Shannon’s BodyBlog

Make sure you’re at the bus stop, or a playground, or waiting to cross the street, or standing around on the sidewalk waiting to earn some money before you even ATTEMPT to do this workout.

Breakfast:  38g protein

Snack:  24g protein

Lunch:  40g protein

Dinner:  40g protein

I never want to be perceived as being old fashioned or "not up with the times".  I don’t reject the latest music thinking "it’s not like the music from the old days".  I don’t reject modern technology, and I find it important to stay current in the latest research in whatever subject there is out there whether it’s medicine (especially diabetes) or exercise.

But, there is something about old school bodybuilding that really appeals to me.  I love the basics like squats, pushups, pullups, using DB’s, etc. because it’s more about what your body is made of.  Those are the things that really require strength and stability of your muscles to get through them.

Plus, they’re more interesting to do because you’re always thinking about your technique and paying attention to form and stabilizing your body to make sure the part you’re working is getting worked properly.

When Rocky was training to fight Ivan Drago, I was a lot more fascinated by Rocky’s training…like doing walking lunges with a log over his shoulders…than I was by Drago’s beebopboop machines and cardiovascular monitors.

Machines definitely have their place in a workout, but I like it better when I’m using the old school equipment.  I feel more grrrrrr while doing my workout.

Here is an old school song I heard on the radio yesterday that I plan to load onto my iPod (Look!  It even has an old school stick man in the vid):

Breakfast:  1 whole egg, 4 egg whites

oatmeal w/ raisins
milk

Lunch:  Tuna

green beans

brown rice

Pregym:  protein shake

Postgym:  protein shake

banana

No.  I’m not talking about something like a Tossed Salad or a Dirty Sanchez.

I’ve been thinking about how plateaus (whether it’s losing fat, or lifting weights) are like coming up to a rusty screw that you want to loosen up and remove in order to replace it with a new one.

You keep at it and it doesn’t budge.  You want to try all different ways to remove it, so you start with lubing it up to make it easier to remove and get the WD-40, but it still doesn’t budge.  You start getting frustrated and pissed and  it makes you want to take a hack saw to it and just destroy the f*cker.  OR, you just want to give up on it and say "SCREW YOU, SCREW."

But if you just keep at it, it will loosen up eventually and you’ll be able to remove it.  It takes patience and persistance, but it will pay off in the end.

I’ve gotten through a few plateaus that were frustrating the hell out of me and I had gotten to a point where I thought maybe I’m at my limit and can’t do any better.

Now, because of how my workouts are planned by Janthony, I have it in my head that the minimum number of reps I do is 6.  If I can get a weight for 6 reps, then I try for a higher weight, no matter what the exercise is.

So for the DB curls, I had "graduated" to 20 lbs after trying for it since I started training under Janthony.  Next, I wanted to graduate to 25 lbs, but for the longest time, I couldn’t get past 2 or 3 reps.  So I didn’t feel I was successful at "graduating" yet.  But, I eventually made it to 6 reps with them and now I’m eyeing the 30 lb DB the next time I have arm day.

For the incline bench press, I had gotten to 30 lb DB’s and was happy about that.  So next it was time for me to move on to 35 lbs and I got to 6 reps.  BUT, when I tried for 40 lbs, I couldn’t get them up all the way no matter how I struggled.

In my head I was thinking, "Doesn’t anybody see me struggling with this and want to help?"  But I knew the guys were in their own little zones, or they just didn’t care to help, which is fine.  I decided that the only way I’d do something is if I did it alone.  So I stuck with the 35 lb DB’s for a while without wanting to try the 40 lbs.

Recently, I decided to try them again and wasn’t about to let those measly little 40 lb DB’s get the best of me.  I had to think of them as measly to get past my psychological block that I had about them.

I attempted to lift the weight, arching my back, grunting a little bit, hoping no one was watching while I struggled to get those suckers up in the air, LOL.  Guess what!  I was able to raise them up and continue to get to 6 reps.  I’ll stick with that weight for a while to get strong enough to graduate to the next weight level.

