John Stone
Wed, July 1st, 2009, 06:45 AM
The next time you feel like skipping a workout, I'd like you to think about this month's transformation spotlight recipient, vertigo88 (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/member.php?u=20328) (Sam). Sam did not miss a single workout for an entire year! Not missing any workouts for a year is an impressive accomplishment for anyone, but Sam did it while battling a rare and incurable autoimmune disease. She woke up to train at 4:30 AM without fail--even in the difficult days following her monthly treatments. Sam's spirit and willpower are an inspiration to us all, and a reminder that ultimately it boils down to how badly you want it.
Why did you decide to make a transformation?
A bit of background is in order. I’ve always been decently active, played organized sports, cycled, kayaked and canoed, and at 15 years old started resistance training with weights and a cheap rowing machine. However, as I’m sure most people here can relate, workouts were always great for a while, then you miss one, then a few, then eventually you stop. Weeks or months go by and you start up again (eye roll), often with the notion that this time it’ll be different. Build wise, I’ve always had a decent amount of LBM for a female, but with that, also a decent amount of body fat, never out of control, but not ideal by any means.
31655
In late summer of 2005 life as I knew it came to a crashing halt. I started to notice weird symptoms, lifts were getting weaker, kayaking became difficult. I always felt tired, had muscle twitches and weird crawling sensations, lack of muscle stamina, etc. I could go on but that’s an entirely different article. In late August, I developed a really weird puffy purple eye rash and started consulting doctors.
Long story short, I was diagnosed with a very rare autoimmune disease called Dermatomyositis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dermatomyositis) (DM). Basically your muscles and skin are attacked by your own immune system. My knuckles, face, elbows and knees had a bright red/purple rash and the rest of my body was in crazy pain. On top of all the good news I learned that people with DM are or become very sensitive to UV, making outdoor activities difficult. There’s no cure, only symptom management.
The treatments started to help, but it took ages. I lost most of the facial rash, muscle soreness and strength improved slightly and eventually I went off the pain medications and still now receive only IVIG (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intravenous_immunoglobulin) treatment.
Early 2008, I started to feel more normal. Life still wasn’t the same, but I had learned to manage the disease and its symptoms. The one thing I really missed during the 2.5 years was working out. Also, due to lack of activity and maybe a few too many chocolate covered almonds and pizza, I had become pretty soft. I started to wonder if I’d ever be able to work out and how it would affect the disease. I had done some research indicating that myositis diseases did respond well to resistance training, helping to preserve LBM from wasting, provided the patient can actually do it. The thought of getting back into it was so exciting after feeling useless and ill for what seemed like eons.
What sort of planning did you do before you started?
Most of us have learned that diet is really where it’s at. Now as much as I was doing ok(ish) physically I still wasn’t cooking like I used to, often stopping for subway or worse on the way home. I was getting a muffin for breakfast with my coffee at work, often buying some crap sandwich for lunch, I got lazy basically. But I do really like to cook so my first plan was to see if I could cook and brown bag it at work for six weeks, aiming for 40/40/20 style of eating. First week was rough but after that I got into the swing of it. I maintained cooking and meal prep for six weeks.
Over the years, the one thing I have learned is that I can’t reliably workout any other time than in the morning. I have better energy later in the day, but eventually something happens, I get stuck late at work, I had a bad day, friends pop over etc., there’s always something. So as much as it sucks, morning, for me, is the perfect time of the day, offering little conflicts. Work out time was therefore planned for 4:30-5:30 am.
I also thought I would test out muscle strength and endurance by just hitting the rower for a week in the mornings before starting the weight training. I managed to complete the week and was even feeling peppy enough on Saturday that I continued! I was totally surprised. Those first few days I kept waking up in the morning expecting not to be able to move. During the second week I added weights 3x a week and maintained rowing 3x a week.
What were your initial goals?
