OKLibrarian's Challenge Log

[Oklibrarian]

Hey all! I'm Sarah, AKA OKLibrarian. this is my first challenge, and the first challenge that has started while I was active on the board. I can't wait!

Age: 35

Weight: (deep breath) 219.4

Height 5' 4 1/2"

Body fat: 31%

Race: Hobbit. I'm short, roundish, sedentary/scholarly by nature, like my comforts, and eat too much. All I lack is the feet.

Class: Ranger. I wanna get better at everything!

Starting Stats

STR 2

DEX 2

STA 1

CON 4

WIS 4

CHA 2

Fitness Goals

1) Complete the week 7 couch to 5K workout once. (just about ready to try week 4, want to do 3 one more time to make sure I have it). I will be briskly walking/slowly jogging the Color Run 5K on June 23, hope to go a blistering sub-50 minutes. (STA +3, Con +1)

2) Exercise 6 days a week: 2 C25K workouts, 1 walk 5K at a HR zone 1-2 pace, 1 Cadillac Pilates personal training, 1 Spin/mat Pilates class, 1 free weights day. (STR+2, DEX+1)

Diet Goal

3) Eat 6 days a week (and track my stats all 7) according to Waldo's amazing Carb+fat BMR model, holding my chosen deficit, and stay within 5% either side of my daily goal C+F# and Overall# on average. Continue to Honor the Cheat Day and Keep it Yummy by eating every damn thing you want (but not a single bite past comfortably full). (CON +3, STR+2)

Life Goal

4) (+2 WIS,+1 CHA) Get A in Intersession Doctoral course on College Culture.

About the real me

I'm a college librarian, Ph.D student, and about halfway through a major body transformation. I've lost about 40 lbs since early September, and would like to lop off another 25-30 of fat to land somewhere between 20 and 25% body fat. (once there, I'll reevaluate). Sheer existential terror is working less well as a motivator these days (I have a "corrected" congenital heart defect, which generally makes holding on to extra fat a Bad Idea) so it's time for mental tricks and games. Hence, the rebellion. In the last 8 months I've accomplished physical things I never thought possible, even when skinnier. I don't know that I will ever be able to scale the fitness heights of most of you rangers, but I'm a hard worker, don't quit, and am ready to fight for the best and healthiest life I can lead.

Wow. Guess I'm more of a hobbit than I realized. :-)

[UncleTone]

Welcome to the forums and to your first challenge. Awesome job so far on your accomplishments! Look forward to following you for the next 6 weeks.

[Swinging_Jarnbjorn]

Congrats on starting your first challenge! When we need a hobbit to save the world, we'll give you a call!

[Loren Wade]

Hehe, I like your class selection! Excited to see where you go!

[Oklibrarian]

Thanks! Great to see all the other rangers too. This is gonna be a great team.

[Loren Wade]

FOR THE RANGERS!

[nightlight]

Welcome to your first challenge!

Funny story. When the Lord of the Rings exhibit came to Boston, my friends and I went to it at the Museum of Science. They had this wall where you could walk up to it, and it would tell you what race you are. My best friend went first -- Elf. He's 6'. Then my friend Ellen went, she's 5'2. She got an Orc. A kid went, and he got hobbit. Then I got up there figuring it would Orc me... nope. It said "human...juuuust human." (I'm 5'4.5)

[Oklibrarian]

Well hey, the humans pretty much get middle earth in the end, so it's not all bad...

[Oklibrarian]

Signed up in the google doc! Will upload pics later tonight or tomorrow morning.

[Crooked]

I LOVE your description of your race. Good luck with this challenge! You've made huge progress so far and I'm sure you will continue to do great things

[Oklibrarian]

OK! Day 1 log! First: Starting Pics.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2884[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]2885[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]2886[/ATTACH]

I've come a long way (when I get to goal I might show you my *shudder* before shot), but there's still plenty of room for improvement. The younger of our 2 fur-babys, Jade, is the hanger-on in the corner of some of those shots. With that, Onward!

Today's stats: Note: including formulae where appropriate for today only.

