# Working For a Greater QOL...Even if it kills me (feedback welcome!)



## sportTchick (Sep 19, 2004)

CAUTION:  CHICK AT WORK
~

So, I'm going to do it.  I'm going to start an online journal.  I know this is not a major groundbreaking event, especially for so many of you that have been keeping one for some time.  But this is my own expose into my own weird world of training and eating.

A little background about me...I am 27, former military, and former (very) competitive athlete.  
After achieving my bachelors degrees (two in four years) after completing four years of active military service I joined the real world of seemingly Groundhog days, and my training took the same turn.  I often would rut in my training and eating because it was all I saw all the time...gyms, athletes, injuries, and the physiology of exercise.  
Then I decided to change my scenery and change my career and toppled my world on it's head (with some consequence to my psyche...as Leon would say, I could use some herbal tea).  Anyway in my topsy-turvy life, training all the while, I allowed myself to go from being in the greatest shape I had ever been, to being still athletic and fit (by average standards), but missing the challenge and the push. I was missing the fun and had no end goal.

In during this time, my eating habits waxed and waned from decent to crap to kinda disordered to better to so-so...even though I know better.  And while I know better, I still know there there is so much I don't know- about training and eating because my background and education is what I have experienced, witnessed, read, and researched.
But everyone is different and training like this is so different.  There are so many facets, physiologies, and research.  The world is always changing, evolving into that faster, higher, stronger mantra of time.

And again, while there are no regattas, few races, no grass fields, no netted goals and ball to rocket in them, no game clocks, no seasons, and no championship events, I will train hard. 
I do now have a goal, but it depends on my work and mine alone...in the gym and even in the kitchen.
And it begins, uncerimoniously and without physical spectators, I present my journal...

Like I mentioned in my title, I very much welcome feedback.  Even honest criticism.  And while I am hardly thin-skinned or fragile, I would appreciate more the constructive type.  Flat-out blastings are accepted when deserved (hey, I'm a moron sometimes so I know they'll be deserved).

Thanks for stopping by.


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## gwcaton (Sep 19, 2004)

Welcome to IM !  This place is growing like crazy ! Lots of helpful, knowledgeable people here. Good Luck !


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## sportTchick (Sep 19, 2004)

Tah dah...
Entry one:

Today is Sunday.  And while I know this is a cop out and a typical lazy American thing to say, it is Football Day.  This entails me sitting on my ass most of the day watching (literally) at least 3 games at once, sometimes four.

But I wasn't a total lazy slag.  I did hit the trails for about 1.75 hours of moderate hiking w/ my dog.  I didn't run any, which I would normally do.  I haven't run (my fave cardio) for the last two weeks because I did something quite painful to my foot ankle complex a couple of weekends ago and am awaiting MRI results from my ortho.
So I am trying to be smart, which I am not reknowned for in the past when it comes to pain and reining myself in during sport, and not push it.  It is starting to feel better and I would rather be smart so I can run again a.s.a.p.
(I am just *praying* that it is not a bony stress injury because my doc is threatening put me in a boot!  Which I absolutely do not want b/c that would mean almost no cardio and pretty much no fun.  And bad fashion- well, I am a girl.)

The weather was awesome and the trails and lake gorgeous.  And the dog had a good time.

And I made it home in time for kickoff and to see my Saints kick 49er ass!

My eating was pretty good today, except for a white roll, everything else was pretty norm.  I didn't sit around pounding chips and burgers or anything like that.


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## bulletproof1 (Sep 19, 2004)

sportTchick said:
			
		

> Tah dah...
> Entry one:
> 
> Today is Sunday.  And while I know this is a cop out and a typical lazy American thing to say, it is Football Day.  This entails me sitting on my ass most of the day watching (literally) at least 3 games at once, sometimes four.



congrats on the journal. good luck!   

p.s. the titans got screwed royally today.


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## Jenny (Sep 20, 2004)

Welcome to the journals


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## gwcaton (Sep 20, 2004)

Ok , I have to show my ignorance here.. what is QOL ?
Good luck on the MRI !


