Blue25’s BodyBlog

Even though the year has just begun and I’ve barely been back to work after several short weeks for the last two months, I think I might be off-center.

How do I know? My life isn’t quite flowing the way it should or could. The cleaning is not getting done, I’ve strayed from my weekly schedule a few times, oversleeping, my appetite is still erratic and I’m not packing my breakfast and lunch as much as I should. Oh and I’ve meditated about twice this year so far.

Part of this is due to the fact that I’ve just been really busy lately. Perhaps I have too much on my plate altho I don’t think I do that much. There just aren’t enough hours in the day many which are now committed to sleeping. I’m also stressed because I MUST pass my real estate test. I’ve been studying but there’s always a small part of me that wonders if I’m studying enough; do I really know the material? The test is not hard… at least I didn’t think so but I didn’t pass it the first time so obviously I need to hit the books harder. I’m trying to keep a positive outlook but doubt keeps creeping in. If I fail again, I’ll be devastated. I’m running out of time and it’s delaying other plans, and taking my attention from other projects.

So I’m determined to pass so I can move on to other things but tracking food, exercise, thinking about and planning my meals… damn, if it’s not time consuming sometimes. And then to look in the mirror or step on the scale and cringe at what I see or don’t see. Ugh.

But I’ll get back on track. I just better do it before things get too out of control. Then it just gets sloppy and I need to take a day off to get right or just put everything down for a week or so and I don’t want that to happen. Even though it’s late, there’s no time like right now so I’m gonna get started with a quick workout and then map out the rest of my week. Oh, another social engagement has been added to my already full weekend. Hmm, maybe I do have a life outside of karate, weights and carbs after all.

There are days when it seems I can’t get enough food. I do pretty well when I stick to my program exactly–5 meals a day with proper macros. But then there are days when I’m just not hungry. I force myself to eat a few things but basically have no interest in food. Even knowing that I’m jeopardizing my program doesn’t make me want to eat anymore.

I had one of those days on Friday and had a cheat on Saturday at a social engagement. So it’s the straight and narrow for the rest of the week but I wonder what leads to loss of appetite seemingly out of the blue.

I’m still tweaking my nutrition plan.

Almost a month and no chips. Yes!

No cheats all week. I’m back to carrying an assortment of food to eat throughout the day. I’m measuring everything and journaling it all. Discovered a few errors and made changes.

Seems like every time I turn around I’m stopping at the market to get more food.

A few social events over the next few weeks. I’ll have to plan accordingly. Even for the movies, I make my own popcorn, pack my own beverage and snacks or sandwich. There’s nothing at the concession stand that doesn’t make me cringe (or sick) and a bottle of water should not cost 3 or 4 bucks, so I bring my own.

I hope by this time next month I’ll see significant changes.

I took Sunday off. I didn’t have to but I did. Just relaxed with my guy, watched movies and the Giants. My plan was to do cardio but since I worked out all week, I decided not to.

And I regretted it.

I just felt guilty about not taking advantage of a day free of responsibilities. I usually have to juggle between Wed and Sun as rest days depending on my schedule and what I’ve done throughout the week. Since I skipped Sunday, I tried to do cardio on Wed, the day after fight class and cardio kickboxing. My body felt like lead the night before and I didn’t get as much sleep as I should have but I could squeeze out 30 minutes of aerobic activity.

But I found it very hard to focus while on the bike. I kept stopping or getting distracted and eventually I began to feel slightly nauseated. I hopped off after 20 interrupted minutes. Next was weights. If cardio was a no-go, maybe I could do some lifting. Again, no focus and just didn’t feel right. I stopped after two exercises and called it a night. I don’t think I did anything any different than what I normally do so I couldn’t pinpoint why I didn’t feel so great, I just didn’t, but really felt bummed about missing my 2nd workout in 4 days.

Today was a different story. I did a full body workout for over an hour. I’m still a little sore from fight class… I’ve got a huge cut on the bottom of my big toe (ouch!) and a bad bruise on my shin from blocking. Even with guards on, the second block was enough to make me double over. Surprisingly, the pain went away after about 5 minutes. Maybe due to adrenaline or endorphins? Whatever the case, I continued on but later that evening the soreness settled in. Just brushing over the area hurts but oddly enough, I sorta feel good about it. My shins are (slowly) getting stronger and now I know that even if they get hit, I can fight through it. They’ve been such a weak spot for me I was worried I’d just collapse but I didn’t. A small victory for me.

I’m ready for bed as soon as I finish this post. I’m exhausted. 30m/cardio, 15m/abs, 3×12/chest/shoulders. My biceps feel weird right now. Not really sore but very fatigued. And I need some sleep but I want to vent about my home ‘gym’. I’m a bit frustrated with it right now.

I don’t have a room or an area designated for exercise. I have a large livingroom, a decent space to throw down a mat and bring out the weights.

But I’m in need of new weights. I need more variations in both DBs and plates. My adjustable bench hasn’t been very adjustable. I don’t know why. It just doesn’t click in place as easily as it should. I end up using my rest time between sets fiddling with it.

Aside from these issues, I desperately want some sort of lat tower. I love to do lat work and am not able to the way I’d like. I’ve looked at a few to buy but I’m afraid it may end up being much larger once I get it home. So I keep putting it off. I also miss the option of using cables and haven’t really put in the time to create or find suitable substitutions for certain exercises.

These things make me think it’s time to join a gym but right now is not the best time for another recreational expense. Also, I’m not very fond of gyms so the chances of me going are nil especially since there isn’t one close by. While I don’t have the best set up, working out at home allows me to exercise pretty much whenever. Last night I was behind schedule so I didn’t work out until 11:30. With no concern of travel time, I usually can squeeze in exercise where normally traveling would make it impossible to even consider. So let’s see…

Pros:
Never closed, unlimited access
No waiting for equipment
No sweaty benches or poor etiquette
No bad music
No unsightly nudity
No loiterers, TV watchers, grunters, talkers, posers
No temptation to tell others that they have incredibly poor form
No fee

Cons:
Limited equipment

Right now, this will have to do until I move and can dedicate a whole room or basement to fitness, where I can have a heavy bag and maybe a few other items. That may or may not be possible but it’s on my wish list.

My new profile pic was taken on New Year’s Day right after abs and cardio. This morning I woke up feeling like someone had repeatedly punched me in the back thanks to my last exercise of the year yesterday.

I don’t do new year’s resolutions because I’m always setting goals throughout the year. Other than my fitness goals, one thing I need to do is get my real estate license so I’ll be studying over the next several weeks for the exam.

I need to maintain my program with a few small adjustments… watching my portions, consistently journaling my food, and getting rid of some cheat foods. It’s been almost 15 days since I’ve had any sort of chips. That’s a big deal for me since I love tortilla chips but right now, I’m not even interested. Can I get through the month of January? We’ll see.

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).