Cat_Mtl’s BodyBlog

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend!  I thought it would be fun to give those of you who have read my last posts a little update.  So since last Tuesday, Aug. 25th, I have been at the gym only once! Very tough for me, I’m addicted to the gym, I admit it… LOL!  But I did my rest time and I’m ready to hit the gym hard.  I sat down with my coach earlier today and we talked about what I needed to do in the short term.  I want to compete in a novice show in November 2010 so I have plenty of time so we decided to really focus on cutting down as much fat as possible in the next few months.  Knowing that I’ve been doing loads of cardio at a high intensity, and seeing that it wasn’t really having any effect anymore we decided to cut back on the "traditional" cardio, no threadmill, no stairmaster… Sounds a bit like the opposite of what I should be doing to lose fat right?  But then he started to explain to me what the Morgan Adamson circuit training… intense stuff but sounds like lots of fun… hehe!  One could say I might be a bit of a gym masochist, but if feels so good to know you’re pushing it to the limit.  Anyhow, I’ve been eating like a pig, loads of carbs (but I ate at least the same amount of protein, tried to keep a balance to the diet) and I still managed to lose all the weight (looks to be mostly fat, not muscle) I had put on in the past 2 weeks and lose 2 more lbs… weird… but I’ll take it! LOL!

So in conclusion, I’ll be doing some intense circuit for the next 2 weeks, eating more than I use to and I have 1 week off from work coming up in 1 week so all in all I think it’s gonna be a pretty good next 2 weeks!  Another conclusion that I have head so much before and I guess I needed to realize it for myself, it is so true that in some cases, less is more!  So I’ll keep you guys posted on how that Morgan-Adamson circuit training is going for me.

Take care and have a great workout!

Cat ;o)

Hi everyone!  Just a short post to let those of you who have read my post “Major Crisis” that I’m feeling much better today.  I took a complete break from the gym yesterday and I forced myself not to go today and I even had pasta (ok I made low fat sauce with horse meat… sorry for the more sensitive ones but I do eat horse meat… it’s full of iron and low on fat) and I had whole grain pasta so I think I limited the damage somewhat hahaha!!!! I was planning on going back at the gym tomorrow but my trainer insisted I take another day or two off, I don’t really want to so he threatened to have me banned from the gym until Monday! Haha!  I also got a call from my mother and what a surprise, she told me she wanted to come see me when I did my first show!!!  I was complaining about not feeling true support from my family in my last post and now it seems my loved ones are starting to see this makes me happy even if it’s hard and unusual.  So I guess I should stop complaining and get my game back on.  I’m going to take the next 2 days off too, listen to my trainer, rework my diet and my workouts and start a whole new routine on Monday.  Hopefully I’ll break through this plateau and start making progress again. Ok, well that’s it for today, have a great evening everyone and thanks for reading! Cat

I find myself questioning my goals and my motivation sources… Has anyone experienced this kind of crisis?…  Let me explain how this all came about…

So last night I got home from by workout, easy one, abs and cardio, threw in a bit of arms in there just to spice it up a bit (ooouh soo spicy haha!).  The minute I got home I started to feel a bit fuzzy, a bit off, threw something together to eat, eggs and cheese and a bit of salad just as a filler, I didn’t feel like having a sweet chocolate flavored protein shake right there and then.  Then,  I hit the couch to cool down a bit and relaxed, I had been up since 4:30 am so by 6:30 pm I tend to want to just sit back and relax.  Pretty normal return home from a workout you’ll say but then I started feeling even fuzzier, almost feverish without the fever, I was feeling pretty tired and down, then… I started questioning why I was doing this and what’s the point…  Why am I eating such a boring diet, getting up so early, having a routine that leaves no time for parties and activities other than work, workout and eat (and the occasional family dinner)… why am I putting myself through all of this???  To be able to once day walk out on a stage in a bikini and have some people criticize my body and others get off on it?  Is that really enough of a reward in the end?  My coach called me that evening and cheered me up a bit told me it was normal to question it because it means I care about it.  So I felt good enough to get a good night of sleep.

