ttsells’s BodyBlog

Thanksgiving evening/Friday at midnight I hit the mall and did some crazy shopping.  I love the energy surrounding the stores when they have specials and I couldn’t resist.  I did get some great deals, a few at least.  So I stayed out until 4:30 a.m.  I haven’t done that in ages.  So Friday I slept till 11 a.m. and did some proofreading for work.  I did not go to the gym on Friday like I should have so I’m going today, Saturday, and Sunday.  Normally I’d take one of those days off.

It’s been recommended to me that I need to switch up my diet.  I was doing the Scivation meal plan but didn’t lose any booty size!  I did add some size to my upper body, which is good.  I still want to add size but I need to lose some body fat for motivation.  A trainer at the gym said I’m dieting enough to make small changes and my body has changed since I’ve started but if I really want to make some real changes I should try KETO!! 

I’m so excited for a new diet!!  I love new workout plans and new diets.  I get bored easily, I think, and love variety!!!  I hope to start it Sunday but believe I’ll have to wait until Monday or Tuesday until he gives me some printouts or something.  The only thing I’m nervous about is how keto will affect my strength. He said I won’t get any stronger during this period but I’ll do it for a few weeks, go off a bit to gain strength, then go on it for a period to lose bodyfat, etc.  I hope I’m explaining it right and understanding properly.  I do remember him saying you take a couple of steps forward, one step back, and then a few steps forward. 

We’ll see.  I hope I am mentally strong enough for the challenges that lay ahead. 

I have been and probably will be writing in my blog less.  Normally I write what I think about my workouts and what I’m eating but now someone else is telling me the answers to those things so I don’t really have much to write about. 

I’m reaching 7 months of straight bodybuilding and it’s discouraging to me.  The picture for my avatar is quite deceptive.  For some reason i look more built in it than I do in daily life.  I’m not posting pics either because I look the same always now.  I think I’m going to lay off of my blog until the new year and see what changes have come along the way and set new goals.

So if I’m not writing, that doesn’t mean I’m not lifting.  I’m just not writing. 

I’ve had family staying with me for the last two weeks and it’s been hard getting my workouts in and still keeping up with family meals and keeping up on the house.  I am proud to say I haven’t missed any workouts since the missing I did while on vacation and i don’t plan to.  Maybe during Thanksgiving and Xmas I will be forced to miss some just because the gym may be closed but that won’t be my fault.

Happy lifting, everyone.

It;s been awhile since I’ve updated my pics.  My goal was to do them once a month but I can tell that the changes will be happening more slowly now.  At first I could always see changes and I am trying really hard; but you can’t tell by looking at me, which is why I’ve been trying to shake my workouts up a little bit.  I’m hoping something visible and positive will happen soon.  One positive thing:  there’s another pair of jeans that I can squeeze into.  Yah!!  There’s a tiny bit less junk in my trunk!

I’m off to the gym now.  I’d love it to not be busy.  I want to do a leg workout but if the guys are hogging all the racks I’ll do bis and tris and save the legs for an earlier afternoon when the big racks are open.

I’ve had one good food week.  On my trip my food got really, really bad for about 2 1/2 weeks and I feel happier knowing I’m feeding my muscles right.  My shoulders are filling out a little bit.  They shrunk on my trip, I think.

I am not a winter person but I’m happy that clothes have less exposure in the winter.  Since I’m not ideal, summers are hard for me.  I hate wearing a swimsuit as all summer I was lifting to gain size and was eating to grow  — not bulking but DEFINITELY NOT CUTTING!!  I welcome pants and long sleeved shirts.  My only problem is that my cotton blouses are getting tight around the shoulders.  I don’t mind that too much.  It’s better for that to be tight than for my pants to be too small!

I feel happy about my hard work and I am not bragging but feel we should share our ups and downs.  I feel like an up today.    

