mahhh physique so far...

[circusgirl]

Well, lots of people post pics here, mine ae progress, for me. I know I'm not particularly buff, but less wide than I used to be...

www.picturetrail.com member name circusgirl2002

As you can all see all the bingeing isn't helping much, but less fat than 1/1/02..... sigh. Long way to go.

 

[makedah]

How much have you lost so far? What is your goal?

 

[circusgirl]

My goals are -

1. squat my bodyweight
2. bench my bodyweight
3. Pass my blue tag taekwondo grading.
4. Increase sprinting ability for sparring.
5. Get a cat flap fitted so I don't have to keep getting up to let my kitties in and out the back window, dammit....

I'd like to lose weight too . But I'm trying to concentrate less on that and more on the above. Hey, maybe one day I'll be a fat powerlifter.... heheheh.... or a lean powerlifter.... I love the idea of powerlifting actually....

I lost 10 pounds or so doing a "low cal" diet but it was mostly muscle, I'm pretty sure my bf% increased during that time. Since then I've not lost much, maybe 4 pounds in total, BUT I am gaining in strength. Due to bingeing problems the fat has not gone anywhere..... A lower sparring weight class would be nice, BUT I don't want to do that by losing muscle, as a lower weight class with less muscle doesn't give me any competitive advantage.

but then.. OF COURSE I want to be slim!!! The pressure to be slim affects me as much as any other woman..... possibly more..... it pisses me off every time I see my reflection in the mirror or a photo of myself, but I am trying not to let that get me down. I have low-rise jeans that I cannot wear because my stomach hangs over the side like a guy's. That bothers me. It bothers me a great deal. I am trying to move from an unhealthy relationship with food to a healthier one.... elite is helping me a great deal to stay focussed on health and strength as well as looks.

 

[Arioch]

I love the idea of powerlifting actually

Oddly enough, so do I.

 

[keiko]

Everyone has to start some where. YOu might have more muscle than you think.

Slim, schmim. Low-rise jeans look like hell on everyone, IMHO.

You're not badly proportioned, and you can probably lose some fat just by lifting and eating clean. You seem to have some upper body strength going for you and your legs are smooth, but you don't appear to be all jiggly. The mid-section is hard, but you can do it. (I carry weight in my torso and it can be so not-fun.)

Did you look at spatts carb-cycling cutting diet--if not, search for it. I'll bet that you're bloating in your tummy easily and that makes you look bigger. Low-carb might work for you if you have the discipline.

It's hard to take a real look at yourself. But the worst is past and now you can get on with your task.

 

[Japanese machine]

doing great! keep it up!

 

[Daisy_Girl]

My goals are -

5. Get a cat flap fitted so I don't have to keep getting up to let my kitties in and out the back window, dammit....

 

[velvett]

Take it one at a time.

And don't punish yourself when everything doesn't go exatly as planned.

Oh and never be shy to ask for help or support.





AND WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU PEOPLE TODAY WHEN I HAD TO FIGHT OFF THAT DOUBLE MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP IN A WAFFLE CONE!???

HM?



j/k

 

[Daisy_Girl]

AND WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU PEOPLE TODAY WHEN I HAD TO FIGHT OFF THAT DOUBLE MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP IN A WAFFLE CONE!???

HM?

I'm sorry.... I was too busy baking chocolate chip cookies.... and then eating them while they were still warm and gooey....

 

[circusgirl]

thanks for the comments folks! I have actually been lifting for about 2 months now, but my diet has been rubbish. I can now bench 65 pounds (sets of 8 reps)! ray!!!!!! It's a big improvement on the 25 pounds or so I started benching... Don't know my 1 rep max as I train on my own so have no ambition to drop the bar on my sternum, or bat my eyelids at the big guys and ask them to spot for me .

The diet is the problem of course, as I am a binger, I am currently trying to binge on fruit only if I must binge. It worked yesterday, I had a load of raspberries instead of chocolate, and they tasted nice...

 

[keiko]

Really, really do a search on diets. Berries are an okay fruit due to the amount of fiber, but fruit isn't actually a great food when you're cutting. Fructose stops fat burning cold. Once you figure out how you want to eat, you'll be surprised at how much food you get to consume. Feeling full discourages binging.

