Pump hard……. Pump often

Yesterday was another rest day for me.  I’m noticing that on Thursdays my body is just exhausted and I’m too tired to hit the gym.  I normally work out on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and that would explain why by Thursday I’m tired not to mention why I was not getting housework done as I’m coming home during the work week like around 10:30 p.m. and 11:00 p.m.  My new workout plan will have me in the gym Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. This gives me Tuesday and Friday as off days and rest days.

After a relaxing evening at home and some quality rest I’m semi-ready to hit the gym. My body is still tired so I do not think I got all the rest I needed. But I’ll get some exercise in today. My sister is in town and she is staying with my parents for a few days. Since my parents have totally updated their home gym with a VERY nice new treadmill and a stationary bike I plan on trying out their treadmill.  Daddy also has a nice set of dumbbell weights on a rack so I can do my biceps tonight as well. At least that is the plan. It takes me an hour to do the treadmill and anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to work the weights. Being closed up in the exercise room for 1 ½ to 2 hours may be a bit rude. So I’m not sure yet.

I’m finally getting very regular with my improved eating schedule. I’ve cut out a lot of carbs from my diet as I was a big lover of fried foods. I’m still a big lover of fried foods but I’ve reduced my intake greatly.  I allow myself one cheat meal a week and that is on Saturday. I eat whatever I want for that meal.  It’s still a vegan meal but it can be as delicious and as fried as I want it!  I am highly looking forward to my cheat meal tomorrow.

Currently my meals are as follows. Meal 1 is a smoothie made up of 100% grape juice, vanilla soy milk, a banana, frozen strawberries, frozen blueberries, and a scoop of Super-Red Pro-96 Soy Protein powder. Meal 2 is a peeled apple and a handful of unsalted dry roasted peanuts.  Meal 3 is cooked veggies with a baked potato with soy butter.  Meal 4 is a sweet potato with soy butter and light brown sugar.  Meal 4 is one scoop of Super-Red Pro-96 Soy Protein powder in 8 ounces of water and a banana.  If I go to the gym then I get another protein powder/water drink right after working out. Meal 5 is a salad of fresh veggies, lettuce and tofu with ginger dressing. Lastly an hour before bed is another protein shake made up of carrot juice and one scoop of Super-Green Pro-96 powder.  That’s what I eat six days a week although it is much easier to keep it exactly as above Monday through Friday. The weekends are a bit flexible as I tend to go out with family and friends and we may end up getting something to eat or I may end up at my family’s home and eating what’s available there. So far this new eating routine and my many hours at the gym are paying off. I’m loosing the weight.  Plus I’m loosing my insatiable cravings for fried foods.

One thing I’m noticing is I no longer see meals as breakfast, lunch and dinner with snacks in between. That routine doesn’t work for me and based on what I’ve seen on body builders blogs and articles it does not work for a lot of other people as well. The idea is to keep the body fueled ever few hours and that mindset does not fit with a three meal a day plan. No wonder people munch heavily on whatever is in their office snack machine. If you only eat three meals in a day you will eat a LOT at each meal trying to keep you held over until the next meal and you will snack on junk food trying to stop the hunger pains and growling. The way I eat I do not get hungry often and if I do I know I’m not that far away from my next meal.

I got this idea from a bodybuilder’s article on bodybuilding.com.  I do love this website. 

DivaInPink

Yesterdays workout was pretty good as I did get a good chest and back but….

I worked out with my friend and we tend to workout on his routine as I was trying to motivate him to get back in the gym. So I have been going to the gym with him almost every day I go to the gym. Finally, he is ready to go to the gym on his own  as he is now highly motivated to hit the gym most days. And as I mentioned before in a blog his routine obviously focuses on his body building goals and it does not reflect my own.  He wants to build up his upper body which is the focus of most men at a gym. He wants a big chest, back, arms and shoulders and he places less focus on his legs and cardio.  Although, he has come to the realization that nobody can see his muscles under layers of fat which can only go away with fat burning cardio.  I on the other hand have no interest in a big upper body and only want to keep my upper body toned and nicely defined.  I am interested in shapely legs, tight abs, tight butt, and weight loss. So spending hours in the gym doing chest and back exercises is counter productive to my goals. After spending two hours yesterday on chest and back exercises I announced I was promptly getting on the treadmill. After looking at me in disappointment and some sadness I think it dawned on him we have different workout goals and need different routines.  He enjoys me working out with him and helping him with his routine but I’m not making the most use out of my gym time when I spend two hours doing nothing but chest and back or arms. Plus I’m tired of getting home at 11:00 p.m. and close to midnight after spending 3 ½ hours or more at the gym.

