Pump hard……. Pump often

I have no car and I walk from the bus stop to my job every morning and from my job back to the bus stop. And it is a 20 minute walk each way. There used to be a bus stop by my job but the public transit authority removed that route and I found myself needing to walk 20 minutes to the nearest bus stop. This was a few years ago and that my friends in how I began getting ANY exercise in my life at the time. I’ve been doing this walking for a few years now and I’m 100% used to it. In the winter it sucks but I bundle up and make it happen. Seen gas prices lately? That’s why I have no car and keep walking. I pay $52 a month to ride public transit for unlimited rides. Not bad but it has its drawbacks. Anyhoo, For years I’ve just been causally walking to and fro. About a year ago my dad asked why don’t I turn my walk into a workout. I just looked at him and rolled that thought right out of my mind. Well since then I started working out so over the past couple of weeks I’ve been giving his wisdom a lot of thought. I downloaded some songs with a power walking tempo and gave his idea a test walk. Instead of getting to work in 20 minutes I get there in 17. I feel empowered and energized when I get into the office. I feel ready for the day!

I tried the same thing going home and I like how it gives me a warm up before hitting the gym. So I’ve now added another 40 minutes of cardio to my day. I enjoy the power walks so much I almost wish my walk to work was longer (almost being the key word.)

Didn’t’ go to the gym today as I rested my body after three days in the gym. I am doing a 95% job of maintaining my healthy six meals a day without veering off. Tonight, I fixed my veggies with tofu and had this HUGE craving for carbs. Not sure why though as I had just a few hours earlier a bowl of oatmeal with a banana and dates. Plenty of complex healthy carbs in that bowl and should have been my last carb meal for the day. But tonight my body wanted carbs. I had some multi grain crackers in the cabinet and I munched on a few of those with my stir fry veggies and tofu. I didn’t feel bad as I feel like my body needed it. In hindsight I should have just ate a piece of fruit. But when that carb craving hits you don’t think straight!

Been looking at a lot of BodySpace profiles and blogs and I’m really encouraged and inspired by all the success stories I see. So many people have overcome their personal challenges to being fit and healthy to not only loose weight but to sculpt their bodies and for some even enter into competitions. All these stories keep me hyped about being on track with my own development and weight management. I look forward to one day posting pictures of myself at my idea body size!

It’s 11:00 at night and I’m thinking about the obesity epidemic in America. I just feel this strong need to somehow make a difference and help in a way. Dropping my weight is just a start. I want to help people get fit and active and vibrant in life. So many people walk around in this dopey state of existence and I know it is due to their poor health. I know for a fact it is hard to get people active but I know there has to be something I can do to help people in America get back in shape. The success of this country depends on our state of health.

Saturday evening I did a great upper body workout. I bench pressed up to 95lbs and I’m working on my goal of being able to bench press 135lbs. It’s not so much the weight as I want to be able to bench a 45lb plate on each side. Just something I want to be able to do. I have no desire to bench more than that though. I guess I don’t want to look “cute” benching my 25lb plates but look like I can hold my own on the bench. Maybe its all vanity.

I hit the chest with multiple exercises as I want to hit the chest from multiple angles. Besides the bench press I did two other chest machines. Since I don’t’ know what the exercises are called nor do I remember the sets I did I am finding I need a fitness diary.  I started one back in May of 2007 but since at the time I was only doing a few exercises I realized it was easy for me to remember what I did from day to day.  Not any more. I’m moving towards a goal of body building for fitness. So I’m doing more weight training and developing a workout plan for myself. Needless to say I’m loosing track of the different exercises, the number of sets and the weights I’m doing all week long. So when I was at GNC last night I found an awesome fitness blog. More on that later in this blog.

Later Saturday evening I did my biceps, triceps and back.  What I am beginning to understand is that two hours in the gym per day is enough and I use at least 30 minutes of that doing cardio. So that leaves me 1 ½ hours left for weights. Trying to effectively work the chest, back, triceps, biceps and some ab work in 1 ½ hours is not realistic. I don’t feel like I’m hitting my parts as well as I like because I’m too busy trying to hurry up to get to the next muscle group. So I’m breaking up the upper body workout over two days. Something like chest with biceps one day and back with triceps another day and doing ab work both days. This way my muscles get a great workout.

