SammyShark

BAHAHAHA! Also - ohmigawd, what if she feels the SAME WAY about ME!?

Wooooo! Hey so I noticed you said it's hard to find a good salad around here in the winter. Have you been to Grateful Greens? It's downtown and they are totally hippy, and I definitely used to eat there when I was vegan-y, but they totally have meat on the menu, and they have the BEST greens. They let you choose between like a spring mix, spinach, kale, or any combo thereof, and then you choose your veggies (and they've got a good selection) and they chop everything up for you, so it's actually bite sized, which I just think is the coolest thing in the world. We should go sometime. And also, we can play hair and make up! I am totally capable of styling my own hair and I do decent makeup (online tutorials are life savers), but lately I've been super lazy. I've kind of decided that no one actually cares what my hair looks like most of the time, so I just wash it and put in some product and let it dry. *shrugs* I try not to straighten it too often because it's so hard on your hair, but always use a heat protecting spray! And last thing - I will totally go to the UK with you. I'm sort of an anglophile, and one of my life goals is to go to London and watch an Arsenal match at Emirates stadium.

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I joined at the O street one. I know that once you join, you can go to any of them (including the ones in Omaha), but I don't know about whether the deals are location specific...

Nagging is a GOOD IDEA! I joined Aspen. Their free weights section is pretty small, especially the barbells, but looks decent. The classes are SUPER FUN. I have a few 3-day passes that friends can use - you want to?! I weighed myself on Sunday, as that's when I'm supposed to weigh in. I was up 5.5lbs, but I know that it's not real weight gained. At least, not most of it. I definitely ate more calories than I needed for a few days there, but I think mostly it is water retention and carb bloat. I'm not going to weigh again until Sunday, so we'll see then.

Week 3 Round Up The end of week three did not go well. At all. I binged. A lot. It was bad. Here are my totals thus far: Binge free days - 16 / 21 (76.19%) Workouts - 17 /18 (94.44%) Stretchy days - 15 / 21 (71.43%) Guitar sessions - 8 / 12 (66.67%) So clearly there are some things that need work. I really need to not miss anymore days of stretching. It's too easy, there's no excuse. Workouts are going pretty well. Binges... should be less. I really would like to go the remaining 3 weeks with keeping my eating in check. I don't know how plausible it is, but it's more than possible, so that's my goal. Guitar sessions - this is a matter of prioritizing. I spend about as long practicing as I do stretching, so again, not that hard to squeeze in. I just haven't enjoyed it that much so I'm not always motivated. I want to try to catch up a bit and do some extra practicing this week and next week. Good stuff: - I joined a gym this week! Mostly for the spin and yoga classes. Apparently they have free tanning, too, which is... sort awesome but kinda bad. Spinning is fun, but man my crotch hurts. I need to get some padded shorts I think. I also have some health issues that spinning could potentially aggravate. I am waiting to see how that goes. - I get a free consultation with a trainer at the gym. I am hoping he knows something about lifting with good form. The only thing I really want him to show me is how to use the free weights. - Wufkar and I are going to get together this weekend, so I get to meet someone from NF! Woooo! - I feel like I'm really getting into the swing of things with working out regularly. It's good. - I did a better job of doing more strength training this week than I have other weeks - hurrah! Crappy stuff: - My shoulder has really been bothering me. I've had tendonitis since I was like 15, mostly due to overuse from swimming. It's really been flaring up lately. I need to start doing some strengthening exercises and focusing on getting it better. - My IT Band has been bugging me a bit, too, but it seems to be getting better. - I gained a few pounds (maybe more like 5...). This is probably because I ate a million carbs right before I weighed myself, and also was PMSing. I'm hoping that once I get back on track, it will prove easy to get rid of. Plan for this week: - Don't binge, but eat more if I need to - Buy padded shorts for cycling - Go to gym R, S, S (already went Monday) - Guitar 5 times (it's ONLY 15 minutes per day!)

