Chaos and Gumption

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerful Women
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Finished my V-Diet last month, and I started my first cycle of 5/3/1 today.

My stating numbers:

Weight 129.2lb
Neck 13
Shoulders 38
Chest - Upper 31
Waist - at Navel 27
Hips - at largest 31
Glutes - at largest 36
Upper Arm - L 11.5
Upper Arm - R 11.5
Upper Leg - L 21.5
Upper Leg - R 21
Lower Leg - L 13
Lower Leg - R 13

Lifts (90% of my calculated 1RM)
Overhead Press 60lb
Deadlift 165lb
Bench 95lb
Squat 120lb

I’ll be tracking daily, measuring weekly. More to come when I’m not so sleepy!

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Starting Pics - taken Friday

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Today’s workout:

Wk1 Bench
10min warmup - jump rope
65% 5 x 40
75% 5 x 45
85% 6 x 55
NG Chin 10 x 5
Dips 9,9,8,8,8,6,2
20min jump rope

Work: 4x60min yoga classes

NEPA: No walk today - was too cold outside, and I didn’t have enough of my day organized to make it happen.

My new stack came in today, so I have ElitePro Minerals and FA3 to add to my daily routine plus Mag10 and Brain Candy to start pulse fasts soon! I’d welcome anyone’s input and experience from using any of these.

Rock on!

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Welcome :slight_smile: I will be following along!

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Welcome!

How is the 5/3/1 program? I’ve heard and looked into it, but never actually did it.

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Thanks guys!

So far, I’m loving the 531 - I spent last week just getting my numbers right and getting a feel for the program. For the BW lifts (chins, dips, etc) I’m taking a page from the v-diet workouts and setting a rep number and then getting there with as many sets as I need to.

I like how straightforward it is and that the progression is built right in. With only 3 exercises, I can get in, get done, and get out. We’ll see how it goes!

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Today’s workout

Wk1 Deadlift
5min warmup - jump rope
110 x 5
125 x 5
145 x 6
Goodmorning 70lb 5x10
Hanging Leg Raise 3,5,5,6,6,5
Supported Leg Raise 7,10,10
20min jump rope

Work: 4 x 60min Yoga

NEPA: none again, yay weather.

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Ick weather. It’s been brutal in central NY as well. Only NEPA I’ve been getting is building hopping for class.

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The weather has been awful, so I’m making up for it by jumping rope much to the displeasure of my ankles and calves. But they’ll get over it. Or the sun will finally make an appearance again.

Today is my “off” day. In ""s, because I still do my conditioning class first thing in the morning. It was a good workout today -

Supinated Chin Ups - sets of 6 - I focused on my negatives here
BB Clean & Press - sets of 12, so I went fairly light with 45 for the first two, 50 for the third
Rope Row (using a battle rope and Prowle) - 50, 70, 90 on the Prowler

Glute Ham Raise - 8,6,6
Box Squats - 12 x 65, 85, 95
Walking Lunges (25yds ~ 10 lunges) 15, 20, 30

Turkish GetUps - 3/side x 12, 15, 15
Body Slides (elbow plank with toes on a plate, slide plate back and forth, hinging at shoulder) 10,10,10
Bicycles - 25, 25, 25

I followed that up jumping rope for 20min.

For the sake of consistency, I’ll be back at the gym this evening for a bit more jumping rope (20-30min) and some TLC on a foam roller and tennis balls. I find this keeps me on track as I’m there every day, and I feel so much better after whimpering and rolling around for half an hour.

Diet has been going alright, I’m settling into a routine now. My carbs are higher than I had hoped (was aiming for 100g, but it’s perpetually coming in around 120-150g including peri-workout). I’m not too upset about it, though, since most of those carbs are veggies (with some fruit). As long as my numbers move in the right direction, I’m happy.

Going to do my first Pulse Fast tomorrow - a little excited, a little nervous.

Rock on!

