Making_A_Change’s BodyBlog

I didn’t feel like working out last night. I was really tired, so the plan was to go in and just workout for 30 minutes. But ended up in there for 1 1/2 hours. I noticed that my knees were sore today. I’ll be icing them and I wanted to start taking a supplement for joint support, glucosamine. If anyone takes that and can share their experience that would be great! I have been working out the evenings this week. I really want to get back to my morning schedule. It is nice to just be finished with the day in the evening and begin my day with physical activity. Tried the soybutter. I am going to have half of a soybutter and strawberry preserve sandwhich today. Soybutter has an odd consistency, but it isn’t bad. I bought veggie hotdogs for the family last night. They were on sale so I figured what the heck. The little one either didn’t notice the difference or didn’t care and ate two with ketchup. My husband didn’t care for them at all but he ate one just to say he did. He’s trying. I have been teasing co-workers to ‘come to the dark side’ and join me in this healthy journey. I can’t believe how good I feel. It is becoming easier to make better choices. And when I make less that wise choices I am consious of it. I think about it and determine wheter or not I want to spend the extra time at the gym or even want to be bothered thinking about it.

Today’s cooler has: salmon, soybutter, romaine lettuce, rice cakes, beef and zucchini and strawberry preserves as my ‘treat’ (going to put a little on my rice cake with the soybutter). And I keep my protein shakes in my office. 

Tonight I did 40 minutes on the stairmill! I worked for it, I wanted it, and I got it. I followed it by doing abs and hitting the calves, again. I really think the seated press works the best for me; I really feel it. I continue to be amazed by the body and what it is capable of doing and becoming with attention to diet and physical activity. The little one likes to compare her calves to mine. She has beautiful 3 1/2 year old calves. We have an inside joke where she points her to to make her calves pop out and we say, "Pop goes the weasel. Pop goes the weasel ’cause the weasel goes pop!" (You may remember that line from the infamous dinner scene in Eddy Murphey’s Nutty Professor.) She loves having muscles and being able to do full push-ups–which I struggle with. I am already looking forward to tomorrow. I have GOT to get back to working out in the mornings. So, I am going to really try to get up at 5 tomorrow.

This week the scale dipped to 173! Then I began to think about the last time I weighed 173–it was before I got pregnant. I remember the scale was between 174-175 and I was thinking ‘if I gain 25 lbs with this pregnancy (which I did) I will weight 200 lbs (which I did)!’ I was very careful about what I ate and knew that the additional 300 or so calories that you need to take in should come from nutrient dense foods. I never believed that my pregnancy was a time to eat whatever I wanted in mass quantities. I didn’t want to gain unneccessary weight and I wanted to have a healthy pregnancy. My craving were very specifiy-Taco Bell bean burritios with extra red sauce and hot links from Top Dog. I labored for 15 hours and had a 10 minute delivery. My baby literally just shot out of there! Anyway, when I realized that I weighed a bit less than I did before my daughter I was thrilled. After her birth I sat around 180 for the longest time. And by the time I found this site I was at 185 and was distraught that I was so close to 200, again, for no reason other than I was being undisciplined. That was my breaking point. the When I was leaving the gym a couple of days ago and walking to my car, a guy yelled out of his window, "Keep up the good work!" That was really nice! I was working shoulders and back that day and was putting alot of effort into it.

I didn’t workout last night, after two days of conference I was beat. I’ll be going everyday this week. Tonight is a leg and ab  day. I’m going to do lots of lunges and squats. I am really looking forward to it, too. I’ll post my WO this evening.

