So, it's been a while. It's not that I haven't been exercising, or watching what I eat, I've just been... non-bloggy. And my activities have been pretty much mediocre, at best. And, since this is kind of a pain in the buttocks, I've decided to nix the blog-every-workout thing and just do general updates. Mmmkay?
I did kick my weight-lifting up a notch. That happened on/around August 6th.
My cardio has been almost non-existent. My diet has been like, really awesome except for every afternoon at 3 pm, and except for 3 dinners per week and except for 2 lunches per week... Totally unsatisfactory.
Also, I fell off the wagon and started stepping on the scale. Unsurprisingly, my weight hasn't budged, aside from the normal ups and downs. Neither has my BMI, or my bone density, or my body fat percentage. Why do I do this to myself? Admittedly, this supports my point about not getting on the scale. I can see the definition in my muscles. I can lift more, and I can tell that my arms are bigger and my legs are bigger. So how can my scale say I'm the same weight and the same BMI? It must be lying. I'll get a kid or DH to take a picture when we go to the water park next weekend. I swear there's change. Just, not nearly as much as I had dreamed of.
I talked to my trainer about stuff. We'll get together this week, I think. He's super-busy. So am I.
We talked diet. I thought he had some low-carb plan, or something, but it turns out, it's mostly common sense stuff: you need carbs, but not too many; calories aren't bad, you need those, too, but watch the calories from fat; the more processed something is, the worse it is; you need extra protein, because you're building muscle, but eat lean meats; salmon is good for women, as it has more estrogen and it's a lean meat full of the good-for-you fats; sausage is never good; if you have to eat bread, go for whole-grain; white bread is always evil; a surprising number of foods have been fried (that's bad), and have extra sugars added (also bad); enjoy dessert by looking at the pretty pictures on the menu; but there's no need to go all crazy-vegan-paleo. And he wants me to keep a food-log for a week.
We also talked exercise. The weight training and cardio ups your metabolism better than cardio alone. It's been researched and proven - you build the muscles and they help with your metabolism. But you have to keep the metabolism up... which means doing something almost every day. This three-days-a-week thing isn't going to help me that much. My trainer recommends 5. So I need to figure out at least two low-sweat workouts I can cram into my lunch hour. And get serious about this.
Oh, and if you're an athlete thinking of doing double-red-cell blood donation, don't. My routine has taken such a hit. I'm tired all the time, and even two weeks later, I'm only just now getting close to where I was before the donation. I noticed it on the stairs. On Tuesday, I got up all six flights just fine - I was a little out of breath at the top, but that was normal for me. On Wednesday, I was totally gassed and had to stop and rest on the 4th floor landing, and again on the 5th floor landing, and got to my desk panting. Maybe I'll do this again in the summer, since there's a crisis every year at that time, and I'm O-, but certainly not every donation cycle. This is nuts. I saw a blog from a marathoner who views it differently: he's O+ and knows the blood is needed, so is more willing to take the hit on his training, but even he said it'd likely be a few weeks. I'm seeing a lot of pro-donation sites saying that studies have shown no additional side-effects, but all the athlete blogs are saying that the fatigue can be brutal for a week or two.
New weight-training plan looks like this:
Dead Lifts
15 reps @ 40lbs - 10 reps @ 50lbs - 8 reps @ 60lbs
Bent-over Rows (using dumb-bells)
15 reps @ 15lbs - 10 reps at 20 lbs - 8 reps @ 25lbs
Goblet Squats (using one dumb-bell)
15 reps @ 25lbs - 10 reps @ 30lbs - 8 reps @ 35lbs
Medicine Ball Slams (5-kg medicine ball)
12 reps - 12 reps - 12 reps
Straight-leg Dead Lift
15 reps @ 40lbs - 10 reps @ 50lbs - 8 reps @ 60lbs
And then some cardio. At least 20 minutes of good work. I still need ab work. My trainer indicated last we talked that he thought he had given me a core work-out. I think I'll be getting that from him this week.
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