StephanieShine’s BodyBlog

I am completely settled into my course schedule now and back to the laziness of dorm life. I have upped my average calories by 300 or so, back where they were before the semester started and my weigh is also back to where it was. The 2 week average is 114.1 but some days were high, around 155.5. Looks like what ever was making me sick and fat at home is still around, or I am more sensitive to it. This is going to be tough and I have alot of figuring out and experimenting to do. I am pretty sure it is some toxin, not my calorie balance, that is making me fat and keeping on the pounds.
Lifting time has been limited so I am angry at that, I do squeeze in cardio workout in the afternoon. I really need to step it up in this area! I also have been forgetting my morning supplements and I haven’t been bringing my water bottle around with me. Before I focus on removing this toxin (dairy, wheat soy?) I have to get the basics down first!

For the first time in nearly 3 months I lost some fat. My two week average calorie intake was 1364. However for the first week it was around 1,700 and the second week was closer to 1,000. I  have been back at school for a week now and it has come with some changes. The first weekend there I hadn’t gone to the grocery store yet and the cafeterias had limited hours so I didn’t get in many calories. Once classes started I was too busy to eat every 4 hours. The second weekend was a holiday weekend and the cafeterias had even more restricted hours and I couldn’t get much at the grocery store because my paychecks hadn’t come in yet. For a few days after that I was sick and mostly slept all day and had no appetite. Then the days after that I partied at night and slept the rest of the day away. So at the end of it, the fat I lost will probably come back before the next weigh in because I lost it in an unhealthy way.

As of last entry, on august 10th I was still gaining weight at about .3 lbs per week of mostly fat. After 2 weeks I gained a little more and raised my body fat. I can now see on my body where the skin is stretching to accommodate this. I am far done with the middle school growth spurt and dont want the stretch marks that come with gaining weight this fast. I am pretty disheartened and mad about all of this. Mostly mad because I dont understand what is making my body so sensitive to most foods. By the next weigh in I will have been in my dorm for a week and potentially away from whatever toxin is sneaking in to my system. And believe it or not I plan on getting more sleep in college this year than what I am currently getting working these horrendous opening shifts.

Not much to say, still gaining fat. Almost a pound in the past 2 weeks. I even dropped my weekly average calories a bit. I can see how easy it is for people who are stuck in this lifestyle of working horrible shifts, having no time or energy for good health and nutrition. It is a downward spiral. Luckily for me I will be back in college in less than a month.  I hope I dont do too much more damage before then.

I am sure now that something either in my home or at work is wreaking havoc on my insides. At first I thought it was a food sensitivity. I eat the same foods I always have, but now they are coming from cheap, not organic sources. Perhaps I am ingesting some sort of toxin on a daily basis. It’s likely considered how many plastics and additives come with our foods and their packaging.

While reviewing my last two week weigh in results I optimistically said, "I learned my lesson - continue to feed myself only the freshest, natural and organic foods and stay hydrated and rested!" Well . . . Just because I learned it doesn’t mean I implimented it. And I clearly didnt, gaining a little under a half a pound. Totaling 4 lbs since I have been home in this unhealthy, hectic environment. My digestion issues are getting worse. I either wake up starving or I can’t eat breakfast at all. If I do I feel extremely tired. When I do eat my stomach feels very tight and painful, then suddenly about 30 minutes later I switch right back to starving. I have a feeling my food isn’t being digested/absorbed properly. No one should be physically hungry right after a meal.

I’ve stopped taking the Dialene because even though its caffiene and some capsasin extract, its still a stress to my body and I dont want to burn myself out. I need to take more days off and try to get more sleep and have less coffee.

Here ends another 2 week time period and it is time to weigh in. These past two weeks that I have been home, working full time and busy at the gym have left me always feeling fatigued, bloated and upset. The numbers on the scale cant be good… Although I stayed within an average of 100 calories from the last two weeks alot has changed for me physiolgoically and my metabolism, which I treated so good while at school, has been put to the back burner. To thank me, it has slowed enough for me to gain 1.2 lbs of fat, even with all the standing and moving around I do at work. I gained a bit of lean mass in the gym (and probably on the soles of my over-used feet lol.) I think the 1.4 lbs of lean mass I gained so quickly was a sort of re-bound from the catabolism that was likely happening while I was dieting and away from the gym.

I learned my lesson - continue to feed myself only the freshest, natural and organic foods and stay hydrated and rested! I can take care of this bloat easily with some planning and patience and hopefully the extra calories will be burned away between now and the next 2 week check in!

Back home from summer classes up north and that means back to working at Burger King =/ With my new metabolism I thought I could sneak in a couple of cheeseburgers during my break, especially now since I have a real gym membership. Nope - I’ve been home less than a week and I’ve already gained a pound of fat back. I have to do some serious adjusting with timing and preparing meals and workouts around my work shifts. When my first pay check comes I’ll go straight to the health food store to stock up on organic foods.

So far the bodyweight training is going steadily but what I am more most excited about is my metabolism! In the past two weeks since I have lived in this apartment and buying my own almost completely organic food I have been able to eat about 300 calories more daily. My fat mass hasn’t changed at all and my average lean mass has gone up by more than a pound! I will definetly keep this up!

The combination of the calories, macronutrient pairings at meals and meal timing has all helped me keep off the fat while raising my daily intake from 1,300-1,400 to 1,600 to 1,700 calories per day. I wonder how much longer I can keep upping my intake and fueling my burning metabolism before I can find my true maintenance level.

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.