Hardness23’s BodyBlog

Not that Turrets is anything to joke about, but today when I was doing the leg press I found myself having strong symptoms of Turrets (spelling?) Syndrome as I was yelling profanities obnoxiously at the top of each rep.  It’s always the same two words I want to yell "S**t"!  then "F**k"!  It’s the same as when I get into near collisions like when I lived in Wisconsin and would almost hit a deer with my car I would yell the same two words while slamming the breaks.

So I was thinking why not come up with some nicer words to yell?  After all I am not a trucker and never even swear much anyways.  I’m more the good girl type and for some reason have turret’s with those two words.  I was thinking maybe "Shinanigans!"

It’s funny how on different days I have different reactions to the hellish workouts I inflict upon myself.  Last week while leg-pressing, after the second set I felt dizzy and had to walk around because I thought I was going to pass out from lack of oxygen to the brain.  Then on the third set I just felt like crying like a baby!  I wanted to kick myself in the shin!  But that’s a little hard to do.  Then today I had the turrets thing going on.
I squatted more today I’m up to putting plates on the bar (135 lbs) with having good form.  I started light because before my form was horrible and I injured my groin muscle.  So that’s why last month I told myself I’m going to squat again,  and I will get good at it by starting light and working my way up until I can handle the heavier weight.  I have a tendency to try to lift more than I can actually handle.  So I did six reps of 135 lbs and was pretty proud, but my inner thigh muscles still hurt a lot!  I don’t know if they are just weak or what!  I think my outer quads and glutes are stronger and that’s why all the pressure is getting put on my weak inner thigh muscles.  I may try that little abductor machine, although i am old school and not a big fan of machines.

Lunges with 85 lbs are quite a killer for the glutes when you are taking your knee all the way to the floor!   I know this will build up my glutes so I can have a ghetto muscular booty and not the ghetto fat booty I used to have.  I know that when I diet down and I still have a butt next time it’s from the lunges.  And I don’t do that assisted Smith machine crap either.  I go old school baby, straight free weights.  It is soooo much harder but recruits so much more muscle and I feel will produce much better results, strength AND development as well as balance.

I picked up a book yesterday called "Eating Right for Your Bloodtype."  My Aunt who is a nutritional genius swears by it.  Basically I’d like to know if anyone has tried it and if it supports a bodybuilding mass gaining diet.  For instance, I am type A and the diet that works best for me is vegetarian.   I respond best to foods like tofu, soy products, beans and fish.  The foods on the "harmful" list for my blood type include red meats, pork and any type of beef.  Chicken and eggs are neutral and fish is highly beneficial.  For the most part everything it said is harmful are foods I feel my stomach can’t handle well.  Could this be the reason some people respond to diets, carb loading and keto diets differently?  The evidence to support the diet is backed by Darwin’s theories of evolution and several studies.  I’m a scientist and it seems pretty legitimate.  What’s funny is I always use a ton of mustard on everything and it says mustard is the one condiment that is highly beneficial for me!  I might try this diet for a while and cut out the red meats to see what happens.  I don’t know how I feel about tofu though.  I mean I can season it to taste good and everything but as a main protein source?  Not so sure.

So I’ve decided I might try switching over to fitness instead of figure.  I hear those girls get a lot more recognition, and possible media coverage and modeling opportunities.  I think they are also much more admirable for everything they can do physically, besides just staying in shape and I’d be so proud of myself if I could do it someday.  I’ve never had gymnastics or dance but I think I could still pull it off.  As for now I can moonwalk and do a cartwheel.  I guess that’s a start.  I tried doing the splits yesterday and it seems impossible that I could ever do it.  SO you wanna know what I did about it?  I put my desktop background of a girl doing the splits. LOL. My boyfriend was like "What the h*** is this??  Let me guess….now you want to do fitness."  I didn’t have to answer.  I am going to start looking for a choreographer and/or coach.  I might go over to the dance studio down the road because I hear there’s a young hip hop instructor there.  I might have him teach me some break dancing moves when I get time.  I saw some breakdancers in Brooklyn when I was in New York and want to be able to do a move or two.  I’m sure it’s a lot harder than it looks.  Wait– it does look hard !
The only problem is I am going on a deployment to Ecuador for two weeks in August and the Flex Appeal in Vegas is September 1st.  So I’m not sure if I’ll be able to practice my routine where I’m stationed at.  Also it is really hard being on a diet on a deployment.  I’m sure I’ll be able to handle it, it’s just hard when I get there and have to "for-warn" everybody I work with about my diet, training and inability to participate socially in anything that involves staying out late and/or drinking.  Most people in the military on deployments spend their time partying when not working so it’s hard to find people with my interests.  And I hate being the party pooper.  I love meeting new people and hangin out but that just won’t be possible if I decide to do this competition.  But I guess it’s a sacrifice I will make and I will party enough after the competition in Las Vegas!  Besides, nothing good will come of getting drunk around a bunch of people I just met in a foreign country.

I love rest days but I don’t.  I get agitated being sedentary.  I need the rest but I want to go the the gym isn’t that crazy??