Sunday I worked lower body. Legs are different than upper body. I’m able to get a great workout in just one day with legs. I’m still sore from Sunday’s workout. I did the leg press with two 45lb plates on each side. I pumped about three sets and then lowered the weight for three more sets. Then I did calves. Next, I did machine exercises for hamstrings, quads, glutes, inner thighs and outer thighs. The glute machine hits the back of the butt but I found the machine that does the outer thighs hits the side of the butt. If that makes any sense. At any rate my butt is sore so I’m looking forward to a more firm backside. Hitting the back of the butt helps to round it out and keep it from drooping but hitting the side of the butt makes it look tighter.

Yesterday I just did cardio. I did the elliptical for 30 minutes and power walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes. And today I’m resting.

This is my new fitness journal. I like it as it has everything I need to monitor. It has a cardio section to log my minutes and calories burned per machine. It has a strength training section for up to four sets. It has a dietary section to log my meals. Even a section to monitor my vitamins, supplements and to log how many 8oz of water I’m drinking per day!  This journal will help a lot. With this I’ll be more effective of reaching my goal of getting into a size 12!

For a detailed picture of the inside pages click on this link.

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s214/fuchsia_2007/journal2.jpg

Ok, so my new eating program came apart a bit yesterday. First, at my job there was some leftover cake and since I wasn’t feeling great obviously the cake was looking like comfort food which I did eat. Second, I ran out of bananas and my plan was to go to the grocery store last night to buy more but that didn’t happen.  My friend called and said he wanted to do dinner at one of my favorite restaurants (a vegan Chinese restaurant) and I of course said yes. It was raining pretty hard yesterday and I wasn’t feeling all that great so seeing him and having dinner at one of my favorite spots was exciting to me.

On my six meal a day plan I usually eat meal four around 4:00 p.m. so by the time we got to the restaurant by 5:30 p.m. I wasn’t hungry (good thing as I didn’t pig out).  Ordered vegan General Tao’s chicken which is breaded, fried, and covered in a tangy sweet sauce. Can we say CARBS galore????  But hey it was good. He ordered vegan Mongolian beef and that was good as well. We had two appetizers and they were breaded and fried. Needless to say that even though I didn’t eat much I didn’t any anything else that night. I was actually full for the rest of the evening.

I took the leftovers and put them in the freezer for my cheat meal next week. So today I’m back on my normal six healthy meals a day.

One lesson I did learn is that if I eat every three hours then when I do have a cheat meal I won’t pig out from being hungry. The cheat meal probably will have leftovers and that I can freeze until the next week’s cheat meal. A great way to save money. Buy a cheat meal and it can be spit into two meals over two weeks.

Had a great workout both days. On Tuesday I hit my chest and arms hard. I have this goal of being able to bench press two 45lb plates and I’m working towards that goal. I can currently bench press two 25lb and two 5 lb plates as my max weight. My normal weight for doing bench press sets is two 25lbs plates.  What I was very excited about is on a seated chest machine I was able to push two 45lb plates. I have been doing two 25lb plates and on Tuesday it just felt too easy. So I loaded the plates up in increments of 5lbs until I got to 45lbs and was able to do two sets of seven reps with the 45lb plates. I’m so hyped about that!  Just to be able to do ANY chest exercise with 45lb plates is awesome to me.

I do bicep curls with 20lb dumbbells and on Tuesday I upped that to a 25lb dumbbell so that was exciting as well. I’m definitely getting stronger and that builds my confidence in the weight area.  I remember when I felt like a puppy wondering into the big dog’s pen when I first entered the free weight area now I feel right at home. I was convinced the free weight area would not intimate me and I kept working my exercises. Now I’m seeing results in my strength. 

Wednesday was all about cardio. I didn’t even touch a weight. I’m changing up my cardio routine as I feel my current one is not as effective as I want it to be. Instead of doing 55 minutes of moderate speed on the elliptical I’m doing 25 minutes of fast speed and then 20 minutes power walking on the treadmill.  I tried that yesterday and felt like I was getting a better workout and allowing a variation on exercises and muscles used.

Day three of the six meal a day program proved to be interesting.  By 4:00 p.m. I was tired and realized I needed some carbs. I brought some oatmeal (no sugar or salt added) and added a banana and chopped dates (the dates make it sweet).  Within the hour I was feeling pretty good. I realized that although cutting back carbs is important as in the American diet there is way too many carbs the body really does need the complex carbs that are in food naturally. The oatmeal, banana and dates all have natural complex carbs and gave me the energy I needed to work out that afternoon.

