teriberi’s BodyBlog

I think I have to give up leg day, I have such large leg muscles from all the other activities I do (running, ET, hiking, etc.) and I’ve tried decreasing the weight and increasing reps and they STILL keep getting bigger! I SO just want long lean shapely legs instead of huge bulging veiny legs…hey I’m a girl, I want to be GIRLY!
So, my question is, how bad is it to avoid leg exercises altogether (at least for now) and just focus on upper body, since that seems to balance my already muscular legs due to my cardio addiction? Any feedback is welcome!!! (and giving up cardio is NOT an option for me, I gain weight instantly w/o it)

I’ve finally come to the realization that I need rest days. Moderation has never been my strong suit. I tend to be an extremist; my all or nothing attitude has gotten me into trouble more than once. So, I have decided to take one day per week off completely, meaning no weights or cardio. This may seem like an easy task, but I tend to feel like a slob with even one day off from some form of hardcore physical activity, but I think I’m doing more harm than good by pushing myself constantly.

So far I successfully took yesterday off, I nearly went on a 6-mile hike (which would have been ok since I haven’t hiked much lately) but that is on the agenda for tonight instead. Anyways, my theory is if I can force myself to take one day off, then I can be guilt-free about making the other 6 days as intense as possible.

Does anyone have a clue what would cause a significant drop in heart during exercise? During cardio I normally get in the upper 150s to low 160s range when I’m pushing myself. The past week or so I’ve noticed I am lucky to get to 150 at all and have to put TONS of effort just to stay in the 140s range. This does not seem normal. I’ve tried searching for info on this and I’ve found nothing. I vary my cardio, so I know it’s not just my body simply getting used to an activity. And I am still sweating like a maniac during cardio, so I think I’m trying every bit as hard. Maybe my HRM is broke.
Anyone experienced this before?

I seem to be on a role for the past few days, maybe it’s that cute little black dress that has inspired me to continue to fit into it, hey whatever works, right? I am amazed by how quickly I can digress and also how quickly I can bounce back…it has to be the muscle, before weights when I’ve had slip-ups it took ages just to get back to where I started pre-slip-up.  So, this is GREAT news! Not that I am finding excuses to be a slacker, but it sure is comforting to know that  having setbacks  doesn’t have to mean throwing in the towel.

I am starting to get settled in to our new home in a new area…it is kind of nice to be in civilization again, but I’m sure I will miss many things about the northwoods of Wisconsin.

As far as workouts go, I’ve been doing pretty good…some damage control from the move, whenever I stray even slightly from my rigid workout schedule I seem to notice it instantly. Fact: lifting weights is better than lifting boxes and furniture, don’t know why! Although, my husband TOTALLY noticed that I was able to carry heavy boxes/furniture with ease on this move. Who knew? Body building actually increases strength and not just muscle size/definition. heehee.

One bad habit that I have to fight is the temptation to snack at night…for some reason I have been struggling with this lately. I thought I did away with this terrible habit, but it’s come back to haunt me! I will have to be on guard and keep nightly noshing to a minimum.

I think I did ok while traveling, so that is good. I didn’t eat ANY junky junk (the worst thing I ate was organic whole wheat pretzel sticks), I probably ate more than I should have and had to eat 3x a day instead of 5-6 smaller meals since we were running around in the car all day looking at houses and stuff. I’m so glad that we didn’t eat out at ALL while out of town, which is amazing, or at least I think so. We stuck to the food we packed or fresh stuff we got locally to eat in the hotel. But the hotel room was TINY, so I only did one workout, but I only had 4 days w/o standard workouts, so that is not too tragic, of course weighing in tomorrow morning will tell the whole story, so hopefully I am not deceived into thinking I did better than I really did.

On a lighter note, we found a house to rent!!! It seems to be just what we wanted/needed—plenty of room, a nice big fenced in backyard that I can garden in and a room for my weights/workout equipment. OH, and cutesy little neighborhood with lots and lots of sidewalk streets for powerwalking/jogging/biking!!! AND we will live in civilization again!!! SOOOO, that means fruit/veggie stands, real stores that aren’t 30 min. away and we can ride our bikes to smaller grocery stores to pick up essentials like we used to when we lived in Germany! I can’t wait! I’m tired of living in the backwoods of Wisconsin. Sure, I’ll miss all the wilderness and woodsy paths right by my house, but I won’t miss the ticks and tons of mosquitoes and watching the ground as I walk for bear prints and wondering how fresh they are, oh and the occasional run in with a bear on the path up ahead and having to turn around and hope you don’t get followed. Yikes.

2 more workouts before I head out on a long road trip to scope out the new area and find a house. I may be away from home for as much as 9 days! BLAHHHHH I hope not! The only thing I can think of is TaeBo and my laptop in the hotel room…I sure hope I can be super disciplined. I know I will likely lose muscle during this time, but as long as I eat really well (fast food has NEVER been a temptation for me) hopefully I will make it through unscathed.

Normally I would do leg day today and back/biceps tomorrow, but I’m going to reverse them, because I’ll have more time tomorrow and I want a CRAZY long last workout!

I better be on calorie lock-down for the next week or so just to make sure I don’t gain. Boy, all this tension for having to skip my regular intense workout schedule is enough to drive me nuts!

Well I haven’t been on a losing streak for a while, but I have noticed that I am indeed a "maintainer" which is good. I haven’t yo-yo’d in a LONG time. In fact, it’s been almost 2 years of keeping the weight I’ve lost off, so this is good news!

One thing I am slightly nervous about is moving.   I have never been good at changing locations, it tends to throw off my routine, but I have a plan of attack to keep my focus even when I can’t get in my regular workouts while traveling and stuff. At least there is a lot of physical work involved in this move. In the past the Army always moved us, and this move in on us, so we are doing ALL of the work, so lifting boxes is a good thing when you can’t lift weights.

This next week I’ll be traveling down to the new location to look for housing, so hopefully this will be a good "test run" of what to expect when we move for good. I hope to find a house that is big enough so that I can have a workout room like I do now and a nice area close by to go for walks/jogs/bike rides. Wish me luck!!!

Do you ever find yourself pairing healthy foods with nutritionally useless foods to make yourself feel better? Well, I DO!

Like somehow by eating yogurt with whey or casein added to it and ground flax on top seems to pair nicely with a side of cinnamon toast crunch. Aww, come on, the box says "wholegrain" hmmm, probably nothing whole about it, but BOY is it sure yummy! heehee.

I have totally decreased the weight on leg day and upped the reps to 20 (so you know I am not going crazy on the weight) and my leg muscles are still growing. This would be fine if I was a boy, but I’m not…so how do I stop it? I don’t want to cut out leg day, because I LOVE IT!!! But I also don’t want giant muscular legs and I also don’t want to buy bigger jeans to accommodate them because then the waist part would be too big. I do use the ET and go for walks on most days, but I can’t imagine that would make them much bigger.
What’s a girl to do? There has got to be a remedy that doesn’t involve deleting leg day!!! Any ideas?