I thought I was going to die at the gym today.  I normally feel that on a leg day but never on an upper body workout.  The difference is that today started off in low-weight squats and clean & presses and 2 minutes of high intensity cardio on the stepmill to challenge my cardiovascular endurance.  THen we moved onto basically a chest and shoulder workout that didn’t include any cardio aspect to it.  I must admit that I was supposed to do 3 minutes but my mind and body gave out at 2 minutes!! 

Well, I finished my workout happy to be done but sad that I was so winded so early on.  I once attended a running camp where we races.  As someone who never "runs all out" this was a huge challenge for me.  I thought I was going to throw up or need to lie down after sprinting and racing against others.  That is exactly the way I felt after the stepmill portion and I’m sure others at the gym who saw the agony in my face probably wondered what was wrong with me.  My face is transparent. 

Now I am happy to lie on the couch and watch some TV.  Tomorrow is leg day.  Let’s see how I do.

I think holding yourself accountable to someone else is the best way to make progress.  When I try to eat good, I will sometimes cheat and say, oh, just this once won’t matter.  I got to the gym with the idea of building my best body and then I will feel weak and just say, oh, I’ll do 8 reps instead of ten this time.  Doing these things is okay sometimes but when it’s happening too often, goals get set to the side and progress doesn’t come quickly.

This week I’ve been e-mailing someone everything I eat — everything I put in my mouth.  I ate some buttered microwaved popcorn the first day and when it came time to write it into the internet, at first I didn’t want to.  Then I figured I must do this and I must be honest or it won’t work.  So I did it and then when the next day came and I went to sneak a treat, the first thought that came to mind was how stupid I felt writing down i ate microwaved popcorn, knowing all along I want to start eating healthier and make real changes.  Needless to say, I didn’t sneak the treat and felt great about typing in what I have eaten for the past three days.

In WeightWatchers you are told to journal every day.  It is such a great exercise.  I was always honest with my journal and it really worked.  There were very large women in my class and the leader would always remind us to journal.  Those same women would admit they needed to journal and would always sneak bites that weren’t reported or they wouldn’t journal at all.  Surprise, surprise, they stayed fat.

Now, when I quit WWers I quit journaling and got fat.  For my last six months of bb.com I haven’t been journaling and forgot what it was like.  This week was a real eye opener into being consistent, not wanted to sneak little cheats. 

We all know what’s good for us and what’s not.  When we cheat on our diets, we are only cheating ourselves and making our goals just a tiny bit farther away. 

Today I did a leg workout.  I targeted my quads and hams  but forgot to hit my calves.  What was I thinking??  Then I did a half hour on the elliptical.  I did:  3 sets each: Lying leg curls, seated leg curls, stiff legged deadlifts, leg extensions, hack squats, and leg extensions again. 

I ate well today.  I friend at the gym made pumpkin fluff.  I’m going to try it tonight.  She also made protein bars that look great.  I couldn’t take them because they’re made with a lactose-full protein powder and that’s awful for my belly!!!  So now I want to try to make some with my lactose-free whey isolate.  I do love protein bars but I don’t buy them anymore so this would be a good recipe to try.  I’m going to search bb.com for some easy recipes for bars to make.

A trainer at the gym offered me a session today so i took him up on it.  I was kind of nervous, not knowing what to expect but I totally loved it.  He taught me how to properly do regular squats  with a bar.  I always do regular squats in a smith machine to aid in my balance but he said he’d teach me how to do them right. 

I also used some kettle balls but counldn’t get the rhythm in doing it.  I wanted to throw the ball and he just wanted me to raise it so high and then really focus on pulling it back towards my body.  Ackward. 

He had me do standing barbell raises.  I never stand and do them so it was different. 

I did other things too that I’ve already done but those were most interesting to me.  I enjoyed having somethere explaining why some things are better than others and focusing on my form so I don’t end up lopsided.  He said that so far I’m symmetrical.  That’s good.  I’ve been lifting on my own for six months and I haven’t overdeveloped one side too much. 

