amysuds’s BodyBlog

I have the weirdest ear pain tonight. It started on the plane decent when I came home from vacation a few weeks ago. On the plane, I had severe pressure (unusual for me)…and I was expecting my son to be crying at this point because his ears ALWAYS hurt . I turned around, he was sitting behind me and unaffected by the pressure. Anyways…within a few days, the pain stopped. It came back a few times since then, but I just ignored it. The last ear infection I had I was 18yrs old. The pain was so brutal I will never forget it. This does not feel the same, almost like the pain is away from my ear canal, but it’s in my ear somewhere! Tonight as I ate my chicken and salad, my jaw started to tighten up. Back when I was 16, I had my jaw broken and reset…the doc told me I would have arthritis issues there when I got older. They literally left wire in my head as part of the procedure, I have the worst luck at the doctor, so I avoid going at all costs. The strange things seem to happen to me. For example, one time my glands swelled up suddenly in my neck, and I wasn’t sick. They were huge! I go to the doc…I had a friggin calcium deposit in my salvilary gland. They had me lift my tongue and they sliced underneath to get the thing out. Another time a few years ago, my ob doc found my lymph nodes were swollen under my arms. So…I go through the hundred tests, come to find out they are all swollen in my body. They found I have multinodular goiter in my neck. WTF is that??  LOL!!  Then they find a cyst on my liver….no biggie, not a problem they told me. After it was done and my thyroid biopsied….all was fine. But I still have swollen lymph nodes and docs don’t know why. So, back to the story…with my luck, the wire in my head probably pierced my eardrum or something weird like that. So if I am MIA from here the next couple of days, it’s from my ear. Ha ha……………………

So I expected that my jeans would be too small with my added weight gain. Yup, today I had to bust out the "tweeners"…not the skinny jeans, nor the largest size I have. They all fit so differently, my lower body has changed alot. Hopefully there is a bit more muscle under the fat. What I did not expect today, as I tried on a few blouses…I can’t even come close to buttoning them. I am certain my B implants didn’t grow…ha ha….so I am so surprised how much my middle back has changed! I typically do not gain much fat on my upper body, so that is great news for me. Now I get to tell my hubby tonight that I need new clothes 

As this week comes to an end, I am pleased with my weight loss of 2lbs since Wednesday. With my carb intake being much lower, I feel as though I am back to balance with intake/usage of them. I noticed this week that I am now able to identify my hunger pangs much better. I REALLY remember my crazy dieting when I joined this site  (see the above pic!!) and did cardio alone without much weight training. As I lost weight, I had these hunger pangs that felt like my body was eating away my stomach and I think what was happening was my body was using lean tissue for fuel. As you can see in my legs here particularly, there was not much fat loss there. My legs stayed chubby, but I weighed about 130lb. I never once felt that feeling when I leaned down for my last shows. It was different….I did get hungry, especially in the final weeks…usually in the early evenings after leg workouts. If I couldn’t stand it…I would eat almonds (extra ones) or spoons of peanut butter. That was a BIG mistake. As I confessed this to Layne, he encouraged me that every day I stuck with the nutrition plan was an accomplishment comparable to a killer weight workout. What I did was slow down my fat loss I believe…which dragged out the process a bit for me, in my opinion. The hunger I was experiencing was my metabolism increase…which I know now is the time to suck it up and take advantage!! For whatever reason, this week I can actually feel when my body switches to burning fat (I think)…I get this sweet taste in my mouth after I feel I burned up the available carbs I took in. I could be way wrong here…just my opinion. Sometimes the taste lasts the rest of the day….I experienced it alot the past 2 days. When I did cardio before breakfast while drinking Xtend one day this week, I tasted it right away. Maybe it’s my imagination!!  LOL!!  I also seem to feel when my body’s urge to become catabolic is coming ( I get the beginnings of the hunger feeling I talked about in the beginning) . This helps me figure out the right times to take in some of my meals and minimize the chance of muscle loss. So…going forward with this comp prep, I will NOT give in to the "increased metabolic hunger teasing", when my body sends those signals. I am making sure to drink a few glasses of water now if I feel like that, sometimes I think I am hungry…but I am really thirsty. I have to remember it takes MUCH more water to digest protein (which I eat alot of) . I plan to follow Layne’s comp prep plan to the EXACT number…no giving in. It will only make this process much smoother, and I owe that to Layne. I work SO hard in my gym all the days, I need to steer that drive to my diet also.Layne spends the time to figure out what the correct macros are for me based on my metabolism. Everyone’s is different….he is the master in this regard ,as well as with his training plans. I will stay strong and challenge myself to the fullest!!