StephanieShine’s BodyBlog

I was only a few days away from completing my next round of weigh ins, that I normally do every two weeks and compare it to my average activity levels, mood and intake from those weeks. However now I have found Regitracker (search the forums here) which is made by the same guy that programs the Metabolism Forecaster (again, look it up on this site) I love both programs and instead of figuring out my progress in 2 week intervals, I will just enter my daily information here and watch the slow trends over any period of weeks or months. Hopefully this information will be specific enough for me to tweak, but not so specific that I lose sight of the big goal.

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.

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 with the guy. Went to my dorm and was sad/upset to pack and go home. Took my anatomy exam and suddenly felt great. Met up with the guy a last time and then proceeded to lug every part of my life out of my dorm and into my dads van. What a work out that was! Throwing around my mini-fridge and brim-filled totes up and down two flights of stairs countless times. My back, legs and biceps are going to be screaming tomorrow! I didn’t realize that I didn’t eat until 1 pm and I wasn’t even actually hungry. Got home and unpacked and set up my room then kind of just chilled out for the rest of the night. The moving around and car ride got me real tired so I went to be pretty early. Bruises are already starting to show up on my legs from carrying the crates.

Today I was excited to jump out of bed and have breakfast. After my class I went on the elliptical for a whole hour! I’ve never done that before and burned 480 calories. I used a different performance program which held a steady resistance 7 and built up to incline 16 of 20! I had never gone above 10 before today. I felt great after and I still do 5 hours later.

For this week I am giving up on goal pounds and micro managing fats, carbs and protein. I just want to maintain the habit of eating no direct carbs and mostly animal proteins. Of course now that it is warmer I naturally feel more active and have been walking around a lot more. During these last days of classes and finals week I still want to have time to sleep and rise early to lift some weights!

I spent the rest of my day cutting, gluing and painting. I had a healthy breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner today so I feel very well fueled for leg day tomorrow, but I feel light and fit too. I have also cleared a lot of stuff out of my room today in preperation for moving twice in 2 weeks! Got rid of some generations old, unworn clothes and some empty boxes and random papers from the beginning of the semester.

The Good
Have Fruit & Veggies Every Day - Mixed Fruit and a Cucumber Bean Salad
Lift 4 Times This Week Minimum - Shoulders & Cardio Today
Don’t Spend Any Money - Bought 2 Odwalla Bars and a Naked Blueberry Drink with Meal points - So that doesn’t count as money
Try A New Food Daily - Banana Protein
Study Anatomy A Solid Hour Daily - Yay! Accomplished =] Even recited some muscles while working out

The Not So Good
Write At Least 4 Articles - None today but I got alot of views on my articles
Remember Supplements - Even with them sorted out and sitting
Wake Up & Go To Sleep At The Same Time -  Couldn’t sleep til 2 am last night and woke up at 11. Not sure how things will go tonight. Its 11 pm and Im not even drowsy =/
De-Clutter 1 Clothing Drawer - Not today

Goals For 4.12 to 4.18

Have Fruit & Veggies Every Day
Lift 4 Times This Week Minimum
Don’t Spend Any Money
Write At Least 4 Articles
Remember Supplements
Try A New Food Daily
Wake Up & Go To Sleep At The Same Time
Study Anatomy A Solid Hour Daily
De-Clutter 1 Clothing Drawer

This morning woke up feeling well rested and optimistic. I bought Vitamin Water Rescue Green Tea for $1.49 and sipped that while doing some urgent morning things at the registrar office and the library. Then I sat down for a proper breakfast of plain Chobani greek yogurt with a scoop of whey protein mixed in. I bought the greek yogurt yesterday for $1.39

For a free lunch in the dining commons, I had a cucumber salad overloaded with chickpeas and kidney beans with sunflower seeds and probably too much Light Ranch. I topped it off with 2 pieces of my grandma’s fudge as a treat. Instead of a traditional dinner, I snacked my way through 5 pm. I had a serving of Sara Lee Chicken Breast. Tasted great, not too watery, not too salty. I paid $3.49 for a half pound, so a little expensive. I was upset that Shaw’s has Wild Harvest Turkey at the deli, but not chicken. My consience got the best of me and I went searching for both the Wild Harvest and Sara Lee poultry suppliers and found nothing. If I am going to be eating expensive chicken then it better well have had a great life!

