Anna's Training Log Part 2 (Part 1)

Training Logs
2371

Physically, I’m with @dagill2 on this one.

But then there is a mental aspect to food for some of us as well that have a different timeframe.

My experience with a “no holds barred”-attitude during a “high” day, as someone with a troublesome relationship with food, is that it can result in several weeks of psychological stress. It’s possible to handle such a period well, but even so that period of time during which one is negatively affected mentally will not be the most conducive to improving one’s body.

Let’s say a person eats a ton of crap, and doesn’t do anything extra to offset that caloric intake such as go into a harsh deficit for a day or two or do tons of excess work (in my opinion, both of which are bad ideas). 3-4 days later, one’d probably be back to normal. From a physical standpoint. During those days, if one is as lean as @anna_5588 is, their physique would look drastically different as they’d experience a huge amount of subcutaneous water retention. This is because

  1. of the inflammation produced by their immune response to eating tons of crap,
  2. the high amount of carbs,
  3. and sodium

all of which makes one retain water.

Personally, if I find that I can not stop eating during a high day that is biofeedback telling me one thing: I’m not at maintenance/surplus.

Even if the scale isn’t trending downwards, if I just cannot seem to feel full regardless of what I toss down my gullet, I know that I’m maintaining or gaining weight as a result of some other mechanism. For instance, holding water as a result of excessive physical exercise (again, cortisol causes water retention).

If, however, my weight gain is “true” I find that after eating slightly beyond my ordinary surplus I will feel full, almost uncomfortably so. If I’ve been at sustained surplus these extreme caloric fluctuations simply do not happen unless I force it to happen.

I appreciate this might not be biofeedback that everyone has but I wanted to mention it as something worth considering for @anna_5588 since it seems to be a somewhat common reoccurrence to have a huge spike in food intake.

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2372

Point taken

Ironically, this situation wouldn’t happen if “crap” was being served :sweat_smile: It’s the meat and fruit that’s really dangerous

2373

Well, one might still go through all of the above. Fruit is high in carbs. Meat is usually accompanied by sodium. Red meat especially is inflammatory. Just the sheer volume of food can be.

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2374

Potassium helps that. Given a sample of her typical diet (spinach, shrooms, etc) fluid ballance/retention shouldn’t be a problem.

She has that base thoroughly covered. :relaxed:

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2375

@mattjp, @dagill2 @kdjohn @flappinit

10,000 swings recap:

Note: I did not follow the original rep scheme. I did what was necessary to get the swings in

First workout: 37min. End: consistently below 28min, 24:12 PR time but that was swings only

Diet: “18-1900kcal” with a “high day” of 2500-3000 (family grilling)- I don’t track macros, but got at least 1g protein/lb of body weight, probably pushing 2-2.5g/lb on high days

Physical changes: no weight change but my abs look better. Back also got thicker, my inner thighs added some meat (idk fat or muscle) and I swear my neck got thicker

Thoughts:
It honestly wasn’t as bad as I thought from a conditioning perspective, more of a mental grind than anything. Grip and wrist pain was the hardest part. I don’t get the prescribed rep scheme. It was mentally harder and physically easier.
I’m definitely glad I used a 25lb kB- my forearms and wrists would not have been able to handle any more. With that said, I usually had energy to do some stuff after so I probably could have pushed harder. I might try this another time with a 30 sometime in the future.
My results were definitely not phenomenal, but I liked the satisfaction of finishing

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2376

Wendler already said it well, as usual,

Training is SUPPOSED to make you feel strong; constantly trying to bury yourself is what I call self-sabotage.

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2377

I think that is the point. Once my hands had gotten used to the grip the physical side of things wasn’t horrible.

Well done for finishing it, though.

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2378

Here’s the damage:
2ish lbs watermelon+ 1 cup blueberries
16ish oz ( probably close to 20LOL) of roasted pork shoulder
A bite of steak
4 chicken wings

That comes out to 2000kcal being VERY generous (probably closer to 2500 if I’m being honest) add the 1000 or so from the pork in the morning… and …

@dagill2 @Voxel
These dinners are getting out of hand. Any self control tips?
Edit: I went back for more pork… probably another 400cal at least

2379

I think @Voxel will likely have more valuable insight here.

My first thought when reading this was “what we compress, expands”. In other words, the more you deprive yourself the rest of the time, the bigger your “cheats” are going to be. Anecdotally, when I’m hating extreme dietary restrictions and decide to cheat, it goes badly wrong. When I have a more sensible, moderate set of restrictions, my cheats will be minimal.

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2380

Mate, I’m not even convinced I have anything to add other than rephrase it in a much more verbose way… Expressing myself without producing a wall-of-text was never my forte, but you (@dagill2) have a bonafide superpower. Here’s your (@dagill2) paragraph expanded into… a lot.

