In case your as inept at the anatomy of the human body as I am, here is where I give you a little picture post about what I’m talking about.
These little beauties are you Deltoids. Today they have made themselves known to me. It’s from the swimming I did yesterday (30 laps). I woke up with them sore and while I did have a fleeting moment of “I’ll just skip the swim today”, I swam with them sore today as well (40 laps) so you can bet they’ll be letting me know they’re still around tomorrow. I probably won’t be swimming at much as I am this week just because school starts up next Monday and I am slated to pick up quite a bit of work at the community college. I’m trying my best not to freak out (as I would normally do) because I am starting to feel overwhelmed by the amount of work I am taking on over the next 3 months. I’ll be working about 52 hours per week (Mon – Fri) until the early part of June. I’ve enjoyed the last 3 months of working 32 hours (Mon-Fri). It gave me time to get things in perspective. Time to figure out what this whole notion of “eat less, move more” meant. I had time to plan food and workouts. Time to walk the dogs, run, break a sweat, eat breakfast, get to work, spend time with my husband, get more than 7 hours and repeat all for 3 months. I saw just under 30 pounds disappear and now I’m wondering how I will do over the next 3 months…
But I digress.
As I almost always do.
Let’s move on to my next newest friend: The Gastrocnemius
Now before you go saying, “Geez Tara, everyone has calf muscles”, let me tell you why this little beauty is my newest friend. Before I started running just a mere 9 weeks ago it was distinctly one muscle (the outer muscle). 9 weeks later not only is the outer muscle stronger and more prominent, but now its sister muscle (inside calf muscle) is making an appearance. I’m developing a runner’s leg!!! Well not just one of course, both legs are developing into runner’s leg. Tomorrow is my last day at a 28 minute run. On Tuesday (yesterday) I ran 1.88 miles in 28 minutes. That’s about a 4.0 mph speed. A little slower but also a little farther than last week. Tomorrow I’ll head back to the track to see if running on a flat surface, not having to worry about cars, and not needing to be mindful of changes in the pavement make a difference.
4 sessions to go…
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Back to my digression…
I’ve been trying to think of ways to make sure that I’m still moving more and eating less with a work schedule that is about to become a lot more worky and a lot less not-worky. My work days will begin with me leaving the house at 8a and getting home around 7:30p. Doing any sort of work out at night is going to be out of the question as this will really be the only time I can spend with my husband (who is out of the house by 5:30a and in bed by 9p). So I’m looking to do my move more part in the mornings. I will have about 2.5 – 3 hours to get what I’m used to doing in 5-6 hours done. This means shorter dog walks, shorter workouts and faster breakfasts.
On days that I’m running, I will probably do it at the track at school or at least in the vicinity. Parking at the school before my run will ensure me two things: A) I get a great parking spot (which at times can get a little hairy) and B) I can shower on campus and then walk to my first class. If I’m on the track by 7am, I can walk the dogs and eat breakfast with relative ease.
On non run days I would like to at least get an hour’s worth of time at the gym. I’ll need to be there about 6:30 to ensure time for workout/shower and leaving with enough time to get to campus.
(Sorry I just need to think this through, I know this is the boring part of my post)
It’s all feasible if I micromanage. Also there are some pretty kick ass classes being taught at the gym super early if I’m so motivated to go first and then go home to shower.
Anyway, all this craziness starts on Monday!
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I had a 700 calorie workout today.
I’d high five myself but my shoulders hurt and can’t really lift them up above my mid-section. This brings up an interesting point for me. When I started on this weight loss I was all about calorie intake and no exercise. It was easy to maintain my 1500 calories day in and day out. When I did introduce exercise it was in small amounts (100 – 200 calories burned) and was able to eat back those calories without a problem. Now I’m stepping it up a bit and it’s getting a little difficult to maintain a net calorie intake of 1500 when I have to have a gross intake of 2100-2200. I’ve never been a big eater. I’m the clean plate kid but if you don’t fill up too much of my plate to begin with I’m good to go. I’m finding that I’m forcing myself to eat more just to keep within that range of net calories. Yesterday I had a 350 calorie breakfast (it would have been more if I had my usual oatmeal but I went with egg whites and veggies instead), and a 700 calorie lunch. My snacking is way down to almost non existent (which is pretty rad!) so by the time I got home I still had 1000+ calories to work with. We had Papa Murphy’s and I ate an entire salad (with very little dressing) and 4/10 of a pizza just to make it to my calorie goal. After all was said and done my dinner was 1044 calories.
