Fake Food vs. Real Food

Day 83

March 31, 2011

I was well-behaved and got up for cardio this morning and was planning to do 40 minutes on my elliptical, but at just under 31 minutes C woke up and walked in upset wanting to know where his Spider-man costume was so I got cut short. Between classes I went to The Rec and trained Chest and Glutes, or T&A, lol. I chose that over Legs because I can easily go 2 hours just on weights training legs, something I have time for tomorrow, but not today. To focus on glutes today I did 7 sets of cable kickbacks, 3 sets each leg of single leg squats in the smith machine, and 4 sets each leg of single leg standing leg presses (using the assisted pull-up machine) I’ll be pretty much hitting ll that again tomorrow as part of the full leg day. Why two days back to back? I’m still trying to burn my glutes as much as possible before peak week hits. Chest was the usual: classic bench, db bench, db flies, db incline bench, and push-ups to failure.

Towards the end I was thinking about how I haven’t been doing my beloved pull-ups lately. I’ve been purposefully avoiding them because I feel weak and I don’t like not being able to do as many as I have done before. At the end today I had an impulse, a pumped moment and I went for it. I busted out 8. That’s my new record now (it was 7 before) and I’m proud. That’s 75% of the way to my goal of 12 reps to a set. Awesome =)

I like real food; in fact I love many real foods that I’m not currently allowed to eat. On this diet, I have come to love fake foods. Why? Because many of them give me the macros I need in a clean form while satisfying cravings.

Think Thin Bars are my favorite fake food in existence. They are like candy bars, especially the Chunky Peanut Butter Flavor. It’s practically a Reese’s. Up until a week ago the White Chocolate Chip flavor was my favorite. Now they both are. I’ll warn you Chocolate Mudslide isn’t great, but Brownie Crunch is. Surprisingly and pleasingly, they contain 0 grams of sugar.

Stats:

White Chocolate Chip 230 cals 20 g protein 25 g carbs 8 g fat

Chunky Peanut Butter 240 cals 20 g protein 24 g carbs 8 g fat

2:1 Protein Bars I’ve only tried the Oatmeal flavor of these. I ordered a box from GNC after reading on the website that they have a ratio of 2 parts protein to 1 part carbs. When I got them it turned out they were referring to net carbs. That’s where you deduct the sugar alcohols. Based on that logic Think Thin Bars are superior, their ratio is close after “netting” carbs and they taste WAY better. All the 2:1 bar has going for it is the amount of protein for the cals and that the bar is pretty big, thus filling. These I wouldn’t buy again. The problem with carb netting is I don’t totally believe in the concept so I count the “gross” or total listed carbs in my macros for the sake of dietary conservatism and thus don’t benefit.

Stats:

Oatmeal 250 cals 30 g protein 24 g carbs 6 g fat

Pure Protein Shakes These are fantastic for their portability. I like to keep one in my car or gym locker for that protein emergency (that’s when you realize you under packed food for the day, you’re starved, and you’re about to go buy some macro destroying nutritionally void snack item on campus. Protein shake in a can to the rescue!) Their flavor is pretty good too. I have the Vanilla Crème ones. They are a bit pricey though, so I reserve them as my emergency fake food.

Stats:

Vanilla Crème 100 cals 21 g protein 4 g carbs 0.5 g fat (they also make a 35 g protein can that is still only 160 cals)

Gaspari MyoFusion My first, and still most beloved, fake food. This is my original protein powder and still my favorite protein powder. I mainly stick to the Milk Chocolate and Delicious Vanilla flavors The Strawberries and Cream is good, but only with milk and I can only afford water in my cal budget right now for my mixer. I started buying this back last summer when I started reading F&M Hers. They sponsor Ava Cowan (one of the top 3 figure pros) and their advertising is good. I needed a protein powder and thought she had killer abs, while of course realizing it wouldn’t necessarily make me look like her I figured what the hey I’ll try that one. So glad I did. It has great flavor and the BEST texture by a longshot. When I blend it in my Magic Bullet with water and ice cubes the texture is as thick and frothy and as satisfying as a Frosty from Wendy’s. SERIOUSLY GOOD SHIT. Plus, it’s a blend of multiple proteins: three different derivatives of whey protein, milk protein isolate, and egg albumin. It also has some additives that are beneficial to the diet: CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid), sunflower oil, and flaxseed oil.

Stats:

Delicious Vanilla / Milk Chocolate 147 cals 25 g protein 5 g carbs 3 g fat

Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey in Cake Batter flavor I tried this after hearing how great the flavor was from my PT, Laura. She’s totally right, the flavor is soooooo yummy, but being straight whey the texture just cannot compete with MyoFusion. It has some additives too that enhance the diet: BCAAs, Glutamine and Precursors. It does beat MyoFusion on the stats.

Stats:

Cake Batter 120 cals 24 g protein 3 g carbs 1 g fat

Trader Joe's Vanilla Coffee Creamer I used to put a bunch of vanilla sugar syrup and half and half in my coffee. Now I just put a splash of this. The TJ's one is my favorite because it has 33% fewer carbs per serving than most other brands (only 4 vs. 6 grams). This is a diet change I'll keep in the off season.

Stats:

30 cals 0 g protein 4 g carbs 1.5 g fat

Macros

158.8 grams Protein 174 grams Carbs 62.7 grams Fat

Cal Tally

1,895.5 Ingested
(1,448) BMR
(709) Training
(261.5) Net Loss

Day 82 - Nothing Stellar to Report, just Aspirin & my Kryptonite

Day 82

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

This is a shorty. I basically didn’t work out today. I did 25 minutes of cardio on the elliptical this morning plus 4 sets of side bends (abs) with a 30 lb dumbbell at 15 reps per sets per side this morning, but I never made it to a gym so I don’t really count it as having actually worked out. I was going to go right after class this afternoon, but the tension headache, general tiredness, realization that if I didn’t do hw due tomorrow then I’d be staying up later tonight to do it and asking for trouble. I also realized it had been 9 days since I had a rest day so I didn’t go. As usual, I ate too many calories today. That always happens on days I don’t really workout. Interesting.

What happened? We took a family member out to dinner for their birthday. I had selected a “safe” restaurant in that I could get a salad with no dressing and grilled salmon (fatty yes, but healthy fat) there. I know that bread is my weakness, my huge weakness, so I had planned to limit myself to a single dinner roll as I was headed into dinner carb count light and could thus afford to have one vs. none. What did I fail to anticipate? It wasn’t rolls! It was hot, chewy, full of texture, crisp-crusted artisanal bread, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Kryptonite!!! I ate three glorious slices mmmmmmmmmmmmmm I can still taste the deliciousness. On a behaved note I only ate half the salad and salmon (huge pserving about 10 oz) and have the rest for one of my meals tomorrow boxed in the fridge. I won’t eat any nuts tomorrow to accommodate the extra fat from the salmon into my ratios. I could have come in under my cal budget of 1,800 if I skipped my last meal, the bedtime snack, but I can’t actually skip. If I skip I set myself up for major hunger pains, cravings, and irrational binge eating once the cravings get the best of me, so I still got my bedtime snack in tonight, wise move =)

Tomorrow I’ll be training legs and glutes in between my accounting and corporate tax classes. I’m looking forward to that feeling of redeeming myself in the gym.

Macros

164.2 grams Protein 190.5 grams Carbs 68.8 grams Fat
Cal Tally

2,038 Cals Ingested
(1,448) BMR
(288) Cardio
302 Net Gain


I also have to start sleeping more. I have learned, the hard way, multiple times since starting here in the fall that this 6.5 hours a night business catches up to me very quickly and usually in the form of a nasty bug. I can't / won't let that happen right now so I'm going to start getting 8 hours a night. It's not a want; it's a need. I'm hoping to report tomorrow that I got my 8 as planned, goodnight!