Yeah, I think it will become more important as I get closer to my goal, it was just sort of a relief to see, at least from one N=1 experiment, that I probably won't gain much if I overeat on LCHF foods! *Phew* Thanks, german. I was eating mostly paleo for a while, and I found that it worked, but I had a tendency to still eat too many carbs. I don't really need that many sweet potatoes, let's be honest! Haha. So, giving the lchf route a try for a while. Yes, I would like to avoid feeling like crap and having low energy. I'm definitely still trying to figure out what works for me. I think a lot of it, for me anyway, is having some faith in the process and letting it happen.

I am with you both on hating backstroke and loving butterfly! Butterfly is all about the hips. I think once you get your hips in a good rhythm, the rest follows pretty nicely.

My favorite breathing set in college was 7x50s in a 25yd pool. First 50 you get 3 breaths down, 2 breaths back. 2nd 50 - 3 breaths down, 1 breath back. 3rd - 3 down, 0 back. 4th - 2, 1. 5th - 2, 0. 6th - 1, 0. 7th - 0, 0. It's fun. Do it at whatever interval you need to, to actually make the breathing happen. My advice on any breathing set: your goal is to optimize your use of oxygen. You don't want to overuse your muscles if you don't have to. Conserve your air and your oxygen. I liked to swim very slowly whenever I did these. Stay very calm. Make an effort to keep your heart rate low. Take slow, deep breaths when you're taking rest on the wall. (Hyperventilating can cause a build up of CO2 in your body which will make you pass out.) Exhale EXTREMELY slowly while you swim long slow strokes. I would usually hold my breath until about 5 strokes before I would need to breathe, and then start to slowly let it out. It's all about control. If you're just doing underwaters, I pretty much recommend the same thing. Use your most efficient kick and keep your body streamlined, make it as easy on yourself as possible. I find it's easier to do a slow 50 without breathing than to try to power through and do a fast one. Your muscles just eat up the oxygen too quickly I think.

I swam competitively in college and my first real open water swim was a 5k in Lake Michigan. Let me tell you - nothing you do in the pool really prepares you for a large open water race. There are bodies all around you, and the waves are intense. Open water swimming requires a lot more shoulder strength and swimming with brute force than swimming in the pool does. In the pool, you should be in line and gliding and slicing through the water. You can't really do that in open water. You have to put your head up a lot more than you would if you're in the pool too. You need to be able to see where you're going and keep your course steady. That being said - it is super freaking fun, and it's a really great feeling when you're done and you look back and say - yeah, I did that. So, if you can't do much open water training, I recommend at least trying to practice "spotting" in the pool. It feels silly, but you have to be able to look up and out and find some point on the horizon that you can aim toward. It's rather an unnatural feeling if you've spent all your time in the pool, but practicing it makes it a LOT easier in the open water. Good luck! And HAVE FUN!

When I swam in college, we did a lot of drylands. Our one staple was "the circuit" that my coach had us doing constantly. I actually wrote it up in my battle log here: http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/40016-shark-attack/?p=775896 The other thing we did that I found very helpful was training with resistance bands. If you have a nice, long band, you can anchor it in the middle to something, and then hook each hand into one end of the band. Then you can simulate different strokes, depending on what you're trying to train. It's important to have good form for this, otherwise you could hurt yourself or create bad muscle memory which won't be helpful...

