Advise please, bio included.

[Tigris C]

Hi I’m new here as you can see. I’m 5’5”, 180 lb, 34 year old, stay at home mom and wife. In January I weighed 220 so I started dieting and exercise at the first of February. I was riding my stationary bike 2 - 3x a week and doing a full body workout 3 days a week. Got bored with that and hunted down some new exercises, got bored again found something else.
Here is a sample of what I’m doing now:
Monday ~ chest 3 exercises 30 lbs of weight, biceps 2 exercises 15- 20 lbs of weight, forearms 2 exercises 10 lbs .
Tuesday ~ back 3 exercises 20 - 40 lbs of weight, triceps 2 exercises body weight & 20 lbs.
Wednesday ~ legs 4 exercises 40 lbs of weight, shoulders 2 exercises 10- 15 lbs of weight.
Thursday ~ off.
Friday ~ repeat Monday.
Saturday ~ repeat Tuesday.
Sunday ~ off.
The way it works, I get to workout each muscle group twice a week. I’m not fond of cardio, I mean I’d do it but I absolutely HATE sitting on a bike for any extended period of time anymore. No problems with the lifting, I love it! I use free weight ‘cause I workout at home.
Here is my problem, foods! Here’s a sample day of food:
breakfast ~ serving size of Quaker oat squares ~ ½ cup Fat Free Milk.
Workout ~ cup of Gatorade & water
Post workout ~ 2 hard boiled eggs
Lunch ~ Can of Tuna (water drained) ~ 1 TBSP light mayo ~ 5-6 saltine crackers
Snack ~ Trail Mix granola bar
Snack n again ~ hand full of nuts (almonds, peanuts)
Supper ~ grilled chicken breast (no skin) ~ grilled summer squash & zucchini squash
God, I’m eating again! ~ Sugar Free Jell-O ~ 1 TBSP Fat Free whipped topping
Liquids ~ 1 to 1 ½ gallons of water ~ maybe 1 diet soda
1 multi-vitamin ~ 1 viactiv
Gosh, I can only imagine the cringing and gagging you all are doing as you read that.

As of august I have stopped loosing weight. The foods that I’m consuming don’t seem to be good enough to support weight loss along with the workout I have grown so fond of. I’m concerned that I’m going to loose those sexy little muscle that have started to sprout out from under the fat. My goal would be to lose more fat! So am I going about it wrong? How can I adjust this to support weight loss without loosing muscle? Please, could I have some suggestions on what I should be eating? I’m not interested in competing, I just want to look good in my own skin! Sorry this is so long!

All suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

 

[FigureSkater]

Congrats on the progress you have made so far!

You seem to be on the right track as far as the frequency of your meals (which personally I think is the hardest thing to get used to). However, it's what you're eating that is kind of allowing things to slow down. (You can lift all the weights and do all the cardio you want, but you'll get nowhere without a good, clean diet.) It also looks as if you're tapering off your cab inake as the day goes on, which is also a good idea. Finding the right diet that works for you (because no two people are exactly the same) is tricky, and it can take months, if not longer, of trial and error before you find what works best for you...and even then, it's necessary to consantly adjust WHAT and HOW MUCH you're eating based on your goals/progress.

A few tips:

Each meal should contain protein...so try adding some egg whites, cottage cheese, even chicken to breakfast (don't be afraid to break the "breakfast food" rules!). You want to be getting about 1 to 1.5g of protein per pound of body weight daily.

Stay away from processed/"unnatural" foods as much as possible. Avoid anything white and anything containing refined sugars. For example, for breakfast, ditch the Oatmeal squares and eat plain old Oatmeal (the boring kind) instead...use some Splenda or cinnamon for flavour. (Same goes with the trail mix bar...trade that in for some plain old trail mix). Instead of saltine crackers, try some whole wheat crackers or ww bread.

I'm sure the other ladies on here will have plenty to add, they know what they're talking about better than I do

 

[Tigris C]

Thanks Figureskater.
Fortunately for me the frequency wasn’t to bad, I’ve always been a grazer, just with the wrong things! Knowing what to switch to has been the toughest part. Also, another tough part for me was to stop munching at night, on the wrong things. It’s only getting better with good advise, along with practicing it!
Wow! 180 to 270g of protein. According to fit day I’ve only been getting around a 100 or so, yikes!
I’ll make some more adjustments, bump up the protein and see where that lands me.
Again, thank you so much!

