Lifting: A Love Story.

Dearest Weight Room,

Our recent separation was so difficult. Thank you for allowing me to go my own way for a little while. My sore overworked muscles needed the break, but I promise to never let it happen again. I'm a poor lost soul without you.

I foolishly thought our separation would be fun and productive. I quickly learned that without your constant nagging and desperate need to control every aspect of my life, I spend my days on Netflix watching True Blood. Sure, I was finally able to have a social life when we weren't exclusive, but I couldn't help thinking of you whenever I went out.

But I'm back baby!

I know things have been rocky the past couple weeks. Seeing you after a three week hiatus was difficult. I was maxing out with my usual warm ups and my endurance was shot. I know you were embarrassed by my weakness and that I'm not the woman I once was, but I hope you've seen me working hard to get it back. Maybe one day you can forgive me and forget this whole thing.

I do think we've learned a valuable lesson in all this though. We need some time away from each other during the week. Don't worry, my life will still revolve around you, but time apart is important. And we have to be okay if I cancel our plans once in a while. It's not that I don't want to be with you, things just come up. That's life. I'll be thinking of you the whole time. If it helps, know that whatever it is, I'd probably rather be with you.

They say distance makes the heart grow fonder and I've found my love for you has grown and matured during my time away. I've come to a deeper appreciation for the challenges and benefits of a committed relationship with you. I know some people think that hanging out with other types of workouts isn't appropriate, but I'm going to have to be with Cardio sometimes. We both know it's important for me, especially since I may be going to army basic training in a couple months. We just need to build trust; I'm not cheating on you. You don't need to be jealous of Cardio. Let's be honest, Cardio's got nothing on you.

I've also gained a deeper appreciation for your friend Dieting. No, I will never get along with your crazy buddy Miracle Diet, who forces you to starve yourself and promises a loss of 2000 inches in 5 seconds. But I really like your friend Day To Day, who builds his diet around a rainbow of vegetables, some fruits, and lean proteins. During my time away from you, I gained 2 pounds. Single does not look good on me. But I started eating better before I came back to you and that helped me get back to the normal 160lbs (still wish I could drop lower, but thank you for accepting me as I am and valuing lean gains as a means of fat loss).

I'm excited for what the future holds for us and for all the PRs we will experience together.

With all my heart,

The Fat-Skinny Girl <3

Why Was 6 Afraid of 7? Because 7 8 9.

Bench.
Step-Ups.

Decline bench.
Step-ups.

Incline bench.
Step-Ups.

Narrow Grip Bench.
Step-Ups.

Okay I'm done.

Jamie Eason and Jim Stoppani have interesting programs that have certainly taught me a lot about the weight lifting world. These programs have revolutionized my lifestyle and I owe a lot to them. And now I'm done.

I didn't really officially finish Jim's program; it kind of fizzled out towards the last couple weeks. I was over-training, not stretching enough, and pretty much pissed off every muscle group in my body.

But I learned a lot! ...Mostly the value of stretching.

Here's a quick breakdown of things I've come to understand the past couple months. Some of it may seem painfully obvious to any of you with real experience that happen to be reading the blog, but too bad. I'm still a beginner in this game and it was all news to me:

Squats - Some people are just anatomically different and therefore must squat differently (http://themovementfix.com/the-best-kept-secret-why-people-have-to-squat-differently/). However, for the most part, you should get down to 90 degrees or more, keep your back straight with chest up (looking up helps a lot), weight on the heel/sides of feet, feet slightly pointed out, and arch your back aka stick out your butt. There are also stretches / specific strength training techniques that help build to a better squat (http://www.t-nation.com/training/squat-like-you-mean-it). Finally, I learned why people train with olympic squatting shoes, but olympic lifters wear chucks.

Active Rests and Super Sets - An excellent addition to a work out, but counterproductive to PRs or really heavy lifting in general. A lot of lifters start with low rep - high weight sets on a couple key lifts, then supplement with high rep - low weight lifts for the rest of the work out. I think I'm going emulate that, incorporating AR and SS into the mix for the non-heavy stuff.