 

[tripleV]

thats great progress so far girl, and i really like your goals, so many people just have one "vague" goal to lose weight and find that they fail because they dont set realistic, attainable and important goals to themselves....baby steps will get u where u wanna go imo...

i am a binger too btw, so dont think u r alone in that, it kills me everytime....i try to "cheat" with "better" things too...i know about willpower lol but sometimes it gets the better of us....

 

[aurelius]

Hey, CG. Kudos for posting your pics. Need more of that here.

With regards to squatting you weight, should be no problem. Benching on the other hand might be another story. (I assume you weigh around 125 but don´t know your height so...) Either way, don´t be discouraged. If you were leading a previously sedentary life style and poor diet changing these two aspect will result in very pleasing results.

 

[circusgirl]

Hey, CG. Kudos for posting your pics. Need more of that here.

With regards to squatting you weight, should be no problem. Benching on the other hand might be another story. (I assume you weigh around 125 but don´t know your height so...) Either way, don´t be discouraged. If you were leading a previously sedentary life style and poor diet changing these two aspect will result in very pleasing results.

Actually I weigh around 150lbs and I'm 5ft6. I've not been sedentary - I've been doing martial arts for just under 3 years now. However, I'm focussing on cleaning up my (shitty) diet, one step at a time.

Right now, I've cut out sugar, caffeine and white flour. I'm going NUTS argh. Day 3 of withdrawal today.... By Saturday the cravings should be gone. This is why I'm eating quite a bit of fruit - once I get over the sweet cravings I will be replacing the fruit meal-by-meal with green veggies. No binges so far, I'm pleased.

Here in Scotland they not only make every conceivable type of oatmeal, they make oatmeal biscuits, (oatmeal, water and some raising agent I think) mmmm. 50 cals each, lotsa fibre, low GI. 4 of these with hummus make a nice lunch....

 

[aurelius]

Actually I weigh around 150lbs and I'm 5ft6. I've not been sedentary - I've been doing martial arts for just under 3 years now. However, I'm focussing on cleaning up my (shitty) diet, one step at a time.

Right now, I've cut out sugar, caffeine and white flour. I'm going NUTS argh. Day 3 of withdrawal today.... By Saturday the cravings should be gone. This is why I'm eating quite a bit of fruit - once I get over the sweet cravings I will be replacing the fruit meal-by-meal with green veggies. No binges so far, I'm pleased.

Here in Scotland they not only make every conceivable type of oatmeal, they make oatmeal biscuits, (oatmeal, water and some raising agent I think) mmmm. 50 cals each, lotsa fibre, low GI. 4 of these with hummus make a nice lunch....

So I was off on the weight. You could definitely sqaut that weight. Don´t know about your diet. I would just say that after trying many different schemes to lose fat a regular balanced diet with around 25 to 30% fat a day works nicely. (once I learned to accept my limitaions, no Muscle and Fitness abs for me)

p.s. Scotland? Edinburgh?

 

[circusgirl]

So I was off on the weight. You could definitely sqaut that weight. Don´t know about your diet. I would just say that after trying many different schemes to lose fat a regular balanced diet with around 25 to 30% fat a day works nicely. (once I learned to accept my limitaions, no Muscle and Fitness abs for me)

p.s. Scotland? Edinburgh?

Squatted 45kg yesterday, up another 5kg. On my way up to 70...

Yes, I live in edinburgh. I'm lucky that the university gym here has a REALLY good free weights area, in a totally different room from the machines. Plus there is a special performance gym for the elite lifters so us mortals don't interfere with their concentration (loud noise of olympic lifts dropping to the floor and loud screams of lifters maxing out effort can be heard from in there frequently).

You need to do a special accreditation to use the free weights, because too many folks were dicking around injuring themselves because they didn't know how to do the exercises. This means that the free weights gym is relatively uncrowded, even when the cardio and nautilus rooms are heaving.... I also find the heavy lifters there very helpful in helping me check my form, make sure everything is ok etc. Very positive attitude to newbies like myself. Most of the commericla gyms here have crappy weights equipment and cost a LOT more to join (personally, I don't dig saunas or steam rooms, although a pool would be nice...).

 

[aurelius]

Squatted 45kg yesterday, up another 5kg. On my way up to 70...Metric! Now you are speaking my language.