Today's Calories In: 1726

Today's exercise per HRM: REST DAY for 0 Calories

Proj. calories out (Proj BMR + exercise): 2145.4

Projected Surplus/Deficit: (-419.4)

Weight change from yesterday: 0.6

Yesterday's real "calories out" [weight change*3500]: 3826*

Yesterday's real surplus/deficit: -2100

*note: I am currently using a LBW*X formula to project BMR. As soon as i get enough data I will use a 7 day moving average of my "real" BMR (Real calories out less activity calories) as my projected BMR. I will still track LBM though, to track body composition issues, and because I may change up the "real" calories out formula. more on this below.

~~~~~~~~~

Today was the first day of finals at (work) school, and aside from running around refreshing the free coffee, it was pretty quiet. I caught up on some minor to-dos, and started thinking about some potential conference/journal homes for my planned summer research project. papers are all in for (school) school, should have grades by end of next week. Slept in till 6 in honor of rest day, though I may try to get up at 5 on monday too to tidy. I really feel good with that extra hour after the Spin Class of Doom on sundays, so I may have to experiment to se what leads to better tuesday performance. I'm eating substantially more than i had been a couple weeks ago (when i was riding between 1200 and 1400), but intriguingly, my body weight had been dropping like a stone in the 4 days since I switched to Waldo's C+F BMR Paradigm. right now it may well just be retained water that is now taking the opportunity to "goosh", but I'll take it.

Related note: right now I'm calculating my "real calories out" as weight change *3500. I'm torn about this. On one hand, while I should be (and am) burning mostly body fat, some muscle and LBW loss is inevitable. I worry if i go fat loss*3500, I'll underestimate real calories burnt, and hence BMR, which would in turn lead to undereating and a stall. But weight loss * BMR is skewed by retaining and losing water, and might having me eating too much if i happen to be letting go of too much water that week! However...given these things are pretty cyclical for ladies, maybe I should go for a cycle-length moving average for real BMR--in theory that should even out the water skewing once I have 28+ days of data. I'm taking stats this summer for my Ph.D, and even though I'm a qualitative researcher through and through, sorting this out gives me a reason to pay attention to all the icky numbers. :-) I suspect that for the first month weight*3500 will be close enough for government work, if I start gaining I'll switch. Once I have this challenge's worth of data I'll have over a full cycle plus 2-ish weeks, can graph all 3 models and see which does the best job of predicting my actual deficits. Math geeks, feel free to give advice, or just point and giggle at a constructionist's feeble attempts to play test Waldo's Chart of Awesome. :-)

~~~~~~~

Tomorrow: Couch to 5K week 3, workout 3!

[Knightwatch]

Sounds like you're off to a great start! Go get that W3W3 run!

[Oklibrarian]

Well, brisk interval walk with 20% chance of light jogging. Explainer tomorrow.

[nightlight]

great start!

[Oklibrarian]

Today's stats:

Today's Calories In: 2040.14

Today's exercise per HRM: C25K for 286 Calories

Proj. calories out: 2432.3

Projected Surplus/Deficit: -392.1

Weight change from yesterday: -1.4(!)

Yesterday's real "calories out": 6626 (yeah, right)

Yesterday's real surplus/deficit: -4900 (tell me another one)

See Day 1 Post (#11) for explainers on the "real" stats.

*note: I am currently using a LBW*X formula to project BMR. As soon as i get enough data I will use a 7 day moving average of my "real" BMR as my projected BMR.

~~~~~~~~~

Good day! Ive been trying to say hey to all the rangers, but have now given that up as a bad job and will try to at least check in on all of Squad Bs posts, others as possible. As has been said elsewhere, OMG theres a lot of us! Are we the biggest guild?

C25K week 3 Workout was awesome this morningI threw a couple of runs in there for a total of about .2 miles. To clarify, due to my particular quirks Ive never been able to run any appreciable distance. However, over the last 8 months of weight loss and modern pharmaceuticals, Ive gotten to the point that I can run 90 seconds or so at a go. Im unsure Ill ever be able to do much better than this given certain hydraulic realities, but Im gently working in spurts of running with my intervals when I feel frisky, and backing off when I hit my Lactate threshold Heart rate (what I lovingly refer to as my gag point), to see what gains if any could happen in that area. Ergo, When I say Im doing C25K, Im doing the C2K intervals (for distance, not time) between a kinda brisk walk and a really brisk walk thats beyond my steady stateright now 3.5/4.0 mph, tho that may change as those speeds get easier. Ive only been walking regularly for a month or two on this fitness attempt (though have walked several 5ks and a 5 miler in the past), so there are probably some more noob-like gains to be had there. I'm already hitting all-time high speeds, which is promising. Obviously, I'll be moving on to week 4 on thursday. I've never done fast intervals longer than rest intervals, but I was having no trouble recovering this morning. in other words, I think I'm ready.

Week 1 Guild Challenge: I've been solid on 5-a-weeks for a while now, but have not been consistent on my 3rd walk/6th workout. In direct support of goal 2 (establish work out 6xweek habit) and indirect of Goal 1 (Make Week 7 of C25K by end of challenge), Ill be walking the whole 5K at an easy Heart Rate Zone 2 pace on Saturday, either in the neighborhood or at the race venue, a local riverside trail I lived (and walked) on before moving to the 'burbs. Upon pondering I think I'll do my scoring on a 1-100 scale, giving myself 20 points for each of my four main goals, and 5 for each week's challenge. IE, I could theoretically get 110%. :-)

