ArmdandFabulous’s BodyBlog

Ok peeps, it’s time for me to change something about my diet/training to get the progress going in the right direction again.   Up to this point, I have monitored protein intake and total calorie intake, but haven’t too closely counted my daily carb intake.  Sometimes I have ventured into the whole carb cycling thing by not eating them after 12:00 or 5:00, but haven’t been consistent with it because when I mess up the diet it is usually clearly due to excess calories, so haven’t gotten to the detail of noticing how many carbs a day does what for me yet…I recently had a friend in town and for me that is bad news diet wise…I even tried to guard against falling into bad eating decisions by bringing packets of protein and even packets of superpum250 to keep me from craving the junk that is always all around at the strip…as soon as I had one margarita (I made it healthier by ordering it with NO salt!! lol), the hungries start and I want junk…I had 3 mcd’s hamburgers, 4 apple pies (they’re on the Dollar menu, I had to do it, that’s practically giving them away!)..french fries…(since I never usually eat at McD’s, the low prices were a surprise to me and too good to pass up..lol..I make great excuses huh?)…can’t remember what else I ate..but the point is, it was Baaaaad…the good news is, after a couple days of drinking a gallon of water and keeping up with my workout schedule, I redeemed my previous weight and the scale didn’t go up…amazing isn’t it???

But now I feel like I’m ready to get a little more structured and want to get these last 10 or 12  oh who am I kidding probably 15 lbs gone so I can move into Phase II–possibly a little “bulk” phase…which is exciting to me because for this past year I have been trying to build muscle while I cut fat, which is frustrating, when I start losing weight I get freaked out when I look in the mirror and it seems I am losing muscle too, and then I stop trying so hard to lose weight…but I am not where I want to be bodyfat or definition wise…so now I feel like I just need to go for it, and as long as I keep the diet numbers (protein, carbs, etc) right, then I will be ok and whatever muscle I lose I can put back on…what has me excited about a bulk phase is that whenever I have cut back on the cardio, I have noticed much faster muscle gains…it’s really unbelievable how fast they can grow…but I have had to burn them away with all the cardio trying to make up for my bad diet decisions to keep from gaining fat back!!!

So anyways, I still have a lot to learn, I know I can’t learn everything in a year (still can’t believe it’s already been a year that I’ve been lifting weights!) ..but I was wondering what the best carb cycling plans out there are..I’ve heard of doing 3 days low carb then one high, then 3 medium…or one day you have carbs with breakfast, lunch and dinner, then the next day only breakfast, then the next day with breakfast and lunch only, etc…I saw in the current Oxygen mag that a low carb day should be half your bodyweight, a medium day would be = to your bodyweight and high day would be 2x your bodyweight -3…but to me these amounts seem a little high…anyways, that’s where you come in..what carb cycling plan works best for you?…are there other plans that work better than the ones I’ve mentioned?  I would love to hear any input or suggestions on this!

I skipped my leg workout last week and felt guilty about it until today…wow have I gone up in strength!

Went up in weight on squats and leg presses and was able to do more reps…really surprised myself and now I’m considering only doing legs every other week!! 

I’m naming this one "the stinger"…by then end of it my shoulders were on fire!

*went up in weight each set

seated military press (behind head) 12, 10,8,6

arnold presses 12, 10, 8, 6

standing side lats 15, 12, 10, 8

upright row 12, 10, 8, 6

to finish, a superset with:

seated bent over lats 4x 10 & standing front raises 10, 8, 6, 4

incline db press  5 sets…15, 12, 2×10, 8

dips (assisted)-3 sets 10-15

incline chest flyes 3 x15  superset w/ bodyweight dips using bench to failure

flat bench w db 3×15 

lying db tri extension 3×15 

flat chest flyes 3×15

triple set w/ rope pushdowns, decline pushups (to failure–not many reps…arms were pooped at this point), cable chest flyes

Decided to skip the bench pressing today, I have been consistently doing it for some time now..

ALso I have changed my rep range…last week actually is when I started doing it, instead of doing 6-8, I have started doing 12-15 reps…I already felt the effect of the "shock to the system" in my back after one workout–I was sore like when I first started a year ago!!!

I tried something out this morning to see if it really works…cardio on an empty stomach.

