ArmdandFabulous’s BodyBlog

…After all my excitement from "strangers" starting to comment on my progress, I figured FRIENDS would be even more observant of the changes, having seen the "before" me in person…So, I have been just waiting to see friends who last saw me before I started weightlifting to see what they have to say about the changes, and I got the chance to meet up with one yesterday who I hadn’t seen since 2004.  She was just passing thru town so we met up for lunch and I expected her to say something about how different I look since the last time she saw me…I was even wearing a tank top…not a damn word about it!!!…I’m sitting there thinking, HOW does she not notice, it’s like, if somene went from brunette to blonde in the period of time you last saw them, it’s like someone getting a nose job or something since the last time you saw them, it’s like someone losing 30+lbs since the last time you saw them, it’s like someone having NO muscle to having biceps, triceps, and delts now, how the freek can you not notice?!!…

…She didn’t, and never said a word about it all thru lunch…even after we had "caught up" on all the events of our lives…now I know sometimes people can be jealous of other’s weight loss success, but this friend has never been a member of a gym, is about 45+lbs overweight, and hasn’t ever been concerned with "dieting" that I know of…so she really doesn’t strike me as that type…anyways, it was a little disappointing…I’m not sayin I need to be showered with compliments, but part of the fun of working so hard to change is the comments you get when people notice, and you’d think the biggest "noticers" and supporters would be YOUR OWN FRIENDS…I guess not

…*sigh* this just makes me even more grateful for the comments I get from strangers and the support I get from this site…so THank You  

    After writing about the stranger who said I looked like I workout, a couple more situations with strangers commenting on me have come up…while shopping at the mall, a sales lady approached me and started trying to help me find something…I was looking at sleeveless tops, and she picked out one, held it up to me, and said…

her: "You kinda have broad…shou…do you workout?…

me: "Yes, and I didn’t used to have ANY muscle, about 10 months ago I started lifting weights"

her: "Wow..it looks nice, you should accent them and show your hard work"

me: "Thank you"

her: …staring at my shoulders…"How often do you work out?"

me: "Well, I only lift weights 3 x a week"

her: "Oh my, it takes so much dedication, you look really good!"

me: "Thank you, it is amazing to change your body, and worth the work, you can do it too!"

And while at the gym yesterday a man I have never seen before stepped in front of me as I was heading towards some stairs…

him: "How big do you want to GET?"

me: "I don’t know, I’m not that big"

him: "Well, you don’t need to get much bigger, but you look good with muscle on you, it looks really good on you", as he nodded his head at my arms in approval, or..something…

 …the part of these interactions I am focusing on is the fact that they NOTICED something to comment on…whether they were sincere or not in their compliments doesn’t bother me, I know that a lot of people aren’t used to seeing a woman with muscle and are a little surprised when they do…which is fine with me, cuz it just means I am doing something RIGHT    again, I say….Woooooohoooooooo!!

…I haven’t had a drink since I started lifting weights, about 10 months, since I’m not a heavy drinker anyway, it really hasn’t been that tough to do…well this Fri I went out to the PALMS casino with a friend and after walkin in the door seeing a casino full of beatiful blond, toned, big breasteded women walking around (just like you see on tv shows filmed at the PALMS)..I felt like I needed a drink…actually more like 7-10, I lost count, drinks…so I had them…apparently..which wasn’t too bad itself, but the after effects were the bad part…

…Whenever I drink, about an hour after I have my first drink, I get hungry for carbs…sweet stuff, popcorn, whatever…just get hungry…I had eaten all my food for the day, and had plenty of protein, but after my first drink, the hunger started…I didn’t want or plan to give in to it…there is a theater in the PALMS and I thought about having some popcorn but decided no, I was gonna be strong…then a couple hours and some more drinks go by, and I remember there is a McDonald’s also in the casino…but amazingly I talk myself out of it…anyways, here comes the baaaad part…when my friend and I left around 5 am…I did something I NEVER do, at least not sober anyway…not even on a cheat day…

…I stopped at Jack IN THE BOX on the way home and ordered a Sourdough Jack…now I stay away from Jack usually because everything they have is sooooo fattening and hard to resist…but after the drinking, I guess reasoning was out the window…I also wanted a milk shake to go with my sandwich, but apparently the machine shuts down for "cleaning" at that time every day…WTH?..the one time a year I let myself have a shake?..are you kidding me??…I ate the sandwich, but still wanted that milkshake…so I keep heading home, and there is a FATBURGER on the way…I ordered a hamburger AND a shake….and I had those too…

…In the morning I had a pounding headache and I actually threw up once…and of course had a hangover..that lasted ALL day…normally I would be super concerned about all those extra calories, but we were up on our feet til 5 am dancing so I guess it evened things out, and I cleaned the diet up Sat and SUn, and did cardio too…and today was a lifting day, I had a really good workout, lots of strength for it, probably due to the help of some extra calories!