I don't want to get bulky. You know, I hear a lot of people say this, and I hear a lot of people dismiss it on websites like NF, MDA, and other paleo-centric sites. Mostly, it's dismissed by men, or by women who really enjoy their strong bodies and their ability to lift heavy things. But is it dismissive to the real and legitimate desires of women (or men)? Everyone's fitness goals are different. Everyone's concept of "bulky" is different - it's largely a matter of relativity. And everyone's body is different from anyone else's. As a college athlete who did copious amounts of swimming, strength training and various dryland exercises, I have a pretty good idea of the amount of muscle my body is naturally capable of putting on. I've also seen other women who were training the same as me (or similarly) and I've seen the amount of muscle they were able to put on. It's more than I wanted at the time, and more than I'd ever want in the future. I just don't want my body to look like that. I don't want my traps to be as big as they were when I was a butterflier. I don't want my thighs to be as big as some of my teammate's were when they were training breaststroke. I don't want my arms to be as big as some of the girls I saw at meets - or even as big as mine were when I was swimming. I've never wanted that body. Is it so bad to say "I don't want to get bulky" when what I'm referring to is exactly what my body looked like when I was working out naturally? What's wrong with NOT wanting that? Is it so bad to not want to build any MORE lean muscle? Don't I have enough already? What if I still think I have too much? What help is there for that? If skinny dudes are allowed to want big muscles, and allowed to strive for that goal without being questioned, why can't I want smaller muscles? I'm not saying I want to be weak. I want to have strength. I just don't see why I have to put on 10 pounds of muscle to have that. I'm not exactly lacking in the muscle department. Trust me. I just don't want anymore. So what do you do? I don't know, honestly. Pretty much everything you can find on the internet is about building muscle, or maintaining muscle while you lose fat (which I'm not even convinced I want to do). If you search "how to lose muscle" you're going to see a lot of results about how to NOT lose muscle while losing fat, and mistakes people make that cause them to lose muscle. I guess what I can glean from these types of articles is that I should do the things that cause us to lose muscle. I did find one decent article about losing muscle on purpose. It's a good starting point and decent advice I think. So just think - what are things we do to build muscle? Lifting (in certain ways, depending on your goals), eat enough (especially protein), fuel up right after workouts, minimize cardio (especially chronic), sleep*, stretch.* So what should we do to lose muscle? Here's what I've gleaned from a few different sources: - lift heavy, but not a lot of reps, like very few, seriously (see Staci's article, specifically the section on hypertrophy) - chronic cardio is going to be key if you want to lose muscle - eating at a calorie deficit will help you lose - not fueling up right after a workout will help you to not build muscle at least - don't eat too much protein *Note: I am not willing to compromise on sleep or stretching. Sleep is way too important for overall health to cut back for vanities. And flexibility is an important part of my overall fitness goals, so those are here to stay, no matter what. Like many fitness goals, losing muscle or ensuring that you don't build anymore, is going to be greatly influenced by diet. I would guess though, that losing muscle has more to do with the types and amounts of exercise you are doing than simply losing weight. Lifting heavy will make sure you stay strong, but doing very few reps prevents your body from building bigger muscles. One to three reps is the sweet spot for inducing myofibril hypertrophy (see Staci's article again), making you strong, and maintaining bone density. Aren't those all the GOOD things about muscles and strength that pretty much everyone wants (I hope)? Strong muscles that aren't huge and are good for your bones? I think so anyway. Losing muscle is tough work though, so if I want to actually make that a focus, I have to look more closely at my calorie intake, my macros, and my cardio. I'm not really there yet. But I could be someday. And I just want to be able to remember all this stuff when I get there. What does this mean for me today? I think I need to focus on lifting heavier and lifting less. Not that I lift currently, but it seems to me that doing body weight exercises (relatively light weight, and high reps) is probably not helping me achieve MY goals. I imagine doing a few weighted push ups, a few weighted squats, etc., would be a more effective use of my time while giving me the results I would prefer. Probably requires some experimentation.