I woke up still feel pretty down today, I skipped my morning cardio and I’m going to go do legs later today but I really don’t feel like it.  It’s strange, it’s like I’m finding that I’m alone with myself right now and I need to find a deep meaningful reason to keep on going.  I have a great family and great friends, I know they’ll be there for me if I need them but I don’t really feel support when it comes to training to compete.  I don’t have real encouragements, it’s always: “That’s good honey, if that’s what you want”.   I know I’m doing this for myself but what’s the point if I can’t share those accomplishments with the people that matter to me?  If really feels like I’m running alone in the dark, I know I where I’m going but I don’t know what I’ll do when I get there.  Does this all sound confusing?  It’s not even clear to me, all I know is that I feel like I’m breaking down, I can’t keep the diet clean, (I’m not eating junk food yet but I keep indulging in small but unnecessary snacks… and not always the best kind!)  As for the workouts it’s even stranger, I do better than I use to but I don’t feel good about it!  I go to the gym and I put on 80-100lbs on the machine and I pull and push and yeah… I’m working hard but I don’t feel I’m really working all that hard, it’s like giving my physical max isn’t good enough for me to feel good anymore.  

The other thing that gets me right now is that although I bust my ass, and I really work hard, you have my word on it! And I’ve been putting on weight instead of losing it!  I have been doing 50 min of stairmaster 4-5 times a week (at level 15-20), intense cardio, I’m dripping when I get off the machine.  Plus I’ve been doing heavy weights 4 times a week plus one day of abs for the past months now, I’ve upped the intensity in the last 2 weeks though and instead of losing weight, I’ve been putting it on.  Now I use the word weight knowingly because I know there is a difference between losing weight and losing fat.  The reason I say weight is that I’m not sure if I’m putting on fat or muscle…. I mean as a woman, I cannot possibly have put on 4 pounds of muscles in the space of about 10 days, can I ????????  I THINK I have decent genetics when it comes to muscularity (but that’s my bias opinion hehe) but I find that to be a bit much….

Now just to make things clear, I really push myself, I’m not the type to quit because it’s too hard or too heavy, it’s actually quite the opposite, give me the choice between doing something the easy way and the hard way and I’ll pick the hard way just to see if I can do it!  I don’t know why I’m feeling the way I feel and I’m pretty sure some of you have been there too.  So if you have any advice please feel free to share… or if you have a good joke too, LOL I think I’d like to have a good laugh

Thanks for reading everyone and have a good workout!

Cat ;o)

Feeling slightly better just sharing all of this… will you look at that….

Wow this morning is toooooooooough!  If you haven’t read my post about loud annoying people in the morning, take a look at it cause this is a kind of sequel to it.  Anyhow, I went to bed a bit late last night but decided to get up at 4:30am anyway and go do my cardio even if I was a bit tired.  So I get up, get dressed, grab my gloves and towel and iPod, I get to the gym, hop on the stairmaster and try to fire up the iPod… guess what?!  No juice! No iPod!  What was I going to do!!!!  I looked around and the loud annoying man wasn’t there, so I figured I’d have to listen to Britney spears and watch a golf tournament that was on… (why is it always golf in the morning, can’t they put on a football game or something with a bit more action? LOLOL!!!)   So I start stepping and sweating and about 5 minutes in guess who I see come out of the men’s locker room!  I missed a step and cursed loud enough that the guy on the treadmill 2 machines away gave me a puzzled look. 

 So this morning imagine this, not only was the loud guy very loud, I had to take 30 min of pointless talk and bad jokes and he kept talking to the guy while he was trying to count his reps… isn’t that just the worst??  Isn’t there an unofficial rule that you don’t talk to someone in a gym while they’re counting their reps???  I get so mad when I lose count because someone talks to me!  Urgh!  But that’s not all, he was taking pictures of the other guy who was there training and seemed to know him obviously… pictures… at 5am…. while yelling and laughin very very loud and I had no iPod to block it out… only Britney and Lady Gaga…  So does it count for MORE cardio when you have to do it under these conditions?  I mean I was soooo "unhappy" and that is putting it somewhat very mildly that my heart rate must have been significantly higher than it should have been…. (well maybe not significantly). 