As I got hungry throughout the night I snacked on an Atkins bar, which tasted incredibly processed. I also had some fair trade, organic white tea. I usually like green tea, but this one was good. I will probably have another cup later. To end my dinner grazing I had an ounce of roasted peanuts. I’d rather have them raw, and roasted was all I had in the dorm. Only got to about half my protein intake so far. I need to pay more attention to having protien with each meal - Atleast 25 grams! Carbs are a little higher than I would like and fat is low-moderate. That single Atkins bar had 10 grams! Good thing that was the last one.

Non-Nutrition Related: I recycled the vitamin water bottle and the peanuts were bought in bulk. Unfortunately the Chobani containers aren’t recyclable and dont have a lid so they are harder to reuse. The Atkins bar came individually wrapped, but I recycled the box and the pamphlet that came with it. I couldn’t find out where my chicken dinner came from. I should have looked into the source and price before buying it. And not that $1.49 is alot, I could have spent exaclty that on some more high-protein chobani! The tea bags that I bought end up being only .16 cents per bag and I often use the bags twice.

Day 1 - Wednesday Super hectic day with scheduling. Didn’t make it to the gym, this is becoming embarrassing and intolerable. I was able to call my Dad for his birthday and pick up a few greek yogurts at the grocery store.

Day 2 - Thursday Migraine. Only got up to puke and potty. Felt stable enough at night to shower.

Day 3 - Friday Can only eat 754 calories today, and I must get in all my protein or more! I need to lift today, I have been neglecting my poor muscles. I need to burn the 350 left over plus todays 300. Woke up feeling very rested and very optimistic. Bought a Vitamin Water Green Tea for breakfast, sipping it slowly because the sugar is hurting my stomach slightly. Have to go to the Registrars and print Anatomy notes at the library then I’ll make a real high protein breakfast and study for my quiz. Stomach was flat this morning. Walked to the tanning salon and the complete other direction to Shaws so I got plenty of fresh air in today. I don’t feel as bad about skipping weights and cardio today. But I am gearing myself up for a great breakfast, strength workout and fun meals all day.   Vegan Play - I want to try more Chickpeas and Kidney Beans in recipes and for fruits pineapple, berries and kiwis. I want to try a new dish from the Vegan valley once a week.

I didn’t train at all this week. Strange how the body and mind work, last week I was enthusiastic and pumped out 10 hours in the gym. This week was less than 1. Earlier today I was thinking about my reasons for not working out each morning this week. Instead of focusing on that I made a mental list of what went wrong and the exact steps I can take next week to fix it.

Reason 1 - Snow Day - Suck it up, bundle up and walk to the gym! Another big snow day like that one is unlikely because the seasons are starting to change.

Reason 2 - Sick Day - Need to focus on prevention of this more! While I am trying to ween off of my nightly preventative migrane medicine, I still need to keep track of how many I take per week. Getting better sleep, balanced training, remembering my fish oil and upping the fruits and veggies while reducing preservatives, dyes and chemicals will help with this and everything.

Reason 3 - Too Tired - Alarm went off at the usual 7 am. Didn’t get out of bed until 9 am. Need to start my nightly routine around 10 instead of the usual 11:30 pm.

Reason 4 - A Project was Due - Stick to my academic plan so I am not cramming hours before the class. Stop wasting time online and go to the library more for better focus.

Reason 5 - Waiting! - My roommate never wakes up before 11 and often willingly skips her classes. I should not plan my breakfast, training and post-workout meal around her time - We can enjoy time together when we both are free, but in the mornings I have more important things to do!

Starting tomorow I’ll be back in full swing. I am using today as a super catch up day and not going out again tonight. I need to catch up on everything training wise and I have alot of exams, practicals, quizzes, papers and presentations all due before spring break next friday. I’ve already made arangement for that week to be not only a catch-up week, but a get ahead week. I am not going on vacation or anything so I bought a week pass at my favorite home town gym and I am going to bring most of my textbooks home with me to brush up on old, relevant material and then get ahead so the rest of my semester can be a breeze.

I am excited to go training now. I had a big salad, almond butter and a Slimquick energy shot and I wrote this blog as my stomach settled. Now I am antsy to go to the gym. For once I am not sure what I am going to do. I usually have a specific plan to prevent over/under/unbalance training but since I have accidentally taken the week off my entire body is rested and ready for anything!