Muscles, Taxes, & Spider-man =)

That’s the textbook I’m excited about this quarter. Corporate taxation! Woohoo! =) There is a third tax class available in the undergrad program I will take too, but after that I’m fresh out of tax. Still, three is pretty good for an undergrad program. Actually, I flexed my bicep on tax today. The professor is one who likes to have everyone give a casual introduction of themselves to the class: name, hometown, hobbies, etc. So I had to say my son, aka Spider-man, and bodybuilding of course. I explained in brevity what figure is, that my first competition is on tax day, flexed my bicep to the room, and mentioned that if I act strangely in the next two weeks my body fat crashing diet is to blame. I’m guessing at least half the class thought I was an oddball and a half, but in an unexpected one the professor thought it was cool and intriguing and wanted to know more about the sport when I had some questions about exam formats on my way out the door. As I’m getting up on a stage in front of a bunch of strangers to pose so soon I may as well get comfortable randomly flexing in classes full of mostly unfamiliar faces, hah ;)

Day 81

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

There’s not a resounding theme to today’s post other than this is all working well. Today was our first day back at school and C and I both had good days. I was happy with both lasses I had today and will keep them both which means I have to pick one of the two I have tomorrow to drop. Yes, technically, I could do 16 credits again, but I’d rather recover my former GPA.

I was very well behaved this morning and popped out of bed promptly and willingly for 35 minutes of elliptical cardio at 6:15 am. Then I had my oatmeal, coffee, and protein shake breakfast and headed off to school with C. I ate my steak / brown rice / spinach combo halfway through my 1st class, a Think Thin bar en route to The Rec to train back & shoulders and do more cardio, my raw veg and chicken breast combo in my 2 pm class and just before 6 pm at home I had a seafood stew I picked up in the frozen section at TJ’s awhile back (44 g protein, 16 g carbs, 12 g fat). I had a single serve pack of Omega trail mix (walnuts, almonds, pecans, pistachios, sunflower seeds, cranberries) and ½ cup of oatmeal a bit ago, a handful of carrots with the last tablespoon of hummus (not buying more till after the EC because it tempts me in excess), and am now having a couple olives from my TJ’s Greek Olive Medley to sure a salt craving. It has been a solid day from a nutritional standpoint and I still got in just 5 minutes shy of 2 hours training today despite it being the often crazy first day of a new quarter =)

I realize I’m getting a bit off track here, but I just love my little man more than anything in the world. Well duh, every mom says that right? The thing is he will be 4 years old in a mere 28 days and he is just becoming so much more of a little boy now than a toddler or a preschooler. He is Spider-man! We’ve been through truck, car, helicopter, train (that was a big one), dinosaur, castles and various other phases, but this is his first superhero obsession and it is awesome. I think he originally picked it up at the gym. I got him a set of Spider-man phonics books from his Scholastic flyer after he started fixating and he loves to “read” them himself. He will also pick the best picture of Spider-man and sit there and have a 20 minute conversation with him. He s very big on making me be Spider-man and converse en route to school or wherever in the Spider-man voice, but tonight after going to bed I heard him in there carrying on talking to Spider-man for almost 30 minutes by himself. He also does the Spider-man web hand thing and I didn’t teach it to him. He is quite adept at structural things so I think he may have plucked that notion from the book’s illustrations. I’m an admitted spoiler so yesterday I got him a Spider-man mask and he actually went to sleep in it (yes, very breathable I checked) I snuck in later to detach it. Today his Spider-man muscles costume (about $25 on Amazon if there's a small Spider-man lover in your house) showed up so he is now sleeping in that. I love entering a new phase of parenting. We’re in the little boy zone now and I just love it. I’m not the ripped one in this house; check out those muscles on Spider-man ;)

Macros

179.2 grams Protein 159.5 grams Carbs 56.8 grams Fat

Cal Tally

1,866 Ingested
(1,448) BMR
(981) Training
(563) Net Loss =)

The Tupperware is Taking Over!

Day 80

Monday, March 28, 2011

I did something really smart today that took about an hour and 15 minutes. I also did something really dumb today that only took about 10 minutes.

I did one more smart thing that took an hour, but that was just my cardio: 60 minutes on the StairMaster while reading chapter 15 in my accounting book on leases. Apparently, we’ll be starting off with that topic in 343 tomorrow. I created a ittle assembly line factor in my kitchen late this morning and produced 4 each of 3 different +/- 200 cal good macro ratio meals. There’s the Isernio’s Italian Chicken Sausage with Swiss chard, onion, and sweet potato one, the sirloin steak (only 2.3 ounces) brown rice and balsamic spinach one, and the seasoned chicken breast with baby carrots, steamed and chilled al dent green beans, and bell pepper one.

Stats as follows:

3 oz. Isernio’s Italian Chicken Sausage + ½ cup sweet potato + 1 cup Swiss chard

237.2 kcals 22.7 grams Protein 25.8 grams Carbs 4.8 grams Fat

2.5 oz. sirloin steak + ¼ cup brown rice + 1 cup spinach steamed with balsamic and ponzu

197.2 kcals 22 grams Protein 18.3 grams Carb 4 grams Fat

4 oz. chicken breast baked with spices + ½ red bell pepper+ ¾ cup green beans + ½ cup baby carrots

193.8 kcals 29.2 grams Protein 15.2 grams carbs 1.8 grams fat

Sweet stats huh?

My elaborate plot is to get through the week (through Friday that is) my packing tow of those a day plus a 3rd meal, likely a pack of almonds and some veg, a Think Thin bar, or a protein shake. I eat breakfast at home, pack my 3 meals to campus, DO NOT buy any food on campus, come home for dinner and a bedtime snack and there ya go: my 6 daily meals. Once I hit the two week mark I intend to get even more regimented. As in basically eat the exact same thing every day. A lot of competitors d that and it keeps life simple. You know what you’re getting, no surprises o temptations and the tracking gets very simple.

So what stupid thing did I do today?

We hit Gold’s late today: 4:45 – 6:25 pm. I put in a solid hour on the StairMaster coming in at 5.5 miles, 567 cals burned and 264 floors climbed. The stats would have been higher, but I was reading a chapter in my acct text. Why? School starts again tomorrow :(

On the way home I needed to be quick about C’s dinner and he had had a small appetite all day so I needed to pack him full of calories expediently (He’s a tiny guy with a long story behind that – had extensive medical testing when he was younger – never found any underlying conditions, but he is still a challenge to put weight on. In short, his caloric needs are my polar opposite.) Answer? Taco Bell. He said he wanted a taco. We discussed it en route. Chicken or beef? He said chicken. Crunchy or soft like a tortilla? He said crunchy, but then decided he wanted a tortilla too. That’s when the stupidity started. I decided I’d get him the taco and a quesadilla too. When we got there I ordered him the supreme chicken crunchy taco, a beef chalupa, and a side of nachos supreme. We headed home with the goods and at a red light I snagged a bite of the chalupa. He declared from the backseat, “Hey! That’s mine.” So I passed it back and he actually ate most of it in the less than 5 minutes to get home. That was totally awesome because my kiddo is impossible to get to eat enough quite often. He frequently will turn down ice-cream, hot coca, hot dogs….cheeseburgers are a 50/50 shot. When we got home I got out one of my chicken sausage, kale, and sweet potato tupperwares to eat, but the nachos were looking at me. C had slowed down and was picking at those and his taco. It’s not Lay’s, it’s Taco Bell You can’t eat just one! Yeah, I ate half the nacho order. Thank goodness I didn’t get him the really jacked up version that is 770 cals. This version was 440 cals, 24 grams of fat, 12 grams protein, and 42 grams carbs. I ate half of that and included it in my cal tally and macro counts for the day. I admit it when I cheat, not proudly, but openly anyways. I also stole 2 bites of chicken taco and the afore mentioned single chalupa bite, but I am not quite neurotic enough to run numbers on those =) The odd thing is it actually did not come even close to wrecking my cal tally or macro count, but I will not be doing that again despite that. It isn’t just about cals and macros, the food is supposed to be clean food and uh, Taco Bell nachos supreme does not exactly fall under that category, haha.