So we have a new plan. We will work out together on the days we do legs and on the weekend. But during the week when not working legs we will work out alone. So he can happily spend threes hours on chest and back day WITH an additional hour on the treadmill WITH some time in the sauna at the end of it all and can get home as late as he chooses. While I can get in and out of the gym in two hours and be at my home in my bed sleep. He can always call me in the morning.

Yesterday I did do an hour on the treadmill. Been a minute since I jogged on the treadmill so I have to work my endurance back up to 30 minutes. It is amazing how easy that can get away from me so quickly.

My new gym routine is to be at the gym five days a week with two days off during the work week so I can be home and catch up on any household stuff and sleep and rest. My current two nights off are Tuesdays and Fridays.

I think this routine will work out best for me and for my friend as I do not want to hamper his workout routine and I also do not want to be sitting in the gym until it closes.

I was watching a video segment on cnn.com and they posted something that I’ve known for awhile and that is people embrace being fat because it is socially acceptable to be obese. I think I posted in my blog awhile back that when I am in the public most of the people I see especially down south are overweight. And if most of the people you see are obese then obesity becomes the norm and you get desensitized to the challenges of being overweight because it seems normal. And you are more likely to gain weight when your family, friends and social scene are full of obese and overweight people. I mean if you gain 20 or 30 pounds whose going to look at you in horror when you just catching up to the average weight of those around you. 

This video was stating that if you see your friends gaining weight you begin to change your idea of what is an acceptable body size. I think this has happened to the American conscience. We have changed our idea of what is an acceptable body size. For a realistic test go to any “retro” clothing store that sales old clothes from the 1950s and 1960s and find women’s clothing in a size larger than a 10 or 12. It is almost as if sizes 14 on up didn’t exist back then. Of course there were large women and always have been and always will be but the NORM back then was like a size 10 or smaller. Look at pictures of your parents or grandparents when they were young and look at today’s generation in that age group.  Big difference in body size. When I look at clothes from the 1950’s I am amazed people were so tiny.

What needs to change is the American perception of what is the normal size of a man and a woman. It is not normal for a woman to be a size 20 and it is not normal for a man to be wearing XXL shirts.  I am 5’5” tall 200 pounds and I wear a size 16 and my mother told me the other day she is noticing I’m losing weight but does not think I can afford to loose much more.  This is a woman who was so skinny in college they called her string bean. Now her perception of a decent body size is that at 200 pounds she does not think I can stand to lose much more weight. This is the challenge to the American mentality when it concerns obesity we are beginning to think that being overweight is normal.

DivaInPink

Yesterday was a decent workout day but wow getting to the gym was just insane.  The last time I was at the gym was Wednesday of last week so it had been five days since I was in the gym. Amazing how that happened. Three days I took off because of my monthly menstrual, one day I took off because I was so sleepy I needed rest more than working out and the other day my friend who works out with me wanted to change our meet up plans and by the time he tells me he’s not working out its too late for me to make my way back downtown to get to the gym so I can workout alone. So there you have it. Five days of no gym time. So yesterday I’m looking forward to getting back in the gym. If all went to plan my friend and myself should have been hitting the gym floor by 7:00 p.m. Instead my dad surprises me at work to take me out to dinner (and I REALLY was tempted to go) but instead I took a rain check and I mentioned I was going to the gym with my friend who was suppose to meet me downtown at 6:15 p.m. Daddy says he’ll give me a ride to where I needed to go and be willing to get me a quick bite to eat to boot (my daddy is so sweet) so I call my friend who says he’s still at home and since my parents stay about 15 minutes away from him and plus the gym was close to his side of town why not just pick me up at my parents. Ok sounds like a plan. BUT traffic was not helping. I called my friend on the way to the house so he can leave his home and get there right about the time I pull up.  Daddy and I get back to my parents house about 7:00 p.m. and I’m thinking me and my friend will hit the gym floor by 7:30 p.m. Ok that’s doable. Well he shows up at my parents not close to when I got there but about 8:00 p.m. and we do not hit the gym floor until 8:30 p.m. And I’m thinking this evening is getting later and later and later. So he suggests we just do treadmill and some ab work since it was getting late. Works for me! After the treadmill he wants to do legs AND abs. It was so late by the time I got home I was shaking my head in disbelief.

