Pinki’s Journey

…after being on this website  for a few weeks… i hate them all! lol OK… maybe not all… but I do hate them, for the reason that I am sick of people always asking “What supplements do I need to take?” The answer to that is simple. NONE. You NEED food, water and air… that’s it… maybe even sleep, under extreme circumstances (jk). Everything else is optional, and depends entirely on what it is that you are trying to accomplish with your body. I only say this because many people (especially those that are new to this), buy the supplements FIRST, then join a gym, then expect results, then get absolutely nowhere, then go and spend another hundered dollars on NO Explode and Cell-Tech then come on this website and complain about it rather than reading all the information provided… but i digress. Instead they should learn about training and nutrition FIRST, and once they have a solid DIET and TRAINING ROUTINE, they should supplement it with SUPPLEMENTS. DUH!

To get where I wanted to get, though, I needed a few things. My diet did not provide me with much food variety, so a good multivitamin was a must. My joints have also given me grief in the past and I found that taking a MSM/Chondriotin/Glucosamine supplement kept my knees and elbows happy.

My daily protein intake remained pretty high, so protein powder was a MUST. ON Double Chocolate and Rocky Road has been my absolute favorite protein for a long time (although I don’t think the quality is best, it tastes good, that’s all that matters to me at the time). I’ve also always been a big fan of Syntrax Nectar… I have tried almost all the flavors and they are all great, with the sad exception of Peach which as I recall induced a violent rage directed toward my shaker or some other inanimate object. Another staple in my protein cabinet is Nature’s Best Micellar (Vanilla, to be specific), which is a great blend protein and my bedtime treat (it tastes really good). I’m forgetting my glutamine! lol… essential, IMO

Next I needed something with a kick, something that would wake me up in the morning and keep me up all day as I endured through low carb hell! So there started the search for the perfect fat burner…

[get ready for an extra long post on that topic tomorrow]

… I ****ing hate that word.
<< pic is from a week and a half ago
THOUGHTS:
Just got the call to cut my cals to like NOTHING. The exact words were “Follow the diet, don’t worry about the calories”… UM.. YEA! It still adds up to like 1150! Girls that weigh 20 pounds LESS than me, eat more!… so i’m kinda sad, but I’ll get over it. I ****ing jinx myself when I say I’m not hungry… THIS is how the powers that BE repay me! Good thing is, my cardio is getting cut too… so only 45 mins in the AM, 30 mins PM… can’t complain about that, maybe I’ll actually spend some time studying. Personally I rather eat more and spend more time on the treadmill… but I digress… Good thing is I get those cals back in a few weeks, so gives me something to look forward to, I guess.

TRAINING:
Did legs… felt completely useless, since I’m not doing them heavy anymore. The light/high reps still kill though, as did the 200 or so lunges I ended up doing. I figure since I’m not doing them with a 50 or 60 lb bar as I used to, I might as well just do them until I can’t walk… since they are the last exercise I usually do. On that note… my ass hurts…
CARDIO:
72 min on treadmill in AM, 28 min on treadmill in PM (yea, couldn’t WAIT to leave!), 12 degree incline, 3.6-3.7 mph, exactly 1000 cals… oh wait, I’m not supposed to be counting cals… my bad
DIET:
I don’t even want to TALK or THINK or WRITE about food. The usual hilight of my day is the Micellar that I have before going to sleep… GONE! No more! I knew it was too good to be true ANYWAY! lol

THOUGHTS: I spent the last few weeks worrying about my shoulders and lats… well, today, as I stood there in my bikini and heels (ready for harsh criticism), I was told that they were much better than before! The more I stressed, the harder I worked, the better they got… it’s really quite simple. I think the biggest motivation for me to keep going is the progress I am seeing with my own body, rather than anything extrinsic.

