It's finally the final day. My 21st birthday. The end of phase III, the projected end-date of this entire project.
Today I am 130.8 pounds, 23.9% body fat according to my scale, measurements (inches): waist 26 1/2, hips 36 1/2, thigh 21, arm 10 3/4. This means since the end of phase II I have lost:
13.6 pounds and 6.0% body fat (though as we know, the scale is not necessarily reliable)
1.5 inches off my waist, 2.25 off my hips, 1.5 off my thigh, and 1 off my arm
About 1 pant size (my best-fit pants are a 4, though the 6s still work)
And in the grand total I have lost:
53.8 pounds
7.5 inches from my waist as well as 5 from my thigh
4 pant sizes
So I did it! I'm 21, have met my rather arbitrarily chosen goal, and I believe I'm within 10 pounds of my ideal weight. Also, my pants are tiny - before this whole thing I really never thought I'd get smaller than a size 8. I'm happy that I went to that fitness testing and got the alternative body fat measurement, because it tells me I am not just-barely entering the recommended range, but rather that I'm well within it already. It also helps that my belly seems to have gotten noticeably tighter in the last week or so. At this point, I think my personal perception of my body is the best indicator of my progress, followed by weight and inch measurements, and lastly the body fat guesses of my scale.
Where do we go from here? I think I will cut back significantly on my weight-related regulatory behaviors. Specifically, I'll stop counting calories, weigh myself less often (once to a few times a week) and use my scale's body fat function a lot less often (once a month to once a week). What I'll keep doing is writing down qualitatively what I eat in the day and tracking my exercise. I'm going to set up a new spreadsheet that has cells to record weight, body fat, and inch measurements, though none of those will be recorded daily, and exercise in the cardio, strength, and flexibility categories, which will be recorded daily. Calorie intake, expenditure, and deficit estimations will be absent. However, I'll continue with the food journal at least for a bit, and do a weekly reflection on the following questions:
How many days did I eat 5 or more fruits and vegetables? Fewer than 3?
What percentage of my meals included significant protein? What about snacks?
Do I feel that my diet was satisfactory overall this week?
Did I have any negative outcomes this week that I feel may have been related to my dietary choices?
I figure I have stop counting calories sometime, and I know even when I went on vacation I tended to think about the calories, so just not recording them will be a way of slowly phasing out that mindset. Hopefully, just mindfulness and my acquired experience with portion sizes will be enough to keep me on track, and allow me to maintain or lose as I please without being quantitatively rigorous. I'll still probably look at calories and serving sizes in order to make decisions about what I eat, but that's something everyone who's ever had a weight problem should do. If I start to gain without clear cause, I can always go back and audit my diet. My main focus for a while will be exercise and finding a balance between the different types. Overall, the goal is to find an equilibrium where I feel nourished, have treats sometimes, and do exercise I enjoy, in such proportions as to maintain my body in a state I'm happy with, without interfering with my other priorities.
I'll be redesigning this blog, including changing the background (probably immediately after posting this), re-titling it, moving and updating my caption, goals, and weight loss ticker, over the next few weeks. I'll also post some before/after/transition pictures soon, and maybe a weight graph. I have a master, long range weight graph, but it doesn't want to cooperate right now, and it might be nice to wait until I fill up a year of weight records before posting it. I will definitely have a post for my "fat-iversary", although I'll have to decide if that's June 7th (the day I started counted calories) or June 11th (the day I weighed myself).
Until I post again, adieu!
Showing posts with label body fat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label body fat. Show all posts
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Results of fitness testing
Unsurprising stuff:
Muscular endurance (push-up test): 4 pushups - "needs improvement"
Muscular strength (bench press): 7 reps of 45 lbs, calculated strength-to-weight ratio 0.417 - 5th/10th percentile among 20-29 yo females, "very poor"
Flexibility (sit and reach): 34 cm w/ zero set at 23 cm (idk) - "very good"
Somewhat surprising stuff:
Resting HR: 84 bpm
Step test HR: 168 bpm, calculated VO2max = 34.78 (don't remember the units) - 35th-40th percentile, "fair"
Very surprising stuff:
Body composition (skin-fold measurements): calculated at 17.0% body fat
Debrief
Okay, so we know my strength isn't that great. I could do a few pushups, I could lift bench press bar a few times, and I thought that stuff was pretty cool, but I'm not surprised that isn't up to what a lot of people can do. Whatever. We also know I'm super flexible, I always got good scores on the sit-and-reach in middle school and I've done plenty of yoga since then. Whoopee.
Cardio stuff was a little surprising. My resting HR was way above what it usually is - 84 is fine, but I've had it down near 60 recently, like when I was on my trip. I also got a slightly below-average score on the step test, which is kind of odd since I spent last quarter doing step aerobics. But then the guy said I could easily improve on cardio in the next weeks, and I realized I've done what, two runs in the last two weeks. If cardio scores change easily on a couple-of-weeks basis, then I'm probably just seeing the effects of spring break lazing around and the first week back not realizing I didn't have any cardio scheduled in.
And then there was the body fat measurement. According to BIA aka my scale, I'm 25% body fat, and according to this formula thingy, I'm 17% body fat. Uhhhh? The guy said from looking me, he thinks the scale measurement is high, and the caliper measurement is low but more accurate than the scale - so, around 20%. That's a pretty big "around" is all I've got to say. But it's nice to think that in the low 130s, I'm actually sitting in the healthy range, not quizzically looking at my "skinny fat". I guess this means I can pretty much dispense with my scale's body fat function as an indicator of what weight I should seek to lose, though it can tell me whether weight I AM losing is fat or lean since the measurement is fairly consistent.
