Damzie's First Battle Log!

[Damzie]

Sooo, this is my first battle log.

Little Background...

I'm 33. Happily married. No kids yet, but do have a horrifically bad Chihuahua named Buck. I'm a lawyer, which was a terrible idea, but I actually have found a job I like at long last.

As for fitness, I've done cardio and light weights for years on end, with a few periods where I was a lazy shit and didn't do anything. I am 5'7" and my last lazy bout got me up to 141, with a whole lot of shaking going on. (Read: not 141 pounds of muscle.) I am very small boned, so that is more weight for me than it sounds like. So in September I started calorie restricting, doing a lifting DVD, and running. I got down to 132/133 and then found NF, started eating primal less than a week ago, and today I weighed in at 130.6. And now I'm going to start lifting like a real grown up girl. I've been using this site as a resource, as well as StrongLifts. I plan to also buy Starting Strength.

The Exercise Plan

Since this is my first go-round, I'm sure I'll have to make adjustments. But here's where I want to start.

Strength training M/W/F, doing 5x5s. I plan to do squats, dead lifts (1x5), and inverse body rows all three days and then pick a push exercise (bench press or push ups) and a core exercise (planks, mountain climbers, hanging leg raises).

I also plan to run slowly (12 minute miles) T/R/Saturday or Sunday. This is something I do with my husband, and I would like to continue because I like it.

The Food

I've gone primal and am LOVING IT. I feel like I'm going hog wild, but I am losing weight like crazy already. But I'm not even a week in yet, so the idea is to keep doing what I'm doing there and see what adjustments I need to make (if any) once I add in my new strength training routine. I'm roughly trying to eat around 1800 calories since I still have fat I want to lose, but I'm not tracking all that carefully. I'm mostly eating until I'm satisfied. We'll see how that goes and adjust if necessary.

The Goals

I think there is a six week challenge coming up in January, so this will be a good amount of time, hopefully, for me to just learn a lot so that I can really set some good, practical goals at that time. Mostly this first push is about learning, most especially including learning about good form. I am going to try to increase weight (where applicable) 5 pounds a workout, as suggested in StrongLifts. My first push-up goal is to get to 30 on my knees. My inverse body row goal is to get to 3 sets of 12 with bent legs, then with straight legs. (Those suckers are harder than they look!) And I want to be able to do 3 sets of planks at 60 seconds.

And I intend to continue to go primal - choosing the right foods, sleeping enough, moving slowly, lifting heavy things.

The Stats

Height: 5'7"

Weight: 130.6

Measurements

Shoulders: 38 ½ in.

Waist: 27 in.

Belly: 32 ½ in.

Hips: 38 ¾ in.

Calf: 12 ½ in.

Bicep: 11 in.

Flexed bicep: 11 ½ in.

Thigh: 21 in.

Body Fat

I'm pretty sure I f'd this caliper thing up. But I guess I can assume I'm somewhere between 20% and 25%?

Tape measure method – 25.64%

Jackson/Pollock 3 caliper – 19.91%

Jackson/Pollock 4 caliper – 18.05%

(Abdominal – 9

Thigh – 30

Triceps – 13

Suprailiac - 9)

Ok, I think that's more than enough to say. Sorry, I'm a wordy mess of a woman.

[Damzie]

Started my strength training today. I was super nervous about looking like an ass, since this is new to me. But luckily the guy lifting in jeans looked dumber than me.

THE WORKOUT

Squats - 45 pounds, 5x5

- My first barbell exercise ever!!! Hell to the yeah.

Push-ups - 2x20 on knees

- The goal here is to get to 30 in a row on my knees, then move on to tougher forms

Dead lift - 95 pounds, twice

- I misunderstood this, need to be trying to do 1x5, will try that next time. This was the first time I ever wasn't sure if I could lift a weight I was trying to lift. It was a breakthrough moment for me when I did.

Inverse body rows - 2x7, 1x4

- Wow. Harder than I thought.