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Today’s workout

Wk1 Bench
5min warmup - jump rope
65 x 5
75 x 5
85 x 7
Sup Chins 10 x 5
Push Ups 5 x 10
15min jump rope

Work: 3 x 60min Yoga, 1 Pole Class, 1 Conditioning Class

NEPA: 6:10a Yoga class

Did my first pulse fast today - 6 pulses throughout the day and brain candy this morning. It went alright, with the usual annoyances of being on a liquid-only diet for the day. I made my second and last pulse with Superfood which definitely helped. Interested in seeing the results of this tomorrow and over the weekend. Will post measurements tomorrow just to keep up the habit of doing them on Fridays.

Absolutely exhausted now, really looking forward to a good night’s sleep.

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Conditioning this morning:
Tire Flips
Plate Push
Sledge Hammer
Prowler Sprint
Chirpee (chin into burpee)
Keg Press
Jump Step Up
Battle Ropes

This afternoons workout:
Wk1 Squat
10min warmup - jump rope
80 (did 85)x5
90 (did 95)x5
105 x 6
Step Up (20in box) 12kg x 5x10
Ham Curl 70 x 5x10 + 40x20
25min jump rope

[I forgot what my weights were supposed to be, so I tried to recalculate and goofed a little, so I ended up doing 5lbs more for the first two sets. Oops!]

I felt good today, checked the scale and it was down to 127lbs this afternoon which is pretty awesome. I find myself getting full a lot faster, and not feeling this compulsion to eat. I’m alright with just walking away or saying no and actually choosing when/what I want to eat rather than it being a totally mindless habit. Loving these changes!

I have most of this weekend off, and I’m really looking forward to some down time. Been feeling like I’m spread a little thin lately, so it’ll be nice to hopefully catch up a bit and even sleep in a little on Sunday!!

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Nice, congratulations! How did the pulse fast go?

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The Pulse Fast went well. Wasn’t really sure what I was getting into or what to expect, but it was just a day of drinking alarmingly green shakes and going about my clients and classes. I do feel less puffy today, which is nice going into the weekend.

I also found that working my way through the mental challenge of a day of shakes (again) was really empowering. Sure, it’s only a day, but reinforcing that I do have the strength and control to stick to something is doing wonders for my psyche. A lot of my struggles recently have dealt with this sort of loss of control (or will to control) my life, so taking back the reigns feels damn good. I might even do this periodically with MD (like super-mini one-day v-diets) if I find myself going off the rails.

Rock on!

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That’s awesome, congrats! I know what you mean, it is great to know you have the mental strength to get through these kind of things. I’ve also found a couple of variations on the forums that sounds like they work well. I had some egg whites the night of my last pulse fast and they helped a LOT, also found one where you pulse 4 or 5 times during the day and have a MD shake at night, still all protein and helps keep you full. A couple of good options if you want to toss a pulse fast day in your normal routine! I think a standard pulse fast works best but nice to know these options are available if needed.

HAPPY HSM DAY!

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Had a pretty bad weekend, diet-wise, anyways. Still getting a handle on my bad habits and such. Skipped my workout(s) yesterday, but I got back on track today. Even opted to do a Pulse Fast, since it fit my schedule really well and I just wanted to jumpstart things again.

This morning, I did part of what my workout was supposed to be yesterday - I ran out of time before I had to meet my client, so I might finish my accessory work tomorrow.

Wk 2 Overhead Press
45 x 3
50 x 3
55 x 5
NG Chin 5x5
Dips -

This afternoon, I did my usual Tuesday workout. I superset my goodmornings with back extensions. For some reason, I thought I had dropped weight on my GMs (I really need to take my log with me) so I wanted to make up for it. Turns out, I’d added weight. Oops. :slight_smile:

Wk 2 Deadlifts
120 x 3
135 x 3
150 x 4
Goodmorning 75x 5x10
Leg Raise 5x6 / 3x10 (supported)

Work: 5 x 60min yoga, 3 x 60min clients

NEPA: 4 x 20min walk (to and from classes)

Excited for tomorrow - having sushi for lunch, which times well as a slightly delayed PWO meal for my morning workout. Happy to be making the most of my Pulse Fast!

Rock on!