Muscular endurance (push-up test): 4 pushups - "needs improvement"
Muscular strength (bench press): 7 reps of 45 lbs, calculated strength-to-weight ratio 0.417 - 5th/10th percentile among 20-29 yo females, "very poor"
Flexibility (sit and reach): 34 cm w/ zero set at 23 cm (idk) - "very good"
Somewhat surprising stuff:
Resting HR: 84 bpm
Step test HR: 168 bpm, calculated VO2max = 34.78 (don't remember the units) - 35th-40th percentile, "fair"
Very surprising stuff:
Body composition (skin-fold measurements): calculated at 17.0% body fat
Debrief
Okay, so we know my strength isn't that great. I could do a few pushups, I could lift bench press bar a few times, and I thought that stuff was pretty cool, but I'm not surprised that isn't up to what a lot of people can do. Whatever. We also know I'm super flexible, I always got good scores on the sit-and-reach in middle school and I've done plenty of yoga since then. Whoopee.
Cardio stuff was a little surprising. My resting HR was way above what it usually is - 84 is fine, but I've had it down near 60 recently, like when I was on my trip. I also got a slightly below-average score on the step test, which is kind of odd since I spent last quarter doing step aerobics. But then the guy said I could easily improve on cardio in the next weeks, and I realized I've done what, two runs in the last two weeks. If cardio scores change easily on a couple-of-weeks basis, then I'm probably just seeing the effects of spring break lazing around and the first week back not realizing I didn't have any cardio scheduled in.
And then there was the body fat measurement. According to BIA aka my scale, I'm 25% body fat, and according to this formula thingy, I'm 17% body fat. Uhhhh? The guy said from looking me, he thinks the scale measurement is high, and the caliper measurement is low but more accurate than the scale - so, around 20%. That's a pretty big "around" is all I've got to say. But it's nice to think that in the low 130s, I'm actually sitting in the healthy range, not quizzically looking at my "skinny fat". I guess this means I can pretty much dispense with my scale's body fat function as an indicator of what weight I should seek to lose, though it can tell me whether weight I AM losing is fat or lean since the measurement is fairly consistent.
Not much new
133.2 and 25.3% body fat. I'm not thrilled that the percentage has been up above 25% again a few days lately. 133.2 has come up a LOT of times recently. Apparently my low weight/fat upon returning from my trip was spurious. My week of restriction went well, although results aren't evident at this time. I had Pilates on Monday and Wednesday, yoga on Tuesday and Thursday, and a run on Friday. I stayed under 1600 calories M-W and had 1690 calories Th, but the extra 90 were less than the amount I had accumulated "under target" the past three days, so I count myself as successful at hitting 1600 for the four major schooldays. Yesterday I hit 2085 which is a little more than 2000 but I'm not worried about that for reasons that will be clarified. It was great, I had just a light breakfast and then pushed it 'til midafternoon and then had a whole box of Annie's macaroni and cheese and a bunch of ice cream bars. Mmm yum. So the idea is that between Saturday and Sunday, one can be another roughly-2000 calorie day and the other should be no more than 1700-1750. Anyway, after all the food yesterday afternoon I wasn't very hungry this morning and feel like I will be eating lightly today, so I'm pretty confident I'll make up for that 85-calorie difference without any trouble.
This coming week I'll be doing a similar strategy. Target of 1600 for M-Th, except for T when I'll be going to Bikram so if I feel extra hungry, an 1800 target is still a greater deficit than a 1600 target with the usual yoga. Out of F-Sa-Su, two can be about 2000 and 1 should be around 1700. Usually the 2000 calorie days will probably be Friday and Sunday - Friday because it's nice to dig into a big bowl of something delicious at the end of the week, and Sunday because I'll be doing my long runs on Sunday. The general exercise plan from here is Pilates MW, yoga TTh, shorter runs with a little stretching and pushups WF, and long runs Su. I might do some home-yoga on Saturdays too but it could be a day off too - that might vary week to week as I feel like I need rest or stretching more. The modified plan for this week, to use up my Bikram classes, is to replace Tuesday vinyasa, Friday run, and Sunday run (both of the coming weekends) with Bikram.
Also, I'm doing something mildly interesting today: fitness testing. There was a flyer in the sports center about fitness testing on several dimensions, including body composition, cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength and endurance, and some that I can't remember. I know basically about my body composition, but I am interested in what other dimensions they test and how I compare to recommendations. I mean, I think it's pretty cool that I can run 2 miles in less than 25 minutes with no preparation and can sustain a 6-7 mph pace on a treadmill for a couple of minutes, but what are the standards? How strong do they expect 20-year-old college girls to be? I know 25% isn't awesome for body fat, but what conclusions might they draw when considered alongside my other abilities, and will they get a different number if they use a different method? Etc.
This coming week I'll be doing a similar strategy. Target of 1600 for M-Th, except for T when I'll be going to Bikram so if I feel extra hungry, an 1800 target is still a greater deficit than a 1600 target with the usual yoga. Out of F-Sa-Su, two can be about 2000 and 1 should be around 1700. Usually the 2000 calorie days will probably be Friday and Sunday - Friday because it's nice to dig into a big bowl of something delicious at the end of the week, and Sunday because I'll be doing my long runs on Sunday. The general exercise plan from here is Pilates MW, yoga TTh, shorter runs with a little stretching and pushups WF, and long runs Su. I might do some home-yoga on Saturdays too but it could be a day off too - that might vary week to week as I feel like I need rest or stretching more. The modified plan for this week, to use up my Bikram classes, is to replace Tuesday vinyasa, Friday run, and Sunday run (both of the coming weekends) with Bikram.
