josiethefiend’s BodyBlog

This week I am making a concentrated effort to step up the duration and intensity of my cardio workouts.  So far, so good.  Though I think I could do better.  Tomorrow I will push harder.  I want my legs to feel like jelly when I’m done, and I want to be charging up hills on my bike before long. 

 
 Weight lifting continues to go well.  I bench pressed 85 lbs for a full 8 reps for the first time this week, which was pretty exciting.  Today I will once again attempt a real pull-up, and likely only lift myself a few inches.  That’s okay though.  I feel pretty awesome about even getting that far, instead of just hanging there and grunting as in the past.  I’m also now doing bicep curls with a 50 lbs bar, which is neat.  That’s more than some of the boys there do, so I’m feeling pretty cocky about that one.  It takes one hell of a metal face to crank that one out.
 I decided to not weigh myself for a couple of weeks.  Really, weight is a very silly number to fixate on, as you can go down in weight, but up in body fat percentage, so very easily.  Plus there’s water weight, and the fact that muscle is more dense then fat, and it’s just ridiculous.  Plus, it’s just such a bummer sometimes to see those fluctuations.  So, I’ll try to get away from it for a while.  I think it will be helpful to just enjoy what I see in the mirror and how I fit into my clothes for a while, and not be so obsessed with the scale.  But damn is it hard to not jump on the scale like I normally would at the gym everyday.  It’s a bit of an addiction, really. 

Lifting continues to go exceptionally well for me this week.  My lifts just keep going up up up.  I’m thrilled.  I think it has a lot to do with me eating better.  Perhaps there was something in the fish and fresh fruit that I’ve started eating more of that was missing before?  Not sure, but I will be trying to stick with it. 

There were bumps in the road this week, and I definitely didn’t eat clean for more that three meals in a row.  But, I didn’t do horrible either.  Regardless, every time I ate something less then ideal, my body told me that I was messing up.  Strange how I never realized how crappy certaine foods made me feel before, or how good others made me feel. 

I rather feel like gorging myself on food today, so tonight I think I may pick up a bunch of fruits, some yogurt, and maybe even a little dark chocolate, and have myself a finger food buffett tonight for desert, and just a good old fashioned protein shake for dinner. 

I’m really discovering the keys to better eating, though.  Namely being prepared ahead of time, never letting yourself get too hungry, and remembering all the great reasons to not eat junk.  I keep managing to convince myself that a few nachos here, and a handful of pretzels there, won’t really do much damage and won’t make me feel icky.  But they always do.

And finally, I believe I need to step up my cardio.  I’ve been affraid of sabotaging my weightlifting with too much, but I think I’m being too timid and using this rationale as an excuse to avoid putting a lot of effort into my cardio.  Time to take it up a notch.

Ha, so, funny experience at GNC this weekend.

My boyfriend and were out cruising one of the local malls, since it was raining horribly but we felt like a walk.  So we cruise into the GNC, and the counter dude quickly helps me find the calipers, and then I tell him thats it, I just want to browse for a minute.  I wander to the back of the store, where the protein, mass-gainers, and creatine hang out.  I’m innocently reading the back of a bottle of creatine monohydrate, and there’s this dude again.  “Um, I thought you said you were just browsing?”  Well, yes, I wanted to check out the protein prices and read the creatine bottles to see what’s out there.  “Uh huh, yeah, so what are your goals?”  This guy is really snarky at this point, saying something about the fat burners being at the front of the store. 

I tell him I want to build muscle, and he doesn’t believe me at first.  Not until I start dropping terms like “natural bodybuilding” and “figure” does he lay off it, and suddenly turns into super-helpful-omg-it’s-a-girl-that’s-not-afr
aid-of-bulk man. 

Hilarious.  Way I figure he totally thought I was back there trying to steal creatine for my boyfriend or something, while he was at the front of the store poking fun at the Muscle Milk.  Yikes!  By the time I paid for my calipers, he was defending me from my boyfriend’s playful teasing about me being a nut-job that goes to the gym twice a day, and counter dude was totally serious about it, too. 

It was just too funny for me to feel offended about it.  I’m still giggling.

Yesterday I did stiff-leg deadlifts at 120 lbs for ten reps.  I’m nearly bursting with pride.

I went up on all my Thursday lifts yesterday, and had overall the best workout in a long time.  45 lb shoulder presses, 90 lb lat pulls, ugh, it was awesome.  I feel so amazing today, with these tired but happy muscles reminding me all day of what I accomplished.  Then today is Bi’s and Tri’s, which is purely fun for me.  I get a kick out of doing burly bicep curls, pretending I’m out at muscle beach instead of in the stinky free-weight room.

Speaking of which, I’m currently gym shopping.  Not only do I feel like I’m kinda outgrowing my current gym (it doesn’t even have crash pads for doing cleans, lame), and it’s not a great one at all.  The oversold me on my membership, it’s not well cleaned or cleaned often enough, something is always broken (and it’s more often then not the air conditioning), and there’s duct tape and torn padding all over the place.  Yeah, it’s the most convenient location, but I think it’s time to move on.  My membership expires on the third, so I have a little time.

I’m kind of hoping to find a place with one of those neat sybex things I saw in "Getting Cut With Glass" last night.  So cool!  And those are great vids on Bodybuilding.com, btw.  I learned a lot, and now there’s some new lifts I want to try.  That reverse hack squat looks really neat, as did the shoulder presses from a full stop on the smith machine.

And just in case you were wondering, today is offically day four of successfully eating clean.  I have faith that I will be able to find a healthy dinner tonight.  I may have to get out my camera and do my best ChickenTuna impression to celebrate.