The shopping aspect of this eating program is what I have to fine tune. I need a grocery list and I need to check my food supply every morning to make sure I have everything I need for the upcoming days. I forgot bananas yesterday so now I have to go back to the store and buy bananas.

I do notice I get hungrier more often. That was not the case when I first started a couple of days ago. Maybe my body is adjusting to not having huge meals at any one time. Reminds me of when I stopped eating meat a few years ago and the first few days it was great. I felt lighter and more alert but then I felt hungry and tired. Took me about two weeks to get adjusted.  Maybe this is the same thing. One thing exercising has taught me and that is the body is trainable so I’m sure with enough time this new eating cycle will feel normal.

Yesterday was day two at eating six moderate meals a day. I have to say I had a lot of energy throughout the day and the day went by pretty quickly. I guess when you finish a meal and realize three hours later you need to be warming up or putting together another meal your day picks up speed.  Eating the same thing every day doesn’t bore me like I thought it would. (I’m a vegan and I’m used to having a limited diet.)  I am focusing on food as fuel and not as entertainment or consolation which helps me not get attached to the art of eating and needing something new and different.

I went to the grocery store last night to stock up on items I’m in low supply or out of and ran across an interesting dilemma. What do I do when the food item I need is out of stock? I wanted to buy some stir fry veggie mix and the grocery store was out. So I’m standing there looking at a blank spot on the shelf perplexed. I’ve put so much planning into this eating routine I didn’t plan for needing alternatives. This shouldn’t be a big deal but since I’m just starting this eating plan I really don’t want to start adjusting it too soon. Hopefully, the grocery store I go to this evening will have what I need.

I will admit it feels odd to feel full most of the day or to realize that at any given point of the day it has always been no more than three hours since I had a meal. I’m excited to see what my weight loss will be in a month as I add a better eating habit to my exercise routines. 

What I am pondering is my eating routine over the weekend. Monday through Friday is easy. My routine varies very little. But on the weekend when I’m out and about I just can’t lug around plastic containers of mixed veggies and salad!  I’ll have to work out something for the weekend.

I started this program today with the intentions of journaling my thoughts for the next seven days. My goal is to make this a lifestyle change but first I should get through the first week. On the surface it seems simple enough. Instead of eating three big meals a day eat six moderate healthy meals a day. By replacing the snacks with small healthy meals then I’m not adding more food to my day just better planned eating throughout the day. I learned about this while watching a body building video on YouTube (gotta love that site).  The speaker mentioned that each meal should contain some protein.

The three meals I eat every day were easy to plan for. It was the other three meals I had to think about. I mean SIX meals a day? That takes planning a good grocery list and planning the cooking. I realized I can’t think in terms of breakfast, lunch and dinner with snacks. It’s like meal one through meal six. I also realized my carbs need to be in the first half of the day and very little if any carbs in the second half of the day. So meal one was a smoothie of vanilla soy milk, a banana, two tablespoons of natural peanut butter, and a scoop of vanilla soy protein powder. That was quite filling. Meal two was an apple with unsalted roasted peanuts.  Meal three was a salad with sautéed veggies and tempeh (sautéed in a table spoon of olive oil) and seasoned with Italian seasonings and Mrs. Dash. Meal four was a bowl of stir fired veggies and a protein drink of protein powder and water. Meal five was mixed veggies with portabella mushrooms and tofu. Meal six was a protein drink of protein powder and water. Now keep in mind I didn’t hit the gym today so tomorrow I will have to tweek my meals to account for the carbs I need to hit the gym. Also keep in mind these are not big plates of food like a "normal" meal. My portions about half the size. All things in moderation.

Tomorrow will be the same except I’ll have a banana about an hour before hitting the gym. This gives me the extra carbs I need for my workout. I’m thinking of buying a thermo mug and heating up some oatmeal and cutting up the banana and eating that as I’m finding the banana wears off about halfway through my workout. Since I’m going to the gym right after work I need the thermo mug as a way to carry the food and eat on the go. During my workouts I tend to drink Gatorade for the carbs but if I’m adding oatmeal before the workout I may only need water during the workout. I’ll have to try it out and see.  Right after the workout I’ll drink the protein drink of soy protein powder and water. Since I ride public transportation and it will be about 1 ½ hours before I get home I’ll bring some sautéed mushrooms to munch on after the gym on my way home. I was eating a banana but I now realize that after I workout I have no need to eat carbs. Then I’ll eat my last meal when I get home as I would have already consumed the evening protein drink.

