Finally MariahSnow finally does it... finally

[MariahSnow]

Well, my original post got eaten when my firefox crashed so here's basically the tl;dnr version (aka, tl;did not want to type again I ended up typing a lot anyway)

 

Goal 1 - Eat at 15% deficit of TDEE

I want to get down to 155 lbs. I had been hovering around 170 but this morning weighed in at about 162, so this is very do-able! Looking for about 1 lb a week.

How: Track my food in MFP. I eat the same breakfast every day so that's easy. Also track weight daily in MFP. I feel daily tracking gives me the best indicator of how I'm doing because what if I weight myself one week and I'm particularly dehydrated and then the next week I'm on my cycle so I'm all bloated, that's not giving me the whole picture. I'm not currently obsessing over the scale or the weight or like "omg I just ate a ton, I wonder how much I weigh now!" The scale is my friend, not my enemy, and I will use its accurate and objective readings to reach my goals. Why 155? That's my college weight, and at this point just kind of an arbitrary weight goal. After this cut, I want to bulk and gain muscle so I think 155 is a good starting point.

 

Goal 2 - Bring yo mutha effin' lunch to work, yo

Seriously. This is beneficial because I can eat exactly to my calorie goals AND if I eat the same thing for a few days it's easier to track in MFP. This makes two aspects of my life automated so I can focus on other shit, like finishing the Wheel of Time series and elbowing my fiance outta the way so I can play Destiny (I kid, I kid).

 

Goal 3 - StrongCurves (aka Booty by Bret) 3x a week

Maybe she's born with it, maybe it's Bret Contreras. We'll never know. I actually do have an ample rump but it's not very useful. How do I know this? Because I injured my back in Sept 2014 and did extensive physical therapy which pretty much led to the conclusion that I have very little glute and ab activation which means my quads and back are doing most of the work. Bad times for back (no so bad for quadzilla). StrongCurves is particularly ideal for me because of its focus on glutes, it's 3x a week which is more than do-able for me and flexible in case work gets stoopid, it's strength-based to help me maintain muscle while cutting. Win-win-win!!

[MariahSnow]

sneaky post

[MariahSnow]

I actually started my challenge on 5/25 because I was done with my other challenge, had new goals, and wanted to get started ASAP.

 

Results for Week 1:

Goal 1 - I tracked all 7 days last week (woot!) At this point I'm focusing on breakfast and lunch, leaving about 600 calories for dinner. This week I'm focusing on adding in dinner tracking as well to make sure the picture is clear.

Goal 2 - Brought my mutha effin' lunch to work all days last week (week days) and it was delicious! Got my lunches set up for this week as well so I have food every day.

Goal 3 - I did StrongCurves Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. Friday was a cluster so it had to get moved.

 

I got weighed at the doctor on 5/19 and I was 168.8 lbs. The first day of this challenge (5/25), I weighed 163.2. Today I weighed 161.8 despite some delicious brisket last night. Some of you might say not to trust the doctor scale but I also weighed myself pretty regularly at work when they had a biggest loser challenge going on and I was typically anywhere from 168-172, so I think that's a fairly accurate baseline to start from.

[chairohkey]

My wife is currently doing a version of StrongCurves and loving it. That is all.

[Presea]

Looks like you had a great week!  I love bulk cooking on the weekend so that logging my breakfasts and lunches all week is a no-brainer.  Is StrongCurves a weight lifting program?

[MariahSnow]

Looks like you had a great week!  I love bulk cooking on the weekend so that logging my breakfasts and lunches all week is a no-brainer.  Is StrongCurves a weight lifting program?

 StrongCurves is weight lifting (if you want it to be) or bodyweight (if you want it to be). The book itself comes with different vairations of 12 week workouts. Some are full body with weights (including barbells squats, deadlifts, and bench press) which I consider to be the foundation of any weight lifting program. What makes it StrongCurves is the addition of glute-focused accessory exercises. It's definitely one of the best books that I've read, better than Starting Strength in my opinion mostly because it's made for women.

[Presea]

Sounds like something I'd definitely be interested in when fall rolls around!  (I can't bring myself to spend time in the gym when it's nice out in the summer).  I'll have to look for it at half priced books

[MariahSnow]

I was debating for a while about buying it but it was definitely worth the money. Lots of good info, lots of good pictures and explanations. Plus Bret Contreras (one of the two authors) has tons of videos on his YouTube describing and demonstrating lots of the basic moves. Even if you can't find it at half-priced books, it's worth the price on Amazon ($25 I think?)

[MariahSnow]

Week 2 Results!