I think I might need to eat more calories. Or at least I could... Right now, I'm worried that I might be eating too little to effectively lose weight. I have no idea if that's true though... My BMR is about 1600. I'm not sure what I weigh today, since I really am only weighing on Sundays, but I've got a rough idea. Also, I'm telling the BMR calculator that I am 28, because my birthday is less than a month away, so basically, yeah. You're supposed to multiply this number by a factor which is determined by your activity level. 1.35 is you are lightly active (1-3 days/week) or 1.55 if you are moderately active (3-5 days/week). Honestly, I'm probably moderately active at this point, although I want to say that I'm only lightly active, because I want to have a reason to eat fewer calories. Anyway, being honest, let's go with the 1.55 multiplier = 2480 calories per day. This would be if I wanted to stay at maintenance. I don't want to maintain though, I want to lose. By this formula, at my current activity level, I could easily eat 1800-2000 calories per day and still be losing 1-1.5lbs per week. That's still assuming that a calorie is a calorie though. And obviously THAT'S not true. I've been doing mostly a high fat, low carb diet these past few weeks. It's not difficult. It's usually quite enjoyable. And I think it's helping me to not be so addicted to sugar and carbs - win! I've also been doing a lot of reading. I stumbled across this guy - Sam Feltham - who did an experiment where he ate 5794 calories per day for 21 days. He did this by eating a LCHF diet. His BMR is higher than mine, but if a calorie is a calorie, he should have put on about 16 pounds over the course of 3 weeks time. In fact, he only gained about 3lbs, and he actually lost inches in his waist! WTF? Awesome! He repeated the experiment eating high carb, relatively low fat, very processed foods. He ate one less calorie per day - 5793 - and so, in theory, he should have gained about 16 pounds again. In reality, he did gain almost 16 pounds. Same number of calories, totally different diets, totally different results. So... this has me thinking even MORE about how much the number of calories I eat actually matters. Like I said, I don't want to maintain, and Sam basically maintained by eating 5000+ calories per day of LCHF foods. So clearly, we need some sort of deficit here. Also, Sam is obviously in slightly better shape than I am starting out. He cycles 3 times per week and does 4 minute tabata body weight sessions like 3 times per week, too. He's not working out much more than I am, if at all. It's freaking fascinating. Sam is doing a third experiment now, eating a VEGAN diet of 5000+ calories for 21 days. The foods are whole foods, but it's a diet very high in carbs and low in fat. It's definitely a shift away from the fake foods experiment, but similar macro profile. As I type this, he is only on his 5th day. I'm excited to see how it ends up. He also takes body fat measurements and gets his blood work done at the end of experiments, so extra interesting! So far, after just 5 days, he's up 5.5lbs and his waist has increased by 2 inches. Isn't that crazy?! So okay, this post might have just been an excuse for me to rant about Sam Feltham and his crazy experiments. How many fucking calories am I supposed to eat, though? I'm going to try not to worry about it right now. I think, as long as I'm losing, I'm probably eating enough. Yesterday, I ate more than normal, because I was hungrier than normal, but I'm not upset about it. I didn't binge. I ate more lchf foods, not crappy carby foods. So I guess the answer for now is just keep on keepin' on, and see what happens.

WOOOOOO! Congrats! 3lbs is a lot for a fluke - sounds like stricter eating definitely paid off! I've never been skiing, but I've always heard it's a great workout! I'm guessing you'll fare just fine in Bulgaria. Sounds like it'll be a BLAST too! Have fun!

Mid-Week 3 Update Monday - 2 pts Didn't binge, stretched, but didn't workout or practice guitar. Kind of a lazy day! Tuesday - 3pts Didn't binge, worked out, stretched, no guitar... Wednesday - 5pts Didn't binge, 2 workouts, stretched, practiced my guitaring. Guitar practice wasn't as bad as I thought it would be... maybe I'm finally getting to the point where I kind of enjoy it. Although I am definitely not committed to continuing this after the challenge... Plan for the rest of the week: Thursday - already worked out, just need to stretch tonight. Maybe even practice guitar, even though I have 3 hrs of choir practice tonight. We'll see. Friday - bbww and some cardio, guitar, stretch. Saturday - go to the gym and sign up! I really want to start doing cycling and yoga classes! Workout a little, take the dogs to the park, stretch, guitar. Sunday - some sort of strength training and some sort of cardio, guitar, stretch. Maybe I should rest on Monday... we'll see!

I'm hoping that as I continue this weigh-in-once-a-week plan, that it will become less stressful... Sometimes I even thinking about going 3 whole weeks, or a whole challenge - CRAZY! Haha. Thanks - I think I am feeling a bit better now! YES!!! Definitely! I am thinking about extending the time, but the not knowing is hard... I'm going to see how the once-a-week-weigh-in goes and decide from there. For some reason, I feel like it is motivating me MORE to have good days between weigh-ins - not what I was expecting. Thanks, german. I am really excited about this challenge! Good things are happening! HAHAHA - I definitely don't want to find it later!

Ah just finished the article. I will have to read it again when I hit my own dip!

