StephanieShine’s BodyBlog

This winter has had many ups and downs but overall it has been a good bulk. I am not at my highest muscle mass and highest fat mass. Yesterday ended my first week on a high protein diet with 300 less total calories than usual. I expected to see a .5 lb to a 1 lb fat loss. Instead I gained a full pound of muscle! I gained .1 fat but who cares, I haven’t had such a sucessful week like that even while I was bulking! I went from eating 120 grams of protein usually to 150 to 160 this week to prevent muscle loss while dieting. I guess a 30 gram a day increase was enough to actually build muscle!

I readjusted my maintenace calories and subtracted 300 calories from that, where as before I subtracted 300 calories from what I was consuming all winter. I only plan on going with this lower calorie, higher cardio plan for 28 days then go back to maintenance. So now I have only 3 weeks to lose 5 lbs of fat. Well actually 5 lbs plus the .1 gained this week that came as an ‘added bonus’ with my muscle gains.

Day 5 & 6

More From Sunday: Getting close to weigh in time!  Things may have to get desperate. I was really stressed while I was trying to fall asleep last night. I kept picturing myself doing a triple cardio session in one day. I slept in on purpose so I would have breakfast later than usual. Its now 1 pm and I would have had 3 meals already but I have only had 1. This means that I pushed back my gym time too. That’s ok though because its Sunday and its practically empty all day. Its 3 and Im still not hungry. Feeling a little empty but not actualy hunger pains. Starting to get a bit of a headache from not moving from my desk/computer, plus bad weather aggrivates it. When I start to feel real hunger I’ll have some hot tea and continue to do school work. If it hits again I may have a second cup. Can’t eat in the shower so that’s another 30 or so minutes I’ll have away from calories. Then I’ll slowly get dressed and slowly make my shake.

I just made my usual greek yogurt shake. Today I used 2 scoops of soy protein powder. The whole thing tasted awful. Its not that I don’t like vanilla. Its more of a texture thing. I guess no matter how its flavored or disguised I don’t like soy. I can just feel it. That makes me a little upset because I just spent 2 weeks of my food money on the container of soy protein and its brand new. I just threw out the shake, justifying it by saying that’s the cost of learning from your mistakes. Now my stomach feels heavy, full and dead even though I had very little of it. Still need to burn 1,294 calories today. But there was a deficit in my diet for the day, so now I only have to burn 897 calories by tonight.

Monday: Morning! Lets get this moving. I wanted to get on the scale this morning because I was very curious. After yesterdays under 1,000 calorie day, I wanted to see the effects but it is probably best that I don’t because I don’t know how stable they are. And I was pleased  with what I saw in the mirror. It looked like I was at 20 lbs of fat instead of almost 24. I skipped the gym this morning and had breakfast with a friend instead.

Burn 160 on the bike today and it took me more than a half hour. I could have burned twice that on the elliptical. All the damn ellipticals were full =/

I beat my own dumbbell squat record yesterday after noon! I took a sample on Orange Triad before training yesterday and I had a great workout, but some little things got in my way. I haven’t done deadlifts in a week and my grip strength is really weak so If I dont train my forearms specifically atleast once a week, I’ll literally drop the bar when I am deadlifting. Its like I have no control over my hands. My glutes and hams are fired up and ready to keep going but my grip says no! I could have done more reps, especially in my last set if it weren’t for this set back. My forearms are slightly sore today.

After deadlifting I did squats. I took off my gloves which was a bad idea becuase when I picked up the dumbbell little black peices of slimy rubbery (or paint?) came off the insideds of the plates and stuck to my hands, which were already sweaty. I could only do 3 or 4 reps before the dumbbell started to slip. So I would put it down, quickly wipe my hands on my pants and keep going. Somehow I was able to hold on long enough to do 10 reps and beat my record =] I am so sore today that it hurts and takes serious effort to lift a leg while sitting to cross my legs. Maybe I am on to something with the 3 reps, put the weight down, quickly pick it up, and then do 3 reps more. I probably did that 7 or 8 times.

I also did a single chest exercise as a part of my new legs, push, pull program. I could have done shoulders but I decided to save that for later today to do before my cardio.

Woke up, took a Pre-workout NO, worked out Legs and some Chest for 45 minutes burning 220 caloires. Then back in my room I took Optimum Vassive-C5 and then had some oatmeal. NO didn’t effect me much.

Ah! Way to many carbs. Over consumed calories by 647!

I didn’t make it to the gym the first few days back from break and for the past few days I have been enduring a cold. My fat mass is at it’s highest in my life now. While my muscle mass is too, this amount of fat is incredibly and deeply unacceptable to me. Especially since the days of "sunny and 60" are here. Windows are opening and so are the boxes of summer clothes. But I am embarassed. I can’t and won’t wear anything less than jeans and a belly hiding shirt. I blame this on college.

But it has inspired me to go deeper into my expiraments with raw and vegan foods. I am currently sprouting lentils and almond in little bowls in my dorm room. I got some Optimum vanilla soy protein (to my dismay contains dairy) and Optimum vassive-c5 post workout drink. My order came with alot of other supplement freebies that I can’t wait to try. I also have decided to cut back calories and add in cardio to me weekly routines. Im only doing this for 4 weeks, or as soon as I lose 5 lbs of intolerable fat. I know I sound harsh here, but it motivates me.

