Breaking the Chains that Bind

Okay, so my last entry found me feeling ambiguous about my workouts and my potential progress.  Since that time, I have finally developed a system which I think is actually working.  It’s challenging for those of us who are so busy or get so distracted by the noise around us that we don’t take the time to tune it all out and tune into ourselves.  Well, I’ve begun doing just that.  I’m listening to my body….ACTIVELY listening to it.  I’ve experimented between a few workout approaches and now realize that total body workouts actually work best for me.  So, my approach now is M - W - F / Cardio/Abdominals (30 - 50 min), T - Th - S / Total Body Resistance Training (45 - 60 min).  I find that I am really enjoying this.  I’m switching up the way I hit certain muscle groups (for the shock factor) and will be incorporating swimming in the next 2 weeks.  I feel like it is finally coming together.  I stressed over the scale so much but not I realize it isn’t about the numbers on the scale.  My clothes are fitting much better and I’ve had several people at work approach me to ask what I’ve been up to because they see a "physical change" in me. *can you see the big cheesy grin on my face right now?* That definitely has me pumped and I’m motivated…not to mention I am finally able to see some definition coming in across my chest and my arms.  I’m so hype right now!  Stay tuned, there’ll be much more to come…

Okay.  I figured I would switch things up a bit as I am finding it difficult to focus on everything I want to do (due to serious time constraints as of late).  I tried to figure which is the lesser of two evils.  I really want to build lean muscle but I also REALLY want to burn this excess fat so I can *SEE* the lean muscle I am building.  I no longer (for the moment) have the luxury of twice a day in the gym and so my afternoon cardio sessions are temporarily on hold .  Being that I am not doing the total body workouts 3 days a week with cardio in between, I am finding the numbers on the scale slowly rising.  I am going to trust that I am gaining muscle since my weekly routine is Mon - Chest/Tri’s/Shoulders, Tue - Back/Bi’s, Wed - Legs/Abs, Thurs - Chest/Tri/s/Shoulders Fri - Back/Bi’s, Sat. & Sun. Rest

I seriously need to clean this up a ton.  I THINK my body responds better to the total body workouts in terms of leaning and defining but for the sake of building the muscle I want, the current method of doing things is working. (Sigh)  WHO KNOWS????  I can say I am feeling stronger.  I’ve actually surprised myself and my boyfriend with how strong my back is.  I’m working on improving the strength of my chest and it is coming along okay.  My main thing is trying to prevent myself from feeling like I am spinning my wheels and running in place….. I’m still optimistic that I can make some dramatic things happen in the next 3 months.  Stay tuned…..

It’s been exactly 1 month of 5-6 days in the gym lifting weights, doing cardio, eating 5-6 small meals daily and experiencing the low energy spells I’ve never felt before (which I’m told are due to "cleaning up" my diet).  I am feeling stronger as I am now able to do 30 boy push-ups in a single set, hold planks for 2 minutes, and I always feel as if I’ve accomplished something after each workout.  I’ve heard from three different people at work that I look smaller.  Well, I’m glad someone can see it because, although my clothes are fitting far less snug, I don’t feel I’m progressing.  While I feel stronger, I can’t see any difference in definition.  I THINK I’m shrinking fat cells but I haven’t measured recently.  I’m trying to maintain my optimism.  I’m going to continue pushing.  I had a great workout this morning.  Tomorrow is my off day but I’ll do some light cardio.

This morning’s workout was completely awesome.  I really pushed myself.  One of the biggest hinderances I think I’ve been dealing with in the past is that I didn’t acknowledge that my body could do more if I asked it to.  Now, this by no means goes to say that I’m Shera or Superwoman but this morning while doing chest and tri’s I realized that my body will deliver if I ask.  So I was totally psyched!  During my rest periods I did jumping jacks to keep my heart rate  up and moved quickly from machine to machine to ensure it stayed up.  I don’t feel as though my workout is effective if I’m not sweating or if my breathing is mild.  I feel inspired and am looking forward to my pm cardio.  I’m hoping it will be warm because I really want to hit the track and do a few 20-30 second sprints with 60 second recoveries in between.  We’ll see how it goes.  I’ve never been much of a runner but I want to diversify my workouts as much as I can to 1) challenge myself and overcome my weaknesses and 2) so that I don’t become bored.  In the past, that was another issue of mine that was discouraging. 

 My eating is clean but I’m not consuming enough calories.  I have to go back to the drawing board and figure some things.  I do NOT want to jeopardize my pending advances.

I realize that much of my problem is wanting too much too fast so I have managed to slow my brain activity down long enough to focus on one small goal at a time.  This morning, I got up at 4:45 and hit the gym at 5:15.  I did chest and back only.  This evening, I’ll do cardio for 30 minutes.  I have personally elected to eliminate breads, pasta, and rice from my diet for right now which leaves me with protein (lean cuts) and veggies with moderate fruit intake (early in the day only).  I felt focused this morning.  I did three different excercises for chest and for back — bench press, incline bench press, and chest flyes / lateral pull downs, close grip seated cable pulldowns, and I used the seated chest flye machine in reverse to work the top of the back (I don’t know what that’s called).  I did 3 sets of 15 reps each, increasing the weight with each set.  Tomorrow will be legs — hams, quads, calves, inner/outer thighs and I’ll work some abs in there as well.  I’m having a really difficult time right now (my boyfriend of 9 years broke up with me) so I’m really looking forward to something positive in my life.  I know they say change is good so I’m hoping my quest to transform my physique will be GREAT.

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