ArmdandFabulous’s BodyBlog

Ok, made it thru Thanksgiving without skipping a workout–not even on Thanksgiving day itself! Yay me, I ran 4 miles..along with a whole lot of other cardio freaks in the gym on Thanksgiving–anyways who goes to the gym on Thanksgiving??? I thought I would be nearly alone in there..I was wrong…all the machines were taken, I got there just in time…(something I was thankful for on thanksgiving )

The good news is I made it thru without skipping any workouts…..but I think I gained 2-3 lbs the past week and a half due to eating too many of the frosted cookies I made (pic of them in one of my previous blogs)grrrrrrrrrr!!…they have now been removed from my presence, and will not longer be influencing me to ruin my otherwise disciplined eating days…I want the last week and a half back!

I am moving forward and have learned something about my lack of restraint when cookies are around.  I thought I had developed enough willpower to turn away any thoughts of eating bad stuff if it was available…but no, it is true what they say: carbohydrates/sugars are addicting..when I found myself on the Yes side of the ’should I eat a cookie or not?’ conversation in my head, I felt ok about the decision because I thought, ’it’s ok, because I’ll just eat one’…yeah, RIGHT….I did eat one..and then another ONe..and another ONE..and so on..!!

So here I am, a few lbs heavier..I was so happy with my progress up to last week, and this just burst my bubble..but I have my eyes OPEN now, and I know that I need to keep any temptation away from me, because it’s not worth messing up my results…no matter how irresistible and sweet the yummy frosted devil may be..grrr!!!!

Oh, well..it’s a new week and I will clean it up..

Today’s workout:  I ran 2 miles, then did legs

4×10 squats

3×10 hamstring curls

3×12,10,8 inner thigh machine (went up each set in weight)

3×12,10,8 outer thigh machine "                   
                   "

2×10 alternating leg lunges with smith

3×10 leg press

I am not going too heavy on my leg workouts until I get closer to my weight loss goal, because when I do, I can’t run for a few days and I need that cardio right now to blast fat!

Today’s workout was awesome–first, ran 2 miles and then lifted:

4×8-10….dumbell bench press

4×10……..tricep kickbacks

4×8-10…..incline dumbell press

4×8-10…..shoulder press with barbell

4×8……….deltoid press with dumbells

4×8-10…..straight arm pulldowns

3×9,8,7…..bench dips

3×8………..two arm front deltiod raises

3×10………lateral raises

2×8-10……chest press (machine)

2×8-10……another chest machine I don’t know the name of

4×10………shoulder shrugs with 25 lb plates

4×8………..lying tricep press

and after that somehow got myself to run another 2 miles.. ….I’m ready for Thanksgiving! Hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday!

 *P.S. If you are going to be shopping the early sales on Black Friday, please remember it is the start of the "season of brotherly love"–don’t be JERKS!!!

Today’s workout was just a 4 mile run, I may still do more cardio before the day’s over tho, trying to burn off the extra cookie calories I have been eating this week …

Wow tomorrow is the day before Thanksgiving already..this year is on it’s way outta here and I’m sure everyone is looking forward to what 2009 has in store..hopefully it will reveal a new road to healing our economic state, and digging out of the current mess that 2008 brought…

I know what I am looking forward to is continuing with the path I am on. Focusing and staying motivated to eventually get to where I want to be, bodywise…these last few months have already been a complete turnaround for me, as I have been the most determined I have ever been about improving my health and overall fitness….I feel like I am on the right track, and just want to keep moving along..that is what would make me happiest in 2009….

..and I ‘m happy to say I got closer today, another day closer to my goal

I wrote this earlier and it disappeared! GRRRRRRR….So I am starting again…hope I can remember what it said, now I know for next time to save a copy just in case!

First, let me get my confession out of the way. I feel like if I admit to it here, maybe that will help me to not repeat it! Anyways, I have been doing well with the diet, but I made some frosted sugar cookies for Thanksgiving last week that I put in the freezer to keep until then..now, these are really good cookies..it’s the first time I ever made the roll-the-dough-out-and-use-cookie-cutters kind, so I wasn’t sure how they’d taste..well, as it turns out, it looks like I’m a natural at making those kind!! I made the frosting and cookies both completely from scratch, and they are awesome, and calling my name..so I have had one or two since I made them, but today I ate 3–in one sitting!!! I don’t feel good about this slipup…I’m thinking I owe a huge debt of cardio tomorrow

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Since it looks like I have broken the ice with my back as far as muscle development, (yay!) I like training it best out of all body parts right now..I can’t wait to see what happens after each workout since I have started to see results there a little..