I didn’t want to keep eating but I also didn’t want to go below the 1500 calorie mark. I’m in a similar position today. 500 calorie breakfast, 500 calorie lunch and if I’m to eat back all my work out calories I’m left with 1100 calories for dinner. The menu? Fish and cous cous. Now I don’t know about you but I just can’t eat that much fish and while I do love cous cous…I don’t love it that much.
In the beginning I was eating too much food…
Now I can’t seem to eat enough.
With that being said, I’m going to stop tracking all my work out calories. This journey is supposed to be about listening to my body and eating when I’m hungry. It’s about not eating when I’m bored, sad, emotional or driving. Forcing myself to eat when I’m not hungry any longer is self-defeating.
The good news to all of this is I can now start to incorporate some higher caloric foods that I’ve been cutting out…breads for one thing. I’ve been eating the sandwich thins. I like them but I miss my 12 grain breads…I miss Dave’s Killer Bread (which btw if you haven’t tried, shame on you). Plus I want to eat a real omelet.
And I’d like some sour cream on my next soft taco!
um, why do you have to eat back your workout calories?
I never do…my workout is my weight loss.
So if I do a 700 (like today) so much the better for me.
Is it a program or something?
Either way, great job.
I love your muscle pics…I don’t know what half of them are called lol.
I eat my work out calories back because if I didn’t I would have such a deficiency that my body would refuse to let go of the weight. My net calorie intake is 1500…if I have a 700 calorie burn then by the end of the day I’m only keeping 800 calories. The body would go into panic mode.
Congrats on the new muscle discoveries. Its kind of amazing discovering anatomy this way isn’t it? Definitely don’t let your work schedule mess with with your progress. One thing I’ve learned doing this almost a year now, is that you CAN make the time in your schedule (even in the craziest days) to get the exercise in. I’ve actually found getting the workouts done on my crazy days helps prevent any freaking out. It takes some serious planning sometimes, but its worth it! Keep on working it! I know you can do it!
PS – Dave’s Killer Bread sounds incredible…
If you have a Costco up north you might be able to find it there (the bread)
I love “discovering” new muscles! Those calf muscles? Watch them over time as you prop your leg up to shave. It’s amazing how they pop out!
I am with you on working too much and trying to fit lots into little time. My current schedule has me working about 60 hours/week. My newest (read: two-day-old) solution is getting up early. I get up at 6am, leave home at 6:30, arrive at the gym at 6:50ish, work out for 30-60 minutes, shower, and then head to work, which is thankfully only 5 block away from my gym.
I’ve been getting home around 9pm most evenings, which means I have just enough time to plan, track, and pack my food for the next day and repack my shower-and-get-dressed-for-work bag for the gym the next morning. It’s a struggle right now since I don’t get to spend much time with my husband, but the late nights should taper off really soon, so that will help.
All that minutiae is just to say – you CAN fit it in – just plan, plan, plan and then execute!
Congrats on all the great progress, too!
OMG…I just typed a HUGE comment and it got deleted!
Cliff Notes: Wahoo on the muscles! Planning will be key to success while working so much! Keep up the great work!
UGH! I hate it when that happens….I blame small voodoo dolls!
Hey your comment came through…the long one. Showed up as spam lol
Congrats on finding those muscles. I didn’t even know that I could get them so I’m waiting for that day with baited breath. As far as eating back calories, I’ve found that once I start doing workouts that are more than 500 calories, I cannot eat back the calories. These days when my heavy workouts are 1800 calories there is no way that I even want to eat 3600 calories.
I still keep track of my food and exercise so that I can know what I’m doing and I’m not concerned about staying in the green on days that I workout. On the weekend when I usually don’t work out I get my checks. Honestly, green checks aren’t that important to me unless I’m trying to earn silver (only CK people will get this part everyone else just ignore me).
I get up at 5 am now and drive into work. I love getting into the gym early. It was hard at first but I’ve been doing it pretty consistently for about 3 years and I’m better for it. I’m horrible at exercising later in the day so if I don’t get it in the morning I usually don’t get it. That will never do.
You’ll have more energy that you suspect you will as long as you get to bed on time. I’m dragging this morning because I only got 4 hours but I’ll make up for that tonight. lol
My first attempt at getting up at 5am and heading to the gym was a success so hopefully it’s all good from here on out.
You said “Parking at the school before my run will ensure me two things: A) I get a great parking spot (which at times can get a little hairy)”
If by great parking spot you mean a spot up front, I would suggest parking further out. It will get you that extra walk in and walk back to your car. I no longer look for that “great” spot in lots these days. If I have to park in the back I am cool with that.
Oh and thanks for the muscle charts! Love em.
I do park in the farthest parking spot, I just met that when school is in full swing I can’t even find a spot.