WEEK 3 – With NEW weights/resistance CHART

15/1 – week 3 of 52 week blog

Weigh-in  Well I was thinking that there might not be any change this week (as I’d dropped 4 lbs last week, that’s 2 more than I’d expected – so was thinking it might even out)

Anyway weight now 11.8 (or 73.8 kg or 162 lbs) That’s down another 2lbs!  Waist measurement – as discussed last week (at belly button level and level!) 43  1/2″  (110.5cm) relaxed and 41  1/2″   (105.5 cm) pulled in. so about 1/2 inch difference in both cases.

Food:

Orange juice, egg, bacon, tomato, mushrooms (cooked in olive oil) very thin slice toast with thin-spead butter and marmalade. (Sunday again !) Dinner. Roast Pork, applesauce, crackling, roast potato slices, parsnip, carrot, brussel sprouts cauliflower, gravy. half portion stewed fruit and custard (saving the rest for later)Tea: Omellette with onion, bacon, mushroom tomato and cheese, Kiwi fruit and half ounce mixed nuts, half portion stewed fruit and custard,1 cube plain choc

Exercise:

10kg, floor to above head lifts 12 x 2
Increased dumbell weight to 2 1/4 each end making each 4 1/2 kg: 15  half-bicep curls, 15, shoulder presses, 6 straight out forward, 6 straight out sideways ;15  finger and wrist rolls ALL x 2 .  15 Sit ups and 15 cross elbows to knees x 2  Half hour stretching and aerobics to music!

Notes:

BIG disussion with No. 3 son, who is a bit of an expert on weight-training. He has sent through a new schedule that will vary the weights exercises I do to maximise the fat burning and lean muscle building and work all the different muscle groups in my body in turn.

Day Exercise Min Reps
Monday Sit-ups 15
(Core) Snatch 15
Tuesday Squats 20
(legs) Lunges 15
Wednesday Tricep extension 15
(Triceps and shoulders) Front raise 15
Thursday Bicep curls 15
(Biceps and forearms) Wrist curls 15
Friday Twisting Sit-ups 15
(Core) Snatch 15
Saturday Squats 20
(legs) Step ups 20
Sunday  Lateral raise 15
(Triceps and shoulders) Tricep extension 15

So, Monday tomorrow – and I shall start this new regime: He also provided links to a website to show and explain each exercise and point out the precise way to do them so that you don’t injure your body in the process!

 

16/1

Food:

Egg, Orange juice, 2 cups milky tea, 1/2 oz mixed nuts, Lunch: Toad in the hole, easy on the batter, carrots, beetroot, shallots, broccoli. Mid pm – plain yoghurt. Marzipan-plum-chocolate-thing, 1 oz mixed nuts, 2 kiwi fruit , 1″ cube cheese, 10 grapes, 2 cubes chocolate. slice of ham.

Exercise:

3 sets of 15 Snatch with 10 kg plate, and 3 sets of 15 sit-ups. (just trying 3 sets for starters on this new regime) Half an hour aerobic exercise and stretching

Notes:

Ah Ha! Had a refresher talk with No 3 son. Seems I was quitting too soon with my 15 repetitions – that was the MINIMUM, apparently I should have gone on until I could do no more reps … then changed to the other type of exercise for the day .. done those until it was too much, back to the first one etc.. And if they would just go on TOO Long I need to make them harder. So heavier weights, or different position, whatever ramps up the difficulty. SO, tomorrow when it is squats and lunges (neither of which I have really done before) I hope I can even get beyond the magic 15!

Also, note to myself: Don’t get tempted! Just about to go out the door to go to Poetry when I realised that , as usual, I would be there right over tea time. Usually this is no problem, there are biscuits available (AHHHH b..i..s..c.u..i..t..ss…..) So I quickly grabbed some nuts plus a couple of squares of plain chocolate to keep me from the biscuit barrel. Unfortunately, I left them in the car.. and got sideswiped by an exotic Madeira soaked chocolate covered biscuit looking confection brought in by the wonderfully kind Mary. Not wishing to be impolite (there’s an excuse for you) I suddenly found one in my hand. I bit, expecting a wonderful texture to crackle and crumble on my tongue – WELL, I will remember this! It was all SOFT, the hardest  part was the chocolate on the outside, inside it was a plum or prune paste nestled in a marzipan case. MARZIPAN! .. Ok those who know me can stop laughing.  I am not fussy, but about the only taste I do not like is almond paste aka Marzipan! Taught a lesson or what!

