beautifullyambitious’s BodyBl

Alright..today I am 15 days out… I am seeing some major differences in my muscle tone up top (thank you 100 varieties of push-ups) and am watching my lower half slim it down a bit.. All in all I am pretty damn happy with the progress I am making and am going to keep raising the bar even beyond my birthday! Here is my training split:

Sunday: Hot Yoga (active rest)

Monday: Full body bootcamp style circuit (light or bodyweight resistance and done at a fast pace) - 20-45 min low impact cardio depending on time..

Tuesday: Super ab workout, 45-60 min cardio (either sets of HIIT or climbing levels on the eliptical)

Wednesday: Upper body heavy weights, 20-45 min low impact cardio

Thursday: Lower body heavy weights, 20 min low impact cardio or 60 min non-heated yoga

Friday: Cardio + Abs

Saturday: Full body circuit + 1 outdoor cardio activity..such as hiking : ) my fav

Diet wise- balancing clean lean meats or low fat dairy, with whole grain or veggie/fruit carbs and 1 serv healthy fat every meal.. eating 5-6 meals per day and have cut eating grains within 4 hours of bedtime.. eliminated cheat meal at this point.. if I want chocolate I eat homemade choc sugar free protein pudding.. something crunchy.. homemade baked pita chips with hummus..

Houston we are making progress.. : )

Yes, I have been somewhat MIA from bodyspace for the past month or so but its not to say I haven’t been training and eating a squeaky clean diet (well, with the exception of my 1 cheat meal a week..typically in the form of rich chocolate haha)..

I am 4 weeks out from my 27th birthday, which a little background.. where most people use the marker of Jan 1 to begin or reach new goals, I use my birthdays. Every year since I began training I have set goals for myself to be better than the year before.. sometimes setting weight goals, or size goals, sometimes bodyfat percentage.. well, this year it really was to build up my endurance and to try new things in fitness and really diversify myself… as well as of course looking amazing (what woman doesn’t want that?!?)…

The past month I have spent dragging my hiney through 2+ mile runs (doesn’t seem like a lot but when you aren’t a runner its hell), amusing myself via people watching from the upstairs cardio machines, and then breaking into new stuff..

So.. I revisited my path to hot yoga.. picked that back up.. remembered I loved it and wondered why I ever stopped (thats right bc I moved to colorado..hmmm), I put on boxing gloves for the first time and literally felt absolutly powerful one minute and out of breath, panting thinking I could just die right then and there about 45 min later, I have been circuit training, doing push-ups and pull-ups, walking up sets of 400 stairs and back down and back up.. let me tell you the whole new things is not comfortable and deff not for the weak hearted or less than strong willed!

Well.. I am getting there and I think so long as I can just keep pushing myself for the next month  I may just meet the standards I set out for.. keep on cheering.. lord knows I will need it!

Well, after weighing in yesterday and the scale actually upping a pound I decided to take diet measures. Although with my intensity in training I am visually seeing my more muscle I am not seeing the fat go as fast as I would like. Yes, I do know muscle weighs entirely more than fat- which is why I have never pursued being 110 lbs (sorry it just doesn’t look fabulous on me). I have opted to run conversions on myself to determine what level of calories I can intake so decrease fat while still having energy to function.

The number… 1390 cals per day! Ugg…it leaves little wiggle room BUT it may be the tough love I need.  Breaking that down.. I am looking at 278 cals per meal if I run with 5 meals a day or  231 spread over 6 meals.

Today I looked at the calendar and realized I literally have 2 months until my 27th birthday.. now I know to a lot of you it seems still quite young.. but the time has just flown by! I make it a point to be in better shape every year from the past one since about my 21st birthday. Yes, that means every year I take it to the next level.. and although I have had my chocolate cake moments I don’t seem to regress during the year to the point where the progress made by my birthday matches the year before. Its always better, stronger, faster, more durable and yes, always a sense of accomplishment.

