From Russia with Tough Love!

I think I am almost where I want to be with my abs. Funny, as soon I am nearing the end of my goal I put the bar higher and make up another challenge for myself. It’s a vicious cycle, I tell ya!

Hit the chest and triceps with:

flat BB press (I am up to 115lbs with the bar)
incline DB press

pec deck

dips

scull-crushers

rope cable pushdowns

10 minutes of HIIT

My eats today.

Did a pretty intense leg and glutes workout on Saturday. Hammies are hurting good due to a new exercise I did - Smith machine Romanian deadlifts. I was able to put more weight on the bar, and was not afraid of my grip letting go. Man, I gotta get those lifting hooks! Can use those for my killer back workouts I am about to embark upon.

When doing leg extensions could not help but think of the vid I saw recently. It’s one of my favs now - Val’s CRAZY legs.
Took plenty of time to rest today, including laying by the pool, getting some rays. My eats had a great ratio, but a little less cals than I was shooting for. Note to self: Gotta start consuming more food during the earlier part of the day!

My Eats today.

Keep seeing bunnies in my front yard. They are so cute. Never tried rabbit…hmmm. Hubby says they taste great. Nah…just kidding. They are too cute:)

Training went very well. Now for the eats. Meals are separated by red line.

I’ve shown what and how much I eat each day for a month now. I think the ladies (maybe even guys) who follow my posts have a pretty good idea of my dieting staples by now. From now on I won’t be posting the charts. Maybe just my meals’ breakdown. Instead I made my fitday.com journal public. The address is:

http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=iNatalia

It’s also on my Profile Page of my fitness blog. I will be only logging my eats there.  Here I’ll talk about my workouts and post cool recipes from time to time. Maybe some inspirational photos by me;)

Anyway, did my back today. Was an awesome workout! It was different, because I wore my canvas lifting straps for pull-ups, pull-downs and one-arm rows. Man, I could never do more than 35lbs on my 1-arm rows - my grip would give out on me. I know my back is strong enough to handle more weight. Today these lifting straps let me yank a 50lbs DB up 12reps for 3 sets! Pull-ups were more efficient as well.

When I got to my bicept workout they felt like they haven’t been worked yet. Talk about isolation of back muscles! Usually, I’d involve my bis in the back exercises…that’s why they were always pre-fatigued. Not this time….

I haven’t weight myself in a while. Did it this morning. Still 133lbs. I see how I am leaning out. Must be gaining muscle while loosing fat. YES!!!!!!!!

I am really happy with how I ate today. Hit my goal cals and with the correct macros ratio.

Did and ab circuit of 3 ab exercises (15 reps without a stop 4 times). The exercises can be found under ‘my favorite videos’ on my profile page. Then jumped on a treadmill and did 10 minutes of HIIT - 1 minute of 4mph jog followed by 1 minute of 10mph sprint.

My cals were lower than I wanted them to be, but it’s OK. The goal for today was loosing fat, and I didn’t any lifting today.

My eats:

End of month progress pic….Not much changed since last pic, but I am seeing a little more mass.

A whole month of doing this? Man….feels like it’s been only a couple of weeks. Time flies when you’re having fun! And it is LOTS of fun when you see real results from your hard work…sweat and blood. Well, maybe not blood;)

I like it when all the gym workers know you by name, the guy at the shake bar knows ahead of time what you are ordering, when the child-care folks smile as soon as they see my ‘angels’ walk in the door. And on top of that my hubby is getting the BB bug. After he let me adjust his diet and make a routine for him, he started noticing little changes here and there (went from 38 to 34 inches in waist in a month). I also pretty tough on him at the gym (beign born Russian in a strict environment helps:) …I think I’ll need to start getting paid for that!

Worked out chest and triceps today. Hard. Saw vein pop out on my chest. I am starting to pose flexing in front of the mirror after each set. The folks who don’t know better probably think it’s my vanity. Little do they know it’s also part of the workout.

In a nutshell:

Chest:

flat BB press (115lbs) - 4×8  (with Smith machine I can do more weight)

incline DB press (35lbs each) - 3×8

Pec Deck (75lbs) - 3×10

Tris:

Dips - 3×6 (unassisted)

Cable pushdown (50lbs) - 3×12

DB overhead press (25lbs) - 3×12

through in a rope exercise as I was leaving.

My eats today:

let me see if this blog will accomodate this larger pic:

At night met my hubby at the gym for some abs and HIIT, while he was doing legs. I am happy with the workout. When I go, I make it count!

Alright, kind folks on BB.com boards helped me to figure out my caloric intake for my purposes. To stay where I am now I need to consume about 2,000 cal/day and work out moderately 3 times a day. But that’s not what I wanna do for the rest of summer. I wanna get CUT! So, to achieve that (lose fat and keep my muscle mass) I’ll make a 200 calorie/day deficit…and try for Protein 40%/Carbs 40%/Fats 20% ratio.

By the way, 2nd sercing of Ezekiel bread should have been placed next to ‘tuna and cottage cheese’ in meal#4. Next time I’ll make the chart more plain;)

My eats today:

Was quite a busy day, hence 3 Pure Protein bars in my ‘eats’ today. They are great when you are on the run. One of the few bars on the market that has more protein than carbs (Chocolate Peanut Butter)…AND the sugars are almost non-existent. I get them at Wal-Mart pretty cheap.
YoPlay WHIP was something that’s not going to be my staple - too many sugars. And watermelon isn’t that great either (My little 6 y.o. girl had a couple of slices and I joined her.) But calorie-wise I still stayed within the boundaries. And the ratio is good. For workout days I am trying to stay within Protein- 35/Carbs-50/Fats-15 ratio.

as far as workout goes, by the end of the 3rd exercise my shoulders were done!

I did

Side DB laterals 4×8  (15lbs each)
Upright BB Rows 4×8 (60lbs)
Bent Over DB flys 3×10 (15lbs each)
Military BB Press  3x 8 (65lbs)  supersetted with Arnolds BB 3×8 (20lbs each)

Finally, my body revolted! I haven’t given myself any rest or break for months now. And when ‘that’ time of the month comes, we ladies feel especially cranky. So, today was not my usual day: lots of doing ‘nothing’…eatin’ whatever makes me happy at the moment (no junk though - good thing I can’t look at the stuff now)….sleeping…TV watching…catching up on podcasts…playing on my Mac computer…and drinking a glass of rose wine before bed.

Anyway, tomorrow is another day and I’ll be all there!
p.s. Oh, and my honey bought me some new free weights today. Will do shoulders at home tomorrow!

While my program is called ‘6 pac’, I see growth and development in other body parts. Photo update:

In the morning - cardio. The rest of the day was a pleasant time with my daughters and eating clean.