The whole idea of it has always seemed crazy to me…your body has had NO fuel for 10 hours or so, and then you want to go and push it further by making it do cardio…seems like your blood sugar and energy would be too low to get much out of it without eating first…but according to some "ripped" bodies around this site, it is a secret trick to burn more fat…

Despite that, I never wanted to try it because I always believed you are supposed to EAT soon after waking to keep the metabolism from slowing down..but out of curiousity I decided to try it out today.  Well, I didn’t do it on a completely empty stomach, I had some SUperpump250 or I wouldn’t have gotten myself out the door without eating!

I was able to run for 40 mins, and I didn’t pass out!…now lets see if this way works better!

Wow I just realized that two days ago was my one year anniversary on bb.com!  What a difference a year can make

While I have not completely met my transformation goal yet, I have made a lot of progress towards it this past year that I have to give credit to this site and the people on it for achieving…

All the information about workouts, diet + supplements, nutritional info, etc. that is available right here has helped to educate me on the "how" to transform that I never would have gotten any other way..I knew so little about how to do it, I wouldn’t have even known what questions to ask or what info to seek out!!

The encouragement and support given from fellow bodyspacer’s has been a huge factor in my progress…the compliments, tips and suggestions from others on this site who have similar goals and similar struggles with achieving their own fitness goals reminds me that I’m not alone, which keeps me going when I get discouraged… 

I have gone from just wanting to be a certain weight number on the scale and clothing size to wanting muscle and a physique that I never would have dreamed possible for myself, had I not seen what others have achieved with their bodies on this site…the transformations (completed or ongoing) of others on here motivates me and pushes me to work harder when I have slacked off…

And of course the blogs…the inspirational, educational, informative and funny blogs here help me to feel connected to a group of people that I normally would’t have access to in "real life" because there just aren’t that many people in my circle who are interested in fitness and health, sad but true for a lot of us…

So for me, the past year being a part of this community has truly been priceless, I wouldn’t have made it this far on my own without it…thank you bb.com!!

Ok I’ve heard lots of complaints about gyms that are too busy and people hogging machines you want to use..but it hasn’t really been an issue for me, probably because I have two gym memberships and can go to either of them 24 hours a day…one of them I primarily go to because they have a lot of good cardio equipment, and the other I like to do my weightlifting in…the best of both worlds so to speak..

Yesterday I wasn’t feeling too hot and instead of going to the gym at my normal (morning) workout time to lift, I went in the evening…and I went to the gym that I normally only do cardio in…ended up getting there around 9:30, thinking it shouldn’t be too crowded at that time…(this gym is CROWDED from about 5-9 pm all week with so many people standing around chatting it’s like a night club instead of a gym!)..so after I get there and do my warmup on the treadmill it’s almost 10pm before I even get in the weights area…but it’s still pretty crowded..I start off with bench presses and it wasn’t too tough to find an open bench…but after I finish those, I look around for an incline bench to do chest flyes and shoulder presses, but it had gotten even more busy!!…WTF…did someone drop off a bus load of people in here at 10pm or what I started thinking…I wander around for a couple minutes looking for ANY open incline bench but there are none and then I spot an empty incline bench at an empty Smith machine station…ooooooO the wheels are turning in my brain and I think a-HA I can do my entire chest/shoulder/tri wkout there if I just bring over some dumbells…so that’s what I did..and it was working out fantastically..I was supersetting almost every exercise and really getting chest/shoulders to burn…no moving around wasting time looking for an open bench for me!!

 ** I know it sounds like I was hogging the machine which everyone hates—but I’ve never done a workout this way and wouldn’t have this time if this gym didn’t have about 8 Smith stations in it!!!…and it was after 10pm!! I’d never try this between 5-9pm!!

So I was in my own little world and everyone was leaving me alone…until a lady (probably 55-60+ yrs old) comes over and questions whether I am really using the Smith machine or am I just using that bench and not the bar…she happened to walk up when I was doing chest flyes with db’s and asked how many more sets I had…I told her I wasn’t sure, I have a lot to do…she questioned again "but you ARE using the bar??…this bar?? as her disbelieving stare had me wanting to dis-respect an elder right then with dumbell upside the head!!!…y…e…..s…I said…..I felt like a second grader who was getting in trouble for something I didn’t do…I badly wanted to send her on her way with a kick in the a** cuz my head was pounding and I still wasn’t feeling well but was trying to push thru and finish the workout…she walked away (FINALLY!)..and I got back to concentrating on my workout..that lasted about 20 mins until a guy came hovering around and I had my earphones in but could tell he wanted my attention…so I took them out and he asked how many more sets I had left..now, people by this time it’s around 11pm..OMG this is irritating!…LEAVE me Alone I was shouting in my head!! (which surprisingly had stopped pounding by this time)…and I even have a MEAN mug on at the gym–I never usually have a problem with people coming up and interrupting me…but these people were completely ignoring mean mug due to it being sooo busy in there and benches being used…so when the guy asked how many sets I had I decided to be nice and let him get his sets in, as long as he told me when he was done and didn’t let that one lady near it as I went over to the cable area and did some other exercises while he used my smith station…he came and got me when he was done and he had even organized my db’s that I had sprawled out all over the ground…I had sets of 15’s, 17.5’s, 10’s laying all over…lol…I wondered if he did it to be nice or to not be embarrassed and have people think he was the one who was THAT messy…probably the second one, huh?

