Progress!

Posted on 25 Feb 2019 by ~BDG~

This whole weekend was a MEH in terms of effort in sticking to my macros. Saturday was OK and probably hovered around where I should have been but yesterday was another story. I started off ok but got to lunch and didn’t weigh my pasta like I should have, probably ate too much chicken and when we got home from dropping my son off back at school, I lost all control and care and filled my face with handfuls of nuts, 6 large T full of ice cream and then ate the dinner I’d planned also. Now nuts are ok in moderation so I could live with that, the ice cream well I justified that by saying that a cheat day here an there is ok. And it is, however, I feel disappointed in myself for letting go of will power so easily. Doesn’t really happen much but I was feeling like I had no progress and was too old to make big changes and heading into a bloat week so basically I gave up. I’m not a quitter so I took an early set of March progress photos and measurements before I hit my big bloat days. I put them side by side and was less than thrilled at what I was looking at ……………UNTIL I looked at them NEXT TO the January starting pics.

Well, I’ll be darned. Definite progress folks! Clear signs that things are tucking in where I want them and proof enough to get me back on track and super motivated to keep going. I did the measuring thing and overall I’m down 1.75 inches! Down everywhere except my thighs but I’ll get there with more effort on the leg adduction machine. Instantly I felt better and quelled the impatient me by reminding her that progress at the level of effort I’m putting in will take time. A reminder that cellulite is a tough opponent to beat and only a nimble mind and consistent effort can beat her. The scale isn’t moving but that’s ok because the right visual things are happening. It will take what I believe to be the better part of a year until I envision significant progress to my goal. Now my 50th birthday is in 2.5 months and I’d really like to make more headway so I’m willing to step up a bit to fast track in the short term.

Here’s what I will do. add another day cardio, step up Ab workouts and work on my macro intake (Sighs again) to tweak it even further. Not only will I do these things but I’ll read a book online about it to be a more educated person. That’s the deal on my table that I’m committing to between now and my birthday. So stay tuned for April updates as I think they’re going to be good!

Week 8 Reflections

Posted on 23 Feb 2019 by ~BDG~

I like to write when I feel I have something to say. Really there aren’t many people except perhaps my running friend(s) who might read my diatribes. Today I thought it would be a good idea to write a post every week in this year reflecting on things I’ve learned or experienced that particular week in addition to my spontaneous writing. It will help keep me paying attention to what I’m doing and feeling and now that I’ve written it, accountable.

This week I FELT the tweeks I made in the way I was consuming my food / macros make sense to me. Not so much in the way I felt in my body but in my head it just clicked and made sense. I know I’m on my “right track” because of this gut feeling. Good job me!

This week I also felt intimidated by someone else. I don’t usually care about people around me and I don’t get intimidated. I take mental notes from those around me so I can try new things but never have I felt intimidated like I did last night. This was totally on me because the woman that sat down next to me on the rowing machine is the nicest person and someone I know and work with. She said nothing but this person is in great shape! She works harder than I do at staying in shape and clearly has figured out how to eat and workout for her needs. She’s a little ball of muscle and looks amazing. When she sat down next to me my immediate reaction on the inside was “row faster!” I thought she was better than me but why I don’t know. Then I had a little talk with myself. 1) you’re 23 years her senior and you shouldn’t be trying to keep up with her. 2) she isn’t trying to beat you and this is not a competition. 3) She isn’t the type of person who would come over and be a gym bully. I kept rowing and I kept my eye on my goal of 2500 meters. It used to be 10 minutes but now I row for meters no matter how long it takes me to get there. The last time I rowed to 2500 meters it took me 13:09. Last night I did it without killing myself in 12:24. I’ll give her a little credit for that one as I probably worked just a little harder! Thanks friend!

So that is my Reflections for this week. Every day is progress and motivation to make tomorrow better, to make me better, to live better.

Oblivious snacking does it to me every time!

