LittleRoo13’s BodyBlog

Still feeling good!  Sometimes I think I’m insane.  For one thing, I SERIOUSLY LOVE CARDIO.  For another, I ENJOY DIETING.  What is wrong with me?!?  Honestly though, I am strangely enjoying the longer cardio sessions.  My trainer gave me the option of doing one one hour session or two 1/2 hour ones if I’m too tired to do it all in one haul, but I can’t even imagine splitting it up.  There is nothing like grinding away on the treadmill until you’re covered with so much sweat you feel like you’re drinking salt.  I LOVE that feeling of complete exhaustion!  And as for the dieting, it just makes me feel so clean all the time.  I thought I was really going to hate giving up the apple I had been eating for breakfast along with oatmeal and egg whites, but I don’t miss it at all.  Granted, it has only been one two days with no fruit, but if anything I seem to have MORE energy.  Maybe my trainer is right and my body is adjusting to dealing with super-vigorous workouts and light eating every day.

Of course, tomorrow I go back to school after a long break and I’m going to have to deal with having things to do BESIDES workout, eat, and sleep every day.  It will take some artful scheduling and some definite before-hand preparations to keep everything running smoothly, but I am without a doubt up to the challenge.  One great blessing is that I am a trainer, so I’ll already be at the gym most of the day anyway and I’ll just slip in my own workouts between clients.  Another great blessing is that I am only taking two classes and auditing one, so my time commitment to school isn’t that great.  It will be an adjustment, but I’ve been doing this program long enough to start seeing some results, and the thrill of just the small changes I’ve been seeing in my body is DEFINITELY enough to keep me going!

Well, first of all, I lied.  My picture updates are due at the end of NEXT week, not this one.  I know the suspense is killing you all…ha ha.  I THOUGHT it was pretty soon to be taking pictures again…

Anyway, I felt great at the gym today.  After my email update with my trainer last Friday he made some tweaks to my diet (no more fruit!) and bumped up my cardio to either one 60 minute session or two 30 minute ones.  All last night for some reason I had trouble sleeping, so I finally just got up at around 6:30AM and went to the gym.  I thought I would probably be dragging on cardio, but for some reason I was super-energized and banged out the whole 60 minutes in one blow.  Then, I came home and napped.  When I woke up, I was back to the gym for back, rear delts, and abs and I felt really strong on all the exercises. My trainer said that when you start slashing calories and increasing cardio your body will feel lethargic for the first week or so on the program, but then it will adjust and you’ll feel good again.  Well, last week was REALLY rough for me at the gym with the new uphill cardio business, but it looks like I’m getting into the swing of things now and feeling good again.  We’ll see how the diet changes and FURTHER increase in cardio effects me.  It seems like the rest day on Sunday really charged me up for the new week.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get in some good sleep tonight and get up ready to go again tomorrow!  Charge ahead!!! I LOVE WORKING OUT!

Well, I survived it.  My first full week of my trainer’s modified/more difficult workout is under my belt and I’m heading strong into Week 6!  Pictures at the end of next week!  It will only have been 2 weeks since my last set of pictures, but I’m hoping to see more changes.  I had an email update with my trainer yesterday too, and one of the things I asked him is if he still thinks I’m on track to meet my goals by Week 12 (130 lbs, 13%bf).  Can’t wait to hear back!  Can’t wait for my FULL DAY OFF tomorrow!  Hurray for Sundays!

Well today’s workout was better than yesterday’s.  I felt like I was pretty strong on all the exercises and I improved some too.  This morning and yesterday morning for cardio instead of doing a 10% incline and walking at 3.5 mph, I did a 6% incline and slow-jogged at 4.5 miles per hour.  I think next week I’m going to alternate between the two just for variety and hopefully to get a full workout on all parts of my glutes and hamstrings.  I must say that this week burned me out.  My trainer has told me that if I start feeling too week I should take a thermogenic, but I haven’t succumbed yet.  I don’t really like putting too-many non-food items into my body and he already has me taking a multivitamin, omega-3 tablets, digestive enzymes, pre- and post-workout supplements, a recovery complex, and glucosamine.  I’m about to run out of the digestive enzyme tablets though, and I’m not sure I’m going to order more.  What do digestive enzymes DO anyway?  I realize the importance of supplementing to help muscle recovery, so I don’t mind the recovery, pre & post, and glucosamine, but I’d rather not add on a fat burner unless I start having trouble losing fat.  Don’t fat burners really just have the same effect on you as a shot of caffeine?  Maybe I’m wrong…I’ll have to do a little research on it before I take anything though.

