MommaJo’s BodyBlog

I couldn’t sleep the other night and totalled up all the schoolwork that I have to do in the next month, and now I’m depressed. I mean, I knew I’d be busy, but actually adding up all of the stuff I have to do left me feeling dismal. Over the course of 30 days, I have to write 5 exams, 2 big papers, 3 short essays, give 1 presentation, take 2 oral exams, take 10 oral quizzes, 5 written quizzes, and 4 large assignments. And that’s all on top of my regular readings. I also have a summer job interview thrown in.

So, I’ll have to cut down on the gym a bit (still going a few times a week, but not as often and not for as long) and on my presence on the forums. As far as weight goes, I’m just going to try and maintain my weight over this month, since I won’t be as physically active. If I don’t gain anything, I’ll be happy - finals tend to result in my gaining a few lbs.

I’ll be back in the gym and online full-force come May.

So, today was my birthday, but I was so completely exhausted from studying for exams that I didn’t even go out to celebrate! I went out to lunch before my final exam alone, had cheesecake and mushroom swiss burger, talked to my parents on the phone. Tried to call my best friend back home, but her line was busy all night. She’s going through a nasty divorce and not standing up for herself or her 1-year old one bit, and it’s really frustrating me. However, I’m trying to suppress all the anger and frustration I have after hearing her stories and bottle it up until boxing is back next week, so I can transform it into harder punches.

I ate wayyyyy too much today, not even sure why - I didn’t even want to. I got high with a friend last night and then kept waking up all night with some random crap stirring in my head, so I felt really foggy when I finally woke up in the morning (way earlier than I expected). I was completely burnt out during my exam - I had this overwhelming desire to just stop writing and submit what I had without finishing it. I finished, though, I think I will definitely get an A on this exam, and I’m hoping for an A+. There are a few scholarships I want to apply for, so I’m trying to get the highest grades possible, and since my classes are all very tough (all senior level), it’s putting a lot of stress on me. However, I can then use some of the scholarship money to take a vacation! Anyway, I had originally intended to go out with my friends to celebrate my birthday this evening, but I was so beat tonight, I just stayed home and read the new issue of Allure, so we’ll probably hang out next week. I’m just really burnt out, and I have another final on Monday, with LOTS of work to do before then….and then another final Friday! After that, I will do NOTHING all weekend, I swear. No working out, either!

Had a light workout today, since I was so stuffed. A total of 25 mins of cardio on the elliptical and 3 circuits of biceps/chest of 3 exercises for each muscle, so 18 total. Hopefully all this protein and carbs I consumed tonight will go to my bi’s! Tomorrow I’ll do more cardio (an hour) and triceps/shoulders. I love training those 2, so I’m looking forward to it. Sunday is back and abs, and Monday is legs. My leg workout last night was kind of light, because I was short on time - only did 2 circuits (I usually do 3), but my legs are sore today. The 15-min run on the treadmill at 6 mph probably also had something to do with it - I don’t run often, but decided to start running a bit at least 2x a week for variety.