 

Goal 1 - I tracked all 7 days. I missed dinner one day but I don't remember why now or what I ate. I'm counting "tracking" mostly as breakfast and lunches. If I can set myself up well for breakfast and lunch then I'm less concerned about what I'm eating for dinner. I track it when I can, if it's complicated (like that tofu vermicelli noodle bowl I had last night), then I just leave it out.

 

Goal 2 - I brought my lunch 4/5 days last week. Unfortunately, I made the choice to get a turkey sandwich with drinks and chips from Jimmy Johns and somehow that ended up being 1200 calories?!?! Luckily I wasn't very hungry in the morning and work was busy so I wasn't starving. I ate a sad yogurt for dinner and called it a day. Not making that mistake again although it was delicious.

 

Goal 3 - StrongCurves 3/3 days last week! I had to move my Friday workout to Saturday due to sleepiness and work stress. I didn't leave the office until almost 7 on Friday, ugh

 

Going forward:

Goal 1 and 2 - I've got lunches and snacks prepped for the 4 days I'm working this week (furlough day Friday and going on a weekend adventure with my fiancé!). I've learned a lot about automation. I don't need to make some elaborate meal every weekend. It could be just as simple as buying a pound of lunch meat and some wraps. This is the key to success, making lunches stupid easy to pack (or make) for work.

 

Goal 3 - I'm going to do StrongCurves in the gym starting tomorrow. I'm having a hard time making the upper body pull exercises at home (things like bent over rows, reverse pull-ups, chin-ups). One thing I noticed in the programming is that in Workout A I'll do a torso-elevated pushup, in workout B I'll do knee pushups, and in Workout C I'll do negative pushups. So I'm working the same muscles with different intensity and I've seen my knee-pushup numbers increase dramatically, almost linearly. I'm worried that not doing all the upper body pull exercises as prescribed in the book (instead of my at-home substitutions) is limiting my progress. I also re-read some of the book last night and the authors recommend working out 4 days a week. And here I'd been doing three. This week I plan to go Mon, Tues, Thurs since I'll be out of town Fri, Sat, Sun. And then maybe next week I'll do Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri.

 

Weight: 161.0 lbs this morning. That's down about 0.8 from last week which is ideal, approx. 1 lb per week. I've been 161.0 for two days in a row now so hoping tomorrow it's lower!

[MariahSnow]

Ugh. I'm kind of stressing about my mini-vacation this weekend to Austin. I know my fiance is going to want to eat all kinds of delicious shit and I do, too and I'm stressing that I'm going to gain weight. I need to remember a few things.

 

1. Eat something special like dessert only if it's really worth it

2. Only eat more if each bite is as good as the first.

3. Stop eating when I'm satisfied, before I'm full.

 

Whew, I feel better already.

[MariahSnow]

I noticed some buttwink when I was bodyweight squatting this morning. And checking myself out hardcore in the mirror, as you do. I noticed it right when I got to about parallel (top of quads parallel, not bottom of hammies parallel). I focused for a few squats on really squeezing my glutes throughout the movement and noticed that the buttwink wasn't as bad. So I went back to the source and watched this video by Bret Contreras on Buttwink. This is actually really interesting because I was always told to go to parallel or below if possible and then told separately about buttwink, but not how those things might be related. This video also describes buttwink as having a pretty strong anatomical component. I think I could improve my buttwink a bit but I doubt if I'll be able to preserve my lumbar spine all the way down, although I can comfortably squat ass to grass and stay there with feet flat for an extended period of time (asian-style squats). I think with further glute activation and glute contribution to the squat I'll probably be hitting below parallel or a bit below without buttwink.

 

Yay learning!

[Polaris]

I have never heard the term buttwink before. I must go google it now.

 

Good luck on your goals! I also have weight loss goal for this challenge, so I'm struggling to not panic whenever the scale shows a bigger number than last time. (My friend borrowed it to me for the summer after I promised, quote, "not to become all neurotic with it" )

 

StrongCurves sounds interesting, what kind of glute exercises does it have you do? I'm also trying to concentrate on my behind because, well, because there's a lot of it but I'd like it to be kind of... higher?

[wildross]

subbinhg..

[MariahSnow]

I have never heard the term buttwink before. I must go google it now.

 

Good luck on your goals! I also have weight loss goal for this challenge, so I'm struggling to not panic whenever the scale shows a bigger number than last time. (My friend borrowed it to me for the summer after I promised, quote, "not to become all neurotic with it" )

 

StrongCurves sounds interesting, what kind of glute exercises does it have you do? I'm also trying to concentrate on my behind because, well, because there's a lot of it but I'd like it to be kind of... higher?

