Updates

I had my blood test yesterday but won't have the results until maybe Friday. My doctor didn't have much to say about whether or not she thinks I have a thyroid problem. I got the feeling that she wants to let the test tell me. But I do know that neither of my trainers, Glenn nor Ed, think I have a problem. "Don't waste your time with the test," said Glenn. "Throw your scale out," said Ed. OK, so we'll see. I'm due for a body composition measurement tomorrow with Glenn, so that should be interesting. I'll report the results Thursday evening. It's also time for another bikini shot which I'll probably handle Friday.

Tonight, I ran a mile to fulfill my cardio obligations. I used my Motorola wireless headset (pictured here) to play music off my phone, and that helped tremendously. I highly recommend wireless headsets. They double as bluetooth devices, so if a phone call comes in, I can answer it without needing to press a single button. This is what I always use in the gym. I never see anyone else with one, and I've never understood why. Having wires leading from your earphones to your iPod can be very inconvenient. Anyway, the run went well in terms of completing it without stopping but I'm embarrassed to confess how long it took. 10 minutes, 45 seconds. I need to work on that.

How to put a "spark" in your day

Michelle introduced me to a new website that has many features, one of which is calculating the nutritional elements of the food you eat. It's not magic - it requires lots of data entry. It's called Sparkpeople.com and she wants me to use it to determine, with precision, how many calories I'm consuming, as well as protein and fat. I haven't entirely figured out the site because it's a little confusing, but Michelle loves it and finds it easy to use, so it must be me. But if I spend more time with it, maybe it won't be as challenging. I will continue to work on it. I believe that it's a good idea, too. However, it requires the food item to be in front of you to enter all of its components. For everything else without packaging, one can consult nutritiondata.com. Once that info. is entered, then it's easily retrieved for repeated consumption and future calculations. And while I'm mentioning food, I discovered another protein packed yogurt - Siggi's, an Icelandic style that's THICK (as in, it won't fall off your spoon), non-fat, 0% milkfat with no artificial sweeteners and no growth hormones. 120 calories per container, 16 grams of protein, 20% of total required calcium, 11 grams of sugar from agave nectar. Now that I've detailed its composition, I can say that, after consuming the pomegranate & passion fruit flavor, it's only ok, not great. I'll try blueberry next. At the very least, I fully endorse its ingredients.

Holy Hematology!!!

I was talking to my mother yesterday and expressed frustration over my difficulties with losing some weight (ok, I complained vociferously, even though I should be more chill about this). Then, very coincidentally, she read an article later that evening about hypothyroidism, a condition which can lead to difficulty losing weight. She sent an excerpt that reads: "an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism) disrupts your metabolism. Some estimates show that as many as 10% of adults have hypothyroidism which is more common in women and is often diagnosed in women between the ages of 40 and 50. Other symptoms of hypothyroidism include hair loss. If you’re interested in following up on this, ask your internist to run a TSH (thyroid-stimulating-hormone) screening on you. The higher your TSH level, the slower your thyroid is. While traditional normal values are between .45 and 4.5, if your level is above 2, you might still struggle to lose weight. Your doctor may also want to check your levels of T-3 and T-4, the two main thyroid hormones.” Could that be it???? Needless to say, I called first thing this morning to schedule an appointment with my doctor. I'll see her on Tuesday this coming week and I'll get a blood test the same day. When I receive the results, I'll share them here. The condition is treated with medication, so it's not an enormous problem. I've been instructed that the lower your body fat percentage drops, the harder it is to lose the fat. So dropping from say 20% to 16% is hard, and dropping from 16% to 12% is even harder. But if something else is interfering here, I'd like to know about it.