Also, I'm doing something mildly interesting today: fitness testing. There was a flyer in the sports center about fitness testing on several dimensions, including body composition, cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength and endurance, and some that I can't remember. I know basically about my body composition, but I am interested in what other dimensions they test and how I compare to recommendations. I mean, I think it's pretty cool that I can run 2 miles in less than 25 minutes with no preparation and can sustain a 6-7 mph pace on a treadmill for a couple of minutes, but what are the standards? How strong do they expect 20-year-old college girls to be? I know 25% isn't awesome for body fat, but what conclusions might they draw when considered alongside my other abilities, and will they get a different number if they use a different method? Etc.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Go figure
So I go away for a week, have positive calorie balance most of the days, have virtually no daily activity, only do one run the whole time, eat chocolate pie with whipped cream one night, breaded chicken strips the next day, and binge on Easter candy... and come back to new lows in both weight and fat percentage. WTF body.
This morning, 132.6 (-1.0 from when I left) and 24.2% fat. If it was just weight, I'd chalk it up to my period ending or being dehydrated from travel, but then you'd expect the body fat to go up. I don't really know what's up with that seeing as I basically sat on my ass the whole time.
Still, it strikes me that it's been a month since I reached my 50-pound goal, and I've only lost 2 pounds since then. Not that it's a big deal, but I'm enthusiastic about getting back into gear this coming week, with daily exercise and low-calorie meal plans and ice cream bribes. I, or rather my boyfriend while I was on airplanes, got a box of Skinny Cow ice cream bars and my plan is that at least some days this week, if I am within my target for the day minus 100 calories by the end of dinner, then I can have a 100-calorie ice cream bar for dessert. Ice cream is one of my favorite foods, so I think this ought to be pretty motivating for being judicious about food offered to me during the day and not overeating at dinner.
This morning, 132.6 (-1.0 from when I left) and 24.2% fat. If it was just weight, I'd chalk it up to my period ending or being dehydrated from travel, but then you'd expect the body fat to go up. I don't really know what's up with that seeing as I basically sat on my ass the whole time.
Still, it strikes me that it's been a month since I reached my 50-pound goal, and I've only lost 2 pounds since then. Not that it's a big deal, but I'm enthusiastic about getting back into gear this coming week, with daily exercise and low-calorie meal plans and ice cream bribes. I, or rather my boyfriend while I was on airplanes, got a box of Skinny Cow ice cream bars and my plan is that at least some days this week, if I am within my target for the day minus 100 calories by the end of dinner, then I can have a 100-calorie ice cream bar for dessert. Ice cream is one of my favorite foods, so I think this ought to be pretty motivating for being judicious about food offered to me during the day and not overeating at dinner.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Weigh-in, body fat goal, gotta go
Oh, right, I have a blog. No, I'm not avoiding you. I've just been insanely busy this week.
Yesterday I was 133.8 and 25.2% body fat which is what, -0.8 from last week? Not bad for a week when I only had two workouts at all. Yesterday I broke my pseudo-Lent-fast slightly, as I had decided in advance I was allowed to for that particular day, by drinking some wine with my cast-mates. I made these super delicious vegan chocolate coconut cookie bars and also these things that are like mashed potatoes and vegetables in cups of pie crust, ate a lot of them, and had wine, but actually, the cast party was way less intense than I thought it might be, so I didn't do any other drugs or even eat anything off-Lent. Just the wine.
Anyway, this morning I was 24.7% fat, which means I've met my second body fat goal. Awesome sauce. And now I gotta go - lots of schoolwork still to do this weekend.
Yesterday I was 133.8 and 25.2% body fat which is what, -0.8 from last week? Not bad for a week when I only had two workouts at all. Yesterday I broke my pseudo-Lent-fast slightly, as I had decided in advance I was allowed to for that particular day, by drinking some wine with my cast-mates. I made these super delicious vegan chocolate coconut cookie bars and also these things that are like mashed potatoes and vegetables in cups of pie crust, ate a lot of them, and had wine, but actually, the cast party was way less intense than I thought it might be, so I didn't do any other drugs or even eat anything off-Lent. Just the wine.
Anyway, this morning I was 24.7% fat, which means I've met my second body fat goal. Awesome sauce. And now I gotta go - lots of schoolwork still to do this weekend.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
First post-goal weigh-in
Today I still weigh 134.6 pounds and I clock in at 26.4% body fat. I'm not thrilled that my body fat has apparently gone up while my weight has stayed the same. I was a little lax this week, but I still had some deficit each day, and I was hoping to lose a little, if not the usual 1-2 pounds.
Bought new pants today. I hate shopping for pants. You put one tiny little constraint on the kind of pants you want, like "black jeans", and suddenly the whole world has turned against you. You walk in wearing 6P jeans that are getting a bit loose, so you look for 4P in the same brand, and they fit alright, but they are all a stupid shape. All the brands that have black jeans in an unstupid shape are sized so big that even the 4s are just as loose as the pants you're already wearing, but there aren't any 2s on the rack to try on. The only brands that have any 2s are the ones sized the opposite direction so that you'd have to weigh about 90 pounds to fit into them.
I found some pants eventually, but it was a huge pain in the ass. I was almost ready to give up. Fortunately, they were clearanced, so that was a little spritz of happy at the end of the whole affair. They are 4's and they are nice and snug around my hipbones, which I really enjoy because it reminds me to feel skinny, but they're roomy/stretchy enough everywhere else to allow free movement. They're nice.