 

So the way StrongCurves is set up is two supersets at the beginning of the workout, A and B. During A you usually do a glute exercise that's also a big joint exercise (glute bridges for example where you're hinging at your hips) and it's paired with an upper body exercise (for example Dumbbell one-arm row). Superset B is usually another large joint exercise (like squat) paired with the opposite of the precious upper body exercise which was an upper body horizontal pull, so you do an upper body horizontal push (i.e. bench press). Then typically you'll do some glute-ham focused work like hip hinges or hyperextensions. And then some high-rep auxiliary exercises like hip abduction or "clam shells". It's a pretty solid full-body workout which is what I like with extra glute focus on the end. The book also contains a full warmup which is really helpful. Workouts including warmup usually take about an hour, maybe an hour and 15 mins.

[MariahSnow]

subbinhg..

Thanks!

[MariahSnow]

Week 3 Results!

 

Goal 1 - I tracked MTWTH of last week but skipped out on Friday-Sunday because I was in Austin, eating whatever I wanted and enjoying mini-vacation. I was really stressed about this but that was all for nothing because.... when I weighed myself Monday morning I was 161.2 lbs, which is approximately where I was last Monday. Logically I didn't gain back 5 lbs in a weekend! Especially since my fiance and I were walking at least 4 miles a day which is a hell of a lot more than I typically get on a normal day.

 

Goal 2 - I brought my lunch to work MTWTH of last week and obviously Friday-Sunday didn't give two fucks about it.

 

Goal 3 - I squeezed in workouts on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday of last week to get my 3 for the week.

 

Halfway Point!!!

I have a spreadsheet with marks for Goal 1, Goal 2, Goal 3. Right now, this is the status.

Goal 1 - 19/42 total days logged. My threshold for pass/fail is 80%, currently this is 45% (so more than halfway at the halfway!)

Goal 2 - I have 25 days of work (due to holidays and furlough days) in this 6 week challenge. Currently I've brought my lunch 12/25 days, so 48%!

Goal 3 - I've worked out 10/18 possibly workout days (Assuming at least 3x a week workouts). That's 55%!!

So basically, I'm right on track with my goals. And since I'm also tracking weight.... I've already lost 8 lbs since 5/19!

 

I had a cool/humbling experience at the gym yesterday. I typically struggle (as most women do) with moving up in weight on upper body exercises. So I usually only move up 2.5 lbs. Yesterday I was looking for the 17.5lbs to do my rows with because I had previously done 15 lbs I think. But I couldn't find those dumbbells so I manned up and tried 20. Got all my 8 reps with good form :) And then I went back later to look for 15lbs to do my bench presses, last time I think I did 12.5lbs. But the 15s were missing and the 17.5lbs were back, so I tried those for bench. Got all 8 reps with pretty decent form :) Don't underestimate your strengths! You can do more than you think!

[wildross]

A lot of weight lifting is mental.  I've been lifting off and on for decades, and seriously for 5 years.  And if I didn't have videos of my biggest lifts....I wouldn't believe I did them.

[MariahSnow]

A lot of weight lifting is mental.  I've been lifting off and on for decades, and seriously for 5 years.  And if I didn't have videos of my biggest lifts....I wouldn't believe I did them.

Definitely felt the mental part this morning!

[MariahSnow]

Week 4 Results!

 

Goal 1 - I tracked all days last week, winning! Up to 59% so far.

 

Goal 2 - Brought my lunch 3/5 days last week. One day I had a meeting in which the managers bought us lunch and Friday I went out with a coworker. Meh, that's life. I'm at 60% on that goal. Going out to the store at lunch to buy ingredients for lunch today so I'll have stuff for the week.

 

Goal 3 - StrongCurves 4 times last week! I even benched 20 lb dumbbells and though to myself, hmmm I should try the bar next time. And this morning, I benched the empty bar! I'm already at 77% for that goal, so I will probably hit my 80% minimum assuming I go to all my workouts this week.

 

On a really annoying note, Friday I definitely fell off the wagon and ate a shitton of airheads at work. They're so yummy! I didn't eat much for dinner due to the sugar mess. Saturday I think I snacked a lot and then Saturday night I went to a Brazillian steakhouse in which I proceeded to eat my fill of awesome meat. Birthday celebration I also had a few cocktails. Sunday I don't think I ate anything really unusual or insane for my calorie goals. And yet this morning when I woke up I was 164.6 lbs. Last week I was 160. Thanks PMS, that bloating is really awesome. No way I gained 4 lbs of actual weight in the last week, it's gotta be water, bloating, and maybe even muscles swelling with water due to higher intensity workouts. It's really, really hard to feel like I'm doing pretty well and still watch the scale go up drastically. I'm going to dial it down this week and hope that if I stay the course the weight will fall back off. It's annoying that I can eat a little bit off plan for a few days and the scale says 4 lbs gained! But last weekend I went to Austin and ate one of everything and basically didn't gain any weight. Grrrr.

