ArmdandFabulous’s BodyBlog

We all have them from time to time, and they seem to be a necessary evil in the road to fitness…to teach us how to deal with the unexpected things that can throw us off our game…like job loss, relationship issues, accidents, or just the unexpected stuff of "life"….I for one was making progress and had just broken a longstanding plateau when I went on a weeklong trip to visit family…..

I was excited to see family, don’t get me wrong, but after the hard earned progress I was finally seeing,  I really didn’t want to get out of my routine…it took time and effort to get into the routine and I had it down…

…We all know that most people in our lives, unless we are really lucky, are just not into fitness or health all that much…my family is no different…so I even tried to postpone my trip, thinking that I would be much more ready to leave my routine, (and deal with the diet sabotaging temptations that surely awaited me), when I had gotten closer to my goal…but that didn’t work out, so I went on the trip…

…I brought some protein powder, planned to go shopping for my usual healthy foods when I got there, not intending to go far off my routine, but willing to take a couple cheat days to go out to eat since it was a vacation after all…and there was a gym nearby that I figured I’d be working out in at least a couple days of this, so I really didn’t feel too bad and wasn’t going too far off out of my diet/training habits…

…But reality stepped in, and I never worked out, and ate semi clean for about 2 days….I thought it was a losing battle, and decided to just relax on the diet, and pick it back up when I got home….somehow out of that, I gained 6 lbs total during that week….it was only a total of 6 days!…I didn’t even feel like I ate THAT much food, it’s not like I was eating at buffets or anything…a Wendy’s hamburger and fries one day(with NO cheese or MAYO), some fried chicken fingers (that I only ate 1/2 of my portion)…a few cookies…a few more cookies….some chocolate ice cream with chocolate syrup…..oh, wow, it’s suddenly becoming clearer to me how the 6 lbs showed up so fast as I am typing this…lol….

…Well, when I got back home and back into my routine, the lbs started falling off easily…I hit the gym hard, got back into my cardio sessions, and dropped 4 lbs in about 2 days…which made me happy, I was sure that by the end of one week I would be back to my pre trip weight…but I was sooo wrong…I found myself back at that longstanding plateau that I had JUST broken before I went on the trip…those last 2 lbs are still here 9 days after the other 4 left my body as quickly as they came…My training was right where it should be….it wasn’t a lack of focus there…I even tried cutting off carbs after 12:00pm…it worked for a day, then the 1 lb that jumped ship came right back the next day…and those 2 lbs formed a united unbreakable bond with my body that seemed no amount of training or cardio could shake…

I have been so frustrated about this, because it’s a freaking 2 lbs!! That I already lost before! Who has this big of a struggle losing 2 lbs when you just lost it a few weeks ago anywaY?…Geez!…

I guess me, I do….and from this I have learned something about my body, what it will and won’t do….and how important detailed diet following is…very important to realize if you are expecting to have results in changing it….

Up until yesterday, I’d have to honestly say my diet was only at about 85% the way it should be…but I didn’t see it…getting back to your rountine after a vacation takes longer than I anticipated…before I took the trip, my diet was right ON!…and that’s why I broke the plateau…after talking to a friend on this site about it, it finally hit me: I wasn’t mentally 100% focused yet…if I had been, I would have realized the shortcomings in my diet and made the necessary changes needed to get where I want to go with my body….

….how can I expect to get results when I’m not drinking all the water I should be, or when I’m not taking in enough protein to maintain and grow the muscle I want…or not giving my body the calories it needs to do it’s thing…it really is so much about the proper nutrition…”you get out of it what you put into it”…

..as someone who “crossed back over” to the undisciplined method of eating, I realized that when we make the change from undisciplined to disciplined methods of eating, the mind does a kind of “cross over” sort of thing where it goes from one way of thinking about food to some parallel universe where people actually don’t mind eating broccoli and plain chicken day after day…without a cookie in sight….I say parallel universe because the changes are drastic and in the undisciplined mind, seem almost unfathomable to make…and maintain….

…the changes don’t happen without quite a bit of effort, and when they do, it seems you are worlds away from the old you and how you ate and thought about food…it becomes much easier to be disciplined about your diet, is easier to follow what others consider a tortuous way of eliminating the “treat” foods from your diet…

but to the crossed over mind it is like second nature, easy, nothing to it, don’t even feel like you are missing anything…

…I’m glad to say..I have crossed over to the disciplined side again and have confidence that those pesky 2 lbs and all their remaining friends that are taunting me by stickin around despite huge efforts are about to be a distant memory!

…no more frustration…I GOT this!!!

I like to drink green tea with pomegranate…a couple weeks ago, I bought a new box and went to use some…I noticed that instead of being the normal dark red color that it usually is, it was a dark pink color….I thought maybe I just had a weak tea bag, so didn’t think too much of it..then later had a couple more tea bags…all of them making a weak dark pink tea that tastes just as weak as the color suggests…so then I thought maybe it’s a lower quality box that somehow made it to the shelf….until today….I also drink cranberry juice every morning…I finished a bottle of it this morning and bought another one….I went to pour it into a glass and noticed….it has been watered down TOO! I have been drinking ocean spray cranberry juice for the past year regularly, and this is the same brand I got today….I think this is the latest attempt by the food companies to save profit in this staggering economy!!!!!!…..Has anyone else noticed weaker products like this? I know that food companies are making smaller packaging and giving less product for the same amount of money, but at least you can see the size and know you are buying a smaller amount…this is plain sneaky and underhanded…how would you ever know that the teabags are diluted until you buy it and get it home?? And the cranberry juice doesn’t look diluted until you see it in a glass, then it appears obvious when you look at the bottle of it again…..grrrrrrrrr

..I haven’t written anything in here in a while, so I thought I should… 

I am back to working out after a week’s vacation visiting family….it was torture..didn’t workout for a week, and didn’t eat clean…I gained 6 lbs in 6 days!…..that is not what I planned at all, I intended to eat clean while I was there and to also workout, but I realized halfway thru the week that I needed to just relax and have fun, and I would get back to my routine when I got home….so that’s what I did. 

Today was my first day back to the gym and it was awesome…I did a back/bi workout and increased weight on all the exercises I did..but the biceps don’t seem to be progressing in strength like other muscle groups are..maybe I am just being impatient..I also did a double cardio session, 4 miles in the am and 2 more this evening….

So now I’m totally getting back into the routine, even regarding writing blogs here…:)