Today’s workout was mostly focused on the back-but I also did a little bicep work too..I did supersets with all the exercises and tried to keep moving from one to another…

First I started with a 2 mile run and then moved into the weights..I did

1. 4×10 fixed arm lat pulldowns
2. 4×10 seated rows
3. 4×10 lat pull downs
4. 4×10 single arm rows (w/dumbell)
5. 4×10 straight arm pulldown
6. 4×10 middle back machine (don’t know another name for it)
7. 4×10 bent over rows
8. 4×10 another lat pull down machine

For biceps I kept it light since I still have a little forearm and elbow pain from last time:

1. 6×10 dumbell curls to exhaustion
2. 4×10 barbell curls

Then I ran another 2 miles.. 

Oh! and I also got a special treat at the gym today..remember in an earlier post I mentioned the man in the Daisy Duke shorts?..well, he was there again today and I got the back view…the last time I only saw the front, but this time I got to put the compete picture together–he was wearing his Daisy’s, and his butt cheeks were hanging out the bottom of his o-so-short-shorts..no joke..his wobbly, old man, flabby a** hanging out for all to see, and just imagine, he had been sitting on the machines with his practically nekked butt touching the seats that everyone else has to sit on..eww..eww..Eww!~  There should be a law…there should be a LAW! 

…The last progress pic I took on 11-21-08 really surprised me. As I mentioned earlier, I haven’t weighed myself in well over 7 weeks, and I think it has probably been the best thing I could have done! 

The day I took the latest pic, before I took it, I was feeling frustrated with my perceived lack of progress, I was just thinking to myself that I needed to step it up, and maybe up the cardio to 1 hour or more done at split up times 5-6 days a week because I couldn’t tell that I had lost anything the past few days and thought I was plateauing again..

Then I saw the picture…whoa..I couldn’t believe it when I saw the old and the new side by side…it was only a month and a few days from the older pic to the current one..I had no idea I had come that far..I knew I had made some progress but this was…just…happening!!!!!

I never in a million years would have believed that I could actually "eat clean" for any length of time, but that is what the results have come from..reading some of the tips and comments on this site from others who have done it and clearly reap the benefits with their results got me to think I could do it too…

And you know, just like anything else, you get used to it, and it does get easier..once you learn how to plan, prepare and transport your meals, that is half the battle of winning the weight loss/body transformation war…and the other half is determination and oh, yeah, a little weightlifting and cardio thrown in too  

I am trying to switch up my cardio and today I decided to start out with the stairmaster instead of my run…for some reason it was super hard!! I’ve been running 4 miles consistently, and I have thrown in 10 mins here or there on the stairmaster but I just haven’t started off with it yet and I guess I will need to more often..I was on it for less than 3 minutes (I do it on level 4) and I was huffing and puffing like I had run 40 miles…I had to have a serious talk with myself to stay on the thing..and I had to go down to level 1 ..I felt like such a loser!  

But I did my time, 20 mins, at least..I guess I didn’t feel like doing cardio today or I should have gotten an energy drink first!..I didn’t even do more cardio after weight training which I normally always do but I didn’t realize it until I was out in the parking lot and thought…hey…am I forgetting…something..?? 

Today’s workout was sho/chest/tri’s..I worked each area first with weights and then did a couple machines for each group. My shoulder area was quivering at one point..the best exercise I have found that targets my shoulders and my sides is the cable straight arm pulldown.  I love that exercise, I can go heavy with it but still can keep good form and it really gets the shoulder and tricep area worked.  Today I alternated between sets doing the pulldown, and tricep dips using a bench. I did this at the end of my workout and it really tired the muscles, but then I remembered I forgot to do shoulder shrugs..so back to the weights I went..I did 3 sets of shoulder shrugs with 25 lb plates to end the workout….it was a pretty good one, I hope the muscles I have on backorder will be in stock soon….lol!

This morning when I woke up I checked my back for any more new development and it looked like a little back fat had disappeared..! So I took another back pic and posted it…can’t believe it can happen so fast, the last pic I took of it was only 3 days ago!…that started my day off just right

It was especially surprising to see any positive change since I have been eating m&m’s the last couple weeks..I know, I know, I was doing so well, no cheating unless it was a cheat day, no candy, no chips, etc..but I thought I had cleaned up my act so much that a bag of m&m’s couldn’t throw me off…and it didn’t for a few days, but then on my last cheat day I opened it and thought I would only have some on cheat days, but then I had some on not cheat days too..I don’t normally buy candy at all, and I only got the m&m’s because they were on sale and they were special dark ones…I figured the bag would last about 3 months, but no..it has only lasted about 3 weeks!..dang it! I have to revoke my candy in the house priviledge now until further notice since I obviously don’t have the willpower I thought I did… 

With that said, today’s workout was all about cardio…instead of just doing my 4 mile run, I added 20 mins of the stairmaster in-between mile 2 and 4…I did about 1 hour of cardio total…I think I will try breaking it up on some days, and doing some Taebo sometimes so I can keep my body guessing…

I still haven’t weighed myself in a while, the broken scale at my gym appears to be gone forever and it was a cool digital one so I just can’t go back to the old dinosaur one they replaced it with..I don’t keep a scale at home because if I don’t like what it says it can ruin my whole day…and I might be tempted to treat it like they treated the fax machine in the movie "Office Space"…lol!