Diet - Diet, diet, diet. Whew, there are a lot of theories out there! IT'S OVERWHELMING!!! That being said, I'm pretty obsessed with the take-home message from Testosterone Nation's many articles on the subject. They pretty much say that everyone is different in their body type, hormonal composition, commitment levels, current habits, and time capabilities. AKA there's no one stop shop that's going to work well for everyone. Even if something may work well for you, it's irrelevant if you can't commit. For example, I'm fairly convinced that carb cycling is worth a go, but I am most certainly not ready for that yet. T-Nation encourages the trial and error method to see what does work, but they're quick to point out that the common man would probably benefit if he just cut out the crap and made better choices overall. And they're probably right. I'm mostly there. But, as the entry entitled "The Skinny Fat Girl... Part 2" explains, I've got a long way to go and I've hit a plateau. Simply eating good foods isn't enough. Time to experiment.

• Intermittent Fasting - I'm taking this for a spin first because it fits my schedule and my eating style. If you've read any of my posts, I think it's clear that I love food. Like... a lot. So my portion sizes tend to be bigger and 6 meals a day is rough for me. The 6 meal strategy dictates that you eat more of less, but that doesn't go so well. I eat more of more. And, eating more frequently trains your body to expect food all the time.
• 
   What am I supposed to say to my body when I stay up late and I get legitimately hungry for the 7th time that day? Or the 8th? Or the 9th? (I work a 2nd job at a restaurant in the evenings. No amount of will power can say no to boneless wings when 9th hunger comes around and you've already said no to the 7th and 8th. [cue the title of this entry]) There are some potential health benefits, both body comp related and otherwise, so it's worth a shot. Fun fact - the mitochondria in your kidney?? have trouble dividing well and a fasted period allows them to focus on division rather than function. <<very unscientific fun fact. I remember reading about some study on it in a book a few months back. Here's a very unscientific article a quick google search pulled up http://draxe.com/intermittent-fasting-benefits/  I don't feel like finding a better one lol. 
• Take home: At the very least, it will stop me from mindlessly eating at night - a very real problem. It will reprogram my body to not be hungry every few hours - a very real problem. It will save me time in the morning, when I'm already rushing to get to work - a very real problem. It will save me time on meal prep in my super busy schedule - a very real problem. And, it could potentially have all these other health benefits like longer life, hormone regulation, and other relatively unimportant stuff compared to looking good. I kid, I kid.

I am by no means "anti program" now, but I'm ready to fly out on my own. Sort of. I'm probably going to use some pull-up and army training guides.

Oh yeah, PS, I'm probably joining the Army Naitonal Guard and I can do dips now. ha, nbd.

She Got a Donk

I have finally figured out how to do a squat to 90 degrees (or more) without taking a bow.

You gotta pop that butt out.

No, but really. Once I watched "So You Think You Can Squat" parts 1 and 2 on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ME8gEN54Ao), I tried some things out. I could not get over the difference between a squat where my booty is tooched and when it isn't. I can actually stay up fairly straight!! Yes, I know you're supposed to pick a spot on the wall ~30 degrees above eye level to keep you upper back from drooping under the weight, but even with that technique and no barbell, I couldn't do a squat without bending forward almost parallel to the ground. 

But! (pun intenteded) When I create that arch in my back my form improves 100%. 

So drop it like its hot and go do some squats. 

The Fat Skinny Girl... Part 2

The other day I stepped on the scale only to find that once again, my weight had hit 160. I tried running to the body fat percent devise for reassurance, only to see a number larger than before. WTF. Granted, the devise I used was different than the one I had been using to track my progress, but still. WTF.

This was discouraging. And when I say discouraging, I mean knocked down, what the hell more can I possibly do?? discouraging. I felt like all the hard work from the past few weeks was null and void.

