Pretty Pretty Pain Cave

I started a Six Week Shred that Dan suggested I do.

nnnnnnngngngngnggnnnggggggggggg

It is designed as a six days for six weeks lifting routine where you do 8-10 exercises a day for 10x10 @ 50% of 10/15RM (50% of the maximum weight I can lift ten or fifteen times) or three sets of 10/15RM.  I really like it, except for the part where I need to do 100 reps of a single exercise and it takes FOR FUCKING EVER.  I'm five days in (sporadically since 9/25) and doing as much as I can for 1.5 hours.  

Finding my max weights has been a trial, since I haven't lifted regularly since I can't remember when.  But now that I'm starting to repeat exercises, I'm doing much better.

Today I squatted 115 (10 10 10) 95 (10 10) and did a hundred fucking calf raises at 130 lbs because fuck you that's why.  My calves are freaks.

So far, these are the maxes I've found:

- Bench press 65x12

- Incline dumbbell press 20x11

- Cable crossover 15x14

- Lat pull down 55x26

- Bent over barbell row 75x9.5

- Straight arm pull down 30x18

- Deadlift 155x11

- Squat 185x1 136x6

- Leg press 180x20

- Leg curl 90x18

- Leg extension 110x15

- Calf raises 130x15

- Seated calf raises 90x45

- Overhead press 25x7

- Lat raises 7.5x11.5

- Bent over delt raise 7.5x15

- Shrugs 27.5x23

- Bicep curl 12.5x20

- Incline curl 15x3

- Incline flyes 7.5x15

- One arm rows 15x20

- Reverse crunches 10

- Lunges 27.5x3 fuck lunges

- Romanian deadlifts 95x5 grip won't hold

- Tricep pulldown 25x10

- Overhead tricep extension 15x15

Just keep swimming.

I finally said Fuck It and went to the Natatorium yesterday.  It was soooooo awesommmmmmeeeee!!!! I did 20 laps (1 km) where I alternated 5 crawl with 5 back, and finished in 32 minutes.  I hadn't done laps since 2008!  So I don't really know if it was a good time or not, but I loved every second of it (that I wasn't getting water up my nose).  And then I had regular derby practice, which was started with 40 laps in 6 minutes.  Twice.  I finally got that over all body exhaustion I hadn't gotten at the gym on tuesday.  Unfortunately, I was so hopped up on endorphines that I still couldn't sleep.

But I loved it!  And I'm so glad that I convinced myself to take the plunge (ha, ha) even though I was on a tight schedule due to practice, couldn't find my Speedo and had to wear a VS tankini (which probably slowed me down every time I had to pull it back into place), and was perpetually moist until I woke up this morning.  Love!

Carbs

August has historically been a difficult month for me to do keto for reasons like my birthday and Grange Faire.  On top of that, this year I have Pennsic the first week and a trip to Texas (driving back through Mississippi and Tennessee) the second.  So I decided to take the month off.

Last week, though, I was fantasizing so hard that I chose to start my liberation on the Fourth of July with a funnel cake and caramel apple.  It's been… odd.

I'm not too fond of HFCS, and I've noticed that most artificial sweeteners that aren't Splenda have horrible interactions with glucose and make me feel like there are stones churning in my stomach, so my beverage choices have been severely reduced and I am perpetually thirsty.  Fruit is orgasmic!  I need not say more.

As for exercise, it's a mixed bag.  Skating was peachy keen.  Weight lifting was a curse of the gods!  I lifted less than my max yesterday, didn't feel that typical exhaustion of working to your fullest, and still couldn't squat down to pick up my phone.  I was in bed and mostly asleep for ten hours and still woke up useless (and with dehydrated skin crinkles).  Even walking to my car after work yesterday when my glucose was low (protein shake fail) gave me calve needles.  My joints are ok, but my muscles feel like they have gravel in them.

My ass started high at 160, and in just seven days has made it to 165 -_-  And if the exercise issues weren't enough, I am perpetually hungry.  I mean, I can sit there and eat a pint of beans, be painfully full, and still be "hungry".  I am just never satiated.  And shit keeps getting stuck in my gums and making them swell.

So it's been a mixed bag.  I fucking LOVE eating anything I want again, but I'm paying for it in ways that really suck.  I'm going to give it two months, regardless, but I'll probably start reigning it in more and more if the decline gets any worse.

Paleo and Lifting Links

See?  Research!


PALEO (kool-aid)

Whole 9 shopping list

Macro Nutrients

Zone Diet (paleo + crossfit)

Another Zone Diet



PALEO (Fuck the kool-aid)

I breathe... I'm hungry

Seven Shades of Paleo



LIFTING

Stronglifts 5x5

LIFT ALL OF THE THINGS!

During the holidays, which spanned most of halloween through epiphany, I ate everything I could find.  I went down to Mexico and there was no way I wasn't going to fill up on quesadillas, tacos and tamales, or have chocolate at christmas, or wine at new years... yeah.  The weird thing is that I got to the point where I no longer felt going in and out of keto.

Of course, all this food brought along its friends who bullied me into getting serious into exercise.  I started January 9 with the Stronglifts 5x5 program and, while I am still neurotic every day that I am fluffy and keep gaining weight, Dan keeps reminding me that I AM getting much stronger, my form is epically better, and I'm even seeing an improvement in my skating after having taken december off.

When I started with derby 2.5 years ago, I was 185 lbs.  In the first few months of keto I dropped to 165, with an all time low of 145 for a very short time.  I have been stable mostly between 150-155, but went up to 160 while away.  After a few days of strict keto, I got back to the low 150's, but back up to 160 with the month of lifting.

And now I decided to go off keto and have gone up to 165 this wonderful week of Carnaval.  I've been playing with the idea of trying Paleo, but really can't find the logic to it.  The lines are too tenuous and shifting, and Paleo means so many different things to people.  Someone shared this post on the Seven Shades Of Paleo and it started to gel with me.

So, in theory, I plan on trying this Paleo thing (Lent?) but follow the more basal definition of it.  I want to avoid eating (to a certain degree) over-processed foods in favor of more natural foods.  Have I told you how much I had missed fruit?  I have been eating the everloving shit out of it the past week!  And milk.  Damn, did I miss milk.  But yeah, less processed foods.  Steel cut oats instead of rolled oats or other chemically processed cereals.  Milk, fruit, meat, veggies.  

Another thing that I'm having trouble with is completely changing my appetite.  Yes, I'm craving fruit and milk, but I'm also still craving ALL OF THE CHEESE and meat and cream, but now it really disagrees with me, especially if it follows or is combined by some large source of carbs.  This is something I need to work on.  I need to find a balance where I'm not constantly starving or stuck to the toilet.

Now, for something more interesting:  data!

Jan 11 > Feb 12

Squat 5x5 @ 65 lbs > 110

Bench press 5x5 @ 45 lbs > 60

Deadlift 1x5 @ 135 lbs > 175

Barbell Row 5x5 @ 65 lbs > 70

Standing Dumbell Press 5x5 @ 30 lbs > Standing Plate Press 2x5 @ 45 + 3x5 @ 35 lbs

Chest 37" > 38"
Arms 10" > 10.75"
Hips 37.75 > 36"
Waist 33" > 32.5"
Thighs 20" > 20.75"
Calves 14.25" > 15.75"
Forearms 8" > 9"
Shoulders 41" > 42"
Neck 12" > 13.5"

(PS:  I'm on bodybuilding.com and MyFitnessPal for anybody willing to harass me)