Shannon’s BodyBlog

This is me today.

Weight Training:  Legs

Cardio:  300

A.  Would you rather be the person who is fit, healthy, has a great physique and a better frame of mind (little guilt, more self-esteem, etc, etc, etc)?

Or

B.  Would you rather be the person who is out of shape, has the risk of serious health problems, has the physique of a butterball turkey,  and is prone to depression…if he/she isn’t already depressed?

"A." would be the obvious choice.

But for some reason, people work pretty damned hard at being the second person.

It takes a lot of work to carry those pitiful, overweight bodies around, and being all depressed, expending energy on guilt and regrets and self degradation.

How much easier is it to make simple meals, spend an hour in the gym, maybe 20 minutes doing vigorous cardio and creating a healthy body that gets them from place to place a WHOLE lot easier…with less pain as well, and more positive state of mind.

I think if people spent more time using the rational side of their brains rather than the instinctual, wild animal side (eating whatever tastes good regardless of how bad it is for them, giving in to their lazy side because it "feels good"), society would be much better off health-wise.

One more week until I’m back to the gym 6 days a week.  I can’t WAIT for next Monday.
Being with the kids 24/7 during the summer makes me feel flustered and I have trouble focusing on everything I need to do for myself.

Plus, I always feel like I could be doing better than what I am.  So I like to touch base with myself each month and make a checklist of everything I’ve got to do for the fitness end of my life.  It helps me focus on doing everything to the fullest potential.

Here’s my list:

1.  Workout 7 days a week.  Weight lifting/6 days, Cardio/4 days.  Each day of the week will have a workout involved.

2.  On point with my diet every day without fail.  Plan the meals for the week, pre-prep where needed, make up "emergency" plans for days when the schedule is crazy (school activities, sports, etc).

3.  Water.  Drink a gallon every day.

It’s simple enough, but if I don’t keep on top of it, it slips between my fingers. A gallon of water turns into a few cups, cardio 4 days a week turns into 2 days, etc., etc.

For this week, I plan to get to the gym at every opportunity that comes my way as I’ve done for the past couple of months.  But the cardio and water intake needs to be cranked up.

That is that.

Cardio:  500

I was folding laundry yesterday and turned on E! Hollywood True Story:  Female Bodybuilders.

I started watching it while the narrator was doing his thang.  But my awares came to full on attention when I heard a female bodybuilder SPEAK.

Holy

Mother

Of

All that is unnatural……

She and the others that followed sounded like James Earl Jones sucking on helium.

I just stared at the TV listening to them and wondered how in the F*CK are they not freaked out by how deep their voices got!

I would be in quivering mess of tears if I woke up one morning and sounded like them.

One woMAN talked about how she’s a "muscle goddess" or something like that.

Men would PAY her to come and feel her muscles and spend time with her.

These weirdos would pay $200-500 bucks an hour!

They showed one guy coming to her house for the Goddess Experience which entailed her doing nothing but getting into her show suit and stand there while he checked her out and felt her muscles.

Then they wrestled a little bit on her bed.

And THEN….get this….he washed her car!

I was like….how do I get in on this gig?!

I get paid to let them touch me and get them in a leg lock a few times?  That’s all there is to it?  That’s easy money!

And believe me, I would take full advantage of their weirdness.  Nevermind washing my car….I would make them clean my goddamn HOUSE!

Although, I would seriously need to train.  What, it would take a few months, right?  Take some roids and it’s sooo done.

Test, DHT, THG, some others for good measure.  Whatever it takes.

I would also need to seriously train to achieve a poker face also.  Can’t be looking like I’m smelling a barrel full of rotting fish while they felt my delts and whatever else

I’ll just close my eyes and go to my happy place.  Zone them out.

As for hair growth, I’d be growing a beard, right?

I think a Brazilian face wax should keep my skin female-like for several weeks.

How can more women not want to be a part of this profession??

Cardio:  501

Awww, look at hiiiim.  He’s soooo cuuuute.

He’s a petite powerhouse with BIG attitude.  His itty bitty biceps are adorable.  He can crank out pullups like nobody’s business.

I wouldn’t dare challenge this little man to a thumb wrestling contest.  No way no how.