~~~~~~~~

Tomorrow: Pilates personal Training with Cindy the Awesome. More on her tomorrow.

[Oklibrarian]

Today's stats:

Today's Calories In: 2083

Today's exercise per HRM: Warmup walk and Pilates training for 315 calories

Proj. calories out: 2653.8*

Projected Surplus/Deficit: -570.97

Raw Weight change from yesterday: +0.2*

Smoothed & weighted weight change: -0.3

Yesterday's real "calories out": 3063

Yesterday's real surplus/deficit: -1023.3

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today was Pilates, with Cindy the Awesome. Now, like any weakling geek girl, I'm immediately suspicious of all trainers, coaches, and gym teachers. Cindy broke through that, not to mention my general body loathing, by honoring my limits and inspiring me to work my butt off to improve on them. She's friendly, supportive, but gives me a kick in the butt when needed. I know that Pilates sounds kinda light and wussy. Not in her hands it isn't. In 60 minutes I get a full body strength workout that leaves my limbs aching and on the verge of failure. today we did lunges for what felt like 45 minutes, and this funky backwards row thing that left my shoulders screaming (in a good way). She was the best money I've ever spent (though I'll probably drop the personal training session when I get to goal and just do spin/mat on sundays). And the best part is, in a previous life she was a personal shopper! So once the body makeover is over, I'm gonna have her help me with a style makeover too. :-)

~~~~~~

You'll notice some changes on the weight calculations. After yesterday's numbers, which included a previous day "real calorie burn of" of 6626 calories based on weight loss *3500, I knew there was an issue. I'm a librarian, not a Lumberjack! *cue Michael Palin* I needed a better way to calculate my weight change, and by extension my "real" bmr. Enter The Hacker's Diet.

This is a cool little freebie that I used to mixed success about 12 years ago, when i was trying to lose some dotcom stress pudge in my first post college job. Frankly, most of the actual "diet advice" was kind of worthless (very much a calories in -calories out, macros don't actually matter kind of guy), but one thing had stuck in my head. He was a proto-nerd fitness type of sorts, and had all kinds of complex spreadsheets on his site to go with the diet. His argument (and I do think he was right on this) was that most people quit diets because of random gains that are about water, not fat. He advocated paying little attention to raw weight, but rather using a formula to glean an exponentially smoothed and weighted average of your poundage. Over time, the random water ups and downs would smooth out, and the real trend would become apparent.

So, over lunch today, I dug up his website, refreshed myself on the formula, and created a smoothed and weighted weight column, which i tied into my LBW, "real calories out", and "real BMR" (real calories out -exercise calories per HRM) formula. all the sudden, my numbers started making a lot more sense. that 6600 "real" calorie burn for day before yesterday? Try 2941. Then I got an even better idea. I smoothed and weighted my real BMR in another column, and am experimenting with the number as a new estimated BMR that I can use for the next day's eating plans. Like that my estimated BMR popped up 200 calories, and by experimenting with earlier datas, I could tell that this formula closed a lot of the gap between my expected deficit and what I really experienced the next day. It's still projecting deficits a few hundred calories under what I appear to be experiencing, but I suspect that gap will close some more as I collect more than 7 days of data.

In other words...between Waldo's Carb + Fat BMR FINALLY getting me to eat enough food, and some tinkering with the Hacker's Diet tracking methods to get better weight and projected BMR numbers, I think I may have finally built a useful feedback loop. Time will tell, but right now all signs are good.