Today’s total workout was just the 60 min of cardio plus 40 minutes spent on Triceps and Abs. A shorty session, feels like a rest day really. I wanted to mainly focus on my shorty today, I’m just not feeling ready at all to send him back to preschool 40/hrs a week starting tomorrow morning. I lack a choice, but in dreamland I’d be a stay at home mom who doesn’t actually stay at home, but spends like 4 hours a day at the gym where her kiddo also happens to love going. Fall quarter, and sporadically in winter quarter C had the best guilt trip ever to lay on me in the car leaving home in the morning. He would say in his upset voice, “I don’t want to go to school; I want to go to the gym!” He seriously broke my heart with that one, especially in combination with hard drop-offs. He is much more settled in at his preschool now though and has friends he talks about a lot outside of school and looks forward to seeing and his teacher too. I can still emphasize with his complaint though; I’d also rather go to the gym!

Macro Totals

158.2 grams Protein 175.3 grams Carbs 63.4 grams Fat

Cal Tally

1,884.6 Ingested
(1,448) BMR
(723) Training
(286.4) Net Loss =) Despite Thinking Outside The Bun…

She HIIT Me!

What is HIIT? High Intensity Interval Training. It’s also something I’ve been meaning to start doing. It is among one of the best possible cardio options for burning fat. You can reinvent it a million ways, but basically it is short in duration (20-30 minute range), gets the heart rate up, and features intervals either between intensity on a singular exercise or a mix of plyos, weights, and various cardio machines. There are a lot of ways to do it.


Day 79

Sunday, March 27, 2011

C man had plans without me today so I went to The Rec and got to see Laura my PT today. She’s competing next Saturday so today is day 1 of her peak week. Ahhhh! She looks great and I’m betting she’ll place 1st or at worst 2nd in the tall bikini class =) The last week is mainly about not going crazy and I’ll get to try it firsthand in less than 2 weeks, ahhh! ;)

I got there early and did 20 minutes on the StairMaster before meeting up with Laura. We did an intense legs session today. Lots of super setting with no rest. She decided to be “evil” and add on a HIIT session using the StairMaster with weighted static lunges, squats, prone leg curls, and hip adductors / abductors. To quote Laura she said I could get my “rest” during the session “when climbing the stairs” lol. Some posing practice in the mirrored room too. N case you ever wondered what a stick figure who has just won 1st place in her figure class looks like there’s one illustrated by my PT on today’s training scan pic. Lol.

I was coming in short on protein today and when shopping at TJ’s the steaks looked REALLY good. They had a tender sirloin cut claiming only 5 g of fat and 25 g of protein in 4 oz so I got it. The steak I ate from the pack was goooooooooood and about 6 oz. I just cooked it with salt and pepper. Served it with a cup of steamed spinach, some mustard sauce for dipping (basically no cal) and a small pile f marinated mushrooms and artichoke hearts. It was tasty! Didn’t violate my macro or cal parameters either muahahaha. Marinated mushrooms, art hearts, pickled green beans, pickled asparagus, actual pickles. I like to keep some or all of these around for a quick essentially cal free salty crazing fix. Good stuff =)

Macros

132.6 grams Protein 136.1 grams Carbs 68.4 grams Fat

Cal Tally

1,690.4 Cals Ingested
(1,448) BMR
(884) Training
(641.6) Net Loss =)

(Yes I am going to bed at 7 pm. I'll have to get back up briefly when C man gets dropped off, but I am that tired. Have a headache too, been taking way too much aspirin lately.)

Autopilot

Picture rundown:

1)I'm starting to get back definition, I still have too much fat and hydration covering it though. That's the top of a DB Overhead Shoulder Press.

2) This was my attempted self-portrait after noticing how much different my face is looking. This is also why you cannot photograph shit with muscle quiver.

3) Those are my calluses. I've worked hard on those, haha, and I'm proud of them =)

4) I bugged a guy to take the pic for me. It turned out great though. My delt caps are looking great from behind. I wish I had more V-taper, but that takes time. I'll be showing it more prominently by my 2nd competition.

5) That's a scan of page 1 of today's notebook log. I'm not sure what possessed me into starting off with 13 sets of lat pulldowns, but hell I want my V! (yes yes a little late for the EC I know)



Day 78

Saturday, March 26, 2011

This morning I got up and looked in the bottom of 3 cups of coffee for my energy, but didn't happen across it. I went to Gold's anyways. Here's the entertaining part (at least to me). I busted out a pretty tough 1 hour and 45 minute weights session hitting back, biceps, and shoulders. I wrapped up with 15 minutes of cardio on the StairMaster. It would have / should have been longer cardio, but as usual I run long on weights and then run out of my childcare hours fast (2 hour max per visit.

Energy free me started out the back session with 13 sets of Lat Pulldowns (a bit more than half wide grip, the rest reverse narrow grip). I can guarantee I'll be feeling my lats tomorrow, actually I think I'm feeling them a bit already now =). It was kind of trippy, as I moved on to DB Bent Over Single Rows, Seated Cable Rows, Straight Bar Pushdowns, DB Pullovers, Seated BB Biceps Curls, Close Grip Standing BB Curls, Standing DB Bicep Curls, Overhead DB Presses, Upright Standing BB Rows, BB Military Presses, Lateral Raises, and Front Raises it was kind of like I wasn't even there. I was proud of my weights. I kept up my usual numbers for most, increased reps above average for some heavies, and did my arm work the "harder way" (full set each arm before switching rather than alternating arms. I noticed while looking in the mirror from my bench that my face is starting to change. I have a pointier face, nit in a bad way, but my features are more pointed, I look more serious, and I occasionally bust out an Elvis-esque lip curl when pushing for an extra rep that isn't really in me. I tried to take a picture of my new look, just holing my phone up to shoot the mirror, but I had muscle quivers since the lat pulldowns so the camera wasn't steady. Autopilot. I like being on autopilot. Thinking too much in the gym detracts from the task at hand. Just being and doing is better.


Macros

145.2 grams Protein 172.4 grams Carbs 66.1 grams Fat

Cal Tally

1,865.3 kcals Ingested
(1,448) BMR
(749) Training
(331.7) Net Loss

My protein should have been a little higher, carbs a little lower, fat a few grams lower. Good stats today, just room for improvement. What happened? I didn't plan the whole day at breakfast. I ate from my list, but I was pulling each meal from the air. If I plan them all at breakfast I can control the end counts from the start, far less room for unintentional error.

While I am still running a net loss I should be doing cardio right now as C is in bed and I need it to burn more fat off. That was my plan, to do it after he was in bed to make up for only getting 15 minutes at the gym earlier. I feel shitty that I'm not doing it I really do, BUT there is a balance to play with. The occasional prioritization of self-preservation. Choosing rest over cardio too much may cause me to not gt my body fat as low as it could be and consequently not place as well as I could have. I realize this and I also realize that I have too much else on my plate to run myself down as far as I would otherwise be willing to. I have to remind myself that this is supposed to be getting my feet wet. That the hardcore round won't come until my second competition. That feels like an excuse. How fun would that be to train for a competition without any other obligations ( aside from C man that is), but no school, no work? Just gym time, gym time, gym time, sleeping 10 hours at night, and eating with the utmost resolve and good behavior. What a dream =)

On that note, I'm going to bed early - it's much needed.

Night night =)

I've Got my Grit on. Hide Your Chickens!

