StephanieShine’s BodyBlog

Didn’t make it to the farmers market in time, I walked by when the last stands were closing up and they were all flowers and hand woven baskets. I stopped in the natural food store across the street and bought honey wheat organic/local english muffins. And what good would those be without Almond Butter! Later I went to the chain grocery store to get Eden organic kidney beans, chickpeas, frozen broccoli, frozen mixed veggies, cucumbers, organic ranch dressing and some oikos organic (local for me) greek yogurt.

Boy do I love my veggies! Walking to the store every day is about a mile each way and walking back with as many veggies I can carry is a nice calorie burn. Not that its a hard walk but the burned 100 or so calories allows me an extra piece of fruit or cheese.

I’ve been reading alot about bodyweight exercises and how you can use every day things out side to get in a good workout. Im not talking about just squats while holding your gallon of water. Really cool sites that explain this are bodyweightculture.com and beastskills.com. I am going to be doing a few things every day. If I arrange some sort of program that would be equivalent to a typical push/pull/legs bodybuilding split and I want to do some form of cardio every day, even if it is easy and only 30 minutes.

So far tonight I have done the last day of week two of the 100 push up challege and I did 5 sets of squats with 25 lbs worth of books stuffed in a suitcase and some abs. I will save back, arms and more abs for tomorow.

How did I let yesterday slip by?! I was so completely busy. Started the day with a powerbar and my regular math class. The four hours between my classes were packed with readings and sketching. I managed to load about 25 lbs worth of books and odds and ends from my room into a backpack and squat with it, but after 3 sets I was so sweaty. My room is too hot for this. I finished up with some sets of push-ups. Then a ridiculously long art class! Standing in the same position with one arm straight in front of me and one arm scribbling on an easel painstakingly slow for 3 hours was horrible! I am surprised at how tired it made me and I was in bed at least a full hour earlier than normal.

This morning I still pressed snoozed more than 3 times but was up before 8 am. I am running low on food here so I had haddock for breakfast with iced coffee with coffee flavored whey mixed in. My quads are surprisingly sore, perhaps because I didn’t do a warm-up before I started. Wait - when I do dumbbell squats in the gym I warm up with 40 lbs and yesterday I was only doing 25 lbs. That’s weird. I can’t have gotten that out of shape. I am going to stretch everything out tonight really good. Tomorrow I can get my gym membership and start doing real workouts. Also tomorrow is grocery day and chicken breast is only .99 per lb this week. (You know your addicted when you get excited about that lol) Looks like the rest of the week is going to be chicken and organic broccoli for lunch and dinner.

OMG I just checked my average salt intake for this week and the past two weeks (on fitday) and I am hitting 150% almost every day! Definitely no more canned soups. One can has 1,000 mg. That’s what I aim for in a day, not a meal. Other culprits include power bars, which I only have one left. Processed cheese slices, frozen Ians chicken nuggests, kettle chips and my salted nuts. These only have 200-300 mg but I have each of those things almost every day. Good thing they are all almost gone and I’ll go grocery shopping for real and take the time to buy whole foods. Unless of course there are yummy nutrition bars on sale! But honestly, I’ll keep a keen eye on this and see if I notice a bloat reduction.

Woke up ambitiously early today to go to the campus gym for the first time. I had a rather large breakfast but suddenly felt heavy and sleepy. I am not sure if I was looking for an excuse not to go to the gym at this point but I decided that I might not be able to afford the membership if my art materials are going to be expensive. I wouldn’t know how much they would be until later tonight so I decided not to risk it. I happily went back to sleep for another hour.

I had my environmental statistics class today. It was much less awkward and time went by quicker. I was surprisingly hungry by the time our lunch break came around and rushed to grab a cliff builders bar from the convenience store on campus. After class I met my friend who drove me to the store to buy **Coffee** and some aspirin.  The first drawing class was held today and only one other person showed up. There are supposed to be four students. This means that the course could possibly be cancelled =/ I would get my money back fully but I really need the credits. Not having this class would mess up the rest of my schedule. Yes I already have my complete college plan all laid out. I wouldn’t mind taking summer classes again, I quite like the relaxed atmosphere but it costs around three grand. $500 a week is certainly more than I would be paying if I took a community college course back home and only get 3 credits instead of the 4 credits that are given by on campus courses. I’ll know by tomorrow.

I took about a 30 minute walk at dusk and besides walking through a cluster of bugs several times it was very nice out. Good fresh air!

Woke up pretty early today. I doubt this will be a problem, I’ll snap out of vacation mode quickly. Had a power bar when I first woke up but then my tummy started rumbling during my 11 am class so I ate another. 90 carbs already today, good thing I have a heavy leg day planned! Low protein and my stomach is definitely rumbling already. I guess my metabolism rips through carbs when they aren’t eaten with fats or proteins. Good to know.

I am going to have a lot of free time here with only 2 classes and 3 day weekends. I will include Anatomy 2 work in there too. I am concerned that because I have so much time I’ll want to do a lot but then end up not doing it because there is always time later. Later never comes and time always goes.