Bought new pants today. I hate shopping for pants. You put one tiny little constraint on the kind of pants you want, like "black jeans", and suddenly the whole world has turned against you. You walk in wearing 6P jeans that are getting a bit loose, so you look for 4P in the same brand, and they fit alright, but they are all a stupid shape. All the brands that have black jeans in an unstupid shape are sized so big that even the 4s are just as loose as the pants you're already wearing, but there aren't any 2s on the rack to try on. The only brands that have any 2s are the ones sized the opposite direction so that you'd have to weigh about 90 pounds to fit into them.
I found some pants eventually, but it was a huge pain in the ass. I was almost ready to give up. Fortunately, they were clearanced, so that was a little spritz of happy at the end of the whole affair. They are 4's and they are nice and snug around my hipbones, which I really enjoy because it reminds me to feel skinny, but they're roomy/stretchy enough everywhere else to allow free movement. They're nice.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
GOAL PARTAAAAYYY!!!
This shit is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s... okay, no.
This morning I'm 134.6 pounds (2.2 down from last week) and 25.6% body fat. So I've hit my goal right on the dot, and my lean mass is still in triple digits. I now get to see what my ticker does when you hit goal, which turns out to be: nothing interesting. It just says 0 lb to go. And 50 pounds lost. Which is pretty awesome - 50 pounds lost. Annika Q and the whole 50 pounds... that she got rid of. Not to mention 3 compounds of 10% of my body weight. I tripled what they usually get in those obesity-and-dieting studies. Woohoo!
I took my measurements as well: waist 26 3/4, hips 37 1/4, thigh 21 1/2, arm 11. My waist hasn't changed a ton lately and my arm measure has been totally stalled for a while, but my hip and thigh measures have dropped a lot since I last measured. That helps to explain why my pants are getting baggy. However, considering it's currently subfreezing outside, it's actually rather useful to be able to wear an extra pair of yoga pants under my jeans.
I'll do a more thorough debriefing and where-do-we-go-from-here reflection on my birthday, when phase 3 is officially over. However, for now what I'll say is - I'm happy with my weight, and I wouldn't mind if this was the end, but I don't think it has to be, and I think my ideal weight/fat content is still lower. I haven't met my <25% body fat goal yet. I think in the future, my ceiling weight should be around 145. That's when I really began to feel like I looked good and felt good, and it's within normal BMI. At the moment, I'll keep exercising and calorie counting, but think less about weight, more about body fat %, and most of all about fitness. I'll probably go for a bit less calorie deficit than I have been, inching toward a more maintenance-oriented version of this lifestyle. For example, I have my aerobics class certain days and I might choose to do yoga on the alternate days, rather than doing them the same day and then other hi-cal workouts the other days. I would try to get back into running, but I think I'll wait for the weather to get above, oh, fifty Fahrenheit. It just sucks futzing with layers and the air freezes your throat and if your ears aren't warm enough you get a terrible headache and so on...
Oh, and one last thing - I'm dropping sugar and refined flour from my pseudo-Lent restrictions because I feel like it is a) not really a big issue for me in the first place, b) hard to enforce, and thereby c) being a pain in the ass in a way that is not useful. Just a few examples to justify my choice: I can't eat the honey roasted peanuts my boyfriend bought because they have regular sugar in them too, but I can make cookies with honey. If I want to go get a yogurt for a snack, most of the time I'm out of luck because I don't want to eat plain yogurt or yogurt sweetened with Splenda, but all other yogurt is sweetened with sugar except maybe those awesome Fage cups. I ate a salad the other day from the salad bar and used this orange ginger dressing, and it didn't even occur to me to think salad dressing might have sugar, but when I got to the bottom of the bowl I realized it was really sweet. Anyway, so I'm still excluding milk, cheese, butter, and intoxicants, but I think the whole thing might have started out too broad.
This morning I'm 134.6 pounds (2.2 down from last week) and 25.6% body fat. So I've hit my goal right on the dot, and my lean mass is still in triple digits. I now get to see what my ticker does when you hit goal, which turns out to be: nothing interesting. It just says 0 lb to go. And 50 pounds lost. Which is pretty awesome - 50 pounds lost. Annika Q and the whole 50 pounds... that she got rid of. Not to mention 3 compounds of 10% of my body weight. I tripled what they usually get in those obesity-and-dieting studies. Woohoo!
I took my measurements as well: waist 26 3/4, hips 37 1/4, thigh 21 1/2, arm 11. My waist hasn't changed a ton lately and my arm measure has been totally stalled for a while, but my hip and thigh measures have dropped a lot since I last measured. That helps to explain why my pants are getting baggy. However, considering it's currently subfreezing outside, it's actually rather useful to be able to wear an extra pair of yoga pants under my jeans.
I'll do a more thorough debriefing and where-do-we-go-from-here reflection on my birthday, when phase 3 is officially over. However, for now what I'll say is - I'm happy with my weight, and I wouldn't mind if this was the end, but I don't think it has to be, and I think my ideal weight/fat content is still lower. I haven't met my <25% body fat goal yet. I think in the future, my ceiling weight should be around 145. That's when I really began to feel like I looked good and felt good, and it's within normal BMI. At the moment, I'll keep exercising and calorie counting, but think less about weight, more about body fat %, and most of all about fitness. I'll probably go for a bit less calorie deficit than I have been, inching toward a more maintenance-oriented version of this lifestyle. For example, I have my aerobics class certain days and I might choose to do yoga on the alternate days, rather than doing them the same day and then other hi-cal workouts the other days. I would try to get back into running, but I think I'll wait for the weather to get above, oh, fifty Fahrenheit. It just sucks futzing with layers and the air freezes your throat and if your ears aren't warm enough you get a terrible headache and so on...