Day 77

Those are 3 of my 6 meals today pictured. Those are Quakes with the chicken and strawberries. I <3 Quakes! Mmmmm.... They're carb heavy, but clean, so I just have to allocate my carbs carefully to eat them =)

Friday, March 25, 2011

3 Weeks from Today = Showtime!

I'm almost out of time. The last week is its own ballgame in every aspect: nutrition, training, everything. Realistically, it's like I only have 2 weeks to go. So?

It's time to get serious. Neurotically serious, like total type A accountant level of detail and number crunching serious. Oh wait, that's me, hahaha. Perfect! ;)

I brought a pretty notebook today =) I will be recording every minute detail of my nutrition and training in it and will pack it around with me everywhere for the next 3 weeks. Then, when I compete the second time (next fall) I can rehash it and analyze what I did right and what I could have done better / differently in order to apply what I've learned for improvement then =)

Psst I realize it's a little long - so only watch it if nutritional manipulation interests you! ;)



Today's post includes all that detail, but from here on out I'll likely just keep it in my notebook and put the most concise and entertaining highlights here.

This morning I created a spreadsheet of the foods I'll be eating between now and the competition. It's a short list, restricted to the essential foods with the strongest contest-minded macro profiles.

9:30 am C let me sleep in!

coffee w/ creamer x 2
steel cut oatmeal (1/4 cup dry)

meal count: 5 g P 35 g C 5.5 g F

12:30 pm

4 oz chicken breast seasoned w/ cayenne
16 spears asparagus roasted w/ lemon pepper
1/4 cup brown rice
hot tea no sweetener

meal count: 32.8 g P 21.5 g C 2 g F

1:30 pm

200 cal pack raw almonds

meal count: 7 g P 8 g C 17 g F

3:45 pm

4 oz. chicken breast seasoned with Cayenne
1/2 cup strawberries
1 serving (15 pcs) Quakes
hot tea no sweetener

meal count: 27.7 g P 32.4 g C 3.6 g F


Pre-workout count:

72.5 g P 96.9 g C 28.1 g F 930.5 kcals

Training Chest, Abs, & Triceps @ Gold's 4:25-6:30 pm

I decided to "bookend" my weights with cardio today rather than a single longer session.

1) StairMaster

Fat Burner routine Level 10
20 minutes
2.18 miles / 105 floors climbed / 225 kcals burned

2) Bench Press (flat - no spotter)
1. Warm-up: Bar (45 lbs) x 12 reps
2. 65 lbs x 8 reps
3. 75 lbs x 8 reps
4. 85 lbs x 8 reps
5. 85 lbs x 6 reps

3) Dumbbell Flies
1. 20 lbs x 8 reps
2. 15 lbs x 10 reps
3. 15 lbs x 10 reps
4. 15 lbs x 10 reps

Superset with

4) Dumbbell Flat Bench Press
1. 20 lbs x 8 reps
2. 20 lbs x 10 reps
3. 25 lbs x 10 reps
4. 25 lbs x 10 reps

5) Dumbbell Incline Bench Press
1. 20 lbs x 10 reps
2. 20 lbs x 10 reps
3. 20 lbs x 10 reps

6) Abs Circuit
1. Shoulder crunches x 15 each side, reverse crunches x 15, mini crunches x 15, 8 lb MB side twists x 30
2. Same as above
3. Same as above

7) Triceps Circuit
1. Dumbbell Kickbacks 15 lbs x 10 reps each arm, Dumbbell overhead extensions 25 lbs x 8 reps, body weight bench dips x 15 reps
2. Dumbbell Kickbacks 12.5 lbs x 10 reps each arm, Dumbbell overhead extensions 25 lbs x 7.5 reps, body weight bench dips x 12 reps
3. Dumbbell Kickbacks 12.5 lbs x 10 reps each arm, Dumbbell overhead extensions 20 lbs x 10 reps, body weight bench dips to failure (16 reps)

8) Rope Triceps Pushdowns
1. 30 lbs x 10 reps
2. 35 lbs x 10 reps
3. 35 lbs x 10 reps
4. 40 lbs x 10 reps

Superset with

9) Push-ups to Failure
1. 16.5
2. 14.5
3. 9.5
4. 9.5

10) Single Arm Triceps Rope Pushdowns Drop Set
1. 15 lbs x 8 reps each arm
2. 15 lbs x 6 reps each arm
3. 10 lbs x 10 reps each arm

11) 1 Set Real Pull-ups
Almost 4 (3-7/8) For the heck of it =)

I love doing them at the beginning so I can do a lot, but I also love doing them at the end when I can barely do any because I've already exhausted my muscles =)

12) StairMaster Again
Fat Burner routine Level 12
89 floors climbed 183 cals burned

7 pm

200 cal pack raw almonds
8 oz. SF Silk Soy Milk
1 scoop Optimum Whey

meal count: 38 g P 15 g C 22 g F

8:45 pm

8 oz. Shrimp
1 cup cooked spinach
1 pc Applewood smoked bacon *
1/4 cup marinated mushrooms
1/4 cup brown rice
hot tea no sweetener
Coca-Cola Cherry Zero (my cal free vice!)

* I had room left in my fat "budget" so I chopped up a slice of bacon (5 g P 7 g F) to saute the shrimp, spinach, and marinated mushrooms in. Then I doused the whole thing in hot sauce, a splash of cherry balsamic vinegar, and black pepper. Yum! Yet not a macros violation, muhahahahahahahaha ;)

meal count:41.4 g P 18.3 g C 7.9 g F

10:30 pm

15 Quakes
Hot tea no sweetener
1 more Coca-Cola Cherry Zero (Shhhh! Fake sugar = bad I know I know which is why I normally hardly ever do it!)

meal count: 2 g P 26 g C 1 g F

Daily Totals:

153.9 grams Protein 156.2 grams Carbs 60 grams Fat

1,780.4 Cals Ingested
(1,448) BMR
(926.7)Training
(594.3) Net Loss =)

Damn, I'm Going to Get a Tan!

Day 76

Thursday, March 24, 2011

I already knew I'd be getting a really dark, really fake looking, but really fun for a pale ass like me airbrush tan for the EC. In fact, that's the whole reason I have to leave the morning prior, to make my two airbrush appointments at the host hotel. Despite having already known all of this, the degree of tan I'll be did not set in until my bottle of Mac Makeup NW45 foundation showed up on my doorstep. The airbrsh tanning company specs that shade to wear to match for competition and damn, I'm gonna be tan! Haha =) (click pic to enlarge and better see the crazy contrast if you wish)

P.S. Don't mind the lovely bloated look in the pic. That's the I had a NY steak for dinner look. Leg day = steak day.

"I'm tired" is my general theme lately so I'm going to keep this short and sweet. I trained Legs and Glutes at Gold's today. Then I got talked into trying a 30 minute TRX class in place of my intended 30 minutes on the StairMaster. Good choice! A try to kill me right after working legs choice, but GOOD FOR ME choice. It's sort of like plyometrics on crack. Well, not exactly. It is basically plyos drills while using a bungee rope thing with handles that is attached to the ceiling. Your foot might be in it for a tough rewrite of burpees, or mountain climbers, or various planks, or you might be gripping them for hopping squats, rows, or twists with a dumbbell. The biggest difference (to me) from regular plyos is that there are no 2 minute breaks between sets like Laura lets me have, no breaks at all! Regular plyos with breaks kick may ass, so ummm these definitely did! I was plum wore out. Granted I'd already been in the gym for 90 minuttes, but still! I should (hopefully will) do TRX again to shake up my cardio / fat burning routine.