Now, realizing this… knowing I am 2 months and literally 8 1/2 weeks out its time to really kick some hiney!!! The past month has been filled with power-filled training already but I am gonna kick it up another notch - not only in my training but in my mental state, financial state and so fourth. What does this mean?

Clean meal planning and prep the day before.

No mo cocktails and bowling.. just bowling : )

Continuing with the "kick yo ass" training regimin I have been on the past week:

6 Day Count

Day 1: Full Body circuit training with another bootcamp style trainer (we kick each other’s asses, its a love/hate thang) + low impact cardio 20-45 min

Day 2: 1 hour spinning class, abs and hot yoga (60-75 min in 90 degree + temps)

Day 3: Chest/Tri, Abs + 2 mile run & very mild low impact cardio (walking the d-o-g for 30+ min)

Day 4: Back/Bi + 1 hour spinning class

Day 5:  Abs, hot yoga, legs + 20 min low impact cardio

Day 6: Run your ass off as fast and as far as you can.. break and do it again 6 times over

Day 7: Active rest

NOW mental health wise..financial wise

No mo shopping for the sake of shopping, because its raining, because i’m bored, or because this shade of green isnt quite what I pictured (shoes are the worst for me!)

No mo 12 hour days at work.. and my days off I will laugh and have more fun… quite possibly I may do one last shopping trip and buy bubbles, hula hoops, super-soakers and anything else that holds the promise of fun in the sun I can find!

I’m gonna need some cheerleaders folks so pull out those pompoms!!!

After a loooong hard look at the diet I have been struggling with for sometime.. I do well for a while then when I don’t plan I do horrible! In my head I justified it like it all balanced out (wrong!) - I believe its been holding me back from some overdue progress.

My daughter left last Fri for a month to travel with my parents so I am flying solo for a month.. a whole month! I decided what better time will there be then now to get serious with this???

So..after Katie (bodyspace member) mentioning she was doing a 40carb/40protein/20fat ratio I was curious.. I did some research on here and read a great article by Hugo Rivera about leaning out in  8 weeks using these principals. I’ve decided I have no reason not to try it out.. I am gonna run with this one guys… It has this auto calc thing that spits out the # of calories you need in a day based off your current weight and then it calculates how many carbs/protein/fat grams you need daily..then you divide it out into 5-6 meals per day depending upon what you eat.  It also states on Sundays you increase your carbs from startchy sources by 500cals- this is to trick your body.

According to all these fun calculations: I need 1,905 cals per day: I need to consume 191g carbs per day: I need to consume 191g protein per day: & I need to consume 42g fat per day.

As I mentioned earlier I always fail when I dont plan out the meals.. I hit this starving point and just need to eat now! So I am trying to come up with some meal ideas.. if any of you are on the 40.40.20 plan could you share some of your meals with me??? I would really appriciate it!

I LOVE training legs.. By far my favorite training day of the week! I was getting bored with the usual stuff until yesterday.. I just got over this nasty sickness and maybe its bc I am SO happy I am not sick anymore or maybe that was my body resting up for this but really..yesterday kicked some butt!!!

I have officially returned to heavy weights.. I was going med-light/high rep for a couple of weeks but wow, I get bored SUPER quick with that. Tried plyometrics… there just isnt enough room in the gym for it and I have people who live below me who I am sure would not be so understanding.. Another time, outside..now its all about going heavy!

Yesterday’s workout consisted of:

Deadlifts

Smith Squats (love this thing when I don’t have a spotter!)

Bulgarian Squats (we have a love/hate relationship all the way here.. hate doing them.. LOVE the results)

Reverse Lunges

Step Ups

Lying Hamstring Curls

Hip Abbductor

Hip Adductor

THEN.. my phone rang and it was my good friend here.. (who mind you is not like me and does not live to train) she wanted to go to yoga.. and I love yoga so last night I did an hour and a half of power yoga in a room that was 104 degrees.. If you ever want to sweat hit up hot yoga. While I did think it was stretching me - I was also working really hard here.. so

This morning I wake up.. go to hop out of bed and every and I do mean EVERY muscle is sore! ; ) Mission accomplished!!!

