Monday, 2 hand swings, 980 reps

7:30am KB

Warm up w/12kg (26 lbs.)

40 2 hand swings, 1 min. on 1 min, rest x 5 sets = 10 min. total (200 reps)

Work sets

#1 w/16kg (36 lbs.)
40 2 hand swings, 1 min. on, 1 min. rest x 5 sets = 10 min. total (200 reps)

#2 w/20 kg (44 lbs.)
40 2 hand swings, 1 min. on, 1 min. rest x 5 sets = 10 min. total (200 reps)

#3 w/24 kg (53 lbs.)
20 2 hand swings 30 sec. on, 30 sec. rest x 10 sets = 10 min. total (200 reps)

#4 w/28 kg (63 lbs.)
20 2 hand swings 30 sec. on, 30 sec. rest x 3 sets = 3 min. total (60 reps)
20 2 hand swings 30 sec. on 1 min. rest x 3 sets = 4.5 min. total (60 reps)

#5 w/32 kg (72 lbs.)
20 2 hand swings 30 sec. on 1 min. rest x 2 sets = 3 min. total (40 reps)

#6 w/40 kg (88 lbs.)
10 2 hand swings, 15 sec. on 1 min. 15 sec. rest x 2 sets = 3 min. total (20 reps)

Total workout 53.5 min. 980 reps

This is the first time I did a workout progessively with harder and heavier sets without ending with easier and lighter sets. By the time I got to the 24kg, my grip is what couldn't go the entire 1 min., so I switched to 30 sec. sets, but doubled the number of sets. By the time I progressed to the 28kg my grip needed more rest than the 30 secs. so I rested 1 min. inbetween 30 sec. sets after the first 3 sets. I was able to stay with that work/rest ratio until I ended with the 40 kg, at that time my grip was shot and I was only able to hang on for 10 reps, taking the 1 min. 15 sec. rest to "even" off the time of the set.

I had plenty of strength in my hips and legs, and still able to get a decent "hip snap" w/40kg, only swinging hip heigth, so I guess the lesson would be not to wait until 50 minutes into a workout to swing your heaviest bell!

Sunday AM weight 130.4
3:30 Bikram yoga

Menu

coffee w/cream 70 cal.
small peach 80 cal.
small apple 80 cal.
prunes (5) 100 cal.
almonds (12) 120 cal.
chocolate sucker 70 cal.
1 bread 60 cal., 1 tbl. PNB 100 cal. + alfalfa sprouts (sandwich)
5:30 cherries 60 cal.
6:00 chili pepper soup w/beef (6oz), squash and black beans 520 cal.
9:30 cookies 400 cal.

Total calories 1660

The first 7 items (680 cal.) were consumed between 5am & 2:30pm and then I didn't eat until after yoga. My weight after yoga (5:30) and a shower, was 130.4 with 15.3% bodyfat! The lowest I had ever seen. And my calories were on track for the day until...... I fell asleep before picking Mark up from the airport, woke up, drove to San Francisco, and when I got back at 9:30pm I came across some of the bake sale goodies that had not been thrown out or (obviously) taken away from my sight....drats!

My morning weight did not surprise me because I had a seriously bad "bake sale" binge the day before and those damn carbs hold water. In fact every gram of carb holds 9 grams of water, salt holds about 20gms, with protein holding very little and fat holding none! So baked goods, my freakin' favorites, are quite possibly the worst type of food for me to eat. Which explains.......

Monday AM weight 132.0!!!!
7:30 am KB heavy swings
7:30 pm 1 hour walk
Menu

5:00-9:00 coffee w/cream 70 cal.
1:00 large carrot w/ 1 tbl. PNB 100 cal.
2:00 spinach /walnut pesto (100 cal.) salad w/tomatoes and cottage cheese 200 cal.
4:30 chili pepper stew w/skirt steak (6oz, 300 cal.) and spaghetti squash 200 cal.
6:30 yogurt w/steel cut oats, 290 + 150 cal.

