New recruit!

[Guest Sabe]

Hey everyone, I wanted to introduce myself before challenge-time starts... I found this site over the holidays and have been lurking since then. I'm excited to be here!

Basic stats: I'm 23, female, and work a desk job. I've also been studying for a big nasty test / applying to grad school for the past 6 months, which has made maintaining a good fitness routine a conscious non-priority. But I'm almost done! And I've been getting my diet back to a reasonable place recently, so I'm ready to take the next step.

I'm 5'5" and currently weigh about 140 lbs, down from an all-time high of 250(!) I lost most of the weight in college by eating less and walking more, but after I gained some back on my desk job, I found Mark's Daily Apple and started eating Primally (Paleo with butter and occasional dairy, more or less). That was 2 years ago, and while my devotion to the eating style has wavered at times, I've more or less stuck with it--and I've been recommitting myself lately.

Before application misery started, I was loyally going to the gym almost every night--but my problem has been actually pushing myself. The Primal Blueprint talks a lot about slow, steady movement, heavy lifting, and sprinting... Whereas I've been into slow, steady movement, moderate lifting, and very little sprinting. I actually tried doing 5x5 Stronglifts at one point, but it sucked--and reading this site, I think I finally realized why: I was eating at a calorie deficit to lose fat at the same time as I was making my weights higher and higher. I actually don't think I even gained muscle; I just did things that hurt more and more every day, until of course I got scared of the bar and stopped. Also, I was squatting with my lower back and got nasty back strains. Whoops.

I'll have time for the gym again starting in two days, so my big goal is to make the most of my time there. I would LOVE to be able to lift huge things, but I'd settle for learning to do a real pushup at the moment, or to benchpress more than ~50 lbs. Or to squat without fear! Seriously, I know squats are awesome, but they're scary, especially if you're doing them unsupervised.

I'll be joining the new 6-week challenge soon, after I decide what class I'm in... and set some good goals. Looking forward to meeting all of you!

 

(P.S. Yes, my name and avatar are a Star Wars prequel reference, and yes, I know they're terrible movies! If it helps repair my shattered nerd-cred, this was the handle I used when I was a moderator on a Star Wars forum many years ago. Plus, Sabé is still awesome. So there.)

[emeraldxemmie]

It's great that you really looked at your diet and how it directly corresponded with your results in the gym! Let us know how making a U-turn out of the calorie-deficit-dead-end goes.  I definitely know what you mean about the squats . . . I cringe inside with every set, and I don't have anyone in my social circle that would be able to critique my form for me.  Have you found any videos or explanations to be particularly useful for you? 

[Guest Sabe]

Maybe you or someone else can help me figure the calorie part out, actually. I'd like to gain strength, but I do still  need to lose fat, and I know those two things don't always go together easily. I'll admit I feel vain saying this, because lifting is awesome, but at this point, I'd choose faster fat loss over faster strength gain--as long as I'm still able to improve my physical abilities and not lose muscle. I feel like this means I should eat at calorie parity or slightly under, and just not expect that I'm going to be able to add 5 lbs to my squats every day out of pure willpower (oh, StrongLifts). That's why I'm thinking of focusing on bodyweight exercises for the time being, especially since my overall level of strength is currently so minimal.

 

I actually found the video about squats embedded at the bottom of this Nerd Fitness page very helpful. That was how I figured out for sure that the "tucking" I had been doing was wrong. Honestly, though, I think I already knew that, as I could feel that I was using my back to compensate for the weight. Once I've started a squat, I feel like I should be doing anything necessary to finish it, and I know that's not true.

[JessOfAllTrades]

Welcome! I hear you on the grad school stress - doing applications while working kind of puts a crunch on free time. I'm glad you have big plans for when the time returns. What programs are you applying to? (I'm a grad student and a bit nosy, hence the question)

 

I also hear you on the gaining strength vs losing weight thing. Since I just started I've been focusing on inches and measurements, not the scale number.

 

And my boyfriend and I are also eating primally. We've kept a bit of dairy but are mostly making paleo recipes and meals. Happy to hear you've had so much success with it!

[Guest Sabe]

Oh yeah, when I say "weight," I mean "fat"--I would be 100% thrilled to stay at 140 lbs if I could replace most of my fat-weight with muscle-weight!

 

I know I'm going to have to lay off the scale once I start doing strength training again, though. I have to admit, even though I know that "weight" is often inaccurate and/or meaningless, I do like how precise it is. I never feel like I can get consistent numbers from measuring tape, and my jean tightness varies by my laundry cycle. Basically, I think I'm going to have to learn to just keeping doing things as well as possible and not worry about whether or not it's having any effect... which is hard for me, as a data geek!

 

I'm applying to business school programs, with the aim of eventually getting into the non-profit sector. I'm only applying to four schools, but it's just been the worst. Ah well, just a day and a half left to go...

 

Have you ever done a comparison of more dairy vs. less dairy? I cut dairy out when I did a Whole30 over the summer and didn't feel anything physically different when I went off it or when I added it back in, so I figured I didn't have any sensitivities. I did lose weight at a faster pace then, though, but I was bad about adding things back systematically, so I have no idea if the dairy had an effect on that.

 

Nice to meet you!