Maiwen: Journey to Lvl Athena

[Maiwen]

I wasn't sure I was going to do a battle log - however I decided it would be a good way to keep me accountable!
 
A little background on the title...

 

"Athena is the goddess of knowledge, purity, arts, crafts, learning, justice and wisdom; courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, mathematics, strength and war strategy. She represents intelligence, humility, consciousness, cosmic knowledge, creativity, education, enlightenment, the arts, eloquence and power. She stands for Truth, Justice, and Moral values. She plays a tough, clever and independent role."

 

 

 

Athena is everything that I aspire to be in a human being (minus the math bit ). So I decided to mould my journey around her. Not only for strength and power but to become a better person.

 
A little about me
 
5'6 - 26 years old - serving in the Canadian Armed Forces 
 
Got into the world of fitness a little over two years ago when I was overweight, depressed and quite unhappy. There was a sudden click and I decided to get into physical activity again. I went from over 200# to 159# (current). I have since then run multiple races from 2k to half marathons (third half in September). I started with bodybuilding.com and learning all types of different exercises and schools of thought. 
 
I recently discovered StrongLifts and started doing that about 3 weeks ago. I am completely and utterly in love with this type of straight forward, strength building workout. I have found my place in the fitness world. I decided I was going to work on building strength and stop worrying so much about how much I weigh and how much fat I have. Ideally I want to lose a little bit more fat but I am confident that it will come with this training. 

 

I would want to one day compete in a powerlifting competition and really get involved in that world. 
 
I am thinking more and more of going paleo so that will probably something you will see me switch to in the future. I have an addiction to sweets/carbs and I am working hard to control those cravings/binges. That is one of the reasons I decided to do this battle log - to be accountable if I stuff my face full of chocolate  !

 

I'll try to post macros and workouts daily so if anyone reading this sees any deficiencies in my training/nutrition you can let me know! I am always open to constructive criticism. 

 

Today's workout:

I won't be writing my warms-ups in the daily logs but I always warm up! 

 

Squats: 

5x125#

5x125#

5x125#

5x125#

5x125#

Bench:

5x85#

5x85#

5x85#

5x85#

5x85#

BB Row:

5x75#

5x75#

5x75#

5x75#

5x75#

Leg Press:

10x180#

10x180#

10x180#

10x180#

 

Nutrition

Cals: 2366

Fats: 56g

Carbs: 217g

Fiber: 75g

Sugar: 45g

Protein: 260g

 

I think that's more than enough for the first post... Not sure if people will be interested in reading all of this or not but hopefully it'll help me stay accountable. 

 

Questions and comments are more than welcome.

 

Cheers! 

 

-Mai

 

 

[SpecialSundae]

Hey,

 

Nice to see you have a battle log. I'll try to check in regularly.

 

How the hell did you eat 75g of fibre??? I think the most I've ever eaten is about 45g (other than the day I had two Quest bars on top of my usual 30g of fibre from natural sources).

 

Are you on MFP?

[Maiwen]

HAHAHA.

 

I cheated - I had two quest bars yesterday because I was short on time. 

 

Yes I am on MFP - kbussepl is my login on there.

 

 

Thanks for checking in 

[Maiwen]

Today was a shitty day.

 

I didn't log any of my food and I did nothing physical. Was planning on going for a quick run but I got distracted. AND my hockey team just got eliminated from the playoffs. 

 

I did however try make a mango & avocado salsa from nom nom paleo and holy mother it's so tasty! I got rid of a few things in my pantry to slowly start the switch to paleo (or 80% paleo). 

 

Tomorrow is a new day! Will be going to the gym for some squats, OH Press and DLs so I am excited about it. Also I get to see my mom tomorrow! Driving the 2 hours that separate us so we can go get our hair done together haha. What can I say? I'm a girly nerd. 

I am doing 5x5 at 130# for squats tomorrow and I am a little nervous! Will see how it goes.

 

Now it's bed time! 

 

Cheers! 

[Basement Cat]

Helloooooooooooooooooooo! Are you still here? Tell us how you're doing!

[Maiwen]

Wow was it a rough week last week. I had no time to write in my battle log. 