Next were my friggin hamstrings.  The standing leg curls were a BEYOTCH to do.  I felt like I was da bomb for curling 25 lbs, but knew that that was piddly.  But I thought I was destined to have weak hammies, so I stayed at 25 lbs for a while hoping that if I just stuck with working them even at 25 lbs, that maybe they’d get strong enough to get past that weight.

One day, a couple of weeks ago, I was feeling real fine and jacked up the weight to 35 lbs.  Guess what!  I cranked out a bunch of reps and felt like I graduated from Harvard University.  I was really happy about that to say the least.  I felt like I conquered my stubborn hammies!

There are a couple of women on this site that help me rise to the occasion because they help me see what is possible to do above and beyond what I thought I was capable of.

Amysuds is one of those women.  She keeps a journal in the forums that I check on often.  I once read that she did 200 lbs on her hacksquat.

Now, hacksquats and I have a love/hate relationship.  They are the only exercise that makes my ass sore, so I know that I’m getting them really good when I workout.  But damn are they difficult to do.

I started out with doing them on the machine with no weight whatsoever back in December when I started up with Janthony.  And I had a little battle going on in my head with them and refused to let them defeat me.

Over the months, I’ve been adding on weight, and at about the time I was busting through the plateaus I mentioned, I was able to add above and beyond weights I never thought I could do.

As of yesterday, I was able to crank out 6 reps of 180 lbs.  So 200 lbs is on it’s way to make my ass FINE, LOL.

CWPullups is another woman I’ve been  checking in on often.  She is attempting to break the world record for the most amount of pullups.  Go check her out and read about her accomplishments.

It took her 2 years to train to get to where she’s at now.  She really turned my perspective around when it comes to the amount of time and dedication it takes to have success.

So when I see people say "I’ve been working hard all week and I only lost 1/2 a pound", I have to laugh to myself and say, "That is only a micro-second in the world of fitness."

Plus, CWPullups makes me want to train to do the amount of pullups she’s done.  Maybe that will be a goal I have to work on over the summer with my handy dandy Iron Gym.  At least get to a point above and beyond the amount of pullups I’ve done in the past…or beat out my time from the last time I did them.

Music makes your "job" in the kitchen that much more enjoyable.  Here’s a song to keep you in the mood (in reference to the blog written earlier today):

I ran out of eggs, but as soon as I buy some more, I’m trying this:

Breakfast:  Oatmeal (5g prot) w/ protein powder (24g prot) and apricots (1g prot)

milk (8g prot)

*EDIT*  I’m optimistic about taking care of this.  Not down and out about it.  All is good.
I knew it would catch up with me eventually, but I was hoping that with all of the exercise and dieting and weight loss, I could prevent it from happening.  Nope, no such luck.

Last week I was diagnosed with hypertension.  I’m in probably the best shape of my life and I’ve still been diagnosed with it.  I guess my lifestyle changes weren’t enough.

I have a strong family history of it, and I’ve been pre-hypertensive for all of my adult life….during the times I was young, thin and athletic and during my fat baby-making years.  I don’t recall ever having a BP reading under 130/80.

A couple of months ago, I had a blood pressure reading of 160/105 at a dental visit almost 2 months ago (yes, they take BP readings there).  They said that I should make an appointment with my doctor to have it checked again.
So a month ago, I saw my doc, and my reading was 140/90.  She didn’t want to make a diagnosis right then and there, so she said she’d like to see me in a month to take another reading.

Last week, my reading was 150/90.  So she diagnosed me with hypertension and said not to make any changes to my exercise routine.  She doesn’t think it’s necessary for me to lose weight.  Basically, the only change she made was to have me reduce my sodium intake to 2,000 mg per day.  She put me on a diuretic to start out with to see if reducing water weight would help.

I see her at the end of the month again to see how my BP reading is.  If she doesn’t like the range it’s in, she’ll increase the dosage.  If that still doesn’t work, then it’s on to another BP med.

In the meantime, I’ve decided to stop taking the supplements I had been taking like White Flood, Superpump, and Purple Wrath since they give warnings about not taking it if you have health conditions like high blood pressure.  I’m playing it safe.
Since I don’t have any of those awesome supplements to help me get through my awesome weight lifting routine I’ve revamped my diet to include more carbs by increasing my fruit, vegetable, and complex carb intake….based on the DASH diet.  I have the outline of it in my workout section of my profile.