~~~~~~~~~~

Tomorrow: C25K: Week 4, walk 1!

[Oklibrarian]

ARGH! Tried week 4 of Couch to 5K for the first time today. I made it through the first half-mile speed interval, and that was it for my right calf. I stretched, did the "less brisk walk" for a 1/4 mile after, then saw my heart rate wasn't dropping down into zone 2 like I like to see in a recovery interval. I obviously didn't have enough in the tank to do another 1/4 mile at speed, much less the second half-mile that would wrap up the workout. So I dropped down to speed, did the cooldown, and used my extra time to stretch extra thoroughly. My right calf is still sore though. I'm going to surf around MobilityWod and the forums here later to get some ideas, it's just very irritating. Does anybody here have any siggestions?

However, I did just walk 4.0 mph for a half-mile (PR), so it's not all bad news. *sigh*

[missjazzyfe]

It sounds like you've made a really good start though!

[nightlight]

it's ok. keep at it. even one extra step is progress.

[Oklibrarian]

Yeah, my MO so far is to epic fail the first rep of a new c25k week, complete the 2nd and breeze through the third. Still annoying though. Doesn't help that each week I worry that this will be the one that's too much.

[Oklibrarian]

Today's stats:

Today's Calories In: 2184.84

Today's exercise per HRM: 1st 4 blocks of C25k week 4, #1, ow, and stretch for 302 calories

Proj. calories out: 2703.77

Projected Surplus/Deficit: -518.93

Raw Weight change from yesterday: -0.8 (New Low!)

Smoothed & weighted weight change: -0.34

Yesterday's real "calories out": 3284

Yesterday's real surplus/deficit: -1201

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was feeling pretty trim this morning when I got up, and the scale agreed me! I'm not only less than a pound away from being 45 lbs down in raw weight, I'm at a number not seen to my knowledge since november 2001. My wedding was about 2 weeks after that, and I know from the pictures that my face, at least, is skinnier now. About another 10 pounds or so and I'll have lost everything from the sexually harrassing boss who triggered me down this road from pleasantly plump to downright fat in the first place. (OK, I allowed myself to be triggered, but I was 24, still repressing my body image issues and way less confident, mmmkay?)

Then I went to the gym, cranked out a half mile at 4.0 mph for the first time in, well, ever. And then my right calf decided to sieze up on me and I generally got tuckered out. See above for the sordid details, and thanks to everyone here and in the squad B thread for the reassurance and advice. I have to grit my teeth, swallow the impatience, and remind myself how utterly unexpected it is for me to even be in a position to be bitching about this. In any case, I will work with some calf exercises from mobility WOD between now and my next walk, an easy 5K on saturday that will feature no heart rate higher than zone 2 and plentiful stretch breaks as needed.

~~~~~~

Food was uneventful, a little saltier than usual, as lunch out with the boss was fajitas with beans and a healthy dollop of guacamole(no rice or tortillas), and dinner was a sausage & bell pepper scramble. Between that and certain feminine realities, I'm expecting some temporary water, etc. gains over the next 3-5 days with the corresponding dip about 5 days after that. Looking forward to seeing how well the weighted moving averages even that out.

Oh, and I bought New Rules Of Lifting For Women. Will be reading over the weekend after I tidy up a few loose ends from the spring semester. After that will probably be Fit, but it may have to wait a few weeks depending on how intense intersession is. I'll know more on Monday when I see the syllabus.

~~~~~~~

Tomorrow: Friday free weights, though depending on how the calf feels in the morning I may just do abs and upper body and spend some quality time with the foam roller in the gym's stretching area. (it's awesome--yoga mats, padded tables, a barre, plus all kinds of foam rollers, bands and calf-stretching contraptions.) I'll also probably hop on a bike or elliptical to do warmup instead of the indoor track, as I suspect it could do with a low(er) impact day. My hubby gave me a great massage (he said he could feel the knots, which he loosened considerably), but it's still tender. I use a standing desk here at home, and it's talking to me a wee bit from just standing here for 20 minutes writing this post. So on that note, it's off to send a semester wrap-up email to my dissertation committee, then a heating pad before bed!

[missjazzyfe]

It sounds like overall you had a really good day though!