I did get 45 minutes on the treadmill, some workouts on the quads, hamstrings, calves and overall legs. Plus some ab work. I’m a ab exercising nut and I hit three ab machines with three sets per machine. So normally I get about nine sets of exercises on my abs when I do my ab workout. Last night I only hit three sets as I only had time for one machine so it was a light ab night.

So that was yesterday but at least I got back in the gym. Tonight I’m hoping for a more intense workout and I’m hoping my friend is a bit more motivated to get to the gym earlier. Rest is very important for the body as that is when it recovers from the workouts so I like getting back home early in order to get a good night’s rest.

Yesterday I walked on the treadmill on a crazy incline height and it was challenging and fun. Today, I’m hitting the treadmill running.

DivaInPink

I have not been to the gym since Wednesday and won’t be back in the gym until Monday. Thursday evening I went home and went straight to bed I was so sleepy. I did an extra long and more intense workout on Wednesday plus I got home quite late from the gym on Wednesday night which meant by Thursday I was very tired.  Friday my menstrual cycle started (sorry if that was too much info for some folks) and I have a policy that for the first three days of my cycle I allow my body to rest so my energy is put towards by body’s monthly cleansing. Over taxing the body’s energy would mean weakening the immune system and risk getting sick or over taxing the body and risk injury in the gym.  So that meant no gym on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Therefore, it will be Monday before I’m back in the gym.

Since on Friday I forgot to bring my baked potato with broccoli and cauliflower for lunch I ended up ordering a vegan pizza. Plus I left work an hour late which meant I was hungry so I made Friday my cheat day and got me some French fries. Normally Saturday would be my cheat day but since I knew I would be home all day Saturday resting my body I decided to make Friday my cheat day. So today I ate my normal healthy foods.

I look forward to about two weeks from now to measure my weight and take an updated photo to see how far I’ve progressed in my weight loss and defining my body.

On another note I’m still trying to fine tune what will be the best way for me to begin a career that relates to fitness.  I will return to college and finish my degree. That’s step one but the question is which degree do I choose. I have some restrictions like needing to take courses in the evening. So I’m either doing night school or an online degree. And both creates limitations such as needing to choose a degree that does not require lab work. As far as I can tell science based degrees are not degrees you get in evening classes. Some courses are offered at night but some courses can only be taken during the day hours and well during the day I’m working. I do not have all the answers which is why I’m still researching all my options and pondering different possible ways finish my degree. I have three years of college coursework majoring in Chemistry. Since I left college in 1990 I’m not sure if seventeen years later I will get much credit for any of my courses but I’ll deal with that road when I get to it.  Wow, it’s been seventeen years since I left college. What HAVE I been doing with my time?

Reality check.

Well, nothing much more to blog about.

DivaInPink

Yesterday was a pretty intense chest workout. Like two hours worth. Personally, I don’t think I need to spend two hours working on chest exercises but I have a workout partner who is gung ho about building his chest and back so on chest day he is so crazy pumped he literally spends hours just working on chest exercises and I do as many chest exercises as I can to keep up. I’m gung ho about doing leg exercises and abs and he’s not so we have a compromise. I do chest exercises designed for my goals while working out with him as he does his chest exercises for his goals. And he does abs and legs with me yet at weights and reps for his goals.
I carry my weight in my legs. You know the whole "thick hips and butts" thing.  I call thick exactly what it is FAT. I am 5′5" and I weigh 202 pounds and wear a size 16. No way am I going to call all of this "thick". People say I don’t look my size but the scale never lies. So since my legs is where I carry my fat I like to work out my legs pretty intense so I can get the weight down and the muscles firm and toned.
Here comes the rant. 
I’m not a fan of the whole "like them thick" movement because to me that is romanticizing being overweight. And it encourages women who are overweight not to get fit because men like them "thick".  So the ladies walk around thinking nothing is wrong with their weight while they keep going up in dress sizes.  Same is true for the whole "big guy" slogan. Lots of overweight men walk around with their chest poked out and their stomach poked out farther than their chest talking about they just a "big guy" and saying that women like them like that.  We are an unfit nation of people and finding mental ways to make being overweight attractive is not in our best interest.  I visit different online communities and I am noticing there is a big movement to embrace being overweight. To me that’s the lazy way. It’s easier to embrace being overweight than to accept you need to exercise and change the way you eat. I prefer to get fit and healthy and know that if I walk down a beach in my bathing suit I feel good about the way I look.