 

[lucidblue]

First, congrats on losing all the weight you have so far! As for the diet, are you tracking how many calories you eat per day and grams of fat/carbs/protein? You want to make sure you have the right caloric intake in mind and that you are eating the proper ratios of fat/carbs/protein for your goals. What are your goals? Here is a great site for info on weight training, nutrition, losing fat, etc:

http://www.stumptuous.com/weights.html

Why not substitute one of those meals with a protein shake (they don't all taste bad)? I recommend Syntrax Nectar (lots of fruit flavors, www.dpsnutrition.com), because it tastes good with just water. If you are going to put milk in the shake you can try Optimum Nutrition Whey protein (chocolate tastes good).

Definitely check out some of Daisy Girl's threads. She gives great diet and weight training suggestions.

Keep us posted. Good luck

 

[superqt4u2nv]

Great Job thus far
FigureSkater's diet advice is bang on!
A little advice on your training make sure you are lifting heavy you need this in order to gain muslce. Muscle mass is you friend as it allows you to burn more calories and thus progress in weight lose.
What kind of sets and rep rang are you doing? In order to get the most out of your workout you should be close to near failure on last reps and set.

 

[Tigris C]

Thanks lucidblue.
My goal Is to lose more body fat (weight). And I figured building some muscle and altering my foods would be the best way to go. Just changing my life all around, you know. I mean it’s got to be possible to build a body and lose weight at the same time, right?
As far as tracking my calories, I use www.fitday.com . When I go back and look at it, my carbs are the biggest part of my intake, then fats and protein. Argh, some work needed there! Jeez, I never thought about the ratio aspect. Now I just need to figure out what ratios would work best. Thank you for pointing it out! Thanks for the links as well. That sumptuous site seems to have a great deal of good info. As for using shake replacements, I never have, only because I don’t know which would be better for me. But I’ll certainly look into the ones you suggested.


Superqt4u2nv, thanks.
I do 3 sets for each exercise and 12-15 reps each set, I hope that makes sense…? Bingo bango, that’s what I was thinking about muscles being a friend to weight loss. I’m trying to get my foods right so that I’m not killing the muscle by not having what I need nutritionally.
Thanks for the responses!

 

[superqt4u2nv]

Superqt4u2nv, thanks.
I do 3 sets for each exercise and 12-15 reps each set, I hope that makes sense…? Bingo bango, that’s what I was thinking about muscles being a friend to weight loss. I’m trying to get my foods right so that I’m not killing the muscle by not having what I need nutritionally.
Thanks for the responses!

Diet is a BIG part of it make sure your getting enough protein roughly 1g protein to each lb.

On your third set are you feeling fatigue around your last few reps?

 

[MandieG]

All the advice above is GREAT!!

Just a quick thing, if you have rollerblades, go get a good jogging stroller and take the kid(s) out for a rollerblade...even older kids will like this, and most jogging strollers can hold up to 100 lbs.......it's a great way, thats what I do on my"down" days......my boys love it when mom goes fast!! haha

Goodluck and you are doing a great job!!

 

[Tigris C]

On your third set are you feeling fatigue around your last few reps?

Ya, my diet is the difficult part. And I do push hard with the weights. I do poop out on the last set of my exercises. That is why I set my reps between 12-15. I will do 12 but when I can comfortably do 15 for a little while, I bump up the amount of weight. Good idea?

Super great advise!
But I don’t know about roller blades. Lmao! I never learned to skate in any form. Me on roller blades = Someone could get bad hurt!

 

[superqt4u2nv]

Ya, my diet is the difficult part. And I do push hard with the weights. I do poop out on the last set of my exercises. That is why I set my reps between 12-15. I will do 12 but when I can comfortably do 15 for a little while, I bump up the amount of weight. Good idea?

Great idea! I was just checking to see if you were pushing yourself futher and it appears that you are. Something you may want to consider is 4 sets of 8-12 then bump up weights once you reach 12 on your final set.