Oh, and one last thing - I'm dropping sugar and refined flour from my pseudo-Lent restrictions because I feel like it is a) not really a big issue for me in the first place, b) hard to enforce, and thereby c) being a pain in the ass in a way that is not useful. Just a few examples to justify my choice: I can't eat the honey roasted peanuts my boyfriend bought because they have regular sugar in them too, but I can make cookies with honey. If I want to go get a yogurt for a snack, most of the time I'm out of luck because I don't want to eat plain yogurt or yogurt sweetened with Splenda, but all other yogurt is sweetened with sugar except maybe those awesome Fage cups. I ate a salad the other day from the salad bar and used this orange ginger dressing, and it didn't even occur to me to think salad dressing might have sugar, but when I got to the bottom of the bowl I realized it was really sweet. Anyway, so I'm still excluding milk, cheese, butter, and intoxicants, but I think the whole thing might have started out too broad.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Weigh-in and pants
Today I am 136.8 pounds at 27.0% body fat, which is 1.2 pounds down from last week. Happy days! I will soon meet my goal which, although I think it will not be the end of my body improvement journey, will be pretty awesome to say I finally met, considering I first conceptualized it when I was 13 and it ended up being a 50-pound goal.
My pants situation. I've been wearing these size 6 jeans for a while, since about 155. They are finally starting to get loose enough that I think I'd like to go shop for size 4 jeans, although they'll be perfectly acceptable for wearing for a while yet. I will look for some black jeans because I need something black for a performance I'm going to be in soon. Anyway, I also have these size 4 pants that I bought in order to have something "business casual" before my Europe trip. The 4Ps I tried on were too small, but the 6Ms were too long, so I settled for a 4M, and it's just not quite the right shape, so I haven't really been wearing those much, but anyway, a 4 has fit for a while. The sixth grade pants, size 8 in some mysterious system that is scaled way small, have gradually come to fit more and more, and they've reached a point where I can tell they're just never going to fit properly, because they are actually getting loose on the hips, but still are too tight in the thighs. So sad, but at least I can put that question to rest. I may try and patch the cool design they have onto another pair of pants. Finally - this morning I was wearing this size-6 skirt that was slightly tight when I acquired it and now fits perfectly, when my boyfriend brought me a size 2 pair of pants he found abandoned in the laundry room. I looked at them, thought "yeah those look a little small," but tried them on. If they were made out of an ordinary, not so stretchy material they would be wearable but too tight to move in, but with 3% lycra-spandex they fit perfectly. So apparently I now wear anywhere from a 2 to a 6. I find this really interesting because when I wore size 10 or 12 and even 8, I was just one size unless I was borderline and then one would be a little loose and one a little tight. Now, apparently, I span 3 sizes. So strange.
My pants situation. I've been wearing these size 6 jeans for a while, since about 155. They are finally starting to get loose enough that I think I'd like to go shop for size 4 jeans, although they'll be perfectly acceptable for wearing for a while yet. I will look for some black jeans because I need something black for a performance I'm going to be in soon. Anyway, I also have these size 4 pants that I bought in order to have something "business casual" before my Europe trip. The 4Ps I tried on were too small, but the 6Ms were too long, so I settled for a 4M, and it's just not quite the right shape, so I haven't really been wearing those much, but anyway, a 4 has fit for a while. The sixth grade pants, size 8 in some mysterious system that is scaled way small, have gradually come to fit more and more, and they've reached a point where I can tell they're just never going to fit properly, because they are actually getting loose on the hips, but still are too tight in the thighs. So sad, but at least I can put that question to rest. I may try and patch the cool design they have onto another pair of pants. Finally - this morning I was wearing this size-6 skirt that was slightly tight when I acquired it and now fits perfectly, when my boyfriend brought me a size 2 pair of pants he found abandoned in the laundry room. I looked at them, thought "yeah those look a little small," but tried them on. If they were made out of an ordinary, not so stretchy material they would be wearable but too tight to move in, but with 3% lycra-spandex they fit perfectly. So apparently I now wear anywhere from a 2 to a 6. I find this really interesting because when I wore size 10 or 12 and even 8, I was just one size unless I was borderline and then one would be a little loose and one a little tight. Now, apparently, I span 3 sizes. So strange.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Weigh-in with the LAST MICROGOAL
Well how's this for progress: 138.0 and 27.6% body fat! Actually, I'm extremely skeptical of this number since that means I lost 2.4 pounds since YESTERDAY. But then there was the time I lost 4 pounds in less than a week after breaking through my 170 plateau, so who knows. If you frame it as 3.2 pounds since 3 weeks ago, it sounds a little more reasonable. At any rate, I'll count myself as having cracked my last microgoal. The LAST ONE, before my final goal. As in, I have less than 5 pounds to go. Oh, and my ticker is now so close to the end that the current number is overlapping with the goal number. This is really amazing.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Bored weigh in
So, I haven't posted much lately. That's because nothing is happening. I'm not losing and I'm not gaining. I'm going to school and doing yoga and aerobics and elliptical, and often feeling hungry at night or hungrier due to exercise, but still pushing a deficit most days. Yesterday I weighed in at 141.4 pounds, and I was out of town the week before, but two Saturdays ago I weighed 141.2 pounds. So that's +0.2 pounds in 2 weeks. Statistically insignificant. My body fat percentage has also been going nowhere since I got back from my trip. It's somewhere between 28% and 29%.