 

Edit: I should take progress pics because I feel like my body looks really good in comparison to where I was a few weeks ago/a month ago, so perhaps that would be a better measurement than the scale right now. Stupid scale. Stupid PMS.

[MariahSnow]

Benched 25 lb dumbbells this morning!!!!

 

 

[MariahSnow]

Week 4 Results!

 

Goal 1 - I tracked all days last week, winning! Up to 59% so far.

 

Goal 2 - Brought my lunch 3/5 days last week. One day I had a meeting in which the managers bought us lunch and Friday I went out with a coworker. Meh, that's life. I'm at 60% on that goal. Going out to the store at lunch to buy ingredients for lunch today so I'll have stuff for the week.

 

Goal 3 - StrongCurves 4 times last week! I even benched 20 lb dumbbells and though to myself, hmmm I should try the bar next time. And this morning, I benched the empty bar! I'm already at 77% for that goal, so I will probably hit my 80% minimum assuming I go to all my workouts this week.

 

On a really annoying note, Friday I definitely fell off the wagon and ate a shitton of airheads at work. They're so yummy! I didn't eat much for dinner due to the sugar mess. Saturday I think I snacked a lot and then Saturday night I went to a Brazillian steakhouse in which I proceeded to eat my fill of awesome meat. Birthday celebration I also had a few cocktails. Sunday I don't think I ate anything really unusual or insane for my calorie goals. And yet this morning when I woke up I was 164.6 lbs. Last week I was 160. Thanks PMS, that bloating is really awesome. No way I gained 4 lbs of actual weight in the last week, it's gotta be water, bloating, and maybe even muscles swelling with water due to higher intensity workouts. It's really, really hard to feel like I'm doing pretty well and still watch the scale go up drastically. I'm going to dial it down this week and hope that if I stay the course the weight will fall back off. It's annoying that I can eat a little bit off plan for a few days and the scale says 4 lbs gained! But last weekend I went to Austin and ate one of everything and basically didn't gain any weight. Grrrr.

 

Edit: I should take progress pics because I feel like my body looks really good in comparison to where I was a few weeks ago/a month ago, so perhaps that would be a better measurement than the scale right now. Stupid scale. Stupid PMS.

 

Back down to 162 this morning, that's 2 lbs in 2 days... pretty sure that's not normal weight loss and water weight going away from my cycle. Hoping to trend continues and I'm back down to 160 by the end of the week/weekend. I really want to be in the 150s before this challenge ends!

[MariahSnow]

Week 5 Results!

 

Goal 1 - I tracked all the foods in MFP, even that funnel cake. Currently at 76%

Goal 2 - I brought lunch to work last week for all 4 days that I worked last week. I even got real turkey sliced at the deli instead of the packaged stuff, nice bread, and lettuce to build mighty sandwiches! Currently at 88% (which is a pass for me!!). This week I've got chicken, broccoli, and quinoa FTW and the home stretch!

Goal 3 - I did StrongCurves 4 days last week! (Currently at 94%, mostly because I based my percentages initially of 3x a week, but now I've moved up to 4 and loving it.)

 

Lemme just go ahead and start some celebration up in here

 

I benched 55 lbs while listening to "In Summer" and it was magical!!

https://youtu.be/UFatVn1hP3o

 

 

I weighed in this morning at 159.4 lbs!!

 

I did this on Friday and it was terrifying!!! Definitely really scared of heights, definitely won't be doing that again, but proud I conquered a fear!!

https://youtu.be/REZJwYOh1-I

[MariahSnow]

Final Results!

 

Goal 1 - Track all the foods. I tracked 37/42 days in this challenge, or 88%. Crushed it!

Goal 2 - Bring yo motha effin' lunch to work. I brought my lunch 22/25 work days in this challenge, or 88%. Crushed it!!!

Goal 3 - StrongCurves 3x a week. I did 17/18 workouts or 94%, crushed it! I also moved up to 4x week workouts to be fair, but still, crushed it!

 

I kind of made a bet with myself before this challenge that if I took progress pics, I need to suck it up and post them online when I'm done. And I did, and it was great!

