The I Love Carbs Blog

Got myself into the gym today.  It felt SO nice to be there after taking a mini break.  Let me just say, rest does a body good.  I’m always thinking that I’ll kill myself after coming back from a rest, but I was strong and felt great.  The gym was slammed. 

My husband and I went out with some friends a couple of days ago, and someone asked, “what will your new year’s resolution be.”  Some said, eat better, some said workout more often, someone even said her resolution was to wash her face every night…um, that’s a weird one.  My turn, what will my resolution be?  pack on more muscle of course!   

Tonight my plans are to spend it with my family and good friends, it can’t get any better than that.  Tomorrow, we’re headed to the Capital One Bowl.  GO GATORS!  Perhaps you’ll see me in the crowd on tv   Happy New Year’s everyone.  Stay safe!

My family and I go away every Christmas and stay at a beach condo.  It’s such a refreshing feeling to go to sleep, and wake up hearing the beautiful sound of the waves on the shore line.  My little one stands there on the balcony gazing out over the moon lit ocean looking for anything red in the sky…of course this would be Rudolf’s nose.  My teenager, who often tries think and act as though she’s in her 20’s, suddenly becomes a kid again, running around on the sandy beach, tossing the football with her father, challenging her little sisiter to relay races from pier to pier, and making sand drip castles.  I love it!

I took off a few days to enjoy my family time, and to hopefully recover from my forearm problem.  I couldn’t resist working out two of those days.  I did legs, and had a not so good workout.  I was unfortunately harrassed by some cocky teenage boys.  My second workout was okay.  I did arms.  I did two exercises each, and then climbed 23 flights of stairs. 

I wasn’t too strict with my diet, but I did get in the protein and carbs I needed.  Plus some apple pie, a couple of cookies, and biscotti.  I weighed in this morning and I’m sitting at 141.  Not bad, I gained 1 pound over the Christmas break. 

I hope everyone had a beautiful Christmas!  I’m looking forward to 2008!

I’ve been having this funny pain in my left forearm.  Kind of near the elbow, but not quite.  Certain exercises bother it more than others.  It’s more annoying than anything because I know I can lift heavier, but I’d hate to injure myself because of my ego.  It’s going on 3 weeks, and hopefully it will heal soon.  I’ve been trying to stay away from close grip arm exercises.  Today was tough, arm day.  It didn’t bother me too much.  Instead of going heavy on the barbell curls, I kept it at a lighter weight and did 21’s, higher intensity, lighter weight, higher reps.  My bis were so pumped, I had a hard time finishing the rest of the workout.

I was thinking…starting the new year, perhaps I’ll start working on detail work.  I feel pretty good about my upper body.  Legs need to grow, but it’s getting there.  I don’t want to forget those muscles that will make the body look awesome once you cut for a show.  delts, calves, abs, traps, forearms…I’ve had SO much fun training, and bulking, 2008 is going to be interesting, and new.  I’ve never dieted for a show before, so I’m very excited.  My training will change a bit.  More details about it later.  I also have to learn how to pose and come up with a routine.  YIKES. 

Thanks everyone who have been encouraging here on the bb.  I’ve met some pretty cool peeps here.  You guys rock!

I’m headed to the beach condo for the holidays.  It’s about 75+ degrees here in sunny Florida.  I thought I’d get a jump start on my tan   No worries, there’s a gym at the resort I’m staying at.  MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Here’s my arm workout today.

DB Tri Extensions: warm up: 20lbs x 15 

1- 30lbs x 10

2- 35lbs x 10

3- 40lbs x 5

Cable Tri Push Downs:

1- 70lbs x 10

2- 90lbs x 8

3- 110lbs x 6

DB Kickbacks:

15lbs x 10

2- 20lbs x 10

3- 20lbs x 10

21’s:

1- 25lbs

2- 35lbs—> hurt my forearm, next set dropped the weight.