WO: walking lunges (10# plate doing oblique crunches) 2×15; donkey kicks 2×20; step (0#, plyometrics, 3×10 sec.)–>really tiring, but great!; leg extension (105#, 12, 12, 12) very tired at this point (30×8,8,); hamstring curl (30#, 12,12,12); laying hamstring curl (60# 12); calf raises (225#20,20,20); abduction (60#, 20, 70#20,20); hanging knee raise 1×20; crunches (20 minutes)
 

As far as eating goes, today was less than stellar. I worked an education conference and while I had lots of fruit and drank water there wasn’t any protein. I ate some of the cabbage salad with a bit of pb dressing. I packed my lunch and had chicken, but it wasn’t appetizing cold. I tried. Tomorrow is the second day of the conference and I am staying away from the buffet table all together. And I’ll eat it cold and all. And they had these cute little cheescake bites. I had a few–like 6!! Well, with that choice comes responsibility. I have to go to the gym tonight and work it–even though I am completely exhausted. But I am sure that I’ll feel better once I get back home. The exciting part of the day is that I got a chance to meet Lisa Delpit. She was so gracious and I enjoyed hearing her speak immensely!

I decided to try natural peanut butter. It is really different from the ‘regular’ peanut butter. It liquifies and is really watery. Makes we wonder how the other peanut butter retains its stiffness and texture. The natural peanut butter needs refridgeration. The regular peanut butter can stay on the shelf for years. I tried some on a rice cake and the taste was very subtle. Little One decided to try it. I figured she wouldn’t like it, but she downed 4 rice cakes slathered witht he stuff! I made her one, and she took the rice cakes and the jar of peanutbutter to the table and proceeded to make herself a snack. It was really cute. I guess it will be ‘regular’ peanut butter for husband and the natural stuff for me and Baby Girl.

I my last blog I set a goal to run 4.25 miles, and couldn’t do it because I didn’t wait long enough after than meal. Well, today I did it. I took me a little under 50 minutes-I’m not the fastest!–but I did it. I ran at 5.3-5.7 mph. and for the last half mile I ran for 5.3 mph.  After that I tried something new. I did hanging knee raises holding a 5 lb. db with my feet. I did 3 sets of 8. My entire middle is so sore after my last few ab workouts and I really like it. I want to develop a habit of trying something new in each workout–a new excercise, machine, level, etc.

Last night I did 45 minutes of cardio. My intention was to run for 4.25 miles. I ate dinner about 2 hours prior, so I thought I would be fueled up and ready to go. I had the sopa dinner it came with two sopas, topped with steak, lettuce, and tomatoes. I only ate one of the sopas, b/c that was plenty of carbs, and ate all of the steak and lettuce and stuff. I got to the gym my body could do the run, but I kept getting all gassy and ‘refluxy’; so I had to stop before I made myself yack. I ran for 20 and did the elliptical for the remainder of my time. Then I worked the abs by 3×20 of hanging knee raises and crunches.

 This morning was chest and biceps. Looks like I have tendenitis in my left elbow, so I was looking to modify my workout a bit to still target the muscle but mimize the disomfort. I used the cable machine and used the rope attachment. I limited my range of motion (lifted from the mid-high point). I was able to do 50 pounds that way.Then I also attached the handles to each side of the cable machine (you know when you look like Hercules between two pillars?) and worked biceps that way (20# ). I also did weight assisted pull-ups, and that was fine. I could never do much of those anyway, which is a good enough reason to just keep doing them. I’ll keep playing with grips and weights until the elbow heals. I threw in 3 sets of full squats since my legs weren’t sore. I will probably go back to the gym tonight. I’ve just got to see if I can run more than 4 miles.

 I got caught without my lunch today and went to a local burger joint–not fast food, the mom and pop smokehouse type. I had a veggie burger with onions, lettuce, and tomato. They didn’t have whole wheat buns! So, I’ll feel better if I burn a bit on that off. Will probably do some progress pictures in a few weeks.

The gym was packed this evening, but I was determined not to let that get in the way of a great workout. I did: seated leg presses (70#/20,20,15); calf presses (70#, 15,15,15); leg extention (105#, 12, 12,12); dead lift (60#, 20, 20, 20); cable donkey kicks with ankle cuffs (40#, 12, 12, 12); abduction with cuff (30#, 12, 12, 12); full squats @ cable (40#, 10, 10, 10); calf raises (120#, 20, 20, 20); seated hamstring press (80#, 15, 15, 12). It was wonderful. I did have a bowl of cereal about an hour before I worked out.