New Plan

Cardio is nice and it might even be helping me lose a fraction of a pound...each week, but more drastic measures are required to scare my fat away. Starting the day after the July 4th weekend, I'm going hardcore. This means no mistakes in my diet. It must be perfect. That means the number of calories must be right and the composition of the food (protein, carbs and fat) must be precise. I will subject my daily intake to the scrutiny of my trainers and I'll have my body composition measured on a weekly basis. This will continue for 10 weeks, leading up close to the first competition, with a couple weeks in there to make final dietary adjustments after we see where I'm at. I'm the most impatient person I've ever met and I can't help myself here. But seriously, if a person can reasonably lose 1 pound per week, and I need to lose about 8 to 10 lbs. of fat and not muscle, then I cannot afford to squander a single week over the next 10. I'm very determined to get this right. I feel a huge amount of frustration with this aspect of the activity, and the only way to feel better is to do something about it.

New respect for runners

While away on vacation, I felt bound and determined to conquer the mile. I had my pedometer with me and I dutifully clocked a mile. The first time, it was a struggle. I had to break into a walk 3 times. I didn't use any music like I usually do in the gym, but I'm not so sure that would have helped. Two days later, I tried again. I ran it without stopping once and without feeling like I might collapse into a coma! It wasn't fun, and I didn't feel terrific afterward, but I do have a sense of accomplishment. I also have a new respect for all runners. It's brutal! I think Ed will be proud of me.

Heel hindrance

During posing practice with Michelle this past week, I wore my super high posing heels. While I'm very accustomed to walking in high heels with decades of experience behind me, so to speak, this pair is a bit higher than all of my other pairs. So during practice, I didn't walk smoothly and that bothered me. I hadn't worn this pair previously, other than trying them on to see if they fit. Now I realize that I have another competition element to master - walking gracefully in these things. I mentioned this new challenge to a friend and she suggested that I wear them around the house where I'm bending down, changing direction, walking up and down steps, all things that require balance. At first, I thought I'd just dedicate some exclusive time to walking in them a few times a week, but I like her idea better - fold it in to what I'm already doing. Time to water the flowers in the backyard? Slap on the heels!

Yikes!!!!!!!!!!

Today, I shared my body composition (fat!) frustrations with trainer Glenn and, based on the kinds of things I'm eating and the quantities, he thinks I could very well be restricting my calories too much and putting my body in starvation mode. In order to lose fat through calorie restriction, you need to fall a few hundred calories short. If you exceed that say by maybe 500 calories or more, you won't lose fat and you risk burning muscle for energy, also known as catabolism, the arch enemy of all body builders. He said he'll take a look at what I eat in a single day since he knows that most of my days are very similar and give me an evaluation. He thinks that what I'll need to do is eat more of the things I'm eating. I have an incredible amount of discipline when it comes to food, so if I need make cuts, no problem, I will do it. I don't have a sweet tooth, so that never interferes either. But I think I've overdone it and overreached with the calorie deficit. I guess everything I'm doing is trial and error, and with my lack of experience with these issues, I should expect to get a lot wrong in my first attempt. Fortunately, it's not too late to make changes, and I'm going to start doing that today.

Freakin Fat

I met with posing and all-around coach Michelle on Tuesday, and I received a wake-up call, not that I was sleeping, but I think I've been in denial about how much cardio it's going to take to rid me of my fat. My diet is very clean, so I think my body readjusts to any changes I make such as subtracting calories or reducing carbs. To evaluate my fat situation, Michelle whipped out a special scale that measures body fat with minimal info., just age and height. OK. Not sure how that works but once again, I'm still at 22%. My fat will not going quietly into the night. If only. But Michelle has armed me with some strategy. I'm now going to keep a food log for a week and she's going to review it. This log will contain the food eaten, time of day it's eaten and amount in weight or quantity. I just bought a food scale for $20 for this purpose. I'm happy that she's getting involved at this up-close range because I can't seem to accomplish any reduction myself and I've been trying very hard for the past 6 weeks. While Michelle isn't suggesting that I make any immediate changes in my eating habits, her point is to take a look at what I'm doing to see if anything might be contributing to my fat's stubbornness (my words, not hers). In the meantime, I'm going to increase my cardio to 45 minutes, twice a week. She thinks that might help, and she suggested that I'll likely need to add another day or two later on. Like I wrote in an earlier post, building muscle is much easier than loosing fat.