He seemed to think I am weaker than I am for most exercises, giving me too little of weight.  That’s okay, though.  I’m happy

My lower body workouts always create a nausea while at the gym and next-day pain; but after not working out for two weeks, yesterday’s lower body workout has caused some severe stiffness on getting out of bed and standing up.  Even my abs ache.  That doesn’t normally happen.  Now I don’t ever want to take so much time off again.  What a great lesson I’ve learned!!!

I have a dream!  (Sounds familiar, right?)  My dream is to get in the best shape of my life.  I transformed my body three years ago into a very lean runner - obviously very different than the shape of a bodybuilder.  BUT it was what I wanted to look like and after about a year I achieved my goal.  Unfortunately I didn’t maintain it for more than about six months.

Now I want to do it again but this time into the shape of a figure girl - not to step on stage but to try to get that look.  I’m very inspired by this website and all of the women who are doing it right now.  Go, Fern & AmySuds!! 

A trainer at the gym is telling me about how difficult it is and that most people can’t do it and that you have to be anal about everything to make it happen.  I appreciate the honesty  AND I"M SURE HE"S RIGHT but isn’t the point to encourage people how to do it?

After six months I don’t look great but everyone has to start somewhere, right?  Maybe he’s  warning me because I am too chunky still and look like the type who lacks commitment.  I’ve been lifting for six months now (YEAH!) with only two weeks off due to vacation.  I think that’s a devoted start. 

How do you find the right trainer for you? 

Yesterday I did an upper body workout and today I did a lower body workout.  I didn’t hit every single machine I normally do but did two for everybody part except abs to kind of jumpstart my muscles.  One of the trainers told me I can’t get back two weeks in two days but it’s okay in the long run.  I don’t feel that my lifts were that bad.  I was either able to do the same poundage with only eight reps (instead of 10) or one weight level down with ten reps. Not great but not awful. 

Prior to the trip I had been taking creatine with 1 Gaspari Cytolean prior to working out - amazing energy - or Vasocharge only.  I did the Gaspari _ creatine combo yesterday and felt like I was freaking out!!!!  Not in a good way.  I felt very jittery and slightly confused.  When I went to the bathroom one of my bent legs was shaking like crazy!!!  Good thing it wasn’t leg day!  Prior to my trip this never happened!!!  Who knows what’s up with my body!!!  So needless to say, I didn’t take anything prior to working out today.  Today was leg day, lower back and three sets of weighted incline situps.  Only a diet MD prior to the gym and I wasn’t shaking like a leaf.

My workout was fine.  The poundage used was similar to pre-trip except leg extensions!  Those were killing me.  OUCH!!!

Tonight I’m just working at home, trying to get something out ASAP!!!  After my two workouts I feel better.  I don’t feel like such a gym stranger anymore.  Pretrip I was loving the gym and couldn’t wait until my next workout.  Sunday and Monday I avoided it like the plague.  Tuesday I bribed myself there with one cookie.  Naughty, I know.  Now I’m back but I’m pretty tired.

By the way, I did one pullup today.  This is something I’m very proud of.  I hadn’t been able to do a pullup for months and prior to my trip I did one one day and tHen the following day I did two and a half.  I am glad I can still do one.  I hope to be able to do five soon! (Goal)

I had an awesome trip and I loved every minute of it.  So what’s bad?  My body flab.  Every single day of my trip, except driving across the country, included several hours of walking - several!!  So that’s good.  I did body weight/resistance exercises in my hotels the first two days only, though.  After that I said who cares!!  I shouldn’t have done that. 

I did swim in the hotel pool to work my shoulders one of the days but that’s it.  Now my muscles have shrunken and I feel flabby.  I was gone over two weeks!  No creatine and I quit my shakes after four or five days and started eating bad like my husband.

Okay.  I’m done with confession.  Tomorrow I need to restart living like the rest of the planet, going to work, eating healthy, and getting my chubby behind back to the gym.  Meanwhile to day I’m doing four loads of laundry and trying to get back to a normal sleep schedule.  I’m kind of embarrassed to go to the gym because I won’t be able to lift as heavy as I used to.