 

Had lots of training to do with the military and had some official functions to attend on top of normal work hours. I won't lie to you guys... my diet suffered but I kept consistent with the gym. But I shouldn't be making any excuses! 

 

This week has also been pretty busy but not as frantic. I have been hitting the gym and eating right. I've removed all the non paleo things from my house and have been eating really well.

 

I managed a DL PR of 255# which I was quite happy about. Slowly on my way up to my goal. 

 

 

Yesterday's workout was another 5x5:

 

Squats: 

5x145#

5x145#

5x145#

5x145#

5x145#

Bench:

5x95#

5x95#

5x95#

5x95#

5x95#

BB Row:

5x95#

5x95#

5x95#

5x95#

5x95#

 

Never thought I'd see the day where I could PROPERLY squat 145 pounds once - let alone 5x5. The breathing technique I learned from browsing the forum has made such a huge difference. 

 

Today I have dragon boat practice which is usually a good workout. 

 

Now that my schedule has calmed down - I will be posting some more! 

 

Cheers,

 

Mai

[Maiwen]

I hate night shift! I feel like it always screws me up internally even though I've been doing it for over two years now. 

 

Dragon boat practice yesterday was brutal to say the least. I could definitely feel my stronglifts workout during the practice. But I gritted my teeth and got'er done! She made us do several 3 minute series which are so demanding. If you've ever done dragon boating you know how it feels. 

 

Today I woke up around 12:30 after night shift and had some breakfast.

 

I went to the gym around 3 for my final 5x5 of the week:

 

Squats: 

5x150#

5x150#

5x150#

5x150#

5x150#

 

My butt hates me right now but I love it!

Oh Press:

5x75#

5x75#

5x75#

5x75#

5x75#

 

Boy! The last two sets were hard on me - I had to dig deep to get that extra push for the 5th rep of each set. 

Deadlift:

5x230#

 

I came back home and made some awesome paleo tortillas that I've fallen IN LOVE with. I made some tuna spicy salad (with homemade mayo) and made wraps. It was really good and so easy to make! 

 

Tonight I'll be having some beef with veggies and sweet potato fries. 

 

Tomorrow is the Ottawa Race Weekend here in Ottawa. It's a huge weekend long event with races from 2.5K to full marathon. My parents are coming up from Montreal to do the 10k with me for the second year in a row. I'm not going for time as my legs will probably be really sore and running just isn't fun to me. I've actually decided that after my half marathon in September, I won't be signing up for anymore races. I'll keep my running to 5k or less and just work on speed. 

 

If I eat all my food today (which I might not given that I woke up at 1230) my macros would look like this:

Cals: 2125

Fats: 78g

Carbs: 180g

Fiber: 30g

Sugar: 47g

Protein: 173g

 

Now it's time to do a little more stretching and relax before the run tomorrow. 

[Maiwen]

Ugh.

 

I do not want to do this race today. My entire being is screaming it's disagreement. 

 

Have I told you guys I hate running? Yeah, I hate it. I kept signing up for these races the last 2-3 years but never really committing to the training because... you guessed it - I HATE running. Now that I've found my passion in powerlifting, I have even less motivation to go out running long distances. 

 

If you don't hear from me by Monday night it means I died this afternoon. 

 

I'm just telling myself I only have 1 race left after this one. I got this, right?

 

Send me some positive vibes if you're reading this! 

[Maiwen]

I did it! And I survived!

 

I hurt. I hurt so freaking bad today. 

 

I didn't want to run; I had to dig so deep inside of me to find the will to start and even deeper to keep putting one leg in front of the other. I didn't finish in my goal time of under 60 but I don't even care given how little I wanted to do it.  

 

Today is going to be a relaxing - do the least amount of walking possible - kind of day. I am going to the movies tonight to see Pitch Perfect 2 (yay!) and it's going to be an inside battle to avoid eating popcorn. 

 

I am hoping my hips are good for squatting tomorrow. I'd be sad if I had to skip a day.

 

Cheers!

[Maiwen]

Just a quick post to say that yesterday I managed the full 5x5 squats at 155! I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish the workout but I dug deep and conquered it!

 

Tomorrow is 160 pounds which will mean that I will be squatting my body weight for 5x5 which is my first goal! 

 

I'll keep you posted!