MarvelMaster’s BodyBlog

It’s been about two months since I posted my previous and first-ever progress photo, and I think I’ve gotten far enough from the turmoil of Easter Sunday, a few weeks ago, to show off my developing chest again. With the new diet plan that has come into effect at home, I should look much slimmer than I did in my last photo.

I’m going to hit the treadmill and elliptical for a few days this week before I take another photo and post it in my album. Here’s hoping for another good one.

Okay, so I’ve had quite a heavy couple of weeks, with celebrating my 23rd birthday a couple of Saturdays ago, and also celebrating Easter this past Sunday. Needless to say, I pretty much went all out on those two events, having great meals like pizza, chicken, dressing, macaroni & cheese…the list goes on and on.

Luckily, between the two events, I was able to get in some good exercising time to work off the pizza I ate on my birthday and prepare for the big meal I’d be having on Easter. But I think Easter was the most difficult of all, having been full over every serving that I had and feeling the need to work it off afterwards. It’s a cautionary process that I’ve been following these past few days, at least until all the food is gone from the fridge.

I just finished working out a couple of hours ago and yet still feel myself getting over the leftovers I had eaten eight hours ago. My mother’s cooking is good; but when it comes to eating it after developing a shrunken stomach in the previous few months, it’s quite a task.

So now I’m juggling between helping my folks, who’ve been trying to get rid of the leftovers from Sunday, and maintaining my physique. I sure hope that this’ll be over pretty soon.

Earlier this afternoon, I went through the greatest workout outside on a special "walk trail" by our neighborhood. I had so much fun being surrounded by the wonderful sights and scents of nature that I pretty much felt at one with it all. If this is what the springtime will bring for Yours Truly, then count this as one of the many joys of the season, with my birthday on April 4th right at the top of the list.

Yes, that’s right. My birthday is coming up, and that means only one thing: FREE CHEAT DAY!!!

For one night only, I’m going to treat myself to a Domino’s Pizza, which I haven’t had in the longest time, and some ice cream. I feel that it’s okay to do this for the night of my birthday, because having the usual health food should be reserved for the other days when I’m on my diet. Besides, it’s only one pizza–how hard can that be? ^_^

In the meantime, I’m going to continue with the usual treadmill/elliptical workouts. Progress has been coming full swing as of recently, and I’m enjoying every bit of it. Yard work and some time on the walk trail are also helpful and add on to the progress I’ve been making (which I’ll post pics of again soon). Everything is honestly going pretty well so far. And I owe a lot of it to each and every one of you. Thanks!

Have a great week, everybody!

After this past Friday’s "incident", in which I came down with a bad stomach ache while working out on the elliptical, I decided to combine my elliptical and treadmill workouts within the hour (30 minutes on the treadmill and 30 minutes on the elliptical) to maintain an even workout. I started this current fitness plan of mine just tonight, and I really got a heavy workout on both machines–more so on the treadmill than the elliptical. It’s funny how far you can push yourself when you’re on a cardio machine for such a short period of time, because I was practically going nuts on the treadmill, taking it up to a speed of 3.4 (the fastest I’ve ever gone on there).

I should have some photos posted pretty soon on my progress, showing everyone how much I’ve made in recent months. I might even show a little skin (belly skin, I mind you, LOL) to show the detail.

With four days of elliptical/treadmill exercise and one day of mowing the lawn, I should see some really good results by this weekend. I’m feeling amazing right now and on the top of my game, so nothing should really stop me at this point.

Yesterday, I underwent four straight hours of some of the most grueling, back-breaking, hand-cramping, sweat-inducing, thirst-quenching work out in my backyard. The goal: helping cut down the biggest bush growing out there, which was attempting to become a tree, according to one massively thick stump we found within it. (Now I know how lumberjacks feel! LOL!)

The work was so intense that I had to take a break from working out tonight, due to my legs still aching from hours of standing. Not to mention my ankle has gone out again and my allergies are acting up (had to take some medication for them last night, which led to the best night of rest I’ve gotten so far this year). Tomorrow night I go back on the elliptical, which is challenging but not even close to the extreme exercises I had to endure yesterday.

Despite all the bitching that I’m doing here in my blog, I really enjoyed the work, because it’s the exact type of extreme exercise that I’ve been wanting to undergo this year. All of those workouts on the treadmill and elliptical have really paid off for the work on the yard that I’ll be doing from here ’til the end of summer.

Okay. Needless to say, last week could’ve gone better than expected. Yes, there were some positive things that happened, but then there were some negative. So…I split up my week into two lists of good and bad things that had occurred.

10 Reasons Why I Hated Last Week

• I got sick on Monday and thus had to cancel my night of working out.

• I couldn’t alternate again between the elliptical and treadmill as I’ve been for two straight weeks.

• It got real cold in my home gym on Wednesday night and almost suffered from another cold.

• My brother changed his times of working out, forcing me to ask him repeatedly when he’s going to (and getting a pissed-off response in return).

• He also didn’t workout one night (for no apparent reason), which makes me think he’s copying my fitness plan (which annoys the hell out of me, lol).

• My folks didn’t workout either, but they DID get on their respective machines on Saturday as promised.