Also, I’ve had to eliminate cottage cheese (*GASP*) because it’s loaded with 440mg of sodium!!  That’s a lot!

I’m sticking with 100% Optimum Whey protein powder because I can deal with it having 90mg of sodium per serving.

Now on to stress reduction.  Yeah, like that’s going to happen with my household.  So, I’ve been trying to come to terms with my penchant for road rage.

I rage when people go the speed limit:

"C’mon you idiot!  Move it!  Jesus****ingchrist."

I rage when they don’t hop to it and accelerate when the light turns green:

"Moooooove!!  It’s a green light, people!!"

I rage when they don’t yield the right of way at an intersection (which is a daily occurance in NH):

"I have the right of way.  DON’T GO.  DON’T YOU DARE GO."

I STILL rage when I see a moving violation happening that has no impact on me:

"I want to be a cop just so I can give him a ticket!  I wish cops were at every area possible so they can see this and give him a ticket!!"

Since these scenarios and more, happen on a daily occurance, I guess I should work on reducing my driving stress.  I know my BP has got to be through the car roof when I drive.

Oh how I wish this worked, but alas…this would probably happen to me too:

Breakfast:  2 eggs (12g prot)

oatmeal (5g prot) w/ raisins (1g prot), 1/2 scoop protein powder (12g prot)

1 cup milk (8g prot)

Lunch:  Chicken (40g prot)

brown rice (6g prot)

carrots

cucumber and radish salad

At the gym yesterday, a man whom I’ve never seen before came in to workout.

He got on an incline bench, straps around his wrists already and was pumping imaginary DB’s to get the blood flowing…I guess.

And then he started pacing around and hopping on his toes.

The man was ready to rock ‘n’ roll!

He got the DB’s and started pressing away.  And afterward he growled, a low gutteral growl.

I did my best to ignore him and I just went about my business doing my lat pulldowns because I was about to bust out laughing.

I was resting in between a set and went to get a drink.  I came back and stood at the station where I was doing the pulldowns when the guy walked passed and bumped into me.

Whoa, chillax, chillaaax baby.  The equipment isn’t going anywhere.

He started doing supersets of tri pressdowns and was looking MIGHTY intense doing them.  He growled after doing those too.
I couldn’t put my finger on it at the time, but he reminded me of someone.  The way he was behaving, his "enthusiasm", his looks.

Once I got home I realized that the man reminded me of HIM doing THIS:

Breakfast:  2 whole eggs, 4 egg whites (28g prot)
oatmeal (5g prot)
coffee

Snack:  Cottage cheese (14g prot)

Lunch:  chicken (40g prot)

sweet potato/apple hash w/ onions

Pregym:  protein shake

Dinner:  sweet potato hash

Bedtime:  2 scoops protein w/ milk (56g prot)

Where in the F can I buy workout clothes???  ….That don’t cost a fortune???  ….And that have a huge variety to choose from???

I went to the mall yesterday and perused the racks at JCPenny.  I found a tank top, capri sweats, and shorts.  I’ve been wanting shorts because it gets steamy in the gym since they’re stingy about the air conditioning at times.  The cooler I feel, the better my energy, ergo…the more enjoyable my workout is.

So, I tried everything on and it was fine.  But when it came to the shorts, I needed to test these babies out.

I don’t know about your gym, but at mine, it is wall to wall mirrors, practically floor to ceiling.  So there is no turning away from anyone to avoid showing off certain areas that you don’t want shown.

A reason why I don’t do donkey calf raises.

Anywho, I managed to nab the penthouse suite of dressing rooms….the handicap dressing room.

When I tried on the shorts, I wanted to make sure that a certain area, namely my bits and pieces, could not be seen when I was doing certain exercises.

So, what I did was….

I layed on the floor facing the mirror with my knees bent, and I did a few crunches.

Oh yeah, too much gap in the leg area between my legs.  Shorts were a huge FAIL.

Aside from that, there was hardly anything to choose from at that department store.