Posted on 21 Feb 2019 by ~BDG~

My biggest problem when it comes to working out, counting macros and generally staying in any shape but round is snacking and feeling compelled to eat anything offered to me. If they have an unexpected lunch at work… I’m there and I’m scrapping my own planned and packed lunch. If there’s candy in a dish, my hand inevitably finds it’s way into that bowl after lunch at least once or twice. I don’t count it on my daily meal plan either. Why don’t I lose weight? Other than the whole muscle weighs more than fat thing, it’s because I’m over eating in such small quantities that I just don’t bother to count it. There you go! My big admission and my biggest downfall. When I’m home making dinner, I might shove 2 or 3 handfuls of mixed nuts and dried fruit in my face and not think anything of it. If I’m cooking breakfast for the boys I might just eat a piece of bacon or take a sip of juice while I’m pouring it.

This week I got to thinking about how I can improve what I’m doing without killing myself at the gym for no reason. This was the problem I came up with that needed solving and this is the problem I’m going to overcome. This week, 3/3 days so far I have not dipped in the candy jar once, eaten any nuts that weren’t counted and in fact today there was a baby shower for someone where lunch was provided and I excused myself to go eat the lunch I brought for myself! Way to go! That’s the willpower I need to have more of. getting over that may prove helpful to my personal journey to my goals.

We have another week before I take measurements again and I haven’t logged a weight in over a week but I have weighed myself. I’m hovering at 171 and struggling with macros and calorie counts to find my perfect recipe. That’s a work in progress as am I. For now I’ve buckled down on oblivious snacking and chipped off one more block on the wall between me and success!

Too Many Experts!

Posted on 19 Feb 2019 by ~BDG~

For the 5th time in just about as many days or at least since the beginning of the month, I have moved my macro intake around. I thought I read high carbs on cardio days but that is not true. High carb on weight days is the newest information I read on bodybuilding.com. Now, I don’t want to build like a body builder but I want to lean out. There are simply way too many articles about what to do and how to do it and different reasonings by half a trillion “experts” and I am seriously overwhelmed. I’m trying to find my happy medium so here is where I’m at this week. I found a carb cycling plan on BB.com where you decrease for 3 days then increase for two days. I married that to the info( also found on that site) that says carbs for weight days and then lower them for cardio days. I don’t want to over eat, but I know that 1300 calorie days are borderline too few for me right now since I sometimes get back from the gym with nothing left to eat for the day and end up going to bed hungry and waking up hungry too. So right now my lowest carb day is on cardio day and is set at 1324 but just twice a week. For now. I want to see how a cardio day married with 1324 calories and 90 carbs works. I’m totally willing to tweak it again based on how I feel after this last change. I’m truly sick of adjusting so much but I want to get it right and I’m not going to pay someone to do it for me. Why there isn’t just one formula to follow is beyond me. I guess I just want to find my happy medium sooner than later.

Mid Month Tweaks

Posted on 17 Feb 2019 by ~BDG~

As you know, I’m in the process of figuring out how to feed my machine and be fitter, leaner and strong er in the process. I don’t believe I need a coach because I’m self motivated and try to read a fair amount. In the last week I have switched a few things that I think made sense on paper and when applied. I do’t like to make mid month changes but these ones were needed to make forward progress. Here’s what I did:

I married my cardio days to my Carb re-feed days. Most things I read say that is the way you should do it so I did.
I upped my calorie / carb count two days ago on carb day by 400 / 36 by drinking a Soylent an hour before the gym. The way I felt as I did intervals on the treadmill was significant. I started off feeling better and had enough energy after a 35 minute routine to row for 10 minutes. I did a rotating 2 minute hard run with a 2 minute jog for 8 cycles and did a 2 minute warm up and 2 minute cool down on the ends. I liked that way better than just running for 30 minutes.
I write down my plan for each day in a notebook and pretty much stick to those exercises. It doesn’t matter that I don’t always finish the ridiculous list I give myself but instead stick to the options on the list and don’t stray. I need consistency.
I have been reminded that the goals I want will take time. I see all these stories about people that put up before and after pictures and progress pictures and they are a year apart. It takes time and I must have patience. I’m only 6 weeks in to my new years resolutions of hard core gym time each week. I’ve seen some progress but have to keep in mind that the rest will come with good eating, diligence, consistency and patience.

From now until March, which is when I measure myself again and take my next set of progress pics, my routine will stay the same. Had to do these couple of mid month tweaks for improvement and now we ride out the rest of the month and see where we are at.