Day one went pretty well and I was not hungry and I ate healthy all day with most of carbs (if not all of them) were before lunch. This should help my weight loss a lot. Since I didn’t get hungry throughout the day I did’t come to any meal famished needing to wolf down a whole plate of food. Moderate portions every three hours was plenty of food.

 Also, on this way of eating you eat one "cheat" meal a week. Anything goes (for the most part).  I’m keeping my cheat meal for the weekend. A veggie burger with onion rings at the Vortex is my idea of a cheat meal!

I live in Atlanta and I don’t own a car. I know that makes no sense but I make it work. (You have to live in Atlanta or at least visit often to understand why living here with no car makes no sense.)  So I take MARTA which is our public bus and rail system.  Last week my parents went out of town and my dad lent me his truck for a week. I drove to work and home and then today I was back on MARTA. And I noticed a few things.

Last week even though I spent an hour in the morning in traffic (mind numbing) I was able to bounce around in the truck listening to my up tempo dance music and getting rid of that “blah time to go to work” mood that most of us have when we race out the door five minutes late Monday through Friday mornings. So by the time I got to work I was in a good mood humming to the workout remix of Shake It Off. (If you’ve never heard this go to iTunes and do a search for “Shape Walk Top 40 Hits”. On the list of songs for this cd #10 should be Shake It Off. Listen to the 30 second sample and if this song doesn’t get your body moving I advice you check for your pulse.) Yes I love this song for how it just evaporates any blah mood and gets me pumped!  But when I’m on the train or bus even though I can still listen to this song (and my other dance songs) on my iPod I can’t bounce up and down in the seat like I did in the truck. Why? Because the people on the bus and train look like zombies who need a few cups of coffee and I would look like I had too many cups of coffee and well I’m not an attention hog so I just sit in my seat tapping my foot. And that is the essence of what I noticed.

People are just numb in the mornings. I know most people spend their time wondering how they ended up in their jobs when as a teenager they had big dreams. Rents, mortgages, children, eating, clothes, credit card bills and keeping the lights on have a way of getting us into jobs more than careers and you can see this in people’s faces on their way to work. Hey even in cars sitting in traffic I saw this. But when in different cars their Monday morning blues (which happens DAILY) has no impact on me. I can bounce in the truck all I want and feel great about the day. When I’m on public transportation I’m sharing space and their mood (and the rest of folks who are just as depressed) impacts my mood and I can’t bounce around to hype up my energy.

The only consolation is that once I get off the bus I have a 20 minute walk to my job and I have some time to “shake it off” when it comes to that blah mood I was surrounded with. Hey maybe I should bounce around full of energy on the bus/train and when they ask me why I’m so energized I should tell them about how much I love going to my gym five days a week.

Had a great workout today and yesterday. I’ll start with a recap of yesterday.

Saturday I worked on the chest, biceps, and triceps as well as cardio. I have a friend who likes to work out and we worked out together yesterday and I tried to follow his routine just to change up mine. Didn’t get much of a work out though. I realized that adding one new machine or one new exercise to your routine is cool but totally changing up meant spending too much time learning new machines and new formats. Just way too much down time. Also, he likes to do three sets per exercise as he does really heavy weights. I do six sets per exercise with most of the sets being at moderate weights for me. I will do one or two sets at a max weight though. So after I would do three sets we were off to the next machine or exercise. I did get a great cardio workout. I did a 20 minute fast paced elliptical routine and then did power walking for 20 minutes.  I’m trying to have different cardio programs through out the week that accomplishes different goals. I have the 55 minute elliptical routine that builds endurance, I have the 20 minute elliptical routine that gives me a strong cardio intense workout. I have the 20 minute interval training that develops sprinting and I have the 20 minute power walking which develops a sexy walk!

Today’s routine worked out well for me. I did legs and I worked my legs hard!  I used the plate leg press and did six sets at ten reps apiece.  I did on multiple machines quads, hamstrings, calves, inner thighs, outer thighs, and glutes. I then worked the abs and obliques on abdominal machines. I also worked the back on four machines. By the time I got on the treadmill my body had only enough energy to walk.

I’m trying a change in my eating habits. I hit the gym five times a week (at least) and I’m doing weight training and cardio yet I’m not loosing weight. So the culprit has to be my eating habits.  I’m going to try the six small meals a day approach with most of my carbs being consumed before I go to the gym. This will take a lot of planning of meals but I think this will help a lot. Plus I’m cutting out processed food. Just fruits, veggies, beans, and tofu. I’ll see how my weight changes in a month on this eating plan.