Well there is absolutely no point to this post other than venting and complaining because I feel like I am being robbed of my peacful post-workout state because of these annoying morning people!  There I said it!  Morning in the gym should be smooth and relaxed, coffee aroma, chilled music, dimmed lights and most of all, silence please until 9am!!  Yeah that’s what I’ll do the day I open my own gym… LOL!  Well one thing is sure, from now on the iPod will be juiced and in the bag BEFORE I go to bed!

I hope you all don’t think I’m just a complaining little princess!  I’m sharing this with you partly to make you laugh and I’m sure there are others with the same kind of morning sessions, feels good to let out the steam sometimes

Ok, well I guess it’s that time of day to get to work!  Have a great day and a great workout everyone!

Cat

Ok, so I’ve been taking my training up a notch cause I’ve been plateauing for a little while now.  Well not sure it’s a real plateau, seems to be more of a period where I’m gaining about as much muscle as I am losing fat since I see more muscles in the mirror and I feel tighter but no difference on the scale.  Anyhow, I still have loads of fat to shed so I decided to start doing 2 workouts a day this week.  I did pretty good so far but I noticed I was a bit tired for my second session, weights in the afternoon.  I use to take Redline as a pre-workout in the afternoon but I was out of it so I decided to try something else, something a bit more intense.  So I looked up a few options and finally decided to go with Shotgun, asked my coach about it and he said I should probably go with that one but then again, being a 5′3 woman he wasn’t sure I should take that kind of pre-workout.  But I’m so stubborn he still went to the store and bought my Shotgun.

So like a kid who just got her Christmas presents, I hurried home to get ready for the gym and try my new pre-workout.  I was all excited to see what it would do that I stupidly (and most of all out of habit) took a full scoop of the stuff, shoved it in the shaker with some water and drank the whole thing on my way to the gym.  Ok so the taste was not bad.  10 min into my workout I started having a splitting headache (I still have it too… 5 hours later), I also started shaking, not intensely but something resembling what happens when your muscles are really tired.  The other effects were a bit strange to me, my veins in my arms (and I noticed on my feet too when I took off my shoes) started coming out ans my muscles felt really really tight almost cramping (is that normal?) that last thing lasted about 5 min then I was ok though.  I don’t know if all this is normal, it probably is… but I though that using this would allow me to have some extra pump to push and pull more and heavier or put in a few more reps… but it was actually the opposite.  I had the hardest time completing the workout and 3 people asked me if I was feeling ok that I was a bit white and should probably sit down LOL!

So from you guys who use this product, is it normal to get these types of effects?  One thing’s sure though I did "over dose" today so I will go for half a scoop tomorrow, hopefully it goes better.  Please feel free to share your experience of this product with me cause if I’m not reacting properly I’ll stop using it all together.

Have a great workout everyone!

Cat ;o)

Ok so I got through morning #3 of early cardio…  This morning was tough.  First I got to the gym later than usual and someone had already taken up the stairmaster. This kind of got me in a bad mood cause I figure if I’m gonna go through the trouble of getting up at 4:30am to do cardio, I want my cardio to count…. no just hop on the bike and burn 2 calories an hour!… Anyway so I hopped on the threadmill and as soon as the dude on the stairmaster hopped off I ran over and got on it.  I figured I had saved 2/3 of my workout since I still had 20 min to do.  So I put on a little Jay-Z and Linkin Park, (love that mix) and I start climbing…  As my bad mood was starting to fade the most annoying type of person walks in the gym… You know the kind of person that feels everyone is their best friend and speaks very loud and find everything a big deal and needs to curse and yell from one end of the gym to the other… man you’re there to do exercise, walk over to your buddy, don’t make me hear about how your life, I don’t care!  Is it just me or should there be some kind of gym etiquette?…. I think it should include something about taking into consideration that not all people are hyperactive and tolerant to loud annoying noises in the morning?   Just to tell you I put my iPod volume 3/4 of the way and put on some Core Metal to ALMOST drown that man’s stories.  I came super close to smacking him on the head with my towel and telling him to shut up and leave the poor gym employee in peace… cause poor dude, he looked so uninterested and bored over his cup of coffee, nodding and going uh uh… I understand that men (cause women are not like that… well most of them) need to show off and talk loudly and be pumped in the gym, but not at 5am… can we settle for waiting until, oh… 9am maybe…

Ok so I’m done venting… it’s better to vent than take it out on coworker or family members no?  So  feel free to vent too if you have to!

