Blue25’s BodyBlog

Okay, so I did say I wanted my abs to be sore, right? Well they are. They’re sore. Deeply. All the transverse and obliques. Good.

Now for my Almond/Soy/Rice Milk taste test…

I try to limit my dairy intake because it creates mucus and congestion. I haven’t had straight milk since I was a little kid in school so this is the best I can do on a taste test comparison of some of the beverages or ‘milk substitutes’ I prefer.

Rice Milk - I use Rice Dream. It’s a thinner consistency than milk or soy. The vanilla is white but has cane sugar so it’s slightly sweet. I think the unsweetened is also white.

Almond Milk - I use Pacific Unsweetened. It’s sort of a beige-ish color. Taste a bit like almonds. Very mild sweetness to it. About the same consistency as milk.

Soy Milk - I like to use Edensoy because the Unsweetened Silk brand is very hard to find. It’s a strong beige, consistency of milk and I guess very mildly sweet. Edensoy also makes a soy/rice milk blend which I occasionally get.

I also use Soy Dream which has 4g fat in the vanilla brand. Maybe less on the unsweetened but not sure.

Silk, probably the most popular brand, might be a little thicker than milk or about the same, comes in all sorts of great flavors and has ‘creamers’ for milk and tea. Hazelnut is my ultimate favorite.

I usually try to get unsweetened but sometimes forget to read the box upfront and wind up with sweetened. I use all of the above for my cereals, shakes and baking. The only one I drink straight are the Silk specials like Chocolate or Pumpkin Spice (yum!) and even then just about 4 or 6 ounces because I find them to be a little thick or ‘rich’ to just drink.

I thought since I had a few days off (from work and the dojo which is closed until the new year), I’d have the time and focus to work out like 3 hours a day and eat all the best home cooked meals and drink over a gallon of water.

That has not been the case by a long shot.

I’ve had errands to run, cleaning to do, reading to catch up on, and sleep to enjoy. (How nice it is to wake up to a blue sky instead of darkness!) I’ve been working out about the same but haven’t been very hungry at all so I’m below all my recommended requirements by a meal or two. I’ve been doing good on the water. Running to the bathroom every 10 minutes is no problem when you’re at home.

Today I woke up and I wanted to start cardio right away, with no breakfast. I forced myself to eat a bowl of cereal with almond milk and got started. Sometimes I just want to do something different so I deviated from my routine and did an intense ab workout. I still had plenty of energy so I got out the weights and did glutes and thighs. Was feeling amped so I did delts, bis and tris. I still had energy so I did some cardio. Where was all this drive coming from with just a simple bowl of cereal? Normally I’ll have oatmeal with peanut butter, blueberries and protein powder!

I felt really good afterward. A little sore but overall I felt fine. I had a protein shake then unfortunately had to run out so I don’t know if I was able to maintain any of what I might have gained. I woofed down an Odwalla Super Protein bar while I was out then fixed a great meal later.

My shoulders are sore but I really want my abs to be sore. It’s an area I’ve been skimping on a bit and obviously needs lots of attention so I’ve been working on it the last several days. Tomorrow I have an early start (6:30) then free the rest of the day so I’ll go back to my routine before the Giants and Patriots meet.

I’m a bit surprised at how sore my legs are. The only thing I can attribute it to was Friday’s cardio session of 15 minutes of jumping rope and 15 minutes on the bike, 7 of which were at a high rate. My butt and quads are feeling it the most. Today was suppose to be a leg day but I decided to pass especially since we did some horse straddles at the dojo that had me aching even more. Instead I did abs and some upper body work. I usually try to take it easy on Sundays but I think I got in a pretty good workout not to mention about an hour playing tennis on the Wii. Does that count for anything?

Now I need to figure out what to eat for dinner. On the weekends I tend to only have 4 meals, probably because I wake up later than during the week but there’s also the tendency to snack more. I’ve done well not snacking.

I have plenty of vegetables ready and I’ll probably have a veggie burger with hummus. I’ve already had my carbs for the day but I think there’s room for some brown rice or quinoa. Hmm, I think I’m getting hungry again.

when one area is going good, another area starts to fall off?