However, one must remember I encountered a similarly irritating plateau just above 170, and I think there was a little bit of a plateau around 155. Every 15 pounds. I hope that's what this is - a plateau that will eventually break, and not the point at which my formulas are showing inaccuracy. For now I will keep eating as lightly as I can manage, go to vinyasa yoga 2x a week, aerobics 2x a week, elliptical when it fits into the schedule, and next week when I deposit my financial aid check I can get a Bikram package which will give me 1-2 Bikram classes each weekend. And let's hope this thing cracks
However, one must remember I encountered a similarly irritating plateau just above 170, and I think there was a little bit of a plateau around 155. Every 15 pounds. I hope that's what this is - a plateau that will eventually break, and not the point at which my formulas are showing inaccuracy. For now I will keep eating as lightly as I can manage, go to vinyasa yoga 2x a week, aerobics 2x a week, elliptical when it fits into the schedule, and next week when I deposit my financial aid check I can get a Bikram package which will give me 1-2 Bikram classes each weekend. And let's hope this thing cracks
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Leaving weight (and such)
Leaving weight is 142.4 pounds. Also 29.2% fat, 27.5 inch waist, 38.5 inch hips, 22.5 inch thigh, 11.0 inch arm.
I guess this makes the returning goal 141.4.
Remind me to talk about pants when I get back...
I guess this makes the returning goal 141.4.
Remind me to talk about pants when I get back...
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Happy New Year (and weigh in)
After a couple of days of disgusting holiday bloat, followed by more moderate period bloat, I have suddenly dropped 2 pounds overnight for a new low of 143.6, oh, and it's Saturday, so my body fat percentage is 29.2. Happy New Year, everyone!
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Day 99, round 2 - conclusion of phase 2 (posted late)
Yesterday was the last row of my second spreadsheet and my weight was 144.4 pounds. At 29.9% body fat, even! This means that in the past 99 days, I've lost:
18.4 pounds
6.3% body fat
2.5 inches off my waist
a little more than 1 pant size
as well as another 1.75 inches off my thigh. I switched my hip measurement to where it's supposed to be during this phase, so I don't have comparable measurements from beginning to end, and I haven't changed my bra size since the end of last phase.
I can't post a graph because the new Google graphs are funky and don't save properly, and my boyfriend's computer (my power cord broke) doesn't have the program I use to take screenshots. So, no eye candy - sorry.
I've refined my spreadsheet again for phase III. The biggest difference is that I split the exercise column into "calorie burn exercise" and "strength/toning exercise". I need to keep track of them separately, because I need to see clearly whether I'm doing my strength exercises or not. The sheet may look a little more confusing sometimes because certain things, primarily yoga, apply to both - but since it's my sheet, as long as I know what I'm talking about and put the right numbers in the right boxes, I think it's fine.
It's super awesome that I'm only 10 pounds away. I hope that I can meet the next microgoal - 139.6 - by the time school starts back up at the end of January. It will be a little slow-going during the holiday week, and my Europe trip will be a total wildcard, but the final week of winter break I have all the space I need to push for a couple more pounds.
18.4 pounds
6.3% body fat
2.5 inches off my waist
a little more than 1 pant size
as well as another 1.75 inches off my thigh. I switched my hip measurement to where it's supposed to be during this phase, so I don't have comparable measurements from beginning to end, and I haven't changed my bra size since the end of last phase.
I can't post a graph because the new Google graphs are funky and don't save properly, and my boyfriend's computer (my power cord broke) doesn't have the program I use to take screenshots. So, no eye candy - sorry.
I've refined my spreadsheet again for phase III. The biggest difference is that I split the exercise column into "calorie burn exercise" and "strength/toning exercise". I need to keep track of them separately, because I need to see clearly whether I'm doing my strength exercises or not. The sheet may look a little more confusing sometimes because certain things, primarily yoga, apply to both - but since it's my sheet, as long as I know what I'm talking about and put the right numbers in the right boxes, I think it's fine.
It's super awesome that I'm only 10 pounds away. I hope that I can meet the next microgoal - 139.6 - by the time school starts back up at the end of January. It will be a little slow-going during the holiday week, and my Europe trip will be a total wildcard, but the final week of winter break I have all the space I need to push for a couple more pounds.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Quick weigh in
144.6, 30.1% body fat. Up some irrelevant amount from last week, but down 3.0 pounds since 2 weeks ago, before the cleanse. I'm satisfied with that. Hopefully I'll read a few more 29-point-somethings for body fat soon.
Gotta go, more thoughts later.
Oh yeah, and MICROGOAL. Another 5 pounds down. Only 10 left! Pretty exciting.
Gotta go, more thoughts later.
Oh yeah, and MICROGOAL. Another 5 pounds down. Only 10 left! Pretty exciting.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
First body fat goal!
Aiee! Today I'm 144.6 pounds, which has me straddling the 40/10 line, and 29.4% body fat, which (1) IS LESS THAN 30% and (2) gives me an mLean of 102.1 pounds, making me think I'm probably at the top of my rebound curve. We'll see about that one, but as per my usual policy, the first day I see the number I like is the day I count it. I'm less than 30% fat now!
Monday, December 13, 2010
Am I back up?
So I'm back up to 144.0 today, back within my usual lean-mass range at 99.6 pounds, and my ticker says 40 point something pounds lost. I'm going to hold off declaring that microgoal, though, since water might want to bump me back up into the 145 range: I consider 99-103 to be my typical lean-mass range, but 100-102 comprises even most of that. Once my weight either stays steady for several days or goes down again, I'll consider the cleanse rebound over and celebrate if warranted.