Have a great day and a great workout (if it’s not done already!)

Cat ;o)

Ok so day number 2 of my new and improved routine!  Yeah! I did it again… (you can imagine me doing a little funny crazy tryumph dance right now…. ok it’s enough).  Just to let you know I’ll probably be sharing this process of making a habit of morning cardio with you because it’s a bit more motivating to share it with people who care rather than grunting, sleepy, "undercaffeinated" friends who just wish I would shut up and let them wake up over the next 2 hours! LOL!  So yesterday afternoon was weights and an other 20 min intense cardio, I was feeling great.  It was like I got to the gym and was already warmed up and pumped to get going and I’m not taking any artificial pre-workouts at the moment so it was pretty awesome.  I was able to add 5 to 10 lbs to all my weights so I really got in a good workout.  So tonight is upper chest (inclines and pull-overs), some back (upper, middle) and arms and of course abs… I love doing abs, for some reason it’s my favorite part of the workout… and I don’t like it cause it’s easy… I do hanging leg raises and heavy cable crunches and a few other cable core exercises and press sit-ups and stabilisations… the good stuff that makes your abs burn and feel like their tearing apart… fun!  Ok well time to get to work so I guess I’ll be back for part 3 tomorrow morning while eating my egg whites, oats and coffee!

Have a good one!  (Mine is going to be searing hot… again… You know if we’re gonna get southern temperatures in Montreal, we should at least get the palm trees and the beach too!  It’s a rip off! LOLOL!!!!)

Cat ;o)

Hey everyone!  I just had to share this cause I’m so proud of myself!  I was in the gym at 5:05 this morning doing my cardio!  I actually did it as I said I would on the exact day I had planned.

I just want to share this because I know how hard it is to just kick yourself in the rear end and do it.  So here’s my technique if anyone needs some fresh ideas on how to go from thinking of doing it to actually doing it.

I have been thinking of spliting my workouts in 2 sessions a day, cardio and weights.  I work from 8am to 4pm on weekdays so I have to do my workouts before or after work right.  So if I was to split my workouts it would have to be before and after work…. that ment… 5am!!! and my usual 4:30pm session.   5am folks!!! Urgh!  Wasn’t all that excited by the prospect but I began to workout with the goal of competing so I have to do what needs to be done right.  So for an entire week (last week) I set my alarm at 5am every day…. didn’t go to the gym, just practiced waking up early (I know it sounds a bit stupid, but hey it worked…) and doing my morning routine as to not waste to much time when I did go to the gym.  I really though it out and kept telling myself I would go and I would do it. 

Now I know it’s hard, I’ve been lazy for years when it comes to my body, tended to take the easy path, sofa, chips, movie… but being a very determined (my mom would say stubborn though LOL!!!) person I decided to do this so I was going to do it… and I did… and guess what! it was actually easy!  Ok not necessairly my first choice of morning activity to be totally honest a bit more sleep would have been nice but overall, I didn’t drag myself to the gym I had enough energy to do my 30 min intense cardio and burn off about 450 cals (not bad before eating a first meal!)

So folks my tip to you is if you want to start working out or upping the intensity but you find yourself pushing it back all the time… try this technique.  It might work for you.  Just set a date to start and prepare for it.  If you need to organize your schedule or wake up early as I did or any other change, it’ll be easier to do it in phases.  Of course a lot of people will tell you it’s more like a band-aid and you just have to do it.  But not everyone is the same so in the end what ever works best for you is what you should do!  This did it for me.

Have a great day and an awesome workout!