Initially I really just wanted to be exercising again and to have my old lifestyle back, eat cleaner foods, gain a little muscle back, and lose a few extra lbs. After a month my goals changed. It was never a fully conscious decision from the start, but within the first month of actually being able to exercise I decided that my main goal was to not miss any workouts for one year, no matter what.
I concentrated less on specific goals like bf%, lbs or inches lost and max lifts, it was all about being able to maintain working out and not falling into the typical pattern of missing workouts or making excuses. A side goal was to maintain a clean diet in order to make this adventure as successful as possible. A few months in recomposition became a more focused goal, and I figured why not see what a long, frustrating, slow transformation was like. J
As some of you may have read I recently completed my goal successfully. From June 1, 2008 to June 1, 2009 I maintained a 6x a week workout schedule. In fact I’m pretty sure if I actually went through my log book, it’s probably closer to 6.25x a week. The odd Sunday off I’d be up early (have issues sleeping in) and would opt to do a moderate rowing session for not other reason that I felt like it. How messed up is that!!
31656
31657
31658
What was your diet and supplement intake like?
My diet and supplement intake varied over the year. Mostly, it consisted of a 40/40/20 macro split, eating a few hundred cals off maintenance, leaving the larger caloric deficit to exercise). For me this averaged 1700-2200 cals depending on the day. I switched to 40/30/30 for a while which eventually led me to experiment with the Anabolic Diet for a 7 week period.
I’m also one of the people who can pack the same lunch daily without issue, eat the same breakfast and I add variety to dinner and weekends. This is where I’ve experimented a little, sometimes successfully, sometimes not, but I do enjoy cooking dinner with the challenge of hitting macros and making it taste decent.
My meals are spaced out as evenly as I can over the day, often with three slightly higher calorie meals and 3 snacks. I am pretty fortunate as I do have a desk job and can grab food any time I get hungry. Common foods: oats, whey, skim milk, raisins, walnuts, almonds, apples, banana, grapes, avocados, potatoes, brown rice, basmati rice, whole wheat bread, chicken, tuna, beef, turkey, fish, seafood, tofu, eggs, asparagus, zucchini, broccoli, peppers, spinach/mixed greens, olive oil and coconut oil and olive oil based mayo. Fluids are normally water, crystal light, coffee and diet pop once in a while.
I kept supplements to what I feel are the basics: whey, multi, glutamine, and glucosamine, but experimented with a variety of others on and off including L-tyrosine, BCAA, flax and fish oil.
What was your training like?
I workout in my basement. I have my rowing machine, a weight bench, cheap multi gym and a variety of weights. My training started off pretty standard, 3x a week weights (3 day split, 8-12 reps), 3x a week rowing. A few months in, I continued to row but changed my weight workouts to complexes, one barbell routine, one dumbbell routine. I then moved to a heavy lifting style, focusing on compound exercises (3-7 reps). Around February I felt workouts were getting a bit boring, so I switched things completely up and on a whim decided to attempt p90x. I have never done anything similar as far as dvd workouts. Those 90 days were damn intense, but I totally surprised myself and completed the program. The biggest bonus was not having to think first thing in the morning, just pop in whatever workout was scheduled and hit play. I finished the three months right in time for my one year mark. Since then I’ve returned to a 4 day split in the 8-12 range.
What obstacles did you encounter, and how did you overcome them?
Surprisingly treatment was my biggest obstacle. I go for IVIG treatment monthly on 2 consecutive morning for 4 hours. Those days are ok, but the two days following I’m pretty sketchy. It caused headaches and flu like symptoms. I over came this by shifting workouts leading up to treatment, keeping cardio for treatment days. Both mornings I would reduce the intensity and time, often 35 min of rowing. The day after treatment I would be able to do light lifting or cardio and that evening like clockwork the headache starts. Following day was a day off, Monday I’d resume as usual.
December was another one. This time of year is horrible if you’re trying to eat clean. I decided my plan was going to be to eat what I wanted during social occasions BUT I would eat my usual protein amount and NOT miss any workouts. For five weeks (all of December and the first week of January) this resulted inadvertently to a mini bulk! When I got back onto the scale I had hit my highest scale weight I have ever seen in my life!