Hopefully, the little one stays asleep tonight, so that I can get a full night of uninterrupted sleep. That way I can go to the gym @ 5 a.m instead of waiting until the evening. Tomorrow will be cardio IF my legs aren’t too sore. If they are, I’ll do chest,abs, and we’ll make some modifications so that I can work biceps.

My left elbow has been bothering me for a while. It is really annoying becuase I can curl 20lbs. when its feeling good. Right now, it gets agitated when I curl 10 lbs. And I don’t want to neglect the biceps altogehter. Since, everything in connected, what are some of the excercises that will allow me to give my bicpes some attention while the elbow gets its act together.

 Tonight’s workout will include: back, shoulders, triceps, and some abs. I can’t wait!

Yesterday, Husband comes home with a fever of 103 and was extremely achy and weak. He looks really bad. What’s funny was that one of my best cardio sessions, the expected soreness that should have come from that, and my cold/flu seemed to happen at the same time. Interestingly, I didn’t get achy, I got really weak and felt like a wet noodle–I couldn’t flex and my muscles seemed softer than usual. That worried me. Why can’t I flex? I even dragged my butt to the gym three times  last week and did three sorry, sorry workouts. I just wanted to feel better and get back to my routine. I continued to eat 5 smaller meals a day even though my appetite wasn’t there. And I took my flax see oil and liquid multivitamin. I think this really helped in not letting things get as bad as Hunsband’s. I also think it helped me maintain my weight. But this morning, I stretched and things seemed to feel normal. I can’t believe how much I missed the grind! I missed feeling strong, getting sweaty, and feeling that warm feeling that you get when you squeeze out that last rep. I missed that hour or so that I had to myself to think or not! But moreso, I missed doing the things that were helping me to reach my goals. I was so afraid that the improvements and gains that I have made over the past 3 months would be gone in a week. The thought of starting all over actually frightened me. I liked being about to look at my progress pictures and see improvements. I was even hesitant to post my last progress pictures because they looked like the pictures I had taken the month prior. But I had to realize that this is part of the journey. There are days when you eat like crap, when you don’t feel like working out, when you retain water, when you are forced to take time off, etc. It just made me realize how badly I want to change my body and that I am really willing to make the sacrifices needed to get there.

This past Sunday, I led a PE class for the children at church. I created as obstacle course and workout stations. It was so much fun they had a great time. Next time, I am going to talk about healthy snacks and we are going to make assorted popcorns! YUM!

——————————————–
—————————————————————————- 

 I just returned from a 3 mile run. It felt like trying out a new car or something. I was so anxious to see where I would have to pick up. I wanted to stop, but I pushed and ran the entire 3 miles. I am so happy that I didn’t listen to my head and just let my legs do the work. I feel elated, and already planning my workout for tomorrow morning! Will probably do back, triceps, abs, and calves.

Summer is my FAVORITE season for fruit–all of my favorites are available in mass quantities and bargain basement prices: strawberries, watermelon, cherries. I am not a fan of the fall fruits–sorry, apple. Everything is so much sweeter in the summer, and I usually find myself eating quite a bit. At least that is what happened today. My daughter and I made fruitkabobs with strawberries, pineapple chunks, and watermelon. They were so pretty and so good. I went to see how they affected my numbers on my fitday chart and my carb intake was crazy high. This marks the first time that I am facing a summer fruit versus high protein diet dilemmna. I wanted to ask before the feeding frenzy began. Aren’t these good carbs? How does an increase in fruit effect the body? Do I even need to worry and just enjoy th bounty–in moderation,of course.

I am a little more than two weeks away from my 33rd birthday. And I have to say that I have finally, finally kept a birthday promise to myself. I can’t tell you how many summers I have said, "This year, I am going to loose this weight, (every year I managed to pack on a few more pounds making this a little more daunting) and improve my health". Finally, I can say that I have accomplished something–10 pounds and 6 inches gone! And it is only going to get even better. So, I am going to kick it into high gear for the next two weeks. I bought a really cute dress on e-bay for my birthday dinner. It’s a strapless, denim tube dress. I’ll take my next progress pictures in it!