First @anna_5588, it’s hard to fathom if any damage has really been done. I may be twice your size, and while a day of this

would be a surplus for me it’s… not that bad? 3500 kcal at most, with your edit 3900 kcal. Seems… fine? About twice your normal daily intake?

Going off the reservation, for me, was 10-12000kcal. About 5-6 times the intake I was taking in at the time. So, with regards to,

I have absolutely none as I never managed to exercise any “self-control” during my binges. But, we must ask, is the problem absence of self-control or is it that there is too much of it? Are these events a consequence of underfeeding during the week and exercising too much self-control on those days? This is what @dagill2 is talking about. Are we experiencing the proverbial dietary equivalent of

For every action , there is an equal and opposite reaction.

compounded throughout the days prior? And is this our bodies trying to compensate and fill up the remaining area of the dashed circle?

calories
calories858×763 110 KB

The dashed lines are what I imagine your (@anna_5588) actual caloric needs to be, while the stroked lines are your caloric intake. I just drew this on a whim but the idea would be that if the area was added together you just might meet the dashed line.

I don’t see these events as going away until food stops being a “cost” and instead is reframed as an “investment”.

I’d like to acknowledge that there are people that strategically arrange their diet in periods of alternating underfeeding with strategic overfeeding. I don’t think this is a healthy thing to do if there is a complicated emotional relationship with food and would only really be appropriate if one either has a healthy relationship with food or is entirely mechanical with regards to it (i.e., food is sustenance and there are no good or bad ones).

I even have a book on this eating style in my bookshelf, Scott Abel’s Cycle Diet. The book makes a passing mention that it is well-suited to people that somewhat enjoy a certain degree of asceticism but I feel that it misses the mark in not adequately relating that it’s probably not a good fit for someone with an already unhealthy relationship with food. It visits the topic, briefly.

Furthermore, it’s for people with an already developed physique that are trying to inch it ever so slightly better while remaining at a photo-ready level of leanness.

My point is, it’s fine for you to have high days. But, don’t have any low days.

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2381

And don’t compensate for yesterday with added lunges, restricting your calories, fasting, or anything else (don’t vomit). Just, let that “surplus” be. It probably just put you at maintenance overall.

2382

Sounds good overall.

Your first lower body option sounds spot on.

Second is clearly your guilty pleasure day.

With the one arm.pushups I think a few more sets not to failure rather than 2 sets to failure would be beneficial.

Day 2 is good.

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2383

And @Voxel

Thanks! I was just getting worried since theses high days keep getting bigger. I guess I don’t have too much to worry about

Maybe that’s why I feel really full and not horrible this morning despite eating so much

Also, my legs feel pretty good, except my knees are sore

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2384

Sounds like a reasonable conclusion

2385

You’re very kind, but that is simply a repurposed Dan John phrase.

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2386

Yesterday’s workout

1mile walking lunge- 51:17

  • a lot easier than expected, mental grind more than anything, the 2nd 800m felt a lot quicker than the first half
2387

Week 1: day1-upper

1arm push-up: 3x1/side
Lever push-up: 3x10/side
Rows: 3x15-25lb kB
100 push-ups- 3:46
Conditioning: 20min walk run w/15lbs in pack

  • really worked upper body, pretty decent chest pump, rows harder than expected, walk run got HR up, felt good. Would have gone longer but knees were not happy (lunges)

@Pinkylifting this workout was challenging but there’s no way the energy expenditure is anywhere near that of the swings workouts

@Voxel somehow I’m down 1.5lbs this morning

2388

That’s because you work hard and you’re a good athlete and you still limit your calories due to fear. You’ve gained basically no weight over the past 4-6 months, yet you still talk about your food as “damage”.

Eat more and stop worrying about it. Never be hungry or craving anything.
You definitely over estimate the amount you eat, like that overblown day where your only major source of calories was 16oz of pork shoulder.

Energy expenditure is lower now, calories still need to go up.

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2389

Week 1: Day 2- upper

I was supposed to do lower body, but my quads were NOT having it

KB press: 3x8/side
KB rows: 3x8/side w/ 3sec concentrics and eccentrics
For time: 2x(1-10)- 1 arm kbs/side with same number of pushups inbetween- 12:31

  • shorter workout today, worked shoulders and core, conditioning piece felt good and quick- it’s amazing how easy KB swings are after the challenge :laughing:

I’ve realized that fruit opens up a black hole when it comes to appetite…

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2390

Week 1: Day 3- lower body

Jump squats: 2x(1-25lb kB +1-8kg can+ 3 body weight)
5x(5pistol/side-25lb kB + 1x(20mjog+12 high skips+30m sprint))
Bulgarian split squat: 3x15/side - 25lb kB , 3010 tempo

  • a lot harder than expected but felt good, split squats really mentally hard

@Pinkylifting how should I progress sprints?

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