StressMonkey’s BodyBlog

I’ve mentioned before that I struggle with my diet sometimes.  My problem is not eating as much as I should.  Making the right choices about what to eat hasn’t been an issue for me.  I think cheat meals are the key.  I look forward to them and I really enjoy them as well.  I’m rarely tempted to eat junk because I just tell myself a cheat meal is right around the corner.  If I didn’t have my cheat meals it wouldn’t take long for me to turn into a binge eating psycho.  Making healthy food choices isn’t a big deal for me, but it can really suck sometimes in social situations.

I had lunch at an Italian restaurant with a bunch of my coworkers today.  As the waitress went around the table taking everyone’s order there was one dietary disaster after another being ordered.  Lasagna, fettucini alfredo (heart attack on a plate), sodas, etc.  You name it, it was ordered.  Then it’s my turn to order.  A glass of water, two chicken breasts, and some broccoli.  One person looked at me as if I had just asked the waitress to sacrifice her first born child.  I also got the ever popular “Why are you ordering food like that?  You’re not fat!” comment.  [face plant]

That’s why I love this website.  I know the people who are going to read this can not only relate, but would have done the same thing.  That lasagna looked soooo good, but the knowledge that I wasn’t screwing up my hard work with a crappy diet tasted better than any food could.  Plus tomorrow is my big cheat meal of the week.  That pizza and Coke is gonna be sweet! 

My trainer and I had a great seven month run.  When I started working out with him I knew next to nothing about training.  I didn’t know how to use any of the equipment, know any exercises, or have any clue what I should be eating to gain muscle.  Not to mention the fact that I had put off joining a gym for years.  When our time was up I was not only completely comfortable with going to the gym, but I also had gained over twelve pounds of muscle and dropped my bodyfat.  Still I have to admit I was a little surprised when he asked me if I would submit a testimonial and be one of his success stories.  I had my picture taken with him and wrote up a short description of what we accomplished together.  I went to the gym yesterday and when I was walking to the locker room I spotted a familiar face on the wall…..mine!  It seems almost surreal that a year ago I was too intimidated to even go into the place and wasn’t even thinking about joining a gym.  Now a few months after I started I’m up on the wall with other people who “made it”.  Hopefully my profile will help some other clueless punk who is thinking about joining up.  And the circle of life continues. 

I could care less how strong I am.  There, I said it!  I know that would be considered heresy for a lot of people on here but it’s true.  I got into this whole lifestyle for two reasons, to look good and feel good.  I’m not going to lie, “look good” was WAY more important to me than “feel good” when I started.

Lately I’ve found “feel good” has been making a huge comeback.  Work has been pretty stressful lately and I’ve found the gym to be an amazing way to step away from the madness for an hour.  Every day I leave the gym (except for leg day, blech) I feel absolutely amazing.  It’s so exciting to see gains and I swear pumps are addicting.  I wish I could convey to people I know how awesome it feels.  I obviously don’t do a good job explaining it because people always look at me like I’m a lunatic when I try to tell them exercise can be fun.  Then I usually get called a “health nut”, which is beyond ridiculous.  A health nut wouldn’t be addicted to chocolate.

In the last couple of weeks I’ve actually started going to the gym four times a week instead of three.  I’m not unhappy with the progress I’ve made, but rather I didn’t feel that three times a week was enough to get in all the work I wanted to do.  Plus I just enjoy it!  When I was paying my personal trainer I definitely could not have afforded to go four times a week, so this is one benefit of working out alone!

Knowing that you’re getting stronger is both satisfying and motivating at the same time.  I remember the first time I picked up a thirty pound dumbbell I thought “This is heavy!”, which is just laughable now.  I couldn’t do any pullups when I first started and now I’ve just started doing weighted ones.  Seeing strength gains has been far more rewarding than I ever imagined it would be.  Ok, maybe I care a little how strong I am. 

So basically I’ve been hovering around the same weight for a few months.  I’ll momentarily reach what is an all time weight high for me and then real life will get in the way and I’ll drop a bunch of pounds.  Then I’ll spend a few weeks getting back to where I was and the process will repeat itself.  This is partly my fault because I struggle with my diet.  It’s not that I’m eating bad things, it’s that either I’m too busy, I forget, or I just don’t freaking feel like eating (i.e. unlearning a lifetime of being really skinny).  I’ve grown to really love going to the gym.  I can’t say the same about the food intake required.