Woke up early to pack and then drive up to New Hampshire for my summer classes. The dorm is really nice. I have my own bedroom and share a living room, kitchen and bathroom with 3 other girls. I went grocery shopping and tried to be as healthy as possible getting organic when I could and trying new things. Over 200 carbs today and less than 70 grams of protein. Hit over 1,500 calories for the day again. Gotta bring that back down, no more boredom eating. I really have to tune into my blood sugar levels, insulin, growth hormone and physical hunger instead of just eating because there is nothing else to do.

After being bruised and very stiff from move out day and carrying all my stuff down stairs and across parking lots, I had a strange idea. This morning I went into the basement with my scale in hand and lined up 3 empty totes. I filled one with dictionary’s and other books and magazines and it totaled 75 lbs. I filled the other 2 with random other junk I found in the basement, pieces and parts of old furniture, all the bottles of laundry detergents and softeners and even a small old tv. Those totes totaled 50 lbs and 30 lbs.

I did squats and deadlifts with the largest tote, although this was kind of awkward because of the shape/size of them. I did barbell rows with the 75 lb tote, then dropped to the 50 pounder after a few sets. All while doing sets of ab work and push ups as rest. Later I want to try chest and shoulder exercises with the lightest tote. I do sprints in my backyard pulling the totes although getting them all up the stairs out of the basement, and then down the back porch stairs without anything spilling out would be a workout in itself!

This was a free workout and saved me an $8 one day pass, plus gas, to the gym. When I come back home in the summer I will definetly get a month membership but with me only being home for less than two weeks it isn’t worth it.

Sunday 10

I can believe that deep in my glutes are actually sore just from a little bit of jumping around with less

than 5 lbs in my hands. If I do another round with the dvd it wont be until later tonight, if at all.

Monday 11

Went to lunch with my grandma and mom. Bought some Jojoba oil and got a book from the library but once I was home I took a nap. I woke up long enough to shower and have some chobani before my migraine took over and I went to bed.

Tuesday 12

Went to BJs with my grandma then took my brother to the potter league to look at the dogs. I let him drive my car a bit on some side roads too.

Wednesday 13

Let my brother drive again today then went to dinner with him and my Dad. Then we had a fire in the backyard. Read more than half of my book in bed too.

Thursday 14

Woke up ay 1! Showered and went to middletown to tan and to get a poster board for my brother.  Then my friend came over. Finished the rest of my book after she left.

Went to the grocery store to buy muscle milk, chobani greek yogurt and a raw food bar. Ate too many carbs between breakfast and lunch but I guess that’s when they should be taken in anyways. Did 25 minutes of my Jillian DVD and really felt it. Burnt a little less than 200 calories so that lessened the damage a bit so I wont feel as guilty if I go out to dinner tonight.

I cant believe I have fallen back to level one of my little ranking system I created for myself. Last time I checked I was at level four. I haven’t been down to level one since November! Basically there are 20 levels that I created and all have a balance of total weight, muscle mass, fat mass, body fat percentage but my mood and how I look in the mirror also play a part in the levels. I was really bored babysitting one napping toddler so I thought all this up as a way of measuring improvements without saying just, “Hey I am down 3 lbs!” Because I would sure hate it if I lost 3 lbs of muscle from not lifting regularly. Well I guess thats what happened and here we go again. I guess I come to round two with more information and the importance of keeping up with my weight training and getting all the food experimenting done with and found what I am happy with.

Woke up an hour earlier today and went right to Barnes and noble to get a Jillian Michaels DVD. Cheaper than a gym membership! Spent the day at my grandmothers so I didn’t get home in time to do it. My mom came home from work early and started watching her shows so I couldn’t use the DVD player. Today even with the marshmallow and oatmeal square treats I really needed to focus on eating more. I wasn’t hungry today at all, probably from the inactivity from the past few days. Tomorrow we are cleaning out the basement so that should be a lot of functional lifting. In the morning I am going to my job to tell them when I will be back to start work in June.

Woke up at 11 and chilled on the couch for an hour. I weighed in today 110.6, high fat and low muscle. But I felt like I looked great in my bathroom mirror. The behind is looking a little, um lower than usual because I’ve lost about 3 lbs of muscle from there but everything else looked fine. My legs are bruised from lifting the fridge and totes yesterday. Aha moment, I am 2 inches taller than I was 8 or 9 months ago and I looked it up and 2 inches equates to about 6 or 7 lbs more total weight. Bingo, I’ve gained almost exaclty that and still look the same as I did pre-college. Of course I did gain a few pounds of puffy fat that is a given when eating at the dinning commons but now I feel better knowing I can look the same at 5′5 and 22 lbs of fat as I did at 5′3 and 18 lbs of fat.

Baked a cookie, cake type thing with no flour. Eggs, Chobani, Tons of protein powder and some fiber. Haven’t had a piece yet but the nutrition calculates out to be a great snack. Had a great breakfast and a sort of indugle-ish lunch of fatty fries and chicken but fat is still at 30 grams. I am very confident in being able to eat high protein and low carbs, healthy natural foods now that I am free of the dining commons.