But then I got a couple unsolicited compliments:
"Wow, you look like you've lost so much since the last time I've seen you [2 weeks ago]."
"I can't get over how much you've lost in the past few months. You look so toned and healthy."

Ladies, ladies, please. I've lost zero.

Of course my body fat has gone down tremendously and clothes fit better and yadda yadda yadda. But there is something psychologically driving about seeing the scale go down. Naturally, lifting as much as I do involves forming muscle, especially when I'm packing in creatine and protein like it's my job. However, I'm at the point where I'd like to start burning fat faster than I'm putting on muscle.

Fortunately, I've entered the reduced calorie, carb-cycling phase of Jim Stoppani's program. I am now doing around 1650 calories and 70g of carbs 6 days a week and one day of >200g carbs (I can't wait for that day, Jersey Mikes, I'm looking at you).  I don't know how much good the carb-cycling will do because there's not much research that I can find to support it (granted, there's not much research against it either), but the reduced calorie diet is probably the ticket.

Ummmm..... okay hold on. No crap. Cutting calories is obviously the solution. The reason I've not been seeing the scale drop is that I've been eating too many dang calories. End of story. I haven't been excessive, but I haven't been creating that deficit. I've been going by the "hunger" principle of if you're hungry, that's your body saying 'hey, I need more calories.' Okay sure, that may be true, but there's a few issues with this:

Sometimes your body is really saying, 'hey, I'm thirsty.' Sometimes your body is really saying 'hey, I want a tiny snack, not another meal,' and sometimes it's just your body being whiny because it's used to being spoiled, but really, it's fine and doesn't need any more nutrients, macro or micro.

I ignored the whines for the first time two days ago. I drank some water and eventually gave in with some celery (yeah, I know, I sound like an anorexic teenage girl). The thing is, I knew I had enough calories for the day and I knew every calorie had contributed essential vitamins and minerals. It wasn't like I had reached my daily goal by eating 3 donuts; everything I ate was chock-full of (insert things I've heard my nutritionist father say, but I couldn't explain if my life depended on it [such as flavonoids, phytochemicals, and polyphenols]). Basically, if I ate, I would be satisfying my body's habit of breaking even. I had to be the parent telling their toddler no. I had to be the mean owner taking their cat to the vet. I had to be the kid studying in the library when everyone else was at a raging keger. I had to be tough and stick it out.

Today is day 3 of being tough. No more Mr. Nice Guy.

I Got 99 Problems, but a Bench Ain't One.

The Festivus in July (see what I did there?) will begin with the airing of grievances. 

I got a lot of problems and you're all going to hear about it. 

1.) If planet fitness has a bigger weight section than you, just close shop now. Thanks.

2.) Working out on the road is difficult. You put all this effort into traveling, you want to make the most of your time exploring and/or being social. This past week I went to Soccorro New Mexico for a work training. I didn't know anyone and wanted to make friends fast... but there was the gym calling my name. Fortunately, I was able to combine the three and went running with a group of guys through the mountains. Score. That only lasted a day though. They just wanted to drink the other days. Can't say I blame them. 

3.) Speaking of drinking, it's really depressing that alcohol packs so many empty calories. I've cut back a lot, but I really miss my glass (or bottle) of wine at night, my craft beers, and my good old whiskey.

4.) Cookies are way too delicious. Especially when you're sitting in training all day and need a midday pick-me-up. Take it from me, apples, protein bars, and hard boiled eggs don't cut it. Not when there's cookies around the corner. (I only had one cookie and 1/2 a pastry from the snack table this past week in NM. Will power!) 

5.) I understand why Achilles was taken out by being shot in the heel. Seriously, that hurts! My right leg, just under the calf, starting bothering me yesterday at the gym. Pretty sure I've strained my Achilles tendon. Great. This probably means I need to start stretching more.