Planks - 45 seconds, 30 seconds, 15 seconds

- Was a little pissed I only got to 15 seconds on the last one. But this was my last exercise and I was shaking like a leaf!

I felt so proud of myself when I was done! I'm a little annoyed I misunderstood and didn't do enough dead lifts, but I know I'll make mistakes and I have to learn as I go here. The good thing was that nothing hurt, it felt like my form was solid. The biggest surprise was how hard the inverse rows were! It looked so easy on the video!!!

THE FOOD

Breakfast - Protein Shake (coconut milk, coconut water, egg yolk, whey protein, frozen berries)

Snack before workout - 1/2 apple with 2 TBSP almond butter

Lunch - Salad with steak, Gorgonzola, and apples (olive oil for dressing)

Snack - Pineapple, cucumber (don't usually need an afternoon snack, but I was hungry today)

Dinner - Veggie Scramble (3 eggs, bell peppers, queso fresco - in olive oil), 2 strips bacon, 1/2 apricot power bar (homemade)

THE VERDICT

I am super pleased with the day. I got over my nervousness at the gym and just went for it. I think my form was good and I'm off to a good start. Felt pretty amazing afterwards. I was hungrier today, but that's probably because of my workout. Felt fine about the food choices I made.

[Damzie]

No workout today. I had planned to run with my husband after work, but he ended up getting home too late. Since I'm really just focusing on strength training, I'm not going to worry if we miss a run. I'm just keeping up the running for fun.

The Food

Breakfast - Coconut Avocado Protein Shake (1/4 cup coconut milk, some coconut water, 1 avocado, scoop whey protein powder, ice)

Snack - Homemade apricot protein bar

Lunch - Tuna over greens, bell pepper, tangerine

Snack - Sweet potato with cinnamon

Dinner - Grilled chicken breast, stir fried broccoli and cauliflower, salami, couple pieces good cheese

I snacked more today than I have been. I was hungrier for some reason.

Tomorrow will be my second 5x5. Here's THE PLAN...

Squats - 50 pounds (5 pound increase)

Deadlift - 95 pounds (I only 1x2 last time, messed up. Shooting for 1x5 this time, so no increase in weight.

Overhead press - 45 pounds (First time doing this)

Inverse bodyweight rows - 3x6 (Last time I did 2x7, 1x4. Not sure I was doing them perfectly. So shooting for 3x6 perfect ones.)

Planks - 60, 45, 30 (Last time I did 45, 30, 15.)

Can't wait for my workout! (What the hell is happening to me?!)

[Damzie]

Ok, time for some before pics. This is going to hurt a little. Ignore the red splotch on my abdomen. I made the poor choice of doing my body fat calipering (new word?) BEFORE I took my pics.

Full Body

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1165[/ATTACH]

Side

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1166[/ATTACH]

Fairly sad bicep...but on its way to bigger and better things!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1164[/ATTACH]

Maybe somewhat of a shoulder muscle?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1168[/ATTACH]

[ETFnerd]

Are those rpped abs I spy? Daaaaammmmnnnn

[cosmia]

Can't wait for my workout! (What the hell is happening to me?!)

Haha, I feel the same way! I just started strength training last week and I am so legitimately excited to go to the gym tomorrow for my fifth day. Who am I? What is this feeling?! Most importantly... will it last?

[Damzie]

Are those rpped abs I spy? Daaaaammmmnnnn

Ha! My core isn't near as strong as I'd like it to be, or as strong as it WILL BE soon. But I don't tend to carry a lot of fat on my belly. I carry it on my thighs for the most part. I took some pictures in a bathing suit bottom, but I thought better of posting that on the interwebs.

[Damzie]

Haha, I feel the same way! I just started strength training last week and I am so legitimately excited to go to the gym tomorrow for my fifth day. Who am I? What is this feeling?! Most importantly... will it last?