I'm tantalizingly close to breaking under 30% body fat. I weighed in at 30.8% this morning and a) I might get another pound of free lean-weight from water, b) even assuming no more lean, that means I only have to lose about 2 more pounds of fat to break under 30%. Can I do it before Christmas? Possibly maybe!
I had super low calories all last week during the cleanse, and I ate up yesterday, having a delicious greasy breakfast and lots of yummies at my parents' house decorating the tree. Now it's time to buckle back down, eat right, eat light, and work out during finals. Don't let up in this last stretch toward the holidays - there will be a couple of particular days that will be sacrificed as break-evens or even surpluses, but that doesn't mean the whole week has to be a stall-out. Let's say 143-142 by the time I go traveling in January, eh?
I'm tantalizingly close to breaking under 30% body fat. I weighed in at 30.8% this morning and a) I might get another pound of free lean-weight from water, b) even assuming no more lean, that means I only have to lose about 2 more pounds of fat to break under 30%. Can I do it before Christmas? Possibly maybe!
I had super low calories all last week during the cleanse, and I ate up yesterday, having a delicious greasy breakfast and lots of yummies at my parents' house decorating the tree. Now it's time to buckle back down, eat right, eat light, and work out during finals. Don't let up in this last stretch toward the holidays - there will be a couple of particular days that will be sacrificed as break-evens or even surpluses, but that doesn't mean the whole week has to be a stall-out. Let's say 143-142 by the time I go traveling in January, eh?
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Weigh-in
My weight this morning was 142.2 pounds at 31.7% fat. This is... erm... 5.4 pounds down from last week which tells me that in the next few days about 3 pounds should be coming back. This is confirmed by the fact that my lean mass is about 3 pounds under usual. However, my calories have been very low so I should have lost around 2 real pounds this week. I'm hoping that by next week, when my water weight will have re-stabilized, I'm still under 145.
I'll post later about the conclusion of my cleanse, and what I ended up eating during it.
I'll post later about the conclusion of my cleanse, and what I ended up eating during it.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Late weigh-in and first day of the cleanse
Yesterday I weighed in at 147.6 pounds and 31.1% body fat.
I went to a Bikram class and got the introductory package, as planned. I went to my mom's birthday dinner, which was Ethiopian food, and had this yummy bread called injera made from a gluten-free grain called teff. After dinner I had a psyllium shake, which was disgusting and should probably only be taken on an empty stomach, and some Cascara, to kick off the cleanse. We (my boyfriend is doing most of it with me) were too tired to wait an hour between the shake and Cascara, so we took them together, and I think the Cascara might have gotten absorbed by the psyllium because it didn't seem to have much effect, but we'll solve that later by taking the psyllium midday.
This morning I took a milk thistle and dandelion supplement and had a delicious rice cake with unsalted peanut butter and dried cranberries. I also had a piece of kombu (a kind of seaweed) steeped in hot water. I've had a little bit of a cold (just some sore throat/itchy nose in the morning) which I think is making me want salt more than would normally be the case. More than that, I'm feeling very low energy, which is partly because it's cold and probably mostly because I'm not having caffeine.
The official program, then, is this:
Liver support herbs with breakfast
At least 1 psyllium shake per day at any convenient time
Cascara sagrada before bed
Nothing with added salt, sugar, or oil (my boyfriend is allowing honey, I'm not)
No meat, eggs, dairy, or wheat
No mind-altering substances
Sunday-Wednesday: just wheat-free vegan
Thursday-Friday: raw food
Saturday: liquid fast until dinner (my boyfriend will just continue on raw)
I went to a Bikram class and got the introductory package, as planned. I went to my mom's birthday dinner, which was Ethiopian food, and had this yummy bread called injera made from a gluten-free grain called teff. After dinner I had a psyllium shake, which was disgusting and should probably only be taken on an empty stomach, and some Cascara, to kick off the cleanse. We (my boyfriend is doing most of it with me) were too tired to wait an hour between the shake and Cascara, so we took them together, and I think the Cascara might have gotten absorbed by the psyllium because it didn't seem to have much effect, but we'll solve that later by taking the psyllium midday.
This morning I took a milk thistle and dandelion supplement and had a delicious rice cake with unsalted peanut butter and dried cranberries. I also had a piece of kombu (a kind of seaweed) steeped in hot water. I've had a little bit of a cold (just some sore throat/itchy nose in the morning) which I think is making me want salt more than would normally be the case. More than that, I'm feeling very low energy, which is partly because it's cold and probably mostly because I'm not having caffeine.
The official program, then, is this:
Liver support herbs with breakfast
At least 1 psyllium shake per day at any convenient time
Cascara sagrada before bed
Nothing with added salt, sugar, or oil (my boyfriend is allowing honey, I'm not)
No meat, eggs, dairy, or wheat
No mind-altering substances
Sunday-Wednesday: just wheat-free vegan
Thursday-Friday: raw food
Saturday: liquid fast until dinner (my boyfriend will just continue on raw)
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Late weigh-in and more "new plan"
Yesterday I was 149.8 pounds and 32.1% fat. It's true that by the numbers I should have gained about 0.2 pounds this week, but not a whole pound, so I'm calling it largely water fluctuation.
However, I've decided I need to re-tune. In this vein, a few things:
First, go back to really paying attention to my dietary quality. This morning I again ate an egg on toast with half an orange and a glass of milk, which is basically my ultimate yummy-healthy breakfast. No more leaving out the complex carbs, or leaving out the protein, or eating junk food for a while.