Training Legs & Glutes @ Gold’s
10:40 am – 12:35 pm


1) Squat Rack “Climb”
1. 95 lbs x 8 reps
2. 115 lbs x 10 reps
3. 125 lbs x 10 reps
4. 135 lbs x 10 reps
5. 145 lbs x 8 reps
6. 155 lbs x 8 reps

2) Smith Machine Squats (Skier, Sumo)
1. 70 lbs x8 reps x 10 reps
2. 90 lbs x 8 reps x 8 reps
3. 90 lbs x 8 reps ax 8 reps
4. 100 lbs x 10 reps x 10 reps

3) Smith Machine Lunges
1. 70 lbs x 8 reps each leg
2. 90 lbs x 8 reps each leg
3. 90 lbs x 8 reps each leg
4. 90 lbs x 6 reps each leg

4) Cable Kick backs
1. 50 lbs x 10 reps each leg
2. 60 lbs x 10 reps each leg
3. 60 lbs x 10 reps each leg
4. 70 lbs x 10 reps each leg
5. 70 lbs x 10 reps each leg
6. 60 lbs x 10 reps each leg
7. 50 lbs x 10 reps each leg

5) Cable Hip Ad/Abductors
1. 30 lbs x 8 reps each leg
2. 30 lbs x 8 reps each leg
3. 30 lbs x 8 reps each leg

6) Single Prone Leg Curls
1. 30 lbs x 8 reps each leg
2. 40 lbs x 6 reps each leg
3. 30 lbs x 10 reps each leg

7) Single Leg Extensions
1. 50 lbs x 10 reps each leg
2. 50 lbs x 10 reps each leg
3. 50 lbs x 8 reps each leg
4. 40 lbs x 10 reps each leg

8) TRX 30 min Training Session (in place of standard cardio)

4:30 pm More Cardio @ Home

30 min Elliptical Hill Climb Routine

389 cals burned

Macros

171 grams Protein 196 grams Carbs 57 grams fat

Cal Tally

1,981 Ingested
(1,448) BMR
(1,161) Training
(628) Net Loss

Hannah - You Rock! & Kelly - Thank Ya! =)

Day 75

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

I did a Body Pump class today. It was good, kinda "faith in working out restoring" kind of good because Body Pump classes are what got me interested in all this craziness in the first place. (Thanks Jackie!=) I finally brought a guest. Since starting going to BP in late July I've bugged: Kelly, Eli, Darene, Rachel, Megan, Karen, and my hairdresser, Amy, to come try it. Nope! No luck, but Hannah, my awesome kick ass cyclocross racer buddy was up for it. My first BP guest =) Guess what she did there? Rolled the heaviest weight in the class on every track but back track! Granted there were only 5 of us today and there are usually 30, but I know what people lift in there (because I'm usually doing my best to be the, or among, the heaviest ;) and she still would have had the heaviest barbell. Kudos my friend =) Go Hannah!


I'm really tired. I think I finally know what people have been talking about. Various times in the last month I've run into people who know a thing or two about figure. I've told them what I'm up to and they have all commented along the lines of "oh you don't have 'that look' yet. How's your energy level been?" They weren't referring to my physique. No, they meant I didn't look tired, underfed, and overworked yet, haha. I think my body has reached it's max point of neutrality on the issue and has now decided to go to war (with me). It just wants to go back to eating normally so badly. I'm not giving in, but it feels like a biological push, not just a craving. My body wants to ratchet body fat back up and put back on weight to get back to its happy little set point homeostasis zone. Meanwhile, I'm telling it, sorry no, you have to wait another 3 weeks and then you can get your way (to a point). So we are at war. At least there is a known peace date - I wish real wars were so simply quelled.

I won today:

Macros

160 grams protein 166 grams carbs 49 grams fat

Cal Tally

1,745 Cals Ingested
(1,448) BMR
(758)Training *
(461) Net Loss =)

*(390 cals for 1 hour of Body Pump + 368 cals for 30 minutes of intense elliptical cardio (steady climb program) late this evening at home. Kelly may live 86 miles away (unfortunately!) but we are always chatting on gmail. I happened to see her and tell her, about 9 pm, that all I wanted to do was go to bed and could she please say some magical thing to make me want to go use my elliptical. She's had a nasty bug for a week and so she said "please use elliptical for me cause i can't
cause i'm still stick" and it worked. I started thinking, hmmm, it is only 30 minutes, you can watch Friends while you're doing it, you know you'd just stay up in bed watching Friends that long anyways, so just go get on your elliptical silly goose! So thank you Kelly, motivation coach from afar, and wake up feeling all better tomorrow, k? =)

Camels & Carrots

The featured pic doesn't have much to do with my training other than it is of what my son was off doing with my mom while I was at the gym today. Cute huh? Yes, this town has a token camel.

Day 74

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

8 am Cardio

My am fat burner aka am cardio went far better this morning. I had made an appointment at 8 am in town to get my car a much needed oil change. I had m mom and C wait till 8:30 to come retrieve me. I had my iPOd and sidewalks so I was free to ran with my all essential gym playlist. I ran around town on the sidewalks, up the port stairs (quite long/steep if I still lived here Id do them repeatedly for pm cardio), and the last 3/4 of a mile on the high school track. All in all my am cardio rain sprinkled jog clocked in at 24 minutes. I'm not a speedy jogger so 'm going to low ball that at 9 cals / minute for a 216 cal burn.

9 am Breakfast

3/4 cup steel cut oatmeal
4 Isernio's chicken apple sausage breakfast links
Coffee + low carb nondairy creamer
3 strawberries

11:30 am Hungry!

1 scoop milk chocolate MyoFusion shaken with water

12:45 am Lunch out with my Mom & C Man at one of my 2 favorite hometown restaurants

I went in thinking I was thinking smart, but this is where I screwed my fat ratio for the day.

1/2 MC Everyday Salad (yummy field greens, carrots, red onion, a sprinkle of feta, sunflower seeds, and golden raisins)

1 slice (8 oz.) meatloaf


I believe their meatloaf is made of a mixture of pork and beef. It also has Delicious mushrooms in it and carrots, onion, celery, etc.

Upon arriving home I looked up the stats for 80% lean ground beef. Ahhhhhhh! 36 grams of fat, at least there were 54 grams of protein too. I tacked on 10 grams of carbs to guesstimate the mixed-in veg, seasonings, et al. If Laurie happens to read this and tell me they actuly use 95% lean ground beef that would be awesome! In the interim I like to track based upon the worst case scenario =)

My other favorite restaurant here is soooooo yummy, but there is no way I could go there without it being a full on big ole cheat meal. I'm looking forward to dining there again sometime soon after the EC, but in the meantime I enjoy the food porn provided by their specials pics in my FB feed, hehe.

2:55-4:45 pm Training Shoulders, Back, and Abs + PM Cardio @ Xtreme

Weight training as recorded on the clipboard pic above (click to enlarge if curious=)

Plus 30 minutes elliptical cross training 1 routine res 5

319 cals burned 2.97 miles logged

Despite a full back and shoulders session I pulled off a set of 7 pull-ups right on my ay out the door. I was so pumped up, just the right song on my playlist, all hyped up from cardio and abs and the good weights session behind me. Also, the new scenery, conquering a pull-up bar at a gym where I had never touched one before had me mentally boosted to hit it hard. 7 real pull-ups is my new record - I keep working towards my goal of 12 in a set - I'll get there eventually =)



5:15 pm Protein!

1 scoop Optimum Nutrition ake Batter Whey shaken with water

This stuff is sooooo much better with the sugar free Silk soy milk I buy, but I'm trying to get my daily cal tally lower now so 120 cals with water beats out 200 cals with soy.

Hi! It's 5:50 pm right now and I'm typing this. I misread the schedule so we won't be home until late tonight. As such I'm writing this now instead of before bed as usual. I'm also drinking a 0 cal Pepsi max I'd intended for the trip. I know diet soda is just generally bad, but it will make you feel full on zero cals and zero macro ratio effects so I have been including it randomly lately.
I'm going to pre-write the rest of my planned eating for the night. If it is altered I'll update this, but writing it out is actually a good tool to motivate me to stick to my dinner / bedtime snack plans.

