MariahSnow

Week 5 What were my goals again? Eat Moar? I'm not tracking so my macros are probably off. But I haven't really noticed much in terms of body change (i.e. my clothes still fit the same, scale is roughly the same). So fuck it, for now. I do notice that somehow when I make an effort to eat more, I'm hungrier... Sleep Moar? I slept a lot this weekend which is good, not getting a lot of sleep during the week though but I'm working on that. Part of it is that I'll go up to sleep around 9, takes me maybe 15 minutes to do my bedtime stuff (Wash face, brush teef, etc), then I'm in bed reading for a little while and right when I'm settling in, my fiance comes upstairs and he's moving around, brushing his teefs, getting settled in bed. So now I'm wide awake again, and of course he wants to like, talk to me and stuff. Strongcurves? I moved this back to 3x a week and that seems to be pretty sustainable. I also switched up two things: 1. I got some new shoes. I've been wearing some old new balance shoes for like... 2 years. I bought some minimus-style new balance. I really like them so far, lots of midfoot room for my flintstone feet. 2. I'm trying out a new gym and I'm on the wait list for a membership. It's about $30 more a month than my current big-box gym BUT it has things that I can't get at my current gym like - kettlebells, bands of all sizes and strengths, tires (!!), big plates that are small weight. This morning I was doing american deadlifts for the first time. I'd previously been doing romanian deadlifts. And I used a 45-lb bar, plus 10lb plates that were the same size as 45lbs plates so the bar was high enough off the ground for deadlifts. I'd previously been doing some kind of modified rack pull. Yay!! Here's to finishing out this challenge on a high note! Edit: I also deadlifted to "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye this morning. Very nice.

Week 4? I fail at all things. I went pretty hard off the wagon but I'm kind of indulging in that. I just got really tired and felt like the world was spinning and I kept rushing to catch up. I kept sleeping in on Fridays and missing my workouts, pushing them to Saturday which means I had less rest on days I'd set aside for rest. Anyway, here's my plan for tonight: Plan out my workouts. I need to change up my routine anyway. Download some new music. Use my workouts as a de-stressor and focus on that benefit of it. I am getting stronger, but it's not helpful right now to put all this effort into strength when my stress levels are really high.

Week 3 Eat Moar: I'm failing so hard at tracking this. I'm not necessarily failing at eating more - my weight is stabilized for the most part which is fine. I'm just not in the mood to track it. So meh, I'm still increasing on my lifts during my workouts and not feeling weak or drained. I'm just going to roll with it. Sleep moar: Much better at sleeping this week. I had two nights with 8+ hours of sleep. Average was 7:44 for the week. Strongcurves: Still rocking 4x a week unless something comes up. About to move up to 90lbs on the romanian deadlift which will be nice to move up to big plates. Makeup: Routine is down to a science, doesn't take long at all, forget I even have it on. Winning.

I can't do that. I put off reading so many books in order to keep reading this series even when I really didn't want to (i.e. Winter's Heart).

Were you an emotional mess? I was. Also, I forgot about New Spring so I started it yesterday and now I'm like, "... but sad things happen to you later and you don't even know yet". Jeez, I gotta get my life together.

I just finished A Memory of Light yesterday. I liked Androl but I can see how he seems random and rushed. I wish there was more with the Black Tower earlier in the books because we see it when Rand is in Caemlyn but once he's off doing other things, we lose touch with what's going on there except maybe in a Prologue here and there. I read a criticism on Goodreads about how the Robert Jordan books are so slow in comparison to the Brandon Sanderson books. I thought at first that that was the result of the climax in a story, but even the books before A Memory of Light were jam-packed with action in almost every chapter. The Robert Jordan books felt very slow and very tedious.

House of Leaves was great, strange, and definitely kind of a chore to get through. But worth it, especially if you like weird stuff. Jitterbug Perfume? Have you read any other Tom Robbins? If not, I'd say start with Another Roadside Attraction or Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. I just finished A Memory of Light, the last book in The Wheel of Time series. I'm currently reading New Spring which is the prequel to that series but it's short. Next up? Probably Gone Girl since it's been sitting on my shelf since Christmas.

Week 2 More food - I don't even remember what I did for food last week, I think I ate turkey sandwiches and cheddar bunnies. Meh. It's been kind of a mess on that front lately and I need to make a serious effort to get back on track. Good thing I've got my lunches for this entire week planned out! I haven't been tracking and that needs to change. More sleep - Average sleep was 7:33. This weekend was a rollercoaster of less than 6 hours, more than 9 hours, etc. I need to get back to a normal schedule. StrongCurves - So I skipped last Thursday because I was still brutally sore from my negatives on Tuesday and planned to work out on Friday. Well work Thursday was a cluster and my boss is just a really stressful person sometimes. I thought I was going to be working the entire weekend and then found out I wasn't at like 4:30 on Thursday. That residual stress carried over to Friday morning where I laid in bed like "fuck this" and didn't go to the gym. Then I was snooping around on Instagram on Friday and got so inspired and motivated by Ronda Rousey that I busted my butt in the gym on Saturday. Makeup - Due to all the stress, I've been feeling like I'm running kinda ragged and this makes me want to save time by not putting on makeup. False, I must prevail in the face of stress, not bend to it! Side Note: I just finished The Wheel of Time series and I'm a little bit distraught and lost now. I've been reading these books since December! I'm also kind of feeling like the Dragon Reborn himself now that I don't have this looming pre-determined quest ahead of me (i.e. his fight with the Dark One and my completion of this series). Well shucks, now what?