I have been waiting for months and months for this…ever since I got serious about lifting weights and putting in all the effort to change my physique..I thought it would have happened awhile ago, but it didn’t until today…and I want to remember this day…

A lot of people on Bodyspace have commented on my progress, seeing the pics here and noticing the changes, dropping by to give compliments and encouragement along this journey, which I am very appreciative of! It makes me feel very motivated when someone takes notice of the hard work I have been putting in and leaves me a comment about it…so thank you all for that!…but the people I come into contact with on a daily basis who don’t know me and have no idea what I looked like 10 months ago are a different story…

They don’t know that I have been consistenly hitting the gym, sweating like a mofo trying to drop the last 15 lbs, or that I am constantly looking for ways to challenge my body and keep the muscle growth coming…they don’t know that I have cut out all fast food from my diet and completely revamped what I put in my body…they don’t know that I eat way more protein than I ever thought I could or would…they don’t know that I sometimes get teared up (seriously!–and it’s embarrassing) at my reflection in the mirror at the gym while lifting weights when I notice a new muscle or some sort of progress because I can’t believe it is my body and it looks like it does now…they don’t know that I sometimes do cardio 2x a day and could never imagine doing that themselves…( I know I never thought I would be doing that)…they don’t know that I have gotten discouraged from time to time, waiting and wondering when this day will ever come…

What am I talking about you ask?…well, it’s what anyone who works out secretly hopes others are thinking when they see them…it’s what some say is their ultimate goal when they start working out…can you guess what it is yet?…

Ok, I’ll tell you….

A STRANGER said I looked like I work out !!!! wooo–hooooooo!!…

I also got an "Oh my" right after that from a guy walking by me when I was getting a part for my car…

Now I KNOW I’m getting somewhere…

I finished my second week of it today, the 15-reps per set weeks…for the first week I thought I saw quite a bit of progress…I continued to see progress the second week as well, but noticed that I seemed to lack some strength and was not able to complete the 15 reps on some exercises…ran out of steam…I think that is due to not having enough rest time, or going too heavy with the initial weight levels I chose to start with…

Next two weeks are 10-rep sets, and I need to go heavier…which I like much better than 15 reps…15 feels like 100 when you are used to doing 6-8 rep sets…

    There is a mother-son duo that I first saw at my gym about 2-3 years ago.  The mother looked to be in her mid-late 40’s, and the son about 9 or 10 years old at the time. Both were overweight by about 40+lbs each,  and I saw them working out weekly…I actually looked forward to seeing the changes they would make…it was touching to see them, mother and son as workout partners…definitely not the norm, so it makes you take notice…I thought it was so inspiring that the mother was taking the time to teach her son the right way to stay healthy, starting early with him, setting a good example by working alongside him and guiding him…they always used the nautilus machines, never the weight room, and they would spend some time doing cardio as well…after seeing them working out a few times I almost went over to the mom one day to give her kudos, just to say I thought it was awesome that she was working out with her son…that’s how impressed I was…I never did though, and stopped going to the gym at the same time as them, and I hadn’t seem them for over a year and a half or so, until yesterday…

   I noticed two people walking away from the nautilus area, and thought for a second that they kinda looked familiar to me…then it clicked…it was the mother and son!…OMG both of them looked like they added about 25 lbs or more of fat to their already overweight bodies…they looked more round, definitely have not progressed at all by working out….OH No no no!!..what are they DOING I thought…they are going the WRONG way with this…I felt so sad for them, knowing that obviously mom isn’t teaching her son about proper nutrition, which is so important in getting healthy…aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaghh!!

Since I can’t seem to go a DAY without cheating and eating more calories than I’m supposed to lately, I have decided to try setting a small goal of 6 days without cheating to see if I can do it…I still allow myself "little" treats like a biscotti cookie or some small sweet daily or I’d go crazy (which is why I don’t see myself ever getting into competitions or anything)…but I watch my calories/protein intake and what I have been doing is eating over my necessary calories pretty regularly which is keeping me from reaching my goal..I always end up telling myself at 11pm-(or later!) that it’s ok, and I will just do more cardio tomorrow…well that thinking is keeping me from progressing so it’s time for a new approach…I figure if I tell you guys about it here, then it is a step in the right direction towards holding myself accountable…afterall I don’t want to have to report that I FAILED at my little goal…AND really, I have promised myself a cheat meal of pizza at the end of this, but ONLY if I can manage to stay on target for 6 days …today is day 2, so that’s 1 down already that I made it thru…