6:30 pm Dinner

6 oz. seasoned & oven seared chicken breast

2 cups veg (baby carrots, red bell pepper, and asparagus blanched al dente & served cold)

9:30 pm Fuel on the Freeway Home

Think Thin Bar

Today's Macros:

Protein 205 grams Carbs 130 grams Fat 72 grams

Hey that's a surprise! My carbs are rolling in way low for the day (they should be about equal to protein), fat is only rolling in 3 grams heavy (despite my meatloaf debacle - yay!), and protein is at the max it should be. Ideally the protein count should be about 35 grams less. I'm writing thie before having eaten my chicken and veg dinner or my Think Thin bar freeway snack, but I can't just not eat them. If I don't fuel I'll a. go crazy with hunger b. cannibalize muscle in the night from going too many hours sans fuel. I'm going to convert to planing entire days of food and the corresponding macros in advance so this retrospective "this should have been this business stops =)

Cal Tally

1,988 Ingested
(1,448) BMR
(925) Training + Cardio
(385) Net Loss =)

See what a difference training days have over rest days? Love my cal tally on a training day, not so much on a rest day.

I usually only post my training record sheets, but I added a pic of my food macro tracking method today too. I'm pretty simplistic. I've downloaded various Android apps or glanced at online tracking programs in the past, but I just prefer scratch paper and a quickie trip to look up stuff I don't know by heart in the cal/macro dictionary known as calorieking.com =)

What Makes Rest Days Regrettable

Day 73


Monday, March 21, 2011

1. You notice muscle soreness whereas you don't on training days.

2. You want to eat just as much,if not more, but you lack the 700-1,100 cal burn otherwise known as your training and cardio.

In case it isn't obvious I took a rest day today =) That last one was March 10th. The main reason I took one today was I got to go in for a massage with my old masseuse who is amazingly good and who I haven't seen since moving last summer. That was great, but training shoulders after having all my muscle knots worked out and loosened up sounded like a sure fire way to ask for a strain. I almost decided to go anyways this afternoon and ate a piece of sprouted wheat peanut butter toast in preparation, but then I realized that laying down on my mom's super comfy couch for a nap sounded like exactly what I needed. Ah well, rest days are warranted and beneficial overall to training - just tough mentally!

Tomorrow will be jogging for am cardio and then a second cardio session in the afternoon (elliptical most likely) and a full session of weights training back and shoulders.

Right now I just want to eat eat eat, but I actually need to start tapering total cals while keeping macro ratios where they've been. I'm actually looking forward to school starting again as it helps me stay on track. I eat my first meal at home, pack 3 small meals in my cooler bag and then have dinner and a bedtime snack at home. I keeps it all nice and regimented. When I don't plan the day I just about always wind up going over on cals.

On that note today my macros clocked in at:

189 grams protein 62 grams fat 213 grams carbs

The ratio is fine my cal tally is just too high again:

2,166 cals ingested
(1,448) BMR
(0) Training
718 Net Gain (in theory that's 1/5 of a lb of body weight! dislike!)

It was all clean food today: oatmeal, sprouted wheat bread, chicken, veg, some peanut butter, think thin bars, whey protein, just too much of it total.

I think I need to go adjust my macros to not go over 1,700-1,800 cals daily at this point and just make myself work within that "budget," after all there are only 3 1/2 weeks to go! I'm going to go bug some of the experienced competitors over in the forum at bodybuilding.com for help before setting that in stone. I'm guessing it is a good number, but we'll see what the voices of experience think first =)

The Cartoon Carb Devil & The Cartoon Cardio Angel

Day 72

Sunday, March 20, 2011

My title is meant to be taken in jest, but as with any other joke, a grain of truth. Keeping this up 7 days a week really begins to feel like here's one of those little cliché cartoon devils on one shoulder trying to tempt me with carbs and on the other shoulder the complementary cliché cartoon angel telling me to do my cardio.

I’ve been largely lazy today. Well not actually lazy, but I am tired. I realize I should talk myself into making tomorrow an actual official rest day, but I keep thinking, shoulders, shoulders, you need to train your shoulders.

Also, sometimes I just want to eat without thinking about carbs and just eat until I’m full. Not last night. I was actually pretty well behaved going out. I had a Guinness and was pleasantly surprised when I looked it up later that the whole big tall glass only had 16 grams of carbs, for perspective an apple has 27. What really surprised me was that it also had 4 grams of protein. I didn’t expect there to have been any. Krysta gave me a great tip about the menu and I ordered the chicken lettuce wraps she’s pointed out. They were really good and basically “clean” as I used minimal amounts of the chili and peanut sauces and just sprinkled a little rice on as a condiment leaving the majority behind. I did, however, have 5 pieces o Krysta and Eli’s delicious nacho plate. Eli kind of looks like a bad influence in the picture doesn’t he? Nah, it was my own idea =)

Mentally, these last 4 weeks are definitely the hardest. I’ve been at this, well for 72 days (haha see above) and I feel like I would like a little break, a day without overthinking everything I’m eating, feeling that I HAVE to do weights that day and I HAVE to do cardio too. I miss the doing it all because I want to. I also realize that I can’t slack now though, I just have to do it. It may be just under 4 weeks out, but really it is less time than that. The Emerald Cup is Friday, April 15th, but the last day I can workout is Monday, April 11th. Why? Because on Tuesday I have to start rationing my water. Sounds pleasant right? Thee are a lot of rough bits and pieces necessary to competition that you don’t ever hear about until you’re doing it yourself. My armpits may also turn green from the airbrush tanning, but I find that funnier than anything. Mainly because my PT says it isn’t noticeable on stage.

I feel really great about having my body fat as low as it is. I even ran into a guy I know at the gym today who after hearing it said his was 17%, almost 2% higher than mine, haha, and he is in really good shape, just no crazy diet. Even though my number is good I still feel fat for competition. Please don’t jump all over me for saying that. I realize in terms of the world that is a ridiculous thing for me to say, but in terms of figure it isn’t. I still need to lean out more so that muscles in my quads show, so that the V in my back is more pronounced, so that my abs are flatter. They call it an extreme sport for a reason.

I screwed up my eating today. I didn’t get all the way out of bed until almost 10:30 am (thanks mom!); I did make myself go do am cardio. It doesn’t really matter what time it is, what is key is that you do it right after you get up and most importantly before you eat anything. So I went running off down the road without my iPod because the roads have no sidewalks and are quite curvy by my mom’s house so being oblivious to cars is just plain dumb. I really thrive on music for cardio though so I was having a hard time at it. I had no clue how long I’d been gone and when I got back it turned out it was only a 14minute run, I’d been aiming for 20ish. My first two meals basically rolled together as I didn’t start until 11 am. I got back on track after that though. Then I worked out from 5-7 pm tonight training legs and biceps and doing cardio at Xtreme. The problem was that by the time I got home I was starved. I had also picked up a loaf of Dave’s Killer Seed Bread, which is to die for, and I wound up carbing up inner more than a well-behaved figure girl would have or should have. It was a good workout though: squat rack pyramid (max at 155 lbs – only a weak back cushion available), walking 40 lb barbell lunges, 3 other varieties of lunges, barbell dead lifts (80 lbs), hip adductors (80 lbs) superset with hip abductors (120 lbs), seated and standing barbell bicep curls (50 lbs), incline bench dumbbell curls (20 lbs), and a 30 minute interval program on an elliptical. I wanted to do shoulders today too, but I was tired and hungry and needed to get home to put C man to bed. I should have powered through and done shoulders though. It’s silly, but I’m always paranoid if I go too many days without hitting a muscle group I’ll wake up the next day and all the definition will be gone. Daily training just keeps me on edge like that.