My cold looks like its on its recovery swing, atleast I hope that all this hot tea and sleep has done something. So if I am not feeling congested tomorow I’ll try weights and If I am congested but well rested in the morning I need to get on that elliptical!

Ate only fruit for breakfast to help with cleansing but then I took 2 Tylenol. Bad for my stomach but I was able to attend both of my classes. Need to burn 682 calories today and eat 1,300 or under. I wont drink or stay out late tonight so I can rest away my cold at last.

I’ve decided to start a new strength training program fresh tomorrow morning with new supplements and a proper breakfast. I need to workout in the mornings before thoughts and habits of the day consume my time and my head. I can still do cardio tonight and I will. I’ll power through it with one of my supplement drinks and with a magazine. I did 200 calories in 22 minutes on the elliptical tonight. I’m not out of shape but I could tell that I hadn’t done cardio in a month! So to set myself up for tomorrow I am going to do a weight workout at 10 am, go about my day and at some point complete a 200-300 calorie burning elliptical workout.

Nose completely clogged up. Didn’t workout again today either.

Plans: I decided not to weigh myself at all until the 7 days are up, so I will on the morning of day 8 and construct a new plan depending on those results. I will continue doing 7 day trials until I reach 18.7 lbs. This will probably take around 5 trials or 5 weeks.

Since I would rather not continue dieting down for more than 4 weeks, I will double my efforts on either the second, third or fourth week.

Day 1 - Wednesday the 25th

112.3 - 21.3% (88.6 Lean, 23.7 Fat)

I just want to lose one pound this week.

Head Cold. My Jaws and Ears hurt too. Skipped my gym workout this morning to sleep in a bit more. I will still have to stick to my eating plan and complete all of my exercises. I took some medicine but it was the last of it. I’d rather heal myself naturally. Hopefully this will go away as soon as possible.

Got a homeopathic remedy at the health food store and spent more than an hour outside today. Homeopathic tablets worked great for my throat. Nose still real runny. No workout today, and I over ate by 144 calories. That means tomorrow I will need to do the 200 cal workout from today, the regular 200 for tomorrow and an additional 144 for over eating.

As you may or may not know I am trying to go vegan and raw as much as I possibly can. Being at home this week I am having fun with my new found kitchen access. This week is sort of an experimental trial week before I go back to my dorm. So far, snacks and at least 2 of my 5 meals are raw each day. Me being home has created not 1, 2, 3 or but 4 special treats of going out with missed family and friends. I have been completely lax with the consumption of animals products during these special occasions. I’ve made some vegan cookies and tons of raw green smoothies my favorite ingredients being walnuts and pineapples.

For breakfast I had a packet of quaker oats. The ingredient label says "Natural and Artificial flavors (contains milk and soy ingredients)" So I dont know the amount of milk but Im assuming it isn’t measurable, so I am not beating myself up over this.

For lunch I made a shake with 2 scoops of whey protein (I am allowing myself to use whey although its from milk but when my current tub runs out I’ll be getting pea, rice or hemp protien) 1 ounce of raisins, a whole kiwi cut but with the skins and a cup of greek strained yogurt. This is the only dairy product that I refuse to omit. I have checked on the source of the milk for all major greek yogurt brands and 2 of the 3 brands sold at my store are made with organic milk. I blended up a delicious shake with 2 ice cubes and couldn’t finish it all in one sitting. I finished the rest a little later.

Tonight my father is taking me out to eat, I get to choose the place. I still need about 70 more grams of protien for the day and my fat intake is under 10 grams so far, so I should probably eat a bit more. My carbs are moderate for the day but I wouldn’t be upset if I had 40-50 grams more at dinner. It is a special occasion after all. I am going to the websites of some of the resturants around my town to see what they offer. I doubt it will be a 100% raw meal, the most I can aim for is for it to be 50% vegan.

I went to my favorite hometown gym around 10 am. Only trainers were in the weight room, talking to each other between clients. Most of them know me so they didn’t bother me. Mentally I always feel 100% with it when I work out in this gym because this is the gym that started it all and kept my mind off of everything that was happening outside of the gym walls. Even with all this mental power I physically wasn’t preforming my best. Each rep took all of my energy and my entire body wanted to be lazy on me and do half reps or use poor form. I resisted this because I know better and completed the work out. As soon as I was dont the lazy, drained feeling went away, which made me a little mad.

This is the same feeling I get at my college’s gym, but I always thought it was in my head because I still feel a little uncomfortable working out there at times. So if this sluggish feeling is around all of the time now, what does it mean? I only feel this way starting right after my first set and ending right after my last set. So it isn’t lack of nutrients or sleep or recovery or feeling sluggish in general. Maybe it has more to do with my central nervous system becuase muscle wise, I am still breaking personal records every 3 or 4 workouts. I try not to rely on supplements but maybe a pre or intra - workout drink is the answer?