Zenea’s BodyBlog

An update on no more sugar-free gum for me…  That is going well, though it is at times, hard, however, what I am finding now is my weight is creeping upwards!  Monday was day one of no gum!  This morning, weighed myself at the gym and it is Saturday, and I am up to 134!!!  Yesterday, weighing 133, I FREAKED OUT!!!!  I thought maybe it is a fluke!  But today, now that I think about it, maybe it is water weight coming back, as the gum has a very significant laxative effect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, now I am bummed about my scale weight.  But I will let things even out and then make a new plan of attack for that.  I am sure I can scale back more on my food.  I am enjoying my yummy meals much too  much!  At least I am eating clean, but too much.  No way to get the body fat down, I guess!  Well, measurements will tell the real story over time, too!

Wish me luck!

Just by chance, due to my training/working out lifestyle, I have developed a Potential Boyfriend Test which is that I go out on a date with a guy, and of course, I go to bed very early to get up and go to the gym and work out 6 days a week- and I work out at 3 a.m!  So, I am not one to stay out late or up late, so a date must be ok with not getting what he might want for the first few dates…  me to stay out late or staying up late!  So, if a guy can handle having to be patient or if he can be flexible enough or interested enough to work around my schedule, then he would have boyfriend potential.  However, turns out so far NO DATES have passed my Gym test! 

Just tonight, I saw my stupid ex-boyfriend, and kind of felt out whether I felt comfortable around him again, whether I could trust allowing myself to get close to  him again - BUT HE FAILED THE GYM TEST!!!  I told him I was not going to be staying up very late because I was going to the gym in the morning, and he got all pissy and threw a little tantrum about "his needs not getting met."  Too bad!!!!

So, if a guy is out there who is willing to wait to be able to hook up more with me, which means hey, actually wait more than one date!, then he might pass my test!!!!

Can any of you gym rat women relate?????????

On a more positive note, I saw my personal trainer today for another grueling workout (Ok, I really DO love a challenge!!!!) and she said she sees how my body has totally changed since we started working together about 6 weeks ago!  So that was great to hear!  She could notice!!!  Just when I had started to give up because I got on the scale on Thursday to compare my Monday weight and I HAD GONE UP THREE POUNDS!!!!  THREE POUNDS!!!!   It was really devastating to me.  Damn scales.

So that was cool.  My hard work IS paying off!!!  Thank god!

Hope you all are well!  I would love to hear my sister gym rat’s stories on dating! 

Well, it is going pretty well, so far, here on Day 3 of no gum!  Thank god!  But I find that I AM feeling more emotions that I covered up with chew-chew-chewing!  And I long to have something to chew on, too….  But I don’t ever want to go back to gum chewing again, so I am drinking tea (herbal, decaf) instead, and that is good because it ups my water intake, as well, which is always recommended, right?

Also, putting my emotions and energy into my difficult (thanks to my trainer!) workouts so that is good, too.

I think I lost 1/2 inch off of my waist, according to measurements today!  Nothing moving on my hips though…. :  (  But I am sure it WILL happen, eventually…..  RIGHT????

I hope you all are doing well!  I really appreciate your videos showing some of your workout moves, because now I am incorporating some things I have gotten from what you all are doing!  That is SO COOL!

Sincerely,

Kathy 

Ok, I am TOTALLY sick of my addiction to sugar-free gum, now!  I am fearful that I will give myself cancer, at this rate, from those artificial sweeteners that they use!  I swear, you would be astounded at how I have been chewing gum for months, now!  I am such a GOOD addict!  Now I am up to two pieces at a time, and quite chain-chewing  - - piece after piece after piece.  I buy my gum at the dollar store but leave with $6 worth at a time and that is chewed up in only a couple of days!  That is 15 sticks to a pack!  So, this  morning, I am gathering up all of my leftover gum to give to my mom when she passes through town on Wednesday!  (I hate throwing anything away!)  I don’t want to die of cancer or have tongue cancer, all from my stupid gum addiction!  I eat SO clean and healthy and work out, so I SHOULD be healthy for a long, long time!  This has been the only unhealthy thing I have put in my body for a long time!

Perhaps this might even help with my weight moving downwards a bit, again….  by stopping the gum chewing.

Can anyone out there relate?  When I embarked on losing weight again, I embarked on my gum addiction again, too.  So, I am SICK of it now and worried about my health, so I am hoping that TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF MY LIFE WITHOUT GUM!

A few years ago, I did the same thing, and had to go cold turkey and DID break my addiction, thank god.  So, I KNOW I can do it again!  I just can’t start with one stick, because my mouth says "Oh yes!  We love to chew!  We love food and taste in our mouth!  Let’s keep at it!"  So no, this is it!

You all can keep me accountable!

Had a good workout this morning.  Actually made it through my personal trainer’s workout.  Not as bad as I had feared - and believe me, I fear her workouts come every Monday when I know I am going to have to embark on them!  I am now taking Sundays off, so that always gives me a good start for Monday, too.