So here are my macros, not great, but not horrific. Ironically, carbs are my only macro that is what it should be. Protein is too high and fat is too high. Protein is too high because I just plain ate too much today and I’ve conditioned myself to favor protein. Fat is too high because I ate a 200 cal pack of almonds earlier and a Larabar too, those 2 items right there account for 21 of the fat grams, meanwhile the 6 oz. NY steak only accounts for 9 grams. Not quite what you were presuming eh? May cals are way too high, like 500 cals too high. Tomorrow’s a new day and can be a better one.

226 grams Protein 176 grams Carbs 90 grams Fat

Bleh

Cal Tally:

2,418 Ingested
(1,448) BMR
(993) Training
(23) Net Loss

Screw Cake, Let Them Eat Steak!

Day 71

Saturday, March 20, 2011

Ribeye, medium rare. Grilled with sea salt, fresh cracked pepper, and melted butter. Maybe a side of mushrooms. Mmmm that's my steak.

Yeah,That doesn't fit my diet =)

Gotta keep it lean baby, so New York is where it's at.

6 oz. grilled with S&P, no butter.

I ate that with a bunch of of baby carrots, orange bel pepper, and green beans dipped in my last few tablespoons of hummus. All as my 2nd lunch (eating six times a day causes one to start renaming the meals). We're out visiting my mom for a few days so then I took a 30 minute sort of asleep nap and hit my old gym for two hours. Today chest and triceps were up on the rotation. Training them took about an hour and 20 minutes and then I did 40 min of cardio on the elliptical to round things out. 'll be back there again tomorrow, but I haven't decided if it will be leg day or biceps and shoulders day yet.

My macros are in good shape right now:

158 grams protein 170 grams carbs 51 grams fat

1,771 Cals Ingested
(1,448) BMR
(953) Training
(630) Net Loss *

* I am posting early tonight because I'm going out with old friends I haven't seen in too long. I plan to eat once more, likely a 250-300 call something or other, def protein heavy. Either the Think Thin bar in my purse, a MyoFusion chocolate shake when I get home, or a grilled chicken breast or shrimp cocktail wherever we're at.I can eat out on this diet, I just have to plan =) I know I'll definitely be drinking diet coke/pepsi and I'm debating a real drink. I think I mentioned in an old post at some point that I'm really not a drinker. I do like an occasional drink though, actually the last drink I had was out to dinner on my birthday in October so there's my definition of"occasional drinking" for you haha. I'm debating it though as Im wondering if my change in body composition will make it effect me more or less. I'm a light weight to begin with so if I drink a whole drink someone else might be driving me home.

Night night for now =)

T - 4 Weeks Exactly! 15.1% Body Fat! 45 lb DB Single Rows! A Great Day =)

Day 70

Friday, March 18, 2011

The 4 Week Mark =) Eek!

At 9:30 am four weeks from today I will be at the competitor check in. At 12 pm four weeks from now I will be in pre-judging. At 6 pm 4 weeks from today I will be on the stage for the night show. Emerald Cup baby! It’s the four week countdown =)

If you click back to this post, January 17th, you can see my first Bod Pod result, I've lost 8.2 lbs of pure fat since then, freaky huh? I now only have 21.1 lbs of fat in my entire 140 lbs! http://nogirlpushupsforme.blogspot.com/2011/01/i-sat-in-80s-sci-fi-flick-space-ship.html

I had decided awhile back that testing my body fat at the four week mark could be a good motivator to take everything up a notch. My thinking was that it likely wouldn’t be low enough yet and that would kick me into gear. Well that’s not what happened! Hehehehe. It already is way low: 15.1% Woohoo. Basically for a woman to go below 12% is detrimental to her. I have already exceeded my initial goal and I would not want to go more than 1-2% lower, which may happen between now and the competition, but woohoo! I still can’t quite comprehend it – 15.1% so awesome =)

I had been telling Laura how I’d been slacking on cardio for the last week, allowing etc carbs, letting finals and dead week get the best of me, so I was really hoping that it was 18 or 19%. She had told me not to let it bring me down if it was bad, ot to freak out if it was higher than before, etc. in short we were prepped fpr the worst. Then after the second seal in the Bod Pod she was letting me out and started smiling and getting excited. At first I thought oh she’s trying to be really positive so I don’t get down about this, but then she was all 15.1% and I was like “what???!” and we were both like “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!” and then Charlie , who had been a bit scared of the Bod Pod and turned shy started grinning and getting excited too =)

The hyped up happy mental rush of finding that out at 9 am this morning also bought me some new heavies. I trained back at Gold’s this morning and I got my reverse grip lat pulldowns up to 110 lbs (a 10 lb increase) and my bent over single arm dumbbell rows up to 45 lbs (a 5 lb increase). I swear this training appears to be a physical feat, but truthfully it’s all mental. If you believe you can, you do, and if you believe you won’t, you don’t!

9:45 am Breakfast

(delayed as you can’t eat or drink for a 2 hour minimum before doing the Bod Pod. No am cardio today for the same reason)
½ cup steel oats with cinnamon and a splash of whipping cream (‘ve been eating it that way all week and still cut by BF that low hehe, told ya fat doesn’t make you fat!)
Coffee with low cal/carb creamer
1 scoop Cake Batter Whey with sugar free non-fat silk soymilk

Training Back @ Gold’s 11:30 am – 1 pm



See pic =) Getting permanently lazy about typing those!

1:30 pm Lunch

1 scoop Cake Batter Whey with water
¾ cup carrots
½ yellow bell pepper
1 cup green beans al dente
4 T hummus for dipping
8 oz. chicken breast with spices
Hot tea no sweetener

4:30 pm Snackity Snack Snack

Think Thin bar – my last one – must reorder!
Hot tea no sweetener

5:30 pm Cardio!

Elliptical (@ Home) Steep Climb
40 minutes
433 cals burned

7 pm Dinner Out @ Red Robin

How you ask? Bun-less!

I looked up my planned meal head of time online, it was still a splurge on the fat count, but doable as my fat earlier in the day was quite low.
Bleu Ribbon Burger -bunless, chipotle mayo-less, and fried onion thing-less. Even pared down to the burger patty, steak sauce, bleu cheese, lettuce, and tomato it still had 490 cals, 32 grams of fat, 8 carbs, and 38 grams of protein. I picked it over another bunless burger choice (the bonzai) because that one had more than double the carbs and 40% less protein, only saving 1/3 of the fat. Regardless – not a regular treat on my diet!

And a Diet Coke :p

9 pm Bedtime Snack

½ cup steel cut oats with cinnamon and a speck of cream

Despite that tasty trimmed down burger my macros are pretty much spot on today, clocking in at 181 grams protein, 129 grams carbs, and 70 grams fat.

That brings my Cal Tally to:
1,870 Cals Ingested
(1,448) BMR
(1,069) Training
(647) Net Loss =)

Movie Montage - This is a fun one! =)

Rather than rambling today like usual I’m going with a video montage that I had a lot of fun making. The song is Hey Hey Hey Hey by Michael Franti and I’m a fan of the laid back juts be happiness of the chorus.



Day 69

St Patty’s Day

Thursday, March 17, 2011

9 am Cardio

30 min Elliptical Hill Climb
357 cals burned

9:45 am Breakfast

Late & lazy Day I know.

My son is awesome and let me do cardio while he was awake. Yes! No 6 am alarm necessary over spring break =)

Oatmeal
Coffee with low cal creamer
1 scoop cake batter whey with nf sugar free Silk soy milk (awesomely low carb being the selling factor here)

12:45 Lunch

4 oz. Chicken breast
½ yellow bell pepper
½ cup baby carrots
¾ cup green beans
2 T hummus for dipping
1 slice Trader Joe’s California Protein Bread

3:30 pm simple non-clean carb moment – but macro ratio maintained


I'm scapegoating a thread I read on bodybuilding.com for this. They were talking about eating whatever you wanted as long as you keep your macro ratios straight when the day is done. That idea stuck in my head....muahahaha.