I am mostly hitting my goals of not bingeing (although I messed up TWICE last week on that one...), working out as many times as I wanted (although I haven't been doing enough strength training), stretching (sometimes I forget) and playing my guitar (even though I don't like it). So I have hiccups in all my goals, but overall, I'm doing so much better than I was a few months ago before we started the first challenge! I'm happy with my progress. I'm actually amazed that I don't snack very much anymore. I think it might be because I am eating a really high fat, very low carb diet. I am doing that to get into ketosis, but it's amazingly helping with my cravings. I'm trying to have more faith in the process. If I eat healthy and workout, my body WILL change. But it's hard for me. For some reason, when I am losing weight, I see my body as fatter and fatter. I have issues, clearly. And although I am working on only weighing myself once a week, I have serious anxiety about it. I want desperately to know "where I'm at" each morning, and then the couple of days leading up to a weigh in, I turn into a wreck. I'm so scared. This last time I weighed myself, I was so relieved that I lost weight, I almost cried. But if I had gained, I know I would have binged, even though I KNOW that's counterproductive. Obviously I have a lot of issues to work through here. Steve wrote a post that I read recently about how we don't always need to have goals. There's one line in the article that says - our goals can paralyze us. That's how I feel. So I want to get away from weighing and feeling so depended on the scale. It will be a work in progress. I haven't been doing as much strength training as I planned. It's because I don't really enjoy it that much. But after reading some stuff Staci wrote, I'm feeling more motivated to do it, at least, so I think that will help. My IT band has been bothering me a bit, so I need to make sure to spread out the strength training (squats aggravate my IT band), but other than that, I think I will get back on top of that. So things are good, but there is definitely room for improvement. And I'm finally getting comfortable with the idea of making slow changes over time instead of waking up tomorrow and being a whole different person. It's good.

YAY!!!!

YAY! I'll be there! I live in Lincoln - if anyone wants to ride over with me, let me know!

Week 2 Round Up First, here's how the rest of the week went... Day 12 - Friday (1) No binge (2) Cardio & BBWW (1) Stretched (1) Guitar lesson Day 13 - Saturday (1) No binge (2) Cardio & BBWW again (1) stretched (0) no guitar Day 14 - Sunday (1) no binge (1) hour long walk (1) stretch (0) no guitar Okay, so, to review.... Goal 1: Don't binge I binged once this week - on Monday. It seems so long ago, but it really wasn't. I very nearly binged again today, partly because I was SO stressed out about weighing myself and what the scale would say. I basically told myself I could binge if I had gained, because that obviously makes sense. Thankfully, I didn't gain, so I didn't binge. Crisis narrowly avoided. Grade: B Goal 2: Exercise I did good with exercise this week. Strength training twice and lots of cardio. That's all I'm asking for! Grade: A+ Goal 3: Stretch I forgot to stretch one day this week. I don't know WHY that's so hard to remember?! Stupid. It's so easy, too. I really enjoy it. Next week I will stretch ALL 7 DAYS! Grade: B+ Life Quest: Guitar I only practiced 3 times this week, and I'm supposed to do 4. As I type this, I am sitting in bed, still contemplating doing a practice session. It's only 7:15pm. I obviously have time. I just don't want to. Truth be told, I'm not really enjoying it. :-/ Total points for the week: 22 Total points thus far: 44 Grade: 91.67% = A Good. Okay, so other thoughts... Weight - I have actually lost 5.5lbs so far during this challenge. I weigh less now than I have in the last 4 months. Awesome. I have mostly been trying to eat hflc over the past couple of weeks. It's not too hard actually. Probably a LOT more dairy than most of the paleo-ers out there, but it's working for me. It seems to be sustainable. That being said, it's still hard for me to not weigh myself every day, but I think it's still the right choice. I am weighing only on Sundays. I only weigh once, I'm not terribly compulsive about checking in that way. But the anxiety is pretty intense. Last night and the night before I started to worry about what would happen when I weighed myself. Would I be the same weight as last week? Would I have gained? My body was looking really fat to me over the last couple of days. I thought for sure I'd gain. The relief of weighing myself and seeing the number go down was overwhelming. I wanted to cry. But I also wanted to stay on track. Will this get better over time?! I have no idea. Tummy - I've been having some weird tummy shit lately. Haha. No pun intended. My stomach has hurt a LOT of couple of times, I felt like I was going to throw up (I didn't, though), and my stools have been a little loose. It's weird. I don't know if it's because I'm eating so much fat? Or something else? It's tolerable, but annoying. Attitude - I feel a little more settled into a routine right now. I feel like this is feasible and I am steadily making good choices and heading in the right direction. It's different. I think. [EDIT: Gah, this is what I get for posting before the day was actually over. I ended up eating some pasta and caramel popcorn last night, and then my mom bought me a blizzard. Fuck. AND to make matters worse, I forgot to stretch AGAIN! So, amended total points for week 2: 20 (boo) Amended total points: 42 Amended Grade 87.5% - B (gross) I need to have a better Week 3. I WILL HAVE A BETTER WEEK 3. Week 3 is going to be my bitch and I will own it!]