Total calories 1410

Monday 1:00 pm weight 130.2 18.2% bodyfat. I did not even trip out about my weight, I woke up feeling heavy, not fat, just heavy.....because my calories were within my limits yesterday, I knew it was the stinkin' cookies.

Mark was surprised that I wan't upset, but I know I've been lifting more and eating more, and I'm making a conscious choice to get stronger and build muscle. On purpose. I'm actually excited to feel that I want to be more muscular, not skinnier! My clothes fit the same and I feel just as lean at 130 as I did at 127. I will get back down between 127-28 beacuse this extra weight is just due to holding water from the carbs for the last 2 days.

My eating is back on track and I'm reading a potentially life changing book titled "Binge No More". It's no secret that I'm a "work in progress", but my mood is good and calm and most important hopeful. Life is good.

Motivation for My Dieting Friends!

This picture is dedicated to Christine, who was so brave to post her before picture and as promised, here's another before and after photo of me.

The picture on the bottom was taken at Eastertime only 3 years ago, the picture on the top was taken about an hour ago It's amazing what the body and mind can accomplish. It's never too late to make miracles happen.

I remember losing the first 20 pounds because I could finally get my wedding ring back on my finger. (Notice, I'm not wearing it in the "before" picture)

Tuesday AM weight 129.4
6:30am Bikram yoga

Menu

5:00-9:30am coffee w/cream 90 cal.
11:00 prunes (3) 60 cal.
11:30 spinach salad w/chicken, roastd garlic/parmesean dressing 550 cal.
3:00 yogurt w/triscut 340 + 100 cal.
4:30 apple/grapes 140 cal.
7:00 veg soup w/spaghetti squash and black beans 400 cal.

Total calories 1680

Just Swings w/16kg (1280 reps)

Monday 7:45am KB

Warm up w/16kg

40 2 hand swings, 1 min. on 1 min. rest x 5 sets = 10 min. (200 reps)

Work sets w/16kg

40 transfers, 1 min. on
1 min. rest
20 swing/transfer, 1 min. on
1 min. rest
1 hand swings, transfer on 5th rep, 5/5,5/5,5/5,5/5, 1 min. on
1 min. rest
5/5,5/5, 1 hnd swing, 10 swing/trans, 20 transfers, 1.5 min. on
1 min. rest
20 transfers, 10 swing/trans., 5/5,5/5 1 hand swings, 1 .5 min. on
1 min. rest

All 5 sets took 11 min. to complete and had 240 reps per rotation. I completes 4 rotations x 11 = 44 min.. I ened the workout repeating the last two 1.5 min. sets for an additional 5 min. and 120 reps.

Total workout 59 minutes

All swings done with the 16kg, including the warm up. 200 2 hand reps + 1080 1 hand reps = 1280 total reps.

Saturday AM weight 128.2
7:00am 10 min. SSST + KB swing snatch WO
7:00pm 50 min. walk
Total calories (high calorie day) 2800-3000

Sunday AM weight 129.0
7:30pm 55 min. walk
Total calories 1920

Monday AM weight 130.6
7:45am KB 59 min. swings w/16kg
6:15pm 35 min. walk

Menu

coffee w/cream 70 cal.
oats/milk 180 cal.
3 prunes 60 cal.
spinach salad w/ginger dressing, 4oz chicken 500 cal.
fig cake 150 cal. (like the inside of a Newton)
chocolate sucker 70 cal.
PNB, alfalfa sprout sandwich w/raisins 360 cal.
yogurt w/3 triscuts 340 + 60 cal.

Total calories 1790

I was too tired to go to yoga class at 5:15pm (Monday), so I went for a quick walk instead. I had spent the day on Sunday at a comic book convention, helping a friend, and I didn't drink enough water, so I was dehydrated and bloated, so my weight was a little higher than I'm comfortable with.

But here it is ,Tues. morning 8:30am, and I'm done with yoga!!.... yea! Even though I'm not as flexible and I don't sweat as much in early morning classes, the best thing is that I've still got the whole day ahead of me.