I think it will last if we don't get in our own way. It seems like spezzy still loves her workouts! Good luck with yours!

[Damzie]

The title of this post should probably be: Everything Hurts. But in a good way.

Worked out over lunch, which will be my normal strength training time. Found out my gym has one of those handheld body fat testers. Gave that a whirl and it said 25.9%. She said it should be accurate within 3%. I'm sure I didn't do my caliper test right, so it's probably more trustworthy than that.

THE WORKOUT

I feel with these big bold headings it makes my battle log seem epic. And damn it, they are for me!

Squats - 50 lbs, 5x5 - Goal met!

- Felt like I was working by the end, but can definitely keep increasing.

Overhead Press - 45 lbs, 1x2; 20 pound dumbells 1x2; 15 pound dumbells 3x5

- So, ummmm, these are hard. I could barely get that bar over my head! But I'm going to try to get it over my head 3 times next time, and go from there.

Deadlifts - 95 pounds, 1x5 - Goal met!

- Had a guy in the gym double check my form and he said it looked good, no rounded back or anything. He also said "that's a lot of weight." I said "yeah, it is."

Bodyweight Rows - 1x8, 3x6, 1x5 - Improved!

- I think my form was better this time than last, and I got an extra one in the first set. So, that's improvement in my book.

Planks - 60 sec, 15 sec, 15 sec - Sort of improved

- Goal was 60/45/30. I tried so hard to make it to that first goal that I wore myself out. This was my last exercise, so I was just beat down all over. I'm still ok with this.

THE FOOD

Breakfast - Nothing. Wasn't hungry so I figured I would do an IF. I ate a lot yesterday, so I figure that's why I wasn't hungry.

Snack before workout - 1/2 apple with 2 TBSP almond butter

Lunch - 4 oz chicken, brussel sprouts cooked in bacon grease, other 1/2 of my apple

Dinner - Haven't eaten yet, but I plan to have 1-2 glasses of red wine, tuna steak, and grilled vegetables (squash, zucchini, carrots), and guacamole.

THE VERDICT

I didn't meet all my goals for this workout, but I met some of them, and I am just getting started so I'm sure all my goals won't be perfectly realistic. Plus if you meet all your goals all the time, you're probably not setting them high enough. At any rate, there's no way I won't get stronger if I keep this up.

This weekend I plan to go for a slow run with my husband, but otherwise take it easy and get ready for some more awesomeness next week!

[Guest Snake McClain]

your dead lifts have humbled me.

[Damzie]

your dead lifts have humbled me.

Watchu talking 'bout Willis?

[Damzie]

As of Saturday, I officially have been primal for over a week! You have to start somewhere...

No workout today. Feeling like the body needed some rest. My back was so sore it was crazy. I know soreness isn't a measure of a workout (and also shouldn't keep you from working out) but it's good to know I'm hitting the muscles I'm trying to hit.

THE FOOD

Breakfast - 3 egg omelet with onion, green pepper, and queso fresco, with pineapple and chamomile tea

Snack - Greek yogurt with strawberry

Snack - Sunflower and sesame seed "crackers" with 3 small slices sharp cheddar

Dinner - 2 glasses wine, 1/2 beer, beef brisket, raw veggies, salami and cheese, shrimp cocktail, a strawberry

THE VERDICT

Eh. It was the husband's office party, so had to make do with the buffet there. Had my planned two glasses of red wine, but then we went to a brewery afterwards so I had 1/2 a beer there too. Looks like I had a lot of cheese, but I didn't have much at either sitting. Didn't eat enough during the day. Not a great day for eating, but that's ok - it happens. Still not as bad as many, many days in my history of eating!

[harleydave2]

Keep up the good work....

[Damzie]

Keep up the good work....

Thanks for the encouragement!

No workout today. Planned to do yoga, but that didn't work out. I was busy with chores and housecleaning, so I just ran out of time today. And I'm ok with that. I'll get a good workout in tomorrow.

