Comrades! Hello!

[The Mouse]

Hi, folks!

 

I've been putzing around reading the blog for about a week now, and have finally decided to join up. 

 

I'm a 22-year-old University student, female, 5' 1/4" (yes, a quarter-inch - when you're my size, every bit counts!) and I'm coming in at 155lbs. So you can be sure I'm not happy about that.

 

I've always been moderately active - played school and club volleyball through junior high and was fairly active when I was "younger". But since high school and University, I've been steadily packing on weight. Two years ago, I decided I had had enough and started working out with my dad in the mornings, I signed up for boot camp one summer and I got back into karate (which I still do today) - I went down to 140, but then I bounced back up come the next school year and all the fun that comes with that.

 

However, recently I've found that I'm dissatisfied with my speed and power in karate (I'm a 3rd kyu brown belt in Goju Ryu). I had looked into various bodyweight exercises and done some fitness programs here and again, but always found excuses to say "oh, but I have an exam/case study/thing". But no more! Reading Joe, Staci and Athena's stories (and all the other success stories out there) have convinced me that I can do this and I've decided that I will do this. Today. And tomorrow and everyday.

 

I've made myself a (perhaps overzealous) training program that involves the BBW workout on Tues, Thurs, Sat and interval training on Mon, Wed, Fri. I'm sure I can pull off the BBW days because two of them (Tues, Sat) coincide with my karate days and I can either tack them on at the beginning or the end (or if I'm lucky, lead the club in a warm up and get them all to do BBW), but the intervals will give me more trouble.

 

My goals and action plans are:

• Do BBW 3x a week
  • Wake up early on Tues, Thurs to do Bodyweight (will have to time and see how long it takes - estimating 40mins incl warm up and stretch)
  • Sat, stay a little later at karate or go to the gym after to make sure I do it
• Cut out bread and rice from my diet (as I don't eat a lot of potatoes)
  • I can easily cut out bread (don't eat too much of it and most of it is at breakfast)
  • ...Cut out rice... starting with seeing how many days I can go without [current count: 0] (I'm Filipina - we haven't eaten 'till we've had rice!)
    • Each week, try to beat the last week; if this week I can go one or two days without eating rice, I'll try for three or four the next week.
    • If you have any tips on cutting this down, please help me!
• Transition into Paleo
  • Build up a lean meat, veggie and fruit section in the family fridge over the next two weeks
  • Establish a realistic meal plan using various Paleo recipe websites
  • Continue educating myself on the yeses and nos of the diet

 

...Phew.

Sorry - this is so long.

But I hope I haven't bored you and I hope I get to say hi soon! 

[NicoleCanoes]

You have a nice set of goals. See if you can get a friend to do the interval training with you. It will make it more fun and make it less likely you skip the workout.

[Laureleye]

It might be easier to taper back your rice serving size and decrease in that fashion.  Otherwise, its pretty good looking.  Good luck. 

[Elastigirl]

Welcome! Great ambitious goals. Don't forget sleep is important too though, you are obviously in good shape, but don't make your workout schedule so hard that you burn out.

 

Love your 5'1/4" comment. Now I just "round" it up to 5'1"-don't ask me how 1/4' rounds up to 1"-its my story and I'm sticking to saying Im 5'1"

[The Mouse]

NicoleCanoes,

Thank you! I think I'll try to join my dad again on his morning work outs/get him to work out on those mornings. He may not follow me in interval training, but I do find that if I lose motivation, seeing him lift and do his exercises dedicatedly in the mirror helps.

Laureleye,

Thank you for the tip!

I'll have to give that a try.

I think I've come up with a plan to slowly switch to Paleo: try to switch to all Paleo all week meal by meal, with a few cheat meals on weekends. So, for two weeks, eat Paleo breakfasts. For the two weeks following, work in Paleo lunches as well. Finally, go mostly Paleo by switching dinners to Paleo.

Elastigirl,

Thanks!

Yeah, I worry a bit about that, but today brought some potential help with that. I told my boyfriend about my goals and he wants to wake up with me at 5:30 or 6 everyday to make sure we both work out. We live apart, so that'd mean whoever's up first gives the other a wake up call and pep talk. It will also force us to end our good night calls earlier to get the sleep we need.

[The Mouse]

PS:

Elastigirl - I'm so glad there's someone else my height out there! >w<

As my music teacher (also small) said: "Great things come in small packages!"