DivaInPink

Yesterday was my non-treadmill cardio day so I decided to brave the stair master. The REAL one with the revolving stairs and it was an intense workout. The machine looks deceiving as you watch people just simply walk “up” stairs and the stairs do not revolve very fast so the machine looks easy. Well the movement is easy but the workout is fierce.  It truly works the thighs and works up a sweat. No wonder people who do the stair master on a regular basis have great looking legs. I am a new fan of this cardio machine and this will be my cardio of choice when not on the treadmill. What I found fascinating was this machine goes up to level 20 and considering how hard level 5 was for me I can’t even imagine what level 20 does. I wonder how many people can work the stair master at level 20.

My workout last night was short and productive. Just 30 minutes on the stair master and I was out of the gym. Considering I can be in the gym for two hours easily I felt like I was barely in the gym but I realized some days I just need to be home earlier just to focus on chores or to just get to bed early.

On another note I am becoming more interested in the state of American health. My goodness we as a country are overweight. I’ve looked at multiple charts on the net and America is the most obese country followed by Mexico and then the United Kingdom and then Canada. What I found interesting is the two countries the border America are in the top four. America is a rich country which I thought would explain why we are so overweight. Since it takes money to buy enough food in order to get fat but Mexico is not a rich country so maybe my theory is flawed.  America has 32% of its population overweight. Which means in a room of 100 people 32 of them are overweight. And if you come down south where I was born, raised and still live that number will be higher because if I walk into a room of 100 people I know more than 32 will be overweight.  The southern diet is a very delicious yet quite unhealthy diet.

So now I’m interested in becoming informed on the obesity epidemic that plagues our country and how can I help besides reducing my own weight.

DivaInPink

I took Friday off as an exercise rest day and then exercised on Saturday and since I had such a strong workout on Saturday I rested on Sunday.  Saturday I did my chest, back and abs. I also hit the treadmill. I was very excited to get on the treadmill since I now have my new running pants. Here is the shocker though. I found the same pair of running pants in Sports Authority as the pair that I lost (actually were stolen) in the gym a week before. Now if I had bought the first pair at this Sports Authority I would not be surprised to find another pair. But I bought my first pair at the Nike outlet center and they were on clearance. The pair I bought at Sports Authority were on clearance as well. There were only ONE pair of these running pants on the clearance rack at Sports Authority and they happen to be the correct size. How bizarre is that? Personally, I accept it as a miracle.  That was an amazing blessing and I’m happy to get my running pants back. And to think I was almost about to leave the store. I had found another style that was not what I really wanted but they would do. I was looking for some casual gym pants on the clearance rack when I spotted the running pants.

Anyhoo. I got back on the treadmill on Saturday and was gleeful until I got a cramp in my side. I think the cramp came from a combination of the heavy duty ab workout I did on Thursday and again on Saturday and me not being on the treadmill in a week and me upping my speed by one setting. So yea maybe upping my speed when I have not been on the treadmill in a week was not the best idea but I was ready to push myself. The good news is that the cramp didn’t hit until 25 minutes into my jog. So today I’m going to try the higher speed again and see if I can make it for 30 minutes. I did have to stop and walk once during that jog as I became winded.

I’ve decided to hit my legs twice per week instead of once per week. I carry my weight (read fat) on my thighs, butt and hips so I need to hit the legs more often. Especially the glutes. So today will be a good leg day.

I’ve read the bodyblog Stick With It! by Herve Duchemin twice and his writing motivated me to get serious about being disciplined with my eating. I have a vegan diet so my eating by default is never a big problem but it needed to get better. Too many fried foods and foods high in carbohydrates in my diet. So yesterday I planned my meals for the week, went by the grocery store and only bought what was on my list (and that was hard to stick with), came home and cooked for the week. Now I know exactly what I will eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks all week. Carbs are in the morning and afternoon and no carbs late at night. I have lots of veggies, salad, protein smoothies, tofu, and nuts in my meal plan. My cheat day is Saturday and only one cheat item (so I make it good). Last Saturday was beer battered onion rings! Delicious and I savored every bite.