 …In the past couple weeks my diet has been kinda clean/kinda out of control…maybe it’s due to me losing some steam since I am close to my goal weight, you all know how that goes sometimes…you feel like you already have a handle on things, you can see the finish line just ahead, so you’ll take a breather (since you ThINK you can) and just walk to the end of it…which is what I have been doing for the past couple months, boy it’s taking me a long time to just wrap this thing up and move on to phase 2…what is phase 2?…well, that has yet to be determined, need to see how I feel and look at 135..never been that low, so I need to see it to decide if I like it or if I want to try a "bulk" and build up more muscle after that…might try creatine or some "SizeON" by Gaspari…

…I finally felt like my arms/shoulders were looking decent enough to show in tank tops at the gym (and live up to the scrutiny in there) so I made that change a couple weeks ago too…I hadn’t worn one yet to workout in because I know how competitive we women are, myself no exception…for months now whenever I see a woman in a tank top at the gym I always compare her arms to how I think mine look…and didn’t feel ready to reveal them yet…but when I see another woman who I think has nicer arms than me, it kinda makes me mad at myself…but that’s a good thing because it makes me lift heavier, do one more set, push myself more…since I can see my arms/shoulders when I work out now, I have to say I’m impressed with the progress…when I do lateral raises, there are a couple new veins on my shoulders popping out that I haven’t seem before, and that makes me happy!..also I can see my biceps while I do curls, and they are looking much better than I thought too…so, I guess what I am getting to is, I am PROUD of what I see, and even after SEEING these changes occurring over this past year, at times I still can’t believe it’s my body…when I think of where I started and how far I have come…it’s amazing…and now I am finding that there are hardly any women in the gym who I think have better arms than me

…So onto the title of this blog…even though I have not been eating all that clean, I have somehow managed to get my weight back to my lowest of 146.6 as of this morning…which is plain crazy if you knew all the bad things I have been eating…bean/cheese burritos, Klondike bars (3 in one evening!!)…last week it was doughnut(s!), doritos, m&m’s…but I have maintained somehow…how you ask?…two a days!! …I have been lifting in the mornings, and doing cardio in the evenings, or just 2 cardio sessions am/pm on non-lifting days..also I have thrown in some HIIT which is new to me…never have wanted to do HIIT, but I am kinda liking it now…so anyone who has been kicking themselves for their diet disasters…you know what to do

Started this week…I was looking to change up my routine and read about it here on bb.com…Seems like it works well for some, it’s based on scientific research..I’m not gonna write a long blog explaining it, if you want info just go onto the supersite and type in HST, there are lots of articles on it…I have only done 2 workouts so far, but already I am seeing some shoulder/arm progress, which could also be happening as a result of last weeks’ time out of the gym for "hell week"…either way I like it!…

It’s an 8 week cycle, with a week off after that, so I will try to do some progress pics to see if it really works for me or not, since that’s the only way to really tell as you go along…feedback, info, suggestions, etc are welcomed if you have any experience w/ HST training!  

…Ok I tried to give it a break and stop taking it a few days ago but apparently for me it is also an appetite supressant!  I kinda felt like it had been supressing my appetite to some extent while taking it, but I confirmed it now…

…I have had major HUnger cravings that I don’t normally have since being off it…I mean hunger that has been starting around noon and continuing on all day…for example: the other night (around 9pm!!!) I consumed 3.5 donuts, a small bag of m&m’s..a bag of doritos–the ones that are .99 cents..not the regular size big bag…and after that, feeling guilty,  I went to the gym and ran on the treadmill for 50 mins, then walked on the stairmaster for 45 mins…call me crazy, I cuz WAS that night!…and after all that cardio—I went home and ate 2 bowls of LUCKY CHARMS before going to bed! aaaaahhhh!   WTF…this is NOT my normal eating habits at all!….I eat pretty clean, monitor my calories/protein and don’t usually have much of a problem with craving forbidden foods…mostly due to me not bringing that stuff into the house at all!…so you know these cravings were killer when I actually had to put the effort in to go to buy them since I don’t have that stuff just laying around within reach–ever!…

…So today I went and bought some Superpump, took some,  and I am relieved to say my hunger is now back at bay where it belongs, and my mood has even improved….hmm…I know at some point I will need to cycle off of it, but not right now..

…Oddly they don’t mention on the container anything about it being an appetite supressant, maybe they’d sell more of it if they did!