paulapop’s BodyBlog

This has been my hardest week to date to keep focused on my workouts.  I have come down with a cold, which has affected my ability to breathe through my nose.  I’ve kept up at the gym on monday with my normal monday routine of 6am cardio, followed by more cardio in the late afternoon and weight training after that.  Tuesday I had my regular kickbxing class which pushed me to my limit with this illness.  I took wednesday off as it had been a week since my last day off.  Today my kickboxing class was cancelled due to the trainer having to leave for a family emergency.  In lieu of kickboxing I did a half hour of cardio on the stairmaster.  My bootcamp is cancelled for tomorrow because my trainer will still not be in because of her family emergency, and I am not sure if she will be back for my regular training session on saturday, so in spite of being sick I will have to suck it up and make myself go and do a decent workout for the next two days.

I visited my favourite bookstore this weekend and picked up The Eat Clean Diet book.  It is very easy reading and its prinicples are very logical.

  We talk about eating clean alot on here, but boy when you see it spelled out for you in black and white, it can be a bit daunting.  I thought I was eating clean already, however, I’ve discovered I was sadly mistaken.  My diet was not terrible…..I didn’t endulge in sweets or salty foods, or fatty foods etc….but I did eat things like peanut butter, margarine, cheese.

I read the book over the weekend and started really cleaning up my diet yesterday.  I cannot believe the difference I feel already.  This may sound wierd, as it has only been two days, but I feel "fresher".  I don’t know how else to explain it.  I do not feel dragged down at all. I carefully planned and packed my meals for when I was at work, and stuck to the diet religiously today.  Not once today did I have that heavy feeling in my stomach.  I spent the day feeling neither hungry nor overly full, I felt simply sated today.

I got up this morning at went for a 6am run.  I admit I fell off the running wagon last week when the weather turned cold.  Dragging myself out of bed and out into the cold at that hour was just more than I could handle.  Today’s run however was fantastic.  It was still quite cold and drizzly, but I found my groove, felt invigorated and had a great early morning run.

I hit the gym after work tonight for a full body workout.  I did alot of ab work on the ball, which I have not done in quite a while.

After a day of eating clean and working out hard, I feel just plain great!

Hope everyone else had as good a monday as I did.

Its been a hectic weekend for me, so I haven’t had the time to up date this, so you are all going to have to bear with me as I spill it all in one go.

Friday’s bootcamp was unexpectedly fun!  That does not mean it was easy, not by a long shot, in fact it was one of the hardest things I have ever done.  The unexpected part was the comrodery amongst everyone in the class.  There will be one a month starting in january and I am really looking forward to it, what a workout, it really pushed me way beyond my comfort zone and showed me that I can do some amazing things.

The bootcamp on friday did not exempt me from my regular saturday morning with the trainer.  We worked out the opposite muscles groups from the bootcamp.  This means 40 mins of cardio, Quad presses, weighted lunges off the bosu, squat kicks with 15 lb weights in each hand, hamstring curls with the cables, a new variation on bicep curls, tricep dips and kickbacks, and ending with some ab crunches…..YIKES what a weekend of workouts. 

I am back at the monday routine of 6am cardio tomorrow……

The good news is, the work is paying off, at my weigh in today I am withing 6.2lbs of my Jan1 goal.

Yeah me!

Wishing all my American friends a happy and peaceful thanksgiving.  I’ll be off doing the bootcamp tomorrow to work off all that pie you guys are eating for ya

Did you ever notice how some people go the gym or workout regularly for long periods of time, and yet they never seem to make any noticeable changes to their bodies?  I was looking around my kickboxing class tonight, and some of the people there have been taking the class for nearly a year with me, and they look exactly the same as the day they started.  I am not talking about those that were already in shape before the class, I am talking about people who needed to loose a bit of weight and tone up.  We have to keep a food and excercise log which is checked by the trainer regularly.  We also get a 3 day workout routine to do on the days we don’t have class.  It simply does not seem possible to me that anyone could follow the routine and eat what they say they are eating in their food logs, and still not loose weight.

I know what you are all thinking…..just because they say they are doing the routines and eating clean, doesn’t mean they are. And your probably right, thats the most likely reason they haven’t seen any progress.   What really makes me wonder is, if you are not going to follow the routines that are handed to you, and your not willing to eat clean, then why are you wasting your time at the gym?  Why waste your money on the class and the gym membership?  Why waste the trainers time who reads your logs and tries to advise you?  Most importantly, why don’t they see that the reason they are not making the same progress that others are is because they aren’t giving it their all?  I have a friend who has been going to the gym, works out hard, but hasn’t lost a lb or an inch in a year.  Her answer is….."I’ll just be the healthiest fat person around"

All this brings me back to my forum tagline…..