Figuring out this stuff

Posted on 14 Feb 2019 by ~BDG~

So this year I’m all gung ho at figuring out things like Macros and tweaking my calorie count. It was easier when I followed some program and didn’t care about the why behind my program. I just followed it and that was that. This year I want to understand how to eat instead of just knowing what to eat and where carbs come in. I want a full understanding of carbs and calories that are right for me and my body and my workout program. This is a big experiment and over the last week I’ve learned a bunch. I’ve learned things like 1,372 calories really is not enough for me whereas 1700 and change better suits me. with the lesser calories I’m going to bed hungry and getting up hungry. I’m still waiting for the hungry to go away which hopefully it does. I’m trying to see if it’s an eating habit that needs to be broken like a stallion or if I actually need more calories on a regular basis. Now I guess being hungry and living on fewer calories (which by the way I go over all the time by 100-200) might be what they call a calorie deficit which is what you want but I believe I want it on cardio days I think. We’ll see what the scale says in a couple of weeks. I’ve also adjusted carb days to coincide with cardio days which is how you should plan it out. So as I read I make changes one month at a time so I can notice if those changes are actually happening.

I’m also keeping track of my measurements. After a month I did my first measurement and to my surprise I actually lost a few tics on the measuring tape. It doesn’t really show much when I look in the mirror but the tape don’t lie. So there’s that. I’m kind of excited to see what the March tape dictates. I’ve put together a good workout routine with cardio days and strength days and even a rest day and I follow it faithfully. I am goal driven with specific body goals and weight goals that motivate me as I head to the big one in May. No one but me cares what a has been looks like at 50 but I just want to get up that day and feel like HECK YA I FEEL AMAZING!

I try to read as much as I can so I’m not winging it like so many do. I find that now vs when I was 40 I am physically tired when I sit down after working out which is weird because I don’t ever work so hard as to drip sweat everywhere. A little on cardio days for sure and I get a little slick when I use weights at the gym but I don’t look like the crazies on the internet who are literally dripping and flinging sweat everywhere. Strength training for me is about consistency and reps and the right exercises over time.

My Goals this year, specifically by June are: #1 goal- great abs. #2 goal – a nice ass. And #3 goal – get rid of as much fat, love handles and rear end / leg cellulite as possible. At that point I’ll decide if I feel like running a full Marathon…jury is out o that at the moment and I won’t be sad if I decide not to. I’ve just been thinking about it for a while. All of this is for me and I’m enjoying learning about how to feed my machine. Learning about food as fuel and what exercises work best for me to get the results I want. Who knew it would be so much work to stay fit at 50!

Gone for a while

Posted on 9 Feb 2019 by ~BDG~

I’ve been gone for a while. I was writing all the time but I let someone bully me into eliminating 7 years worth of diaried thoughts, events and motivation. They didn’t like my language and thought it was unprofessional to write that way. Yeah the blog NO ONE read was going to prevent me from opportunities. OK, Maybe but shame on me for listening. shame on me because writing makes me happy.. Not cool Girlfriend but it’s ok. So this is my new beginning. This is my place for reflection and creation as I head into my “big one” birthday in a few months. I’m half way through my life. Where am I going and what am I doing with the second half? This is my favorite picture of me and how I want to look every day for the rest of my days. Happy. This blog is about approaching 50, hitting 50 and life after 50. Fitness is my focus and this space is primarily about what that looks like at my age, for me. Writing about working out and what I can do and achieve. How I am using food as fuel for those workouts and learning how to do that better to reach my goal. Writing about races (I run) and goals and putting me first. I feel happy when I write and I’m happy to be back. My old writings were started by and filled with rage and anger and sadness. I started running so unhealthily to deal with one of those life blows that you just don’t see coming that take your breath right out of your body until you feel like you will die. Something that nearly ended me mentally which would have led to physically if I didn’t find a way out, has been what has built me back up to be stronger. It’s what drove me to start running and writing in the first place. It’s given me the strength to find myself again. I’m not there anymore so starting a new blog is ok with me. Letting go of stuff is necessary to move on so let’s just do that. Today is a new beginning.

Fifty. Now What?

Finding Me