One final note, I’m considering incorporating creatine into my diet next week.  Now that I’ve gotten more serious about my diet, I’m willing to get more serious about my supplements.  About 3g a day seems to be the right dosage according to my research, maybe with 5g a day for the first three days, for a mini-loading.  That’s a happy medium between loading and not-loading, I think, since no one seems to agree about whether it’s necessary or not.

Well, so I still can’t do a real pull-up.  Oh well.  But, I did lift myself a few inches before my arms could do no more.  I made three attempts, and I think the second was my best, so I’ll warm up more next time.  If I had to guess, I’d say I lifted my body about four, maybe five inches.  So I’m probably about a third of the way there.  Could be better, could be worse, I’m just excited that my body didn’t feel overwhelmingly heavy to me, and that I was able to move at all.  I’ve never done that before, I’ve always just hung there straining.  This is a good sign of progress.  I can still only do full pull-ups with 50 lbs of assistance.  I suppose I might have been able to do a full one with 40 lbs if I hadn’t already fatigued my arms trying to do a real one, but it’s hard to say.
Yesterday was another success in terms of nutrition.  ZERO junk was ingested, even though I got some sad news and went to the bar with my boyfriend.  I had a protein smoothie with real fruit instead of booze.  So today, I rewarded myself a bit with a very healthy sandwich.  Whole grain organic bread, fresh organic lettuce and tomato, mayo, mustard, and two generous slices of fieldroast (a vegetarian thing, google if you must).  It was extremely satisfying, and my processed-carb cravings have been well-sated by the bread.  Go me! 
All my effort this week has left me feeling very empowered.  When I first read articles about figure, finess, and bodybuilding competitors, I was flabbergasted and could not believe that any mere mortal could have that much discipline.  I certainly never believed that I could have that much devotion to my workouts, let alone that much self-restraint with my diet.  And here I am, having probably the healthiest week of my life.  I didn’t realize I could do this.  I suppose for me it just comes down to getting right back on the horse, and eventually turning these “super human” feats into normal, everyday habits that just come naturally. 
A year ago, I was big, and lazy, and felt horrible about myself.  What a huge difference!  I think I’ve finally accepted that through consistency, patience, and perseverance, I will attain these goals I’ve set for myself.  So what if it took me over a year to loose 24 pounds.  So what if it takes me another year to lose the last 8.  I don’t care so much anymore, I’m just glad to be here and better than I was before.

cycling (roundtrip to work) - 40 min.

walking (3 mph) - 50 min.

weight lifting (assisted pullups, unassisted pullup attempts, bent-over row, seated row)

Wow, I seem to be gaining in popularity here these days.  Which is exciting, because it’s so encouraging to have people who don’t even know me being to helpful and encouraging.  Lot’s of visitors today!  And lots of new friends, too.

This tuna I’m eating right now instead of the bagel I desperately want, is for you BodySpace. 

To update yesterday’s entry, I did succeed in not eating any crap yesterday.  NONE.  Today, I have thus far done the same.  And my body has come through with a HUGE motivation to stick to my clean eating; today I have finally dropped some weight, .4 of a pound to be exact.  Hey, it’s not much, but it’s the first downward movement below 143.2 in almost a month.  I’m now so determined to get down to 140.  I needed that silly .4 boost.

Lifting went very well yesterday.  Ass-to-grass squats are bloody hard, but my legs seem to be much happier with me afterwords and so they’re here to stay.  I’m very excited to get in and get some arm work done tonight, especially since I’m bummed that a friend will be moving out of town soon.  Nothing like a seriously beastly session in the gym to clear your head. 

I think I may try to do a real pullup.  I know it probobly won’t quite happen for me, so I don’t have my hopes up too much, but it will at least let me know how close or far from that goal I am.  When I do get there, I’ll make someone tape it for me so I can be cool and use the video feature here.  Then y’all can see my metal face I make when I lift.  Ha!

Heh.  My new mantra, courtesy of the awesome interview with ChickenTuna up on the main page.  This woman is a huge inspiration to me.

Today I really had to keep that washboard stomach in mind, as I’m craving worthless foods pretty fiercely today.  Even though I cheated to join in a birthday celebration last night, I still want those foods as much today as if I’d been deprived for weeks.  But I’m very proud of myself, and my foods today consist of tuna fillets, fresh apple, and a spinach and dried cranberry salad.  I’m feeling pretty badass right now.  And I know there’s home made fish curry waiting for me when I get home, so I’m safe for the rest of the day. 

Assuming I don’t break down and eat a PB&J for desert.

(Where’s a damn W.W.C.E.? bracelet when you need one…)

cycling (roundtrip to work) - 40 minutes

(yikes, light and busy day!)

Yup.  I can sing the song.  Can you?

Tuna, in its various forms, has pretty much taken over my life.  I’m trying my damndest to find new and better ways to eat it, because while the seasoned, pre-cooked fillet packets are sadly a bit expensive.  But for now, my desk at work is well-stocked with packets and tins of seasoned tuna goodness.  It’s pretty much the only snack food I’m allowing myself during the day, with the exception of the occaisional piece of fruit. 

 Fish in general is becoming a huge staple.  My freezer is nearly full to bursting with frozen salmon and tilapia, which I’m very excited to experiment with.  Cooking has never been my strongsuit, but I should be able to pull this off alright. 

We’ll see.  Today I started to falter, dreaming of bagels with creamcheese, croisants, and tortilla chips.  So I conjured up the image of ChickenTuna’s abs, which is just burned on my brain at this point, and thought it through until I reached for the tuna instead. 

Now I’m rewarding myself for my good decision with 33.8 liters of 10 calorie, caffeinated, Crystal Light goodness.  Mmmmmm….