odysseia’s BodyBlog

Just as I planned, the intensity was definitely upped. I wound up working out 5 days, salsa & samba dancing for 3 hours on a night out and even making a successful attempt at a HIIT session: 15 minutes moderate running, 3 minute-long full effort intervals with 3 minute-long light jogging breaks.

I worked my abs every day of training, mostly at the beginning of my workouts to engage them more in the following exercises. Unlike last week’s singular "killer" arm workout, I went for two. I really loved feeling the pump in my biceps and shoulders at the end. This week, I’m looking forward to using high reps/medium weight to slim my thighs. My main issue with them is that I have naturally large quads.

I gave my diet a kick by cooking up a big batch of "Stir-fry": lean chicken breasts, carrots, broccoli, snow peas, bean sprouts,  green onion, garlic, chili sauce and lime…all on top of Barilla Plus high protein/lower carb whole wheat pasta. That was a mouthful! With enough for 7 meals, it makes a great lunch.

Week 1 threw me several curveballs, but I made it through. Needing an emergency tooth extraction, I was unable to work out as much or as intense as I wanted to, but I made it count when I did. Along with my yoga/pilates/dance combos, I made sure to walk around the neighborhood a little more than usual (when you’re in the zone, you don’t care about walking through 7" of snow and below freezing temperatures).
One of the highlights was a killer arm workout on Thursday (I’m still feeling it a bit). As you can see, I reluctantly added progress pics. I’m loving the side view and I can’t wait to see how it improves as time goes on. I’m looking forward to definitely upping the intensity this week.

I started the day out with 40 minutes of yoga, ballet/pilates and a great core session. Although I’ve kept myself slightly active for the past year, it felt good to just jump in and shake some cobwebs off. This is gonna be fun!