Shannon’s BodyBlog

I can be sick as a dog and choose to be in a miserable man-cold kind of mood.
Or I can be sick as a dog on Advil and choose to be enthusiastic about doing cardio tonight!

WOOHOOOOOO!

I’ll choose the latter.  Why?

Because no one will let me relax in this house anyway.  Might as well make good use of my time.

Cardio:  600

Weight training:  chest, back, calves
Breakfast:  1 whole egg, 4 egg whites

oatmeal

blueberries

milk

coffee

Snack:  apple

Lunch:  tuna sandwich on whole wheat

Snack:  protein shake

chicken broth

Saturday:

Breakfast:  hotel food (scrambled eggs, oatmeal)
Lunch:  party food (chips)
Dinner:  party food (lasagna, salad)
Sunday:

Breakfast:  road food (Dunkin Donuts flatbread sandwich w/ egg white)
Lunch:  1 whole egg, 4 egg whites

cottage cheese
2 slices whole wheat bread

Snack:  protein shake

Dinner:  oatmeal w/ 1/2 cup blueberries

Weight Training:  legs, abs

Cardio:  600

Today, there was a guy who I’ve seen before and he does all kinds of bosu ball exercises.  He’s medium build and not bulky.  Athletic looking would be a good way to describe him.

Well, something terrible happened.

The entire time we were working out, I kept hearing this leaking sound:

Tss

Tss

Tss

Tss

It went on for a long time with every rep this guy made….no matter what exercise he was doing.

The next thing I know, he was laying as a crumpled, deflated heap of skin on the floor.

The poor guy was leaking and all the air escaped from him!

In other news, I posted some end of March progress pics.

Have a great weekend!

If I had hemorrhoids, I’d be raging too.  I’ve never had them, but I heard they hurt BAD.

In other news,  I made my 190 lb squat goal.  But I never used to count the bar weight, and asked Janthony if I should, so I actually did 200 lbs for 3 sets of 6 negative reps since the bar weighs about 10 pounds.

I got stuck on the last rep of the last set when I was at the bottom, but I pushed my way up and made it.  That was a worrisome moment.

Weight Training:  chest, back, abs

Cardio:  600

Breakfast:  Oatmeal (5g prot)

protein powder (24g prot)

coffee

milk (4g prot)

Snack:  chicken (15g prot)

pear

Lunch:  2 whole eggs (12g prot)
wrap (7g prot)

pregym:  Protein shake (24g prot)

Postgym:  protein shake (24g prot)

banana

Dinner:  Greek salad with grilled chicken (28g prot)

I’m not one to complain or grouse about little things, but lately I’ve been overwhelmed with this damned headache that hasn’t gone away since last Tuesday.  Last night it all came to a head (hehe) when the little sliver of muscle leading from the base of my skull to my shoulder blade felt like a steel wire being twisted in a tourniquet.  It would come and go like contractions last night.  (As a matter of fact, it’s still going on as I write this.  Advil helps for all of 20 minutes, then it’s right back at it again.  Grrrrrr……)

And it was really pissing me off, causing me to hate the guts of the guy who took the 20# DB’s I was using for my bicep curls so that HE could use them for HIS bicep curls.  WIMP.

I kept my eye on that guy just because next I noticed he was using the wimpiest weights I’ve ever seen a guy use.

He was average build and height, but DAMN.

I was at one of the stations working on my triceps trying not to wince everytime my neck tightened and I saw this guy at the preacher curl bench sneering and leering at himself in the mirror like he was going through the most grueling workout.  He’d grip his bicep with his other hand to feel the pump baby.

It looked to me like he was using those 20# DB’s.

But when he walked past me, they were 15#’s.   That made me seeth even more!  He doesn’t deserve to be sneering and leering like that.  In fact, he doesn’t deserve to have biceps at all!  I just wanted to say "Gimme those!  You’re not treating them right!"

And let’s talk about the guy who was walking around in Richard Simmons style shorty shorts.  And he was straight.

Not only did he have nylon shorty shorts on, but he had a fanny pak that he would take off and put on a bench next to him while he did….aw damn I can’t remember the name of the move I did so often to my Jane Fonda workout video back in the 80’s.  But it’s a butt firming exercise where you get down on all fours,  and bend your leg, lifting your heel toward the ceiling…..

