Well, I didn't end up going to the gym last night. Instead I stayed home and worked on some computer problems. I was kind of mad at myself, but as it turns out, I weighed 183 this morning. I think that has everything to do with not remembering to eat enough food yesterday. Ooops.

Yesterday's food went something like this:

Breakfast:
Starbucks nonfat iced drink

Forgot to eat until dinner.

Dinner:
Salad (about 6 cups mixed baby greens, 1 cup couscous, 1 vine-ripened hothouse tomato, 1/2 cup fresh corn, thin fennel slices, fresh mozzarella, grilled chicken, and 2tbsp of vinaigrette) No idea on the calories, but the salad was huge. About 3 hours later, I started getting hungry again. So I made another salad (smaller, without the chicken, and added zucchini and yellow crook neck squash). Yum!

Dessert was a delicious cup of decaf Breakfast Blend coffee from Starbucks (one of their more mild blends) with 1serving of creamer (about 40calories) and half of a small bread roll.

I really am going to the gym today. I've slacked off too much on it already.

- Sunny

Hey Sunny! I am going to help you out with your question about "thighs," I need to get some help first, and think a bit!

Stay strong, get to that gym!

I'm sorry, I do not have time to read your entire journal. What is your current weight?

How are you measuring? What were the measurements off by? Are you sure you are measuring in the exact same spot on each leg, each tim you measure? Are you measuring at the same time of day each time you measure?

Increase the energy deficit. That can be done by eating a little less, exercising a little more, or a combo of the both.

I know nothing of what you're currently doing so I can't give much advice on the topic.

Awwwwww, Steve came through!! Sunny--Steve's here to help, how sweet!!!

Yay, Steve!!

Here's what I'm doing:

I eat around 1500 calories a day, give or take a few (1600 max). I know I haven't been as strict about this on the weekends, but I do know I'm not exceeding 2000. (I very carefully look up restaurants and menu items before going out on the weekends).

Exercise is about 3 times a week at the gym, plus general fun. At the gym, I do a combo of cardio for about 30-45 mins and strength training for 30 mins, alternating days of upper body and lower body. Other exercise includes gardening, tons of walking, frisbee, and a bit of soccer from time to time.

As for measuring my thighs, I've been using a sewing tape measure. I thought I was being accurate on where I was measuring, but maybe not. Also, I didn't measure at the same time of the day. I guess that would make a difference. So far the measurement has only increased by about 3/4 an inch.. but my jeans don't have much room to spare so even that is a lot. I'm going to be a little more diligent about time of day for measurements. I think I was just measuring "whenever" but never after going to the gym. Can water retention make a huge difference?

If I increase the energy deficit, will it affect how tired I am during the day?

Thanks so much Steve! I have tons to learn.

- Sunny

(Still 183 today. Looks like I can say goodbye to 184 and 185!)

Hi Sunny!!! I was thinking a lot about the thighs......
sometimes certain parts of my body seem bigger or smaller, for no reason, throughout the month. And they switch off, too!! Like sometimes my upper arms will seem skinnier, but my stomach will seem chubbier--or sometimes my butt seems small and tighter, but my arms seem chubby and so on and so on. It may have to do with sodium, it may have to do with something I don't know, like mayebe the body utilizes fat stores, but isn't EXACTLY accurate on taking it evenly throughout the body.....that's a tough one!!

Thanks Val,

Who knows whats going on. I know that the last 7lbs I've lost has made a difference in my arms and my chest, but not so much below the waist. I'm waiting.. just not so patiently.. I hate knowing that by the time I get down to my goal weight, I'm not going to have a chest anymore but the thighs will probably still be larger than I'm happy with.

I'm trying to remember that losing excess weight is about being healthy, not just happy with the way I look.

*sigh*

I'll get over it
I just need to get through this point without having to buy new jeans. My current ones are already huge on my waist and I have to sinch them down with a belt. I look silly, but it keeps them on at least.

In that case, I really wouldn't recommend cutting calories more. I don't like to see people go below 8 cals per pound of body weight. It might be time to buckle down on the weekends and keep the calories more in check.... as much as that sucks!

Or, mess around with your exercise programming a bit, more on that in a bit.