Holy DOMS. I did 3 sets of 3 negative chinups Tuesday morning and now I feel like this kid: I'd been doing lat pulldowns and got up to 80 lbs so I figured maybe it would be good to start on negatives. Ouch.

So for years I've been makeup free. Almost never wear makeup except for special occasions. However, lately I've been feeling like... you know what, I'm almost 30 and I still wear jeans and a t-shirt to work (which is ok with my employers) but I feel like a kid. Somehow I feel like makeup makes me more of an adult if that makes any sense at all. Right now I'm not doing anything complicated - primer (oily skin, boo), tinted moisturizer, under-eye concealer, blush, and mascara. I'm definitely not one of those girls that whitewashes their face with foundation. I just like to look like myself with a little bit of glow. Anyway, on the weekends and if I'm not going to work, I'm makeup free all the way. And I definitely recommend makeup free for anyone with skin problems. I also recommend trying stuff out - some brands you'll hate, some you'll love. There's a girl at work who wears a ton of makeup and has acne-prone skin and I just feel like it is making her skin worse AND it doesn't look good to me because she's doing full foundation, contouring, heavy dark eye make-up, etc. Makeup is meant to highlight your natural beauty, not cover every imperfection.

Basically yes, but I find it really hard to eat things that are pure carbs. Even a banana has some fat content I believe, so it's hard to increase carb intake without bumping up protein and fat a little. I tend to look at macros in terms of real food, so for example if I ate 4 oz of chicken breast, 1 cup of broccoli, and 1 cup of brown rice on my cut, then I'd want to eat something like 4 oz chicken, 2 cups broccoli, 2 cups rice on a bulk. But the rice isn't just carbs alone, so I'll end up eating more protein in that meal than I would on my cut. This might be marginal, but it could add up to 10-20 extra grams of protein a day.

So I didn't realize the Laura Mercier comes in an oil-free type as well. I just grabbed whatever was in the travel size. It's not too oily and I like the coverage so far, but I'm sure the oil-free version would be even better. So I lost about 10 lbs in my last challenge. I was hovering right around 170ish and now I'm around 160. Transitioning from cutting to bulking was hard but I'm trying to go with my natural flow. I was really strict with my cutting and that felt really good because I could see my goals and my progress through the scale and progress pics. Bulking isn't quite so clear, and honestly I'm probably doing something more like maintenance/slow bulk. I'm looser with tracking and what I eat and I'm also paying closer attention to the mirror since my progress likely won't be measured on the scale but rather on the barbell and in my own skin (i.e. looking good naked!) It's definitely been tricky to look at MFP and be like, "I STILL have to eat another 500 calories?! why u do dis?"

Week 1 Tracking Food/Bringing Food - I kind of failed at this because I didn't bring food. I still tracked what I could but it's not as exact. And actually I'm kind of okay with that because I feel like I'm still doing well with eating enough. My problem when I'm trying to eat maintenance is that I typically will overeat on fats and carbs and not enough protein. As long as I'm making sure most of my meals are fairly balanced, I'm good. Sleep! I definitely need to get better at this. My sleep was all wonky this weekend, going to bed at like 11:45 and stuff, so this morning was rough. Average sleep time was 7:33, almost 20 minutes less than last week. StrongCurves - I've been hitting my workouts 4x a week pretty steadily. I've also started playing with the structure of the workouts a bit to maximize time/strength. For example, I'm on week 7 and Workout A wants me to do hip thrust/one-arm standing cable rows superset and then step-up-lunge combo/bench press superset. I know I'll need to rest more after the step ups and before I bench, so I moved the one-arm cable rows to seated cable rows so I can have some extra time for resting. Bench is still stalled at 65 but I'm getting 7-8 reps so I'm not deloading just yet. Bonus: Makeup! I've got my makeup down to a pretty good routine these days. I suppose now is a good time to mention what I'm using... Step 1 - Primer - I use Porefessional by Benefit. This really does help with shine and greasiness. Step 2 - Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer - I work in an office and I feel like the lights make foundation look weird but tinted moisturizer doesn't look so heavy. Step 3 - Clinique Concealer - I forget the name, this is like a peachy-colored stick. Mostly for undereye because I'm dark but also for blemishes. The texture of this stuff is creamy when it comes out of the brush but actually feels very powdery when you rub it in. Some concealers are so greasy and that sucks on my skin, like Bare Minerals, but this one is really nice. Step 4 - Maybelleine cream blush - I need a new one, I seriously think I've been using this one for like years... Step 5 - Covergirl waterproof mascara - I dont even know what the name is, the container is orange, I use brown/black. Step 6 - Laura Mercier Translucent Powder - helps with shine and sets the makeup. About brands: I use a mix of high-end and drugstore brands. The porefessional and laura mercier items were purchased from Sephora in that little section with the travel sized stuff because I wanted to try it without dropping $30.

Week 0 Eat More - I tracked and brought food Mon-Thurs last week, and then totally went off the wagon this weekend. Koolaid, donuts, pizza. I didn't make lunches for this week because I'm tired of sandwiches or chicken. I'm probably going to the salad bar at whole foods every day, but oh well! Sleep More - I got an average of 7:52 of sleep last week, woot! 8 is great, less than 7 is too little. StrongCurves - got all 4 workouts, even though I was off work on Friday. Make time for Make-up - I wore makeup every work day last week! Where to go from here: I need to get my diet back on track because I definitely tended towards high carbs, high fat, low protein over the weekend. And I could feel it during my workout this morning when I failed to get 8 reps on my last set of 65lbs bench but I got all 8 reps in every set last week.

I second headspace, it's really useful and easy to get into.