[Oklibrarian]

Yeah, I just always want things to progress faster than they do/can. Worrying that the calf might impact my C25K goal, but I can't totally control that.

[missjazzyfe]

I know what you mean though, I have no patience either. It's better to take baby steps and avoid injury then push too hard and be out of commission for months, or at least that's what I'm telling myself.

[Oklibrarian]

Here's the numbers. Raw weight took a hop, but I think that was partly due to a salty lunch and mostly due to monthly bloat. (Sorry guys...). The smoothed and weighted averages keep it all in perspective.

Today's Calories In: 1973.55

Today's exercise per HRM: Free Weight Friday for 138 calories

Proj. calories out: 2553.97

Projected Surplus/Deficit: -580.42

Raw Weight change from yesterday: +1.2 (Ahh, estrogen, thou art a cruel mistress...)

Smoothed & weighted weight change: -0.19

Yesterday's real "calories out": 2761

Yesterday's real surplus/deficit: -660.9

~~~~~~~~~

So, as mentioned above, yesterday my right calf siezed up and pitched a fit right after walking half a mile at a speed that I've never before in my life been able to sustain for longer than 60 seconds. (yeah, a little perspective here, please.) I sprained that ankle fairly badly about 7 years ago, and it and the calf have never been quite right since, though both of my calves have always tended toward tightness when I walk more than a mile or so. Being a sensible nerd (and a wuss re: pain) I cut my workout short, stretched thoroughly, and got my hubby to give me a massage that evening. Then I googled Mobility WOD, which I’ve heard spoken well of here. Foam rollers and lacrosse balls and all manner of stretching cords—I was a little overwhelmed, but the science made sense. I’d just never known there was more to stretching than, well, stretching.

So…this morning was Friday free weights, 5x5 reps in each zone (pull, push, front legs, back legs), plus abs. I warmed up on the recumbent bike (meh, think I’ll go upright or elliptical next time I want to go low impact on warmup), then hit all the upper body stuff. I divided my time between assisted pullups and the lat pulldown machine for my “pullâ€, seated upright chest presses for “pushâ€, front plank (25 seconds) and oblique crunches for abs, and dumbbell squats as I work up to the empty bar weight. (in fairness I could probably do at least a set of that today, I’m just taking it crazy slow at first). I’m still having problems to get myself to let my butt go to parallel or lower, it doesn’t seem to be flexibility so much as worry I’ll lose balance and land on my butt. I keep wanting to lean forward as I go down, how much of that is okay? Next week I may get kevin to take some video of me air squatting for a form check. I tried a test step-up without weight, right calf and hammy grumbled, so I skipped back of legs today.

All that left me with extra time for stretching. I do my normal calf and leg stretches while I wait for a foam roller, then give this calf roll a whirl.

Hmm… It’s still tender, but it feels much looser, and I don’t even think I was doing it right. I’ll need to practice the move a bit to balance more weight on my calves and less on my arms though.

Then I see this funky rubber ball under the platform. It’s about halfway between a softball and soccer ball, filled with sand. It’s almost like an oversized stress ball, pretty firm but still yielding. I park that under the most sore spot, and let my body weight press down for about 15 seconds.

Wow.

Then, I cross my other leg on top for more pressure.

WOWwowwowhurtssogoodZOMG!

It’s a few hours later as I draft this post (at work on a brain break), and my calf is still just a little bit tender to the touch, kind of like the morning after you wake up with a charlie horse at 2 AM. However, the knots are gone/diminished, and I think I can survive that easy 5K tomorrow just fine after another night’s rest. Going forward I’m going to foamroll and spot check any tight spots in my calves before warming up on all walk days, and do the same to any knots or sore spots every single workout after I cooldown and before I stretch. Since it doesn’t appear that it’s possible to do too much of this self-massage stuff, I may also try to come up with a longer full-body mobility and stretching routine for my rest day.

Evening update--I found a couple videos for foam roller/myofascial release workouts in addition to mobility WOD, I'm going to play with appropriate ones over the next few Mondays until I hit on my favorites. I will report back with results.

~~~~~~~~~~

Tomorrow is CHEAT DAY and my first Saturday workout. If I do this, I get5 points for mini-challenge #1. If i don't, I don't. Will I drag my shrinking-but-still-lazy butt out of bed to walk 3.1 miles at an easy pace? Find out tomorrow, kids...