30 cherry Jelly Bellys
1 petite vanilla bean scone from Starbucks (5 g fat, 0 protein, 21 grams carbs)

4:30 pm Fuel for the gym
8 oz. red shrimp & 8 asparagus spears with hot sauce and citrus (limes & oranges)
½ cup brown rice

5:30-7:15 pm Training Legs @ Gold’s

Se pic and click to enlarge if you’re curious – I rather like the laziness of just posting my handwritten workout notes =)

8pm St. Patty’s Day Dinner

Corned Beef and Cabbage of Course! No potatoes for me though.
Hot tea no sweetener
I wasn’t going to have corned beef at all as the one I found at the regular grocery store awhile back had crazy cals and aft counts, but I saw one at TJ’s last week with a reasonable count (190 cals / 11g fat/ 2 g carbs / 20 g protein) so I snagged it =)

10:30 pm Bedtime Snack

Oatmeal

I'm going on strike on my macro count today. Not because of the petite scone and Jelly Belly's. Nope! I know my macros are in line, carbs running maybe 5% heavy. I also know that I burned 1,034 cals training today so I'm confident I have a net cal loss. Lastly, I know that I'm tired and don't feel like spending 10-15 min tallying up the whole day's worth. I'm on a one day strike ;) Night night!

Last Day @ The Rec till 3/30 so I Hit it Hard =)

Day 68

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

I worked out a lot today. That was good. So was finding out I got a 99 on my tax final and a solid A in the class. I was expecting a major hit, but finding out I got a C+ in econ was still ugly. The 4.0 is officially DEAD. I never had a 4.0 in high school, not a single quarter. Then at age 25 I started an A.A. in Business that would transfer to a four year school. I started getting straight A’s and then I got a little vigilant about it and cleared that entire degree with a perfect 4.0. I had a goal to not lose it my 1st quarter after transferring. I didn’t, but completing my 2nd quarter here I just did. The jury is still out on my other two classes. I like to think of not having a 4.0 gpa as being a sign of having a more balanced life though. I mean if you take 16 credits of 300 level CBE courses, work part-time, head up a one parent household with a rambunctious almost 4-year-old trying to run the place, commit 15+ hours a week to training for your first figure competition and still get a 4.0, well then you are clearly an alien from outer space. I happen to be human so chapter closed new one started ;)

This morning I started on the treadmill, did a complete back session, mini biceps session, mini shoulders session, mini glutes session, 15 minutes of posing practice, and the StairMaster. All told I was at The Rec for 3 hours and 10 minutes. I won’t get to work out there again until 3/30 because C is on break from preschool. It’ll be all Gold’s for the next two weeks. Thank goodness for their fantastic in house childcare. <3 you Gold’s.

8 am Breakfast

Oatmeal with cinnamon
Coffee with nondairy creamer

9 am Protein

1 scoop chocolate MyoFusion shaken with water

Cardio, Posing Practice, & Training Back, Biceps, Shoulders, & Glutes@ The Rec
9:15 am – 12:25 pm

1)15 min warm-up jog on the treadmill

2-3% incline 5-5.8 mph (I kept switching both around)
15.3 cals burned 1.27 miles

BACK

2) Wide-Grip Lat Pulldowns

1. 85 lbs x 8 reps
2. 100 lbs x 8 reps
3. 90 lbs x 8 reps
4. 85 lbs x 8 reps

Superset with

2)Single Arm Seated Cable Rows

1. 40 lbs x 8 reps per arm
2. 40 lbs x 8 reps per arm
3. 40 lbs x 8 reps per arm
4. 40 lbs x 6 reps per arm

3)Dumbbel Bent-Over Single Rows

1. 25 lbs x 8 reps per arm
2. 30 lbs x 8 reps per arm
3. 35 lbs x 8 reps per arm
4. 40 lbs x 8 reps per arm

4) Dumbbell Pullovers

1. 25 lbs x 10 reps
2. 25 bs x 8 reps
3. 20 lbs x 12 reps
4. 20 lbs x 10 reps

Superset with

5) Straight Bar Pushdowns

1. 60 lbs x 12 reps
2. 70 lbs x 4 ½ reps, DS to 60 lbs x 4 ½ reps (dying muscles!)
3. 60 lbs x 10 reps
4. 60 lbs x 5 ½ reps, DS to 50 lbs x 8 reps

MINI BICEPS

6) Seated Barbell Curls

1. 40 lbs x 10 reps
2. 50 lbs x 10 reps
3. 50 lbs x 8 reps

Superset with

7) Standing Barbell Curls

1. 40 lbs x 10 reps
2. 50 lbs x 6 reps
3. 50 lbs x 6 reps

8) Prone Incline / Seated Incline DB Curls

1. Prone – 25 lbs x 12 alt.
2. Prone – 20 lbs x 16 alt.
3. Seated – 20 lbs x 8 each arm (full set, then switch)


At this point I realized I pretty much had to eat or quit so I went off to the vending machine for a bottle of Muscle Milk Light. It’s not the greatest protein drink, but better than quitting!

MINI SHOULDER CIRCUIT (1 set of each exercise, repeat, repeat)

9) Dumbbell Overhead Shoulder Press

1. 20 lbs x 20 alt
2. 20 lbs x 18 alt
3. 20 lbs x 18 alt

10) Upright Barbell Rows

1. 40 lbs x 10 reps
2. 40 lbs x 10 reps
3. 40 lbs x 10 reps

11) Barbell Military Press

1. 40 lbs x 8 reps
2. 40 lbs x 8 reps
3. 40 lbs x 8 reps

MINI GLUTES

12) Cable KickBacks (of course!)

1. 55 lbs x 10 each leg
2. 65 lbs x 10 each leg
3. 70 lbs x 10 each leg
4. 80 lbs x 10 each leg
5. 90 lbs x 6, DS to 70 lbs x 8 each leg
6. 80 lbs x 8 each leg

13) Cable Hip Adductor / Abductors

1. 30 lbs x 8 reps each side
2. 30 lbs x 8 reps each side
3. 30 lbs x 8 reps each side

14) Single Leg Standing Leg Press on the Assisted Pull-up Machine
(Thanks again F&M Hers for this one!)

1. 100 lbs x 10 reps per leg
2. 115 lbs x 8 reps each leg
3. 130 lbs x 8 reps each leg

POSING PRACTICE

15) 15 minutes in the mirror room

16) StairMaster

Fat Burner level 10
20 minutes
199.3 cals burned
98 floors climbed
2.01 miles

Stretching

12:45 pm Lunch

8 oz. chicken breast
2 slices Dave’s Killer Bread Light Seed Bread
Arugula and tomato salad with balsamic vinegar
Hot tea no sweetener

2:45 pm Snack in the Car

Think Thin Bar

6:30 pm Dinner

4 T yummity yum yum hummus
2 cups baby carrots, cucumbers, and red bell pepper
1 ½ cups turkey, black bean, & kale chili (I made it – it’s really tasty)
2 T peanut butter – didn’t need this, just got all depressed when my econ grade posted and decided to eat it.

8:30 pm snacking

2 cups decaf coffee with the low cal creamer ( my new night time fix – coffee trumps tea!)
1 pc seed bread with 1 T hummus on it yeah don’t ask, but it was YUMMY =)

Macro Check

182 grams protein 185 grams carbs 74 grams fat

Which means I ate 2,134 cals today. That’s a lot, but I also burned 1,256 cals training today. So:

2,134
(1,448) BMR
(1,256) Training (Cardio Counts + Lifting @ 390/hour)
(570) Net Loss =)

This is why days with long training sessions are so much better than those without. You get to eat lots, albeit clean, and still run a cal deficit.