Fatigue also came into the equation. I made up sleep on the weekends, often napping, and as much as that probably doesn’t really make up for it, I felt ok. It really came down to a mental thing. I just didn’t give myself the option to not workout, regardless of staying up too late or not sleeping well for whatever reason. At times if I had a big workout planned and wasn’t feeling up to it, I would switch workouts.
How has your life changed?The disease changed my life, this past year allowed me to get it back and then some. Whatever mental dedication to wake up early for a year did, it had a positive effect on my work life. I had my busiest year in my 8 yr career and managed to juggle it fairly well. I learned a lot about balancing other aspects decently but prioritizing something I kept putting off or semi failing at for quite some time.
How did JSF and the JSF Forums help you?
I’ve always enjoyed reading about nutrition and resistance training. I stumbled across John’s site way back at the beginning (during a hiatus I forgot my user name and rejoined), thought it was a really interesting thing to do and discovered a wealth of information and really nice, helpful, knowledgeable and funny people. Reading, learning and joking around with people who all have a common hobby/interest has always kept me coming back to JSF. I’ve read a lot of fitness related site and this one is the only one I’m a member of. It was a huge contributing factor to motivation.
What advice would you offer to others?
If you want something or set a goal try and allow for wiggle room in your plan. Rowing for me was a huge factor is my exercise success. I love to do it and my body seems happy doing it. Whenever I felt unmotivated, tired or sore, I can always row and watch tv. I rowed during the winter months to the entire 9 seasons of XFiles! But it totally got me out of bed in the morning. Finding something that you enjoy doing is really important. Changing things up every few months as well helps to prevent boredom. Finding time is probably one of the biggest factors to why people stop fitness endeavors, prioritization is tricky but can be done.
What are your future plans?
So far I’m just continuing on. I suspect I’ll do another round of p90x in the fall or winter to shake things up again. At the time this gets posted I will be half way through week 56. My biggest future plan or goal is to become the most ripped dermatomyositis patient on the planet J
Any closing thoughts?
I’m more motivated and excited for year 2 and look forward to contributing to JSF, and following along other people’s transformations. The people, information, and discussions are always interesting and helpful, it’s an awesome resource and online community.
Thanks, Sam!
Why did you decide to make a transformation?
A bit of background is in order. I’ve always been decently active, played organized sports, cycled, kayaked and canoed, and at 15 years old started resistance training with weights and a cheap rowing machine. However, as I’m sure most people here can relate, workouts were always great for a while, then you miss one, then a few, then eventually you stop. Weeks or months go by and you start up again (eye roll), often with the notion that this time it’ll be different. Build wise, I’ve always had a decent amount of LBM for a female, but with that, also a decent amount of body fat, never out of control, but not ideal by any means.
31655
In late summer of 2005 life as I knew it came to a crashing halt. I started to notice weird symptoms, lifts were getting weaker, kayaking became difficult. I always felt tired, had muscle twitches and weird crawling sensations, lack of muscle stamina, etc. I could go on but that’s an entirely different article. In late August, I developed a really weird puffy purple eye rash and started consulting doctors.
Long story short, I was diagnosed with a very rare autoimmune disease called Dermatomyositis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dermatomyositis) (DM). Basically your muscles and skin are attacked by your own immune system. My knuckles, face, elbows and knees had a bright red/purple rash and the rest of my body was in crazy pain. On top of all the good news I learned that people with DM are or become very sensitive to UV, making outdoor activities difficult. There’s no cure, only symptom management.
The treatments started to help, but it took ages. I lost most of the facial rash, muscle soreness and strength improved slightly and eventually I went off the pain medications and still now receive only IVIG (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intravenous_immunoglobulin) treatment.