THE FOOD

Breakfast: Apple with almond butter, coffee with cream

Second Breakfast (tip of hat to Pippin): 3 scrambled cheesy eggs, country ham

Snack: Small piece of dark chocolate

Dinner: Salad with red onion, tomato, and olive oil; steak (NY strip), zucchini and yellow squash sauteed in ghee with onions.

Dessert: Berries in vanilla cream (organic heavy cream with vanilla extract)

THE VERDICT

Wish I had gotten my yoga in today, but happy enough with my food.

The plan for this week is to do strength training Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and keep eating well. We hit up Whole Foods and got stocked up for the week. I made what CoreyD refers to as the Egg Monster for my breakfasts. Lunch this week will be big salads or turkey stew.

Monday: Squats (55 pounds), bench press (45 pounds), inverse body weight rows (5x7), deadlifts (100 pounds), side planks

Wednesday: Squats (60 pounds), push-ups (2x25 on knees), inverse body weight rows, good mornings (??), planks

Friday: Squats (65 pounds), overhead press (1x3 at 45, 1x3 at 20, 3x5 at 15), inverse body weight rows, deadlifts, mountain climbers

[Damzie]

So I woke up this morning wondering why I was dreaming about the zombie apocolypse all night. Somehow I mixed up Walking Dead with Dexter, and the bad guy in Dexter this season released a zombie virus to bring about the end of the world. That's just an interesting way to start your Monday.

Anyway...

THE FOOD

Breakfast: Egg Monster (made last night and reheated this morning), little Greek yogurt with fresh berries

Lunch: Salad with chicken, tomatoes, avocado, and olive oil

Snack: 2 Sesame/Sunflower Seed Crackers

Dinner: Steak, steamed broccoli and cauliflower. Dark chocolate for dessert.

THE WORKOUT

Worked out over lunch. Starting to consider getting up ass early to do my training before work so I'm not so rushed...But I hate getting ready for work in the locker room. What's a girl to do?

Warm up (realized I haven't been posting this):

Couple minutes jump rope. Not sure if I should be doing more to warm up since I'm doing warm up sets for my first couple exercises?

Squats

1x5 @ 30

1x5 @ 45

5x5 @ 55 - still good to go, plan to add more next time

Planks

Decided to do planks during my breaks in between squat sets to help cut down on time.

2 sets planks for 30 seconds

1 set side planks for 30 seconds

2 sets side plank with lift - 15 reps each side each set

Bench press

1x5 @ 30

1x5 @ 40

5x5 @ 45 - this was my first time benching the bar, plan to add more next time

Deadlift

5x5 @ 100 - Goal met! I also tried not to take so long in between reps this time. Think I'll stay here when I do this again Friday.

Inverse Bodyweight Row

5x7 - Goal met! But I could tell that I was using my legs a teensy bit on the last rep or two. Also had to take a mini break on the last. So I'll probably stay here next time.

THE VERDICT

Pleased with my workout. Met my goals. Looking forward to benching more, but this was my first time and I didn't have a spotter. So I figured I'd start with the bar and work my way up. Think I am going to add in some low intensity cardio this week. Still feeling fine on my primal diet. How could I not be when I ate an entire avocado with my lunch?

[Damzie]

It's nearly 9pm, an hour before my bedtime. It's been a good day. I'm feeling grateful and content. These are feelings I do not take for granted. As for today's battle...

THE FOOD

Breakfast: Coconut Avocado Protein Shake (1/4 cup coconut milk, 1/2 avocado, 1 scoop whey protein powder, ice cubes, little coconut water)

Snack: Mini Egg Monster

Lunch: Coconut Turkey Stew (using recipe from Mark's Daily Apple)

Snack: Little trail mix (dried cranberries, mixed nuts)

Dinner: I live in the state capitol of Kentucky and today was inauguration day, so our favorite wine bar had a special offering with a flight of wines and some appetizers. 3 tastes of dry reds, 2 tastes of dry whites. Appetizers included a meat and cheese pinwheel, Korean BBQ, and a vegetable spread. For the first time in my couple weeks of primal eating I had...wait for it...3 CRACKERS. That's what I put my vegetable spread on. I definitely prefer the sunflower and sesame seed crackers I made at home.