So all I have left between now and my day off is one more cardio session.  Hurray!  And next week is Week 6–my midpoint.  A week from today I’ll take my halfway pictures and hopefully I’ll be able to see some differences.  My disastrous binge of nearly two weeks ago set me back two full week’s worth of workouts!  This just goes to show that diet is 99% of the battle.  I’m still up .3 pounds from where I was the day before I binged.  My trainer said I’m still on track to meet my goals though.  One reprieve is enough for me.  I’m on track and not slipping up any more!

Wow, my workout today was not so hot.  Shoulders and rear delts are real weak areas for me, and today for some reason I felt especially burnt out at the gym.  I don’t feel like I made much progress today.  I guess it’s okay to allow myself to maintain once in a while, but for me, if I go to the gym and don’t improve on every single exercise either by increasing the number of reps I can do or adding on weight, I don’t feel like I worked hard enough.  Today I was really struggling just to lift the same amount I did at my last shoulder-rear delt workout.  Ugh.  Also, the cardio is taking its toll on me.  My legs are sore all the time!  I know that in a week or so I’ll adapt to the changes my trainer made in my routine and start feeling strong again, but right now I just feel exhausted!  On the up side, I only have one more double gym day for the week.  It’s chest, arms, and calves tomorrow.  I love chest and calves, but my arms are pretty wimpy too, so hopefully I’ll be able to hit them strong…I don’t know if I could take two bum workout days in a row!

Cardio only today.  I thought it was going to be rough because I didn’t sleep that well last night, but it seems like once I get to the gym and get through the first 10 minutes or so, I always get pumped up and know I’m going to get through the workout.  And afterwards I always feel great.  I love getting off that treadmill dripping with sweat and knowing that I’ve gotten one more day under my belt.

My date tonight went well.  I knew going into it that this guy wasn’t someone I would want to be with in a longterm relationship (some fundamental value differences, plus he’s too short for me!), but my New Year’s resolution of three dates per month is really more just to get me out and socializing and meeting guys than anything else.  I felt good and pretty and confident, and he seemed to really like hanging out with me.  I’d be willing to hang out with him again as friends.  He’s done a couple of bike races and is into triathlons, so maybe we’ll train together sometime.  Anyway, what was even better than the date was the fact that when I put on my jeans, they DEFINITELY felt looser in the hip-glute area.  I was a little concerned about wearing them after the binge, but they fit perfectly.  Just a month ago they were skin tight, to the point where I could barely pull them on.  It was a good feeling and it really improved my mood for the whole evening.

I am getting a little anxious about weighing myself for my Friday update with my trainer.  It will be the first time since the binge.  If I am still on track to meet my 12 week goal, I should be at about 137 lbs. by now, but I know the binge set me back at least 2 lbs. and honestly I would be ecstatic with 138.  Increasing my cardio by an extra five minutes a day, adding an extra day of cardio, and doing it on an incline has me burning a good 600 or so extra calories a week than I was before, so hopefully that will give me a little edge too.  We’ll see!

My legs are killllliiinnng me.  As I approach the half-way point of my 12 week transformation, I’ve really been taking every workout as seriously as possible.  I want to see results FASTER, and I want to make SURE that I achieve my goals by the end.  My trainer is big on giving me tempos for each rep.  So like, for a calf raise it will be 2 seconds to raise up, 1 second of holding the flex, then 3 seconds of going back down, and I’ve started being a real stickler for keeping the tempo.  Today I made sure that absolutely every single rep of every set of every exercise was slow enough.  If I messed one up, I did an extra one.  The result?  I am SOOOOO SOOORRREEE.  I just got back from the gym 2 hours ago and already my legs are aching and feel like lead.  I’m sure it doesn’t help that I’m now doing uphill cardio which is making my glutes and hamstrings doubly tired.  Honestly though, it feels good though.  I love the feeling of being sore, because it lets me know I’ve been working hard and that my muscles are responding.  And fortunately, tomorrow’s a semi-rest day.  Cardio only.  And then, tomorrow night, I’m going on a date!  Life is good! 

Keepin’ on, keepin’ on.  Even though I only had one off-day last week, I didn’t feel fatigued at all for today’s workouts.  The uphill walking is killer–I get off the treadmill sweating buckets, and even though I’m walking incredibly slow the whole time, my heart-rate stays in the 140s or 150s for the entire workout.  It was back, rear delts, and abs day which is one of my favorites.  I love doing the reverse fly machine and crunches on an exercise ball.   It also happened that my dad got off work early and showed up at the gym to work out at the same time as me, and it’s always nice when someone else is there working out with you.  He showed off for me with all the pull-ups he can do.  He does full, wide grip pullups for 3 sets: one of six and two of five.  I can’t even do one pull-up.  I CAN do one chin-up, but barely.  I did increase the weight on the lat pulldown machine to 65 lbs. today though which means I’m about half-way to being able to pull up my body weight.