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Feeling off this week, so I’m sort of adapting as I go.

Did my mobility stuff yesterday, plus a wicked conditioning workout in the morning.

Sushi lunch was good, but I felt awful afterward. Starting to find that carb-heavy meals make me feel, for lack of a better term, yucky. I get sort of bloated, feel heavy, lethargic, and I have this carb craving/guilt thing that just haunts me all day. So enough is enough of that. Going to try to keep my weeks starchy-carb free for a while and see if I can’t consistently feel better. Live and learn. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Went for a nice 45min walk this morning before breakfast - felt great! Really wish my schedule would accommodate these more, but it just doesn’t always fit. Going to have to make the most of them when I get the chance!

Rock on!

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Way to go with the flow, great job adding weight to your GM’s! How do you find your body adapting to the 5/3/1 exercises from the V-Diet workouts? My last few training sessions have kicked my butt after upping the weights again!

Just a recommendation and Chris or another coach might say differently, but I’m assuming if you’re doing the 5/3/1 program you’re trying to build some muscle? If that’s the case, clean carbs are good and you’ll need them to help gain some muscle, especially on a heavy lifting day with big compound movements like deadlifts. If you don’t feel well then definitely find sources that work for you, but the guilt thing is just some old habits sneaking in making you feel like you shouldn’t be eating carbs, I’m the same way sometimes, especially now that I’m getting ready for I3G. But, on a heavy lifting day Sushi (rice) is a perfect starchy carb, or some of your quinoa from your birdseed or potato or something, you should probably get at least one starchy carb source in every day on heavy lifting days in your PWO, and remember that you SHOULD be eating it and helps you get leaner :slight_smile: If you weren’t doing 5/3/1 all green carbs would probably be fine, but I’m just thinking with a hypertrophy program some starchy carb goodness is warranted?

Keep us posted and keep up the great work!

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I am with you on the carb stuff! I had sushi after my lifting session last week too. Couple things I noticed, I didn’t eat as much as I normally do and the next day I felt like I was going to explode. I didn’t struggle much with carb cravings until just recently and in the evenings after dinner and before bed.

Did you order your sushi with brown rice? I thought about trying that route next because I love sushi :slight_smile:

You are doing a great job with changing up your routine to fit what you can and have time to do. This is tough for me as I frequently take the “all or nothing” mentality which keeps me from going to the gym or doing anything since I can’t do exactly what I want to do in the time I have to do it.

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Rob - as always, thanks for your kind words and advice. I’m not avoiding carbs, necessarily. Still getting plenty from all my veggies (and fruits, I’m a bit of a fruit fiend but I’m trying to keep it manageable), plus yogurt, kefir, and peri-workout nutrition. I also made some homemade granola (will post my recipe in the HSM forum soon) that takes a boat-load of willpower to eat in moderation.

I’m just trying to settle into a system/routine that works and finding it a bit (uh, very) challenging with my ever-changing and chaotic schedule. I’m also trying to figure out what works and doesn’t with regard to my mood and energy levels as food plays a huge role and I’m trying to manage a lot of depression and lethargy that seems to overtake me sometimes. Combine this with a fickle immune/digestive system that is ok one week and an idiopathic wreck the next and I have a bit of a journey ahead.

Gina - I’m typically pretty all-or-nothing, too, but I’m trying to eradicate guilt from my life. So I’m working hard to do the best I can and keep moving forward. If that means going in for only half a workout because that’s all I have time for, then I’m going in. I know I’ll feel much better than if I skip it entirely or negotiate with myself to “do it tomorrow.” It’s a struggle sometimes, but I know if I keep pushing through, it’ll soon become a habit that I won’t have to fight with anymore.

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Homemade granola sounds pretty amazing, looking forward to seeing your recipe! My fiancé makes home made granola bars sometimes and it is ridiculously hard to eat in moderation, they should be kept in a safe.

I can only imagine how difficult it must be to coordinate everything with your schedule, best of luck as you continue the process, you’ll narrow it down and have a well oiled system in no time! BTW I had to look up idiopathic, bonus points for your extensive vocabulary.