FINALLY doing New Rules for Lifting

We've had the books for eons. We have like 4 of the books - the original, for women, for life and now the newest, "New Rules for Lifting Weights, Supercharged".

I think it took me not going to bodypump any more for my husband to take the leap too. He didn't like going to BP alone and I had stopped going because I found the higher reps to be causing over-use injuries. I was working with a personal trainer and a class that did total conditioning.

I know I never, ever would have done the weights without a buddy. I am not a lone wolf at the gym. I need company to push myself. My husband said that he does for some exercise and not for others. Weight training, he likes a partner too and fortunately for us, we like each other's company.

The way this workout "works" is that it does whole body exercises - functional exercises. Not lifting weights in isolation. So, when we work a muscle group, we aren't just working that one muscle group. We are working several muscle groups. You start with basic training and do that set of workouts 4-6 times, then you move on to basic training 2 and so on. My husband and I just finished Workout A for the third time. And so far so good.

I like that I work hard, but for a very short amount of time. In bodypump classes, I would do squats for 3.5 minutes. Now I take a heavier weight and I do 15 of them, do something else, then do 15 more and I should do it to the level that completing the 15th rep is either impossible or close to impossible. Then next time if the 15th rep was possible, you use a heavier weight to make it near impossible again (or impossible to complete the 15th rep).

I work hard and to my maximum, but I'm not doing that same movement over and over until exhaustion. I just hit exhaustion faster! I like that. It's much easier for me to talk myself into doing 15 squats that squats for 3.5 minutes for sure.

It is also becoming clear that after my sessions with the personal trainer are up, I won't be renewing them. I can get more out of doing what I'm doing than with hiring someone to design something for me. Or better put, I can now do what I need to do without the push of a personal trainer. Without a partner to do the work with me, I needed that push.

Another thing we are really enjoying is that we can do this on our schedule, not a class schedule, so no more running out the door to try to catch a class on time. No more fighting for space, etc.  It's allowed my 7 year old to tell us which gym he wants to go to versus us trying to plan a workout class at his favorite gym that might not be the best time for us.

Of course, right now we look like total noobs with our books and fiddling with equipment, but we don't care about that. We're doing what we should be doing and probably doing it smarter than the average joe anyway.

So far I've seen progress too. I started with being able to do 7 push-ups both sets last Monday. I did 8 push-ups both sets on Wednesday (but that was my 3rd workout for the day) and today, Sunday, I did 10 the first set and 12 the second set. For me, it's not the arms that give out on me, it's the core. I start to sag in the middle and once I cannot support the midsection, I'm done. THAT is the part of me that is weaker, not the shoulder muscles. But, it's already getting better!

Trying to find ways to increase my protein intake

I've been reading the New Rules for Weight Lifting books and other things about weight lifting and strength training and one thing seems fairly obvious. I am not getting enough protein in my diet.

Since I log everything, I can see what I get for the day on average. I feel I'm trying to get enough protein, but I am not, sadly. Time to tweak the diet some more, especially if I am exercising and weight training.

So, right now this is a typical day, on a good day and if I eat two protein bars in the morning:

Breakfast:

two cups of decaf. coffee with a total of about 1 cup of whole milk
Protein bar (sometimes two protein bars)

30-40 grams of protein for breakfast

Lunch:

Large apple, sliced sprinkled liberally with cinnamon
3.5 tablespoons of peanut butter (carefully measured)

12 grams of protein for lunch

Dinner:

Large helping of a green vegetable/salad
4-6 ounces of a protein/meat.

30-40 grams of protein for dinner

That averages out to about 1450 calories a day and 72 to 92 grams of protein a day on a good day. When I look over my charts, I tend to get about 65-70 grams of protein a day. That is way more than I used to get and I get there by eating whey proteins in the morning, without that, I would be way lower.

I should be getting no less than 100 grams of protein a day. To do that, I need to give up my lovely peanut butter and apple lunch because I just don't get enough protein with it. Sigh.


There are all kinds of recommendations for protein but most things agree that the FDA recommendations are way too low. Just like they are way too high on carb intake recommendations.

Depending on what you read - I could need anywhere from 70 to 180 grams of protein every day. I think 180 is way high and would near impossible for me to achieve. But, getting around 100-110 should be doable, maintainable and what I need for what I'm asking my body to do on a regular basis which is doing aerobic exercise 4 times a week and strength training twice a week.


But, it will be tricky.

For breakfasts, I get quite a bit of protein because of those protein bars. I wish I could eat eggs or cottage cheese or something, but I simply cannot handle meat and/or eggs in the morning and since I can't stomach many/most dairy products, those are out too. If I try to eat ham and eggs or the like, I feel like I will vomit. It's just too heavy in the morning. Brunch, OK, but not for breakfast.

I have issues with dairy products. As a baby, I couldn't handle milk (and I don't think I was switched to any non dairy formulas). Because of that, I grew up hating anything and everything that looked or tasted like milk - except ice cream. Even then, I learned early on that too much ice cream gave me stomach cramps and diarrhea. I couldn't eat/drink milk, yogurt, most cheeses, sour cream, cream cheese, cottage cheese, and similar things.

I obviously had a problem with dairy, but I think my immature brain saw 'liquid white' and thought ick! So, it was more an aversion than a problem for most of my childhood. I could eat, for instance, cheeses on pizza, or baked in lasagna (until one day I saw my mom putting cottage cheese in lasagna - I gave up lasagna for awhile). I would eat yellow cheese, just not white, and so on.

So, little by little, I developed a taste for some dairy products. I can eat yogurt now, but not by itself  - only baked in things or in things like a fruit smoothie. I can eat cottage cheese in lasagna or other bakes goods, but again, not by itself. Same with sour cream. I will now eat cream cheese (thinly spread), white cheeses (just not bleu cheeses) and such. But I still cannot handle much milk. That cup of milk in my coffee for some reason is OK, but a fruit smoothie with milk is not (gives me stomach cramps).

Mostly, I hate the taste of milky things. If it's disguised, OK, but it can still kick in a very strong gag reflex. I have tried and tried and tried to like plain yogurt (or greek yogurt) and cottage cheese as it is so good for you. But I just can't. It's too milky. Even some whey protein powders I cannot handle as they taste too much like milk (especially vanilla flavors).

With that limitation, getting enough protein gets challenging. I like nuts, but they are OK in protein, but are so high calorie (with a lot of fat) that I can't eat enough of them to make up for the protein I need without going over my caloric limit.

I like meat, but for some reason, I'm not a huge meat fan. Once a day is enough for me. Before I had kids? We ate meat like 2-3 times a week. Sure, we eat beans and lentils too, but I don't make them all the time because the little guy won't touch them. I could make tofu, but my mother in law won't touch it.

Already as it is, I feel like I am a short order cook. I don't want to be making three-four different dinners every night - no way. I just need to find more ways to sneak in protein and the most likely way seems to be giving up my apple and peanut butter lunch and either making a lentil/bean stew that I can eat for lunches or a nice big salad with eggs and or meat proteins/bean proteins.

If I switch that up, I should be able to get to the 100 grams of proteins in a day. Getting 30-40 grams of protein for lunch versus 12 would be a big change and it would mean I'm getting about 30-40 grams of protein at every meal without going over my caloric limit too.

Now, just to get over my laziness. A peanut butter and apple lunch is quick and easy. A salad lunch takes prep time! But, that's what I'm off to go make right now. My first salad with cheese, peppers, tomato and grilled chicken salad.