Macro’s from Yesterday .. Day Two

Yesterday (well Monday) we had a labor day meal — that was brought to us by our job. I work third shift so it technically was on Tuesday when we ate. I made some bad decisions & could properly measure out the servings, and so without accurate count of macros, I decided to not post the meals — but I still wrote everything down for my own records because I need to acknowledge what I did eat. I don’t feel any regrets about it, the food was delicious and it was free, and I love bbqs. I could of chosen to make a better decision but I didn’t because in the heat of the moment, everything looked amazing. 

Tonight, some of the people I sit with at lunch and myself are ordering a pizza to share and again I won’t regret it because I love pizza — but I  am going to try to be more aware of the portioning of eating the pizza. 

365 Day Self Discovery Challenge — Day Two

Yesterday’s question

This question is from yesterday, and I apologize ahead of time for not posting it yesterday online (I did answer it in my journal yesterday) — time got away from me and didn’t have time to log on and post it on the blog. 

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

Well for beginners, there is many things I don’t like about myself —- not as a form of self hatred but being observant of the flaws I hold that can and/cannot be changed. For this particular question, I answered it with honesty but in knowing that it is something that can be changed and worked on to better improve myself. Many of you may be able to relate or might have been able to at some point in your life — and hopefully no longer hold this flaw or are in the works of improving it so that it doesn’t hold you hostage. 

  • I would change the fact that I am hot tempered — quick to get enraged or frustrated. I never really accepted this trait previous to this question because I don’t like having to recognize that this could be an issue and one that forbids me of good relationships and lacks maturity. I cannot deny that there have been many times I have been quick to be offended and spoke out & ended up hurting someone’s feelings due to not thinking before I speak & simply speaking with anger rather than with a calm mind. I have been hot tempered all my life, some years have been worse than others, and now it isn’t as much of an issue until it is. I don’t necessarily find myself physically violent towards people, I just have a quick tongue that will do damage because my rage is speaking on my behalf & it has caused friendships to plummet & even my own family has had to endure it — my mom being the #1 person due to her being even more hot tempered than myself and us clashing when we argue. If you haven’t seen a fire show up close, watch us fight with words and venom and it gets heated fairly quickly. 0-100. I am not proud of my past and how I have chosen to handle most situations (although some of them gave me a reason to be angry and I don’t regret sticking up for myself when need be) — we are human, but this doesn’t excuse my behavior when I get worked up, I need to find better coping methods and better forms of handling my anger so I don’t lose out on people that mean to me. Growing up it was normally with my brother having to prove myself with him and feeling as though it never settled at just words, it would eventually lead to physical confrontations because I wasn’t thinking rationally & many times it even ended up being the same way with my mom as well, the fight, it was never worth it when finished, but in the beginning, it was like the adrenaline got the best of me every time. In relationships I have never been physically violent towards the ones I am dating or friends with, but I have yelled and got cocky, snarky, and said very demeaning things in place of it, and i can’t say it ever ended well — not necessarily in break ups but I am sure it left them in fear or feeling overwhelmed with how to handle the situation. Hell, I would always apologize afterwards during the calm down phase after ‘walking away’ or shutting down — and staying silent, that was my way of letting the person know I was finished with the discussion until I was good and ready to speak on it again. It’s not fair and I felt as though I was being abusive with my words towards them, and all they could do was just take it, take it and try to stay strong & maybe put up a argument back but end up giving up because they couldn’t get through to me because I was in the ‘red’ ; the I don’t give a fuck phase. 

I apologize for the pain that I may have caused some to feel due to my anger and lashing out without thinking things through, I have gotten better at holding my tongue and not jumping into each situation with fist pumping — way better but not yet perfect. It will take me time to completely allow myself to surrender those traits but it is something that is very important for me to do. All this being said, I still need enough fight in me for when I need to defend myself or stand up for myself or use my voice when it calls for it, because I don’t want to be weak & growing up when I didn’t stand up for myself — my mom would yell and punish me, she would be disappointed and expect me to handle things the way she had or/ would have. I wasn’t confrontational with people, I never have been, I don’t like it/ it makes me feel uncomfortable & I think many times this is why I lash out the way I do because it was instilled in me to have a backbone & that the walking away and allowing stuff to happen was the weak way of handling things. I never found the healthy balance, it was either being walked on or walking on others right back — and I acknowledge there is much better process than either one of these, sometimes a still tongue goes further than a talking mouth. Truth be told, my anger isn’t bad, my choice to allow it to control my emotions when I am feeling overwhelmed and scared of the confrontation is bad. It’s used as my armor & to prevent me from being vulnerable and walked on, but in the end it also causes me deep regret later on. Learning this, I am happy I can admit this flaw & make it a goal to improve, I am happy with how far I’ve come now with it, but I want to make it a conscious effort each time a situation arises. These days, my first line of defense is to seek out answers with a calm level headed mind & to step away when things don’t pan out the way I had planned so that I can avoid blowing up. I hope many of you with this same trait has found a way to postpone it so that you can think things through beforehand — it is worth it. 