WARNING - that link is SFW because it's just the reddit post I made, but within that post is an imgur link to me in a bikini which is probably NSFW!

 

So now I'm going to pretend like I'm the most awesome and Steve is interviewing me...

 

What was a typical day like for you before this challenge?

I got up at around 5 AM to rush off to do either swimming, running, cycling, or some combination for triathlon training. I was mentally and physically exhausted and that extra stress made me binge out on everything in sight and worse, never feel satisfied.

 

How many times prior to this had you tried to lose weight?

I tried for years to do the whole body recomp thing, but I was never smart about it in terms of making a concerted effort for a short period of time (i.e. a cut) and doing things like weighing myself, taking progress pics, measuring. I treated this challenge like a science experiment. And I also wanted to measure small changes since losing weight is a slow process. I think seeing the scale move down over several days was really beneficial to the mental aspect of sticking to a diet when everyone else is chowing down on donuts at work.

 

What inspired you to get started?

I can't pinpoint one thing exactly but I think I was really just searching for simplicity. I've seen a lot of fitness ladies out there like Jen Sinkler, Jen Comas, Jill Coleman talk about how automated their lives are and they don't spend hours at the gym but still look great. I didn't trust that they were telling the truth but I decided to put my doubts aside and trust that a calorie deficit and 3x a week workouts would produce results.

 

Were you workouts mostly at home or at the gym?

I started at home because mentally the gym was daunting to me mentally. I could feel the stress rise, and the idea of getting up early and packing a gym back was overwhelming. So I followed the StrongCurve bodyweight workouts as best as I could for 4 weeks, and then moved up to a gym. This was actually part of a mini-reward system for sticking to my workouts. Now I'm at the gym 3-4 days a week for about an hour, maybe an hour and 15 mins.

 

What's the toughest change you had to make?

I think actually balancing control. I tend to be a control freak but about things that I can't control anyway, like traffic. But then I'm not very controlling about things like what I eat. I chose to refocus and pick my battles. I can't do anything about traffic on my way home which cut into my workout time, but I can do something about the choices I make for the food I eat on a day-to-day basis.

 

What's the best thing you did for yourself during this challenge?

It was all about the mental aspect. I've noticed a lot of mental growth during this. The ability to eat a donut without guilt, and the ability to say "you know what, that donut isn't really helping my goals". I tried to be as gentle with myself as possible and when I was binging on starburst at work, I stepped back and looked at what's going on in my life. Why was I stressed? What could I do about it? If it's job stress or something that I can't control, I just rolled with the punches. If I was doing it to myself, then I eliminated some of that stress as much as possible.

 

How often did you weigh yourself? Take pictures? Take measurements?

I weighed myself daily. This actually was really positive because I could see the tiny fluctuations in my weight and that didn't freak me out. I trusted that as long as I kept to a calorie deficit, I'd lose weight eventually, even if today's weight was higher than yesterdays. Also, with a new weight measurement every day, I basically got to start over every day and that really helped mentally. I took pictures maybe once a month, but sporadically. Measurements were also sporadic but I did take them a few times.

 

How do you deal with diet/fitness and your job?

Before this challenge I was working 12 hour shifts and they were awful, but I brought my food and powered through it. Sometimes if I was really stressed with work I'd have a whiskey and ginger ale. Or on the weekends I'd have a donut in the morning with my fiance. I tended to follow "flexible dieting" and macro counting, so if I ate a donut in the morning, I'd just adjust what I ate the rest of the day. One day I ordered a turkey sandwich with chips and a Dr Pepper from Jason's deli and that ended up being like 1100 calories. So then I ate some greek yogurt for dinner and went to bed. It sucked, but I learned my lesson about foods that SEEM healthy (like a 900 calorie turkey sandwich?!?)

 

Ok this is getting tiring, let's skip to the good stuff!

 

What are you currently playing and what games do you love?

Currently playing Witcher 3 when I can. Loving that. I need to kick my fiance off the xbox more so I can play. I love massive RPGs like Skyrim, Witcher 3. I even picked up an old Oblivion to play that as well.

 

Star Wars or Lord of the Rings?

Both! Star Wars feels so relatable, like I was a whiney kid just like Luke and I hated where I grew up and I longed for adventure. Lord of the Rings is so epic and some of the heroes in that like Aragorn are so larger-than-life.

 

Any other nerdy passions or pursuits?

Currently finishing up the Wheel of Time series. I've gotten pretty big into fantasy books since I read Game of Thrones.

[wildross]

great summary of a great challenge!