THE WORKOUT

30 minutes on stationary bike, kept HR between 70% and 75% max

THE VERDICT

Pleased with my nice day. It is awesome how I can pretty much eat anywhere and not be a stick in the mud, and still find that I want to eat. Decided to skip the dark chocolate after dinner since I had wine. Glad I got my 30 minutes on the bike in. That was one of my goals for this week - adding in more low intensity cardio. Had plenty of energy and felt like it was a good use of my lunch hour. Looking forward to weight training tomorrow!

[Damzie]

Just logging my workout for now...

Warmed up by doing jumping jacks for a minute, jumping rope for a minute, and doing 20 bodyweight squats.

Squats

1x5x25

1x5x45

5x5x70 - Woops. Don't ask, I'm an idiot. Supposed to be doing 60 today. This was a struggle and on a couple I probably didn't go deep enough.

Push-ups

25 on knees

5 regular - Ok, I know this isn't impressive but I've never done 5 regular push-ups in a row. So, yay for me!

20 on knees

Did these in between squats

Mountain Climbers

1x25

1x25

Did this in between squats, alternating with push-ups

Inverse Bodyweight Rows

3x8, 1x7, 1x6

Can tell I'm getting stronger on these. Shooting for 5x8, maybe next time.

Good Mornings

This was the first time for this exercise. I've done them with light dumbbells before, but that's it. So I was finding my way a bit. Had trouble doing this with the barbell, felt not strong. Was able to do this with more than 45 pounds, but not with the high barbell position. I'm shooting to work my hamstrings here, so I switched to dumbbells in front (not sure what this is called) and liked that better. For now, at least.

1x5x45 with barbell

1x5x40 with dumbbells (2 20s)

3x5x50 with dumbbells (2 25s)

Felt entirely wiped out at the end of this workout. In a good way.

[bigm141414]

Ju

Squats

1x5x25

1x5x45

5x5x70 - Woops. Don't ask, I'm an idiot. Supposed to be doing 60 today. This was a struggle and on a couple I probably didn't go deep enough.

Teh Maths Fail! No worries. We all do this. But now that you've done 70 it's time to go for 75, right? Right?

[Damzie]

Teh Maths Fail! No worries. We all do this. But now that you've done 70 it's time to go for 75, right? Right?

LOLZ! Busted. Yep, I'll go for 75. Not all that confident that I will be able to do all 5 sets at 75, but we'll see!

[Damzie]

So as for yesterday's food...

Breakfast (7 am) - Greek yogurt (always full fat, btw) with fresh berries

Second Breakfast (10:30, hour and a half before workout) - Egg Monster

Lunch (not until about 3) - Coconut Turkey Stew

Dinner - Salmon, sweet potato with butter and cinnamon, few slices good cheese on my homemade seed "crackers", square of dark chocolate

Today, I am not feeling so hot. Sore throat, all swolen and gross. No energy at all. Stupid weather. Or something. So I'm going to skip my 30 minutes on the stationary bike today. Hopefully I'll feel well enough for my workout tomorrow.

Weight has stayed pretty constant this second week on the primal diet, which is fine. As I try to build some muscle, I'm not going to be as concerned with the scale though I do like to keep an eye on it just to see what's going on. If I gain 5 pounds in a week, I'll know it probably isn't 5 pounds of muscle. If I lose too much, I want to know that too.

Mostly right now I just wish I was in bed. But I have a big presentation to give at work, so I'm sucking it up for the moment. Boo to being a grown up.

[Damzie]

Day Nine continued...

Made it the rest of the day at work, actually feeling a lot better. Hopefully I can work out tomorrow...