….in his shorty friggin shorts!!

And then he’d get up, clip his handy dandy fanny pak back around his waist and after that, I lost track of the guy.

Let me tell you, if a man is going to wear shorts, they MUST be lower than mid thigh.  Especially if he’s going to do butt firming exercises!

Next up….was a man who WAS gay and he had a better ass than I did.  He would sashay in his ass shaking swaggar and whip through some tricep presses on about 3 plates worth of weight.

Grrrrr……

Now today, my daughter is home sick from being sick since Sunday.  And I’ll have another nighttime workout to do.

It’s leg day today and I’m going rip right through them, dammit!

Last week I did 3 sets of 6 negative reps of squats with 180 lbs.

Tonight I’m going to get through them at 190 lbs.

Okay, I think I’m feeling less Grrrrrr since I got all of this off my chest.

Weight Training:  Legs

Cardio:  600

Breakfast:  2 whole eggs, 4 egg whites (24g prot)
oatmeal (5g prot)
blueberries

milk (4g prot)
coffee

Snack:  protein shake with milk (32g prot)

Lunch:  grilled chicken salad

1 cup angel hair (6g prot)
Snack:  protein shake (24g prot)
banana

Dinner:  Chicken (40g prot)

veggies

Snack:  casein protein shake (24g prot)

I can walk and chew gum at the same time.

I can talk and chew gum at the same time.

I can even tap the top of my head and rub my belly at the same time (after a few tries and some hard concentration).

But chewing gum and lifting is something I can’t do.

Orbit gum is my new favorite gum of my life.  It stays sweet for the longest time.  It has a variety of fun, delicious flavors like

Maui Melon Mint,

Sangria Fresca,

Cinnamint,

Citrusmint,

(do not bother with the Fruitini…the flavor doesn’t last…must’ve been a bum pack),

and my all time flavorite….Mint Mojito.

It’s done nothing to clean up my dirty mouth since I continue to swear up a storm.

Anyway, I was chewing Maui Melon Mint while doing my bench press and for the life of me, I couldn’t get a good lift going.

I was concrentrating so hard on chewing that I couldn’t concentrate on getting the bar up and the lifts weren’t feeling as energetic as they usually are.

I decided to store it in the side of my cheek, but I couldn’t move my mouth around to groan and growl when lifting the weight because the gum would’ve fallen to the back of my throat causing me to choke.

The gum was such a damned distraction, but it was still so sweet and delicious.  I knew what I had to do though.  And it made me sad to do so.

So into the trash it went

Weight Training:  Shoulders, arms, abs

Cardio:  600

Breakfast:  1 whole egg, 4 egg whites (21g prot)
oatmeal (5g prot)
blueberries

milk (4g prot)
coffee

Snack:  turkey burger (18g prot)
banana

Lunch:  turkey burger (18g prot)
wrap (7g prot)

Snack:  1 cup rice (6g prot)
Dinner:  chicken (40g prot)

mixed vegetables

Back in my working days as a graphic artist, I worked with this guy who was a real a**hole with a capital A-S-S-H-O-L-E.

He would brag that he was the best employee, did the most work, was the most accurate, put out the best work.   He actually was pretty good, but we would hear about this every single night all night long.

He would’ve been cool if he just stuck with his travel-around-the-world stories about hopping flights with Fed Ex for super cheap fair and getting hepatitis at a Chinese food stand.  He was actually fascinating to talk to.

But he had that flaw going for him and we were worn out by the guy.

One night, he mentioned wanting to lose 15 pounds.  I said I could stand to lose 15 as well.  My "Freshman 15" came AFTER I graduated college putting me at 140 lbs while hitting the vending machine every night.  DAMMIT.

So we decided to make a bet to see who would lose it first.  There was a scale at work (don’t ask me what it was doing there) so we could have proof of what we weighed.
We made the bet on Friday.

On Monday, he came in bragging that he lost 8 lbs already by eating canned corn all weekend.