TRAINING: Today I did back… and realized what was the problem in my training. The stupid thing is that I ALWAYS tell people to do this, but yet I was making the mistake myself. I wasn’t lifting ENOUGH… maybe a few months ago it was, but I neglected to increase the weight on a few key exercises, and I believe this is what wasn’t getting me results I strived for. Maybe it’s because I have a mental block when it comes to doing lat pulldowns with anything more than 85 pounds… or maybe it’s a fear of three-digit numbers, I don’t really know, but TODAY i got over it!

CARDIO:
63 minutes on the treadmill, 10-13 degree incline, 3.5-3.8mph, 700 cals.

DIET: I can’t stand weekends because they SCREW UP my diet… I’m used to the weekdays when I’m up at the crack of dawn (4:30AM), and have 8-9 small meals for the day and then go to sleep around 11PM, waking up at noon just gets to me because it messes up my schedule. You know what else is screwing up my diet? The huge bowl of fruit in the kitchen! No clue who the violator was that put it there, but I had 3 grapes, i couldn’t control myself!

Today’s Diet Looks Like…. 1389cals (249.1g/31.1g/20.4g…. pro/carb/fat)… maybe have an extra shake somewhere in between meals to get that to 1500…

i unintentionally did 3 hours and 15 minutes today…. how might that be? Well… after my first hour of cardio in the morning I got invited by my best friend to take a walk at the lake with her… little did I know, by "walk" she meant "hike"… big difference, and the lake turned out to be larger than expected. So about 2 hours later I finally got to my car, barely able to walk (since the last thing I had to eat was my shake the night before… on that note I’m really starting to like Micellar).

So… I completely slacked on my chest workout an hour and a half later. This is what happens when you wake up late and the gym closes at 6! Tsk Tsk Tsk Why do I even have to do chest?! I always wonder that… I never get a straight answer out of anyone though…

Not even going to go into what I ate today… lol

12 weeks tomorrow… *sigh*…and these eggs are starting to taste really good (2 eggs, 1/2 cup whites… don’t forget the hot sauce!). You’d think that with all the eggs I have been eating, I’d learn to crack them without getting any shell pices into my food… right? Easier said than done. Yes, I’m a bit tired, but nothing some caffeine can’t fix. The only problem I’ve been having is not being hungry (you’re probably saying… is this girl ****ing nuts?!)… which leads me to skip meals… which makes me kinda tired, then I slack on my workout… which is a PROBLEM. I guess forcing yourself to eat at the right times isn’t half as bad as starving all day. It’s OK though… in a few weeks I’ll be starving… so might as well enjoy this part.
Finally ordered my suits yesterday, CJ is truly something else (other than being the BEST suit maker)! IMO calling it a "posing suit" is just an excuse to tack on a few hundred dollars to the price tag… no sane individual would pay $900 for two "bikinis with rhinestones"… but "one-of-a-kind posing suits"… sure!

Got tricked into doing almost two hours of cardio today (if there’s someone next to me, I’ll just keep talking, without bothering to look at the time), can’t say it’s a bad thing. Meanwhile observed some amazing personal training! The trainer made this poor man toss a medicine ball over his head while standing on a bosu on one leg… the poor man fell every time, and the ball, did not go anywhere near it’s intended target (which was behind him), and each time the trainer would run halfway across the gym to get the ball… someone tell me the purpose of this exercise! Please!

Total cals for the day… 1512 (270g/32.9g/37.5g…. pro/carb/fat)… OK… I honestly didn’t eat all that yet… I still have 2 meals left and my bedtime shake… I’ll be up til 2AM… so it should work out OK… lol…

Coke ZERO Rocks! Yea, I’m a DORK

…****ing SHOWER!!

I was doing my AM cardio, on my very favorite treadmill, as some man got on the machine next to me. I swear he smelled like something that died in the 17th century! Maybe this could be semi-excusable if he had just been training for hours and was covered in sweat… but this guy just walked in! You might say, maybe he had a long day… well… this was at 8AM! It only took 2 dirty looks from me for him to realize he was invading my air supply. I watched him go from machine to machine, each time whoever was next to him would get off theirs and move elsewhere… it was just funny. Made the hour go by a little faster….

*sigh*

Off to do shoulders… wish me luck!

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!