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## sportTchick (Sep 20, 2004)

Monday- 9/20

Thanks for the welcomes to the journals from bullet, gw, & jenny.
Gw:  QOL = quality of life, and you're not ignorant   


Workouts:
5am:  3.75 miles brisk walking on treadmill (a couple of weeks ago this would have been running but MRI results come tomorrow)
Evening:  60 min elliptical interval workout;
Lifting-
db bench press:  wt 20/25/30/35/15; reps 15/12/10/6/25
incline db press: 15/20/25/15/12; 17/12/10/15/15
hammer strength row: 50/70/90/50; 15/12/10/22
bent over fw row: 40/50/60/40/30; 15/12/10/15/15
* shoulders are my weakest, I'm such a wuss  
db military press: 12/15/20/12/10; 15/12/10/15/10
post delt machine: 30/40/30; 15/10/15
db front raise: 8/10; 15/12
bicep reverse fw curls: 20/30/40; 15/12/8
bicep db curls: 20/20; 12/10
tricep skull crushers: 30/30; 15/15
cable tricep pushdowns: 40/50/60; 15/12/10
tricep dips (body weight): 10


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## sportTchick (Sep 20, 2004)

Monday 9/20:

Food-

M1: small sweetpotato, 1 cu 1% cottage cheese, 1 kashi wg waffle
M2: 1 kashi wg waffle, garden veggie burger, 1 cu cherry tomatoes
S1: 3 slices Stonybrook natural deli turkey, 1 slice Alpine Lace LF swiss
M3: 3 cu steamed spinach, mushrooms (white), 1 cu yellow squash
      7 oz light tuna (in H2O), 2 egg whites, mustard, 1 tbsp dill relish
M4: 1 cu cottage cheese, 1.5 cu frozen strawberries, 1/2 banana
S2: 1 glass homemade limeade sweetened w/ Splenda

Tot kcal: 1689
PRO: 50%
CHO: 38%
FAT: 12%

*NOTES:
- this is the normal TYPE of food I generally consume
- this is MORE (in kcal) than I usually consume by ~200-300 kcal:
  reasons: 1) meals were not spaced out as well as usual, 2) was hungry following my workout and my normal serving size of tuna just wasn't cutting it today, 3) after what would have been the end to my day's intake I realize that since all that rain from hurricane Ivan blew through my lawn length septupled   in length so I had to go out and mow and run around w/ the dog; after which I was hungry again.

Lessons:  
- space meals out better to not end up hungry and going overboard
- straighten out my food choices and times a little bit, clean it up

No longer hungry, but tired...  
Just gonna surf the board & watch some MNF.

Hope everyone out there had a good day.


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## sportTchick (Sep 21, 2004)

Wow, I picked a CHERRY week to start a log... 

Tues 9/21:

Today was double whammy day...

When I saw started orthodontic treatment and got my braces (yes, I'm an adult w/ braces on my teeth   + metal) I was advised that if want to obtain oral perfection (ha, ha) that I should have four (perfectly healthy) teeth removed from my head.    Drastic, I thought, but apparently the norm in the orthodontic world.  Today they took two of the four (one side at a time).  So at around 11 am they took those teeth so now I look like a hockey player that a took a nice shot to the right jaw.  AI subsisted on the fewer than 650 kcal of food & 2 liters of H2O that I had consumed to that point, from then until just a few minutes ago.  Now I am stuck chugging water and consuming mushy food for the remainder of the day playing nutritional catch-up. 

This afternoon I had an appt w/ my orthopaedic doc to receive my MRI results for my foot/ankly prob.  Come to find out, I had managed to crack my heel bone.     Good news is that it is healing along nicely.
Hopefully I will be running again w/in the next couple of weeks.  ARRRGGH...



Workout:
Cardio only today- 50 min elliptical steady rate; 20 min stationary bike



Food:
S1: 1/2 ww pita, 1 egg white
M1: kashi waffle, large sweet potato, 1 cu cottage cheese
~~~~ 
(soft foods only
M2: 1 scoop permalean PRO powder, 8 oz water, 2 cu frozen strawberries
M3: 1 cu cottage cheese, 1 very small organic banana, 1/4 cu cooked oat bran cereal (made w/ water, cinnamon, salt, splenda)


*Notes:
- food spacing and choices/options SUCKED due to course of day (see 1st paragraph above)
- veggies lacking, must eat soft food due to kidnapped teeth
- tomorrow make up for lack of veggies today


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