I definitely agree! I think I'm getting better at being more mindful about binges too, which helps me learn from them more. It can be so horribly mindless at times. But it's definitely getting better! Thank you so much! I really have been enjoying stretching - a LOT! It's probably been my favorite part of this challenge.

Hey guys - glad to hear everyone is doing pretty well! My challenge seems to be going well too, which is really exciting!

Update! Day 8 - Monday Oy. I binged on Monday. It was ... not as bad as it could have been, but also not as good as it could have been. I was having some MAJOR carb cravings. Unfortunately, that kind of put me back at square one in terms of getting over the carb withdrawal, so I'll probably have to deal with some very similar feelings... oh this weekend? I need to stay motivated and focused, and I probably neat to eat more calories. That's easier to do on the weekends, actually. Just gotta stay on track. I also didn't work out! Whoops. I did stretch though, and I did a guitar lesson. So those were both goods things. 2 pts. Day 9 - Tuesday This was a great day. Didn't binge (it's easy the day after because you aren't really hungry), worked out for an hour, did my guitar lesson, and stretched. Perfect. 4 pts. Day 10 - Wednesday Wednesday was okay... I didn't binge, I did a quick workout in the morning, but I had dinner with friends out of town so I didn't have time for a guitar lesson, and I just totally spaced stretching. Didn't even remember until the next morning. I'm thinking I should set an alarm on my phone to remind myself to do that. I don't know why it's so easy to forget! 2 pts. Day 11 - Thursday Busy day - worked in Omaha, so had to commute. Also had choir practice at night. I knew I wouldn't have time to do a guitar lesson. I was tempted to stay up late and workout for a quick 30 min, but I was so exhausted when I got home, it just didn't happen. I did remember to stretch though, so that was good. 2 pts. I only have 10 points so far this week. I need to be getting around 21-24 each week to pass my challenge, so need to pick up the pace a bit. I'm kind of going to be making up for it over the weekend... Plan for the rest of the week: Friday (today) - I already stretched today (woo!) and I'm going to do the bbww over my lunch break, then 30-45 min on the elliptical after work. Probably only 30 min, because I need to squeeze in a guitar lesson before going out with my friends tonight. Saturday - bbww and elliptical (if I want), guitar lesson, stretch. Nothing going on that should throw a wrench in any of my plans. Sunday - bbww and elliptical (again, only if I want, I do quite enough of this during the week), guitar lesson, stretch. I'm going to lunch with my girl friends - to a Brazilian steakhouse. I don't think it'll be difficult to eat paleo/hflc there! [Edit: I'm also having a bit of anxiety about not weighing myself... I have successfully NOT weighed myself since Sunday. I have been sorely tempted though. Sometimes I have to chug water in the morning so that I won't want to get on anymore. I was feeling a little down this morning, because I feel like I really set myself back on Monday. I am trying to get into ketosis and stay there. I've been feeling all bloaty and gross and like I'm not making any progress. I just need to be patient. But, you know, I am wearing a sweater that I can't normally wear today, so - that's got to be a good sign, right?!]

Thanks, Snow! I'm feeling really good about this challenge. Like I don't have the same crazy motivation I had at the beginning of the first challenge I did, but I think I've got a more steady determination, which is a really good thing! Thanks, Raxie! Week 2 got off to a rough start, but I'm doing good again!