Hope you all are well!  I look forward to hearing from you! 

Well, the scale is still not budging.  I hope I am gaining lean body mass, though.  Been concentrating on buffing back up after losing what seems like most of my muscle as I lost weight.  I HOPE I am buffing back up!  It is fun to lift weights again, just back to straight weight lifting on my days off of my personal trainer’s workouts that she gives me for M, W and F. 

This week, she gave me another KILLER workout!  Aaack!  I wonder if I will be able to do it myself come Monday.  I hope so.  It is a pyramid-ing workout and works every body part.  It is a KILLER, I tell you!  I will let you know how I do!  So far, surprisingly, I have been able to complete every workout she gives me, so I am pretty sure I can do this one, as well, if I put my mind into it… I hope!

I think I am gaining muscle tone.  I hope so, anyways. 

I saw Mike was posting about body fat measurements.  I still don’t believe mine is so high, either.  One day, will get that re-done.  For now, when I do shit like that, I just feel so bummed out afterwards that it really is a sabotage for me.  Trying on new clothes and shopping for clothes is much more rewarding and shows me my results better!  Can you ladies relate?????????

I hope the economy goes back up, because I have been spending tons of money at the stores!   It is very fun and believe me I will be looking GREAT!  Too bad I have no dates to dress up for!  And I go to bed really early every night because I have developed a routine of going to the gym at 2:30 a.m!  So, not much of a social night life, but it is actually more fun to me to work out and focus on what I am working on trying to accomplish than wasting my time with some lame ass dude or being around stupid people!!!!!  Can anybody relate????

So yeah, it is the weekend and mostly I have been shopping, cleaning, cooking, eating my delicious meals, working out, relaxing, reading, organizing around my house (my new kick), and chewing WAY too much sugar free gum.  Need to get out to the garden and clean it up for the winter, too.  Today, I dug up a bunch of carrots out of my garden which was cool.  I am going to make a beet/carrot slaw tomorrow!  Fun!  That will be delicious on my daily salad for lunch!  Mowed my lawn on Friday, too, and now my yard looks very nice!  I love my garden! 

My ex-boyfriend who wouldn’t marry me after almost 13 years of on again/off again dating contacted me today and wanted to hook up and I actually said NO!!!!!  Can you believe it?  For the past 3 months I have been focused just on me, and really hanging out mostly by myself, here at home, working out a ton, enjoying my solitude and quiet, and I can see it is really paying off!  I am getting to know the whole me and appreciating the whole me and I refuse to sell myself short to people who couldn’t care less about the whole me!!!!  That is AWESOME!

I hope all of you dudes out there read this, because we women actually have thoughts and feelings and complexity!  There is nothing more of a turn on than a man that actually cares about what I am thinking about, what is on MY mind, my feelings, my life, my interests, etc..!  Most of the time with guys, all they talk about is THEMSELVES!  Most never even ask me how my day went, for example!  LAME!!!!

Women are deep!  WE ROCK!  AND HAVE MUSCLES!!!!

Hello, everybody!

Thanks so much to all of you who wrote me back regarding my last blog!  Everyone was very encouraging and informative, as well! 

I have decided that for now, 20 lbs would be just awful for me to lose, but 5-10 lbs would really show a difference!  Right now, I will focus on 5 lbs.  I am maintaining right now at around 129 1/2.  That is frustrating, but also pretty damned good, considering the last time I was maintaining for a couple of years, I maintained at around 140!  So that is pretty awesome!

So far, it has been a few weeks, so we will see… I am still going to work my ass off (I hope literally!) at the gym, as I have been, and more!

Today I got my heart rate up to 182 on intervals on the eliptical, so I am pretty darned proud of myself!!!  I wonder how I will feel tomorrow?  But for now, I feel fine!  So that was exciting!  Not bad for a 45 year old, eh?

I got in touch with Karen from a Transformation story, and she was very helpful in writing back.  She has an awesome blog, too, StrongSmartBeautiful, that is very informative.  I was awe-struck by her Transformation pictures.  What a great figure she has achieved!!!  I would like to be that buff and tight and toned in my core area, as well as everywhere else!  So that is my goal! 

Today I did my grueling workout given to me by my current personal trainer.  I think she is trying to kill me!  Oh well, I picture figure ladies working out and keep going!  Besides, I know it is good for me and for my body!  So I did that, then got on the eliptical for some high intensity interval training.  All went well!

I am still eating clean, but my portions are going up.  I just LOVE to eat and LOVE my food!  I could probably lose some more if I didn’t take that second bowl of soup or eat that third bowl of salad (Yum!), but I do stick to my measured protein, and no bread/rice/pasta.  Mostly it is protein, vegetables and fruit for me!  I eat 3 main meals with two snacks.  I just love love love my food that I make for myself!  And I feel so great now that I am no longer eating sugar and back to eating clean!