That is what my son’s endocrinologist said to him at his quarterly checkup the other day.  Other than the issues that had popped up with his diabetes care, I mentioned his energy levels during baseball and basketball games and how we let his blood sugar rise a bit so that he would have the energy to keep up.

She’s Type 1 as well, so she KNOWS what it feels like, and she also exercises rigorously everyday, competing in century bike rides every year.

"It’s all in his head.  Don’t let his blood sugar rise above 150 during games."

I told her that I would make up for the difference by making sure he’s better conditioned.

She agreed that would be the answer.

She said to him, "You can’t take a break from your diabetes.   You can never take a day off.  That goes for exercise too.  It is what it is.  You HAVE to do it."

I HATE HATE HATE that he has this, but I always find the positive in even the most negative of situations.

The positive of this would be that it will give him the drive to keep up with fitness so that he can play better at sports and keep up with it all.

He’s a powerful kid, physically and mentally.  He never complains about his lot in life.  He never complains how other kids don’t have to deal with what he does.  He just carries on.  It’s been a part of his life since he was a toddler and always will be for the rest of his life.

It is what it is.

In other news, the kids are LOVING my Iron Gym and they get me to hook it up in the doorway so that they can compete with one another.

My 6 year old will get up on it and pull himself up, then drop down.

"Beat THAT", he’ll say to his sister.

She’ll get up there, pull up twice and then drop down.

"I just did."

"Let me do it again!"

He struggles and struggles…"ARRRGGGHHH".

I tell them to rest before starting up again.

The next challenge they made up was to touch their shoulders to the bar.

So, pull for pull, they would try to out do each other with some sort of challenge.

Big sister always won and didn’t let little brother miss that point.

I have lots of personal reasons for working out and eating right, but how can I preach it to my kids if I don’t do the same.

They are the main reason for the drive I have to keep up with this stuff.  To make sure that they grow up with it and carry it on in their own lives when they’re all grown up.  I HOPE.

When I was a kid, I used to feel sorry for the last Froot Loop bobbing around in my cereal bowl. I’d make sure to eat them in multiples toward the end to avoid leaving a single lonely Froot Loop.

Cardio:  300

I can’t rightly say I’m an expert at working out.

No matter what results a person sees, there is ALWAYS room for improvement.

And there is never a moment when learning should ever cease to happen.

On the subject of form, I have found that mine isn’t all that I thought it was on a few exercises which is leading me to examine everything I’m doing.

So, advised by my trusted trainer, I’m setting out to see what a difference a few changes in body positioning and weight do for me on a couple of exercises I’ve questioned.

Sometimes while working out one muscle, I feel more of a pump or burn in other muscles moreso than the main one I’m working.

I know that there are other muscles that come into play indirectly while working a muscle in particular, but when I feel it more in those muscles than the main one I’m working, then it leads me to suspect there is something wrong with my form.

Or, sometimes I don’t feel a pump or burn at all in the main muscle I’m working, so it makes me wonder, as well, if my form is off.

I don’t like going blindly into something and going through the motions.  I like to know what it is I’m doing, why it’s done that way, and what the effects should be.

I don’t want to be like Mr. Whirligig who I see every once in a while at my gym.  He staggers around the gym without any seeming direction on what he’s setting out to do, gets in everyone’s way, picks up a DB or barbell and starts flailing his limbs around without paying attention to any semblance of form or technique.

When you don’t get the results you should be getting, sometimes it’s not about what the routine is, or whether you’re doing too much or not enough, it’s about examining all the moves you make to see if they’re being done correctly.

There might be certain exercises you do that receive strange looks from other gym goers.

You gotta do what you gotta do to get the bod you want.

For instance, years ago when I worked with a personal trainer, he had me do hip thrusts where I layed back on a balance ball, put two DB’s on the insides of my leg-hip area and had to lower and lift my hips.  We worked out in a little space tucked away at the back of the gym, so while it was embarassing to do in front of him, I did it anyway because it was good for me to do and the general gym public wasn’t around to gawk.

BUT, there are certain exercises I will never do like the donkey calf raise (thank goodness they have a piece of equipment where I can sit on it instead of being bent over).

This is an exercise that would test my dedication.  Would I do this at the gym?  I just don’t know.

All I know is, if I saw Mr.  Hoo Hoo doing this with the way he grunts and groans while doing cable crunches, I would lose it right then and there.

Cardio:  500