Early 2008, I started to feel more normal. Life still wasn’t the same, but I had learned to manage the disease and its symptoms. The one thing I really missed during the 2.5 years was working out. Also, due to lack of activity and maybe a few too many chocolate covered almonds and pizza, I had become pretty soft. I started to wonder if I’d ever be able to work out and how it would affect the disease. I had done some research indicating that myositis diseases did respond well to resistance training, helping to preserve LBM from wasting, provided the patient can actually do it. The thought of getting back into it was so exciting after feeling useless and ill for what seemed like eons.
What sort of planning did you do before you started?
Most of us have learned that diet is really where it’s at. Now as much as I was doing ok(ish) physically I still wasn’t cooking like I used to, often stopping for subway or worse on the way home. I was getting a muffin for breakfast with my coffee at work, often buying some crap sandwich for lunch, I got lazy basically. But I do really like to cook so my first plan was to see if I could cook and brown bag it at work for six weeks, aiming for 40/40/20 style of eating. First week was rough but after that I got into the swing of it. I maintained cooking and meal prep for six weeks.
Over the years, the one thing I have learned is that I can’t reliably workout any other time than in the morning. I have better energy later in the day, but eventually something happens, I get stuck late at work, I had a bad day, friends pop over etc., there’s always something. So as much as it sucks, morning, for me, is the perfect time of the day, offering little conflicts. Work out time was therefore planned for 4:30-5:30 am.
I also thought I would test out muscle strength and endurance by just hitting the rower for a week in the mornings before starting the weight training. I managed to complete the week and was even feeling peppy enough on Saturday that I continued! I was totally surprised. Those first few days I kept waking up in the morning expecting not to be able to move. During the second week I added weights 3x a week and maintained rowing 3x a week.
What were your initial goals?
Initially I really just wanted to be exercising again and to have my old lifestyle back, eat cleaner foods, gain a little muscle back, and lose a few extra lbs. After a month my goals changed. It was never a fully conscious decision from the start, but within the first month of actually being able to exercise I decided that my main goal was to not miss any workouts for one year, no matter what.
I concentrated less on specific goals like bf%, lbs or inches lost and max lifts, it was all about being able to maintain working out and not falling into the typical pattern of missing workouts or making excuses. A side goal was to maintain a clean diet in order to make this adventure as successful as possible. A few months in recomposition became a more focused goal, and I figured why not see what a long, frustrating, slow transformation was like. J
As some of you may have read I recently completed my goal successfully. From June 1, 2008 to June 1, 2009 I maintained a 6x a week workout schedule. In fact I’m pretty sure if I actually went through my log book, it’s probably closer to 6.25x a week. The odd Sunday off I’d be up early (have issues sleeping in) and would opt to do a moderate rowing session for not other reason that I felt like it. How messed up is that!!
31656
31657
31658
What was your diet and supplement intake like?
My diet and supplement intake varied over the year. Mostly, it consisted of a 40/40/20 macro split, eating a few hundred cals off maintenance, leaving the larger caloric deficit to exercise). For me this averaged 1700-2200 cals depending on the day. I switched to 40/30/30 for a while which eventually led me to experiment with the Anabolic Diet for a 7 week period.
I’m also one of the people who can pack the same lunch daily without issue, eat the same breakfast and I add variety to dinner and weekends. This is where I’ve experimented a little, sometimes successfully, sometimes not, but I do enjoy cooking dinner with the challenge of hitting macros and making it taste decent.
My meals are spaced out as evenly as I can over the day, often with three slightly higher calorie meals and 3 snacks. I am pretty fortunate as I do have a desk job and can grab food any time I get hungry. Common foods: oats, whey, skim milk, raisins, walnuts, almonds, apples, banana, grapes, avocados, potatoes, brown rice, basmati rice, whole wheat bread, chicken, tuna, beef, turkey, fish, seafood, tofu, eggs, asparagus, zucchini, broccoli, peppers, spinach/mixed greens, olive oil and coconut oil and olive oil based mayo. Fluids are normally water, crystal light, coffee and diet pop once in a while.
I kept supplements to what I feel are the basics: whey, multi, glutamine, and glucosamine, but experimented with a variety of others on and off including L-tyrosine, BCAA, flax and fish oil.