17/1

Food:

Egg, Orange juice, 2 cups milky tea.1 oz nuts.  Dinner. Roast Pork, applesauce, crackling, roast potato slices, parsnip, carrot, brussel sprouts cauliflower, gravy. Tea: crumpet with ham, cheese and egg on top. 1 kiwi fruit 1 apple. eveing, plain yoghurt 1 oz nuts

Exercise:

OooH! right that’s 46 squats, then 34 lunges ( total 17 for each leg) followed by 39 squats and 32 lunges (16) and my legs are still trembling as I fill this in! Feels right though.  Half an hour aerobic exercise and stretching

Notes:

It took until after lunch for my legs to feel back to normal – about three hours! Though I am still wondering if I shall notice anything tomorrow by way of aches or stiffness. And tomorrow is Wednesday and that means the market – so an early start  and the exercises will have to wait until the afternoon!

18/1

Food:

Egg, Orange juice, 2 cups milky tea,  handful nuts and raisins, Cottage pie, Evening: 2 helping one of each of 2 different stir fry (one pork with noodles  and one beef with rice) apple and kiwi fruit. peanuts and raisins and a mille feuille in the evening! Yeah, ok, I know – the mille feuille probably wasn’t a good idea!

Exercise:

Using the dumbell – one arm triceps extensions  weight 2.5 kg right: and left 15 first set, then dumbell front raises – 15 (and it was a struggle to get there, involving more ‘body-swing’ than I think is desirable . So changed the dumbell weight for just 2 kg (after all I had only recently moved them up to the 2 1/2 kg and that was with a movement I had gradually got used to) so second set one arm triceps extensions  weight 2 kg: right – 20, left 17. and then then dumbell front raises with 2kg each hand  – 15 – but without the body-swing effect. Shortened aerobic exercise – very late by the time our guests left tonight

Notes:

Gave myself a pat on the back this morning when I leapt (haha) from bed at 6.30 (market morning) and my legs were in working order! I knew they had done some work yesterday but it was not the aches and stiffness I was dreading expecting. However, after a morning standing around at the market (Damp drizzly old day it was today too) the front of my thighs (quadriceps) felt like stone and my glutes (sounds better than bottom or bum) had a definite underscore of tension! Anyway – on to today’s new exercises, again, not done either of these before. I had trouble keeping my elbow from wobbling all over the place when I was using the two and half kilo dumbell and realised that they were probably too heavy to start a new movement with. After changing down to just 2 kilo I could manage the minimum and a few more … just.

Yeah, ok, I know – the mille feuille probably wasn’t a good idea! Bloated now!

19/1

Food:

Egg, Orange juice, 2 cups milky tea, Fish (in batter) and chips (about 8) peas, 1 square plain nut chocolate, Omelette with ham, shallots, cheese and some left-over stir-fry veg in. kiwi fruit, mid evening (after belly dance) – yoghurt

Exercise:

45 dumbell 2kg bicep curls 38 v wrist curls followed by 43 dumbell 2kg bicep curls  33 dumbell 2kg wrist curls  – and a lot of stretching and shaking out the muscles afterwards!!  Hour and a quarter belly dance! Half an hour aerobic exercise and stretching

Notes:

Still fell bloated this morning, and my glutes and quadriceps were still letting me know that I’d worked them hard!  We were out at Trago (The Westcounty’s own particular quirky discount department store) as it had its 15% off (nearly)everything sale on. Strange way it does it – has its sale all through January but only on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.  As I buy lots of odd bits for the business there anyway it makes sense to get a stock in when they have their sale days.. so we were there, and getting late for lunch so we bought fish and chips to bring home (those of you who know Trago at Liskeard will know that the fish and chips there are really good!) Yum, well, had to restrain myself indeed, and shared chips were the order of the day. Good job i’s belly dance this evening – an extra set of exercise! Just looked at the list of exercises for tomorrow. Twisting sit-ups look hard work.. oh well, we’ll see!