Yes, I live in edinburgh. I'm lucky that the university gym here has a REALLY good free weights area, in a totally different room from the machines. Plus there is a special performance gym for the elite lifters so us mortals don't interfere with their concentration (loud noise of olympic lifts dropping to the floor and loud screams of lifters maxing out effort can be heard from in there frequently).COLOR=seagreen]Wow. Your gym sounds much more serious than mine. What? Women? New to lifting? Freeweights? Does not compute. (well done)[/COLOR]

You need to do a special accreditation to use the free weights, because too many folks were dicking around injuring themselves because they didn't know how to do the exercises. This means that the free weights gym is relatively uncrowded, even when the cardio and nautilus rooms are heaving.... I also find the heavy lifters there very helpful in helping me check my form, make sure everything is ok etc. Very positive attitude to newbies like myself. Most of the commericla gyms here have crappy weights equipment and cost a LOT more to join (personally, I don't dig saunas or steam rooms, although a pool would be nice...).

[`

My girlfriend and I have been lifting together some 3 plus years now. She´s almost always alone with the free weights. (but never lonely!) Best of luck to you.

p.s. for the love of God srengthen and stabilize your shoulder so you don´t come here in 6 months with a "help, shoulder pain" thread.

 

[circusgirl]

Yes, I'm lucky that the uni here has an amazing sports centre - free weights, 2 fixed weight machine gyms, 2 cardio gyms, many squash and badminton courts, sports injury clinic, 2 large halls, table tennis, fencing and martial arts studio, circuit gym, stretching area.... only things missing are a pool and a running track. We are getting a pool next year apparently.

Plus the powerlifting and weightlifting clubs have won quite a few competitions, so it's in the uni's interest to have good equipment. Or maybe it's the other way round... In Cambridge, you only had access to free weights if you were an actual member of the powerlifting club... and there HAD to be a training partner, otherwise you couldn't access the gym.... shit-scared of lawsuits I guess.

Managed to drop the bench bar on myself today - luckily someone helped me out! Reminder to self not to be in a huge hurry to bench more than I can handle....

Anyone else find that they can guage pretty much how many reps and how much they can lift with leg exercises, but chest/arm exercises, it's like I can lift fine and then can't at all and muscle goes shaky all at once? Maybe my legs are stronger...

Now switching from 2-day split to 5-day. Can't get enough of weights, SO MUCH MORE FUN than cardio...

 

[aurelius]

Dropped the bar on yourself? Careful. Have you tried just regular push ups? Sound to simple? Try it next time. I´m playing with something I read here a while ago. 1 rep, then 2, then 3 up to about 10 or 12 with a quick break in between. Try it at least once.

5 days of weights? Used to do that and ran myself ragged. 3 works quite nicely for me. Easy does it.

 

[circusgirl]

Dropped the bar on yourself? Careful. Have you tried just regular push ups? Sound to simple? Try it next time. I´m playing with something I read here a while ago. 1 rep, then 2, then 3 up to about 10 or 12 with a quick break in between. Try it at least once.

5 days of weights? Used to do that and ran myself ragged. 3 works quite nicely for me. Easy does it.

Well, I slowly lowered the bar and couldn't lift it up again.... so no injury, I couldn't lift it off, that's what I meant by dropping.

I'm pretty fit already though - the idea with 5 days of weights is 5 25-min workouts instead of 2 or 3 1-hour workouts - so that I can get my weights in on lunchbreak, leaving evenings for tkd or doing nothing. I'm pretty sure I can manage it, it puts me up to about 10 hours of sports a week, which is pretty much what I was doing when I was on my old uni's tkd team anyway.

On the weekends, no sports, I'm currently doing things like removing wallpaper, putting up shelves, and running round preventing my cats from getting into other people's appartments (yes it happened again today, the other one this time, luckily the neighbour didn't mind).

 

[aurelius]

Well, I slowly lowered the bar and couldn't lift it up again.... so no injury, I couldn't lift it off, that's what I meant by dropping.

I'm pretty fit already though - the idea with 5 days of weights is 5 25-min workouts instead of 2 or 3 1-hour workouts - so that I can get my weights in on lunchbreak, leaving evenings for tkd or doing nothing. I'm pretty sure I can manage it, it puts me up to about 10 hours of sports a week, which is pretty much what I was doing when I was on my old uni's tkd team anyway.

On the weekends, no sports, I'm currently doing things like removing wallpaper, putting up shelves, and running round preventing my cats from getting into other people's appartments (yes it happened again today, the other one this time, luckily the neighbour didn't mind).

Ok. Doesn´t sound like too much. Watch that bench form. ´Sounds like there are people there to help with that.