The Longest Mile

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm not much of a runner and I certainly don't achieve any sort of runner's high when I engage in the activity. Nonetheless, Ed has me running each week during our training sessions now, with a goal of building up to a mile soon. I'm at 3/5 of a mile now. The purpose is to burn calories, but also to build muscle and to prove that I can do this. "But can't I stick with the elliptical?" I've implored him. No. Why not? Because running is harder in the sense that there's no real momentum, it's all work. OK then, I've signed up for work with my training, so I must do this. I do like a challenge though, so I accept this one. I realize that one stinky mile is rather wimpy anyway, so I agree that I should be able to do this without a struggle. Of course, I could run a mile now if I had to, but I wouldn't be up for much else afterward. In the interest of doing this independently sometimes, I bought a pedometer this morning for $16. I'll be missing my session with Ed next week because I'll be on vacation, but I fully intend to run, using my pedometer to ensure that I do a full mile. I can't afford to miss a week of running and slip backward with my endurance. Confession: I also bought a new pair of running shoes. I love the brand Ryka, so I sprang for the pair pictured here. I'm partial to the high top style, a throwback to the '80s, but I don't care. They make me happy.

Summer reading material

I've read numerous books about bodybuilding and diet/nutrition, and nothing compares to the one I'm reading now which I feel compelled to share. "Pure Physique, second edition, How to Maximize Fat Loss and Muscular Development" by Michael Lipowski. It's a comprehensive look at structuring a workout, not in a prescriptive way but based on goals. Cardio or weight training? He addresses that thoughtfully, based on any of a few desired outcomes. He invokes no absolutes, reflecting the reality that people are not identical (excluding twins, of course) and require tailored training. This approach is one of the reasons that I respect what he says. High weight, low reps or low weight, high reps? He covers that, too. He emphasizes the "less is more" approach, provided that you understand how to maximize "less." His guidance is dense - no pictures or diagrams found anywhere - and detailed and highly informed. His writing is elevated, but not beyond anyone's comprehension. As a competitive bodybuilder himself, as well as the president of the International Association of Resistance Trainers, he's well qualified to address this material. My methods largely have followed his recommendations, so that's very satisfying, but he offers plenty of tips I found worthwhile such as the rule to work through the positive AND negative AND still part of any lifting move. Too often I might rush, or emphasize the positive, not the negative and who ever thinks about the still part? This is the book to set you straight if you're not getting the results you desire. End of infomercial.

Some new and different pain

If you don't want the muscles on the underside of your forearms to hurt, here's what you should not do. Don't go flipping an 85 lb. tire back and forth for a distance of about 30 feet, 3 times. That's what I did at King's Gym on Monday and I definitely have some pain where I've never before felt it. The exercise is supposed to be mostly a quad workout with the lift coming from that muscle group, but if there's a way to cheat it a bit, I'll find it. Maybe I was using my arms to move that damn tire a little too much. Or maybe that's a weak area for me. Or both. The exercise also engages core muscles, but none of them are sore. Only my arms. Ouch. This is what I imagine carpal tunnel syndrome must feel like.

Shrinkage (not my jeans but me)

Some time ago, a friend asked me if my clothes fit any differently. Alas, I had to say no, nothing had changed. I put on a pair of jeans over the weekend for the first time in a while and, shockingly, they were looser around the waist. This is a freakishly uncommon experience. For a long time, my weight has stayed the same, with a few small spikes here and there. Nothing gets looser, only a little snugger, with some retreating from whatever caused the expansion. Right now, I feel like I'm shrinking. This leads me to revel in the wonder of setting a goal, spending a lot of time working toward it, then seeing some results. Losing fat, in my opinion, is a WHOLE LOT HARDER than gaining muscle. I think the cardio is contributing to the losses, but so is my new dietary regimen - limiting the carbs after lunch. My short term goal is to knock off a few pounds so that I can delay the need to go on the more intense diet that ultimately awaits. I think I can make that happen.