Well I got on the scale Sunday and was 202 lbs. I’m so excited that I’m just a few pounds from being under 200!  I can’t wait to hit the scale and see myself UNDER 200 lbs. I don’t care if it is three pounds under 200. Just to know that I finally got under 200 lbs and will stay under 200 lbs will be a happy day. I can’t wait until my August weigh in to see what my weight will be then. My current target is 160 lbs and then once I reach that goal I’ll make a new goal.

DivaInPink

Gotta love the bodybuilding.com community. I saw a pie graph on another person’s blog that broke down how much carbs, proteins and fat he consumed in a day. I sent a message asking how he created the pie graph and he sent the link fitday.com  The website is designed for people to track their weight and food intake. Since I am trying to get fit, toned, lean and well defined I need to loose weight as I am 204 lbs. I’ve lost weight since May about six pounds in seven weeks. That’s a bit less than I was hoping as I’m more interested in about two pounds a week. I have a vegan diet and I go to the gym at least five days a week with a total of four hours of cardio for the week. So why is my weight loss so small?  Well I put my food intake up till lunch and so far I’ve had 1,454 calories which is 23 % fat, 59% carbs and 17% protein.  My fat count is low for half a day because of the vegan diet but the carb count is very high and that may be why I’m losing weight so slowly. I noticed that the bulk of my carbs comes from the fresh fruit I love to eat.  My normal eating pattern is to eat my fruit in the beginning of the day and to eat more veggies towards the later part of the day.  For dinner I eat a light salad or if it is too late to eat then I have a protein shake. The challenge is I make the protein shake with fruit which is adding carbs to my body late at night and I know that’s not good for weight loss.  One of my protein powders is a green based veggie powder that the instructions say I can blend with veggies.  A veggie shake? Never heard of it or tried it but I might start trying it so I can cut out the high carb fruits in my smoothies in the evening. 

I went looking on the net for “veggie smoothie” and found some interesting ideas. Never thought about adding carrots, frozen spinach, cabbage, avocados or tomatoes to a smoothie. Yep, that does sound like some bodybuilding concoction.  I’ll have to try some mix and match with veggies in a blender and my veggie green protein powder to see what I can come up with. Using carrot juice would be a great base. I know Odwalla sells fresh carrot juice in the grocery store. I may try that. Carrot juice, frozen spinach, tomato, and my green protein powder.  I hope it taste decent.

DivaInPink

Last night I worked on biceps, abs, and the stationary bike.

For biceps I did four sets of bicep curls with dumbbells. Two sets were at 15 lbs and two sets were at 10 lbs.  The maximum reps was 16 and the lowest was 6.  I also did the preacher curls with dumbbells with two sets at 10 lbs and one set at 5 lbs. Did 20 and 22 reps with the 10 lbs and 30 reps with the 5 lbs. Last I used the Startrac bicep curl machine. By this time my biceps were weakened and I did two sets at 20 lbs and one set at 10 lbs (in other words remove the pin and it defaults to 10 lbs). Did 7 and 15 reps at the 20 lbs and 13 reps at the 10 lbs. My biceps are slightly sore today so I guess I could have done more bicep work yesterday.

Abs I did the Hammer Ab crunch machine (that machine works the abs hard). Three sets at 25 lbs with the reps being 12, 14, and 10 and then one set at 15 lbs with 11 reps. Lastly, I did the Nitro abdominal machine. Two sets at 90 lbs with 13 and 10 reps. Two sets at 80 lbs with 13 and 14 reps. Then the fire alarm goes off in the gym with evacuation lights blinking every where and some prerecorded message saying there is a fire in the building and to leave. I think we all paused for a few seconds and went right back to our routines. I don’t think folks on the cardio equipment even stopped. I guess it would have taken a LaFitness employee hollering “run for your lives!” before we moved towards a door.

I did see two other ab machines I’ve never tried so I think the next time I’ll give them a shot and see what I make of them.

The bike I did for 25 minutes for 5.00 miles burning 149 calories. I love the bike but I burn way more calories on the treadmill. As in about 500 calories. Just one more day and then I can buy my running pants and I’ll be back on the treadmill.

DivaInPink