Well I have to sign off for now..hope everyone had a productive day!!

I decided to test out my progress and see how much more weight I could handle on a couple machines today..and I think I went up too much!! For seated rows I went up from 70 to 90 (usually I do that one last, and I did it 3rd so I wasn’t as tired as usual so that’s why the big jump)…I did a couple sets then went down to 80…seemed ok, so I went on to lat pull downs. I usually do this one on 70 and I went up to 80..I managed it ok, did my 3 sets…when I finished those,  I went to do bicep work and started with dumbell curls… Holy crap my right forearm hurt!!! It felt like my blood vessel in it was gonna burst or something. It was a sharp pain, and I couldn’t even do 1 set, I had to rest for a minute before completing the curls. Then I went to do barbell curls, and my elbow was hurting..I haven’t had anything like this happen before when lifting…I was able to finish doing all the reps and sets I wanted to do, so the pain went away, it must have been the heavier weight load..

I am getting impatient to see my biceps more defined than they are!..they pop out when I am lifting the barbell, but they are not really visible otherwise yet..I have more fat to burn..I am still eating right, but I did have some m&m’s the last couple days. Not a lot, just a few..the dark chocolate ones are good for you because of the antioxidants in them..at least that is my excuse to myself why it’s ok to eat them..lol!

Since I have gotten more focused on diet and exercise, I haven’t been to that many of them and last night was my first experience with one as a more health conscious person. My friend was having a housewarming party that I couldn’t miss. I was nervous and didn’t know what my willpower would be like around all the food.  Before, I would just eat what I wanted and think "it’s ok, I’m working out tomorrow," but I never got anywhere closer to my goal thinking like that.

I already had my cheat meal for the week and didn’t plan this get-together to be another one…

I planned my diet for the day, but due do timeframe I only had in 3 of my 5-6 meals in for the day when I arrived at the gathering -It started at 5:00 and I was trying to not be late this time!  Time got away from me as I was busy running errands, my workout, etc…so when I left I thought I would stop off and grab an energy bar to eat so the food wouldn’t be so tempting…

But on my way to her house, there was a detour and the freeway was inexcessible for a ways. I am not familiar with her side of town, so I took a couple wrong turns trying to figure out the best way to get there…anyways, I ended up running out of time and didn’t get to stop off and get an energy bar either….oh nooooooooooooooo!!!

I told myself that it wasn’t so bad because I really had room for more calories since I didn’t eat all my meals for the day…she had Doritos, Ruffles, veggies and dips, and some sandwiches. I started with the veggie tray and a diet coke. Then I got a plate and had some chips, but someone brought a homemade 5 layer dip that I had to try…I didn’t go crazy, probably ate around 3 tablespoons of the dip! And I had to have a sandwich-they were on croissant rolls, turkey and swiss with lettuce–no mayo! ( I know, the croissant probably had 1,000,000,000 calories itself)..and more chips..luckily no one brought dessert!!

I know I went over my usual number of calories, but feel like I handled my first social diet challenge pretty well, all things considered. Next time I will make more of an effort to get all my meals in before I go, and leave much less room for temptation! Oh yeah, another thing that I resisted…alcohol!! While everyone was doing shots, I was doing diet coke! haha..but I have no desire to drink, especially on the day of a leg workout–since the alcohol takes water out of the muscle, my soreness increases by 50% the next day. I’ve been there, done that, and not happenin again..lol!

As far as the workout status goes, I did a leg one yesterday. I increased my pace a little and ran 20 minutes. Then I did squats on the smith machine. I don’t know if I am still doing them wrong or what, but the last 2 x I have done them, I hold the bar a little back off my shoulders, so it’s not sitting right at the base of my neck, but while I am lifting, after a few reps, I feel like I am straining somehow in the neck area and  feel a little like I might pass out. I haven’t ever passed out before, and I’m only lifting the bar plus 40 lbs…when I first started doing squats I did them with a barbell across my shoulders and didn’t have this problem…kinda strange! Then I did lunges, the hamstring curl machine, and another smith leg machine-(can’t think of the name of it)..I only did a few machines, but I kept repeating what I was doing going back and forth until I exhausted each area I was working on.  I feel good about it because today I am sore in all the areas I worked…but not too sore that I can’t do my cardio today…yay!!

Well it is happening…slowly but surely there are changes that are visible in the side by side progress pic I posted today…I didn’t even realize how different my body has started to look until I saw these pics together…it’s amazing what you can do in just 2 months!

…This is a big motivator for me, I have been at this for a while now but never as dedicated as I have been since joining this site. I have cleaned up my diet a lot and that has made a big difference.  I have also been much, Much more consistent with going to the gym and investing my time and energy into making myself the lean muscle machine I want to be…it is exciting and there is nothing I want more right now than to reach my goal!!