Day 14: 151 lbs

Happy Friday!

I'm finally posting a "before" picture, although I'm 14 days in.  I'm 5'7", 151 lbs.  Today I will be completing my 1st week and 3rd workout for Starting Strength.

Cardio Day

Yesterday was Day 2 of Starting Strength, which means a rest from lifting with cardio!  60 minutes on the elliptical and 607 calories burned.  Sorry the picture is so blurry!

Starting Strength, Day 1

Yesterday was my first day of a modified Starting Strength program (http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ:The_Lifts).  My lifting routine is now broken down into two workouts (A and B), which I alternate every other day.  Days I don't lift I do 45-60 minutes of cardio, or rest.

Workout A

• Lifting - Four sets of 5 reps of:
• Squat (85 lbs today)
• Bench (55 lbs today)
• Deadlift (85 lbs today)
• Leg Press (140 lbs today)
•  Abs 
•  HIIT - 15 minutes of intervals on the spinning bike

 Workout B

• Lifts - 4 sets of 5 reps of:
• Squat
• Overhead Press
• Power Clean
• Abs
• HIIT - 15 minutes intervals on treadmill

My weekly schedule looks like:

• Week 1
• Monday - Workout A
• Tuesday - Cardio
• Wednesday - Workout B
• Thursday - Cardio
• Friday - Workout A
• Saturday - Rest
• Sunday - Cardio
• Week 2
• Monday - Workout B
• Tuesday - Cardio
• Wednesday - Workout A
• Thursday - Cardio
• Friday - Workout B
• Saturday - Rest
• Sunday - Cardio

Yesterday, workout A took a little over an hour and I burned about 430 calories.

Thanks to my new heart rate monitor watch, I discovered that I had been grossly overestimating the calories burned while weight lifting :O(!!!  Now that I trust the amount of calories burning, I'm hoping to see better results in the coming weeks.

New Heart Rate Monitor - Suunto M4

I hope everyone's weekend is off to a great start!  I was excited to go to Eastern Mountain Sports yesterday after work to pick up a new heart rate monitor.  After an hour or two of online research prior to my purchase, I ultimately decided on the Suunto M4 ($149) over the Polar brand (like my last heart rate monitor).  I previously had the Polar F4, bought in 2008 or 2009 for around $50, I believe.  

Suunto M4 Women's Heart Rate Monitor Watch ($149), Turquoise 

I must admit that I didn't use that one much mostly due to an inferior chest strap which was a hard, inflexible plastic that often failed to register my heart rate either because it got too dry or the rigid shape made it tough to conform to my chest during activity.

Suunto M4 Chest Strap

Anyways!  I decided yesterday to start using a heart rate monitor again to track how many calories I burn when I lift because I think it's impossible to estimate on your own.  I went to pull out my old Polar F4 to find it had finally died, and since I didn't like it much anyways I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try out something new :D.  

Enter: Suunto M4.  This watch is much more attractive than most bulky, chunky heart rate monitors out there (yes, I am that shallow).  The chest strap is soft and flexible, and mostly fabric.  The first time I used it I didn't have to wet the strap because I was already sweating slightly, and my heart rate was picked up instantly by the watch.  I used the watch for an elliptical interval workout I did last night, and it worked great!    The elliptical picked up my heart rate from my chest strap, which I thought was super high-tech and awesome.

I use the Precor elliptical that looks like this...the one you have to push with orange accents

As I feared, the Precor elliptical machine I was using was overestimating my calories burned by about 100 calories in my 40 minute workout.  One interesting tidbit is that the "distance" option on the elliptical exactly matched my calories burned (distance *100 = calories).  So, for those of you who don't trust the amount of calories your cardio machines are telling you that you burned, I think this is a great alternative.

Non-Scale Victory (NSV) and Intro!

Happy Friday!

Today, a coworker came up to me and asked if I had lost weight.  I'm glad I'm not pale enough to give away a blush, because my face felt as if it were on fire!  Although embarrassed, I also felt excited that my results may be noticeable!  I told him I had been working out a lot recently, and that I didn't think I had lost weight.  I suppose that is the truth.  Although the scale hasn't moved yet, I can tell a difference in how my clothes are fitting.  

The breakdown of my diet and exercise this week is as follows:

Stats for the week:

• Average calorie deficit this week: 614 cals/day
• Total calories  burned through exercise: 2750
• Total calorie deficit: 4,298
• Total lbs lost: 1.2

I keep track of my diet and exercise in a google spreadsheet document so that I can access it from wherever I am.  I track my calories through MFP (myfitnesspal.com), and I aim to eat 1350 calories a day, regardless of whether or not I exercised.  You can probably tell that I have trouble sticking to that limit, but hopefully I can do better next week.  The "Out" column represents calories I burn through exercise.  I also aim to have a net deficit of at least 500 calories/day (which translates to 1 lb/week).


Next week I plan to start a more regimented weight lifting program, with lifting days on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  All other days will be cardio, minus 1-2 days of rest.

My lift stats thus far:

My lifts in January are from when I started my journey.  I'm not an exercise beginner (I've been running/doing insanity for several months), but I hadn't weight trained in years.  It's been a little less than 2 months so far, and I'm already  noticing some gains, mostly in my legs, which are naturally stronger than my upper body.  It should also be noted that for the first month I mostly lifted to perfect my form, not necessarily with the goal of increasing strength.  Now I can say that I am confident in my compound lifting form (especially squats and deadlifts) and am ready to start upping the weight.