

haha ^^^ I use MFP too and hate when I log in those Peanut Butter cups, but it does keep you accountable. Self-loathing is definitely a motivator.

[katangerine]

I've been looking into MFP. I have some calorie tracker on my phone, but it's not that great for macros. You're right, though. Just writing it all down has made me much more aware of what I eat. And I'm trying to keep all non-healthy foods out of the house.

As for macros, I read the main nutrition sticky, and this is the math I came up with for myself.

1600 calories (20% deficit)

175g protein
48g fat
117.5g carbs

I'm going to try this for a couple weeks and see if there's a difference and adjust accordingly.

Monday, July 22, 2012:

Exercise:

I did my routine provided by my trainer at the gym yesterday. Currently this is:

5 minute warm-up

2 minute plank
10 stability ball mountain climbers
Repeat 1X with 1 minute plank

Superset 1
10 Smith Machine squats - 50-60lbs
20 incline push-ups
Repeat 3X.

Superset 2
20 reverse lunges - 25 lbs added
10 modified renegade rows - 20 lbs added
Repeat 3X

I know a lot of people don't talk too much about cardio or home workouts, but I started Insanity yesterday also. Some friends had just finished their first round, and I thought it would be a good way to kind of push myself out of this plateau. And since it's mostly cardio, I don't think it'll interfere with my weight training. Yesterday, I just did the fit test with the following results:

Switch kicks - 96 (reps per minute)
Power jacks - 44
Power knees - 92
Power jumps - 25
Globe jumps - 8
Suicided jumps - 14
Push-up jacks - 17
Low plank obliques - 50

I was pretty proud of the numbers. We'll see how this goes, I guess.

Nutrition:

Total calories consumed: 1268
Macros: 138.17g protein; 37.5g fat; 94.1g carbs

I'm way under on calories and under on all macros. I'm thinking if I had had an afternoon snack (which I usually do) that would have solved this. We'll see today, I guess!

And now, I must go to work. Woohoo.

[katangerine]

Tuesday, July 24, 2013

Tuesdays are my busy days right now. I had to run some errands after work, and then my puppy and I go to dog training class in the evening. So food was a half cheat day. I had a good breakfast and mid-morning snack, but lunch and dinner were...eh. I did not lift today because it was so hectic. I did, however, manage to squeeze in my Day 2 Insanity workout, which was the Plyometric Cardio Circuit. Talk about cardio. Good grief. I've never felt sweat roll down my back like that.

Tomorrow I meet with my trainer for our biweekly meeting. I'm going to run this Insanity thing by her and see what she thinks. Nutrition should be back on track tomorrow.

Good night, all!