"every success is built on the ability to do better than Good Enough"

Well yesterdays day off was a blessing because today I met with the trainer for a real ass kicking session.  We did 10 mins cardio, then supersets of squats with 20lbs in each hand, then tricep kickbacks, then walking lunges with bicep curls for 3 rounds.  After that was another 10 mins cardio on the stairmaster at med/high intensity, then off for another 3 rounds of a superset circut, stationery lunges with a body bar, arnold presses, seated incline hammer curls, then tricep press downs while on the bosu to add some balance to the mix, then another 10 mins of cardio.

I know I will be feeling this one tomorrow, I can already feel it in my quads……what a feeling

As a lot of you know, I’ve been working crazy hours and still hitting the gym twice a day.  Last nights kickboxing class was an absolute killer I walked away from it sweaty and exhausted.  When I saw my trainer on monday and we were discussing my weeks workout plan, she said to take friday as a day off.  Of course being the rebel I am, I immediately thought, "yes I will just do cardio or go for a run on friday". 

Well, I woke up with the alarm this morning, my muscles were tingling.  It was that kind of exhausted tingle, and not the good kind you get after a workout.  So all things considered, including the fact that I meet with my trainer tomorrow morning at 8am, I’ve decided to take the day off and give my body a break.

For VT_dad, yes I am taking a dose of my own advice today

Have a great weekend all!

The weather has turned colder, christmas is approaching and the gym is filled with signups wanting to "get in shape for the holiday season".  I’ve noticed in my gym, it seems to be a seasonal thing, new members sign up in the fall, and then again in January.  These months become hell for the regular members as over crowding and poor gym etiquette become the norm.

Don’t get me wrong, I think its great that people sign up and try to rededicate themselves to a healthier lifestyle.  I am all for anyone making a positive lifestyle change.  However, I do wish that they  would take the time to observe a little gym eitiquette.  I generally do not like to talk much when I am at the gym.  Its not that I am antisocial, it is just that I need to focus and socializing is a distraction.  I often walk around with my headphones in my ears, but my mp3 player turned off, just to give myself an excuse for not stopping to talk to people I know.

I don’t mind helping new people out, and as I live in a very small town, I know most of the people in the gym, so I am often asked for help. 

When I say I don’t mind helping, I mean answering one or two basic questions about how to run a machine.  Lately it seems, whenever I am at the gym, I am stopped after each machine and asked how to use it.  There are people that, after I show them how to use one machine, they will come and get me to show them how to do the next….and the next…and the next thing you know I’ve been at the gym two hours and haven’t finished my own workout.

My next rant is by far the most annoying.  The other day when I was on an elliptical glider doing cardio a "newbie" came up behind me, and stood there waiting for me to finish.  I had 20 mins left, and some newbie staring over my shoulder the whole time!  I think her intention was to intimidate me into getting off the machine.  Well, think again sweetheart, I stayed on the machine for another 30mins instead of 20.  When upped the machine time to 30 from 20 she walked off in a huff.

Well those are my rants for the day, what do you consider the most annoying thing newbies do in the gym?

Yeah, I know, I haven’t updated my blog in a few days, which is not like me.  I have been working 12 hr days, and still making it to the gym everyday.  This means I am leaving my house for a run at 6am and after my shower I am off to work, then the gym and not getting back in the door until after 9pm.  Rest assured I am still reading EVERY ONE of my friends blogs and commenting here and there.

Ohhhhhhh and while I was out buying my whey protein and mulitvitamin this evening, I couldn’t help but think of Ninjabill and his blog a few days back.  The one about feeling guilty for how much we spend on sups and how much we all talk about the foods we shouldn’t eat, when there are those around us that do not have enough to eat.  So anyway, here is my thought…..

Why don’t we all make a donation to our local foodbanks between now and christmas.  I am not just saying that to ease our guilt, the way I am looking at it is, if I can afford to spend $110 on sups today, the surely I can afford $20 bucks or so for the food bank.  BTW, Our local foodbank gave the store a list of their most needed items……they are

Baby food, diapers, general infant supplies, feminine products, shampoo and personal care products.  At this time of year they have no trouble getting can goods in from can drives, it is the aformentioned items that run in short supply, I am sure this is the case just about everywhere.

I am soooooo sore from last nights workout.  Every time I bent over to pick something up at work, I groaned.  My butt hurt!!!! My legs hurt!!! My lats hurt!!!  However, this is what I pay the trainer for right? 

I am back up and at it in the morning for a jog.  This will be my first run in really cold weather, I can’t say I am looking forward to it.