LittleWitch gets fit.....

[LittleWitch]

Main Quest

Become "normal" weight, and feel fit, healthy and confident. 

 

For my short height being within the normal weight range would be weighing 126lbs at the most, and I haven't been under this for at least 10 years. This is going to take quite a bit longer than 5 weeks, so for the next 5 weeks my main quest is to reduce my weight from "obese" to "overweight", weighing no more that 158lbs - a 5lbs loss. This should be perfectly achievable and hopefully I can do better, but I also want to feel fitter and more energetic so exercise will be a big part of it - something I'd normally skip doing.

 

For the next 5 weeks, my goals are:

 

1) Record everything I eat and not go over my daily calorie allowance, averaged over each week - 1480cal per day.

2) Do the beginners bodyweight workout 3 times a week.

3) Do interval training 3 times a week.

 

No life quest at the moment, I'll add one in when/if I decide on something.

[LittleWitch]

What I've done so far...

 

Yesterday

Attempted interval training for the 1st time ever, using an elliptical cross trainer.

Had planned to do 5 mins slow, then 6 x 30 sec fast, 2 mins slow, then 5 mins slow.

Actually did 5 mins slow, 3 x 30 sec fast, 2 mins slow - almost died - had to stop!

Need to find an easier way to do this, I'm too unfit for this!  Any help/ideas appreciated for tomorrow!

 

Today

Planned 3 x beginners bodyweight training circuits, adapting pushups to have knees on the floor.

Actually did 2 x circuits, for 3rd time only did the squats and dumbells, couldn't manage the rest.  Will do the other few bits later so I haven't missed them altogether.

[LittleWitch]

Interval training done for the day. Managed all 6 intervals although at a lower speed than the last attempt two days ago, but I'm happy with that. My aim is to increase both the slow and fast speeds a bit at a time throughout the next few weeks. :-)

[fauve]

It takes time...don't try to do too much too fast.  If you get injured, you can't do anything.

 

I remember when I went from 'obese' to 'overweight'.  What a great feeling to be overweight, lol.    Good luck!

[LittleWitch]

Thanks Fauve. This is really the first time of doing any exercise for me apart from a few measly attempts to use a cross trainer or treadmill for a few minutes at a time.

Did the bodyweight circuits again today. Changed the push ups to on the wall, think I was doing them wrong before, so this should help with getting proper form. Completed all three circuits today, yay! Strangely this strength training stuff is helping me eat healthy too, it seems working on a mental level to stay away from junk food and such. Will soon be invincible!

[Trusylver]

Great work getting that exercise in, and well done completing 3 circuits.

[rrababit]

Thanks Fauve. This is really the first time of doing any exercise for me apart from a few measly attempts to use a cross trainer or treadmill for a few minutes at a time.

Did the bodyweight circuits again today. Changed the push ups to on the wall, think I was doing them wrong before, so this should help with getting proper form. Completed all three circuits today, yay! Strangely this strength training stuff is helping me eat healthy too, it seems working on a mental level to stay away from junk food and such. Will soon be invincible!

I find that I eat much better when I work out, it's like my stomach knows how much hard work I have put in and doesn't want to ruin it. I just have to watch the following day, the day after I lift, I am always starving and have trouble making the good choices. 

 

Great job so far on your challenge!

[fauve]

You are off to a great start! Yeah!

[LittleWitch]

Finished all the exercise planned for this week  (tomorrow is my day off). I am seeing improvements already even though I've only done these 6 days!  Might do a bit of yoga tomorrow to keep up the good habits of doing something everyday.

 

Unfortunately the eating hasn't been so successful. So I have two days left to try to rectify this.  The junk food has been sneaking in and I really need to get away from eating this and bread products - I have serious trouble keeping the calories down when I eat these things.

[LittleWitch]

It's now Sunday night, end of week one. All quests past successfully.

Ate 7 items of junk food this week so will try to reduce that next week too.

[rrababit]

Well, you know where you want to improve, maybe try for 5 this week and work down from there. Great job on getting all your workouts in!

[Trusylver]

Congratulation on a successful week !

[Meant2Move]

Good for you, LittleWitch!  Steady progress is what you want, not radical changes. Looks like you are off to a really good start.

[LittleWitch]

Thanks for the support. I've been trying to cut down on the junk food this week, so far I haven't eaten any (I count junk food as sweet things only like danish pastries, cookies and chocolate), but I have eaten too many calories and to much bready stuff.

On the exercise side I've done well and completed every single one planned, and it's even getting easier. :-). I've even got it done when I haven't felt like it and when I had a massive pizza hangover, ugh. Must remember never to eat that again!

[rrababit]

Glad to hear that you were able to complete your goal, even with the challenge of pizza (oh yummy delicious pizza) maybe try for a healthier version the next time you can't resist (thinner or gluten free crust, more veggies, etc.) or try to limit your amount so that you don't end up feeling so bad later? Keep up the good work, we are nearly half way through the challenge! 