Anyway, I’m going to finish up all the non-diet food in my fridge in the next few days; nothing horrible, but I have some goat cheese that I intend to eat with bison burgers (never tried bison before, 1st time tomorrow!) and I have a whole duck that I intend to bake with apples and oranges maybe on Monday. And once all that is eaten, I’m gonna go on a structured diet. I’m actually looking forward to it because of the added bonus of eating out less. Now, when I eat out, I eat healthy stuff most of the time (fruit-only smoothies, sashimi, grilled tuna wraps with veggies), but the money adds up, so switching to home meals only will be good for my wallet. The diet I’m thinking of is this one: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/fitexpert11.htm I did a lot of searching through BB.com on fat loss diets for females over the last few days and liked this diet the most. It has a good amount of calories (1800-1900, perfect for my size and activity level), it has enough carbs to fuel the intense cardio I have to do for boxing (about 180-190 grams), and a good amount of fiber (30 g) and protein (about 180 g). At the same time, it’s very healthy and has normal food in it….most female pre-contest diets I find here are like 1100 calories of fat-free cheese, sugar-free BBQ sauces, egg whites, I can’t believe it’s not butter sprays, and other processed and/or unpalatable crap. And then I can manipulate this a bit - substitute lean beef/pork/bison/turkey for chicken, trout/tuna/oysters/shrimp for salmon, brown rice/quinoa/oatmeal for sweet potatoes (not a fan of sweet potatoes, to be honest). So I think this diet will give me structure AND variety all while fueling me right, and it seems like a very good match for me. My only issue is that I have to wait for a friend to help me switch up the meal schedule to make it work with nighttime workouts - the original plan targets the morning exerciser, but I rarely get to the gym before 7 PM. Anyway, I’m pretty pumped about this plan. I think I will stick to it 6 days a week and then enjoy my favorite HEALTHY foods for the 7th day without worrying about scheduled meals - sushi, sashimi, tuna wraps, no-added-sugar smoothies, etc. Looking forward to starting in a few days! Of course, I will still watch what I eat tomorrow and onwards before I begin the actual plan, just not as closely.

First off, I worked out hard this past week…Monday and Wednesday was boxing; I had to go easy on the heavy (ha!) bag because I have some weird ache in my forearms. I thought I had microfractures or something, but it seems that it’s just deep muscular pain that originates from the elliptical (coincidentally, I go on the elliptical for 20-30 minutes after boxing). There is no boxing this week, so I think it’s a welcome break. I’m using these 10 days to lift lots of weights, since I barely have time for that when I box. My normal workout schedule is

Monday - 1.5-2 hours total Boxing (which involves core strength training), 30 mins elliptical

Tuesday - 1-hour step class, heavy on leg plyos

 Wednesday - boxing and elliptical again

Thursday - 30-45 mins cardio, full-body weights

Friday - off (or, Thursday off and Friday cardio and weights)

Saturday - 45 minute step class

Sunday - off

I always have to take Sunday off so I’m prepared for boxing, but lately I’ve been skipping the 2nd rest day on occasion…when I first started boxing, I had to take 3 days off a week, otherwise, I was completely drained! But my tolerance has built up since, apparently. I’m thinking of using that 2nd rest day for interval runs, since it’s good for building endurance for boxing and will help me burn fat. 

I don’t celebrate Christmas or other religious holidays, and my family all lives in another country, so "holidays" are not usually an issue for me when it comes to food. My birthday, December 28th, is the only time during the holiday season that I know I will eat lots of junk….which is a lot better than it is for many other people who celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s, as well as attend countless office parties! I have already decided what I’m going to splurge on this Friday - I have a $5 discount card for the Cheesecake Cafe (same thing as the Cheesecake Factory in the US), plus they also give you a free slice of Cheesecake if you eat there on your birthday. So I’m going to go there for lunch and enjoy the mushroom bacon swiss burger (side salad, which I’ll take home) and a slice of cheesecake with a friend. In the evening, we will probably go out, but I don’t drink much, so maybe a Long Island, and if we end up going to someone’s place afterwards, a pizza or something like that.

Other than that, I’m hoping to avoid junk food this week. Last week, I had that burger and a slice of After 8 cheesecake on Thursday, and I felt pretty gross afterwards. I use CalorieKing.com as my nutrition diary - I prefer it to Fitday.com even though it’s not free, since it has so many different brands and restaurant foods on the site. So it looks like over the last 7 days, my nutrient averages have been (give or take 5 grams each):

1955 calories eaten

roughly 250 g carbs (so 1000 calories from that)

105 g protein (so about 420 calories from protein)

 55 g fat (about 510 calories from this)

20 g fiber

I need to eat a little less fat, but I gotta say that the Thursday night when I ate the cheesecake and burger is seriously skewing the results! I had like 110 g fat (gasp) that night. So since I’m basically doing the same thing this coming Friday, my fat averages will probably remain about the same.