19/1

Food:

Egg, Orange juice, 2 cups milky tea, (about 2 teaspoons banana bread mix .. see notes) Steak and mushroom pie (with shallots, onion, carrots, beetroot and cabbage) nothing in the afternoon and didn’t feel hungry either, Tea: Boiled egg, 1 slice bread and butter, a  little apricot jam, 1 kiwi, 1 Apple.

Exercise:

10 kg snatch – 38 (lifting 10 kg  from floor to high (as if hanging on a hook at arms reach upwards, and back to floor) Twist sit-ups ups – 18 ( sit ups with alternating left elbow to right knee with right elbow to left knee)  , second set 10 kg snatch – 40 :  Twist sit-ups – 19  Half an hour aerobic exercise and stretching

Notes:

Snatch with 10 kg started off easy enough — as I had already been doing some of these — but as I was continuing until I couldn’t do another they became progressively harder and I ended up quite puffed out as well! Twist sit-ups were not as tricky as I had envisaged, i had thought they wold cause tummy trembling (as do the cross elbow to knees did (lying on back and bringing opposite knees up and elbows up to meet each other alternating) They didn’t – but the usual struggle with lifting your top half of your body from the floor to sitting was just as evident – even though I had been doing these before.

Spent most of the morning  in the kitchen making 6 loaves of wheatmeal bread, 2 loaves of banana bread and the steak and mushroom pie. Now, there’s a problem, i have a really good spatula, nice and bendy, scrapes the mix off the inside of the bowl lovely, so almost all the mix went in the time. But try as you might there is always that bit more you can get off with a carefully applied finger, especially off the K beater. So, I did, and put it on my food list – weird as it sounds. What is it about uncooked cake mix that is sooo nice. And before any one throws up their hands in horror at the possibility of salmonella from raw eggs, I am happy with the quality an cleanliness of the eggs from our own little flock, doesn’t mean I’d eat any raw egg though.

 

20/1

Food:

Egg, Orange juice, 2 cups milky tea, Gammon, baked potato with a little butter, cauliflower, beetroot, carrots, mid afternoon. 1oz mixed nuts, Tea: ‘breakfast pie’ (egg, ham, tomato in puff pastry case) kiwi fruit and an apple. mis evening – plain yoghurt.

Exercise:

54  squats holding 4.5 kg weights on shoulders: 30 step-ups each leg  (60 up totals) step height 5 1/2 inches (14cm) will do next set on higher steps. Second set: 44  squats holding 4.5 kg weights on shoulders: 45 step-ups each leg  (90 up totals) step height 10 inches (25 cm)  Half an hour aerobic exercise and stretching

Notes:

Dripping by the end of the exercises today – and puffed! Squats, today I decided to try with weights and so rested the two dumbells one on each shoulder to do this exercise. i was also concerned I wasn’t squatting down far enough. So set the computer chair to its lowest setting, where when sitting on the edge my knees are just a little higher than my hips, and propped the chair so it wouldn’t run a way and did my squats so that I just touched the edge of the chair with my btm each time (so I knew I wasn’t cheating) I guess in a gym you’d have those mirrors all round to prove to yourself you were doing it right! Step-ups were new to me  so I sought out two child step-up stools as they looked like the beginners height shown on the video link (to reach the handbasin or loo type – yes I still have them from when my boys were little – now coming in useful when the grandchildren come to stay) and used them as my step ups. I quit at 60, I could tell I wasn’t going to get a burn stepping 5 and  a bit inches and looked round for something else for the next set. Well, it was right in front of me, the first step to leave this bedroom is 10 inches high…looked pretty high for an exercise but I found it just right.. still went on for 90 but by then I knew it!!

 

Leave a Comment

Enjoyed this blog? Please share :)