Second, I'm going to do a cleanse/fast from the 5th to the 11th. It will involve liver detoxing herbs, psyllium shakes and Cascara sagrada each day, starting after dinner on the 4th. There will be no mind-altering substances and no foods with added salt, sugar or oil throughout. The diet will be vegan for four days, raw vegan for two days, and liquid fast on the last day until breaking for dinner. Hopefully this will a) jump start my weight loss again, b) be fun/get me high, and c) produce the benefits people usually cleanse for. I picked the particular week because my mom's birthday is the 4th, so I will be going out to dinner, but the week after has half a week of school, so by the time the harder part starts I won't have those responsibilities to deal with.
Third, it's time to tighten down again on the calories. I have three weeks and change until Solstice and I do believe I can lose 3 pounds in that time. If the cleanse has its hoped-for effect, I may be able to push it to 5. I won't sweat it too hard (literally) on weekends, because it's hard to resist snacking, hard to get out for exercise, and rest & repair time is important. However, I will insist on staying beneath the magic 1888 and maintaining quality on those weekend days and think about trying to get a run in on Saturdays. On weekdays, I want to keep calories really buckled down by eating a good breakfast, bringing a light lunch to be eaten early and an afternoon snack or 2 large snacks, depending on how you want to view it, as I was talking about recently. Exercise will happen everyday, which shouldn't founder now that the below-freezing mornings have gone away. The goal is to have a 500-700 deficit every weekday, one way or another. I hope to be able to maintain diet between 1400-1600 with 200-500 cals of exercise, for a total range of 550-1050 deficit (my maintenance level being about 1950 right now).
However, I've decided I need to re-tune. In this vein, a few things:
First, go back to really paying attention to my dietary quality. This morning I again ate an egg on toast with half an orange and a glass of milk, which is basically my ultimate yummy-healthy breakfast. No more leaving out the complex carbs, or leaving out the protein, or eating junk food for a while.
Second, I'm going to do a cleanse/fast from the 5th to the 11th. It will involve liver detoxing herbs, psyllium shakes and Cascara sagrada each day, starting after dinner on the 4th. There will be no mind-altering substances and no foods with added salt, sugar or oil throughout. The diet will be vegan for four days, raw vegan for two days, and liquid fast on the last day until breaking for dinner. Hopefully this will a) jump start my weight loss again, b) be fun/get me high, and c) produce the benefits people usually cleanse for. I picked the particular week because my mom's birthday is the 4th, so I will be going out to dinner, but the week after has half a week of school, so by the time the harder part starts I won't have those responsibilities to deal with.
Third, it's time to tighten down again on the calories. I have three weeks and change until Solstice and I do believe I can lose 3 pounds in that time. If the cleanse has its hoped-for effect, I may be able to push it to 5. I won't sweat it too hard (literally) on weekends, because it's hard to resist snacking, hard to get out for exercise, and rest & repair time is important. However, I will insist on staying beneath the magic 1888 and maintaining quality on those weekend days and think about trying to get a run in on Saturdays. On weekdays, I want to keep calories really buckled down by eating a good breakfast, bringing a light lunch to be eaten early and an afternoon snack or 2 large snacks, depending on how you want to view it, as I was talking about recently. Exercise will happen everyday, which shouldn't founder now that the below-freezing mornings have gone away. The goal is to have a 500-700 deficit every weekday, one way or another. I hope to be able to maintain diet between 1400-1600 with 200-500 cals of exercise, for a total range of 550-1050 deficit (my maintenance level being about 1950 right now).
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Weekly weigh-in
I'm getting rather tired of all the archiving I do here of food journals and exercise log and everything, so if someone starts following who is interested in seeing it, I'll consider posting it again, but for now I'm going to stop because it's kind of tedious.
Today I weigh 148.8 pounds at 32.1% body fat. That's 1.0 pound down from last week, so, good, I guess. I have to remind myself not to jump my mind ahead the whole 15 pounds but instead to just focus on losing 5 pounds before Solstice. If I pay attention, that's really not too slow to notice. It would have been a few months ago, but each pound matters more when you're lighter. In 140s, 5 pounds is actually a relatively visible amount.
My lean body mass, as I said recently, seems to be stabilizing. If it stays the same as it is now the whole way down, I will hit my final weight goal at around 26% body fat. That's not too bad. Only a little bit of further loss, or reshaping, would be necessary at that point.
I've really been slacking off on my pull-ups - I haven't done any in probably a month. It's hard to find the time when I have my yoga classes and try to push the cardio on other days. However, I have made some progress in push-ups, because yoga involves plenty of plank work. I haven't been recording my extra practice, though, in part because I do very few at a time. I need to get back to recording every strength exercise I do - even if it's only a few push-ups - so as to keep my motivation and keep doing them regularly.
Today I weigh 148.8 pounds at 32.1% body fat. That's 1.0 pound down from last week, so, good, I guess. I have to remind myself not to jump my mind ahead the whole 15 pounds but instead to just focus on losing 5 pounds before Solstice. If I pay attention, that's really not too slow to notice. It would have been a few months ago, but each pound matters more when you're lighter. In 140s, 5 pounds is actually a relatively visible amount.
My lean body mass, as I said recently, seems to be stabilizing. If it stays the same as it is now the whole way down, I will hit my final weight goal at around 26% body fat. That's not too bad. Only a little bit of further loss, or reshaping, would be necessary at that point.
I've really been slacking off on my pull-ups - I haven't done any in probably a month. It's hard to find the time when I have my yoga classes and try to push the cardio on other days. However, I have made some progress in push-ups, because yoga involves plenty of plank work. I haven't been recording my extra practice, though, in part because I do very few at a time. I need to get back to recording every strength exercise I do - even if it's only a few push-ups - so as to keep my motivation and keep doing them regularly.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)