6.) I have a love hate relationship with stretching. On the one hand, I love doing it. On the other, I always run out of time and forget to do it in the car, shower, or wherever I tell myself it'll happen. One day I stretched in the sauna and it was heavenly. Basically hot yoga without all the creepers. But seriously, ain't nobody got time for that. 

And now as Festivus rolls on, we come to the feats of strength.

I guess everyone has their best lift. Mine is definitely not squats. I struggle to get down to 90 degrees without any weight, let alone with a loaded up bar. It's just not natural. I'm not saying I'm alone in this, it's just that other things came so much easier. Bench presses, for example, are like second nature and always have been. I asked for a spot from a rando yesterday for the first time because I knew exactly how much I could do and I knew it would be a struggle. I have no such sense of clarity when it comes to squats. So that's the mission. Learn how to do a freaking squat so I'm not one of those top heavy triangle people you see. >>>

Stop crying and fight your father. 

Fear Factor

Flash back a few years:

I'm nervously following my good friend Kate through a sea of benches and free weights in the RPAC (Ohio State's main gym). She acts like this is nothing, as if she doesn't notice the curious glances from the men we pass. We walk up to a machine I can only describe as a "cage," she loads on some heavy weights, and starts busting out squats. Then it's my turn. I can't believe what I'm doing... am I even allowed over here?

Back to the present:

Last week I learned how to properly do a clean and press, I maxed my bench out at 115, and I started an "expert" level program from bodybuilding.com. But pshhh, it 'aint no thang.

But really, it isn't that big of a deal. A quick glance back at the entry titled "Throwing up at the Jym" will show that I was pretty nervous about the program, but I've knocked out four days already and am going strong. I've even kept up with the macros fairly well!

I used to say that Kate could go into the weight room "without fear" and it was such a novel, impressive trait. Now I don't even think twice about it. When I was trying out Lifetime, the sales rep saw me jumping rope in the weights area. He quickly ran over, really worried that I had been forced there for lack of space elsewhere. No, I had to explain, I'm just doing an active rest in between sets. Boom.

I wonder what my past self would say about the present version? Past Lisa would probably judge the present one.

But who cares? That Lisa thought 30 minutes of moderate intensity elliptical time could justify a 36 oz jumbo margarita, bottomless chips, and a fajita dinner loaded with sour cream. Cazuelas, my college pregaming hot spot, I will always love you for your $7.99 giant margarita gifts to humanity. But I've moved on.

I am now a creatine taking, protein packing, macros counting, workout machine that steams right into the weight room "without fear." (rocking my cute pink tennis shoes and headband of course.)

Bubbly about Try

WARNING: Sappy female cliche body image post - had to do it though.

Just want to give props to Colbie Caillat for her new video 'Try.'

Body image is an issue that 100% of my female friends have dealt with. I work out to eat because I love food more than just about anything and could never part from it. Sadly, I know way too many people who have tried, or are currently on, crazy extreme diets just to get thin. Heck, despite my obsession with eating, I've done a crazy thing or two (darn you hydroxycut and your mood swinging ways). And it's not just girls. Worse, many of these men and women look fantastic and are likely suffering from body dysmorphia. Sometimes I wonder if I deal with it too. I think we all probably do to some degree, at least at some point. 

Colbie Caillat's 'Try' video shows various women singing the lyrics to her new song. The words are powerful: "When you're all alone, by yourself, do you like you? .... You don't have to try so hard. You don't have to bend until you break"

The women all start with copious amounts of makeup and through the course of the video, remove the weaves, the wigs, the make-up, etc. and are natural. 

Okay don't get me wrong, I love make-up. I really, really love make-up. I love putting it on and experimenting.

The reason this song is so powerful is that it encourages people to like who they are, where they are, in the now. You don't have to be satisfied! You can always want more. That's where lifting comes in for me. But, just because I have goals for an improved me, doesn't mean I should dislike who I am in the process of getting there. 

Food for thought. Thanks Colbie. 

If anyone's interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXoZLPSw8U8