I’ve got my cardio rhythm back, I’ve got my katas down and my kicks have improved but I’ve been slacking on my food journal and I’d been doing so well. Every day, everything I ate and now I’ve missed a day here, half a day there. Ugh. I’ve had a few bumps with my clean eating too.

Needless to say, I’m very disappointed in myself. All my hard work is going out the window and the worst part is I’m beginning to seen signs of improvement! Why would I mess it up? Maybe it’s not completely a lost cause. I’m not going to wallow in a bag of chips or a pizza. I’m going to do back and triceps, HIIT on the bike and then have meal #4 (a little later than usual).

After 7 consecutive days of exercise, I thought today would be a good day to rest. Yesterday I got some sort of cramp or muscle soreness behind my knee and in my calf while walking. Lasted about 15 hours. Enough to make me think I should take it easy today. This will push my weight training back a day but I had alot to do: cleaning around the house, cooking a large dinner and preparing my meals for the rest of the week. Ihope to get a good sleep tonight and resume my schedule tomorrow.

The bad thing about being away from the dojo for several days is that it’s always so hard to go back, especially when it’s freezing out. It’s not that I don’t want to be there, I just don’t feel like driving and being in the cold. Afterwards, I’m always glad I made the appearance but I have to seriously psyche myself up. I really think I become reclusive in the winter. I don’t want to go out much, particularly in the evening. It’s very easy for me to find something entertaining to do at home. After work, I just want to stay in, not force a meal, change clothes and head back out into the tundra. But I know how this story goes so I don’t even pay much attention to myself anymore. I procrastinate until I have no time to spare and then I hit the road. In other news, was it my imagination that my slacks felt a bit roomier when I got dressed this morning??? To be continued…

I broke away from the end of the Eagles/Cowboys game to do cardio. I had to. I don’t have a live trainer so I have to push myself beyond my regular routine and I’ve been so inspired by the folks on here I won’t accept any excuses. And the Eagles got a W.

Well, I was proud of myself yesterday because I added in an unscheduled workout and I really pushed myself. Maybe too hard. I woke up in the wee hours of the morning with achy arms. I haven’t had muscle soreness like this in awhile. I rubbed them with Arnica but quickly realized I needed something stronger and used Icy/Hot. That brought me enough comfort to get back to sleep but I had to reapply by early morning.

Now soreness in my chest is starting to set in but nothing compared to my arms which feel pretty useless. I’ve since switched over to Extra Strength Tiger Balm. I haven’t used it in several months and wanted to see if there was any difference. I think I prefer the Icy/Hot because it feels more hot after awhile as opposed to the coolness of Tiger Balm.

So I think I’ll take it easy today unless I feel compelled to do cardio since I won’t get a work out in on Tuesday. I haven’t yet decided.

I missed karate all this week and had high hopes of going to class this morning and seeing some friends. Unfortunately, I got caught in traffic as soon as I got on the road. Leaving earlier wouldn’t have made much difference. It was a crawl for a full 30 minutes until I took the next exit just to get off of the thing.

I was pretty bummed about missing practice. Got home and did 35 on the bike with the intention of doing cardio only. Later on in the day I was a little bored–I rested, read, had my meals, cleaned, played some Wii then decided what the heck. Why not do some weights? So I did chest and triceps and I’m totally sore. I feel pretty good about getting in some more work. No reason why I can’t exercise, stretch or practice when I have free time on my hands. I hope I start seeing some results soon.

I had a pretty good workout the other day until I cut myself. I have these Weider plates and the coating on the screws that keep them on the bars are peeling and I cut my finger while changing the plate. This is the second time this has happened. They’re not really bad but deeper than paper cuts that bleed and sting alot. So I think it’s time to switch to clips and maybe even new weights altogether.

Aside from that, I had high reps and somewhere along the line I just felt like crying. I mean it just hurt to crank ‘em out to the point where I had to question why I was doing this again? I actually felt pissed off and when I was done I felt like my arms and shoulders should look like Carla Dunlap or something but of course I had the same skinny arms and soreness.

Yesterday was a rest day and today I due to time constraints only 55 min of cardio and abs.