My partner, Lois, took me aside and said, "Shannon, he lost half his weight after a few days.  You better do something about this bet.  You’re going to lose and you can’t let him win.  He’ll NEVER shut up about it."

So I mentioned to him how hard it is for women to lose weight

He was surprisingly nice enough to adjust the bet so that if I lost my 15 lbs by the end of September, then I’d win even if he lost all of his 15 lbs before me.

It was August, so I had about 6 weeks or so to lose this weight.

My boss was big into weightlifting and put me on a diet of canned tuna mixed with cottage cheese, a salad, chicken breast, a bit of brown rice and told me to fill half my plate with vegetables.  That is all I lived on for the entire time that the bet was going on.

I didn’t belong to a gym, but I had a mountain bike that I’d ride 3-4 times a week.  I rode an 8 mile loop of the hilliest hills ever.  I lived in Upstate NY…which is very hilly in the Hudson River area.  And there was this fly that would buzz around my head at the same point in my ride each time I went out.  It was CRAZY.  I think I rode through this fly’s territory or something.  I never knew flies had territories, but they must.

I don’t even want to mention the roadkill I had to encounter and hold my breath as I rode by….especially the skunks.

Riding a bike on rural backroads is so sucktastic  I can’t even tell you how much.

I was bound and determined prevent this guy from winning.  But I was cranky as hell from this diet since I had very little carbs to go on.  And I really HATED that fly.  There were so many times that I HATED every second of my life.

FINALLY, the last night came and it was time for a weigh in.  He stepped on the scale and was off by 1 pound!!  He lost 14.

Now, part of the bet that I didn’t mention was that if I didn’t lose the 15 lbs, then he’d win even if he didn’t lose all of his weight.  It was really riding on my shoulders.

I stepped on the scale.  And everyone gathered to see.  We looked at the number and it read:

125.

I lost exactly 15 lbs.

Everyone cheered in relief at the fact that we wouldn’t be hearing his braggard ass bragging about how great he was about beating me.

Anyway, I hadn’t weighed that much since my mid-20’s.  I gained a bit, had babies, lost my pregnancy weight after having my first 2 kids, but was never able to get below 130 after that.

Janthony and I talked about what my March goal would be for weight loss and he said he would like to see my bodyfat % come down a couple of points and to get my weight under 130.  I was hopeful, but a bit skeptical since it was so long since I was under 130 lbs.  But he believed in me and knew that everything I was doing would get me there.
This morning I weighed in at 129.  And I didn’t get cranky or have a shitty fly bugging the hell out of me to get there!

Weight Training:  back, chest, and calves

Cardio:  600

Breakfast:  1 whole egg, 4 egg whites (21g prot)
oatmeal (5g prot)
blueberries

milk (4g prot)
coffee

Lunch:  chicken breast (40g prot)

1/2 cup rice (4g prot)

Pregym:  protein shake (24g prot)

Dinner:  chicken breast, rice, mixed vegetable stir fry (47g prot)

Snack:  casein/whey protein shake

The other day, I was driving my son to school when we stopped at a red light behind a delivery truck for New England seafood.

There was a picture of a woman with her back facing me in a sports bra tanky toppy thing balancing a plate of seafood on one hand, and holding up a dumbbell in the other hand.

I was trying to gauge whether she was holding a 3# dumbbell or a 5 pounder.

My son must’ve been reading my mind because he said, "She’s holding 5 lbs.  Or maybe it’s 3 lbs."

And then he said, "You should look like her."

And I said, "She’s a wimp!  She’s only holding a 3 lb weight!"

But then I realized how sucktastic it would be for her to be posing while holding a heavier weight while waiting for the photographer to shoot the pic.

Weight Training:  Legs, abs

Cardio:  600

Breakfast:  oatmeal (5g prot)

coffee

Pregym:  protein shake (24g prot)

Postgym:  cottage cheese mixed with protein powder (46g prot)  Say it with me, people:  Deeeeeelicious!!

Lunch:  Tuna pasta salad with celery and carrots (30g prot)

Dinner:  2 whole eggs, 4 egg whites

I want this.  I have no idea what body part it works out.  And frankly, I don’t care!

Cardio:  600