My trainer changed my weight schedule completely from 2 days of upper and 2 days of lower body weight workouts a week, to 5 days consisting of lower body, shoulder/tri, back/bi, lower body, and full upper body supersets. Still doing the same 3 days of cardio session. My weight sessions before would take about an hour to complete each time. But now each session is shorter, and I can finish in about 30-45 min. I love that, because that means I can either do my cardio right after and not feel like I've been at the gym all night, or I can just get on with my evening/day if it's not a cardio day. I've definitely been feeling more soreness in places I haven't felt before from my upper body workouts.
I actually started this week's workouts last Sunday, and ended yesterday. But I think I'm going to start my weeks on Mondays from now on, so I took today off and will start the new week tomorrow.
Monday 7/1
What I did: Shoulder/tri, and then 30 minutes of walking on the treadmill.
What I wore: Alo Sport striped tank in granite, with Lululemon Free To Be bra under in faded zap. And wore the Beyond Yoga Gathered Leggings in dusk for the first time, with Brooks Pure Drift shoes. Dang... I didn't remember the Alo tank being that see-through, but it was the only tank I brought to the gym lol. Oh well, could be worse. I was also worried that the Beyond Yoga leggings would show sweat really badly in this color, since these cardio sessions always make me so sweaty! But they were actually completely fine. They were damp, but you could barely tell. That's another plus for these besides the fact that I found them super soft and great for weights. Wouldn't wear them for lower body weights (not enough compression), but definitely good for upper body.
Tuesday 7/2
What I did: My back/bi weights workout, followed by the dreaded 30 minutes on the gauntlet.
What I wore: Lorna Jane Janet mesh tank, with Lululemon Dhanurasana crop in white denim, and Nike Frees. It's been so hot here lately, and this outfit reminded me of beach colors... like the white sand and blue/turquoise water kind of beach! Hmmm... I need an island vacation soon!
On the same day for work, I wore my new sweater! The Express studded bateau neck ruched sleeve sweater in black that I just received, and the Express studio stretch welt pocket pencil skirt in fire cracker. Aldo Leanora pumps. I love the color of this skirt, but damn it's getting too big for me in the waist/hips. I am having similar issues with lots of other bottoms in my closet. Maybe I'm finally losing my love handles lol.
Wednesday 7/3 - Rest day
Thursday 7/4
What I did: Lower body weights.
What I wore: American flag colors, of course! Hehe... I wore my Lululemon currant cool racerback, with white Free To Be bra under. And Splits59 Ginger crop in marianna blue. Of course, my red/white Adidas adizero adios 2 shoes for a perfect match! This was fun to wear, especially when everyone else at the gym was wearing black!
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| The white on the back of the shoe is perfect for this purpose!! |
Oh yeah, Lululemon white swiftly LS as to and from to tie it all in. =)
And on Wednesday and Friday, we observed casual dress at work. It doesn't happen very often. I took full advantage of it by wearing my Lorna Jane Sophia LS black top over Lululemon cool racerback in electric orange. My new Express Stella brushed sateen ankle leggings in camo, and Zigi Kickin wedge sneakers! Any day to show up to work in workout clothes and comfy leggings is a good day.
Friday 7/5 - I was supposed to do my full upper body supersets, but I was feeling lazy and decided to push it to Saturday instead, and took Friday off as another rest day.
Saturday 7/6
What I did: So I did my full upper supersets, which only took about 30 minutes. Afterwards I did 30 minutes of walking on the treadmill to complete my 3 cardio sessions for the week.
What I wore: Hadn't worn this one in a long time - Lululemon Push Ur Limits tank in passion/wee stripe, with Splits59 Ginger crop in black, and Brooks shoes.
I wore my Lululemon power purple swiflty 1/2 zip as to and from:
Sunday 7/7 - So I took today off to rest, making it the 3rd rest day of the week! But ready to go work hard tomorrow. I didn't sit around and do nothing today though. I walked around the mall for a couple hours (cardio-esque)! And I also hit some golf balls on the driving range for the first time in forever. It was super hot out today, but I did decent considering how long of a break I've taken. Gonna have to start doing this more often, and tennis too!
Hello! I had a look at your weight loss journey and ordered the book NROLFW. I am a cardio junkie too and that doesnt help my weight loss at all. I'm now abt 165lbs. And have been so since the last 10years. I reduced my body fat from 44% to 34% now. Do you think I can start following the book?
ReplyDeleteHeard that the book recommends a daily 2,000 calories diet. And I see that you are increasing calories with good results.
I'm always told to eat less. Below 1,400. Frankly, I'm sick of it. I enjoy food and felt really upset when people around me keep blaming me for not controlling my diet.
I dont eat like a bird but I do try to eat oats, veges and clean most of the times.
Is there any pointers you can give me about weight lifting? Thanks!!
- Shay
Hi Shay!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, GREAT JOB!!! It takes a lot of work and determination, and it's a big achievement! I think you can definitely start following the book. Eating 1400 is definitely too low. I used to eat like 1000-1200 a few years ago because I thought it was the only way to lose weight. But soooo wrong!!! I am eating about 1900 now. The trick is to slowly increase so you don't shock your body. I increased by about 100 calories every 2 weeks. I'm still going up in calories but no weight gain at all!! In fact, I'm losing slowly coupled with my training at the gym. But I still say it is 90% food and 10% training.
With the weight lifting, start slowly and don't hurt yourself. You will build up strength extremely fast, but it doesn't help you if you hurt yourself and have to take time off. Use enough weights so the last couple reps of the set is tough. Not so tough that you can't maintain good form though. But it should be tough enough so that you can actually feel it.
Keep me posted on your progress!
I see! Your results are definitely very encouraging!
DeleteI guess eating a good clean diet is the way to go. It used to be that I didn't really care what I eat. But now I try to keep to a clean, nutritious whole food diet...cutting out processed food. The thing about diet is that, the more I try to control portion sizes, the more cravings I have. So, I would rather eat more of natural foods and be satisfied instead of depriving myself.
But 1900 calories a day is also quite tough to keep at, isn't it? lol...what do you eat and how big is the portion? Do you mind to take photos of your meals in a day to share with us?
I'm target to do 3x weights training per week. 2 sessions with a personal trainer at the gym and 1 Bodypump class. But so far, its not happening. :P
At best I could only make it for 1 personal training session and 1 Bodypump class. I hope that when I receive the book, I would do better navigating around the weights area in my gym even without my personal trainer. Its quite scary there. :S
I also find the weights section gym can be a little scary. I asked my trainer for workouts to do without her and she wrote some up. That made the weights section less scary for me. She also wrote up a workout I could do at home with the 2 sets of dumbells I already had.
DeleteGood luck!
Hi Shay, I think 1900 calories a day is tough if you want it to come from good sources. It's always so easy to add up calories by eating bad stuff lol. I do post pictures of my food either here on the blog or on my facebook page from time to time. But I will think about doing a special post of just food! That will be fun. :) I typically eat 5 meals a day, so each meal is anywhere from 250-400 calories. I space them out to 2.5 - 3 hours apart.
DeleteI think if you follow the book's workouts, it's quite good and really not very time consuming. You can definitely be done between 30-45 minutes. It's very do-able for most people's schedule. On some days I think it calls for like a 15 min cardio session after weights. Try it out! Let me know how you like it. :)
Sure! I think time commitment is not a problem. I am at the gym at least 5 days a week already.
ReplyDeleteYes, good calories are indeed hard. Especially since I also have some diet restrictions like low sodium, low purines, no dairy, etc.
Shay