Food for today:

Breakfast: None, slept. Didn't feel good.

Lunch: Salad with salmon and bell peppers, homemade mustard balsamic vinaigrette. Apple with almond butter.

Dinner: 6 oz fillet with spinach and onion confit, sauteed vegetables, 1 glass red wine. Square of dark chocolate.

Assuming I feel up to it, tomorrow is OHP and DL. Giddyup!

[Damzie]

I'm pretty annoyed with myself today. Did something wrong during my OHP and cranked my neck. Don't think I did any real damage, but it feels like I slept on it REALLY WRONG. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but I rechecked Strong Lifts for form and there was an article on there about how not to hurt your neck doing OHP, so I'm guessing I had the bar too forward. Or it may be that I was doing a rep I shouldn't have been attempting.

THE WORKOUT

Warmup - I jumped around and did some dynamic stretching. Also did some downward facing dog to plank repetitions.

Squats

1x5x30 (probably will skip this one next time)

1x5x45

1x5x65

5x5x75 - this felt challenging but I did fine and feel my form was good

OHP

1x3x45 - cranked my neck on the third one - UGH

4X5X30 - think I can do with 40 lbs, but took it easy because of my stupid neck

I think next time I may just stick with 40 lb dumbbells until I can do 5x5 of those. Worried now that the 45 is just too much for my current lack of strength.

DL

1X5X100 - Had to take a few seconds break after my third rep, but I think I was just out of wack because of my neck.

Planks

1x60sec - Ran out of time for my workout. I'll do more planks at home after work. No time for inverse bodyweight rows either. This workout kind of sucked after the squats.

THE FOOD

Breakfast - 3 egg omelet with spinach and mozzarella cheese, fresh blueberries and raspberries, decaf coffee with cream

Lunch - Spinach salad with salmon, bell peppers, tomatoes, sunflower seeds, and homemade balsamic vinaigrette, a tangerine

Dinner - TBD...

[Damzie]

No workouts this weekend, thanks to a cold and a sore neck. My neck is feeling much better, so at least I don't think I did any permanent damage. It was probably a good scare for me. I'll make sure and not push it too much in the future.

As for food this weekend, it was a strange day yesterday. Had bacon, cheesy eggs, and a tangerine for breakfast. No lunch. We visited two wineries and did tastings and one bourbon distillery. One of the wineries only had sweet wines, so that was definitely the most sugar I've had in the last few weeks. For dinner we had grilled pork chops and steamed broccoli. Dark chocolate for dessert. Today I had Greek yogurt with fresh berries for breakfast, along with coffee with cream. For lunch I had grilled chicken wings and roasted zucchini and onions. For dinner I'm having chili my husband made, so it's not primal thanks to the inclusion of beans.

The plan for this week:

Monday: Squats (80lbs), Push-ups (7 regular, 2 sets 25 on knees), Good mornings (55 lbs), Inverse bodyweight rows (try doing with legs straight, see if I can do it, and how many), hanging leg raises

Tuesday: easy ride on stationary bike, 30 minutes

Wednesday: Squats, Bench press (50 lbs) Deadlifts (100 lbs), Inverse bodyweight rows, planks (1x60, 1x45, 1x30)

Thursday: easy ride on stationary bike, 30 minutes

Friday - Sunday: I'll be out of town for Christmas. So I'm going to design some bodyweight routines between now and then.

[ETFnerd]

Lol...type A personalities at the gym... check yo-self b4 you wreck yo-self...

Anyway, take it easy and feel better Xena Warrior Princess...

[Damzie]

Lol...type A personalities at the gym... check yo-self b4 you wreck yo-self...

Anyway, take it easy and feel better Xena Warrior Princess...

Ha! Thanks. Yeah, I just want to make sure and push myself hard enough without pushing too hard, and I always find that line very difficult to discern. However, neck pain in this case made it clear which side of the line I was on this time.