Or, you can be satisfied with your steady weight loss since you are losing.

Do you ever increase intensity? Bump up the incline, increase speed, etc?

Have you read the posts on interval and high intensity interval training? This might be something you should try, keeping it limited since you are dieting pretty hard which reduces your recovery abilities.

Start with one session of HIIT per week and keep the 2-3 sessions of steady state cardio.

What does this consist of.... strenght training should be held in higher priority than cardio.

So it should come first at the gym. Not the cardio.

And what are you doing in terms of lifting weights? Exercises, sets, reps, etc?

I wouldn't sweat the change in measurement.

If you're losing weight, you're not adding size.... unless you've got some gains in muscle mass happening which is NOT a bad thing. Once all the fat eventually leaves, you'll be left with a nice lean set of *wheels*.

But chances are, it was just due to the time of day or mismeasurements. There is human error, like it or not, when measuring your own legs.

I like these for measuring:

Bulk Nutrition - Accu Measure MyoTape Body Tape Measure at discount prices! (Books/Accessories, Fitness Accessories, Fitness Accessories)

Yea, I really wouldn't go below what you're eating now.

I think I've been doing something like HIIT, but I haven't really read the posts on that. I'll check them out. Basically, I hop into a bike and hit the "hill plus" setting and it throws a lot of hills at me at different intensity levels but bringing me down to an easy plateau between the peaks. When I use the treadmill, I use a similar setting that ramps up and lowers automatically.
I haven't done much on the elliptical.

I know strength training should really come first. I just feel that I get more accomplished in a gym visit if I do cardio first. Is that bad?

I'm not sure what a lot of the exercises are called but I know what they look like. For lower body, I do an array of weight machines including two that I think say... hip adduction on them? One for the inner thigh and one for the outter region. There are 6 or 7 machines I'm using for lower body, which seem to give my lower half a well rounded workout.

I'm doing lower reps with higher weights instead of the other way around. I know a lot of people say to do the reverse, but this way seems to be working for me. I can lift weights all day at lower weights with higher reps and not feel like I've made a bit of difference.

I went to the gym last night and did 30 mins of cardio and 30 of strength training. I wanted to do more but I just felt so tired. I'm going back tonight to do upper body and more cardio.

- Sunny

I'd read a few of the stickies to learn more about HIIT.

HIIT, when done correctly, should't be more than 15 minutes of work aside from proper warm up and cool down.

It's just backwards.

What you feel psychologically and what is best physiologically are sometimes two seperate things.

Just like starvation dieting might feel like the best bet for losing fat the fastest... but it's not.

I'd hit weights first, then cardio.

Maybe you feel this way b/c you weight training routine isn't adequate.

This answers my question about the adequacy of your workout, LOL. Not meaning to laugh at you!! Just see the same story over and over again. I wish there were more gyms that actually educated their members.

In all honesty, I'd rather see you using no machines. And if you are going to, certainly not the hip adduction/abduction machine.

You need to focus on big, compound movements.

And I'd much rather see you focusing on free weight exercises. They'll give you so much more bang for you buck, so to speak.

Haha, well you've certainly got this right. Most people actually assume to use light weights and higher reps to "tone."

They're wrong.

You want to stick with higher weights, especially while dieting, IMO.

I like anything between 4-8 reps to be honest.

I can see going to 12 at times, but that should be on the rare occassion.

Everything I said for you lower body applies to your upper body, as well.

So I need to go with the free weights, huh? I'll give that a try. Probably not tonight though since I know I'll be going at peak gym time and the free weight room is packed...

Ya know... I don't really know anything about doing free weights.

I need to kick up my protein intake but the idea of doing shakes all the time just isn't appealing... Honestly, I don't think there's even any meat in the house except for eggs and I don't feel like supplementing my diet with more legumes or grains currently. I need to go grocery shopping...

I'm going to write up some descriptions for someone else in a little bit for the various exercises I recommend for the beginner. You're right, you shouldn't use free weights unless you have an idea as to what you're doing.

I'll let ya know when I write up the descriptions. Until then, just continue what you're doing.

Just a matter of keeping the fridge stocked.

Chicken, turkey, eggs, cottage cheese, pork, beef, etc.