I'm looking forward to the week, life is good.

The Competitor That I Am

What a crazy weekend! It started with the 10 minute snatch test, but that event dominated the last 2 days both physically and mentally.

I thought about mentioning the fact that I was going to try the SSST (secret service snatch test) on my blog, but to be honest it wasn't a big deal. It wasn't a big deal because I had the attitude of this first test being only a baseline for the real challenge. This test was purely to see if I could snatch for 10 minutes straight, not to achieve a particular number of reps.

Since I didn't purposely train and/or peak for this test Mark had no idea of how I would do. He started to get me a little nervous and I found myself with a little doubt about my ability. He asked a few times what my strategy was, I didn't have one! I know what kind of training I had been doing, I know that at this point my fastest snatch speed is 18 reps per 30 sec. That's with no transfer and for only 1 minute. So I did the math, I knew I would be close to the record, but that wasn't my intention, for this first baseline test. I didn't even know what the current record was exactly, I just knew it was around 300. You can imagine how disappointed I was to complete the test at 295, when the tie for 2nd was 296! Especially knowing I could've done 300.

Mark on the other hand was blown away, completely surprised, and now reflecting on that, has said that if he would've known I'd be so close he would have helped pace me to try and break 300.

So, on the physical side, my rear delts and lats have been sore for the last 2 days. My inner thighs were tired and believe it or not I ended up taking a 45/50 min. walk Sat. night to rewarm and loosen them up (no soreness on Sunday!). I was hungrier on Saturday and started to feel "punchy" around 5:00pm from the intense energy output from that morning, remember I also did my regular workout after the SSST ending up with an additional 30-40 min. of snatches and swings. And I was planning on Sunday being a complete day of rest and recovery, but ended the day with 50 minutes of walking.

My food on Saturday was a combination cookie binge, red meat/veggie dinner and ice cream ending up around 2800-3000 calories. And although I had intentions of a lower calorie day on Sunday, I realized that I wanted to do a heavy/long swing workout w/16kg on Monday morning and I needed to eat to fuel that workout and ended the day with a calorie count of around 1800. I can't believe I'm choosing performance over the number on the scale! It was 130.8 this morning.

But I feel leaner and more muscular and I like it! I'm not ready to keep my weight up over 130, but if I want to get stronger, and I do, and I want to get more muscular, and I do, I have to make peace with the fact that I'm going to weigh more, and I think I am!

So that's part of the mental challenge, my weight, the other part is my training. Where do I go from here?

I got to enjoy my head in the clouds for about 24 hours, and then Kenneth Jay posted the fact that his girlfriend also tried the SSST and snatched 315! So I think the bar has been raised for us women out here! How exciting! And being the competitor that I am, this has given me more motivation and focus to think about developing an actual plan, a training strategy. And I'm excited about that. If my current training methods have served me this well, I've got some ideas of where I need to take it, where I need to go with it.

I thrive on competition. That's what started my transformation over 2 years ago, and apparently keeps me going with new motivation. And although it may seem that want to compete with others, the only real competition is with myself, motivation comes from others. I can only compare me to me. What am I capable of? It would be silly to compare or try to compete with women younger than me, sometimes half my age, weigh more with more muscle, or women that have been athletic all of their lives. And that's another miracle I've got from KB's.

I have no competive athletic background, although I do feel I have athletic talent, I've never formally trained for a competitve sport. I'm already 43 years old, coming off of a decade of inactivity and a weight gain and loss of over 100 pounds! The fact that I've been able to pick up this little ball of iron, swing it around and achieve the level of conditioning that I have over the past 2 years validates my style of training. It didn't matter where I started, Kettlebell training has allowed me to fully express the competitor that I am. Competing with myself, my own training to see how far I can take it, how much more can I do? We'll see!

Secret Service Snatch Test; Ten minutes: 295 Reps!