Wednesday all of a sudden I was hit with this nasty virus.. no idea where from.. one minute I was fine the next I was running temps from 101-104, throwing up and my throat hurt so bad I couldn’t even swallow. After dealing with it all night Wed, all day and night Thurs… Fri rolled around and I opted to see my doc… which is when I discovered I was extremely dehydrated… I fully understand to take in fluids when sick but if you cant swallow you cant swallow.. so I got to spend about 4 hours at my docs office sitting there with an IV..getting re-hydrated. Fun huh? I did feel quite a bit better after but deff. not normal. This morning I woke up and felt a little off but not really sick.. so I got in a low impact workout and am sitting here still feeling good for the most part.. I am still trying to get food in.. my throat swelling is down but really I have no appetite and still have waves of nausea.. yuck..

Here was today’s workout:

In the gym:

Captain Chair Abs (slow pace): BW/10 BW/10 BW/7

Regular Floor Crunches: BW/20 BW/20 BW/20

Bicycle Abs on the Mat: BW/10 each side BW/10 each side

[I tried to keep it extremly light on my abs considering I have been dealing with nausea since Wed]

Back Work:

Close Grip Lat Pulldowns: 40/10 50/8 60/6 50/8

Double Grip Cable Row: 70/8 70/6 70/6 60/8

Stability Ball Reverse Flyes: 12.5/8 15/6 15/6

Single Arm DB Rows: 30/10 30/8

Back Extension w/ weight plate: 25/12 35/10 35/10

Took a break had some lunch.. then..

Power walked with my dog for about an hour and a half outside..

I won’t lie.. I felt like a whimp today but some training is better than none!

Its beginning to feel a bit like a myspace "who has the most friends" contest in here.. People I really don’t mind if you add me.. but if you are going to add me … write me some form of a message and at least be in contact with me. The whole point of bodyspace is a network that provides SUPPORT. With that said I am more than happy to be anyone’s cheerleader..hand out advice.. give some words of encouragement but also more than willing to receive all of those things. Please dont add me just to add me. Say hi, tell me about you..

So, the thought occurred to me yesterday that I really have absolutely no support here and that I really don’t know anyone out here who is into the "bodybuilder’s lifestyle" aka eating clean, training hard, active lifestyle.. a lifestyle that isn’t based off of going out for drinks or going out to lunch every other day or simply sitting at home and watching movies (although that last one..movies is my vice when its rainy outside)..

Don’t get me wrong, I have met some incredible people out here but none that seem to have a hunger for activity like I do or who "get" why it is I am eating brown rice, chicken and broccoli instead of the pizza they are eating. I have always been pretty independent and done what I will but lately I have been thinking it would be nice to just meet one person to keep as a friend to go hike with or go train with or something of that nature.  I am somewhat reliant on you people (people of the bodyspace world) for motivation but I think I have hit that point where I can’t just do everything by myself anymore or more or less I don’t want to.

SOOOO Any ideas on where to find people here with this lifestyle bc I seem to be having a hard time with it all.

thx

Andrea

PS Happy Thursday!!!

No, no not that kind of groove!!! LOL Although right about now I could use.. hahahaha just kidding!!!  SO this makes a couple of days straight clean eating and meal prepping, intense workouts the whole nine!!! : ) Yay for me!!! I switched from going to the rec center in suburbea to a Ballys that is accross the street.. turns out since I work next door to one in another part of Colorado I get a free membership.. which after some serious sweet talkin these nice folks across from where I moved opted to honor..

For one reason or another my workouts are all of a sudden from boring to powerful once again, I am deff. more motivated than ever and feeling amazing!!! More later this week.. stay tuned in..