ANyways, I felt like it was a decent workout (and my headache went away!) despite all the concentration breaks…and that guy who interrupted me was some good eye candy at least!  …next time I have to workout when it’s busy I’m gonna find some stranger who appears to be working the same muscle group I am and ask them if they want to tag team with me and go thru our workout together…much more efficient than trying to maneuver through a busy gym alone!

I think I may have inspired someone to begin their own fitness journey yesterday..

While shopping at Old Navy, the fitting rm lady commented on my physique and asked me what I do to get it like it is…(Oh my I’m not even done with it yet but what a huge compliment!)…

I told her I worked at it, and had to eat right and exercise…this woman was not overweight, just had some flabby areas she wanted to do something with..the main one being her stomach…she was concerned that she would have to get surgery or something to get rid of the loose skin since she had had 3 kids…which I’m sure probably had discouraged her from even trying to work on changing it..but I got the opportunity to enlighten her on how she could get the abs, butt and arms she wanted if she was willing to put the work in, no surgery required!

She asked me how to do it and I told her she would have to lift weights, and lift heavy..she said she didn’t want to get too "bulky" and I told her how much weight I lifted, she looked at my arms and said…well, yeah, you can tell you work out but you’re not bulky…I said yeah, women can’t get big like men from just lifting heavy, unless they use steriods or something!

She got SO excited hearing that she could change her body, I knew this was something she needed to hear, and I was glad I got to be the one to tell her that YES! it was possible …So I wrote down the web address for bb.com and told her she would find all the info on workouts, what to eat, supplements, everything she would need to get the body of her dreams…I felt like I had "passed the torch" on or something…lol

It was a GREAT feeling

 *On a side note, I ended up buying some really comfortable cargos that have an elastic waistband..they are going to be my Thanksgiving pants I decided…speaking of Thanksgiving..I’m already craving pumpkin pie which is weird because I usually only eat it on Thanksgiving and don’t crave it before or after that…maybe I will have to get some early this year…

We all know that some protein bars taste like absolute crap..well, I found two that don’t, finally!! 

A couple times I went to GNC and they gave me little samples of one called "Titan"…I couldn’t believe how much like a candy bar it was…chocolate, caramel, all that good stuff AND protein…so I kinda got hooked on it and now I buy one every now and then…well I went to a different GNC than the one I normally go to for a Titan bar and as it turned out that location didn’t carry Titan bars…FRICK!! I thought "are you kidding me?"…grrrrrrrr…..I totally was all set on getting one…the guy who worked there talked me into something he said was similar to it, the Supreme Protein bar…I was skeptical and thought no way could there be another protein bar that comes close to Titan…but I had no other option and really wanted something sweet, so I bought it…OH My people….it tasted exactly like a 1000 GRAND candy bar!!  seriously!   But it has between 26-30 gms of protein (can’t remember exactly how much)…And it just so happens that the Supreme Protein bar won an award at the Olympia –Protein Bar of the Year !!….I’m tellin ya, you gotta try it!

After taking 6 days off from training, no cardio, no lifting, none of it, I felt that I was ready to get back to it…the insomnia went away during this past week and I could sleep soundly again!!!! so I am sure that overtraining was causing it.  During my week off I managed to stay pretty clean with the diet and actually lose a couple of the lbs I had gained..so yay!

Yesterday was my first day back in the gym and I had a great leg day…I realized I could lift a lot heavier than I thought, but was able to target the muscle more and really feel the burn when I took some of the weightload off and upped the number of reps…my legs were shaking towards the end and I almost lost my balance because they were so wiped out!

After squats and lunges I did leg curls, leg extensions and finished with calf raises…my legs felt pretty beat up and I thought I had worked them pretty well…let them know that the vacation was o-v-e-r!!

But the bad news…the insomnia returned last night! aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgh!! I don’t want to take any more time off…aside from insomnia I feel great..why is this happening to me?????????