Something highly alarming

A friend gave me a copy of an article from Consumer Reports concerning an analysis of protein powders. What they found is that some of the products contain the toxic metals arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury. WTF?? This is totally unacceptable. Here is a link for an article summary, though it is just a cursory glimpse at the facts (the full article requires a subscription): http://blogs.consumerreports.org/safety/2010/06/consumer-reports-protein-drink-investigation-.html. For the past 3 months, I have been using 3 different protein powders. Why? So that I don't need to pick just one. Also, this strategy spreads around the technology. Maybe one offers something that another doesn't. My new plan is to dump the Muscle Milk and EAS brands which didn't rate so well in the report and stick with Designer Whey which uses no artificial sweeteners, unlike the other two, and it's available online. I always felt that the natural sweetener feature alone made it superior to the others anyway. I take about 50 grams of protein through powder daily, so I think its composition matters.

Rough week

I suffered this week. I went hard on Tuesday at the gym because I had taken 3 days off of working out with the Memorial Day holiday. I did deadlifts with a 50 lb. barbell and I paid for it. Deadlifts are strange. At the time you do them, you don't really feel like you're straining the muscle. I previously had done them with a 40 lb. barbell and felt no pain. So I thought I'd bump it up. For the next 3 days, I was in severe pain and it only intensified over that period, as often happens with muscle strain. The day after, there was the killer Ed workout, 'nuf said. Fortunately, I had a massage scheduled for Thursday evening. Ordinarily, these sessions are 90 minutes but as the 90 minute mark approached, my masseuse asked if I had more time because she said she had a lot more work to do on me. No kidding. I was a wreck. Yes, I had more time so she spent 2 hours on my messed up body. Wow, I've never done a session like that before. Meanwhile, I've been extremely careful with my diet, limiting calories and eating carbs with breakfast and lunch, but almost none afterward (ok, maybe a banana in the afternoon). That seems to have helped a lot. My energy hasn't suffered, and some weight has come off. I'm going to stick with this plan.

Ed tried to kill me and he almost succeeded (and I loved it!)

Ed introduced some heavy duty cardio to my workout yesterday (per an adjusted Memorial Day schedule) to condition me for future tough workouts, partly I suppose so that I will be inspired to work harder when doing my own independent cardio activities. Also, the goal was to burn mega calories right then and there. Of course, the point to intensifying the cardio is to help me melt off more fat. As in, the 10 unwanted percent of body fat that I need to drop. We started by heading outside, something we've never done before. This took me by surprise. Then Ed tells me to run. What?? I don't run. I hate running. I'm not a runner. I view it as a form of mild torture. So I ran. If I had to measure the distance in houses, I'd say that it was 8 decent sized houses out, then 8 back, on the street. Then I took an 8 lb. sledgehammer and hit a tire, letting my right arm lead the motion, for about a dozen reps. Next, I ran the same distance. Then another round of reps with the sledgehammer, leading with my left arm. Then I ran out and back and OUT AND BACK AGAIN, for a total of just under a mile. That's when I knew Ed was trying to kill me. The rest of the workout took place inside and included a new quantity of reps - 50! 50 tricep dips, 50 quad exercises on a machine, then 60 outer thigh reps on a machine. In between some of these sets, I hopped on the Versaclimber, pictured at the right. A nifty contraption. I did 2 rounds on it, each separated by other work. For obvious reasons, Ed and I didn't share too much deep conversation, as we sometimes do. Instead, he counted and I sweated, profusely.

Bikini Shot #3

Sorry for the delay. I had some conflicts yesterday. I've had a few requests for the backside view and that might be ready for exposure next time.