Cat ;o)

Hey there!  I’ve been out doing my thing for the past few weeks and I have been giving it all I have, I almost have to crawl out of the gym… no that’s exaggerating, but I do feel very good about the work I’ve been doing lately.  The diet is decent, ok, I’ve been cheating a LITTLE bit, and I’m honest here, really I haven’t been eating cake… more like 5-6 corn chips after a workout or half a dozen olives at lunch (with a can of tuna and a tea spoon of fat free mayo… mmmmm tasty LOL), but for the rest it’s pretty clean, egg whites, oats, tuna, trout and sole, chicken, greens, vitamins and proteins.  Now I’ve been doing intense cardio training, for 2 weeks 60 to 70 min per workout, I don’t know the exact name of this type of training but I do 2-3 min interval of cardio in between some high rep sets so I actually never rest during my 1h45 workout.  Rather intense, you’d think I would lose at LEAST 1 lbs!  But no!  Nothing…. NOTHING!!!  I have examined everything I do and I’m down to 2 possibilities, my thyroid gland (that I’ve been told is slightly larger than normal and has been monitored but never was a problem) or the stress of my job.  Now I would tend to think it’s the second option since I’ve been under a higher than normal stress level for the past 3-4 weeks.  Just to give you an idea, I’m a project manager in technologies so I tend to always have a certain level of stress in my job, but lately has been rather unreal.  Now I’ve been told to try so many things, from teas to meditation to bring this stress level down, but I can’t… it’s part of the game if you want to make your way up the corporate ladder… especially in technologies.  Now don’t get me wrong I’m not a stressed out person, you probably won’t noticed I’m stressed just by looking at me but it’s a more insidious “in the back or your mind” / omnipresent kind of stress that seems to be countering all that hard work I’ve been doing.  So, I was wondering if anyone had some suggestions as to what can be done to counter the negative effects of stress on fat loss.

Hello everyone!

Yeah you read the title right, chocolate whey banana muffins… now of course they don’t beat an actual chocolate banana cake like grand-ma makes but hey they are a good alternative when you want to stick to your diet (more or less).

For my part the reason I make these is that I can’t stand to have protein shakes anymore. I think I just grossed myself out with the chocolate flavoured whey but it doesn’t go down anymore. However I still need to take in all that protein during the day especially post workout. These give me a good alternative although not perfect but until I go through my 5lbs of whey I bought recently hahaha!

I’ve been perfecting my recipe to my taste so you might want to tweak it to yours, but most people who’ve tasted my muffins liked them… for healthy food. I also make these into big cookies sometimes; I might even try to make a bread out of it so have fun!

Oh yeah one last thing, before you try these, make sure you have silicone or excessively efficient non-stick moulds cause there is no fat in this recipe and it just sticks to everything. I bought silicone muffin cups like in the picture and those work like a charm.

“La Recette” – The recipe (I have to stick a bit of French in here! LOL)

1 cup old fashion oats

1 cup flax mead

8 scoops of chocolate (or vanilla) flavoured whey

1 tablespoon backing powder

3 packets of Splenda

Cinnamon (to taste, I put 1 1/2 teaspoon)

Nutmeg (to taste, I put 1 1/2 teaspoon)

Ginger (to taste, I put 1/2 teaspoon)

2 ripped bananas

1 cup of egg white

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 - In a large mixing bowl, lightly mix the dry ingredients, oats, flax mead, whey, backing powder and spices.

2  - In another bowl mash the bananas into a pure and add the egg whites, mix in the vanilla extract.

3 - Incorporate the banana/egg white mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix until you get a smooth mixture, if you find it to be too liquid you can add more whey, flax mead or oats to your choice, if it is too think, just add a bit of water until it is the right consistency.

4 - Pour the mixture in the moulds and place in the oven that has been preheated to 350F.

Now you can make these into muffins, cookies or even a bread to slice. The cooking time will vary on the type of mould you use. Muffins usually take about 20–25 min. and cookies take 8-12 min. Now of course nothing beats grand-ma’s toothpick method!

For those of you who don’t cook all that much here it is: simply poke the muffin or cookie where it seems to be the thickest, slide the toothpick almost all the way in, if it comes out clean, it’s ready if there is mixture on it, let it cook another few minutes then try again.

And Voilà! Non-fat chocolate whey banana muffins for you to enjoy! Make sure to keep them in the fridge as there is no natural conservation agent (such as sugar) in there so they’ll go bad quickly. You can also freeze them for a little while. Let me know what you think if you try them!

Oh and here is a pic of when they came out of the oven… just for you to laugh a bit LOL kind of like a cooking show blooper… LOL I think I put too much mixtures in the moulds LOL!!!!!!!