What was your training like?
I workout in my basement. I have my rowing machine, a weight bench, cheap multi gym and a variety of weights. My training started off pretty standard, 3x a week weights (3 day split, 8-12 reps), 3x a week rowing. A few months in, I continued to row but changed my weight workouts to complexes, one barbell routine, one dumbbell routine. I then moved to a heavy lifting style, focusing on compound exercises (3-7 reps). Around February I felt workouts were getting a bit boring, so I switched things completely up and on a whim decided to attempt p90x. I have never done anything similar as far as dvd workouts. Those 90 days were damn intense, but I totally surprised myself and completed the program. The biggest bonus was not having to think first thing in the morning, just pop in whatever workout was scheduled and hit play. I finished the three months right in time for my one year mark. Since then I’ve returned to a 4 day split in the 8-12 range.
What obstacles did you encounter, and how did you overcome them?
Surprisingly treatment was my biggest obstacle. I go for IVIG treatment monthly on 2 consecutive morning for 4 hours. Those days are ok, but the two days following I’m pretty sketchy. It caused headaches and flu like symptoms. I over came this by shifting workouts leading up to treatment, keeping cardio for treatment days. Both mornings I would reduce the intensity and time, often 35 min of rowing. The day after treatment I would be able to do light lifting or cardio and that evening like clockwork the headache starts. Following day was a day off, Monday I’d resume as usual.
December was another one. This time of year is horrible if you’re trying to eat clean. I decided my plan was going to be to eat what I wanted during social occasions BUT I would eat my usual protein amount and NOT miss any workouts. For five weeks (all of December and the first week of January) this resulted inadvertently to a mini bulk! When I got back onto the scale I had hit my highest scale weight I have ever seen in my life!
Fatigue also came into the equation. I made up sleep on the weekends, often napping, and as much as that probably doesn’t really make up for it, I felt ok. It really came down to a mental thing. I just didn’t give myself the option to not workout, regardless of staying up too late or not sleeping well for whatever reason. At times if I had a big workout planned and wasn’t feeling up to it, I would switch workouts.
How has your life changed?The disease changed my life, this past year allowed me to get it back and then some. Whatever mental dedication to wake up early for a year did, it had a positive effect on my work life. I had my busiest year in my 8 yr career and managed to juggle it fairly well. I learned a lot about balancing other aspects decently but prioritizing something I kept putting off or semi failing at for quite some time.
How did JSF and the JSF Forums help you?
I’ve always enjoyed reading about nutrition and resistance training. I stumbled across John’s site way back at the beginning (during a hiatus I forgot my user name and rejoined), thought it was a really interesting thing to do and discovered a wealth of information and really nice, helpful, knowledgeable and funny people. Reading, learning and joking around with people who all have a common hobby/interest has always kept me coming back to JSF. I’ve read a lot of fitness related site and this one is the only one I’m a member of. It was a huge contributing factor to motivation.
What advice would you offer to others?
If you want something or set a goal try and allow for wiggle room in your plan. Rowing for me was a huge factor is my exercise success. I love to do it and my body seems happy doing it. Whenever I felt unmotivated, tired or sore, I can always row and watch tv. I rowed during the winter months to the entire 9 seasons of XFiles! But it totally got me out of bed in the morning. Finding something that you enjoy doing is really important. Changing things up every few months as well helps to prevent boredom. Finding time is probably one of the biggest factors to why people stop fitness endeavors, prioritization is tricky but can be done.
What are your future plans?
So far I’m just continuing on. I suspect I’ll do another round of p90x in the fall or winter to shake things up again. At the time this gets posted I will be half way through week 56. My biggest future plan or goal is to become the most ripped dermatomyositis patient on the planet J
Any closing thoughts?
I’m more motivated and excited for year 2 and look forward to contributing to JSF, and following along other people’s transformations. The people, information, and discussions are always interesting and helpful, it’s an awesome resource and online community.
Thanks, Sam!