• Between workouts, I’d been getting bored a little too easily (which is the result of having “writer’s block” from hours of writing my online stories).

• One member here on BodySpace kept bugging me with never-ending questions (some that had absolutely nothing to do with fitness, lol).

• Parts of my body have been acting weird lately, twitching and getting numb (from workouts, perhaps?).

• I keep losing at PC Hearts! LOL!

10 Reasons Why I Loved Last Week

• Been getting excellent results from having a four-day elliptical week–my chest has gotten a lot flatter.

• Still getting lots of motivation and inspiration from good friends, especially Louiseuk.

• My cold didn’t last as long as I thought it would (thanks to some good over-the-counter medicine).

• I found out something useful about elliptical machines–they make for a good weight-lifting/cardio combo workout.

• My arms and legs seemed to have been getting tighter (at least they feel tight).

• The athletic supports in my shoes are STILL making my workouts more comfortable than ever.

• The week went by pretty fast, which is a good thing considering how patiently I’m waiting for June to come (if you’re curious to know why, stop by my page and ask me, lol).

• My motivation is still pretty high (as you can see from my page).

• Had lots of clean meals, from rice (w/ vegetables) to baked chicken (YUM!).

• My MP3 player still has some kick-ass songs!

Let’s hope this week has more good than bad.

Well, actually my brother did, but he quickly changed his mind once we spent an hour and a half outside, raking up leaves and trimming hedges around the right side of our house. It was definitely good exercise, considering how hot it was out today. And we had plenty of wind blowing through the area to cool us off. To be honest, it was the equivalent of working out on the treadmill (which was why I worked out on the elliptical for the second night in a row last night).

There will be days like this when I’ll have an alternative workout to replace the usual one I have on that day, if there’s work that needs to be done in the yard. I don’t think my body can afford to have two workouts in one day (at least not just yet). But if there’s a Saturday that needs to be spent doing yard work, then I’ll just treat that as a bonus to the plan that I’m following now.

With spring around the corner, I can expect to have days like this. Last year I dreaded them. But now, I welcome them, because I can use all of the exercise I can get right now.

I had so much fun last week with alternating between the elliptical and treadmill that I decided to go for a second run this week, going on the elliptical for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and having a go on the treadmill on Tuesday and Thursday.

Tonight I worked out on the elliptical while my brother was on the treadmill, and (at his request) we did our respective workouts w/o the fan on (so he could get a better sweat). Now I’ve been on the treadmill last week with the fan on, and I can honestly say that one can STILL get a good sweat. I believe my brother just likes to punish himself in our home gym, because he doesn’t drink any water during the workout either. (If anyone else actually does workout w/o a water bottle at their side, I apologize for my comments.)

To be honest, working out with my brother has been a bigger challenge than working out by myself. He’s punishing me just as much himself, although I don’t believe he realizes how much of a positive effect it’s having on me.

So I do believe nights on the elliptical this week will be a lot more fun, if I’m on it at the same time that my brother is on the treadmill. It’s one thing to work out on my own time in our home gym, but it’s a completely different thing to do it with someone else in the room…someone who’s immensely insane! LOL!

Oh, well. I’m having fun, and that’s all that matters.

Very fun.

Most of you weightlifters would ask us "cardio addicts" if it’s possible to actually enjoy cardio workouts, and I would have to say "yes", because you really feel amazing after you’ve done it. My elliptical workouts have been the one thing I miss about staying fit. I admit that the first time I got on the machine, I immediately hated it, because I was exhausted and didn’t feel all that well after I got on it. Now I know that was from the heavy resistance I set on the machine, after being off of it for such a long time, and wasn’t used to it yet.

I’ve really come to love the heavy sweating, the intense breathing, and the severe exhaustion that I get from the elliptical, after spending a full week on it. As long as I have a nice, cool bottle of water near me while I’m working out, it’s all incredibly enjoyable. (That, and perhaps an MP3 player with tons of songs on it. )

Next week, I’ll alternate my days on the elliptical and treadmill. My brother is practically addicted to the treadmill, so I’m going to have to comprimise a perfect time to be on it, in order to avoid having him scream at me to get off (trust me, he’s THAT adamant about getting on it).

In the meantime, I still continue on my quest to work out a full week for an hour and a half.

That’s right. I’m dedicating an entire week to working out on the elliptical, because I feel I need more of a challenge right now in my journey to staying fit. I started working out on there this evening, while my older brother (who has also been maintaining a workout schedule) was on the treadmill. The workout I got on the machine was magnificent–the best I’ve ever had since I was on there the first time last week.

I took it slower this time around, setting my reps at about six by the end of the workout. I decided to go for about forty-five minutes–I was going to use the other fifteen on the treadmill, but I was completely exhausted after I was done. One thing I hate about working out on the elliptical is that damn screeching noise. At times I was able to avoid it, but it kept coming back at random times during the forty-five minutes. Other than that, I had a lot of fun on it.

During the week, I’ll alternate between different functions on the machine. It had quite a variety, from "Manual" to "Strength". I’ll probably end up switching between different times as well, going 45 mins one day and 30 mins on the other. Either way, I’ll be promising myself one hell of a workout this week.