I thank all of you for reading and choosing to be apart of my self discovery challenge. Please take the time to answer this question for yourself; either in a post or privately and come up with a solution — think about how this particular trait or attribute hinders you or how it makes other people feel. It’s never easy to speak on our flaws because people assume we are dangerous or damaged or no good, but that’s not it, people can change if they choose to and want to, they have to be willing to find a better path, to search for answers for their pain and use it to improve themselves and grow. Now all of our flaws will be able to change, but the ones that we can, that hold negativity, should be something we work towards bettering. 

Shay-lon

PR’s are cool, but..

Personal records are cool and all, but don’t allow them to define your worth. Of course, for professional athletes in weightlifting & powerlifting, we use those PR’s to determine where we are at within our goals and wanting to increase weights, but sometimes we need to take a step back and re-evaluate the situation and look at the bigger picture; which happens to be our consistency and dedication. I love a good ego boost when hitting heavier weights, but sometimes it can be a huge hit to the ego when I don’t hit a new PR each week, its almost like we get rejected after putting in so much work. I’ve known people to rely on their PR’s and when they don’t hit one, they give up or get angry with the process. Not always is a PR a good thing, not when you are pushing your body beyond its means in order to gain it (unhealthy manner), not when you are sacrificing attitude and dedication to achieve it. I figure it like this, if you hit a PR — AWESOME! but if you don’t, and sometimes you won’t, then take it with a grain of salt, because we are human and we aren’t perfect 100 percent of the time. 

The point of working out, regardless if you are an athlete or not, is to stay healthy, to discipline yourself & to gain insight on your strengths and weaknesses (while working on the weaknesses to make into strengths) and of course to enjoy the process no matter how hard it gets, because in time, it will pay off. If you forget those steps & focus on hitting new PR’s each week, it will get old fast & it will weigh you down when it comes time you fail. I want PR’s to be a bonus to your workouts, a goal that is achievable & as a means of an ego boost to your confidence; all the while pinpointing your weaknesses before a competition so that you can use it to excel. Your gym worth is based on how you feel when you leave the gym, how you feel about yourself when you see small bouts of progress or obstacles that seemed rather hard but you hurdled; nothing compares to the process. It’s like watching yourself evolve. PR’s shouldn’t hold you down, or make you feel weak, they should give you a reason to keep pushing, prevent you from wanting to give up and make working out a fun journey. Even so, being an athlete, it’s hard not wanting to PR frequently in our sport and as a powerlifter, you learn that PR’s can come from various forms (not just lifting heavier) — and while that is the overall goal, you hope to see yourself transform into a stronger person in other ways as well. 

Thanks for reading, hope all of you enjoyed a fun tip to share with your peers, feel free to reblog, share, comment and like!

Squats weren’t having it today

We all have suffered those moments where one day we are killing it & the weights feel light, and the next day, it feels like even the lightest of weights feel heavy. That was my today — everything felt heavier & I couldn’t necessarily pinpoint why, but I think a lot of it has to do with the fact, I head to the gym after working 8 hours on third shift (lack of sleep) and the other being I am dehydrated quite often (not getting enough liquids) in my system before performing my workouts. The tiny bit could have been the fact my body was still somewhat sore or stiff — even after warming up. Whatever the reason code, it was quite annoying to say the least. 


I did conventional deadlifts — for a firstie since taking that personal time off from the gym & it felt good to lift what I lifted for light speed work, but I still felt slower and weaker in this lift, especially during the 70 percent of my 1RM range — I noticed it more. I did what I could manage today and ended the workout with some surprise cardio session & re-weighed and measured myself (read down below for details).


Warm up:

  • EZ bar stiff legged deadlift: 4 x 25, 20 lbs
  • Lying hip rotation stretch: 4 x 25 each side
  • Glute bridge: 4 x 25

Workout Sess:

  • Conventional deadlift: 3 x 6, 200 lbs (65%)
  • Conventional deadlift: 3 x 4, 3, 2 @ 215 lbs 
  • Barbell back squat: 3 x 6, 145 lbs 
  • Barbell back squat: 3 x 4, 160 lbs
  • box squats: 3 x 10, 160 lbs

Superset:

  • Barbell OHS: 3 x 10, 45 lbs
  • Box steps ups: 3 x 10

Superset:

  • Kettlebell single leg deadlifts: 3 x 10, 10kg each leg
  • Clam shell w/ resistance band: 3 x 10 each leg, red band

Cardio Sess:

  • Stair climber: 20 minutes total. 15 min at level 4, 3 min @ level 5, 1 minute @ level 6 and 1 minute @ level 7. Burned 194 calories.