Hope you all are well and I look forward to hearing more from you! 

I stopped in at a little gym, here, yesterday, where they help people get ready for competitions.  I got the assessment of the owner (I think), who is also a trainer.  That was very helpful!  I have long wanted someone to take a look at my new body and let me know if I would be competition material, at all!  I even got into my bikini so that he could see the whole deal.  It was cool, but he said I would need to lose like 20 more lbs for a competition!!!!  I cannot imagine that!  I now weigh 129, and I would never get down to a weight like that!  I could see losing 10 more lbs…..  So that was a disappointing shocker.  But it sounds like his training and help is very cool, a whole package with food planning, training and posing and all!  So I will have to think about that.  Maybe to start with training and nutrition and see where that takes me… after I do more training with my current trainer.

My top half of my body is lean, but the fat still rests on my butt/hips/legs which is very stubborn.  I am not sure it would ever come off unless I get down that low, which I do not want to be that low in weight at all.  But I will keep working on it.  It is helpful to know that perhaps transforming my body in the first phase might take a year, which I learned from a bodybuilding.com forum or a figureathlete.com forum, where someone said it took them 2 years for the fat loss and then another year to build up…. That was an ah ha moment for me!  I just planned to lose weight as quickly as possible and be done with it in a matter of a few months!!!!!  That was my plan!  But it is not working out that way.  I lost too much muscle, I still have fat loss to go, and I want to build back up, too, as well as transform some things. So, I am ok with a long-term plan.  I am in no hurry!

 That is the nice thing about getting older.  I don’t freak out as much about the whole weight thing anymore!!!!!  Yay!  Or instant fix!

I would like to hear other people’s stories about how long their fat loss and building up took for them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I would like to know how other people have done it and also that I am not alone!!!!

 Thanks! 

Well, hello there, everybody!  I am so excited to become a part of this community!  A community of like-minded people in the fitness/bodybuilder/figure/weight lifting/workout world!!!  It is hard to find people like us out there!   I have so enjoyed reading other people’s blogs, that I thought I would try my hand at starting my own! Well, let’s see… First of all, things are going really well on the body transformation front!  I have lost at least 39 pounds, now, since April 1st.  I am very excited about that!  I went from a size 14 and am now down to a size 4!  So that is VERY exciting!  Unfortunately, I did lose ALOT of muscle in the process!  I was focused on losing the weight, first, so it wasn’t my focus to maintain my muscle as much, and it shows.  :  (   But now I am working slowly at building muscle back.  It sucks to go from lifting decent weight back down to puny weight, but that is always the process, anyways, so now I am going back up!  So that is good.  I guess I will work on perfecting my form, more, while I am at it, to maybe build an even stronger base than before.  That would be cool! I have hired a personal trainer, Amanda Price, to assist me in buffing up.  She gives me KILLER routines once a week.  Those have significantly improved my core strength and I am very excited about that! She has all of the up-to-date workout moves and it is cool to finally be learning how to do those moves I see other doing or read about in magazines.  I have done old-fashioned weight lifting for 12 years, so I guess it is time to come up to date! I am kind of sad that I didn’t bust out my wallet more over the years, and hire a personal trainer more often.  I am afraid my do-it-on-my-own approach sacrificed what could have been much better body transforming success along the years!  Oh well.  Better late than never! For all of you other people out there with eating disorder issues, I, too, have an eating disorder.  I am a compulsive overeater and a sugar/carb addict.  Five years ago, I started a food plan and successfully lost 35 lbs.  I maintained that loss by sticking to my food plan for 2 more years, measuring and weighing, and my continued ban of eating sugar that was a 10 year time period.  However, my terribly dysfunctional relationship got the best of me and due to the complete and utter lack of nurturing in it, I turned once again back to food for nurturing.  And then I couldn’t stop eating!  It was HORRIBLE for the last 3 years.  I could not control my food consumption and I had started eating sugar again and could not control that, either!  The weight came back on.  I was desperate to stop overeating and stop eating sugar but it wasn’t until this last April 1st that I finally was able to achieve and stick to an abstinence date from compulsive overeating and sugar.  I took the month of April to get back to my former healthy way of eating, no sugar, and then back to my old food plan!  And so that has been just AWESOME and I feel WONDERFUL! So, that is cool.  Which brings me to my current pet peeve that someone else had blogged about, when people push food, tell me I can stop weighing and measuring my food, now, try to get me to eat sugar, or tell me not to lose anymore weight!  That is often, now!  They do not understand what i am trying to achieve, body wise!  So it is awesome that you guys DO understand that and I am a part of a worldwide community of people for whom this is all a lifestyle FOREVER and that is that! And so, I am eating really well, sticking to my food plan, not eating sugar or bread/rice/pasta (which is probably why I have lost so much muscle), and I have amped up my workouts these last many months and am jamming!  So all is well over here!  Wish me luck in buffing up!!!