Pinki’s Journey

……being that I am in the gym so much with all the cardio I do, I get to do a lot of people watching… as always I am pleased to regail all with the stupidity I have witnessed in the gym in the past few days…

Strap Guy
…I read a post elsewhere about some brutal misuse of straps, so now every time I see someone using them, I pay special attention. Now someone please explain to me… why are some people compelled to use straps when training their biceps and triceps?! You look like a complete ass if you decide to use them for your 25 lb dumbell curls.. REALLY!! (true story!)… as well as any kind of arm movement involving cables! Yes… I said cables! Nor are they required for bench pressing or dumbell flyes (actually that may HURT… a lot)! I am still waiting for someone to use straps for their cable crossovers… I should start paying more attention.

Scale Obessed Lady
I watch her come in, weigh herself… work out for about 20 minutes… weigh herself… do some cardio… weigh herself… then weigh herself again… then on another scale… then do some more cardio… then back to the scale. I have been trying to figure her out for probably a week… I finally understand!   She is in the gym until she weighs less than what she weighed when she came in… I’m not even lying… all 98.4lbs of her!

Small Big Man
From far away he looks kinda like a "bodybuilder"… you know what I mean… big upper body, small waist, small ass, big legs… but it’s all an illusion!! He comes to the gym wearing a cut-off football jersey.. underneath which he wears a cut-off sweatshirt… under that may be another sweatshirt… and possibly 2 more under that… all this is cinched with a belt and you guessed it… he wears at least 2 pairs of pants… yup… they somehow are rolled up to the knee… and then theres knee socks… and boots… from far away the dude looks big… and what amazes me the most is he is wearing this get-up when it’s 70 degrees outside…. and what amazes me EVEN MORE is that he seems to be wearing the identical thing every day… AND he’s there when I do my AM cardio… AND he’s there when I come back at night to lift… *sigh*… maybe he’ll start stuffing his knee socks next…

OK… I already did a rant on how I hate doing cardio next to a person that smells… here are some other things I can’t stand…

…when the dude next to me is yapping away on his cell phone as his treadmill is set to "mountain climb" and he is trying to hold on to his phone, the treadmill, towel and water bottle as he is trying to jog… within 12 seconds he drops something, then restarts the whole process… wouldn’t be that annoying… except for the fact that he’s yapping louder than my iPod…

…people having conversations that should be held in private. The other day I was peacefully walking on a treadmill next to two high school girls who were discussing, in graphic detail, a "rash" of some sort… and who gave it to whom… NOT KIDDING! Today two guys next to me were having a detailed discussion of their ED… people… it’s the GYM… your piece of cardio equipment is NOT enclosed in a sound-proof bubble… and just because someone has headphones on, doesn’t mean they can’t hear you! At the very least, speak quietly… I refuse to put the volume ALL the way up… I shouldn’t HAVE to…

…this also applies to individuals who posess the incredible ability to communicate in a language other than english. FYI… the person you’re talking shit about… may JUST know the language you speak… so walk ten feet away and say whatever you have to say to your buddy. You might just say the wrong thing about the wrong girl and end up getting a plate "accidentally" dropped on your foot or something… just an idea…

ENERGY
Not as much energy as yesterday (as expected), but as long as I’m not starving, and have enough energy to lift SOME weights, i’m happy. Come on now… I’m eating under 25 grams of carbs a day, my calories are low AND i’m spending over 2 hours in the gym per day… don’t really expect much energy, just enough to get through my workouts!

PROTEIN
I kinda had a “day of bad protein”… I have so many different sample packets from so many companies that I finally decided to start trying them… today, all the ones I tried were icky. Maybe tomorrow will be better. NOTE to anyone that has my address and intends to send me ANY more samples of ANYTHING: please DO NOT send me protein bars under any circumstances!! They got carbs… I end up giving them away… but it’s tempting!! Peanut butter crunch sounds really tasty, though…

THYROID SHELF
I also stopped by the Vitamin Shoppe… apparently the Thyrotabs hang out on the shelf with the rest of the "thyroid stuff"… I did not know this shelf existed, so I was kindly escorted out of the "weight loss" section and lead through the "herbal remedies" section to the well concealed "thyroid stuff" shelf… couldn’t they put them somewhere people would see them?! Not really my problem, but really! I was looking for them in the wrong place! Who knew there was an entire "thyroid" shelf… hell, half the people who would benefit from these don’t know where their thyroid is, let alone that it has it’s own shelf!