Simple workload, I have been doing sets of 3 instead of 4-5 because I want to gradually increase my strength back up to normal levels, & I don’t want to put too much on myself when I am getting off work in the morning — because I am exhausted and my body feels on overload not having rested beforehand, so I am keeping it at 3 for a while and will crank things up again in another month or so, pending results. 


New updates on weight & measurements: 

Current weight: 154.8 lbs

Body fat%: 22.8

BMI: 23.4 

Since August 8th– I have lost a total of 5.2 lbs 😀 now I have another 5 lbs to go before I hit my goal of 150 lbs but I still want to work in losing bf percent below 20. 




Macros Log Day One

Nutrition Goals 

Back again for another post, this time it is for my macro’s log. I have finished up the day with all my meals & nutritional data. In the previous post I went over my macro goals for moderate and light activity days and my overall health and fitness goals. At the end, I will post what the macro goal was (light or moderate) and then post my overall calories, protein, carbs and fats compared to goal. I currently use a food scale & MyFitnessPal app to stay on top of things. If you would like to connect with me via the app, feel free! Enjoy!

P.S Mind you, my eating schedule times are odd because I work two jobs & one of the jobs being third shift, so I have to eat at times that I wouldn’t normally on certain days of the week. I do however pack my lunch for work– which helps with my eating habits. If you have ever worked third shift, then you would know how difficult it can be to eat after certain times and the risk of gaining more weight because of it. I usually pack light but filly foods. 

12AM Meal – Snack (during work)

  • Kroger carb master yogurt (raspberry flavor) 
  • Kroger Simply Classic Trailmix (13 pieces) 

Now for starters, I know many people will mention that greek yogurt is a better choice, but I am not a fan of plain greek yogurt unless it is mixed with something else and that all depends on what the something else is, so if anyone has ideas for that, please feel free leave the comments down below. 

Yogurt macros: Calories: 60, Carbs: 4g, Fat: 1.5g, Protein: 8g 

Trailmix macros: Calories: 150, carbs: 14g, Fat: 10g, Protein: 4g

2AM Meal- lunch break (during work)

  • Ramen noodles (no seasoning) with fresh white mushrooms, white onions, fresh spinach, and kroger thousand island dressing
  • baked chicken breast 

1/2 block of ramen noodle: Calories: 170, carbs: 26g, fats: 6g, protein: 4g

2 oz chicken breast: calories: 64, carbs: 0g, fats: 2.8g, protein: 8.8g

2TBSP thousand island dressing (kroger brand): Calories: 90, carbs: 5g, fats: 8g, protein: 0g

5AM Meal – Snack 

  • Kroger carb master yogurt (strawberry pomegrante) 
  • Kroger simply classic trailmix (13 pieces)

Yogurt: Calories: 70, carbs: 5g, fats: 1.5g, protein: 9g

Trailmix: Calories: 150, carbs: 14g, Fat: 10g, Protein: 4g

2PM Meal (lunch/home)

  • Kroger private selection sugar free whole wheat bread (2 slices)
  • Blue bonnet butter: 2 TBSP

bread: Calories: 200 calories ( 2 slices), carbs: 38g, fats: 2g, protein: 8g

Butter: calories: 120, carbs: 0g, fats: 14g, protein: 0g

5PM Meal- Dinner/home 

  • kroger psst long grain white rice, enriched (boiled) 149g 
  • boneless chicken breast (baked): 2.9 oz 
  • Kroger thousand island dressing: 2TBSP
  • kroger frozen broccoli: 99g

rice: Calories: 169, carbs: 36.6g, fats: 0.4g, protein: 3.5g 

Boneless chicken breast: calories: 80, carbs: 0g, Fat: 2.2g, protein: 16.1g

Dressing: Calories: 90, carbs: 5g, fats: 8g, protein: 0g

Broccoli: Calories: 34, carbs: 4.6, fat: 0g, protein: 2.3g

This was a light day of activity, no cardio. 

My results: 

  • Total calories: 1447 (under goal)
  • Total carbs: 152.2g (under goal)
  • Total fats: 66.4g (over goal)
  • Total protein: 67.7g (under goal)

Light activity MACRO goals:

  • Calorie: 1876 
  • Carbs: 220g
  • Protein: 132g
  • Fat: 52g

The butter is what got me on the fats today, which I will need to be more aware of for next time or find and alternative. It is normal for me to be under in protein usually and I am always shocked when I hit underneath my calorie and carbs for the day. I am not perfect this is all trial and error but normally I have a pretty decent routine. Still aiming to drink a gallon of water by the end of tonight.