Speaking of body weight…I haven’t weighed myself in a week and a half.  I’m still a little scared to after the binge.  I HAVE to weigh myself on Friday though so I can send a progress report to my trainer.  Last time I checked in with him I weighed 139.5, so I would hope it’s at least SLIGHTLY lower than that.  I feel like it’s probably around 139.  We’ll see though.  I know I shouldn’t get hung up on a number.  It’s WAY more about body fat percentage (which I should get checked sometime soon) and the way your body looks.  Honestly I’m much more excited about the visible changes I’m starting to see than about whatever number pops up on the scale.  However, that number is also a sort of confirmation of what I’m seeing, so it does hold SOME significance…  No obsessing though.

Tomorrow: leg & calves day!  My favorite!!!

Yeah, that’s right, WORKOUT 6!!!  I have been to the gym a total of 10 times this week.  Six times for cardio in the mornings and four for weights in the afternoon.  Tomorrow is my rest day.  Good thing I love the gym so much, otherwise this might get tedious!   This morning was my second day of walking uphill instead of running on a flat, and I liked it a little bit better than yesterday.  I’m wondering how steep of an incline I should put it on to get the most intense workout on that glute-ham area though.  For the past two days I’ve been setting the treadmill on 9.  I’m not sure what the 9 means, but I know that it’s POSSIBLE to go pretty far above 10, so I feel like maybe I’m not going steep enough.  Also, I wasn’t sore from yesterday’s hill walk, which makes me think I didn’t go steep enough too.  Feeling sore is a big thing with me.  I haven’t felt sore after a workout in a while now, and I’m wondering if that’s because I’m not working hard enough or just because my body is getting used to working out hard in general.  Hmm…if anyone’s reading this and knows whether it’s true that if you’re not sore you need to be more intense, please let me know!

One thing I AM sure about though is THIS: I HAVE ABS!!!  I’ve never had a flabby stomach, in fact it’s always been sort of blessedly flat, but now I can see actual SHAPE to my abdominal muscles.  Maybe it was talking to my trainer yesterday that got me paying closer attention to my body in the mirror, but this morning I DEFINITELY saw NOTICEABLE vertical cuts.  YESSSS!!!!  And it’s only the fourth week! I wasn’t expecting to see much at all until the sixth week, and after my little slip-up last Friday night, I expected my progress to be set back even further, so this is GREAT news!  I’m still going to wait until I’ve gotten 6 weeks under my belt before posting pictures though, so don’t start holding your breaths yet.
Another reason to celebrate today is because I’m going on a date next Wednesday!  One of my New Year’s resolutions was to go on three dates a month, so this will be one down.  It’s not with anyone I expect to fall madly-deeply in love with, but the reason I made the resolution was to encourage myself to get out there and be more social and start meeting people and building more relationships.  So here’s to FIRST DATES!!! Yay!
So today was a good day.  And tomorrow is Sunday, and Sundays are always great.  I’m especially going to enjoy tomorrow because I DON’T HAVE TO PUT ON GYM CLOTHES AT ALL AND I ONLY HAVE TO SHOWER ONCE!  I am going to wear a dress and heels all day long.

Not much to report today.  I’m not sure how I feel about the new cardio routine yet.  I can tell that putting the treadmill on an incline is definitely targetting the exact area between my glutes and hams that my trainer said I need to work on, but after years of running on a grade of no more than 1, it’s weird WALKING.  It was strange to be moving slowly but working so hard.  I’m supposed to keep my heart-rate around 120, and I usually go over a little (around 140), but today I could barely keep it in the 150s!  I was sweating like CRAZY when I got off even though I didn’t actually run at all!  Just a weird effect.  I do love the feeling of running though and I missed that today.  HOWEVER, I may just love the idea of getting a perfect rear end more, so the walking and sweating will definitely be worth it!

In other news, it was exactly a week ago tonight that I gave into the BINGE MONSTER.  I haven’t weighed myself since, but I have been closely monitoring my emotions and I noticed that I’ve been having lesser urges to binge fairly frequently throughout the week.  Giving in to one binge is such a slippery slope.  This is something I’ve DEFINITELY learned before.  Once you go crazy once it takes a while for all the subsequent/residual/upshoot urges to die off.  After I go three or so weeks on a diet, I’m set, but I’m going to have to be hyper-vigilant until I make it past the initial withdrawal phase.  It’s amazing how easy it would be to slip right back to where I was before.  I’m stronger than that though.  NO GIVING IN OVER HERE!!! I have WAY too much work to do to be feeling sick and beating myself up!