Check out the LOG:  http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=2246201

…fcuk it, it’s easter, i made my weekly weight goal 2 days ago, i’m having a god damn cookie! OK, so to be completely honest, I had 4… 187 calories, 29 grams of carbs, but since I’m not supposed to be counting calories, we can just pretend that OOPS didn’t happen. Thank god there is no chocolate in the house, or I would have eaten it already.

Just to make things clear… I don’t cheat often, I don’t schedule cheat days and I don’t believe in the benefits of either… this is how I "cheat"… have one item I’m not suppsed to, so for the rest of the day I will simply lower my carbs and stay within my alotted calories. Well… that’s not REAL cheating, you might say. Sorry, but I have a goal, and by doing any REAL cheating I will be sabotaging myself in the process.

This is how many people screw up their diets in the first place. Somehow people get the idea that a cheat day is OK and will help them out in the dieting process….umm NO. The "cheat day" was created to give dieters a break, help keep them on the diet and to make diets more marketable… that’s it. Bingeing every 7th day will not boost your metabolism. Actually your metabolism does not need boosting UNLESS you have already been on a strict diet for WEEKS. Any way you put it, the extra calories you consume on a cheat day will have to be burned… so that’s MORE dieting and MORE cardio for you to do… it’s all a matter of physics… those extra calories of the 7th day do not simply cancel out, so it will take you LONGER to attain your goal… who wants that?! So if you do chose to cheat… I suggest having one cheat meal rather than an entire cheat day… so you are merely undoing one cardio session rather than a week’s worth of hard work (if you want to look at it in terms of numbers).

…..when people give you an opinion that you never asked for and THEN after you kindly dismiss it, start imposing their views, then when you tell them you appreciate their input and tell them kindly to piss off, they continue, as if they can convert you to their way of thinking…

…i’ve just exchanged dozens of emails with a dozen people who after reading my blogs and my forum posts decided that my diet was just wrong and that I should start listening to them (i ignored those who were barely out of high school)… so to the rest… if I need advice of my nutrition, I will ask for it, otherwise keep it to yourself… because some of the shit i’m getting here is borderline insults!

on a much happier note… ever notice how the security codes on the blogs tend to spell all kinds of things… the last time i posted a comment it said "panis" the time before it said "juggs"… what’s up with that tonight?

i think i have 87 days to go… if you were wondering… I started preparing at around 15 weeks (ok, maybe a few days more)… giving me some room to make my diet work. This was a great idea, since it gave me time to slowly ease into the process (instead of jumping in head first… which is what I always do with everything else in my life!), it took me about a week and a half to get my carbs to where they are now (under 10%…lol), but even with the gradual transition, my brain suffered! It took me about a week and a half to get used to this cruel and unusual diet. Too bad this was the same week of my chem midterm… I swear, I sat there for a good 10 minutes wondering "is that an epoxide or an ester…or something else entirely that starts with an E…or maybe even an A?"…my guessing skills paid off… gotta love multiple choice! Finally, this week my brain is back on track (YAY!)

….or maybe it’s all that sugar-free Jell-O… which, by the way contains 4g of protein per bowl lol
Total cals for the day… 1502 (275.5g/26.7g/24.2g…. pro/carb/fat)
Total cardio… 103 minutes…

PS> the elliptical has been added to the list of things i am no longer allowed to do (along with calves and traps!)… it has proven to be completely useless in the ass-decreasing process!

Just had my first real “posing” experience… apparently I did pretty well, and that was very encouraging since I don’t give myself many pats on the back. Quarter turns aren’t all that compicated… it actually reminded me of ballet (which was probably 10 times worse)… stand tall, in uncomfortable shoes, suck everything in, try not to fall and look graceful at the same time. As long as there are no pirouettes involved, I think I’ll do just fine. On that note.. thank god I’m not doing bodybuilding… I don’t think I could impovise a lat spread if my life depended on it…. you see, my lats… they don’t spread. Actually they don’t do much… which brings me to my next point.

…and my brain seems to already be on vacation…

[currently wondering how I’m going to as much as PASS half of my classes this semester]

Today was my first real day off from training in probably the last month and a half. I know I overdo it… but I really can’t help it. The break is just what I needed. I slept til probably 1 or 2 PM! I spent the second half of the day at a local bodybuilding show, which served as better entertainment rather than motivation. The female bodybuilders were outstanding… all that was missing were clear heels and a pole. The men ALL forgot to train any muscle below the waist… and it seemed that calves (as well as traps) might have even been illegal at this event. By the time the figure girls came out I stopped paying attention… oops. As expected, all the winners went to the gym that sponsored the show. BUT my day was not completely wasted… I think I’ve decided on what color I want to wear… PINK… big surprise… or RED… or both… why not!