With that being said, what’s the best course of action to take next?  Agree to a weight gain race with someone who has successfully gained weight before.  Good lord, what was I thinking?  Oh well, it’s all in good fun and I’m going to give it my best.  My goal is to get from 152 to 160 and his is to get from 162 to 170.  Small guys rule!

Please take time to wish Michael (screen name Micchael_J) the worst of luck.  Sorry, that was a typo.  I  of course mean wish him the best.

Not literally, but that’s what it feels like.  So I’ve been really slacking off in working out the abs lately so I decided to do at least one ab exercise at the end of every trip to the gym.  So to continue my endless quest to find new ways to torture myself I started Googling for abs videos and I came across this gem, the “Bench Press Abs Crunch”.  Basically you lie down on the flat bench and raise your legs above you with legs up and bent at the knees.  You raise the barbell and keep your arms straight up (unbent).  Then proceed to crunch up while pushing the barbell straight up (as opposed to it moving forwards).  Your shoulders don’t come very far off of the bench.

Add this to the list of exercises I’ve never seen done at my gym before.  I definitely wanted to give these a try.  After I was done working the legs (gag) on Saturday I headed over to the bench press area.  I put a whopping five pounds on each side of the barbell and gave it a whirl.  I quickly digressed from “These aren’t so bad!” to “Oh crap…” to “Please make it stop!”

I kept working up in weight between sets and after my third set I had an incredible thirty pounds of weight on the barbell.  I can only imagine what people who were walking by when I was resting between sets thought when it looked like I was sitting on the bench huffing and puffing after benching thirty pounds.  “That’s right ladies, I benched all that weight myself.”  LOL

These really kicked my @ss.  Today I not only have sore legs but it feels like a mule kicked me in  the stomach.  Awesome!  I’m definitely going to do these once a week now!

So I checked out some more videos by this guy.  I have to say I was quite shocked when I found out he’s in his mid 50’s.  I just assumed he was about 45.  That is so inspiring!

So I saw the title of this video was hanging leg raises.  My assumption was that he was going to bring his legs up so that his knees lined up with his stomach.  Uh, no.  He brought his legs up a little higher than I thought he would.  I have *never* seen anyone do one of these in the months I’ve been going to my gym.

At the end of my workout the gym was getting ready to close and most people had cleared out.  I decided to head to the pull-up bar and try these out.  Oh dear.  I only got one out and my feet definitely didn’t go as high as his are going.  I had to settle for regular hanging leg raises bringing my knees to my stomach for the rest of them.

I have yet another thing I want to eventually get proficient at!

Enjoy the video Jul. 

A few weeks ago I started doing chin-ups and pull-ups (different days) every week.

I was killing time on YouTube today and stumbled across this video.  I watched it and realized that I’ve been doing chin-ups incorrectly!  I’ve only been letting myself go about halfway down before I pull myself back up.  After I saw this video I was determined to do some close grip chins properly.  Zoinks!  Going all the way down definitely makes them harder.  It whacked at least five off of how many I could so each set.  This is definitely something I need to improve upon.

I have to say it feels pretty awesome to be able to do any.  I know I couldn’t have done any not long ago.  It feels a little weird doing them because I don’t see the chin-up bar get much use when I’m at my gym.  At least I never have to fight the crowds for it like I do with the dumbbells. 

The last time I tried to bench with 60 pound dumbbells was at the end of January and it was a complete disaster.  I could barely pull off any reps and even worse I let my mind wander and I ended up losing control and awkwardly dropping one of them (which resulted in a huge racket, whoops!).  It didn’t bother me at the time, but later when I thought about it more it kind of freaked me out because I realized I could have hurt myself.  To be honest I’ve been very hesitant to try again, especially now that I’m on my own now without a personal trainer.  I did flat benching today starting with 50 pound dumbbells and then 55 pounders.  After I did those I said “screw it” and went and grabbed the 60 pounders.  I forced myself to calm down, pay attention, and then pumped out 10 reps.  Woo hoo!  Another gym mental hurdle is now a distant memory.