Also, I feel I have to lower my calories and carbs on rest days so I don’t put on weight from being lazy.  Maybe I should use rest to recuperate and this may involve replenishing my body.  I need to refocus on my health and getting all the nutrients I can from real fresh organic food.  So today I am eating black beans and a lot of veggies for my carbs.  I think I’ll have it be the day where I can go out and buy any kind of veggies I want and get creative with them.  So maybe I’ll sauté a bunch for dinner with chicken.  One time I cooked a bunch of bean sprouts and it was almost like they were noodles but no carbs!

Anyone have any creative ideas on cooking lean meats with any kind of veggies?   I like peppers, brocolli, onions, and mushrooms.

I keep seeing this big purple vegetable at the store but I forgot what it’s called.  I want to buy it and cook it just to try something new.

Lately I’ve adopted a new tactic in the gym.  I pick weigh(s) that I don’t think I can lift.  For example, I always used to do side shoulder raises with 15 pound dumbells and thought this was heavy because I originally started with 5 lb dumbells last year.  Yesterday I picked up the 20 lb dumbells and thought they were way too heavy, but when I tried it I was able to do 8 reps with each arm.  Same goes for the incline press.  30 lb dumbells are heavy for me to lift from the rack but once I get them up into position it’s a lot easier to perform the movement than I thought.  So always set the bar higher than it was the previous workout even if you don’t think you can.  Make your physical strength supersede your mental barriers because otherwise you are only holding yourself back from your true potential!   Even just one more rep, or 5 more pounds.  This is what separates those of us who get results and those who sit around wondering why they’re not getting stronger.  This relates to so many things in life as well.  Any great accomplishment seems impossible at first, otherwise it wouldn’t be a great accomplishment.

What I’m loving now that I’m not competing for another 6 months-

-  Filling out my jeans and feel sexy again instead of a bony pile of muscle and skin
-  Sleeping in

-  Thinking about other things other than food and workouts

-  Not counting calories (OCD-ish mentality and compulsiveness)

-  Spending time with loved ones I have neglected
-  Doing cardio only when I feel it’s necessary

-  Doing "fun" cardio, trying new things like yoga, taking my dog for a run without worrying about burning off the muscle

-  Lifting HEAVY again with long rest times, getting sore as hell but getting STRONGER
-  Feeling my muscles HYPERTROPHY during my workouts from the creatine and water retention

-  Mental clarity

-  Eating to GAIN

-  Cooking real food and being able to make sauces

-  Eating as much salt as I want!

-  Drinking a big glass of iced tea, competition day that’s all I could think about

-  Fruit!

-  Milk!

-   Protein shakes again!

-  ENERGY- I have to control myself from overtraining because I have so much energy during my workouts.  I want to run everywhere I go even though I’m sore

-  Enjoying my workouts again, every set and every rep.  I never liked how while cutting you’re not building muscle when you lift, just maintaining it.  That made me not enjoy my workouts as much.  Now I know when I lift, I’m actually growing.  Who cares about the fat!  The muscle will burn it off anyways.

For my muscle building phase the nutrition calculator says I should be eating (based on my BMR) 342 g of carbs a day!  This along with 108 g protein and 35 g of fats.  That is so many carbs compared to the measley 30 g a day I was eating for months prior to competition.  I don’t even know what to eat to consume that many, I’m so used to my tuna and chicken salads.  So today I added in oats, then brown rice for 2 meals, a sweet potato one meal, then post workout I had white rice with pineapple chunks and an hour later some more brown rice.  Then tonight for carbs I had 4 rice cakes and cottage cheese.  All this only equaled to around 200 g of carbs and I feel humongous!  My muscles feel like they have exploded into new growth but my stomach is also like a pregnant woman !!  Am I totally messing up my metabolism and everything I’ve worked so hard for?  My body got SO accustomed to low carbs that I hope I’m not screwing everything up now, but I want to put on muscle!  Is this calculator only for a man?  Do any women follow this? What more should I add in each meal to fulfill this carb requirement?

I’m trying to set a goal of how much muscle to put on in three months, but I don’t know how much is possible in three months naturally for a female.  I’d like to come in at a lean 120 lbs next competition.  This means I’ll have to add 8 lbs of muscle since I came in at 112 for my last show.  To add 8 lbs muscle at a muscle to fat ratio of 2:1, I’ll add a total of 12 lbs, 8 lbs muscle and 4 lbs fat.  At this point I would weigh 132 and have only 12 lbs of fat to lose.  This will be easier than the initial 25 lbs I had to lose for my first competition and since I’ll have so much more muscle mass hopefully the fat will come off easier.  The most important thing now is eating enough and training HARD!

12 lbs= 6  weeks of dieting.  Not too bad….

Today I’ll see if I’ve gotten stronger or weaker since my week of rest, so I’ll test chest with bench press and to test triceps I’ll see how many dips I can do.   I want to do more every time I workout so I know there’s more muscle than before.  Also, I’m not doing cardio until after the workout so I have the most energy for the workout.  I’m not going to overdo it either on the reps and exercises.

I might try some new stuff like a yoga class which I’ve heard is good for bodybuilders or the row machine.  I’d like to find some new reading material  besides just fitness magazines.