I'll share. I'm trying to take fitness more seriously and strategically. Here's some things I'm proud of so far and progress I've made.
Measurements/Weight
- I took measurements on January 17 and again the April 3. I was surprised to see that despite inconsistency in weight training and my workout plan, I made some progress. I tried to keep generally active with the jog here and there and kept up with healthy eating so I think that's why. I lost 0.5" from my natural waist, 1" from my waist area (measured across the belly button), 1" off my hip, 0.25" off my calf, 0.5" off my bicep (while retaining the muscle), and 0.5" off the widest point of my thighs.
- I finally got a scale delivered March 28th and since then have lost 5.5-6 lbs of fat! I don't believe much of that is 'water weight' because I don't tend to bloat much anymore from cutting out excess sodium and drinking more water.
- According to the scale, my body fat has dropped from 20.1% to 19% fat. Woohoo! I think my muscles are more visible, but I would like to be able to see more, and without necessarily having to flex first. :) I took some 'before' photos so track this progress.
- Thighs feel like bricks. They use to be strong when I commuted by cycling, but then got a little soft for several months from not cycling to work anymore due to getting a different job that is a 5-min walk from home. Now that I've been doing regular training and HIIT + circuit style cardio that involves lots of leg-related things and plyometrics, they feel stronger and more solid after a few weeks of following a routine. Is muscle memory really a thing?
Diet
- In the last 3-4 weeks I started regularly tracking my food and started specifically eating in a calorie deficit of about 20% from my 'maintenance' calories. I surely must have been eating a quite a bit more than maintenance (generally probably 300-600, or more maybe depending on the day?) because I would often out-eat my husband, so the deficit so far must be a little bit more than 20% especially with exercise. I cut the habit of mindlessly eating fruit whenever I wandered into the kitchen, too.
- In the last week and a half I started paying attention to macronutrients (calculated via Cronometer food tracking). I feel like it helps me to understand the quality of my food better so I can make more strategic decisions. This has been very helpful for me, especially because I realized that as a small person I can't necessarily burn as many calories as bigger people because my BMR is just so low, so the volume of food needed for me is quite lower than I realized. :( But despite eating in caloric deficit, I am not hungry. I also measure all my portions with a food scale.
Some General Fitness Things I Noticed
- My core strength has improved so much especially in the last month. In mid-January when I started working out again, I could not do a straight-legged sit up without struggling, and my legs kept popping up off the floor. It was extremely difficult to accomplish with any semblance of good form, and my abdominals would burn intensely. I was trying to follow a workout program and was convinced this was not a beginner move. I couldn't even do the sit up version with the legs bent without my legs coming up from the floor. What can I say? My core was insanely weak. I also remember mountain climbers of all kinds and planks being pretty hard. Also, a month ago I had extremely difficulty doing a bird-dog/plank reach with the opposite arms and legs off the floor at the same time. And I couldn't do a version of the plank reach where you raise on arm in front of you but keep the two legs on the ground, either. And especially not the version where you put your arm forward, then to the side, and to the back in one go before alternating. Nope. Core would buckle *every time.* Now I'm glad to say I can do the plank reaches, and the straight leg/bent leg sit ups are super easy now. But I still wobble a bit with the bird-dog version. I am going to keep working on that one.
- I can run without wanting to stop! Doesn't mean I'm not tired, but I'm going to keep trying to work on my pacing. From January-early March I still had to take breaks and struggled even to run 5-10 minutes. This weekend we went for a run after not having done it for a month, and I surprised myself. I am thinking this is because I have been working on my overall cardio fitness level with other workouts. Yesterday my husband and I ran 2.39 miles and on my first split I ran the slower pace of his slower split, lol. This is amazing to me because usually we start out jogging, and then he gets further and further down the block until I can't even see him anymore. Now I'm more like, just one city block behind him. And this is with us attacking the hills over and over again. I woke up this morning and jogged a 5k, and my splits got progressively faster instead of slower. (But I didn't do hills as much.)
Goals:
- My lifetime goal is to have a ridiculously strong back/core. I swear, if I ease up on fitness for even a little bit, I always 'feel it' in the lower-left of my back. Not pain exactly... Just something not good. So I will try consciously incorporating core-specific strength routines 5-6 times a week instead of pretending I'm training my core through compound movements, lol, even though those are important, too. After working in big offices with coworkers that have complained about horrible things such as herniated disks, I am scared straight of ending up with issues like that.
- Lose 2.5" off my waist. I am not exactly 'fat,' but I certainly don't feel comfortable in my jeans anymore, even if I can zip them up. They are the unforgiving, non-stretch variety.
- Have bigger, stronger deltoids. Also, develop those back muscles.
- Incorporate more cardio boxing. It's such a big calorie burner for me because it requires the entire body.
- Increase my daily NEAT. Exercise sessions are great but I'm realizing recently that NEAT is also important. Yesterday I cleaned out one of our closets and did dishes/chores. I burned 2-3x as many calories than laying around playing Animal Crossing and I actually became tired. I know, it's not shocking that doing stuff vs laying around burns more calories, but it's a bit of a revelation to me to see proof of what NEAT can do for you. (I got this information from a Fitbit chart that displays data of hourly calorie burn that I never looked at before yesterday). So I guess this means I should be better about doing chores, every day. Yesterday, I did a workout while checking out some netflix shows. Today during a videoless weekly conference call, I shadow boxed while listening to people talk, lol.
- Get better at pushups! I haven't actively worked on this goal. I think I could do it before, but my form has declined since then.
- Run a 9:30 minute mile. I don't need to be the fastest person, so I feel like this is a good achievable goal for me.
- Be strong enough/have the endurance for upcoming backpacking trips and long day hikes, especially of the alpine variety, hopefully soon after the shelter-in-place orders are over. I don't really know what this entails, but I remember doing a hike a while back up a peak and while we did make it, I was dragging my feet the entire time and some people completely the trip wayyy faster (according to Alltrails reviews, lol). I'm not really the type to try to hike as many miles as fast as possible or anything just to get vanity miles and just want to enjoy the trip, but I do want to be fit enough to not have it feel like total torture.
- Be better at swimming efficiently and actually learn to tread water. So, I can kind of swim to survive, but I can't really tread water... Can't work on this for a while for obvious reasons but it's one of those lifetime goals. I also hope to be able to swim in open waters comfortably because in the future when I travel, I really want to be do diving, try out surfing, and swim in lakes (that is, once I get over the fear of not being able to see the ground...?)
- Luckily, I already have adjustable dumbbells (Powerblocks) for working out at home, but in the future I'd really like to get a jump rope, barbell with plates, and an adjustable bench for weight training. Generally, I turn myself into a table using a Swiss ball for things like chest press, chest fly, and overhead dumbbell pullover, but you can't do incline presses on them, so it'd be nice to have an adjustable bench.
Someone was asking about free workout videos. I like Fitness Blender and Hasfit specifically for the cardio boxing videos. Also, I've been using FitOn (free mobile app) for almost 4 weeks now and I really enjoy it. A lot of the workout names sound kind of silly but they're actually really good workouts that are thoughtfully put together in my opinion, especially for the time frames. Have also turned husband onto this app.