This puts Tracy in third place.Second place is 296 reps tied between Yoana Snideman and Kelly Moore.

This is a link to the leader board and info on the SSST.
http://fitnessyoucanuse.com/SSST.html

The rest of my workout;

After 5 min. warm up of transfers and snatch/transfers, I did the 10 min. challenge, then took about 5 min. rest, and then I alternated the following 3 sets x 5 rotations;

10 snatch L, 10 snatch R, 30 sec. pace, 1 min. on
1 min. rest
50 transfers w/16kg, 1 min. on
1 min. rest
40 3 hand swings w/16kg, 1 min. on
1 min. rest

6 minutes to complete each rotation (6 x 5) = 30 min.

Total workout about 50 min.

I have to admit that it took a few sets for my grip to come back! And now at 6:30pm my inner thighs are sore and I'm wiped out completely!

I did exercise the option of my "hour to devour" this afternoon, it was actually about 20 min. I had an awesome steak afterwards with veggies, and I just had some ice cream.

Today was an incredible day.

Know When to Walk Away, Know When to Run

Of course I hope one day to completely overcome this emotional need to overeat, but I don't know if that is possible. I know managing it is possible, and maybe that's all I can ask for, but something stronger than I am is still lurking, still hungry for more. Hungry to heal, trying to heal with food. Stuffing back and down the pain. The pain of what? And it is pain because it makes me feel like crap, like I've lost, like I've been defeated. Can I still win by simply cutting my losses? What causes this self destruction?

And it is destructive. Destructive to what I know to be healthy. And not just physically healthy, that's always scientically adjustable, but mentally healthy. It's much more mentally painful because it makes no sense, logically, to not be able to feel as if I can't stop overeating. Bingeing.

So I have come to the conclusion that I need to get in the habit of "cutting my losses" at the very least, and start there.

Thursday 5/24, peanut butter/prune, icecream binge 2000 cal.?
Monday 5/28, trail mix binge 1200 cal. (oops! I mean 1600)
Wednesday 5/30, Hershey's chocolate binge. 600 cal.
Thursday 5/31, chocolate cake 400 cal.

Everytime I started to get "out of control", and I did feel out of control, ( at first I wrote that I was out of control, then rephrased it to feel, because control is a choice, I'm constantly reminding myself of that, to take responsibility) I tried to remember that it was not too late to stop....not too late. Food is only calories, at that point, and I can choose to stop. Choose to walk away. I can control my choices. I need to look at it as controlling choice, not controlling food.

Everytime I started to binge, I walked away long before I wanted to.....long before I wanted to. I wanted to keep eating, at times desperately. I wanted to give in, give up. To give up responsibility. Is that what it's about? Responsiblity?

My journal, my blog, has catapulted my growth to new levels of self awareness. I don't have any expectations of a "cure". But I know that the 10 or so years I spent extremely overweight I felt asleep compared to where I'm at now. Asleep to experiencing life's potential. When I woke up, I started walking, walking away from the confinement of my wall of fat. I now feel like jogging, on the verge of running, not away from, but forward, to life. Being responsible in my life, and for my life. My good life.

Wednesday, Double Swings,Clean Presses, Squats

6:30 KB

Warm up w/12kg

40 2 hand swings 1 min on, 1 min. rest x 4 sets = 8 min.
40 transfers, 1 min. on 1 min. rest x 2 sets = 4 min

Total warm up 12 min.

Work sets w/2 12 kg's

18 double swings, 30 sec.
30 sec. rest
8 double clean, push press, 30 sec.
30 sec. rest
6 double clean, squat, 30 sec.
30 sec rest
6 double swing, dbl. clean press, dbl clean squat combo 1 min.
1 min. rest

All 4 sets done in this order took 5 min. to complete. Rotated 6 times each = 5 x 6= 30 min.

1 bottoms up clean, 1 clean press 5 reps on each side before transfer to other side, 5/5/5/5
2 min. on 1 min. rest x 3 sets = 8 min.

Total workout 50 min.