3- 30lbs

Preacher curls: Open palm

1- 25lbs x 10

2- 35lbs x 8

3- 40lbs x 6

4- 45lbs x 6

Cable Face Pulls:

1-70lbs x 10

2- 80lbs x 10

3- 80lbs x 10

BD Bentover Laterals:

1- 12.5lbs x 10

2- 15lbs x 10

3- 15lbs x 8

Today I met with Jamie, my coach.  We took my BF% and to my surprise, it didn’t go up too much, considering how much weight I’ve put on.  From September to the present, I’ve gone from 124lbs to 140lbs. My BF% started at 20% in September, and today it’s at 23%.  YEY!!!  I thought he would up my calories again, but he decided to keep me where I’m at since my body is responding well, gaining lean muscle, and my strength is up.  The question that stands is…Will I be able to keep my weight in the light weight class? I think the cut off weight is at 114?  So, I’ll loose about 26lbs, 10lbs being water weight, and the rest is BF.  Hmmm…I’d rather come into the show at the heavy end of the light weights.  I’m still concerned my legs need to grow more.  If only they could keep up with my upper body.   All in all, I’m pretty happy with the changes so far, and this journey has been a blast!  
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Last night I did arms.  I have strained my left forearm muscle somehow.  It’s not a bad pain, but it’s annoying enough to interfere with my training.  Some exercises bother it more, like doing ez bar curls, or tricep push downs.  So I continue to try and go as heavy as possible without killing myself.  I hit 45lbs on my DB Tricep Extensions!  I also used the 55lbs ez bar for curls!  That hurt my forearm, so I got in 3 reps, and drop set the rest.

Keep training hard and have a great weekend!  Leg day tomorrow…Whoo-hoo.

Hi guys/gals.  Just wanted to post an update.  Training is still great.  I haven’t logged onto the bb lately due to computer problems.  I’m waiting to buy a new one…bummer.  I’m still pushing heavy weight and loving it!  I’ve started doing butt loads of walking lunges with weights and it is my new fav for the legs.  I hit legs last Friday and I’m still sore from it.  I’m super setting a lot of the exercises on leg day to change it up and it feel really good.  That’s the only day I’ve lowered the weights.  I’m holding steady with curling 50lbs weighted barbells, so I’ll try 55lbs this week.  I’m knocking out 7 reps with 40lb DB on my tri extensions, so I’ll try 45lb DB next.  To wrap things up, all is good.  Thanks to everyone who send me encouraging comments.  You guys rock!  Keep training hard.

Today I had 30 minutes for my legs workout before the gym closed.  I thought I’d change it up.  Last week I wanted to focus on pushing heavier weights again, but since I was pressing for time, I kept it at low weights, high reps, super setting.  My legs were PUMPED!  They were so tight I could hardly walk down the three flights of stairs to the parking lot!  I held onto the railing like I was a 100 year old grandma.  I still wasn’t able to finish the whole workout.  My last exercise was cut short to 2 sets instead of 3-4 sets I was going for.  I wanted to do 4 sets for the walking lunges <super set> with squats, but it got really busy in the freeweight area, there was not room.  Some hotshot decided to do jump roping right there.  The entire gym to choose a spot and he chose the free weight area, go figure.  Anyhoo, I had a great workout and love super setting the walking lunges with an exercise. 

I took my body measurements tonight.  Some measurements I was pretty excited about, some I can’t wait for that body part to already freakin’ grow!  My back measurements jumped and that’s cool.  You always want a nice wide back/shoulders for the show.  My arms grew a 1/2 inch, that’s cool.  My weight…yes…it’s up again.  I’m hitting one pound per week.  I’m probably going to hit 150 by the end of my bulk stage.  I’m really wondering what I’ll come in as for the show.   At first my trainer and I were thinking I would cut down to 110lbs.  But we didn’t really think my body would respond so well to my bulk.  I trust that he will make me look awesome!  But for now, I’m feelin’ pretty large. 

My meals were a little off the past week due to a cold, but I’m well now and back on track.  My strength is up and hitting some new max weight.  I was able to curl 50lbs on bi’s day.  And on back day, I did 90lbs barbell rows.  For tri’s I hit 110lbs on my cable push downs, and 40lbs for my DB tri extensions. Whoo-hoo!

Here’s tonight’s workout.

Walking Lunges <super set> Squats:

1- 20lbs x 25 steps —– 45lbs x 15

2- 20lbs x 25 steps —– 65lbs x 10

3- 20lbs x 20 steps —– 65lbs x 10

Leg Press:

1- 90lbs x 15

2- 140lbs x 15

3- 180lbs x 12

Leg Extensions <super set> Stiff Legged Dead Lifts:

1- 90lbs x 10 —– 65lbs x 15

2- 105lbs x 10 —- 85lbs x 12 —>the gym closed, had to call it quits