[Super Destroyer]

Interval training done for the day. Managed all 6 intervals although at a lower speed than the last attempt two days ago, but I'm happy with that. My aim is to increase both the slow and fast speeds a bit at a time throughout the next few weeks. :-)

I do interval training on the elliptical 2-3 times a week.There is actually a program on the elliptical called 30/30.  You get a 3 minute warmup, then you sprint for 30 sec., walk for thirty seconds for 5 minutes, then get a 3 min. recovery.  I usually do 10 to 20 sprints per workout day.  I can tell you, when I tried this the first time, 20 wks ago, I only made 7 minutes, 4 sprints.  I thought I was going to die.  After 20 wks, it is still a great workout, and my endurance is MUCH greater.  I have since upped the resistance from 8-15 and my ave. rpms for the sprints are up from 72-84 to keep the intensity  level high.  Long story short, stay at it!  I have lost 69 lbs. in 21 weeks and I attribute HIIT on the elliptical with a lot of this.

[LittleWitch]

Thanks rrababit and jtpowell for your encouragement.  I am so bad at writing in forums, only getting round to it now!  Maybe I should add that as a life challenge for the next challenge, lol.

 

I am now almost at the end of my 1st 3 weeks (as of end of tomorrow).  So far I have kept to all my exercise goals - so really pleased with that side, especially as I always used to avoid exercise like the plaque.  And now I rarely have to have an internal battle with myself as to whether I should skip it, it's almost becoming a just one of those things I have to do type of thing.  Hope I can keep it up. I'm wondering if I should do the bbww and intervals on the same day so I only do every second day, but I'm not sure because although it would be more practical for me it might give me more reason to want to skip sessions as the duration would be double.

 

Food wise, I am doing so-so.  Calories are averaging about right, but for the 1st two weeks I added the interval sessions to my calorie counter which then gave me extra calories to eat - and so I ate them.  Basically didn't loose any weight. So 3rd week I haven't added them to the counter.  Apparently loosing just 5lbs is much more difficult than I thought.  I am trying to be more careful with my food choices, in particularly reducing the bread and junk food, and this is going well.  I guess I'll only lose a few lbs if any this challenge - but I'm not as de-motivated by that as I would normally have been and it's not going to make me quit this time.  It's taken 10 years to get fat, I'm not going to get skinny in a few weeks and that's fine.  I feel fitter and healthy and that's great.

[Super Destroyer]

You can do it! Keep up the good work!

[LittleWitch]

All exercise finished for this week.     Exchanged one of the bbww for a 2.5hr walk with lots of hills - seemed like it was at least equal in effort required to complete.

 

Eating goals still not so good, only just staying on target, and it's hard to keep going when there's bread everywhere.  This is definitely something I'll be working on more next challenge, perhaps more on the eating healthier rather than eating less.

 

Only 8 days to go! 

[LittleWitch]

End Of Challenge 1 Report

 

1) Record everything I eat and not go over my daily calorie allowance, averaged over each week - 1480cal per day.

I recorded everything I ate, I did go over my daily allowance on some days, but overall, over the full 5 weeks I am only over by 3 calories!

 

2) Do the beginners bodyweight workout 3 times a week.

Completed.  Swapped one for a 2.5hr walk (as previously noted).

Started off being able to only do 2 1/2 circuits slowly and then no more, by the last one I completed all 3 circuits in under 15 minutes.

Squats - started being able to barely do 20 whilst holding onto the bed for help with weight and balance, ended being able to to 20 easily and quickly.

Pushups - started with wall pushups, ended being able to do 10 on a waist high windowsil.  Finding it hard to imporve these - I have very weak arms!

Lunges - started with them being so so hard and needing to hold support couldn't do 20, ended can do 20, still hard but much better and do not need to hang onto anything.

Dumbell Rows - started with 5kg weights, ended using 10 kg weights.

Plank - started with hardly being able to hold for 5 seconds, ended with being able to hold at least 25 seconds (haven't tried to see what my maximum is)

 

 

3) Do interval training 3 times a week.

Completed using cross trainer.  :-)

Started with a near-death experience 1st time - did 5 min warm up then 3 intervals @ 30sec fast, 2 min slow. Had to stop, felt sick with earing ringing and blurred vision.

Ended doing 3 min warm up then 10 intervals, 30 sec fast, 1 min slow. Best distance over the challenge of 4.66km (I think it's km, but cross trainer doesn't show units).  Also increased the intensity from level 4 to 5 over the challenge

 

Overall

I would say that Challenge 1 has been successful even though I did not achieve my weight-loss goal.

I've achieved a lot more on the exercise than I expected, but unfortunately a lot less than I expected on the diet side.

For next time I'm going to look at improving the quality of my food rather than counting calories, as although I pretty much stuck to the calorie allowance I have eaten all sorts of unhealthy stuff and hardly lost any weight.