So I went to Macy’s next.  I had to circle the place a few times and finally found a section of MAYBE 2 racks of workout clothes.  Nothing to choose from

Dammit!  I just thought about Dick’s right now.  How did that slip my mind??  That is one option that I have yet to explore.

But, if you know of anywhere that sells workout clothes at reasonable prices, or even a website for me to go to, please share.

Thanks!

Weight Training:  chest, back, abs
Breakfast:  2 whole eggs, 3 egg whites (24g prot)
oatmeal (5g prot)
coffee

Snack:  1 cup cottage cheese (24g prot)

Lunch:  chicken (40g prot)

Pregym:  protein shake (24g prot)

Postgym:  protein shake (24g prot)

Dinner:  chicken sandwich on whole wheat (48g prot)

Bedtime:  casein shake (24g prot)

I have a symphony of recorders (those great sounding flute-like things) playing in my ear right now.  My kids want to show off their musical skillz.  They’re showing me the love for Mother’s Day, LOL.

Here is a poem I received this morning from my oldest son (age 9):

"Mom"

 This is my mom.

She is as thin as a wire.

I love my mom.

My mom is as sweet as candy.

My mom is as precious as silver and gold.

My mom is as strong as my dad.

She is as strong as a rhino.

My mom is as nice as a puppy.

My mom is as cuddly as a stuffed animal.

She is as loud as a train.

I do yell pretty loud when provoked :p

My daughter gave me an illustrated essay about me being her mom.  In it, she said she knows I love her because she makes me laugh.  Here is a conversation about her baseball game she played in last night that illustrates that point:

Daughter (age 7):  Mom, I liked playing catcher last night.  It was goooood.

Me:  That’s great!  I’m happy you liked it.

Daughter:  Mom, I was down like this (she squats down, her butt touching the floor) and the ball was coming toward my nuts……

Me:  Did you just say "nuts"?

Daughter:  Yeeaahhh?

Me:  Girls don’t have nuts.

Daughter:  It came toward my V-word? (she actually said "v-word", not vagina).
Me (laughing):  Alright.  Saying "V-word" is OK.  Or you can just say "it was coming toward me".  So, what happened next?

Daughter:  It was coming toward me and I had to go up like this (she shows how she popped up her bony butt) and I missed it.

Me:  You’ll do better next time.

My youngest son (age 6), painted a rock to make it look like a ladybug.  He is so concerned about it that he won’t let me touch it.  He is telling me how to take care of it and where to put it.  I was told not to touch the antennas, but I can touch the bumpy spots on it’s back.

They served me breakfast in bed and they had their breakfast in bed with me.  Good times.

So, you’ll notice that I have (Day 0) written.  Yeah, I have to start eating clean all over again.  I was so unprepared for the day of 3 baseball games, not realizing that my daughter’s game had been delayed because we had to wait for another game to finish, so we didn’t get home until after 7 last night.  Which meant a late dinner for the kids, showers (that’s when I sounded loud as a train to get my oldest son into one…man, was he filthy…because he fought me tooth and nail trying to convince us that he’d do it tomorrow, LOL), and finally bedtime.

To make a long story short, I wound up eating 2 slices of pizza at 10 o’clock because I was so hungry.

BUT, this is a learning experience for me since I’ve never had 3 kids involved in sports all in the same season.  So I’ll be sure to pack a cooler for next time…because there will be a lot of "next times" in the coming weeks ahead.

Also, no gym time yesterday, but I will get there today.  I promise on that one.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms who read this

The kiddies have Baseball Opening Day in the early A.M.  They all play games all throughout the day and are really excited for the festivities.    But, in between a couple of the games, I will be off to…….

….relax with my gay hair stylist to enjoy laughter, getting some blond applied, a head massage, a cut, and some filthy gossip mags in between it all.

DAMN I love my hair appointment.  It’s better than the smell of napalm in the morning and sweeter than baby Jesus

Hey all, here’s a joke to get your morning started:

How many mice does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Two.  The hard part is getting them in the light bulb.

And last, but not least, I have leg day later today at the gym and will crank out every last rep there is to have with the heaviest weight possible cuz I’ll be feeling soooo goooood.