Zazzoo’s BodyBlog

Things are going great!  I’m working with Kim Oddo now and I love it.  I’m training in a different way than I usually do and it seems to be working, slowly but surely.  I’m attending a seminar/fit camp that Kim Oddo and Hany Rambod are doing together in NH all day tomorrow.  I’m very excited and anxious.  Will update later this weekend to talk about how it went.

Things have been going OK, but not great.  I’ve been having more cravings lately starting last Thursday.  I think part of it was due to my calories, IMO, being too low.  So, I let myself eat a little more food.  Not really bad food, but food that isn’t 100% clean like turkey sub from Subway, 8oz top sirloin steak, and a cheat of nachos at Fridays.  Luckily, my weight still went down 1/2 lb this week, but I feel stalled bodyfat/measurement wise.

I’ve decided to hire Kim Oddo to develop a 12 week program for me.  Mike at Revolution Gym is a great motivator, but he wasn’t doing my diet other than to tell me to eat 1150 calories/day, which again, I think it low for someone 180 lbs and just starting to diet and exercise again after a lay over.  I feel as low if they are that low this early and I’m doing 6-7 days of cardio and 3-4 days of weight training that I need a little more calorie-wise or else I’ll wreck my metabolism in the long haul.  So, I’ve hired to Kim to see what he says since he’s got such a great reputation and record of helping people.  I’m just waiting on my program.

Just a cardio only day today.  Went to the gym at 5AM and did 20 mins on elliptical and 25 mins on treadmill (both hill intervals, HITT), then a 5 min CD.  The AC was out for the 2nd day in a row at the gym.  Got a REALLY good sweat both days.  Diet is going great, although I’m starting to have a few small cravings, but not as bad as I used to get.  I’m wondering if VPX Meltdown is helping with this.  It’s been 3 weeks since I’ve had a cheat (other than 1/2 of a Chicken Pecan Salad at Fridays minus the blue cheese).

Things are still going great!  For the first time in my long history of dieting, I’m not really having cravings and I haven’t really had a cheat meal since I started (other than a salad with grilled pecan chicken on it and balsamic dressing on it 10 days ago).  I’m noticing my body starting to tighten up a little even though I’ve only lost 11 pounds (3 in the last 2.5 weeks).  The only thing I’m worried about is if I’m getting enough calories.  Mike, my trainer, told me my BMR is 1670 calories.  My diet is at ~1150 calories/day (the only things I don’t calculate are green veggies).  I’ve always heard that you shouldn’t go below 1200 or else you’ll slow your metabolism.  I also worry that if my calories are this low now, what happens when my weight loss plateaus?  I won’t really have calories to drop.  I’m already doing 40-50 mins/day of cardio.  I suppose I could increase that to 1 hour/day, but I don’t want to be doing 1.5-2 hours of cardio anytime soon since I’d like to compete in May.  Oh well, we’ll see what happens over the next couple of weeks.  Since my BF is so high, he said I have plenty of calories stored so I shouldn’t worry.

 Trained with Mike yesterday (legs, bis, chest, and abs…circuit training for 1 hour).  Had a good workout.  Did walking lunges (I hate those damn things!), machine preacher curls, machine chest press, stiff legged deadlifts, incline chest press, barbell squats, crunches, leg press, and hanging knee raises.

Things have been going great!  My weight is down and I’m noticing changes/tightening up a little.  Trained with Mike on Monday (back, bis, shoulders, and abs) and my back & rear delts were sore for 2 days, which was great because I haven’t been sore in my back many times after a workout.  HE showed my an exercise I’ve never seen before, Sky Divers, that I felt REALLY intensely through a lot of my body and my back in particular.

Cardio has been going great too.  Been doing 45-50 mins everyday.  Diet has been on point and I haven’t had cravings, which is very unusual for me.

Had a better day today. I went to the gym mid-morning for 70 mins. Did 5 min warm-up on treadmill, then circuit trained legs, chest, and lateral raises (3 sets x 12-20 reps per exercise). My heartrate was up the entire time and I was able to burn 720 calories. I finished with 20 mins on the elliptical. I’m going to try to do a little more cardio tonight, but it will depend on what time Emma falls asleep. I still have to cook food for the next couple of days and get my stuff (clothes, food, etc) ready for tomorrow. I’m training with Mike tomorrow during my lunch break.

Well, yesterday I was at the gym 3x (can you say obsession?).  I did 40 mins of cardio in the AM, trained back, bis, shoulders, and abs at lunch for 35 mins, and did 20 mins of cardio after work.  My legs are STILL killing me from Tuesday’s workout with Mike.  Those damn walking lunges that went on forever absolutely demolished me!  I have only been training again for 2 weeks!  I trained regularly for a few years up until 2006 when I had my daughter.  Since then, I’ve maybe trained for a couple of months off and on twice, but nothing "regular."   It’s scary how out of shape you get, but it’s also awesome to see how quickly it comes back!  I’ve already noticed my cardio endurance getting a lot better.

Today, I just did 45 mins of cardio in the AM.  I’m not training today as I think my body needs the break (plus I’m tired…I’ve been getting up at 4:50 every morning this week).  I’ll train this weekend and then I have a session with Mike on Monday afternoon.  Happy Friday everyone!

Nothing exciting to report today other than I’m down 2 more lbs!  Did 40 mins of cardio on the treadmill at various intervals.  Eating was on point. 

Had my first training session with Mike tonight. Damn!  He killed me!  Started with walking lunges the length of the gym (I counted at least 30 each way) and then back again, right into preacher bicep curls, then right into incline chest press.  This repeated 3 times without stopping.  I thought I was going to puke.  It’s been 3 months since I’ve worked out and that was for only 2 months.  Before that, it had been over 2 years.  So, needless to say, I realized just how out of shape I am.  We trained legs (just walking lunges as I could barely walk after 3 sets of those anyway), chest (incline chest press & seated chest press), biceps (preacher curls & DB curls standing on a stabilizer), and 3 sets of ab crunches and 1 set of lower back extensions.  Afterwards, he spent 10 mins really stretching me out good.  It hurt so good!

 According to my Polar HR monitor, I burned 415 calories during my training session.  I did early AM cardio for 45 mins on the elliptical during hill intervals (HITT) and burned 505 calories.  Eating was perfect today, although I might need to increase my carbs slightly on training days as I was a little light headed and low energy when training.  We’ll see how the next session goes and work from there.